Friday morning news - November 12, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kristen Flavin. 

Biden administration to study lung conditions in veterans » The Biden administration announced a new initiative Thursday to study the effects of toxic exposure on military veterans.

President Biden noted the effort during the Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

BIDEN: We’re going to work with Congress, Republicans and Democrats together, to make sure our veterans receive the world-class benefits that they’ve earned, and meet the sacred and specific care, specific needs, that they each, individually need. That means expanding presumptive conditions for toxic exposure.

The new initiative focuses on lung problems suffered by troops exposed to toxins and poor air quality. It will also examine links between rare cancers and time spent on overseas deployments.

The president’s son, Beau Biden, served in Iraq and later died of aggressive brain cancer. The president has suggested a potential link between his son’s cancer and the toxins released by burn pits the military uses to dispose of waste.

BIDEN: We have many obligations, but one truly sacred obligation: to properly prepare those and equip those who we send into harm’s way and care for them and their families while they’re both deployed and when they return home.

The new initiative will make it easier for service members to make claims based on their symptoms. And it changes the way the government determines which symptoms count, and why.

States sue over healthcare worker vax mandate » Ten states are suing the Biden administration over its requirement for healthcare workers to get the COVID-19 vaccination. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The lawsuit filed in federal court in Missouri contends the vaccine mandate could “exacerbate an alarming shortage” of healthcare workers, especially in rural communities.

It challenges a rule issued last week by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The new vaccine requirement covers more than 17 million workers in health care facilities and home health care providers that get federal funding.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed the lawsuit. He called the mandate “a blatant attempt to federalize public health issues involving vaccination that belong within the States’ police power.”

Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming joined Missouri in filing the lawsuit.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Boeing accepts liability in Ethiopian Airways crash » Boeing has agreed to accept responsibility for the 2019 crash in Ethiopia that killed 157 people.

The Ethiopian Airways flight lost control shortly after takeoff from the airport in Addis Ababa. Investigators blamed faulty software on the 737-Max aircraft that forced the plane into a nosedive. Pilots tried unsuccessfully to regain control before the crash.

In court documents filed Wednesday, the company admitted the software caused the crash and that the 737-Max was not safe to fly. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the planes for two years while the company worked to fix the problem.

During a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, FAA administrator Steve Dickson said the agency is keeping a much closer eye on the manufacturer.

DICKSON: Boeing is not the same as it was two years ago, but they have more work to do.

Boeing’s admission of responsibility in the Ethiopia crash clears the way for victims' families to pursue individual claims in U.S. courts. The company also faces lawsuits stemming from another 737-Max crash six months earlier in Indonesia. It killed 189 people.

F.W. de Klerk dies » F.W. de Klerk—the former president who ended apartheid in South Africa—has died. He was 85 years old.

De Klerk had only been in office for five months when he announced the end of white minority rule in February 1990. In a speech to parliament, de Klerk said he would free Nelson Mandela from prison and lift the ban on anti-apartheid political parties.

Four years later, black South Africans voted for the first time and Mandela became the country’s first black president.

The two men shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

Despite international recognition for his efforts, de Klerk remained a controversial figure. In a video address recorded not long before his death, de Klerk addressed his critics.

DE KLERK: I, without qualification, apologise for the pain and the hurt and the indignity and the damage that apartheid has done to Black, Brown and Indians in South Africa.

Current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the apartheid policies de Klerk's National Party enforced wreaked havoc on millions. But he said de Klerk would be remembered for the courage he showed in stepping away from that path.

I’m Kristen Flavin. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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