Qatar played an outsized role in U.S. efforts to evacuate tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan. Now the tiny Gulf Arab state is being asked to help shape what is next for Afghanistan because of its ties with both Washington and the Taliban, who are in charge in Kabul. Qatar will be among global heavyweights on Monday when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken hosts a virtual meeting to discuss a coordinated approach for the days ahead, as the U.S. completes its withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover of the country. The meeting will also include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, Turkey, the European Union and NATO. Qatar is also in talks about providing civilian technical assistance to the Taliban at Kabul’s international airport once the U.S. military withdrawal is complete on Tuesday. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to The Associated Press it has been taking part in negotiations about the operations of the Kabul airport with Afghan and international parties, mainly the United States and Turkey. Qatar said its main priority is restoring regular operations while preserving safety and security at the airport facilities. Meanwhile, international U.N. agencies are asking Qatar for help and support in delivering aid to Afghanistan. Qatar’s role was somewhat unexpected. The nation, which shares a land border with Saudi Arabia and a vast underwater gas field in the Persian Gulf with Iran, was supposed to be a transit point for a just a few thousand people airlifted from Afghanistan over a timeline of several months. After the surprisingly swift Taliban takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15, the United States looked to Qatar to help shoulder the evacuations of tens of thousands in a chaotic and hurried airlift. In the end, nearly 40% of all evacuees were moved out via Qatar, winning its leadership heaps of praise from Washington. International media outlets also leaned on Qatar for their own staff evacuations. The United States said Saturday that 113,500 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since Aug. 14. Qatar says a little more than 43,000 had transited through the country. Qatar’s role in the evacuations reflects its position as host of the Middle East’s biggest U.S. military base, but also its decision years ago to host the Taliban’s political leadership in exile, giving it some sway with the militant group. Qatar also hosted U.S.-Taliban peace talks. Assistant Qatari Foreign Minister Lolwa al-Khater acknowledged the political gains scored by Qatar in the past weeks, but rebuffed any suggestion that Qatar’s efforts were purely strategic. “If anyone assumes that it’s only about political gains, believe me, there are ways to do PR that are way easier than risking our people there on the ground, way easier than us having sleepless nights literally for the past two weeks, way less complicated than spending our time looking after every kid and every pregnant woman,” she told The Associated Press. For some of the most sensitive rescue efforts in Afghanistan, Qatar conducted the operation with just a few hundred troops and its own military aircraft. Qatar evacuated a girls’ boarding school, an all-girls robotics team and journalists working for international media, among others. Qatar’s ambassador accompanied convoys of buses through a gauntlet of Taliban checkpoints in Kabul and past various Western military checkpoints at the airport, where

Clarissa Ward described on Wednesday how a member of her CNN crew was nearly pistol-whipped by a Taliban fighter as they were covering a tumultuous scene outside the airport in Kabul. “I’ve covered all sorts of crazy situations,” Ward said in a report that aired on CNN. “This was mayhem. This was nuts.” The network’s chief international correspondent has been probably the most visible reporter covering the rapid fall of Afghanistan to Taliban fighters. Perhaps inevitably, that has made her words and even her wardrobe a topic of social media conversation. In one report Wednesday, Ward said it was extremely chaotic near the airport, where people were pleading for help to get out of the country. At one point, she said, a Taliban fighter shouted at her to cover her face or he wouldn’t talk to her. He was carrying a makeshift whip with a heavy chain and padlock. The CNN producer, Brent Swails, was taking video with a cellphone when two Taliban fighters approached him with their pistols and seemed about to strike him, Ward said, making a motion with her arms to simulate it. Another Taliban fighter stopped them, saying not to hit him because they’re journalists, she said. “It’s very dicey, it’s very dangerous,” Ward said. “It’s completely unpredictable. To me, it’s a miracle that more people haven’t been seriously hurt.” Ward has worked at CNN since 2015, after joining from CBS News. She’s also worked at ABC News and Fox News, covering a succession of the world’s hot spots. