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Prince Harry has described how "terrifying" it was to have his brother "scream and shout" at him when they met to discuss his and Meghan's future. In a Netflix series, Prince Harry says it was his decision, not Meghan's, to leave after plans for a half-in, half-out royal life were rejected during a family meeting at Sandringham. He says his father said things that "just simply weren't true" as his grandmother, the Queen, looked on. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63983062

US households are once again able to order free at-home Covid-19 tests, as the government attempts to limit the spread of the virus this winter. The White House said up to four rapid tests could be ordered from the government website CovidTests.gov. It announced that the test programme, which was paused in September, would be restarted on Thursday with deliveries beginning the week of 19 December. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63990173

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A Florida pastor and his son were arrested Wednesday on charges of fraudulently obtaining more than $8 million in federal Covid relief funds and attempting to use some of the money to buy a luxury home near Walt Disney World. Evan Edwards and his son, Josh, 30, were taken into custody five months after an NBC News report raised questions over why they hadn’t been charged in the alleged scam, which federal prosecutors first identified in court papers in December 2020. It wasn’t immediately clear if the family had hired an attorney. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/feds-arrest-florida-pastor-son-8-million-covid-scam-rcna38754

Lt Col Joshua McCullion (L), Commander of the US Space Forces Korea, talks with South Korean General Ahn Byung-seok, deputy commander of the South Korea-US Combined Forces Command, at Osan Air Base on Wednesday The US Space Force has launched its first foreign command in South Korea on Wednesday. Experts say the new unit will help the US monitor security threats from North Korea, Russia and China. The facility is the first of its kind outside American soil since the creation of the US Space Force in 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63977389

A prosecutor in France has opened an investigation into the disappearance of an American college student who, his family says, has not been heard from in more than two weeks. Kenny DeLand Jr.’s fellow students reported him missing on November 29, prompting the investigation, according to a statement from the prosecutor released Monday and obtained by CNN. Deland is a senior at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, who has been studying at the University of Grenoble Alpes, according to his family. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/12/us/kenny-deland-missing-student-france

The US central bank has hiked interest rates again, and warned more rises will be necessary to rein in the rapid pace of price increases. Forecasts from the Federal Reserve showed the bank's key interest rate could stand above 5% a year from now. But policymakers are starting to move more cautiously, following signs that the most severe inflation in decades may be starting to ease. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63977120

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I spent many years working with refugees and displaced people in various places around the world. I worked at various times with the UN, the Department of State and a few major international NGOs. The largest groups I worked with were in S.E. Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos), the Kurds both in Iraq and Turkey but many coming from Iran, the numerous groups from the former Yugoslavia, mostly the Bosnians. The very, very vast majority of those fleeing a country are doing so because they have few other options except to leave. Other than situations where there are on-going military type battles, people leave for more than one reason. Those may be economic and because they face persecution. Because people are poor it does not mean that they do not face persecution. The journey to either a safe country or a country of first asylum is fraught with perils. For the Vietnamese boat people, around 400,000 died at sea. Of those, a low estimate is 10% were killed by pirates. (Info HERE). Kurds have fled war, bombing and military strikes in large numbers from both Turkey and Iraq. There over a million Kurds who are refugees in Iran alone. There are refugee camps for Iraqi Kurds in Turkey and there was a large refugee camp for Turkish Kurds in Iraq. Kurds have been killed in large numbers trying to cross borders. This is something I personally witnessed at the Turkey/Iraq border. Most refugees do have to pay for the trip. Some do actually walk, but the vast majority pay. Most travel in groups and arrange transport along the way. Families will sell or borrow what money they can to get a family member out -- usually, a young, single male who will get settled and work toward getting the rest of the family out. When you see an entire family, they have usually sold everything they own to make the journey. The rate of murder, kidnapping and rape is very high. Reuters has an article about the current flood of Nicaraguans being kidnapped HERE. The Rohingyas in Thailand faced kidnapping, murder and being held for ransom by government officials. If interested there is more HERE. Once they reach a country of first asylum, they will have to be screened. If they establish a 'well founded fear of persecution', they are granted refugee status. If not, they may get some form of protective status pending a change in the situation in their home country. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is one of those categories. I have screened a lot of people for refugee status and it is legalistic process and not easy to get. People doing the screening do have access to information from inside the country to assure that the claim is valid -- for example, information about where military activities are occurring, where drug cartels are operating, etc. Being poor is not grounds for asylum. It also doesn't exclude people. For those who get screened out, they face removal from the country. In the US, if you voluntarily deport, you may be allowed to re-enter the US in the future with a visa. If you are deported through a court proceeding, that door is pretty much shut.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday that he is petitioning the state's Supreme Court to "impanel a statewide grand jury to investigate any and all wrongdoing in Florida with respect to COVID-19 vaccines." DeSantis made the announcement while chairing a roundtable focusing on the reported side effects of coronavirus vaccines, with some participants alleging negative health experiences after getting the shots made by companies such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. "In Florida, it is against the law to mislead and to misrepresent, particularly when you're talking about the efficacy of a drug," DeSantis said. https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/desantis-florida-grand-jury-investigate-coronavirus-vaccine-wrongdoing

