The U.S. at a glance ... NEWS 7
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Vaccine mandate: The 5th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals last week extended a
halt on the Biden administration’s Covid
vaccine or testing requirement for private
businesses with more than 100 employees,
saying the mandate “grossly exceeds” the
authority of the occupational safety agency
that issued it. “Rather than a delicately
handled scalpel, the Mandate”—which had
been slated to take full effect Jan. 4—“is a
one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes
hardly any attempt to account for differ-
ences in workplaces,” wrote the 5th Circuit
panel, which includes a judge nominated
by President Reagan and two by President
Trump. But this week, the 6th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, based in Cincinnati,
was randomly selected to handle at least
34 lawsuits challenging the mandate, giv-
ing another panel a chance to review the
matter before it likely reaches the Supreme
Court. The Biden administration said
blocking the mandate would “cost dozens
or even hundreds of lives per day.”El Paso, Texas
Running again: Former Rep. Beto
O’Rourke entered the race for governor
this week, giving his party a glimmer
of hope in a state that hasn’t elected a
Democrat to statewide office since 1994.
O’Rourke, 49, came close in 2018, finish-
ing 2.5 percentage points short of defeat-
ing Ted Cruz in a Senate race that made
O’Rourke a national star among liberals.
Then O’Rourke launched a presiden-
tial bid that quickly fizzled. Gov. Greg
Abbott, seeking a third term, attacked
O’Rourke this week for lurching leftward
in the presidential race, during which
O’Rourke said, “Hell yes, we’re going to
take your AR-15.” O’Rourke slammed
Abbott for pushing open carry without
a permit and signing restrictive abortion
and voting laws. He also accused the
governor of having “abandoned” Texans
during the power-grid failure
last February. O’Rourke could
also be facing actor Matthew
McConaughey, a Texas
native and Austin resi-
dent, who says
he’s “measur-
ing” whether
to enter
the race.Washington, D.C.
Presidential parlay: President Biden
and Chinese President Xi Jinping
pledged to compete without engag-
ing in Cold War–style hostility during
a virtual summit this week but offered
no joint statement or action plan after
three-plus hours of talks. With relations
between the two superpowers seemingly
nearing a boiling point, Biden said, “We
need to establish some common-sense
guardrails,” but he confronted Xi about
militarizing the South China Sea, bolster-
ing its hypersonic and nuclear arsenal,
continuing aggressive trade practices,
and what the U.S. State Department
calls the genocide of Uighurs and other
Muslim ethnic minorities, which report-
edly inspired Biden to consider a diplo-
matic boycott of the upcoming Winter
Olympics in Beijing. Xi confronted Biden
over what China sees as U.S. support for
Taiwan’s independence, saying, “Such
moves are extremely dangerous, just like
playing with fire. Whoever plays with fire
will get burned.”Trying to turn Texas blue A summit for the Covid ageKenosha, Wis.
Awaiting a verdict: With the Wisconsin
National Guard on standby, a jury of
seven women and five men in the murder
trial of Kyle Rittenhouse continued delib-
erating into a second day as The Week
went to press. In closing arguments, pros-
ecutor Thomas Binger called Rittenhouse
a “wannabe soldier” who was “looking
for trouble” when he brought his military-
style rifle to summer 2020 protests set off
by the police shooting of a Black resident,
Jacob Blake. Binger said Rittenhouse, then
17, delivered a “kill shot” to the back of
Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and walked off
like a “hero in a Western” after killing
Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, 26, and
wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 28. Defense
attorney Mark Richards countered that
his client was defending himself from a
“mob” and feared for his life. Rittenhouse
faces five counts, including homicide,
but the judge said jurors could consider
several lesser charges if they acquit
Rittenhouse of the original counts.Buffalo, Wyo.
Not one of us: The
Wyoming GOP
voted last week
to no
longer
recognize
Rep. Liz
Cheney as a Republican, marking yet
another rebuke of Cheney since she voted
to impeach former President Trump for
inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In May,
Cheney was removed from her post as
No. 3 leader of the House Republicans.
Wyoming’s resolution, passed by a vote
of 31-29, is symbolic and has no imme-
diate consequences; the state party also
slammed Cheney for serving as vice chair
of the House panel investigating the Jan 6
insurrection. Cheney spokesman Jeremy
Adler said some Wyoming Republicans
are “held hostage to the lies of a danger-
ous and irrational man.” Despite one of
the House’s most conservative vot-
ing records, Cheney faces a tough
re-election race against former
gubernatorial candidate Harriet
Hageman, who is backed by
Trump. “When [Cheney]
launched her war against
President Trump,” Hageman
said, “she completely broke
with where we are as a state.”Newtown, Conn.
Defaming children: Infowars
founder Alex Jones is liable
by default in a defama-
tion lawsuit brought by
parents of eight children
killed in the 2012 Sandy
Hook Elementary
School massacre,
Connecticut Judge Barbara Bellis ruled
this week. Jones refused to provide finan-
cial records indicating how, or if, his com-
panies profited from his claims that mur-
dered children were “crisis actors” used in
a government hoax to justify gun control.
Jones recanted his statements in 2019,
saying they resulted from “a form of psy-
chosis,” but after Bellis’ ruling, he accused
the government of using “dead children to
try to destroy the First Amendment, not
just the Second Amendment.” A judge in
Texas issued a similar ruling in September,
saying Jones showed “flagrant bad faith”
by withholding documents. A jury will
decide how much Jones must pay
in damages. Families of the 26
students and educators killed
have faced death threats and
been forced to live in hiding.Cheney: Not welcome
Jones