During his second period in office, which began in late 2012, Mr. Abe survived a few influence-peddling scandals and rode out numerous elections. In 2015, he pushed through contentious security legislation that permitted Japanese troops to engage in overseas combat missions alongside allied forces, as part of “collective self-defense.”
His political power peaked in 2017, when his party won a landslide victory that gave it, along with its coalition partners, two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. That was the supermajority required to push through a constitutional revision, but Mr. Abe never brought that dream to fruition, with public opposition to such a change remaining high.
Mr. Abe, who was in office when Tokyo won its bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics, resigned before he could preside over the Games, which were postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic.
By the time of his resignation, Mr. Abe was a hugely unpopular leader whose disapproval ratings had risen to their highest level since he began his second term.
The public was dissatisfied with his administration’s handling of the coronavirus, particularly its effects on the economy, which erased what achievements he could claim under his economic platform, known as “Abenomics.”
Under that program, Mr. Abe had administered a three-pronged plan of monetary easing, fiscal stimulation and corporate reform. Most of its promises of corporate reform — including efforts to empower women, reduce the influence of nepotism and change entrenched work culture — remained unfulfilled.
The prosecutors in Manhattan were apparently following up on leads from their case against Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former longtime fixer. Mr. Cohen was sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison, in part for organizing payments to cover up sex scandals that could have threatened Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the White House.
Among other documents seized during raids on Mr. Cohen’s home and office in the spring, investigators found a tape recording of a conversation with Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a friend of Melania Trump’s, who ran entities that collected $26 million from the fund. Ms. Winston Wolkoff blamed Mr. Barrack for news reports questioning the payments to her and criticized him for failing to properly manage the account, according to people who spoke with her. She complained about how he had handled the money to several friends, including Mr. Cohen, those people said.
The inaugural committee complied with all laws and “has not been contacted by any prosecutors,” said Mr. Blicksilver, who is also a spokesman for the fund. Its finances “were fully audited internally and independently,” and donors were fully vetted and disclosed to the Federal Election Commission, as required, he said.
In fact, though, the fund has already run into trouble related for both donations and expenditures. Mr. Gates, who is awaiting sentencing for crimes related to a financial fraud scheme he executed with Mr. Manafort, has testified that he may have submitted personal expenses for reimbursement from the fund. A later review of the inaugural expenses found no issue with his reimbursements, a person close to Mr. Gates said.
And this year, a well-known Republican lobbyist, Sam Patten, pleaded guilty to arranging for a Ukrainian oligarch and another foreigner to buy $50,000 worth of tickets to an inaugural event, using an American as a straw purchaser.
Investigators have asked witnesses whether other foreigners also contributed illegally to the inaugural committee. Once Mr. Trump was elected, foreign governments were frantically trying to build connections to the incoming administration, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Although it hosts and heavily subsidizes an American military base, Qatar is constantly striving to counter the influence of its powerful neighbors, also allies of the United States.
The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation.
The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum.
However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House.
Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes, and empowering partisan poll watchers — are designed to ensure the integrity of the vote by preventing voter fraud. Democrats say they make it harder for poor people and minorities to cast ballots.
The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night.Shutterstock
Most of the Democratic legislators flew to Washington on two chartered planes Monday, defying threats by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to have them arrested and forced into the legislative chamber for this month’s special session. Abbott has vowed to continue to call special sessions until next year’s elections, if necessary, until the election reform bill is passed.
Earlier Tuesday, the Texas House voted 76-4 to direct its Sergeant-at-Arms to send for all absentee members by “warrant of arrest if necessary.” After the vote, the chamber doors were locked. Four House Democrats who did not go to Washington were among the lawmakers still inside, while the voting mechanisms on the desks of those absent were locked.
State Rep. Eddie Morales, one of the four Democrats who remained, told reporters it was unlikely authorities dispatched to track down any absent lawmakers would travel outside the state to do so.
