5 things to know for December 18: Covid-19, cyberattack, economy, Nigeria, Taliban

The FDA is on track to grant emergency use authorization to Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine after agency advisers voted yesterday to recommend it. If authorized, officials expect nearly eight million doses of vaccine to arrive in U.S. states next week. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to get a first shot of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine today, making him the top U.S. vaccinated against the virus. Other countries are preparing for their own vaccine implementation: India is preparing working groups in anticipation of an emergency use authorization for at least one vaccine candidate. South Korea plans to vaccinate more than 80% of its population (about 44 million people) next November. Meanwhile, Germany and Japan have reported new record cases, and in the United States, deaths from Covid-19 have already surpassed 40,000 this month.

The cyber group of the Department of Homeland Security has warned that the recent cyber attack affecting government agencies is much broader than officials had thought. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency said the compromised software program, SolarWinds, is not the only way hackers have infiltrated networks and that those responsible may have used “tactics, techniques and procedures that still have not been discovered “. This news heightens growing concern about the scope and scope of non-compliance, which the agency says “poses a serious risk” to the federal government and other areas of the public and private sector. Questions also remain about how long it remained undetected by the U.S. government and when President Trump, who has remained silent about it, can address it.

There is more bad news in the workplace. Last week, another 885,000 people applied for unemployment benefits for the first time, which led to an increase in demand far above what economists expected. Unemployment has been rising for weeks and about 14 million people rely on government coronavirus aid programs that will expire by the end of the year, unless Congress acts. To make matters worse, it looks like Congress may not get any bills over the weekend, meaning there could be a brief government shutdown this weekend, a GOP senator said. Remember that government funding and pandemic stimulus measures are linked because Congress expects the combination to perform two critical tasks at once and increase bipartisan support. So far … not really.

More than 300 boys abducted during an attack on a Nigerian school last week have been released, the country’s government said. Hundreds of students were feared missing after the attack, and the Nigerian army says it has been able to rescue 344 of them. Some suspected the kidnappings were carried out by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram, but the governor of the Nigerian state of Katsina says they were actually bandits disguised as members of the terrorist organization. Rescue abduction cases have increased in Katsina state, but never on this scale. With hundreds of children involved, the incident recalls the brutal kidnapping of 276 Chibok girls in 2014. More than 100 of them never returned home.

The top U.S. military official met this week with Taliban representatives in Qatar during an unexpected trip to the Middle East. The chairman of the joint chief of staff, General Mark Milley, discussed the need for a reduction in violence in the area, which was one of the main conditions of the agreement reached between the US and the Taliban in February that could pave the way for the end of the longest United States. he fought the war. However, the insurgent group’s attacks on the Afghan government have continued and US officials say it has not broken with Al Qaeda, another of the major terms of the deal. All of this is happening amid a continuing downsizing of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan ordered by the Trump administration following the president’s election defeat.

There are no spoilers, but this celebrity revelation certainly makes sense.

Really a gift for the person who has it all.

To be clear, he will not shoot vultures. That would be … exaggerated. It is supposed to scare them.

Pizza: The unofficial food of the quarantine.

It’s the number of people the U.S. government has executed this year, more than 50 states together. It is the highest number of federal executions since 1896.

Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, in an open letter to President-elect Joe Biden. Taylor was killed by police during a raid in March and Palmer asks Biden to keep his promises to hold the police accountable for their actions.

We close the week with a carol, but not just any carol. This version of “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree”, performed by Seraphic Fire, was composed by British musician and writer Elizabeth Poston. Poston was a Renaissance woman who is said to have worked as a secret agent during World War II. It’s a beautiful listen, no matter where you are this December morning. (Click here to see it.)