STORYLINE

John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died. He was 80.

Lewis’s announcement in late December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer - “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” he said - inspired tributes from both sides of the aisle, and an unstated accord that the likely passing of this Atlanta Democrat would represent the end of an era.

Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest impact on the movement. He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

At age 25 - walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat - Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality forced the country’s attention on racial oppression in the South.

Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President Lyndon Johnson soon was pressing Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. The bill became law later that year, removing barriers that had barred Blacks from voting.

Lewis joined King and four other civil rights leaders in organizing the 1963 March on Washington. He spoke to the vast crowd just before King delivered his epochal “I Have a Dream” speech.

A 23-year-old firebrand, Lewis toned down his intended remarks at the insistence of others, dropping a reference to a “scorched earth” march through the South and scaling back criticisms of President John Kennedy. It was a potent speech nonetheless, in which he vowed: “By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of God and democracy.”

It was almost immediately, and forever, overshadowed by the words of King, the man who had inspired him to activism.

Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940, outside the town of Troy, in Pike County, Alabama. He grew up on his family’s farm and attended segregated public schools.

As a boy, he wanted to be a minister, and practiced his oratory on the family chickens. Denied a library card because of the color of his skin, he became an avid reader, and could cite obscure historical dates and details even in his later years. He was a teenager when he first heard King preaching on the radio. They met when Lewis was seeking support to become the first Black student at Alabama’s segregated Troy State University.

He ultimately attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. He began organizing sit-in demonstrations at whites-only lunch counters and volunteering as a Freedom Rider, enduring beatings and arrests while traveling around the South to challenge segregation.

Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was named its chairman in 1963, making him one of the Big Six at a tender age. The others, in addition to King, were Whitney Young of the National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council; James L. Farmer Jr., of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. All six met at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to plan and announce the March on Washington.

The huge demonstration galvanized the movement, but success didn’t come quickly. After extensive training in nonviolent protest, Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams led demonstrators on a planned march of more than 50 miles from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama’s capital, on March 7, 1965. A phalanx of police blocked their exit from the Selma bridge.

Authorities shoved, then swung their truncheons, fired tear gas and charged on horseback, sending many to the hospital and horrifying much of the nation. King returned with thousands, completing the march to Montgomery before the end of the month.

Lewis turned to politics in 1981, when he was elected to the Atlanta City Council.

He won his seat in Congress in 1986 and spent much of his career in the minority. After Democrats won control of the House in 2006, Lewis became his party’s senior deputy whip, a behind-the-scenes leadership post in which he helped keep the party unified.

In an early setback for Barack Obama’s 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Lewis endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton for the nomination. Lewis switched when it became clear Obama had overwhelming Black support. Obama later honored Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and they marched hand in hand in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attack.

Lewis also worked for 15 years to gain approval for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Humble and unfailingly friendly, Lewis was revered on Capitol Hill -- but as one of the most liberal members of Congress, he often lost policy battles, from his effort to stop the Iraq War to his defense of young immigrants.

He met bipartisan success in Congress in 2006 when he led efforts to renew the Voting Rights Act, but the Supreme Court later invalidated much of the law, and it became once again what it was in his youth, a work in progress. Later, when the presidency of Donald Trump challenged his civil rights legacy, Lewis made no effort to hide his pain.

Lewis refused to attend Trump’s inauguration, saying he didn’t consider him a “legitimate president” because Russians had conspired to get him elected. When Trump later complained about immigrants from “s---hole countries,” Lewis declared, “I think he is a racist ... we have to try to stand up and speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug.”

Lewis said he’d been arrested 40 times in the 1960s, five more as a congressman. At 78, he told a rally he’d do it again to help reunite immigrant families separated by the Trump administration.

“There cannot be any peace in America until these young children are returned to their parents and set all of our people free,” Lewis said in June, recalling the “good trouble” he got into protesting segregation as a young man.

“If we fail to do it, history will not be kind to us,” he shouted. “I will go to the border. I’ll get arrested again. If necessary, I’m prepared to go to jail.”

In a speech the day of the House impeachment vote of Trump, Lewis explained the importance of that vote.

“When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something. Our children and their children will ask us ‘what did you do? what did you say?” While the vote would be hard for some, he said: “We have a mission and a mandate to be on the right side of history.”

Lewis’ wife of four decades, Lillian Miles, died in 2012. They had one son, John Miles Lewis.

***

On July 27th lawmakers paid tribute to the late Rep. John Lewis, a long-time Georgia lawmaker and icon of the civil rights movement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others attended a private ceremony in the Rotunda before Lewis' body is moved to the steps on the Capitol's east side for a public viewing, an unusual sequence required because the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the Capitol to the public. Inside the Rotunda and outdoors, signs welcomed visitors with a reminder that masks would be required.

Some of the lawmakers in attendance at the private memorial wore face masks reading, "good trouble," a reference to a famous quote by the late Lewis. An audio recording of a speech by Lewis was also played during the ceremony that included him explaining the need for civil disobedience and "good trouble" to rectify social injustices.

***

President Donald Trump on August 14th paid a visit to his younger brother, Robert Trump, at the New York hospital where he has been hospitalized.

The president entered New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan wearing a face mask.

“I hope he’s okay,”Trump said shortly before arriving at the hospital. "He’s having a tough time.”

The hospital visit came ahead of Trump's scheduled weekend trip to his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The White House did not immediately release details about why Robert Trump, who is 72, had been hospitalized, but officials said that he was seriously ill.

Robert Trump, one of the president's four siblings, recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Trump family seeking to stop publication of a tell-all book by the president’s niece Mary titled “Too Much and Never Enough."

Robert Trump had previously worked for his older brother as a top executive at the Trump Organization.

Once a regular bold face name in Manhattan's social pages, he has kept a lower profile in recent years.

He married his longtime girlfriend, Ann Marie Pallan, in March, according to the New York Post. He divorced his first wife, Blaine Trump, more than a decade ago.

In a 2016 interview with the New York Post, he described himself as a big supporter of his brother's run for the White House.

“I support Donald one thousand percent,” Robert Trump said.

***

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested on August 20th on charges that he and three others ripped off donors to an online fundraising scheme “We Build The Wall.”

The charges were contained in an indictment unsealed in Manhattan federal court.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Bannon and three others “orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors” in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign that raised more than $25 million to build a wall along the southern border of the United States.

A phone at the office of Bannon's lawyer went unanswered Thursday morning. A spokeswoman for Bannon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

***

US President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was pulled from a luxury yacht and arrested on August 20th on allegations that he and three associates ripped off donors trying to fund a southern border wall.

He's the latest in a long list of Trump allies to be charged with a crime.

The organizers of the “We Build The Wall” group portrayed themselves as eager to help the president build a “big beautiful” barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, as he had promised during the 2016 campaign.

They raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors and pledged that 100% of the money would be used for the project.

But according to the criminal charges unsealed Thursday, much of the money never made it to the wall.

Instead, it was used to line the pockets of group members, including Bannon, who served in Trump's White House and worked for his campaign.

He allegedly took over $1 million, using some to secretly pay co-defendant Brian Kolfage, the founder of the project, and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.

Hours after his arrest, Bannon pleaded not guilty during an appearance in a Manhattan federal court.

He is the latest addition to a startlingly long list of Trump associates who have been prosecuted, including his former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, whom Bannon replaced, his longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

Trump has also made clear that he is willing to use his near-limitless pardon power to help political allies escape legal jeopardy, most recently commuting the sentence of longtime political adviser Roger Stone.

Bannon was taken into custody around 7 a.m. by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service on a 150-foot (45-meter) luxury yacht called Lady May, which was off the coast of Connecticut, authorities said.

