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The riskiest place for a natural disaster in the U.S.? You're living in it, L.A.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-04/watch-out-la-feds-calculate-riskiest-safest-places-in-us

Having lived her life in Los Angeles, Morgan Andersen knows natural disasters all too well. In college, an earthquake shook her home hard. Her grandfather was affected by recent wildfires in neighboring Orange County. “It’s just that constant reminder, ‘Oh yeah, we live somewhere where there’s natural disasters and they can strike at any time,’” said the 29-year-old marketing executive. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has calculated the risk for every county in America for 18 types of natural disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes and even tsunamis. And of the nation’s more than 3,000 counties, Los Angeles County earned the highest ranking in the National Risk Index. The way FEMA calculates the index spotlights places long known as danger spots, like Los Angeles. But there are also plenty of surprises. For instance, East Coast cities such as New York and Philadelphia rank far higher on the risk for tornadoes than Tornado Alley stalwarts Oklahoma and Kansas. And the county with the biggest coastal flood risk is one in Washington state that’s not on the ocean, although its river is tidal. Those seeming oddities occur because FEMA’s index goes beyond how often disasters strike. It also considers how many people and how much property are in harm’s way, how vulnerable the population is socially and how well the area is able to bounce back — in other words, how bad the toll would be. California California has suffered some destructive earthquakes in the last few decades but much bigger quakes are possible. These maps show some scenarios. Dec. 17, 2019 That results in a high risk assessment for big cities with lots of poor people and expensive property that are ill-prepared to be hit by once-in-a-generation disasters. Take tornadoes. FEMA’s top five riskiest counties for twisters are two boroughs in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis and New Jersey’s Hudson County. The county that includes Oklahoma City — which has experienced more than 120 tornadoes since 1950, including one that killed 36 people in 1999 — ranks 120th. The top five “are a low frequency, potentially high-consequence event because there’s a lot of property exposure in that area,” said Susan Cutter, director of the University of South Carolina Hazards & Vulnerability Research Institute, whose work FEMA relied on. “Therefore, a small tornado can create a large dollar loss.” In New York, people are far less aware of the risk and less prepared — and that’s a problem, said Mike Grimm, a FEMA official who has specialized in risk management. The day before he said that, New York had a tornado watch. Days later, the National Weather Service tweeted that in 2020 several cities, mostly along the East Coast, had more tornadoes than Wichita, Kan. In general, Oklahoma is twice as likely to get tornadoes as New York City, but the damage potential is much higher in New York because there are 20 times the people and nearly 20 times the property value at risk, FEMA officials said. “It’s that risk perception that it won’t happen to me,” Grimm said. “Just because I haven’t seen it in my lifetime doesn’t mean it won’t happen.” That sort of denial is especially true with frequent and costly flooding, he said. It’s also why only 4% of the population has federal flood insurance when about one-third may need it. Science & Medicine Mining destruction for data to help others Feb. 1, 2010 Disaster experts say people have to think about the big disaster that happens only a few times a lifetime at most but is devastating when it hits — Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, the 2011 super outbreak of tornadoes, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake or a pandemic. “We’re bad at taking seriously risks that happen only infrequently,” said David Ropeik, a retired Harvard risk communications lecturer and author of “How Risky Is It, Really?” “We simply don’t fear them as much as we fear things that are more present in our consciousness, more common. That’s practically disastrous with natural disasters.” Something like FEMA’s new index “opens our eyes to the gaps between what we feel and what is,” Ropeik said. FEMA’s top 10 riskiest places, in addition to Los Angeles, are three counties in the New York City area — Bronx, New York County (Manhattan) and Kings County (Brooklyn) — along with Miami, Philadelphia, Dallas, St. Louis and Southern California’s Riverside and San Bernardino counties. By the same measurement, Loudoun County, a Washington, D.C., outer suburb, has the lowest risk of any county, according to FEMA. Three other Washington suburban counties rank among the lowest risks for larger counties, along with suburban Boston, Long Island, suburban Detroit and Pittsburgh. Some of FEMA’s risk rankings by disaster type seem obvious. Miami has the highest risk for hurricanes, lightning, and river flooding. Hawaii County is tops in volcano risk and Honolulu County for tsunamis. Dallas ranks highest for hail, Philadelphia for heat waves and Riverside County for wildfires. Himanshu Grover, a risk expert at the University of Washington, called FEMA’s effort “a good tool, a good start.” But he also said it had flaws, such as final scores that seem to downplay disaster frequency. Ropeik added that the index didn’t seem to address how risks were changing due to climate change. FEMA officials said climate change showed up in flooding calculations and would probably be incorporated in future updates. This new tool, based on calculations by 80 experts over six years, is about “educating homeowners and renters and communities to be more resilient,” Grimm said, adding that people shouldn’t move into or out of a county because of the risk rating.

Pakistan arrests key militant on terror financing charges

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-02/pakistan-arrests-key-militant-on-terror-financing-charges

Pakistan’s security forces on Saturday arrested an alleged leader of the militant group that was behind the bloody 2008 Mumbai attacks in India. An official with the Pakistani counterterrorism police, Shakil Ahmed, said that Zaikur Rehman Lakhvi was seized in the eastern city of Lahore on terrorism financing charges. Lakhvi is alleged to be a leader of the Lashker-e-Taiba group that organized the Mumbai attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people. Lakhvi was detained days after the Mumbai attacks but released in 2015 by Pakistani courts. Pakitani authorities allege that Lakhvi was running a dispensary in Lahore as a front for financing militant activities. Lakhvi was a prominent figure in Hafiz Saeed’s charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is believed to be a front for Lashker-e-Taiba. Saeed, who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department and has a $10-million bounty on his head, is presently serving multiple jail terms in Pakistan after being convicted in several cases in recent months. The Pakistani government has seized Saeed’s extensive network of mosques, schools, seminaries and charities and other assets in the country. Relations between Pakistan and India were strained after the attack on India’s financial hub in 2008. The rival South Asian powers have fought two wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

In graying Italy, the old defy biases laid bare by the pandemic

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-02/in-graying-italy-the-old-defy-biases-laid-bare-by-pandemic

From his newsstand at the bottom of two hilly streets in Rome, Armando Alviti has been dispensing newspapers, magazines and good cheer to locals from before dawn till after dusk nearly every day for more than half a century. “Ciao, Armando,” his customers greet him as part of their daily routine. “Ciao, amore [love],” he calls back. Alviti chuckled as he recalled how, when he was a young boy, newspaper deliverers would drop off the day’s stacks at his parents’ newsstand, sit him in the emptied baskets of their motorbikes and take him for a spin. Since he turned 18, Alviti has operated the newsstand seven days a week, with a wool tweed cap to protect him from the Italian capital’s winter dampness and a tabletop fan to cool him during its torrid summers. A mighty battle therefore ensued when the coronavirus reached Italy and his two grown sons insisted that Alviti, who is 71 and diabetic, stay home while they took turns juggling their own jobs to keep the newsstand open. “They were afraid I would die. I know they love me crazy,” Alviti said. Throughout the pandemic, health authorities around the world have stressed the need to protect the people most at risk of complications from COVID-19, a group that infection and mortality data quickly revealed included older adults. With 23% of its population age 65 or older, Italy has the world’s second-oldest population, after Japan, with 28%. World & Nation Italy could soon reclaim a record — the most COVID-19 deaths in Europe — and is still trying to figure out how to protect its older people. The average age of Italy’s COVID-19 dead has hovered around 80, many of them people with previous medical conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Wanting to avoid lockdowns of the general population that were costly to the economy, some politicians advocated limiting how much time elders spent outside of their homes. Among them was the governor of Italy’s northwestern coastal region of Liguria, where 28.5% of the population is age 65 or older. Gov. Giovanni Toti, who is 52, argued for such an age-specific strategy when a second surge of infections struck Italy in the fall. Older people are “for the most part in retirement, not indispensable to the productive effort” of Italy’s economy, Toti said. To the news vendor in Rome, those were fighting words. Alviti said Toti’s remarks “disgusted me. They made me very angry.” “Older persons are the life of this country. They’re the memory of this country,” he said. Self-employed older adults like him especially “can’t be kept under a bell jar,” he said. The pandemic’s heavy toll on older people, particularly those in nursing homes, might have served to reinforce ageism, or prejudice against the segment of population generally referred to as “elderly.” The label “old” means “40, 50 years of life being lumped in one category,” said Nancy Morrow-Howell, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis who specializes in gerontology. She noted that these days, people in their 60s often are caring for parents in their 90s. World & Nation Brazil appears to be at least weeks away from any formal immunization campaign against COVID-19, putting it behind other South American countries. “Ageism is so accepted ... it’s not questioned,” Morrow-Howell said in a telephone interview. One form it takes is “compassionate ageism,” Morrow-Howell said, the idea that “we need to protect older adults. We need to treat them as children.” Alviti’s family won the first round, keeping him away from work until May. His sons implored him to stay home again when the coronavirus rebounded in the fall. He struck a compromise. One of his sons opens the newsstand at 6 a.m. and Alviti takes over two hours later, limiting his exposure to the public during the morning rush. Fausto Alviti said he’s afraid for his father, “but I also realize for him to stay home, it would have been worse, psychologically. He needs to be with people.” In the open-air food market in the Trullo neighborhood of Rome, produce vendor Domenico Zoccoli, 80, also scoffs at the belief that people past retirement age “don’t produce [and] must be protected.” Before dawn broke on a recent rainy day, Zoccoli had transformed his stall into a cheerful array of colors: boxes of red and green cabbages, radicchio, purple carrots, leafy beet tops, and cauliflower in shades of white, violet and orange, all harvested from his farm some 18.6 miles away. “Old people must do what they feel. If they can’t walk, then they don’t walk. If I feel like running, I run,” Zoccoli said. After packing up his stall at 1:30 p.m., he said he would work several hours more in his field, skipping lunch. Marco Trabucchi, a psychiatrist based in the northern Italian city of Brescia who specializes in the behavior of older adults, thinks the pandemic has gotten people to reconsider their attitudes for the better. “Little attention was given to the individuality of the old. They were like an indistinct category, all equal, with all the same problems, all suffering,” Trabucchi said. In Italy, with childcare centers chronically scarce, legions of older adults, some decades beyond retirement, effectively double as essential workers by caring for their grandchildren. World & Nation A veteran critical care nurse in northern Greece didn’t feel good about the treatment options available when his wife, both her parents and her brother got COVID-19 in alarming succession. According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics bureau, 35% of Italians older than 65 look after grandchildren several times a week. Felice Santini, 79, and his wife, Rita Cintio, 76, are such a couple. They take care of the two youngest of their four grandchildren multiple times a week. “If we didn’t care for them, their parents couldn’t work,” Santini said. “We’re helping them [a son and daughter-in-law] stay in the productive work force.” Santini still works himself, half a day as a mechanic at an auto repair shop. When he comes home, his hands keep busy in the kitchen: stuffing homemade cannelloni with sausage, making meat sauce and baking orange-flavored Bundt cakes for his grandkids. Cintio finds it painful not being able to hug and kiss her grandchildren. But she embraced 9-year-old Gaia Santini when the girl ran joyfully toward her after her grandmother navigated Rome’s narrow streets to pick her up at school. Cintio will take Gaia home for a break, before next accompanying her to an ice-skating lesson. Worried about COVID-19’s second surge, the couple’s son, Cristiano Santini, said he tried to limit the frequency with which his parents watch the children, but to little avail. “They’re afraid [of infection], but they are more afraid of not living much longer” due to their ages and missing precious time with their grandchildren, he said.

Biden's pick to lead Treasury made $7 million in speaking fees from financial firms, tech giants

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/bidens-pick-to-lead-treasury-made-over-7m-in-speaking-fees

President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to be Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, collected more than $7 million in speaking fees over the last two years from major financial firms and tech giants including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Google, according to disclosure forms filed as part of her nomination. Yellen’s was among three financial disclosures turned in by Biden transition officials that were made public Thursday by the Office of Government Ethics. In a separate filing, Yellen listed firms and banks where she had received speaking fees and said she intended to “seek written authorization” from ethics officials to “participate personally and substantially” in matters involving them. Yellen was the Federal Reserve Board chair from 2014 to 2018. Her term was not renewed by President Trump. She took in the speaking fees in 2019 and 2020. Her selection by Biden to lead the Treasury Department has been cheered by progressive Democrats, who support Yellen’s work as a labor economist who has long prioritized combating economic inequality. Since her nomination was announced, Yellen has pledged to work to fight systemic racism and climate change. But receiving steep payments from Wall Street bankers and other powerful corporations could become an issue as her nomination works its way through a closely divided Senate. Hillary Clinton faced criticism from the left wing of the Democratic Party while running for president in 2016 for having received lucrative speaking fees at Wall Street firms. A Biden transition spokesman said Friday that, since leaving the Fed, Yellen has “spoken at economic conferences, universities and to business groups and financial institutions about her experiences and her views on what we can do as a country to build a stronger economy and increase our competitiveness.” He added that “this is not someone who pulls punches when it comes to bad actors or bad behavior.” Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking member of the chamber’s Finance Committee, said he expects Yellen’s nomination to “move forward quickly, with her hearing held before Inauguration Day” on Jan. 20. “In the last few years, she has shared her views in a range of forums — congressional testimony, media interviews, speaking engagements, and opinion pieces,” Wyden said in a statement. “She’s been fully transparent.” Also released Thursday were disclosure forms from Biden’s choice to be secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who detailed his work at a consulting firm he co-founded, WestExec Advisors LLC. They show that Blinken was paid more than $1.1 million and has entered into an agreement, negotiated in October, to sell his equity interest in the firm, where he advised clients including Bank of America and Facebook. Avril Haines, Biden’s choice to be national intelligence director, disclosed being a consultant at WestExec Advisors and collecting around $55,000 in fees between October 2017 and last summer. In a separate letter to ethics officials, Haines promised to recuse herself for one year in issues involving WestExec as well as her other past employers, including Columbia University, Syracuse University and the Brookings Institution think tank. Some advocacy groups began warning just after election day that Biden, who was a senator from Delaware for 36 years and served as vice president for two terms, could rely too heavily on officials with strong ties to past Democratic administrations. Many of those departed public sector posts for jobs in the private sector and are now seeking to return to government, raising concerns about the “revolving door” between policy and corporate and financial influence. Biden, however, has largely shrugged off such concerns, saying he’s not afraid to rely on advisors with deep governmental experience. He’s pledged to assemble a Cabinet well versed in the workings of government and full of members from across the racial and ideological spectrum who look like the diverse country they will represent. The transition spokesman said Biden’s incoming administration is committed to “restoring trust in government by establishing an administration of the highest ethical standards” while calling the release of financial disclosures “merely one step in the process of ensuring the highest degrees of transparency and ethics.” Biden’s transition team says it expects to announce more Cabinet picks next week. Among those positions yet to be filled are the president-elect’s selection for Labor secretary and attorney general — a choice that could be complicated by federal prosecutors investigating the finances of Biden’s son, Hunter.

Iraq team working to neutralize mine found on oil tanker

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/iraq-team-working-to-neutralize-mine-found-on-oil-tanker

An Iraqi explosives-handling team is working to neutralize a “large” mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew, authorities said Friday. The statement came a day after two private security firms said sailors feared they had found a limpet mine on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker in the waters off the Iraqi port of Basra. A limpet mine is a type of naval mine that can be attached to the side of a ship, usually by a special forces diver. When it explodes, it can significantly damage a vessel. The Iraqi statement said the mine had been attached to a tanker rented from Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company SOMO that was refueling another vessel. Iraq’s naval forces were making “a great effort to accomplish the mission” safely, said Iraq’s Security Media Cell, which is affiliated with the country’s security forces. It was the first official Iraqi confirmation that a mine was discovered on an Iraqi tanker transferring fuel in the Persian Gulf to another vessel. It did not identify either vessels or provide more details. The discovery came amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. in the waning days of President Trump’s administration. Politics Biden considers an Iran nuclear deal 2.0 as a way to calm opposition as he returns the U.S. to the international pact. Already, America has conducted B-52 bomber flyovers and sent a nuclear submarine into the Persian Gulf over what Trump officials describe as the possibility of an Iranian attack on the one-year anniversary of the U.S. drones strike in Baghdad that killed a top Iranian general and a top Iraqi militia leader. On Thursday, the United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, an organization under Britain’s royal navy, said on its website that an “unknown object” had been attached to a ship’s hull in the vicinity of Iraq’s Khor Al-Zubair Port, without providing further information. The Pola serves as floating fuel oil storage of Iraq’s State Organization of Marketing of Oil, said Sudharsan Sarathy, a senior oil analyst at the data-analysis firm Refinitiv. Smaller vessels carry the fuel oil to the ship, which then conducts ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf to clients. Sarathy said the Pola was conducting a ship-to-ship transfer with the MT Nordic Freedom, a Bermuda-flagged tanker. Friday’s statement said an explosives-handling team from Iraq’s Interior Ministry was airlifted to the scene after a “foreign body” was observed attached to one of the ships in the waiting area in Iraq’s international waters, 28 nautical miles from Iraqi oil ports. Despite high waves, the vessel receiving the fuel was evacuated while the Iraqi team was still working on neutralizing the mine and evacuating the refueling ship, it said. In 2019, the U.S. blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all the world’s oil passes. Iran denies being involved.

U.K. in 'eye of the storm' amid surging new coronavirus cases

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/uk-in-eye-of-the-storm-amid-surging-new-coronavirus-cases

British medics warned Friday that hospitals around the country face a perilous few weeks amid surging new coronavirus infections that have been blamed on a new variant of the virus. A day after the U.K. posted a record 55,892 new infections and another 964 coronavirus-related deaths, concerns are mounting about the impact on the overstretched National Health Service. Field hospitals that were constructed in the early days of the pandemic but that were subsequently mothballed are being reactivated. The Royal College of Nursing’s England director, Mike Adams, told Sky News that the U.K. was in the “eye of the storm” and that it was “infuriating” to see people not following the social distancing guidance or wearing masks. A leading physician also warned of burnout among health workers on the front line of the outbreak in hospitals, while also urging people to follow the rules. “I am worried,” Adrian Boyle, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, told the BBC. “We are very much at battle stations.” World & Nation Brazil appears to be at least weeks away from any formal immunization campaign against COVID-19, putting it behind other South American countries. New infections have more than doubled in recent weeks after a new variant that some fear is potentially 70% more contagious was found to be behind a big spike in cases around London and the southeast of England. Given the lags between new cases and hospitalizations and subsequent deaths, there are huge concerns about the path of the pandemic over the coming month or two in a country that has Europe’s second-highest virus-related death toll at nearly 74,000. As a result of the spike, which has spread around the country and seen lockdown restrictions tightened, the strategy around the rollout of vaccines has been changed to get more people an initial jab as soon as possible, with a scheduled second one delayed. In a joint statement Thursday, the chief medical officers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, said the first vaccine dose offers “substantial” protection. Currently, two vaccines have been approved for use in the U.K. Just under 1 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech, with a small minority also getting the second dose as planned after 21 days. Alongside the approval earlier this week of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and British pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, a new dosing regimen was outlined, aimed at providing a speedier rollout. This means the second dose of both vaccines will be within 12 weeks of the first. The four medical officers said they were “confident” the first dose of both vaccines would provide “substantial” protection. World & Nation Top Chinese officials have ordered strict controls on all COVID-19 research in the country, cloaking the search for the origins of the virus in secrecy. “In the short term, the additional increase of vaccine efficacy from the second dose is likely to be modest; the great majority of the initial protection from clinical disease is after the first dose of vaccine,” they said. The new plan has faced widespread criticism, with the U.K.’s main union for doctors warning that delaying the second dose causes huge problems for thousands of partially vaccinated elderly and vulnerable people. “It is grossly and patently unfair to tens of thousands of our most at-risk patients to now try to reschedule their appointments,” said Richard Vautrey from the British Medical Assn.

North Korea's Kim Jong Un thanks people in rare New Year's letter

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/north-koreas-kim-thanks-people-in-rare-new-years-cards

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un thanked the public for their trust and support “in the difficult times” and wished them happiness and good health in his first New Year’s Day cards sent to his people. Kim usually gives a televised speech on Jan. 1, but he is widely expected to skip it this year since he will address the country’s first ruling party congress in five years sometime in early January. “I will work hard to bring earlier the new era in which the ideals and desires of our people will come true,” Kim said in his letter, according to the Korean Central News Agency. “I offer thanks to the people for having invariably trusted and supported our party even in the difficult times,” he said. “I sincerely wish all the families across the country greater happiness and beloved people, good health.” North Korea is one of the world’s most cloistered countries, and it’s virtually impossible to independently confirm whether all its 25 million people received Kim’s letter. World & Nation President Trump charted a whipsaw course in relations with North Korea, going from alarming nuclear tests and brash threats to friendly summits with Kim Jong Un. President-elect Biden has not ruled out meeting with Kim but has signaled he’d revert to a more patient, measured approach. KCNA said the letter was handwritten by Kim. The last time the North Korean leader sent such a letter to ordinary citizens was on Jan. 1, 1995, from Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry. Kim, who succeeded his father upon his death in late 2011, is facing the toughest challenges of his nine-year rule due to the pandemic, several natural disasters last summer and persistent U.S.-led sanctions amid a diplomatic impasse over his nuclear program. Kim will likely use the Workers’ Party congress as a venue to muster stronger unity and lay out new development goals for the next few years. North Korea’s pandemic-related border closure with China, its biggest trading partner, is hurting the economy. Bilateral trade volume in the first 11 months of 2020 plunged by about 79% from the same period in 2019, analyst Song Jaeguk at Seoul’s IBK Economic Research Institute said. The congress, the first since 2016, is officially the party’s top decision-making body though real day-to-day decisions are made by Kim and his close associates. The rubber stamp body of delegates is expected to endorse Kim’s new initiatives without major debates. State media didn’t say when exactly the meeting will take place. In 2016, the congress was held for four days. Ushering in the new year, a large crowd packed Pyongyang’s main square to watch fireworks, a concert and a flag-hoisting ceremony. State TV showed people wearing masks and heavy coats, waving and standing close together. North Korea has steadfastly claimed to be coronavirus-free — an assertion doubted by outsiders. But experts also say any outbreak likely wasn’t widespread and so North Korea considered it safe to hold big events like the party congress in Pyongyang. Also Friday, North Korea said it has successfully completed “an 80-day battle,” a productivity campaign it often launches to press citizens to work extra hours and report bigger production numbers ahead of major political events. During the congress, experts say North Korea will likely underscore building a stronger self-reliant economy to tackle difficulties in an attempt to squeeze people to work harder. KCNA said “the all-people advance by dint of self-reliance” achieved “a proud victory of the historic 80-day battle.” It said the North Koreans have either fulfilled or exceeded newly set quotas at factories, mines, farms, flooding recovery works, anti-coronavirus steps and various other areas.

Thousands celebrate New Year's Eve in Vegas despite virus

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/despite-virus-thousands-celebrate-new-years-eve-in-vegas

Thousands of revelers were on the casino-lined Las Vegas Strip Thursday despite a plea from Nevada’s governor that people reconsider their plans to go out and celebrate New Year’s Eve amid the pandemic. While shopping, gambling, drinking yard-long frozen cocktails and gawking at the sights and lights, most everyone who went out in Sin City was wearing a mask, though some wore them only half-covering their face. Amer Zah and Rayif Bah, 22-year-old college students from Louisiana State University, were strolling the sidewalks outside the resorts and taking pictures. The two men had been on a cross-country road trip and decided to ring in 2021 in Las Vegas. “We wanted somewhere to spend New Year’s and Vegas seems like the perfect place,” Zah said. With most of the clubs still closed, live entertainment canceled and a signature fireworks show scuttled, they weren’t sure how they would spend the rest of their evening, but both said they felt safe and had seen few people not wearing masks. Science & Medicine Americans’s interest in a COVID-19 vaccine is waning, with only 56% of adults saying they would get it if it were available. That’s down from 74% in April. “It’s not as much as we expected,” Zah said. “We might just be walking around.” “Everyone, I think, is taking it seriously,” Bah said. Chanel Griggs and Layena Williams, two street performers costumed in black lingerie, tiaras and purple and white showgirl feathers, said New Year’s Eve is one of their most lucrative nights as they pose for photos with tourists on sidewalks and collect tips. When in costume, they don’t wear masks if they’re outside and will let those posing for a picture remove their face coverings as well, which Griggs called “a courtesy.” “It’s very busy and there’s a lot of people, like drunk people. They give us more money than they usually would. So that’s why we all come out,” Griggs said. COVID-19 — blamed for more than 1.8 million deaths worldwide, including over 3,000 in Nevada — has wreaked havoc on the gambling mecca’s tourist-dependent economy. The state’s unemployment rate has been among the worst in the nation since the pandemic started and set an all-time record for any state when it topped 30% in April. Typically, New Year’s Eve is one of the biggest parties Las Vegas sees all year, with more than 330,000 revelers, almost all hotel rooms booked and hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into the local economy. In recent years, the night has been branded “America’s Party,” featuring live entertainment and concerts from big names like Lady Gaga and Journey, extravagant parties at nightclubs and bars, and a choreographed fireworks show launched from the roofs of casino-resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. But this year, New Year’s Eve was scaled down. The fireworks show was canceled, replaced by a virtual celebration, implosion of a “2020” sign and a pyrotechnic show 15 minutes before midnight on www.VisitLasVegas.com. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority would not forecast what visitor numbers or room occupancy might be this year, with casinos-resorts limited to 25% capacity and public gatherings capped at 50 people. Las Vegas police said they too were unable to estimate what the turnout might be but guessed it could be as many as 200,000. World & Nation The CDC said 11.45 million vaccine doses had been distributed but only 2.13 million people had gotten shots, as local health agencies struggle. The Fremont Street Experience, a downtown casino-mall, initially planned to charge up to 14,000 guests $25 each to walk its six-block corridor on New Year’s Eve. The plans sparked pushback from state and county officials, who said such a large gathering could risk spreading the virus and overwhelming hospitals. Organizers took tickets offline Wednesday evening and announced Thursday that they would restrict access to the public and only allow guests of surrounding hotels on the street after 6 p.m. The mall’s public relations representative, Cassandra Downs, said the last-minute decision was made in consultation with health officials and that tickets purchased would be refunded. Gov. Steve Sisolak for months has said he’s walking a tightrope trying to keep people safe while keeping the tourist-dependent economy from taking further hits. Griggs, dressed as a showgirl, said she and other street performers were out of work for months when casinos were closed for about 11 weeks. When they finally came back to working on the Strip, business was slow until Christmas Eve. Williams said she was hoping for things to get back to normal in 2021. “Just a new beginning,” Williams said. “Hope we get rid of ’rona because it’s annoying.”

Brazil scrambles to approve coronavirus vaccine as pressure mounts

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-01/brazil-scrambles-to-approve-virus-vaccine-as-pressure-mounts

Brazil, a nation proud of its role as a regional leader in science, technology and medicine, finds itself falling behind its neighbors in the global race for immunization against a pandemic that has already killed nearly 200,000 of its people. Latin America’s largest nation, long heralded for its domestic vaccine development programs, appears to be at least three or four weeks away from launching any formal immunization campaign against COVID-19. In contrast, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Costa Rica and other countries in the region have already begun giving shots to their populations. The Brazilian government has not approved a single vaccine and has stumbled in attempts to acquire even syringes and needles for an immunization effort that, as of the new year, still had no definite rollout date. Meanwhile, the number of new coronavirus infections in the country reached a new high in December — peaking with more than 70,000 cases on Dec. 16. The lightning rod in Brazil’s vaccine debate is President Jair Bolsonaro, who has cast skepticism on all of the vaccines being developed even as his government negotiates to obtain them. He has said he doesn’t plan to get a shot himself and joked at one point that side effects might turn people into crocodiles or bearded ladies. World & Nation Poor countries face long waits for injections as the U.S. and others buy up nearly all the global supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Such talk has left Brazil’s image abroad “very damaged,” Margareth Dalcolmo, a professor in respiratory medicine at the state-funded Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, also known as Fiocruz, told the Associated Press. “No one is saying that Bolsonaro really believes this, but he is discrediting the vaccine,” said Walter Cintra, a professor in health management at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university in Sao Paulo. “When the government behaves like this, it loses credibility. And these are million-dollar contracts.” One of the earliest vaccines on the horizon appears to be one developed by China’s Sinovac company, which has contracted with the government of Brazil’s largest state, Sao Paulo, for distribution and production. Sao Paulo Gov. João Doria announced plans to start distributing shots on Jan. 25 if federal health authorities approve the vaccine. Doria is a vocal critic and likely challenger in the 2022 presidential election, and his announcement added pressure on the Bolsonaro administration to come up with its own federal immunization plan. The president initially sneered at the Chinese vaccine, saying its origins don’t inspire trust, but other states quickly showed interest in acquiring some. Another contender for early release nationwide is likely to be the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which could be available by early February once regulators approve it, according to Brazil’s state laboratory Fiocruz, which is producing it in Brazil. Fiocruz is one of Brazil’s largest public laboratories for vaccine production, including measles, polio and yellow fever. Relying on advanced technology and Fiocruz’s ability to produce at a low price, Brazil is the world’s biggest manufacturer of yellow fever vaccines, exporting millions of doses to dozens of countries worldwide, according to the laboratory. Fiocruz said it expects to have 100 million of domestically produced COVID-19 doses by the end of July. Two doses are needed. World & Nation Top Chinese officials have ordered strict controls on all COVID-19 research in the country, cloaking the search for the origins of the virus in secrecy. The government also expects an additional 42 million doses from the global vaccine partnership known as COVAX, with no set date, and has signed a memorandum with Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, for 38 million doses of its single-shot vaccine when it becomes available. The government has struggled to reach a deal for the first vaccine approved globally, the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. Pfizer complained in late December of Brazil’s regulatory hurdles, while Bolsonaro expressed surprise that pharmaceutical companies did not show more eagerness to sell to a nation of roughly 210 million people. Tensions seemed to wane in a meeting between regulators and Pfizer on Dec. 30, during which officials said they would simplify protocols and Pfizer said it would consider applying for emergency use approval. The Brazilian government and Pfizer earlier signed a memorandum of understanding for 70 million doses, according to the health ministry. For Cintra, the professor in health management, the confusion over the COVID-19 vaccine approval is symptomatic of this administration’s chaotic handling of the pandemic, during which Bolsonaro has repeatedly denounced local officials’ efforts to impose social distancing rules and described the virus as a “small flu.” “This is not about Anvisa [the regulator], or excessive regulation. It’s about the federal government systematically sabotaging the fight against the pandemic, or completely destroying the Brazilian health system,” he said. Cintra noted that a public tender to acquire over 330 million syringes and needles for the government’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign resulted this week in bids for only 8 million units within the acceptable price range — less than 3% of what was required. World & Nation After a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize ties between Israel and the UAE, Israeli revelers seeking relief from COVID rules come to Dubai in droves. The Ministry of Health said in a statement that it would keep the tender open. “There is a real risk of having a vaccine but not enough needles and syringes,” warned Carlos Eduardo Lula, president of a council of state health secretaries. The head of Brazil’s bar association, Felipe Santa Cruz, told the newspaper Valor that further delays in the vaccination program could lead the association to draft an impeachment request against Bolsonaro. For physics teacher Francisco Ferreira, 55, hope for a vaccine anytime soon is fading. “Brazil is getting a mix of bad faith and incompetence on the vaccine issue,” Ferreira said as he walked through the Sao Paulo international airport. “There are serious administrations around the world giving out the shots, but this isn’t our case.”

Changes, challenges: The not-so-secret life of pandemic pets

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/changes-challenges-the-not-so-secret-life-of-pandemic-pets

Olivia Hinerfeld’s dog, Lincoln, and Kate Hilts’ cat, Potato, have something in common: They both like to interrupt Zoom calls as their owners work from home. “Sometimes it’s better to preemptively put him on your lap so he can fall asleep,” says Hilts, a digital consultant in the Washington, D.C., area. Jealous of the attention that Hinerfeld is paying to her videoconference call, Lincoln, a golden retriever, will fetch “the most disgusting” tennis ball he can find from his toy crate to drop into the lap of the Georgetown Law student. For many dogs, this is life as it was meant to be: humans around 24/7, walks and treats on demand, sneaking onto beds at night without resistance. Cats — many of whom, let’s be honest, were already socially distancing before humans knew what that was — are more affectionate than ever, some now even acting hungry for attention. Archives Q: Do cats and dogs really hate each other? July 14, 1988 Ten months into the pandemic, household pets’ lives and relationships with humans have in many cases changed, and not always for the better. With the U.S. rollout of vaccinations offering hope for normalcy in 2021, long-term effects aren’t known. “If we think how much time most of our pets prior to the pandemic typically would spend without people, being around us now 24 hours a day, seven days a week, it’s quite a lot,” said Candace Croney, a Purdue University professor who teaches animal behavior. Although estimates vary on how many pets there are in the United States, there’s general agreement that the majority of U.S. households have at least one pet, with dogs, and then cats, far outnumbering other pets such as birds and fish. There also was a surge in pet adoptions this year as stay-at-home restrictions took effect. For all those tens of millions of dogs and cats, it’s been an opportunity to teach humans a thing or two about themselves. Croney has enjoyed watching how her longhaired cat, Bernie, and Havanese-mix dog, Des, play together. She finds herself “bookended” by the pair in bed at night. “I’ve been learning things that I probably had been missing about how these two interact with each other and have found out that I need to take my cues from them,” Croney says. “Which is funny, because I do this for a living and this is the kind of thing we tell other people to do, and clearly I was missing some of it myself.” In the Washington area, Emily Benavides, a U.S. Senate staffer, is learning her cat’s language. Humito (Spanish for Smoky), the 3-year-old rescue cat she has had for much of his life, has different-sounding meows to communicate that he wants to eat, wants to nap or has knocked his toy under the refrigerator. “I think the more time you spend with them, the more you can see them eye to eye,” she says. “The pandemic has brought us closer together.” Devika Ranjan, a theater director in Chicago, wanted pandemic company and got a rescue cat she named Aloo during the summer. The formerly feral cat is believed to be around 3 and seems to be very comfortable with a slow-paced, high-attention pandemic life. “My working from home, I think he loves it,” she says. “I think he is just ready to settle down in life. If he were human, he’d probably sit on the couch ... and watch TV all day.” The pandemic hasn’t been positive for all pets, though, such as those with owners who are struggling financially. Veterinarians and owners report some pets are being medicated for anxiety, and others are being put on diets because of too many treats and not enough exercise in parks that humans may be avoiding because of virus concerns. Hilts says her cat, a rescue who joined their household in March 2019, always seemed to enjoy attention from strangers but now hides from visitors. Kursten Hedgis, an herbalist in Decatur, Ga., says her dog, Bitsy, also a rescue, misses the attention from other humans on their walks. “He got really bummed out because no one would talk to him or pet him,” she says. “People would walk 6 feet around us. I think he took it personally.” Bitsy, a Yorkie, is 14 and has been with her six years after a life as a breeder in a puppy mill. He is blind in one eye and suffers periodic infections and incontinence. Trips to the veterinarian have been “really scary” because of the masks and reduced contact, Hedgis says. Hedgis and other pet owners say, however, that their animals have become more than companions in recent months — they provide emotional support to their humans. Humito appears to sense when she is feeling stressed and will take the initiative to cuddle into her lap, says Benavides, spokesperson for Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, of Ohio. “It’s a relationship built on mutual care and comfort,” Benavides says. As humans begin to return to work and vaccines roll out, the coming year likely will bring a test of those relationships and new habits. Says Ranjan of Aloo: “I hope he will take it in stride.” Croney, the animal behavior professor with some two decades of experience, says she worries what will happen when she returns to work, and not only to her pets. “I’m starting to worry a little bit for me,” she admits. “I’m becoming a little co-dependent on my animals.”

