Texts show Republican leaders asked Mark Meadows to urge then-President Donald Trump to condemn the riot Jan. 6. A pill shows positive signs in the fight against COVID-19. And 12 children were among the dozens killed after the devastating tornado in Kentucky. 
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“It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.” Donald Trump Jr. texted to his father’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, urging him to tell President Donald Trump to condemn the riot Jan. 6. Trump Jr., a number of Republicans in Congress and Fox News program hosts were among those who implored Meadows to help stop the riot, according to the committee investigating the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The committee voted unanimously Monday to recommend the House cite Meadows for contempt and urge the Justice Department to prosecute him criminally. The full House vote could come within days and a Justice Department decision within weeks. 
Pfizer’s antiviral drug could be the next key in fighting COVID-19. A five-day course of Paxlovid pills reduced hospitalization or death among high-risk people by 89%, according to a final analysis of a previously released study conducted by the drugmaker. The drug was tested on people who were not vaccinated but is expected to protect people who have so-called breakthrough infections after vaccination. An FDA advisory committee recommended a different COVID-19 antiviral from Merck, but unlike that drug, Paxlovid will not cause the kind of genetic mutations in the virus that worried some on the committee.
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Kentuckians as young as 2 months and as old as 98 were among the dead in the devastating tornadoes that ripped through the state over the weekend and leveled communities. Gov. Andy Beshear announced the death toll did not rise Tuesday, but he does expect it to rise in the coming days since more than 100 people are missing. Across five states, at least 88 were killed as a series of tornadoes tore a path of destruction from Arkansas to Illinois. Beshear said the extreme weather will “probably be one of the most devastating tornado events in U.S. history.”
The Air Force discharged 27 people for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, making them what officials said are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the mandate to get the shots. The Pentagon required all members of the military to be vaccinated and allowed each of the services to set their own deadlines and procedures. The Air Force gave its forces until Nov. 2 to get vaccinated, and thousands either refused or sought an exemption. None of the 27 airmen sought a medical, administrative or religious exemption, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said. 
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