Scientists in Brazil have downgraded the efficacy of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that they hailed as a major triumph last week, diminishing hopes for a shot that could be quickly produced and easily distributed to help the developing world. Officials at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo said on Tuesday that a trial conducted in Brazil showed that the CoronaVac vaccine, made by the Beijing-based company Sinovac, had an efficacy rate just over 50 percent. That rate, slightly above the benchmark that the World Health Organization has said would make a vaccine effective for general use, was far below the 78 percent level announced last week.A senior official in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that had already ordered CoronaVac, said on Wednesday that an advisory panel would strictly review the vaccine based on clinical trial data before it was rolled out there.

TORONTO — For years, Peter Nygard presented himself as a rags-to-riches story: a multimillionaire who built a fashion empire from nothing, hobnobbed with Canadian prime ministers and traveled between his luxurious homes on a private jet, surrounded by women a fraction of his age. But in a Manitoba court this week, his lawyers presented a very different picture of the 79-year-old inmate, now facing extradition to the United States and seeking to be released on bail: He was old, sick, broke, lonely and likely to die in jail, where he has languished for more than a month and where the coronavirus is raging. In his own affidavit, Mr. Nygard said that since his arrest, “I am getting weaker everyday. He added that the jail food, full of sugar and carbohydrates, which he had cut from his diet, had made him “violently sick.”

Doubt even seeped into posts by some of the biggest influencers of the movement, as some started to question the phrase "trust the plan" - a key QAnon slogan that has been used by Q, an anonymous figure whom followers believe to be an influential government insider.

“There is a pool of talent in Ecuador that had not been given an opportunity to develop: The players that had come through had done so on their own merit, not because they found a club or federation that helped them. To do that, the club commissioned a study of the districts in Ecuador that produced the most players, Roggiero said, and then constructed training bases in each of them: dragnets to capture whatever talent came through. It was a long-term plan that has born fruit: In 2016, less than a decade after Deller and his associates found the club in Ecuador’s third division, Independiente reached the final of the Copa Libertadores, where it lost to Colombia’s Atlético Nacional. The club is now a regular sight in the latter rounds of South America’s biggest club competition.

MEXICO CITY — Wielding truncheons and firing tear gas, Guatemalan security forces on Sunday stepped up their efforts to stop a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants who have surged in from Honduras in recent days in hopes of reaching the United States. Shortly after dawn on Sunday, migrants tried to force their way through the phalanx but were beaten back by security forces with truncheons, shields and clouds of tear gas, according to the local news media and a video circulated by the Guatemalan government.“Fortunately, our security forces managed to contain this pitched battle,” said Guillermo Díaz, director general of the Guatemalan Migration Institute.“We managed to calm everything in a very complicated situation.” He added, “We are talking about national security here.”

A menudo, les pide a los estudiantes que silencien sus micrófonos para que no la interrumpa la voz de alguno de los maestros de sus hermanos. Los estudiantes también extrañan las interacciones casuales y útiles que tienen en los salones de clase y en los pasillos. Nefer García, una estudiante de 17 años en el último año de preparatoria en la escuela secundaria chárter Ánimo Pat Brown, al sur de Los Ángeles, dijo que anhelaba los días en los que podía saludar entre clases a algún exmaestro. Esto es especialmente cierto para los estudiantes más jóvenes del distrito, para quienes lo normal sería adquirir habilidades sociales interactuando con sus maestros y compañeros en un salón de clases lleno de energía.

Los estudiantes negros y en situación de riesgo (aquellos cuyas familias reciben cupones para alimentos u otro tipo de asistencia pública, o que carecen de hogar o se encuentran en el sistema de hogares de acogida temporal) estaban aún más atrasados, en especial en Comprensión lectora. Achievement Preparatory Academy es una de decenas de escuelas públicas autónomas (o chárter) en Washington a la que asisten unos 43.000 niños, casi tantos como los 51.000 inscritos en las escuelas públicas tradicionales de la ciudad. La mayoría de los estudiantes en ambos tipos de escuelas han tomado clases en línea desde sus casas todo el año, aunque el sistema escolar de la ciudad se está preparando para ofrecer al menos algunas clases presenciales a partir del próximo mes. En una encuesta realizada en diciembre se descubrió que menos de la mitad de los padres estaban dispuestos a enviar a sus hijos de regreso a las aulas, y que los residentes de los vecindarios más pobres, en su inmensa mayoría, deseaban continuar con la educación a distancia.

Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades informaron que, de entre todas las visitas a las salas de emergencia por parte de niños de 5 a 17 años, el porcentaje de visitas relacionadas con la salud mental aumentó de manera considerable de abril a octubre, en comparación con el mismo periodo en 2019. Para dar a los lectores una idea de las distintas maneras en las que la pandemia ha afectado a los estudiantes, las familias, los maestros y el personal escolar, The New York Times elaboró un perfil de siete distritos de Estados Unidos para analizar cómo ha sido la respuesta de cada uno de ellos a los desafíos de educar a los niños y jóvenes en la pandemia. El Distrito Escolar Unificado de Los Ángeles, el segundo más grande del país, operó a distancia todo el otoño, debido a la alta tasa de transmisión del virus en la ciudad. En el condado de Cherokee, en Georgia, un distrito suburbano en su mayoría blanco, se impartieron clases presenciales durante todo el otoño, aunque por momentos varias de sus escuelas pasaron a la enseñanza a distancia debido a los brotes, y todo el distrito cerró durante al menos dos semanas después de las vacaciones de invierno a medida que aumentaba la escasez de personal.

Por todo el país se desarrollaron conflictos similares, a medida que los miembros de juntas escolares, acostumbrados a contratar superintendentes y aprobar presupuestos anuales, tuvieron que enfrentarse a la exigencia de convertirse instantáneamente en expertos en salud pública y equilibrar las preocupaciones de los profesores en torno a la seguridad con las necesidades educativas de los estudiantes y la carga impuesta a los padres que trabajan. Padres en California, Salt Lake City, los suburbios de Filadelfia, y otros lugares han demandado a las juntas escolares y a las autoridades locales de salud, alegando que sus derechos constitucionales habían sido violados por la decisión de mantener cerradas las aulas. Wausau, una pequeña ciudad sobre el río Wisconsin, conocida por sus canteras de granito y colinas para practicar esquí, fue el raro distrito en la región que decidió dar clases remotas este otoño, luego de que la junta siguiera las recomendaciones del superintendente y el sindicato de profesores, quienes dijeron que era la opción más segura.“Todos teníamos la certeza de que a las dos o tres semanas de abrir las aulas íbamos a tener que volver a las clases virtuales de todos modos”, dijo Keith Hilts, el superintendente de Wausau.

Beckett Blencoe, de 11 años, dijo que tenía muchos tropiezos en su curso virtual de sexto año de primaria y que también para sus padres era difícil ayudarlo. En una ocasión, se dieron cuenta de que el material de su clase de computación era igual al de un curso de Mercadotecnia de universidad.A lo largo del otoño, conforme las infecciones y cuarentenas siguieron en aumento, algunos padres de familia recurrieron a Facebook para instar a otros a que mantuvieran a sus hijos en casa si se enfermaban y a que no les hicieran pruebas para el coronavirus o informaran a las escuelas de casos positivos, por temor a que el distrito fuera a cambiar a clases a distancia si se descubrían muchos casos.“La meta debería ser un año académico sólido con todas las herramientas puestas en práctica a fin de que los maestros y alumnos estén seguros en las escuelas”, dijo Miranda Wicker, de 38 años, quien antes trabajaba como maestra de inglés y funge como vocera del grupo, “y eso no lo estamos haciendo”.

Excepto uno de los distritos del estado, todos los demás han brindado al menos alguna forma de enseñanza presencial desde el otoño, incluso cuando Rhode Island pasó de tener cifras muy bajas de casos a uno de los peores brotes de Estados Unidos. En Providence, el distrito más grande del estado, los alumnos de primaria pueden asistir a la escuela cinco días a la semana, mientras que la mayoría de los estudiantes de secundaria y preparatoria pueden asistir cada tercer día. Esto es muy diferente a otras ciudades del noreste de Estados Unidos, donde en los últimos meses de 2020 las tasas de contagio eran más bajas que en Providence. Actualmente, en la ciudad de Nueva York solo los alumnos de primaria pueden asistir de manera presencial a la escuela, y muchos de ellos van menos de cinco días a la semana.

EDISON, Nueva Jersey — Este es el dilema diario de Stephanie Rasimowicz: frente a ella, en su clase de geometría del segundo periodo en la Escuela Secundaria Edison se encuentra un puñado de alumnos de noveno grado, desperdigados en escritorios separados a varios metros de distancia. Detrás de ella hay casi veinte pequeños rostros sin cuerpo en la pantalla de una computadora: son sus estudiantes remotos, que aprenden desde casa.¿Los estudiantes que trabajan a distancia pueden escuchar a los estudiantes en el salón de clase y viceversa?“Incluso si sus cámaras están encendidas, no sabes con exactitud qué están haciendo en casa”, dijo Rasimowicz, quien ha sido maestra de matemáticas en la secundaria Edison durante 13 años.

