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US

Biden Signals Openness to Sending $1,400 Stimulus Checks to Smaller Group

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WASHINGTON—President Biden indicated in a call with House Democrats that he was open to sending $1,400 payments to a smaller group of Americans in the next round of coronavirus relief legislation and changing the overall price tag of his $1.9 trillion plan, according to people familiar with the call.

Mr. Biden told House Democrats on Wednesday that he wouldn’t change the amount of the proposed $1,400 payments, saying people had been promised that amount, according to the people.

Instead, he said he would consider targeting them differently than the previous two rounds of direct aid to Americans. Members of both political parties have questioned whether the $1,400 payments he has proposed would go to people who don’t need the aid.

“We can better target that number. I’m OK with that,” Mr. Biden said, according to the people.

White House press secretary

Jen Psaki

said later Wednesday that Mr. Biden is open to changes in the threshold for who would qualify for the $1,400 stimulus checks.”That’s something that has been under discussion,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking to reporters Wednesday outside the West Wing following the meeting with President Biden.



Photo:

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Mr. Biden also said he was flexible on the overall cost of the package, which Democrats have started advancing through Congress through a process that will allow them to pass it along party lines, according to the people familiar with the call. He said Democrats could make “compromises” on several programs in the proposal, one of the people said.

Ms. Psaki said Mr. Biden isn’t expecting the final package to look exactly like what he proposed. “He knows that that’s part of the legislative process,” she said.

Beyond sending money to many Americans, the $1.9 trillion proposal would direct aid to state and local governments, provide funds for distributing Covid-19 vaccines and enhance federal unemployment benefits. Money would go toward schools, child-care facilities and renters under the plan, which also seeks to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Republicans have called Mr. Biden’s plan too expensive and premature after Congress approved roughly $900 billion in aid in December, and they have criticized provisions like raising the minimum wage as unrelated to the pandemic. A proposal advanced by 10 Senate Republicans would provide $618 billion in relief, paring back Mr. Biden’s proposals on unemployment insurance and direct checks and eliminating others.

In meetings with Democrats, Mr. Biden has said the GOP plan is too small to deal with the effects of the pandemic.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said Democrats “seem desperate to make their first act in power the same kind of massive, partisan, poorly targeted borrowing spree that permanently wounded the last Democratic presidency right out of the gate.”

Democrats are divided on who should benefit from a new round of direct payments to Americans. Previous relief bills began phasing out the payments for people making more than $75,000 a year and married couples with incomes of more than $150,000. The Biden administration hasn’t yet detailed the income cutoffs it would put in place, though some Democrats have said they want to stick with the same cutoffs as the previous efforts.

Other Democrats see the current thresholds as too generous, allowing Americans who haven’t been economically harmed during the pandemic to receive government aid.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday after a meeting with Mr. Biden, Sen. Chris Coons (D., Del.) said: “We did have a conversation about the direct payments and how those might be modified in a way to ensure they’re targeted.” He added that Mr. Biden is “not going to forget the middle class.”

The Republican plan would reduce the size of the checks to $1,000 per adult and start to phase out the payments for individuals who make $40,000 a year or more and married couples with incomes of $80,000 or more. A bipartisan group of senators involved in kickstarting the last coronavirus relief bill also has discussed how to target the relief checks.

Ten Republican senators have offered a roughly $618 billion coronavirus-relief plan to counter the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill President Biden outlined after taking office. WSJ’s Gerald F. Seib explains the significant differences between the two proposals. Photo illustration: Laura Kammermann

Democrats this week began pushing forward with a process called reconciliation, which would allow them to pass the coronavirus relief bill with fewer than the 60 votes required for most legislation in the Senate. With the Senate split 50-50—Vice President

Kamala Harris

can break ties—Democrats cannot afford to lose a single vote on the package in the Senate.

According to a Penn-Wharton Budget Model estimate, households in the short term would save about 73% of the money they receive from the direct payments if Mr. Biden’s proposal for $1,400 per person uses the same income thresholds as earlier payments. That savings figure includes paying down debt.

