CDC’s pandemic mask rules expected to be altered Friday
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines to protect against COVID-19 transmission on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter, meaning most Americans will no longer be advised to wear masks in indoor public settings.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses to determine whether to recommend face coverings, shifting from looking at COVID-19 case counts to a more holistic view of risk from the coronavirus to a community. Under current guidelines, masks are recommended for people residing in communities of substantial or high transmission — roughly 95 percent of U.S. counties, according to the latest data.
The new metrics will still consider caseloads, but also take into account hospitalizations and local hospital capacity, which have been markedly improved during the emergence of the omicron variant. That strain is highly transmissible, but indications are that it is less severe than earlier strains, particularly for people who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Under the new guidelines, the vast majority of Americans will no longer live in areas where indoor masking in public is recommended, based on current data.
The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves to shift its focus to preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, rather than all instances of infection, as part of a strategy adjustment for a new “phase” in the response as the virus becomes endemic.
The two people familiar with the change spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the CDC’s action before the announcement.
Asia shares rise after U.S. rally after Ukraine sanctions
TOKYO (AP) — Asian shares rose Friday after U.S. stocks recovered toward the end of a wild trading day, as the world, including President Joe Biden, slapped sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged 1.4 percent in morning trading to 26,343.02. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5 percent to 7,022.30. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.2 percent to 2,681.19. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added nearly 0.2 percent to 22,941.59, while the Shanghai Composite rose 0.8 percent to 3,456.39.
Japan announced additional sanctions on Russia, including freezing the assets of Russian groups, banks and individuals and suspending exports of semiconductors and other sensitive goods to military-linked organizations in Russia.
Earlier in the week, Japan suspended new issuances and distribution of Russian government bonds in Japan, aimed at reducing funding opportunities for Russia. It also banned trade with the two Ukrainian separatist regions.
Despite uncertainty about the Ukraine, as well as worries about inflation and the COVID-19 omicron variant, the turnaround on Wall Street seemed to buoy Asian shares.
Texas clinics battle strict abortion law; legal hopes dim
DALLAS (AP) — The nation’s strictest abortion law went before the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday but an attorney representing abortion clinics said he no longer sees a way in this case to halt the law.
The Austin-based court took no immediate action over Texas’ restrictive law, which since September has banned abortions after roughly six weeks of pregnancy and has resulted in a sharp drop of abortions across the state.
But an attorney for abortion clinics said that even the court’s best-case ruling for them wouldn’t undo the law that is enforced by private citizens who can collect $10,000 or more by suing doctors who perform abortions.
“It will not stop the bounty-hunting scheme or fully restore abortion access across the state,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said after the hearing.
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to keep the law in place and allowed only a narrow challenge against the restrictions to proceed. So on Thursday, the Texas Supreme Court, which is entirely controlled by Republican justices, heard arguments on the issue of whether state licensing officials have a role in enforcing the law.
Oscar-nominated ‘MASH’ actor Sally Kellerman dies
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sally Kellerman, the Oscar and Emmy nominated actor who played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in director Robert Altman’s 1970 film “MASH,” died Thursday.
Kellerman died of heart failure at her home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles, her manager and publicist Alan Eichler said. She was 84.
Kellerman had a career of more than 60 years in film and television. She played a college professor who was returning student Rodney Dangerfield’s love interest in the 1986 comedy “Back to School.” And she was a regular in Altman’s films, appearing in 1970’s “Brewster McCloud,” 1992’s “The Player” and 1994’s “Ready to Wear.”
But she would always be best known for playing Major Houlihan, a straitlaced, by-the-book Army nurse who is tormented by rowdy doctors during the Korean War in the army comedy “MASH.”
3 ex-cops convicted of rights violations in Floyd killing
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Three former Minneapolis police officers were convicted Thursday of violating George Floyd’s civil rights, as a federal jury rejected their arguments that inexperience, improper training or the distraction of shouting bystanders excused them from failing to prevent Floyd’s killing.
Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane were convicted of depriving Floyd of his right to medical care as the 46-year-old Black man was pinned under fellow officer Derek Chauvin’s knee for 9 1/2 minutes while handcuffed on May 25, 2020. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back, Lane held his legs and Thao kept bystanders back.
Thao and Kueng were also convicted of failing to intervene to stop Chauvin in the videotaped killing that sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the globe as part of a reckoning over racial injustice.
Floyd’s brother Philonise Floyd called the verdicts “accountability,” but added: “There can never be justice because I can never get George back.”
And Floyd’s nephew Brandon Williams said he hoped the verdicts would change laws and policies to “protect people from these situations.”
He also said the outcome “sends a message that says, if you murder or use excessive or deadly force, there’s consequences that follow.”
Lane shook his head and looked at his attorney as his verdict was read. Thao and Kueng showed no visible emotion. Their attorneys declined to comment immediately afterward.
Charles Kovats, acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, called the convictions a reminder that all sworn law enforcement officers have a duty to intervene.
“These officers had a moral responsibility, a legal obligation and a duty to intervene, and by failing to do so, they committed a crime,” Kovats said.
Chauvin and Thao went to the scene to help rookies Kueng and Lane after they responded to a call that Floyd used a counterfeit $20 bill at a corner store. Floyd struggled with officers as they tried to put him in a police SUV.
During the monthlong federal trial, prosecutors sought to show that the officers violated their training, including when they failed to move Floyd or give him CPR. Prosecutors argued that Floyd’s condition was so serious that even bystanders without basic medical training could see he needed help, but that the officers “chose to do nothing.”
The defense said their training was inadequate. Kueng and Lane both said they deferred to Chauvin as the senior officer at the scene. Thao testified that he relied on the other officers to care for Floyd’s medical needs as his attention was elsewhere.
A jury of eight women and four men that appeared to be all-white reached the verdicts after about two days of deliberations. The court did not released demographics such as race or age. Lane is white, Kueng is Black and Thao is Hmong American.
The former officers remain free on bond pending sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled. Conviction of a federal civil rights violation that results in death is punishable by life in prison or even death, but such sentences are extremely rare. Federal sentencing guidelines rely on complicated formulas that indicate the officers would get much less.
Chauvin, who is white, was convicted of murder last year in state court and pleaded guilty in December in the federal case. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in the state case. A sentencing date has not yet been set in the federal case, but both sides agreed Chauvin should face a sentence ranging from 20 to 25 years.
Public reaction to Thursday’s verdicts was muted, with only a tiny handful of protesters visible outside the courthouse, which was surrounded by fencing throughout the trial. On the day Chauvin was convicted, many people listened live as his verdicts were read and crowded into the square where he died for a celebration afterward. That trial was livestreamed, while this one was not.
Lane, Kueng and Thao also face a separate trial in June on state charges alleging that they aided and abetted murder and manslaughter.
The verdicts come just days after the conviction of three white men on hate crimes charges in Georgia in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was chased and shot in February 2020.