Otros siete ya habían abandonado el distrito escolar, situado en una zona del oeste de Texas que es conservadora y con frecuencia escéptica respecto a la COVID-19, y lo hicieron por la razón opuesta: sus padres se opusieron a la orden del estado de que todos los niños de diez años o más usaran cubrebocas, señaló Grimes. En las vacaciones de invierno, solo el nueve por ciento de los estudiantes de secundaria estaban reprobando al menos una materia. Desde el comienzo del ciclo escolar hasta enero de este año, una gran cantidad de los 170 maestros, administradores y otros miembros del personal del distrito han dado positivo en las pruebas del coronavirus (52) o han tenido que ponerse en cuarentena debido a la exposición (27).A medida que más escuelas de todo el país abrieron sus puertas en otoño, la evidencia ha sugerido que el aprendizaje presencial no ha provocado una transmisión generalizada del coronavirus, aunque la aparición de una nueva variante del coronavirus, posiblemente más infecciosa, ha suscitado nuevas inquietudes acerca de la reapertura de las escuelas.

Matthew Loden, chief executive of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, told me that taking on a paradigm-busting “Messiah” had been particularly daring at a time when people, unhinged by a pandemic, were “looking, misty-eyed, to the past.” Nevertheless, he said, the pandemic, while forcing his financially strained orchestra to cancel its 2020-21 season, was also an opportunity to experiment with new artistic forms and to attract a larger and captive global audience, stuck at home. With concert halls shuttered, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has, for example, been trying new ways to connect with audiences, including musicians giving individual live 30-minute video-call performances of Beethoven, folk music or popular songs like “Fly Me to the Moon” to isolated senior citizens at home or in nursing homes. He told me he had fashioned his segment as an affirmation of gay pride as well as an exhortation to the world, including his tut-tutting conservative Chinese aunties, to accept him for who he is.“It was my biggest pop diva fantasy being filmed,” he told me, expressing the hope that Handel, who was adept at understanding the social mores of his era, would have appreciated a revamping of “The Messiah” for modern times.

HAVANA — When the Trump administration announced this week that it was designating Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, the reaction in Havana was swift and vociferous. The Cuban government accused Washington of hypocrisy, and called the label an act of “political opportunism” by President Trump to obstruct relations between Cuba and the incoming administration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. Beyond indignation, though, Cubans are ready to move on, a sentiment underlined by their president, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, who tweeted on Tuesday that the American decision had been made in “the death throes of a failed and corrupt administration.”For the Cuban government and its people, the change in American presidential administrations can’t come soon enough.

LOS ANGELES — In Elissa Elder-Aga’s 25 years of teaching elementary school, reading aloud has always been her favorite classroom activity, a chance to captivate her audience and impart all sorts of lessons — from grammar to morals. But after many tries in the fall, she reached a sobering conclusion: No matter how hard she tried, how many voices she used, she could not hold the attention of kindergartners while reading to them on Zoom. None of Ms. Elder-Aga’s kindergarten students have spent a day inside a classroom this school year, like a vast majority of the roughly 600,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest after New York City. And her struggles echo those voiced by teachers nationwide: Will all-remote instruction cause lower-income students and students of color to fall further behind their more affluent peers?

What does it mean to go to public school in the United States during the pandemic?In some rural and suburban areas, especially in the South, Midwest and Great Plains, almost all students began the 2020-21 academic year attending school in person, and they have continued to do so, except for temporary closures during outbreaks. In many cities, the bulk of students haven’t been in a classroom since March. And in some districts, like New York City, only younger students have the option of going to school in person, with many attending only part-time.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rachel Santos is clear about one thing: Distance learning did not work for her.“There was always Zoom meetings, and I couldn’t really focus on that, because I get easily distracted and there’s a lot of stuff going around in my house,” she said. So when her district, Providence Public Schools, gave students a choice in September to come back into their classrooms, Rachel, 15, and her mother jumped at the option.“My kid just regressed a lot” during many months of remote instruction, her mother, Ramona Santos Torres, said.

Parents in California, Salt Lake City, suburban Philadelphia and elsewhere sued school boards and local health officials, arguing that their constitutional rights had been violated by the decision to keep classrooms closed.A superintendent in Arizona resigned after death threats were made to him and his family when he closed schools there in December. Wausau, a small city on the Wisconsin River known for its granite quarries and ski hills, was the rare district in the region to choose remote learning this fall, with the board following recommendations from the superintendent and teachers’ union, which said it was the safest option.“We were all of the opinion that within two to three weeks of opening, we were all going to be virtual anyway,” said Keith Hilts, the Wausau superintendent.

