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National

The opening arguments and first presentations of evidence began Friday in the trial of the three white men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, on a coastal Georgia street.

Details: Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery, his father, Gregory McMichael, who was also pursuing Arbery with a gun, and their neighbor William Bryan, who joined in the chase and took the video of Arbery’s death, face nine criminal counts individually and together, including malice and felony murder charges.

The 12-person jury includes 11 white people and 1 Black person,  a makeup that Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said might have been “intentional discrimination” on the part of defense attorneys but that he could not change due to limitations under state law. 

Glynn County, Georgia, where the crime took place, is 27% Black and 69% white. 

Senior assistant district attorney Linda Dunikoski told jurors on Friday that the defendants “assumed the worst about Ahmaud Arbery” and “trapped him like a rat between two pickup trucks.” 

“The evidence the state expects to show at trial is that this was an attack on Mr. Arbery … and the only thing that Mr. Arbery did was to run away,” Dunikoski said. 

“In this case, all three defendants did what they did based on assumptions. Not on facts, not on evidence, but assumptions."

Linda Dunikoski, senior assistant district attorney, Cobb County DA's office 

The defense argued that the McMichaels' believed they had “probable cause” to conduct a “citizen’s arrest” of Arbery for a suspected burglary in a nearby house. 

Arbery’s death was a result of “self-defense” on the part of Travis McMichael, according to his lawyer: 

"This case is about duty and responsibility," the defense attorney said. "It's about Travis McMichael's duty and responsibility to himself, to his family, and to his neighborhood."

Robert Rubin, defense attorney for Travis McMichael

A former Georgia law allowed one citizen to arrest another if a crime was committed “in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.” 

The law was repealed in Arbery’s name earlier this year, but it was on the books at the time of Arbery’s death.

Of note: Arbery’s parents, Marcus Arbery and Wanda Cooper-Jones, attended Friday's proceedings. When the state showed jurors the video of their son’s death, Marcus Arbery left the courtroom, saying, “I don’t want to see this.” Cooper-Jones sobbed while remaining seated, according to pool reports.

Opening arguments begin in trial of Ahmaud Arbery's accused killers

“In this case, all three defendants did what they did based on assumptions," the prosecution argued.

Lawyer with pointer gesturing to map on screen in courtroom

District attorney Linda Dunikoski makes her opening statement in the trial of three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery. Photo: Octavio Jones-Pool/Getty Images

Racism

Race and Equity

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

More than 15 states across the U.S. have filed lawsuits against the Biden administration over its federal vaccine mandate for companies with at least 100 employees.

Driving the news: Attorneys general in 11 states filed a lawsuit on Friday against the administration, calling the mandate "unconstitutional, unlawful and unwise."

The states participating in the lawsuit are Missouri, Arizona, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, New Hampshire and Wyoming.

The lawsuit was primarily brought by 10 Republican attorneys general. Iowa's Democratic attorney general, Tom Miller, also joined in the suit.

State of play: On Thursday, three other states — Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee — sued the government just hours after the mandate was announced. The plaintiffs say that President Biden signed an "unlawful executive order, adding that "our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully."

Additionally, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi filed a lawsuit and said that the vaccine mandate "suffers from a host of fatal flaws." It says that the mandate "usurps State authority," provides "no reasoning whatsoever" and "violates a litany of constitutional restraints."

Last Friday, Texas individually sued the administration. The state attorney general, Ken Paxton, said the government "has repeatedly expressed its disdain for Americans who choose not to get a vaccine" and has committed "abusive federal overreach."

Zoom in: Indiana's attorney general, Todd Rokita, said he plans to file a total of three lawsuits: The one filed along with Louisiana and Mississippi, one challenging the mandate for federal contractors, and another against the vaccine mandate for those working in nursing homes, hospitals and institutions that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid.

What's next: Georgia state officials said in October they also plan to file a lawsuit, along with South Carolina, West Virginia, Idaho, Alabama and Kansas.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday the state will file a lawsuit against the Biden administration after the mandate is published in the Federal Register.

