US virus deaths hit record levels with the holidays ahead

Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the U.S.

“What we do now literally will be a matter of life and death for many of our citizens,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday as he extended restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, including a ban on indoor dining and drinking at restaurants and bars.

While the impending arrival of the vaccine is reason for hope, he said, “at the moment, we have to face reality, and the reality is that we are suffering a very dire situation with the pandemic.”

Elsewhere around the country, North Carolina's governor imposed a 10 p.m. curfew, and authorities in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley sent a mass cellphone text alert Tuesday telling millions about the rapid spread of the virus and urging them to abide by the state's stay-at-home orders.

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UK starts virus campaign with a shot watched round the world

LONDON (AP) — A nurse rolled up 90-year-old Margaret Keenan’s sleeve and administered a shot watched round the world -– the first jab in the U.K.’s COVID-19 vaccination program kicking off an unprecedented global effort to try to end a pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people.

Keenan, a retired shop clerk from Northern Ireland who celebrates her birthday next week, was at the front of the line at University Hospital Coventry to receive the vaccine that was approved by British regulators last week.

The U.K. is the first Western country to deliver a broadly tested and independently reviewed vaccine to the general public. The COVID-19 shot was developed by U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech. U.S. and European Union regulators may approve it in the coming days or weeks.

“All done?” Keenan asked nurse May Parsons. “All done,” came the reply, as hospital staff broke into applause and also clapped for her as she was wheeled down a corridor.

“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19,” said Keenan, who wore a surgical mask and a blue “Merry Christmas” T-shirt with a cartoon penguin in a Santa hat. “It’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year.”

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Biden calls for action on virus as he introduces health team

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday called for urgent action on the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced a health care team that will be tested at every turn while striving to restore the nation to normalcy.

Biden laid out three COVID-19 priorities for his first 100 days in office: a call for all Americans to voluntarily mask up during those 100 days, a commitment to administer 100 million vaccines and a pledge to try to reopen a majority of the nation's schools.

“I know that out of our collective pain, we will find our collective purpose: to control the pandemic, to save lives, and to heal as a nation," Biden said.

The president-elect also said he would use the power of the federal government to require people to wear masks in federal buildings and when travelling from state to state on planes, trains and buses.

Mostly that would codify policies already in place. But Biden said he would urge governors and mayors to impose similar requirements.

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New White House offer adds $600 checks to COVID-19 relief

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration dove back into Capitol Hill's confusing COVID-19 negotiations on Tuesday, offering a $916 billion package to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans — but eliminate a $300 per week employment benefit favoured by a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made the offer to Pelosi late Tuesday afternoon, he said in a statement. He offered few details, though House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said it proposes the $600 direct payment for individuals and $1,200 for couples, which is half the payment delivered by the March pandemic relief bill.

Mnuchin reached out to Pelosi after a call with top congressional GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who remains at odds with Democratic leaders over COVID-19 relief. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., responded to Mnuchin's entreaty with a statement that said they would prefer to let a bipartisan group take the lead.

The bipartisan group, led by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, among others, is seeking to rally lawmakers in both parties behind a $908 billion framework that includes a $300-per-week pandemic jobless benefit and $160 billion for states and local governments. It is more generous than a GOP plan that’s been filibustered twice already but far smaller than a wish list assembled by House Democrats.

McConnell had earlier proposed shelving a top Democratic priority — aid to state and local governments — in exchange for dropping his own pet provision, a shield against lawsuits for COVID-related negligence. Democrats angrily rejected the idea, saying McConnell was undermining the efforts of a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators and reneging on earlier statements that state and local aid would likely have to be an element of a COVID-19 relief agreement given Democratic control of the House.

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Trump hails vaccine 'miracle,' with millions of doses soon

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump celebrated the expected approval of the first U.S. vaccine for the coronavirus Tuesday as the White House worked to instil confidence in the massive distribution effort that will largely be executed by President-elect Joe Biden

Trump said the expected approvals are coming before most people thought possible. “They say it’s somewhat of a miracle and I think that’s true," he declared.

Trump led Tuesday's White House event celebrating “Operation Warp Speed,” his administration's effort to produce and distribute safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19. The first vaccine, from drugmaker Pfizer, is expected to receive endorsement by a panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers as soon as this week, with delivery of 100 million doses — enough for 50 million Americans — expected in coming months.

“Every American who wants the vaccine will be able to get the vaccine and we think by spring we’re going to be in a position nobody would have believed possible just a few months ago,” Trump said.

Pfizer developed its vaccine outside of “Operation Warp Speed,” but is partnering with the federal government on manufacturing and distribution.

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'A new movement': Trump's false claims take hold in states

HOUSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s campaign to subvert the will of voters and reverse his reelection loss to Democrat Joe Biden is taking hold among state and local Republicans even as it marches toward imminent failure — a demonstration of Trump’s power to bend the GOP to his will even as he leaves office.

Dozens of state lawmakers, elected officials and party leaders in recent weeks have endorsed and advanced Trump’s false claims, and in some cases called for undemocratic actions to reverse results. None of the moves have had an impact on the election results — and even Republican governors have certified Biden’s win. Still, activists say they see the so-called “stop the steal” campaign as the animating force behind the next wave of Trump-era conservative politics.

“I definitely see a brand new movement taking shape,” said Monica Boyer, a former lobbyist in Indiana and early national voice of the tea party movement. “Was this election stolen? I don’t know. But people have the right to know.”

Signs of the power of that burgeoning political force have been building: In Pennsylvania, 64 Republican lawmakers — including leadership — have signed a statement urging members of Congress to block the state's electoral votes from being cast for Biden. In Texas, the state's Republican attorney general has filed a lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court demanding that other states' Electoral College votes be invalidated.