Checks more focused on those who lost income would be more likely to be spent, the group said.

“A large portion of people getting checks are people who are just going to save it because they’re not in these industries who are being hurt,” said Rich Prisinzano, the group’s director of policy analysis.

Proponents of sending direct payments argue that casting a wide net helps people who may be slipping through the cracks of other aid programs.

Mr. Biden met with another group of Democratic senators in the Oval Office on Wednesday. After the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) told reporters it was a substantive discussion, and that Democrats were united on passing a large package.

“We want to do it bipartisan, but we must be strong,” Mr. Schumer said. “We cannot dawdle, we cannot delay, we cannot dilute, because the troubles that this nation has and the opportunities that we can bring them are so large.”

The meetings on Wednesday are the latest in a flurry of meetings the new president has had with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. He spoke with Senate Democrats on Tuesday, urging lawmakers to adopt a large package. On Monday, Mr. Biden hosted the group of 10 Senate Republicans at the White House to discuss their $618 billion alternative plan.

—Tarini Parti and Richard Rubin contributed to this article.

Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com and Eliza Collins at eliza.collins@wsj.com.

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Health

Israel’s Leaders Clash with Ultraorthodox Over Covid-19 Lockdowns, Vaccines

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BNEI BRAK, Israel—Israel’s attempt to suppress a roiling pandemic has collided with a hard-hit ultraorthodox community that has proven resistant to lockdowns and suspicious of the nation’s mass vaccination campaign.

On Sunday, thousands of ultraorthodox mourners attended two funerals of famous rabbis who died from the coronavirus. The mourners flouted bans on public gatherings of no more than 10 people on the same day that Israel’s cabinet extended a strict lockdown that includes barring all international flights. Thousands of men dressed in black wool hats and suits crowded together, many without masks, images of the event show. Fearing violence, police steered away from arrests while some top Israeli politicians seethed.

“This is how unequal enforcement looks,” said

Benny Gantz,

the defense minister and head of the Blue and White party. “Millions of families and children are locked in their homes and abide by the rules while thousands of haredim crowd the funeral, most of them even without masks,” he said, using the Hebrew word for ultraorthodox.

The funerals followed anti-lockdown protests in Bnei Brak and other ultraorthodox cities the week before, in which ultraorthodox men threw rocks at police, lit dumpsters on fire and knocked down street signs and light poles.

Many of the mourners crowding together for a rabbi’s funeral on Sunday in Jerusalem weren’t wearing face masks.



Photo:

Ariel Schalit/Associated Press

Israel’s health officials have also struggled to coax ultraorthodox to take a Covid-19 vaccine. While much of Israel has lined up for vaccinations, the ultraorthodox population has been slower to get on board, with some doubting the safety of the vaccine and others suggesting the country’s citizens are being used to test its efficacy.

“This isn’t a vaccine. It’s an experiment,” said

Izhar Mahpud,

a 57-year-old resident from Bnei Brak, an ultraorthodox city just east of Tel Aviv that has been one of the hardest hit by Covid-19 in the country. “I’m not ready to be a rat in a laboratory.”

Israel aims to vaccinate much of its population by March and get the economy going again, allowing the tiny nation beside the Mediterranean sea to serve as a global showcase for how to beat back the deadly virus. But the ultraorthodox have undermined those lofty goals, largely by bucking lockdowns and shying from vaccines.

Israel’s ultraorthodox make up about 12% of the population but account for nearly one-third of the country’s coronavirus infections. Israel currently has 68,331 active coronavirus cases with new infections hovering at about 7,000 a day.

Officials are scrambling to get the latest surge under control. A British variant of the virus accounts for about 70% of current coronavirus infections, even as almost one-third of Israelis have received the first dose of a vaccination. Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu

last month banned all international flights and lawmakers passed a bill Sunday doubling fines for lockdown violations.

