Reuters US Domestic News Summary
Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.
Chinese researchers quit U.S.; agents target Biden team: U.S. officials
More than 1,000 Chinese researchers have left the United States amid a U.S. crackdown on alleged technology theft, top U.S. security officials said on Wednesday, adding that Chinese agents had already been targeting the incoming Biden administration. John Demers, chief of the U.S. Justice Department's National Security Division, told a discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank the researchers had left the country while the department launched multiple criminal cases against Chinese operatives for industrial and technological espionage.
U.S. health agency shortens quarantine guidance following coronavirus exposure
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday said a shorter quarantine period of seven days with a negative COVID-19 test and 10 days without a test would work for individuals showing no symptoms after virus exposure, providing alternatives to the current 14-day standard.
The CDC said it still recommends a 14-day quarantine period for those exposed to COVID-19 as the best way to reduce its spread, calling the shorter options alternatives it hopes will increase compliance.
The U.S. has spent billions stockpiling ventilators, but many won't save critically ill COVID-19 patients
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across its shores earlier this year, the U.S. government in April announced orders for almost $3 billion of ventilators for a national stockpile, meant to save Americans suffering from severe respiratory problems brought on by the disease. But of the 140,000 machines added since then by the government to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, almost half were basic breathing devices that don't meet what medical specialists say are the minimum requirements for ventilators needed to treat Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, the main cause of death among COVID-19 patients, according to a Reuters review of publicly-available device specifications and interviews with doctors and industry executives.
Biden plans to keep Wray as FBI director: New York Times
President-elect Joe Biden will not remove Christopher Wray as FBI director if he is still in the job when the Democratic president takes office, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a senior Biden official. Biden's team was "not removing the F.B.I. director unless Trump fired him," the Times quoted the official as saying.
As U.S. races toward COVID-19 vaccine, Britain takes the lead
Britain leapt ahead of the United States in approving Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, intensifying scrutiny on U.S. regulators as they consider whether to grant emergency use in the country that leads the world in coronavirus infections. A day after top U.S. health officials announced plans to begin vaccinating Americans as early as mid-December, British regulators granted emergency use approval to the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc along with Germany's BioNTech SE.
Some New York City teachers question timing of reopening schools as COVID-19 cases soar
Jamie Ewing longs for the day when he can return to teaching his fourth-grade class face-to-face, safely and permanently - but he is not confident that will be the case next week when he is due to go back to his school in the South Bronx.
Ewing's school is among hundreds of pre-kindergarten and elementary schools in New York City that Mayor Bill de Blasio said can return to the classroom for in-person learning on Monday after an abrupt shutdown of all city schools two weeks ago due to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
U.S. Republicans balk as Trump uses defense bill for leverage on Big Tech
President Donald Trump's threat to veto a defense bill if it does not repeal legal protections for social media companies faced stiff bipartisan opposition on Wednesday, setting the stage for a confrontation with lawmakers scrambling to pass the massive bill by year-end. Unusually, members of his Republican Party broke from Trump to join Democrats in objecting to his threat to veto the annual National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, a $740 billion annual bill setting policy for the Pentagon, if it does not include a measure eliminating a federal law - known as Section 230 - protecting tech companies such as Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc.
Biden promises help to U.S. workers hit by pandemic, Trump hints at 2024 run
President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday promised a group of workers hit by the raging COVID-19 pandemic that more aid would be on the way, while President Donald Trump hinted he may be ready to begin planning another run for the White House in 2024. Biden, who has pledged to act quickly to provide more resources to fight the health crisis after he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, told a group of workers and business owners that any emergency aid approved by Congress before he takes office would be only a "down payment."
Some Republican states would fight forced utility emissions cuts under Biden climate agenda
The governors of five Republican states are ready to fight Democratic President-elect Joe Biden if he tries to require the power sector to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The litigious stance reflects just one of the many obstacles Biden will face as he seeks to deliver on a campaign promise to bring the U.S. economy to net zero emissions by 2050 to combat climate change.
U.S. judge declines to sanction Trump campaign over alleged 'disinformation' tactic
A federal judge in Michigan has declined to reprimand President Donald Trump's campaign for submitting a court document that opposing lawyers said was purposefully misleading.
In a four-page order issued on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janet Neff said she would not strike the disputed document from the court record. Lawyers for the city of Detroit had asked Neff to strike the document as a way of sanctioning Trump's campaign.