Even in liberal Massachusetts, five GOP candidates who lost their races filed a federal lawsuit Monday trying to decertify the state’s election results, recycling claims about irregularities and voting machines.

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AP sources: Biden picks Fudge for housing, Vilsack for USDA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden made two key domestic policy picks on Tuesday, selecting Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.

The picks highlighted Biden’s delicate balancing act as he builds out his Cabinet, seeking to diversify his picks and reward the coalitions that helped elect him while also following his instincts to surround himself with close allies who served in the Obama administration.

Fudge, a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, was just elected to a seventh term representing a majority Black district that includes parts of Cleveland and Akron. Vilsack spent eight years as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Obama administration and served two terms as Iowa governor.

Their intended nominations were confirmed to The Associated Press by five people familiar with one or both of the decisions who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid preempting the president-elect’s announcement.

Biden has viewed Fudge as a leading voice for working families and a longtime champion of affordable housing, infrastructure and other priorities, while Vilsack was selected in part because of the heightened hunger crisis facing the nation and the need to ensure someone was ready to run the department on day one, according to those briefed on the decision.

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House approves defence bill with veto-proof margin

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House on Tuesday easily approved a wide-ranging defence policy bill, defying a veto threat from President Donald Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration.

The 335-78 vote in favour of the $731 billion defence measure came hours after Trump renewed his threat to veto the bill unless lawmakers clamp down on social media companies he claims were biased against him during the election.

Trump tweeted Tuesday that he will veto "the very weak National Defence Authorization Act,'' or NDAA, unless it repeals so-called Section 230, a part of the communications code that shields Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants from content liability. Trump also wants Congress to strip out a provision of the bill that allows renaming of military bases that now honour Confederate leaders.

Congressional leaders vowed to move ahead on the hugely popular bill — which affirms automatic 3% pay raises for U.S. troops and authorizes other military programs — despite the veto threat.

The final vote represented approval from more than 80% of the House — well above the two-thirds support required to override a potential veto. A total of 140 Republicans joined 195 Democrats to back the bill, which now goes to the Senate.

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Legal panel: Free Minneapolis man jailed for life as teen

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A national panel of legal experts recommended the immediate release of a Black man sentenced to life in prison as a teenager nearly two decades ago.

The panel also said Minneapolis police appear to have suffered from “tunnel vision” while investigating the case of Myon Burrell, who was convicted of killing a little girl hit by a stray bullet in 2002. In addition, the panel said, among the other serious flaws in the high-profile case, police ignored witnesses and evidence that might have helped eliminate Burrell as a suspect.

The panel, which was created to examine Burrell's conviction and sentence, released it's report Tuesday. Many of its findings mirrored those uncovered by an Associated Press and APM Reports investigation earlier this year. They included unreliable testimony from the sole eyewitness; a heavy reliance on jailhouse informants who received “extraordinarily generous” sentence reductions in exchange for their testimonies; and a failure to retrieve surveillance video from a corner store — footage that Burrell, now 34, has always maintained would have cleared him.

The eight-member panel was unable to address Burrell’s guilt or innocence, saying its work was hampered by Hennepin County Prosecutor Mike Freeman’s failure to provide all of the evidence the panel requested. It recommended that the case be handed over to the state’s new conviction review unit for further investigation, noting that the missing police and prosecution files, witness interviews, tape recordings and details about deals cut with jailhouse informants “may yield new evidence of actual innocence or due process issues.”

In the meantime, the panel members said they supported Burrell’s release from prison, noting his age at the time of the crime, that he had no prior record and that he behaved well behind bars. They pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has argued against overly harsh sentences for juveniles, saying their brains and decision-making skills are not fully developed.

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'First Cow,' 'Nomadland' top AP's best films of 2020

Good movies kept coming in 2020, even when everything else stopped. In a year that often felt like its own kind of cataclysmic Hollywood production, the movies — even if relegated to smaller screens — were as necessary as ever. It was the year of the drive-in, the backyard-bedsheet screening and the streaming service. But wherever they played, the best films of the year offered some escape and connection: the possibility of grace, a spark of fury — and something the rest of the world couldn’t offer: the assurance of an ending. Here are our picks for the best movies of 2020:

JAKE COYLE

1. “First Cow”: Any sweetness in life in Kelly Reichardt’s radiant frontier fable is both fleeting and eternal. Set in the Oregon Territory of the 1820s, it’s a portrait of a friendship forged, as it ought to be, on kindness and baked goods. The movie’s harsh Western landscape, where two poor travellers (played by John Magaro and Orion Lee) suggests a critique of capitalism as much as Ken Loach’s also excellent modern-day gig economy drama “Sorry We Missed You.” But the tenderness between them, despite it all, could hardly have felt more suited to the times.

2. “Small Axe”: It’s five films not one, but I’d have as hard a time splitting up Steve McQueen’s anthology as I would “The Decalogue.” It functions best a whole, as a cycle of racism and resistance stretched over two decades of London history. The second chapter, “Lovers Rock,” is a bass-thumping standout, and may be the best house-party movie ever made.

3. “Mank”: It’s so delightfully full of contradictions. A clear-eyed ode to Old Hollywood, made for a streaming service. An anti-auteur theory drama about the many minds that go into making a movie, crafted by maybe America’s most skilful and obsessive director. Leaving aside its much-debated history, it’s simply a head-spinning, gorgeously atmospheric and wonderfully acted character study about a guy who finally gave something his all — and out came one of the greatest movies ever made.

News from © The Associated Press, 2020