Ultraorthodox Jews argued with Israeli police officers during a protest over coronavirus lockdown restrictions in Ashdod last month.



Photo:

Oded Balilty/Associated Press

Public health officials say the ultra-Orthodox community is particularly vulnerable to the fast-moving virus. Their large families typically live in crowded apartments and traditionally shun electronic communication that helps get information out about the vaccines.

Data from Israel’s health ministry shows Israel’s ultraorthodox are getting vaccinated at a lower rate than other groups. Among those over 60, to whom the campaign has been open the longest, 85% of all Israelis have taken the vaccine, compared with 78% of Israel’s ultraorthodox.

Ultraorthodox and Arab towns are lagging behind in overall immunity to the virus due to the lower vaccination rates, according to

Eran Segal,

a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who presented his findings to Israel’s government on Sunday evening. “It’s going to slow down the decline of the pandemic,” said Mr. Segal.

Health officials say that infections in ultraorthodox communities have gone down in recent days, as some leading rabbis have endorsed vaccinations. There are also efforts under way to combat misinformation and get residents to take the vaccine.

In the large ultraorthodox city of Bnei Brak, local officials have set up a war room. In the oval-shaped, wood-paneled room on the top floor of city hall, with portraits of important religious figures lining the walls, young ultraorthodox sit around a large circular table with large jugs of hand sanitizer and work the phones. They stare at spreadsheets with information about everyone who has or hasn’t been vaccinated.

Officials had called nearly 10,000 people who hadn’t been vaccinated—and spoken with nearly 7,000 of them. About 5,000 said they wanted a vaccine but hadn’t been able to get one yet. Another 1,500 or so didn’t want to be vaccinated. The city officials work to overcome any obstacles raised on the calls.

For those who don’t have a ride to a vaccination center, they arrange one. If would-be vaccine recipients can’t get in touch with their health insurance providers, they also help. And if anyone they reach doesn’t want to take the vaccine, they note why.

Avi Blumenthal, who leads the health ministry’s outreach to the ultraorthodox, said he and his staff are combing through lists of Israel’s ultraorthodox towns to find the rabbis who are against vaccination, and seeking answers. In one instance, an ultraorthodox community in Jerusalem had low vaccine rates that many attributed to its rabbi’s alleged antivaccine stance. But when health officials interviewed the rabbi, they learned he was actually pro-vaccine—someone had spread a rumor attributed to him that the vaccine is dangerous.

An ultraorthodox Jewish man received a coronavirus vaccine in Jerusalem last month.



Photo:

abir sultan/epa/Shutterstock

Yehuda Shaish,

63, who runs four ultra-Orthodox schools in Bnei Brak and nearby towns, said he waited until the rabbis blessed the vaccines. “After the rabbis authorized it, I went happily,” he said.

Even with rabbis’ blessings, many ultraorthodox remain skeptical about vaccines. Yedidya Hasson, 28, who manages a network of WhatsApp groups with 30,000 people in which some members have questioned the wisdom of vaccines and coronavirus restrictions, says he won’t take the vaccine at least for now because he fears possible health risks.

“When it comes to vaccines,” he said, “I think that the media in Israel is hiding the truth.”

Some ultraorthodox leaders say that while community mistrust may help to explain resistance to vaccines and recent displays of civil disobedience, that distrust doesn’t justify violating rules that endanger public health. “You expect from religious men to be more moral,” said Rabbi

Dov Halbertal,

a prominent ultraorthodox lawyer and commentator. “But when it comes to the biggest test of saving lives, we are failing.”

Israel says it’s on track to vaccinate everyone over 16 by the end of March. To understand how the small country has vaccinated more of its population than any other so quickly, WSJ visited clinics that are giving shots to young and middle-aged citizens. Photo: Tamir Elterman for The Wall Street Journal

Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com

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Health

Some Health-Care Workers Are Still Saying No to a Covid-19 Vaccine

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Officials from Ohio said recently that 60% of nursing-home staff so far haven’t elected to take the vaccine. In New York,

Gov. Andrew Cuomo

said this month that state officials expect 30% of health-care workers offered the vaccine will ultimately turn it down. Two-thirds of the staff at a Florida hospital refused the vaccine this month, leaving so many unused doses that the facility started giving away shots to the general public.

