This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process. Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always.

 

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

 

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

 

Friday, 18 December 2020, Day 1,428:

 

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 18 December 2020: Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) Authorizes Moderna Vaccine for Emergency Use, Adding Millions of Doses to U.S. Arsenal, The New York Times, Friday, 18 December 2020:

• F.D.A. OKs the Moderna Covid vaccine, adding millions more doses to the U.S. supply.

• The U.S. has recorded over 250,000 cases in a day for the first time.

• Pence, McConnell and other officials receive vaccinations, but will that close the partisan divide on the shot?

• When will governors get vaccinated? Some would prefer to wait.

• California counts the dead by the hour as its I.C.U.s fill up.

• A Chinese official confirms that a million citizens received unproven homegrown vaccines.

• These frontline hospital workers were left off the vaccine list. They fought back.

• The U.S. says employers can require workers to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

• American student sentenced to 4 months in prison for violating quarantine rules in the Cayman Islands.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Some significant developments in the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, 18 December 2020: Nearly all of California under stay at home order as the Food and Drug Administration authorizes second vaccine, The Washington Post, Meryl Kornfield, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Hannah Knowles, Lateshia Beachum, Laurie McGinley, Derek Hawkins, Marisa Iati, Siobhán O’Grady, and Taylor Telford, Friday, 18 December 2020: “Nearly all of California is under regional stay-at-home orders triggered by alarmingly low capacity in intensive care units. Statewide, a sliver of those critical beds were available: 2.1 percent. The news came as a second coronavirus vaccine received emergency authorization Friday, an unprecedented scientific feat that gives the United States two powerful tools to fight a pandemic that emerged almost exactly a year ago.

Here are a few of the significant developments included in this article.

• Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
• President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden will receive coronavirus shots on Monday in Delaware, a spokeswoman said.
• Stanford Health Care apologized for a plan that left nearly all 1,300 of its young, front-line doctors out of the first round of coronavirus vaccinations.
• The House approved a two-day extension in funding for the federal government to give lawmakers more time to resolve the remaining sticking points on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package.
• Italy’s government ordered a lockdown starting Christmas Eve and continuing through the first week of the new year.
• The Mexico City metropolis is shutting down nonessential activities and banning dining in restaurants during the holiday season.

Presidential Transition Updates: Congress Passed Short-Term Spending Bill as Stimulus Talks Continued, The New York Times, Friday, 18 December 2020:

• Congress passes short-term funding bill to avert government shutdown as snags delay stimulus talks.

• Lara Trump served on the board of a company through which the Trump political operation spent more than $700 million.

• Pence, Pelosi and McConnell receive a coronavirus vaccine. Biden is set to get an injection on Monday.

• Harris will campaign in Georgia on Monday for Senate runoffs that are practically impossible to poll.

• Biden addresses accusations against his son, saying, ‘I think it’s kind of foul play.’

• Unswayed by hacking breach, Trump threatens to veto a bill aimed at fortifying cyberdefense.

Continue reading Week 205, Friday, 18 December  – Thursday, 24 December 2020 (Days 1,428-1,434):

Continue reading...

This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process. Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always.

 

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

 

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

 

Friday, 4 December 2020, Day 1,414:

 

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 4 December 2020: San Francisco Bay Area Issues Strict Stay-at-Home Order, The New York Times, Friday, 4 December 2020:

• The San Francisco Bay Area will enact new restrictions before California orders them.

• Cases surge in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, often exceeding the scale of the spring outbreak.

• Bahrain follows Britain in approving Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use before the U.S. does.

• The C.D.C. urges Americans to wear face masks outside the home.

• Outbreaks at nursing homes appear to be linked to Washington State wedding. Seven have died.

• The New York Young Republican Club held a secret gala, despite coronavirus concerns.

• Restaurants in Washington State defy governor and invite guests inside.

• As Miami’s cases soar, officials plead with residents to stay home for the holidays, and other news from around the country.

• Pence says the nation is in a ‘season of hope’ as vaccine development speeds up.