“I was told they will go to your home back in your district, they will go to your place of work, they will go to your apartment in Austin or wherever you live close by when you’re in session,” he said. “And also family and friends that they may know of.”
Joined by fellow Texas state House Democrats, Rep. Chris Turner (TX-101) speaks during a news conference on voting rights outside the U.S. Capitol on July 13, 2021 in Washington, DC.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
While in Washington, the Texas Democrats have pushed for Congress to pass two pieces of federal election reform legislation: the For The People Act, and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. They met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Demonstrators are gathered outside of the Texas State Capitol during a voting rights rally on the first day of the 87th Legislature’s special session on July 8, 2021 in Austin, Texas.Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images
“These folks are going to be remembered on the right side of history,” Schumer told reporters. “The governor and the Republican legislators will be remembered on the dark and wrong side of history.”
UVALDE, Texas – A gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde on Tuesday, killing 14 students and one teacher, Gov. Greg Abbott said. The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Romas, was also killed, Abbott said. Romas was reportedly a student at Uvalde High School or was a former student, Abbott said. Uvalde Police Chief Pete Arredondo said it appears that Romas acted alone.
Abbott said Romas shot his grandmother before he went on the shooting rampage around 11:30 a.m. at Robb Elementary School, where second through fourth graders attend. Romas entered the school with a handgun, and possibly a rifle, and opened fire, Abbott said. He said the shooter was likely killed by responding officers but that the events were still being investigated.
Two law enforcement officers were shot but are expected to be OK, Abbott said.
University Health officials said a 10-year-old girl and a 66-year-old woman were being treated at University Hospital and were in critical condition.
“Texans across the state are grieving for the victims of this senseless crime and for the community of Uvalde,” Abbott said. “Cecilia and I mourn this horrific loss and we urge all Texans to come together to show our unwavering support to all who are suffering. We thank the courageous first responders who worked to finally secure Robb Elementary School. I have instructed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Rangers to work with local law enforcement to fully investigate this crime. The Texas Division of Emergency Management is charged with providing local officials all resources necessary to respond to this tragedy as the State of Texas works to ensure the community has what it needs to heal.”
President Joe Biden is expected to address the shooting Wednesday night, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said.
“President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to be briefed regularly as information becomes available. His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event,” she said.
Arredondo said that families of the victims were being notified.
The shooting was the deadliest at a school in Texas history and occurred four years after a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area, the Associated Press reported.
A news conference on what police know about the shooting in the Hill Country community located about 85 miles west of San Antonio is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Hospital officials said several students are being treated in the emergency room. Immediate family members of the injured students are asked to report to the hospital cafeteria on the second floor. UMH staff will keep in constant contact with those family members. Hospital officials ask residents who are not immediate family members to stay away from the hospital.
Police walk near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
Students were evacuated to Willie DeLeon Civic Center and that parents are now allowed to pick up their children there.
The district canceled all school activities.
The San Antonio Police Department has sent resources to the school and is standing by to assist as further needed, Police Chief William McManus said.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the county was also sending help to the grief-stricken community.
“It is with profound grief and broken hearts that we learn about the news coming our way this afternoon. We stand united with the community in Uvalde and offer our assistance. We also mourn with them over the lives of those children and adults lost to violence. Bexar County is sending personnel and material from the Office of Emergency Management, the Medical Examiner’s Office, the Sheriff’s Office, and University Hospital to support the ongoing operation,” Wolff said.
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
Emergency personnel gather near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills) (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
The White House hit back at Russian President Vladimir Putin after he repeatedly slammed the U.S. and Western world in a wide-ranging speech.
Putin claimed international sanctions imposed on Russia following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine were a “danger” to the world. He added that the U.S. was willing to sacrifice Europe, which is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis as energy prices soar as the war continues, in order to preserve what he called its global “dictatorship.”
Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday, Putin slammed the collective West, singling out the U.S. to blame it for the economic pain that sanctions on Russia are causing Europe and beyond as global energy and food prices soar.
