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Overnight news Digest December 8, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-12-08

NPR

Biden vows to bring longtime detainee Paul Whelan home from Russia too

As the Biden administration celebrates the homecoming of one prominent American detained in Russia — basketball star Brittney Griner — it's pledging to continue working to secure the release of another who's been there even longer. Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was detained in Moscow in 2018 on espionage charges, found guilty in a closed trial and is now nearly three years into a 16-year prison sentence. He denies the accusations, and U.S. officials have denounced his trial as unfair. At the end of November, 52-year-old Whelan was briefly transferred from a penal colony to a prison hospital. He spoke to his family last Friday, after a week of silence that had prompted concern in the White House over his whereabouts and condition. President Biden said Thursday that "sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's." Whelan told CNN that he had been told that because Russia accused him of being a spy, it had put him "at a level higher" than Griner and Trevor Reed, who was released in April.

The Guardian

Markets optimistic as China eases Covid rules, but experts warn of danger ahead

Global shares and the price of some key commodities have risen on hopes that the easing of China’s strict zero-Covid measures would help to bring down inflation, even as some experts warned that the country was not prepared to live with the disease. China’s government on Wednesday announced a significant shift towards living with the virus. People with Covid-19 who have mild or no symptoms can quarantine at home, while officials have been instructed to stop launching temporary lockdowns. Testing will no longer be required for “cross-regional migrants”. China’s economic growth will keep picking up pace with the implementation of the newly announced anti-Covid adjustment measures, the premier, Li Keqiang, was quoted by state media as saying on Thursday. US-listed shares of Chinese companies rose, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng stock market index gained more than 3% on Thursday. The price of copper climbed on the promise of increased demand from China, its biggest consumer.

The Guardian

Arkansas city elects 18-year-old as youngest Black mayor in US

It is not even a year since Jaylen Smith was learning the power of the youth vote as a student government leader at his high school in Arkansas. Now the pioneering teenager is about to put his knowledge into practice as the youngest elected Black mayor anywhere in the US. On Tuesday, as the Georgia Senate runoff was capturing the attention of the nation, Smith, 18, was steadily amassing the votes he needed to become the next leader of the small city of Earle, population 1,785. “You have to start somewhere, you really do,” Smith, who graduated from Earle high school last summer after three years as Student Government Association president, told the Washington Post. “I didn’t want to be 30 or 40 and become a mayor when I could be one right now.”

The Guardian

Parents who refused ‘vaccinated blood’ transfusion speak out after court places Baby W in care

The family of a baby who has been placed in his doctors’ care because his parents refused to consent to a transfusion of “vaccinated blood” in a life-saving operation have said they will prioritise time with their son before the surgery. The parents’ lawyer, Sue Grey, said in a Facebook post on Thursday morning that the family would be prioritising “a peaceful time with their baby until the operation, and to support him through the operation”. “It appears the hospital is planning the operation today or tomorrow,” Grey said. “They have security guards preventing Baby W from leaving the ward. “We have concluded that the government cannot afford anything to go wrong for Baby W as the world is watching. He is likely to get the best possible care with the best safest blood.” On Wednesday, a New Zealand high court judge ruled in favour of health authorities who sought guardianship of a baby boy so his operation could proceed. The decision is expected to have wide-ranging ramifications and has become a focus of protests for anti-vaxxers, who held demonstrations outside the courtroom.

Deutsche Welle

Ukraine: Pro-Russian oligarchs flee to French Riviera

Tetyana Sapyan had to repeatedly postpone her interview with DW because of Russian missile attacks on Kyiv. However, the spokeswoman for Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation — equivalent to the FBI in the US or the Federal Criminal Police Office in Germany – insisted that she wanted to provide detailed information about certain ongoing investigations. They have particularly explosive potential for Ukraine: While some people there are forced to huddle in shelters, the army incurs heavy losses on the frontlines, and tens of millions have been displaced in and outside of Ukraine, according to media reports, certain Ukrainian oligarchs and billionaires fled Ukraine with their families before the Russian invasion of February 24. Some 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) away on the French Riviera, locals say that there are more luxury cars with Ukrainian license plates than before. This does not seem to tally with the news of suffering coming out of Ukraine. One Ukrainian blogger has posted a picture of several suitcases full of cash — reportedly amounting to over $17 million (€16.1 million) and €1 million, which were found by Hungarian customs officials. The money was allegedly not declared by Ukrainians crossing the border into Hungary by car. The rules allow a maximum €10,000 in cash to be carried across the border.

Deutsche Welle

Russia nuclear threat curbed 'for the time being': Scholz

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published Thursday that the risk of Moscow using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine was reduced thanks to international pressure. Scholz was asked if he thought the threat of a nuclear escalation had been averted. He said, "For the time being, we have put a stop to it." "One thing has changed for the time being: Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons. In response to the international community marking a red line," he said in the interview with Germany's Funke media group. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published Thursday that the risk of Moscow using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine was reduced thanks to international pressure. Scholz was asked if he thought the threat of a nuclear escalation had been averted. He said, "For the time being, we have put a stop to it." "One thing has changed for the time being: Russia has stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons. In response to the international community marking a red line," he said in the interview with Germany's Funke media group.

Al Jazeera

Keystone pipeline temporarily closed following Kansas oil spill

The Keystone pipeline has halted operations following an oil spill into a creek in the United States state of Kansas. The pipeline carries more than 600,000 barrels of oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast each day. Canada-based TC Energy said in a press release that it shut down the pipeline on Wednesday night in response to a drop in pipeline pressure. The company has yet to offer information on the scale and cause of the spill. “The system remains shut down as our crews actively respond and work to contain and recover the oil,” the release said. The spill resulted in oil leaking into a creek in northeastern Kansas and the company has said they were using machinery to prevent the oil from moving further downstream. Pipelines have long spurred concerns about the destructive potential of oil spills.

New York Times

Key Partner in Covax Will End Support for Middle-Income Nations

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/8/2140845/-Overnight-news-Digest-December-8-2022

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