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The COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca wasn't the first to be OK'd by regulators in the U.K.—health officials authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech jab nearly four weeks earlier. And it's not the most effective—Stage 3 clinical trials suggest it prevents COVID-19 symptoms about 70% of the time vs. about 95% for the Pfizer vaccine and a similar one from Moderna (which is authorized in the U.S., but not the U.K.).

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell all but shut the door Wednesday on President Donald Trump's push for $2,000 COVID-19 relief checks, declaring Congress has provided enough pandemic aid as he blocked another attempt by Democrats to force a vote. The GOP leader made clear he is unwilling to budge, despite political pressure from Trump and even some fellow Republican senators demanding action. Trump wants the recent $600 in aid increased threefold.

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(DENVER) — The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that's been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday, adding urgency to efforts to vaccinate Americans. The variant was found in a man in his 20s who is in isolation southeast of Denver in Elbert County and has no travel history, state health officials said.

They came bearing orange banners, scarves and crates of Tsingtao beer: 4,000 diehard soccer fans swarmed Wuhan Railway station on Nov. 22 looking for train G1718 to Suzhou—and a helping hand from the Fates. Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, is globally infamous as the place where the coronavirus was first detected last December—a discovery that prompted the unprecedented, 76-day, enforced quarantine of its 11 million inhabitants.

Joe Biden has had to face some trying circumstances as President-elect: a surging pandemic, an incumbent unwilling to admit defeat, and a Senate whose balance of power is still up for grabs. But he still has one of the most consequential tasks of his transition ahead of him: choosing his next Attorney General. Biden is set to take over a Justice Department that suffered a crisis of faith externally and slumping morale internally during the Trump Administration, experts say.

Big tech companies could face multibillion dollar fines in Europe and the threat of being broken up unless they comply with sweeping new regulations announced by the European Commission on Tuesday. After years of wrangling in the U.S. over whether to hold tech companies accountable for data practices and anticompetitive behavior, the new rules in the E.U.—which has a total population of some 450 million across 27 countries—could force tech companies to change their practices globally.

Argentina’s Senate passed a law legalizing abortion in Pope Francis' homeland early Wednesday after a marathon 12-hour session, a victory for the women’s movement that has been fighting for the right for decades. The vote means that abortion will be legalized up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and also will be legal after that time in cases of rape or danger to the mother’s life. It will have repercussions across a continent where the procedure is largely illegal.

A huge U.S. study of another COVID-19 vaccine candidate got underway Monday as states continue to roll out scarce supplies of the first shots to a nation anxiously awaiting relief from the catastrophic outbreak. Public health experts say more options in addition to the two vaccines now being dispensed — one made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the other by Moderna — are critical to amassing enough shots for the country and the world.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the oath of office on a chilly January day in 1933, he told Americans in the grip of the Great Depression there is “nothing to fear but fear itself.” What’s been largely forgotten is the threat that came next.

Mario Smith first broke out in cold sweats on Nov. 21. He thought it was just exhaustion from working maintenance shifts at the Gus Harrison Correctional Facility in Adrian, Mi., where he’s been incarcerated since 2018. But then guards came to his cell on Nov. 23, he says, and told him to report to another area of the prison. Smith knew then that he must have tested positive for COVID-19. “I feared for my life,” Smith tells TIME.

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(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package Sunday, ending days of drama over his refusal to accept the bipartisan deal that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals and avert a federal government shutdown. The massive bill includes $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits.

(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The man believed to be responsible for the Christmas Day bombing that tore through downtown Nashville blew himself up in the explosion, and appears to have acted alone, federal officials said Sunday. Investigators used DNA and other evidence to link the man, identified as Anthony Quinn Warner, to the mysterious explosion but said they have not determined a motive.

A version of this article appeared in this week’s It’s Not Just You newsletter. SUBSCRIBE HERE to have It’s Not Just You delivered to your inbox every Sunday. ???? Well hello! I’m so glad you’re here. This week I've got some thoughts on resolutions, ideas for finding winter joy, and the story of a waitress who survived COVID with a little help and is now paying it forward. And of course a comfort dog.

