Wednesday morning news - November 17, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden touts infrastructure bill in NH » President Biden set out Tuesday on a national tour to sell the benefits of the just-signed infrastructure bill. His first stop was a snowy, rusty bridge in New Hampshire.

BIDEN: Thanks to the infrastructure law, we’re going to make the most significant investment to modernize our roads and our bridges in 70 years. The law is going to speed up the replacement of bridges by at least a year and allow New Hampshire to invest in other infrastructure needs.

With his stop in Granite State, Biden returned to a state that gave him no love in last year’s presidential primaries. He left New Hampshire in February of 2020 before polls had even closed on his fifth-place primary finish. But he returned as president, eager to talk up the $1.2 trillion bill he signed into law on Monday.

And the White House says it was just the first of many stops for Biden and other top officials to tout the rollout of the new law.

Retail sales show strong growth despite inflation » Americans largely shrugged off higher prices last month and stepped up their spending at retail stores and online.

Retail sales rose a seasonally adjusted 1.7 percent last month. That's the biggest gain since March. Much of the sales increase also reflected higher prices.

Gus Faucher is chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group. He said spending was up on a wide range of goods.

FAUCHER: We had strength across a lot of different categories: autos, department stores, building materials. So it looks like, despite all the concerns about inflation, consumers are out there spending now.

Americans are also still buying more cars, furniture, and other goods than they did before the pandemic, which is overwhelming U.S. ports and shipping firms and pushing up prices. The solid spending last month suggests the holiday shopping season is off to a strong start.

Solid hiring, strong pay raises, and healthy savings for many households are underpinning robust spending.

U.S. journalist jailed for months in Myanmar lands in New York » American journalist Danny Fenster, who was freed after nearly six months in jail in Myanmar is back at home. He arrived in New York Tuesday for an emotional reunion with his family.

FENSTER: Everything that everybody was able to do within their mandates - this time it worked, and I’m incredibly grateful.

Myanmar’s military-ruled government accused Fenster of supposedly spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations. He was convicted last week and sentenced to 11 years of hard labor.

But Myanmar’s ruling military junta released him to the United States after negotiations with former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson.

Fenster is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials or publishers arrested since the military ousted the elected government in February.

Pfizer to share formula for COVID-19 pill » Pfizer is sharing the formula for its COVID-19 pill across the globe. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has that story.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The company signed a licensing agreement with an UN-backed group called the Medicines Patent Pool. It will distribute Pfizer’s experimental pill known as paxlovid combined with a low dose of an antiviral drug to nearly 100 countries.

Pfizer has repeatedly refused to share its COVID-19 vaccine patent. But under this agreement, it will waive royalties on sales in low-income countries and places where the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency.

Pfizer released results from clinical trials earlier this month. The trial showed paxlovid to be nearly 90 percent effective at preventing hospitalization and death in mild and moderate COVID cases.

Those results are not yet peer reviewed, and U.S. regulators have not yet authorized the treatment.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Violence breaks out at Poland-Belarus border » Roughly 2,000 migrants, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, are stuck between a razor-wire fence on the Polish border and Belarusian security forces.

Polish authorities claim Belarus is preventing migrants from going back into the country and that Balrus is even giving them weapons. The Belarusian regime denies that.

A group of 100 migrants attacked Polish guards at the border on Tuesday morning with stones, broken concrete blocks, and smoke grenades. The Polish Border Guard fought back with water cannons and tear gas. Authorities said seven police officers, one soldier, and one border guard were injured. At least nine migrants have died in the border clashes so far.

Poland says Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko is weaponizing migrants, escorting them to Poland’s border to destabilize the Eastern bloc.

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

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