By Jan Wolfe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge is set to hear arguments by Donald Trump’s lawyers on Thursday that hundreds of pages of his White House records should be withheld from a House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is due to consider the Republican former president’s arguments that phone call records, visitor logs and other materials requested by the Democratic-led committee should be kept confidential. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT).

Trump on Oct. 18 sued the nine-member select committee, arguing that the requested materials are covered by a legal doctrine known as executive privilege https://www.reuters.com/world/us/can-trump-use-executive-privilege-block-jan-6-attack-probe-2021-09-09 that protects the confidentiality of some White House communications. Trump left office on Jan. 20.

“The Committee’s requests are unprecedented in their breadth and scope and are untethered from any legitimate legislative purpose,” Trump’s lawyer Jesse Binnall wrote in the lawsuit.

The committee requested the materials from the U.S. National Archives, which holds the records.

Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s chairman, and Republican Representative Liz Cheney, its vice chair, said in a statement after the filing of the lawsuit that Trump is seeking to “delay and obstruct” the investigation.

“It’s hard to imagine a more compelling public interest than trying to get answers about an attack on our democracy and an attempt to overturn the results of an election,” Cheney and Thompson said.

Trump gave an incendiary speech before the deadly riot repeating his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud and urging his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to “top the steal.” His supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to prevent Congress from formally certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory.

The committee has said it needs the requested materials to understand the role that Trump may have played in fomenting the riot. It has said the requests are within its powers and driven by the clear legislative purpose of understanding the facts and causes surrounding the riot and developing legislation to guard against a similar assault in the future.

About 700 people face criminal charges stemming from the riot.

The House on Oct. 21 voted to hold Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the investigation. Bannon has refused to comply with committee subpoenas seeking documents and his testimony, citing Trump’s insistence – disputed by some legal scholars – that his communications are protected by executive privilege.

The Justice Department must now decide whether to bring criminal charges against Bannon.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)

Los Angeles (AFP) – Hollywood star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson pledged to never again use real guns in his films after friend and fellow actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer on a set last month.

Johnson said he was “heartbroken” to learn of the death of Halyna Hutchins on Baldwin’s film “Rust,” and that the tragedy made him reassess the use of firearms during the making of films through his company Seven Bucks Productions.

“We lost a life,” the popular 49-year-old actor said late Wednesday at the premier of his new Netflix film, the comedy caper “Red Notice,” according to Variety magazine.

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all,” Johnson added.

His production company will switch over to rubber guns and add all necessary firearm effects in post-production.

“We won’t worry about what it costs,” he said.

Hutchins died last month on a New Mexico movie set when the prop gun Baldwin was handling went off, striking her and director Joel Souza, who was hospitalized and released.

Baldwin was handed a firearm marked “cold gun,” industry speak for a prop that was deemed cleared and safe to use.

Johnson, a long-time Baldwin friend, said he believed it was time for changes in the industry.

“As we move forward, I think that there are new protocols and new safety measures that we should take, especially in the wake of what happened,” he said.

“It just sucks that it had to happen like this for us… to wake up.”

By Krisztina Than and Nikolaj Skydsgaard

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Coronavirus infections are hitting record levels in many countries across Europe as winter takes hold, prompting a call for action from the World Health Organization which described the new wave as a “grave concern”.

Soaring numbers of cases, especially in Eastern Europe, have prompted debate on whether to reintroduce curbs on movement before the Christmas holiday season and on how to persuade more people to get vaccinated.

That conversation comes as some countries in Asia, with the notable exception of China, reopen their tourism sectors to the rest of the world.

“The current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the European Region is of grave concern,” regional WHO head Hans Kluge said, adding that the spread was exacerbated by the more transmissible Delta variant.

The virus spreads faster in the winter months when people gather indoors.

Kluge warned earlier that if Europe followed its current trajectory, there could be 500,000 COVID-related deaths in the region by February.

“We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of COVID-19, to preventing them from happening in the first place,” he said.

The region saw a 6% increase in new cases last week, with nearly 1.8 million new cases, compared to the week before. The number of deaths rose 12% in the same period.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, reported 33,949 new infections, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic last year. Cases in Russia and Ukraine are soaring.

Austria’s daily new coronavirus infections surged towards a record set a year ago, making a lockdown for the unvaccinated ever more likely.

