Hopefully, you had a great Thanksgiving or 'last Thursday'. I know I did. I smoked a turkey and it turned out AMAZING.
But the news didn't stop, we now have another COVID variant that may be worse, and tensions are heating up across the pond.
Onward!
The omicron coronavirus variant has been detected in Canada, the country’s health minister said Sunday, marking the first identification of the variant in North America as cases continue to emerge around the globe.
Two cases in Ontario were confirmed as the omicron variant, which has been called a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said.
What to know about the omicron variant
The variant has also been found in countries ranging from Australia to Israel, Botswana to Britain, since it was first detected in South Africa. Here’s where cases have been detected around the world.
“This clearly demonstrates the pandemic is not over,” Dominic Perrottet, the premier of Australia’s New South Wales state, told reporters Sunday after the variant was detected there. “There are limits to what the state and federal government can do: These variants will get into the country. It is inevitable.”
Washington Post
More:
Dutch find 61 COVID cases among South Africa passengers, looking for new variant
Delta, United not revising South Africa flights amid variant concerns
What we know about the Omicron variant
Oh boy, here we go again. How many of us will be "fully vaccinated" when this one comes to town?
ZERO. That's how many.
Taiwan's air force scrambled again on Sunday to warn away 27 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defense zone, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said, the latest increase in tensions across the Taiwan Strait as China's President met his top generals.
Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China's air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, close to the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.
Taiwan calls China's repeated nearby military activities "gray zone" warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan's forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan's responses.
CNN
It's only a matter of time before China seizes control and makes Taiwan part of its country, for realz this time.
A 3-year-old toddler fatally shot a 5-year-old cousin on Thanksgiving in Georgia after using a handgun that belonged to the toddler's father, according to the police.
The South Fulton police said that the five-year-old girl Khalis Eberhart died after being shot in the chest at The Gardens at Camp Creek Apartment Houses, according to WXIA-TV. She was later taken to the hospital where she died.
Authorities are still investigating the incident, but family members said that the shooting was accidental, according to the news outlet.
No details were revealed about the events leading up to the incident or how the gun was accessed before it killed the girl.
Newsweek
Six injured after shooting at North Carolina mall sends Black Friday shoppers running in panic
More violence > Thanks Giving
Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey says he won't run for Texas governor after toying with the idea of running for public office for the past two years.
"As a simple kid born in the little town of Uvalde, Texas, it never occurred to me that I would one day be considered for political leadership,” the 52-year-old Texan said in a video shared on social media Sunday. “It’s a humbling and inspiring path to ponder. It’s also a path that I’m choosing not to take at this moment.”
He said that over the past two years he’s been considering how he can be most useful in life. “One category of service I’ve been exploring is politics — I’ve been considering a run for governor of Texas.”
He said after studying American and Texas politics, he’s learned “our politics needs new purpose” and “we have divides that need healing.”
“We’ve got to start shining a light on our shared values, the ones that cross party lines. The ones that build bridges instead of burn them,” he said.
Instead of pursuing life in public office, he said he'll instead support "entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations that I believe are leaders, establishments that I believe are creating pathways for people to succeed in life, organizations that have a mission to serve and build trust while also generating prosperity — that’s the American dream.”
NBC News
Thank God that American Nightmare is over.
Fox News host Trace Gallagher briefly pressed Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on Sunday over the GOP senator’s refusal to support raising the debt ceiling, wondering aloud why Barrasso is against it since it covers already authorized government expenses.
Interviewing Barrasso on Fox News Sunday, Gallacher—filling in for anchor Chris Wallace—brought up the Republicans’ intransigence on lifting the debt ceiling, noting that the GOP’s excuses don’t actually make that much sense.
“You talk about Republicans are against the Build Back Better thing, they’re also against raising the debt limit. Mitch McConnell said it would just enable Democratic spending,” Gallagher said. “But the Wall Street Journal says, and I’m quoting here sir, ‘a vote to raise the debt limit doesn’t authorize new spending, but it essentially allows the treasury to raise money to pay for expenses the government has already authorized.’” The Fox host then noted that Barrasso’s own home state would suffer if the federal government was forced to default because Congress refused to extend the debt ceiling.
“It’s important to point out in your state alone, this is paying for things like almost 30,000 people getting SNAP benefits. Of course, that’s food benefits; 33,000 students eligible for free or reduced school lunches. So a lot of benefits from this to your state, senator,” Gallagher continued. “So why are you against it?”
Rather than directly answer the Fox News Sunday moderator’s question (Editor: Of course!), Barrasso instead stayed on message and blamed everything on Democrats.
“In my state, I was a member of the state senate,” he replied. “Our institution demands we balance our budget every year and live within our means like families need to do and the federal government ought to do the same thing.”
The Daily Beast
The federal government isn't a household nor is it a business.
Tell me, Senator: What would you do if there was a massive world war and we had to "live within our means?"
Would you not raise money through debt to pay for the bombs, aircraft, and ships we'd need to win the war?
Of course you would. You're a lying sack of pig shit.
Jack Dorsey is expected to step down from his executive role at Twitter, sources have told CNBC.
The shocking news comes over a decade after Dorsey, 45, co-founded the social media platform.1
Following the news, Twitter stocks reportedly jumped more than five percent.
Sources told DailyFX that Dorsey and the Twitter board have settled on his successor. However, it is unclear who that would be.
He co-founded Twitter with Ev Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass in 2006.
Back in 2020, Dorsey had shared his plans to spend six months in Africa, while still working for the company. It is unclear if that is where he will go if he does step down.
"I had been working on my plans where I’d work decentralized, as my team and I do when we travel, but in light of COVID-19 and everything else going on, I need to re-evaluate. Either way we’ll continue to pursue opportunities in Africa," he said.
As of 2021, Dorsey has an estimated net worth of $13.8 billion, according to Forbes.
While being the Twitter co-founder has a large part to do with his extensive net worth, Celebrity Net Worth reports that his stake in the mobile payments company Square is where the majority of his net worth comes from.
Dorsey owns 2 percent of Twitter's shares, which is worth an estimated $800 million, and he owns 43 million shares of Square, which has an estimated worth of $9 billion.
The Sun
That's a helluva headline: CEO leaves company, stock skyrockets.
He gets the last laugh, of course. He's worth nearly $14 billion.
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