2020 is finally ending, but New Year's revelries are muted by virus

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/2020-finally-ending-but-new-years-revelries-muted-by-virus

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. It is a grim end to the year for New South Wales and Victoria, the country’s two most populous states, which are battling to curb new COVID-19 outbreaks. In past years 1 million people crowded Sydney’s harbor to watch fireworks that center on the Sydney Harbor Bridge, but most will be watching on television as authorities urge residents to stay home. Locations on the harbor are fenced off, popular parks closed and famous night spots eerily deserted. A 9 p.m. fireworks display was scrapped, but there will be a seven-minute pyrotechnics show at midnight. People are only allowed in downtown Sydney if they have a restaurant reservation or are one of five guests of an inner-city resident. People won’t be allowed in the city center without a permit. World & Nation Chinese health regulators have given conditional approval to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by state-owned Sinopharm. Some harborside restaurants were charging up to $1,294 for a seat, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported Wednesday. Sydney is Australia’s most populous city and has had its most active local transmission of the coronavirus in recent weeks. Melbourne, Australia’s second most populous city, has canceled its fireworks this year. “For the first time in many, many years we made the big decision, difficult decision to cancel the fireworks,” 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.” In notable contrast, the west coast city of Perth — which has not had community spread of the virus since April — was gearing up to celebrate the new year almost normally with large crowds expected to watch two fireworks spectacles. New Zealand, which is two hours ahead of Sydney, and several of its South Pacific island neighbors have no COVID-19 cases, 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 the 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 is holding a countdown ceremony with just a few invited guests, while other planned events have been canceled. And nighttime temperatures plunging to minus-5 degrees Fahrenheit will likely discourage people from spending the night out with friends. World & Nation Britain becomes the first country to greenlight AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that is easier to store and handle than some rival vaccines. Taiwan is hosting its usual New Year’s celebration, a fireworks display by its capital city’s famous tower, Taipei 101, as well as a flag-raising ceremony in front of the Presidential Office Building on New Year’s morning. The island has been a success story in the pandemic, registering seven 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 canceled, this time over coronavirus rather than public security concerns. 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. Much of Japan was welcoming 2021 quietly at home, alarmed after Tokyo reported a record number of daily coronavirus cases, about 1,300. It was the first time that daily cases in the capital have topped 1,000. Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike asked people to skip countdown ceremonies and expressed concern about crowds of shoppers. “The coronavirus knows no year-end or New Year’s holidays,” she told reporters. Many people skipped what’s customarily a chance to return to ancestral homes for the holidays, hoping to lessen health risks for extended families. World & Nation Belarus and Argentina have become the first countries outside Russia to use the Russian-developed Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. 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 balcony with the imperial family to cheering crowds outside the palace. Train services that usually carry people on shrine visits overnight, as well as some countdown ceremonies, were canceled. Meiji Shrine in downtown Tokyo, which normally attracts millions of people during New Year holidays and is usually open all night on New Year’s Eve, closed at 4 p.m. this year. 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. The ceremony, in which citizens ring a large bell in a traditional pavilion when the clock strikes midnight, normally draws an estimated 100,000 people and is broadcast live. Authorities in eastern coastal areas closed 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 instead planned to broadcast the sunrise live from several beaches on its YouTube channel. South Korea’s central government banned private social gatherings of more than five people and shut down ski resorts and major tourist spots nationwide from Christmas Eve until Sunday to help bring a recent viral resurgence under control. Millions of Indians planned to usher in the new year with subdued celebrations at home because of night curfews, a ban on beach parties and restrictions on movement in major cities and towns after the new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus reached the country. In New Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, hotels and bars were ordered to shut at 11 p.m. The three cities have been the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic. Drones were keeping watch on people’s movements in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital. Large gatherings were banned, but there were no restrictions on visiting friends, relatives and public places in groups of not more than four people, police said. Masks and social distancing were mandatory, they said. Many revelers flocked to Goa, a former Portuguese colony and popular backpacking destination with numerous beach resorts. Authorities decided against imposing a curfew with coronavirus infections largely controlled there. In Sri Lanka, public gatherings have been banned due to a resurgence of COVID-19, and health and law enforcement authorities urged people to limit celebrations to close family members. Health officials have warned of legal action against hotels and restaurants that hold parties. Officials have also closed schools and restricted public transportation in response to the renewed outbreak.

China gives conditional approval to first domestic COVID vaccine

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/china-oks-1st-homegrown-vaccine-said-to-be-79-3-effective

Chinese health regulators said Thursday that they have given conditional approval to a COVID-19 vaccine developed by state-owned Sinopharm. The two-dose vaccine is the first approved for general use in China. The go-ahead comes as the country has begun to vaccinate 50 million people before the Lunar New Year holiday in February. Conditional approval means that research is still ongoing. The company will be required to submit follow-up data as well as reports of any adverse effects after the vaccine is sold on the market, Chen Shifei, deputy commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration, said at a news conference. The company “must continuously update the vaccine’s instructions, labels and report to the agency,” Shifei said. The vaccine was developed by 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. World & Nation China has already injected hundreds of thousands of people with COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines that have not yet completed clinical trials. It is an inactive vaccine, which means the virus was grown in a lab and then killed. The germ is then injected into the body to generate an immune response. Final proof of its effectiveness will depend on publication of more data. Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers in a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide. In addition to the emergency vaccinations already underway, China plans to start vaccinating high-risk populations, including seniors and people with existing chronic illnesses. Officials did not say what percentage of the population they would vaccinate in China. “This is different in every country, but the general thinking is that it has to reach 60% to protect the entire population,” said Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission. Under emergency use, 4.5 million doses have already been given, including 3 million in the past two weeks, Zeng said. Practically, the conditional approval means that the drug or product in question may be restricted for certain age groups, said Tao Lina, a former government immunologist. Officials declined to name a particular price and gave conflicting statements about it. “It will certainly be in the limit of what people can afford,” said Zheng Zhongwei, another National Health Commission official. California Caught between the virus and the Trump-era crackdown on immigration, the elderly couple is trapped indefinitely in Southern California. A minute later, Zeng, the other NHC official, stepped in to say that the vaccines “will definitely be free for the public.” The vaccine is already under mass production, though officials did not answer questions about current production capacity. Its approval could also mean hope for countries that may not have access to the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna-National Institutes of Health shots, which have stricter cold chain requirements. Sinopharm’s vaccine can be stored at 36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit, a normal refrigeration temperature. Sinopharm’s vaccine has already been approved in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and is slated for use next in Morocco. Other countries have also been buying doses of another Chinese vaccine candidate, made by Sinovac Biotech. Turkey received shipments this week of 3 million doses. Indonesia and Brazil have purchased Sinovac’s vaccines. China is eager to distribute its vaccines globally, driven by a desire to repair the damage to its image by the pandemic that started a year ago in the central city of Wuhan. President Xi Jinping has vowed to donate a Chinese-made vaccine as a public good to the world and China has joined COVAX, a global plan for equal distribution and access. “We eagerly await Chinese vaccines to be included in COVAX’s vaccine bank soon and get WHO prequalification soon as well,” said Shen Bo, a Foreign Ministry official. The vaccine standards were developed in “close cooperation” with the World Health Organization, officials said. Meeting the WHO qualification could go some way toward assuring the rest of the world about the quality and efficacy of Chinese vaccines, which already face a reputation problem back home. It would also open the path for Chinese vaccines to be distributed in COVAX and potentially in countries that don’t have their own regulatory agencies. “This is very exciting that there is another vaccine and one that can be distributed in locations that don’t have the cold chain,” said Ashley St. John, an immunologist at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. “But at the same time we have to temper the excitement. We have to understand the long term efficacy, effect on transmission and effect on severe disease.”

Principal Joe Clark, who inspired the film 'Lean on Me,' dies at 82

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-12-30/principal-joe-clark-who-inspired-film-lean-on-me-dies

Joe Louis Clark, the bat- and bullhorn-wielding principal whose unwavering commitment to his students and uncompromising disciplinary methods inspired the 1989 film “Lean on Me,” died at his Florida home Tuesday after a long battle with an unspecified illness, his family said. He was 82. At crime- and drug-ridden Eastside High School in Paterson, N.J., Clark expelled 300 students in a single day for fighting, vandalism, abusing teachers and drug possession. That lifted the expectations of those who remained, continually challenging them to perform better. Clark’s unorthodox methods, which included roaming the hallways with a bullhorn and a baseball bat, won him both admirers and critics nationwide. President Reagan offered Clark a White House policy advisor position after his success at the high school. Morgan Freeman starred as Clark in “Lean on Me,” which was loosely based on Clark’s tenure at Eastside. “Joe was a father figure to school kids,” Freeman said in a statement Wednesday. “He was the best of the best in terms of education.” After he retired from Eastside in 1989, Clark worked for six years as the director of Essex County Detention House, a juvenile detention center in Newark, N.J. He also wrote “Laying Down the Law: Joe Clark’s Strategy for Saving Our Schools,” detailing his methods for turning around Eastside High. Clark’s teaching career started at a Paterson grade school in Passaic County, N.J., before he became principal of PS 6 Grammar School. Clark was born in Rochelle, Ga., on May 8, 1938. His family moved north to Newark when he was 6 years old. After graduating from Newark Central High School, Clark received his bachelor’s degree from William Paterson College (now William Paterson University), a master’s degree from Seton Hall University and an honorary doctorate from the U.S. Sports Academy. Clark also served as a U.S. Army Reserve sergeant and a drill instructor. Clark is survived by his children, Joetta, Hazel and JJ; and grandchildren, Talitha, Jorell and Hazel. His wife, Gloria, preceded him in death.

In new playground Dubai, Israelis find parties, Jewish rites

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/in-new-playground-dubai-israelis-find-parties-jewish-rites

It was a scene that just a few months ago would have been unthinkable. As Emiratis in flowing white robes and headdresses looked on, the Israeli bride and groom were hoisted on the shoulders of skullcap-wearing groomsmen and carried toward the dance floor, where dozens joined the throng swaying and singing in Hebrew. Noemie Azerad and Simon David Benhamou didn’t just throw a somewhat normal wedding bash in the middle of a pandemic that has shut down their country and ravaged the world. They were reveling in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which, like most of the Arab world, had been off-limits to Israeli passport holders for decades. The pair was among tens of thousands of Israelis who had flocked to the UAE in December after the two countries normalized ties in a breakthrough U.S.-brokered deal. Israel’s latest virus-induced lockdown, which began earlier this week, temporarily cooled the travel fever. But Israelis with dashed vacation plans, now stuck at home, hope that vaccination campaigns will help contain the outbreak and make Dubai trips possible again soon. California For an L.A. Times reporter covering the pandemic, the statistics suddenly became tragic, personal losses, family and friends taken by the virus. Dec. 31, 2020 The lure of Dubai, the UAE’s skyscraper-studded commercial hub with sandy beaches and marbled malls, has already proved powerful. Scores of Israeli tourists, seeking revelry and relief from months-long virus restrictions and undeterred by their government’s warnings about possible Iranian attacks in the region, have celebrated weddings, bar mitzvahs and the eight-day Jewish festival of Hanukkah with large gatherings banned back home. “I expected to feel really uncomfortable here,” said 25-year-old Azerad, the Israeli bride, from the hotel ballroom, bathed in the glow of Dubai’s glittering skyline. But all of her preferred wedding destinations announced tough restrictions on gatherings to check the spread of the virus. Dubai caps parties at 200. Unwilling to delay the wedding, the choice was obvious. “I feel like it’s Tel Aviv,” Azerad said of Dubai. “I hear Hebrew everywhere.” Her French father, Igal Azerad, said he always hides his skullcap in his pocket for fear of assault on the streets of Paris. But in Dubai the sight of his kippah prompts “Emiratis to come up and tell me ‘Shalom,’” he said. The dizzying pace of normalization has stunned even the skeptics. Despite the countries’ long-secret ties, the UAE had considered Israel a political pariah over the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The modest expat Jewish community in the federation of seven sheikhdoms kept a low profile and prayed in an unmarked villa. But the arrival of 70,000 Israeli tourists, according to travel agents’ estimates, on 15 nonstop daily flights in December changed everything. A 12-foot Hanukkah candelabra appeared under the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, where Jews gathered to light the candles and take selfies as festive Hebrew songs blared across the massive fountain downtown. The Jewish community’s furtive Friday night Shabbat meal has transformed into celebrations at two cavernous banquet halls with spillover seating for Israeli visitors. “Made in Israel” signs have popped up in Dubai’s chain grocery and liquor stores, which now sell wine from the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. Wine, honey and tahini from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank will hit the shelves in the coming weeks and be labeled products of Israel, according to a Dubai-based commodities company. On social media, a trip to the UAE has become a status symbol for Israelis who display photos of themselves in Dubai. A dozen hotels across the city say they’ve booked thousands of Israeli travelers and hosted a range of Israeli business conferences, holiday parties and days-long weddings. Israeli singers have planned concerts for spring. Kosher catering companies from the United Kingdom and elsewhere have set up shop in the UAE. Plans are underway to break ground on the country’s first Jewish cemetery and ritual bath known as a mikvah, according to Rabbi Mendel Duchman, who helps run the country’s Jewish Community Center. “It was unbelievable, it was a tsunami,” said Mark Feldman, head of Jerusalem-based Ziontours, noting the contrast to Israel’s “cold peace” with Egypt and Jordan. “Dubai became an oasis for Israelis in the middle of the pandemic.” For weeks in December, the only other countries where Israelis could land without a 14-day home quarantine upon return were Rwanda and the Seychelles. Dubai has remained open for business and tourism, with few restrictions beyond social-distancing indoors and masks outside. Guests at weddings and other gatherings often do not wear masks. Even as Israelis gush about the warm embrace of their hosts, very little has been heard about the UAE’s 180-degree shift from its 1 million citizens, who are granted free housing, education and health care and tend to seclude themselves from their country’s vast expatriate population. The sheikhdom’s hereditary rulers suppress dissent. Even dramatic political decisions are met with acquiescence. Ahmed al-Mansoori, an Emirati museum director who has welcomed dozens of Israeli visitors to his collection of ancient maps and manuscripts, including a fourth-century Torah scroll, acknowledged “some cultural misunderstandings among populations that haven’t really dealt with each other before.” “Each Emirati has their own psychology about this,” he said when asked about the policy reversal that Palestinians view as a betrayal of their quest for a state on lands occupied by Israel. But he noted that Dubai, a city powered by millions of workers from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, easily absorbs waves of expats, including from countries locked in bitter struggles with each other. Despite initial worries about Iranian threats and diplomatic fallout from misbehaving tourists, travel agents say there have been only minor hiccups. A few Israeli tourists got stuck in sand dunes while racing on quad bikes, prompting an elaborate rescue mission by a government helicopter, said Yaniv Stainberg, owner of Privilege Tourism. Some were arrested for snapping photos at a mosque, he added. Others were scolded for kissing in public, an offense punishable under the UAE’s Islamic legal system with prison time. But as the virus surged in Israel and photos of raucous unmasked parties in Dubai splashed across social media, Israel’s health and foreign ministries were reportedly sparring over whether to classify the UAE as a high-infection zone, which would require quarantine upon arrival in Israel and perhaps mar the countries’ new courtship. Within days, the point was moot. Israel entered its third lockdown on Sunday. By then, the newlyweds, Azerad and Benhamou, had returned home. “COVID has really hindered us. It’s unfortunate for all the new friends in the region who we want to meet,” said Eliav Benjamin, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, referring to Israel’s other recent normalization agreements with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. “Vaccines, however, will be a game-changer.”

New director appointed to lead California Employment Development Department

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-30/new-director-appointed-to-lead-california-employment-development-department

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Rita L. Saenz to oversee the state’s unemployment benefits department, which has been overwhelmed by claims during the coronavirus pandemic and has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in phony claims, including to prison inmates. Saenz, 71, will be director of the Employment Development Department if she receives state Senate confirmation. “With more than 40 years of experience in state government and the private sector, Rita Saenz is well prepared to lead EDD at what is sure to be one of the most difficult moments in the department’s history,” Newsom said in a statement. “California has certainly not escaped this national crisis unscathed but with Rita at the helm, we stand ready to ensure payments to Californians who are in desperate need of financial support while simultaneously stopping fraud in our systems and holding people who have committed fraud accountable,” Newsom said. Saenz, a Democrat, was a consultant at Saenz and Associates. She also worked for the Xerox Corp. and was director of the state Department of Social Services from 1998 to 2004. Saenz replaces Sharon Hilliard, who is retiring as of Thursday. Hilliard, who worked nearly four decades at the EDD, was appointed to head the department by Newsom in February, when the state’s unemployment rate was at a historic low and the coronavirus was just starting to get a foothold in the U.S. Since then, however, the nation’s most populous state has been hammered by more than 16 million unemployment benefits claims. Newsom repeatedly closed down nonessential businesses as the COVID-19 outbreak grew. As millions lost their jobs, the department struggled with a backlog that left people with long delays for their unemployment benefits. At one point, the backlog numbered more than 1.6 million claims. Hilliard had said clearing the backlog could take until the end of January. The department also has been criticized for granting payouts on hundreds of thousands of fraudulent claims, including some in the name of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The state has acknowledged that it has paid about $400 million in the names of prison inmates. The Bank of America told state lawmakers this month that it had identified about 345,000 fraudulent claims worth about $2 billion.

Colorado Guardsman has 1st reported U.S. case of virus variant

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-30/colorado-guardsman-has-1st-reported-us-case-of-virus-variant

The first person in the U.S. known to be infected with a new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus was identified Wednesday as a Colorado National Guardsman who had been sent to help out at a nursing home struggling with an outbreak. And health officials said a second Guard member may have it, too. The cases have triggered a host of questions about how the mutant 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 virus is becoming more fit, and we’re like a deer in the headlights,” warned Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute. He noted that the U.S. does far less genetic sequencing of virus samples to discover variants than other developed nations do and thus was probably slow to detect this new mutation. The two Guard members had been dispatched on Dec. 23 to work at the Good Samaritan Society nursing home in the small town of Simla, in a mostly rural area about 90 miles outside Denver, said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, state epidemiologist. They were among six Guard members sent to the home. Nasal swab samples taken from the two as part of the Guard’s routine coronavirus testing were sent to the state laboratory, which began looking for the variant after its spread was announced in Britain earlier this month, Herlihy said. Samples from staff and residents at the nursing home are also being screened for the variant at the lab, but so far no evidence of it has been found, she said. The confirmed case is in a Colorado man in his 20s who hadn’t been traveling, officials said. He has mild symptoms and is isolating at his home near Denver, while the person with the suspected case is isolating at a Colorado hotel while further genetic analysis is done on his sample, officials said. A spokesperson for the company that operates the nursing home had no immediate comment. Several states, including California, Massachusetts and Delaware, are also analyzing suspicious virus samples for the variant, said Dr. Greg Armstrong, who directs genetic sequencing at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the CDC is working with a national lab that gets samples from around the country to broaden that search, with results expected within days. The discovery in Colorado has added urgency to the nation’s vaccination drive against COVID-19, which has killed more than 340,000 people in the U.S. Britain is seeing infections soar and hospitalizations climb to their highest levels on record. The variant has also been found in several other countries. Scientists have found no evidence that it is more lethal or causes more severe illness, and they believe the vaccines now being dispensed will be effective against it. But a faster-spreading virus could swamp hospitals with seriously ill patients. The discovery overseas led the CDC to issue rules on Christmas Day requiring travelers arriving from Britain to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test. But U.S. health officials said the Colorado patient’s lack of travel history suggests the new variant is already spreading in this country. Topol said it is too late for travel bans. “We’re behind in finding it. Colorado is likely one of many places it’s landed here,” he said. “It’s all over the place. How can you ban travel from everywhere?” Colorado public health officials are conducting contact tracing to determine its spread. Researchers estimate the variant is 50% to 70% more contagious, said Dr. Eric France, Colorado’s chief medical officer. “Instead of only making two or three other people sick, you might actually spread it to four or five people,” France said. “That means we’ll have more cases in our communities. Those number of cases will rise quickly and, of course, with more cases come more hospitalizations.” London and southeast England were placed under strict lockdown measures earlier this month because of the variant, and dozens of countries banned flights from Britain. France also briefly barred trucks from Britain before allowing them back in, provided the drivers got tested for the virus. New versions of the virus have been seen almost since it was first detected in China a year ago. It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population. The fear is that mutations at some point will become significant enough to defeat the vaccines. South Africa has also discovered a highly contagious COVID-19 variant that is driving the country’s latest spike of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

China clamps down on research into coronavirus origins

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/china-clamps-down-in-hidden-hunt-for-coronavirus-origins

Deep in the lush valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats that carried the closest known relative to the coronavirus. The area is of intense interest — it may hold clues to the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has killed more than 1.8 million people worldwide — but has become a black hole of information because of political sensitivity. A bat research team that visited recently had its samples confiscated, two people familiar with the matter said. And a team of Associated Press journalists was tailed in cars by plainclothes police who blocked access to sites in late November. More than a year since the first known person was infected with the coronavirus, an AP investigation shows the Chinese government is strictly controlling all research into its origins while promoting fringe theories that the pandemic originated elsewhere. The government is monitoring scientists’ findings and mandating that the publication of any research first be approved by a new task force managed by China’s Cabinet under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP. In a rare leak from within the government, the dozens of pages of unpublished documents confirm what many have long suspected: The clampdown comes from the top. Entertainment & Arts After the in-person event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Rose Parade is now a TV-only celebration. Here’s how to tune in. Dec. 31, 2020 The AP’s investigation was based on interviews with Chinese and foreign scientists and officials, along with public notices, leaked emails and the unpublished documents from China’s State Council and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It reveals a pattern of government secrecy and top-down control that has been evident throughout the pandemic. “They only select people they can trust, those that they can control,” said an expert who works with the China CDC, declining to be identified out of a fear of retribution. China’s foreign ministry said in a fax that “the novel coronavirus has been discovered in many parts of the world” and research should be carried out “on a global scale.” China’s leaders aren’t alone in politicizing research into how the pandemic started. In April, President Trump shelved a U.S.-funded project to identify dangerous animal diseases across Asia. Research into the coronavirus’ origins is critical to preventing future epidemics, and the move severed ties between Chinese and U.S. scientists. Although the World Health Organization says it will send a team to China in January to investigate, its members and agenda had to be approved by China. The probe into how the coronavirus first emerged started in the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan, a sprawling complex where many of the first human cases were detected. In mid-December last year, Huanan vendor Jiang Dafa noticed people were falling ill, including a worker who helped clean carcasses at a stall who later died. At first, the China CDC moved swiftly. On Jan. 1, the market was ordered shut, barring vendors from fetching their belongings, Jiang said. Internal China CDC data show that, by Jan. 10, researchers were sequencing environmental samples. In late January and early February, as the virus spread rapidly, Chinese scientists published a burst of research papers on COVID-19. Then one paper proposed without concrete evidence that the virus could have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory near the market. It was later retracted, but it raised the need for image control. An internal notice from a China CDC lab issued on Feb. 24 put in new approval processes to standardize publication under “important instructions” from President Xi. Other notices ordered CDC staff not to share any data, specimens or other information related to the coronavirus with outside institutions or individuals. In early March, China’s Cabinet, the State Council, centralized all COVID-19 publication under a special task force. The notice, obtained by the AP and marked “not to be made public,” was sweeping in scope, applying to all universities, companies, and medical and research institutions. It said communication and publication of research had to be orchestrated like “a game of chess” under instructions from Xi and guided by propaganda and public opinion teams. The order warned that those who published without permission, “causing serious adverse social impact, shall be held accountable.” After the secret orders, the tide of research papers slowed to a trickle. Though the China CDC returned to collect some 2,000 samples from the market over the following months, nothing was published. On May 25, China CDC chief George Gao said no animal samples from the market had tested positive, ruling it out as the source. With the market declared a dead end, scientists turned their attention to hunting for the virus at its likely source: bats. Nearly a thousand miles away from Wuhan, bats inhabit a maze of underground limestone caves in Yunnan province. The coronavirus’ genetic code is strikingly similar to bat coronaviruses, and scientists suspect the virus jumped into humans from a bat or an intermediary animal. Chinese scientists quickly started testing animals suspected of carrying the coronavirus. Records show scientist Xia Xueshan received a grant worth about $214,000 to screen animals in Yunnan for COVID-19. In February, his team took samples from animals including bats, snakes, bamboo rats and porcupines. But the government restrictions soon kicked in; data on the samples have not been released. Today, the caves in Yunnan, home to the closest viral relative of the coronavirus, are under close watch. Security agents tailed the AP team in three locations and stopped journalists from visiting the cave where researchers identified the bats responsible for SARS in 2003. Chinese state media have instead aggressively promoted theories suggesting the coronavirus originated elsewhere, such as via frozen seafood, a hypothesis WHO and others have dismissed. The government is also limiting and controlling the search for the first human cases through the retesting of flu samples. Hundreds of Chinese hospitals collect samples from patients with flu-like symptoms, storing them for years. The samples could easily be tested again for COVID-19, although politics could determine whether the results are made public, said Ray Yip, the founding director of the China CDC. Researchers in the U.S., Italy, France and elsewhere have already combed through some of their archived samples to identify the earliest cases of COVID-19 in late 2019. But in China, scientists have only published retrospective data from two Wuhan flu surveillance hospitals, out of at least 18 in Hubei province and more than 500 across the country. The little information that has trickled out suggests COVID-19 was circulating beyond Wuhan in 2019, a finding that could raise awkward questions for Chinese officials about their early handling of the outbreak. Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance said identifying the pandemic’s source should not be used to assign guilt. “We’re all part of this together,” he said. “Until we realize that, we’re never going to get rid of this problem.” Kang, Cheng and McNeil write for the Associated Press.

Restoring longleaf pines, keystone of once vast ecosystems

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-31/restoring-longleaf-pines-keystone-of-once-vast-ecosystems

When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States. Yet by the 1990s, logging and clear-cutting for farms and development had all but eliminated longleaf pines and the grasslands beneath where hundreds of plant and animal species flourished. Now, thanks to a pair of modern day Johnny Appleseeds, landowners, government agencies and nonprofits are working in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas to bring back pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. Television Tina Louise, who played Ginger Grant on “Gilligan’s Island,” remembers costar Dawn Wells as a “wonderful person” and “always with a smile on her face.” Dec. 31, 2020 Longleaf pines now cover as much as 7,300 square miles — and more than one-quarter of that has been planted since 2010. “I like to say we rescued longleaf from the dustbin. I don’t think we had any idea how successful we’d be,” said Rhett Johnson, who founded the Longleaf Alliance in 1995 with another Auburn University forestry professor. That’s not to say that the tall, straight and widely spaced pines will ever gain anything near their once vast extent. But their reach is, after centuries, expanding rather than contracting. Scientists estimate that longleaf savannas once covered up to 143,750 square miles, an area bigger than Germany. By the 1990s, less than 3% remained in scattered patches. Most are in areas too wet or dry to farm. Fire suppression played a critical role on the longleaf’s decline. Fires clear and fertilize ground that longleaf seeds must touch to sprout. Properly timed, they also spark seedlings’ first growth spurt. And, crucially for the entire ecosystem, they kill shrubs and hardwood trees that would otherwise block the sun from seedlings, grasses and wildflowers. “The diversity of the longleaf pine system is below our knees,” sad Keith Coursey, silviculturist for about 70% of the 529,000-acre DeSoto National Forest in south Mississippi. Of the 1,600 plant species found only in the Southeast, nearly 900 are only in longleaf forests, including species that trap bugs as well as fire-adapted grasses and wildflowers. The forests harbor turkeys and quail — but also about 100 other kinds of birds, nearly 40 types of animals and 170 reptile and amphibian species found only among longleaf. One is the gopher tortoise whose burrows shelter scores of animal species including mice, foxes, rabbits, snakes, even birds, and hundreds of kinds of insects. Plants and animals have lost ground along with the longleaf. Nearly 30 are endangered or threatened. Dozens more are being studied to decide whether they should be protected. Johnson, who retired in 2006 as director of Auburn’s Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center in south Alabama, said working surrounded by longleaf made him realize that stands were losing quality and shrinking in range. “Just as alarming, people who understood longleaf were disappearing as well,” he said. Johnson and alliance cofounder Dean Gjerstad spread the word about the tree’s importance. “We were like Johnny Appleseed — we were on the road all the time,” said Johnson, who retired from the alliance in 2012. By 2005, the alliance, government agencies, nonprofits, universities and private partners were working together. In 2010, they launched America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative, with a goal of having 12,500 square miles of longleaf by 2025. The initiative built on efforts by federal and state agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide incentives for owners to return land to longleaf pines, Johnson said. Most of the land planted in the last 10 years had been “highly erodible cropland,” he said. “Better a longleaf plantation than a cotton field.” The initiative is trying to ensure that at least half the restored land is close enough to existing forests that plants and animals could, over generations, turn the new stands into functioning ecosystems. When the ecosystem returns, landowners can look forward to annual income from activities such as hunting and wildlife photography rather than only from intermittent timber harvests, said Kevin Norton, acting chief of the National Resources Conservation Service. Because most longleaf acreage is privately owned, 80% to 85% of the planting so far has been on private land, said Carol Denhof, president of the Longleaf Alliance. Another 5,160 square miles must be planted or reclaimed from stands overly mixed with other tree species to meet the initiative’s 2025 deadline, she said. “I’m hopeful we can get there, but ... we have a lot of work to do.” About 400 acres of land returned to longleaf were planted by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, for their needles. But branches from most of the first planting are now too high to reach. So Gesse Bullock, the tribe’s fire management specialist, said he is pushing for another planting on the 10,200-acre reservation. Basket weavers include the tribe’s realty officer, Elliott Abbey. “When I was younger,” he said, “I thought it was work — something my aunts made me do,” Now, Abbey said, “It strikes me in the heart that this could die out.”

'Columbo,' 'Murder, She Wrote' co-creator William Link dies

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-12-29/columbo-murder-she-wrote-co-creator-william-link-dies

William Link, who co-created the hit series “Columbo” and “Murder, She Wrote” and made 1970s and ’80s TV movies about social issues then largely shunned by television, has died. He was 87. Link died of congestive heart failure Sunday in Los Angeles, his wife of more than 40 years, Margery Nelson, said in a statement Tuesday. The family helped Link mark his Dec. 15 birthday by playing YouTube videos of interviews in which he recounted his long career, said his niece, Amy Salko Robertson. “He loved it. It was the best birthday present we could have given him,” she said. “Columbo” was a highlight of Link’s award-winning body of work. The series featured a brilliant, deceptively unkempt police detective that he and his longtime writing-producing partner, Richard Levinson, originally created for a 1960 TV anthology episode. The pair earned a writing Emmy for the series, with four acting trophies going to star Peter Falk. He played the role in the 1971-78 “Columbo” run on NBC and when the crime drama moved to ABC from 1989 to 2003 as more occasional TV movies. Entertainment & Arts Classic Hollywood: William Link on ‘Columbo’ June 16, 2010 Link and Levinson, Philadelphia-area natives who met as mystery-loving teens and soon began collaborating on stories and radio scripts, aimed to produce more than entertainment, Salko Robertson said in an interview. The fight “for justice and equality” was a central theme in their projects, she said — including “Columbo,” which tended to pit the wily detective against wealthy and powerful criminals. The collaborators’ TV movies included 1970’s “My Sweet Charlie,” a rare small-screen depiction of an interracial romance that earned them a writing Emmy, and “That Certain Summer” (1972), a groundbreaker for its sympathetic portrayal of gay characters. Dramas such as those “were not getting on TV, and they really fought for them,” said Salko Robertson, a producer who handled business matters for her uncle. Link, an Army veteran, and Levinson wrote and were executive producers for the Emmy-winning “The Execution of Private Slovik” (1974), about a WWII soldier who became the first executed for desertion since the Civil War. “Murder, She Wrote,” with film and stage star Angela Lansbury as an amateur sleuth, was created by Link, Levinson and Peter S. Fischer. The series was a durable, 12-season success for CBS, airing from 1984 to 1996. Link and Levinson’s other series included the 1967-75 crime drama “Mannix” and 1973-74’s “Tenafly,” an early show with an African American lead character, a private eye played by James McEachin. The pair wrote screenplays for the ’70s big-screen films “The Hindenburg,” “Rollercoaster” and for 1980’s “The Hunter,” among actor Steve McQueen’s final movies. After Levinson’s death in 1987, Link continued to write, including stories for Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Besides his wife and Salko Robertson, Link’s survivors include nieces and nephews John Robertson, Karen Salko Nieberg and Owen Nieberg.

Trump lashes out at GOP after override vote on defense bill

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-29/trump-lashes-out-at-gop-after-override-vote-on-defense-bill

President Trump lashed out at congressional Republicans on Tuesday after the House easily voted to override his veto of a defense policy bill. A total of 109 Republicans, including Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a member of GOP leadership, joined with Democrats on Monday to approve the override, which would be the first of Trump’s presidency. The Senate is expected to consider the measure later this week. Trump slammed GOP lawmakers on Twitter, charging that “Weak and tired Republican ‘leadership’ will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass.″ Trump called the override vote a “disgraceful act of cowardice and total submission by weak people to Big Tech. Negotiate a better Bill, or get better leaders, NOW! Senate should not approve NDAA until fixed!!!″ The 322-87 vote in the House sends the override effort to the Senate, where the exact timing of a vote is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) wants a vote as soon as Wednesday, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders objected to moving ahead until McConnell allows a vote on a Trump-backed plan to increase COVID-19 relief payments to $2,000. Politics President Trump has failed to get Congress to amend a COVID relief bill or to back his veto of a defense bill. But he has disrupted Washington, and that’s his point. Dec. 28, 2020 “Let me be clear: If Sen. McConnell doesn’t agree to an up or down vote to provide the working people of our country a $2,000 direct payment, Congress will not be going home for New Year’s Eve,” said Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. “Let’s do our job.” McConnell said Tuesday that approval of the $740-billion National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is crucial to the nation’s defense and to “deter great-power rivals like China and Russia.’’ The bill “will cement our advantage on the seas, on land, in the air, in cyberspace and in space,” McConnell said. The bill also provides a 3% pay raise for U.S. troops, improvements for military housing, childcare and more, McConnell said. “For the brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces, failure is not an option. So when it is our turn in Congress to have their backs, failure is not an option here either,” he said. Trump rejected the defense measure last week, saying it failed to limit social media companies he claims were biased against him during his failed reelection campaign. Trump also opposes language that allows for the renaming of military bases that honor Confederate leaders. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said after the House vote that lawmakers have done their part to ensure the NDAA becomes law “despite the president’s dangerous sabotage efforts.’’ Trump’s “reckless veto would have denied our service members hazard-duty pay,” removed key protections for global peace and security and ”undermined our nation’s values and work to combat racism, by blocking overwhelmingly bipartisan action to rename military bases,” Pelosi said. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “disappointed” with Trump’s veto and called the bill “absolutely vital to our national security and our troops.” “This is the most important bill we have,” Inhofe said Tuesday on the Senate floor. “It puts members of the military first.” Politics Pressure is mounting on the Republican-led Senate to follow the House, which voted overwhelmingly to increase the checks from $600 as the virus crisis worsens. Dec. 29, 2020 Trump has succeeded throughout his four-year term in enforcing party discipline in Congress, with few Republicans willing to publicly oppose him. The bipartisan vote on the widely popular defense bill showed the limits of Trump’s influence in the final weeks before he leaves office, and came minutes after 130 House Republicans voted against a Trump-supported plan to increase COVID-19 relief checks to $2,000. The House approved the larger payments, but the plan faces an uncertain future in the Republican-controlled Senate, another sign of Trump’s fading hold over Congress. Besides social media and military base names, Trump also said the defense bill restricts his ability to conduct foreign policy, “particularly my efforts to bring our troops home.” Trump was referring to provisions in the bill that impose conditions on his plan to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan and Germany. The measures require the Pentagon to submit reports certifying that the proposed withdrawals would not jeopardize U.S. national security. The House veto override was supported by 212 Democrats, 109 Republicans and an independent. Twenty Democrats opposed the override, along with 66 Republicans and an independent. The Senate approved the bill 84-13 earlier this month, well above the margin needed to override a presidential veto. Trump has vetoed eight other bills, but those were all sustained because supporters did not gain the two-thirds vote needed in each chamber for the bills to become law without Trump’s signature. Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Trump’s declaration that China benefited from the defense bill was false. He also noted the shifting explanations Trump had given for the veto. “From Confederate base names to social media liability provisions ... to imaginary and easily refutable charges about China, it’s hard to keep track of President Trump’s unprincipled, irrational excuses for vetoing this bipartisan bill,” Reed said. Reed called the Dec. 23 veto “Trump’s parting gift to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and a lump of coal for our troops. Donald Trump is showing more devotion to Confederate base names than to the men and women who defend our nation.” The defense bill guides Pentagon policy and cements decisions about troop levels, new weapons systems and military readiness, personnel policy and other military goals. Many programs, including military construction, can only go into effect if the bill is approved.

New U.S. dietary guidelines: No added sugar for kids under 2

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-29/new-us-dietary-guidelines-no-candy-cake-for-kids-under-2

So much for celebrating baby’s first birthday with cake and ice cream. The first U.S. government dietary guidelines for infants and toddlers recommend breast milk only for at least the first six months of life and absolutely no added sugar for children under age 2. “It’s never too early to start,” said Barbara Schneeman, a nutritionist at UC Davis. “You have to make every bite count in those early years.” The guidelines, released Tuesday, did not include two key recommendations made by scientists advising the government. Those advisors said in July that everyone should restrict their added sugar intake to less than 6% of daily calories and that men should limit their alcohol consumption to one drink per day. Instead, the guidelines stick with previous advice: Keep added sugar below 10% of calories per day after age 2. And men should limit alcohol to no more than two drinks per day, twice as much as advised for women. “I don’t think we’re finished with alcohol,” said Schneeman, who chaired a committee advising the government on the guidelines. “There’s more we need to learn.” The dietary guidelines are issued every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. The government uses them to set standards for school lunches and other programs. Here are some highlights of what’s in the new edition: Infants should have only breast milk until they are at least 6 months old, the guidelines say. If breast milk isn’t available, they should get iron-fortified infant formula during the first year. In addition, infants should get supplemental vitamin D beginning soon after birth. Babies can start eating other food at about 6 months of age, and they should be introduced to potential allergenic foods along with other foods. “Introducing peanut-containing foods in the first year reduces the risk that an infant will develop a food allergy to peanuts,” the guidelines say. There’s more advice than in prior guidelines for pregnant and breastfeeding women. To promote healthy brain development in their babies, these women should eat 8 to 12 ounces of seafood per week. And they should be sure to choose fish — such as cod, salmon, sardines and tilapia — with lower levels of mercury, which can harm children’s nervous systems. Pregnant women should not drink alcohol, according to the guidelines, and breastfeeding women should be cautious. Caffeine in modest amounts appears safe, and women can discuss that with their doctors. Most Americans fall short of following the best advice on nutrition, a mistake that contributes to obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Much of the new advice sounds familiar: Load your plate with fruit and vegetables, and cut back on sweets, saturated fats and sodium. The guidelines suggest making small changes that add up: Substitute plain shredded wheat for frosted cereal. Choose canned black beans that are low in sodium. Drink sparkling water instead of soda. There’s more advice on the government’s My Plate website, plus information on an app to help people follow the new guidelines. The biggest sources of added sugars in the typical U.S. diet are soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, desserts, snacks, candy and sweetened coffee and tea. These foods contribute very little nutrition, so the guidelines advise limits. Information about the added sugar in packaged foods is available on the “Nutrition Facts” label, along with information about saturated fats and sodium.