The hesitancy among health-care workers concerns public-health officials who expected America’s front-line workers to serve as a model for others.

“Please get vaccinated,”

Anthony Fauci,

who is serving as President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the Covid-19 pandemic, said in a video message to health-care providers. “It’s important to protect yourselves, to protect your family, but as important, symbolically, as health-care providers, to show confidence in the vaccine so that other people in this country follow suit.”

In a survey of 1,563 respondents conducted in January by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation, 79% of U.S. adults who haven’t yet been vaccinated say they would be likely to turn to a doctor, nurse or other health-care provider when deciding whether to get a vaccination.

Meanwhile, 28% of 128 health-care workers in the Kaiser survey said they want to wait and see how the vaccine is working for other people before getting it themselves. While they weren’t the most resistant group the foundation studied, their outsize influence over whether members of the general public would choose to get the vaccine concerns public-health officials.

Surveys of vaccine skepticism of broader populations have shown that people have become less hesitant as they see others vaccinated.

Some health-care workers say they’ve passed up the shot for altruistic reasons, believing that others should get it first. Several health-care systems said they have struggled to persuade female employees to get vaccinated due to a lack of data about the vaccines’ impact on pregnancy. Other health-care workers say while they want to encourage others to get vaccinated, when it comes to their own health, they are still wary.

“As I was getting my first shot, I asked the two nurses who were administering it to me how they felt when they got the shot. And they were on the side of waiting. That scared me a little bit, but I went through with it,” said

Charles Smith II,

chief financial officer at Vibrant Health in Kansas City, Kan.

At the system of clinics where Mr. Smith works, about 30% of the staff have decided against getting the vaccine to this point, according to Vibrant Health’s chief executive,

Patrick Sallee.

Mr. Smith said he felt uncomfortable with the speed of the process and the lack of long-term data, but news that a more highly transmissible virus variant was spreading made him take the leap. “There is an expectation for the health industry to lead other industries to say this thing is safe and lead by example,” he said. “I feel like I’m shaking the dice, really.”

Mr. Smith, CFO at a health-clinic system, and Dr. Jackson-Smith, a dentist, felt reluctant about a Covid-19 vaccine but decided to lead by example and get the shot.



Photo:

Katie Currid for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Smith’s wife, Aniika Jackson-Smith, a dentist, said she also hesitated to get a vaccine because she doesn’t feel enough is known about their long-term effects. She said she finally decided to make an appointment to get the first shot in late January because she feels a responsibility as a health-care provider not to discourage others from getting it.

“My mind isn’t really changed,” she said. “But I guess in order for us to get past this, people are just going to have to take the vaccine or we’ll just be here forever.”

Heidi Arthur,

chief campaign development officer at the Ad Council, which has been running a large-scale public-service education effort about the Covid-19 vaccines, said getting health-care workers on board wasn’t originally part of the plan.

“It was surprising, the level of hesitancy,” she said.

Covid-19 Vaccine’s Last Mile

Instead of health-care workers lining up, the Ad Council found themselves pulling together a diverse group of leaders within the industry, including Dr. Fauci, to educate other health-care workers about the vaccines and address their concerns.

For Susan Izzo, an adult nurse practitioner in Connecticut, her initial hesitancy was because she felt her patients deserved the vaccine before her. Ultimately, her patients persuaded her to get the shots, she said, so that she could be healthy to protect them.

“I didn’t feel like it was my turn, even though as a health-care worker it is my turn. I would have gladly given up my vaccine to my 55-year-old patient who just had a lung transplant,” she said.

