New data from South Africa and Europe hint that Omicron cases are poised to explode in the U.S., where the vast majority of the population isn't well protected against infection.

Driving the news: A new analysis by South Africa's largest private insurer paints a picture of Omicron's clinical risk: Two doses of Pfizer's vaccine appear to be significantly less effective against severe disease with Omicron than previous variants.

But the variant is less likely to lead to hospitalization in adults than the original version.

What they're saying: "Everything points to a large wave. A large wave is coming," a senior Biden administration official told Axios.

Interest groups trying to influence the president of the United States will often fork over millions of dollars in order to do so. During the Biden era, however, an old media-centric, less splashy technique has been deployed.

A handful of organizations with legislative interests before the government have taken to running print ads in Delaware’s The News Journal in an effort to get their message in front of the world’s most powerful individual, one who is likely the paper's most famous reader. A review of the paper found that 17 ads have been run by these groups between September and mid-November alone.

The ads’ messages range from calling on President Joe Biden to take action on renewable fuel policy, to imploring him to draw down the country's nuclear arsenal, to expressing gratitude that he preserved tribal cultural heritage sites in Utah. They often run alongside the paper’s more traditional ad content: print ads that urge local readers to buy a motorized scooter or hire a new local roofer.

The spots underscore how, when it comes to influence peddling, no stone is left unturned. They also reflect how Biden’s Delaware roots — and his commitment to going back to his home state regularly — have altered how those doing the influence peddling must think and operate.

Biden was known to read The News Journal during his tenure as vice president, and regularly fielded questions from the paper’s reporters on the 2020 campaign trail. That’s carried over, at least in part, to his time as president. POLITICO reported in May that the paper — which employs a few dozen reporters, has been in existence for more than 100 years and largely focuses on Delaware — was delivered to the White House and Biden’s Wilmington home.

The latest: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Finance Committee, told reporters there are more than 20 issues currently playing out before the chamber's parliamentarian. That means it isn't just Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) standing in the way of getting the bill done before Dems' ideal Christmas deadline.

"We have more than 20 issues that we're litigating with the parliamentarian."
— Finance Chair Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

Four organizers of the Jan. 6 rally filed a lawsuit Monday against Verizon, in an attempt to prevent the telecommunications company from releasing cell phone data with the congressional select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol.

In their lawsuit, Justin Caporale, Tim Unes, Megan Powers and Maggie Mulvaney argued the committee doesn’t have the proper authority to obtain the data. The Jan. 6 committee’s subpoena to Verizon, requesting, call, text and location information “lacks a lawful purpose and seeks to invade the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to privacy and to confidential political communications,” the suit says.

The suit says the plaintiffs have personally complied with the committee’s investigation, sitting for “lengthy” interviews and providing “thousands of documents to Congressional investigators.”

“The Plaintiffs are four private citizens who were not involved in any federal government activities or programs. They have only one apparent connection to the matter Congress claims to be investigating: They served as vendors to help staff a peaceful, lawful, orderly and patriotic assembly to promote First Amendment-protected speech,” the suit says.

The NHS was put on a crisis footing tonight as hospitals in England were told to discharge as many patients as possible while estimated daily Omicron cases hit 200,000 and the variant claimed its first life in the UK.

Amid a scramble for tests and booster jabs, the country’s doctors called for further restrictions to be imposed to stem the rise in cases and Downing Street did not rule out fresh measures.

In a letter to hospitals, NHS England chiefs said patients who could be discharged to care homes, hospices, their own homes or hotels before Christmas to free up beds, should be. The letter from NHS England’s chief executive, Amanda Pritchard, and medical director Prof Stephen Powis said the service was facing a level 4 “national incident”.

Hotels are already being turned into temporary care facilities staffed with workers flown in from Spain and Greece to relieve rising pressure on NHS hospital beds.

Derek Chauvin, the former police officer convicted of killing George Floyd on a Minneapolis street, signaled Monday that he intends to plead guilty in a separate federal civil rights case, court records show.

Derek Chauvin had previously pleaded not guilty to a federal charge that he violated Floyd’s constitutional rights during a deadly 2020 encounter in which several officers restrained and handcuffed Floyd face down on the pavement. The incident, captured on video, sparked massive demonstrations and calls for change at police departments across the country.

A court entry posted Monday indicated Chauvin intended to change his plea, and a hearing in the case was scheduled for Wednesday.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment, and an attorney for Chauvin did not immediately return a message.

Zarah Reeves waits all year to buy clothes, electronics, cosmetics and dorm furnishings, timing her purchases to the deep discounting so pervasive in the run-up to the holidays.

But this season, brands that once slashed prices 50 to 90 percent starting on Black Friday are sticking to markdowns of “10, maybe 20 percent,” she said. So the 20-year-old Howard University student is buying less, and even made a pact with her best friend to skip Christmas gifts altogether.

“The deals are just horrible,” Reeves said. “I’m looking at these discounts, thinking: That’s it? Never mind.”

The ever-deepening discounts — long integral to a retailer’s survival — are diminishing in the face of rising costs and supply chain challenges, leaving Americans without the big holiday markdowns they’ve come to expect. Prices are higher everywhere, even online, as companies adopt more personalized strategies based on a shopper’s buying history. Analysts and industry insiders say the shift could become long-term.