Vox Sentences - Omicron for the holidays

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Here's what to know about omicron as we head into Christmas; Russia demands that NATO remove military installations from the former Soviet Union.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Ellen Ioanes. 

The latest on omicron

Stuart Cahill/MediaNews Group/Boston Globe via Getty Images

• Omicron, the Covid-19 variant initially identified in South Africa in November, is spreading faster than any other variant, the World Health Organization warned in a news update on Tuesday. In the US, the arrival and spread of omicron converges with a surge of the delta variant as well as influenza season — on top of the holiday travel season — which could drive Covid-19 cases up precipitously next month. [Washington Post]
• In just a week, the proportion of cases of Covid-19 caused by the omicron variant jumped from .4 percent to 2.9 percent in the US. Delta is still the dominant variant in America, but omicron is highly infectious and adept at escaping the body’s defense mechanisms — plus, there is still much scientists don’t know about the variant. [NYT / Emily Anthes]
• For example, while breakthrough cases appear to be more common with the omicron variant, vaccines and boosters still seem to prevent serious cases of Covid-19 requiring hospitalization or causing death from the disease. In fact, boosters appear to reconstitute the effectiveness of the previous vaccine course. [ABC / Anne Flaherty and Cheyenne Haslett]
• However, at the beginning of the month, Pfizer and BioNTech announced they were developing an omicron-specific vaccine formulation. Regardless of the formulation, though, Americans are falling behind on booster shots; only 57 million Americans have their third shot, and about 200 million are fully vaccinated. [CDC]
• Omicron is throwing doubt on travel plans as Christmas approaches. Experts say that travelers should assess the density of the virus at their destination; if there are more than 10 per 100,000 cases at your destination and you have other risk factors, it could be wise to reconsider your plans. [WSJ / Allison Pohle and Betsy Morris]

Russia makes major security demands

• The relationship between Russia and the West continues to deteriorate, with Russia sending NATO officials a new draft treaty demanding the alliance cease military operations in the former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as a demand that NATO not admit Ukraine. The officials immediately dismissed the proposal, and one Russia analyst said, “It’s hard to see how this leads to anything but further escalation.” [NYT / Andrew E. Kramer and Steven Erlanger]
• It’s the latest offensive in the conflict between Russia and NATO, of which the US is a member, in particular over the status of Ukraine. Russia has reportedly amassed troops across the border from Ukraine, which was a Soviet republic and which Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to subsume into his country since 2014. [Brookings / Stephen Pifer and Adrianna Pita]
• Putin, increasingly seen as an illegitimate authoritarian leader by the West, has few buffers against an encroaching western world order; attempting to annex all of Ukraine allows Putin to demand the attention of world leaders and assert himself and Russia as players on the geopolitical stage. Ukraine, meanwhile, has moved more toward the West and NATO under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky. [New Yorker / Joshua Yaffa]
• The EU and NATO have both promised severe consequences for Russia should it invade Ukraine. The EU alluded to “restrictive measures,” or sanctions, and NATO warned that, “Any further aggression against Ukraine would have massive consequences and would carry a high price,” although both bodies urged a diplomatic resolution. [BBC]
• US President Joe Biden has said that the US will not send troops to Ukraine, but told Putin in a call in early December that the US will consider devastating sanctions should Russian troops not pull back. A Biden administration official said that additional military support, including Mi-17 helicopters, could be sent to Ukraine. [Washington Post / Robyn Dixon and Paul Sonne]

We write for the people

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro directly spread misinformation about his country’s voting system, a police report finds. [Reuters / Ricardo Brito]

• The UN Human Rights Council will launch an investigation into human rights abuses in the Ethiopian conflict. [UN]
• US District Judge Colleen McMahon of New York tossed out the Purdue Pharma opioid settlement, opening up members of the Sackler family who own the business to lawsuits. [Washington Post / Meryl Kornfield]
• CDC privileges Moderna and Pfizer vaccines over blood clot concerns with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. [CNN / Maggie Fox]

What's the nine-letter word for your favorite Friday activity?

Solve today's new Vox crossword puzzle, and stay tuned for more puzzles coming out Monday through Saturday.

"This investigation allowed us to identify that His Excellency President Jair Messias Bolsonaro had a direct and relevant action in promoting disinformation, following a pattern already used by other countries' governments."

[Brazil's federal police commissioner Denisse Ribeiro, in a report on President Bolsonaro's role in spreading misinformation about voting]

Nearly 60 years after the assassination of Malcolm X, some of the men wrongly put in prison for killing him are finally being redeemed. Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, from the documentary series "Who Killed Malcolm X?", explains whether the true killers will ever be brought to justice. [Spotify]

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