January 1, Infighting Continues Between “The Squad” and House Dems

Hello America,

Following Rep. Ilhan Omar’s recent controversial comments, and the subsequent statement released by House Democratic leadership, it seems that all is still not well within the Democratic Party. Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan appeared to take great exception to the aforementioned group statement. Tlaib took to Twitter to say, “Freedom of speech doesn’t exist for Muslim women in Congress. The benefit of the doubt doesn’t exist for Muslim women in Congress. House Democratic leadership should be ashamed of its relentless, exclusive tone policing of Congresswomen of color.”

In California, a jury five victims were awarded nearly $15 million after a storage tank malfunction at a San Francisco fertility clinic destroyed their frozen embryos in 2018. The verdict is said to be the first of its kind.

A critical glacier in the Antarctic is breaking up much faster than before, according to satellite images. “You can see stuff just tearing apart,” said University of Washington glaciologist and lead author of the study, Ian Joughin. “So it almost looks like the speed-up itself is weakening the glacier. … And so far we’ve lost maybe 20% of the main shelf.”

In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced that the Lone Star state will build a wall along its southern border with Mexico. Additionally, Abbot said there are plans for Texas to construct its own detention centers and $1bn of the state’s budget will be allocated to border security. It is unclear if the state has authority to build a border wall.

Multiple experts have resigned from an FDA advisory committee after a controversial Alzheimer’s drug was approved last week. The latest exit comes from Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor at Harvard Medical School, who tweeted, “Accelerated Approval is not supposed to be the backup that you use when your clinical trial data are not good enough for regular approval.”

In further FDA-related news, the federal regulators have ordered J&J to discard of about 60 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. This was due to possible contamination at a troubled Baltimore plant run by Emergent BioSolutions.

Stay golden,

Fraser Dixon

Sources

• White House silent as Dem civil war brews between Pelosi, ‘Squad’
• California jury awards $15 million to victims after a storage tank malfunction destroyed embryos
• Ice shelf protecting Antarctic glacier is breaking up faster
• Texas will build a wall along its border with Mexico, governor says
• 3 Experts Have Resigned From An FDA Committee Over Alzheimer’s Drug Approval
• The FDA reportedly forces J&J to scrap about 60 million doses of its Covid vaccine