Teachers against reopening - Federal oil drilling paused - South China Sea tensions

President Biden will reportedly introduce a ban on non-U.S. citizens attempting to enter the United States from South America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and several European countries. "We are adding South Africa to the restricted list because of the concerning variant present that has already spread beyond South Africa," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deputy director Anne Schuchat told Reuters.
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Travel bans imposed by former President Donald Trump on countries such as Brazil were set to expire on Tuesday. Last week, Biden's team previously indicated that he wouldn't keep Trump's directive rescinding many of the imposed travel restrictions. While the South African variant of the coronavirus has not been detected in the U.S., several states have reported cases of the U.K. variant.
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Also going into effect on Tuesday, new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines will require a negative COVID-19 test or proof of previous diagnosis for passengers to enter the U.S. According to Reuters, CDC Head Rochelle Walensky will sign an additional order requiring face masks on airplanes, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride share vehicles such as Uber.

The 60-day pause strips Interior Department agencies and bureaus from their authority to issue drilling leases or permits while the administration reviews the legal and policy implications of the federal minerals leasing program, according to a Department of Interior memo. The order does not limit existing operations, it said.
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Federal leases account for close to 25% of the nation’s crude oil output, making them a big contributor to energy supply but also to America’s greenhouse gas emissions. Many of the largest onshore drilling companies had stockpiled permits in anticipation of a change in federal policy ahead of Biden's election, insulating them from a ban.
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Limits on federal drilling will have the biggest impact on major Western producing states like New Mexico and Wyoming, which depend on revenue from their share of extraction royalties. In a statement, the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association said that restricting development “risks the loss of more than 60,000 jobs and $800 million in support for our public schools, first responders, and healthcare services.”

According to a statement released by the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the USS Theodore Roosevelt is leading the group and is accompanied by the USS Bunker Hill, USS Russell and USS John Finn. The carrier group entered the region the same day Taiwan reported the presence of Chinese bombers and fighter jets in its air defence identification zone, The Associated Press noted.
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Taiwan responded to the China's actions by scrambling fighters and broadcasting radio warnings, according to the AP, which added that the island nation also retaliated by “deploying air defense missile systems to monitor the activity.” The AP notes that the Chinese overflights are part of a larger campaign to pressure Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen into recognizing Beijing's claim over the island.
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In one of his last moves as secretary of State, Mike Pompeo lifted restrictions on meetings between U.S. and Taiwanese officials, upending decades of self-imposed restrictions and likely drawing the ire of Beijing. President Biden's nominee for secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said during his Senate hearing that China posed "the most significant challenge" to the U.S. He signaled support for investing in the U.S. military in order to deter Chinese aggression as well.

SpaceX successfully launched an ambitious rideshare mission as one of its veteran boosters hoisted 143 small satellites [including 10 of its own Starlink internet satellites] — a new record for a single rocket — into space before nailing a landing at sea. The mission is expected to deposit the flat-paneled Starlink satellites in a unique polar orbit — a first for its broadband fleet that will help provide coverage to customers in Alaska and other polar regions.
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The mission was the first in a dedicated series of rideshares as part of a program SpaceX created to help smaller satellites get into space by sharing a ride and reducing costs. Until recently, smaller satellites have had limited options, squeezing in on missions wherever there’s room.
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However, launching that many satellites at once is no easy task. Each one has to deploy in a timed sequence so as to avoid potential collisions. The deployment sequence is carefully timed, with 48 tiny satellites for the Earth-observing company Planet beginning to deploy at just under 59 minutes after liftoff. The last satellites to leave the rocket’s upper stage will be SpaceX’s 10 Starlink satellites that are intended to provide better coverage to those in the polar regions.

After days of voting on whether to refuse to return for in-person teaching, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced Sunday its members “overwhelmingly” chose to conduct only remote work beginning Monday. That’s when teachers and school staff who are in the second wave of the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) coronavirus reopening plan were to report to school to prepare for Feb. 1, when some of the district’s 70,000 elementary school students are to return for their first in-person classes since schools closed in March.
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About 37% of preschool through eighth grade students have opted to return to classrooms, 47% chose to continue remote learning and 16% did not respond, according to CPS figures on the students who make up the second wave of in-person instruction.
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Sources within the union said they anticipated the district would announce classes will happen on Feb. 1 no matter what. [Union members] will not go back to schools until they think it is safe and urge CPS to come up with health metrics for when a school should be closed, and to take the idea of synchronous teaching — instructing in-person and remote students simultaneously — off the table. As of Sunday afternoon, the district hadn’t budged on those two items, the sources said.