Deborah Burger,

a president at National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in the U.S., said many nurses felt information about vaccines that came out during the Trump administration was politicized and wanted to learn more so they could decide for themselves whether it was safe. Education and more information, she said, is increasing uptake among nurses.

Dawn Allen,

vice president of patient services at Huron Regional Medical Center in South Dakota, said at first less than 50% of their workforce chose to be vaccinated. After sitting down with staff to answer their questions, particularly around concerns of infertility, she said they are up to 76% of staff choosing to be vaccinated over a two-week period.

Still, some nurses say they have no intention of getting vaccinated.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Should health-care workers be forced to take the vaccine? Why or why not? Join the conversation below.

Cleon Charles,

a traveling nurse who has been working in Covid-19 hot spots throughout the pandemic, said she would never get the vaccine and has discouraged her daughters and parents from getting it, despite having had Covid-19 herself.

She cited a general mistrust of the pharmaceutical industry, among other concerns, and the death of baseball legend Hank Aaron, who publicly received the Covid-19 vaccine in early January. Medical officials say the baseball legend died of natural causes, but his death has been taken up by antivaccination leaders, including

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

, who called the death “part of a wave of suspicious deaths among elderly closely following administration of #COVID #vaccines,” on Twitter.

“I don’t want it,” Ms. Charles said. “I’ll take my chances and my vitamins.”

Write to Julie Wernau at Julie.Wernau@wsj.com

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US

Jan. 6 Rally Funded by Top Trump Donor, Helped by Alex Jones, Organizers Say

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The rally in Washington’s Ellipse that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arranged and funded by a small group including a top Trump campaign fundraiser and donor facilitated by far-right show host

Alex Jones.

Mr. Jones personally pledged more than $50,000 in seed money for a planned Jan. 6 event in exchange for a guaranteed “top speaking slot of his choice,” according to a funding document outlining a deal between his company and an early organizer for the event.

Mr. Jones also helped arrange for

Julie Jenkins Fancelli,

a prominent donor to the Trump campaign and heiress to the Publix Super Markets Inc. chain, to commit about $300,000 through a top fundraising official for former President

Donald Trump’s

2020 campaign, according to organizers. Her money paid for the lion’s share of the roughly $500,000 rally at the Ellipse where Mr. Trump spoke.

Another far-right activist and leader of the “Stop the Steal” movement,

Ali Alexander,

helped coordinate planning with

Caroline Wren,

a fundraising official who was paid by the Trump campaign for much of 2020 and who was tapped by Ms. Fancelli to organize and fund an event on her behalf, organizers said. On social media, Mr. Alexander had targeted Jan. 6 as a key date for supporters to gather in Washington to contest the 2020-election certification results. The week of the rally, he tweeted a flyer for the event saying: “DC becomes FORT TRUMP starting tomorrow on my orders!”

Alex Jones addressed protesters on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.



Photo:

Jon Cherry/Getty Images

The Ellipse rally, at which President Trump urged supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, was lawful and nonviolent. But it served as a jumping-off point for many supporters to head to the Capitol. Mr. Trump has been impeached by the Democrat-led House of Representatives, accused of inciting a mob to storm the Capitol with remarks urging supporters to “fight like hell.”

Few details about the funding and organization of the Ellipse event have previously been revealed. Mr. Jones claimed in a video that he paid for a portion of the event but didn’t offer details.

Messrs. Jones and Alexander had been active in the weeks before the event, calling on supporters to oppose the election results and go to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Alexander, for instance, tweeted on Dec. 30 about the scheduled Jan. 6 count for lawmakers to certify the Electoral College vote at the Capitol, writing: “If they do this, everyone can guess what me and 500,000 others will do to that building.”

Julie Jenkins Fancelli, shown in 2019, donated more than $980,000 in the 2020 election cycle to a joint account for the Trump campaign and Republican Party, records show.



Photo:

Barry Friedman/LKLND NOW

A hodgepodge of different pro-Trump groups were planning various events on Jan. 6. Several of them, led by the pro-Trump Women for America First, helped coordinate the Ellipse event; another group splintered off to lead a rally the night before, at which Mr. Jones ended up speaking, and the group organized by Mr. Alexander planned a protest outside the Capitol building.

