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Thursday 31 December 2020
New top story from Time: Evidence of U.K. Coronavirus Strain Found in Florida Man
MIAMI — Florida health authorities late Thursday reported finding evidence of the latest U.S. case of the new and apparently more contagious coronavirus strain first seen in England, saying it was detected in a man with no recent travel history.
The case, disclosed in a Florida Health Department statement tweeted on its HealthyFla site, comes after reports in recent days of two individual cases of the United Kingdom strain of Covid-19 discovered in Colorado and California.
Florida’s health statement said the new virus variant was detected in a man in his 20s in Martin County, which abuts the Atlantic Coast above densely populated South Florida. It said its experts were working with the Atlanta-based federal Centers for Disease Control on investigating the case.
The health department did not give further details, such as releasing the man’s medical condition or how the strain was detected.
California on Wednesday announced the nation’s second confirmed case of the new virus strain. The announcement came 24 hours after word of the first reported U.S. variant infection, which emerged in Colorado — in a Colorado National Guardsman who had been sent to help out at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak.
Scientists in the U.K. believe the variant is more contagious than previously identified strains. The cases have triggered questions about how the version circulating in England arrived in the U.S. and whether it is too late to stop it now, with top experts saying it is probably already spreading elsewhere in the United States.
The Florida Health Department also tweeted late Thursday that experts anticipate little to no impact on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccinations being rolled out in a state grappling with overwhelming demand for the vaccines from its large senior population.
Also Thursday, state officials reported the highest daily jump in COVID-19 cases ever detected in Florida. The state’s Department of Health reported 17,192 new cases on the last day of 2020 and 133 new deaths, raising the toll to 21,857.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that people 65 and older — more than 4 million of Florida’s 21 million population — would be prioritized over essential workers to receive the vaccine. But hospitals and health departments have been struggling to keep up with the demand.
People have clogged hotlines to book appointments, and some seniors have camped out overnight outside vaccination sites, leading some hospitals to hit pause on scheduling further shots.
Traffic event stretched nearly half a mile from the Health Department’s headquarters near the St. Johns County municipal complex in St. Augustine, where some people said they waited hours for the shot.
DeSantis has begged for patience from anxious seniors, saying vaccine supplies are still limited. But the top state official overseeing the vaccine distribution also acknowledged the systems set up for vaccine distribution in the state “aren’t meeting the moment.”
Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel that the state has directed distribution of about 700,000 dosages of the cocktail, but only about a quarter of those have been used so far.
“That tells me there are vaccines sitting in freezers … we want all of our partners to know it’s their jobs to get the vaccine out there,” Moskowitz said.
Moskowitz also expressed frustration with the federal government for sending limited information on the amount of doses that will be sent, which has complicated state planning.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 hospitalizations are still rising. The state’s hospital bed census tallied 6,352 coronavirus patients by late Thursday morning, a slight increase from Wednesday’s figure of 6,331, but much larger than the daily totals in October.
MarÃa Elvira Salazar, a Republican who defeated Democratic U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala in November, learned she was infected with the virus during an emergency trip to the hospital for treatment of heart arrhythmia.
Salazar was treated, released and will be quarantined for at least 14 days and miss Sunday’s swearing-in ceremony of the 117th Congress in Washington, her office announced Thursday.
In a tweet, Salazar said: “I am in quarantine at home & getting better each day. I look forward to hitting the ground running for my community, once it is medically permissible.”
___
Associated Press writer Bill Cormier in Atlanta contributed to this report.
New top story from Time: Britain Ends Its Long Brexit Journey With an Economic Break From the E.U.
LONDON — Britain’s long and sometimes acrimonious divorce from the European Union ended Thursday with an economic split that leaves the EU smaller and the U.K. freer but more isolated in a turbulent world.
Britain left the European bloc’s vast single market for people, goods and services at 11 p.m. London time, midnight in Brussels, completing the biggest single economic change the country has experienced since World War II. A different U.K.-EU trade deal will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for British Brexit supporters, it means reclaiming national independence from the EU and its web of rules.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for Brexit helped push the country out of the EU, called it “an amazing moment for this country.”
“We have our freedom in our hands, and it is up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Year’s video message.
The break comes 11 months after a political Brexit that left the two sides in the limbo of a “transition period” — like a separated couple still living together, wrangling and wondering whether they can remain friends. Now the U.K. has finally moved out.
It was a day some had longed for and others dreaded since Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU, but it turned out to be something of an anticlimax. U.K. lockdown measures to curb the coronavirus curtailed mass gatherings to celebrate or mourn the moment, though a handful of Brexit supporters defied the restrictions to raise a toast outside Parliament as the Big Ben bell sounded 11 times on the hour.
A free trade agreement sealed on Christmas Eve after months of tense negotiations ensures that Britain and the 27-nation EU can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. That should help protect the 660 billion pounds ($894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.
But companies face sheaves of new costs and paperwork, including customs declarations and border checks. Traders are struggling to digest the new rules imposed by the 1,200-page trade deal.
The English Channel port of Dover and the Eurotunnel passenger and freight route braced for delays as the new measures were introduced, though the pandemic and a holiday weekend meant cross-Channel traffic was light, with only a trickle of trucks arriving at French border posts in Calais as 2020 ended. The vital supply route was snarled for days after France closed its border to U.K. truckers for 48 hours last week in response to a fast-spreading variant of the virus identified in England.
The British government insisted that “the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place, and we are ready for the U.K.’s new start.”
But freight companies were holding their breath. Youngs Transportation in the U.K. suspended services to the EU until Jan. 11 “to let things settle.”
“We figure it gives the country a week or so to get used to all of these new systems in and out, and we can have a look and hopefully resolve any issues in advance of actually sending our trucks,” said the company’s director, Rob Hollyman.
The services sector, which makes up 80% of Britain’s economy, does not even know what the rules will be for business with the EU in 2021. Many of the details have yet to be hammered out. Months and years of further discussion and argument over everything from fair competition to fish quotas lie ahead as Britain and the EU settle into their new relationship as friends, neighbors and rivals.
Hundreds of millions of individuals in Britain and the bloc also face changes to their daily lives. Britons and EU citizens have lost the automatic right to live and work in the other’s territory. From now on, they will have to follow immigration rules and obtain work visas. Tourists face new headaches including from travel insurance and pet paperwork.