BNP Paribas Open postponed until later in 2021

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/2020-12-29/tennis-bnp-paribas-open-postponed-until-later-in-2021

The 2021 BNP Paribas Open won’t be held in March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as scheduled, but tournament organizers said in a news release Tuesday they hope to stage the event later in the year. The 2020 edition of the tournament was among the first sports events affected by the growth of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially postponed but later was cancelled. The event typically draws the top players in men’s and women’s tennis to compete in a luxurious setting in the desert, and it’s widely considered the unofficial fifth major event on the tennis calendar. Indian Wells has been the site of major breakthroughs by young players in recent years, with 2018 women’s champion Naomi Osaka going on to win the U.S. Open a few months later and 2019 women’s champion Bianca Andreescu pulling off the same double. The 2021 tournament was to have been held March 8-21. “The tournament is proactively working with the ATP and WTA Tours as well as title sponsor BNP Paribas to confirm dates later in the year to hold the event,” organizers said in a statement, referring to the men’s and women’s professional tours. “Details will be released in the near future as plans are finalized. “This decision was made after thorough consultation with state and local health authorities and tournament owner Larry Ellison.”

Judge rejects Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell's bail bid

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-28/judge-rejects-epstein-associate-ghislaine-maxwells-bail-bid

A judge rejected a $28.5 million proposed bail package for Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Monday, saying her incarceration is necessary to ensure she faces trial on charges she recruited teenage girls for the late financier to sexually abuse. U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan in Manhattan rejected the proposed bail for Ghislaine Maxwell in an order. But she did not immediately release an opinion explaining her reasoning, in order to allow defense lawyers and prosecutors to propose redactions. Defense lawyers for Maxwell, who had lost a bail request shortly after her July arrest, recently offered the new bail package, saying Maxwell and her husband were offering all of their wealth — $22.5 million — and millions more in the assets of friends and family to secure bail. Maxwell’s husband has not been publicly identified. Her attorneys said Maxwell would remain in a New York City residence under 24-hour guard and would submit to electronic monitoring if the judge accepted the bail package. They had complained that Maxwell was being mistreated by guards who wake her every 15 minutes at night and who subject her to repeated unnecessary searches while failing to adequately protect her from an outbreak of the coronavirus at the jail. A message seeking comment was sent to Maxwell’s lawyers after Nathan ruled. Prosecutors declined through a spokesperson to comment. Prosecutors said Maxwell still retained access to significant wealth and was a high risk to flee because of her connections abroad — in addition to U.S. citizenship, she holds citizenship in the her native United Kingdom and France. Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July at a secluded New Hampshire home and was brought to New York City. Opinion Trump has hoped that with payoffs, aggressive attorneys and Twitter intimidation he can avoid real consequences for his history of adultery, harassment and abuse. July 24, 2020 She was charged with recruiting three teenagers as young as 14 for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 1997. She also was accused of sometimes participating in the abuse. She pleaded not guilty to an indictment. She has remained at a federal lockup in Brooklyn after Nathan concluded shortly after her arrest that there were no bail conditions that would ensure she would not flee. “For substantially the same reasons as the Court determined that detention was warranted in the initial bail hearing, the Court again concludes that no conditions of release can reasonably assure the Defendant’s appearance at future proceedings,” Nathan wrote Monday. “In reaching that conclusion, the Court considers the nature and circumstances of the offenses charged, the weight of the evidence against the Defendant, the history and characteristics of the Defendant, and the nature and seriousness of the danger that the Defendant’s release would pose,” the judge added. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 at a Manhattan federal jail as he awaited a sex trafficking trial.

Sex offenders can qualify for early parole, California Supreme Court rules

https://www.latimes.com/metro/story/2020-12-28/california-supreme-court-sex-offenders-early-parole

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that inmates who have been convicted of nonviolent sex crimes may be eligible for early parole consideration as part of a ballot measure that nearly two-thirds of voters approved of four years ago. “The initiative’s language provides no indication that the voters intended to allow the (Corrections) Department to create a wholesale exclusion from parole consideration based on an inmate’s sex offense convictions when the inmate was convicted of a nonviolent felony,” wrote Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in the unanimous decision. Former Gov. Jerry Brown, who championed the 2014 initiative as a way to reduce prison populations and costs by speeding up chances for parole, has repeatedly said he and other proponents never intended for it to cover sex offenders. But lower appeals courts ruled that the plain language of the initiative means they cannot be excluded from consideration as nonviolent offenders, and the high court agreed. The ballot measure, the justices ruled, “is not ambiguous concerning its scope regarding offenders who were previously convicted of a registerable sex offense or who are currently convicted of a registerable sex offense that the Department has itself defined as nonviolent.” Under California law, violent offenses include things like rape, sodomy and continuous sexual abuse of a child. But the definition leaves out many other offenses, like pimping, incest, indecent exposure and possessing child pornography. The ruling could allow parole consideration for about 20,000 inmates, said Sacramento attorney Janice Bellucci, who argued the case and also is executive director of the Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws. About half are now serving time for sex crimes while the other half are in prison for some other offense like burglary or drugs but were previously convicted of a sex crime. But the court put the number much lower, based on the state corrections department’s earlier figures. While about 22,400 inmates were required to register for a sex offense based on a current or prior conviction, more than 18,000 were serving time for a violent offense. That left about 4,400 inmates. Bellucci didn’t disagree with the lower figure but said it’s unclear how corrections officials will rewrite their regulations based on the high court’s ruling. Sometimes they have argued that all sex offenders are by definition violent, while other times they have used the narrow definition in state law, she said. She called the ruling “a significant victory” for inmates convicted of sex offenses. Corrections department spokeswoman Dana Simas echoed the high court’s emphasis that the decision does not necessarily mean sex offenders will be paroled. Parole boards can still choose not to allow individual earlier releases, which the justices said leaves corrections officials “with ample room to protect public safety” without the broad prohibition the corrections department had argued was needed for sex offenders. “The Board of Parole Hearings may consider an inmate’s prior or current sex offense convictions when evaluating the inmate’s suitability for parole,” the justices said, but it may not deny “even the mere possibility of parole to an entire category” of inmates. The ruling, Simas said, “will have no impact on the existing exclusion of individuals convicted of violent felony sex offenses from this parole process.” The justices had stayed eight other related cases while it considered Monday’s ruling. The ballot measure allows officials to consider paroling inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes after they have served their basic sentence and before they have completed sometimes lengthy additional terms for enhancements for things like using a gun, having prior criminal convictions, or being involved in a street gang. The high court thus ruled “that nonviolent offender parole eligibility must be based on an inmate’s current conviction” and offenders cannot be excluded from consideration for what the state deems a nonviolent sex offense.

Armando Manzanero, Mexican ballad singer and composer, dies at 85

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-28/mexican-singer-composer-armando-manzanero-dies-at-85

Mexican ballad singer and composer Armando Manzanero died at the age of 85, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday. Manzanero was hospitalized in recent weeks with COVID-19 and at one point was on a ventilator. But his manager, Laura Blum, said he died at a Mexico City hospital of complications from a kidney problem. Manzanero was a crooner best known for songs such as “Somos Novios,” which, with lyrics translated into English, became the 1970s hit “It’s Impossible” for Perry Como. López Obrador praised the Yucatan native as “a great composer, and the country’s best.” “Besides that, he was a man with sensitivity on social questions as well,” the president noted. The president played a video clip of Manzanero singing the song “Adoro” and appeared so overcome by emotion at the news of his death that he cut short his daily news conference. “I do not want to continue with this press conference. It ends here,” López Obrador said before playing the clip. Manzanero was born in Merida, the capital of Yucatan state, and his ashes will be returned there, Blum said. He was proud of his roots in the largely Maya state, noting, “I am a Mexican of Mayan ancestry, I am a Mayan Indian.” In a 2020 interview with the Associated Press, Manzanero expressed pride at how other artists continued to sing songs he wrote decades ago. “The song I wrote 50 or 60 years ago is still alive,” Manzanero said. “Even flowers don’t live that long.” He had several ex-wives, seven children and 16 grandchildren, all of whom survived him.

Hezbollah doubled its precision-guided missiles in a year

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-27/hezbollah-doubled-its-precision-guided-missiles-in-a-year

The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah said Sunday that his group now has twice as many precision-guided missiles as it had a year ago, saying Israel’s efforts to prevent it from acquiring them has failed. Hassan Nasrallah, in an end-of-year interview with the Beirut-based Arabic Al-Mayadeen TV, said his group has the capability to strike anywhere in Israel and occupied Palestinian territories. Nasrallah said that when Israel threatened through a U.S. official to target a Hezbollah facility in the eastern Bekaa region, his group warned it would retaliate for any such attack. Israel has in recent months expressed concern that Hezbollah is trying to establish production facilities to make precision-guided missiles. During the four-hour interview, Nasrallah said there are many matters related to his group that Israel has no knowledge of because those are kept in a “very tight circle.” Nasrallah also said that the last few weeks of the administration of President Trump are critical and must be treated with care. He called Trump “angry” and “crazy.” Hezbollah is one of Iran’s main allies in the region and is a sworn enemy of Israel, with which it has had a series of confrontations, lastly in 2006. Nasrallah repeated vows that Iran and its allies will avenge the U.S. killing of the commander of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Qassem Suleimani, in a drone attack a year ago in Iraq. “That revenge is coming no matter how long it takes,” he told Al-Mayadeen TV, sitting with a picture of Suleimani to his left. Nasrallah also vowed to avenge Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah fighter in Syria earlier this year. Addressing the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Joe Biden, Nasrallah said Iran would not negotiate with the U.S. on behalf of its allies or discuss conflicts in the region. He said Tehran would talk with Washington only about the Iranian nuclear deal.

Wars and instability pose vaccine challenges in poor nations

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-27/wars-instability-pose-vaccine-challenges-in-poor-nations

Arifullah Khan had just administered another polio vaccine when the gunfire blasted from the nearby hills. “It happened so suddenly. There was so much gunfire, it felt like an explosion,” he said, recalling details of the attack five years ago in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal region near the Afghan border. A bullet shattered his thigh, and he fell to the ground. His childhood friend and partner in the vaccination campaign, Ruhollah, lay bleeding on the ground in front of him. “I couldn’t move,” Khan said. “I watched him lying right in front of me as he took his last breath.” In Pakistan, delivering vaccines can be deadly. Militants and radical religious groups spread claims that the polio vaccine is a Western ploy to sterilize Muslim children or turn them away from religion. More than 100 health workers, vaccinators and security officials involved in polio vaccination have been killed since 2012. The violence is an extreme example of the difficulties many poor and developing countries across Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America face as they tackle the monumental task of vaccinating their populations against the coronavirus. World & Nation Rich countries are placing advance orders for the inevitably limited supply of vaccine to guarantee their citizens are immunized first. June 18, 2020 It’s not just the problem of affording vaccines or being at the back of the line behind wealthy countries in receiving them. Poor infrastructure often means roads are treacherous and electricity is sporadic for the refrigerators vital to preserving vaccines. Wars and insurgencies endanger vaccinators. Corruption can siphon away funds, and vaccination campaign planners must sometimes navigate through multiple armed factions. “The most challenging areas ... are conflict settings, where outbreaks of violence hinder vaccinations, and areas where misinformation is circulating, which discourages community participation,” said Benjamin Schreiber, deputy chief of UNICEF’s global immunization program. Many nations are relying on Covax, an international system aimed at ensuring equitable access to vaccines, though it is already short on funding. UNICEF, which runs immunization programs worldwide, is gearing up to help procure and administer COVID-19 vaccines, Schreiber told the Associated Press. It has stockpiled half a billion syringes and aims to provide 70,000 refrigerators, mostly solar powered, he said. The agency plans to transport 850 tons of COVID-19 vaccines a month next year, double its usual annual monthly rate for other vaccines, UNICEF’s executive director, Henrietta Fore, said in a statement. The situation can vary widely from country to country. Mexico is expected to start immunizations soon. The military will handle distribution, and the government has promised free vaccines for Mexico’s nearly 130 million inhabitants by the end of 2021. Meanwhile, Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, has yet to announce any vaccination plans. Health experts worry that widespread rumors could set back vaccinations — including claims that hospitals will give fatal injections to inflate COVID-19 death figures and receive more foreign aid. The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is leading a continent-wide effort to vaccinate Africa’s 1.3-billion people in 54 countries. The agency is coordinating efforts to obtain doses and seeking World Bank help in funding — estimating it will take $10 billion to acquire, distribute and administer the vaccines. The aim is to vaccinate 60% of Africa’s population within two years — some 700 million people — more than the continent has done in the past, said John Nkengasong, director of the African CDC. “The time for action is now,” said Nkengasong. “The West cannot defeat COVID-19 alone. It must be defeated ... all over the world, and that includes Africa.” Congo underscores the obstacles the campaign faces. The country has overcome Ebola outbreaks with vaccination campaigns. But it struggled in eastern Congo, where Allied Democratic Forces rebels stage frequent attacks and other armed groups vie for control of mineral riches. Rough terrain and insecurity meant vaccinators had trouble getting to all areas. Some came under attack. Rumors flew about the Ebola vaccines, including the idea they were meant to kill people, said Dr. Maurice Kakule, an Ebola survivor who worked in vaccination campaigns. Education programs overcame much of the resistance, but similar suspicions are spreading about the COVID-19 vaccine, he said. In Beni, the area’s main city, Danny Momoti, a trader, said he would take the vaccine because of his work. “I need this COVID-19 vaccination card to be accepted in Dubai and elsewhere where I go to buy the goods for Beni,” he said. Civil wars present perhaps the greatest obstacles. In Yemen, the health system has collapsed under six years of war between Houthi rebels who control the north and government-allied factions in the south. Yemen saw its first outbreak of polio in 15 years this summer, centered in the northern province of Saada. Vaccinators haven’t been able to work there the past two years, in part because of security fears, UNICEF said. Agencies rushed to give new inoculations in parts of the north and south in November and December. Cholera and diphtheria have been rampant, and once again, Yemen faces a new surge in hunger. U.N. officials have warned of potential famine in 2021. No plans for COVID-19 vaccinations have been announced yet, whether by the Houthis, southern authorities or WHO and UNICEF. Only half of Yemen’s health facilities remain functional. Roads, power networks and other infrastructure have been devastated. The Houthis have hampered some programs, trying to wrest concessions from U.N. agencies, including blocking a shipment of cholera vaccines amid a 2017 outbreak. “Even the mildest and normally preventable diseases can prove fatal due to a lack of healthcare access in a conflict setting,” said Wasim Bahja, the Yemen country director for International Medical Corps. In Pakistan, public distrust was fueled when the CIA in 2011 used a scam vaccination program to identify the hideout of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, leading to the special forces raid that killed him. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic. There have been 82 new polio cases this year alone, largely because vaccinations were suspended due to the pandemic, said Dr. Rana Safdar, who coordinates the polio vaccination campaigns. The Bajaur region, where Khan was shot, remains one of the more dangerous areas, Safdar said. Khan tried to explain the deep mistrust in his region. Deeply conservative tribal elders “believe the vaccine is the reason the young people who were given it as children are disrespectful and show little concern for Islamic traditions and values.” “Everyone is scared” of the coronavirus, he said. “But they are suspicious of Western things.” Khan said he signed up to administer polio vaccines because he was paid the equivalent of $56 for just a few days’ work. “I needed to feed my family.” He will likely sign up to deliver COVID-19 vaccines as well. “But first,” he said, “I would check if there is any danger there.”

Gingerbread monolith appears — then collapses — on San Francisco hilltop

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-27/gingerbread-monolith-delights-san-francisco-on-christmas-day

In true pop-up-art fashion, a nearly 7-foot-tall monolith made of gingerbread mysteriously appeared on a San Francisco hilltop on Christmas Day and collapsed the next day. The three-sided tower, held together by icing and decorated with a few gumdrops, delighted the city on Friday when word spread about its existence. Ananda Sharma told KQED-FM that during his morning run he climbed to Corona Heights Park to see the sunrise when he spotted what he thought was a big post. He said he smelled the scent of gingerbread before realizing what it was. “It made me smile,” he said. “I wonder who did it, and when they put it there.” People trekked to the park throughout the day, even as light rain fell on the ephemeral, edible art object. In one video posted online, someone took a bite of the gingerbread. Phil Ginsburg, head of city’s Recreation and Parks Department, told KQED the site looked “like a great spot to get baked” and confirmed his staff would not remove the monument “until the cookie crumbles.” It did by Saturday morning, a fitting end to what was surely an homage to the discovery and swift disappearance of a shining metal monolith in Utah‘s red-rock desert last month. It became a subject of fascination around the world as it evoked the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey” and drew speculation about its otherworldly origins. The still-anonymous creator of the Utah monument did not secure permission to plant the hollow, stainless steel object on public land. A similar metal structure was found and quickly disappeared on a hill in northern Romania. Days later, another monolith was discovered at the pinnacle of a trail in Atascadero, Calif., but it was later dismantled by a group of young men, city officials said.

Roger Berlind, Tony-winning Broadway producer, dies at 90

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/roger-berlind-tony-winning-broadway-producer-dies-at-90

Roger Berlind, a producer of more than 100 Broadway plays and musicals and the winner of 25 Tony Awards, has died. He was 90. He died Dec. 18 at his home in Montana. His family said cardiopulmonary arrest was to blame, the New York Times reported. The Brooklyn-born Berlind enjoyed a four-decade career that boosted the success of actors who included Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons. He wasn’t born into the theater, though. Despite youthful aspirations as a songwriter, he found work on Wall Street, becoming a brokerage partner before the death of his wife and three of four children in a June 1975 plane crash in New York City that changed the trajectory of his life. He told the N.Y. Times in 1998 that building a business and making money didn’t make sense to him anymore. Eventually, he turned to Broadway, redefining himself through a new career. Brook Berlind, his second wife, defined the switch in stage terms. “His life was utterly bifurcated by the accident,” she said. “There was Act I and Act II. I don’t think many other people could have gone on to such success after such catastrophe.” His debut production in 1976 of “Rex,” a Richard Rodgers musical about Henry VIII, was panned by a Times theater critic. His last show, a Tony winner brought to the stage by multiple producers, was the 2019 revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma.” Other shows included the original 1980 production of “Amadeus,” which won a Tony for best play, and “Sophisticated Ladies,” a 1981 musical with a two-year run featuring music by Duke Ellington. Star-studded revivals included “Death of a Salesman” in 2012 with Philip Seymour Hoffman and “Hello Dolly” in 2017 with Bette Midler. Throughout his career, Berlind took the flops in stride with the successes, finding value in some losing productions. “I know it’s not worth it economically,” he told the N.Y. Times in 1998. “But I love theater.” Berlind exhibited his own flair for the dramatic after the Sept. 11 attacks when he took then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s encouragement of Broadway to heart and appeared onstage on Sept. 23 after the conclusion of what had been scheduled to be the last performance of “Kiss Me, Kate.” “The show will go on,” he declared to an emotional audience, extending a two-year run for three months despite declining sales. Survivors include his wife and son, two granddaughters and a brother.

1,000 migrants stranded, freezing amid heavy snow in Bosnian camp

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/migrants-stranded-heavy-snow-bosnia-camp

Hundreds of migrants were stranded Saturday in a squalid, burned-out tent camp in Bosnia-Herzegovina as heavy snow fell in the country and winter temperatures suddenly dropped. Migrants at the Lipa camp in northwestern Bosnia wrapped themselves in blankets and sleeping bags to protect against the biting winds in the region, which borders European Union member Croatia. A fire earlier this week destroyed much of the camp near the town of Bihac that already was harshly criticized by international officials and aid groups as being inadequate for housing refugees and migrants. Politics Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both broke fundraising records over the last two months, but the GOP retains a money edge overall. Dec. 25, 2020 Despite the fire, Bosnian authorities have failed to find new accommodations for the migrants at Lipa, leaving around 1,000 people stuck in the cold, with no facilities or heat, eating only meager food parcels provided by aid groups. “Snow has fallen, sub-zero temperatures, no heating, nothing,” the International Organization for Migration’s chief of mission in Bosnia, Peter Van der Auweraert, tweeted. “This is not how anyone should live. We need political bravery and action now.” Bosnia has become a bottleneck for thousands of migrants hoping to reach Western Europe. Most are stuck in Bosnia’s northwest Krajina region as other areas in the ethnically divided nation have refused to accept them. The EU has warned Bosnia that thousands of migrants face a freezing winter without shelter, and it has urged the country’s bickering politicians to set aside their differences and take action. On Saturday, migrants crowded at the camp to receive water and food provided by Bosnia’s Red Cross as police sought to maintain order. Some migrants wore face shields to protect them from the coronavirus. “We are living like animals. Even animals are living better than us!” said a man from Pakistan who identified himself only by his first name, Kasim. “If they do not help us, we will die, so please help us.” Plans to relocate the migrants temporarily to a closed facility in central Bihac have prompted protests by residents. Left without a solution, migrants put down cardboard on the floor and set up improvised barriers for privacy inside the only standing tent at the Lipa camp. Some people held their wet feet above the small fires that migrants lighted outside to warm up, while others wrapped up tight in blankets for warmth. To get to Croatia, migrants often use illegal routes over a mountainous area along the border. Many have complained of violence and pushback by the Croatian police.

Dig of Pompeii fast-food place reveals tastes from AD 79

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/mallard-to-go-dig-of-pompeii-fast-food-place-reveals-tastes

A fast-food eatery at Pompeii has been excavated, helping to reveal dishes that were popular for the citizens of the ancient Roman city who were partial to eating out. Pompeii Archaeological Park’s longtime chief, Massimo Osanna, said Saturday that while some 80 such fast-food places have been found at Pompeii, it is the first time such a hot-food and drink eatery — known as a thermopolium — was completely unearthed. A segment of the fast-food counter was partially dug up in 2019 during work to shore up Pompeii’s oft-crumbling ruins. Since then, archaeologists kept digging, revealing a multisided counter, with typical wide holes inserted into its top. The countertop held deep vessels for hot foods, not unlike soup containers nestled into modern-day salad bars. Company News This year’s guide and launch event are presented by City National Bank Dec. 8, 2020 Plant and animal specialists are still analyzing remains from the site, with its counter frescoed with a figure of an undersea nymph astride a horse. Images of two upside-down mallards and a rooster, whose plumage was painted with the typical vivid color known as Pompeiian red, also brightened the eatery and probably served to advertise the menu. Another fresco depicted a dog on a leash, perhaps not unlike modern reminders to leash pets. Vulgar graffiti was inscribed on the painting’s frame. Valeria Amoretti, a Pompeii staff anthropologist, said that “initial analyses confirm how the painted images represent, at least in part, the foods and beverages effectively sold inside.” Her statement noted that duck bone fragment was found in one of the containers, along with remains from goats, pigs, fish and snails. At the bottom of a wine container were traces of ground fava beans, which in ancient times were added to wine for flavor and to lighten its color, Amoretti said. “We know what they were eating that day,” said Osanna, referring to the day of Pompeii’s destruction in AD 79. The food remains indicated “what’s popular with the common folk,” Osanna told Rai state TV, noting that street-food places weren’t frequented by the Roman elite. One surprise find was the complete skeleton of a dog. The discovery intrigued the excavators, since it wasn’t a “large, muscular dog like that painted on the counter but of an extremely small example” of an adult dog, whose height at shoulder level was 8-to-10 inches, Amoretti said. It’s rather rare, Amoretti said, to find remains from ancient times of such small dogs, discoveries that “attest to selective breeding in the Roman epoch to obtain this result.” Also unearthed were a bronze ladle, nine amphorae — which were popular food containers in Roman times — a couple of flasks and a ceramic oil container. Successful restaurateurs know that a good location can be crucial, and the operator of this ancient fast-food eatery seemed to have found a good spot. Osanna noted that right outside the eatery was a small square with a fountain, with another thermopolium in the vicinity. Pompeii was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, which is near present-day Naples. Much of the ancient city still lies unexcavated. The site is one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions. Human remains were also discovered in the excavation of the eatery. Those bones were apparently disturbed in the 17th century during clandestine excavations by thieves looking for valuables, Pompeii authorities said. Some of the bones belonged to a man, who, when Vesuvius erupted, appeared to have been lying on a bed or a cot, since nails and pieces of wood were found under his body, authorities said. Other human remains were found inside one of the counter’s vessels, possibly placed there by those excavators centuries ago.

Millions face new U.K. virus restrictions; border chaos eases

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/millions-face-new-uk-virus-restrictions-border-chaos-eases

Millions of people in the U.K. faced tough new coronavirus restrictions Saturday, with Scotland and Northern Ireland demanding tighter measures to try to halt a new variant of the virus that is believed to spread more quickly. Northern Ireland went into a six-week lockdown and in Wales, restrictions that were relaxed for Christmas Day were also re-imposed. The number of people under England’s top level of restrictions — Tier 4 — increased by 6 million on Saturday to 24 million people overall, around 43% of England’s population. The region included London and many of its surrounding areas. No indoor mixing of households is allowed, and only essential travel permitted. Gyms, pools, hairdressers and stores selling nonessential goods have been ordered to close and pubs and restaurants can only do takeout. Business groups say the restrictions will be economically devastating to their members. World & Nation After tossing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID relief and government funding bill and force a government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic, President Trump spends Christmas golfing in Florida. Dec. 25, 2020 Another 570 daily deaths from COVID-19 were reported, bringing Britain’s total death toll to 70,195, the second-worst death toll in Europe after Italy. Britain also reported more than 32,700 new cases of the disease on Christmas Day. Fears about the U.K.’s new variant have sparked a week of border chaos. Around 1,000 British soldiers spent Christmas Day trying to clear a huge backlog of trucks stranded in southeast England after France briefly closed its border to the U.K. and demanded coronavirus tests from all drivers. But Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Saturday that more than 15,000 drivers had been tested and that the backlog at a testing site at Manston Airport was cleared by Sunday morning. Thirty-six positive tests had been reported, he said on Twitter. “A massive THANK YOU to everyone who’s worked tirelessly over the past few days to reduce the huge disruption caused by the sudden French border closure,” Shapps tweeted. The first cases of the U.K.’s new variant have now been detected in France and Spain. A French man living in England arrived in France on Dec. 19 and tested positive for the new variant Friday, the French public health agency said. He has no symptoms and is isolating at his home in the central city of Tours. Meanwhile, health authorities in the Madrid region said they had confirmed the U.K. variant in four people, all of whom are in good health. Regional health chief Enrique Ruiz Escudero said the new strain had arrived when an infected person flew into Madrid’s airport. In her annual Christmas address, Queen Elizabeth II, who has spent much of the year isolating at Windsor Castle with her husband, Prince Philip, delivered a heartfelt message of hope praising the “indomitable spirit” of those who have risen “magnificently” to the challenges of the pandemic. The 94-year-old queen and 99-year-old prince were setting an example by not visiting relatives as they usually do over Christmas.

British double agent George Blake dies in Russia at 98

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/british-double-agent-george-blake-dies-in-russia-at-98

George Blake, a former British intelligence officer who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union, has died in Russia. He was 98. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known as SVR, announced his death Saturday in a statement, which didn’t give any details. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences, hailing Blake as a “brilliant professional” and a man of “remarkable courage.” “He made a truly invaluable contribution to ensuring strategic parity and preserving peace,” Putin said in a telegram. Blake has lived in Russia since his daring escape from a British prison in 1966 and was given the rank of Russian intelligence colonel. Born in the Netherlands, Blake joined British intelligence during World War II. He was posted to Korea when the war there erupted in 1950 and was detained by the Communist north. He said he volunteered to work for the Soviet Union after witnessing relentless U.S. bombing of North Korea. In a statement issued in 2017 through SVR, Blake emphasized that he decided to switch sides after seeing civilians massacred by the “American military machine.” “I realized back then that such conflicts are deadly dangerous for the entire humankind and made the most important decision in my life — to cooperate with Soviet intelligence voluntarily and for free to help protect peace in the world,” Blake said. As a double agent, Blake passed some of the most coveted British secrets to the Soviet Union, including a Western plan to eavesdrop on Soviet communications from an underground tunnel into East Berlin. He also exposed scores of British agents in Soviet bloc countries in Eastern Europe. A Polish defector exposed Blake as a Soviet spy in 1961. He was convicted on spying charges in Britain and sentenced to 42 years in prison. In October 1966, he made a bold escape with help from several people he met while in custody. Blake spent two months hiding at his assistant’s place and was then driven across Europe to East Berlin inside a wooden box attached under a car. His British wife, whom he left behind along with their three children, divorced him, and he married a Soviet woman and they had a son. He was celebrated as a hero, decorated with top medals and given a country house outside Moscow. Blake noted in his 2017 statement that Russia had become his “second motherland” and thanked SVR officers for their friendship and understanding. He said Russian intelligence officers had a mission to “save the world in a situation when the danger of nuclear war and the resulting self-destruction of humankind again have been put on the agenda by irresponsible politicians.”

'Unprecedented' mail volume delays Christmas gifts

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/unprecedented-mail-volume-delays-christmas-gifts

Some who mailed holiday presents weeks early this year found they didn’t act early enough as Christmas arrived with their gifts stuck in transit. The U.S. Postal Service said on its website that it was “experiencing unprecedented volume increases and limited employee availability due to the impacts of COVID-19.” Austin Race of Grand Rapids, Mich., placed an online order Nov. 30 for a collector’s model die-cast of a NASCAR racing car. It hadn’t reached his father after the Postal Service passed through his neighborhood Thursday night, even though he was notified Dec. 8 that it was shipped by two-day priority mail. His gift was in Opa-locka, Fla., the last time he checked the tracking number, about 750 miles south of where he ordered it in Mooresville, N.C. Race, 21, resigned himself to telling his father he would have to wait a little longer for his gift. “I do understand the situation, but it’s still kind of frustrating,” he said. Business Americans have largely shunned in-person shopping this year to avoid exposure to the coronavirus. But when gifts ordered online didn’t arrive in time, many shoppers masked up and went to malls. Joanna Goldstein ordered Christmas ornaments online Nov. 17 for her 10-year-old son’s soccer coach and her son’s friend. She figured it was ample time to arrive from a store about 80 miles from her home in Ann Arbor, Mich. All appeared well Dec. 11 when she received a notice from the Postal Service that the ornaments had been received in Columbus, Ohio. But then the package made a journey through distribution centers in Warrendale, Pa., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Lansing, Mich., before apparently getting stuck in Detroit. On Wednesday, she received another notice that delivery would be later than initially expected. Her son was angry, but Goldstein is taking it in stride. “I was frustrated last week thinking, ‘C’mon, get here,’ but now I am just sort of laughing it off,” she said. She told her son the ornaments will hang on the tree next year and they will have a story to tell about the long journey they took during the pandemic.

After early success, South Korea sleepwalks into coronavirus crisis

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-26/after-early-success-s-korea-sleepwalks-into-virus-crisis

South Korea had seemed to be winning the fight against the coronavirus: Quickly ramping up its testing, contact-tracing and quarantine efforts paid off when it weathered an early outbreak without the economic pain of a lockdown. But a deadly resurgence has reached new heights during Christmas week, prompting soul-searching on how the nation sleepwalked into a crisis. The 1,241 infections on Christmas Day were the largest daily increase. An additional 1,132 cases were reported Saturday, bringing South Korea’s caseload to 55,902. More than 15,000 were added in the last 15 days alone. An additional 221 fatalities over the same period, the deadliest stretch, took the death toll to 793. As the numbers keep rising, the shock to people’s livelihoods is deepening and public confidence in the government eroding. Officials could decide to increase social distancing measures to maximum levels on Sunday, after resisting for weeks. Tighter restrictions could be inevitable because transmissions have been outpacing efforts to expand hospital capacities. World & Nation A South Korean study raises concerns that six feet of social distance may not be far enough to keep people safe from the coronavirus. In the greater Seoul area, more facilities have been designated for COVID-19 treatment and dozens of general hospitals have been ordered to allocate more ICUs for virus patients. Hundreds of troops have been deployed to help with contract tracing. At least four patients have died at their homes or long-term care facilities while waiting for admission this month, said Kwak Jin, an official at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, known as the KDCA. The agency said 299 among 16,577 active patients were in serious or critical condition. “Our hospital system isn’t going to collapse, but the crush in COVID-19 patients has significantly hampered our response,” said Choi Won Suk, an infectious disease professor at the Korea University Ansan Hospital, west of Seoul. Choi said the government should have done more to prepare hospitals for a winter surge. “We have patients with all kinds of serious illnesses at our ICUs, and they can’t share any space with COVID-19 patients, so it’s hard,” Choi said. “It’s the same medical staff that has been fighting the virus for all these months. There’s an accumulation of fatigue.” Critics say the government of President Moon Jae-in became complacent after swiftly containing the outbreak this spring that was centered in the southeastern city of Daegu. The past weeks have underscored risks of putting economic concerns before public health when vaccines are months away. Officials had eased social distancing rules to their lowest in October, allowing high-risk venues like clubs and karaoke rooms to reopen, although experts were warning of a viral surge during winter when people spend longer hours indoors. Jaehun Jung, a professor of preventive medicine at the Gachon University College of Medicine in Incheon, said he expects infections to gradually slow over the next two weeks. Science & Medicine COVID-19 vaccines are now being administered to healthcare workers in the U.S. What are your questions about the timeline, the safety or the science? The quiet streets and long lines snaking around testing stations in Seoul, which are temporarily providing free tests to anyone regardless of whether they have symptoms or clear reasons to suspect infections, demonstrate a return of public alertness following months of pandemic fatigue. Officials are also clamping down on private social gatherings through Jan. 3, shutting down ski resorts, prohibiting hotels from selling more than half of their rooms and setting fines for restaurants if they accept groups of five or more people. Still, lowering transmissions to the levels seen in early November — 100 to 200 a day — would be unrealistic, Jung said, expecting the daily figure to settle at around 300 to 500 cases. The higher baseline might necessitate tightened social distancing until vaccines roll out — a dreadful outlook for low-income workers and the self-employed who drive the country’s service sector, the part of the economy that the virus has damaged the most. “The government should do whatever to secure enough supplies and move up the administration of vaccines to the earliest possible point,” Jung said. South Korea plans to secure around 86 million doses of vaccines next year, which would be enough to cover 46 million people in a population of 51 million. The first supplies, which will be AstraZeneca vaccines produced by a local manufacturing partner, are expected to be delivered in February and March. Officials plan to complete vaccinating 60% to 70% of the population by around November. There’s disappointment that the shots aren’t coming sooner, though officials have insisted South Korea could afford a wait-and-see approach as its outbreak isn’t as dire as in America or Europe. California The once-struggling country reaches out with COVID-19 pandemic supplies as a token of its gratitude. South Korea’s earlier success could be attributed to its experience in fighting a 2015 outbreak of MERS, the Middle East respiratory syndrome, caused by a different coronavirus. After South Korea reported its first COVID-19 patient on Jan. 20, the KDCA was quick to recognize the importance of mass testing and sped up an approval process that had private companies producing millions of tests in just weeks. When infections soared in the Daegu region in February and March, health authorities managed to contain the situation by April after aggressively mobilizing technological tools to trace contacts and enforce quarantines. But that success was also a product of luck — most infections in Daegu were linked to a single church congregation. Health workers now are having a much harder time tracking transmissions in the populous capital area, where clusters are popping up just about everywhere. South Korea has so far weathered its outbreak without lockdowns, but a decision Sunday to raise distancing restrictions to the highest level, Tier 3, could possibly shut hundreds of thousands of nonessential businesses across the nation. That could be for the best, said Yoo Eun-sun, who is struggling to pay rent for three small music tutoring academies she runs in Incheon and Siheung, also near Seoul, amid a dearth of students and on-and-off shutdowns. “What parents would send their kids to piano lessons” unless transmissions decrease quickly and decisively? she said. Yoo also thinks the government’s middling approach to social distancing, which has targeted specific business activities while keeping the broader part of the economy open, has put an unfair financial burden on businesses like hers. “Whether it’s tutoring academies, gyms, yoga studies or karaokes, the same set of businesses are getting hit again and again,” she said. “How long could we go on?”