Mr. Jones, who has publicized discredited conspiracy theories, has hosted leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, two extremist groups prominent at the riot, on his popular radio and internet video shows.

Mr. Jones declined to respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Mr. Alexander said Stop the Steal’s motto is “peaceful but rowdy,” that the violence at the Capitol wasn’t planned by his group and said none of his rhetoric incited violence. Messrs. Alexander and Jones said on Mr. Jones’s show that they tried to prevent protesters from entering the Capitol and sought to de-escalate the riot. Neither has been accused of wrongdoing.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign said it had no role in financing or organizing the Ellipse event and didn’t direct former staffers to do so. A spokeswoman for Mr. Trump declined to comment. At least five former Trump campaign staffers besides Ms. Wren assisted on the logistics of the Jan. 6 rally, according to the permit and Federal Election Commission records.

Ali Alexander, activist and leader of the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, helped coordinate planning of the Ellipse rally.



Photo:

carlos barria/Reuters

Starting in mid-December, Mr. Alexander began publicizing plans “to march and peacefully occupy DC with #StopTheSteal,” according to organizers and a message saved by

Devin Burghart,

who directs an organization that tracks extremist groups. Mr. Trump on Dec. 19 urged supporters through Twitter to come for Jan. 6 protests that he said would be “wild.”

Mr. Alexander created a website called WildProtest.com, writing: “We the People must take to the US Capitol lawn and steps and tell Congress #DoNotCertify on #JAN6!” He planned and publicized a rally to take place on the Capitol grounds that day. The website was taken offline after the riot.

A representative of Women for America First had applied for a permit to host a separate rally just after the inauguration in January, but the group rescheduled for Jan. 6 after the Dec. 19 Trump tweet, organizers said.

Women for America First’s permit for the Ellipse rally listed several names and positions, including Ms. Wren as “VIP coordinator.” In the 2020 election cycle, the Trump campaign and a joint GOP committee paid Ms. Wren and her fundraising consulting firm $730,000, according to FEC records.

The Ellipse rally, during which Donald Trump spoke, was lawful and nonviolent, but it served as a jumping-off point for his supporters to head to the Capitol.



Photo:

Shawn Thew/Bloomberg News

Ms. Wren had been tapped to handle funding by Ms. Fancelli, the major donor to the Ellipse event, according to organizers. Ms. Fancelli, who didn’t respond to several requests for comment, donated more than $980,000 in the 2020 election cycle to a joint account for the Trump campaign and Republican Party, records show.

Ms. Fancelli, daughter of the Publix Super Markets founder, contacted Mr. Jones and offered to contribute to a Jan. 6 event, organizers said. Mr. Jones connected her to an organizer through Ms. Wren, who handled the funding as she helped coordinate the logistics of a rally with Women for America First. A Publix spokeswoman said Ms. Fancelli isn’t involved in the company’s business operations and doesn’t “represent the company in any way.”

The Ellipse setup cost roughly $500,000, with a concert stage, a $100,000 grass covering and thousands of feet of security structures.

Ms. Wren played a central role in bringing together the disparate group of activists planning events on Jan. 6. She suggested to Mr. Alexander that he reschedule his Capitol rally to 1 p.m. and put into place a list of about 30 potential speakers, including Messrs. Alexander and Jones, who had been listed on websites as associated with the day’s events, according to organizers.

In a statement, Ms. Wren said her role for the event “was to assist many others in providing and arranging for a professionally produced event at the Ellipse.”

The involvement of Messrs. Jones and Alexander triggered debate among the organizers.

Amy Kremer,

chairwoman of Women for America First, said in a statement: “We were concerned because there was an aggressive push to have fringe participation in our event.”