The boat is owned by exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and currently for sale for nearly $28 million. According to Marine Traffic, a commercial tracking service, the vessel's transponder signal went dark on June 17, shortly after it departed a port in Connecticut en route to Miami, potentially indicating its beacon was inoperable or had been turned off.

At his hearing later on August 20th, Bannon appeared with his hands cuffed in front of him and a white mask covering most of his face.

He rocked back and forth on a chair in a holding cell where he appeared via video with his lawyers on the telephone.

The magistrate judge approved Bannon’s release on $5 million bail, secured by $1.75 million in assets.

Neither Bannon, nor his spokesperson or attorney responded to requests for comment on August 20th.

After the arrest, Trump quickly distanced himself from Bannon and the project.

***

A bronze statue representing US First Lady Melania Trump was on September 15th unveiled in her native Slovenia to replace a wooden one that was set on fire in July.

The new sculpture is a replica of the original one that was commissioned by US artist Brad Downey and placed near Trump's home town of Sevnica, in central Slovenia.

The original statue - carved by local folk artist Ales Zupevc - was torched by unknown arsonists on July 4th 2020.

It was carved in a linden tree and pained in light blue to resemble Trump's outfit at her husband's swearing in ceremony.

The sculpture bares no obvious resemblance to the US first lady.

A group of locals gathered at the site watching as the new statue was unveiled.

Zupevc climbed the wooden stand, smiling as he stood by the life-size sculpture.

A plaque reads that it is "dedicated to the eternal memory of a monument to Melania which stood at this location."

Born Melanija Knavs in nearby Novo Mesto in 1970, the new U.S. first lady grew up in Sevnica while Slovenia was part of the Communist-ruled former Yugoslavia.

A country of some 2 million people, Slovenia is an Alpine nation, known as nature-loving and environment-friendly.

***

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a diminutive yet towering women’s rights champion who became the court’s second female justice, died on September 18th at her home in Washington. She was 87.

Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court said.

Her death just over six weeks before Election Day is likely to set off a heated battle over whether President Donald Trump should nominate, and the Republican-led Senate should confirm, her replacement, or if the seat should remain vacant until the outcome of his race against Democrat Joe Biden is known.

Chief Justice John Roberts mourned Ginsburg’s passing. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her - a tireless and resolute champion of justice,” Roberts said in a statement.

Ginsburg announced in July that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for lesions on her liver, the latest of her several battles with cancer.

Ginsburg spent her final years on the bench as the unquestioned leader of the court’s liberal wing and became something of a rock star to her admirers. Young women especially seemed to embrace the court’s Jewish grandmother, affectionately calling her the Notorious RBG, for her defense of the rights of women and minorities, and the strength and resilience she displayed in the face of personal loss and health crises.

Those health issues included five bouts with cancer beginning in 1999, falls that resulted in broken ribs, insertion of a stent to clear a blocked artery and assorted other hospitalizations after she turned 75.

She resisted calls by liberals to retire during Barack Obama’s presidency at a time when Democrats held the Senate and a replacement with similar views could have been confirmed. Instead, Trump will almost certainly try to push Ginsburg’s successor through the Republican-controlled Senate - and move the conservative court even more to the right.

Ginsburg antagonized Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign in a series of media interviews, including calling him a faker. She soon apologized.

Her appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993 was the first by a Democrat in 26 years. She initially found a comfortable ideological home somewhere left of center on a conservative court dominated by Republican appointees. Her liberal voice grew stronger the longer she served.

Ginsburg was a mother of two, an opera lover and an intellectual who watched arguments behind oversized glasses for many years, though she ditched them for more fashionable frames in her later years. At argument sessions in the ornate courtroom, she was known for digging deep into case records and for being a stickler for following the rules.

She argued six key cases before the court in the 1970s when she was an architect of the women’s rights movement. She won five.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg does not need a seat on the Supreme Court to earn her place in the American history books,” Clinton said at the time of her appointment. “She has already done that.”

On the court, where she was known as a facile writer, her most significant majority opinions were the 1996 ruling that ordered the Virginia Military Institute to accept women or give up its state funding, and the 2015 decision that upheld independent commissions some states use to draw congressional districts.

Besides civil rights, Ginsburg took an interest in capital punishment, voting repeatedly to limit its use. During her tenure, the court declared it unconstitutional for states to execute the intellectually disabled and killers younger than 18.

In addition, she questioned the quality of lawyers for poor accused murderers. In the most divisive of cases, including the Bush v. Gore decision in 2000, she was often at odds with the court’s more conservative members - initially Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

The division remained the same after John Roberts replaced Rehnquist as chief justice, Samuel Alito took O’Connor’s seat, and, under Trump, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court, in seats that had been held by Scalia and Kennedy, respectively.

Ginsburg would say later that the 5-4 decision that settled the 2000 presidential election for Republican George W. Bush was a “breathtaking episode” at the court.

She was perhaps personally closest on the court to Scalia, her ideological opposite. Ginsburg once explained that she took Scalia’s sometimes biting dissents as a challenge to be met. “How am I going to answer this in a way that’s a real putdown?” she said.

When Scalia died in 2016, also an election year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to act on Obama's nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the opening. The seat remained vacant until after Trump's surprising presidential victory. McConnell has said he would move to confirm a Trump nominee if there were a vacancy this year.

Reached by phone late Friday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, declined to disclose any plans. He said a statement would be forthcoming.

Ginsburg authored powerful dissents of her own in cases involving abortion, voting rights and pay discrimination against women. She said some were aimed at swaying the opinions of her fellow judges while others were “an appeal to the intelligence of another day” in the hopes that they would provide guidance to future courts.

“Hope springs eternal,” she said in 2007, “and when I am writing a dissent, I’m always hoping for that fifth or sixth vote - even though I’m disappointed more often than not.”

She wrote memorably in 2013 that the court’s decision to cut out a key part of the federal law that had ensured the voting rights of Black people, Hispanics and other minorities was “like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

Change on the court hit Ginsburg especially hard. She dissented forcefully from the court’s decision in 2007 to uphold a nationwide ban on an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion. The court, with O’Connor still on it, had struck down a similar state ban seven years earlier. The “alarming” ruling, Ginsburg said, “cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away at a right declared again and again by this court - and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women’s lives.”

In 1999, Ginsburg had surgery for colon cancer and received radiation and chemotherapy. She had surgery again in 2009 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in December 2018 for cancerous growths on her left lung. Following the last surgery, she missed court sessions for the first time in more than 25 years on the bench.

Ginsburg also was treated with radiation for a tumor on her pancreas in August 2019. She maintained an active schedule even during the three weeks of radiation. When she revealed a recurrence of her cancer in July 2020, Ginsburg said she remained “fully able” to continue as a justice.

Joan Ruth Bader was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1933, the second daughter in a middle-class family. Her older sister, who gave her the lifelong nickname “Kiki,” died at age 6, so Ginsburg grew up in Brooklyn’s Flatbush section as an only child. Her dream, she has said, was to be an opera singer.

Ginsburg graduated at the top of her Columbia University law school class in 1959 but could not find a law firm willing to hire her. She had “three strikes against her” - for being Jewish, female and a mother, as she put it in 2007.

She had married her husband, Martin, in 1954, the year she graduated from Cornell University. She attended Harvard University’s law school but transferred to Columbia when her husband took a law job there. Martin Ginsburg went on to become a prominent tax attorney and law professor. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010. She is survived by two children, Jane and James, and several grandchildren.

Ginsburg once said that she had not entered the law as an equal-rights champion. “I thought I could do a lawyer’s job better than any other,” she wrote. “I have no talent in the arts, but I do write fairly well and analyze problems clearly.”

***

People are continuing to pay their respects outside the US Supreme Court as they reflect on the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and come to terms with the approaching power struggle to fill her vacant seat.