COVID-19 prevalence in England rose to its highest level on record in October, Imperial College London said, led by a high numbers of cases in children and a surge in the southwest.

Slovakia reported 6,713 new cases, also a record, while daily new cases in Hungary more than doubled from last week to 6,268. Poland, Eastern Europe’s biggest economy, reported 15,515 daily cases on Thursday, the highest figure since April. Croatia and Slovenia on Thursday both reported record daily infections.

CHINA ON ALERT AHEAD OF OLYMPICS

China is also on high alert at ports of entry to reduce the risk of COVID-19 cases entering from abroad, and has stepped up restrictions amid a growing outbreak less than 100 days before the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Authorities have also tightened curbs in the capital ahead of a major gathering of the top members of the Communist Party next week.

Since mid-October, over 700 locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms have been reported in China. While the number is tiny compared with other countries, it has led to a growing wave of restrictions under Beijing’s zero-tolerance policy.

In Central Europe, Hungary has trimmed its 2021 GDP growth projection to 6.8% from 7.0-7.5% due to a rise in inflation, energy prices, and the risks stemming from COVID-19, the finance minister said, flagging the possibility of some new restrictions in a country where there are currently hardly any curbs in place.

Slovakia’s Finance Ministry cut its forecasts for 2021 and 2022 growth in September, saying a new wave of COVID-19 cases will hit consumer demand and the labour market at the end of the year although the impact will not be as strong as earlier in the pandemic. Poland’s central bank left its projections unchanged.

FRESH CURBS

The Hungarian government has urged people to take up vaccines and last week announced mandatory vaccinations at state institutions, also empowering private companies to make jabs mandatory for employees if they believe that is necessary.

Romania – where hospitals cannot cope with a surge in COVID-19 patients – the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland have all tightened rules on mask wearing and introduced measures to curb infections.

The Czech Republic has introduced a requirement for restaurant customers to show proof of vaccination or a test. It also has tough mask regulations and some children are again being tested in schools in areas where cases are higher.

In Poland, mask wearing is mandatory in enclosed public spaces while cinemas, theatres and hotels have a 75% capacity limit. The Hungarian government has not replied to Reuters questions on potential measures.

(Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Nicolaj Skydsgaard in Copenhagen; Additional reporting by Jason Hovet, Alan Charlish and bureaux worldwide; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Pope Francis has for the first time appointed a woman to a high office in the state administration of Vatican City.

Sister Raffaella Petrini was named secretary-general of the governorate of Vatican City, the Holy See announced on Thursday.

She is the first woman to hold the second-highest office in governorate, which oversees the Vatican Museums and other Vatican State services such as the mint and stamp office and the motor pool.

Previously, the 52-year-old from Rome was with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which carries out missionary work.

Francis has focused on women in his personnel decisions in recent months.

Earlier in the year he made theologian Nathalie Becquart the first woman in the history of the Catholic Church to serve as an under-secretary in the Synod of Bishops.

Then, in August, Francis named Sister Alessandra Smerilli as interim Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which focusses on migration and poverty issues. She was also named as a delegate of the Vatican Covid-19 Commission.

Kim Cattrall could still star in the second season of ‘And Just Like That…’.

The 65-year-old actress played Samantha Jones in ‘Sex and the City’, and the writers are keen to entice Kim to return for the sequel series.

A source told DailyMail.com: “We’ll announce eventually that the show will have a second season. This isn’t a one off, this will be a series.

“It will be quite a while between the first and second series as Sarah Jessica Parker has a busy schedule and we have a lot of work to do to get Kim Cattrall back.

“We all miss Kim and we hope she comes back for the second season – the door will never close on her, she is an important part of the franchise.”

The first season of ‘And Just Like That…’ is currently in the “very final stages” of filming.

But the enthusiasm of fans in New York has made life challenging for the makers of the show.

The insider explained: “We’ve been delighted with the fan response, but it does make filming in New York City difficult because so many people show up on the street to catch a glimpse of the women as they are filming.”

Kim previously claimed that she was never friends with her ‘Sex and the City’ co-stars.

The actress appeared alongside Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon in the hit TV series – but she was never close friends with any of them.

She said in 2017: “We’ve never been friends. We’ve been colleagues and in some ways it’s a very healthy place to be because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal.”

