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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 779,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 59.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Latest headlines:
-Variant-specific vaccine could be completed in about 3 months: White House
-Greece to mandate vaccines for people 60 and older
-Global case count of omicron variant tops 200
-Omicron variant was in the Netherlands earlier than thought

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Nov 30, 5:50 pm
Merck pill now awaiting FDA authorization after adviser endorsement

Advisers from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have narrowly approved an endorsement of the Merck COVID-19 pill, voting 13 to 10 in favor of the authorization.

If authorized, it would be the first easy-to-take antiviral pill for COVID-19. Pfizer is also working on a COVID-19 pill, which it hopes will be authorized early next year. The FDA typically takes the advice of its advisers but will make its own final decision.

During Tuesday’s meeting, advisers spoke positively on Merck’s pill, even though it was not found to be quite as effective in the final analysis as it was in an early, preliminary analysis.

However, the advisers expressed doubt about whether it would be safe for pregnant people to use Merck’s pill because of the potential risk of harm to the fetus as well as its use in children due to lack of data and similar concerns as in pregnancy.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman

Nov 30, 2:45 pm
Variant-specific vaccine could be completed in about 3 months: White House

If a variant-specific vaccine is needed, the process, including FDA and CDC authorization, would take about three months, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said at Tuesday’s White House briefing.

The omicron variant has still not been detected in the U.S. Delta “remains the predominant circulating string representing 99.9% of all sequences sampled,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said.

Walensky said the CDC is also working on expanding a surveillance program through JFK International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport that would conduct more tests on international arrivals.

Walensky added, “To be crystal clear, we have far more tools to fight the variant today than we had at this time last year.”

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

Nov 30, 2:13 pm
Blanket travel bans won’t prevent international spread of omicron: WHO

The World Health Organization praised South Africa and Botswana on Tuesday for the “speed and transparency” in which they reported on the new omicron variant.

The WHO stressed that “blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods.”

“In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data,” the WHO said.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, while on a plane to Nigeria, told reporters Tuesday that South Africa should not be “punished” with travel bans for being transparent.

“These bans must be removed,” he said.

“We have advanced in the world to a point where we now know when people travel, they should be tested, like I was tested last night and I’m happy to be tested when I arrive again,” he said.

“And for us, the tourism industry is one of the key industries. … This is discriminatory against us, and they are imposing a very unfair punishment,” he said.

ABC News’ Christine Theodorou

Nov 30, 1:35 pm
80 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated

About 100 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, according to federal data. Nearly 80 million of those people are over the age of 5 and therefore eligible to get the shot.

Since the beginning of November, hospital admissions have jumped by 20%, while emergency department visits have increased by 27%, according to federal data.

Minnesota and Michigan currently hold the country’s highest case rate, followed by Wisconsin, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Puerto Rico, Florida and Louisiana currently have the nation’s lowest infection rate, according to federal data.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

 

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(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, came face to face with her first accuser in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday.

A woman prosecutors have referred to as “Jane,” one of the three alleged minor victims whose allegations against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell are detailed in a federal indictment, testified on the second day of her trial, telling her story publicly for the first time.

She told the jury that she met Maxwell and Epstein while attending summer camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan, the beginning of what prosecutors earlier called “a nightmare that would last for years.”

After returning home to Palm Beach, Florida, “Jane” said, she began visiting Epstein at his seaside mansion, where she testified that she had her first sexual encounter with Epstein in 1994 when she was just 14. According to “Jane,” Epstein abruptly took her to his pool house, pulled down his pants and “proceeded to masturbate on me” while she remained “frozen in fear.”

The abuse escalated to include explicit massages, “Jane” said, during subsequent visits to Epstein’s house, and she identified Maxwell as the person (other than Epstein) most often in the room. Maxwell contributed, she alleged, by “leading me to a massage table and showing me how Jeffrey likes to be massaged.”

Maxwell faces a six-count indictment for allegedly conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls between 1994 and 2004. She has been held without bail since her arrest in July 2020 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Over the next several years, “Jane” said, she travelled with Epstein and Maxwell “maybe 10 times,” sometimes on Epstein’s private plane and sometimes on commercial flights. She visited both Epstein’s New York residence and his New Mexico ranch, she said, where she suffered further sexual abuse by Epstein. It was Maxwell, she said, who typically arranged for her travel.

Earlier in the day, Epstein’s former pilot, Larry Visoski, testified that he met “Jane” in the cockpit of Epstein’s plane, though he later acknowledged he did not know how old she was at the time and could not recall whether she had actually taken a flight.

“Jane” also described frequent orgies with Epstein and other women, the details of which, she said, are “hard to remember,” because they started to “seem the same” and she became “numb to it.”

