“More severe weather is expected, on the heels of an "unprecedented" winter storm that assaulted much of the nation Monday. A tornado hit Brunswick County, North Carolina, just after midnight Tuesday, killing at least three people . At least four people died in the winter storm Monday, millions were left without power in Texas and travel havoc occurred across a wide swath of the nation. More than 150 million people were under a winter storm warning, winter weather advisory or ice storm warning in 25 states, stretching over 2,000 miles from southern Texas to northern Maine, the National Weather Service said. Bitter, record-smashing cold accompanied the storm. Another storm is forecast to blanket the Plains with snow Tuesday before pelting eastern Texas to southwestern Tennessee with freezing rain Tuesday night, the NWS said. More than 50 million people could see temperatures dip below zero during the next several days, according to the Capital Weather Gang. Outages were widespread Monday, and over 5 million have been left in the dark and cold.” Read more at USA Today
Icicles form on a bush yesterday in downtown Houston.
Photographer: Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images
“The deep chill gripping the U.S. is a reminder that climate change isn’t simply a future prediction but a present-day reality with real-life implications everywhere — including the world’s No. 1 economy. California was forced to instigate rolling blackouts just a few months ago when extreme heat pushed power demand beyond capacity.
President Joe Biden, who has announced the U.S. is back in the Paris climate accords, approved an emergency declaration for Texas to help speed aid to the state.
Leaders worldwide face deeper dilemmas over longer term measures to tackle climate change. South Africa is attempting to pilot a “just” transition from coal to clean energy while keeping the public on board even when it means big job cuts. India is under pressure to set a target to reach net-zero carbon emissions after China announced a date of 2060. As governments prepare for the United Nations COP26 climate summit this fall, they know that the political price of more ambitious measures can be steep.
Yet as the U.S. experience suggests, the costs from inaction may be higher. — Alan Crawford Read more at BloombergSatellite image of the arctic blast over Texas in the past 24 hours.
Source: CIRA/RAMMB
“A study in Israel found that the Pfizer vaccine reduced symptomatic infections by 94 percent — real-world results that mirror the clinical trials.”
“One of most surprising success stories on vaccine rollout comes from the UK. At the height of the pandemic last year, the British had one of the highest national death tolls in the world. Now, thanks to an early series of big bets on then-unproven vaccines, as well as its centralized National Health Service, the UK has the third-highest vaccination rate in the world -- behind only Israel and the UAE. That's especially good news, as more evidence suggests that the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK is linked to more severe disease. The UK's success comes as new research from Israel finds that the Pfizer-Biotech vaccine appears to reduce symptomatic coronavirus infections by more than 90%. Elsewhere in the world, the rollout hasn't gone as smoothly: Peru's foreign minister resigned recently after being outraged that government officials had been vaccinated even before the country started offering doses to health care workers.” Read more at CNN
“Grocery Workers: As panicked Americans cleared supermarkets of toilet paper and food last spring, grocery employees gained recognition as among the most indispensable of the pandemic’s front-line workers. A year later, most of those workers are waiting for vaccines, with little clarity about when their turns may come. The chaotic U.S. vaccine rollout has resulted in a patchwork of policies that differ from state-to-state and even county-to-county. The result has been an inconsistent approach to vaccinating low-paid essential workers who are exposed to hundreds of customers each day. Alexandra Olson, Dee-Ann Durbin and Anne D' Innocenzio report.” Read more at AP
“Secret hunt | North Korea hacked Pfizer, seeking information on its coronavirus vaccine and treatments, South Korean lawmakers said after a briefing by Seoul’s spy agency. It comes after Microsoft said in November that hackers in Russia and North Korea had targeted seven key companies working on Covid-19 research.” Read more at Bloomberg
“32 million — The estimated number of unused BinaxNOW Covid-19 tests out of the 142 million that were purchased by the federal government and distributed to states. The unused tests cost the federal government $160 million and the first batches sent out in September are approaching their expiration dates. States have opted to not use the tests in many cases because of logistical issues or worries about their accuracy. While rapid tests such as BinaxNOW can detect the virus among people who are the most infectious, studies suggest they might miss more cases than laboratory tests.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
President Biden boards Air Force One in Hagerstown, Md., after a holiday weekend at Camp David. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
“President Biden will answer Americans' questions this evening at 9 p.m. ET at a CNN town hall, hosted by Anderson Cooper, at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee.