Washington defended its stance toward Russia, a country widely condemned by the West for its continuing war on Ukraine, with a State Department spokesperson telling CNBC in emailed comments that “sanctions and export controls are working, and President Putin is desperate to convince the world otherwise.”
“Despite President Putin’s comments at the Eastern Economic Forum, Russia is paying a heavy price for his full-scale war on Ukraine, which continues to result in climbing costs – tens of thousands of Russian soldiers killed, 14 million Ukrainian citizens forced to flee their homes, historic cities pounded to rubble – all because Putin is determined to conquer another country,” the official added.
Russia’s own policymakers – including its finance minister – have conceded that sanctions have caused the country serious challenges, according to the State Department spokesperson. “Russia’s economy is vulnerable to the cutoff from the global economy and will surely suffer a sustained decline in economic activity. Putin’s war is projected to wipe out much of Russia’s economic gains over the last 15 years.”
The Russian government is being forced to spend more and more to prop up its economy, the spokesperson noted, adding that official Russian sources put the country’s budget deficit at more than $15 billion in the month of July alone.
Putin has sought to mitigate the bite of sanctions by turning to India and China to sell its oil. Reuters reported in August that the Russian Economy Ministry expects higher oil export volumes, coupled with rising gas prices, to boost Russia’s earnings from energy exports to $337.5 billion this year, a 38% rise on 2021.
On Wednesday, Putin said Russia would post a budget surplus this year, but conceded that growth was being hit and gross domestic product would fall by “around 2% or a little more.”
Russia’s central bank has gloomier expectations for the economy as winter approaches, forecasting a deepening contraction of 7% in the third quarter, following a 4.3% slump in the second quarter, Reuters said last month citing a report from the central bank. The bank expects the economy to start recovering in the second half of 2023. Annual inflation stood at 15.1% in July, above the EU rate of 9.8% in the same month.
If the COVID-19 vaccine rollout seems chaotic and incomprehensible, with numbers that don’t add up and allocations that don’t make sense, you’re not alone.
Even people who study this for a living are at a loss.
“None of us know what’s going on,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
He has been trying to understand how figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House and the states fit together, but can’t.
“I don’t understand why there’s not more transparency,” he said. “They could easily hold a webinar every day to go through the numbers – this is how many boxes we shipped, this is how many boxes are coming next week. The more they don’t do that, the more acrimony that’s created between states and the federal government.”
Overall, the trends are positive but the pace will need to intensify significantly to meet deadlines the White House announced this week.
Since Jan. 25, COVID-19 vaccine distribution from the federal government has increased 57%. As of this week, it’s up to 13.5 million doses shipped per week.
“We are on track to have enough vaccine supply for 300 million Americans by the end of July,” Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said in a task force briefing Wednesday.
To get the scheduled two doses of the authorized vaccines to 300 million people, distribution from the federal government will need to ramp up by about one-third. At the current level, it would take until September.
Given how fast things have been increasing, that seemsfeasible. However, no actual data on future increases has been announced by the White House.
So, what happened? Why are there questions about supply and deliveries?
If things appear to be on track, why is there so much chaos at the state level, with long lines, people unable to get appointments and clinics closing due to lack of vaccine?
There are several reasons. One is a lack of federal transparency about vaccine supply and shipments and continued fluctuation of vaccine deliveries, all of which confuse and confound states.
Public health officials are frustrated over an ongoing lack of clarity. It’s impossible to know exactly how much vaccine is being shipped and to where and to whom it’s been administered – information they need to plan.
Vaccine is delivered, and tallied, through several separate programs, including ones for states, nursing homes and long-term care facilities, Federally Qualified Health Centers and private pharmacies. Some doses are controlled by states themselves and some by federal programs.
The National Governors Association sent a public letter to President Joe Biden this week asking for more clarity, including “visibility into the federal vaccination efforts at the facility level happening in our borders.”
