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Sports

Pulisic praised by Tuchel, who reveals his long-term plan for Chelsea

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Thomas Tuchel was full of praise for USMNT winger Christian Pulisic following his first game in charge of Chelsea, and also revealed his surprise at knowing so many of the current Blues squad extremely well as he plans to create a tough team to play against.

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Tuchel, 47, was appointed as Chelsea’s new manager on Tuesday and led them to a 0-0 draw with Wolves on Wednesday as they dominated possession but couldn’t find the finishing touch, plus they never looked vulnerable defensively as the man who replaced Frank Lampard hailed 16 final third recoveries during the game.

Asked by ProSoccerTalk about how having players he knew well already at Chelsea (Pulisic and Thiago Silva both previously played for him) and how important they would be to get across his tactics and ideas, this is what Tuchel said.

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“The funny thing is you step into a team in the middle of the season and you know already Kai [Havertz] and Timo [Werner] and Toni [Rudiger], and I fight many years to have N’Golo Kante in my team who is here, and I spoke French with Olivier Giroud, and I have a clear picture because I am following Premier League all the time,” Tuchel said. “Even when I am coaching in Dortmund and Paris, I have a clear picture of what the guys are capable of. To find a guy like Azpilicueta suddenly in your office is simply amazing, because in the end I am also a fan. Almost since I am born I am a football fan.”

[ MORE: What to expect from Tuchel at Chelsea ]

“Christian, for sure, I know very well what he is capable of. He had a big, big input. It was an unfair decision today for him to not start. I told him it was only because I know what you can bring from the bench because I know you. I don’t know the others and not sure what the others can do from the bench, but you are a player who can start for us and can absolutely change also things for us from the bench. He did amazing. And at half time he told me ‘hey coach, you pronounced the name wrong for Azpi!’ He helped me with that. Maybe that was a big help and that is why we love him.”

For anyone wondering, Pulisic was probably pointing out to Tuchel that Azpilicueta’s nickname is simply, ‘Dave’ among fans and others.

As for Pulisic, he is clearly a player that Tuchel trusts and he will be key in this rebuild, as his brief cameo off the bench caused so many problems for Wolves as the USMNT star played as a right wing-back.

What does Tuchel want to create at Chelsea?

Tuchel said he was ‘amazed’ with how his Chelsea side managed to adapt to his ideas so quickly, and he was repeatedly asked by journalists what he has to change and what was going wrong before he arrived.

The German coach said time and time again that very little is wrong, and instead he plans to focus on Chelsea’s strengths to push them up the table.

“We will absolutely focus on our strengths and the qualities we absolutely have. We will build a team that absolutely nobody wants to play against,” Tuchel said. “This is the challenge and the challenge is for me to do this as fast as possible. For today, I was very, very pleased and from here we can build.”

He also added that they must be ‘realistic’ and that talk of getting back into the title conversation is way off, but focusing on heading into the top four must be the first challenge.

After having just 24 hours with the team, you could see a clear change in Chelsea’s style of play and it seems like Tuchel has realized that there isn’t an awful lot that is wrong with this squad he has inherited.

Follow @JPW_NBCSports



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World

King of Thailand Reportedly Accused of Breaking Sister’s Ankles After She Questions Plan to Name Second Queen

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The unpredictable King of Thailand, Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is suffering mass protests in Bankok, has now been accused of breaking his sister’s ankles.

The shocking allegation was reported by Andrew MacGregor Marshall, the former Reuters bureau chief in Bangkok, in his subscription-only newsletter, Secret Siam.

Marshall, who is free to quote his Thai sources without fear of the country’s vicious censorship laws since he left Asia, reports that the king is alleged to have attacked her after she was knock over by his dogs. Insiders claimed that he either jumped on her legs or beat her with a cane.

The assault was allegedly prompted by her confronting him over his plans to make his official consort a second queen, alongside his present wife, Queen Suthida.