Look for Biden to stress COVID and the economy, acknowledging how hard the problems are but spelling out what he's doing, Axios' Hans Nichols tells me.
Axios' Margaret Talev points out that this is Biden's first trip as president to engage with Americans — and Wisconsin is a symbolic destination: Milwaukee hosted the Democratic National Convention, with most of the excitement, crowds and festivities canceled by COVID.
The Badger State is a swing state that Donald Trump won in 2016, and Biden in 2020 by just 20,000 votes. And it'll be key again in 2024. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is up in '22, with a battle expected.
What's next: Biden is going to another Midwestern swing state he won in November — Michigan — later this week to promote the vaccine.” Read more at Axios
“New audio and video recordings from the January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill offer even more insight into how some rioters had little fear of police as they launched a large, coordinated attack. The footage also highlights the restraint of police at the scene, and suggests the riot could have been deadlier had officers acted more aggressively. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced plans for a commission to investigate the riot, similar to the one that examined the 9/11 terror attacks. But some of the extremists who entered the Capitol that day are carrying on as before. As the FBI investigates members of the extremist, anti-government Oath Keepers, the group's leader might even be emboldened. And Parler, the social network on which some of the rioters organized, is back online after it went dark for a month.” Read more at CNN
“Voting restrictions | A drive by Republican lawmakers in battleground states to enact stricter balloting laws that Democrats worry could dampen Black and Hispanic turnout may end up backfiring on the GOP. Ryan Teague Beckwith writes that imposing voter ID requirements and reducing mail-in access could also affect many of the older, rural and blue-collar voters that Republicans now depend on.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The backlash is coming swiftly for Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach or convict Trump as state parties move to punish them and warn the rest of the party to fall in line behind the ex-president.
The North Carolina Republican Party voted unanimously to censure Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Monday night, while the Republican Party of Pennsylvania is lining up to do the same in short order to Sen. Pat Toomey(R-Pa.) (pictured below). The two are among the seven Senate Republicans who broke with the party to support Trump’s conviction on Saturday.” Read more at The Hill
The Hill: “Maine’s GOP to consider censuring Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) following her vote to convict Trump.”
“Mitch McConnell eyes a role in primaries. The key to GOP chances of regaining control of the Senate in 2022 is “getting candidates who can actually win in November,” the minority leader said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. His careful phrasing reflects the difficult balancing act the party is facing amid the prospect of campaigns from its pro-Trump wing.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“73% — The percentage of Republicans surveyed in a recent CBS News/YouGov poll who said they thought that it was important, or somewhat important, for the party to be loyal to former President Donald Trump. Republicans running for Congress from states including Ohio and North Carolina have begun their campaigns by leaning on Trump's political legacy in a bet that his popularity with the GOP base can help them win office.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state’s election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as ‘futile’ and “a dangerous game.”
‘It is not our role to lend legitimacy to such transparent and untimely efforts to subvert the will of Pennsylvania voters,’ wrote Justice Wecht, a Democrat who was elected to a 10-year term on the bench in 2016. ‘Courts should not decide elections when the will of the voters is clear.’
Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way.
G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state’s election results to aid former President Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges.
The proposal would replace the current system of statewide elections for judges with judicial districts drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature. Those districts could empower rural, predominantly conservative areas and particularly rewire the State Supreme Court, which has a 5-to-2 Democratic lean.
Democrats are now mobilizing to fight the effort, calling it a thinly veiled attempt at creating a new level of gerrymandering — an escalation of the decades-old practice of drawing congressional and state legislative districts to ensure that political power remains in one party’s hands. Democrats are marshaling grass-roots opposition, holding regular town hall events conducted over Zoom, and planning social media campaigns and call-in days to legislators, as well as an enormous voter education campaign. One group, Why Courts Matter Pennsylvania, has cut a two-minute infomercial.
Republicans in Pennsylvania have historically used gerrymandering to maintain their majority in the legislature, despite Democratic victories in statewide elections. Republicans have controlled the State House of Representatives since 2011 and the State Senate since 1993.