For some in Britain, including the prime minister, it’s a moment of pride and a chance for the U.K. to set new diplomatic and economic priorities. Johnson said the U.K. was now “free to do trade deals around the world, and free to turbocharge our ambition to be a science superpower.”
Conservative lawmaker Bill Cash, who has campaigned for Brexit for decades, said it was a “victory for democracy and sovereignty.”
That’s not a view widely shared across the Channel. In the French president’s traditional New Year’s address, Emmanuel Macron expressed regret.
“The United Kingdom remains our neighbor but also our friend and ally,” he said. “This choice of leaving Europe, this Brexit, was the child of European malaise and lots of lies and false promises.”
The divorce could also have major constitutional repercussions for the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland, remains more closely tied to the bloc’s economy under the divorce terms, a status that could pull it away from the rest of the U.K.
In Scotland, which voted strongly in 2016 to remain, Brexit has bolstered support for separation from the U.K. The country’s pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.”
Many in Britain felt apprehension about a leap into the unknown that is taking place during a pandemic that has upended life around the world.
“I feel very sad that we’re leaving,” said Jen Pearcy-Edwards, a filmmaker in London. “I think that COVID has overshadowed everything that is going on. But I think the other thing that has happened is that people feel a bigger sense of community, and I think that makes it even sadder that we’re breaking up our community a bit, by leaving our neighbours in Europe.
“I’m hopeful that we find other ways to rebuild ties,” she said.
___
Associated Press writers Renee Graham in London and John Leicester in Le Pecq, France, contributed to this report.
New top story from Time: California’s Hospitals Are at the ‘Brink of Catastrophe’ as the State Passes 25,000 Dead
LOS ANGELES — California surpassed 25,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, reporting the grim milestone Thursday as an ongoing surge swamps hospitals and pushes nurses and doctors to the breaking point as they brace for another likely increase after the holidays.
“We’re exhausted and it’s the calm before the storm,” said Jahmaal Willis, a nurse and emergency room leader at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. “It’s like we’re fighting a war, a never-ending war, and we’re running out of ammo. We have to get it together before the next fight.”
Public health officials continued to plead with residents just hours before the start of 2021 not to gather for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
In Los Angeles County, where an average of six people die every hour from COVID-19, the Department of Public Health tweeted out snippets every 10 minutes on lives that have been lost.
“The hair stylist who worked for 20 years to finally open her own shop.”
“A grandmother who loved to sing to her grandchildren.”
“The bus driver who put her daughter through college and was beaming with pride.”
The tweets, which included messages to wear a mask, physically distance, stay home and “Slow the spread. Save a life,” came on a day when the county reported a record 290 deaths. That would be a rate of one death every five minutes, though it included a backlog.
Los Angeles County, which has a quarter of the state’s 40 million residents, has had 40% of the deaths in California, the third state to reach the 25,000 death count. New York has had nearly 38,000 deaths, and Texas has had more than 27,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Infections are spreading rapidly and California confirmed Wednesday that it found a second reported U.S. case of a mutant variant of the coronavirus that appears to be more contagious. It’s not clear where the 30-year-old San Diego man was infected with the variant or if it had led to any wider spread of the disease.
Hospitals, particularly in Southern California and the agricultural San Joaquin Valley in the middle of the state, have been overrun with virus patients and don’t have any more intensive care unit beds for COVID-19 patients.
In Los Angeles County, hospitals have been pushed “to the brink of catastrophe,” said Dr. Christina Ghaly, health services director. “This is simply not sustainable. Not just for our hospitals, for our entire health system.”
Cathy Chidester, director of the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, said hospitals are facing problems with oxygen with so many COVID-19 patients needing it because they are struggling to breathe. Older hospitals are having difficulty maintaining oxygen pressure in aging infrastructure and some are scrambling to locate additional oxygen tanks for discharged patients to take home.
Ambulances are being forced to wait in bays as long as eight hours before they can transfer patients inside hospitals — and in some cases, doctors are treating patients inside ambulances, she said.
At Providence St. Mary Medical Center, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, there is a cacophany of alarms that sound when a patient’s heart stops and a constant hiss from the oxygen keeping so many alive, Willis said. The hospital has filled the triage area with beds and is assessing new arrivals in the parking lot. Three dozen patients were waiting to be admitted.
“We’re overflowing,” Willis said. “We’re treating patients in chairs, we’re treating patients in the hallways.”
In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, only 8% of ICU beds were available, which is better than many places. Hospitals are still “stretched to the limit,” said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, county director of healthcare preparedness.
Two months ago, the county had 4.5 cases per 100,000 people. Now it has 50 cases per 100,000.
“What we are seeing now is not normal,” Kamal said. “It is an order of magnitude more than we saw just two months ago. We are not out of the woods. We are in the thick of the woods. And we all need to redouble our efforts.”
Kamal said the one bit of good news was that hospitals hadn’t felt the additional pressure of new cases after Christmas that they did after Thanksgiving, which has led to the current surge.
But public health officials fear a double-whammy from people who gathered at Christmas and New Year’s will create a surge upon a surge. They made their final pleas to persuade people to stay home on what is typically one of the biggest party nights of the year.
“We recognize the temptation and the frustration,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “You may simply want to stray for one night to celebrate with friends. However, all it takes is one slip to have one exposure and the coronavirus has found another host, another victim, and our dangerous surge continues.”
Most of the state is under a 10 p.m. curfew and newly extended restrictions that have closed or reduced capacity of businesses. People people are being urged to stay home as much as possible to try to slow the spread of infections.
Police in Los Angeles will be patrolling streets and looking to shut down large New Year’s Eve gatherings, Mayor Eric Garcetti said. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria issued an executive order directing stricter enforcement of state and local public health rules.
New top story from Time: New Year’s Revelries Are Muted by Coronavirus as the Curtain Draws on 2020
This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other in most of the world, with many bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.
From the South Pacific to New York City, pandemic restrictions on open air gatherings saw people turning to made-for-TV fireworks displays or packing it in early since they could not toast the end of 2020 in the presence of friends or carousing strangers.
As midnight rolled from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, Africa and the Americas, the New Year’s experience mirrored national responses to the virus itself. Some countries and cities canceled or scaled back their festivities, while others without active outbreaks carried on like any other year.