A Sudan in transition presents first-ever film for Oscars

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2020-12-28/a-sudan-in-transition-presents-first-ever-film-for-oscars

Nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is taking steps to rejoin the international community from which it was long shunned. That includes its film industry. For the first time in its history, Sudan has a submission for the Academy Awards. Produced by a consortium of European and Egyptian companies but with a Sudanese director and cast, “You Will Die at Twenty” will compete in the Best International Feature Film category. The story follows a young man whose death at the age of 20 is prophesied not long after his birth, casting a shadow over his formative years, and parallels the burdens placed on a generation of Sudan’s young people. Based on a short story by Sudanese novelist Hammour Ziyada, critics say it demonstrates that the country’s cultural scene is reawakening after decades of oppression. The film was produced amid mass demonstrations against al-Bashir, who was toppled by the military in April 2019 after ruling the country for nearly 30 years. “It was an adventure,” filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala told The Associated Press. “There were protests in the streets that had grown to a revolution by the beginning of filming.” Sudan’s uprising erupted in late 2018, and as the number of people in the streets swelled, many of them young, the military stepped in and toppled the Islamist president. Since then, the country has embarked on a fragile transition to democracy, ending years of theocratic rule that limited artists’ freedoms. The film’s submission was announced in November by the country’s ministry of culture, a month before the second anniversary of the start of the uprising. It follows a narrative written by Ziyada in the early 2000s that chronicles the life of a child in 1960s in a remote village, located between the Blue and White Nile rivers. The inhabitants are largely guided by ancient Sufi beliefs and traditions, a mystical strain of Islam. The film starts when a mother, Sakina, takes her newborn boy to a Sufi ceremony at a nearby shrine as a blessing. As a sheikh gives his blessing, a man in traditional clothing performs a meditative dance, suddenly stopping after 20 turns, falling to the ground — a bad omen. The frightened mother appeals to the Sheikh to give an explanation. But he says, “God’s command is inevitable.” At this point, the crowd understands this is a prophecy predicting the child will die at 20. Stunned and frustrated, the father leaves his wife and son, named Muzamil, to face their fate alone. Muzamil grows up under the watchful eye of his overprotective mother, who wears black in anticipation of his early demise. He is haunted by the prophecy — even other children name him “the son of death.” Despite that, Muzamil proves to be an inquisitive boy full of life. His mother allows him to go to study the Quran. He receives praise for his memorization and recitation of verses. Then comes a turning point. A cinematographer, Suliman, returns to the village after years working abroad. Muzamil, who is by now working as an assistant to the village shopkeeper, gets to know him through delivering him alcohol, a social taboo. Suliman, who lives with a prostitute, opens Muzamil’s eyes to the outside world. Through their discussions, he starts to doubt the prophecy that has governed his life so far and torn his family apart. As he turns 19, Muzamil takes it upon himself to decide what it means to be alive, even as death beckons. The film has received positive reviews from international critics. It premiered at the 2019 Venice International Film Festival’s parallel section, Venice Days. It won the Lion of the Future for Best First Feature — the first Sudanese film to do so. Since then, it has won at least two dozen awards at film festivals worldwide. Abu Alala says his team tackled obstacles in making the film, thrown up by the same conservative milieu that it depicts. He blames the environment created by al-Bashir, who came to power in an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989. Under his rule, limited personal freedoms meant art was viewed with suspicion by many. One major challenge, he said, was that local residents at the initial filming location objected to their presence. The crew was forced to move, but they persevered. “We believed that it should be done under any circumstances,” Abu Alala said. He says that it was lucky that the film’s production period coincided with the cultural watershed moment of the uprising. The previous government wouldn’t have been a proponent of his work. The movie has also been met with commendations from inside the region. “It is a very real and local film that makes the audience feel all of its details whenever and whoever they are,” wrote Egyptian film critic Tarik el-Shenawy. The film is only the eighth to be made inside Sudan. Abu Alala says that its selection shows Sudan has countless stories that remain untold. “There wasn’t a film industry existing in Sudan — only individual attempts ... Sudan’s rulers — communists or Islamists — were not interested in cinema. They just were interested in having artists on their sides,” he said. Now, he hopes that he and other filmmakers will have the freedom to share Sudan’s stories with the world.

4 pregnant women among 20 migrants dead in Tunisia sinking

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/4-pregnant-women-among-20-migrants-dead-in-tunisia-sinking

Four pregnant women were among 20 migrants whose bodies were found off Tunisia’s coast after their smuggling boat sank, Tunisian authorities said Friday, as search efforts continued for 13 others believed missing. Nineteen of the 20 migrants who died in Thursday’s sinking were women, according to Mourad Torki, the court spokesman for the Sfax region in central Tunisia. Coast guard officials and local fishermen retrieved the bodies and brought them to shore, transferring them in white body bags to a nearby hospital where autopsies were carried out. California Clearing emergency rooms becomes vital as hospitals struggle with critical patients Dec. 25, 2020 Four migrants were rescued, Torki said: One remained under medical supervision Friday and another fled the hospital. The boat, overloaded and in poor condition, was carrying 37 people — three Tunisians and others from sub-Saharan Africa, Torki said. Coast guard boats and navy divers were searching for the 13 missing but found no new bodies or survivors Friday amid strong winds and high waves in the area. Tunisian authorities say they have intercepted several migrant smuggling boats recently and that the number of attempts has been growing, notably between the Sfax region and the Italian island of Lampedusa. Migrant smuggling boats frequently leave from the coast of Tunisia and neighboring Libya carrying people from across Africa, including a growing number of Tunisians fleeing prolonged economic difficulties in their country.

No time to rest: EU nations assess Brexit trade deal with U.K.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/no-time-to-rest-eu-nations-assess-brexit-trade-deal-with-u-k

The fast-track ratification of the post-Brexit trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union got underway on Christmas Day as ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 nations started assessing the accord that takes effect in a week. At Friday’s exceptional meeting, the ambassadors were briefed about the details of the draft treaty, which is believed to be around 1,250 pages long, by the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. They are set to reconvene again Monday and have informed lawmakers at the European Parliament that they intend to take a decision on the preliminary application of the deal within days. While voicing their sadness at the rupture with Britain, EU leaders are relieved that the tortuous aftermath of the Brexit vote had come to a conclusion in Thursday’s agreement about future trade ties. All member states are expected to back the agreement as is the European Parliament, which can only give its consent retrospectively as it can’t reconvene until 2021. British lawmakers have to give their approval, too, and are being summoned next week to vote on the accord. Both sides claim the agreement protects their cherished goals. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it gives the U.K. control over its money, borders, laws and fishing grounds. The EU says it protects its single market of around 450 million people and contains safeguards to ensure the U.K. does not unfairly undercut the bloc’s standards. Johnson hailed the agreement as a “new beginning” for the U.K. in its relationship with European neighbors. Opposition leaders, even those who are minded to back it because it’s better than a no-deal scenario, said it adds unnecessary costs on businesses and fails to provide a clear framework for the crucial services sector, which accounts for 80% of the British economy. In a Christmas message, Johnson sought to sell the deal to a weary public after years of Brexit-related wrangling since the U.K. voted narrowly to leave the EU in 2016. Although the U.K. formally left the bloc Jan. 31, it remains in a transition period tied to EU rules until the end of this year. Without a trade deal, tariffs would have been imposed on trade between the two sides starting Jan. 1. Both sides would have suffered in that scenario, with the British economy taking a bigger hit at least in the near-term, as it is more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa. “I have a small present for anyone who may be looking for something to read in that sleepy post-Christmas lunch moment, and here it is, tidings, glad tidings of great joy, because this is a deal,” Johnson said in his video message, brandishing a sheaf of papers. “A deal to give certainty to business, travelers and all investors in our country from Jan. 1. A deal with our friends and partners in the EU,” he said. Though tariffs and quotas have been avoided, there will be more red tape because the U.K. is leaving the EU’s frictionless single market and customs union. Firms will have to file forms and customs declarations for the first time in years. There will also be different rules on product labeling as well as checks on agricultural products. Despite those additional costs, many British businesses who export widely across the EU voiced relief that a deal was finally in place as it avoids the potentially cataclysmic imposition of tariffs. “While the deal is not fully comprehensive, it at least provides a foundation to build on in future,” said Laura Cohen, chief executive of the British Ceramic Confederation. One sector that appears to be disappointed is the fishing industry, with both sides voicing their discontent at the new arrangements. Arguments over fishing rights were largely behind the delay in reaching an agreement. Under the terms of the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in U.K. waters, far less than the 80% Britain initially demanded. The system will be phased in over 5½ years, after which quotas will be reassessed. “In the end, it was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations. The French government, which had fought hard for fishing access, announced aid for its fishing industry to help deal with the smaller quota but insisted that the deal protects French interests. The president of the French ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, said no matter what is in the Brexit trade deal, life for his port will become more difficult because “there will no longer be free movement of merchandise.” Some 10,000 jobs in the Boulogne area are tied to fishing and its seafood-processing industry, he said, and about 70% of the seafood they use comes from British waters. “Without fish, there is no business,” he said.

Judge delays execution of the only woman on U.S. death row

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/judge-delays-execution-of-only-woman-on-us-death-row

A federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after President-elect Joe Biden takes office. U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss also vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery’s execution date for Jan. 12. Montgomery had been scheduled to be put to death at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Ind., this month, but Moss delayed the execution after her attorneys contracted the coronavirus while visiting their client and asked him to extend the time to file a clemency petition. Moss prohibited the Bureau of Prisons from carrying out Montgomery’s execution before the end of the year, and officials rescheduled her execution date for Jan. 12. But Moss ruled Wednesday that the agency also was prohibited from rescheduling the date while a stay is in place. “The Court, accordingly, concludes that the Director’s order setting a new execution date while the Court’s stay was in effect was ‘not in accordance with law,’” Moss wrote. A representative for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the order, the Bureau of Prisons cannot reschedule Montgomery’s execution until at least Jan. 1. Generally, under Justice Department guidelines, a death row inmate must be notified at least 20 days before the execution. Because of the judge’s order, if the Justice Department chooses to reschedule the date in January, it could mean that the execution would be scheduled after Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20. A representative for Biden has told the Associated Press the president-elect “opposes the death penalty now and in the future” and would work as president to end its use in office. But Biden’s representatives have not said whether executions would be paused immediately once Biden takes office. Montgomery was convicted of killing 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore in December 2004. She used a rope to strangle Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant, and then a kitchen knife to cut the baby girl from the womb, authorities said. Prosecutors said Montgomery removed the baby from Stinnett’s body, took the child with her and attempted to pass the girl off as her own. Montgomery’s legal team has argued that their client suffers from serious mental illnesses. “Given the severity of Mrs. Montgomery’s mental illness, the sexual and physical torture she endured throughout her life, and the connection between her trauma and the facts of her crime, we appeal to President Trump to grant her mercy, and commute her sentence to life imprisonment,” one of Montgomery’s lawyers, Sandra Babcock, said in a statement. Two other federal inmates are scheduled to be executed in January but have tested positive for the coronavirus, and their attorneys are also seeking delays to their executions.

Pope's Christmas Day plea: Make COVID-19 vaccines available for everybody

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/pope-on-christmas-vaccines-for-all-needy-vulnerable-first

Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots. “Vaccines for everybody, especially for the most vulnerable and needy,” who should be first in line, Francis said in off-the-cuff remarks from his prepared text, calling the development of such vaccines “light of hope” for the world. “We can’t let closed nationalisms impede us from living as the true human family that we are,” the pope said. He called on the leaders of nations, businesses and international organizations to “promote cooperation and not competition, and to search for a solution for all.” Amid a surge of coronavirus infections this fall in Italy, Francis broke with tradition for Christmas. Instead of delivering his “Urbi et Orbi” speech — Latin for “to the city and to the world” — from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Square, he read it from inside a cavernous hall at the Apostolic Palace, flanked by two Christmas trees with blinking lights. World & Nation Curfews, quarantines and border closings complicated Christmas celebrations around the globe, but ingenuity, determination and imagination helped keep the day special for many. Normally, tens of thousands of people would have crowded into St. Peter’s Square to receive the pope’s Christmas blessing and speech. But Italian measures to try to rein in holiday infections allow people to leave their homes on Christmas for only urgent reasons, such as work, health, visits to nearby loved ones or exercise close to home. The pandemic’s repercussions on life dominated Francis’ reflections on the last year. “At this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters,” Francis said. Fraternity and compassion applies to people “even though they do not belong to my family, my ethnic group or my religion,” he said. Francis prayed that the birth of Jesus would inspire people to be “generous, supportive and helpful” to those in need, including those struggling with ”the economic effects of the pandemic and women who have suffered domestic violence during these months of lockdown.”

Ivry Gitlis, a violinist who spanned genres, dies at 98

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/ivry-gitlis-a-violinist-who-spanned-genres-dies-at-98

Ivry Gitlis, an acclaimed violinist who played with famed conductors, rock stars and jazz bands around the world and worked to make classical music accessible to the masses, has died in Paris at 98. France’s culture minister announced his death Thursday, hailing him as “a magnificent performer, a generous musician” who dedicated his life “to serving all kinds of music.” The cause of death and plans for funeral arrangements were not immediately announced. Entertainment & Arts With little presence the past six months, the L.A. Phil has stepped up its game with recordings and Dudamel virtual Hollywood Bowl concerts. Oct. 25, 2020 Recognizable in recent decades by his long white hair and distinctive caps and scarves, Gitlis began playing in the 1920s and performed into the 2010s. The Paris Philharmonic celebrated “one of the longest and most prolific careers in the history of music.” Gitlis was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1922, and sent to the Paris Conservatory at age 10 under the guidance of violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the ministry said. Gitlis continued training in Europe and the U.S., where he performed with leading conductors starting in the 1950s. Gitlis performed with the Rolling Stones and jazz stars, appeared on French television shows and founded a French music festival in the 1970s where listeners ate and slept in a field while listening to music. Music Sammy Hagar, Gene Simmons, Lenny Kravitz and Kenny Chesney are among the musicians paying tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who died Tuesday at age 65. Oct. 6, 2020 Among his many worldwide appearances, Gitlis was the first Israeli musician to perform in Soviet Russia, in 1963, according to Le Monde. He held charity concerts in Japan after the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami while many other performers canceled shows, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported, and played a violin made from wooden debris from the disaster.

A pandemic Christmas: Churches shut, borders complicated

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/a-pandemic-christmas-churches-shut-borders-complicated

Curfews, quarantines and even border closings complicated Christmas celebrations Friday for countless people around the globe, but ingenuity, determination and imagination helped keep the day special for many. In Beijing, official churches abruptly canceled Mass on Christmas Day. China’s capital was put on high alert after confirmation of two COVID-19 cases last week, and two new asymptomatic cases were reported Friday. One of several notices was posted at Beijing’s St. Joseph’s Church, which was built by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century. Border crossing closures kept thousands of migrants from economically devastated Venezuela who live in Colombia from going home for Christmas. Colombia’s government shut the crossings in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus infections. Those trying to return home for the holidays this year had to turn to smugglers. Yakelin Tamaure, a nurse who left Venezuela two years ago, won’t be going home and said there will be no gifts or new clothes for her children, ages 10 and 15. Tamaure said that she hasn’t been able to find work as a nurse because she still doesn’t have a Colombia residence permit. Her parents are still in Venezuela. “My mother broke her foot and can’t walk properly, so I’m worried about her,” Tamaure said. “I try to send her money, but it’s not the same as being there.” World & Nation Rosa Otero is one of a countless number of elderly, mostly poor and hidden away indoors, who feel even more isolated than usual on the night before Christmas. Others successfully crossed borders elsewhere only to find themselves in quarantine. For their first Christmas since getting married in March, Nattasuda Anusonadisai and Patrick Kaplin are cooped up in quarantine in a Bangkok hotel room. It wasn’t great fun, but they did make sure to get a Christmas tree. They returned earlier this month from a 4½-month trip to Canada and the United States, making a 32-hour journey from Montreal via Doha in Qatar. One condition of entering Thailand is a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. Thai citizens can stay at state facilities for free, but foreigners like Kaplin, from Canada, must pay to stay at an approved hotel, the option the couple took so they could stay together. “The hotel was surprised that we ordered a full-sized Christmas tree but didn’t give us too much trouble to bring it in,” Anusonadisai said. But they hadn’t ordered enough ornaments, so they added items collected on their travels, like an eagle feather and, of course, masks. “We will continue this tradition now, since it’s nice to see so many personal memories on the tree,” Kaplin said. Churches in South Korea have ignited clusters of coronavirus infections in densely populated Seoul, along with hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants and prisons. The 1,241 new daily cases reported Friday by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency represented a record for the country. Song Ju-hyeon, a resident in Paju, near Seoul, who is expecting a child in February, said home is the only place she feels safe now. “It doesn’t feel like Christmas anyway, there’s no carols being played on the streets,” she said. It’s Christmask,” the Daily Nation newspaper declared in Kenya, where a second surge in cases has eased and a brief doctors’ strike ended on Christmas Eve. Celebrations were muted in East Africa’s commercial hub as overnight church vigils could not be held because of a curfew. Fewer people also reportedly headed home to see families, which could help limit the spread of the virus to rural communities, which are even less equipped to handle COVID-19 than cities. World & Nation Bethlehem has ushered in Christmas Eve with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land. In Paris, members of Notre Dame Cathedral’s choir, wearing hard hats and protective suits — not against COVID-19 but for construction conditions in the medieval landmark ravaged by fire in 2019 — sang inside the church for the first time since the blaze. In a special Christmas Eve concert, accompanied by an acclaimed cellist and a rented organ, the socially distanced singers performed beneath the cathedral’s stained-glass windows amid the darkened church, which is transitioning from being a hazardous clean-up operation to becoming a massive reconstruction site. The public was not allowed in and isn’t expected to see the interior of Notre Dame until at least 2024. In Rome, partial lockdown measures were keeping the faithful from gathering in St. Peter’s Square, where in past years tens of thousands would receive a papal blessing and hear the pope’s traditional Christmas Day message. But they wouldn’t have been able to see Pope Francis anyway this year. In response to a virus resurgence in Italy, the pontiff wasn’t appearing on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica this Christmas but opted to deliver his annual address on world issues from inside the Apostolic Palace. Elsewhere, Christmas was a difficult time. Thousands of drivers were stranded in their trucks at the English port of Dover, lacking the coronavirus tests that France is now demanding. The elderly, meanwhile, struggled with virus travel restrictions that kept them from visiting family or friends for the holidays. “The solitude gets to me these days. I often feel depressed,” said Alvaro Puig, an 81-year-old in Spain who spent Christmas Eve eating dinner alone with his pet rabbit. “These holidays, instead of making me happy, make me sad. I hate them.”

With 'green growth strategy,' Japan aims to be carbon free by 2050

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/japan-adopts-green-growth-plan-to-go-carbon-free-by-2050

Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in about 15 years, the government said Friday, in a plan to achieve Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s ambitious pledge to go carbon-free by 2050 and generate nearly $2-trillion growth in green business and investment. The “green growth strategy” urges utilities to bolster renewables and hydrogen while calling for auto industries to be carbon-free by the mid-2030s. Suga, in a policy speech in October, pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions in 30 years. As the world faces an environmental challenge, green investment is an opportunity for growth, not a burden, he said. The strategy, which provides a road map to achieving the goals in various sectors, projected an increase of 30% to 50% in demand for electricity and called for a push to triple renewables in the country’s energy mix to 50% to 60%, while also maximizing use of nuclear power as a stable, clean source of energy. But it was unclear if Suga has the political heft to overcome vested interests in weaning resource-poor Japan from its reliance on imported oil and gas. World & Nation European Union leaders reach a deal to cut the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade compared with 1990 levels. The strategy identified 14 industries, including offshore wind, hydrogen and fuel ammonia, and a road map for each sector. The strategy shows an installation target for offshore wind power of up to 45 gigawatts by 2040. Under the strategy, the government is also to provide tax incentives and other support to encourage investment in green technology; it projected annual growth of $870 billion by 2030 and $1.8 trillion by 2050. The government will offer tax incentives and other financial support to companies, such as a $19-billion green fund.

Virus magnifies the solitude for the elderly at Christmas

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/virus-magnifies-the-solitude-for-the-elderly-at-christmas

Rosa Otero prepares her dinner for another nightly meal in solitude. This pandemic Christmas Eve has turned what should be a preciously scarce moment to spend time with her family into yet another daily installment of her life as a widow who lives alone. Otero, 83, normally travels across Spain from her small, tidy apartment in Barcelona to northwest Galicia to spend the winter holidays with her family. But the restrictions on travel and urgings from health authorities that infections are on the rise have convinced Otero’s family to cancel their holiday plans for this year. “I don’t feel like celebrating anything,” Otero said as she sat down to eat a plate of salmon with potatoes. “I don’t like Christmas, because it brings me bad memories. My husband died in January seven years ago. Since then I feel very alone.” World & Nation Bethlehem has ushered in Christmas Eve with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land. Otero is one of a countless number of elderly, mostly poor and hidden away indoors, who feel even more isolated than usual on the night before Christmas. Otero misses the companionship of her neighborhood’s publicly run senior center that she and many others frequent to meet up with friends, have a chat or play a game of cards. That island of society has been cut off due to the pandemic. Just about the only link that keeps their fragile lives connected to the wider world is the local primary care clinic. Medical workers have done what they can to keep up home visits for the elderly who lack the means to completely care for themselves. The lifelong home of 80-year-old Francisca Cano has become a warehouse of miscellanea. Cano knits, does cross-stitch, makes paper flowers, and constructs collages from bits of wood, plastic and paper that she finds in the street. The pandemic has meant that she can speak to her two sisters only by phone. “We have missed one another these Christmas holidays,” Cano said. “As I have grown older I have gone back to my childhood, doing crafts like a girl. That’s my way of keeping the loneliness at bay.” Then there are those whose social connections had already been erased before COVID-19 make socializing a hazard. José Ribes, 84, is used to being on his own since his wife left him. He kept the Spanish Christmas Eve tradition of eating prawns. He shelled and ate them propped up in the bed, where he has all his meals and smokes cigarettes that give his home a permanent smell of stale tobacco. World & Nation Families are using end-of-year newsletters as a form of retrospection, showing gratitude for the things they may have taken for granted in the past. “My life is like my mouth,” Ribes said. “I don’t have any of my top teeth, while all the bottom ones are still there. I have always been like that, having it all, or nothing.” Álvaro Puig has likewise barely noticed the effect of the virus that has deterred many families from gathering. Puig, 81, resides in the old butcher’s shop specializing in horse meat that he ran after inheriting it from his parents. Long closed for business, the countertop where he attended customers, the scales where he weighed meat, the cash register where he rang up bills, are all intact. The walk-in refrigerator, in disuse, has become a miniature living room for his existence as a cloistered bachelor. There he watches television with his pet rabbit, which he rescued from the street. “The solitude gets to me these days. I often feel depressed,” Puig said. “These holidays, instead of making me happy, make me sad. I hate them. Most of the family has died. I am one of the last ones left. I will spend Christmas at home alone because I don’t have anyone to spend it with.”

Trump golfs in Florida as COVID relief hangs in the balance

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-12-24/trump-golfs-in-florida-as-covid-relief-hangs-in-the-balance

After tossing a grenade that threatens to blow up a massive COVID relief and government funding bill and force a government shutdown in the midst of a pandemic, President Trump spent his Christmas Eve golfing in Florida. Failure to agree on the bill could deny checks to millions of Americans on the brink. Trump had no events on his public schedule on the first day of his winter vacation Thursday but traveled to his Palm Beach golf club, where he was spotted by CNN cameras on the links. Reporters were given no details of his schedule for the day, but were told that, “As the Holiday season approaches, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People. His schedule includes many meetings and calls.” Trump’s departure came as Washington was still reeling over his surprise, 11th-hour demand that an end-of-year spending bill — which congressional leaders spent months negotiating — give most Americans $2,000 COVID relief checks — far more than the $600 members of his party had agreed to. House Democrats, who have long advocated for more direct payments during the pandemic-induced economic crisis, tried to swiftly approve $2,000 checks, but the idea was blocked by House Republicans during a rare Christmas Eve session, leaving the proposal in limbo. Company Town The L.A. Times newsroom’s leadership transition has accelerated with the departure of Pearlstine, who served as executive editor for 2½ years. Dec. 14, 2020 The bipartisan compromise bill had been considered a done deal and had won sweeping approval in the House and Senate this week after the White House assured GOP leaders that Trump supported it. If the president refuses to sign the deal, which is attached to a $1.4-trillion government funding bill, it will force a federal government shutdown, in addition to delaying aid checks and halting unemployment benefits and eviction protections in the midst of the most dire stretch of the pandemic. It was the latest difficulty for congressional Republicans caused by a president who has been raging over his Nov. 3 loss to President-elect Joe Biden and trying to come up with new, increasingly outrageous schemes to try to overturn the results of an election. He has been egged on by allies including his lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who accompanied Trump to Florida aboard Air Force One. Trump’s ire has been focused in part on Republicans in Congress who he believes have been insufficiently supportive of his quest to delegitimize Biden’s win by lobbing unfounded claims of mass voter fraud before Congress meets to tally the electoral college votes on Jan. 6. In Florida, Trump continued to try to undermine the democratic process, complaining to members that he had been robbed of the election and voicing frustrations about the year-end spending bill. “At a meeting in Florida today, everyone was asking why aren’t the Republicans up in arms & fighting over the fact that the Democrats stole the rigged presidential election?” Trump tweeted after he’d returned to his private Mar-a-Lago club. “Especially in the Senate, they said, where you helped 8 Senators win their races.” “I will NEVER FORGET!” he wrote in another, The statements underscored concerns that Trump is blowing up the relief bill negotiations to punish lawmakers for what he sees as their insufficient loyalty. Trump has provided no credible evidence to support his election claims, which have also been refuted by a long list of officials, including former Atty. Gen. William Barr and fellow Republican governors, judges and local election administrators. Meanwhile, the nation continues to reel as the coronavirus spreads, with record infections, hospitalizations and daily deaths — with more than 328,000 Americans having perished since the start of the pandemic. And millions are now facing the prospect of spending the holidays alone or struggling to make ends meet without adequate income, food or shelter thanks to the economic toll. To mark the holiday, the president and First Lady Melania Trump tweeted out a prerecorded video message in which they wished Americans a Merry Christmas and thanked first responders and members of the military. “As you know, this Christmas is different than years past,” said Melania Trump, who focused on the acts of “kindness and courage” the pandemic has inspired. Trump hailed the vaccine doses now being delivered and thanked those responsible. “It is truly a Christmas miracle,” he said. Meanwhile, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin have been trying to salvage the year-end legislation to try to prevent a government shutdown. Democrats will recall House lawmakers to Washington for a formal vote Monday on Trump’s $2,000 proposal, though it would probably die in the GOP-controlled Senate. They are also considering a Monday vote on a stopgap measure to avert a federal shutdown and keep the government running until Biden is inaugurated Jan. 20. In addition to the relief checks, the COVID bill that passed would establish a temporary $300-per-week supplemental jobless benefit and provide a new round of subsidies for restaurants, theaters and other hard-hit businesses, money for schools, and funding for healthcare providers and to help with COVID vaccine distribution.

Coronavirus dampens Christmas joy in Bethlehem and elsewhere

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-24/coronavirus-dampens-christmas-joy-in-bethlehem-and-elsewhere

Bethlehem on Thursday ushered in Christmas Eve with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, but few people were there to greet them as the COVID-19 pandemic and a strict lockdown dampened celebrations in the traditional birthplace of Jesus. Similar subdued scenes were repeated across the world as the festive family gatherings and packed prayers that typically mark the holiday were scaled back or canceled altogether. In Australia, worshippers had to book tickets online to attend socially distanced church services. The Philippines prohibited mass gatherings and barred extended families from holding traditional Christmas Eve dinners. Traditional door-to-door children’s carols were canceled in Greece. On Christmas Eve in Italy, church bells rang earlier than usual. The Italian government’s 10 p.m. curfew prompted pastors to move up services, with midnight Mass starting Thursday evening in some churches as early as a couple of hours after dark. Pope Francis, who has said people “must obey” civil authorities’ measures to fight the spread of COVID-19, fell in line. This year, the Christmas vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica was moved up from 9:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Normally, seats at the vigil Mass are quickly snapped up by Romans and tourists alike, but the pandemic has reduced tourists in Italy to a trickle. In keeping with social distancing measures, barely 200 faithful — instead of several thousand — spaced out in the basilica’s pews and wearing masks, attended Francis’ celebration of the Mass. A row of fiery red poinsettia plants warmly contrasted with the sumptuous cold marble of the basilica. Francis in his homily offered reflections on Christmas’ significance. “We often hear it said that the greatest joy in life is the birth of a child. It is something extraordinary and it changes everything,” he said. A child “makes us feel loved but can also teach us how to love.” “God was born a child in order to encourage us to care for others,” said Francis, who has made attention to the poor and unjustly treated a key theme of his papacy. Celebrations elsewhere in Europe were canceled or greatly scaled back as virus infections surge across the continent and a new variant that may be more contagious has been detected. In Athens, Christmas Eve was eerily silent. In normal times, voices of children singing carols while tinkling metal triangles can be heard all day. The decades-old custom, in which children go house to house and receive small gifts, was banned this year. Groups of children managed to honor the tradition by singing to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis by video link — including students from a school for children with hearing difficulty who performed in sign language. Throughout the pandemic one of the hardest-hit churches in New York City has been St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Manhattan. Church leaders say more than 60 members of the congregation — which numbered about 800 before the pandemic — have died of COVID-19, almost all of them part of the community of some 400 who attended services in Spanish. Despite their own heartbreaks, congregation members — many of them immigrants — donated coats, scarves and other winter clothes for more than 100 migrant minors at a detention center in Manhattan. While many other New York City churches have resumed in-person services, St. Peter’s continues to offer its Masses only online. The schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas day included Masses in English and Spanish, and a bilingual jazz vespers service. In Bethlehem, officials tried to make the most out of a bad situation. “Christmas is a holiday that renews hope in the souls,” said Mayor Anton Salman. “Despite all the obstacles and challenges due to corona and due to the lack of tourism, the city of Bethlehem is still looking forward to the future with optimism.” Raw, rainy weather added to the gloomy atmosphere, as several dozen people gathered in the central Manger Square to greet Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa. Youth marching bands playing Christmas carols on bagpipes, accompanied by pounding drummers, led a joyous procession ahead of the patriarch’s arrival early in the afternoon. “Despite the restrictions and limitations we want to celebrate as much as possible, with family, community and joy,” said Pizzaballa, who was to lead a small midnight Mass gathering later in the evening. “We want to offer hope.” Thousands of foreign pilgrims usually flock to Bethlehem for the celebrations. But the closure of Israel’s international airport to foreign tourists, along with Palestinian restrictions banning intercity travel in the areas they administer in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, kept visitors away. The restrictions limited attendance to residents and a small entourage of religious officials. Evening celebrations, when pilgrims normally congregate around the Christmas tree, were canceled, and midnight Mass was limited to clergy. The coronavirus has dealt a heavy blow to Bethlehem’s tourism sector, the lifeblood of the local economy. Restaurants, hotels and gift shops have been shuttered. Rio de Janeiro’s beaches remained open, but a City Hall decree aimed at limiting gatherings prevented drivers from parking along the shore. Rain also kept beachgoers at home. Thomas Azevedo and his 9-year-old son braved the bad weather to set up a small stand, selling beer and caipirinhas made from fresh fruit. By early afternoon, he hadn’t sold a thing. “It’s not so much the rain; in previous years it was full of tourists at Christmas. This year there’s no one,” said Azevedo, 28. Australians had until recently been looking forward to a relatively COVID-19-free Christmas after travel restrictions across state borders relaxed in recent weeks in the absence of any evidence of community transmission. But after new cases were detected over the last week, states again closed their borders. While many places around the globe were keeping or increasing restrictions for Christmas, Lebanon was an exception. With its economy in tatters and parts of its capital destroyed by a massive Aug. 4 port explosion, Lebanon has lifted most virus measures ahead of the holidays, hoping to encourage spending. Tens of thousands of Lebanese expatriates have arrived home, leading to fears of an inevitable surge in cases during the festive season. Lebanon has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East — about a third of its 5 million people — and traditionally celebrates Christmas with much fanfare. “People around us were tired, depressed and depleted, so we said let’s just plant a drop of joy and love,” said Sevine Ariss, one of the organizers of a Christmas fair along the seaside road where the explosion caused the most damage.

Mexico starts giving COVID-19 vaccine, first in Latin America

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-24/mexico-starts-giving-first-shots-of-pfizer-biontech-vaccine

An intensive care nurse in Mexico City on Thursday became the first person in Latin America to receive an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Mexico began administering the first 3,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in a broadcast ceremony in which Maria Irene Ramírez, 59, got the first shot under the watchful eyes of military personnel who escorted the vaccine shipment. “This is the best present I could have received in 2020,” said Ramírez. ”The truth is we are afraid, but we have to keep going because someone has to be in the front line of this battle.” Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell waxed poetic, saying, “Today the stage of the epidemic and its treatment changes, to a ray of hope.” Zoé Robledo, director of Mexico’s social security system, called it “an unforgettable Christmas. We are sure this is going to be the beginning of the end of the pandemic.” Other doctors and nurses rolled up their sleeves in the chill morning air at outside vaccination stations in the cities of Toluca and Queretaro. The country’s 1.4 million health workers will be the first to get the shots, followed by the elderly, those with underlying health conditions that make them more vulnerable to the disease, and teachers. Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Mexico was the first country in Latin America to get the vaccine, though others were close behind. Chile also began its inoculation program Thursday, with 42-year-old nurse Zulema Riquelme getting the first shot as President Sebastián Piñera looked on. “I am calm, happy, very excited,” Riquelme told Piñera, who noted that “a lot of people have gone to a lot of effort to reach this moment.” Chile said it had received 10,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and has a deal for a total of 10 million. Healthcare workers and the elderly will be first in line. Argentina, which has run into problems obtaining the Pfizer vaccine, received a flight carrying 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine. Argentina plans to become the first country in Latin America to administer the Russian vaccine starting next week. It won’t yet be given to people older than 60 due to a lack of testing data. Argentine Health Secretary Ginés González García vowed that the Russian vaccine was safe and said it could be used on those 60 and older once Russian authorities certify it. He said 5 million more doses were expected to arrive in January. While Mexico got only 3,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in the first shipment Wednesday, Ebrard said about 53,000 more doses would arrive by Tuesday, about 1.4 million doses in January and a total of about 11.75 million by mid-2012. Ebrard said two vaccines are currently undergoing Phase 3 studies in Mexico and three others are awaiting approval to start. Other countries around the region are engaged in testing several vaccines, in studies that involve tens of thousands of volunteers. Latin America has been among the regions hardest hit by the pandemic. Mexico has reported more than 1.35 million test-confirmed cases so far and 120,311 deaths, the fourth-highest toll in the world. However, estimates based on excess deaths this year suggest Mexico’s real death toll is closer to 180,000. Argentina has 1.5 million cases and more than 42,000 deaths, while Chile has seen 594,000 cases and 16,000 deaths.

Retailers brace for a flood of returns from online shopping

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/retailers-brace-for-flood-of-returns-from-online-shopping

A huge surge in online shopping during the pandemic has been a savior for retailers, but it comes at a price. Shoppers are expected to return twice as many items as they did during last year’s holiday period, costing companies roughly $1.1 billion, according to Narvar Inc., a software and technology company that manages online returns for hundreds of brands. Retailers don’t want the returns, but they do want shoppers — who may not feel safe going to stores — to be comfortable buying things they haven’t tried on or seen in person. People have been doing so much online buying since March that carriers such as UPS and FedEx were already at capacity before the holiday shopping season. And online sales just keep soaring. From Nov. 1 though Tuesday, they leaped to $171.6 billion, up 32% from the year-earlier period, according to Adobe Analytics. The massive challenges of shipping COVID-19 vaccines in the weeks and months ahead could put further pressure on the system. That means shoppers who return items may not get refunds until two weeks after sending the items back to the store, said Sara Skirboll, shopping expert at deals site RetailMeNot. Many companies are offering more locations where customers can drop off returns, which cuts down shipping costs and speeds up the refund process. Last year, Kohl’s began allowing Amazon returns at all of its 1,000 stores — customers drop off items for free, with no box or label needed. This year, Amazon customers can also return items at 500 Whole Foods Market stores. That’s in addition to Amazon’s deal with UPS to allow similar drop-offs at UPS stores. Happy Returns, a Santa Monica startup that works with about 150 online retailers, including Rothy’s and Revolve, has increased its number of drop-off locations to 2,600, from more than 700 last year. That includes 2,000 FedEx locations. “It’s a great time to be in the returns business. Every day, there’s a record,” said David Sobie, chief executive and co-founder of Happy Returns. He said he has processed 50% more returns in December than November. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, announced this week that it will pick up items shipped and sold by Walmart.com from customers’ homes free of charge through a new partnership with FedEx. The service will continue beyond the holiday shopping season. A growing number of retailers are asking shoppers to not even bother sending back certain rejected items. When Dick Pirozzolo wanted to return a too-small jersey he bought for $40 on a website called Online Cycling Gear, he was pleasantly surprised with the response. The site told him to keep it, discard it or give it to a friend or charity — and it will send him the right size for an extra $10. “I was fine with that,” said the 77-year-old cycling enthusiast from Wellesley, Mass. “I did a good thing for a friend, and I got a new shirt.” The experience, he says, has given him confidence to buy more online this holiday season. David Bassuk, global co-leader of AlixPartners’ retail practice, says stores are increasingly making it easier for shoppers to feel less guilty about returning items. “If they’re not sure of their size, [shoppers] order both sizes,” he says. “If they’re not sure which color, they order both colors. And if they’re not sure which item, they order them all. But it’s costly to the retailers, and the retailers are not well positioned to handle all the cost.” On average, people return 25% of items they buy online, compared with only 8% of what they buy in stores, according to Forrester Research’s online analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. For clothing it’s even higher, about 30%. But not all rejected items are the same: They have varying levels of depreciation, experts say. After an item is sent back to the retailer, the company must assess its condition and decide whether to resell it or send it to a liquidator or the landfill. Optoro, a return logistics company, estimates the value of fashion apparel depreciates by 20% to 50% over an eight- to 16-week period. That’s why it’s so important to get rejected items back and on sale again quickly. Returns are also complicated this year because retailers pushed people to buy holiday gifts early to avoid shipping delays and crowded stores, meaning the return window may have closed before Christmas. Amazon is allowing customers to return items until Jan. 31 for items shipped between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, giving customers more time to decide. Last year, the policy didn’t include items shipped in October. Rachel Sakelaris, 25, of Newport Beach bought her boyfriend a waterproof backpack on Black Friday, then realized there was a 30-day return policy. She decided to move up the gift exchange to last weekend so he would have time to return if he didn’t like it. Buying too early can come with other hazards. Sarah Huffman, 40, of Chesapeake, Va., wanted to get a jump start on the holiday season and spent $600 on Amazon on gifts — including a $60 pair of pajamas and a $90 Xbox game for her five children — in May. But then her husband, a disabled veteran, quit his job because he felt his boss was too lax with COVID-19 safety protocols. Now her family is struggling to put food on the table, and it’s too late to return some of the gifts she bought. “I was trying to take away the stress of the pandemic by buying early,” she said. “I didn’t realize that basic life choices would find a new low.”

