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Jack Dorsey stepping down as Twitter CEO; chief technology officer Parag Agrawal to take over, effective immediately

Jack Dorsey, CEO and co-founder of social media platform Twitter, said on Monday that he is stepping down as CEO. The 45-year-old Dorsey will remain on Twitter’s board of directors until next May, according to an email to staff that Dorsey tweeted. Twitter’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, will replace Dorsey as CEO effective immediately, the company said. Agrawal began his Twitter career as an engineer, then worked his way to the C-suite, becoming CTO in 2017. As the technology chief, Agrawal has played a role in “every critical decision that helped turn this company around,” Dorsey said. Bret Taylor, a member of Twitter’s board since 2016, was also named chairman.

Dorsey said the decision to step down “was my decision and I own it,” adding in the staff email, “I decided it’s finally time for me to leave. I’m really sad…yet really happy.” Dorsey added in a press release: “I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders. My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational.”

Dorsey’s departure ends his second tenure as CEO at Twitter. He served as chief executive between 2006 and 2008, and began his second stint leading the company in 2015. Twitter, co-founded in 2006 by Dorsey, Evan Williams and Christopher “Biz” Stone, was initially a way for people to send updates to a small group using text messages. The first tweet sent by Dorsey on March 21, 2006, read “just setting up my twttr.”

Twitter has more than 5,500 employees and a market cap of about $39 billion. In the past decade, Twitter has been one of the top used social media platforms around the world, behind Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Shares of Twitter surged Monday after Dorsey’s departure was announced. Twitter’s stock jumped more than 10% in early trading, but reversed itself by midday.

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President Joe Biden speaks about the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, saying it is “cause for concern, not a cause for panic”

President Joe Biden said on Monday the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 is a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”  While health experts work to learn more about the quickly spreading strain, Biden said researchers believe that current vaccines should be adequate against the variant.

Biden also continued to advocate COVID-19 vaccinations, saying in his address: “We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day, and we’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion.”   He added that the variant’s arrival confirms the importance to getting the vaccine and booster shots, saying: “I know you’re tired of hearing me say this. The best protection against this new variant or any of the variants out there, the ones we’ve been dealing with already, is getting fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot. [The vaccine is] free and they are available at 80,000 locations coast to coast. Do not wait. Go get your booster if it’s time for you to do so.”

Biden noted that if medical experts and researchers discover that a new booster is needed against the Omicron variant, the United States will be the first to act. The President said: “In the event, hopefully unlikely, that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to this new variant, we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool. We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed.”

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Louis Vuitton designer Virgil Abloh passes away at 41 after private battle with cancer

Fashion designer Virgil Abloh died Sunday after a private battle with cancer, according to a post shared on his social media. He was 41 years old. Abloh, the founder and CEO of fashion house Off-White, battled a “rare, aggressive form of cancer” known as cardia angiosarcoma, for two years before his death, according to the post shared to his verified Instagram account.  The post read: “He chose to endure his battle privately since his diagnosis in 2019, undergoing numerous challenging treatments, all while helming several significant institutions that span fashion, art, and culture.” 

Abloh was the American-born son of Ghanaian immigrants who became fashion’s highest profile Black designer and the creative mind behind Louis Vuitton’s menswear collections. He also worked as a DJ and visual artist, had been men’s artistic director for Vuitton, the world’s biggest luxury brand, since March 2018.  CEO Bernard Arnault said in a statement that he was “shocked after this terrible news,” adding, “Virgil was not only a genius designer, a visionary, he was also a man with a beautiful soul and great wisdom. The LVMH family joins me in this moment of great sorrow and we are all thinking of their husband, their father, their brother or their friend.”

