Good afternoon. This is recovered with the Daily Beast. It's Wednesday May 12th, and these are the top stories that Chi Chi Team is watching right now. The Biden administration is set to be ready to intervene to deescalate the crisis in the Middle East before it spends even more out of control.
The UN Middle East peace envoy has issued a serious warning about the rapidly escalating conflict that has been happening between Israel and Palestine this week. The envoy has said that the two sides were on the path to quote, full-scale war. As it stands, 48 Palestinians have reportedly been killed, and about 300 have been injured as Israel's military pounded Gaza with airstrikes over the past two days. On the other side, six Israelis were reportedly killed by Hamas rockets overnight.
House Republicans have officially removed Representative Liz Cheney of her number three position in the GOP conference. The move comes after months of Cheney criticizing former President Donald Trump's lies about the 2020 election. Since 2019, Cheney has been the highest-ranking Republican woman in Washington. Though she has been removed as conference chair, Cheney will still keep her seat in the house, but now she will lack the platform of House GOP leadership, a position that many of her colleagues initially expected might be a springboard to something even bigger.
But Cheney appears poised to make even more speeches and perhaps be even more forceful about Trump's election lies. After the GOP vote on Wednesday, she told reporters quote, I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. It might be hard to believe, but there are some Republicans who have had enough of former President Donald Trump's stronghold over the party. Reportedly, there's a long list of party members, including governors, members of Congress, and Republican Party chairman, who have added their names to a letter that threatens to form a breakaway party.
The World Health Organization's independent international panel of experts issued a scathing condemnation of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The experts detailed how the pandemic's quote, Chernobyl moment could have been prevented if world leaders acted a month sooner. The panel says it found weak links quote, at every point in the chain of preparedness and response, starting in China. It said that the World Health Organization was underpowered, inequalities were exacerbated and quote, global political leadership was absent.
Without directly mentioning former US President Donald Trump, at several points, the report refers to global tensions exaggerated by powerful nations and their leaders. With the first COVID-19 vaccine now authorized for adolescents ages 12 and up, it sparks the question of whether or not students will be required to get the vaccine before returning to school in the fall. In the US, school vaccination requirements are established by states rather than the federal government to protect public health. Every state currently requires K through 12 students to be vaccinated against some diseases.
However, requirements vary from one state to another, including which shots are deemed necessary and the reason students can opt out. So far, no state requires students to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but how states manage other vaccines and exemptions and how the rules can change during outbreaks and help determine how a COVID-19 vaccine requirement might work. The biggest difference with the coronavirus vaccine at the moment is that there's only one emergency use authorization, which does not have full FDA approval. How a lack of full approval would affect state decisions about school vaccine mandates and how the courts might view those decisions is still unknown.
The Minnesota judge who presided over Derek Chauvin's murder trial of George Floyd ruled on Wednesday that he can consider a longer than normal sentence as punishment for Chauvin. Judge Peter Cauhill says he believes prosecutors proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Chauvin quote, abused his position of truth and authority and said that the ex-contradent Floyd with quote, particular cruelty during the arrest. Chauvin will be sentenced on June 25th on second degree unintentional murder, third degree murder and second degree manslaughter. Well, that's it for Ellen.
The daytime talk show will end after its 19th season. Host Ellen DeGeneres reportedly gave the news to her team on Tuesday, saying that as great and as fun as the show is, it quote, is just not a challenge anymore. Last summer DeGeneres faced a wave of backlash over claims that she ran a toxic workplace environment with nearly a dozen current and former employees coming forward with various accounts. They described racist comments made by other staffers and intimidation tactics.
Some claim they were fired from their positions after taking medical and bereavement leave. As a result, the talk show's ratings tanked and viewership plummeted by a drastic 43%. DeGeneres is currently hosting her 18th season of the show and she will go into further detail about her departure on Thursday with Oprah Winfrey as a guest. That's all for today.
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