Scores of flowers, pictures, candles, and small American flags were left near the Washington DC courthouse, along with and handwritten condolence messages and quotes from Ginsburg, who died Friday of metastatic pancreatic cancer at age 87 after 27 years on the court.

Angel Smith, a furloughed worker, came up from Richmond, Virginia just to celebrate Ginsburg at the growing memorial.

She said it was disheartening to see some people already move on to discussing her passing as an opportunity to replace her.

"I just hope that the next person is somebody who could be on that same level as her," Smith said. "Her final wishes were appropriate, and I think they should be respected. And after I put down my flowers and my sign and my candle, I came off to the side and I said a prayer for this country. I asked that they honor her wishes and that they wait."

President Donald Trump metSeotember 21st with Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House as the conservative jurist emerged as a favorite to replace the Ginsburg on the Supreme Court, the start of a monumental Senate confirmation fight over objections from Democrats it’s too close to the November election.

Trump said he expects to announce his pick by week’s end, before the burial of Ginsburg, the court's liberal icon, at Arlington National Cemetery.

***

President Donald Trump's has said he would nominate a conservative woman to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on September 18th at the age of 87.

Trump, who will announce his nominee on September 19th, says he's confident his choice will be confirmed, but some disagreement is forming on whether the pick should focus on cementing the conservative majority on the court, or assist in Trump's reelections efforts.

Mark Sherman, a Supreme Court Reporter for the Associated Press, said five women are rounding out Trump's Supreme Court pick shortlist: Amy Coney Barrett, Barbara Lagoa, Joan Larsen, Allison Rushing, and Kate Todd.

"They have in common that they're all well-regarded conservatives. Four of them are federal judges, and the fifth is a lawyer in the White House," Sherman said.

Barrett, 48, is widely considered to be the front-runner. She was previously considered as a finalist for Trump's second nomination to the high court, which eventually went to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. A devout Catholic mother of seven, she is a favorite of religious conservatives and considered a strong opponent of abortion.

"She has a long history in conservative circles. She was a clerk at one point to Justice Scalia when he was on the Supreme Court," Sherman said. "We do know from her record that she has raised questions about abortion rights and also suggested that there are many more abortion restrictions that she would find allowable under the law than, say, Justice Ginsburg did."

Lagoa, 52, is a Cuban American judge from Florida who was nominated by Trump to serve on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019. Her name was on the White House's list of potential high court contenders released earlier this month.

Raised in the heavily Latino Miami suburb of Hialeah, Lagoa is the daughter of Cuban exiles who fled the communist regime of Fidel Castro. She speaks fluent Spanish and has a solidly conservative judicial record.

"Picking Lagoa could perhaps help him win more of the Cuban vote, which is an important constituent part of the Hispanic vote in Florida," Sherman said. "And if the vote in Florida is close... any little edge could be decisive."

Larsen, 51, was a little-known University of Michigan legal scholar until 2015, when then- Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, tapped her to fill a vacant seat on the Michigan Supreme Court.

After Trump won the presidency and the Michigan electoral college in 2016, he quickly sought to elevate Larsen to the federal bench, tapping her in May 2017 to fill a vacant seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rushing, 38, was confirmed just 18 months ago to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. If elevated to the Supreme Court, she would be the youngest justice confirmed since the early 1800s.

She is a native of Hendersonville, North Carolina. Her potential selection is being championed within the White House by chief of staff Mark Meadows, who also hails from the mountains of the Tarheel State.

Todd, 45, is the only lawyer on Trump's potential shortlist for the Supreme Court who has never served as a judge.

A deputy White House counsel, her close connection to the Trump administration could give an opening to Democrats to attack her independence and relative lack of experience. However, her lack of a judicial record also leaves little paper trail for opponents to sort through for material to attack.

"The president has said he will make a nomination public on September 19th," Sherman said. "And there is the at least the possibility that Republicans, with their majority in the Senate and no procedural hurdles, really could perhaps confirm a new justice before the election. Remains to be seen if they will, but that's certainly a possibility."

***

Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden were in Washington on September 25th to pay their respects to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

They were invited to attend the special ceremony at the Capitol to commemorate Ginsburg lying in state.

Biden said he met Ginsburg for the first time when he was chairman of the committee that oversaw her confirmation hearing.

Services were brief, with the rabbi’s reflections and prayer, before guests lined up to pass by the casket and pay their respects.

Members of the House and Senate who were not invited to the ceremony because of space limitations imposed by the coronavirus pandemic will be able to pay their respects before a motorcade carrying Ginsburg’s casket departs the Capitol in the early afternoon.

The honor of lying in state has been accorded fewer than three dozen times, mostly to presidents, vice presidents, and members of Congress.

Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights icon, was the most recent person to lie in state following his death in July. Henry Clay, the Kentucky lawmaker who served as Speaker of the House and also was a senator, was the first in 1852.

Rosa Parks - a private citizen, not a government official - is the only woman who has lain in honor, a separate commemoration, at the Capitol.

Ginsburg had lain in repose for two days at the Supreme Court, where thousands of people paid their respects outside, including President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump on September 24th. Spectators booed and chanted “vote him out” as the president, who wore a mask, stood silently near Ginsburg’s casket at the top of the court’s front steps.

Trump plans to announce his nomination September 19th of a woman to take Ginsburg’s place on the high court, where she served for 27 years and was the leader of the liberal justices.

Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, will be buried next week in Arlington National Cemetery beside her husband, Martin, who died in 2010.

02:03:17

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John Lewis, lion of US civil rights , dies at 80

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Selma, Alabama - 7 March 2015

1. John Lewis and President Barack Obama walk across Edmund Pettus Bridge on 50th anniversary of march

2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. John Lewis, (D) Georgia:

"We were beaten, tear-gassed, some of us was left bloody right here on this bridge. "

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Congressional leaders pay respects to Rep. Lewis

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Washington - 27 July 2020

3. Various of casket of late Rep. John Lewis being brought into US Capitol Rotunda

4. Lawmakers rise to give standing ovation in honor of Lewis after recording of his speech is played

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Trump visits brother, Robert, at New York hospital

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New York - 14 August 2020

5. U.S. President Donald Trump's motorcade arrives at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan

6. Wide exterior of hospital

00:37:11

Ex-WH adviser Steve Bannon arrested in fraud scam

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Washington DC - 16 January 2018

7. Steve Bannon arrives on Capitol Hill to testify

Rome - 26 March 2019

8. Close of Political Strategist Steve Bannon posing for photographers at Foreign Press Association in Rome

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Bannon pleads not guilty in border wall scheme

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New York - 20 August 2020

9. Steve Bannon, US President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, leaves a Manhattan federal court and walks through media scrum to a waiting SUV which drives off

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Melania Trump bronze statue unveiled in Slovenia

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Sevnica - 15 September 2020

10. Local folk artist Ales Zupevc unveils bronze statue representing US First Lady Melania Trump UPSOUND Music

11. Close of statue

01:02:10

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies

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ARCHIVE: Washington - 1 June 2017

12. Various views, U.S. Supreme Court photo opportunity, including Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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ARCHIVE: Chicago - 9 September 2019

13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US Supreme Court Justice:

"I don't know what it will take, but we really should get back to the way it was when people were examining the qualifications of someone to be a judge rather trying to guess how they would vote."

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Memorial for Ginsburg outside US Supreme Court

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Washington, DC - 21 September 2020

14. Flowers and tributes outside US Supreme Court

15. Closeup of a picture of Ginsburg next to flowers

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Trump's top contenders to take RBG's court seat

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Washington - 12 May 2020

16. Wide of United States Supreme Court building

17. Close-up engraving reads "Equal Justice Under Law"

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Bidens pay their respects to Ginsburg

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Washington DC - 25 September 2020

18. Various of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's casket to lay in state

19. Presidential Nomine Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden paying their respects

U.S. President Donald Trump on October 1st 2020 predicted the "end of the pandemic is in sight."