Catch up quick: Biden on Thursday announced that employers with more than 100 employees must ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or tested weekly by Jan. 4, 2022, or face federal fines starting at nearly $14,000 per violation.

Go deeper: Biden sets a hard deadline for vaccine mandates

Republican-led states begin legal fight over Biden vaccine mandate

Biden announced that certain employers must ensure their workers are fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.

Biden administration

Coronavirus

The U.S. health system faces critical questions about cost, access and equity. Technological advances and new discoveries about diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s are transforming patient care and reshaping public health.

Health

Macro

Axios Macro

Capital

Axios Capital

The job market added a stunning 531,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.6% — a new pandemic-era low.

Why it matters: America's job market recovery has been on track all along.

Between the lines: Revisions to prior months are often overlooked. Not this month: Upgrades to both August and September were so enormous — fully 366,000 jobs higher than originally reported — that they have definitively reversed the narrative that there was a Delta-induced hiring slump in late summer.

By the numbers: America has now recovered 80% of the jobs lost at the depth of the recession in 2020.

The big picture: Leisure and hospitality added 164,000 jobs last month — but jobs growth was widespread. The disappointment — again — came in public sector education. State and local education shed a combined 65,000 jobs.

Wages are still rising: Average hourly earnings rose another 11 cents an hour in October, to $30.96. That's enough to keep up with inflation.

What to watch: Millions of workers remain on the sidelines — and there wasn't much improvement in pulling them back into the workforce.

The bottom line: "The Fall hiccup is now at best a Fall deep breath," tweeted University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers. 

U.S. economy adds 531,000 jobs in huge hiring rebound

Forecasters expected the economy to add 450,000 jobs.

Jobs

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Pfizer's oral antiviral drug was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 by 89%, according to interim results from a mid-to-late-stage study announced by the company on Friday.

Why it matters: Antiviral drugs can be a key pandemic-fighting tool, as not everyone will get vaccinated against the virus and it may take years to fully inoculate people in certain countries — particularly given current gaps in global vaccine supplies.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement that these findings from the phase 2/3 study marked "a real game-changer in the global efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic."

Details: Pfizer's antiviral pill, PAXLOVID (PF-07321332), was developed specifically to treat COVID-19, by blocking activity of the main enzyme the virus needs to multiply.

This was co-administered with a low dose of ritonavir, which is widely used in combination treatments for HIV infection.

Of note: No deaths were reported in patients with COVID-19 who received PAXLOVID for the study, according to a Pfizer statement. 

10 people who received a placebo died of the virus.

Be smart: Paxlovid’s results are very encouraging to a lot of researchers because, like Merck's COVID-19 pill, an easy-to-take oral drug that reduces severe illness and hospitalization will offer a way out of the pandemic, says Axios’ health care business reporter Bob Herman. 

Yes, but: There are some caveats. Pfizer’s findings came through a corporate press release, not a peer-reviewed journal, and federal regulators haven’t had a chance to scrutinize the drug’s clinical trial data yet.

The big picture: Remdesivir, a drug investigated earlier to treat Ebola and other diseases, is currently the only antiviral approved for COVID-19 treatment in the U.S.

PAXLOVID is one of several antiviral pills being developed to treat people after they've been diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The U.K. on Thursday became the first country in the world to approve an antiviral pill designed specifically in response to COVID-19: British regulators approved molnupiravir, developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics to prevent or treat the virus.

What's next: Pfizer said it will submit the findings as part of its ongoing rolling submission to the FDA for emergency use authorization "as soon as possible."

Pfizer says COVID pill cuts risk of death or hospitalization by 89%

Pfizer's CEO says the results from the hase 2/3 study marked "a real game-changer" in "efforts to halt the devastation of this pandemic."

A person's had clutching Pfizer's oral antiviral pills

Photo: Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Pfizer

News and analysis of the scientific advances fueling AI and quantum computing, revolutionizing biology and medicine, and tackling climate change. Science is changing the world and colliding with the global politics that shape it.

Science

Axios AI+

The trend toward digital gifts could accelerate this holidays with supply-chain-related shortages  of some tech goods leading to shipping delays and product scarcity.