Some significant developments in the coronavirus pandemic for Friday, 4 December 2020: Bay Area becomes first California region to enact state’s new stay-at-home orders, The Washington Post, Hannah Knowles, Meryl Kornfield, Taylor Telford, Antonia Noori Farzan, Erin Cunningham, Kim Bellware, Siobhán O’Grady, and Paulina Villegas, Friday, 4 December 2020: “Millions of people in the San Francisco Bay Area will be subject to new stay-at-home orders, local officials announced Friday, a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said most of the nation’s most populous state was on track to hit critically low hospital capacity levels, triggering new restrictions. The Bay Area has not reached those triggers yet but became the first region to implement the stay-at-home plans Newsom outlined. Health officials for the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara said Friday that they want to act before hospitals grow too strained. California on Friday reported 22,000 new coronavirus infections, the highest ever single-day total for any state.

Here are a few of the significant developments included in this article.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has for the first time urged  universal mask use indoors.
• President-elect Joe Biden encouraged fellow Democrats to get on board with a bipartisan, $908 billion deal even as some liberals blasted it as insufficient.
• The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November — the slowest month of growth since the recovery began.
• Covid-19-related deaths are likely to reach 539,000 by April, according to a new estimate Friday.
• The United States has set new highs for daily infections three days in a row, climbed past 2,500 deaths a day for four straight days, and hit new highs for hospitalizations for the eighth consecutive day.

Federal Judge Orders the Trump Administration to Fully Reinstate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, The New York Times, Caitlin Dickerson and Michael D. Shear, Friday, 4 December 2020: “A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to fully restore an Obama-era program designed to shield young, undocumented immigrants from deportation, dealing what could be a final blow to President Trump’s long-fought effort to end the protections. The program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was created by President Barack Obama in 2012. Over the years, it has protected more than 800,000 individuals, known as ‘dreamers,’ who met a series of strict requirements for eligibility. Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn directed the administration to allow newly eligible immigrants to file new applications for protection under the program, reversing a memorandum issued in the summer by Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, which restricted the program to people who were already enrolled. As many as 300,000 new applicants could now be eligible, according to the lawyers who pushed for the reinstatement. The memo from the Department of Homeland Security also limited benefits under the program, including permits to work, to one year, but the judge on Friday ordered the government to restore them to a full two years. Judge Garaufis, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, also said the government must find a way to contact all immigrants who are eligible for the program to inform them of the change. The program still faces other challenges, including a case in federal court in Texas, where Republican attorneys general have asked a judge to declare the program unlawful. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has vowed to restore the DACA program when he takes office next month, but a legislative solution that would permanently allow the dreamers to live and work legally in the United States remains elusive, leaving their fates to the shifting political winds.” See also, Federal judge restores DACA and orders the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to accept first-time applications from immigrants, The Washington Post, Maria Sacchetti, Friday, 4 December 2020: “Thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children are immediately eligible to apply for an Obama-era program that grants them work permits, a federal judge in New York ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in Brooklyn said he was fully restoring the eight-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program to the days before the Trump administration tried to end it in September 2017. He ordered the Department of Homeland Security to post a public notice by Monday to accept first-time applications and ensure that work permits are valid for two years.”

Continue reading Week 203, Friday, 4 December  – Thursday, 10 December 2020 (Days 1,414-1,420):

Continue reading...

This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process. Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always.

 

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

 

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

 

Friday, 20 November 2020, Day 1,400:

 

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 20 November 2020: U.S. Passes 12 Million Covid-19 Cases. The country has also set a hospitalization record. Pfizer asked the F.D.A. for emergency approval of its vaccine, which might start being deployed by mid-December. The New York Times, Friday, 20 November 2020:

• U.S. records 12 millionth case as virus surge gathers speed.

• As curfews multiply, the U.S. breaks more records for new cases and hospitalizations.

• Pfizer applies for emergency authorization of its vaccine.

• Two Chinese port cities mobilize after finding a handful of cases.