Trump made the remarks as he addressed the annual Alfred E. Smith dinner on October 1st.

The annual fundraising dinner for Catholic charities was held virtually for the first time because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The president used the event to defend his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett and hailed to contribution of Catholics to American life over the years.

Trump also praised New Yorkers for their 'grit' in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

***

Joe Biden says President Donald Trump testing positive for coronavirus is a "bracing reminder" of the seriousness of the virus. He also says he's received two coronavirus tests, and both came back negative.

Speaking at an event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Biden said he received a test in Delaware and one from "the former White House doctor" who came up to Delaware to administer the test, "and everything's clear."

The president said October 2nd that he and his wife, Melania Trump, tested positive for coronavirus. Biden was tested after spending nearly 90 minutes onstage with the president during their debate earlier this week.

Biden said he wished the president and the First Lady a full recovery and that "this is not a matter of politics." Biden said it was a "reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. It is not going away automatically."

"This cannot be a partisan moment," he said. "It must be an American moment. We have to come together as a nation. I'm running as a Democrat. But I will run and govern as an American president. Whether you voted for me or against me, I will represent you."

Biden delivered the entirety of his remarks wearing a mask.

***

India crossed the mark of 100,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on October 3rd, putting the country's toll at nearly 10% of the global fatalities and behind only the United States and Brazil.

The Health Ministry also raised the confirmed caseload to more than 6.4 million with 79,476 new infections.

The grim milestone comes at the heels of a growing crisis for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist government that has been criticised over its handling of the virus and economic impacts that have left millions jobless.

September has been India's worst month with daily cases and fatalities outstripping those in any other country.

Almost 41% of total cases and 34% of COVID-19 deaths were reported in that month alone, with nearly 1,100 people dying every day on average from the virus.

But the overall fatalities are most certainly an undercount, experts say, as deaths may have been attributed to other causes, especially in the early days when testing was extremely low for a country with a population of 1.4 billion.

India's poor track record to register mortality data even before the pandemic has further amplified questions over the actual death toll.

India's first COVID-19 death was reported on March 12. Over the next five months, the disease killed 50,000 people.

The pandemic that has saturated intensive care units and morgues and also contributed to the deaths of medical professionals, including doctors and nurses.

The Indian Medical Association on Friday said at least 500 doctors have died of the coronavirus, adding the toll could be far higher.

The association last month accused the government of "indifference" after it said there was no complete data on the number of front-line health care workers who had contracted the coronavirus and died.

Even as the numbers keep rising, India's senior health officials have used the official COVID-19 fatality rate of 1.56%, which is nearly half of the global one, as evidence of its success in fighting the pandemic and a basis for relaxing restrictions and reopening the economy.

India also has the highest number of recovered patients in the world.

Public health experts say the disorderly lockdown, which led millions of migrant workers to flee from cities to villages, possibly carrying the virus with them, further complicated the fight against the pandemic, undercutting the country's feeble health care system's ability to cope with the rising infections.

Still, India is preparing to reopen cinemas and entertainment parks with limited capacity beginning on October 15th, in an effort to revive the economy.

***

Supporters of President Donald Trump have been camped outside of the military hospital where he has been treated for COVID-19 since October 4th, publicly supporting him and sending him well wishes.

The supporters wave flags and pro-Trump banners to traffic passing by the Walter Reed Medical Center. Loud music blares from speakers along the sidewalk.

Trump said October 5th he's leaving the hospital and will continue his recovery at the White House.

He said he's feeling good and despite his attack the nation should not be afraid of the virus that has killed more than 209,000 Americans.

Trump's expected return comes after he has received an exceptionally aggressive course of treatment and a standard of care well above what is available to average Americans.

His doctor, Navy Cdr. Sean Conley, said the president would not be fully out of the woods for another week, but he said Trump had "met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria."

On October 4th, Trump briefly ventured out of the hospital while contagious to salute cheering supporters by motorcade - an outing that disregarded precautions meant to contain the virus.

Less than one month before Election Day, Trump was eager to project strength despite his illness. The still-infectious president surprised supporters who had gathered outside the hospital, riding by Sunday in a black SUV with the windows rolled up. Secret Service agents inside the vehicle could be seen in masks and other protective gear.

White House officials said Trump was anxious to be released after three nights at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where doctors revealed on Sunday that his blood oxygen level had dropped suddenly twice in recent days and that they gave him a steroid typically only recommended for the very sick.

Trump's experience with the disease has been dramatically different from most Americans, who do not have access to the same kind of monitoring and care. While most must cope with their symptoms - and fear of whether they'll take a turn for the worse - at home and alone, Trump has been staying in the presidential suite of one of the nation's best hospitals and has been given experimental drugs not readily available to the public. He returns to the White House where there is a team of doctors on call with 24-hour monitoring.

***

US President Donald Trump briefly left the hospital October 4th in his car to wave to supporters gathered outside.

The president's visit came shortly after he promised his supporters “a surprise” in a video posted a video on social media.

“It’s been a very interesting journey," Trump said in the video.

"I learned a lot about COVID. I learned it by really going to school. This is the real school. This isn’t the let’s read the books school. And I get it, and I understand it. And it’s a very interesting thing.”

Earlier in the day, Trump's doctor said he “continued to improve” and suggested he could be discharged as early as Monday.

***

At one of Argentina's favourite holiday beach resorts, Mar del Plata, 504 small national flags were planted in honour of local people who have died of COVID-19 as the pandemic continues to spread from the country's capital to the interior provinces.

A group of anonymous neighbours planted the flags on Bristol beach, one of the city's central and best-known beaches, to draw attention to the rising numbers of COVID-19 victims.

While the number of infections and deaths begin to go down in the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, the pandemic is spreading to the interior just two months from the start of the summer season, when hundreds of thousands of tourists normally flock to the beaches.

Authorities haven't clarified yet what measures will be taken during the holiday season.

Argentina has reported more than 840,000 cases of the new coronavirus and 22,226 deaths.

***

Police officers carried out checks on October 9th in Madrid to ensure those living in the city were adhering to restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Spain's government declared a state of emergency in the capital after it wresting control of efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19 from local authorities in a region that is experiencing one of Europe's most significant coronavirus outbreaks.

The step, which took immediate effect and lasts for two weeks, forced Madrid authorities to restore restrictions on travel that had been introduced by the national government but were struck down the previous day by a Madrid court ruling.

That successful legal challenge by Madrid officials was part of a long quarrel between the country's main political parties over their coronavirus response.

The central government's measures prohibit all nonessential trips in and out of the capital and nine of its suburbs, affecting some 4.8 million people.

Spain's interior minister said that more than 7,000 police officers would be deployed to ensure the restrictions are observed.

But Madrid's conservative regional government opposed those restrictions, saying they were draconian and hurt the economy claiming their more moderate measures were enough to fight COVID-19.

***

Hundreds of people gathered in the Italian capital on October 10th to protest against recent measures the government has adopted to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

Italy is struggling with a resurgence of coronavirus infections, after winning international praise for having tamed the virus with a strict 10-week lockdown and instituted a careful, conservative reopening and contact-tracing effort, when summer vacation travelers created new clusters.

Protesters complained about new measures including a order for all Italians to wear masks outdoors or face fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,200).

The Italian Health Ministry reported another 5,724 cases in the last 24 hours and 29 deaths. Most cases were asymptomatic and determined through increased testing - more than 133,000 in the period.

Most of the new cases are in Lombardy in the north, which tallied 1,140 new infections, followed by Campania, which includes Naples, and Veneto.

Italy has reached totals of nearly 350,000 confirmed cases and 36,140 deaths.