Abloh was well-respected in the fashion and music worlds, frequently collaborating with celebrities such as Ye (formerly known as Kanye West). Abloh is survived by his wife, Shannon Abloh, his children Lowe Abloh and Grey Abloh, his sister Edwina Abloh, his parents Nee and Eunice Abloh and “numerous dear friends and colleagues” the post on his Instagram states.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci warns that newly-discovered Omicron variant may ‘evade immune protection’ from COVID-19

Appearing on NBC News’ Meet the Press on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the newly discovered ‘Omicron’ variant of Covid-19 may evade various forms of immune protection. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was “troublesome” that Omicron features about 32 or more variants in the virus’ spike protein, adding that other mutations could allow it to be more transmissible.  Said Fauci: “The profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get, for example, from a monoclonal antibody or from the convalescent serum after a person’s been infected and possibly even against some of the vaccine-induced antibodies.”  Fauci added that it may take two more weeks to have more “definitive information” about the transmissibility, severity and other characteristics of the variant, according to a readout of the conversation.

Fauci, along with Dr. Francis Collins, National Institutes of Health Director, agreed it was likely the variant – which was first identified by scientists in South Africa and has since been identified in Europe and Asia – would be detected in the United States.  Collins told CNN’s State of the Union: “We will find out because (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is looking at tens of thousands of viral isolates every week.”  Collins added that the presence of the Omicron variant should encourage more Americans to get vaccinated or receive a booster dose:  “It’s certainly not good news. We don’t know yet how much of an impact this will have. It ought to redouble our efforts to use the tools that we have, which are vaccinations and boosters, and to be sure we’re getting those to the rest of the world too, which the U.S. is doing more than any other country.” 

 

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Mother killed in same spot as her 14-year-old son was slain 2 days earlier in Chicago

On Thursday, Chicago police confirmed they were investigating the shooting death of a 31-year-old woman who was slain at the same spot as her 14-year-old son was murdered just days earlier.

The mother, Delisa Tucker, was shot in the chest Wednesday morning near Chicago’s Wentworth Avenue while visiting the location where her 14-year-old son, Kevin Tinker Jr., was slain. Tucker leaves behind five children between the ages of four and 15. Tucker intended to light a candle at the site of her son’s slaying in the early morning hours before being struck by gunfire herself, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan wouldn’t say if they believe the shootings are connected, and indicated no one has been taken into custody as of press time. The 14-year-old victim’s father, Kevin Tinker Sr., described his son as a “good kid” who played basketball and stayed home most of the time with his younger brothers and sisters. But he said that “some violence found him” when he was walking home from a friend’s house.

Police said no witnesses to Delisa Tucker’s slaying had yet been found. Both shootings occurred in the Roseland area of Chicago where police say murders have increased by 48% from last year and 94% from 2019. The area has seen 26 shooting deaths so far in 2021.

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President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden share Thanksgiving message honoring those lost during pandemic

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden sent appreciation to service members who lost their lives during the pandemic in a Thanksgiving video message posted on Twitter.  Biden said: “As we give thanks for what we have, we also keep in our hearts those who we lost, and those who have lost so much. And those who have an empty seat at their kitchen table or their dining room table this year because of this virus or another cruel twist of fate or accident. We pray for them.”

First Lady Jill Biden added: “After being apart last year, we have a new appreciation for those little moments we can’t plan or replicate. The music of laughter in a warm, full kitchen, the thump of small feet making big sounds, the circle of faces crowded around our dining room table, glowing in the candlelight.”

The Bidens spent Thanksgiving in Nantucket. After the video was released, the president called into NBC’s broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and gave a message to Americans. Said Biden: “My message is after two years, we’re back, America’s back.” 

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Federal jury finds white supremacists conspired in deadly Unite the Right rally

A federal jury on Tuesday found that white supremacists conspired to take part in violence during a 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia which left three people dead. The jury in the civil trial ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on four of the six counts they faced, but deadlocked on two federal conspiracy counts.  The defendants — 12 individuals and five white nationalist organizations — were ordered to pay $26 million in damages for the violent protest. Half of that amount must be paid by James Fields, who’s serving life in prison for driving his vehicle into a crowd of counterprotestors, killing activist Heather Heyer.

The Unite the Right rally, which was held Aug. 11, 2017 on the campus of the University of Virginia, protested the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a park.  There were protests at the park the next day, leading to violence between the white supremacists and counter-demonstrators, during which Heyer was killed.

