December 27, 2022 Top Stories
It is Tuesday, December 27. Here are today’s top stories.
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Southwest flight cancellation chaos
News reports said Southwest Airlines cancelled almost 3,000 flights on Monday and hundreds other flights were delayed, which has disrupted over 80% of its schedule. The major winter storm caused many cancellations but other airlines seem to be recovering while Southwest’ problems is persisting. Southwest’s CEO said this is the largest scale event that he’s ever seen and that Southwest will operate about 1/3 of its typical schedule in the next few days to allow crews get into the right positions.
The U.S. Department of Transportation said it considers Southwest’ rate of cancellations “unacceptable” and is concerned that there are complaints about its customer service.
Southwest has apologized and said that 23 out of its 25 top airports were affected by the storm.
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China ends quarantine requirements
China is ending its coronavirus-related requirement for travelers / visitors to be quarantined and isolated for at least eight days after arrival. Beginning on January 8, visitors will only need to show a negative Covid-19 test result from within 48 hours of departure. China has had this quarantine policy in place since March 2020.
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Golfer Kathy Whitworth dies at 83
Kathy Whitworth, who is considered one of the greatest golfer of all time with her 88 wins on the LPGA Tour and six LPGA major championships, passed away on Saturday night on Christmas Eve. She was 83. Her partner said she died suddenly while celebrating the holiday with her family and friends.
She was the first LPGA golfer to earn $1 million in career earnings and she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
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Kari Lake loses election challenge
On Saturday, a judge in Arizona rejected Republican governor candidate Kari Lake’s challenge to overturn the election results that had her losing by about 17,000 votes to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Lake accused election workers in the state of misconduct. The court said it did not find clear and convincing evidence of widespread misconduct.
The court heard testimony that there were problems with printing machines at some polling locations but felt there was no evidence that the problems were some kind of intentional sabotage.
Lake said she would appeal. But Katie Hobbs is set to take office as governor on January 2.
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Tensions in Kosovo
AP News said there are soaring tensions in northern Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians. Serbia put troops near its border. Serbs put roadblocks blocking a main road in Mitrovica, a city that is divided between Serbs who live in Kosovo and ethnic Albanians. Albanians has the majority in Kosovo.
Serbia’s president said he feels that Albanians will attack Serbs in Kosovo so he’s ordered his troops to be prepared for combat and be ready at the border with Kosovo.
AP said tensions started about three weeks ago when a former Kosovo Serb police officer was arrested.
Kosovo officials are concerned that Serbia is trying to cause things to happen to create a pretext for an invasion.
There are about 4,000 NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo and they have been stationed there since the 1999 war. AP said any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would likely result in a clash with NATO forces.
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That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.chron.com/business/article/Southwest-Air-Faces-Gridlock-With-Over-80-of-17678321.php
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/25/golf/kathy-whitworth-golf-obituary/index.html
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/26/business/china-travel-covid-quarantine/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-arizona-katie-hobbs-2a1ef57c4902c8460eaee8ec0bc394d6
https://apnews.com/article/nato-serbia-kosovo-aleksandar-vucic-e062532a7ec35d558b3d72fa6fb20c0d