Why it matters: Digital purchases of game downloads or App Store credits are quick and easy, so those who try it may never go back to physical gifts. 

Driving the news: A global chip shortage is limiting production at the same time supply chains are creaking and straining due to the pandemic.

The combination of problems will mean limited supply of certain products. 

Apple, for example, said that it had $6 billion in unfulfilled demand last quarter and expects that number to be even higher this quarter, with the iPad among  products that will be in short supply.

Game consoles have been particularly hard to come by for many months, including the latest Xbox and PlayStation models, but also other devices, including the Nintendo Switch and Oculus Quest. 

Toshiba, which supplies components to console makers, has warned the shortage could last until 2023 and Nintendo's president said Thursday it won't be able to meet holiday demand.

Online shopping has, of course, been popular for a long time. But even online retailers may struggle to get the physical goods people want this holiday season.

Digital goods, by contrast, are in infinite supply, avoiding the need to check multiple stores, wait for packages and other hassles. And there are more options than ever, ranging from games to video service subscriptions to credits for Roblox, Fortnite or the App Store.

Be smart: Downloadable games and online service subscriptions were already growing in popularity before the pandemic, so it may be hard to tell how much of the growth is due to the pandemic.

Yes, but: For those who prefer to give tech gifts that can be unwrapped and held, there's hope. Veteran retail analyst Stephen Baker of NPD Group says there should be ample supply of most products, as long as buyers can be flexible.

"Very specific items like game consoles or GPUs or maybe a phone are hard to get but almost everything else is plentiful," Baker said. "There are plenty of laptops, lots of TVs, (and) decent amount of tablets, gaming peripherals, monitors, and sound bars."

Prices, on the other hand, could be higher, with bargains harder to find.

Overall, NPD predicts spending on consumer technology (not counting phones and game consoles) will be up about 2% from last year's record-setting holiday season and roughly 18% above 2019.   

What they're saying: A quick, unscientific poll of my Twitter followers found about three-quarters of respondents were OK with the idea of getting digital presents, while a quarter thought such gifts were a sign of laziness.

A number of people told me that reports of looming shortages aren't making them think digital, but the shortage is making them buy presents sooner or consider more locally produced goods.

"The short supply on stuff this holiday season is making me plan more [in] advance and [be] more thoughtful to the gifts I am buying people," Microsoft senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc told me. While he has one friend who he might get an HBO Max subscription, he said the rest of his family and friends would likely not be big on digital gifts.  "Especially my mom."

What's next: The new frontier of digital goods includes collectibles, like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) — as well as all those virtual outfits your avatar will need to be stylish in the coming metaverse.

Digital gifts could win the holidays

Downloadable games were growing even before the pandemic.

Consumer electronics

Column / Signal Boost

From the Valley to D.C., Big Tech players like Facebook, Google and Amazon are under more scrutiny than ever as new technology develops and privacy and antitrust concerns grow in lockstep with companies’ ambitions.

Technology

Whats Next

Axios What's Next

The taxi business is going electric, which could spell trouble for ride-hailing giants like Uber and Lyft, who can't force their drivers to buy EVs.

Why it matters: The two companies don't own and operate EV fleets or a  charging infrastructure, and they rely on contract drivers who operate vehicles of their own choice. 

Why the electric car era is a threat to Uber and Lyft

The ride-hailing giants can't force drivers to buy EVs.

Axios

Friday's top stories

Opening arguments begin in trial of Ahmaud Arbery's accused killers

Republican-led states begin legal fight over Biden vaccine mandate

U.S. economy adds 531,000 jobs in huge hiring rebound

Pfizer says COVID pill cuts risk of death or hospitalization by 89%

Digital gifts could win the holidays

Why the electric car era is a threat to Uber and Lyft

The new COVID vaccine rivals

FAA refers 37 unruly passenger cases to FBI for criminal review

WHO: Europe is again at epicenter of pandemic

Scoop: Senate senses Powell pick

Poll: Manchin knots Democratic lifelines