5 things to know for October 1: Congress, coronavirus, immigration, opioids, Ethiopia

An oral pill from Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics has halved the risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19, Merck said in a press release this morning. It would become the first oral antiviral for Covid-19 if approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization. Meanwhile, several states are seeing very high compliance rates – and increased vaccination rates – as the vaccine mandate expires. But there is also a lot of hindsight. Some New York public school teachers have asked the Supreme Court to block New York City’s vaccination mandate for in-person staff that is expected to go into effect this afternoon. Similar disputes over vaccine mandates are unfolding elsewhere, such as in Brazil, where so-called vaccine passports have become very controversial in Rio de Janeiro. In Europe, some EU countries are lagging behind their highly vaccinated neighbors. Countries like Romania and Bulgaria would have all the vaccines they need, but political instability and misinformation have contributed to vaccine reluctance and low vaccination rates (33% and 22%, respectively). Overall, almost three quarters of adults in the EU are fully vaccinated.

The Biden administration can continue to deport migrant families with children under Title 42, the controversial public health provision of the Trump era. It’s the decision of a federal appeals court, which stayed an order from a lower court that would block such evictions. The Justice Department has defended the use of Title 42, saying border facilities are not equipped to handle large influxes of migrants during a pandemic. The Department of Homeland Security has also released new immigration enforcement guidelines based on priorities that step back from a more aggressive approach taken under the Trump administration. The department will now prioritize certain undocumented immigrants for arrest and deportation, including terrorism suspects, people with serious criminal conduct or recent illegal franchisees.

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 1.8 million fake pills containing fentanyl and made more than 800 arrests in two months to fight counterfeit drugs containing the synthetic opioid. These pills are contributing to the opioid crisis in the United States and are believed to be responsible for about three-quarters of the more than 93,000 fatal drug overdoses in the United States last year. 2020 was the deadliest on record for drug overdoses, and health experts attribute this in part to mental health crises fueled by the pandemic. The Biden administration has pledged to deal with the growing crisis and has offered historic funding to do so in its budget request for fiscal year 2022.

Ethiopia has expelled seven top United Nations officials after the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs warned last month that hundreds of thousands of people could face famine in the country. Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said officials “were interfering in the country’s internal affairs.” The ongoing conflict in the Tigray region has led to a humanitarian crisis, and UN humanitarian officials have said there is a “de facto blockade of humanitarian aid” preventing necessary supplies from reaching some of the 5.2 million people affected. UN leaders sharply criticized the Ethiopian government for its role in the crisis and called on the government to facilitate access to food and supplies. The Ethiopian government has denied blocking such aid.

Five headliners? It’s a whole offensive line there.

It has great “first person to bite the dust in a horror movie” energy.

Boars are very aggressive. Who can say that they don’t have a little thief side either?

While this is a great demonstration of Florida man’s skills, fisheries and wildlife officials would prefer you leave the trapping to them.

Mark your calendars. Tell your family. Prepare the ritual. The hour is approaching.

That’s the proportion of deaths in the United States attributable to police violence that have not been reported to a federal database in the past 40 years, according to new research. That’s about 17,000 deaths that were not recorded in the National Vital Statistics System, maintained by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin trudeau, in a statement on Canada’s first National Truth and Reconciliation Day, observed yesterday. The holiday honors the victims and survivors of the country’s residential school system. Canada is now prepared to pay billions to Indigenous children removed from their families under the system.

These images of the first interactions of a crocodile mother with her young are extraordinary, especially since some of them were filmed through these ingenious baby crocodile “spy cameras”. (Click here to see.)