The letter cited “the anxiety created by the demand and supply of the vaccine,” and asked for better reporting to avoid confusion.
This didn’t help, either: Some states decided to play by their own rules
States also shoulder a share of the blame. Experts say they opened up vaccinations to ever-widening groups too quickly, even though supplies were in short supply.
“We knew all along there would be a limited number of doses at the beginning and we would have to prioritize,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “Somewhere in there, the vaccine got overpromised.”
That resulted in long lines, seniors waiting overnight for vaccine, crashing appointment websites and general chaos as Florida’s more than 4 million seniors clamored to get vaccinated.
What needs to happen now to fix this? Let’s start with honest messaging.
Currently, in 35 states plus the District of Columbia, people 65 and older can seek an appointment, according to the White House. But other states haven’t moved beyond vaccinating essential workers and those 75 and above.
Wisconsin’s legislature is debating this week whether to add teachers to phase 1a.
Early finger-pointing that states were going too slow may have driven the rush for speed and bypassing of the guidelines. In any case, he said, vaccine got overpromised.
“We suddenly skipped through the ACIP guidelines and told all these people they were eligible, he said. “I don’t know if that was the most judicious thing to do. It probably would have been better if we’d held our ground.”
Other states, such as Georgia, have resisted widely broadening who is eligible for vaccine, said Glen Nowak, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Health and Risk Communications and a former communication director for the National Immunization Program at the CDC.
The governor there has been consistent saying there isn’t yet enough vaccine for the first priority groups so he’s not going to open it up yet. “He’s saying, ‘I hear you, I want to do that. but we don’t have enough vaccine right now,'” Nowak said.
To make the rollout not seem like it’s out of control, states need to manage expectations. “Broadening it isn’t going to help, it’s going to make things worse,” he said.
What’s needed are honest messages that this process can’t happen overnight. While not everyone will get the vaccine immediately, everyone will get vaccine eventually, said Dr. Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group, and editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine.
“The cure is tincture of time,” he said. Though he did acknowledge, “That’s easy for me to say now that I’ve now gotten both my doses.”
Where Operation Warp Speed fell short: ‘A huge communications failure’
A big part of the problem, since before the first doses of the vaccine were shipped, has been the lack of clear, consistent communication, experts say. That’s made the job of explaining what’s happening now with the vaccine supply even harder.
There was no way everyone in America was going to be immunized immediately, he said, but that message didn’t get out. Millions of Americans have expressed anger and frustration about something that Slaoui and his team thought they had clearly explained.
“Every single time we said, ‘We will produce enough vaccine doses to immunize the U.S. population by the summer of 2021.’ It is understood in that statement that it’s going to take six, seven months to have enough vaccine to immunize everybody,” he said. “But, in fact, I think we should have communicated much, much better that there will not be enough vaccine for everybody immediately.”
It’s going to take time to overcome that deficit of trust and information, said Dr. Kelly Moore, deputy director of the nonprofit Immunization Action Coalition.
“We will never recapture the opportunities that were lost to build a solid foundation for the vaccination program before vaccines began rolling out,” she said, “but we’re getting back on track and the signs give me hope.”
MOSCOW/BRUSSELS, Jan 24 (Reuters) – NATO said on Monday it was putting forces on standby and reinforcing eastern Europe with more ships and fighter jets, in what Russia denounced as Western “hysteria” in response to its build-up of troops on the Ukraine border.
The U.S. Department of Defense in Washington said about 8,500 American troops were put on heightened alert and were awaiting orders to deploy to the region, should Russia invade Ukraine.
Tensions are high after Russia massed an estimated 100,000 troops in reach of its neighbour’s border, surrounding Ukraine with forces from the north, east and south.
Russia denies planning an invasion and Moscow is citing the Western response as evidence that Russia is the target, not the instigator, of aggression.
President Joe Biden, pushing for transatlantic unity, held an 80-minute secure video call with a number of European leaders on Monday from the White House Situation Room to discuss the Ukraine crisis.