***

Dozens of people gathered in Prague's Old Town Square on October 18th for an outdoor Catholic mass.

Currently, indoor gatherings are limited to six people in the Czech Republic.

The priest leading the service said that while he understood the importance of the rules, "since the number of ill and severely ill is growing," it was "absurd" that other groups could meet in larger numbers.

"For instance political parties can gather with up to 100 people, but we are only allowed to pray in the church with six people. That is nonsense," said Jiri Korda.

On October 16th, coronavirus infections in the Czech Republic surpassed 10,000 in one day for the first time.

The Health Ministry said the day-to-day-increase of the new confirmed cases surged to 11,105.

It is almost 1,400 more than the previous record set a day earlier.

The country has registered a total of 160,112 cases, including 1,283 deaths.

After a series of new restrictive measures adopted by the government to slow down the surge, Health Minister Roman Prymula said he still expected a rise of those tested positive for about two weeks.

***

Czech police on October 18th used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse hundreds of protesters, who attacked them after a rally Sunday in Prague against government restrictions to slow the spread of coronavirus infections.

Police rescue services said at least 20 were injured in the clashes, which erupted after a few thousand people, including soccer and ice hockey fans, rallied at Old Town Square to condemn the restrictions that include the ban of sports competitions and closure of bars and restaurants.

Public gatherings of more than six are also banned but up to 500 people are allowed to demonstrate if they are divided into separated groups of 20 and wear face masks.

Many of the demonstrators had no face coverings. After police said their number surpassed 500, the organizers ended the rally.

But some protesters remained and the square, throwing flares, beer bottles, stones and various other objects at riot police.

The Czech Republic has been facing a record surge in coronavirus infections in recent weeks.

***

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE MEET FRONTLINE STAFF AT ST BARTHOLOMEW'S HOSPITAL IN LONDON

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated the launch of the "Hold Still" exhibition October 20th by meeting one of the photographers featured.

They met with Joyce Duah, who is an on site oncology pharmacist at St Bartholomew's hospital in central London - her photo "All in this Together" was selected for the exhibition.

They also chatted with her colleagues Amelia Chowdhury and Dipal Samuel, who are the subject of the photo.

"Hold Still" is a community photography project started by the Duchess in May, she invited people to submit a photo they had taken during lockdown, to be exhibited in various locations across the country.

***

A coronavirus testing laboratory in Rhineland-Palatinate said it was nearing its capacity as Germany's infection numbers have been increasing in the past weeks.

Bioscientia is the largest medical laboratory in Rhineland-Palatinate and one of four performance centers for COVID-19 diagnostics in Germany. 

It was the first institution in Rhineland-Palatinate to set up an outpatient smear clinic, and several thousand tests for the coronavirus are carried out daily.

The Robert Koch Institute, the country’s disease control center, says 7,595 new cases were registered on October 21st.

The number of new cases per 100,000 over the last seven days has risen to 51.3.

German states are imposing stricter coronavirus restrictions as the numbers of new infections continue to rise across the country.

The country's most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, announced that all students from fifth grade up will have to start wearing masks in class when they return from the fall break on Monday.

The measure's expected to remain in place until at least the Christmas break, authorities said.

***

The Czech army is finishing setting up the first COVID-19 field hospital in Prague with a capacity of 500 beds and 10 intensive care units.

The new hospital will be ready to accept patients by the upcoming weekend, according to the military.

It was set up as a backup facility to serve Prague hospitals in case they become inundated with coronavirus patients.

A series of restrictive measures imposed by the Czech government to slow a record surge of the virus in recent weeks have failed to make a difference.

In another desperate attempt to turn things around, health minister Roman Prymula announced on October 21st a ban on free movement of people in the Czech Republic and a closure of many stores, shopping malls and hotels.

At the same time, state offices will limit their opening hours.

Approved earlier, the country also returned on Wednesday to mandatory wearing of face coverings outdoors and in the cars.

The 7-day rolling average of daily new cases in the Czech Republic has risen over the past two weeks from 29.59 new cases per 100,000 people on October 6th to 85.64 new cases per 100,000 people on October 2th.

***

On its second night of curfew, Milan's main streets and piazzas remained empty.

In the financial capital of the country known for its bustling nightlife, the city's streets were left silent on October 24th.

Restaurants, bars and theatres remained closed, with everyone told to return to their homes by 11pm.

Buses and trams continued to run with almost no passengers, as the night service continued to operate for those who needed to travel for emergency or work reasons.

Italy, where the pandemic surfaced in Europe in February, has surpassed 500,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Trying to devise a strategy to rein in the galloping contagion, government officials were huddling with regional authorities on Saturday to determine what new restrictions could be imposed on the country.

Premier Giuseppe Conte has said he doesn't want to put Italy under severe lockdown again, as he did at the pandemic's start.

In past days, several governors have ordered overnight curfews in their regions in a bid to stop people from congregating at night outside bars and other social venues.

Lombardy, of which Milan is part and where the outbreak has been most devastating, registered more than double the number of daily new cases than any other region.

The nation's confirmed death toll, second highest in Europe after Britain's, rose to 37,210, after 151 more deaths.

***

Police fired water cannon at protesters in Rome on October 27th after hundreds gathered in the Italian capital to vent their anger over the latest measures aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

Footage showed protesters hurling what appeared to be flares towards the police.

They were protesting against new restrictions that have forced restaurants and cafes to close early and shuttered cinema, gyms and other leisure venues.

The government imposed at least a month of new restrictions across the country Sunday to fight rising coronavirus infections.

Italy has surpassed half a million confirmed coronavirus cases since February, when it became the first country in Europe stricken by the pandemic.

***

A few hundred people took to the streets of Paris to protest the French government's new lockdown and curfew measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus.

Mostly young men, some with yellow vests, walked through traffic calling on drivers and passers-by to join them in their fight against what they said were unfair and antidemocratic rules.

The customers of the brasseries and restaurants along the route looked on, hardly distracted by the rowdy crowd.

It was time for last orders.

France prepared October 29th to shut down again for a month to try to put the brakes on the fast-moving coronavirus.

Most said they were ready to restrict their freedoms given the rising number of virus-related deaths and COVID-19 patients filling French hospitals.

The new lockdown is gentler than what France saw in the spring, but still a shock to restaurants and other non-essential businesses ordered to close their doors in one of the world's biggest economies.

COVID-19 patients now fill 60% of French intensive care units, and France reported 244 virus-related deaths in a single day October 28th, for a total of 35,785 since the pandemic began, among the world's highest reported tolls.

***

French Opera singer Stephane Senechal sang the country's national anthem from his window on the first day of a second national lockdown.

Senechal became popular on social media during the first confinement when he started singing classic and opera songs to entertain his neighbours.

To mark the beginning of the second confinement and pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attack in Nice where three churchgoers were killed he choose to sing 'la Marseillaise'.

Speaking to the Associated Press on his choice of song he said that the anthem represents courage and strength.

"It's a freedom song. And I think about the victims when I sing it. And there are three types of victims in this moment. The victims of the virus, those who are victims of the confinement because they lost their jobs and the victims of terrorism", he said.

France entered into its second lockdown on Friday, which is expected to last for the next four weeks.

The country is also experiencing a period of heightened national security due to a terror attack on October 29th which killed three people.

***

Police were patrolling the streets of Lisbon in the early hours of November 10th as Portugal entered a state of emergency, with curfews imposed in the areas worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For at least two weeks, some seven million people, around 70 percent of the country's population, must remain at home on weekdays between 11 p.m. (2300 GMT) and 5 a.m. (0500 GMT).

At weekends, they cannot leave home after 1 p.m. (1300 GMT).

Restaurants, bars and other businesses have to close early.

On the first night of curfew, police officers across Lisbon set up road checkpoints to control drivers after 11 p.m. and controlled a few neighborhoods making sure people were aware of the new rules with businesses closing on time.

