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Every weekend, Asia Pacific Daily will provide you with a run-down of the latest hot news.
This week, the following hot news you should know:
Top 1 | Texas Dem has MOVED ON from trying to get Kamala's help on immigration
Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar said that he's done trying to work with Vice President Kamala Harris on border issues.
'I say this very respectfully to her: I moved on,' Cuellar told The New York Times. 'She was tasked with that job, it doesn't look like she's very interested in this, so we are going to move on to other folks that work on this issue.'
Cuellar's gripes originated when Harris said she'd be visiting the border in June and a phone call from his office to hers went unreturned.
The Times was out with a profile of Harris on Thursday, which featured both fans and critics of the embattled vice president, who has seen her poll numbers slipping.
Top 2 | Biden touts bipartisan effort to pass ALS bill during signing
President Biden praised lawmakers on both sides of the aisle while signing a bill that will authorize funding for research and treatment of ALS.
Biden celebrated the bipartisan effort to pass the "Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Act" during a bill signing event Thursday, saying the legislation was made possible "because of the movement led by the patients and caregivers and members of Congress of both parties."
The newly signed legislation will establish grant programs to address neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, which is more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Top 3 | Libya electoral commission dissolves polling committees
The head of Libya's High National Electoral Commission (HNEC) has ordered the dissolution of all electoral committees nationwide, in a move that would effectively postpone the presidential election set for Friday.
A leaked internal statement by HNEC Chairman Imad al-Sayeh, dated December 20, outlines six points, notably "the dismantling of electoral regional and local branch offices and committees." A member of the HNEC's board of directors on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of the document.
The planned December 24 vote, along with a parallel election for a new parliament, was meant to help end Libya's past decade of chaos by installing a political leadership with national legitimacy after years of factional division.
Top 4 | Guaidó closer to control of Venezuela gold reserves after UK Supreme Court recognizes him, not Maduro, as President
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó is one step closer to securing control of more than $1 billion dollars in gold reserves stored at the Bank of England, after Britain's Supreme Court unequivocally recognized him as President of Venezuela on Monday evening.
Reversing a previous decision by the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court ruled that recognition of heads of state and government was solely the responsibility of the British government, which had recognized Guaidó as Venezuela's Constitutional interim President.
The decision follows a lengthy battle over the gold between Nicolas Maduro -- who claimed a second term as Venezuela's President following a widely disputed presidential election in 2018 -- and Guaidó, then the head of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who has led the battle to have Maduro replaced since that vote.
Top 5 | Humanitarian aid plan seeks $1.5 bln to help people in Somalia
The United Nations and other humanitarian partners have launched the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for 2022, seeking about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to help 5.5 million of the most vulnerable people in Somalia.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Monday that, it is releasing 17 million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund to meet the immediate needs of drought-affected communities.
"To save lives in Somalia and avert another humanitarian catastrophe, we must release funding now so that people can protect themselves from further hunger and impoverishment," the UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.
Top 6 | Can he recover? Joe Biden faces new perils over Joe Manchin and rise of COVID-19
Forget those lofty, early comparisons of Joe Biden to FDR. While COVID-19 is on the rise and the heart of his domestic agenda is in new peril, Biden risks the apt comparison being to Jimmy Carter.
That is, a president respected as honorable and well-meaning but one who even some supporters fear is not quite up to the job, especially when buffeted by events beyond his control. Biden faces deepening fractures in his Democratic Party as forbidding midterm elections loom.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin dealt a body blow – perhaps a fatal one – to the Build Back Better bill, the sweeping measure that is stuffed with the president's ambitions on climate change, the social safety net and taxes. "I've tried everything humanly possible; I can't get there," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "This is a no."
Top 7 | New push for vaccines, lockdowns to stem 'raging' Omicron in the West
U.S. health officials urged Americans on Sunday to get booster shots, wear masks and be careful if they travel over the winter holidays, as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus rages across the world and appears set to take over as the dominant strain in the United States.
Omicron has been found in 43 out of 50 U.S. states and around 90 countries so far.
"If you've had vaccines and a booster, you're very well protected against Omicron causing you severe disease. So, anybody listening to this, who's in that 60 percent of Americans who are eligible for a booster but haven't yet gotten one: This is the week to do it. Do not wait," said Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, in an interview with CBS.
Top 8 | Manchin 'refused' to take White House call as top Biden officials sought to 'head him off' before tanking the Build Back Better bill on Fox News: report
Shortly before Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia made a bombshell appearance on "Fox News Sunday" where he announced his opposition to President Joe Biden's signature Build Back Better legislation, he "refused to take a call from White House staff" despite their efforts to stave off his decision, according to a Politico report.
Less than half an hour before Manchin's interview with host Bret Baier, the Mountain State lawmaker sent an aide to inform the White House and congressional leadership of his intentions.
As Manchin was preparing for his talk with Baier, there was trepidation and incredulity in White House at Manchin's decision to spike the sweeping social-spending bill by sending an aide to tell administration officials of his soon-to-be public position, especially as talks appeared to be ongoing, according to the report.
Top 9 | UK Brexit supremo Frost resigns in blow to PM Johnson
British Brexit minister David Frost resigned on Saturday over disillusionment with the direction of Boris Johnson's government, dealing a major blow to the embattled prime minister as the Omicron variant sweeps the country.
The resignation of Frost, a core architect of Johnson's tumultuous Brexit strategy, raised questions about the future tone of the EU divorce and the immediate course of talks on Northern Ireland. It also added to a sense of turmoil in Johnson's Conservative government.
Downing Street released Frost's resignation letter, in which he said he would step down with immediate effect as "Brexit is now secure." But he said he had made clear to Johnson his "concerns about the current direction of travel."
Top 10 | What Manchin wanted, rejected and got in Biden's $2T bill
During a private meeting in July, Sen. Joe Manchin and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sat down to negotiate what exactly it would take for Democrats to unlock Manchin's vote to start the process of considering President Joe Biden’s massive social and environmental bill.
What emerged was a one-page document, unformatted, where the West Virginia Democrat laid out his views. Both signed it, with reservations.
Nearly five months later, much of what Manchin wanted has been delivered. But fellow Democrats appear nowhere close to gaining the conservative senator's support for their far-reaching domestic package. Having passed the House, the bill is now stalled in the Senate.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)