The Thai nobility has recently been alive with rumors that King Maha X is set to elevate his official consort, Sineenat “Koi” Wongvajirapakdi, to the status of full queen.

The proposed scheme apparently went down badly with his sister, Princess Sirindhorn, who went to see her brother to try to change his mind about two weeks ago.

This appears to have been a bad idea; the palace recently announced that Sirindhorn had injured both of her ankles in a fall, and had been taken to hospital, but, MacGregor Marshall says, citing “well-placed sources” in “informed palace networks,” that this is less than half the story.

In fact, he alleges, “a furious row erupted” during the meeting and, “she was knocked over by one of Vajiralongkorn’s dogs, and while she was lying on the ground he either stamped on her ankles or struck them with a cane, shattering both of them.”

MacGregor Marshall says that Sirindhorn underwent operations on both ankles at Chulalongkorn Hospital and is unlikely to walk again for several months.

An announcement on Koi’s promotion to Thailand’s second queen is said to have been planned for Tuesday, her birthday. In what may be a precursor to an official announcement later, the pair made a public appearance wearing matching blue coats as they released fish and birds in a Buddhist ceremony at Wasukri pier in Bangkok. Contrary to a report in German newspaper Bild, an official announcement of her elevation has not yet been made.

If Koi is indeed promoted to the position of queen, it would mark a remarkable comeback for the 35-year old former nurse.

Koi was only released from detention in August last year after spending ten months at a correctional facility. She had been accused of feuding with the queen, but was then declared “untainted” and restored to her role as 68-year old King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s official consort.

Just as rumors of her release were circulating, over a thousand photos of her, including alleged nudes, were sent on SD cards to MacGregor Marshall, and to Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a Thai academic and outspoken critic of the monarchy.

The king only married his current and fourth wife, Suthida, in May 2019, just days before his coronation. He divorced his third wife in 2014. The relationship was made famous by a leaked video showing her feeding birthday cake to his poodle, Fufu, while she wore only a G-string and courtiers crawled on the floor before her and the king.

Fufu featured in a previous embarrassing incident: Cables written by Eric John when he was U.S. ambassador to Bangkok, which were published by Wikileaks, detailed the king’s strange obsession with the dog. The diplomatic cables said he adored Fufu, and gave him the title air chief marshal. He is said to have brought the dog to an official dinner “dressed in formal evening attire complete with paw mitts” where he drank from guests’ water glasses.

Thailand is battling a deep recession brought about by COVID-19 and the collapse of the pivotal tourist trade.

Opponents of the ultra-rich royal family have been emboldened in recent months as rallies by student protesters against the establishment have seen their numbers swelling.

Demonstrators have recently taken to protesting by wearing crop tops exposing their midriff to mock the king, who has been photographed wearing similar garb at airports and in German shopping centers.

The protests have been inflamed by reports of the king’s vast wealth, estimated by London’s Financial Times at between $30 billion and $40 billion, after sovereign funds were effectively put under his direct control by the leaders of a successful 2014 coup.

He is believed to be the world’s richest king.

As The Daily Beast recently reported, Vajiralongkorn is also alleged to have built up an extraordinary fleet of 38 jets and helicopters for the exclusive use of the Thai royal family.

He has spent much of the past few years living in Germany, most recently at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in Garmish-Partenkirchen, where his retinue of 20 concubines who have all been given the same honorary surname, have also damaged his domestic and international reputation.

Email addresses provided on Thai government websites did not work, with emails from The Daily Beast requesting comment bouncing back. However, the Thai royals do not typically comment in response to press inquiries, in part because criticizing the royal family in the media is an offense under strict lèse majesté provisions of Thai law.

At the latest count, according to a tally by news agency Prachatai, at least 55 people are now facing lèse majesté charges.

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World

FEMA Plan Would Free Up Billions for Preventing Climate Disasters

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WASHINGTON — Federal officials, showing how rapidly the Biden administration is overhauling climate policy after years of denial under former President Donald J. Trump, aim to free up as much as $10 billion at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to protect against climate disasters before they strike.