Minneapolis (AFP) – Voters in Minneapolis, where the murder of George Floyd last year sparked worldwide protests, on Tuesday rejected the idea of replacing the city’s troubled police force.

Over 56 percent voted against amending the Minneapolis City Charter to create the new department, which would provide “public safety functions through a comprehensive public health approach,” according to official election results.

Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, running for a second term, was looking at a tough second round after leading Tuesday’s vote with some 43 percent of the vote, but failing to secure more than 50 percent to win straight away.

Frey had opposed the police reform and he welcomed the results of the vote.

“We need deep, structural change to policing in America,” Frey told supporters, according to the Washington Post. 

“At the same time, we need police officers to make sure that they are working directly with the community to keep us safe.”

The May 2020 murder of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, by a white police officer sparked protests against police brutality in Minneapolis and other US cities and calls in some progressive Democratic quarters to “defund the police.”

The former police officer, Derek Chauvin, was convicted of murder and manslaughter for Floyd’s death and sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison.

If the Minneapolis ballot measure had passed, the functions of the Department of Public Safety would be determined by the mayor and the city council and there would be a greater emphasis on hiring mental health experts and social workers.

The new department could have included “licensed peace officers (police officers), if necessary, to fulfill its responsibilities for public safety,” according to the ballot measure.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had campaigned in favor of disbanding the Minneapolis police force, thanked activists and supporters and said that change was still possible.

“Across the country, we see the momentum to significantly reduce the excessive resources and responsibilities given to law enforcement and reinvest in communities they have harmed,” the group said. 

“The ACLU is committed to continuing to support the Black- and Brown grassroots groups spearheading this work.”

The US Justice Department announced in April following Chauvin’s conviction that it was conducting an investigation to determine whether the Minneapolis police department systematically uses excessive force and “engages in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – Gun control advocacy group Giffords sued the National Rifle Association on Tuesday for allegedly violating campaign finance laws since 2014.

The powerful gun lobby made as much as $35 million in “unlawful” and “unreported in-kind campaign contributions” to seven federal candidates, including candidates for U.S. Senate in 2014, 2016, and 2018, and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to the allegations.

The lawsuit seeks several forms of relief, including an order preventing the NRA from violating the Federal Election Campaign Act in future, and a penalty equal to the amount of money allegedly spent unlawfully, which the NRA would pay to the U.S. treasury – potentially as much as $35 million.

The lawsuit was filed by campaign finance watchdog Campaign Legal Center on behalf of Giffords in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The NRA said the lawsuit was “as misguided as it is transparent”.

“Another premeditated abuse of the public by our adversaries — who will stop at nothing in their pursuit of their anti-freedom agenda,” the NRA said in a statement.

“Suffice to say, the NRA has full confidence in its political activities and remains eager to set the record straight”.

New York’s attorney general said in August that the NRA had failed to root out rampant internal corruption.

The association had sought to use Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reincorporate in Republican-dominated Texas and escape what it called a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York, where it was founded in 1871.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates)

By Joseph Ax, Gabriella Borter and Jason Lange

FAIRFAX, Va. (Reuters) – Republicans pushed Democrats out of the Virginia governorship and were running even in heavily Democratic New Jersey on Wednesday, signaling trouble for President Joe Biden’s party heading into next year’s congressional elections.

Republican Glenn Youngkin, a former private equity executive, claimed victory over Democratic former Governor Terry McAuliffe in Tuesday’s vote after distancing himself just enough from former President Donald Trump to win back moderates who had supported Biden just a year ago.

In New Jersey, Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli and incumbent Democrat Phil Murphy were locked in a virtual draw, even though registered Democratic voters outnumber Republicans there by more than 1 million. Still, Democrats clung to hope because more votes were due to be counted in their strongholds.

Both saw strong gains in the suburbs from independent voters who had been turned off by Trump’s style of politics. The results in states that Biden won easily in 2020 suggested that Democrats’ razor-thin majorities Congress were highly vulnerable in the 2022 elections.

Republican control of both, or even one, chamber of Congress would give the party the ability to block Biden’s legislative agenda during the final two years of his current term in office.

The results could also further complicate Biden’s hopes of passing twin bills worth a combined $2.75 trillion to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges, as well as bolster the social safety net and fight climate change. They have already been held up by months of infighting between Democrats’ progressive and moderate wings and the election defeat could leave some moderates less willing to back the big-ticket bills.