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted a portion of one of Ward’s Monday reports, where she described an “utterly bizarre” scene of people shouting “death to America” while also appearing friendly. “Is there an enemy of America for whom @CNN won’t cheerlead?” Cruz tweeted. That earned him a sharp Twitter response from CNN’s public relations department: “Rather than running off to Cancun in tough times, @clarissaward is risking her life to tell the world what’s happening. That’s called bravery.” It was a reference to Cruz’s Mexican vacation during a cold spell last winter that caused widespread power outages in Texas. An Internet meme showcased pictures of Ward during two different reports this week, one where she wore a tight black headdress that covered her hair, and another where her hair went uncovered. Some on social media suggested the two pictures illustrated a contrast in life before and after Taliban rule. Rep. Vicki Hartzler, a Missouri Republican, said they showcased “just how crushing Joe Biden’s incompetence will be for the future of Afghan women.” Ward has explained that the picture without her head covered was taken while she was in a private compound. When she was in public amid Taliban fighters, she dressed more conservatively. “My job is to get out on the streets and hear what people are thinking and see what’s going on,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press this week. “So I have to be willing to wear whatever it takes, honestly, to be able to go out and do my job and respect the tradition of whatever culture it is I’m reporting from.” (AP)

Japan is playing host to the Tokyo Olympics. But the capital, as well as other populous areas, are in the middle of a government-declared “state of emergency” to curb surging COVID-19 infections. What does that state of emergency mean? How is it enforced? We break it down here. HOW LONG HAS THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY BEEN GOING ON? Japan is now in its fourth state of emergency. Tokyo has been in that state much of this year. People are getting resigned to it, no longer alarmed by a situation that’s “critically urgent,” which is how the Japanese term translates, but accepting it as a new normal. So even as the nation celebrates medal winners, blaring ambulance sirens can be heard regularly. Tokyo has been racking up record daily cases, totaling several thousand, tripling since the Olympics opened July 23. Experts say that could reach 10,000 people in a couple of weeks. WHAT IS THIS STATE OF EMERGENCY — OR WHAT ISN’T IT? One thing it’s not is a lockdown. Restaurants and bars are asked to close early and can’t serve alcohol. The idea is that people who consume alcohol and are influenced by it talk in loud voices, and that spreads infections. But some medical experts say that’s unfairly targeting eateries when airborne variants can spread anywhere. The states of emergency have varied slightly, with earlier ones not banning alcohol. Last year, schools were closed temporarily. The regions affected have also differed. Other areas have periodically been under a less stringent measure. IS IT REALLY WORKING? Some would say not. Tokyo’s streets are bustling with people, commuter trains are packed and, despite government-mandated requests for people to work from home, salarymen and salarywomen say their bosses demand they come into the office. WHAT HAS IT MEANT FOR THE OLYMPICS? The events are being held without spectators, although the stands aren’t totally empty because team and Olympic officials, as well as reporters, are there. Athletes are tested daily for COVID-19, and others involved with the Games are also regularly tested. Those tests are free. That’s in contrast to the general public, for whom such tests have been hard to get and cost hundreds of dollars each. The Olympic “bubble” hasn’t been perfect, with about 30 people, almost all non-athlete Japanese workers, testing positive a day. Taisuke Nakata, a University of Tokyo professor who has been studying the effects of the emergency measures on the economy, says that number is insignificant compared to the movement of 126 million Japanese people and how that potentially spreads infections. Nakata believes people’s actions may finally change if the cases keep surging, but he isn’t sure. AREN’T JAPANESE VACCINATED BY NOW? Japan has among the slowest vaccine rollouts in the developed world, with about a third of the adult population now fully vaccinated. Although the elderly get priority, people have complained that signing up for the shots, by phone or online, has been frustrating, like winning coveted concert tickets with slots getting filled almost as soon as they open. One may think Japan, home to the likes of Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp., would be a production powerhouse. But it’s totally dependent on imported vaccines. A Made in Japan vaccine likely won’t arrive until next year, perhaps 2023. Critics say strict drug approval regulations, especially

