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Uganda security forces withdraw from Bobi Wine’s home

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“They are now leaving, we hope this doesn’t change later today,” George Musisi said.

The Ugandan High Court ordered security forces to end Wine’s house arrest on Monday.

Justice Michael Elubu, who heads the court’s civil division, said if the government had evidence against Wine, he should be charged in court and not “held unjustifiably at his home,” according to Musisi.

Wine, a popular singer, was the main opposition frontrunner in the presidential elections held on January 14 and his home has been surrounded by military and police since the elections ended.

President Yoweri Museveni was declared winner of the elections for a record sixth term by the country’s electoral commission, amid fraud and rigging allegations.

Wine rejects the election results, saying he has evidence of fraud and intimidation.

Wine’s team will decide today whether they will appeal the results of the elections. Wine’s team had hoped to decide sooner, but have been unable to meet because of the house arrest, Musisi added.

The deadline to do so is on February 2.

The US embassy in Uganda welcomed the High Court ruling and said it “underscores the role of an impartial judiciary.”

“Freedom of expression, assembly, & movement must be respected for all in a democratic society,” it said in a tweet on Monday.

The US ambassador, Natalie E. Brown, was blocked from visiting Wine on January 18 when she went to check on his health and safety, she said in a Facebook post.



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Sports

‘Home cooking,’ Cavaliers exec’s chirping fuel LeBron James’ season-high 46 points in Ohio return

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It had been more than two years since LeBron James played a game in Cleveland, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Los Angeles Lakers star certainly made up for lost time on Monday, turning in perhaps his greatest performance against his former team.

James scored a season-high 46 points in the Lakers’ 115-108 win over the Cavaliers, extending L.A.’s road winning streak to 10-0 to start the season, a franchise record, and he did it in style back in his home state of Ohio.

“Home cooking,” he said afterward on a videoconference with reporters. “It just felt good to be back in my haven, my rest haven, and that’s being home.”

For much of the trip, it was all warm and fuzzy feelings for the 18-year veteran. He spent time with his mother and uncle. He greeted former teammate Cedi Osman with a big hug during warm-ups, skirting the league’s health and safety protocols to show some love. He shouted out longtime Cavs employee Mark “Cobra” Cashman, dubbing him “the greatest equipment guy in the world.”

But heading into the fourth quarter trailing the Cavs 89-87 after he missed a turnaround shot at the buzzer that would have tied things up, James found a reason to quit the nice-guy routine and bury his former team.

After his 14-footer over Taurean Prince bounced twice on the rim and out, James noticed Jason Hillman, the Cavs’ basketball chief of staff, sitting in a group by the baseline with the rest of the Cavs’ front office and clapping to celebrate the errant shot, sources told ESPN.

“I felt like he was just a little bit too excited about seeing me miss,” James said afterward, declining to name Hillman when asked who caught his attention. “He was really excited about me missing that shot. A little bit more extra than I would have liked. But he’s got to root for his team, obviously. And he was, he showcased that.

“So I knew I had another quarter, and the fourth quarter’s my favorite.”

And what a fourth quarter it was. James single-handedly outscored his opponent — the team he once helped deliver its lone championship in 2016, mind you — 21-19 in the fourth to push the Lakers past a plucky Cavs squad that beat the Brooklyn Nets twice on their home floor just last week.

After the carnage was over, with James going 9-for-10 from the field, hitting a 3 from the Cleveland “C” logo at center court and a couple more daggers from the outside while adding two assists, two steals and two blocks, all his former team could do was acknowledge James’ greatness.

“Doesn’t take much to get Bron going,” one Cavs source told ESPN of the brief exchange James had with Hillman, with the four-time MVP shooting an icy stare in Hillman’s direction before making his way to the Lakers’ bench. “He was unreal tonight.”

Added Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff, “You take your hat off to him. There’s a reason why he is who he is and he’s accomplished all the things that he’s accomplished. If he’s making shots like that you pat him on the butt.”

It was the most points James has ever scored against Cleveland as he ran his career record to 15-1 in games played against the team he suited up for over 11 seasons. And he was as accurate as he has ever been by one measure — his 73.1% from the field on 19-for-26 shooting was tied for the best he has ever shot out of the 240 career games in which he attempted at least 25 shots (regular season and playoffs combined). The only other time he went 19-for-26? Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals in Boston, which many point to as the most important win of his career.

