Thursday morning news - November 18, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

OSHA suspends enforcement of vaccine mandate for private employers » The Biden administration is backing away from its planned COVID-19 vaccine mandate for many private businesses, at least for now.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is the government agency that would enforce that mandate. In a statement Wednesday, it said it’s abiding by a court order “that OSHA take no steps to implement or enforce” the vaccine requirements “until further court order.”

That after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a stay on the mandate.

OSHA had given companies with more than 100 workers until Jan. 4th to require their indoor workers to be vaccinated or get tested weekly. It said violators could face fines of up to $14,000 per offense.

Iran-backed hackers accused of targeting critical U.S. sectors » Hackers linked to the Iranian government have been targeting a “broad range of victims” inside the United States with ransomware and other attacks. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: American, British and Australian officials issued an advisory on Wednesday. It said that in recent months, Iran has exploited computer vulnerabilities exposed by hackers before they can be fixed. The attacks targeted entities in the transportation, health care and public health sectors.

According to the advisory, the attackers then leveraged the initial hack for additional operations, such as data exfiltration, ransomware and extortion.

Officials say the hackers have used the same Microsoft Exchange vulnerability in Australia.

Microsoft announced Tuesday that it had seen six different groups in Iran deploying ransomware since last year.

The warning is notable because even though ransomware attacks remain prevalent, most of the significant ones in the past year were linked to Russia-based groups rather than Iranian hackers.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

UN atomic watchdog: Iran further raising nuclear stockpile » Iran continues to ramp up its nuclear program. The United Nations' atomic watchdog says it believes that Iran has further increased its stockpile of highly enriched uranium in breach of its 2015 accord with world powers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency warned member nations in its confidential quarterly report Wednesday. It said Iran has an estimated stock of 39 pounds of highly enriched uranium, which can be easily refined to make atomic weapons.

But the IAEA is unable to verify Iran’s exact stockpile of enriched uranium as Iran is no longer cooperating with inspectors.

U.S. overdose deaths top 100,000 in one year » For the first time ever, estimated drug overdose deaths topped 100,000 in the United States in a 12-month period.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Wednesday…

BECERRA: I think it’s time we just recognize that we’ve been struggling in trying to deal with this epidemic. And since COVID-19 hit it’s gotten worse.

The CDC estimated on Wednesday that 100,300 people died of a drug overdose between May 2020 and April 2021. That’s an increase of nearly 30 percent from the same period one year earlier.

The death toll rose in all but four states. And Kentucky, Vermont, and West Virginia, reported increases of more than 50 percent.

Opioids accounted for 75 percent of overdose deaths. The drug supply has become more dangerous because suppliers lace methamphetamines and cocaine with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid.

Sec. Austin calls out Russia for endangering space station » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called out Russia on Wednesday for endangering the International Space Station.

A Russian weapons test sent more than 1,500 pieces of debris flying through space. Russia insists the debris is not a threat to the space station. Secretary Austin disagreed.

AUSTIN: It’s a safety concern, and so we would call on Russia to act more responsibly going forward.

U.S. officials on Monday said Russia destroyed an old satellite with a missile in what they called a reckless and irresponsible strike.

According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, astronauts now face four times greater risk than normal from space junk.

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

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