The agency, best known for responding to hurricanes, floods and wildfires, wants to spend the money to pre-emptively protect against damage by building seawalls, elevating or relocating flood-prone homes and taking other steps as climate change intensifies storms and other natural disasters.

“It would dwarf all previous grant programs of its kind,” said Daniel Kaniewski, a former deputy administrator at FEMA and now a managing director at Marsh & McLennan Companies, a consulting firm.

The FEMA plan would use a budgeting maneuver to repurpose a portion of the agency’s overall disaster spending toward projects designed to protect against damage from climate disasters, according to people familiar with discussions inside the agency.

In the past year FEMA has taken a leading role in fighting Covid-19 — and the agency’s plan is to count that Covid spending toward the formula used to redirect money to climate projects. Doing so would allow the Biden administration to quickly and drastically increase climate-resilience funding without action by Congress, generating a windfall that could increase funding more than sixfold.

Michael M. Grimm, FEMA’s acting deputy associate administrator for disaster mitigation, said the agency’s initial estimates suggested that as much as $3.7 billion could be available for the program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC. By comparison, that program so far has just $500 million to award in grants.

More of that $3.7 billion “may be forthcoming,” Mr. Grimm said in a statement.

But the amount of new money could potentially climb to as much as $10 billion, according to some estimates, if FEMA also decided to count Covid dollars toward a similar fund, the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, designed to help communities rebuild after a disaster. Mr. Grimm said the decision to provide that funding has not yet been made.

The proposal wouldn’t necessarily reduce the money available to address Covid, according to people familiar with the plan. Rather, it would give FEMA the ability to draw additional resilience money from the government’s dedicated disaster fund, which Congress routinely replenishes once the fund is drawn down.

FEMA’s plan would need to be approved by the White House budget office. After Mr. Biden’s win, members of his transition team said they saw the new funding as a way for the incoming administration to make good on its promise to address climate change.

A spokesman for the White House, Vedant Patel, did not respond to requests for comment.

The proposal marks an effort by the Biden administration to address what experts call climate adaptation — an area of climate policy that’s different from reducing greenhouse gas emissions and focuses on better protecting people, homes and communities from the consequences of a warming planet. Those include more frequent and severe storms, flooding and wildfires, as well as rising seas.

The United States has a mixed record on that front.

In many coastal states, home construction is increasing the fastest in the most flood-prone areas, including places that could soon be underwater. And despite strong public support for tougher building codes in high-risk areas, just one-third of local jurisdictions have adopted disaster-resistant provisions in their building codes.

Faced with rapidly escalating disaster costs, the Trump administration took some steps to make communities more resilient to the effects of climate change, even if it refrained from using that term. FEMA and other agencies increased their focus on getting people to move away from vulnerable areas, rather than always paying them to rebuild in place. And the agency urged Congress to create the BRIC program to help cities and states increase their preparedness before a disaster, rather than after.

But federal officials were also hamstrung by Mr. Trump’s insistence that climate change was overblown.

In 2018, when FEMA issued its four-year strategic plan for dealing with disasters, the words “climate change” were nowhere to be found. Faced with year after year of record wildfires in California, Mr. Trump said the problem was too many leaves on the forest floor. Told that rising temperatures were exacerbating the problem, Mr. Trump responded: “It’ll start getting cooler. You just — you just watch.”

As a candidate, Mr. Biden promised to focus on climate adaptation. And on his first day as president, he signed an order imposing higher construction standards on buildings or infrastructure in flood zones that are built with federal money. The order, first imposed by President Barack Obama, was rescinded by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Biden’s move won praise from disaster groups. “This action restores a forward-looking policy that will help ensure that taxpayer dollars aren’t washed away by the next flood,” Forbes Tompkins, who works on federal flood policy with the Pew Charitable Trusts, an advocacy group, said in a statement.