James, at 36 years and 26 days old, became the oldest Lakers player with a 40-point game since Kobe Bryant scored 60 at the age of 37 years, 234 days old in the final game of his career.

“I’ve just never put a ceiling on my potential,” James said. “I always wanted to continue to get better and better and better to a point where I also now can dictate [what] the defense can do. And the defense can’t dictate what I’m supposed to do.”

James finished 7-for-11 from 3, upping his shooting mark to 41.2% from the outside this season, which would be the best percentage of his career should he keep it up.

“The shot-making,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said, “was just ridiculous, and just one of those nights for the ages for him.”

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Health

Biden travel restrictions; nursing home vaccines

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There are many questions surrounding Covid-19 vaccines, one of which is whether vaccines can be mixed and matched. Veuer’s Johana Restrepo has more.

Buzz60

COVID-19 has killed nearly 420,000 Americans in a year, and infections have continued to mount despite the introduction of a pair of vaccines late in 2020. USA TODAY is tracking the news. Keep refreshing this page for the latest updates. Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletterfor updates to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions.

One of the world’ largest drug companies has abandoned its COVID-19 vaccine development effort, citing “inferior” immune responses.

Two vaccines already are in use and several more are in the pipeline, so Merck’s decision should have minimal impact on vaccination progress across the nation,

“We are grateful to our collaborators who worked with us on these vaccine candidates and to the volunteers in the trials,” said Dr. Dean Y. Li, president of Merck Research Laboratories.

Merck said it will concentrate on COVID-19 treatments, an area where demand is strong. The world is likely to reach 100 million reported COVID-19 infections this week. A quarter of them are Americans.

In the headlines:

►Moderna said Monday its vaccine is effective against COVID variants emerging from Britain and South Africa. The company also said it is developing a new booster shot that could enhance effectiveness against new variants.

►Every nursing home resident and caregiver in America who wants to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should have received at least their first shot by tonight. Walgreens and CVS, which the Trump administration hired to deliver the shots, say they are on track to meet the deadline.

►A bipartisan group of lawmakers met virtually with Biden administration officials Sunday to push forward plans for vaccine distribution and another massive stimulus.

► Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he tested positive for the coronavirus but that the symptoms are mild.

► President Joe Biden today will announce a ban on travel to the U.S. from South Africa for most non-U.S. citizens. Biden will also reinstate restrictions for Brazil, the U.K., Ireland and 26 countries in Europe, a White House source confirmed to USA TODAY on Sunday.

► Coronavirus vaccines may be less effective against new variants of the disease emerging in South Africa, Brazil and other areas of the world, Britain’s health minister warned.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 25.1 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 419,200 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 99.2 million cases and 2.1 million deaths.

📘 What we’re reading: President Joe Biden is seeking to reset the nation’s inconsistent coronavirus testing efforts with a $50 billion plan and more federal oversight. Read more here.

Japan scrambling for ‘herd immunity’ as Tokyo Olympics draw near

Japan’s vaccine effort is falling short and could imperil the Tokyo Olympics, at least one expert warns. 

Japan probably won’t achieve herd immunity to COVID-19 through mass inoculations until months after the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23, Rasmus Bech Hansen, the founder of British research firm Airfinity, told Reuters. 

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to have enough shots for the populace by the middle of 2021. Hansen, however, said Japan will not reach a 75% inoculation rate, a benchmark for herd immunity, until around October.

“Japan looks to be quite late in the game,” Hansen said. “They’re dependent on importing many (vaccines) from the U.S. And at the moment, it doesn’t seem very likely they will get very large quantities.”

In rural Pennsylvania, COVID-19 is making a tragic mark

The pandemic hasn’t bypassed rural America, and it’s not going away.

In the Pennsylvania town of Beaver, 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, vaccine shots are nearly impossible to get. Nurses at Heritage Valley Beaver had to open a second COVID-19 unit to treat all of the critically ill patients. The community-based health system recently treated 115 patients simultaneously with COVID-19.

“The struggle to just breathe. It sounds like a small thing, you just keep breathing, it is not a small thing,” said Rebecca Register, 40, of Beaver, a seven-year veteran nurse who works on the COVID-19 unit. “Watching someone struggle with that, and they’re on the highest amount of oxygen that I can give them at any time and it’s ripping your heart out.” Read more here.