Pop culture dissections of #MeToo may feel like a relic of pre-pandemic living, before concerns about public health dominated headlines and anything that wasn’t a life-or-death issue seemed to lose its hold on the conversation. But films and television shows take years to produce, and audiences only really began to see the 2017 movement manifest onscreen last year, with movies like Bombshell and series like The Morning Show.

The city of Gainesville, Georgia is often called the “poultry capital of the world.” Across Hall County are more than a dozen meat processing plants that employ thousands of workers, many of them Latino and Black. With limited public transportation options and Georgia law requiring employers provide just two unpaid hours for staff to vote, many working-class residents rely on polling sites nearby to where they work or live to cast their ballot.

President-Elect Joe Biden nominated former teacher Miguel Cardona, Connecticut's Education Commissioner, as his Education Secretary on Tuesday, choosing a proponent of school reopening during the pandemic who will face pressure to address inequities laid bare by the crisis and to roll back some policies of his controversial predecessor.

We are nine months into the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and have known for some time that the economic devastation has been more acute for women than men. In September, four times as many women had left the workforce than men, producing a disparity that looks like nearly one million unemployed women vs. roughly a quarter of a million men.

The first canceled date was a bad omen. “So, my coworker may have been exposed to COVID,” Sean called to tell me, an hour before we were due to meet at Radio City Music Hall for a show in March. I was sipping wine with a friend, killing time. “Our whole office might need to self-quarantine,” he said. I took my friend to the show instead. I wouldn’t see Sean again, but we would watch each other’s Instagram Stories religiously for eight months and counting.

Although the holidays this year will be socially distanced for many, fans of a certain breed of period drama can get their thrills at home with the Christmas Day release of Bridgerton, Shonda Rhimes’ soapy, sexy new romance series for Netflix.

Even with the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket winning by a larger margin than any challenger since Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, the disappointment over the Democratic Party’s performance in Congress and state legislatures has led to internal division.

All eyes are on new appointments to President-elect Joe Biden’s Administration, with great speculation about which policies those appointees will change first. In particular, reproductive-rights supporters wonder what protection the Biden Administration can provide for abortion now that the Supreme Court has six votes to overturn or to further eviscerate the core holding of Roe v. Wade.

As 2020 draws to a close, and as we break bread with our loved ones this holiday season, we might consider turning our thoughts and prayers towards our neighbors who aren’t so lucky. In the richest country on earth, approximately 50 million Americans, including 17 million children, are suffering from food insecurity, a level of hunger in this country not seen since the Great Depression.

Pixar films are the most philosophical of the animation world, and the fact that they deal overtly with existential problems or anxieties might sometimes trick us into believing they’re better or deeper than they actually are. In Pixar’s latest, Soul, a jazz musician, voiced by Jamie Foxx, suffers a near-death experience just as he gets his big break.

NASHVILLE — An explosion linked to a vehicle rocked downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, sending shattered glass and debris over a wide area and rocking nearby buildings. The Metro Nashville Police Department said via Twitter that the explosion occurred at 6:30 a.m. Friday and that state and federal authorities were on the scene, as were emergency crews including the fire department.

On Nov. 6, Georgia became the epicenter of America’s complicated political landscape, voting narrowly to elevate now President-elect Joe Biden and triggering two runoff races that will determine the balance of the Senate. Georgia now holds the key to whether Biden gets to ride in the fast lane with his agenda, or be stuck on the side of the road. The state’s fast rise to political relevance can be explained by two forces: increased voter turnout and changing demographics.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, in the latest wave of clemency to benefit longtime associates and supporters. The actions, in Trump's final weeks at the White House, bring to nearly 50 the number of people whom the president in the last two days has granted clemency.

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Between the glitzy parties, secret backstories and climactic murder in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, there’s a tiny detail that readers may have missed: right before he gets in a car with antagonist Tom Buchanan—the ride that kicks off the novel’s tragic end—narrator Nick Carraway realizes he’s forgotten his own birthday.