1 big thing

The World Health Organization yesterday advised people 60 or older to postpone any travel because of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron. The new strain was first identified in South Africa and may have originated there or Botswana, which has led to many countries—including the US—banning travelers from that part of the world.

Guests: Axios' Bryan Walsh and Alayna Treene; Dr. Keith Kocher, emergency physician at University of Michigan Health in Ann Arbor.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Dan Bobkoff, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, Michael Hanf, and David Toledo. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian found Airbnb has more than a dozen homes available for rent in China's Xinjiang region, on land owned by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. for complicity in genocide and forced labor.

Guests: Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Erica Pandey; and CAVA CEO Brett Shulman.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

This Thanksgiving weekend many in the world were reacting to the latest, heavily-mutated Covid-19 variant first detected in Botswana. On Friday, the World Health Organization called the new strain - Omicron - a variant of concern.

There’s a lot we don’t know about this new strain, even as countries around the world are scrambling to get ahead of it with travel bans. But last night, Canada confirmed the first two North American cases of the variant in Ontario.

Guests: Dr. Namandje N. Bumpus, Director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine; and Axios' Sara Fischer and Dave Lawler.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

On this holiday, we've got One Big Thing: what the Axios Today team is thankful for and why. Spend a few minutes with us for our bonus Thanksgiving episode!

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed - a Nobel Peace Prize winning politician - has said he’ll lead troops who are fighting rebels in the Tigray region of the country in what he’s calling "the final fight" to save Ethopia. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is warning of a potential humanitarian crisis there that could destabilize the entire region.

Guests: Axios' Zach Basu, Ben Montgomery and Russell Contreras.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, COVID cases in the U.S. are rising in most states and across the country as a whole: by 20 percent over the past two weeks. That has us asking what role testing is going to play in keeping ourselves and our families safe for the holidays.

Guests: Dr. Leana Wen, emergency physician, former Baltimore health commissioner, and professor of health policy and management at George Washington University; and Axios' Courtenay Brown and Bryan Walsh.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Closing arguments are expected to begin today in the murder trial of Travis and Gregory McMichael and William Bryan, the three men accused of killing Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia. This comes just a few days after Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty in the fatal shooting of two people at demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Though the cases are unfolding in two different parts of the country, they have something in common: all the defendants claim self-defense.

Guests: Caroline Light, author of the book “Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense;” and Axios' Sarah Mucha and Erica Pandey.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Ben O'Brien. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

Go deeper:

In our latest installment of the Hard Truths series examining systemic racism in the U.S., we look at the renewed push to diversify children’s TV shows.

Guests: Axios reporter Oriana Gonzalez.

Credits: “Axios Today” is brought to you by Axios and Pushkin Industries. This episode was produced by Nuria Marquez Martinez and edited by Alexandra Botti. Jeanne Montalvo is our sound engineer. Julia Redpath is our executive producer. Special thanks to editor-in-chief Sara Kehaulani Goo

The FDA is likely to sign off shortly on the Pfizer booster shot for everyone 18 and over, but many cities and states like New York City and California have already made boosters available to all adults. We look at what we do and don't know about who should get boosters and what kind is best.

Guests: Dr. Namandje N. Bumpus, Director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine; and Axios' Dave Lawler and Russell Contreras.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.

More than 100,000 people died of an overdose in the 12 month period ending in April of this year, according to CDC data.

Guests: Andrew Kolodny, medical director for opioid policy research at Brandeis University and Axios' Glen Johnson and Alayna Treene.

Credits: Axios Today is produced in partnership with Pushkin Industries. The team includes Niala Boodhoo, Sara Kehaulani Goo, Julia Redpath, Alexandra Botti, Nuria Marquez Martinez, Alex Sugiura, Sabeena Singhani, Lydia McMullen-Laird, David Toledo and Jayk Cherry. Music is composed by Evan Viola. You can reach us at [email protected]. You can text questions, comments and story ideas to Niala as a text or voice memo to 202-918-4893.