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Covid-19 Sentry

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Daily-Dose

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Contents

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From New Yorker

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From Vox

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+He’s the latest Cabinet official to step down in the wake of last week’s insurrection at the Capitol. +

+

+Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced his resignation Monday, joining a long line of Trump administration officials who have stepped down since the president’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building last week. +

+

+Wolf — who has served in the position since November 2019 and become the public face of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies — had been planning to remain in his post until President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated on January 20. He had been overseeing security measures for the inauguration, and announced Monday that he was extending the “national special security event” period, a designation that facilitates cooperation among federal law enforcement agencies to respond to terrorist or other criminal threats. +

+

+But he reportedly told agency staff later on Monday that ongoing legal challenges to his appointment to the position had precluded him from staying on. +

+

+Pete Gaynor, the current Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, will succeed Wolf. +

+

+“Unfortunately, this action is warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary,” he told agency staff, according to the New York Times. “These events and concerns increasingly serve to divert attention and resources away from the important work of the Department in this critical time of a transition of power.” +

+

+Other Trump administration officials who recently stepped down from their posts since last week’s insurrection at the Capitol include Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney, and chief of staff to the first lady Stephanie Grisham. +

+

+Though Wolf has frequently gone to bat for the president in the media, reportedly becoming his favorite homeland security secretary, Wolf had publicly urged Trump to strongly condemn last week’s violence. +

+

+“This is unacceptable. These violent actions are unconscionable, and I implore the President and all elected officials to strongly condemn the violence,” he said in a statement on Thursday. “Any appearance of inciting violence by an elected official goes against who we are as Americans. Every American is guaranteed the right to peacefully protest, but once those protests become violent, we should enforce our laws and bring those responsible to justice — regardless of political motivations.” +

+

+But his resignation did not appear to be directly tied to last week’s events. Rather, he cited several court rulings that he was unlawfully appointed to his position. Judges found that Trump had sidestepped the Senate confirmation process to install him, running afoul of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. Trump had attempted to rectify the issues with Wolf’s appointment by formally nominating him for the position but abruptly withdrew the nomination from the Senate last Thursday. +

+

+With Wolf continuing to serve in his position without legal authority, his legacy has come into question. One court already invalidated his memo halting new applications to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program on the basis of his illegitimate appointment. +

+

+There is no telling whether further legal challenges could invalidate other DHS policies promulgated under Wolf’s watch — or even whether the incoming Biden administration could argue that Wolf’s appointment was unlawful in order to refrain from enforcing agency policies that it opposes. +

+

+Wolf became Trump’s mouthpiece on the border +

+

+Wolf and his deputy Ken Cuccinelli were at the forefront of Trump’s “law and order” messaging over the summer and have been staunch defenders of the president’s restrictionist immigration policies. +

+

+Wolf led the crackdown against Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, sending federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection there on the premise of protecting federal buildings that had been vandalized. The agents later drew criticism for escalating tensions by using tear gas on crowds and detaining protesters in unmarked vehicles. +

+

+And in the final weeks before the presidential election, he and Cuccinelli went on a tour of several battleground states — Pennsylvania, Arizona, Minnesota, and Texas — holding at least five press conferences to showcase Trump’s immigration policies. Some of the press conferences concerned routine enforcement actions that would typically be publicized with a simple press release. +

+

+Wolf made the border wall a prop in the agency’s public messaging. After racing to finish the border wall in the months leading up to the election, he has been eager to claim that Trump made good on his campaign vow. (Some 500 miles of wall have been completed, but Mexico never paid for it — rather, that $15 billion burden fell on taxpayers and largely was transferred from the Pentagon’s budget.) +

+

+Wolf traveled to the border on October 29 to tout the progress on construction, making abundantly clear what he thought was at stake in the presidential election. He said that Biden’s policies would create a surge of migration at the border and pose a threat to national security. +

+

+“Let me be clear, each of those policies would endanger the lives of the border patrol and Americans across the country,” he said. +

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+He also tweeted out a video jabbing at journalists who cast doubt on whether Trump would complete the border wall and whether it would even serve its intended purpose of “securing the border.” It’s not clear whether the video was produced by the Department of Homeland Security, but it might as well have been a campaign ad: +