She never told anyone about her experience, she said, until many years later.

“How do you tell or describe any of this,” she asked, “when all you feel is shame and disgust and confusion and you don’t know how you ended up here?”

It’s unclear whether Maxwell will take the stand during her trial, which is expected to last six weeks. If convicted, she could spend decades in prison.

 

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(OXFORD, Mich.) — Three students were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, on Tuesday, authorities said.

They were a 16-year-old male student and two female students, ages 14 and 17, authorities said.

Eight others were shot and injured, including a teacher, authorities said. They were transported to three different local hospitals. Two were in surgery and six in stable condition with varied gunshot wounds, Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe said during a briefing Tuesday evening.

All parents of the victims have been notified, he said.

The suspected shooter, a 15-year-old male student, was taken into custody within five minutes, authorities said. A semiautomatic handgun has been confiscated, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.

The student lives in the Village of Oxford and attended school Tuesday, authorities said.

Authorities said they believe he acted alone. The teen has not mentioned a motive, authorities said.

He is being held at the Oakland County Children’s Village and is lodged as a juvenile, McCabe said. The county prosecutor could choose to charge him as an adult, he said.

The suspected shooter’s parents have not granted him permission to talk to authorities and have hired a lawyer, the undersheriff said. Authorities are executing a search warrant at his house, he said.

Over 100 calls poured into 911 as the shooting unfolded, authorities said.

The shooting occurred primarily in one area of the school and there is a “fairly large crime scene,” McCabe said.

Oxford is about 40 miles north of Detroit.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attended an evening briefing on the shooting, saying she wanted to be there “because I think this is an important moment for us to support one another, to support this community. And I want to thank our first responders.”

She called the incident a “uniquely American problem that we need to address,” and got visibly emotional discussing the tragedy.

“I think this is every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said, crying.

President Joe Biden said Tuesday afternoon, “My heart goes out to the families during the unimaginable grief of losing a loved one.”

 

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(DENVER, Colo.) — Denver is making weather history this year as the city patiently waits to receive its first measurable snow of the 2021 winter season. This is the latest the city has ever waited for snow, according to the National Weather Service.

For a snowfall to be considered measurable by the weather service, it must be greater than a tenth of an inch.

Denver will begin the month of December without any snowfall for the first time in history — and there’s still no snow in sight for the near future. The previous record for the latest first snowfall in the city was set on Nov. 21, 1934.

The Mile High City has now gone 223 consecutive days without snow as of Tuesday, and is just 12 days away from passing the all-time record of 235 snowless days, a record that was set in 1887, 134 years ago.

“With no snow expected for the next several days, a move up to second place is certainly possible by next weekend,” the weather service said of the consecutive snowless streak on Monday. Currently, this year ranks as the fourth longest without snow, just behind a 224-day record set in 1889.

Sitting on the downslope of the Rocky Mountains at 5,500 feet above sea level, dry weather isn’t exactly abnormal for Denver. This is partially because during the winter months, weather systems, which generally form west to east, precipitate higher up in the mountains. As the system moves down the mountains toward the city, much of the leftover moisture evaporates.

Additionally this year’s Pacific jet stream, a high altitude wind current that can affect weather, is following a La Nina pattern, which could also be contributing to the region’s lack of snow and precipitation.

But the West has also seen the effects of climate change over the years as weather has gotten drier and winters have shortened.

The underwhelming snow figures come amid an ongoing drought in the western United States, where about 49% of the region is under extreme or exceptional drought conditions, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In Colorado, 40% of the state is in a severe drought, and Denver has received between zero and 25% of its normal precipitation in the last 30 days, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System.

These conditions have led to increased fire danger in Boulder, where county authorities ordered stage one fire restrictions to be put into effect on Tuesday over the lack of moisture and above-average seasonal temperatures.

The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office added in a press release that “moderate to severe drought conditions” and low resource availability could impact the ability to obtain “vital suppression resources” if a fire were to erupt.

The abnormally warm and dry weather has also begun to impact the famous Colorado ski season, which typically starts in the late fall.

One hundred fifty miles northwest of Denver, the Steamboat Springs Ski Resort has also seen less than average snowfalls. Crews were forced to generate more than 20 acres of snow across five trails using artificial snow blowers after the mountain initially delayed its season’s opening by one week, citing an “unseasonably warm” fall and little snow.

“Normally this time of year we’ve had more than 20 inches of snowfall, a 10-20-inch mid-mountain base and 200 hours of snowmaking under our belt,” Dan Hunter, vice president of resort operations, said in a statement. “This year we haven’t been able to capitalize on extended snowmaking temperatures and windows.”