Pakistan court orders release of man charged in Daniel Pearl killing

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-24/court-orders-release-of-man-charged-in-daniel-pearl-killing

A provincial court in Pakistan on Thursday ordered the man charged in the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl freed, his defense lawyer said. The Sindh High Court’s release order overturns a decision by Pakistan’s top court that Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the key suspect in Pearl’s slaying, should remain in custody. Sheikh was acquitted of murdering Pearl earlier this year but has been held while Pearl’s family appeals the acquittal. Sheikh’s lawyer Mehmood A. Sheikh, with whom he is not related, called for his client to be released immediately. “The detention order is struck down,” said Faisal Siddiqi, the Pearl family lawyer. Sheikh will be freed until the appeal is completed, he said, but will be returned to prison if the family is successful in overturning the acquittal. Sheikh was sentenced to death and three others were sentenced to life in prison for their role in the plot. But a lower Pakistani court in April acquitted him and three others, a move that stunned the U.S. government, Pearl’s family and journalism advocacy groups. The acquittal is now being appealed separately by both the government and Pearl’s family. The government has opposed Sheikh’s release, saying it would endanger the public. The Supreme Court will resume its hearing on Jan. 5. Sheikh had been convicted of helping lure Pearl to a meeting in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi in which he was kidnapped. Pearl had been investigating the link between Pakistani militants and Richard C. Reid, dubbed the “Shoe Bomber” after trying to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Parents convicted in 2009 'balloon boy' hoax are pardoned

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-23/parents-convicted-in-2009-balloon-boy-hoax-pardoned

A couple convicted of criminal charges in the so-called balloon boy hoax that fascinated the country more than a decade ago were pardoned Wednesday by the governor of Colorado. Richard and Mayumi Heene reported their 6-year-old son had floated away in a homemade UFO-shaped silver helium balloon in 2009. Dozens of emergency responders and two Colorado National Guard helicopters scrambled to save the boy as video footage of the enormous balloon floating far above the ground made national news. But the child was never on the balloon, and he was later found unharmed at his home in Fort Collins, about 60 miles north of Denver. Authorities said the Heenes staged the ordeal to get publicity for reality TV shows they were trying to pitch. Eleven years later, the couple has now “paid the price in the eyes of the public” and shouldn’t have to be dragged down by a criminal record for the rest of their lives, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement Wednesday. “We are all ready to move past the spectacle from a decade ago,” said Polis, a first-term Democrat. Richard Heene served a month in jail after pleading guilty to a felony count of attempting to influence a public servant, and Mayumi Heene was jailed for 20 days for filing a false report. They were also ordered to pay $36,000 in restitution. The couple told ABC News last year that it wasn’t a hoax because they truly feared their son could have been aboard the balloon when they called for help. Polis also issued 16 other pardons and four commutations.

Tony-nominated Broadway star Rebecca Luker dies at 59

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-12-23/tony-nominated-broadway-star-rebecca-luker-dies-at-59

Soprano Rebecca Luker, a three-time Tony nominated actor who starred in some of the biggest Broadway hits of the past three decades, died Wednesday. She was 59 Her death was announced by her husband, veteran Broadway actor Danny Burstein, who said in a statement “our family is devastated. I have no words at this moment because I’m numb.” Luker went public in 2020 saying she had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Luker was a best actress Tony nominee in 1995 playing Magnolia in “Showboat,” a best actress nominee in 2000 for playing Marian in “The Music Man” opposite Craig Bierko, and a best featured actress nominee in 2007 as Winifred Banks in “Mary Poppins.” Tributes flooded social media, including from Broadway stars like Laura Benanti, who called Luker “humble, loving and kind” with a “golden voice” that would “wrap you in peace.” Seth Rudetsky said it was “a great loss for Broadway and the world.” Kristin Chenoweth tweeted that Luker was “one of the main reasons I wanted to be a soprano” and Bernadette Peters called her ”one of the most beautiful voices on Broadway and a lovely person.” My friend and one of the main reasons I wanted to be a soprano.... Her voice was soprano heaven. I love you, Rebecca. I know you’re no longer in pain and already singing your heart out up there 💔 pic.twitter.com/bEqoSbcIsS Luker was known for staying with shows for extended runs. “Yes, I’m the queen of long runs,” she told the Connecticut Post in 2011. “I don’t know if I’m lucky or if it’s a curse. But it’s just how things have happened for me and it is mostly a good thing.” In 2013 she appeared in an off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Passion.” In addition to many stage credits, Luker appeared on TV in “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Good Wife” and in the 2012 film “Not Fade Away.” Her other off-Broadway credits include “Death Takes a Holiday,” “Indian Blood” and “The Vagina Monologues.” Broadway stars Stephanie J. Block called Luker an “angel-faced and angel-spirited” and LaChanze took to Twitter to call Luker’s death “a huge loss for the American theater.” Tony-winner Michael Cerveris said: “There was no one more humble, more unexpectedly funny or more glorious when she sang.” Luker and her husband starred in an episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” in which they played the parents of a transgender youngster killed in an accident after being bullied. Luker was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and received a bachelor’s in music from the University of Montevallo, where she later was awarded an honorary doctorate. Luker made her Broadway debut in 1988 in “The Phantom of the Opera” first as an understudy to Sarah Brightman and then playing Christine opposite the legendary Michael Crawford. “I’ll never forget it. It was an out-of-body experience. He was so kind, though, and I’ll never forget that,” she told Playbill in 2016. She had Broadway roles in the “The Sound of Music” and as the original Lily in “The Secret Garden.” She was a replacement in “Nine” in 2003 opposite Antonio Banderas, “Fun Home” in 2016 and in “Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella” in 2013-14. Her albums include “Greenwich Time,” “Leaving Home,” “Anything Goes: Rebecca Luker Sings Cole Porter” and “I Got Love: Songs of Jerome Kern,” featuring 14 classics ranging from “Bill/Can’t Help Loving That Man” to “My Husband’s First Wife.” She also paid tribute to the legendary Barbara Cook at the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors. Her final stage role was playing a small-town minister’s narrow-minded wife in a 2019 Kennedy Center production of “Footloose.” Her last performance was in June in a Zoom benefit performance, “At Home With Rebecca Luker.” In addition to her husband, Luker is survived by two stepsons, Alex and Zach.

'Cheer' star Jerry Harris pleads not guilty to child porn, sex charges

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-23/cheer-star-pleads-not-guilty-to-child-porn-sex-charges

“Cheer” star Jerry Harris has pleaded not guilty to federal child pornography charges and allegations that he solicited sex from minors at cheerleading competitions and that he persuaded teenage boys to send him obscene photographs and videos of themselves. Harris, 21, of Naperville was indicted earlier this month on seven counts that include the child sex and porn charges. A complaint filed in September initially charged him with child pornography. In the original complaint, prosecutors said Harris admitted to FBI agents that he asked a teenage boy to send lewd photographs of himself, and that he requested child pornography from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors via Snapchat. Two of Harris’ alleged victims, who are teenage brothers, have sued Harris in Texas. Harris entered his not guilty plea to all seven counts on Dec. 17 during an arraignment hearing held by telephone, court records show. The Associated Press on Wednesday left a message seeking comment from Harris’ Chicago attorney, Todd Pugh. Harris remains held without bond at a federal detention facility in Chicago. He has been held there since his September arrest. Harris was the breakout star of the Emmy-winning docuseries that follows a cheerleading team from Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.

If you got federal help to buy health insurance, plan now for tax season

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-25/insurance-shoppers-plan-now-to-trim-next-springs-tax-bill

An unpleasant tax surprise may be lurking next spring for some people who bought health insurance this year on the Affordable Care Act’s coverage marketplaces. The problem centers on income, or what shoppers think they will make. People can get help from the government to buy coverage, depending on their income. But they have to estimate their income for the coming year to figure out how much help they need in the form of tax credits. Those who estimate too low — and wind up getting more help than they should — will have to pay back all or part of the assistance at tax time. About 3.2 million returns for 2018 included a repayment, according to the latest statistics from the Internal Revenue Service. Insurance brokers see this problem surface every year, and some expect it to grow more acute for 2020. Because of job losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people used the exchanges and tax credits for the first time to buy coverage this year. But spring’s tax headache can be softened with some planning before year’s end. “If they wait till April to figure it out, then there’s no time to do anything,” said Emily Bremer, a St. Louis-area broker. It’s too late to adjust your tax credits for 2020, but here are some other tips from Bremer and others. Compare your income estimate to what you actually earned. Was your 2020 estimate too low? Those who make between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level can get some tax credit help paying their premium. This year, 400% of federal poverty amounted to $104,800 for a family of four. Tax credit eligibility is based on modified adjusted gross income, and a lot of things are included in that figure. Unemployment compensation counts, and so do early withdrawals from retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans. The summer job income of any children or dependents also counts. “Be aware of all of your income sources and understand how quickly, for some people, you can lose all of your tax credit,” said Eric Bronnenkant, head of tax for the financial management company Betterment. People who wind up earning more than 400% of federal poverty levels will have to pay back their entire credit, and that can add a couple thousand dollars or more to a tax bill. Those who fall below the poverty level also should be concerned. If your income turned out too low to qualify for tax credits, you also may have to pay back some of the help you received. That can happen to restaurant workers, for example, if their employer shut down for a long stretch due to the pandemic. The federal government’s healthcare.gov website offers assistance with income estimates. Although it’s too late to adjust your tax credits for 2020, there are still some ways to adjust your taxable income. If you can, increasing contributions to work-based retirement accounts such as a 401(k) plan can lower taxable income. Doing the same for a health savings account for medical expenses can help. Look for last-minute deductions. Wichita Falls, Texas, broker Kelly Fristoe said a rancher client may buy a tractor before the end of the year partly to create a business expense that helps push his taxable income back below 400% of the poverty level. A tax professional or health insurance broker may be able to help. If you’re going to end up paying money back, you have time to start saving for that spring tax bill. It’s also a good idea to keep tabs on your income in the new year. Fristoe said he likes to meet with clients in the middle of the year to see how their income is shaping up compared with what they predicted when they bought health insurance coverage. There’s enough time at that point to adjust tax credits if needed. “That way,” Fristoe said, “you don’t get to the end of the year and go, ‘Oh my goodness, I need to pay the IRS how much money back?’”

Consumer spending drops 0.4% in first decline since April

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-23/consumer-spending-drops-0-4-first-decline-since-april

U.S. consumer spending fell 0.4% in November, the first decline since April, as Americans confronted a newly resurgent virus. The November decline followed a 0.3% gain in October and even bigger increases starting in May, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday, as the country emerged from a pandemic lockdown that had been imposed to try to stop the spread of the virus. The last decline was 12.7% fall in April during the lockdown. Personal incomes fell 1.1% in November, the third drop in the past four months as various government relief programs have been expiring. Inflation as measured by a gauge preferred by the Federal Reserve showed a modest 1.1% gain in November, well below the Fed’s 2% target.

Review: 'Sylvie's Love': A Black romantic drama for the ages

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-12-23/sylvies-love-review-tessa-thompson

Dancing to the ebb and flow of its seductive and period-specific soundtrack, “Sylvie’s Love,” from writer-director Eugene Ashe, a former recording artist, displays conventional, yet swoon-worthy steps. The classically conceived romantic saga, spanning several years in late 1950s and early 1960s Harlem, offers a comforting and velvety cinematic texture even if it is not extraordinary from a narrative standpoint. Engaged, but not enamored of her fiancé, Sylvie (Tessa Thompson), the daughter of a record shop owner and an etiquette instructor, marvels daily at the wonders of television while also having encyclopedic music knowledge. One summer afternoon, her life changes course through a perfect collision between two constellations when saxophone player Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha) walks in the store summoned by the “help wanted” sign of destiny. Promptly, the pair is strolling through the metropolis basking in the joys of a clandestine affair that feels just right for the here and now. Long-term consequences haven’t yet perturbed their dreamlike revelry of slow dancing under street lamps and late-night stoop kisses. But soon melodrama, with its secrets and misconnections, strikes in tandem with the inevitable passage of time. In Sylvie’s eyes, Robert, a man of notable hubris, is on track to become the next John Coltrane, and she doesn’t want to prevent him from doing so. With measured sultriness, Thompson spearheads the tune-heavy drama moving Sylvie from the youthful buoyancy of a torrid liaison to the resolute attitude of a woman with her own professional aspirations. Working behind the scenes in the entertainment business, she refuses, more than once, to put her career on hold for the love of a man who is unabashedly pursuing his. In an emotionally delicate performance suited for her calibrated range, the actress’ subtle but potent tonal shifts keep Sylvie poised even when enraged. Boasting lavish craftsmanship with elegant beauty, Ashe’s second feature breathes the air of old Hollywood but in the service of a Black love story rarely seen with such grandeur. Phoenix Mellow‘s impeccable costume design puts Thompson in exquisite garments to stand out against manicured sets. All is captured with a luminously moody touch by cinematographer Declan Quinn as we go from nightclubs to concert halls and a television studio. Archival footage gloriously enhances the effect of walking through the streets of NYC of the past. In turn, the director’s musical background makes itself evident throughout, not only in the collection of sing-along-inducing hits from the era that score the picture or the protagonists’ jobs, but in Sylvie’s reminiscence of the past based on the songs the memories call to mind. That trait goes a long way to strengthen her personality since there’s a noticeable deficiency in the couple’s inner depth and their relationships with the peripheral players. Still, Ashe bets on the fantastic acting that enthralls with its palpable chemistry, a mix of the stoic and virile flirtatiousness Asomugha brings to his talented character and the hard-earned determination of Thompson’s Sylvie, who goes from housewife to television producer. Even Eva Longoria, in a small part, dazzles with a musical number of the Latin American romantic staple “Quizás, quizás, quizás.” For all its aesthetic qualities, what’s most remarkable about “Sylvie’s Love” is that the conflicts in the lives of the Black people it depicts revolve almost exclusively around their personal desires, their pursuit of happiness, and their grappling with heartbreak. And though that might be a well-trodden road, the films most referenced as great examples of the form come from a white point of view. It’s not that Ashe ignores the social justice struggles African Americans faced at the time, but rather that he presents these incidentally as part of a greater whole instead of making them the focal point. The humanistic tale of a man and a woman who are imperfect for each other but still wish to be together comes before any historical or political statement. That’s not only a valid artistic decision, but one that enriches the landscapes of Black storytelling today. Sweeping and flawlessly produced, Ashe’s epic works as an inherently refreshing entry in the canon of a genre designed to make us sigh with knowing elation or tear up in misery thinking about our own bygone rendezvous. ‘Sylvie's Love’ Rated: PG-13, for some sexual content, and smokingRunning time: 1 hour, 50 minutesPlaying: Available Dec. 23 on Amazon Prime

Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky to appear closest to one another in centuries

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-21/jupiter-saturn-merging-in-night-sky-closest-in-centuries

Jupiter and Saturn will merge in the night sky Monday, appearing closer to one another than they have since Galileo’s time in the 17th century. Astronomers say so-called conjunctions between the two largest planets in our solar system aren’t particularly rare. Jupiter passes its neighbor Saturn in their respective laps around the sun every 20 years. But the one coming up is especially close: Jupiter and Saturn will be just one-tenth of a degree apart from our perspective, or about one-fifth the width of a full moon. They should be easily visible around the world a little after sunset, weather permitting. Toss in the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest night of the year — and the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere — and this just-in-time-for-Christmas spectacle promises to be one of the greatest of Great Conjunctions. “What is most rare is a close conjunction that occurs in our nighttime sky,” said Vanderbilt University’s David Weintraub, an astronomy professor. “I think it’s fair to say that such an event typically may occur just once in any one person’s lifetime, and I think ‘once in my lifetime’ is a pretty good test of whether something merits being labeled as rare or special.” It will be the closest Jupiter-Saturn pairing since July 1623, when the two planets appeared a little nearer. This conjunction was almost impossible to see, however, because of its closeness to the sun. Considerably closer and in plain view was the March 1226 conjunction of the two planets — when Genghis Khan was conquering Asia. Monday’s conjunction will be the closest pairing that is visible since then. Saturn and Jupiter have been drawing closer in the south-southwest sky for weeks. Jupiter — bigger and closer to Earth — is vastly brighter. “I love watching them come closer and closer to each other and the fact that I can see it with my naked eyes from my back porch!” Virginia Tech astronomer Nahum Arav said in an email. To see it, be ready shortly after sunset Monday, looking to the southwest fairly low on the horizon. Saturn will be the smaller, fainter blob at Jupiter’s upper right. Binoculars will be needed to separate the two planets. Despite appearances, Jupiter and Saturn will actually be more than 450 million miles apart. Earth, meanwhile, will be 550 million miles from Jupiter. A telescope will not only capture Jupiter and Saturn in the same field of view, but even some of their brightest moons. Their next super-close pairing: March 15, 2080.

Large car bomb kills 9 in Afghan capital, official says

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-20/official-large-car-bomb-kills-9-in-afghan-capital

A car bomb blast that rocked Afghanistan’s capital Sunday morning killed at least nine people, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Masoud Andarabi told reporters that the attack wounded around 20 others, including a member of parliament, Khan Mohammad Wardak. Andarabi said the lawmaker was in “good condition.” The interior minister added that the casualty toll could rise. The attack happened while the lawmaker’s convoy was passing through an intersection in Kabul’s Khoshal Khan neighborhood. The blast set civilian vehicles on fire and damaged buildings and shops. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Politics U.S. troops are rushing to exit Afghanistan as the insurgency it never managed to defeat regains ground across much of the country. In a statement condemning the attack, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the Taliban should stop violence against civilians and accept a ceasefire to facilitate the current peace process. Ghani’s statement did not directly lay blame on the Taliban for the car bombing or offer evidence that the group was responsible for it. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital of Kabul in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people, most of them students. IS also claimed responsibility for Saturday’s rocket attacks at the major U.S. base in Afghanistan. There were no casualties in that assault, according to NATO and provincial officials. A NATO official confirmed the attack and said initial reports indicated that the airfield was not damaged. In another report from the southern Helmand province, the Afghan Defense Ministry in a statement confirmed that a suicide car bomber tried to attack an army checkpoint but was identified and shot by soldiers. Two soldiers were slightly wounded in the attempted assault in Nawa district, the ministry said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack in Helmand. Politics President Trump’s plan to abandon Afghanistan — again — risks turning a disaster into a catastrophe. Violence in Afghanistan has spiked even as the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators hold talks in Qatar, trying to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war. At the same time, the Taliban has waged bitter battles against IS fighters, particularly in eastern Afghanistan, while continuing an insurgency against government forces. Earlier this week, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, held an unannounced meeting with Taliban leaders in Doha to discuss military aspects of last February’s U.S.-Taliban agreement. The agreement, signed in Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office, was intended to set the stage for direct peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. After talks with the Taliban, Milley flew to Kabul to consult with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. He said he emphasized to both parties the need to rapidly reduce levels of violence across the country.

Nepal president dissolves Parliament; elections next spring

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-20/nepal-president-dissolves-parliament-elections-next-spring

Nepal’s president dissolved Parliament on Sunday after the prime minister recommended the move amid an escalating feud within his Communist Party that is likely to push the Himalayan nation into a political crisis. Parliamentary elections will be held April 30 and May 10, according to a statement from President Bidya Devi Bhandari’s office. Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli decided to dissolve Parliament at a Cabinet meeting Sunday and immediately presented his recommendation. Oli became prime minister after his Nepal Communist Party won elections three years ago. Oli’s party and the party of former Maoist rebels had merged to form a strong communist party to win the election. There has, however, been a power tussle with the leader of the former Maoists rebels, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who is also the co-chair of the party. The opposition has repeatedly accused Oli’s government of corruption and his administration has faced criticism over its handling of the coronavirus. The number of virus cases in Nepal has reached 243,184, including 1,777 deaths. Oli also has been accused of moving closer to China and drifting away from Nepal’s traditional partner, India, since taking over power. This has caused problems between Oli and New Delhi.

Israel begins coronavirus inoculation drive as infections surge

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-20/israel-begins-virus-inoculation-drive-as-infections-surge

Israel on Sunday began its coronavirus inoculation drive, aiming to vaccinate some 60,000 people a day in a bid to stamp out the illness that is once again surging among its population. The country will first immunize health workers, followed by the elderly, high-risk Israelis and those 60 and older. Israel says it has secured sufficient doses for much of the country’s 9 million people from both Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccine U.S. authorities approved this week for emergency use. With public opinion polls showing many Israelis are reluctant to receive shots right away, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would set a “personal example” and insisted on being the first Israeli vaccinated. He received the shot Saturday night. Netanyahu expressed confidence in the vaccine before rolling up the right sleeve of his black, short-sleeve shirt and receiving the injection. He called it an “exciting moment” that would put Israel on the path to returning to its normal routines. The country’s health minister also received the vaccine Saturday. Israel has an agreement with Pfizer to secure 8 million doses of the U.S. pharmaceutical company’s vaccine — enough to cover nearly half of Israel’s population since each person requires two doses. Israel reached a separate agreement with Moderna earlier this month to purchase 6 million doses of its vaccine — enough for another 3 million Israelis. World & Nation British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Christmas gatherings can’t go ahead and many nonessential shops must close amid new coronavirus restrictions. With daily infection numbers trending upward and currently notching just under 3,000 a day, Israeli leaders are again debating whether to impose a third national lockdown since the pandemic began. Many restrictions remain in place from the country’s second lockdown in the fall, with most hotels still shuttered and restaurants open only for delivery and take-out. Unemployment remains in the double digits. Israel has had mixed results in its fight against the virus. Netanyahu was lauded in the spring for sealing borders and locking down the country swiftly, a move that battered the economy but drove down infection rates. But a hasty and erratic reopening sent confirmed cases soaring in late summer, leading to what at the time was one of the world’s worst outbreaks. Israel has reported more than 368,000 confirmed cases and more than 3,000 virus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Rockets hit U.S. base in Afghanistan; no casualties reported

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-19/rockets-hit-us-base-in-afghanistan-no-casualties-reported

Five rockets were fired at a major U.S. base in Afghanistan on Saturday, but there were no casualties, NATO and provincial officials said. The rockets hit Bagram Airfield, said Wahida Shahkar, spokeswoman for the governor in northern Parwan province. Shahkar said that 12 rockets were placed in a vehicle and five of them were fired while police were able to defuse seven others. She couldn’t provide other details on possible casualties or damage within the U.S. base. She said there are no casualties among civilians in the area. A NATO official confirmed the attack and said initial reports indicated that the airfield was not damaged. Politics U.S. troops are rushing to exit Afghanistan as the insurgency it never managed to defeat regains ground across much of the country. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In April, the Islamic State group said it launched five rocket attacks on the base. There were no casualties. Islamic State also has claimed responsibility for multiple attacks in the capital Kabul in recent months, including on educational institutions that killed 50 people, most of them students. Violence in Afghanistan has spiked even as the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators hold talks in Qatar, trying to hammer out a peace deal that could put an end to decades of war. At the same time, the Taliban have waged bitter battles against Islamic State fighters, particularly in eastern Afghanistan, while continuing their insurgency against government forces. Earlier this week, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, held an unannounced meeting with Taliban leaders in Qatar to discuss military aspects of last February’s U.S.-Taliban agreement. The agreement, signed in Qatar where the Taliban maintain a political office, was intended to set the stage for direct peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. After talks with the Taliban, Milley flew to Kabul to consult with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. He said he emphasized to both parties the need to rapidly reduce levels of violence across the country.

Fire kills 9 COVID-19 patients at hospital ICU in Turkey

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-19/hospital-fire-kills-9-covid-19-patients-at-icu-in-turkey

A fire broke out Saturday at an intensive care unit treating COVID-19 patients in southern Turkey after an oxygen cylinder exploded, killing nine people, the health minister said. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the fire broke out at the privately run Sanko University Hospital unit in Gaziantep, 530 miles southeast of Istanbul. It cited a hospital statement identifying the victims as being between 56 and 85. The fire was quickly brought under control. The statement said 14 ICU patients were transferred to other hospitals. An investigation is underway. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca tweeted that nine people were killed in the fire, raising the earlier estimate of eight dead by the hospital and the Gaziantep governor’s office. The governor’s office said 19 patients were in the unit when a “high pressure oxygen device” exploded at 4:45 a.m. Other than the fatalities, no others were injured in the fire, it said. World & Nation Excitement greeted the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine when it was rolled out, but a Russian shot has received a mixed response, even on home soil. Intensive care units across Turkey currently have a 74% bed occupancy rate due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to government figures, although medical associations say the figure is higher and their hospitals are overrun with COVID-19 patients. On Friday evening, the Health Ministry reported 26,410 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total since March to 1.98 million. The figure includes asymptomatic cases, which Ankara did not report in the four months up to late November, prompting criticism that the government was trying to hide the extent of the country’s outbreak. Turkey hit a record daily high of 246 COVID-19-related deaths reported Friday for an overall death toll of 17,610.

New York Film Critics Circle names 'First Cow' best movie of 2020

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-19/first-cow-named-2020s-best-film-by-new-york-film-critics

The New York Film Critics Circle on Friday voted Kelly Reichardt’s western fable “First Cow” the best film of 2020, while also giving special honors to Spike Lee and the art-house distributor Kino Lorber for their roles in a movie year deeply marred by the pandemic. The film critics, assembling virtually, gave their top award to “First Cow,” a delicate tale of friendship and capitalism in the mid-1800s Oregon Territory. Reichardt’s film, released in theaters in March just days before the onset of COVID-19 forced cinemas to close nationwide, hasn’t been widely seen but remains one of the year’s most critically acclaimed film. The Associated Press also named “First Cow” its No. 1 film. The critics also gave out awards to “Borat Subsequent Movie Film” co-star Maria Bakalova for best supporting actress and to Chadwick Boseman for best supporting actor for his final performance in the August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Boseman died in August. Movies Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang’s best movies of 2020 include ‘Nomadland,’ ‘First Cow’ and ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things.’ Dec. 11, 2020 Best actor went to Delroy Lindo for his performance as a Vietnam War veteran in Spike Lee’s “Da Five Bloods.” Best actress was given to Sidney Flanigan who plays a Pennsylvania teenager who travels to New York for an abortion in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.” Eliza Hittman, who wrote and directed “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” won best screenplay. Chloe Zhao, the filmmaker of “Nomadland,” took best director. Spike Lee released two features in 2020 — “Da Five Bloods” and “David Byrne’s American Utopia” — but he was given a special award for a three-minute short he released on Instagram: “New York New York,” a documentary tribute to his home city, made during the pandemic’s first wave. The group’s other special citation went to Kino Lorber for creating the virtual cinema service Kino Marquee, which shares proceeds with independent theaters closed by COVID-19. The critics pointedly said the honor was for a service “designed to help support movie theaters, not destroy them.” The New York Film Critics Circle Awards are usually part of a wave of critics group honors that can occasionally influence awards season. Such awards would typically be a drumbeat this time of year, but little is normal about this year’s awards season. The Oscars and the Golden Globes, along with many other awards shows, have been postponed by about two months. Other NYFCC picks include: “Time” for best nonfiction film, “Bacurau” for best foreign language film, “The Forty-Year-Old Version” for best first film, “Wolfwalkers” for best animated film, and the five-film anthology “Small Axe” for best cinematography. Movies The cast and filmmakers of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” remember the late Chadwick Boseman and his final screen role. Dec. 18, 2020 The Chicago Film Critics Assn. announced the nominations for its annual awards on Friday. “Nomadland” led with seven nominations; “Da 5 Bloods,” “First Cow” and Charlie Kaufman’s “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” each earned six nominations; David Fincher’s “Mank” and Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” were each recognized with five. “Nomadland,” “Da 5 Bloods,” “First Cow,” “Promising Young Woman” and Steve McQueen’s “Lovers Rock” (part of his “Small Axe” anthology) are the nominees for best film. Boseman was nominated as both best actor for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and for best supporting actor for “Da 5 Bloods.” The awards will be presented during a virtual event on Dec. 21. Times staff contributed to this report

Pence and top congressional leaders receive COVID-19 vaccines

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-18/pence-wife-karen-get-covid-19-coronavirus-vaccine-injections

Vice President Mike Pence became the highest-ranking U.S. official to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine on Friday in a live-television event aimed at reassuring Americans the vaccine is safe. He celebrated the milestone as “a medical miracle” that could eventually contain the raging pandemic. Conspicuously missing from the victory lap: President Trump, who has remained largely out of sight five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history. Pence, meanwhile, has taken an increasingly visible role in highlighting the safety and efficacy of the shots, including touring a vaccine production facility this week. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also received COVID-19 vaccinations Friday. And President-elect Joe Biden and his wife will be getting the vaccine Monday, while Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband are set to receive it the week after next. “I didn’t feel a thing. Well done,” Pence told the technicians from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center who administered his Pfizer-BioNTech shot early Friday morning. Pence didn’t flinch during the quick prick, nor did his wife, Karen, or Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who also received shots during the televised White House event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “Hope is on the way,” Pence later said. “The American people can be confident.” He did not respond to shouted questions about why the president wasn’t headlining a similar event. Adams, who is Black, emphasized the “the importance of representation” in outreach to at-risk communities and encouraged Americans to avoid disinformation about the vaccines. Five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history, Trump has been largely absent from the effort to sell the American public on what aides hope will be a key part of his legacy. He has held no public events to trumpet the rollout. He hasn’t been inoculated himself. And he has tweeted fewer than a handful of times about the shot. Trump’s relative silence comes as he continues to stew about his defeat in the Nov. 3 election and embraces increasingly extreme efforts to overturn the people’s will. He’s pushed aside the plans of aides who wanted him to be the public face of the vaccination campaign, eschewing visits to labs and production facilities to thank workers, or hosting efforts to build public confidence in the shot, according to people familiar with the conversations. That approach has been surprising, especially for a president rarely shy to take credit, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law who focuses on public health. World & Nation Senior U.S. officials, including some in White House who work close to President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, were to be offered coronavirus vaccines as soon as this week. Dec. 13, 2020 “The president’s relatively low profile on the COVID response since the election is curious and counter to Mr. Trump’s own interests,” he said. Gostin has criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic in the past but said he “deserves a great deal of credit” for Operation Warp Speed and placing a bet on two vaccines that use groundbreaking mRNA technology. “Having exhibited leadership in the vaccines’ development, he should take great pride in publicly demonstrating his trust in COVID vaccines,” he said. Trump did appear at a White House “summit” ahead of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use last week. That event included an introductory video highlighting the past comments of those — including the government’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci — who doubted a shot would be ready this year. Trump “will continue to update the country through a variety of means while giving medical professionals and hard-working staff at [Operation Warp Speed] the space to do their jobs and save lives,” said White House deputy press secretary Brian Morgenstern. But many Trump aides are puzzled by his low profile now that the vaccine is actually being injected. They see it as a missed opportunity for the president, who leaves office on Jan. 20, to claim credit for helping oversee the speedy development and deployment of the vaccine that is expected to finally contain the virus that has killed more than 310,000 Americans. Trump himself has tried to minimize any credit that might go to his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, who will preside over the bulk of the nationwide injection campaign next year. Biden expects to receive his shot as soon as next week. “Don’t let Joe Biden take credit for the vaccines,” Trump has told reporters. “Don’t let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me, and I pushed people harder than they’ve ever been pushed before.” Despite Trump’s claims, FDA scientists were the ones who came up with the idea for Operation Warp Speed, the White House-backed effort through which millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines and treatments are being manufactured even as they are still being evaluated. And much of the groundwork for the shots was laid over the past decade, including through research on messenger RNA, or mRNA, used in the vaccines developed by both Pfizer and Moderna. Pfizer developed its vaccine outside Operation Warp Speed but is partnering with the federal government on manufacturing and distribution. Trump’s low-key approach could have an impact on public health. Fauci told NBC News this week that 75% to 85% of the nation needs to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity,” making the public education campaign about the vaccine’s safety all the more pressing. A survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only about half of Americans want to get the vaccine as soon as possible. Another quarter of the public isn’t sure, while the remaining quarter say they aren’t interested. Some simply oppose vaccines in general. Others are concerned that the injections have been rushed and want to see how the rollout goes. Trump, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October, has yet to indicate when or if he will receive the shot. According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is not yet enough information to determine whether those who have had COVID-19, like Trump, should get the vaccine. Still, Fauci recommended that Trump take it publicly without delay. “Even though the president himself was infected, and he has, likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not sure how long that protection lasts. So, to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he get vaccinated as well as the vice president,” Fauci told ABC News. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters this week that Trump, who has previously spread misinformation about other vaccines “wants to send a parallel message which is, you know, our long-term care facility residents and our front-line workers are paramount in importance,” she said. Gostin disagreed. ”It will be enormously damaging to public trust in the vaccine if President Trump isn’t visibly enthusiastic, including getting his shot on national television,” he argued. “It simply isn’t good enough to have Vice President Pence as a proxy.”

With Trump silent, reprisals for hacks may fall to Biden

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-18/with-trump-silent-reprisals-for-hacks-may-fall-to-biden

All fingers are pointing to Russia as the source of the worst-ever hack of U.S. government agencies. But President Trump, long wary of blaming Moscow for cyber attacks, has been silent. The lack of any statement seeking to hold Russia responsible casts doubt on the likelihood of a swift response and suggests any retaliation — whether through sanctions, criminal charges or cyber actions — will be left in the hands of President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration. “I would imagine that the incoming administration wants a menu of what the options are and then is going to choose,” said Sarah Mendelson, a Carnegie Mellon University public policy professor and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council. “Is there a graduated assault? Is there an all-out assault? How much out of the gate do you want to do?” To be sure, it’s not uncommon for administrations to refrain from leveling public accusations of blame for hacks until they’ve accumulated enough evidence. Here, U.S. officials say they only recently became aware of devastating breaches at multiple government agencies in which foreign intelligence agents rooted around undetected for as much as nine months. But Trump’s response, or lack thereof, is being closely watched because of his preoccupation with a fruitless effort to overturn the results of last month’s election and because of his refusal to publicly acknowledge that Russian hackers interfered in the 2016 presidential election in his favor. Exactly what action Biden might take is unclear, or how his response might be shaped by criticism that the Obama administration did not act aggressively enough to thwart interference in 2016. He offered clues in a statement Thursday, saying his administration would be proactive in preventing cyberattacks and impose costs on any adversaries behind them. World & Nation Russian President Vladimir Putin has finally congratulated Joe Biden on winning the U.S. presidential election after weeks of holding out. U.S. government statements so far have not mentioned Russia. Asked about Russian involvement in a radio interview Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that Russia consistently tries to penetrate American servers but quickly pivoted to threats from China and North Korea. Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin and Richard Blumenthal, who were briefed Tuesday on the hacking campaign in a classified Armed Services Committee session, were unequivocal in blaming Russia. There are other signs within the administration of a clear-eyed recognition of the severity of the attack, which happened after elite cyber spies injected malicious code into the software of a company that provides network services. The civilian cyber security agency warned in an advisory Thursday that the hack posed a “grave risk” to government and private networks. A response could start with a public declaration that Russia is believed responsible, already a widely shared assessment in the U.S. government and cybersecurity community. Such statements often aren’t immediate. It took weeks after the incidents became public for the Obama administration to finger North Korea in the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack in 2014 and for then-national intelligence director James Clapper to confirm China as the “leading suspect” in hacks of the Office of Personnel Management. Public naming-and-shaming is always part of the playbook. Trump’s former homeland security adviser Thomas Bossert wrote this week in a New York Times opinion piece that “the United States, and ideally its allies, must publicly and formally attribute responsibility for these hacks.” Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said in a SiriusXM radio interview that it was “extraordinary” the White House has not spoken out. Another possibility is a federal indictment, assuming investigators can accumulate enough evidence to implicate individual hackers. Such cases are labor-intensive and often take years, and though they may carry slim chances of courtroom prosecution, the Justice Department regards them as having powerful deterrent effects. Sanctions, a time-honored punishment, can have even more bite and will almost certainly be weighed by Biden. President Obama expelled Russian diplomats over the 2016 election interference, and the Trump administration and Western allies took similar action against Moscow for its alleged poisoning of an ex-intelligence officer in Britain. Exposing Kremlin corruption, including how Russian President Vladimir Putin accrues and hides his wealth, may amount to even more formidable retaliation. World & Nation Russian hackers have targeted the networks of dozens of state and local governments in the United States in recent days, and have stolen data from at least two servers. “This isn’t just a tit-for-tat or hacking back into their systems,” said Mendelson, the former ambassador. “It’s, ‘We’re going to go for what you really care about, and what you really care about is the funds that are stashed, and revealing the larger network and how it’s connected to the Kremlin.’” The U.S. can also retaliate in cyberspace, a path made easier by a Trump administration authorization that has already resulted in some operations. Former national security adviser John Bolton told reporters at a 2018 briefing that offensive cyber operations against foreign rivals would now be part of the U.S. arsenal and that the U.S. response would no longer be primarily defensive. “We can totally melt down their home networks,” said Jason Healey, a Columbia University cyber conflict scholar. “And any time we see their operators popping up they know that we are going to go after them, wherever they are.” U.S. Cyber Command has also taken more proactive measures, engaging in what officials describe as “hunt forward” operations that let them detect cyber threats in other countries before they reach their intended target. Military cyber fighters, for instance, partnered with Estonia in the weeks before the U.S. presidential election in a joint operation aimed at identifying and defending against threats from Russia. While the U.S. is also prolific in its offensive cyber-intelligence-gathering — tapping allied foreign leaders’ phones and inserting spyware into commercial routers, for instance — such efforts are measured compared with the infection of 18,000 government and private-sector organizations in the SolarWinds hack, Healey said. The better response — since espionage itself is not a crime — is to triple down on defensive cyber security, Healey said. David Simon, a cyber security expert and former Defense Department special counsel, said there must be consequences for those who are responsible for attacks — and the Trump administration “has fallen far short in holding the Kremlin accountable.” “Until it’s clear the U.S. will impose meaningful costs on adversaries,” he said in an email, “a material change in the Kremlin’s behavior is not likely to be seen.”