Exemptions include workers going to or returning from work.

The government has warned that the state of emergency, which grants authorities special powers, could be prolonged and measures may be tightened if the spread of the new coronavirus does not slow.

The number of cases and hospital admissions has climbed sharply in recent weeks.

***

Pfizer Inc. said November 9ththat its COVID-19 vaccine may be a remarkable 90% effective, based on early and incomplete test results that nevertheless brought widespread optimism.

Pfizer, which is developing the vaccine with its German partner BioNTech, now is on track to apply later this month for emergency-use approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, once it has the necessary safety information in hand.

Still, November 9th's announcement doesn't mean for certain that a vaccine is imminent.

This interim analysis, from an independent data monitoring board, looked at 94 infections recorded so far in a study that has enrolled nearly 44,000 people in the US and five other countries.

***

Hundreds of drones lit up Seoul's night sky on November 13th, forming colorful pictograms and messages of hope.

Organized by South Korean government, more than 300 drones flew over the Seoul Olympic Park.

This was the second drone flash mob event this year, aimed at invigorating and encouraging the public to overcome the economic difficulties and COVID-19 challenges.

More than 120 of new cases were reported Friday in densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where officials have struggled to stem transmissions tied to various places, including hospitals, nursing homes, churches, schools, restaurants and offices.

***

German police fired water cannon at demonstrators in Berlin on November 18th during a protest against coronavirus restrictions.

Police said the crowd had refused to listen to their orders to wear face masks and keep their distance from one another in line with regulations.

As the water cannon opened up outside the landmark Brandenburg Gate, police in riot gear moved through the crowd carrying away some protesters.

Thousands of people were demonstrating against the restrictions as lawmakers debated a bill that would strengthen official powers to impose further measures.

***

Hundreds of bodies are still being stored in freezer trucks at a disaster morgue set up during New York City's coronavirus surge in the spring, according to the city's Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Many of the 650 bodies at the disaster morgue on the Brooklyn waterfront are of people whose families can't be located or can't afford a proper burial, officials said.

The unit tasked with identifying bodies is set up to handle about 20 deaths a day, but during the peak of the pandemic it received as many as 200 a day, Aden Naka, deputy director of forensic investigations, told the Wall Street Journal.

Normally, the deceased would have been buried within a few weeks in a gravesite for the indigent on Hart Island in the Long Island Sound. But as COVID-19 deaths surged in New York in April, with as many as 800 deaths in one day, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged that mass burials in temporary graves wouldn't take place.

The medical examiner's office is having trouble finding relatives of about 230 deceased people, officials said. When next of kin have been contacted, many bodies haven't been collected because families haven't arranged burial for financial reasons, nor have they requested free burial on Hart Island.

The city is slowly reducing the number of bodies in storage, with the number declining from 698 to 650 since mid-September, according to Dina Maniotis, the chief medical examiner's office's executive deputy commissioner.

New York state has reported at least 34,187 deaths of people due to COVID-19, according to data from John Hopkins University & Medicine. And at least 6,600 residents have died in nursing homes, according to state data, which doesn't state how many nursing home residents died in hospitals.

***

Belgium is set to become a hub for distributing the vaccines across the European continent and also into Africa, as companies prepare to ship vaccines for the coronavirus.

At Brussels Airport, Koen Gouweloose, the CEO of Swissport Cargo Services told The Associated Press during a tour of his company's facilities that "what we expect is that there will be a huge volume coming through."

Vaccine doses, from companies within Europe and from outside, will be temporarily stored there at sub-zero temperatures before they're shipped out by road, rail or air.

Belgium is host to a number of big pharmaceutical companies, is home to the headquarters of the European Union, and borders four EU countries.

"We are prepared, everything is done, tested," Gouweloose said.

Brussels Airport is also a major transport hub for Africa

Vaccinations against the coronavirus could start in the 27 European Union nations by Christmas and member countries must urgently prepare their logistical chains to cope with the rollout of hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccines, according to a top EU official.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also told EU lawmakers Wednesday that "the first European citizens might already be vaccinated before the end of December."

The commission, the EU's executive arm, has agreements with six potential vaccine suppliers and is working on a seventh contract.

The deals allow it to purchase over 800 million doses, more than the population of the bloc, which stands at around 460 million people.

Some vaccines would require two doses to be effective.

***

The American drugmaker Pfizer said December 2nd it would immediately begin shipping its COVID-19 vaccine to the UK, after British regulators gave its approval to the drug.

A refrigerated truck was seen leaving a Pfizer factory in Belgium, following the UK's announcement earlier on December 2nd that the vaccine had been authoritised for emergency use.

The move makes Britain the first western country to license the vaccine.

The British government said it expected to receive the vaccine "within days".

***

Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations in Moscow with the programme starting on December 5th, a precursor to a sweeping Russia-wide immunisation effort.

Three days prior President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a "large-scale" COVID-19 immunisation campaign, even though a Russian-designed vaccine has yet to complete the advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety in line with established scientific protocols.

The Russian leader said on December 2nd that more than 2 million doses of the Sputnik V jab will be available in the next few days, allowing authorities to offer jabs to medical workers and teachers across the country starting late next week.

Moscow, which currently accounts for about a quarter of the country's new daily infections, moved ahead of the curve, opening 70 vaccination facilities on December 5th.

Doctors, teachers and municipal workers were invited to book a time to receive a jab, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that about 5,000 signed up in a few hours after the system began operating on December 4th.

Russia boasted that Sputnik V was the world's "first registered COVID-19 vaccine" after the government gave it regulatory approval in early August.

The move drew criticism from international experts, who pointed out that the vaccine had only been tested on several dozen people at the time.

Putin has shrugged off doubts about it, saying in August that one of his daughters was among the early vaccine recipients.

Over the past months, Sputnik V has been offered to medical workers and teachers, even as it was still in the middle of advanced trials.

Several top officials said they also have received the jabs, and earlier this week the Russian military began vaccinating crews of navy ships scheduled to depart on a mission.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Wednesday that more than 100,000 people in Russia already have received the shots.

The free vaccine is offered to people aged 18 to 60 who don't suffer from chronic illnesses and aren't pregnant or breastfeeding.

The two-shot Sputnik V was developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Institute.

An advanced study among 40,000 volunteers was announced two weeks after the vaccine received government approval and that is still ongoing.

in November, developers of the vaccine said interim analysis of trial data showed it was 91.4% effective.

The conclusion was based on 39 infections among 18,794 study participants that received both doses of either the vaccine or a placebo, which is a much lower number of infections than Western drugmakers have looked at when assessing the effectiveness of their vaccines.

Two other Russia-designed vaccines are also undergoing tests.

Russia has been swept with a resurgence of the outbreak in the fall, with the number of new infections exceeding the levels recorded early in the pandemic, but the authorities so far have refrained from a tight lockdown imposed in the spring.

On December 5th, Russia reported a new record high of daily infections at 28,782, including 7,993 in Moscow.

The government task force has recorded a total of 42,684 virus-related deaths since the start of the outbreak.

Russia's total of over 2.4 million confirmed cases is currently the fourth-largest caseload in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

***

A COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States began being pulled out of a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Michigan on December 13th, with the shots that are critical to stopping the nation's coronavirus outbreak destined to reach states a day later.

The vaccines were being removed from freezers and packed into special containers, ahead of distribution to hubs across the US.

Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and sickened 71 million worldwide.

Initially, about 3 million doses were expected to be sent out, and the priority is health care workers and nursing home residents as infections, hospitalizations and deaths soar in the US.

***

Austria has been training dogs to sniff out COVID-positive people for almost a year and on December 14th, army specialists presented one of their canine virus detectors to the public for the first time.