In addition to Fields, the defendants in the civil trial include prominent white nationalists and self-proclaimed members of the “alt-right,” such as Richard Spencer, Christopher Cantwell, Jason Kessler, Elliot Kline, Nathan Damico, Matthew Heimbach, Jeff Schoep, Andrew Anglin, Matthew Parrott and others.

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President Biden orders 50M barrels from emergency oil stockpile to bring gas prices down

President Joe Biden has ordered the release of tens of millions of barrels of oil from the strategic reserve in a move to bring down gas prices.  During remarks from the White House on Tuesday, Biden ordered an additional 50 million barrels from the reserve, which is an emergency stockpile of oil stored in underground tanks in the Gulf Coast area, a move he said “will not solve the problem of high gas prices overnight.  It will take time, but before long, you should see the price of gas drop where you fill up your tank. And in the longer term, we will reduce our reliance on oil as we shift to clean energy.”  Inflation has pushed up the cost of many goods and services in the United States, particularly gasoline prices, which are presently at their highest prices in years.

The White House said in a statement: “American consumers are feeling the impact of elevated gas prices at the pump and in their home heating bills … because oil supply has not kept up with demand as the global economy emerges from the pandemic. That’s why President Biden is using every tool available to him to work to lower prices and address the lack of supply.”

Officials said the additional barrels of oil will be released from the strategic reserve in two ways — 32 million barrels in an exchange over the next few months that will eventually return to the emergency stockpile, and 18 million barrels in an acceleration of sales that Congress previously authorized. Biden described high gas prices as a problem in the United States and throughout the world: “We’re taking action. The big part of the reason Americans are facing high gas prices is because oil producing countries and large companies have not ramped up the supply of oil quickly enough to meet the demand. And the smaller supply means higher prices globally, globally, for oil.”

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President Biden nominates Jerome Powell for second term as Federal Reserve chair

On Monday, President Joe Biden nominated Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman. Biden nominated Powell, a Republican, for another term at the central bank at a White House event despite opposition from progressive Democrats in Congress who are concerned about his leadership. He also nominated Fed Governor Lael Brainard, the progressives’ choice for the top spot, as vice chair of the board of governors. If confirmed, she would succeed Richard Clarida, whose term expires Jan. 31, 2022.

Biden said he picked Powell because the economy, while showing solid recovery, is still unsettled due to the lingering pandemic, presenting “enormous potential and enormous uncertainty.”  The President said that Powell provides a strong element of continuity and security during uncertain times, saying: “When our country was hemorrhaging jobs last year and there was panic in our financial markets, Jay’s steady and decisive leadership helped to stabilize markets and put our economy on track to a robust recovery.” He also praised Powell’s commitment to “delivering full employment. We’re making strong progress toward that goal now.”

During Powell’s first term, the Federal Reserve instituted massive levels of low-interest lending designed to keep small and large businesses afloat during the pandemic while slashing interest rates to near zero.  Powell’s nomination now go to the Senate, where he is expected to easily earn confirmation.

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NY Assembly finds evidence that former Gov. Andrew Cuomo “engaged in sexual harassment”

The New York State Assembly’s Judiciary Committee released their report on its investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which details evidence of Cuomo engaging in sexual harassment, utilizing state resources to write a book, and hiding nursing home death numbers during the coronavirus pandemics.

The report. completed by the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, was released by Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Lavine and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.  The committee found Cuomo engaged in multiple instances of sexual harassment and created a hostile work environment in the process. and cites “overwhelming evidence” of sexual harassment committed by the former governor. The investigation also discovered Cuomo utilized state resources and property, including work by executive chamber staff, to write, publish and promote his book. The report said the book guaranteed Cuomo at least $5.2 million in personal profit while using the state’s staff and resources.  Cuomo was also not fully transparent to the public regarding the number of nursing home residents who died as a result of COVID-19.

Committee Chairman Charles Lavine said Cuomo’s conduct was “extremely disturbing” and was “indicative of someone who is not fit for office.” The report said the state constitution clearly states impeachment was reserved to remove an official from office and does not address former officials.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/probe-finds-overwhelming-evidence-misconduct-cuomo-81327729

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