
A pandemic-scarred year ends in darkness -- but with hope on the horizon
CNN
2021 wasn't supposed to end like this.
The year dawned in a blaze of hope that new, effective Covid-19 vaccines -- free and available to all -- would deliver the country from the worst public health emergency in 100 years, in which 350,000 Americans had already died. The promise of a new President, Joe Biden, to shut down the virus rang in the nation's ears after his predecessor had lied about Covid-19's severity, botched the government response and prized his political goals over its health.
But the year ends in a dark place. Hospitals are flooded with Covid-19 patients, the transportation network is seizing up, and a new coronavirus variant -- Omicron -- is finding even the most careful citizens.

Hours after ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro was formally charged with narcoterrorism and other offenses in New York, the Justice Department used the indictment at a federal courthouse 1,300 miles away in its effort to defend President Donald Trump’s ability to use a wartime authority to speed up some deportations.

As US special forces carried out an audacious, night-time raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Friday night, President Donald Trump watched the action unfold from his estate at Mar-a-Lago. Among those at his side was Marco Rubio, his powerful secretary of state and national security advisor.