Achievement Prep is one of dozens of public charter schools in Washington that enroll about 43,000 children — almost as many as the 51,000 in the city’s traditional public schools. Most students in both types of schools have learned online from home all year, although the city’s school system is preparing to offer at least some in-person instruction starting next month. The teachers’ union has strongly opposed reopening, backing out of tentative agreements to do so in the fall even as private schools, and some charters, reopened. But indications are that students struggled even more than usual this fall; informal assessments found that no second graders started the school year reading on grade level, according to Sarah Lewis, the head of school.

Officials said that in several cases, the virus spread after unsanctioned student social gatherings outside of school, including parent-organized parties for band members and sports teams.“As long as we are operating in-person school during a pandemic, there will be positive cases among students and staff due to the virus circulating in our community,” she wrote. All that changed on Jan. 8, when the superintendent, Brian V. Hightower, took a drastically different position in an email to families: More than 400 teachers and other staff members couldn’t report to school, he said, because they were infected or quarantined, and there weren’t enough substitutes to fill in. As a result, he closed all of the district’s schools and shifted to remote learning for at least a week to allow students, families and staff members “to get healthier.” Then it became at least two weeks.

The compromises built into hybrid are intended to keep staff members and students safer — by slicing in-person attendance by at least half to enable six feet of distance in classrooms, hallways and gymnasiums — while also maintaining, at least in part, the widely acknowledged educational and emotional benefits of in-person instruction.A growing body of research indicates that students generally have fallen behind educationally in the pandemic, with Black, Latino and low-income students, who are more likely to be taking classes remotely, faring the worst. Whether hybrid classes are helping to stem educational loss remains unclear. Edison officials said they had no readily available data on failure rates or standardized test scores to measure the impact of hybrid learning.

On a crisp afternoon in November, Teresa Bautista ventured into Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y., on the lookout for feces. Speckled all across the park’s grass was the greenish glint of goose droppings, which Ms. Bautista eagerly swabbed and swirled into a tubeful of chemicals. Ms. Bautista was after more than just bird excrement. Over the next few months, Ms. Bautista and four other New York area high school students will continue to gather samples from the city’s birds as a part of the Virus Hunters program, hosted by the nonprofit science outreach organization BioBus.

By the end of the first grading period in September, 77 percent of the district’s remote high school students were failing at least one class. Similarly, about 30 percent of the youngest students, particularly in first and second grades, were not meeting grade-level expectations on a reading assessment administered at the start of the school year — roughly double the number from previous years, Delynn Wheeler, the elementary school principal, said. To district officials, that was evidence that remote education last spring had set students back. And those who remained remote at the start of the fall semester struggled to catch up.

"She brought the inaugural ball to the stage in a year where you're not going to get all of the dress up, the ball gowns that we have come to look at and adore and criticise."

The stark difference between the two ensembles led some to speculate that Mrs Trump is looking forward to shedding the duties - and the clothing - of first lady. Others noted her bright smile after touching down in Florida - an apparent contrast to how she looked at her husband's inauguration four years ago.

In her poem, Gorman described herself as "a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother [who] can dream of becoming president, only to find her self reciting for one".

Foo Fighters dedicated Times Like These to the teachers who have "faced unprecedented challenges" with "dedication and creativity", while cellist Yo-Yo Ma played a simple but moving version of Amazing Grace for those who have "found new ways for us to smile together" during the pandemic.

Sami: She was like, "This is cool, but I don't know what we can do with it?"And I was like, "You shut your mouth, we are putting this on TikTok right now."And so we got together and did that video - but we never thought our label would let us put it out because, I mean, we were doing country up 'til that point and this song had the F-word like 70,000 times.

Given what the city has gone through, it's no surprise that its residents and historians who have covered its past drew parallels between the 1898 insurrection and the attack on the US Capitol this month. Ms Dicks Maxwell and her NAACP branch had for months after the US election been highlighting what they saw as the similarities between what happened in Wilmington and how politicians today in the US were trying to undermine the election results.

"He can certainly generate funds within his community and he has a lot of supporters and they will continue to listen to him and support him, so he's not out of options by any means, but as a big brand with broad appeal he is really limited," he says.

"New York is not dead, but it is on life support," he says."Whether its recovery is measured in months or years or decades is primarily determined by the degree of leadership that we see in the city. And I think that's why we should be so concerned."

In April 1970, Alan Canfora, a junior at Kent State University in Ohio, was outraged when a friend was killed in the Vietnam War. Nixon’s action set off a wave of antiwar demonstrations across the country, including at Kent State, where the Ohio National Guard was called in to respond to destruction and to be a presence at a major demonstration planned for May 4. The day began with brief skirmishing; students threw rocks at the Guard and the Guard fired tear gas at the students, whose numbers would swell from the hundreds to the thousands. At one point, some soldiers knelt and aimed their weapons at the students, in an apparent bluff that they were going to fire.