• Donald Trump Jr. tests positive for coronavirus. He has been isolating since Monday.

• Andrew Giuliani, a White House official, tests positive after attending a news conference with his father and other Trump lawyers.

• Senator Rick Scott of Florida is the latest member of Congress to test positive.

• As the U.S. outbreak grows with alarming speed, political conflict hampers the response.

• Health care systems struggle as newly detected cases approach 200,000 a day in the U.S.

• Iran shuts businesses in 160 cities and adds restrictions to 200 more as cases rise.

Many other significant developments are included in this article.

Some significant developments in the coronavirus pandemic on Friday, 20 November 2020: Pfizer applies for emergency vaccine approval as U.S. cases reach new high, The Washington Post, Hannah Knowles, Carolyn Y. Johnson, Darren Sands, Derek Hawkins, Antonia Noori Farzan, Hamza Shaban, Ruby Mellen, Marisa Iati, and Jacqueline Dupree, Friday, 20 November 2020: “Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on Friday became the first companies to seek emergency authorization for a coronavirus vaccine in the United States, a landmark moment and a signal that a powerful tool to help control the pandemic could begin to be available by late December. Conditions around the country remain dire: The United States reported a record high of more than 196,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday and is likely to cross 12 million cases nationwide on Saturday, six days after surpassing 11 million.

Here are a few of the significant developments included in this article.

• The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee will meet Dec. 10 to consider the Pfizer-BioNTech request, the agency said late Friday.
• Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a spokesman.
• President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team condemned the Trump administration’s decision to end several emergency lending programs.
• Infection rates dropped in Kansas counties that adopted mask mandates over the summer, while rising sharply in counties that didn’t, according to new research.
• More than a quarter-million people in the United States have died of covid-19.

Pfizer Applies for Emergency Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) Approval for Covid-19 Vaccine, The New York Times, Noah Weiland and Katie Thomas, Friday, 20 November 2020: “The drug maker Pfizer said on Friday that it had submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, setting in motion an accelerated regulatory process that could allow the first Americans to get a vaccine by the middle of December. Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, announced Wednesday that the vaccine was safe and 95 percent effective, and that it also worked well in older people and in preventing severe Covid-19. Another front-runner, Moderna, said on Monday that its vaccine, which uses similar technology, was 94.5 percent effective and that the company also expected to apply soon for emergency authorization. The two vaccines use a synthetic version of coronavirus genetic material, called mRNA, to program a person’s cells to churn out many copies of a fragment of the virus. An emergency authorization would allow limited groups of Americans to get the vaccines before the F.D.A. has completed the typical monthslong approval process, but agency officials have made clear through new guidelines that their bar for emergency authorization will be high.”

Continue reading Week 201, Friday, 20 November  – Thursday, 26 November 2020 (Days 1,400-1,406)

Continue reading...

 

            Biden Beats Trump

  Kamala Harris Is First Woman             Elected Vice President

 

 

 

This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process. Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always.

 

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

 

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

 

Friday, 6 November 2020, Day 1,386:

 

Latest Election Results: Biden’s Lead Grows Slowly but Steadily. Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Trump by more than 28,000 votes in Pennsylvania, where a victory would give Mr. Biden the electoral votes he needs to win the presidency. He also widened his leads in Nevada and Georgia. The New York Times, Friday, 6 November 2020:

• Victory appears within Biden’s grasp as his lead widens in crucial battlegrounds.

• The vote counting has slowed to a crawl across three critical states.

• Perdue re-election race goes to runoff in Georgia, leaving Senate majority in limbo.

• In Detroit, Republican poll watchers are accused of using baseless challenges to delay ballot count.

• Biden, leading in Pennsylvania, nears victory in the state and the election.

• Biden’s lead grows in Nevada, putting him near victory there.

• As Biden takes the lead in Georgia, state officials say a recount is inevitable.

Other significant developments are included in this article.