REPUBLICAN ROADMAP

Youngkin, 54, declared victory after a campaign in which he focused on parents’ anger over schools’ handling of COVID-19, as well as teaching on race and gender issues. He walked a fine line on Trump, taking care to not alienate the former president’s hardcore base without offering a full-throated endorsement of his false claims about widespread election fraud.

McAuliffe’s efforts to paint his rival, a former chief executive of the Carlyle Group Inc, as a Trump acolyte fell flat with voters at a time when Biden’s approval ratings are at the lowest level of his presidency, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos national poll, conducted last Wednesday and Thursday.

“Together, we will change the trajectory of this commonwealth,” Youngkin told a rally in Chantilly, Virginia, early on Wednesday.

Republican congressional campaigns may follow Youngkin’s model of focusing on culture wars and promising to give parents more control over public schools.

Youngkin leaned into the Republican Party’s expressions of outrage over the discussion of systemic racism in schools. He vowed to ban the teaching of “critical race theory,” a legal framework that examines how racism shapes U.S. laws and policies, while ignoring the fact that Virginia school officials say the subject is not taught in classrooms.

He drew sharp criticism from Democrats when he initially hesitated to denounce Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, false claims that have continued to rile Trump’s supporters and led to a mob of them attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Youngkin said later that Biden had won legitimately, but then called for an audit of Virginia’s voting machines, prompting Democrats to accuse him of validating Trump’s election conspiracy theories.

The Republicans also appeared to erase the Democrats’ 10-seat lead in Virginia’s House of Delegates, appearing to gain a 50-50 split or perhaps a one-seat advantage. The Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and state attorney general were also leading their races in Virginia.

Virginia Republicans picked Youngkin in an unusual convention format in May, rather than by a statewide primary. That format was designed to pick a more moderate candidate, rather than one more closely allied with Trump.

Even so, Trump sought to claim credit, thanking “my BASE” in a statement for putting Youngkin over the top.

NEW JERSEY WOBBLES

The New Jersey race remained too close to call as dawn approached on Wednesday. But a loss for Democrat Murphy would send even more chills through the Democratic Party, which has been unable to pass Biden’s signature legislation nationally despite razor-thin majorities in both houses of the U.S. Congress.

Murphy, 64, ran as unabashed liberal, seeking to become the first Democratic governor to win re-election in New Jersey in four decades.

Ciattarelli had faced an uphill battle in New Jersey, where Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans.

Ciattarelli, 59, is a former state legislator and business owner who has criticized Murphy for requiring masks in schools and day-care facilities. He campaigned on cutting taxes and supporting law enforcement, but does not support banning abortion — an unusual position for a Republican.

According to local media, Ciatterelli appeared with Trump at a “Stop the Steal” rally in November 2020 in which the then-president falsely claimed to have won the election.

Ciatterelli has since said that Biden won the election fairly.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax, Gabriella Borter and Jason Lange, additional reporting by Andy Sullivan, Kanishka Singh and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Scott Malone and Kim Coghill)

The late John F. Kennedy Jr and his wife Caroline Bessette at the White House Correspondent Association’s annual dinner in Washington in May 1999

Washington (AFP) – Hundreds of followers of QAnon conspiracy theories gathered in downtown Dallas on Tuesday in the belief that John F. Kennedy Jr, who died in a 1999 plane crash, would reappear.

He did not.

The Dallas Morning News said several hundred QAnon followers converged on Dealey Plaza, where JFK Jr’s father, president John F. Kennedy, was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

According to QAnon postings cited by media outlets, JFK Jr would emerge from hiding at 12:29 pm on Tuesday and this would lead — somehow — to the reinstatement of QAnon favorite Donald Trump as president.

The appointed time came and went with no sighting of the late president’s son.

JFK Jr died on July 16, 1999 at the age of 38 along with his wife and sister-in-law while flying them in a private plane to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

The far-right QAnon is a shadowy online movement with an anonymous leader. Some of its supporters believe it is JFK Jr and that he faked his own death.

Some QAnon followers were among the insurrectionists who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 in a bid to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump.

Facebook halting its controversial facial recognition system

San Francisco (AFP) – Facebook is shutting down its facial recognition system and deleting a billion faceprints, its parent company said Tuesday, in response to serious concerns over privacy.