– Daveen Rae Kurutz, Beaver County Times

2 in 5 Americans live where COVID-19 strains hospital ICUs

Straining to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of the nation’s intensive care units are running out of space and supplies and competing to hire temporary traveling nurses at soaring rates. Many of the facilities are clustered in the South and West.

An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital data shows that since November, the share of U.S. hospitals nearing the breaking point has doubled. More than 40% of Americans now live in areas running out of ICU space, with only 15% of beds still available.

Intensive care units are the final defense for the sickest of the sick, patients who are nearly suffocating or facing organ failure. Nurses who work in the most stressed ICUs, changing IV bags and monitoring patients on breathing machines, are exhausted.

Contributing: The Associated Press

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US

Welcome to the Biden administration, home to the new slogan, ‘America Last’

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National Review

Tulsi Gabbard: Domestic-Terrorism Bill Is ‘a Targeting of Almost Half of the Country’

Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic representative from Hawaii, on Friday expressed concern that a proposed measure to combat domestic terrorism could be used to undermine civil liberties. Gabbard’s comments came during an appearance on Fox News Primetime when host Brian Kilmeade asked her if she was “surprised they’re pushing forward with this extra surveillance on would-be domestic terror.” “It’s so dangerous as you guys have been talking about, this is an issue that all Democrats, Republicans, independents, Libertarians should be extremely concerned about, especially because we don’t have to guess about where this goes or how this ends,” Gabbard said. She continued: “When you have people like former CIA Director John Brennan openly talking about how he’s spoken with or heard from appointees and nominees in the Biden administration who are already starting to look across our country for these types of movements similar to the insurgencies they’ve seen overseas, that in his words, he says make up this unholy alliance of religious extremists, racists, bigots, he lists a few others and at the end, even libertarians.” She said her concern lies in how officials will define the characteristics they are searching for in potential threats. “What characteristics are we looking for as we are building this profile of a potential extremist, what are we talking about? Religious extremists, are we talking about Christians, evangelical Christians, what is a religious extremist? Is it somebody who is pro-life? Where do you take this?” Gabbard said. She said the proposed legislation could create “a very dangerous undermining of our civil liberties, our freedoms in our Constitution, and a targeting of almost half of the country.” “You start looking at obviously, have to be a white person, obviously likely male, libertarians, anyone who loves freedom, liberty, maybe has an American flag outside their house, or people who, you know, attended a Trump rally,” Gabbard said. The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 was introduced in the House earlier this week in the aftermath of rioting at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month that left five dead. “Unlike after 9/11, the threat that reared its ugly head on January 6th is from domestic terror groups and extremists, often racially-motivated violent individuals,” Representative Brad Schneider (D., Ill.) said in a statement announcing the bipartisan legislation. “America must be vigilant to combat those radicalized to violence, and the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act gives our government the tools to identify, monitor and thwart their illegal activities. Combatting the threat of domestic terrorism and white supremacy is not a Democratic or Republican issue, not left versus right or urban versus rural. Domestic Terrorism is an American issue, a serious threat the we can and must address together,” he said.

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Entertainment

Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker Relax at Kris Jenner’s Home

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Kourtney Kardashian is relaxing poolside with Travis Barker at Kris Jenner‘s Palm Springs home, according to photos the two posted on their respective Instagram Stories. 

The duo, who are neighbors in the Southern California enclave of Calabasas, did not share any photos together, but did post photos of the same pool on Jan. 22, suggesting they were indeed hanging out.

Travis has also been spotted checking out Kourtney’s recent social media posts. The drummer for Blink-182 commented with a single rose emoji on the Keeeping Up With the Kardashians star’s recent flirty mirror selfie on Instagram. Earlier in January, he added a tulip emoji to an Instagram photo of Kourtney walking into the ocean, which she captioned “sweet, sweet fate.” Kourtney also shared a few stills from the movie True Romance to the ‘gram, leading the musician to comment “You’re So Cool.” 

This isn’t the first time that Travis and Kourtney have sparked speculation with fans on whether they’ve taken their neighborly relationship to another level. In September 2018, fans suspected the two were an item when they were seen grabbing dinner in Los Angeles. However, as far as the public was made aware, there was no true romance to speak of.



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