Some officials now say monkeypox elimination
unlikely in US

Some U.S. health officials are conceding that monkeypox is probably not going away anytime soon. The disease’s spread is slowing but the virus is so widespread that elimination is unlikely. That conclusion was in a recent CDC report and echoed Friday by an agency disease-forecasting scientist. The CDC report contained some good news: The U.S. outbreak seems to have peaked in August. The average number of cases being reported daily is fewer than 150. That’s just a fraction of what was reported in the middle of the summer. Officials expect the decline will continue for at least the next several weeks.

Biden Signs stopgap spending bill with $12.3B in aid to Ukraine

Congress gave final approval Friday to a short-term spending package to keep the government open through mid-December and President Joe Biden signed it soon afterward, staving off a midnight shutdown and sending about $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine. The package included a third tranche of aid to Ukraine for its battle with Russia, on top of a total of about $54 billion approved earlier this year. With Friday’s vote, Congress has now committed more military aid to Ukraine than it has to any country in a single year since the Vietnam War.

Supreme Court welcomes Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, was welcomed by her colleagues on Friday at an investiture ceremony at the court that was attended by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The proceedings were “purely ceremonial,” the court’s public information office noted, as Jackson has been a member of the court since she was sworn in on June 30. But the event was nonetheless stately and steeped in history. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath, and Jackson promised to “administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich.” She took her seat on the far right side of the bench.

Newsom relaxes refinery rules as California gas prices soar

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on state regulators to relax rules on oil refineries in an effort to lower soaring fuel prices. According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of gas in California is $6.30. That’s far above the national average of $3.80. Oil refineries have to produce a specific blend of gas in the summer months that is designed to lower pollutants. Newsom wants to allow them to switch to the cheaper winter blend earlier than normal. The oil industry says that’s an acknowledgement that state regulations play a role in rising prices. Newsom also called for a new tax on oil company profits.

House passes bill to give $2.7B to families of 9/11 victims

In its final vote before lawmakers left Washington for November’s midterm elections, the House on Friday overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that would authorize $2.7 billion in compensation payments to the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. It was to go next to the Senate, which had already begun its campaign season recess. The bill would direct the money to be used for lump-sum payments to immediate family members of Sept. 11 victims who have been barred from receiving money from the U.S. Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund. Some had been excluded because they had already received payments from a separate one created specifically to compensate the relatives of Sept. 11 victims.

Sailor acquitted of setting fire that destroyed $1.2B navy ship

A sailor charged with intentionally setting one of the worst noncombat fires in U.S. Navy history, which destroyed the $1.2 billion USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego Bay in 2020, was found not guilty on all counts Friday by a Navy judge. Seaman Recruit Ryan Sawyer Mays, 21, had been facing life in prison if convicted on charges of aggravated arson and willful hazarding of a vessel. Navy prosecutors portrayed Mays as a disgruntled failure who had hoped to become a Navy SEAL. Navy defense lawyers countered that the fire was a result of carelessness and complacency on the part of Navy commanders.

Blast at education center in Kabul kills at least 19

A suicide attack on Friday at an educational center in Afghanistan’s capital killed at least 19 people, mostly young female students, adding to fears among many Afghans, particularly in the ethnic Hazara minority, about whether the new Taliban government can protect them from violence by extremist groups. The blast wounded at least 27 people, Taliban officials said, and was the latest in a string of attacks in recent months on schools and education centers. Reports from medical staff treating victims in nearby hospitals suggest that casualty figures could rise. Since the Taliban seized power a year ago, the Islamic State affiliate has carried out ruthless attacks on Hazaras, a predominantly Shiite Muslim minority.

Military officers announce coup in Burkina Faso

Military officers announced late Friday that they had taken power in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, in what appeared to be the second coup in eight months to rock a nation struggling to quash growing violence from extremist groups. As gunfire rang out earlier Friday and the state television channel went off the air in Ouagadougou, the capital, the president, Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who led the previous coup in January, had tried to reassure citizens that he was still in control. But after a day of uncertainty and chaos, military officers announced on national television that they had ousted Damiba and that Capt. Ibrahim Traoré was now in power.

Price of new ALS treatment will be $158,000 per year, maker says

A new medication for Lou Gehrig’s disease will have a list price of $158,000 a year, its manufacturer disclosed Friday. The treatment, Relyvrio, is a combination of two existing drugs and will be available to patients in the United States in about four to six weeks, according to officials of the company, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals. Relyvrio was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday, even though the agency’s analysis concluded there was not yet sufficient evidence that the medication could help patients live longer or slow the rate at which they lose functions like muscle control, speaking or breathing without assistance.

By wire sources