The announcement from the leading social media network was made as it battles one of its worst crises ever, with reams of internal documents leaked to reporters, lawmakers and US regulators.

“There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use,” parent company Meta said in a statement.

“Amid this ongoing uncertainty, we believe that limiting the use of facial recognition to a narrow set of use cases is appropriate,” it added.

It was not clear when the changes would take effect, but they will be widely felt with Facebook noting that more than a third of its daily users have opted in to using the facial recognition system.

Shutting down that system “will result in the deletion of more than a billion people’s individual facial recognition templates,” the statement said.

As the social media giant battles a whistleblower crisis, it has also changed its parent company name to “Meta” in an effort to move past being a scandal-plagued social network to its virtual reality vision for the future.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — which are used by billions around the world — will keep their names under the rebranding that critics have called an effort to distract from the platform’s dysfunction.

Gary Lineker doesn’t support the 2022 World Cup being played in Qatar.

The next edition of the global football tournament will take place in the Middle Eastern nation, but the decision has proved controversial due to the corrupt nature of the bidding process and the former England footballer has reservations about the event.

Gary – who was part of England’s failed bid to host the 2018 tournament – told ITV’s ‘This Morning’: “At the time I was obviously perturbed by it because I was kind of brought in late as part of the English bid.

“It was obviously pretty corrupt at the time and it has been proven to be so. I don’t agree that it should be there but we’ll have to report it.

“But am I a supporter of the fact that it’s there? No.”

Concerns have also been raised about Qatar’s attitude to gay rights, although the legendary English striker expects footballers to “get on with it” once the tournament begins next year.

The ‘Match of the Day’ presenter said: “Pretty much every sport now is played in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. I think the sportsmen will get on with it.”

Lineker also hopes the decision made by the Australian player Josh Cavallo to come out as gay can inspire other players to do the same and get rid of the stigma surrounding gay players in the sport.

The 60-year-old broadcaster said: “It’s unbelievable really that we even have to have this conversation. It’s a shame but at least he has (come out).

“I hope other players will follow. There’s obviously lots of them in the game. We know that. It’s inevitable and there will be some in the Premier League. I hope the way it has been received so positively will encourage a player to do so.”

Gary continued: “I understand the fear of doing it – even for me who has been around… it’s easy for me to say but I honestly think if they do it will be received in such a positive manner by pretty much everybody.

“I just hope someone is brave enough to do it because then others will follow. It’s ridiculous that we have to have the conversation about this but hopefully that will change. Well, it will change but it’s just a question of time.”

By Tina Bellon and Eric M. Johnson

AUSTIN/SEATTLE (Reuters) – In Wichita, Kansas, nearly half of the roughly 10,000 employees at aircraft companies Textron Inc and Spirit AeroSystems remain unvaccinated against COVID-19, risking their jobs in defiance of a federal mandate, according to a union official.

“We’re going to lose a lot of employees over this,” said Cornell Beard, head of the local Machinists union district. Many workers did not object to the vaccines as such, he said, but were staunchly opposed to what they see as government meddling in personal health decisions.

The union district has hired a Texas-based lawyer to assist employees and prepare potential lawsuits against the companies should requests for medical or religious exemptions to vaccination be denied.

A life-long Democrat, Beard said he would no longer vote for the party. “They’ll never get another vote from me and I’m telling the workers here the same thing.”

The clock is ticking for companies that want to continue gaining federal contracts under an executive order by Democratic President Joe Biden, which requires all contractor employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8.

That means federal contract workers need to have received their last COVID-19 shot at least two weeks before the deadline to gain maximum protection, according to U.S. government guidance.

With a three-week gap between shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, workers must get the first jab by Wednesday. If the government holds fast to its deadline, it is already too late to choose Moderna’s vaccine, which is given in two doses four weeks apart. Workers could opt to get Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine until Nov. 24 to meet the deadline.

Vaccines remain by far the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, particularly faced with the extremely contagious Delta variant of the virus that can cause infections even among those fully vaccinated.

Despite vocal opposition from some, vaccine mandates have been effective at shrinking the rates of the unvaccinated and convincing the reluctant to roll up their sleeves.

Several big employers such as Procter & Gamble, 3M and airlines including American Airlines and JetBlue have imposed mandates. In some industries, including among food workers, unions have supported vaccine requirements.