Australia was among the first to ring in 2021. In past years, 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks. This time, most watched on television as authorities urged residents to stay home to see the seven minutes of pyrotechnics that lit up the Sydney Harbor Bridge and its surroundings.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populated city, called off its annual fireworks show to discourage crowds. Officials in London made the same decision. And while the ball was set to drop in New York’s Times Square like always, police fenced off the site synonymous with New Year’s Eve.
Another of the world’s most popular places to be on December 31, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, pressed ahead with its revelry despite a surge of infections. Images of masked health care workers briefly lit up Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, before fireworks exploded in the sky over the building. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets and squares marked out for social distancing were largely ignored.
Still, the pandemic robbed the night of its freewheeling spirit. Authorities implemented a raft of anti-virus measures to control rowdy crowds in downtown Dubai. At luxury bars and restaurants, music blared and people drank, but dancing was strictly prohibited.
For some, the restrictions spoiled the fun.
“People come to Dubai because it’s open, but there are so many rules,” said Bashir Shehu, 50, who was visiting from Nigeria with his family. “We pray that next year we can celebrate with some real freedom.”
South Africans were urged to cancel parties and light candles to honor health workers and people who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In many European countries, authorities warned they were ready to clamp down on revelers breaching public health rules, including nightly curfews in France, Italy, Turkey, Latvia, the Czech Republic, and Greece.
“No one will be on the streets after 10 p.m. (Athens) will be a dead city to make sure no more restrictions are imposed,” said Greece’s public order minister, Michalis Chrisohoidis.
France’s government flooded the streets with 100,000 law enforcement officers to enforce the nationwide curfew.
A few families gathered in Madrid’s sunny central Puerta de Sol square to listen to the rehearsal of the traditional ringing of the bells that is held at midnight. They followed the Spanish custom of eating 12 grapes with each stroke of the bells before police cleared the area that normally hosts thousands of revelers.
As the clock struck midnight, fireworks erupted over Moscow’s Red Square and the Acropolis in Athens, but the explosions echoed across largely empty streets as people obeyed orders to stay home.
From Berlin to Brussels, normally raucous celebrations were muted by the pandemic.
Even the British government, keen to celebrate the U.K.’s definitive split from the EU, ran ads imploring the public to “see in the New Year safely at home” amid a record number of newly confirmed cases.
In Scotland, which prides itself on Dec. 31 Hogmanay celebrations, the government detailed what it expected not to see.
“No gatherings, no house parties, no first-footing. Instead, we should bring in 2021 in our own homes with just our own households,” Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said.
Many around the world looked toward 2021 with hope, partly due to the arrival of vaccines that offer a chance of beating the pandemic.
“Goodbye, 2020. Here comes something better: 2021,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
While there won’t be crowds in Times Square, the mayor pledged that the city, which has recorded over 25,000 deaths from the virus, would rebound next year.
More than 1.8 million deaths worldwide have been linked to the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
Some leaders, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, used their New Year’s address to thank citizens for enduring hardship during the lockdown and critize those who defied the rules. Others, like Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella, flew the flag for science, urging citizens to discard their fears about getting immunized against COVID-19.
“Faced with an illness so highly contagious, which causes so many deaths, it’s necessary to protect one’s own health and it’s dutiful to protect those of the others – family members, friends, colleagues,’’’ said Mattarella, 79.
In Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro, where official fireworks and celebrations also were canceled to limit the rapid spread of the virus, police officers braced for what promised to be a long night.
Rio officials decided to seal off Copacabana, where millions of people dressed in white usually gather on the beach to marvel at fireworks and attend large concerts. This year, between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. on Jan. 1, only local residents will be able to access the city’s iconic shore, authorities said.
In South Korea, Seoul’s city government canceled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since the event was first held in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War.
New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors that also have no active COVID-19 cases held their usual New Year’s activities.
In Chinese societies, the virus ensured more muted celebrations of the solar New Year, which is less widely observed than the Lunar New Year that in 2021 will fall in February. Initial reports about a mystery respiratory illness sickening people in the Chinese city of Wuhan emerged exactly a year ago.
___
Jordans reported from Bonn, Germany, and Gatopoulos from Athens, Greece. AP reporters around the world contributed to this report.
New top story from Time: Here’s Everything New on Netflix in January 2021—And What’s Leaving
Enter the new year with mindfulness with the debut of Netflix’s newest original series, Headspace Guide to Meditation. The animated show focuses on the benefits of mediation, while providing real-life techniques and guided practices for you to try at home. It’s available to stream starting January 1.
Documentary lovers will have plenty to stream this month. Cultural commentator Fran Lebowitz offers up her signature sardonic wit in a new Netflix Original documentary series Pretend It’s a City, directed by Martin Scorsese. In the new show, releasing on January 8, Lebowitz gives a riotously opinionated guide to New York City, with topics ranging from tourists to the subway. Also debuting this month is Rudy Valdez’s We Are the Brooklyn Saints, a four-part Netflix Original doc series that centers on a youth football program in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York, as well as Surviving Death, a new original series that explores the possibility of an afterlife.
Those looking for an educational (but by no means boring) experience this month should consider a History of Swear Words. With this in-depth, expletive-ridden and outrageously funny series hosted by Nicholas Cage, the origins of common profanities are explored by experts in etymology, pop culture, historians and entertainers. It debuts on January 5.
Here’s everything new on Netflix this month—and everything set to leave the streaming platform.
Here are the Netflix originals coming to Netflix in January 2021
Available January 1
Dream Home Makeover, season 2
Headspace Guide to Meditation
The Minimalists: Less Is Now
Monarca, season 2
What Happened to Mr. Cha?