Biden told reporters “I had a very, very, very good meeting” with the Europeans, which included the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Poland. He said there was “total unanimity.”
A White House statement said the leaders “discussed their joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine, including preparations to impose massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia for such actions as well as to reinforce security on NATO’s eastern flank.”
Welcoming a series of deployments announced by alliance members in recent days, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg earlier said NATO would take “all necessary measures.”
“We will always respond to any deterioration of our security environment, including through strengthening our collective defence,” Stoltenberg said in a statement.
He told a news conference that the enhanced presence on NATO’s eastern flank could also include the deployment of battlegroups in the southeast of the alliance.
So far, NATO has about 4,000 troops in multinational battalions in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, backed by tanks, air defences and intelligence and surveillance units.
U.S. officials said the Pentagon was finalising efforts to identify specific units that it could deploy to NATO’s eastern flank.
One of the officials said up to 5,000 could be deployed, while a NATO diplomat said Washington was considering gradually transferring some troops stationed in western Europe to eastern Europe in the coming weeks. read more
Denmark, Spain, France and the Netherlands were all planning or considering sending troops, planes or ships to eastern Europe, NATO said. Ukraine shares borders with four NATO countries: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.
A Polish official said Warsaw would draw the line at sending troops to Ukraine.
GROWING TENSIONS
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A service member of the Ukrainian armed forces walks at combat positions near the line of separation from Russian-backed rebels near Horlivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, January 22, 2022. Picture taken January 22, 2022. Picture taken REUTERS/Anna Kudriavtseva/File Photo
As tensions grow, Britain said it was withdrawing some staff and dependents from its embassy in Ukraine, a day after the United States said it was ordering diplomats’ family members to leave. U.S. diplomats are being allowed to leave voluntarily.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the West of “hysteria” and putting out information “laced with lies”.
“As for specific actions, we see statements by the North Atlantic Alliance about reinforcement, pulling forces and resources to the eastern flank. All this leads to the fact that tensions are growing,” he said.
“This is not happening because of what we, Russia, are doing. This is all happening because of what NATO and the U.S. are doing and due to the information they are spreading.”
Global stock markets skidded as the prospect of a Russian attack quashed demand for riskier assets such as bitcoin, and bolstered the dollar and oil. The rouble hit a 14-month low against the dollar, and Russian stocks and bonds tumbled. read more
Russia has used its troop build-up to draw the West into discussions after presenting demands to redraw Europe’s security map. It wants NATO never to admit Ukraine and to pull back troops and weapons from former Communist countries in eastern Europe that joined it after the Cold War.
Washington says those demands are non-starters but it is ready to discuss other ideas on arms control, missile deployments and confidence-building measures.
Russia is awaiting a written U.S. response this week after talks last Friday – the fourth round this month – produced no breakthrough.
‘PAINFUL, VIOLENT AND BLOODY’
Asked whether he thought an invasion was imminent, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told broadcasters that intelligence was “pretty gloomy on this point” but that “sense can still prevail.”
He repeated Western warnings that invading Ukraine would be “a painful, violent and bloody business” for Russia. read more
The United States and the European Union, wary of Russia’s intentions since it seized Crimea and backed separatists fighting government forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014, have told Russia it will face crippling penalties if it attacks again.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels warned Russia it would face “massive” consequences, but are divided over how tough to be on Moscow and did not say what the consequences might be. read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told EU President Charles Michel, who was also on the call with Biden, that it was important for Kyiv that the EU showed unity.
“Ukraine will not fall for provocations, and together with its partners, will remain calm and restrained,” his office said.
The European Commission, the EU executive body, proposed a 1.2-billion euro ($1.36-billion) financial aid package to help Ukraine mitigate the effects of the conflict. read more
A Russian delegation source said political advisers from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany would meet in Paris on Wednesday for talks on resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine, in which some 15,000 people have been killed since 2014. Previous efforts have failed to yield any breakthrough.