Election 2020 live updates and results: Biden expresses confidence that he’ll win as states keep tallying votes, The Washington Post, Amy B Wang, Colby Itkowitz, John Wagner, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Brittany Shamas, Derek Hawkins, Elise Viebeck, and Josh Dawsey, Friday, 6 November 2020: “White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus, according to an administration official with knowledge of the diagnosis. This comes a little more than a month after President Trump and other members of his family and inner circle tested positive. The White House declined to comment Friday. Also Friday, former vice president Joe Biden addressed the public, acknowledging that votes were still being tabulated but expressing confidence he would soon be able to claim a win. ‘My fellow Americans, we don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers … tell us a clear and convincing story. We’re going to win this race,’ Biden said from Delaware.

Here are a few of the significant developments included in this article.

• Pennsylvania: Biden leads by close to 29,000 votes in the count.
• Georgia: Biden leads in the count by about 4,400 votes. Counties have finished counting early and absentee ballots and are focused on provisional ballots.
• Nevada: Biden leads in the count by more than 22,000 votes. More vote counts are expected at noon Eastern time on Saturday.
• Arizona: Biden’s lead in the vote count is just under 30,000 votes. Maricopa County, the state’s largest, has about 72,000 early ballots left to process and count, 5,000 early ballots to verify and 15,000 provisional ballots to process as of 9 p.m. Eastern on Friday, according to its elections department.

Trump has told people he has no plans to concede even if his path to victory is blocked, CNN Politics, Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins, Friday, 6 November 2020: “Facing a disappearing pathway to victory, President Donald Trump offered little indication on Friday he was prepared to concede defeat, leading those around him to wonder who might be able to reckon with a leader who has given virtually no thought to leaving the White House. Even as vote totals now show him trailing former Vice President Joe Biden in key battlegrounds, Trump has not prepared a concession speech and in conversations with allies in recent days has said he has no intention of conceding the election, people familiar with the matter said. So far he has been bolstered in his stance by those closest to him, including his senior advisers and his adult sons, who have mounted an aggressive effort in the courts to challenge the results and have pressured other Republicans into defending him. Top aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to come to terms with the President about the reality of what is happening. Instead, they have fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from underneath him. That has led to some annoyance among staff, who believe Meadows is feeding the President’s baseless claim that the election is illegitimate.”

Continue reading Week 199, Friday, 6 November  – Thursday, 12 November 2020 (Days 1,386-1,392)

Continue reading...

 

Passages in bold in the body of the texts below are usually my emphasis, though not always. This is an ongoing project, and I update the site frequently during the day. Because I try to stay focused on what has actually happened, I usually let the news ‘settle’ for a day or so before posting. I hope readers will peruse the articles in full for a better understanding of the issues and their context; our democracy and our future depend on citizens who can distinguish between facts and falsehoods and who are engaged in the political process.

 

For independent global news, visit Democracy Now!

 

For a newsletter about the history behind today’s politics, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter, Letters from an American.

 

Friday, 23 October 2020, Day 1,372:

 

Some Global Coronavirus Updates for Friday, 23 October 2020: Resurgent Coronavirus Rages Across the American Heartland.  The U.S. set a daily record of over 85,000 new cases on Friday. Hospitalizations are up 40 percent and deaths are creeping up in several states. New York Times, Friday, 23 October 2020:

• A resurgent virus attacks the heartland, just before the election.

• Hospitals on the brink of capacity as the virus continues its surge across the U.S.

• A soaring number of Covid-19 cases brings back ragged memories of mid-July.

• On college campuses, virus cases keep climbing.

• After pausing for safety concerns, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have resumed their U.S. vaccine trials.

• The Trump administration shut down a vaccine safety office last year. Now what?

• Poland comes close to a national lockdown with additional restrictions.

• A coronavirus revolt in England, and other news from around the world.

• Nepal suspends access to Mount Everest after a local virus case is detected.

Other significant developments are included in this article.