Available January 2
Asphalt Burning (Børning 3)
Available January 5
Gabby’s Dollhouse
History of Swear Words
¡Nailed It! México, season 3
Available January 6
Ratones Paranoicos: The Band that Rocked Argentina
Surviving Death
Tony Parker: The Final Shot
Available January 7
Pieces of a Woman
Available January 8
Charming
The Idhun Chronicles: Part 2
Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons, season 5
Lupin
Mighty Little Bheem: Kite Festival
Pretend It’s a City
Stuck Apart (Azizler)
Available January 11
CRACK: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
Available January 13
Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer
Available January 15
Bling Empire
Carmen Sandiego, season 4
Disenchantment: Part 3
Double Dad (Pai Em Dobro)
Outside the Wire
Available January 19
Hello Ninja, season 4
Available January 20
Daughter From Another Mother (Madre solo hay dos)
Spycraft
Available January 21
Call My Agent!, season 4
Available January 22
Blown Away, season 2
Busted!, season 3
Fate: The Winx Saga
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, season 2
So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (Salir del ropero)
The White Tiger
Available January 23
Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)
Available January 26
Go Dog Go
Available January 27
Penguin Bloom
Available January 29
Below Zero (Bajocero)
The Dig
Finding ‘Ohana
We Are: The Brooklyn Saints
Here are the TV shows and movies coming to Netflix in January 2021
Available January 1
17 Again
30 Minutes or Less
Abby Hatcher, season 1
Blue Streak
Bonnie and Clyde
Can’t Hardly Wait
Catch Me If You Can
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cool Hand Luke
The Creative Brain
The Departed
Enter the Dragon
Gimme Shelter
Good Hair
Goodfellas
Gothika
The Haunted Hathaways, seasons 1-2
Into the Wild
Julie & Julia
Mud
Mystic Pizza
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
Eddie Murphy: Raw
Sex and the City: The Movie
Sex and the City 2
Sherlock Holmes
Striptease
Superbad
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Available January 5
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
LA’s Finest, season 1
Available January 10
Spring Breakers
Available January 11
The Intouchables
Available January 12
Last Tango in Halifax, season 4
Available January 13
An Imperfect Murder
Available January 15
Henry Danger, seasons 1-3
Hook
Kuroko’s Basketball, season 1
The Magicians, season 5
Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie
Pinkfong & Baby Shark’s Space Adventure
Available January 16
A Monster Calls
Radium Girls
Available January 18
Homefront
Available January 20
Sightless
Available January 27
Accomplice
Available January 31
Fatima
Here’s what’s leaving Netflix in January 2021
Leaving January 1
Bloodsport
Leaving January 3
QB1: Beyond the Lights, season 2
Leaving January 4
Mara
Leaving January 5
The Monster
Leaving January 7
The Tudors, seasons 1-4
Leaving January 8
Mary Poppins Returns
Leaving January 14
Haven, seasons 1-5
The Master
Leaving January 15
A Serious Man
Dallas Buyers Club
Waco: Limited Series
Leaving January 16
Friday Night Tykes, seasons 1-4
Leaving January 20
Fireplace 4K: Classic Crackling Fireplace from Fireplace for Your Home
Fireplace 4K: Crackling Birchwood from Fireplace for Your Home
Fireplace for Your Home: Season
Leaving January 24
When Calls the Heart, seasons 1-5
Leaving January 26
We Are Your Friends
Leaving January 29
Swiss Army Man
Leaving January 30
The Hundred-Foot Journey
Leaving January 31
A Thin Line Between Love & Hate
Braxton Family Values, seasons 1-2
Death at a Funeral
Employee of the Month
For Colored Girls
Malicious
Mr. Deeds
Pineapple Express
New top story from Time: Here’s What’s New on Amazon Prime in January 2021
Start off the new year with the thrilling last season of Vikings, which begins streaming on Amazon Prime Video on December 30. Ahead of watching the final 10 episodes, viewers can catch up on the last six seasons, also available on the platform, following the epic adventures of these Nordic raiders and explorers of the Dark Ages.
Oscar, Golden Globe, and Emmy-winning actress Regina King makes her directorial debut with the Amazon Original movie One Night in Miami, a feature based on the Kemp Powers stage play of the same name, that imagines a fictional meetup between Malcom X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. It begins streaming on January 15.
Other Amazon Original projects hitting the streaming platform this month include Herself, an intimate drama about a single mother looking to create a home for her and her two young children, and Flack, a new series starring Academy Award winner Anna Paquin, that centers on the trials and tribulations of a crew of celebrity publicists.
Those looking for a cozy movie night this winter are in luck; there are plenty of both new releases and old favorites joining the platform this month. The Tiffany Haddish-fronted comedy Like a Boss begins streaming on January 1, while cult classics like A Night at the Roxbury and St. Elmo’s Fire will be available to watch starting this month.
Here are all the series and movies available on Amazon Prime Video this month.
Here are the new Amazon Prime Video originals in January 2021
Available January 8
Herself
Available January 15
One Night in Miami
Available January 22
Flack
Jessy and Nessy
Available Early 2021
The Great Escapists
Here are the movies streaming on Amazon Prime Video in January 2021
Available January 1
1900
A Night At The Roxbury
Arachnophobia
Bloody Sunday
Broken Arrow
Brothers
Chaplin
Cloverfield
Coneheads
Confessions Of A Shopaholic
Donnie Brasco
Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
Escape From Alcatraz
Eve’s Bayou
Face/Off
Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell
Girl Most Likely
Good Luck Chuck
Gun Duel In Durango
Gunfight At The O.K. Corral
In & Out
Jazz
Kiss The Girls
Last Of The Mohicans
Legion
Like A Boss
Love The Coopers
Major League
Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World
Peggy Sue Got Married
Places In The Heart
Premonition
Pride
Push
Regarding Henry
Ride Out For Revenge
Salt
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Signs
Soul Food
St. Elmo’s Fire
Starman
Star Trek Beyond
The Brass Legend
The Brothers Mcmullen
The Cooler
The Devil’s Own
The Firm
The Interview
The Legend Of Bagger Vance
The Longest Yard
The Peacemaker
The Quick And The Dead
The Sons Of Katie Elder
The Town
The Truman Show
Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
Vampire In Brooklyn
Virtuosity
Walking Tall
War
When A Man Loves A Woman
Where Hope Grows
Wonder Boys
Available January 6
Mighty Oak
Available January 7
Gretel & Hansel
Available January 8
The Silencing
Available January 11
The Rhythm Section
Available January 18
Alone
Available January 29
Chick Fight
Mortal
Here are the TV shows streaming on Amazon Prime Video in January 2021
Available December 30
Vikings, season 6B
Available January 1
Ancient Civilizations of North America, season 1
Baby Looney Tunes, season 1
Beecham House, season 1
Bringing up Bates, season 1
Changing Body Composition through Diet and Exercise, season 1
Commandments, season 1
Dexter, seasons 1-8
I Survived . . . Beyond and Back, season 1
Rocco Schiavone: Ice Cold Murders, season 1
Simply Ming, season 14
Texas Metal, season 1
The Universe, season 1
Available January 15
Tandav, season 1
Available January 18
Pandora, season 2
Available January 19
Grantchester, season 5
New top story from Time: What Long Flu Sufferers of the 1918-1919 Pandemic Can Tell Us About Long COVID Today
“We were leaden-footed for weeks, to the point where each step meant a determined effort,” Miss Goring recalled. “It also was very difficult to remember any simple thing, even for five minutes.”