With U.S. health officials recommending that children mask up in school this fall, parents and policy makers across the nation have been plunged anew into a debate over whether face coverings should be optional or a mandate. The delta variant of the coronavirus now threatens to upend normal instruction for a third consecutive school year. Some states have indicated they will probably heed the federal government’s guidance and require masks. Others will leave the decision up to parents. The controversy is unfolding at a time when many Americans are at their wits’ end with pandemic restrictions and others fear their children will be put at risk by those who don’t take the virus seriously enough. In a handful of Republican-led states, lawmakers made it illegal for schools to require masks. In Connecticut, anti-mask rallies have happened outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s official residence in Hartford, and lawn signs and bumper stickers call on him to “unmask our kids.” The Democrat has said that he’s likely to follow the latest advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC on Tuesday recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status. The agency cited the risk of spread of the highly contagious delta variant, even among vaccinated people. Alima Bryant, 33, a mother of four who organizes anti-mask parents in Branford, Connecticut, said she’s not a conspiracy theorist, but she believes scientists have overstated the dangers of COVID-19, especially for children. She said she will take her children out of school rather than subject them to wearing masks, which she believes are more likely to make them ill than the virus. “Especially with little kids, I can imagine how often they’re touching dirty things, then touching the mask,” she said. “Also, in kindergarten, you have to learn social cues, and even with speech and everything, it’s so important to not be wearing a mask.” In Johnson County, Kansas, the state’s most populous county, five districts recommend but do not require masks. A sixth district has not yet decided. Zimmerman, speaking at a recent meeting of country commissioners, said that if masks are only recommended and not required, “95% of kids won’t be wearing them.” “This isn’t about comfort or control or obedience or your rights. It is not conspiracy or child abuse. It is about doing unto others as you want them to do unto you,” he said. “I ask you this: If it was your kid who was high risk, what if you had to send that kid you had spent your whole life protecting to school in this environment?” Another public meeting, this one in Broward County, Florida, had to be postponed for a day this week after roughly two dozen mask opponents waged screaming matches with school board members and burned masks outside the building. When the discussion resumed Wednesday, it was limited to 10 public speakers, and all but one spoke vehemently against masks, saying their personal rights were being eroded. Vivian Hug, a Navy veteran, brought her twins with her as she addressed board members, saying she was tired of the “fear mongering” and giving up “freedoms in the name of safety.” “Please stop the insanity. You have already done damage to these kids having to wear masks,”

Iran’s daily coronavirus death toll climbed over 400 for the first time in months on Sunday, as the country, which has long had the region’s largest outbreak, battles a post-holiday infection surge. Iranian health authorities recorded 405 fatalities from the virus, pushing the total death toll to 66,732. Officials increasingly have warned about the impact of trends seen nationwide during the Persian New Year, or Nowruz. The two-week holiday last month brought increased travel, relaxed restrictions and large gatherings without precautions. After COVID-19 cases broke record after record earlier this month, the Health Ministry reported 21,644 infections on Sunday, bringing the total count over 2.2 million. Hospitals are rapidly filling across the country, particularly in the capital. Authorities reported 130 deaths in Tehran alone, according to Mohsen Hashemi, head of the Tehran municipal council. The single-day death toll nationwide reached a peak of over 480 last November. The coronavirus pandemic has hammered Iran for months, but the government has signaled it can’t sustain the punishing lockdowns seen in the U.S. and Europe without risking economic catastrophe, especially for the nation’s poorest. Its ailing economy has struggled under harsh U.S. sanctions, reimposed when former President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 landmark nuclear deal that granted the country sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Still, Iran has restricted business operations in more than 250 cities for a period of 10 days, shuttering restaurants, beauty salons, malls and bookstores, confectionaries and public parks. The country’s inoculation rollout has gotten off to a slow start, with Iran producing and promoting a range of domestically made vaccines and warning against the import of American-made ones amid deep-rooted suspicion of the West. However, President Hassan Rouhani stressed the importance of importing foreign-made vaccines in a speech last week. “We cannot wait for the domestic vaccine to reach mass production,” he said. “We need to expand vaccination this spring by importing vaccines in appropriate ways.” (AP)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday that crews are working to prevent the collapse