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Here are the headlines you Need2Know for Thursday, November 12, 2021:
DELTA'S NOT DONE
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has overruled the federal recommendation by signing an executive order that allows all adults in the state to get a booster shot. Colorado is one of a growing number of states seeing Covid case numbers and hospitalizations back on the rise. The southern states that bore the brunt of the summer Delta surge are now faring as well as any, but new hotspots are cropping up in states like Michigan, Vermont and New Mexico. As one top Covid researcher put it to the Associated Press: “It’s hard to know what’s coming next with this virus.” AP
RITTENHOUSE DEFENSE RESTS
Closing arguments in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial will start on Monday after the defense rested its case. One of the final witnesses for the defense was a use-of-force expert who testified that less than three seconds elapsed between the time a demonstrator fired a gun in the air and Rittenhouse shot his rifle. One of the big issues the jury will have to tackle is the question of timing: the prosecution is stressing that the chain of events took place over hours, starting with Rittenhouse’s decision to go to a violent protest with a gun. The defense argues that the timeframe that matters in deciding whether his use of force was justified is just a couple of minutes around the shootings that left two men dead. WASH POST
ASTROWORLD LATEST
The death toll in the Astroworld concert disaster has risen to nine after Bharti Shahani, a 22-year-old Texas A&M senior, succumbed to her injuries. Travis Scott, through his lawyer, is asking victims of the stampede to contact him directly through a dedicated email address. A Texas lawyer spearheading the lawsuits against the venue and Scott himself says he has more than 100 plaintiffs lined up. CNN
EU BORDER STANDOFF
The authoritarian president of Belarus is now threatening to cut off gas supplies to Europe, further ratcheting up tensions between the Russian ally and the EU that have already been spiraling over a growing migrant crisis. A major Russian natural gas pipeline goes under Belarus, and Vladimir Putin would have to give the OK to turn off the spigot. In the meantime, the EU is adopting a more hardline approach to its eastern border, going so far as to consider building walls and fences that would push back the migrants trying to get into Poland from Belarus. WSJ
HOUSING MARKET
Homes in the U.S. are selling at their fastest pace on record, according to a new report released by the National Association of Realtors. Between July 2020 and June 2021, the average listing stayed on the market for just one week before going into contract. The year before, the average was three weeks. A majority of sellers were also able to get their full asking price, with 35% of homes going above ask. The competitive housing market has been great for homeowners looking to move, but terrible for first-time buyers trying to get into the market without the windfall that comes from selling a previous home. QZ
SINGLES' DAY
Chinese tech giant Alibaba took in a record $85 billion in sales during its annual 11-11 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, in spite of the supply chain breakdown, a slowing economy in China, and Beijing’s tech crackdown. While that’s an astounding amount of money that dwarfs what Americans spend on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, it’s the slowest pace of growth for the event yet. Red-hot consumer demand combined with the supply strains that left many products out of stock or backordered foreshadows what’s in store for the holiday shopping season around the world. FOX BIZ
TAILGATE-GATE
Michigan’s attorney general has publicly apologized to the entire state for getting drunk at the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry game two weeks ago. Dana Nessel, a Democrat, posted on Facebook that she overserved herself at a pregame tailgate by drinking two Bloody Marys on an empty stomach. Nessel acknowledged that she had to be helped out of Spartan Stadium "so as to prevent me from vomiting on any of my constituents.” The AG revealed that her staff wanted to hire a crisis firm to deal with the fallout from “Tailgate-gate” but Nessel decided it was better to just own up to the fact that she drank too much. MLIVE
TAYLOR'S VERSION
As promised, Taylor Swift dropped a re-recorded, 30-track version of her landmark 2012 album Red overnight on streaming services. The release includes a 10-minute version of the song All Too Well, famously rumored to be written about Jake Gyllenhaal after their breakup. Swift hinted to Jimmy Fallon last night that she’ll be performing the track on SNL tomorrow. BILLBOARD
SPOTTED...
...Paris Hilton, tying the knot with boyfriend Carter Reum in L.A.: SEE THE DRESS
…Adele, covering Rolling Stone ahead of her new album’s release next week: SEE THE SPREAD
LEFTOVERS: OFF THE GROUND
A new space launch start-up successfully completed its first test flight, a wild experiment in sending objects “tens of thousands of feet” into the air using nothing but kinetic energy. SpinLaunch is exactly what it sounds like: the company has built a gigantic vacuum-sealed centrifuge in the New Mexico desert that spins a rocket at several times the speed of sound and then essentially flings it into the sky. The idea is to be able to launch an object or spacecraft into orbit without the need for boosters or fuel, which would dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of space launches: WATCH THE TEST
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