Miss Goring was describing the period of her convalescence after the 1918 flu pandemic, which she lived through in her native South Africa. Her memories form part of a collection published by South African historian Howard Phillips on the centenary of that disaster. It’s not the only one. Another collection published around the same time by New Zealand historian Geoffrey Rice is also littered with references to long-term symptoms of that flu—from “loss of muscular energy” to “nervous complications.” Some convalescents, recalled a Dr. Jamieson who worked at a hospital in Nelson, on New Zealand’s South Island, “passed through a period of apathy and depression,” or experienced tremor, restlessness, or sleeplessness.
What’s striking about reading these accounts ten months into a new pandemic, is the historical echo they provide of “Long Covid”—that mysterious affliction, or afflictions, that dogs some patients who were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus long after any initial symptoms have subsided, and apparently long after the virus has left their body. “Day 163 post Covid,” tweeted one Long Covid sufferer on Sept. 16. “I managed to walk for 20 mins without chest pain while keeping my heart rate below 120.”
One definition of Long Covid is “not recovering [for] several weeks or months following the start of symptoms that were suggestive of Covid, whether you were tested or not.” It’s an unavoidably woolly definition, until research elucidates the various post-COVID-19 syndromes that Long Covid almost certainly comprises. But in the meantime, it does the job of giving sufferers a label, so that they are more likely to be taken seriously and treated—to the extent that medicine has any treatment to offer them—and which recognises that the the virus can cause chronic symptoms that are distinct from the indirect impact on health of the pandemic’s social or economic fallout.
Research into Long Covid is getting underway—belatedly, because some sufferers were never hospitalized, not having experienced the severe respiratory symptoms that can characterise the acute disease—but for now there are more questions about it than answers. Nobody knows what proportion of those infected with the virus experience lingering symptoms, for example, and the bewildering diversity of those symptoms is only now becoming apparent. Profound fatigue is probably the most common, but others include breathlessness, aches, palpitations, rashes, and pins and needles. No tissue or organ seems to be spared—something that comes as no surprise to Debby van Riel.
A virologist at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, van Riel has spent years studying how flu causes ravages beyond the respiratory tract. She has done so in human cells grown in a dish, in animal models and in patients—trying to capture, from the different angles these offer, the complex cascade of biochemical events that infection with various subtypes of the influenza A virus sets off in the body’s tissues.
Her subjects have included H5N1, the aggressive “bird” flu that—until last year—was considered a leading candidate for the cause of the next pandemic, the H1N1 “swine” flu that caused the most recent flu pandemic, in 2009, and the mother of them all, the virus that caused the so-called “Spanish” flu pandemic of 1918. Earlier this year, van Riel switched her attention to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and saw that—though it behaves differently from flu—it too has effects far beyond the respiratory tract. “At least in its severe form, we should consider COVID-19 a systemic disease,” she says—something that is also true of flu.
Given these similarities, perhaps history can offer us some insights into what to expect from Long Covid. “The incapacity caused by the flu and its after-effects seriously affected the country’s economy for some time,” wrote Phillips in 1990, in Black October, his comprehensive study of the 1918 epidemic in South Africa. In what is now Tanzania, to the north, post-viral syndrome has been blamed for triggering the worst famine in a century—the so-called “famine of corms”—after debilitating lethargy prevented flu survivors from planting when the rains came at the end of 1918. “Agriculture suffered particular disruption because, not only did the epidemic coincide with the planting season in some parts of the country, but in others it came at the time for harvesting and sheep-shearing.” Kathleen Brant, who lived on a farm in Taranaki, New Zealand, told Rice, the historian, about the “legion” problems farmers in her district encountered following the pandemic, even though all patients survived: “The effects of loss of production were felt for a long time.”
A century ago, a greater proportion of the world’s economy was derived from agriculture, but it wasn’t only agriculture that was affected. Phillips recounts the case of a train driver who was involved in an accident in 1919 who later explained that he suffered a blackout while at the controls: “He claimed that this was the after-effect of an attack of Spanish flu the previous year, which had left him ‘never… quite the same since.’” Similar reports came from all over the world. British doctors noted that cases of nervous disorders including “melancholia”—what we would call depression—showed a marked increase in 1919 and 1920. Schoolteachers lamented that it would take their pupils months or years to recover lost ground.
The trouble with discussing the 1918 pandemic is that it overlapped with World War I, making it difficult if not impossible to determine the relative contributions of the two disasters to any subsequent wave of lethargy or mental illness (the pandemic – like today’s – might also have had indirect effects on health, due to the bereavement and social upheaval it brought in its wake). Studies from countries that were neutral in the war, such as Norway, are therefore invaluable, since they afford a glimpse of the impact of the pandemic that is uncomplicated by that of the war. Norwegian demographer Svenn-Erik Mamelund provided such evidence when he combed the records of psychiatric institutions in his country to show that the average number of admissions showed a seven-fold increase in each of the six years following the pandemic, compared to earlier, non-pandemic years.
As precious as such findings are, we need to be cautious in interpreting them. For one thing, there’s no way of demonstrating, retrospectively, a causal link between the flu and the psychiatric illnesses those patients were suffering from. For another, the taboos around mental illness, as strong if not stronger then than now, mean the numbers may not accurately reflect the extent of the phenomenon. Although it’s almost impossible to gauge how common “Long Flu” was in the years after 1918, the working assumption is that it affected only a small proportion of survivors—and this is also the working assumption regarding Long Covid, on the basis of still-sketchy data.
Nevertheless, given the tens of millions who have already been infected by SARS-CoV-2, even a small minority could amount to substantial misery, not to mention social and economic fallout—as it did 100 years ago. That’s reason enough, says psychiatrist Simon Wessely of King’s College London, “to investigate the Long Covid cases with the same rigour and vigour that studies like PHOSP-COVID are investigating the hospitalised cases.”
New top story from Time: 2020 Was a Year of Climate Extremes. What Can We Expect in 2021?
