While you were sleeping, we compiled the biggest stories of the day in one place. Each story has a quick and easy summary, so you're prepared for whatever the day brings. Just click on the links if you want to know more!
1. Accuser and pilot testify against Ghislaine Maxwell, tying her to Epstein's crimes
Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., a longtime pilot for Jeffrey Epstein, has resumed his testimony at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell who is charged with helping the financier find teenage girls to sexually abuse.
Visoski Jr. testified Tuesday that Maxwell was the "No. 2" in the hierarchy of Epstein's world.
A woman using the pseudonym "Jane" has testified she had repeated sexual contact with Epstein when she was 14 and that Maxwell was there when it happened. She is the first of four alleged victims to testify against Maxwell at a New York City trial.
2. Abortion rights at stake in historic Supreme Court arguments
The Supreme Court justices on Wednesday will weigh whether to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks and overrule the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Mississippi also is asking the court to overrule the 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe. The arguments can be heard live on the court’s website, starting at 10 a.m. EST.
The case comes to a court with a 6-3 conservative majority that has been transformed by three appointees of President Donald Trump, who had pledged to appoint justices he said would oppose abortion rights.
3. COVID-19 update: FDA approves pill, judge blocks mandate and omicron spreads
- An advisory board for the FDA voted 13-10 to authorize the use of Merck's COVID-19 anti-viral pill. If cleared by the full FDA, the pill would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19.
- A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Biden administration COVID-19 vaccination rule for healthcare workers and applied the ruling nationwide where the mandate was still in effect.
- Some of the top doctors in the U.S. said Tuesday there's no evidence yet that the omicron variant has reached the US yet, but it has reached Europe and Canada. The new strain of COVID-19 has been found in 20 countries so far.
4. Meadows cooperating with Jan. 6 panel, but Jeffrey Clark isn't
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, is cooperating with a House panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and providing some documents, the panel says. That puts off, for now, the committee's threat to hold him in contempt.
The agreement comes after two months of negotiations between Meadows and the committee and after the Justice Department indicted longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon for defying his subpoena.
The House panel plans to move forward Wednesday with criminal contempt proceedings against former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who declined to cooperate with a panel subpoena and answer committee questions.
5. ACC Network coming to Comcast
Comcast subscribers who want to watch Florida State and Miami on the hardwood next month are in luck.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with Comcast that will distribute the ACC Network to Xfinity customers "in the coming weeks."
Comcast was the last major holdout among cable and satellite television providers across the country.
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On This Day In History
In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks is jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The successful Montgomery Bus Boycott, organized by a young Baptist minister named Martin Luther King, Jr., followed Park’s historic act of civil disobedience.
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