Potter Guilty

www.ozy.com [OZY]() Start your day smarter with a dossier on the most important world news, rounded off with a shot of intriguing and offbeat stories. Like the president, you deserve no less. Dec 24, 2021 TODAY Omicron continues to wallop the United States, starting in urban centers. Kim Potter, the ex-police officer who claimed that she mistook her gun for a taser, has been found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting of Daunte Wright. Supply chain issues that have plagued manufacturers globally are finally ebbing. And Merck’s new antiviral covid pill has been approved for use with select populations. All this and more in today’s Presidential Daily Brief. IMPORTANT 1 - Omicron Check-In The U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented wave of COVID-19 For now, the wave is disproportionately impacting urban centers. But it is only a matter of time before omicron is on the doorstep of rural America. The nation is seeing an average of more than 150,000 new cases and 1,300 deaths every day; and experts only expect those numbers to rise. New York has experienced an astronomical surge in cases, setting and beating its own record for new cases five times this past week (the state recorded almost 29,000 new cases yesterday). And now, Washington, D.C. and Florida are on the same path. (Source: [Axios]() 2 - Potter Guilty Kim Potter, who shot and killed Daunte Wright, has been convicted of 1st-degree manslaughter Former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter claims she mistook her gun for her Taser before she shot Black motorist Daunte Wright in the chest during a traffic stop. The incident rocked Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was still reeling from the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police only a year before. Potter’s attorneys argued against her being held without bail, claiming that her feelings of remorse would prevent her from being a danger to the public. But Judge Regina Chu rejected their arguments. The maximum sentence for 1st-degree manslaughter is 15 years. (Source: [AP]() 3 - Sweet Relief Supply chain congestion enters the rear view mirror… for now Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced in a CNN interview that supply chain congestion has dropped by 50 percent over the past month, just in time for the holidays. Raimondo praised the Biden administration’s decisive interventions in the name of smoothing out the complicated delays and backlogs that bogged down shipping around the world. But we’re not out of the woods for good, Raimondo warned. The worldwide omicron surge could further disrupt manufacturing supply chains, making it all the more important for everyone to get vaccinated and boosted, Raimondo said. (Source: [TheHill]() 4 - Merck up Next The FDA approved Merck’s new COVID-19 pill for certain populations The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday authorized the use of Molnupiravir, Merck’s long-awaited pill to combat COVID, for all adults over 18 who are at high risk for severe illness and “for whom alternative FDA-authorized treatment options are not accessible or medically appropriate.” The move comes on the heels of the FDA’s approval of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s pill, which has fewer population restrictions and is more effective at reducing the chances of severe illness and death (89%) than Molnupiravir (30%). (Source: [ABC News]() 5 - Briefly Here are some things you should know about today: The Times Square ball will still drop. New York City will hold its yearly New Year’s celebration, just with new crowd restrictions as the city fights COVID-19. (Source: [AP]() AstraZeneca’s booster shot shown to be effective against omicron. A three-dose course of the AstraZeneca vaccine significantly boosted levels of antibodies against the omicron variant. (Source: [Reuters]() Watch Gov. Gretchen Gretchen Whitmer COVID Protests and Kidnapping Attempts Can’t Stop Her! INTRIGUING 1 - A Tech Upset TikTok came from behind and beat out Google for most popular domain of 2021 It’s been a crazy year for all of us. But it’s somehow been a crazier year for TikTok, the video-sharing app that’s taken the world by storm. In web security and performance company Cloudflare’s yearly review of internet traffic, TikTok garnered the most web traffic of any site. It also beat out Facebook to become the most popular social media platform of 2021. Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, has long been aware of TikTok’s growing appeal and has introduced more video-based features to its platforms to try and compete. That’s where Instagram’s Reels came from, if you were wondering. (Source: [Axios]() 2 - Remembering a ‘60s Icon Writer Joan Didion passed away yesterday at 87 The renowned American essayist and novelist succumbed to Parkinson’s Disease on Thursday at her home in New York. Didion got her start writing about her home state on the opposite side of the country, in California. She gained notoriety for her incisive descriptions of California and its culture in the tumultuous 1960s. Her style—at once frenetic and direct was all the more revolutionary at a time when women were rarely published or accepted in the literary world. She also co-wrote with her husband the screenplay for the Barbra Streisand remake of A Star is Born. (Source: [NPR]() 3 - Franco Confesses Actor James Franco admits he had sex with students from his acting school Franco, known for his role in 127 Hours and Spider-Man, was accused two years ago of using his now-shuttered acting school to “create a pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional sexual exploitation in the name of education.” At the time, Franco said the allegations were “not accurate,” but he ended up paying $2.2 million to settle suits against him this past July. Now, while being interviewed on the Jess Cagle Podcast, Franco admitted that he “did sleep with students, and that was wrong.” He says he did not start the school with sexual purposes in mind. (Source: [BBC]() 4 - iStalker Apple’s nifty gadget, the AirTag, has become a stalker’s best friend Law enforcement and local news have documented a strange and disturbing rise in the use of AirTags to track people and steal cars. The new gadgets are meant to discreetly attach to objects so that you can track them with your Apple devices. They’re intended to prevent purchasers from ever having to go “where’d I put my keys” ever again, essentially. But, of course, thieves and schemers have found that, just by sneaking an AirTag onto someone’s person or into their car, they can track the individual wherever they go. (Source: [NBC News]() 5 - Hope Against HIV The FDA approved a new treatment in the fight against HIV Apretude, an injection taken every eight weeks to vastly reduce the risk of acquiring HIV, has been heralded as a game-changer in the fight against the sexually transmitted virus. Up until now, the most effective tool against HIV has been pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, which must be taken orally on a daily basis. Apretude will provide much-needed convenience for groups that don’t do well with daily pill popping. Poverty, depression and other illnesses can often impede the daily regimen. Apretude has proven highly effective at combating the virus, reducing the risk of infection by 69-90%. (Source: [NPR]() Join Our Team! 1 - OZY is hiring for the following roles: Senior Editor — Looking for an experienced, talented and snappy writer and editor to help grow our flagship morning newsletters. 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