But the mandate has stirred protests from workers in industries across the country, as well as from Republican state officials.

Opposition to the mandate could potentially lead to thousands of U.S. workers losing their jobs and imperil an already sluggish economic recovery, union leaders, workers and company executives said.

More legal clashes are likely over how companies decide requests for vaccination exemptions.

For the companies, time is getting tight, though the Biden administration has signaled federal contractors will not have to immediately lay off unvaccinated workers who miss the Dec. 8 deadline.

Under government guidance published on Monday, companies will have flexibility over how to implement the mandate, which may allow them to avoid mass firings.

“A covered contractor should determine the appropriate means of enforcement with respect to its employee,” the guidance said.

For Boeing Co in the United States, more than 7,000 workers have applied for religious exemptions and around 1,000 are seeking medical exemptions, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. That amounts to some 6% of the planemaker’s roughly 125,000 U.S employees.

‘ILLEGAL, IMMORAL AND IMPRACTICAL’

At a rally last week outside Boeing property in Auburn, south of Seattle, many of the three dozen workers gathered in driving rain said they would rather be escorted off Boeing property on Dec. 8 than take a vaccine. Others said they would pursue early retirement.

“The mandate is illegal, immoral and impractical,” said one veteran Boeing program analyst who attended the rally. “We are standing together against a company and government trampling on our rights.”

Many legal experts have said vaccine mandates in the interest of public health are legal. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected several challenges to mandates, with the high court last week turning away a healthcare worker who sought a religious exemption to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The rebellion has put Boeing executives in a bind. The company could lose skilled staff, but must comply with a presidential order.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company was committed to maintaining a safe working environment for its employees.

The order’s provision for religious and medical exemptions is causing more tension.

Two Textron workers who requested religious exemptions told Reuters the company’s human resources representatives quizzed them on the name of their church leaders and asked detailed questions about their faith.

Textron declined to respond to questions, but in a statement said it was obligated to comply with Biden’s order and was taking steps to do so.

“Employees who are unable to receive the COVID-19 vaccination due to a medical condition or sincerely held religious belief are being provided an opportunity to request an accommodation from this requirement,” Textron said.

Spirit AeroSystems did not respond to a request for comment.

Raytheon Technologies’ CEO Greg Hayes last week warned the U.S. defense firm will lose “several thousand” employees because of the mandate.

A group representing FedEx Corp, United Parcel Service Inc and other cargo carriers said it would be virtually impossible to have all their workforces vaccinated by the deadline.

Some companies have imposed vaccine mandates even absent immediate government regulation.

Mercedes-Benz USA, the U.S. unit of German carmaker Daimler AG which is not a U.S. government contractor, told employees in an October email seen by Reuters that proof of vaccination against COVID-19 would become a condition of employment beginning Jan. 4.

The carmaker said it implemented the move in anticipation of a separate U.S. government vaccine mandate that would apply to businesses with at least 100 employees, affecting some 80 million workers nationwide.

Less than half of the company’s workers at U.S. import processing centers are vaccinated and many refuse to get a shot, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Mercedes USA in a statement said it had given employees 90-day notice to fulfill the requirement, adding that two thirds of its U.S. employees – not including factory workers in Alabama – have provided proof of vaccination to date.

“We expect that the vast majority of our employees will provide proof of vaccination before the deadline,” the company said.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon in Austin, Texas and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, Washington; Editing by Joe White and Bill Berkrot)

Glasgow (AFP) – As the world’s most powerful man, he’s used to crowds and curious onlookers wherever he goes — but probably not a naked Scotsman with a mobile phone.

Reporters travelling with US President Joe Biden to the UN climate change summit in Glasgow detailed the unexpected sight at an unspecified location en route from Edinburgh.

“At one point when we were still on smaller country roads, a large, naked Scottish man stood in his front window taking a picture of the motorcade with his phone,” they said.

It was not immediately clear if Biden witnessed the au naturel onlooker from “The Beast”, his bullet-proof limousine, nor how the man’s nationality was known.

In 2016, Biden’s White House predecessor Donald Trump was serenaded by a Mexican Mariachi band, Juan Direction, when he arrived at Glasgow Prestwick airport.

The unscheduled welcoming party came after the then-presidential hopeful had proposed building a wall on the US southern border to keep out Mexican migrants.

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