Current schedules for the legislature make it unlikely the Republicans could marshal their majorities in the House and Senate to pass the bill by Wednesday and put the proposal before voters on the ballot in May. Passing the bill after that date would set up a new and lengthy political war for November in this fiercely contested state.” Read more at New York Times
“As the Republican Party censures, condemns and seeks to purge leaders who aren’t in lock step with Donald J. Trump, Adam Kinzinger, the six-term Illinois congressman, stands as enemy No. 1 — unwelcome not just in his party but also in his own family, some of whom recently disowned him.” Read more at New York Times
“WTO’s new director-general. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian minister of finance and foreign affairs, has been chosen to lead the World Trade Organization after she received unanimous backing from the trade body. Okonjo-Iweala, who also holds U.S. citizenship, will be the first woman and the first African to assume the post. Her path to director-general had been stymied for months as the Trump administration refused to back her nomination, instead favoring South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee. In her acceptance speech, Okonjo-Iweala warned against vaccine nationalism and described the troubles facing the beleaguered body as ‘numerous and tricky but not insurmountable.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“$20,000 — The size of a personal loan, with 11.19% interest, taken out by 25-year-old security guard Salvador Vergara to buy GameStop stock at the end of January. Vergara purchased shares at $234 each thinking they would go up to $1,000. His investment has since plunged 80%.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Serena Williams stayed on track for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam title,advancing to the Australian Open semifinals with a 6-3, 6-3 victory against Simona Halep on Tuesday. Next up for Williams is Naomi Osaka. Earlier Tuesday, Osaka, ranked No. 3 in the world, rode a big first serve to a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Hsieh Su-wei who became the oldest woman at 35 to make her Grand Slam quarterfinal debut. Williams seeks her 24th Grand Slam singles title, which would tie the all-time record held by Margaret Court. No. 23 came at the Australian Open in 2017, where Williams prevailed in a 6-4, 6-4 final against big sister Venus. She is a seven-time Australian Open champion, with her first title in Melbourne coming in 2003.” Read more at USA Today
“New Orleans is tamping down its annual Mardi Gras celebrations this week and health officials in other cities are warning would-be revelers to do the same amid a spike in coronavirus variant cases across the nation . New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell ordered bars closed during the Mardi Gras weekend that started Friday and runs through Tuesday. Parades are canceled and there are limits on gatherings. Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is the annual pre-Lenten bash celebrated along much of the Gulf Coast. Last year’s revelry is believed to have contributed to an early surge that made Louisiana a coronavirus hot spot.” Read more at USA Today
“Countries in West Africa are on high alert after an Ebola outbreak in Guinea. The nation confirmed at least seven cases of the disease, including three deaths, on Sunday. The World Health Organization has teams on the ground and is working to procure the Ebola vaccine, which has helped control recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The world's largest Ebola outbreak to date began in Guinea in 2014, spreading into neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone through 2016. More than 28,000 people were infected by the severe disease, and more than 11,000 of them died.” Read more at CNN
AP PHOTO/HOSHANG HASHIMI
“NATO and the U.S. still grapple with the same, seemingly intractable conundrum, after 20 years of military engagement in Afghanistan and billions upon billions of dollars spent.
How do they withdraw troops from the country without abandoning it to even more mayhem? Kathy Gannon reports.
An accelerated U.S. troop drawdown over the past few months has signaled what may be in store for long-suffering Afghans. Violence is spiking, the future for Afghans increasingly bleak, and the culprits include the Taliban, Islamic State militants, warlords, criminal gangs and even corrupt government officials.
Currently, 2,500 U.S. and about 10,000 NATO troops are still in Afghanistan. NATO defense ministers are meeting this week to discuss the way forward.
President Joe Biden is reviewing his predecessor’s 2020 deal with the Taliban that says U.S. troops will withdraw by May 1. The Taliban now hold sway over half the country.
Despite nearly $1 trillion spent in Afghanistan, lawlessness is rampant. The World Bank said the poverty rate rose from 55% in 2019 to 72% in 2020. Two-thirds of Afghans live on less than $1.90 a day.
‘This is an absolute disgrace given the billions spent on this country over the last two decades,’ said the owner of Afghanistan’s popular TOLO TV. ‘Who will stand up and take responsibility?’” Read more at AP
“Vigorous preparation returns as Biden calls other world leaders
A familiar ritual is taking shape in the Biden White House. It starts with bulky briefing packages, war-gaming of ‘what-ifs,’ and Oval Office discussions about how to talk to a particular U.S. ally or adversary. Twelve times since he took office, President Biden has dialed up a world leader after reinstituting a White House standard mothballed by Donald Trump: vigorous preparation. The changes to telephone diplomacy have been about both style and substance as Biden sends a message that he’s determined to reset the U.S. relationship with the world.” Read more at AP
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