WASHINGTON — Two of the U.S. military’s top officers have received the coronavirus vaccine.Army Gen. Mark Milley, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Air Force Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, got their shots Monday. They received the Pfizer vaccine.Other members of the Joint Chiefs are also expected to get shots as part of a campaign to reassure those serving in the military branches that the vaccine is safe.___THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:A new COVID-19 relief bill shaping up in Congress includes individual payments reaching $600 for most Americans and an extra $300 a week in unemployment benefits. Votes on the bill in the House and Senate are expected Monday. Among those getting help are hard-hit businesses, schools, health care providers and renters facing eviction. Also, President-elect Joe Biden will receive 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.___Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak___HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:DENVER — Colorado’s legislature will go into recess soon after convening in January as lawmakers wait for COVID-19 cases to subside.Democratic leaders said Monday that legislators will begin the new session Jan. 13 and address any urgent business and required actions, such as swearing in new members. They will then suspend the session.The tentative plan is to reconvene Feb. 16, by which time legislative leaders hope the peak of the coronavirus pandemic will have subsided. They say lawmakers will resume work earlier if there is an emergency that requires immediate attention.___AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas is getting the coronavirus vaccine as the number of patients hospitalized with the virus statewide is back over 10,000 for the first time since July’s peak.Abbott will receive the vaccine on live television Tuesday at a hospital in the state capital. His office says health officials urged the 63-year-old governor to get the vaccine in order to boost public confidence that the inoculations are safe.Newly confirmed cases and hospitalizations in Texas are soaring tot levels unseen since a deadly summer outbreak. Abbott reiterated last week that he will not order a new round of lockdown measures. The virus is blamed for at least 25,000 deaths in Texas.___MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey became one of the first governors on Monday to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, bidding to build public confidence in the vaccinations that will have to be widely administered to ease the pandemic.The Republican governor said that she wanted to assure people it is safe, after she received the first of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine at a Montgomery hospital on Monday.Ivy, a 76-year-old lung cancer survivor, said she had no hesitation about taking the vaccine and urged others to take it as it becomes available.Alabama is seeing a record-setting surge in COVID-19 in the wake of Thanksgiving and officials fear things will only get worse because of Christmas holiday gatherings.With more than 2,520 patients hospitalized statewide for COVID-19 and cases increasing steadily, Christmas week began in Alabama on Monday with health officials issuing new pleas for residents to take precautions against the virus.___BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana Supreme Court has sent a legal feud between Gov. John Bel Edwards and House Republicans over coronavirus restrictions back to district court.The high court said Monday the judge ruled too quickly that the state law the GOP used to try to nullify the restrictions was unconstitutional.The justices wrote that Baton Rouge Judge William Morvant should have held a full hearing on other issues raised in the lawsuit over the Democratic governor’s mask mandate and business restrictions.The Supreme Court’s decision was a technical one that didn’t weigh in on the merits of the lawsuit. Instead, it requires Morvant to hold another hearing in the case.___LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The governor of Arkansas said the state received more doses of coronavirus vaccines on Monday as the number of virus-related deaths continued to increase.Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson said the state reported 58 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday, though about one-third of those were delayed reports. The state saw 1,457 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases, and more than 1,000 people remained hospitalized with the virus.Hutchinson said Arkansas also began receiving shipments of the newly approved coronavirus vaccine from the drugmaker Moderna, with 5,900 doses expected Monday and additional shipments planned for Tuesday and Wednesday. The state also received 18,575 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases in Arkansas has increased by nearly 9%, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. One in every 189 people in Arkansas tested positive for the virus in the past week.___LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The governor of Kentucky announced Monday that several long-term care facilities in the state have started vaccinating their residents.Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear said vaccines for those groups should be finished by early March. Deaths in the state’s assisted living and nursing homes account for two-thirds of the state’s coronavirus death toll.Kentucky received it’s first shipments of the new COVID-19 vaccine last week. About 7,000 Kentucky residents, the vast majority of them health care workers in hospitals, have been vaccinated since.Through the federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, Walgreens pharmacy will provide the COVID-19 vaccinations in roughly 800 long-term care facilities across Kentucky.___OKLAHOMA CITY — The head of Oklahoma’s largest teachers union praised the governor on Monday for moving school personnel to phase two of the vaccine distribution plan, but she warned that forcing schools to return to in-person learning next month could jeopardize the safety of public school workers.Oklahoma Education Association President Alicia Priest also released details of an informal survey of more than half its members that show 63% believe schools are not safe for in-person instruction.Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has said his goal is to return all public schools to in-person classes after the Christmas break.Priest, a Spanish teacher from Yukon, described Stitt’s plan is an “arbitrary date” and suggested it could pit parents and educators against one another.___CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia set another weekly record for positive coronavirus cases and deaths as it awaits an influx of vaccines from Moderna.Health officials said the state recorded at least 6,638 confirmed cases of the virus in the seven-day period ending Sunday. That passed the mark of 6,439 positive cases set two weeks ago. The state also reported 160 deaths last week.Officials said on Monday that the state’s vaccination drive reached a third of all long-term care centres in the state last week. They expect to have administered doses to all 214 centres by the end of the month, ahead of schedule and ahead many other states.Republican Gov. Jim Justice has said about 85% to 95% of long-term care centre residents are taking the vaccine, but about 40% of staff are declining it.___DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Kuwait is suspending all commercial international flights and closing its land and sea borders starting Monday evening until Jan. 1 over fears about the highly infectious new coronavirus strain.The government said that cargo flights and trade routes will remain open.Health authorities ordered those who arrived from the European Union or the United Kingdom in the past week to immediately take a PCR coronavirus test.The national airline of the United Arab Emirates also announced it will require all passengers flying from the United Kingdom starting Thursday to show a negative PCR coronavirus test within 72 hours before taking off over fears of the fast-spreading new strain of the virus.The Kuwaiti Health Ministry said COVID-19 cases increased by 230 to 148,209 on Monday, while the death toll rose by one to 922.___AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Capitol will reopen to the public in January after being closed for much of the year because of the pandemic, a decision that comes as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging to the highest levels since summer.Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement on Monday that the capitol will reopen Jan. 4, about a week before the Texas Legislature reconvenes for the first time since 2019.Texas had more than 9,800 hospitalized coronavirus patients as of Sunday, the most since a deadly summer outbreak. The state is approaching the Christmas holiday with fewer than 800 intensive care unit beds and last Thursday smashed a single-day record for new cases with with more than 16,000, which state officials partly attributed to holiday gatherings.___BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana is expecting to receive shipments of a second coronavirus vaccine.The office of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said Louisiana is expecting to receive 79,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine and more than 28,000 Pfizer vaccine doses that will arrive this week.Meanwhile, a new audit released Monday by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera’s office says the slow pace of laboratories’ reporting of coronavirus test results is hindering the health department’s ability to understand the scale of the outbreak, do adequate contact tracing and determine the rate of positive versus negative test results.Health Secretary Courtney Phillips says the department’s data analysis accounts for many of the issues raised by the auditor’s office.___UNITED NATIONS — The World Health Organization’s technical lead for COVID-19 said on Monday that scientists in the United Kingdom are still trying to understand the transmissibility and lethality of the new virus strain, and the antibody response it provokes.Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said studies on antibody response are underway and they expect results “in coming days and weeks.”Emergencies Chief Dr. Mike Ryan said, “There’s zero evidence that there’s any increase in severity associated with this disease.”He said that whether the new variant responds the same as older variants to current vaccines “is currently being checked in a number of labs.”WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the strategy for addressing new variants of COVID-19 was same as for prior variants.___TORONTO — Ontario is announcing a province-wide lockdown because of a second wave of COVID-19 in Canada’s most populous province.The lockdown will be put in place for southern Ontario from Dec. 26 until Jan.23, but will lift for northern Ontario on Jan. 9.Ontario has had seven straight days of more than 2,000 cases a day. Modeling shows that could more than double in January. Health officials earlier say a four to six week hard lockdown could significantly stop the spread of COVID-19.___LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is back in a precautionary coronavirus quarantine for the second time in two months as surging COVID-19 cases swamp the state’s hospitals and strain medical staffing.The governor’s office says Newsom will quarantine for 10 days after one of his staffers tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday afternoon.Newsom was tested and his result came back negative, as did the tests of other staffers who were in contact.Last month, members of the governor’s family were exposed to someone who tested positive. Newsom, his wife and four children tested negative at that time.As of Sunday, more than 16,840 people were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 infections — more than double the previous peak reached in July — and a state model that uses current data to forecast future trends shows the number could reach 75,000 by mid-January.___MADRID — Spain’s health ministry reported slightly more than 22,000 officially recorded new cases of COVID-19 over the weekend and 334 deaths amid a continuing rise in daily infection numbers.The ministry said Monday that Spain’s pandemic tally has now reached 1.82 million cases and 49,260 fatalities.While infection numbers declined substantially in late November in Spain, there has seen a steady increase in December. Officials say this is most likely due to the increase in social gatherings and people mixing in the street and in stores in the run-up to Christmas.The ministry said the infection rate per 100,000 inhabitants was at 224 Monday compared to 214 on Friday. This is still way down from a high of 529 cases on Nov. 9.The average occupancy rate of ICU beds by COVID-19 patients remained at 20%.The Associated Press
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