2020 was a year of extreme weather around the world. Hot and dry conditions drove record-setting wildfires through vast areas of Australia, California and Brazil and Siberia. A record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season landed a double blow of two hugely destructive storms in Central America. Long-running droughts have destroyed agricultural output and helped to push millions into hunger in Zimbabwe and Madagascar. A super-cyclone unleashed massive floods on India and Bangladesh.
And overall, 2020 may end up the hottest year on record—despite a La Niña event, the ocean-atmospheric phenomenon which normally temporarily cools things down.
Though it’s historically been difficult to say if single weather events were directly caused by climate change, scientists have proven that many of the events that took place in 2020 would have been far less likely, or even impossible, without changes to the climate that are being driven by the warming of the Earth.
Thanks to increasing levels of heat-absorbing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, global average temperatures last year were 1.15°C over the pre-industrial era. Depending on how quickly we can reduce our emissions of these gases, the global average temperature increase is expected to be anywhere between 1.5°C and 5°C by 2100. While emissions dipped briefly during the first COVID-19 lockdowns, they have now rebounded to close to 2019 levels.
A rise of a few degrees may not sound like much, but it has huge implications for the weather we’ll see in the coming years, says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA focused on the links between climate change and extreme weather. “It’s a number that is describing really profound and vast changes in the climate system that we feel mostly through individual weather events and through extreme events.”
It’s impossible to know if 2021 will be as record-breaking as 2021, but it’s highly likely that more extremes are on the way. “From one year to the next, there’s still a lot of random variation superimposed on top of the long term trends,” Swain says. “While 2020 may have been a particularly extreme year in contrast to individual years in the past, scientifically and looking forward, what’s more meaningful is that 2020 was not really an aberration.”
Here’s what to expect from the climate next year—and what is likely to happen with the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the changes.
Hurricanes and storms
2020’s Atlantic hurricane season saw a record number of 30 named storms, including 13 hurricanes. In September, Hurricane Sally battered Florida and Alabama, cutting power to more than half a million homes. In November, Hurricanes Eta and Iota hit Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and other Central American countries in close succession, submerging towns, destroying infrastructure and farmlands, and killing dozens across the region.
Climate scientists aren’t sure if climate change will cause an increase in the number of hurricanes generally. But climate change is affecting the characteristics of hurricanes and making them more destructive. They are likely to be more intense, carrying higher wind speeds and heavier rains, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Read more: Central American Leaders Demand Climate Aid as a Record Storm Season Batters the Region
This year’s very active hurricane season was in part driven by La Niña, the ocean-atmospheric phenomenon, a counterpart to El Niño, which results in temporarily lower ocean surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and atmospheric changes, creating favorable conditions for hurricanes.
Early predictions for the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season published by meteorologists at Colorado State University suggest there is a 6 in 10 chance that the season will be very strong or above average.
High temperatures, wildfires and droughts
Globally, 2020 is currently tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record. Even if it takes second place, that is remarkable given the occurrence of La Niña this year, which tends to lower temperatures, and the fact that 2016 was an El Niño year, when temperatures are generally warmer.
There is reason to believe that 2021 may be slightly cooler, says Swain, since La Niña conditions are expected to continue through to March. “It may be that some of the cooling effect of this La Niña will be felt a little bit more next year than this year. But it’ll still be quite likely to be among the top five warmest years on record, because we just aren’t really seeing we just aren’t really seeing any of the kinds of cooler years that we saw even 30 or 40 years ago anymore.”
La Niña doesn’t affect the whole of the U.S. in the same way. It tends to lower winter temperatures in the northwest of the country, and increase them in the southeast. In its outlook for winter, up to the end of February, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted below average precipitation and a worsening of drought conditions across many southern states.
We are likely to see more episodes of extreme heat than we are used to in the coming years, scientists say, because they have been made far more likely on a warming planet. Studies found that climate change made Europe’s 2019 heatwave up to 100 times more likely, for example.
When high temperatures combine with dry conditions, strong winds and an abundance of vegetation as fuel, wildfires become highly likely. In January, Australia’s record-breaking temperatures and prolonged droughts drove bushfires burned more than 27 million acres across the country, and destroyed thousands of homes. California’s 2020 wildfires burned more than 4 million acres by October, double the state’s previous record.
Again, it’s impossible to know if 2021 will beat the new records set in 2020. But it’s clear that increased wildfires are a part of our future. A group of California-based scientists, including Swain, found that since the early 1980’s, climate change had doubled the frequency of days with extreme fire weather in Autumn in the state. Previous studies have shown that fire seasons are getting longer as the world heats up.
Arctic melting
2020 was the second biggest year for Arctic ice melting after 2012—which is considered an outlier because of a destructive late-season cyclone. Worryingly, scientists say 2020’s sea ice melt followed a similar trajectory to 2012, without any such storm. And this was the first year since records began that Arctic sea ice had not started to freeze over by late October.
Read more: ‘A Climate Emergency Unfolding Before Our Eyes.’ Arctic Sea Ice Has Shrunk to Almost Historic Levels
The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, with a one degree rise in the average yearly temperature every decade for the last 40 years. As a result, scientists say we are likely to see increasingly faster melting and slower freezing each year. By 2035, a study published this August in Nature Climate Change found, it is likely that the Arctic ocean will be ice-free in summer.
Carbon emissions
When it comes to the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving the changes we are seeing in our climate, 2020 has been an anomaly. Global emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important greenhouse gas, reached a new peak in 2019 – though they were just slightly above 2018 levels, raising hopes that emissions were levelling off. But this year they are expected to fall by up to 7% as a result of the drops in activity during the first COVID-19 lockdowns in March and April.
Coincidentally, 7% is the amount by which the U.N. says we’d need to cut carbon emissions every year for the next decade in order to keep in line with the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global average temperatures from increasing more than 1.5°C over the pre-industrial era.
But we shouldn’t expect the reductions to hold in 2021, says Glen Peters, research director at the Oslo-based Center for International Climate Research. “A few months ago, I would have expected that it would take a few years to slowly edge back to 2019 levels. And hopefully, during that time, emissions reductions would start to take effect,” he says. “But now, the monthly data suggests that emissions have almost come back to 2019 levels now.”
With governments likely to spend large amounts of money to get economies going again, Peters says emissions are likely to bounce back quite strongly. He expects emissions in 2021 to be roughly the same as in 2019.