During training, Belgian shepherd dog "Fantasy forever vom Seethalblick" was able to scan 250 samples in 10 minutes according to Colonel Otto Koppitsch, who heads Austria's Military Dog Centre in Kaisersteinbruch.

"The nose of a dog is able to detect COVID-positive material and point it out," he said.

By early 2021 the military hopes to have completed the training of its new sniffer dogs.

The dogs could be deployed at international airports where test results are needed immediately and passengers can't wait for the results of regular tests.

How exactly dogs are able to detect the virus is still a mystery - one possibility is that they are sensing not the virus itself but biological messengers of the immune response of infected people.

***

Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, on December 17th visited a re-purposed COVID-19 vaccine ward at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

The ward, named the Edward Jenner COVID-19 Vaccination Hub, will be used as a part of the UK's coronavirus vaccination program, which began on December 8.

The royals toured the facility, before unveiling a plaque commemorating their visit.

Prince Charles had already contracted COVID-19 in March 2020, and commented to staff at the unit that he already has antibodies for the virus.

***

The coronavirus pandemic hasn't made life on the streets of Berlin any easier for Kaspars Breidaks.

For three months, the 43-year-old Latvian has faced shelters operating at reduced capacity so that people can be kept at a safe distance from one another, and a reduced ability to raise money from panhandling or collecting bottles with fewer people on the streets.

But on a chilly winter morning this week he found himself with a free hot meal and a place to warm up, after the German capital's biggest restaurant, the Hofbraeu Berlin, itself closed down due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions, shifted gears to help the homeless.

Breidaks said other homeless people at the train station had told him about the place.

Patterned after the famous beerhall of the same name in Munich, the idea of opening up the shuttered Bavarian-style beerhall near the city's landmark Alexanderplatz square to the homeless came from an employee who volunteers at a shelter.

It was a clear win-win situation, said Hofbraeu manager Bjoern Schwarz, to help out the homeless during tough times, while also giving much needed work to employees and income to the restaurant through the city-funded meals.

In cooperation with the city and two welfare organizations, the restaurant quickly developed a concept to take in up to 150 homeless in two shifts every day until the end of the winter and started serving meals on Tuesday.

It's only a small fraction of the 3,000 restaurant guests, primarily tourists, who frequently pack the establishment during good times, but the spacious halls have proved perfectly suited to bring in the homeless and give them each plenty of space to avoid infections.

For its new clientele, the restaurant opened a second-floor, wooden-decorated hall, put up forty long tables, where up to two people can sit at an appropriate distance.

"We'll offer them something different from the regular soup kitchen food, real dishes on porcelain plates, with different sides, we'll try to offer Christmas-style dishes with lot of flavors," Schwarz said.

Breidaks came to Berlin looking for work, but his job never materialized and he was left on the streets begging to try and raise enough money to replace a stolen passport and for a bus ticket back home.

He's one of an estimated 2,000 to 12,000 people living without a place to sleep in this city of 3.6 million.

Another 34,000 homeless have been put up in community shelters, hostels and apartments by the city's social services and private welfare groups.

According to Elke Breitenbach, the Berlin state government's senator for social issues whose department supports the restaurant-turned-shelter financially, the pandemic has seriously worsened the situation.

"So much has disappeared for the homeless people. So, fewer people are out and about," she said. "You can collect less and less bottles. Also with begging, they just get less money."

"They don't have enough to eat and when it's cold they must have places to warm up," Breitenbach added.

***

For some people it was business as usual in the streets of Mexico City on December 19th, despite the city returning to a lockdown that allows only basic services to operate from the weekend.

Many visited the city centre, a popular tourist spot and a hub for supplies for workshops and small industries in the Mexican capital.

Gustavo Bello, a tattoo artist, went to find last minute supplies for the upcoming weeks.

"(I agree with the measures) because it is really necessary, we need to have control of the disease and that people are aware," Bello said.

Authorities introduced several checkpoints to reduce access without fully restricting it.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced three weeks of new restrictions, after weeks of increased COVID-19 cases and as hospitals continue to fill.

Gatherings are not allowed, but the government did not mention any specific plans to prevent residents from doing so.

Mexico has seen more than 1.3 million confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide, with 117,248 deaths related to COVID-19.

Due to the low level of testing, authorities acknowledge the real death toll is probably closer to 150,000.

***

Workers on December 20th began packaging shipments of the second COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the US, a desperately needed boost to efforts to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control.

The much-needed shots developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health are expected to start being administered on December 21st, just three days after the Food and Drug Administration authorised their emergency rollout.

Later on December 20th, an expert committee will debate who should be next in line for early doses of the Moderna vaccine and a similar one from Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.

Pfizer's shots were first shipped out a week ago and started being used the next day, kicking off the nation’s biggest vaccination drive.

***

President-elect Joe Biden on December 21st received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.

The president-elect took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital not far from his Delaware home, hours after his wife, Jill Biden, did the same. The injections came the same day that a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, will start arriving in states. It joins Pfizer's in the nation's arsenal against the COVID-19 pandemic, which has now killed more than 317,000 people in the United States and upended life around the globe.

"I'm ready," said Biden, who was administered the dose at a hospital in Newark, Delaware, and declined the option to count to three before the needle was inserted into his left arm. "I'm doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine. There's nothing to worry about."

The president-elect praised the health care workers and said President Donald Trump's administration "deserves some credit getting this off the ground." And Biden urged Americans to wear masks during the upcoming Christmas holiday and not travel unless necessary.

Other top government officials last week joined the first wave of Americans to be inoculated against COVID-19 as part of the largest vaccination campaign in the nation's history.

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to receive authorization, "is safe and likely efficacious" for people who have been infected with COVID-19 and "should be offered regardless of history of prior symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection."

While there is no recommended minimum wait time between infection and vaccination, because reinfection is uncommon in the three months after a person is infected, the committee said people who tested positive in the preceding 90 days "may delay vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired."

***

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) called for new lockdown restrictions on December 28th as the country's COVID-19 spike reached 1 million confirmed cases on Sunday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa called an emergency meeting on December 27th of the National Coronavirus Command Council.

The country's new variant of the coronavirus, 501.V2, is more contagious and has quickly become dominant in many areas of the resurgence, according to experts.

With South Africa's hospitals reaching capacity and no sign of the new surge reaching a peak, Ramaphosa is expected to announce a return to restrictive measures designed to slow the spread of the disease.

SAMA says hospitals are struggling to cope with the influx of patients.

***

Chinese health regulators said on December 31st that they had given conditional approval to a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned Sinopharm.

Chen Shifei, the deputy commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing that the decision had been made the previous night.

"For the vaccines that are urgently needed for responding to major public health emergency, the national drug administration can approve the registration application with conditions," said Chen.

The inactivated, two-dose vaccine is the first one approved for general use in China.

The go-ahead comes as the country carries out a campaign to vaccinate 50 million people before a major holiday for the Lunar New Year in February.

The vaccine was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm.

The company announced Wednesday that preliminary data from last-stage trials had shown it to be 79.3% effective.

Final proof of its effectiveness will depend on publication of more data.

Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers that are in a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people.

Conditional approval means that research is still ongoing, and the regulators can request more safety and effectiveness data about certain populations with different health profiles, Tao Lina, a former government immunologist, said at the news conference.

Usually, it means that the drug or product in question may be restricted for certain age groups, he said.

Being asked about the price of the vaccine at the press conference, Zheng Zhongwei, a National Health Commission official said that it will be "in the limit of what people can afford," without giving a particular price.

The Beijing Institute vaccine is already under mass production, though officials did not answer questions about current production capacity.

"Production capacity is a dynamic and continuous process," said Mao Junfeng, Vice Director of the Department of Industry of Consumer Products of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

***

French police manned checkpoints in Paris ahead of midnight on December 31st, as the country's coronavirus restrictions continued into the new year.