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+
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+They said it couldn’t be done…

They tried to block it
They tried to spin it
They tried to hide the truth

They were wrong. 400 times and counting. pic.twitter.com/MWWP4cgoPi +

+— Acting Secretary Chad Wolf (@DHS_Wolf) October 29, 2020 +
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+David Lapan, a former spokesperson for DHS, called it a “misuse of [government] resources” and “clear electioneering.” +

+

+The announcement of Wolf’s resignation comes just before Trump’s planned trip to the US-Mexico border on Tuesday, where he is expected to again tout his legacy on immigration. +

+ +

+Historic snowfall brought Madrid to a standstill. +

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+Spain is still digging itself out after the biggest snowstorm to hit the Mediterranean country in 50 years slammed the capital, Madrid, and surrounding regions over the weekend, disrupting transit and efforts to distribute coronavirus vaccines, and causing at least four deaths. +

+

+The bulk of the snow from Storm Filomena began falling Friday evening and left 20 inches in the capital and nearby provinces by the end of Saturday. +

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+Rail service in some areas was suspended, and the New York Times reported that 12,500 miles of roads were closed or disrupted. Firefighters, members of the military, and emergency crews worked to clear runways and roads from Friday into Saturday, freeing more than 1,500 people trapped in their cars in freezing temperatures. +

+

+Although hundreds of roads had been cleared by Sunday and outgoing flights had resumed at the Madrid-Barajas airport, the Associated Press reported that roads in parts of the country were still largely blocked, and officials warned the country was not yet in the clear. +

+

+“A week of extreme cold is coming and that will transform all the snow on the ground to ice, thereby multiplying the risk,” Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters on Sunday. “The storm is bringing with it a cold wave that could push temperatures down to record levels,” he added. +

+

+At least four people died as a result of the storm. Two people experiencing homelessness died from exposure — one near Madrid and another in Calatayud, a city located in the country’s northeast. A woman and a man also drowned after their car was swept away in floods when a river burst close to the southern town of Malaga. +

+

+Government authorities on Sunday cautioned people to stay off the roads as much as possible, the AP reported, saying that although everyone trapped in their vehicles had been rescued, many abandoned vehicles remained on roadways. +

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+Many Spaniards took advantage of the snow to enjoy some winter fun. On social media, scenes of Spaniards in the streets, happily engaging in mass snowball fights made the rounds. +

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+Madrid's Gran Via today was the scene of an epic snowball battle interumpted briefly by a skier who swiftly became the target #NieveInMadrid #Filomena #NevadaMadrid #Madrid #nievemadrid #snow pic.twitter.com/cGsD4Y1ig1 +

+— The Local Spain (@TheLocalSpain) January 9, 2021 +
+
+

+Some revelers were even seen skiing through Madrid’s streets. +

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+Skiing the streets of MADRID! #spain #Espana #snow #madridsnow pic.twitter.com/kNdED5x7Yb +

+— Evan Kirstel #CES2021 (@EvanKirstel) January 10, 2021 +
+
+

+What’s behind Spain’s historic snow? +

+

+Although Spanish reports predicted snow, few expected it would be so intense. +

+

+Rubén del Campo, a spokesperson for Spain’s government meteorological office, Aemet, told reporters that “you’d probably have to look back to the 1970s for snowfall of a similar magnitude in and around the capital.” +

+

+It can be incredibly difficult to pinpoint exactly what combination of factors produced this (or any) extreme weather event, but experts I spoke to said Filomena’s historic snowfall might have happened because high levels of moisture combined with temperatures that are perfect for snow, at just the right time. +

+

+In general, the warmer the air, the more moisture it can hold, increasing the potential for precipitation. It’s possible the air before Filomena contained more moisture and then met the “Goldilocks conditions” of about 28°F to 32°F that’s necessary for snowfall to stick on the Earth’s surface. +

+

+As Kevin Trenberth of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research told me, “Maximum snows occur when surface temperatures are about 28 degrees Fahrenheit and there is plenty of moisture flowing into the storm from the oceans, where moisture is abundant, and more abundant than it used to be because of global warming.” +

+

+In the case of Filomena, Trenberth added, “conditions were just right.” +

+

+That doesn’t necessarily mean climate change is directly responsible for Spain’s snowstorm, though. +