In text messages Ms. Wren sent to another organizer and reviewed by the Journal, Ms. Wren defended Mr. Jones. “I promise he’s actually WAY nicer than he comes off…I’m hoping you’ll [sic] can become besties,” Ms. Wren wrote.

Ms. Wren’s spokesman said the message is “evidence of Ms. Wren assisting in executing an event while also having to diplomatically get people with different agendas on the same page.”

None of the groups obtained a march permit, though Women for America First called the event “March to Save America Rally” and Mr. Alexander’s Stop the Steal promoted a march to the Capitol online.

The Women for America First Ellipse permit said the group wouldn’t conduct a march but noted: “Some participants may leave to attend rallies at the United States Capitol to hear the results of Congressional certification of the Electoral College count.”

Kylie Kremer,

co-founder of Women for America First, said the group didn’t file for a march permit because it went against Covid-19 guidelines and a march wasn’t in its plans.

When Mr. Trump met on Jan. 4 with former campaign adviser

Katrina Pierson,

who had begun working with rally organizers, he said he wanted to be joined primarily by lawmakers assisting his efforts to block electoral votes from being counted and members of his own family, aides said.

Messrs. Alexander and Jones spoke instead at a Jan. 5 rally organized by the Eighty Percent Coalition, a group founded by

Cindy Chafian,

an early organizer of the Jan. 6 event who struck the initial deal with Mr. Jones.

She said she was willing to work with Mr. Jones because “it’s unreasonable to expect to agree with everything a group or person does.”

Mr. Jones’s seed money in the end was used for that Jan. 5 rally, for which he ultimately paid about $96,000, an organizer said. In his speech at that event, Mr. Jones said: “I don’t know how all this is going to end but if they want to fight, they better believe they’ve got one.”

The next day, Ms. Wren personally escorted Mr. Jones and Mr. Alexander off the Ellipse grounds before the two men marched to the U.S. Capitol, according to organizers. She had provided them and many others VIP passes that morning for Mr. Trump’s speech.

Messrs. Alexander and Jones were at the Capitol grounds together on Jan. 6, and Mr. Jones supported protesters with a bullhorn, video footage shows. He urged them to be peaceful and proceed to the area on the Capitol grounds where Mr. Alexander had secured a demonstration permit, according to Mr. Alexander and the footage.

Write to Shalini Ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com, Alexandra Berzon at alexandra.berzon@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com

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World

Biden Freezes U.S. Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia, U.A.E.

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The Biden administration has imposed a temporary freeze on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as it reviews billions of dollars in weapons transactions approved by former President

Donald Trump,

according to U.S. officials.

The review, the officials said, includes the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh as well as top-line F-35 fighters to Abu Dhabi, a deal that Washington approved as part of the Abraham Accords, in which the Emirates established diplomatic relations with Israel.

U.S. officials said it isn’t unusual for a new administration to review arms sales approved by a predecessor, and that despite the pause, many of the transactions are likely to ultimately go forward.

But in line with campaign pledges made by President

Biden,

Washington is seeking to ensure that American weapons aren’t used to further the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen, where its conflict with the Iranian-aligned Houthis has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths and widespread hunger.

Mr. Biden “has made clear that we will end our support for the military campaign led by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, and I think we will work on that in very short order,” Secretary of State

Antony Blinken

said at his confirmation hearing last week. Washington will continue to help defend the Saudis against Houthi attacks, Mr. Blinken said.

Officials at the Saudi and Emirati embassies in Washington didn’t immediately comment on the developments.

Congress and the U.S. defense industry were informed of the review in recent days, one U.S. official said. It is unclear how long the review will last.

Officials couldn’t offer a precise dollar figure for the weapons sales under review. But the review, they said, includes a $23 billion deal between Washington and the Emirates for the F-35 jet fighters, Reaper drones and various munitions that was finalized on Mr. Trump’s last full day in office, according to a statement on the website of the UAE’s Washington embassy.

It also includes billions in contracts with Riyadh, including a deal for $290 million in precision-guided munitions that the U.S. government approved in late December.