of a large wastewater pond in the Tampa Bay area while evacuating the area to avoid a “catastrophic flood.” Manatee County officials say the latest models show that a breach at the old phosphate plant reservoir has the potential to gush out 340 million gallons of water in a matter of minutes, risking a 20-foot-high (about 6.1-meter-high) wall of water. “What we are looking at now is trying to prevent and respond to, if need be, a real catastrophic flood situation,” DeSantis said at a press conference after flying over the old Piney Point phosphate mine. Authorities have closed off portions of the U.S. Highway 41 and ordered evacuations of 316 homes. Some families were placed in local hotels. Manatee County Sheriff’s officials began evacuating about 345 inmates from a local jail about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the 77-acre pond first floor on Sunday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Manatee County Administrator Scott Hopes said models show the area could be covered with between 1 foot (30 centimeters) to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water, and the second floor is 10 feet above ground. Officials first announced that they would move people and staff to the second story and put sandbags on the ground floor, but Sheriff Rick Wells later said moving all the inmates to the second floor posed a security risk. County officials say well water remains unaffected and there is no threat to Lake Manatee, the area’s primary source of drinking water. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says the water in the pond is primarily salt water mixed with wastewater and storm water. It has elevated levels of phosphorous and nitrogen and is acidic, but not expected to be toxic, the agency says. Crews have been discharging water since the pond began leaking in March. On Friday, a significant leak that was detected escalated the response and prompted the first evacuations and a declaration of a state of emergency on Saturday. A portion of the containment wall in the reservoir shifted, leading officials to think a collapse could occur at any time. Hopes, the county administrator, said Sunday that with new state resources, crews will be nearly doubling the amount of water being pumped out of the pond and taken to Port Manatee. Currently about 22,000 gallons of water are being discharged per minute, and Hopes said he expects the risk of collapse to decrease by Tuesday. Early Sunday, officials saw an increase of water leaking out, but Hopes says it seems to have plateaued. The water running out on its own is going to Piney Point creek and into Cockroach Bay, an aquatic preserve in the Tampa Bay north of the facility. “Looking at the water that has been removed and the somewhat stability of the current breach, I think the team is much more comfortable today than we were yesterday,” he said. “We are not out of the critical area yet.” Hopes said he could not rule out that a full breach could destabilize the walls of the other ponds at the Piney Point site. The Florida DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein said another pond has higher levels of metals. “The radiologicals are still below surface water discharge

Transcript of President Joe Biden’s speech Thursday, March 11, 2021, on the coronavirus pandemic, as provided by CQ: __ Good evening, my fellow Americans. Tonight I would like to talk to you about where we are as we mark one year since everything stopped because of this pandemic. A year ago, we were hit with the virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked — denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness. Photos and videos from 2019 feel like they were taken in another era — the last vacation, the last birthday with friends, the last holiday with extended family. While it was different for everyone, we all lost something a collective suffering, collective sacrifice, a year filled with the loss of life and the loss of living for all of us, but in the loss, we saw how much there was to gain in appreciation, respect and gratitude. Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do. In fact, it may be the most American thing we do, and that is what we have done. We have seen front-line and essential workers risking their lives, sometimes losing them to save and help others; researchers and scientists bracing for a vaccine; and so many of you, as Hemingway wrote, being strong in all of the broken places. I know it’s been hard; I truly know. As I’ve told you before, I carry a card in my pocket with a number of Americans who have died from COVID to date; it’s on the back of my schedule. As of now, total deaths in America 527,726. That’s more deaths than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War and 9/11 combined. They were husbands, wives, sons and daughters, grandparents, friends, neighbors, young and old. They leave behind loved ones unable to truly grieve or to heal, even have a funeral, but I’m also thinking about everyone else who lost this past year to natural causes by cruel fate of accident or other disease. They, too, died alone. They, too, leave behind loved ones who are hurting badly. You