Even before today’s news, experts complained that epidemiological information from China has been incomplete, threatening containment efforts.
The new coronavirus is highly transmissible and will be difficult to squelch. A single infected “super-spreader” can infect dozens of others. Outbreaks can seem to recede, only to rebound in short order, as the weather or conditions change.
Recent clusters of coronavirus cases suggest the new coronavirus not only spreads quickly, but also in ways that are not entirely understood.
In Hong Kong, people living 10 floors apart were infected, and an unsealed pipe was blamed. A British citizen apparently infected 10 people, including some at a ski chalet, before he even knew he was sick.
In Tianjin, China, at least 33 of 102 confirmed patients had a connection of some sort with a large department store.
“This outbreak could still go in any direction,” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday.
A change in diagnosis may make it still harder to track the virus, said Dr. Peter Rabinowitz, co-director of the University of Washington MetaCenter for Pandemic Preparedness and Global Health Security.
Health experts are desperately warning Americans not to fly, train or drive to see family and say that absent changes to Americans’ typical holiday season behavior, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner could lead to thousands more funerals by Christmas.
More than 250,000 Americans have died from the disease since March. Canada had kept the pandemic in check compared with its neighbor to the south, but the new surge has officials there sounding caution as well.
An urgent warning against travel came this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after more than a million new Covid cases were recorded over seven days. Some governors and state officials have been even more blunt: stay home.
“What’s at stake is basically the increased chance of one of your loved ones becoming sick and being hospitalized and dying,” said Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 incident manager. “And around these holidays, we tend to get people together from multiple generations.”
AAA forecasts Thanksgiving travel to drop at least 10 percent from 2019 — the biggest one-year decline since the 2008 recession — but notes that CDC and state guidance will likely convince even more prospective travelers to stay home. Still, the high end of that forecast is 50 million Americans hopping in cars or onto planes to sit down to tables with all the trimmings.
So while some Americans are planning for Zoomsgiving, Canadians are dealing with a post-Thanksgiving surge. And now, talk about Christmas is dire.
New public health modeling projects that Canada could see up to 60,000 new cases of Covid per day — more than a dozen times current levels — by the end of December if people increase their contacts and celebrate the holidays as normal. Even the status quo for Canadians would translate to more than 20,000 new cases daily, according to the projections, or about five times higher than today. The runaway numbers have been attributed in part to Thanksgiving gatherings.
Trudeau implored Canadians on Friday to stay home and avoid traveling if they can. “In the coming weeks, we need to flatten this curve,” he said.
The comments were a significant change in tone for the prime minister who suggested to Canadians throughout the fall that they had “a shot at Christmas,” provided they hunker down. “We all want to try and have as normal a Christmas as possible even though a normal Christmas is, quite frankly, right out of the question,” Trudeau said Friday.
Provincial premiers have been reluctant to reimpose the stark measures from the spring on their residents for fear of further damaging economies. Still, some have flirted with greater restrictions as cases continue to mount — Ontario just announced new lockdowns in hot spots, and Quebec has a plan to allow gatherings of up to 10 people for four days around Christmas while imploring residents to self-quarantine for a week before and after the events.
Throughout the U.S., governors are increasingly instituting limits on public and private gatherings and testing and quarantine requirements for those who choose to travel out of state.
A bipartisan group of Midwestern governors urged their residents on Tuesday to adhere to public health guidelines when celebrating this week. New Jersey tightened its limit for indoor gatherings to 10 people, akin to New York’s requirements for indoor and outdoor get-togethers. California, the nation’s most populous state, is now imposing a 10 p.m. curfew.
Several states, including Alaska, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont, have instituted quarantine or testing requirements for out-of-state visitors. But the thresholds are hardly uniform, and the requirements themselves are difficult to enforce.