But sending billions of dollars of new money into FEMA’s disaster programs would go further than simply reinstating Obama-era adaptation policies. The BRIC program was created in the aftermath of the brutal disaster season of 2017, when the United States was struck in quick succession by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, as well as wildfires in California that were then the worst on record. Federal disaster spending skyrocketed.

A few months later, federal researchers reported that for every $1 the government spent to protect a community before a disaster, it saved $6 later. In 2018, Congress created the program to take advantage of those savings by providing more money upfront. The first grants were set to be awarded this year.

If the Biden White House approves the plan, it may find allies in Congress, even among Republicans.

Using Covid funds to increase that money has received bipartisan support in Congress in the past. In October, Representative Peter A. DeFazio, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which has jurisdiction over FEMA, sent a letter to the agency urging it to use the Covid money.

That letter was co-signed by Representative Sam Graves, the top Republican on the committee. But FEMA was unable to get permission from the Trump administration’s budget office, according to former officials.

The new money would present some challenges, according to people familiar with the program. State and local governments must provide 25 percent of the cost of any projects, an particularly significant hurdle as the economic downturn from Covid has devastated government budgets. And those officials would need to devise projects on a large enough scale to make use of the new funds.

Still, the extra funding is worth pursuing, said Mr. Kaniewski, the former FEMA official. “The more mitigation dollars, the better,” he said. “This is about as good of a taxpayer investment as you can find.”

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US

NYT: Rep. Perry played role in alleged Trump plan to oust acting AG

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Pennsylvania Rep. Scott PerryScott Gordon PerryDemocrats to levy fines on maskless lawmakers on House floor Growing number of lawmakers test positive for COVID-19 after Capitol siege New Jersey Democrat thinks she contracted coronavirus during Capitol siege MORE (R) played a key role in an alleged plan by former President TrumpDonald TrumpMcCarthy says he told Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene he disagreed with her impeachment articles against Biden Biden, Trudeau agree to meet next month Trump planned to oust acting AG to overturn Georgia election results: report MORE to oust then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in a bid to overturn the election results in Georgia, according to a Saturday report by The New York Times.

The outlet reported that Perry, who earlier this month voted in favor to object to the election results in Pennsylvania and Arizona in Congress, coordinated the introduction between Trump and Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil division. 

Clark had reportedly been receptive to Trump’s claims that the 2020 election had been “stolen” from him. 

The Times initially reported Friday that Trump sought to replace Rosen with Clark after Rosen refused to support Trump’s disputed claims that the presidential election was tainted by widespread voter fraud. Four former Trump administration officials told the newspaper that the plot to replace Rosen failed after DOJ officials uncovered the plan and threatened to resign en masse. 

On Saturday, the Times reported that former Trump administration officials said Clark informed the acting attorney general in late December about a meeting with the former president brokered by Perry.

The Times noted it was unclear how Perry initially met Clark, and how well they knew each other prior to the meeting with the former president. Both the president and Clark also reportedly engaged in several direct phone conversations. 

Justice Department officials were reportedly surprised by these interactions, as Clark had not previously alerted Rosen. The agency’s policy states that the president must first communicate with the attorney general or deputy attorney general on any DOJ matter. 

According to the Times, former officials said that Perry and Clark discussed a plan to have the Justice Department send a letter to Georgia state lawmakers stating that a voter fraud investigation was forthcoming that could potentially overturn the state’s election results. The two men then discussed the alleged plan with Trump. 

However, Rosen reportedly refused to send the letter. 

The former officials briefed on the matter told the Times that the Justice Department had carried out dozens of voter fraud investigations, none of which resulted in findings that would have altered the outcome of the election. 

The Hill has reached out to Perry’s office for comment on the Times report. 