know you’ve often heard me say before I talk about the longest walk any parent can make is up a short flight of stairs to his child’s bedroom to say I’m sorry I lost my job, can’t be here anymore, like my dad told me when he lost his job in Scranton. So many of you had to make that same walk this past year; you lost your job, you closed your business, facing eviction, homelessness, hunger, the loss of control, maybe worst of all the loss of hope. Watching a generation of children who may be set back up to a year or more because they have not been in school because of their loss of learning. It’s the details of life that matter the most, and we miss those details, the big details and the small moments, weddings, birthdays, graduations; all of the things that needed to happen but didn’t — a first date, the family reunions, the Sunday night rituals, it’s all exacted a terrible cost on the psyche of so many of us. For we are fundamentally a people who want to be

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday signed into law legislation banning nearly all abortions in the state, a sweeping measure that supporters hope will force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its landmark Roe v. Wade decision but opponents vow to block before it takes effect later this year. The Republican governor had expressed reservations about the bill, which only allows the procedure to save the life of the mother and does not provide exceptions for those impregnated in an act of rape or incest. Arkansas is one of at least 14 states where legislators have proposed outright abortion bans this year. Hutchinson said he was signing the bill because of its “overwhelming legislative support and my sincere and long-held pro-life convictions.” The bans were pushed by Republicans who want to force the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. Conservatives believe the court is more open to striking down the decision following former President Donald Trump’s three appointments to the court. Hutchinson has signed several major abortion restrictions into law since taking office in 2015, but he had voiced concerns that this bill directly challenges Roe and about the lack of rape and incest exceptions. He repeated those concerns as he announced his decision. “(The ban) is in contradiction of binding precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is the intent of the legislation to set the stage for the Supreme Court overturning current case law,” he said in a statement released by his office. “I would have preferred the legislation to include the exceptions for rape and incest, which has been my consistent view, and such exceptions would increase the chances for a review by the U.S. Supreme Court.” As the Legislature considered the measure, Hutchinson shared with lawmakers a letter written by the attorney for abortion opponents National Right to Life that said the chances of the bill leading to Roe being overturned were “very small and remote.” National Right to Life didn’t take a position on the bill, though its Arkansas affiliate supported the ban. The legislation won’t take effect until 90 days after the majority-Republican Legislature adjourns this year’s session. That means it can’t be enforced until this summer at the earliest. Abortion rights supporters said they plan to challenge the ban in court before then. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas called the ban “cruel and unconstitutional.” “Governor Hutchinson: we’ll see you in court,” ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson said. “This is politics at its very worst,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement. “At a time when people need economic relief and basic safety precautions, dismantling abortion access is cruel, dangerous, and blatantly unjust.” Hutchinson had until Wednesday afternoon to take action on the bill before it would have become law without his signature, a move past governors have taken to express displeasure with a bill without risking an override fight with the Legislature. It takes a simple majority for the Legislature to override a governor’s veto in Arkansas. Arkansas has some of the strictest abortion measures in the country and two years ago Hutchinson signed into law a measure that would ban the procedure if the Roe decision was overturned. Another measure Hutchinson signed in

Buoyed by a surge in vaccine shipments, states and cities are rapidly expanding eligibility for COVID-19 shots to teachers, 55-and-over Americans and other groups as the U.S. races to beat back the virus and reopen businesses and schools. Arizona, Connecticut and Indiana have thrown open the line to the younger age bracket. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are reserving the first doses of the new one-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson for teachers. And in Detroit, factory workers can get vaccinated starting this week, regardless of their age. Giving the vaccine to teachers and other school staff “will help protect our communities,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said. “It’s going to take burdens off our parents and families. It’s going to make our schools get back to the business of teaching our kids.” Up to now, the vaccination campaign against the outbreak that has killed over a half-million Americans has concentrated mostly on health care workers and senior citizens. Around the U.S., politicians and school administrators have been pushing hard in recent weeks to reopen classrooms to stop students from falling behind and enable more parents to go back to work instead of supervising their children’s education. But teachers have resisted returning without getting vaccinated. Jody Mackey, 46, a middle-school digital media and history teacher in Traverse City, Michigan — where students have attended mostly in-person since September — received her second dose nearly two weeks ago after teachers in her district were designated essential workers. Before that, she kept her classroom windows open and used space heaters. “If you want schools to be successful and safe and you want your teachers to have their heads in the game, get them the vaccination,” she said. “Putting teachers in a situation where they feel scared all the time, where they’re going to want to avoid their kids, how is that good for kids or teachers?” Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Wednesday ordered students and teachers to return to school later this month, saying many teachers have already received their second dose in the state’s early vaccination efforts. “The science is clear: It’s time all kids have the option to return to school so they can get back on track and we can close the achievement gap,” Ducey said in a statement. The U.S. has administered nearly 80 million shots in a vaccination drive now hitting its stride, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 20% of the nation’s adults, or close to 52 million people, have received at least one dose, and 10% have been fully inoculated. President Joe Biden said Tuesday the U.S. expects to have enough vaccine by the end of May for all adults, two months earlier than anticipated, though it is likely to take longer than that to administer those shots. He also pushed states to get at least one shot into the arms of teachers by the end of March and said the government will provide the doses directly through its pharmacy program. In Wisconsin, teachers will get priority when the state receives its first shipment of about 48,000 doses of the J&J vaccine, health authorities said. Pennsylvania teachers will likewise be first in line when an expected 94,000 doses of the J&J formula arrive this week. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced this week that

The Department of Defense’s inspector general announced Friday that it was reviewing the Trump administration’s last-minute decision to relocate U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama. The decision on Jan. 13, one week before Trump left office, blindsided Colorado officials and raised questions of political retaliation. Trump had hinted at a Colorado Springs rally in 2020 that the command would stay at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. But the man with whom Trump held that rally, Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, lost his reelection bid in November, and Colorado, unlike Alabama, voted decisively against Trump. The Air Force’s last-minute relocation of command headquarters to Huntsville, Alabama — home of the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal — blindsided Colorado officials of both parties, who have urged the Biden administration to reconsider the decision. On Friday, the inspector general’s office announced it was investigating whether the relocation complied with Air Force and Pentagon policy and was based on proper evaluations of competing locations. Colorado officials of both parties were thrilled. “It is imperative that we thoroughly review what I believe will prove to be a fundamentally flawed process that focused on bean-counting rather than American space dominance,” said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican whose district includes Space Command. The state’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, also hailed the probe. “Moving Space Command will disrupt the mission while risking our national security and economic vitality,” the senators said in a joint statement. “Politics have no role to play in our national security. We fully support the investigation.” Among other duties, the Space Command enables satellite-based navigation and troop communication and provides warning of missile launches. Also based at Peterson are the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, and the U.S. Northern Command. The Space Command differs from the U.S. Space Force, launched in December 2019 as the first new military service since the Air Force was created in 1947. The Space Command is not an individual military service but a central command for militarywide space operations. It operated at Peterson from 1985 until it was dissolved in 2002, and it was revived in 2019. The Air Force accepted bids from locations for the command when it was revived and was considering six finalists, including Huntsville, when Trump hinted it’d stay in Colorado Springs. (AP)