Members of Sackler family behind OxyContin attest to its role in opioid crisis

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-17/family-behind-oxycontin-attests-to-its-role-in-opioid-crisis

Two owners of the company that makes OxyContin acknowledged to Congress on Thursday that the powerful prescription painkiller played a role in the opioid epidemic, but they stopped short of apologizing or admitting wrongdoing. “I want to express my family’s deep sadness about the opioid crisis,” David Sackler, whose family owns Purdue Pharma, said at a rare appearance in a public forum. “OxyContin is a medicine that Purdue intended to help people, and it has helped, and continues to help, millions of Americans.” The company’s marketing efforts have been blamed for contributing to an addiction and overdose crisis that has been linked to 470,000 deaths in the United States over the last two decades. Kathe Sackler, David Sackler’s cousin, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee that she knows “the loss of any family member or loved one is terribly painful, and nothing is more tragic than the loss of a child.” “As a mother,” she said, “my heart breaks for the parents who have lost their children. I am so terribly sorry for your pain.” World & Nation A panel of government advisors says there’s no clear evidence that a harder-to-crush version of the painkiller OxyContin resulted in fewer drug overdoses Asked about her role, she said she had done soul searching. “I have tried to figure out if there’s anything I could have done differently knowing what I knew then, not what I know now,” she said. “There is nothing I can find that I would have done differently.” Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) noted that OxyContin sales revenue increased even after the company pleaded guilty to crimes for improper marketing of the drug. “You want to ask what you could have done differently?” he asked. “Look at your own damn balance sheet.” The two Sacklers, descendants of two of the three brothers who bought Purdue nearly 70 years ago, appeared before the committee in a videoconference hearing held amid coronavirus restrictions. The Sacklers took the step after the committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), threatened to issue subpoenas. In contrast to the family members, Purdue Chief Executive Craig Landau testified that the company accepts “full responsibility.” The Sacklers agreed to provide information about “shell companies” that hold family money and to make documents public. Even before any of the witnesses testified, committee members from both political parties blasted them. “Most despicably, Purdue and the Sacklers worked to deflect the blame for all that suffering away from themselves, and onto the very people struggling with the OxyContin addiction,” Maloney said. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), whose state has been hit hard by the opioid crisis, said the Sacklers “profited immensely from the deaths of millions of Americans.” But Comer worried that holding the hearing now could delay justice for the people harmed by the drug as litigation swirls. Opinion The company agreed to plead guilty in a settlement that doesn’t begin to make up for the harm it has caused. Parents of people who died from using the drug also appeared via video to tell about their children. The hearing came three weeks after Purdue pleaded guilty to three criminal charges as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice. The company agreed to pay more than $8 billion in forfeitures and penalties, while members of the Sackler family would have to pay $225 million to the government. The deal leaves open the possibility that family members could be criminally prosecuted. Under questioning, David Sackler said that family members and others on Purdue’s board of directors were “completely unaware” of criminal conduct at the company, and that some of that behavior was contrary to the board’s directions. The settlement requires the company to hand over just $225 million of the $8 billion total to the government as long as Purdue makes good on plans to settle thousands of lawsuits filed by state and local governments, a matter now in Bankruptcy Court. The Connecticut-based company and the Sacklers have proposed resolving the suits by transforming Purdue into a public benefit corporation, with its profits used to combat the opioid epidemic. Some members of Congress and attorneys general for about half the states oppose that idea, which includes a requirement for Sackler family members to pay at least $3 billion in addition to giving up control of the company. Court documents show the Sacklers have received more than $12 billion from Purdue since OxyContin was released. A third branch of the family sold its stake in the company before the blockbuster painkiller was developed in the 1990s. David Sackler told the committee that the value of the company plus the $3 billion the family would contribute add up to more than the family received from OxyContin. He also noted that about half of what family members took out of the company was paid in taxes. Armstrong sarcastically thanked him for that. Both Sacklers said they and others in their family regard addiction as a disease — something that was not always the case, according to emails that have been surfaced in investigations over the years. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) chastised Landau for seeking a $3-million bonus. Krishnamoorthi said that money should go to people who were hurt by OxyContin instead. “Shame on you, Dr. Landau,” he said. Krishnamoorthi also showed images of luxury homes David Sackler had owned in Manhattan and Bel-Air. “I would submit that you and your family are addicted to money,” he told Sackler. Rep. Carol Miller, a Republican whose West Virginia district has been devastated by addictions and overdoses, implored David Sackler, who said he had vacationed in Appalachia, to visit communities the drugs have harmed. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) compared the Sacklers to drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and asked Kathe Sackler why the Sacklers should not be made to repay all the money they made from OxyContin. She said that would be up to a legal proceeding. Committee members were unmoved by the Sacklers’ explanations. “Watching you testify makes my blood boil,” said Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.). “I’m not sure that I’m aware of any family in America that’s more evil than yours.”

Stocks reach record highs as investors hope for stimulus

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-17/stocks-reach-record-highs-as-investors-hope-for-stimulus

Major U.S. stock indexes climbed to new highs Thursday as investors remained optimistic that Washington will deliver another round of financial support for the economy and as a COVID-19 vaccine continues to be rolled out to the public. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 0.6%, with technology and healthcare stocks powering much of the market’s broad rally. The index, which is a key benchmark for many 401(k) accounts, has now set 31 record highs this year. The Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq composite also hit new highs. Treasury yields moved broadly higher, a sign of bonds traders’ confidence in the economy. Optimism that Congress will deliver more financial aid to people and businesses most hurt by the pandemic, and hopes that the rollout of coronavirus vaccinations will pave the way for an economic recovery next year, have helped keep investors in a buying mood. “Investors are being hopeful because of that, even though we’re seeing a widening lockdown threat from cities, states and countries,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. “The market is traveling on an end-of-year autopilot, which should allow share prices to drift higher, unless we hit an unexpected pothole.” The S&P 500 rose 21.31 points to 3,722.48. It’s the index’s third straight gain. The Dow picked up 148.83 points, or 0.5%, to 30,303.37. The Nasdaq extended its winning streak to a fourth straight day, gaining 106.56 points, or 0.8%, to 12,764.75. Traders continued to bid up shares in smaller companies. That pushed the Russell 2000 small-cap index up 25.32 points, or 1.3%, to 1,978.05, a record high. The index is on track for a gain of 8.7% this month, while the S&P 500 is up 2.8%. Wall Street has been more hopeful that Congress is getting closer to striking a deal that will give a financial lifeline to people and businesses. Democrats and Republicans have been locked in a partisan fight over the size and scope of any additional package, just as the economic recovery shows signs of stalling amid a surge in virus cases. New stimulus aid cannot come soon enough for investors, and more importantly, for businesses such as restaurants and theaters as well as the workers in those industries. The Labor Department, in another worrisome sign, reported that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose to 885,000 last week, the most since September. Unemployment has been edging higher and retail sales have been hurt as tighter restrictions squeeze people and businesses. Investors received more encouragement from the Federal Reserve, which helped shore up the markets early in the pandemic. The central bank has again pledged to keep buying bonds until the economy makes substantial progress. Still, the Fed has said it can only do so much to tide over the economy and that more financial support from Washington is crucial for a continued recovery. Home builders rose Thursday following news from the Commerce Department that showed building permits and housing construction starts rose in November, despite the winter weather and pandemic. Lennar Corp. notched the biggest gain in the S&P 500, vaulting 7.6%. The Miami-based builder reported quarterly results Wednesday that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. PulteGroup rose 5.4% and D.R. Horton gained 3.2%. The gains on Thursday came from nearly every sector in the S&P 500, with the exception of the energy and telecommunications services. The real estate and materials sectors notched the biggest gains. Treasury yields moved broadly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.93% from 0.90% late Wednesday. European markets closed mixed, and Asian markets closed mostly higher.

Google sued by 38 states for alleged abuse of search dominance

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-17/38-states-file-anti-trust-lawsuit-against-google

A bipartisan coalition of states sued Alphabet Inc.’s Google, alleging broad antitrust violations in the online search market, marking the third U.S. case against the search giant in two months. The lawsuit, led by eights states including Colorado, Iowa and New York, marks the latest escalation of the antitrust battle against Google. It comes a day after 10 Republican state attorneys general led by Texas sued the company for anticompetitive practices, and follows an October complaint by the Justice Department. “Never before have so many states and the federal government come together to challenge a company with such power,” Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller said in a statement Thursday. “Google has more data on consumers, and more variety of information, than perhaps any entity in history.” The lawsuit, filed by 38 attorneys general, accuses Google of illegally monopolizing internet search and search advertising through a series of anticompetitive contracts and conduct, hurting consumers and advertisers in the process. Google countered in a blog post that it has improved search results in ways that many world regulators had previously deemed pro-competitive. “This lawsuit seeks to redesign search in ways that would deprive Americans of helpful information and hurt businesses’ ability to connect directly with customers,” said Adam Cohen, Google’s director of economic policy. “We look forward to making that case in court.” The Justice Department and 11 Republican state attorneys general sued Google on Oct. 20 in the most significant monopolization case in more than two decades. That case focuses on Google’s agreements with Apple Inc. and other partners to provide Google search as a default to users. The Texas-led case focuses on Google’s control over the technology that delivers display ads across the web. It alleges that Google reached an illegal deal with Facebook Inc. to persuade the social media giant to back off from competing in this market. Colorado Atty. Gen. Phil Weiser said during a virtual news conference that the new case goes beyond the Justice Department’s complaint. Unlike that suit, the states are targeting Google’s conduct in specialized search services, such as local queries, saying the company made it harder for users to access information from rival providers. Weiser said the states will move to consolidate the suit with the federal case. “Probably the most comparable case is 20 years ago, the Microsoft case,” Nebraska Atty. Gen. Doug Peterson told reporters during the news conference. “We’re in a new time, a new era.” The antitrust case against Microsoft Corp., which began in 1998 and focused on deals to distribute its software and operating systems, helped set the terms for competition in the emerging internet industry. Antitrust actions against large technology platforms have escalated dramatically in the final weeks of the year. The Federal Trade Commission and a group of more than 45 states led by New York filed a pair of lawsuits recently against Facebook alleging the social media giant thwarted competition to protect its monopoly. The suits sought court orders to unwind Facebook’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp. Critics have accused Google of using its dominance of the online search market to steal other companies’ content for its own results and starve competitors of vital traffic. They also say it has made acquisitions in online ads and video that reduced competition, and locked up key distribution channels on browsers and mobile operating systems. Business Suing Google for monopolistic behavior has bipartisan support, but Trump’s involvement could ruin the government’s case. Oct. 20, 2020 Google argues that its search engine is popular and free, that rankings are driven by consumer needs and that prior deals passed regulatory scrutiny. Google has said that the U.S.-led search case is “deeply flawed” and called Wednesday’s filing “meritless” and “inaccurate.” The company argues that platforms’ agreements for prime placement before consumers are common in many markets and don’t prevent users from switching to competitors. Google also says it faces stiff competition from companies including Amazon.com Inc. for the most profitable searches, which show consumer intent to purchase goods and command greater advertiser dollars. Like the Justice Department complaint against Google, the new state case targets the distribution deals Google reached with Apple and mobile carriers that the states say illegally cut off competition from other search providers. Those agreements have made Google the de facto search engine on nearly all mobile devices in the U.S., the states said. The states also accuse Google of illegally monopolizing search by cutting off traffic to specialized search providers that focus on a particular commercial segments such as travel, local businesses and shopping. Those search services rely on Google to get customers and represent a potential threat to Google’s dominance, particularly because their niche offerings are attractive to advertisers, the states said. Instead of competing fairly against those companies, Google used its gatekeeper role to exclude them, according to the complaint. Google limits the kind of ads those search providers can buy to attract customers. It also blocks certain companies from appearing in Google’s OneBox feature, which typically provides a map and listings, the states said. “Google’s decision to degrade access to such opportunities for specialized vertical providers lacks any legitimate business justification and is for the purpose and effect of excluding rivals,” they said. Yelp, which has long complained about Google’s conduct, cheered the states’ lawsuit. “For nearly a decade, Yelp’s small public policy team has openly advocated for heightened antitrust scrutiny of Google’s behavior, so it is gratifying to see Google finally brought to justice for this specific conduct,” said Luther Lowe, a Yelp public policy executive.

Biden picks North Carolina's Michael Regan to lead EPA

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-12-17/biden-transition-cabinet-epa-michael-regan

President-elect Joe Biden has picked an experienced but not widely known state regulator, Michael Regan of North Carolina, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Regan, who is head of North Carolina’s environmental agency, was one of several contenders whose name emerged only in recent days. Biden’s pick was confirmed Thursday by a person familiar with the selection process who was not authorized the discuss the matter publicly before the official announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity. California clean-air regulator Mary Nichols had faced increasing objections from progressive groups, who said Nichols had not done enough to address the disproportionate harm that low-income and minority communities face from living next to oil and gas installations, factories and freeways. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who hired Regan for the state job, said Wednesday that Regan was “a consensus builder and a fierce protector of the environment. He’s been part of a strong, diverse cabinet in North Carolina. And if he is selected by the president-elect, I have no doubt that he will do the same kind of job for our country.” Regan became environmental chief in North Carolina in 2017. State officials there are grappling with contamination from PFAS industrial compounds and other industrial polluters. Regan points to his efforts to hold accountable Chemours, which is the main business blamed for the toxic PFAS pollution, and other work ranging from improving regulation of the state’s giant hog farms to releasing a plan to cut climate-damaging fossil fuel pollution from power plants by 70% within 10 years. He previously spent almost a decade at the federal EPA, including managing a national program for air-pollution issues. His past jobs included serving as an associate vice president for climate and energy issues at the Environmental Defense Fund advocacy group and as head of his own environmental and energy consulting firm. Regan has a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and a master’s from George Washington University.

U.S. jobless claims rise to 885,000 amid resurgence of virus

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2020-12-17/coronavirus-jobless-unemployment

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose again last week to 885,000 as a resurgence of coronavirus cases threatens the economy’s recovery from its springtime collapse. The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of applications increased from 862,000 the previous week. It showed that nine months after the viral pandemic paralyzed the economy, many employers are still slashing jobs as the pandemic forces more business restrictions and leads many consumers to stay home. Before the coronavirus erupted in March, weekly jobless claims had typically numbered only about 225,000. The far-higher current pace of claims reflects an employment market under stress and diminished job security for many. The total number of people who are receiving traditional state unemployment benefits fell to 5.5 million from 5.8 million. That figure is down sharply from its peak of nearly 23 million in May. It means that some jobless Americans are finding jobs and no longer receiving aid. But it also indicates that many of the unemployed have used up their state benefits, which typically expire after six months. With layoffs still elevated and new confirmed viral cases in the United States now exceeding 200,000 a day on average, the economy’s modest recovery is increasingly in danger. States and cities are issuing mask mandates, limiting the size of gatherings, restricting restaurant dining, closing gyms or reducing the hours and capacity of bars, stores and other businesses. Business White and higher-income Californians are most likely to believe today’s children will be worse off than their parents, a new statewide survey finds. Dec. 9, 2020 On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve signaled that it expects the economy to rebound at a healthy pace next year as viral vaccines become widely distributed. But Chair Jerome Powell warned that the next three to six months will likely be painful for the unemployed and small businesses as pandemic cases spike. The Fed made clear that it’s prepared to keep interest rates ultra-low for the long run to help the economy withstand those threats.

Op-Ed: How to be an effective altruist when giving to charities

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-12-17/effective-altruism-charity-psychology-morality-donation

This pandemic year, filled with fear and illness, has been a relentless assault on the human spirit. But the well of human kindness runs deep, especially in the holiday season when people open their hearts and wallets to charities in need. But which charities deserve our support? The effective altruism movement, which began with moral philosophers, encourages people to consider evidence and careful analysis of charities to maximize the benefit of their giving. The need for such analysis is underappreciated. People tend to greatly underestimate how much charities differ in their effectiveness, as research published this year shows. Whether it’s saving lives or improving health and well-being, the most effective charities are not, say, just two or three times more effective than other charities. They can be more than 100 times more effective. For example, it costs up to $50,000 to train a guide dog to help a blind person in the developed world. By contrast, surgery to prevent blindness due to trachoma can cost less than $50 in the developing world. In the United States, $7 can buy a book for a schoolchild. In Kenya, $7 can remove parasitic worms from the digestive tracts of 10 children, enabling them to attend school, learn and earn a better living. As these examples suggest, one can often do more good per dollar helping people outside the U.S. GiveWell, an organization founded by two former financial analysts, conducts rigorous research to determine which charities do the most good with every dollar spent. Using this information, ordinary people can save someone’s life and improve the futures of dozens more. Yet, why don’t more people support these super-effective charities? Partly, it’s ignorance. We know that better information makes some people give more effectively. And research has found that when people were asked to use a more impartial decision-making procedure, they tended to donate less parochially and more effectively. But ignorance and lack of reflection are just part of the story. Other research shows that most people, when given information about charity effectiveness, simply ignore it, favoring personal preference over scientific evidence. To understand why we don’t maximize effectiveness when giving, we must consider the psychology of altruism. What makes us give? The human mind was not designed for impartial beneficence. Morality has evolved, both biologically and culturally, as a device for cooperation within groups. Groups of humans who help one another — sharing food when food is scarce, for example — are more likely to survive and outcompete other groups that leave their members to fend for themselves. Cultural evolution has taken our biological capacity for altruism and scaled it up with religion and peace-promoting modern institutions. But the psychological mechanisms behind our good deeds haven’t changed much. Our social behavior is overwhelmingly driven by our emotions, and charitable giving is no exception. We empathize with a single child in need, but our empathy is largely insensitive to the differences between 1, 10 or 1,000 suffering children. And we empathize most with those who are closest to us, geographically and socially. The most ardent effective altruists regard these tendencies as biases to be overcome. And perhaps, in some ultimate moral sense, they’re right. But that’s a tough pill to swallow. Adopting this approach in its most unyielding form leaves no room for personal attachments or indulgences. If humans were governed by such strict principles, our societies might well be devoid of violence and poverty. But, alas, we’re not that species. We need a more flexible approach to modern moral life. As an analogy, consider dieting. Most humans do better with a reasonably healthy diet that is psychologically and socially sustainable. This means including healthy foods that you like well enough and some foods that you love. The same psychologically pragmatic approach can apply to charitable giving. It’s easier to follow effective altruism principles if we also acknowledge the importance of personal meaning when it comes to helping others. The next time you’re ready to give, make two donations: one to a charity that speaks to your heart and one to a charity that’s expert-certified for extraordinary impact. Why not support your local school or hospital, but also give to a project that treats parasitic worm infections for about 66 cents per child? (GivingMultiplier.org, a website we created at Harvard, will add to your donations when you pair your giving in this way.) Human goodness comes from the heart. We shouldn’t deny that. But by making charitable giving a bit more evidence-based, we can multiply our impact and benefit even more people. And isn’t that the goal? Lucius Caviola is a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Harvard. Joshua Greene is a professor of psychology at Harvard and the author of “Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.”

Self-immolation persists as grim form of protest in Tunisia

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-17/self-immolation-persists-as-grim-form-of-protest-in-tunisia

In his old life, Hosni Kalaia remembers strolling the streets of his hometown of Kasserine in central Tunisia with confidence. He flashed his heavy gold bracelets and rings, and puffed out his chest, broad and sculptured from regular workouts. Today, Kalaia hides his face from the world behind dark sunglasses and beneath a woolen hat. On his left hand, three blackened, gnarled fingers protrude from one glove; on his right, he has none at all. He lost them in the few seconds it took to disfigure his life forever, when — angry and distraught about the abuse and injustice he’d suffered at the hands of a local police chief — Kalaia doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. He’s among hundreds of Tunisians who have turned to the desperate act of self-immolation in the past 10 years, following the example of Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit seller in the town of Sidi Bouzid who set himself ablaze on Dec. 17, 2010, to protest police harassment. Bouazizi’s gruesome death unwittingly unleashed mass demonstrations against poverty and repression, leading to the downfall of Tunisia’s dictator of 23 years. That in turn sparked the Arab Spring uprisings and a decade of crackdowns and civil wars across the region. “I would never describe the act of self-immolation as an act of courage because even the bravest person in the world couldn’t do it,” Kalaia, 49, told the Associated Press in his family home. “When I poured the petrol over my head, I didn’t think very much, because I wasn’t really conscious about what I was doing. Then I saw a flash, I felt my skin start to burn and I fell down. I woke up eight months later in hospital.” He says it hasn’t gotten any easier seeing the shock on people’s faces when he removes his hat and sunglasses. Rivulets of scars fray and splinter across his face and misshapen ears, and there are livid, deep welts on his arms and stomach. His younger brother set himself ablaze too, killing himself, and his mother tried to do the same, their family a graphic reminder of the chaos and economic turmoil in this North African nation. Most everywhere in the Arab world, the demonstrators’ dreams have been shattered. Tunisia is often considered a success story and a Tunisian democracy group won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, but while it has more civil liberties, free expression and political plurality, the country is plagued by an ever-worsening economic crisis. Lack of socio-economic reforms, the devaluation of the Tunisian dinar and weak, inefficient governance have failed to alleviate poverty or fully revive investment. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has risen to 18%. Attempts to migrate to Europe by sea have soared. “There is a huge gap between people’s aspirations and their means. It is this gap that pushes people further into misery,” said Abdessater Sahbani, a sociologist at the University of Tunis. “You can have a good job and be well-educated, but it doesn’t give you anything substantial.” The number of self-immolations has tripled since 2011, and “the rise has persisted right into 2020,” said Dr. Mehdi Ben Khelil of Tunis’ Charles Nicolle Hospital, who studies the phenomenon. After the revolution, Ben Khelil said, “there was a contrast between what we hoped for versus what we gained. Disillusion kept on growing.” Although there are no official statistics, the Tunisian Social Observatory of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights recorded 62 such suicides or attempts in the first 10 months of 2020. Most occur near local administration or government buildings to protest financial insecurity and suffering, said Najla Arfa, project manager at the observatory. Police abuse is often a trigger. The overwhelming majority are working-class men in their 20s and 30s, living in deprived interior areas such as Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid. Of 13 survivors contacted by AP, all said they needed financial help. In the decade since Bouazizi’s suicide, little has changed in his hometown of Sidi Bouzid. Huddles of jobless young men sit chain-smoking on plastic chairs in cafés. Others stand in line to buy canisters of cooking gas after a strike disrupted supplies and forced people to use firewood. With monuments in his memory, the town has become a shrine to Bouazizi, whose life resembled those of millions of other Tunisians. But not everyone regards his legacy positively. “His act had a negative effect on the whole country and especially for Sidi Bouzid,” says 30-year-old accounting assistant Marwa Hamdouni. “I think only his family benefited. But for the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, the revolution did not bring anything good.” In 2013, Bouazizi’s family moved to Montreal. Experts say that tales of his family gaining financially from his death spawned other such suicides, notably right after the revolution. Ben Khelil, the doctor, says the reasons go beyond that: “Behind immolation, there is the desire to express their words and suffering. For certain people, the desire it not to die but to be heard.” Survivors face immense psychological, physical and financial challenges. “Some scars may heal badly and might hinder certain functions such as sitting, chewing and expressing facial emotions,” Ben Khelil says. “There can be a lot of persistent pain, especially when the scars are deep and touch the nerves.” Kalaia spent three years in a hospital and then a private clinic recovering from his burns. He cannot hold a bottle of water, dress himself without assistance or fall asleep without medication. His arms are still riddled with infections. “I’m not going to tell you I regret waking up, but dying would have been better,” Kalaia says, dragging on a cigarette. “Nowadays, I don’t think about killing myself another time, but I ask God for death because I’m so tired.” The Quran forbids suicide, and many Muslim societies regard it as taboo. This does not prevent hundreds of Tunisians attempting it every year. In 2014, Kalaia’s mother, Zina Sehi, now 68, tried to burn herself to death in front of the president’s palace in Tunis, protesting the government’s lack of support for the family. The next year, his 35-year-old brother Saber did the same, dying instantly. Kalaia blames himself for their actions. The government created a committee to prevent such suicides in 2015, but political turmoil has led to a series of short-term governments that have taken little deep action to help survivors or their families. “Do you see what this state did for me? It is the state that left me in this corner,” Kalaia says, gesturing to a mattress on the floor of his home where he sleeps. “It’s over, my life is over.”

U.S. plans new charges in 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-17/new-charges-lockerbie-airline-bombing

The Justice Department plans to unseal new charges in the coming days in connection with the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people, according to a person familiar with the case. The bombing of Flight 103, whose victims included dozens of American college students, spurred global investigations and produced sanctions against Libya, which ultimately surrendered two intelligence officials for prosecution before a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. The announcement of a prosecution against an additional individual would carry personal significance for Atty. Gen. William Barr, who is leaving the post next week but held the same job, under President George H.W. Bush, when the Justice Department filed criminal charges against the two Libyans nearly 30 years ago. Monday is the 32nd anniversary of the bombing. “This investigation is by no means over. It continues unabated. We will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice,” Barr said at a 1991 news conference announcing the charges. “We have no higher priority.” Five years ago, the FBI and Scottish authorities announced that they had identified two more Libyans as suspects in the bombing and sought to question them. The men were not publicly identified, but British media reports at the time said they were believed to be Libyan intelligence officials. Libya refused to extradite the original two suspects to the U.S. but ultimately agreed to a deal to put them on trial in the Netherlands. News of the expected criminal case was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. A person familiar with the Justice Department’s plan who was not authorized to discuss it publicly confirmed it to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The New York-bound flight exploded over Lockerbie less than an hour after takeoff from London on Dec. 21, 1988. Among the Americans on board were 35 Syracuse University students flying home for Christmas after a semester abroad. The attack, caused by a bomb packed into a suitcase, killed 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground. In 1992, the U.N. Security Council imposed arms sales and air travel sanctions against Libya to prod Col. Moammar Kadafi, the country’s leader, into surrendering the two suspects. The sanctions were later lifted after Libya agreed to a $2.7-billion compensation deal with the victims’ families. One man, former Libyan intelligence official Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi, was convicted in the Netherlands of the bombing, and a second Libyan suspect was acquitted of all charges. Megrahi was given a life sentence, but Scottish authorities released him on humanitarian grounds in 2009 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He died in Tripoli in 2014.

U.S. angling to secure more of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-16/us-angling-to-secure-more-of-pfizers-coronavirus-vaccine

U.S. officials say they’re actively negotiating for additional purchases of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine after passing up a chance to lock in a contract over the summer because it was still unclear how well the shots would work. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and special advisor Dr. Moncef Slaoui also told reporters Wednesday that Pfizer had been unable to commit to a firm delivery date. Azar called that “the core issue.” There was no immediate comment from the company, whose Chief Executive Albert Bourla told CNN this week it is “working very collaboratively” with the government to deliver additional vaccine through the federal Operation Warp Speed. That’s a White House-backed, taxpayer-funded effort to quickly develop coronavirus vaccines and treatments. Meanwhile, the FDA said late Wednesday that some Pfizer vaccine vials may contain more than the standard five doses. The FDA statement followed reports from hospital and pharmacy staff that some vials are apparently overfilled. The FDA advised health professionals to use every full dose possible “given the public health emergency.” The agency said it is communicating with Pfizer about the issue. The Trump administration has come under scathing criticism from congressional Democrats after news leaked out last week about the missed opportunity to secure more vaccine. Science & Medicine For most people, side effects should be mild and may include flu-like symptoms for a day or two. People with severe allergies should consult a doctor. “We are concerned the failure to secure an adequate supply of vaccines will needlessly prolong the COVID-19 pandemic in this country, causing further loss of life and economic devastation,” a group of senators led by Patty Murray of Washington and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote HHS. “We fear this is yet another instance in which the Trump administration’s failure to develop a comprehensive national vaccines plan in a timely manner could jeopardize efforts to get people vaccinated and ultimately end this pandemic.” Azar sought to rebut that concern Wednesday, saying that pending contracts with a number of manufacturers will ensure enough vaccine for all Americans by around the middle of next year. A second vaccine from Moderna appears headed for Food and Drug Administration approval within days, and more vaccine candidates are advancing through clinical trials. But the one from Pfizer and German pharmaceutical BioNTech was first into the arms of Americans, raising hopes of taming a pandemic that has killed more than 300,000 people in the U.S. and hobbled much of the national economy. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents top the list as local TV stations across the country are broadcasting scenes of the first vaccinations. Some polls show that skepticism about getting vaccinated may be easing. After early failures with testing, Trump administration officials are hoping to write a very different ending with vaccines. Operation Warp Speed has financed the development, manufacture and distribution of millions of doses, with the goal of providing a free vaccine to any American who wants one. Pfizer was not as closely involved with Operation Warp Speed as other manufacturers, preferring to retain control over its own development and manufacturing. But the government did enter into a contract to buy 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first of which were shipped this week. At issue is the purchase of another 100 million doses for delivery as early as the middle of next year. “We are engaged in active negotiations,” Azar said . Science & Medicine As COVID-19 vaccinations roll out, health authorities are keeping close watch for any unexpected side effects, including serious allergic reactions. Dec. 16, 2020 Slaoui, a world-renowned vaccine scientist who is helping lead the federal effort, said the goal all along was to have several promising vaccines in development, with taxpayers assuming the financial risk if any given vaccine failed to secure FDA approval. “We built a portfolio of vaccines to ensure one of them at least would make it to the finish line,” he said. Back in the summer, he said, “It wouldn’t make sense to preorder more from a manufacturer before we knew how a vaccine worked.” Although initial signals were positive about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the full FDA review did not take place until earlier this month. Slaoui and Azar also said that because of Operation Warp Speed’s arm’s-length relationship with Pfizer, officials had less of a window into the company’s manufacturing and any potential problems that might develop. “We of course would welcome having another 100 million doses,” said Slaoui, adding that it’s his expectation that negotiations with Pfizer will be successful.

Joe Biden and Mike Pence will receive COVID-19 vaccine soon

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-12-16/joe-biden-and-mike-pence-will-receive-covid-19-vaccine-soon

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President Mike Pence are set to receive the COVID-19 vaccine soon. According to two transition officials familiar with the matter, Biden will receive the vaccine publicly as soon as next week. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. Science & Medicine For most people, side effects should be mild and may include flu-like symptoms for a day or two. People with severe allergies should consult a doctor. Dec. 16, 2020 The White House says Pence and his wife, Karen, will receive the vaccine publicly on Friday. Biden said Tuesday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, advised him to get the vaccine “sooner than later.” Biden has said he wants to keep front-line healthcare workers and vulnerable people as the top priority as the vaccine is rolled out throughout the country. But he has also noted the importance of him getting the vaccine publicly to build confidence among Americans to get vaccinated. Biden said, “I don’t want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take.”

Health officials track safety issues as COVID-19 vaccines roll out

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-16/health-officials-track-safety-as-covid-19-vaccines-roll-out

As COVID-19 vaccinations roll out to more and more people, health authorities are keeping close watch for any unexpected side effects. On Tuesday, a health worker in Alaska suffered a severe allergic reaction after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Doctors already knew to be on the lookout after Britain reported two similar cases last week. In the U.S., vaccine recipients are supposed to hang around after the injection in case signs of an allergy appear and they need immediate treatment — exactly what happened when the health worker in Juneau became flushed and short of breath 10 minutes after the shot. Allergies are always a question with a new medical product, but monitoring COVID-19 vaccines for any other, unexpected side effects is a bigger challenge than usual. It’s not just because so many people need to be vaccinated over the next year. Never before have so many vaccines made in different ways converged at the same time — and it’s possible that one shot option will come with different side effects than another. Staffers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have conducted scientific reviews of two vaccines — one from Pfizer and BioNTech, the other from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health — and have found no major safety risks. Science & Medicine If the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech was good enough to get a nod from the FDA, the vaccine from Moderna and the NIH almost certainly is as well. Dec. 15, 2020 But the allergy concern “points out again the importance of real-time safety monitoring,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief. And authorities have multiple ways of tracking how people fare as these COVID-19 vaccines — and hopefully additional ones in coming months — get into more arms. Getting either the Pfizer-BioNTech shot or the Moderna version can cause some temporary discomfort, like many vaccines do. In addition to a sore arm, people can experience a fever and some flu-like symptoms — fatigue, aches, chills, headache. They last about a day, sometimes bad enough that recipients miss work, and are more common after the second dose and in younger people. Science & Medicine For most people, side effects should be mild and may include flu-like symptoms for a day or two. People with severe allergies should consult a doctor. Dec. 16, 2020 These reactions are a sign that the immune system is revving up. COVID-19 vaccines tend to cause more of those reactions than a flu shot, about what people experience with shingles vaccinations. But some of the effects are similar to early coronavirus symptoms, one reason hospitals are staggering when their employees get vaccinated. The FDA found no serious side effects in the tens of thousands enrolled in studies of the two vaccines. Still, problems so rare they don’t occur in even very large clinical trials sometimes crop up when a vaccine is used more widely and without the stringent rules of a clinical trial. The first allergy reports from England were in people with a history of serious allergies, and British authorities warned those with severe prior experiences to hold off vaccination until they determine what ingredient might be a problem. U.S. health authorities are giving more nuanced advice. People always are asked about allergies before vaccinations, and instructions for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot say to avoid it if you’re severely allergic to one of its ingredients or have had a severe reaction to a prior dose. Health workers can go over the ingredient list. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises people to stick around for 15 minutes after vaccination so they can be treated immediately if they have a reaction. Those with a history of other allergies are asked to stay for 30 minutes. Science & Medicine A lot of things are different when you’re in the midst of a global pandemic. A case in point: How federal regulators scrutinize and authorize new vaccines. Dec. 12, 2020 The Alaska health worker, who doctors said had no history of allergies, was following that advice and got prompt care for a particularly severe reaction called anaphylaxis. She has recovered after a night of observation in the hospital — but won’t be allowed a second vaccine dose. Alaska doctors alerted U.S. authorities, who will continue the monitoring required to tell just how common that kind of reaction really is. That will be especially important as enough vaccine arrives for injections to be given outside of healthcare settings that have lots of experience handling such a reaction. “Balancing any potential risks with the benefits the vaccine provides in the pandemic is an ongoing process,” Dr. Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director for infectious diseases, cautioned Wednesday. The challenge is telling whether the vaccine caused a health problem or if it’s coincidence. Don’t jump to conclusions that there’s a connection, health authorities stress. Researchers look for such connections by comparing any reports of possible side effects with data showing how often that same condition occurs routinely in the population. Science & Medicine When people talk about COVID-19 vaccines, they can sound like they’re speaking a foreign language. Don’t worry! Here’s your guide to vaccine vocabulary. Dec. 3, 2020 The government has multiple ways to do that. Doctors are required to report any patient problems. But the FDA is scrutinizing massive databases of insurance claims for early red flags that any health problems are occurring more often among the newly vaccinated than they are in everyone else. On its list to check is Bell’s palsy, a temporary facial paralysis that occurred in a handful of people in both vaccine studies. The FDA said it’s probably coincidence, but will track the issue to be sure. Vaccine recipients can help with the extra safety tracking. A program run by the CDC called “ v-safe” automatically sends a daily text for the first week after each vaccine dose to ask how people feel. Weekly texts follow for the next five weeks. Any responses that suggest concern prompt a phone call for further information.

Biden introduces former primary rival Pete Buttigieg as his Transportation pick

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-16/biden-introduces-ex-rival-buttigieg-as-transportation-pick

President-elect Joe Biden introduced former Democratic primary rival Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday as his nominee for Transportation secretary, calling the 38-year-old ex-mayor “a new voice, with new ideas determined to move past old politics.” Buttigieg, who served two terms as mayor of South Bend, Ind., would be the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. Biden hailed that milestone and said that by the time he’s done filling out his new administration’s top positions, it will have more women and people of color than ever, promising “a Cabinet of barrier breakers.” “We need someone who knows how to work with state, local and federal agencies,” Biden said of Buttigieg, who was a Navy intelligence office in Afghanistan. The nomination was applauded by union leaders, transportation industry officials, LGBTQ activists and Democratic lawmakers as a solid pick by Biden. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called Buttigieg “more than ready to finally address our nation’s infrastructure crisis.” Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) applauded Biden for tapping someone with “plenty of intellect, vision, and drive” to take a shot at modernizing America’s crumbling transportation infrastructure. If confirmed, Buttigieg will have much on his plate right out of the gate. He’ll be tasked with putting in place Biden’s proposals to spend billions making major infrastructure improvements and on retrofitting initiatives that can help the United States fight climate change. More immediately, the president-elect also wants to mandate mask wearing on airplanes and public transportation systems to slow the spread of the coronavirus. During the Democratic presidential primary, Buttigieg was initially written off as the leader of a relatively small town competing against far more established figures. But Buttigieg zeroed in on a message of generational change to finish the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses in a virtual tie with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Buttigieg’s campaign stumbled, however, in appealing to Black voters, who play a critical role in Democratic politics. As the primary moved into more diverse states such as South Carolina, Buttigieg faltered and quickly withdrew from the race. His relatively early backing of Biden ushered in a remarkably swift unification of the party around its ultimate nominee. In the primary, Biden took a shine to Buttigieg, who Biden said reminded him of his late son Beau Biden, a former Delaware attorney general who had urged his father to make a third run for the White House. Beau Biden died in 2015. Biden’s selection of Buttigieg for Transportation secretary drew praise from LGBTQ rights groups. The LGBTQ Victory Institute called it “a new milestone in a decades-long effort” to have LGBTQ representation in the U.S. government. “Its impact will reverberate well beyond the department he will lead,” the group’s president and chief executive, Annise Parker, added. But the South Bend chapter of Black Lives Matter denounced Buttigieg’s nomination. The group harshly criticized Buttigieg during his presidential campaign, citing his response to the 2019 shooting of a Black man by a white South Bend police officer. “We saw Black communities have their houses torn down by his administration,” BLM’s South Bend leader Jorden Giger said in a statement, referring to Buttigieg’s effort to remove substandard housing. “We saw the machinery of his police turned against Black people.”

