Brief News

New record last Friday – Travel chaos

A combination of rough weather, staff shortages and infrastructure challenges have left the major airlines struggling to keep up with the surge in travel. Between Friday and Sunday, more than 3,200 flights were canceled and about 9,000 flights were delayed, according to the data group FlightAware.

The increase in delays and cancellations comes just days after Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urged airline CEOs to improve their flight schedules and better respond to disruptions. This past Friday clocked in as the most popular air travel day of 2022, statistics from the TSA show. Airports haven’t been that crowded since Thanksgiving 2021.

Vaccines for Children under 5 – Coronavirus

The CDC signed off on Covid-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months on Saturday, clearing the way for vaccinations to begin soon. The announcement came shortly after the CDC’s vaccine advisers voted unanimously in support of recommending the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to the nation’s youngest age group.

President Joe Biden praised the CDC’s decision, calling it a “monumental step forward in our nation’s fight against the virus.” While vaccinations may not begin until Tuesday in some places, health officials must now contend with a large number of parents who remain reluctant to quickly vaccinate.

Just 18% of parents of children under 5 said they would vaccinate their child against Covid-19 as soon as a vaccine became available, an April survey found.

Bid to join European Union – Ukraine

Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union could bring “greater hostile activity” from Russia as the EU considers whether the country should be formally considered for candidate status, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned. Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states will meet this week to discuss the possible path forward for Ukraine. However, even though the EU and its members have broadly supported Ukraine in its war effort, Ukraine’s ongoing fight raises several issues and could slow down the timeline.

In fact, experts say it is highly unlikely that Ukraine will be able to meet the EU’s criteria to start negotiations until after the war ends. The average time for a country to join the EU is four years and 10 months.

Electoral College on check – January 6

The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol holded a hearing Tuesday that showed evidence of then-President Donald Trump’s involvement in a scheme to submit fake electors.

Federal prosecutors reviewed the fake Electoral College certifications created by Trump allies that falsely declared him the winner of seven states that he lost in 2020. The fake certificates were sent to the National Archives by Trump’s allies in the weeks after the election and had no impact on the electoral outcome.

Schiff, a member of the panel, also defended the committee plans to show “courageous state officials who stood up and said they wouldn’t go along with this plan to either call legislators back into session or decertify the results for Joe Biden.”