Biden shared a ride on Air Force One with staffer who later tested positive . . .  According to a statement by White House press secretary Jen Psaki: On Monday morning, a mid-level staff member, who does not regularly have contact with the President, received a positive result for a COVID-19 test. Three days earlier, on Friday, that staff member had spent approximately 30 minutes in proximity to the President on Air Force One, on the way from Orange, South Carolina to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This staff member is fully vaccinated and boosted, and tested negative prior to boarding Air Force One, as is required for everyone traveling with the President. This staff member did not begin to experience symptoms until Sunday, and was tested on Monday . . . This morning, after being notified of the staffer’s positive test, the President received a PCR test and tested negative. He will be tested again on Wednesday. White House Dossier

Biden to announce 500 million COVID-19 at-home test buy . . . President Biden on Tuesday plans to outline additional steps to make at-home COVID tests available for Americans and to bolster capacity in some of the most overburdened hospitals across the country. Biden will announce that the administration plans to purchase 500 million rapid COVID-19 tests to distribute for free to any American who wants one. Rhe U.S. will stand up new federal testing sites around the country, helping states that need additional testing capacity. The first will be set up in New York City this week. The Hill

 

U.S. sets 55-mile-a-gallon fuel-efficiency standard for 2026 models . . . The Biden administration on Monday raised fuel-efficiency standards for passenger cars and light-duty trucks, saying the new standards will reduce pollution and save consumers billions of dollars at the gas pump. Automakers must meet a fleetwide average of 55 miles a gallon for cars and light trucks by model year 2026, up from the 43 mpg standard set by the Trump administration for that year. The fleetwide mileage standard for the current 2021 model year is 40 mpg. Fox Business

 

CCP Paid DC Radio Station $4.4 Million To Broadcast Propaganda . . . The Chinese Communist Party paid a Washington, D.C., radio station $4.4 million over the past two years to broadcast propaganda, according to new federal foreign agent disclosures. The Virginia-based Potomac Media Group detailed its lucrative contract with the Communist Party’s International Communication Planning Bureau in filings last Thursday with the Justice Department. As part of the deal, Potomac Media’s WCRW, an AM station, airs content from China Global Television Network and a series of talk shows that portray China in a positive light. Washington Free Beacon

 

IMF: US Tied for Highest Inflation Rate, Global Debt Hits Record $226 Trillion . . . The U.S. economy tied for the highest level of inflation in 2021 among developed economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported. IMF data found that the United States and Iceland were at the top of the list of 35 nations for rising consumer prices. The organization noted that the inflation rate clocked in at 4.3 percent for both countries. Other notable names in the “inflation rate, average consumer prices” category for advanced economies were Puerto Rico (4 percent), Canada (3.2 percent), New Zealand (3 percent), and Germany (2.9 percent). For the rest of the world, Venezuela ranked the highest, with a 2,700 percent inflation rate, followed by Sudan (194.6 percent) and Zimbabwe (92.5 percent). Epoch Times

 

The Supreme Court’s Covid Vaccine Test . . . Justice Antonin Scalia famously wrote that Congress doesn’t hide elephants in mouseholes. But that’s essentially what a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals majority said Congress did late Friday when they lifted a stay on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccinate mandate. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last month stayed OSHA’s “emergency temporary standard” after finding the agency exceeded its legal authority by requiring that employees of private employers with 100 or more workers be vaccinated or tested weekly. The Biden Administration appealed to the Sixth Circuit, where numerous other lawsuits were consolidated.

 

This is an important moment for the Court. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett have declined to enjoin New York’s and Maine’s healthcare-worker vaccine mandates that deny religious, but not medical, exemptions. Some Justices may want to defer to regulators on health and safety during the pandemic. But the separation of powers is crucial to safeguarding individual liberty. Justices now have two key tests on whether they will rein in the administrative state. They will have to decide if they take their major question and non-delegation doctrines seriously, or are they merely seminars at the Federalist Society? Wall Street Journal

 

US-China gas deals defy tensions between world powers . . . China’s voracious appetite for natural gas has sparked a wave of deals with US exporters of the fuel, strengthening energy trade between the world’s two biggest economies even as their relationship grows more fraught. The latest sales were announced on Monday when Venture Global LNG, a company building a pair of liquefied natural gas export plants in Louisiana, said it had agreed two contracts to ship 3.5m tonnes a year of the fuel to state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the country’s biggest LNG importer. The Cnooc deals bring to seven the number of big contracts signed between US exporters and Chinese customers since October. Some of the contracts are to last decades. China is poised to surpass Japan as the world’s largest LNG buyer this year, analysts say, while the US will leapfrog Australia and Qatar in LNG export capacity next year, according to its Energy Information Administration. Financial Times

 

Russia warns of military action as fears mount of Christmas invasion of Ukraine . . . Russia upped the ante Monday in its dangerous standoff with Ukraine, openly warning of military action if President Biden and America’s NATO allies ignore a list of demands Moscow announced late last week — a far-reaching list that some key U.S. lawmakers have dubbed a “pretext to war.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said his country is fully prepared to respond through “military-technical means” if Western powers fail to address those demands. He said NATO must not expand to include Ukraine or Georgia and the U.S. must not base additional military assets in former Soviet republics in Central Asia. Most of Moscow’s proposed security guarantees seemingly have little chance of becoming a reality. Still, some foreign policy specialists warn that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use their rejection to justify a major land invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s proposal and the direct threat of military action put renewed pressure on the White House to defuse a crisis that seems to be nearing the boiling point. Washington Times