Homelessness is Day 1 focus for new L.A. council members Raman, Ridley-Thomas

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-15/homelessness-new-la-council-members-raman-ridley-thomas

Los Angeles’ newest City Council members, Nithya Raman and Mark Ridley-Thomas, put forward proposals aimed at addressing homelessness at their first council meeting Tuesday, signaling the crisis will be a priority for both politicians. Raman, who represents a district stretching from Silver Lake to Sherman Oaks, introduced a motion that asks the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and the city to report back on homeless outreach efforts, specifically “proactive outreach.” “Proactive outreach has been shown to expedite the path to housing and services, expand data collection, maintain sanitation, and improve relationships between unhoused people and their housed neighbors or local businesses,” Raman’s motion says. “Most importantly, regular contact from caseworkers without the presence of armed law enforcement helps build meaningful relationships of trust, which are essential to the work of helping someone from a tent into a home for good.” California As the new L.A.. school board president, Kelly Gonez marks a generational shift, while bringing a keen interest in policy issues and the experience of a current parent of young children. Dec. 15, 2020 Raman, who bested incumbent David Ryu in last month’s election, also introduced a motion that asks the city to identify funding and possible sites for a homeless services center in her district. Such centers provide restrooms, showers and storage centers, according to Raman’s motion. Raman and Ridley-Thomas took the oath of office Tuesday during a virtual City Council meeting. Addressing her colleagues, Raman said that “economic forces” are pushing out families and “in particular, working families, so many Black and brown families.” Ridley-Thomas, who represents a Koreatown-to-Crenshaw district, called homelessness the “moral crisis of our time” during his remarks and said that Angelenos cannot continue to “perish in these streets.” He introduced a resolution for the city to support Assembly Bill 71, which proposes $2.4 billion for homelessness and housing efforts across California. He also introduced a motion that asks for the city to report back on creating a “Right to Housing” framework within city law. Ridley-Thomas is seeking information on a legal framework for the plan and available funding. “Article 25 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the right to housing as part of the broader right to an adequate standard of living,” Ridley-Thomas’ motion says. “If housing is to be acknowledged as a human right, it is paramount that all public jurisdictions take progressive steps to adopt legislative, administrative, judicial and budgetary measures to advance the Right to Housing for all.” Ridley-Thomas, a former L.A. County supervisor who has also served in the state Senate and Assembly, is permitted to serve only a single four-year term because he previously served three terms on the council decades ago. He noted in his remarks that the last time he was on the City Council, he had a “little more hair and a lot less girth.” The council also voted unanimously to reelect City Council President Nury Martinez to lead the council for another legislative term.

San Francisco board rebukes naming hospital for Facebook CEO

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-15/san-francisco-board-rebukes-naming-hospital-for-facebook-ceo

Supervisors in San Francisco overwhelmingly approved a resolution Tuesday condemning the naming of the city’s public hospital for Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, in 2015, after the couple gave $75 million toward a new acute care and trauma center. The nonbinding resolution does not have the force of law and does not require the hospital to do anything. The current board does not have the authority to revoke the agreement, resolution co-sponsor Supervisor Gordon Mar said. But he said the resolution would send the message that San Francisco is not for sale and that a public hospital that caters to the poor should not bear the name of someone whose social media platform endangers public health, spreads misinformation and violates privacy. “There’s been growing public outrage that this important public health institution was named and the naming rights were sold to the highest bidder and to somebody as controversial as Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook,” he said. The Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center was the first hospital in the city to administer vaccines protecting against COVID-19 on Tuesday. The measure passed 10-1, with Board President Norman Yee the only no vote. He said nonprofits often use naming rights to spur donations, and while this involved city property, he could not support the condemnation without additional policy discussion. Technology and the Internet The federal regulator has ordered internet companies to hand over information about how they collect and use information from consumers. Dec. 14, 2020 Yee said he would support a move to remove Zuckerberg’s name and retain Chan’s. He was among several supervisors behind the 2015 resolution that approved the gift and name change. San Francisco, where Zuckerberg and Chan have a home, has increasingly soured on the social media behemoth, dismayed by the company’s sluggish response to protecting consumer privacy and halting the proliferation of false statements. The federal government is seeking to break up Facebook as lawmakers call for stronger oversight of a company they say has gotten too big. Tuesday’s resolution is not a new sentiment, as local Facebook critics, including some nurses at San Francisco General, have argued for years to remove the Zuckerberg name. They say the name, in place for 50 years, is inappropriate when San Francisco taxpayers are paying for most of the hospital’s upgrade by approving more than $1 billion in bonds. Julie French, a hospital employee, said in an email to the supervisors via her personal account that while it would be reasonable to name a building, cafeteria or rooftop for big donors, to rename the whole hospital is “a slap in the face.” “We are not a ballpark or a stadium to be bought and sold for commercial purposes. We are a public hospital of and for the people of the city and county of San Francisco. We deserve to have that dignity preserved,” she said. But chief executive Dr. Susan Ehrlich said in a statement that the donation has allowed the hospital to acquire state-of-the-art technology, and the naming reflects appreciation of that. “Naming is an important convention in philanthropy that encourages additional donors, and our hospital relies on the support of the community, the City and County of San Francisco, and generous private philanthropy,” she said. Business A lawsuit seeking the breakup of Facebook by the FTC, joined by attorneys general from 46 states, reflects an increasing bipartisan consensus that more regulation of Big Tech is in order. Antitrust experts say the case is solid. Dec. 9, 2020 The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple’s philanthropic arm, directed requests for comment to the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation. Its CEO, Kim Meredith, said in a statement that the gift helped pay for needed furniture, fixtures and equipment for the hospital. She added that Chan studied and practiced as a resident pediatrician at the hospital. “We are proud that the hospital now bears their names and disappointed in attempts to condemn it — especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when the impact of their gift has never been greater,” she said. The hospital is closely entwined with San Francisco. It survived the 1906 earthquake and fire and treated patients in ensuing health crises, including the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic and the AIDS epidemic. The hospital serves more than 100,000 people annually. The supervisors’ resolution declares that the city and county of San Francisco should not reward tax dodges, which some say the donation is. It also lists a number of Facebook’s failings, including its failure to protect users from major security breaches, citing the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal in 2018. The mayor at the time of the donation, Ed Lee, praised the agreement, as did the current mayor, London Breed, who was president of the Board of Supervisors when a board with different members approved the name change. The resolution also urges city departments to establish clear standards and criteria so that naming rights reflect San Francisco values of social and racial justice.

Over-the-counter COVID-19 test will soon be available in U.S.

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-15/over-the-counter-home-test-for-covid-19-gets-us-green-light

The first home test for COVID-19 that doesn’t require a prescription will soon be on U.S. store shelves. U.S. regulators Tuesday authorized the rapid test, which can be conducted entirely at home. The announcement by the Food and Drug Administration represents another important — though incremental — step in efforts to expand COVID-19 testing options. Regulators granted emergency use for a similar home test last month, but that one needs a doctor’s prescription. California The vaccines will do little to stem the new infections flooding California. Initial supplies will be steered toward healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities. Dec. 15, 2020 The agency’s action Tuesday allows for sales in places like drugstores, “where a patient can buy it, swab their nose, run the test and find out their results in as little as 20 minutes,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in a statement. Initial supplies of the over-the-counter test will be limited. Australian manufacturer Ellume said it expects to produce 3 million tests next month before ramping up production over the first half of 2021. A company spokesperson said the test will be priced around $30 and will be available at pharmacies and for purchase online. The kit includes a nasal swab, a chemical solution and a testing strip. The test connects digitally to a smartphone app that displays the results and helps users interpret them. Users can also connect with a health professional via the app. For months, health experts have stressed the need for fast, widespread home testing so that people can screen themselves and avoid contact with others if they have an infection. But the vast majority of tests still require a nasal swab performed by a health worker that must be processed at high-tech laboratories; that typically means waiting days for results. About 25 tests allow people to collect their own sample at home — a nasal swab or saliva — but that is shipped to a lab. California ‘Our reality is frightening,’ says the county’s top health official as COVID-19 patients swamp Southern California hospitals. Dec. 15, 2020 Ellume’s test looks for viral proteins shed by the coronavirus, different from the gold-standard tests that look for the genetic material of the virus. FDA officials noted that, like other tests that scan for proteins, Ellume’s can deliver a small percentage of false positive and false negative results. People who get a negative result but have COVID-19 symptoms should follow up with a health professional, the agency said. The U.S. is currently testing nearly 2 million people daily. Most health experts agree that the country needs to be testing many times more, and researchers at Harvard have pushed for cheap, paper-based home tests. Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health called the new test “a great addition” to existing options, though he cautioned that its price could limit access. “This is a milestone, with reservations,” Mina said in an email. “I just hope it doesn’t drive more of a wedge between haves and have nots.” For people with insurance, federal law requires that plans cover the cost of COVID-19 testing.

Fashion mogul Peter Nygard arrested in Canada on sex charges

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-15/fashion-mogul-peter-nygard-arrested-in-canada-on-sex-charges

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was arrested on charges alleging he sexually abused women and girls after luring them into his orbit with opportunities in fashion and modeling over the last 25 years. Nygard, 79, was detained after a Winnipeg, Canada, court appearance Tuesday following his Monday arrest by Canadian authorities at the request of the U.S. No date was set for a bail hearing, though he was due to return to court Jan. 13. His lawyer, Elkan Abramowitz, declined to comment. His arrest on sex trafficking, racketeering and related charges came after the FBI raided Nygard’s Manhattan offices earlier this year. The raid came soon after 10 women sued Nygard, saying he enticed young and impoverished women to his Bahamas estate with cash and promises of modeling and fashion opportunities. Several plaintiffs in the suit, filed in New York City, said they were 14 or 15 years old when Nygard gave them alcohol or drugs and then raped them. Nygard has denied all allegations and blames a conspiracy caused by a feud with his billionaire neighbor in the Bahamas. In announcing criminal charges, authorities said Nygard used the prestige of an international clothing design, manufacturing and supply business he founded and based in Winnipeg to persuade victims, sometimes with a history of being abused, to submit to his demands. According to an indictment, he capitalized on the Nygard Group’s influence, using its employees, funds and resources to recruit women and girls under the age of 18. The indictment alleged that Nygard and his co-conspirators, including Nygard Group employees, used force, fraud and coercion to enlist the women and girls, who were sexually abused and assaulted by Nygard and others. The indictment said Nygard offered false promises of modeling opportunities and other career advancement, along with financial support, to lure victims, while restricting their movements to isolate them. It said he forcibly sexually assaulted some victims while others were forcibly assaulted by his associates or were drugged to ensure compliance with sexual demands. The indictment said he maintained personal and quasi-professional relationships with some victims, referring to them as “girlfriends” or “assistants” while requiring them to travel with him regularly and to engage in sexual activity at his direction with himself, with each other or with others. It said he also directed them to recruit new women and minor-age girls to be sexually abused. Nygard abused some women and girls at his properties in Marina del Rey and in the Bahamas, during so-called “Pamper Parties” where some women, including minors, were drugged to force compliance with his sexual demands, the indictment said. It added that he sometimes paid the women and girls amounts ranging from hundreds of dollars to several thousand dollars. He also directed and pressured “girlfriends” to have sex with other men at sex and “swingers” clubs in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and Winnipeg and utilized sexual “swaps” in which male friends and business associates would bring Nygard a “date” for sex in exchange for sexual access to one of Nygard’s “girlfriends,” the indictment said. Meanwhile, 57 women, including 18 Canadians, have joined the lawsuit, which alleges that Nygard used his company, bribery of Bahamian officials and “considerable influence in the fashion industry” to recruit victims in the Bahamas, United States and Canada. It alleges he kept a database on a corporate server containing the names of thousands of potential victims. Nygard’s accusers had their passports taken from them when they were flown into the Bahamas, the lawsuit alleges, adding the designer “expected a sex act before he was willing to consider releasing any person” from his estate. A spokesman for Nygard said earlier this year he was stepping down as chairman of Nygard companies and would divest his ownership interest. Nygard International began in Winnipeg as a sportswear manufacturer. Its website says its retail division has more than 170 stores in North America.

U.S. COVID-19 deaths top 300,000 just as vaccinations begin

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-14/us-covid-19-deaths-top-300-000-just-as-vaccinations-begin

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 topped 300,000 Monday just as the country began dispensing coronavirus vaccinations in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak. The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on the scale of Hurricane Katrina every day for 5½ months. It is more than five times the number of Americans killed in the Vietnam War. It is equal to a 9/11 attack every day for more than 100 days. “The numbers are staggering — the most impactful respiratory pandemic that we have experienced in over 102 years, since the iconic 1918 Spanish flu,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said days before the milestone. California The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 hit 4,203 in Los Angeles County on Saturday while ICU capacity in Southern California dropped to 4.2%. Dec. 13, 2020 The U.S. crossed the threshold on the same day healthcare workers rolled up their sleeves for Pfizer’s vaccine, marking the start of the biggest vaccination campaign in American history. If a second vaccine is authorized soon, as expected, 20 million people could be immunized by month’s end. Meanwhile, a sea change in Washington was fast approaching after an election that was, in large part, a referendum on the Trump administration’s handling of the virus. President-elect Joe Biden has made clear that his first priority will be a comprehensive and disciplined effort to defeat the outbreak. The death toll was reported by Johns Hopkins University from data supplied by health authorities across the U.S. The real number of lives lost is believed to be much higher, in part because of deaths that were not accurately recorded as coronavirus-related during the early stages of the crisis. Globally, the virus is blamed for more than 1.6 million deaths. Experts say it could take well into spring for the shots and other measures to bring cases and deaths under control in the U.S. With cold weather driving people inside, where the virus spreads more easily, and many Americans disdainful of masks and other precautions, some public health authorities project 100,000 more people could die before the end of January. “We are heading into probably the worst period possible because of all the things we had in the spring, which is fatigue, political resistance, maybe the loss of all the goodwill we had about people doing their part,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a public health researcher at Johns Hopkins. Nuzzo contrasted the government’s scattershot response with the massive mobilization undertaken after nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “To think now we can just absorb in our country 3,000 deaths a day as though it were just business as usual, it just represents a moral failing,” she said.

U.S. sanctions NATO ally Turkey over Russian missile defense system

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-14/us-sanctions-nato-ally-turkey-over-russian-missile-defense

The Trump administration on Monday imposed sanctions on its NATO ally Turkey over its purchase of a Russian air defense system, in a striking move against a longtime partner that sets the stage for further confrontation between the two nations as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office. The extraordinary step against a treaty ally comes at a delicate time in relations between Washington and Ankara, which have been at odds for years over Turkey’s acquisition from Russia of the S-400 missile defense system, along with Turkish actions in Syria, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan and in the eastern Mediterranean. The sanctions, which were required under a 2017 U.S. law aimed at pushing back on Russia if the administration deemed there was significant cause, add another element of uncertainty to the relationship as Trump winds down his term. The move is the first time that law, known as CAATSA, has been used to penalize a U.S. ally. Before Monday, the U.S. had kicked Turkey out of its F-35 stealth fighter development and training program over the S-400 purchase, but had taken no further steps despite persistent warnings from American officials who have long complained that the system is incompatible with NATO equipment and a potential threat to allied security. “The United States made clear to Turkey at the highest levels and on numerous occasions that its purchase of the S-400 system would endanger the security of U.S. military technology and personnel and provide substantial funds to Russia’s defense sector, as well as Russian access to the Turkish armed forces and defense industry,” Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo said. “Turkey nevertheless decided to move ahead with the procurement and testing of the S-400, despite the availability of alternative, NATO-interoperable systems to meet its defense requirements,” he said in a statement. “I urge Turkey to resolve the S-400 problem immediately in coordination with the United States,” he said. “Turkey is a valued ally and an important regional security partner for the United States, and we seek to continue our decades-long history of productive defense-sector cooperation by removing the obstacle of Turkey’s S-400 possession as soon as possible.” Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement it “condemns and rejects” the U.S. sanctions, saying Washington’s one-sided sanctions were beyond understanding. “Turkey will take the necessary steps against this decision, which will inevitably affect our relations in a negative way, and reciprocate in a way and time it sees fit,” the statement said. The statement repeated Turkey’s claim that the S-400 system would not affect NATO systems. The ministry called on the U.S. to “turn back as soon as possible from this bad mistake,” adding that Ankara was ready for dialogue and diplomacy. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, said the sanctions were evidence of American “arrogance” and would hurt U.S standing internationally. “It’s yet more evidence of the arrogant attitude [of the U.S.] toward international law, and a manifestation of the illegitimate, unilateral and coercive measures that the U.S. has practiced for many decades now all over the world,” he said during a visit to Bosnia. “Of course, I do not think this does any favors to the United States’ international reputation as a responsible participant in international negotiations, including in military-technical cooperation.” The sanctions target Turkey’s Presidency of Defense Industries, the country’s military procurement agency, its chief Ismail Demir and three other senior officials. The penalties block any assets the four officials may have in U.S. jurisdictions and bar their entry into the U.S. They also include a ban on most export licenses, loans and credits to the agency. The administration had held off on imposing punitive sanctions outside of the fighter program for months, in part to give Turkish officials time to reconsider deploying it and, some suspect, due to President Trump’s personal relationship with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Congress, though, was growing impatient with the delays and had demanded action. Despite the U.S. warnings, Turkey in past months had moved ahead with deployment and testing of the S-400 system, drawing criticism from lawmakers and others who have demanded the sanctions be imposed under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, or CAATSA, which mandates penalties for transactions deemed harmful to U.S. interests. Coming just weeks before Biden assumes office, the sanctions pose a potential dilemma for the incoming administration, although the president-elect’s team has signaled it is opposed to Turkey’s use of the S-400 and the disunity within NATO it may cause. “We very much regret that this has been necessary,” said Chris Ford, one of the State Department’s most senior arms control officials. “Imposing sanctions on a NATO ally is not something we take lightly,” said Matthew Palmer, a senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of European Affairs. Last month, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Turkey was prepared to discuss with the U.S. its “anxiety” over the interoperability of the S-400s and the F-35s. The U.S. reacted coolly to the suggestion and Pompeo shortly thereafter pointedly did not meet with any Turkish government officials on a visit to Istanbul. Turkey tested the missile defense system in October for the first time, drawing condemnation from the Pentagon. Ankara says it was forced to buy the Russian system because the U.S. refused to sell it American-made Patriot missiles. The Turkish government has also pointed to what it considers a double standard, as NATO member Greece uses Russian-made missiles.

Trump says he's nixing plan for early vaccinations at White House

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-13/white-house-other-top-officials-to-get-early-vaccine-access

President Trump said Sunday that he was reversing an administration directive to vaccinate top government officials against COVID-19 while public distribution of the shot is limited to front-line health workers and people in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Trump made the announcement hours after his administration confirmed that senior U.S. officials, including some White House aides who work close to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, would be offered coronavirus vaccinations as soon as this week under federal continuity-of-government plans. “People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary,” Trump said in a tweet. “I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time.” It was not immediately clear what the scale of the vaccination program was supposed to be, according to two people briefed on the matter, or what effect Trump’s tweet would have on the government’s efforts to protect top leadership. News that White House staff would receive the vaccine early drew criticism on social media. Trump and his aides have consistently flouted the COVID-19 guidelines issued by his own administration, including hosting large holiday parties with maskless attendees this month. Officials said earlier Sunday that doses of the newly approved vaccine from Pfizer would be made available to those who work in close quarters with the nation’s top leaders. They said the move was meant to prevent more COVID-19 spread in the White House and other critical facilities. Trump was hospitalized because of the virus for three days in October. California As medical providers plead with their communities to help them control the coronavirus, some workers and business owners say they can’t afford to listen. Dec. 13, 2020 “Senior officials across all three branches of government will receive vaccinations pursuant to continuity-of-government protocols established in executive policy,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Ulyot. “The American people should have confidence that they are receiving the same safe and effective vaccine as senior officials of the United States government on the advice of public health professionals and national security leadership.” The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The New York Times first reported the news. The move to vaccinate top U.S. officials would be consistent with the rollout of rapid testing machines for the coronavirus, which were similarly controlled by the federal government with kits reserved to protect the White House complex and other critical facilities. According to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is not yet enough information to determine whether those who have had COVID-19 should also get the vaccine. Pence has not contracted the virus, and his aides have been discussing when and how he should receive the vaccine as the administration looks to boost public confidence in the shot. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses administered three weeks apart, meaning Trump administration officials would receive the final shot just weeks before leaving office. Aides to President-elect Joe Biden have been discussing when and how he should receive the vaccine and have been working to establish plans to boost virus safeguards in the West Wing to keep the 78-year-old Democrat healthy. According to a Capitol Hill official, lawmakers have not been informed how many doses would be made available to them, adding it would be premature to speculate who might receive them. The official was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Former aide accuses New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-13/former-development-aide-accuses-cuomo-of-sexual-harassment

A former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who is now running for Manhattan borough president accused him of sexual harassment in a series of tweets Sunday, saying he made inappropriate comments about her appearance. Lindsey Boylan tweeted that the Democratic governor “sexually harassed me for years. Many saw it, and watched.” “I could never anticipate what to expect: would I be grilled on my work (which was very good) or harassed about my looks. Or would it be both in the same conversation? This was the way for years,” she continued. Politics Joe Biden has signaled he’d accept some limits on his power in an effort to correct President Trump’s excesses. Progressives warn he may need executive power. Dec. 13, 2020 Asked for comment, Cuomo’s press secretary Caitlin Girouard said, “There is simply no truth to these claims.” Boylan, 36, worked for the Cuomo administration from March 2015 to October 2018, serving first as executive vice president of Empire State Development and then as a special advisor to Cuomo for economic development. She did not provide details of the alleged harassment and didn’t immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press. Boylan later tweeted, “To be clear: I have no interest in talking to journalists. I am about validating the experience of countless women and making sure abuse stops.” Boylan’s sexual harassment allegation against Cuomo comes after the AP and others reported that the 63-year-old governor is under consideration for the job of attorney general in the administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Earlier this month, Boylan had also tweeted about her work experience in the Cuomo administration, listing it as the worst job she ever had. “I tried to quit three times before it stuck. I’ve worked hard my whole life. Hustled — fake it till you make it style,” she wrote. “That environment is beyond toxic. I’m still unwrapping it years later in therapy!” Personnel memos written in 2018, obtained by the AP, indicate that Boylan resigned after she was confronted about complaints about her own office behavior. Several women complained to Empire State Development’s human resources department that “Ms. Boyland had behaved in a way towards them that was harassing, belittling, and had yelled and been generally unprofessional,” wrote the administration’s ethics officer, Julia Pinover Kupiec in one memo. Boylan resigned after meeting with officials, including Cuomo’s top lawyer, Alphonso David, to be “counseled” about the complaints. David said in a follow-up memo that Boylan had contacted him several days later and said she had reconsidered her resignation and wished to return to work, but he discouraged her from doing so. Boylan ran against U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler in the 2020 Democratic primary, receiving 22% of the vote in a campaign in which she argued that the incumbent wasn’t progressive enough. She announced last month that she is running in the 2021 Democratic primary to succeed Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who will have to leave because of term limits.

Hundreds of Nigerian students missing after attack on school

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-13/hundreds-of-nigerian-students-missing-after-attack-on-school

Hundreds of Nigerian students were missing after gunmen attacked a secondary school in the country’s northwestern Katsina state, police said, while the president said the military was in gunfights with bandits in a forest as it tried to find the students. The Government Science Secondary School in Kankara was attacked Friday night by a large group of bandits who shot “with AK-47 rifles,” Katsina state police spokesman Gambo Isah said in a statement. Police engaged the attackers “in a gunfight that gave [some of] the students the opportunity to scale the fence of the school and run for safety,” Isah said. About 400 students are missing, and 200 are accounted for, Isah said. The school is believed to have had more than 600 students. California The anticipated delivery of the coronavirus vaccine is welcome as California grapples with a surge in cases Dec. 12, 2020 “The police, Nigerian Army and Nigerian Air Force are working closely with the school authorities to ascertain the actual number of the missing and/or kidnapped students,” said Isah. “Search parties are working with a view to find or rescue the missing students.” A resident of the town, Mansur Bello, told the Associated Press that the attackers took some of the students away. The military, supported by airpower, has located the bandits’ enclave in Zango/Paula forest in the Kankara area, and there have been exchanges of gunfire in an ongoing operation, said President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu. ”Our prayers are with the families of the students, the school authorities and the injured,” said the president’s statement. It did not say if any students had been rescued. This attack, the latest on a school by gunmen in Nigeria, is believed to have been carried out by one of several groups of bandits active in northwestern Nigeria. The groups are notorious for kidnapping people for ransom. The most serious school attack occurred in April 2014, when members of the jihadist group Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls from their school dormitory in Chibok in northeastern Borno State. About 100 of the girls are still missing.

The Brexit deadline approaches. Is there hope left for a deal?

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-13/deadline-comes-knocking-is-there-hope-left-for-brexit-deal

Facing yet another self-imposed Brexit deadline Sunday, the chief negotiators from the European Union and United Kingdom were making last-ditch efforts to bridge differences on a trade deal that have proved insurmountable for the better part of the year. The EU’s Michel Barnier and Britain’s David Frost were already meeting just after dawn Sunday to try to reach a middle ground. But so far, the U.K. hasn’t backed down from its insistence on trading with the 27-nation bloc with as few restraints as possible, and the EU isn’t yielding on its demand to accept trade only if Britain respects the rules of the bloc. “There is still I think a long way to go,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said early Sunday. Britain left the EU on Jan. 31, but remains in its economic structures until a transition period ends Dec. 31. Expectations are that the deadline day will be capped with a contact between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen late Sunday. World & Nation The U.K. has signed an interim trade deal with Canada as negotiators hurry to cement trading relationships in preparation for post-European Union life. Whether it’s a negotiating ploy or not, Johnson has publicly said the U.K. would still thrive mightily if there is no deal and it was “very, very likely” that negotiations on a new relationship that will take effect Jan. 1 will fail. If the talks break down Sunday, both sides will have less than three weeks to prepare for the chaotic and costly no-deal exit at the end of the year. Without a deal U.K. will trade with the bloc on World Trade Organization terms — with all the tariffs and barriers that would bring. To jumpstart the flagging talks, negotiators have imposed several deadlines, but none has brought the sides closer together on the issues of fair trading standards, legal oversight of any deal and the rights of EU fishermen to go into U.K. waters. While both sides want a deal on the terms of a new relationship, they have fundamentally different views of what it entails. The EU fears Britain will slash social and environmental standards and pump state money into U.K. industries, becoming a low-regulation economic rival on the bloc’s doorstep, so is demanding strict “level playing field” guarantees in exchange for access to its markets. The U.K. government claims the EU is trying to bind Britain to the bloc’s rules and regulations indefinitely, rather than treating it as an independent nation.

Hunter Biden subpoena seeks information on Burisma, other entities

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/hunter-biden-subpoena-seeks-info-on-burisma-other-entities

A subpoena seeking documents from Hunter Biden asked for information related to more than two dozen entities, including Ukraine gas company Burisma, according to a person familiar with a Justice Department tax investigation of President-elect Joe Biden’s son. The breadth of the subpoena, issued Tuesday, underscores the wide lens prosecutors are taking as they examine the younger Biden’s finances and international business ventures. Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma in particular have long dogged the policy work and political aspirations of his father, who is now weeks away from becoming president. It’s unclear whether Hunter Biden’s work at the Ukrainian company is a central part of the federal investigation or whether prosecutors are simply seeking information about all his sources of income in recent years. The person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. A lawyer for Hunter Biden, George Mesires, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment for this story, and a spokesman for the Biden transition team declined to comment. Politics President-elect Joe Biden introduces his picks for important posts in his administration, including many leading names from the Obama White House. Hunter Biden confirmed Wednesday that his taxes are under federal investigation. The revelation comes at a delicate time for the president-elect, who is building out his Cabinet and will soon decide on his nominee to run the Justice Department. In addition to the Burisma-related request, the subpoena also seeks information on Hunter Biden’s Chinese business dealings and other financial transactions. The probe was launched in 2018, the year before his father announced his candidacy for president. At one point in the investigation, federal prosecutors were also examining potential money laundering offenses, two people familiar with the matter told the AP. Hunter Biden said he learned of the investigation Tuesday. The younger Biden joined the board of Burisma in 2014, around the time his father, then vice president, was helping conduct the Obama administration’s foreign policy with Ukraine. President Trump and his allies have long argued, without evidence, that Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine influenced the Obama administration’s policies toward the Eastern European nation. Senate Republicans said in a report earlier this year that the appointment may have posed a conflict of interest but did not provide evidence that any policies were directly affected by Hunter Biden’s work. The president-elect is not believed to be a focus of the investigation. He has not weighed in on the merits of the investigation, saying only to reporters Friday that he was “proud of my son.” For months, the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh has also been collecting information from Trump’s attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and others as part of the Justice Department’s process to receive and analyze information related to Ukraine, including documents Giuliani wanted to present to prosecutors that he had been gathering in Ukraine about Joe and Hunter Biden. In announcing that process in February, Atty. Gen. William Barr cautioned that the department had to be careful about any information coming from Ukraine, saying: “There are a lot of agendas in the Ukraine, a lot of crosscurrents. And we can’t take anything we received from Ukraine at face value.” The former New York City mayor was a main character when the House voted to impeach Trump. The impeachment inquiry centered on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine’s president and whether he abused his office by seeking the investigation into the Bidens. Giuliani pressured officials to do the investigations and has been pushing unsubstantiated corruption allegations against the Bidens. Giuliani himself had also been under investigation, with federal prosecutors in Manhattan examining whether he failed to register as a foreign agent, according to people familiar with the matter. It was unclear whether that investigation remains active as Trump has discussed the possibility of preemptive pardons for some of his family members and close associates, including Giuliani.

Barcelona concert tests use of same-day COVID-19 screening

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-12-13/barcelona-concert-tests-use-of-same-day-covid-19-screening

Eager for a live music show after months of social distancing, more than 1,000 Barcelona residents gathered Saturday to participate in a medical study to evaluate the effectiveness of same-day coronavirus screening to safely hold cultural events. After passing an antigen screening, 500 of the volunteers were randomly selected to enjoy a free concert inside Barcelona’s Apolo Theater. The other 500 who didn’t get selected were sent home. They will form a control group that will allow the organizers to analyze if there was any contagion inside the concert hall despite the screening with antigen tests, which while not as accurate as other types of tests, do produce results in 15 minutes as compared to several hours, or days, later. Carolina Rius was one music lover willing to accept the risk of mingling among a large group of people indoors so she could finally experience a concert without having to remain seated and two meters apart as currently dictated by health authorities. “I really, really missed going to concerts, above all to hear some rock ’n’ roll,” the 56-year-old Rius said. “I don’t feel like a guinea pig. I feel like I am taking a stand. The world of culture, and above all the concert halls, are having a very bad time of it and I don’t want them to shut for good. “And if they end up choosing me in the draw to go to a concert, that will be the cherry on top.” The study is organized by Barcelona’s The Fight AIDS and Infectious Diseases Foundation along with the Primavera Sound music festival. The study was given the go-ahead by the regional authorities in northeast Catalonia. “This is not a party, this is a scientific study,” Dr. Boris Revollo, the virologist who designed the study’s protocols, told The Associated Press. He insisted that the use of same-day antigen screening for large events wasn’t a substitute for face masks and other sanitation rules, but he believed it could be a powerful tool to help make large events safe enough until vaccines are widespread enough to beat back COVID-19. “This could be useful in all types of events, from cultural events, to business congresses, to sporting events,” Revollo said. “And young people, as we have seen, are holding their own clandestine parties because they have no other outlet.” The 500 allowed into the five-hour music festival of rock groups and disc jockeys had to wear FFP2 face masks and use hand disinfectant. Social distancing, however, on the concert floor wasn’t enforced in an attempt to get as close as possible to a real concert atmosphere. The crowd reveled in the newfound freedom, dancing closely together and jostling one another for a bit of fun. The face masks stayed put except in the upstairs bar where organizers allowed them to be removed to have the one drink volunteers were treated to. Some people indulged in hugs with friends. All 1,000 of the volunteers will also undergo two PCR tests, which have a higher capacity to detect the virus than the same-day antigen test, first on Saturday before the concert, and then again eight days later. Revollo said these PCR tests will allow him and his fellow investigators to determine if any infected people got past the same-day antigen screen and, if so, did they infect others inside the show. Spain is still under limited restrictions for the pandemic that has killed a confirmed 47,600 residents. Concert halls have been one of the hardest hit sectors by the health restrictions applied in Spain, twice being completely shut down for several months. In November, an association representing concert halls in Spain said that more than 25,000 shows had been canceled because of the pandemic, costing the industry 120 million euros ($145 million) in lost revenue. Halls were only recently allowed to reopen in Barcelona but at 50% capacity or a maximum of 500 people. Epidemiologist Joan Caylà, who has no connection to the study, said that while “vaccines are still far off” before they reach everyone, even the successful use of antigen testing wouldn’t eliminate the need to keep events small and highly controlled. “It is very important that those attending the event act responsibly,” Caylà said. “A certain risk of causing an outbreak exists.”

Trump loses one Wisconsin case while arguing another one

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/trump-loses-wisconsin-case-while-arguing-another-one

President Trump lost a federal lawsuit Saturday while his attorney was arguing his case before a skeptical Wisconsin Supreme Court in another lawsuit that one justice said “smacks of racism” and would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters in the state’s most diverse counties. U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig, a Trump appointee, dismissed Trump’s federal lawsuit asking the court to order the Republican-controlled Legislature to name Trump the winner over Democrat Joe Biden. The judge said Trump’s arguments “fail as a matter of law and fact.” The ruling came as Trump’s attorney in a state case faced a barrage of questions about his claims from both liberal and conservative justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Trump is trying to overturn his loss to Biden in the state by disqualifying more than 221,000 votes in Wisconsin’s two most heavily Democratic counties. Trump is not challenging votes in counties he won. “This lawsuit, Mr. Troupis, smacks of racism,” Justice Jill Karofsky said to Trump’s attorney Jim Troupis early in his arguments. “I do not know how you can come before this court and possibly ask for a remedy that is unheard of in U.S. history. ... It is not normal.” Awards Dec. 11, 2020 Justice Rebecca Dallet, like Karofsky another liberal justice, questioned why Trump didn’t raise his concerns about the absentee ballot process in the 2016 election that he won in Wisconsin. Troupis said Trump was not an aggrieved party that year. Conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley questioned how the court could reject more than 28,000 ballots of people who said they were indefinitely confined given that it would include people who properly claimed that status. Wisconsin’s highest court agreed to take the case at the Trump campaign’s urgent request Friday, soon after a state judge ruled against him and with Monday’s electoral college vote bearing down and the state’s 10 electoral votes about to go to Biden. Conservatives outnumber liberals by 4-3 on the court, but its willingness to take the case isn’t necessarily an indicator of how it will rule. The court previously refused to hear the case before it went through lower courts, and a majority of justices have openly questioned whether the remedy Trump seeks is appropriate. Trump sought to have more than 221,000 ballots disqualified in Dane and Milwaukee counties. He wanted to disqualify absentee ballots that were: cast early and in-person, saying there wasn’t a proper written request made for the ballots; cast by people who claimed “indefinitely confined” status; collected by poll workers at Madison parks; and for which election clerks filled in missing information on ballot envelopes. The circuit judge on Friday ruled that none of Trump’s arguments had merit and that state law was followed during the election and subsequent recount. Biden won Wisconsin by about 20,600 votes, a margin of 0.6% that withstood a Trump-requested recount in Milwaukee and Dane counties. Trump and his allies have suffered dozens of defeats in Wisconsin and across the country in lawsuits that rely on unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud and election abuse. On Friday evening, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate Biden’s win by throwing out millions of votes in four battleground states, including Wisconsin. Also Saturday, former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a federal case she lost in Wisconsin seeking to order the GOP-controlled Legislature to declare Trump the winner. Powell has also lost similar cases in Georgia and Arizona.