Loryn Duke, director of communications for Steamboat Springs Ski Resort, noted that snowmakers this season have now logged just over 100 hours of snow production, with the resort now open to skiers. Duke said that the mountain would have been well on its way to 300 hours of production in past seasons by this point, with mild temperatures this year hampering snow generation efforts.

“Even though temperatures will continue to be on the warm side (for Steamboat and Colorado),” Duke said, “our crews will continue to work around the clock taking advantage of conditions prime for snowmaking and opening new terrain and lifts as soon as possible.”

ABC News’ Max Golembo contributed to this report.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Two Iowa 16-year-olds accused of murdering a high school Spanish teacher in early November have pleaded not guilty, according to documents filed Monday.

Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale were charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of 66-year-old Nohema Graber on Nov. 2.

The defendants appeared in court for individual bond review hearings on Nov. 23. Each asked for his bond to be reduced from $1 million to $100,000 cash or surety.

District Court Judge Joel Yates is expected to issue a written ruling on the bond reduction requests later this week.

The teens are being charged as adults in the death of the teacher who worked at Fairfield High School, which they both attended, according to Jefferson County authorities.

Law enforcement officials said they received a tip from an associate of the two teenagers that included social media messages between Miller and Goodale allegedly sharing details of their motive and plan for killing Graber, according to a criminal complaint filed against Miller.

Graber had taught Spanish at Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Iowa, since 2012. According to online court documents, Graber was reported missing on Nov. 2 by family members.

Multiple law enforcement agencies reportedly started to search Chautauqua City Park, where Graber was known to take walks during the afternoon.

Officials later found Graber’s body in the park “concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties,” according to the complaint.

Authorities determined Graber had “suffered inflicted trauma to the head.”

Miller and Goodale are set to appear for individual pre-trial conferences on March 21, and are scheduled to face a jury on April 19.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana for import into the U.S; money-laundering and helping run the Mexican drug cartel in which her husband was the boss.

Emma Coronel Aispuro will also serve 48 months of supervised released.

The Justice Department initially asked for four years in prison.

In June, she pleaded guilty, and voluntarily forfeited $1.5 million to the government.

She was arrested in February 2021 at Dulles International Airport, just outside the nation’s capital.

She was also accused of conspiring with others to assist El Chapo in his July 2015 escape from Altiplano prison and prosecutors said she also planned with others to arrange another prison escape for the drug kingpin before his extradition to the U.S. in January 2017.

“The defendant was not an organizer, leader, boss, or other type of manager” a Justice Department prosecutor told the judge during sentencing on Tuesday, calling her the “cog” in a very large criminal machine.

Aispuro, through an interpreter begged for forgiveness, vowing she will teach her daughters right from wrong.

“I beg you to not allow them to grow up without the presence of a mother,” she said.

Guzman was found guilty in February 2019 of running an industrial-sized drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s largest, most profitable and most ruthless drug smuggling organizations.

He was sentenced to life in prison, and has since tried to appeal the conviction.

 

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(NEW YORK) — The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season ended on Tuesday after 21 named storms, continuing a record-breaking pattern from 2020, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This year’s storms used each of the names from the tropical cyclone list, marking the first time in recorded history the list has been exhausted two years in a row, NOAA said. Storms are named when wind speeds hit 39 mph.

This was also the seventh year in a row that a named storm formed before the official start of the season on June 1, NOAA said.

Before the season began, NOAA predicted a 60% chance that the season would be busier than usual, but said it would not surpass 2020’s historic level of activity. Seven of the named storms in 2021 were classified as hurricanes.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season had 30 named storms, the most in recorded history, with two more than in 2005, which included Hurricane Katrina. Six of 2020’s storms were designated as hurricanes.

The effects of climate change already may be evident in the behavior of recent hurricane seasons.

The increase in activity in the past two years can be attributed to higher-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds and an enhanced west African monsoon, NOAA scientists said.

Although most of the storms stayed out in the open ocean, 2021 proved to be more costly than 2020.

Total losses due to property and infrastructure damage this year have totalled about $105 billion — eclipsing $100.2 billion in 2020, according to NOAA.

Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in Louisiana in late August and tracked northeast to New York City before exiting into the Atlantic Ocean, was responsible for about $60 billion in damage alone, according to NOAA.

 

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(OXFORD, Mich.) — Three people, all believed to be students, were killed in a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan, on Tuesday, authorities said.

Six others were shot and injured, including a teacher, authorities said. Their conditions were not immediately clear.

The suspected shooter, a 15-year-old male student, was taken into custody within five minutes, authorities said. A handgun has been confiscated, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities said they believe he acted alone. The teen has not mentioned a motive, authorities said.

Over 100 calls poured into 911 as the shooting unfolded, authorities said. The entire incident lasted five minutes, authorities said.

Oxford is about 40 miles north of Detroit.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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