In both countries, the holidays coincide with growing Covid fatigue and colder weather that is moving social gatherings indoors, factors that are surely fueling case spikes. Add to that conflicting messages from government officials about how to approach the holiday season and Canada and the U.S. each have recipes for potential disaster.
The Trump administration’s top health officials implored Americans on Wednesday to adhere to CDC guidelines and to state and local directives. Thesame day, the White House press secretary described state-level travel warnings as “Orwellian” — even though the president has delegated the pandemic response to lower levels of government. Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro on Friday called Democratic governors’ lockdowns “a regressive tax on the poor.”
Even Trudeau’s rhetoric on the holidays and the government’s response to the virus has shifted over time.
Most of Canada shut down in the spring as government and health officials scrambled to learn more about the virus. Now in the country’s second wave, Trudeau has let provinces, which are responsible for providing health care in Canada, take the lead in deciding what restrictions are necessary in their jurisdictions. He’s stopped well short of invoking a law that would give the federal government greater control in locking down the entire country, insisting it’s unnecessary, though he’s begun prodding certain provinces to do more to protect their citizens.
And now, the efforts by Trudeau and Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, to save Christmas are colored by the latest modeling.
Trudeau warned earlier this week that the holiday season “will be different this year” depending on certain factors — “what region of the country you’re in, what people are able to do between now and the holidays in order to flatten the curve, to reduce the number of cases.”
Tam suggested Canadians have “the talk” with family members about expectations they must meet in order to spend Christmas together, such as limiting contact with those outside their households for 14 days before a visit or wearing masks inside the whole time.
“We have every chance to bend the curve,” she said Friday.
With Americans eager to see friends and family,the travel industry this week had to walk a tightrope between promoting air travel as safe and acknowledging the health risks of holiday travel spelled out by the nation’s top doctors.
“The CDC advised that people should reconsider their travel plans. This further underscores the need to be really smart and highly vigilant on health and safety protocols if you’re going to choose to travel,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association.
“I’d rather have a little less travel now to come back more quickly down the road.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday tried to explain her lack of office hours by saying she’s still taking “baby steps” — but said constituents who can’t work with her sporadic schedule should follow her on Twitter.
Almost four months after her inauguration, the freshman congresswoman only recently opened a Queens office and still doesn’t have one in the Bronx.
Instead, on Thursday, she appeared at the Westchester Square Library for just two hours during the workday, where she met with 17 locals.
“Right now we’re just taking these baby steps and adapting according to community feedback,” the 29-year-old told The Post when asked why her brief availability was in the middle of the day.
“We don’t want to be too concrete, we adapt to the feedback of the community, so if we hear that folks want more evening hours we’re happy to do that.”
Asked what people with jobs should do in the meantime, she suggested: “You can give us a call, you can email us, you can add us on social media.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that she’s “constantly” attending community events, noting that she’d be at Bronx Community Board 9 that night.
But when asked for a schedule of future events she’d be attending so her constituents could find her, the self-described Democratic socialist claimed she wasn’t “allowed.”
“Due to safety reasons I’m not allowed to, so Capitol Police, uh, yeah, it’s intense, so, Capitol Police recommend that we don’t give specific details about where we will be and when too far in advance,” she said.
The Capitol Police said it wouldn’t comment on its “consultations” with “Member offices on security-related matters,” but a Democratic House aide said the cops “have nothing to do with the decision to have a public schedule or not.”
“The police don’t tell us what to do. The police did not send out a memo that we advise you not to send out a public schedule,” said the aide.
“You still have to provide the information publicly so your constituents can come.”
In a Time cover story published Thursday, Ocasio-Cortez’s staffers said they’d been trained on how to screen visitors because of the mounting number of death threats targeting the freshman lawmaker.
The rattled aides said they now worry whenever they hear a knock on the door of her office on Capitol Hill.
Those who were never banned from traveling across the land borders, including commercial drivers and students, will also need to show proof of vaccination when crossing starting in January, giving them some time to adjust to the new rules, officials said. Those crossing land borders will not need to show a coronavirus test.