But the nature of recovery packages that governments roll out will be decisive to the trajectory of emissions—and climate change—longer-term. If these packages are green, and include lots of stimulus for renewable energies like solar, for example, they’ll give you a spike in emissions next year to build all the solar, and you would reap the benefits in the years later,” Peters says. “It’s a question of whether the recovery packages set future reductions in motion.”
New top story from Time: Hong Kong Media Tycoon Jimmy Lai’s Bail Has Been Revoked
HONG KONG — Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has had his bail revoked after prosecutors succeeded in asking the city’s highest court to send him back to detention.
Lai had been granted bail on Dec. 23 after three weeks in custody on charges of fraud and endangering national security. His appeal hearing is slated for Feb. 1.
The court said Thursday that it was “reasonably arguable” that the previous judge’s decision was erroneous and that the order of granting bail was invalid.
Lai was charged with fraud on Dec. 3 for allegedly violating the lease terms for office space for the Next Digital, the media company he founded. He was later charged again on Dec. 12 under the sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security.
Lai is among a string of pro-democracy activists and supporters arrested by Hong Kong police in recent months as authorities step up their crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story is below:
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai appeared in court Thursday as prosecutors asked the city’s top judges to send him back to detention after he was granted bail last week on fraud and national security-related charges.
If the prosecutors succeed, Lai will be detained until his next court appearance on April 16. Prior to being granted bail, Lai had been held in custody for nearly three weeks.
He is among a string of pro-democracy activists and supporters arrested by Hong Kong police in recent months as authorities step up their crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.
He was charged with fraud on Dec. 3 for allegedly violating the lease terms for office space for the Next Digital, the media company he founded. He was later charged again on Dec. 12 under the sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security.
Lai, who was ordered to remain under house arrest as part of his bail conditions, left his home on Thursday morning in a black Mercedes. He entered the Court of Final Appeal without making any comments to supporters and media, many of whom swarmed the tycoon as he made his way into the courtroom.
Other bail conditions included surrendering his travel documents and a ban on meeting with foreign officials, publishing articles on any media, posting on social media and giving interviews.
His court appearance comes after Chinese state-owned newspaper People’s Daily posted a strongly worded commentary on Sunday criticizing a Hong Kong court for granting bail to Lai, stating that it “severely hurt Hong Kong’s rule of law.”
The People’s Daily said that it would not be difficult for Lai to abscond, and called him “notorious and extremely dangerous.” It also warned that China could take over the case, according to Article 55 of the national security law which states that China can “exercise jurisdiction over a case concerning offence endangering national security.”
Hong Kong’s judiciary on Tuesday uploaded a 19-page judgment on its website, laying out the reasons why High Court Judge Justice Alex Lee had granted Lai bail. Lee said that he was satisfied that there was no flight risk in Lai’s case, and noted that Lai was willing to have his movements monitored if it had been a feasible option.
On Tuesday, Lai resigned as chairman and executive director of Next Digital, which runs the Apple Daily newspaper, according to a filing made to the Hong Kong stock exchange. He did so “to spend more time dealing with this personal affairs” and confirmed that he had no disagreement with the board of directors, the filing said.
Wednesday 30 December 2020
New top story from Time: 2020 Is Finally Ending, but New Year’s Revelries Are Muted by the Coronavirus
CANBERRA, Australia — This New Year’s Eve is being celebrated like no other, with pandemic restrictions limiting crowds and many people bidding farewell to a year they’d prefer to forget.
Australia will be among the first nations to ring in 2021 because of its proximity to the International Date Line. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
Authorities this year are advising revelers to watch on television. People are only allowed in downtown Sydney if they have a restaurant reservation or are one of five guests of an inner-city apartment resident. People won’t be allowed in the city center without a permit.
Some haborside restaurants are charging up to 1,690 Australian dollars ($1,294) for a seat, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday.
Sydney is Australia’s most populous city and has its most active community transmission of COVID-19 in recent weeks.
Melbourne, Australia’s second-most populous city, has cancelled its fireworks this year.
“For the first time in many, many years we made the big decision, difficult decision to cancel the fireworks,” Melbourne Mayor Sally Capp said.
“We did that because we know that it attracts up to 450,000 people into the city for one moment at midnight to enjoy a spectacular display and music. We are not doing that this year,” she added.
New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors have no COVID-19, and New Year celebrations there are the same as ever.
In Chinese societies, the Lunar New Year celebration that falls in February in 2021 generally takes precedence over solar New Year, on Jan. 1. While celebrations of the Western holiday have been growing more common in recent decades, this year will be more muted.
Beijing will hold a countdown ceremony with just a few invited guests, while other planned events have been cancelled. And nighttime temperatures plunging to -15 Celsius (- 5 Fahrenheit) will likely discourage people from spending the night out with friends.
Taiwan will host its usual New Year’s celebration, a fireworks display by its capital city’s iconic tower, Taipei 101, as well as a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building the next morning. The island has been a success story in the pandemic, registering only 7 deaths and 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Hong Kong, with its British colonial history and large expatriate population, has usually seen raucous celebrations along the waterfront and in bar districts. For the second year running, however, New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns.
Still roiled by its coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong social distancing regulations restrict gatherings to only two people. Restaurants have to close by 6 p.m. Live performances and dancing are not allowed. But crowds still throng shopping centers.
In Japan, some people skipped what’s customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Rural restaurants saw business drop, while home deliveries of traditional New Year’s “good luck” food called “osechi” boomed.
Emperor Naruhito is delivering a video message for the new year, instead of waving from a window with the imperial family as cheering crowds throng the palace.
Train services that usually carry people on shrine visits overnight Dec. 31, as well as some countdown ceremonies, have been cancelled.
Meiji Shrine in downtown Tokyo, which attracts millions of people every year during New Year holidays and is usually open all night on New Year’s Eve, will close its doors at 4 p.m. on Dec. 31 this year, the shrine announced on its website.
In South Korea, Seoul’s city government has cancelled its annual New Year’s Eve bell-ringing ceremony in the Jongno neighborhood for the first time since it first held the event in 1953, months after the end of the Korean War.
The event, in which citizens ring a large bell at a traditional pavilion when the clock strikes twelve, drew an estimated 100,000 people and was broadcast live.