Sen. Richard DurbinDick DurbinOvernight Health Care — Fauci: Lack of facts ‘likely’ cost lives in coronavirus fight | CDC changes COVID-19 vaccine guidance to allow rare mixing of Pfizer, Moderna shots | Senate chaos threatens to slow Biden’s agenda Hillicon Valley: Intelligence agency gathers US smartphone location data without warrants, memo says | Democrats seek answers on impact of Russian hack on DOJ, courts | Airbnb offers Biden administration help with vaccine distribution Democrats seek answers on impact of Russian cyberattack on Justice Department, Courts MORE (D-Ill.), the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the DOJ Saturday informing the agency that he was investigating alleged efforts by Trump and Clark “to use the Department of Justice to further Trump’s efforts to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

Senate Majority Leader Charles SchumerChuck SchumerDivide and conquer or unite and prosper Roe is not enough: Why Black women want an end to the Hyde Amendment National Guard back inside Capitol after having been moved to parking garage MORE (D-N.Y.) has also called for the DOJ’s internal watchdog to investigate Trump over Friday’s Times report, tweeting Saturday that it was, “Unconscionable a Trump Justice Department leader would conspire to subvert the people’s will.” 

“The Justice Dept Inspector General must launch an investigation into this attempted sedition now,” Schumer added. 

Schumer went on to say that the Senate will “move forward” with an impeachment trial into Trump over his role in  the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. The trial is set to begin the week of Feb. 8.



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Business

Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham says Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan will make the stock market bubble even worse

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Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images for ReSource 2012

Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham warned investors during a Bloomberg interview that the $1.9 trillion in federal aid President Joe Biden is seeking from Congress will further inflate the stock market bubble.

The GMO co-founder told Erik Schatzker that he has “no doubt” some of the stimulus aid will end up in the market. He said the “sad truth” about the last stimulus bill passed in 2020 was that it didn’t increase capital spending and didn’t increase real production, but it certainly flowed into stocks. 

The plan that Biden is proposing contains a $1,400 boost to stimulus checks, robust state and local aid, and vaccine-distribution funds. Grantham said that if the package passed is worth $1.9 trillion, it could lead to the dangerous end of the bubble.  

“If it’s as big as they talk about, this would be a very good making of a top for the market, just of the kind that the history books would enjoy,” said Grantham.

“We will have a few weeks of extra money and a few weeks of putting your last, desperate chips into the game, and then an even more spectacular bust,” he added. 

Read more: A notorious market bear who called the dot-com bubble says he sees ‘fresh deterioration’ in the market indicator that first signaled the 1929 and 1987 crashes – and warns that stocks are ripe for a 70% drop

Grantham has long-warned of the ballooning bubble he sees in the US stock market. In his investor outlook letter in the beginning of January, he detailed how extreme overvaluations, explosive price increases, frenzied issuance, and “hysterically speculative investor behavior” all demonstrate that the stock market is in a bubble that not even the Fed can stop from bursting.

“When you have reached this level of obvious super-enthusiasm, the bubble has always, without exception, broken in the next few months, not a few years,” Grantham told Bloomberg.

Grantham also said that the combination of fiscal stimulus and emergency Fed programs that helped inflate the bubble could increase inflation.

“If you think you live in a world where output doesn’t matter and you can just create paper, sooner or later you’re going to do the impossible, and that is bring back inflation,” Grantham said. “Interest rates are paper. Credit is paper. Real life is factories and workers and output, and we are not looking at increased output.”

He told investors to seek out stocks outside of US markets, as many other countries haven’t seen the huge bull market the US has. He called emerging markets stocks “handsomely priced.”

“You will not make a handsome 10- or 20-year return from U.S. growth stocks,” said Grantham. “If you could do emerging, low-growth and green, you might get the jackpot.”

Read more: GOLDMAN SACHS: These 22 stocks still haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels – and are set to explode amid higher earnings in 2021 as the economy recovers

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Technology

Microsoft Quickly Cancels Plan to Raise Xbox Live Gold Subscription Prices

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On Friday, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced a set of price raises for its Xbox Live Gold online gaming service, then reversed itself hours later after a wave of criticism.