“The (State) Department is temporarily pausing the implementation of some pending U.S. defense transfers and sales under Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales to allow incoming leadership an opportunity to review,” a department spokesman said.

Calling it “a routine administrative action,” the spokesman said the review “demonstrates the administration’s commitment to transparency and good governance, as well as ensuring U.S. arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable, and more capable security partners.”

Write to Warren P. Strobel at Warren.Strobel@wsj.com

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World

British Economy, Post Brexit and Pummeled by Covid, Is Worst in G-7

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The U.K.’s economy shrank more last year than any of the G-7, in what the Bank of England says will be the country’s biggest economic slump in more than 300 years.

What went wrong? Shutdowns caused greater pain for the U.K. than other members of the Group of Seven advanced economies in part because it is especially dependent on consumer spending, which evaporated amid one of Europe’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreaks. The economy was already weak after the four years of negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union, during which business investment sagged and households held back on spending.

This is the starting point for Britain’s new relationship with the EU, which began Jan. 1 with a loose free-trade agreement. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced another nationwide lockdown to fight a new, more-contagious variant of the coronavirus. That puts the U.K. economy on course to shrink again in the first quarter of the year, when businesses must also get to grips with new European trading arrangements.

Growth in the U.K. was already weak going into the pandemic because of feeble business investment, poor productivity and scant growth in incomes. Once the coronavirus set in, the British economy shrank by more than its peers in the G-7 in the first nine months of the year. Figures for the final quarter, due Feb. 12, are expected to show the economy contracted again.

The U.K. took a bigger hit because around 13% of its annual gross domestic product comes from spending on recreation and culture and in restaurants and hotels, a higher share than any other G-7 country. Businesses that depend on direct contact with consumers—bars and restaurants, sports events, hotels and theaters, cinemas and museums—were hobbled when social distancing became the norm and when the spread of the virus forced them to close. The current lockdown, in place through mid-February, closes schools and nonessential shops, and people have been told to leave home only if necessary.

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Russia’s Putin Faces Rising Discontent Amid Alexei Navalny Protests

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MOSCOW—The protests that swept Russia this weekend in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny show the challenge President Vladimir Putin faces in managing social discontent ahead of parliamentary elections this year.

Saturday’s unsanctioned rallies were among the largest in recent years and saw tens of thousands of people brave freezing temperatures, the threat of the pandemic and the possibility of incarceration. Security forces detained more than 3,500 people—the largest number in at least nine years, according to independent monitors.

The protests have left the Kremlin facing a dilemma: Either bow to the pressure from the street and undermine its own authority by releasing Mr. Navalny or risk inciting more backlash and unifying the opposition by keeping him behind bars.

“There are few good options for Putin,” said Abbas Gallyamov, a Moscow-based political consultant and former speechwriter for Mr. Putin. “It seems like Navalny is attacking and the Kremlin is defending.”

Mr. Putin’s approval ratings have swooned in recent years amid a sluggish economy and protest activity. Observers say the Navalny demonstrations, if sustained, could pose a threat to Mr. Putin’s dominance despite constitutional changes approved last year that could allow him to stay in power until 2036.

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U.K. Covid-19 Variant Could Be More Deadly, British Officials Say

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LONDON—British officials warned Friday that a coronavirus variant first identified in the U.K. might be more lethal as well as more transmissible than previous versions of the pathogen.

The conclusions of scientists advising the British government are still highly uncertain. But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a televised address that the variant—which has caused Covid-19 infections across the U.K. to spike and is spreading rapidly in the U.S.—could result in higher death rates.

U.S. federal health authorities have said it is likely to become the dominant variant in the U.S. by March.

“We have been informed today that, in addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant—the variant that was first identified in London and the South East—may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” said Mr. Johnson.

The tentative conclusions come as British hospitals cope with more Covid-19 patients than at any time during the pandemic. The Covid-19 death toll in the U.K. is expected to pass 100,000 in the coming week.

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