The USS Milwaukee is temporarily unable to sail after a COVID-19 outbreak among its "100% immunized" crew, the U.S. Navy said Friday, without specifying how many sailors tested positive.
Driving the news: The Navy has not determined the variant of COVID and the sailors who tested positive are isolated from the rest of the crew. The ship is ported in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay, less than two weeks after its deployment.
New York's essential workers now can return to work just five days after receiving a positive COVID-19 test, so long as they're vaccinated and asymptomatic.
Why it matters: The revised rules cuts quarantine time in half from 10 days and come as New York has struggled to maintain staffing levels within a variety of industries, including health care, food services, and transportation.
As the Taliban moved on Kabul in August, Tahera Ahmadi, 31, a married doctor, fled Afghanistan with just a backpack. Now, she's trying to rebuild a life in Alexandria, Virginia.
The big picture: As people around the world celebrate Christmas and the start of a new year, Ahmadi and about 74,000 other Afghan evacueesare navigating their own new beginnings in the U.S.
The number of people killed in encounters with police has not fallen despite theuproar over the deaths of George Floyd and Daunte Wright last year, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: Although ex-officers Derek Chauvin and Kimberly Potter were convicted for their roles in the deaths of Floyd and Wright respectively, "accountability for officers who kill remains elusive," the Times writes.
Driving the news: The restrictions will end on Dec. 31, according to Munoz. He said the decision to lift travel restrictions was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden surprised patients at the Children's National Hospital on Friday for a Christmas Eve celebration.
Driving the news: First ladies typically visit the hospital's patients during the holidays, but the president joined her this year — the first time a sitting president joined his wife, according to AP.
Eight monthsafter throngs of people filled a downtown Minneapolis plaza ahead of the Derek Chauvin verdict, a noticeably smaller group gathered to hear the fate of former police officer Kim Potter, who was found guilty of manslaughter in Daunte Wright's death Thursday.
The bottom line: Many across the trial-weary Twin Cities had checked out for Christmas.
Two Georgia election workers allege in a defamation lawsuit filed Thursday that conservative network One America News Network and former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed they committed ballot fraud over the 2020 election.
Why it matters: Ruby Freeman and daughter Wandrea "Shaye" Moss allege in the suit first obtained by Politico that the baseless public claims "led to an immediate onslaught of violent and racist threats and harassment" that left them "afraid to live normal lives."
Falsifying a COVID-19 vaccination card is now a crime in New York, punishable with a year's prison sentence if convicted of carrying one and up to four years for faking a health passport.
Why it matters: Proof-of-vaccination requirements in N.Y. and elsewhere have spurred a new market for counterfeit certificates.
The CDC on Thursday shortened the recommended isolation time for health care workers who test positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to seven days if they're asymptomatic.
Driving the news: The new guidance follows calls by health officials for the CDC to shorten its recommendation on isolation for fully vaccinated people who test positive due to concerns about the Omicron variant.
