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Top Eight

Top eight stories for today including the FDA verified the safety and efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer; Justice Clarence Thomas voiced annoyance at a case that seeks to update a 1990s-era law targeting and prohibiting robotic prerecorded calls so that text messages are also covered; President Trump’s losing election campaign and the lawyer who said his top election-security official should be shot were hit with defamation claims, and more.

Your Tuesday night briefing from the staff of Courthouse News

Top eight stories for today including the FDA verified the safety and efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer; Justice Clarence Thomas voiced annoyance at a case that seeks to update a 1990s-era law targeting and prohibiting robotic prerecorded calls so that text messages are also covered; President Trump’s losing election campaign and the lawyer who said his top election-security official should be shot were hit with defamation claims, and more.

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National

1.) A detailed analysis released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday verified the safety and efficacy of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer, two days before a meeting to recommend the vaccine for emergency use.  

A nurse holds a phial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy’s Hospital in London, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. U.K. health authorities rolled out the first doses of a widely tested and independently reviewed COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday, starting a global immunization program that is expected to gain momentum as more serums win approval. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool)

2.) Justice Clarence Thomas voiced annoyance Tuesday at a case that seeks to update a 1990s-era law targeting and prohibiting robotic prerecorded calls so that text messages are also covered.

FILE - In this Aug. 21, 2018, file photo, a Facebook start page is shown on a smartphone in Surfside, Fla. Facebook says a bug in its anti-spam system is blocking the publication of links to news stories about the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

3.) President Trump’s losing election campaign and the lawyer who said his top election-security official Chris Krebs should be shot were hit Tuesday with defamation claims.

FILE - In this May 22, 2019, file photo, Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Donald Trump on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, fired Krebs, the director of the federal agency that vouched for the reliability of the 2020 election. Trump fired Krebs in a tweet, saying his recent statement defending the security of the election was “highly inaccurate.” (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

4.) The Trump administration pushed the D.C. Circuit on Tuesday to let it label immigrants as ineligible for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

FILE - In this July 4, 2019 file photo, a group of asylum seekers cross the border between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, Thursday, July 4, 2019. (Mark Lambie/The El Paso Times via AP)

5.) President-elect Joe Biden detailed his coronavirus plans for the first 100 days in office on Tuesday by outlining three main objectives — mandating masks in federal buildings and other places under federal jurisdiction, opening the vast majority of schools in America and distributing 100 million vaccines to waiting Americans. 

President-elect Joe Biden speaks about jobs at The Queen theater, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Regional

6.) The Wisconsin Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a set of lawsuits challenging local health officials’ authority to close schools, including religious ones, for in-person instruction amid the coronavirus pandemic.

A crew of custodial staff clean a classroom at Richard A. Simpson Elementary School in Arnold on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020. The school went to fully virtual learning on Monday, Nov. 2 after more than 5% of the staff and students tested positive for COVID-19, they will stay virtual until Monday Nov.16 after ten work days. (Colter Peterson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)

7.) In the wake of an investigation triggered by the murder of soldier Vanessa Guillen, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy announced Tuesday that 14 leaders at Texas’ Fort Hood have been fired or suspended from their positions.

FILE - In this April 2, 2014, file photo, members of the media wait outside of the Bernie Beck Gate, an entrance to the Fort Hood military base in Fort Hood, Texas. Federal agents have seized more than 20 vehicles and the money in 10 bank accounts from a couple of U.S. Army veterans in Texas, who they say used personal information stolen from soldiers to defraud the military out of as much as $11 million. In an affidavit filed in court in June 2020 seeking to search the couple's home in Killeen, near Fort Hood, investigators described how they allegedly used a transportation reimbursement program to swindle the Army out of $2.3 million to $11.3 million. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa, File)

International

8.) Rejecting protests from Hungary and Poland, the European Union’s top court ruled Tuesday that the bloc can tighten rules governing workers sent outside their home countries.

Vehicles queue at the border crossing in Krusaa, Denmark, on June 15. (Claus Fisker/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
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