Foreigners hoping to fly to the United States will need to show proof of vaccination before boarding and a negative coronavirus test within three days of entering.
Unvaccinated Americans traveling from overseas will need to test negative for the coronavirus one day before returning home and show proof that they have bought a test to take after arriving in the United States.
The U.S. Travel Association, an industry group, applauded the moves.
“The date is critically important for planning — for airlines, for travel-supported businesses, and for millions of travelers worldwide who will now advance plans to visit the United States once again,” Roger Dow, the group’s president, said in a statement. “Reopening to international visitors will provide a jolt to the economy and accelerate the return of travel-related jobs that were lost due to travel restrictions.”
A spokeswoman for Airlines for America, another industry group, noted that even before the announcement of the date, airlines had seen an uptick in ticket sales to the United States from abroad.
SAN FRANCISCO — Chesa Boudin, the son of anti-war radicals sent to prison for murder when he was a toddler, has won San Francisco’s tightly contested race for district attorney after campaigning to reform the criminal justice system.
The former deputy public defender declared victory Saturday night after four days of ballot counting determined he was ahead of interim District Attorney Suzy Loftus. The latest results from the San Francisco Department of Elections gave Boudin a lead of 8,465 votes.
Loftus conceded and said she will work to ensure a smooth and immediate transition.
Boudin, 39, became the latest candidate across the nation to win district attorney elections by pushing for sweeping reform over incarceration. He said he wants to tackle racial bias in the criminal justice system, overhaul the bail system, protect immigrants from deportation and pursue accountability in police misconduct cases.
Chesa Boudin shown with his father, David Gilbert, in the maximum security prison where he is serving a sentence for killing a Brinks guard and two police officers during a robbery by the radical group The Weather Underground.Ralf-Finn Hestoft / Corbis via Getty Images
“The people of San Francisco have sent a powerful and clear message: It’s time for radical change to how we envision justice,” Boudin said in a statement. “I’m humbled to be a part of this movement that is unwavering in its demand for transformation.”
Boudin entered the race as an underdog and captured voters’ attention with his extraordinary life story: He was 14 months old when his parents, who were members of the far-left Weather Underground, dropped him off with a babysitter and took part in an armored car robbery in upstate New York that left two police officers and a security guard dead.
His mother, Kathy Boudin, served 22 years behind bars and his father, David Gilbert, may spend the rest of his life in prison.
“Growing up, I had to go through a metal detector and steel gates just to give my parents a hug,” Boudin said in his campaign video.
He said that as one of the dozens of people whose lives were shattered by the deadly robbery in 1981, he experienced first-hand the destructive effects of mass incarceration and it motivated him to reform the nation’s broken criminal justice system.
He was raised in Chicago by Weather Underground leaders Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn before studying law at Yale University. He later won a Rhodes Scholarship and worked as a translator for Venezuela’s late President Hugo Chavez before coming to San Francisco.
He remained close to his parents and posted a photo on his Facebook campaign page of a family reunion in New York this past week.
In this Nov. 21, 1981, file photo, Katherine Boudin is led from Rockland County Courthouse in New York.Handschuh / AP
Loftus was appointed the interim district attorney by Mayor London Breed last month after George Gascon announced he was resigning and moving to Los Angeles to explore a run for DA there.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California accused Breed of undermining the democratic process.
Loftus was endorsed by the city’s Democratic establishment, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris.
“San Francisco has always been supportive of a progressive approach to criminal justice … It’s the nature of that town and I congratulate the winner,” Harris said Sunday while campaigning in Iowa for the Democratic presidential nomination. Loftus worked for Harris when she was the city’s district attorney.
Boudin received high-profile support from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and writer and civil rights activist Shaun King.
“Now is the moment to fundamentally transform our racist and broken criminal justice system by ending mass incarceration, the failed war on drugs and the criminalization of poverty,” Sanders tweeted Saturday when he congratulated Boudin on his win.
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