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NEWSLETTER
Jack Dorsey

So 2020: 'Sounding the alarm' while decorating for Christmas

Editors
USA TODAY

Good morning, Daily Briefing readers. 

Ready your Mariah Carey, plop that elf back on the shelf: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... and *checks phone* it's not even Thanksgiving. This year, holiday decorations are being put up uncharacteristically early, according to experts. Why? To share a little (socially distanced) joy in a season of adapted traditions. 

You're going to want to hold onto that joy, friends – It's Lindsay with today's news.

States are tightening restrictions due to COVID-19

Nearly three-quarters of the counties in California — home to about 37 million people — will be required to operate under the state’s most stringent pandemic restrictions beginning Tuesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the new restrictions Monday, ordering that indoor dining, gyms and movie theaters must either remain closed or shut down in 41 of the state's 58 counties. Newsom said he is “sounding the alarm” due to "the fastest increase California has seen" since the pandemic began, with COVID-19 cases doubling in the last 10 days. Sweeping COVID-19 measures also go into effect Tuesday in Washington as the state continues to combat a rising number of cases. California hit 1 million coronavirus cases last week, joining Texas as the only states to reach the undesired milestone.

Could this be the end for Trump campaign lawsuits? 

A hearing on the Trump campaign's federal lawsuit seeking to prevent Pennsylvania officials from certifying the vote results for President-elect Joe Biden is on track for Tuesday. District Judge Matthew Brann told lawyers for Donald J. Trump for President Inc. and the counties and state election official it has sued they must show up and "be prepared for argument and questioning." The campaign is suing over election procedures that were not uniform across the state. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Friday that Pennsylvania voters and a congressional candidate could not use certain constitutional arguments to back their claims that some voters were disadvantaged by changes to election rules spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. Postal System delays. On Monday, Trump supporters who used similar arguments in federal lawsuits in four other states voluntarily dismissed their claims. 

The day's big news

Hurricane expected to batter portions of Central America

Hurricane Iota made landfall late Monday night as a Category 4 storm along the coast of northeastern Nicaragua, about 15 miles south of Hurricane Eta's landfall earlier this month. The "extremely dangerous" hurricane is forecast to bring "life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds, flash flooding and landslides across portions of Central America," the National Hurricane Center said. Notably, the Hurricane Center's forecast in a public advisory early Tuesday morning has Iota moving inland across northern Nicaragua this morning, and then across southern Honduras on Tuesday night. Eta already wreaked havoc. It hit Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane, killing at least 120 people as torrential rains caused flash floods and mudslides in parts of Central America and Mexico. Iota is the record 30th named storm of this year's extraordinarily busy Atlantic hurricane season.

More stories we're looking at

Facebook, Twitter CEOs brace for election 'techlashing' in Senate

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey are set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. They will face questions by Republican senators for alleged anti-conservative bias and by Democrats for their platforms' handling of hate speech and misinformation. The congressional hearing – the second virtual appearance for the CEOs in less than three weeks – reflects growing bipartisan pressure on "Big Tech." The hearing was originally billed as an indictment of how tech companies handled the New York Post's stories on the business dealings of President-elect Joe Biden's son Hunter in the lead-up to the election. But it will now focus more broadly on their handling of the election.

Barack Obama releases memoir, 'A Promised Land'

Former President Barack Obama's first presidential memoir, "A Promised Land," hits book stores Tuesday. In the first volume of his memoirs, Obama pulls back the political and personal curtains on his years in the White House and addresses what he thinks must be done to "heal our divisions." In an excerpt released in "The New Yorker," Obama recalled his early days in the White House, publicly negotiating to pass what would eventually become the Affordable Care Act while more privately dealing with a pandemic and experiencing resentment and racist comments from fellow politicians and other Americans. "A Promised Land" also highlights Obama assembling his cabinet and dealing with a global financial crisis, as well as reveals his thoughts on Vladimir Putin, and authorizing the mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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