In an effort to cut costs following Elon Musk’s chaotic $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, the social media company has stopped paying rent, according to a report from The New York Times. Twitter has not paid rent for its global offices or San Francisco headquarters in weeks, the report said, as Musk’s team has been trying to renegotiate the terms of the company’s lease. As a result, Twitter has received complaints from real estate firms like Shorenstein, which owns Twitter’s San Francisco buildings. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/13/twitter-reportedly-hasnt-paid-rent-on-its-office-spaces-for-weeks.html

President Joe Biden signed into law Tuesday landmark new federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples, capping both a personal and national evolution on an issue that’s enjoyed growing acceptance over the past decade. Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act before thousands of invited guests on the South Lawn at an event the White House said reflected the importance of the moment. “Marriage is a simple proposition. Who do you love? And will you be loyal to that person you love?” the president asked from the South Lawn. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/13/politics/white-house-same-sex-marriage-signing-ceremony/index.html?utm_term=1670967831758ff1d4ad50e48&utm_source=cnn_Breaking+News&utm_medium=email&bt_ee=%2B%2FlRBAql0t50RCckmAqBQ4LhTkNC1djR5jv%2FjRUoVVcNmjkI%2FIJ4MIbizSx6PIu5&bt_ts=1670967831761

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In a victory for public health advocates, a federal judge in Montana has blocked the state from implementing a law that would make it illegal for hospitals to ask employees if they are vaccinated. The measure, which passed last year, was the country’s most extreme anti-vaccination law. Health care providers in Montana had sued the state over the law, arguing that it violates constitutional protections for disabled Americans. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy agreed with them. https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-judge-strikes-down-part-of-montana-anti-vax-law

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(Bloomberg) -- Each morning when Michael Quinn pulls into the parking lot of the luxury apartment complex he manages in West Texas and looks across the street, an unsightly vision blots the horizon: a 24-foot-high insulated wall. Quinn, who works at the Midway Station Apartments in Midland, isn't troubled by the eyesore. The barrier, covered in a sand-colored tarp, is designed to muffle noise from an oil-well site across the road. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-wells-creeping-texas-cities-140014722.html

EL PASO — After nightfall on Sunday, hundreds of migrants stepped across the Rio Grande and into El Paso, a caravan of people mainly from Nicaragua whose crossing was among the largest in recent years along the West Texas border. Their arrival en masse into the United States surprised even those in El Paso, which has in recent months found itself overwhelmed by a steady stream of many migrants from Central and South America, more than 50,000 people in October alone. Like the migrants from Venezuela who flooded into El Paso this year, those arriving from Nicaragua cannot be rapidly expelled under a pandemic-era public health policy known as Title 42, which federal authorities employ with migrants from other countries, such as Mexico. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/us/el-paso-migrants-border.html