Mike Bowen’s warehouse outside Fort Worth, Texas, was piled high with cases of medical-grade N95 face masks. His company, Prestige Ameritech, can churn out 1 million masks every four days, but he doesn’t have orders for nearly that many. So he recently got approval from the government to export them. “I’m drowning in these respirators,” Bowen said. On the same day 1000 miles (1,600 kilometers) north, Mary Turner, a COVID-19 intensive care nurse at a hospital outside Minneapolis, strapped on the one disposable N-95 respirator allotted for her entire shift. Before the coronavirus pandemic, Turner would have thrown out her mask and grabbed a new one after each patient to prevent the spread of disease. But on this day, she’ll wear that mask from one infected person to the next because N95s — they filter out 95% of infectious particles — have supposedly been in short supply since last March. Turner’s employer, North Memorial Health, said in a statement that supplies have stabilized, but the company is still limiting use because “we must remain mindful of that supply” to ensure everyone’s safety. One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many millions of N95 masks are pouring out of American factories and heading into storage. Yet doctors and nurses like Turner say there still aren’t nearly enough in the “ICU rooms with high-flow oxygen and COVID germs all over.” While supply and demand issues surrounding N95 respirators are well-documented, until now the reasons for this discrepancy have been unclear. The logistical breakdown is rooted in federal failures over the past year to coordinate supply chains and provide hospitals with clear rules about how to manage their medical equipment. Internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press show there were deliberate decisions to withhold vital information about new mask manufacturers and availability. Exclusive trade data and interviews with manufacturers, hospital procurement officials and frontline medical workers reveal a communication breakdown — not an actual shortage — that is depriving doctors, nurses, paramedics and other people risking exposure to COVID-19 of first-rate protection. Before the pandemic, medical providers followed manufacturer and government guidelines that called for N95s to be discarded after each use, largely to protect doctors and nurses from catching infectious diseases themselves. As N95s ran short, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention modified those guidelines to allow for extended use and reuse only if supplies are “depleted,” a term left undefined. Hospitals have responded in a variety of ways, the AP has found. Some are back to pre-COVID-19, one-use-per-patient N95 protocols, but most are doling out one mask a day or fewer to each employee. Many hospital procurement officers say they are relying on CDC guidelines for depleted supplies, even if their own stockpiles are robust. Full Coverage: Coronavirus pandemic Chester “Trey” Moeller, a political appointee who served as the CDC’s deputy chief of staff until President Joe Biden’s inauguration last month, said efforts to increase U.S. mask production were successful, but there has since been a federal breakdown in connecting those who need them with this new supply. “We are forcing our health care industry to reuse sanitized N95s or even worse, wear one N95 all day long,” he said. Before the pandemic tore through the U.S., the demand for N95 masks was 1.7 billion per year, with 80% going

Protests erupted in dozens of cities across Russia on Saturday to demand the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the Kremlin’s most prominent foe. Police arrested more than 2,100 people, some of whom took to the streets in temperatures as frigid as minus-50 Celsius (minus-58 Fahrenheit). In Moscow, thousands of demonstrators filled Pushkin Square in the city center, where clashes with police broke out and demonstrators were roughly dragged off by helmeted riot officers to police buses and detention trucks, some beaten with batons. Navalny’s wife Yulia was among those arrested. Police eventually pushed demonstrators out of the square. Thousands then regrouped along a wide boulevard about a kilometer (half-mile) away, many of them throwing snowballs at the police before dispersing. The protests stretched across Russia’s vast territory, from the island city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk north of Japan and the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk, where temperatures plunged to minus-50 Celsius, to Russia’s more populous European cities. The range demonstrated how Navalny and his anti-corruption campaign have built an extensive network of support despite official government repression and being routinely ignored by state media. “The situation is getting worse and worse, it’s total lawlessness,” said Andrei Gorkyov, a protester in Moscow. “And if we stay silent, it will go on forever.” The OVD-Info group that monitors political arrests said at least 795 people were detained in Moscow and more than 300 at another large demonstration in St. Petersburg. Overall, it said 2,131 