Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- President Donald Trump announced that he will not attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20. Although a handful of outgoing presidents have declined to attend the inauguration of their successors, Trump’s decision is seen as a way of continuing to sow division and antagonism, particularly since it comes days after he incited a riot in Washington, D.C. [NBC]
- In response to Wednesday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol, Cabinet members continued to jump ship from the Trump administration. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos both resigned, a move that many saw as their way of avoiding calls to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office. [CNN]
- Anthony Fauci predicted that the daily coronavirus death toll in the U.S. is only going to get worse and urged people to be patient as vaccine programs expand across the country. He spoke just before officials reported 4,000 deaths in the country, a daily record that means total virus deaths have now surpassed 365,400. [NYT]
- A spokesperson for Joe Biden says that the incoming president plans to deploy every available dose of the COVID-19 vaccine when he takes office in order to speed up a lagging process. This would be a huge shift from the Trump administration’s approach of reserving half the available supply in order to provide the second shots needed to complete the two-part dose. [Politico]
- Just after Mark Zuckerberg announced that Donald Trump was banned from his social media platforms, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the CEO’s decision and called it a form of censorship. “I don’t like anybody being censored or taking away from the right to post a message on Twitter or Face(book). I don’t agree with that, I don’t accept that,” he said. [WaPo]
- Miya Ponsetto, the woman who attacked a Black 14-year-old boy and accused him of stealing her phone at a New York City hotel, was arrested during a traffic stop on Thursday. Ponsetto had just appeared on “CBS This Morning” and referred to herself as “super sweet” in an interview with Gayle King. According to reports, authorities had to forcibly remove her from her car in Ventura County, where she’s being held without bail. [CNN]
- AOC continued calling out Republicans who incited pro-Trump rioters while arguing against the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory on Wednesday. Just after she’d urged Ted Cruz to resign, she slammed Josh Hawley for complaining that Simon & Schuster had canceled his upcoming book. “Your actions fueled a riot and you fundraised in the chaos,” she said. “Yet here you are crying over a book deal. You should be expelled.” [Business Insider]