American Legion, Pelosi joining calls for VA chief's ouster

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/american-legion-pelosi-joining-calls-for-va-chiefs-ouster

The nation’s largest veterans organization and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday joined the growing calls for the ouster of President Trump’s Veterans Affairs chief, who is under fire after a government audit found he acted unprofessionally, if not unethically, in the handling of a congressional aide’s allegation of sexual assault at a VA hospital. “It is unfair to expect accountability from the nearly 400,000 VA employees and not demand the same from its top executive. It is clear that Secretary Robert Wilkie failed to meet the standard that the veteran who came forward with the complaint deserved,” the American Legion’s national commander, James W. “Bill” Oxford, said in a statement. He urged Wilkie and several other top VA officials cited in the report to resign because of their “violation of trust” of the agency’s commitment to not “tolerate harassment of any kind.” Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wilkie “has lost the trust and confidence to serve, and he must immediately resign.” She said he “has not only been derelict in his duty to combat sexual harassment, but has been complicit in the continuation of a VA culture that tolerates this epidemic.” Politics Led by Texas and joined by President Trump, Republican state attorneys general had asked the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s victory by nullifying votes in four states. Dec. 11, 2020 On Saturday, the VA said Wilkie, who has denied wrongdoing, doesn’t intend to resign. “He will continue to lead the department,” spokeswoman Christina Noel said. The demands for Wilkie’s resignation came a day after numerous veterans groups expressed similar outrage and sought his dismissal in the final weeks of the Trump administration. Those organizations include Veterans of Foreign Wars, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, AMVETS, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Modern Military Assn. of America. They said they had lost confidence that Wilkie could effectively lead the department, which is responsible for the care of 9 million veterans. An investigation by the Veterans Affairs’ inspector general on Thursday concluded that Wilkie repeatedly sought to discredit Andrea Goldstein, a senior policy advisor to Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside), chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, after she alleged in September 2019 that a man at the VA medical center in Washington, D.C., had physically assaulted her. The inspector general found that Wilkie’s disparaging comments about Goldstein, a Navy veteran, as a repeat complainer as well as the overall “tone” he set influenced his staff to spread negative information about her while ignoring known problems of harassment at the facility. Wilkie and other senior officials had declined to fully cooperate with the investigation by VA Inspector General Michael Missal. For that reason, Missal said he could not conclude whether Wilkie had violated government policies or laws, allegedly by personally digging into the woman’s past. Wilkie has denied that he improperly investigated Goldstein. “We’ve had our concerns about Wilkie’s leadership throughout the pandemic, and this IG report really cements the fact that the VA is not being led with integrity,” said Jeremy Butler, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “That calls for an immediate change.” The report on Thursday drew widespread concern from lawmakers from both parties about VA’s leadership, with Takano the first to call for Wilkie’s resignation. Concerned Veterans for America, a conservative group that supported Wilkie when he became VA secretary in 2018, chided him and his team, stressing that “VA leaders should always put the veteran and the integrity of the institution ahead of themselves.” AMVETS national commander Jan Brown said she found it unacceptable that VA would dismiss known problems facing women who receive care at its facilities. “Women veterans already hesitate to use VA services for a number of reasons, and we need a secretary who will make our community feel welcomed,” she said. “We strongly disapprove of any VA official that took part in the scheme to wreck the credibility of a victim.” The case of Goldstein, who agreed to be publicly identified, was ultimately closed by the inspector general’s office and Justice Department earlier this year due to a lack of enough evidence to bring charges. Wilkie is Trump’s second VA secretary after David Shulkin was fired in 2018. A former Pentagon undersecretary, he presided over the nation’s largest hospital system that has seen continuing improvement and veterans’ satisfaction since a 2014 scandal involving lengthy waiting times for medical appointments. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to rebuild trust in the VA when he takes office on Jan. 20. He has selected Denis McDonough, who served as President Obama’s White House chief of staff, to be VA secretary.

New Orleans stage and screen actor Carol Sutton dies at 76

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/new-orleans-stage-and-screen-actor-carol-sutton-dies-at-76

Actor Carol Sutton, a fixture on stages in her native New Orleans who built a steady career on the big and small screens, including roles in the 1989 comedy “Steel Magnolias” and the TV series “Queen Sugar,” has died of complications from COVID-19, according to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. Sutton was 76. “The world may recognize her from her performances in movies and on TV — whether it’s ‘Treme’ or ‘Claws,’ or ‘Runaway Jury’ or ‘Queen Sugar’ — but we will always remember her commanding stage presence, her richly portrayed characters, and the warm heart she shared with her fellow cast and crew,” Cantrell said in a statement. Sutton died Thursday at Touro Infirmary. After making her acting debut in the late 1960s in Dashiki Project Theatre productions, Sutton appeared in works such as “The Last Madam,” “Native Tongues” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” She moved to television in 1974 with “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” with Cicely Tyson and had roles in “In the Heat of the Night” and the TV movie “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” with Avery Brooks. Her recent TV credits included “Scream Queens,” the 2016 remake of the series “Roots,” “Treme,” “True Detective” and “Lovecraft Country.” Her film work includes roles in such movies as “Monster’s Ball,” “Ray” and “The Help.” She played a policewoman in “The Pelican Brief” with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington and a nurse opposite Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine in “Steel Magnolias.” She was a judge in “The Big Easy” with Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin. Ava DuVernay, creator of the OWN series “Queen Sugar,” tweeted: “It was our honor to welcome this veteran actress of stage and screen to our show as Aunt Martha in Episode 409, ‘Stare at the Same Fires.’ May she rise and rest in peace and power.” On behalf of the QUEEN SUGAR family, we celebrate the life of the stellar Carol Sutton. It was our honor to welcome this veteran actress of stage + screen to our show as Aunt Martha in Episode 409, “Stare at the Same Fires.” We bless her. May she rise and rest in peace and power. pic.twitter.com/OMbRExLvMz Survivors include a son, Archie; a daughter, Aunya; a brother, Oris Buckner; a sister, Adrienne Jopes; and five grandchildren.

Biden's fractured foot is healing as expected, his doctor says

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/doctor-says-bidens-fractured-foot-is-healing-as-expected

President-elect Joe Biden’s fractured foot is on the mend, his doctor said Saturday. Biden made the drive from his Delaware home to a Philadelphia hospital for a special CT scan that was able to obtain a “weight-bearing” image. His doctor, in a statement released after the visit, said the small fracture was “healing as expected” “Weight-bearing CT results were very encouraging,” said Dr. Kevin O’Connor, of the GW Medical Faculty Associates. “No more extensive injury was identified.” The 78-year-old Biden suffered the small fracture two weeks ago while playing with one of his dogs. He wore a walking boot for a few days and has since walked with a noticeable limp. Biden waved to supporters when he moved gingerly to his car outside the Philadelphia hospital. The injury has not curtailed his transition schedule, which next week is expected to include more Cabinet announcements and a campaign trip to Georgia to support the Democratic candidates in the Senate runoff elections.

Loss of 'snowbirds' amid pandemic another hit to U.S. tourism

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-13/loss-of-snowbirds-amid-pandemic-another-hit-to-us-tourism

This is the first winter in five years that Steve Monk and his wife, Linda, haven’t driven to Arizona from their home in Prince Albert, Canada. They typically leave to hunker down in the warmer climate for six months. They could fly, skirting travel restrictions at the border, but they’d rather “freeze their buns off” than go to the U.S., where coronavirus cases and deaths are surging. “It’s not worth taking a chance. It’s not nearly as bad in this country as it is down there,” said Monk, 69. “Pretty much every Canadian person we do know that goes down [to the U.S.] is not going. It’s pretty widespread.” “Snowbirds” like the Monks, often retirees who live somewhere warm like Arizona or Florida part time to escape cold weather, won’t be flocking south this winter. For Canadians who drive, nonessential border travel is banned until at least Dec. 21. For some, it’s fear of the virus. While their absence is being felt by vacation rentals, restaurants and shops, RV parks and campgrounds are seeing an increase in campers as people travel closer to home. A huge chunk of the snowbird population is Canadian. Evan Rachkovsky of the Canadian Snowbird Assn. said most people he’d spoken with were suspending trips to the U.S. Company Town Pearlstine, who just celebrated his 78th birthday, made the announcement Monday during a meeting with top editors and then in a note to staff members. Oct. 5, 2020 But some are still adamant about going. “Some tell me just simply this is something they’ve been doing for 10, 20, 30 years, so it’s habitual in that sense,” Rachkovsky said. “It’s a lifestyle as opposed to vacationing for two weeks.” For those who go, they may face recommendations to quarantine for up to two weeks, though states often don’t enforce it. They’re also going into communities where hospitals are normally busiest during the winter months, and COVID-19 could overwhelm them. Health insurance hurdles are deterring retired Toronto accountant Mel Greenglass, who for almost a decade has spent four months in southwest Florida near Naples. Canadian snowbirds must buy a supplemental plan to their government-provided coverage for any emergencies during their stay. It would have been $2,800 for him and his girlfriend this season, up from $1,800 previously, and he feared they wouldn’t be covered if they caught the virus. Insurers “are not going to lay out a lot of money to cover everybody just by raising their premiums a little bit,” said Greenglass, 78. He added that adapting to the Canadian winter wouldn’t be easy: “I don’t even own a pair of boots.” It’s easier for those who don’t have international borders to cross. Kathy Scott, 73, and her 81-year-old husband intend to make their annual drive from Salt Lake City to Arizona after Christmas. Scott said she planned to mask up and practice social distancing to avoid burdening the medical system, adding that she’s “not having any problem asking people about having been tested, about quarantining, about where they’ve been.” Snowbirds’ plans have a huge effect on tourism. In Florida, 3.6 million Canadians visited last year, making up a quarter of its foreign tourists, according to the state tourism office. Visit Florida estimates that only 15,000 Canadians arrived between April and September, the last month with available statistics. That’s about a 99% decrease from the same period last year. The Arizona Office of Tourism said an estimated 964,000 Canadian visitors were responsible for $1 billion of the $26.5 billion in tourism spending last year. In September, visitors overall spent $752 million, down 60% from the $1.9 billion expected in a normal year. Becky Blaine, the office’s deputy director, said it helped that many people were looking closer to home to vacation. But that will only go so far to offset the loss of international visitors. She’s also not sure how much of a boost RV parks and campgrounds will get. “Now that kids are back in school, though, it would be more of that retiree population versus over the summer when everybody rented RVs, including myself,” Blaine said. Bobby Cornwell, executive director of the Florida and Alabama RV Parks & Campground Assn., believes it’s not “all doom and gloom” for his industry. Snowbirds make up 30% of the business for Florida’s RV parks, he said. There have been cancellations, but park operators are seeing people of all ages road-tripping. “I really wanna hammer this home: From the people we’re getting feedback from, many of our parks throughout the whole state, for every cancellation, there’s one or two campers who come in,” Cornwell said. “I haven’t heard of anything disastrous.” Bruce Hoban, co-founder of the 2,000-member Vacation Rental Owners and Neighbors of Palm Springs, said property managers who rent condos to snowbirds for two- to three-month stints in the desert resort city were having a hard time. But vacation rentals for stays under 30 days have been “through the roof.” Normally, rentals generate 25% of the $25 million Palm Springs rakes in from an occupancy tax. They’re now generating 50%. Between vacation rentals and hotels, the city did 5.5% more business between July and September compared with the same period last year. “It’s a big shift,” Hoban said. “The amount of people coming on vacation rentals was like nothing we had ever seen. ... Yes, we lost 2½ months of what is normally our most expensive, highest time of the year because of Coachella festivals and stuff. We lost all that. We have more than made up for it since then.” But shop owners like Julie Kathawa, 49, aren’t expecting big business from younger vacationers. Julie’s Hallmark sells cards and gifts in Bermuda Dunes, outside Palm Springs, and already feels the crunch of fewer snowbirds, who make up about 20% of her business from November to April. She’s relying mostly on online mail orders. “I’m grateful for it, but it’s not the same. I think it’s going to help me through December,” Kathawa said. “Other than that, I don’t think it’s going to be as profitable or as exciting in January, February and March because we would still have all this tourism.”

What’s in store when the electoral college meets

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/explainer-whats-in-store-when-the-electoral-college-meets

Voters cast their ballots for president more than a month ago, but the votes that officially matter will be cast Monday. That’s when the electoral college meets. The Constitution gives the electors the power to choose the president, and when all the votes are counted Monday, President-elect Joe Biden is expected to have 306 electoral votes, more than the 270 needed to elect a president, to 232 votes for President Trump. The spotlight on the process is even greater this year because Trump has refused to concede the election and continued to make baseless allegations of fraud. That makes the meeting of the electoral college another solid, undeniable step toward Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, when Biden will be sworn in as president. Politics Led by Texas and joined by President Trump, Republican state attorneys general had asked the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s victory by nullifying votes in four states. Dec. 11, 2020 Some questions and answers about the electoral college: What exactly is the electoral college? In drafting the Constitution, the nation’s founders struggled with how the new nation should choose its leader and ultimately created the electoral college system. It was a compromise between electing the president directly by popular vote and having Congress choose the president. Under the Constitution, states get a number of electors equal to their total number of seats in Congress: two senators plus however many members the state has in the House of Representatives. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, states award all of their electoral college votes to the winner of the popular vote in their state. What’s the beef with the electoral college? The electoral college has been the subject of criticism for more than two centuries. One often-repeated gripe: The person who wins the popular vote can lose the presidential election. That happened five times in history and twice in the last two decades — in 2000 with the election of George W. Bush and in 2016 when Donald Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. Biden, for his part, has won more than 7 million votes than Trump and will end up with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. Who are the electors? Presidential electors typically are elected officials, political hopefuls or longtime party loyalists. This year, they include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump elector who could be a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, and Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, her party’s 2018 nominee for governor and a key player in Biden’s win in the state. Among others are 93-year-old Paul “Pete” McCloskey, a Biden elector who is a former Republican congressman who challenged Richard Nixon for the 1972 GOP presidential nomination on a platform opposing the Vietnam War; Floridian Maximo Alvarez, an immigrant from Cuba who worried in his Republican convention speech that anarchy and communism would overrun Biden’s America, and Muhammad Abdurrahman, a Minnesotan who tried to cast his electoral vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton in 2016. Where do they meet and what do they do? The electoral college doesn’t meet in one place. Instead, each state’s electors and the electors for the District of Columbia meet in a place chosen by their legislatures, usually the state capitol. The election is low-tech. Electors cast their votes by paper ballot: one ballot for president and one for vice president. The votes get counted and the electors sign six certificates with the results. Each certificate gets paired with a certificate from the governor detailing the state’s vote totals. Those six packets then get mailed to various people who are specified by law. The most important copy, though, gets sent to the president of the U.S. Senate, the current vice president, Mike Pence. This is the copy that will be officially counted later. Do electors have to vote for the candidate who won their state? In 32 states and the District of Columbia, laws require electors to vote for the popular-vote winner. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld this arrangement in July. Electors almost always vote for the state winner anyway, because they generally are devoted to their political party. A bit of an exception happened in 2016, when 10 electors tried to vote for other candidates. Those included people pledged to support Clinton who decided not to back her in a futile bid to get Republican electors to abandon Trump and choose someone else as president. Abdurrahman, the Minnesotan who wanted to vote for Sanders, was replaced as an elector. This year, he has said he would cast his vote for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. What happens next? Once the electoral votes are cast, they are sent to Congress, where both houses will convene on Jan. 6 for a session presided over by Pence. The envelopes from each state and the District of Columbia will be opened and the votes tallied. If at least one member of each house objects in writing to some electoral votes, the House and Senate meet separately to debate the issue. Both houses must vote to sustain the objection for it to matter, and the Democratic-led House is unlikely to go along with any objections to votes for Biden. Otherwise, the votes get counted as intended by the states. And then there’s one more step: inauguration. Gresko and Sherman write for the Associated Press.

Mystery surrounds absence of Algeria leader treated for COVID-19

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/mystery-over-absence-of-algeria-leader-treated-for-covid-19

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune marks a year in office Saturday, but he is nowhere in sight since his evacuation to Germany more than six weeks ago for COVID-19 treatment. The president’s office issued a statement on Nov. 30 saying Tebboune had left a “specialized” medical facility, was continuing his convalescence and should be returning home “in the coming days.” The statement compounded the growing mystery surrounding the 75-year-old Tebboune, his whereabouts and his health. The name of the clinic where he was treated was never made public. The absence of the head of state, who also serves as defense chief, recalled the long absences of his predecessor, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, for treatment in France of a stroke in 2013 and later in Switzerland for numerous medical checkups, with lots of speculation and little information on his whereabouts or health. Bouteflika rarely appeared in public but kept ruling. He was forced to abandon his bid for a fifth term last year before being pushed from office under pressure from street protests and the powerful army. World & Nation German Chancellor Angela Merkel has advocated tougher coronavirus restrictions as the country reports its highest single-day COVID-19 death toll. Tebboune left for Germany on Oct. 28. “I sincerely expected him to give us a surprise by returning home today for the first anniversary of his election. It’s the ideal timing,” Hassiba Aoudia, a retired French teacher, said Friday evening. She had been a member of Tebboune’s group of supporters when he was a candidate. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad has been in charge during Tebboune’s absence, conspicuous as the country struggles with an economy made worse by the coronavirus and a host of other issues. Constitutional law professor Fatiha Benabou said there is no date limiting the time Tebboune can be away. “Authorities have a large margin of maneuver,” she said. “But on a political level, the absence of the president, who embodies the essential powers, is obviously a problem.”

Italy's staggering COVID-19 death toll poses uncomfortable questions

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-12/italys-staggering-virus-toll-poses-uncomfortable-questions

Italy could soon reclaim a record that nobody wants — the most COVID-19 deaths in Europe — after the healthcare system again failed to protect older people and the government delayed imposing new restrictions. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Italy was the first country in the West to be slammed by COVID-19 and, after suffering a huge wave of deaths in spring, brought infections under control. Italy then had the benefit of time and experience heading into the fall resurgence because it trailed Spain, France and Germany in recording big new clusters of infections. Yet the virus spread fast and wide, and Italy has tallied 28,000 dead since Sept. 1. “Obviously there needs to be some reflection,” Guido Rasi, former executive director of the European Pharmaceutical Agency, told state TV after Italy reported a pandemic-high record of 993 deaths in one day. “This number of nearly 1,000 dead in 24 hours is much higher than the European average.” Italy added 761 more victims Friday, bringing its official total to 63,387, just shy of Britain’s Europe-leading 63,603 dead, according to Johns Hopkins University. Both numbers are believed to greatly underestimate the real toll, due to missed infections, limited testing and different counting criteria. World & Nation Time-honored traditions of mourning along the Texas-Mexico border are upended by the pandemic. Still, Italy could overtake Britain despite having 6 million people fewer than the U.K.’s 66 million, and would trail only the much larger U.S., Brazil, India and Mexico. Italy has the world’s second-oldest population after Japan, and older people are the most vulnerable to the virus. The average age of Italian victims has hovered around 80. In addition, 65% of Italy’s COVID-19 dead had three or more other health problems before they tested positive, such as hypertension or diabetes, according to Italy’s Superior Institute of Health. But that doesn’t explain the whole picture. Germany has a similarly old demographic and yet its death toll is one-third of Italy’s despite its larger population of 83 million. Germany recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 victims Friday — 598 — with 21,000 dead overall. Analysts point to Germany’s long-term higher per-capita spending on healthcare, which has resulted in greater ICU capacity, better testing and tracing capabilities and higher ratios of doctors and nurses to the population. But Germany also imposed an earlier, lighter lockdown this fall and is now poised to tighten it. “If you can act sooner, even a bit lighter in the measures, they work better than acting harshly a bit later or too late,” said Matteo Villa, research fellow at the Institute for International Political Studies, a Milan-based think tank. Italy, he said, waited too long after infections started ticking up in September and October to impose restrictions and didn’t reinforce its medical system sufficiently during the summertime lull. “If you look at France and the U.K., you can see Italy did fare much worse,” he said. “And if you look at a comparable population with similar demographics, which is Germany, Italy did a lot worse.” With another wave of infections feared to be just around the corner with Christmas visits and the winter flu season, many are wondering how many more will die. World & Nation GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi say their potential COVID-19 vaccine won’t be ready until late 2021 as they seek to improve its efficacy in older people. Doctors have blamed systemic problems with Italy’s healthcare system, especially in hardest-hit Lombardy, for failing to respond adequately. They have cited the growth of private hospitals in Lombardy in recent years at the expense of public ones. Brain drain and bureaucratic obstacles have resulted in fewer doctors going into practice, while general practitioners have complained of a lack of support despite being the backbone of the system. Nearly 80,000 Italian healthcare workers have been infected and 255 doctors have died. “We asked for a lockdown at the start of November because the situation inside hospitals was already difficult,” said Dr. Filippo Anelli, head of the country’s doctors’ association. “We saw that it worked in the spring and allowed us to get out from under COVID. If this had been done, probably today the numbers would be coming down.” But the Italian government resisted reimposing a nationwide lockdown this fall, knowing the devastating impact on an economy that was just starting to come back to life after the springtime shutdown. Instead, on Nov. 3 the government divided the country into three risk zones with varying restrictions. But by then infections had been doubling each week for nearly a month and hospitals were already overwhelmed in Milan and Naples. Italy also went into the pandemic poorly prepared. It had fewer ICU beds than the average of developed countries. And in recent weeks, investigative news reports have noted that Italy hadn’t updated its influenza pandemic preparedness plan since 2006 — which could help explain its critical shortage of protective equipment early on and its chaotic initial response to the pandemic. A World Health Organization report, which was posted and then immediately taken down from the WHO website, noted that Italy’s 2006 plan was merely “reconfirmed in 2017” without being updated. The report said the plan was “more theoretical than practical” and that when COVID-19 hit, all hell broke loose. World & Nation As intensive care units fill up and the death toll mounts, the Swedish government is mulling tougher measures to combat the coronavirus. “Unprepared for such a flood of severely ill patients, the initial reaction of the hospitals was improvised, chaotic and creative,” said the report. The United Nations health agency said it removed the report because it contained “inaccuracies and inconsistencies,” and then decided not to republish it because it developed other ways to assess countries’ responses. Italy also ranked 31st — between Indonesia and Poland — in a 2019 survey of 195 countries compiled by the Global Health Security Index assessing abilities to respond to a pandemic or other healthcare crises. Italy scored particularly poorly in emergency response, preparedness, and communications with healthcare workers during a crisis. Government officials admit they were caught unprepared but have strongly defended their response to the resurgence as scientifically sound and proportional to prevent the economy from collapsing. Domenico Arcuri, the government’s virus commissioner, said Thursday that the November restrictions were flattening Italy’s infection curve. “Daily infections are coming down, hospital admissions are coming down, the number of people who unfortunately are admitted to intensive care [is] coming down,” Arcuri said. That is small comfort to Marcella Polla, who announced the death of her 90-year-old aunt on Facebook on Dec. 6, saying she caught the virus in a hospital in October after complications following an angioplasty. “My aunt was tough, made of Trentino fiber,” Polla wrote in explaining the extraordinary photo she posted of her aunt, holding herself up on a set of gymnastics rings this year. “I want to remember her like this, even though the thought of her and so many others dying alone and then being put in a body bag torments me.”

U.S. executes Louisiana truck driver who killed 2-year-old daughter

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-11/us-executes-louisiana-truck-driver-who-killed-daughter-2

The Trump administration continued its unprecedented series of postelection federal executions Friday by putting to death a Louisiana truck driver who severely abused his 2-year-old daughter for weeks in 2002, then killed her by slamming her head against a truck’s windows and dashboard. Alfred Bourgeois, 56, was pronounced dead at 8:21 p.m. Eastern time after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. His lawyers argued that Bourgeois had an IQ that puts him in the intellectually disabled category, saying that should have made him ineligible for the death penalty under federal law. Victor J. Abreu said it was “shameful” to execute his client “without fair consideration of his intellectual disability.” In his last words, Bourgeois offered no apology and instead struck a deeply defiant tone, insisting that he neither killed nor sexually abused his child. “I ask God to forgive all those who plotted and schemed against me, and planted false evidence.” And he added: “I did not commit this crime.” Bourgeois was the 10th federal death row inmate put to death since federal executions resumed under President Trump in July after a 17-year hiatus. Bourgeois was the second federal prisoner executed this week, with three more executions planned in January. As the lethal injection of pentobarbital began flowing through IVs in both of his arms, Bourgeois tilted his head to the side to look at his spiritual advisor standing in a corner of the death chamber clutching a small Bible. Bourgeois gave him a thumbs-up sign, and his advisor raised his thumb in reply. Seconds later, Bourgeois peered up toward the glass dividing him from the media and other witnesses in adjoining rooms, and then appeared to grimace and furrow his eyebrow. He began to exhale rhythmically for a minute and then his stomach starting to quiver uncontrollably. After about five minutes, the heaving of his stomach stopped and his entire body became completely still. He did not move for about 20 minutes before he was pronounced dead. Bourgeois had met with his spiritual advisor earlier Friday as he sought to come to terms with the possibility of dying, and he was also praying, another one of his lawyers, Shawn Nolan, told the Associated Press hours before the execution. He said Bourgeois had been “praying for redemption.” Bourgeois took up drawing in prison, including doing renditions of members of his legal team. Nolan said he hasn’t been a troublemaker on death row and has a good disciplinary record. The last time the number of civilians executed federally was in the double digits in a year was under President Grover Cleveland, with 14 in 1896. The series of executions under Trump since election day, the first in late November, is also the first time in more than 130 years that federal executions have occurred during a lame-duck period. Cleveland also was the last president to do that. Bourgeois’ lawyers contended that the apparent hurry by Trump, a Republican, to get executions in before the Jan. 20 inauguration of death-penalty foe Joe Biden, a Democrat, has deprived their client his rights to exhaust his legal options. The Justice Department gave Bourgeois 21 days’ notice he was to be executed under protocols that slashed the required notice period from 90 days, Nolan said. “It is remarkable. To rush these executions, during the pandemic and everything else, makes absolutely no sense,” he said. Several appeals courts have concluded that neither evidence nor criminal law on intellectual disability support the claims by Bourgeois’ legal team. On Thursday, Brandon Bernard was put to death for his part in a 1999 killing of a couple from Iowa after he and other teenage members of a gang abducted and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley in Texas. The case of Bernard, who was 18 at the time of the killings, was a rare execution of a person who was in his teens when his crime was committed. Several high-profile figures, including reality TV star Kim Kardashian West, appealed to Trump to commute Bernard’s sentence to life in prison, citing, among other things, his youth at the time and the remorse he has expressed over years. In Bourgeois’ case, the crimes stand out as particularly brutal because they involved his young daughter. According to court filings, he gained temporary custody of the child, referred to in court papers only as “JG,” after a 2002 paternity suit from a Texas woman. Bourgeois was living in Louisiana with his wife and their two children. Over the next month, Bourgeois whipped the girl with an electrical cord, burned her feet with a cigarette lighter and hit her in the head with a plastic baseball bat so hard that her head swelled — then refused to seek medical treatment for her, court documents say. Prosecutors also said he sexually abused her. Her toilet training allegedly enraged Bourgeois, and he would sometimes force her to sleep on a training toilet. It was during a trucking run to Corpus Christi, Texas, that he ended up killing the toddler. Again angered by her toilet training, he grabbed her inside the truck by her shoulders and slammed her head on the windows and dashboard four times, court filings say. When the girl lost consciousness, Bourgeois’ wife pleaded for him to get help and he told her to tell first responders that she was hurt falling from the truck. She died the next day in a hospital of brain injuries. In a statement after the execution, other members of the young girl’s family said she “lost her life brutally to a monster who lived for 18 years after the crime.” “Now we can start the process of healing,” said the statement, distributed by the Bureau of Prisons. “It should not have taken 18 years for us to receive justice for our angel. She will forever be loved and missed.” After his 2004 conviction, a judge rejected claims stemming from his alleged intellectual disability, noting he did not receive a diagnosis until after he was sentenced to death. “Up to that point, Bourgeois had lived a life which, in broad outlines, did not manifest gross intellectual deficiencies,” the court said. Attorneys argued that finding was based on misunderstandings about such disabilities. They said Bourgeois had tests that demonstrated his IQ was around 70, well below average, and that his childhood history buttressed their claims. Bourgeois’ lawyers didn’t argue that he should have been acquitted or should not have been handed a stiff penalty, just that he shouldn’t be executed, Nolan said. ___

Zodiac Killer cipher is solved 51 years after it was sent to newspaper

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-11/zodiac-cipher-solved-51-years-after-it-was-sent-to-newspaper

A coded letter mailed to a San Francisco newspaper by the Zodiac serial killer in 1969 has been deciphered by a team of amateur sleuths from the United States, Australia and Belgium, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. The cipher is one of many sent by a killer who referred to himself as Zodiac in letters sent to detectives and the media. He terrorized Northern California communities and killed five people in the Bay Area in 1968 and 1969. According to code-breaking expert David Oranchak, the cipher’s text includes: “I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me. ... I am not afraid of the gas chamber because it will send me to paradise all the sooner because I now have enough slaves to work for me,” the newspaper reported. Oranchak, who has been working on the Zodiac’s codes for years, said in an email to the newspaper that the solved cipher has been sent to the FBI. “They have confirmed the solution. No joke! This is the real deal,” he wrote. Cameron Polan, spokeswoman for the FBI’s San Francisco office, confirmed Oranchak’s account Friday. “The FBI is aware that a cipher attributed to the Zodiac Killer was recently solved by private citizens. The Zodiac Killer case remains an ongoing investigation for the FBI San Francisco division and our local law enforcement partners,” she said in a statement. “Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, and out of respect for the victims and their families, we will not be providing further comment at this time,” she added. This is the second time a Zodiac cipher has been cracked. The first, one long cipher sent in pieces to the Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and the Vallejo Times-Herald in 1969, was solved by a Salinas schoolteacher and his wife. It said little beyond: “I like killing because it is so much fun.”

Biden unveils top picks with deep Obama administration ties

https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-11/biden-unveils-top-picks-with-deep-obama-administration-ties

President-elect Joe Biden on Friday introduced five top picks for his new administration, drawing on leading names from the Obama White House while also tapping an Ohio congresswoman and a congressional committee veteran. Appearing at the afternoon event were Susan Rice, Biden’s choice for director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who served as President Obama’s national security advisor and U.N. ambassador; and Denis McDonough, Obama’s White House chief of staff, now nominated as Veterans Affairs secretary. Also attending were Tom Vilsack, Biden’s selection for Agriculture secretary who held the same post for Obama; Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, chosen to be the new administration’s housing chief; and Katherine Tai, who is chief trade counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee and has been tapped as U.S. trade representative. “They bring deep experience and bold new thinking,” Biden said. “Above all, they know how government should and can work for all Americans.” Obama was first elected on promises to move beyond partisan politics, but saw some major policy goals crash in an uncooperative Congress, especially after Republican gains in the 2010 midterms. Some progressive Democrats now worry that Biden is drawing too much from the Obama team, which they feel should have been bolder in its efforts to remake government. Politics In foreign policy, Joe Biden can’t pick up where he and President Obama left off. He faces heightened tensions, especially with China and Iran. Dec. 7, 2020 Mark Riddle, a Democratic strategist who founded a pro-Biden Super PAC during the 2020 presidential campaign, said there is no danger in relying too heavily on “all-star” former Obama administration leaders. But he advised Biden’s team to prioritize controlling the COVID-19 pandemic enough to spur economic growth, rather than having arguments over social policies that might allow congressional Republicans to more easily block sweeping policy initiatives. “The success or failure of the administration out of the box is going to be, do they focus on jobs?” Riddle said. “If we come out of the box on jobs, jobs, jobs, I feel great. If we are about a bunch of other, say, progressive ideals, we could be right back where we were.” Rice, who was once thought to be a finalist to become Biden’s running mate before he settled on Kamala Harris, is set to have wide-ranging sway over the incoming administration’s approach to immigration, healthcare and racial inequality. She worked closely with Biden when he was Obama’s vice president and won’t require Senate confirmation — which could have faced stiff Republican opposition. McDonough is faced with running a large agency that has presented organizational challenges for both parties over the years. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, is expected to direct agriculture policy with an eye toward major farming states, similar to what he did for Obama. California Xavier Becerra is Washington-ready, not a naïve outsider who needs D.C. training wheels, columnist George Skelton writes. Dec. 10, 2020 Biden chose Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development despite the urging of some prominent African American Democrats in Congress who wanted her to be Agriculture secretary — and therefore rethink how the federal government combats hunger issues nationwide. Those in line to head agencies require Senate approval, as does Tai. Rice and Fudge are African American and Tai is Asian American, reflecting Biden’s promise to choose a diverse Cabinet that reflects the makeup of the country.

Congress passes one-week funding bill to avert government shutdown

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-12-11/government-funding-bill-stopgap-shutdown-coronavirus-relief-bill

Congress has passed a bill to fund the government for another week, giving lawmakers time to reach agreement on a new coronavirus relief bill. The Senate approved the funding extension by voice vote on Friday. The House had passed the same bill on Wednesday. But prospects for passage of an emerging $900-billion COVID-19 aid package from a bipartisan group of lawmakers appeared to have all but collapsed after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Republican senators won’t support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal. McConnell’s staff conveyed to top negotiators Thursday that the GOP leader sees no path to an agreement on a key aspect of the lawmakers’ existing proposal — a slimmed-down version of the liability shield he is seeking for companies and organizations facing potential COVID-19 lawsuits — in exchange for the state and local funds that Democrats want. The GOP leader criticized “controversial state bailouts” during a speech in the Senate, as he insists on a more targeted aid package. The hardened stance from McConnell, who does not appear to have enough votes from his Republican majority for a far-reaching compromise, creates a new stalemate over the $900-billion-plus package, despite days of toiling by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strike compromise. Business The lucky among California’s small businesses have cobbled together loans and grants to get through the pandemic so far. But that money has dried up, and “you can only take on so much debt.” Nov. 28, 2020 McConnell’s staff conveyed to other negotiators it’s “unlikely” the trade-off proposed by the bipartisan group would be acceptable, as COVID aid talks continue, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the talks. A senior Democrat first shared the Republican leader’s views after being granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations, which were first reported by Politico. Deadlines, real and perceived, haven’t been sufficient to drive Washington’s factions to an agreement, despite the U.S. breaking a record-high 3,000 daily COVID fatalities, and hospitals straining at capacity from soaring caseloads nationwide. The House recessed for a few days, with leaders warning members to be prepared to return to Washington to vote on the year-end deals, while the Senate held a rare Friday session. The breakdown over the COVID aid package, after days of behind-the-scenes talks by a group of lawmakers fed up with inaction, comes as President Trump has taken the talks in another direction — insisting on a fresh round of $600 stimulus checks for Americans. Sending direct cash payments to households was not included in the bipartisan proposal, but has been embraced by some of the president’s fiercest critics — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who introduced an amendment to include the checks with Trump ally Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). Sanders said the unprecedented moment facing the nation with the pandemic and its economic fallout requires Congress to “take unprecedented action.” Trump’s top negotiator on COVID-19 financial aid, Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin reported headway Thursday, before the package from the bipartisan senators’ group fell apart. “I think we’re making a lot of progress,” Mnuchin said. Business Businesses fear they’ll be blamed for COVID-19’s spread. They’re fighting for measures to protect them from lawsuits over infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Aug. 27, 2020 With passage of the short-term government-wide funding bill Friday, the next deadline would be Dec. 18, but both House and Senate leaders say they won’t adjourn without passing an aid measure. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Congress would keep working up to or even after Christmas to get an agreement. The new Congress is being sworn in on Jan. 3. “Now if we need more time then we take more time, but we have to have a bill and we cannot go home without it,” Pelosi said. She also gave an upbeat assessment on the talks. The bipartisan lawmakers held another virtual “dinner group” meeting late Thursday to try to prop up the deal. They have been working furiously to try to bridge the stalemate over COVID aid. The $900 billion-plus proposal provides sweeping new funds for vaccines, small businesses, healthcare providers, schools and families suffering from the virus crisis and the economic shutdowns. A key holdup has been the standoff over more money for the states, that Democrats — and some Republicans — want and the liability shield that is McConnell’s top priority but that most Democrats oppose. The bipartisan group tried to marry those two provisions as a compromise. McConnell had initially proposed a five-year liability shield from virus lawsuits, retroactive to December 2019, but the bipartisan group was eyeing a scaled-back shield of six months to a year. Labor and civil rights groups oppose any shield, which they say strips essential workers of potential legal recourse as they take risks during the pandemic. Democratic leaders had wanted far more in state and local aid, but were accepting of the lower $160 billion. But many Republicans have long viewed the state and local aid as a bailout they would have trouble supporting, despite the pleas for funds coming from governors and mayors nationwide. Late Thursday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and other Democrats pitched another liability proposal to the bipartisan group, but it was rejected by Republicans, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to discuss the private session. The Trump administration is back in the middle of the negotiations with a $916-billion plan. It would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans but eliminate a $300-per-week employment benefit favored by the bipartisan group of Senate negotiators. The White House offer has the endorsement of the top House Republican and apparent backing from McConnell, who had previously favored a $519-billion GOP plan that has already failed twice. But Democrats immediately blasted the plan over the administration’s refusal to back the partial restoration of bonus pandemic jobless benefits that lapsed in August. President-elect Joe Biden is pressing for as much pandemic relief as possible, though he’s not directly involved in the talks. McConnell, like Pelosi, says Congress will not adjourn without providing the long-overdue COVID-19 relief. Republicans say the right people to handle final negotiations are the four leaders of Congress and the Trump administration, with the focus on the streamlined proposal from McConnell. The bipartisan negotiating group — led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, among others — was seeking to rally lawmakers behind the $908-billion framework that includes the $300-per-week pandemic jobless benefit and $160 billion for states and local governments. It also includes a four-month extension of jobless benefits set to expire at the end of the month, $300 billion for “paycheck protection” subsidies for struggling businesses, funding for vaccines and testing, and a host of smaller items such as aid to transit systems, the U.S. Postal Service and healthcare providers.