people had been arrested in some 90 cities. Undeterred, Navalny’s supporters called for protests again next weekend. Navalny was arrested on Jan. 17 when he returned to Moscow from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a severe nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin and which Russian authorities deny. Authorities say his stay in Germany violated terms of a suspended sentence in a 2014 criminal conviction, while Navalny says the conviction was for made-up charges. The 44-year-old activist is well known nationally for his reports on the corruption that has flourished under President Vladimir Putin’s government. His wide support puts the Kremlin in a strategic bind — risking more protests and criticism from the West if it keeps him in custody but apparently unwilling to back down by letting him go free. Navalny faces a court hearing in early February to determine whether his sentence in the criminal case for fraud and money-laundering — which Navalny says was politically motivated — is converted to 3 1/2 years behind bars. Moscow police on Thursday arrested three top Navalny associates, two of whom were later jailed for periods of nine and 10 days. Navalny fell into a coma while aboard a domestic flight from Siberia to Moscow on Aug. 20. He was transferred from a hospital in Siberia to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent. Russian authorities insisted that the doctors who treated Navalny in Siberia before he was airlifted to Germany found no traces of poison and have challenged German officials to provide proof of his poisoning. Russia refused to open a full-fledged criminal inquiry, citing a lack of evidence that Navalny was poisoned. Last month, Navalny released

President-elect Joe Biden unveiled a $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan Thursday to end “a crisis of deep human suffering” by speeding up vaccines and pumping out financial help to those struggling with the pandemic’s prolonged economic fallout. Called the “American Rescue Plan,” the legislative proposal would meet Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccines by the 100th day of his administration, and advance his objective of reopening most schools by the spring. On a parallel track, it delivers another round of aid to stabilize the economy while the public health effort seeks the upper hand on the pandemic. “We not only have an economic imperative to act now — I believe we have a moral obligation,” Biden said in a nationwide address. At the same time, he acknowledged that his plan “does not come cheaply.” Biden proposed $1,400 checks for most Americans, which on top of $600 provided in the most recent COVID-19 bill would bring the total to the $2,000 that Biden has called for. It would also extend a temporary boost in unemployment benefits and a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures through September. And it shoehorns in long-term Democratic policy aims such as increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour, expanding paid leave for workers, and increasing tax credits for families with children. The last item would make it easier for women to go back to work, which in turn would help the economy recover. The political outlook for the legislation remained unclear. In a joint statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer praised Biden for including liberal priorities, saying they would move quickly to pass it after Biden takes office next Wednesday. But Democrats have narrow margins in both chambers of Congress, and Republicans will push back on issues that range from increasing the minimum wage to providing more money for states, while demanding inclusion of their priorities, such as liability protection for businesses. “Remember that a bipartisan $900 billion #COVID19 relief bill became law just 18 days ago,” tweeted Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. But Biden says that was only a down payment, and he promised more major legislation next month, focused on rebuilding the economy. “The crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there’s not time to waste,” Biden said. “We have to act and we have to act now.” Still, he sought to manage expectations. “We’re better equipped to do this than any nation in the world,” he said. “But even with all these small steps, it’s going to take time.” His relief bill would be paid for with borrowed money, adding to trillions in debt the government has already incurred to confront the pandemic. Aides said Biden will make the case that the additional spending and borrowing is necessary to prevent the economy from sliding into an even deeper hole. Interest rates are low, making debt more manageable. Biden has long held that economic recovery is inextricably linked with controlling the coronavirus. That squares with the judgment of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful business lobbying group and traditionally an adversary of Democrats. “We must defeat COVID before we can restore our economy and that requires turbocharging our vaccination efforts,” the Chamber said in a statement Thursday night that welcomed Biden’s plan but stopped short