While the country has not instituted a national lockdown, rising cases have prompted a national curfew of 8 p.m to 6 a.m, while venues in the capital remained closed.

06:01:20

00:00:00

Trump: 'End of the pandemic is in sight'

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Washington - 1st October 2020

1. SOUNDBITE (English) Donald Trump, U.S. President:

" And I just want to say that the end of the pandemic is in sight and next year will be one of the greatest years in the history of our country."

00:08:08

Biden urges Americans: 'Be patriotic,' wear masks

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POOL

Grand Rapids, Michigan - 2 October 2020

2. Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden walks up to podium

3. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Biden, (D) Presidential Nominee:

"We have to do our part to be responsible. It means following the science, listening to the experts, washing our hands, social distancing. It means wearing a mask in public and means encouraging others to do so as well."

00:23:03

Burials in Delhi as virus deaths reach 100.000

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New Delhi - 3 October 2020

4. Grave digger being sprayed with sanitizer

5. Relatives and workers carry body, holding ropes and lowering body into grave

00:32:16

Trump fans gather outside of military hospital

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Bethesda, Maryland - 5 October 2020

6. Trump supporters wave flag and signs in front of Walter Reed Medical Center

7. Close-up flowers in front of sign

00:40:05

Trump drive-by outside hospital, greets supporters

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Bethesda - 4 October 2020

8. Continuous shot of US President Donald Trump during drive-by outside hospital, supporters cheering

00:50:19

Hundreds of Argentine flags to honor virus deaths

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Mar del Plata, about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires - 8 October 2020

9. Hundreds of Argentine flags planted on Bristol beach

10. Mar del Plata resident Cecilia planting a flag

00:58:19

Police enforce Madrid virus state of emergency

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Madrid - 9 October 2020

11. Various of police stopping cars

01:07:11

Far-right supporters protest virus restrictions in Italy

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Rome - 10 October 2020

12. Fake skull with face mask (Italian) reading: "I'm dead because of COVID but because I starved."

13. Demonstrators with letters in background reading: "Sovereignty"

14. Woman holding banner (Italian) reading: "It's a dictatorship, not a pandemic"

01:18:14

Dozens gather in Prague for outdoor Catholic mass

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Prague - 18 October 2020

15. Various of people gathering for an outdoor Catholic mass

01:26:15

Anti-lockdown measures demo turns violent in Prague

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Prague - 18 October 2020

16. Various of violent demonstration, fireworks exploding, tear gas

17. Man being grabbed and beaten by riot police

01:38:12

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge meet frontline staff at St Bartholomew's hospital in London

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London, 20 October 2020

18. Duke and Duchess talking to frontline staff and photographer Joyce Duah

01:46:14

Virus testing lab in Germany 'nearing capacity'

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Ingelheim - 21 October 2020

19. Laboratory

20. Lab workers

01:54:14

Czech army sets up 500 bed field hospital

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Prague, Czech Republic - 22 October 2020

21. Wide of field hospital

22. Wide of tents

02:02:07

Milan's main streets and piazzas remained empty

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Milan - 25 October 2020

++NIGHT SHOTS++

23. Empty street

24. Inside of empty tram

02:10:01

Water cannons at Rome protest against virus rules

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rome - 27 October 2020

25. Various of water cannon moving in to disperse anti-lockdown protesters

02:18:02

Hundreds of Parisians protest lockdown in streets

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paris - 29 October 2020

26. Wide of protesters walking down street with one holding flare in the air

27. Pan of protesters pushing rubbish containers onto street

02:26:01

Paris hears window national anthem from opera singer

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Paris - 30 October 2020

28. Wide of Stephane's building

29. UPSOUND (French) Stephane Senechal singing 'La Marseillaise'

02:35:09

Police patrol Lisbon as new measures take effect

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Lisbon - 10 November 2020

30. Police checkpoint in the middle of Liberty Avenue

31. Police officer checking documents of driver

02:43:09

Various exteriors of BioNTech plant in Mainz

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Mainz - 9 November 2020

32. Various exteriors of BioNTech plant

02:51:10

Drones light up Seoul sky in message of hope

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Seoul -13 November 2020

++NIGHT SHOTS++

33. Various of drones rising

34. Various of drones forming the shape of the coronavirus and images of people wearing masks

35. Various of drones forming the shape of heart and hashtag, which thanks South Korean people for helping to contain the coronavirus

03:08:05

Police fire water cannon at Berlin virus protest

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Berlin - 18 November 2020

36. Various of water cannon being used on protesters

03:18:17

COVID bodies still in trucks at Brooklyn pier

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York - 24 November 2020

37. 39th Street pier lot with trucks in the distance that may contain bodies of victims who died of COVID-19 during the spring outbreak

38. Wide of lot entrance

03:26:21

ONLY ON AP Belgium to become vaccine hub

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Machelen, Belgium - 25 November 2020

39. Close of worker unloading a box from the truck with a forklift

40. Close of dry ice being poured into a box

41. Close of demonstration boxes being loaded into the refrigerated container

03:38:15

Exteriors of Pfizer manufacturing plant in Belgium

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Puurs, Belgium - 2 December 2020

42. Exterior view of Pfizer manufacturing plant

43. Truck labelled Temperature Controlled Logistics departing from factory

03:46:14

Authorities begin distributing SputnikV vaccine

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Moscow- 5 December 2020

44. Nurse showing vaccine to cameras

45. Close of nurse injecting vaccine in woman

03:55:22

Virus vaccine out of freezers for US distribution

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Kalamazoo, Michigan - 13 December 2020

46. Various of freezers storing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine being opened, vaccines being packed

04:08:13

Austrian military trains virus sniffer dogs

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Vienna - 14 December 2020

47. Dog sniffing samples for coronavirus

04:18:12

Charles, Camilla visit UK vaccination centre

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UK POOL

Gloucester - 17 December 2020

48. Prince Charles walking down corridor into ward

49. Various of Prince Charles and Camilla speaking to medical staff at vaccine centre

04:37:00

Berlin restaurant turns homeless shelter amid virus

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Berlin - 17 December 2020

50. Homeless man from Latvia, Kaspars Breidaks at Hofbraeu Berlin restaurant, Christmas decorations

51. Breidaks taking his soup

52. Sign reading (German): "Berlin Cold Relief"

04:48:06

Busy streets in Mexico City despite lockdown

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mexico City - 19 December 2020

53. People walking in downtown area under a sign that reads (Spanish): "You are in a high-risk area."

54. Health promoter offering face masks and antibacterial sanitizer

55. People walking in downtown area

04:59:19

Moderna vaccine prepared for distribution across US

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Olive Branch, Mississippi - 20 December 2020

56. Various of boxes of Moderna coronavirus vaccine being labeled and put into lorries at the McKesson distribution center

05:10:10

Biden gets vaccine, says 'nothing to worry about'

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Newark, Delaware - 21 December 2020

57. President-elect Joe Biden receiving his first shot of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine

58. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Biden, US President-elect:

"What I want to say is we owe these folks an awful "

59. Biden fist bumping nurse who gave him the shot

05:26:20

South Africa confirms more than one million virus cases

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Soweto - 28 December 2020

60. Woman getting tested for COVID-19

61. Nurse registering people getting tested for COVID-19

62. Woman getting tested for COVID-19

05:39:21

China conditionally approves Sinopharm vaccine

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Beijing - 31 December 2020

ARCHIVE: Beijing - 7 September 2020

63. Various of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccines displayed at China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services

05:50:01

Paris quiet on New Year's Eve amid virus curfew

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paris - 31 December 2020

64. Police officer on Champs Elysées

65. Wide of check point on Champs Elysées

66. Champs Elysées