Some significant developments in the coronavirus pandemic for Friday, 23 October 2020: U.S. hits all-time high in daily new coronavirus cases, exceeding 80,000 in a day for the first time, The Washington Post, Antonia Noori Farzan, Rick Noack, Adam Taylor, Paulina Villegas, Kim Bellware, Jacqueline Dupree, Hamza Shaban, Hannah Knowles, and Darren Sands, Friday, 23 October 2020: “The United States hit an all-time high Friday in daily new coronavirus cases, surpassing the previous record set during a summer surge of cases across the Sun Belt. Friday’s tally — the first above 80,000 — comes as many states break their records for new infections. The average number of covid-19 hospitalizations has jumped in at least 38 states over the past week, a trend that cannot be explained by more widespread testing, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Fourteen states have also reported new highs in hospitalized covid-19 patients in the past seven days: Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Iowa, Utah, Montana, West Virginia, Missouri and Kansas. Health experts say the current wave is setting the stage for an even greater surge heading into colder months.

Here are a few of the significant developments included in this article.

• The Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine trial, paused because of a participant’s unexplained illness, will resume soon, and a vaccine candidate from AstraZeneca and Oxford University has been cleared to restart trials in the United States.
• Data from a project tracking real-time coronavirus statistics yields a particularly vivid illustration of how mask usage influences the prevalence of covid-19 symptoms in a given area. See it here.
• Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin delivered a downbeat assessment Friday about his economic stimulus talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), saying ‘significant differences’ remain.
• The governor of Italy’s third-most-populous region said Friday that he is enacting a strict lockdown, reimposing the rules of March and April that brought life to a standstill.
• The Trump administration has been pressuring health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to endorse the use of border hotels to hold migrant children before deporting them, according to federal health officials.
• A travel group report says flying is safe. The doctor whose research it cited says not so fast.

Herding People to Slaughter: The Dangerous Fringe Theory behind the Great Barrington Declaration and Push toward Herd Immunity, Union of Concerned Scientists, Derrick Z. Jackson, Friday, 23 October 2020: “Officials at the highest levels are discussing the possibility of caving in on controlling the coronavirus and instead letting it run rampant throughout the United States until we reach ‘herd immunity,’ the point where the virus effectively runs out of people to infect. More than 6,200 scientists, health professionals, and research organizations say this is inhumane and have signed a memorandum rejecting herd immunity as a legitimate strategy. Published last week in the The Lancet, the document is named for John Snow, considered the father of modern epidemiology for mapping out the 1854 London cholera epidemic to pinpoint its source and cause, deadly water contaminated by sewage that was managed by a particular water company. The John Snow Memorandum, signed by the Union of Concerned Scientists (and individually by my wife, a physician and epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health), warns that many factors render herd immunity a ‘dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence.’ Chief among them are that the coronavirus is much deadlier than the seasonal flu, and it remains unclear how long any immunity lasts after one recovers from an infection. That makes it likely that a herd immunity strategy, according to the memo, will surely cause a huge number of preventable deaths, run the risk of triggering recurrent epidemics, and potentially ‘overwhelm the ability of healthcare systems to provide acute and routine care.'”

Election 2020 Updates: With the Debates Over, Biden Assails Trump’s Coronavirus Response.More than 50 million Americans have already voted. The president returned to form on the campaign trail in Florida. Joe Biden’s vow to ‘transition away from the oil industry’ made waves. The New York Times, Friday, 23 October 2020:

• A day after a disciplined debate performance, Trump returns to form in Florida.

• An order allowing multiple drop boxes per county in Texas is upheld, but an appeal is likely.

• In a blow to the Trump campaign, a Pennsylvania court makes it harder to reject mail-in ballots.

• As their governor resists a mask mandate, Iowans sour on the G.O.P.

• Biden’s vow to ‘transition away from the oil industry’ is a double-edged political sword.

• TV ratings for the final Trump-Biden debate fell short of the first.

• New York City billboards featuring Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner draw a threatening letter.

• The C.D.C. offers tips for voting safely during a pandemic.

Continue reading Week 197, Friday, 23 October  – Thursday, 29 October 2020 (Days 1,372-1,378)

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