+

+“It isn’t possible to associate this one storm with anything directly associated with climate change,” Robinson, from Rutgers, told me. “However, having said this, there is nothing in the weather world these days where climate change doesn’t have some underlying influence on what transpires.” +

+

+

+ +

+A new Vox/DFP poll finds that most Republicans are still questioning the election results. +

+

+Despite the congressional certification of the presidential election results last week, an overwhelming majority of Republicans still don’t trust the outcome — and almost half don’t think that President-elect Joe Biden should be inaugurated, according to a new poll from Vox and Data for Progress. +

+

+In a survey fielded in the days after a group of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol (January 8 to 11), 72 percent of likely Republican voters said they continue to question the presidential election results. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, or 74 percent, said allegations of voter fraud have contributed to these concerns. Those are overwhelming majorities, but even among independents, 42 percent said they do not currently trust the election results. +

+

+The GOP is more split on the presidential transition, with 49 percent of Republicans saying they have doubts about the election outcome and oppose Biden’s inauguration, 29 percent saying they still have doubts about the outcome but believe Biden should be inaugurated, and 16 percent saying they trust the election results and think Biden should be inaugurated. A total of 1,233 likely voters were polled for the survey, which has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points. +

+

+More broadly, Trump’s repeated unfounded allegations of election fraud appear to be affecting how people perceive the electoral system overall — not just the 2020 presidential contest. While 55 percent of people said they continue to trust the electoral process in the United States, 39 percent of people said they don’t trust it, including 65 percent of Republicans, compared to 12 percent of Democrats. +

+

+These findings are consistent with those in other recent surveys: A Quinnipiac poll out Monday also found that 73 percent of Republicans believe there’s widespread voter fraud, compared to 5 percent of Democrats who felt the same. +

+

+These results indicate that the allegations raised by Trump and his Republican allies have resonated with a large majority of the Republican base, so much so that some remain opposed to the presidential transition because of the doubts they harbor about the election results. This sharp divide in perceptions about the election outcome is also evident in how people interpreted the storming of the Capitol last week, this Vox/DFP poll finds. Such splits could have major implications for how Republican lawmakers approach policies under the incoming Biden administration, particularly if much of their base is wary of the legitimacy of his presidency. +

+

+Reactions to the storming of the Capitol fell heavily along party lines +

+

+People’s perceptions of the attack on the Capitol last week also differed significantly based on their party affiliation. Eighty-one percent of Democrats viewed the riot — which took place as Congress was certifying the presidential election results — as a threat to democracy, while 64 percent of independents and 47 percent of Republicans felt the same. +

+

+Democrats were also far more likely to say that President Donald Trump and congressional lawmakers were to blame for inciting the violence that took place at the Capitol, while Republicans were more likely to blame Democrats in Congress, President-elect Biden, and anti-fascist protesters, or antifa. As Vox’s Jerusalem Demsas reported, some conservative lawmakers began falsely blaming the violence on antifa shortly after the attacks took place last week, an explanation that appears to have caught on with some members of the party. +

+

+Overall, 63 percent of people blame Trump for inciting the violence, including 90 percent of Democrats and 32 percent of Republicans, and 51 percent of people blame Republican lawmakers, including 78 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Republicans. Meanwhile, 37 percent of people blame Democratic lawmakers, including 11 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of Republicans, and 30 percent blame Biden, including 9 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Republicans. Forty-seven percent of people blame antifa, including 29 percent of Democrats and 68 percent of Republicans. +

+

+Opinions regarding how lawmakers should respond to the attack also fall largely along party lines. Fifty-two percent of all people think the 25th Amendment should be invoked and Vice President Mike Pence should force Trump to step down, while 51 percent of people think Trump should be impeached. Eighty-five percent of Democrats back impeachment, while 17 percent of Republicans do. The House is poised to vote on Trump’s impeachment for the second time this week, this time charging him with inciting an insurrection. +

+

+As this poll makes clear, many Republicans still believe allegations of voter fraud that Trump has misleadingly raised for months, and some are even doubting the Democratic process because of them. +

+

From The Hindu: Sports

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From The Hindu: National News

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From BBC: Europe

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From Ars Technica

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From Jokes Subreddit

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