The IT giant originally announced that Gold would cost $1 more for a one-month membership, lifting its cost to $10.99. A three-month membership was set at $29.99 (formerly $24.99). The longest term currently available, six months, would have increased to $59.99 (formerly $39.99). Microsoft is no longer offering a one-year option.

There would be no immediate price change for Gold subscribers with existing six- or 12-month memberships.

In its original announcement about the price hikes, Microsoft pointed out that in many of its markets, those rates had not changed in years. 

Image source: Getty Images.

There was considerable speculation that Microsoft’s move was an attempt to convince subscribers to upgrade to the top online gaming tier, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. This bestows access to over 100 games, confers exclusive discounts, and provides other perks, of top of the benefits of Gold membership. Microsoft was to keep Ultimate’s price unchanged at $14.99 per month.

The outcry over the price raises was swift and, at times, vociferous. In response, shortly before midnight ET on Friday, Microsoft canceled the decision in an edit to its original announcement, writing that “We messed up today and you were right to let us know. Connecting and playing with friends is a vital part of gaming and we failed to meet the expectations of players who count on it every day.”

In addition to leaving Gold pricing unchanged in the end, Microsoft said that free-to-play titles will be accessible on Xbox without a Gold subscription, as previously required. It said it hopes to implement this change in the next few months.



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Business

Biden coronavirus plan; states run out of vaccine

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President Biden is putting into play his national COVID-19 strategy to ramp up vaccinations and testing.

USA TODAY

COVID-19 has killed more than 410,000 Americans in less than 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 newsletter for updates to your inbox, join our Facebook group or scroll through our in-depth answers to reader questions.

The cornerstone of President Joe Biden’s new COVID-19 strategy plan rests on using the Defense Production Act to strengthen the supply chain and make vaccines – but experts say the plan will need time.

Biden unveiled many points of his strategy that will use the Defense Production Act to get the raw materials needed and support expanding capacity to make lipid nanoparticles, a crucial and complex part of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

Biden’s plan, which he called “a wartime undertaking,” is unique in the annals of U.S. medical history. In a 198-page comprehensive national strategy to address the pandemic, he calls for improved vaccine distribution, enhanced testing and broader use of masks, including new requirements in airports and many trains, airplanes and buses.

It comes at a time when the nation needs solutions for stopping – even slowing – the coronavirus. The U.S. passed 410,000 deaths this week and the push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled. 

Over the past few days, authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii warned that their supplies were running out. New York City began canceling or postponing shots or stopped making new appointments because of the shortages.

In the headlines:

►Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday on CNN that the lack of candor and facts around the U.S. pandemic’s response over the last year “very likely did” cost lives. Asked Thursday about his experience working on the pandemic response for two different administrations, Fauci also said being able to share science was “liberating.” Fauci said he did not enjoy having to correct information provided by former President Donald Trump during briefings.

►January is already the second-deadliest month during the pandemic for the United States, with 64,147 deaths reported so far, Johns Hopkins University data shows. The country has averaged about 3,055 deaths per day so far this month, a daily toll worse than the human cost of the 9/11 attacks. On this pace, by Tuesday, January will have become the deadliest month so far of the pandemic.

►President Joe Biden on Friday is set to sign two executive orders that will give low-income families easier access to federal nutrition and food assistance programs and start the process for requiring federal contractors to pay their workers a minimum wage of $15 per hour and give them emergency paid leave. The actions are part of Biden’s efforts to provide economic relief to Americans still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

►Britain’s National Health Service is preparing at least two London buses to serve as makeshift ambulances so four COVID patients can be transported at once, The Guardian reports. The buses, to be staffed by intensive car physicians and nurses, are designed to ease the strain the pandemic has put on London ambulance services.

►After weeks of railing against “vaccine tourism,” Florida officials will limit the scant supply of COVID-19 vaccine to residents only. Surgeon General Scott Rivkees issued an executive order requiring people seeking an appointment to get the vaccine to provide proof of residency, or proof of being a health care provider directly involved with patients. Until now, a person only needed to prove they were 65 or older.

📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has more than 24.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 410,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The global totals: More than 97.6 million cases and 2 million deaths.

📘 What we’re reading: Campus leaders hoped the lessons they gleaned from the fall would better position them to keep students and staff safe from COVID-19 during the spring semester. But that was before a post-holiday surge in cases and deaths. What comes next?

Super Bowl: 7,500 vaccinated health care workers going for free

The NFL announced Friday that 22,000 fans will be in attendance for Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, next month. Of that total, 7,500 will be fully vaccinated health care workers, the majority of whom will hail from hospitals or health care systems in the Tampa or central Florida area. 

Tickets will be free for the recipients. Additionally, all 32 clubs will select vaccinated health care workers from their communities to attend the big game.

“These dedicated health care workers continue to put their own lives at risk to serve others, and we owe them our ongoing gratitude,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement.

– Chris Bumbaca

Scientists applaud Biden’s decision to rejoin World Health Organization 

The scientific community applauded President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the World Health Organization and other global efforts designed to stop and prevent COVID-19. The move had both symbolic and practical implications, said Jen Kates, senior vice president and director of Global Health & HIV Policy at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

Practical, because U.S. funding will help the agency balance its budget, fulfill its commitments to boost public health, and protect Americans from new strains of COVID-19 and future disease threats.

And symbolic, because the United States was the agency’s largest funder and has long been a key player on the global health stage. 

In the short term, the United States retracting its notice of withdrawal means that it will fulfill its financial obligations to the organization and stop its drawdown of U.S.-provided staff at WHO. In the longer term, U.S. participation means it will help advance pandemic preparedness, reverse the health consequences of climate change, and promote better health globally, the Biden administration said.

– Karen Weintraub

Texas doctor charged with stealing vial of COVID vaccine

A fired county public health doctor in Texas was charged with taking a vial of COVID-19 vaccine, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced in a Thursday press release. 

Dr. Hasan Gokal took a vial that contained nine doses while working at a county vaccination site on Dec. 29, according to the district attorney’s office. He told another employee what he did a week later, and that employee reported him to supervisors. 

“He abused his position to place his friends and family in line in front of people who had gone through the lawful process to be there,” Ogg said.  “What he did was illegal and he’ll be held accountable under the law.”

Gokal was charged with theft by a public servant, a misdemeanor that “carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine,” according to the district attorney’s office. 

Chicago teachers vote to defy orders to report for in-person classes

Chicago teachers began voting Thursday to defy orders to report for in-person class next week ahead of elementary students’ return, actions the nation’s third-largest school district said could lead to “an illegal strike.”

The Chicago Teachers Union fiercely opposes Chicago Public Schools’ reopening plans over safety concerns during the coronavirus pandemic. The roughly 355,000-student district, which went online in March 2020, has gradually welcomed students back. Thousands of pre-kindergarten and special education students chose in-person learning this month. Teachers who didn’t show were punished.

Roughly 10,000 educators in kindergarten through eighth grade are expected to report for duty next week, but the union’s House of Delegates approved a resolution late Wednesday to skip classroom teaching and continue remotely. Students in kindergarten to eighth grade have the option to return two days a week starting Feb. 1. No return date has been set for high school students.

Expansion of vaccine eligibility blamed for shortages

The Trump administration’s push to have states vastly expand their vaccination drives to the nation’s estimated 54 million people 65 and older has contributed to vaccine shortages, public health experts say.

The push that began over a week ago has not been accompanied by enough doses to meet demand, according to state and local officials, leading to frustration and confusion and limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that has killed over 400,000 Americans.

As states have ramped up their distribution chains, authorities in California, New York, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia and Hawaii warned their supplies were running out. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer even inquired about buying vaccines directly from manufacturer Pfizer, but have not been authorized to do so.

Some state and local public health officials have complained of not getting reliable information on the amount of vaccine they can expect, making it difficult to plan the inoculations.

– Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY

Contributing: The Associated Press

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