Giuliani Hospitalized With COVID-19 | The Great Chicken 'Fix'

Joining 101,486 other Americans, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and leader of his faltering campaign to discredit the Nov. 3 election was hospitalized Sunday in Washington, D.C. His illness prompted a shutdown of Arizona’s state legislature after a maskless Giuliani testified there last week — even compelling a witness near him to remove her mask. Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden named California Attorney General Xavier Becerra his secretary of Health and Human Services, and Senate Democrats excoriated GOP colleagues for inviting a vaccine skeptic doctor to testify at a time when Americans are already reluctant to be immunized.

Sources: The Hill, NYT, AP, Fox News

2. Loeffler Won’t Admit Trump Loss

Control of the U.S. Senate is on the line in Georgia’s twin runoff elections Jan. 5, Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler warned in last night’s debate with Democratic challenger Rev. Raphael Warnock. But when the moderator pointed out that would mean President Trump, along with Vice President Mike Pence, the Senate tie-breaker, lost the election Nov. 3, Loffler let the contradiction stand, repeatedly refusing to acknowledge his defeat. Trump supporters are rallying behind a Michigan judge’s order for one county to preserve its voting records, though the dispute is over a marijuana ballot measure rather than the presidential election.

Sources: Politico, ABC, Detroit Free Press

3. Maduro Consolidates Power in Boycotted Election

They went through the motions. At least that’s the consensus of Venezuelan opposition figures, including National Assembly President Juan Guaidó, who claims to be the country’s actual president, as well as the U.S. and the European Union. Guaidó and others, who’d dominated the assembly since 2015’s election, did not seek reelection in Sunday’s vote, hoping to delegitimize what they charge is a rigged system. But that means the vote, which reportedly attracted a fraction of the last election’s turnout, is almost certain to give President Nicolás Maduro even more power.

Sources: Washington Post, The Independent

4. Chick-fil-A Accuses Suppliers of Price Fixing

They’re standing up to Big Chicken. America’s largest poultry-based fast food chain has sued 16 chicken producers, including giants Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms, alleging they conspired to keep prices artificially high. The suit comes amid a Justice Department probe that’s so far charged two former CEOs of supplier Pilgrim’s Pride. Chick-fil-A alleges that producers coordinated to inflate prices after the chain’s 2014 announcement it would only sell chicken not treated with antibiotics. In recent months other companies, like Aldi supermarkets and Campbell Soup, joined the ranks of buyers battling chicken producers in court.

Sources: WSJ (sub), NYT

5. Also Important …

Negotiators have made a breakthrough on fishing rights in talks over how Britain and the European Union will interact post-Brexit. Sunday’s Romanian elections remain undecided, but with 90 percent of votes counted, the opposition Social Democrats are leading. And a New York City bar owner is in custody after hitting and injuring a sheriff’s deputy with his car as authorities tried to arrest him for allegedly serving patrons in violation of lockdown rules.

Coronavirus Update: The U.K. is preparing to administer its first COVID-19 vaccinations, while in the U.S. many states will reportedly leave vaccine prioritization to health providers.

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Normally they fall out of the sky on their own. But while orbiting Earth, Japan’s Hayabusa2 dropped a 15-inch capsule into the Australian desert Sunday, carrying the first subsurface asteroid chunks ever brought to terra firma. After a quick examination Down Under, Japan’s space agency plans to rush the samples from asteroid Ryugu home for closer scrutiny. The mission, launched in 2014 alongside Chinese and American asteroid-sampling spacecraft yet to return, may yield “a better understanding of the origins of our solar system” said one NASA scientist, as well as clues to terrestrial life’s origins.

Sources: Phys.org, AP

2. These Robots Are Here to Help

Far from the killing machines Hollywood’s shown us, Nuro’s robots are kind of cute — and useful: They deliver food, sparing humans from risky grocery runs, and lifesaving drugs when they’re needed most, OZY reports. There’s no denying the pandemic helped put the Silicon Valley company, founded by two veterans of Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle project, on non-Google maps. Nuro now has federal leeway to operate its driverless vehicles and is already navigating the streets of Houston, Phoenix and Mountain View, California, so it’s only a matter of time before its robots politely take control of the planet.

Sources: OZY

3. Georgia Teenagers Could Give Dems Senate

First they have to register — today. Some 23,000 Georgians turn 18 between the Nov. 3 election and the Jan. 5 runoffs that will decide if the state’s two Republican senators keep their jobs and keep the Senate under GOP control. Demographics suggest youthful voters skew blue in a state where only 13,000 votes flipped the state for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. Georgia’s NAACP and other groups, having recently prompted 115,000 new registrations, are encouraging the teenagers, who can register if they turn 18 before Jan. 5, to register by today’s deadline.

Sources: The Augusta Chronicle, AJC

4. Fashion CEO Quits to Support Wife’s Career

“Her professional ambitions should take priority.” So said Rubin Ritter, co-CEO of Zalando, Europe’s biggest online fashion retailer, as he announced his departure. He’ll leave the Berlin-based company, which earned $2.2 billion in revenue last quarter, at its annual meeting in the spring. Ritter didn’t give any other explanation for the move or his wife’s endeavors, but balancing work and family life and defying gender norms isn't a huge departure for Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel, when asked last week if she used a smart washing machine, replied, “My husband does that.”

Sources: Sky News, BBC, The Guardian

5. Gonzaga Is No. 1 in College Hoops, But Can’t Play

If you have to endure a lockdown, the top spot is a good place to do it. Gonzaga University is ranked the best Division I college basketball team, but the Bulldogs announced Sunday that they’ll stop playing for a week, missing four games, after two positive COVID-19 tests within their program. And they’re not alone: By one CBS reporter’s tally, only 47 of the 72 Division I games scheduled for Saturday were actually played, with 35 percent canceled or postponed because of contagion. Asked the coach of one top team: “Is this the new normal?”

Sources: Yahoo, CBS, ESPN