Authorities in eastern coastal areas say they’ll close beaches and other spots where hundreds of thousands of people typically gather on New Year’s Day to watch the sunrise.
The southeastern city of Pohang says it instead plans to broadcast live the sunrise at several beaches under its jurisdiction on its YouTube channel on Jan. 1.
Earlier this week, South Korea’s central government said it will ban private social gatherings of more than five people and shut down ski resorts and major tourist spots nationwide from Christmas Eve until Jan. 3 as efforts to bring a recent viral resurgence under control.
____
Associated Press journalists Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, Raf Wober in Hong Kong, Mary Yamaguchi and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo, and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
New top story from Time: Trump’s Push for $2,000 Checks Flops as the GOP-led Senate Won’t Vote
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but shut the door Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks, declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid as he blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote.
The GOP leader made clear he is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $600 in aid increased threefold. But McConnell dismissed the idea of bigger “survival checks” approved by the House, saying the money would go to plenty of American households that just don’t need it.
McConnell’s refusal to act means the additional relief Trump wanted is all but dead.
“We just approved almost a trillion dollars in aid a few days ago,” McConnell said, referring to the year-end package Trump signed into law.
McConnell added, “if specific, struggling households still need more help,” the Senate will consider “smart targeted aid. Not another firehose of borrowed money.”
The showdown between the outgoing president and his own Republican Party over the $2,000 checks has thrown Congress into a chaotic year-end session just days before new lawmakers are set to be sworn into office.
It’s one last standoff, together with the override of Trump’s veto of a sweeping defense bill, that will punctuate the president’s final days and deepen the GOP’s divide between its new wing of Trump-styled populists and what had been mainstay conservative views against government spending.
Trump has been berating the GOP leaders, and tweeted, “$2000 ASAP!”
President-elect Joe Biden also supports the payments and wants to build on what he calls a “downpayment” on relief.
“In this moment of historic crisis and untold economic pain for countless American families, the President-elect supports $2,000 direct payments as passed by the House,” said Biden transition spokesman Andrew Bates.
The roadblock set by Senate Republicans appears insurmountable. Most GOP senators seemed to accept the inaction even as a growing number of Republicans, including two senators in runoff elections on Jan. 5 in Georgia, agree with Trump’s demand, some wary of bucking him.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the $600 checks would begin to go out Wednesday. Congress had settled on smaller payments in a compromise over the big, year-end COVID relief and government funding bill that Trump reluctantly signed into law. Before signing, though, Trump demanded more.
For a second day in a row, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer tried to force a vote on the bill approved by the House meeting Trump’s demand for the $2,000 checks.
“What we’re seeing right now is Leader McConnell trying to kill the checks — the $2,000 checks desperately needed by so many American families,” Schumer said.
With the Georgia Senate runoff elections days away, leading Republicans warned that the GOP’s refusal to provide more aid as the virus worsens could jeopardize the outcome of those races.
Georgia’s GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are trying to fend off Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in runoff elections that will determine which party has the Senate majority. The two Republicans announced support for Trump’s call for more generous checks.
“The Senate Republicans risk throwing away two seats and control of the Senate,” Newt Gingrich, the former congressional leader, said on Fox News.
McConnell has tried to shield his divided Republicans from a difficult vote. On Wednesday he suggested he had kept his word to start a “process” to address Trump’s demands, even if it means no votes will actually be taken.
“It’s no secret Republicans have a diversity of views,” he said.
Earlier, McConnell had unveiled a new bill loaded up with Trump’s other priorities as a possible off-ramp for the stalemate. It included the $2,000 checks more narrowly targeted to lower-income households as well as a complicated repeal of protections for tech companies like Facebook or Twitter under Section 230 of a communications law that the president complained is unfair to conservatives. It also tacked on the establishment of a bipartisan commission to review the 2020 presidential election Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
If McConnell sets a vote on his bill, it could revive Trump’s priorities. But because the approach contains the additional tech and elections provisions, Democrats and some Republicans will likely balk and it’s unlikely to have enough support in Congress to pass.
No additional votes on COVID aid have been scheduled at this point. For McConnell, the procedural moves allowed him to check the box over the commitments he made when Trump was defiantly refusing to sign off on the big year-end package last weekend. “That was a commitment, and that’s what happened,” he said.
Liberal senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who support the relief boost are blocking action on a defense bill until a vote can be taken on Trump’s demand for $2,000 for most Americans.
Sanders thundered on the floor that McConnell should call his own constituents in the GOP leader’s home state of Kentucky “and find out how they feel about the need for immediate help in terms of a $2,000 check.”
Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marco Rubio of Florida, among the party’s potential 2024 presidential hopefuls, also pushed in the president’s direction. Hawley is also leading Trump’s challenge Jan. 6 to the Electoral College result tally in Congress.
Other Republicans panned the bigger checks, arguing during a lively Senate debate that the nearly $400 billion price tag was too high, the relief is not targeted to those in need and Washington has already dispatched ample sums on COVID aid.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., tweeted that “blindly borrowing” billions “so we can send $2,000 checks to millions of people who haven’t lost any income is terrible policy.”
Considered a longshot, Trump’s demand gained momentum at the start of the week when dozens of House Republicans calculated it was better to link with most Democrats than defy the outgoing president. They helped pass a bill raising the payments with a robust two-thirds vote of approval.
As Trump’s push fizzles out, his attempt to amend the year-end package — $900 billion in COVID-19 aid and $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September — will linger as potentially one last confrontation before the new Congress is sworn in Sunday.
The COVID-19 portion of the bill revives a weekly pandemic jobless benefit boost — this time $300, through March 14 — as well as the popular Paycheck Protection Program of grants to businesses to keep workers on payrolls. It extends eviction protections, adding a new rental assistance fund.
Americans earning up to $75,000 will qualify for the direct $600 payments, which are phased out at higher income levels, and there’s an additional $600 payment per dependent child.
New top story from Time: China Gives Conditional Approval to the Sinopharm Vaccine
BEIJING — China has given conditional approval to a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned Sinopharm.
The vaccine is the first one approved for general use in China.
Chen Shifei, the deputy commissioner of China’s Medical Production Administration, said at a news conference Thursday that the decision had been made the previous night.
The vaccine is an inactivated, two-dose vaccine from the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm. The company announced Wednesday that preliminary data from last-stage trials had shown it to be 79.3% effective.
Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers that are in a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people.
