Feb 2, 2021
AP MORNING WIRE
Good morning. In today's AP Morning Wire:
- Myanmar lawmakers under guard after coup; Biden threatens sanctions.
- Biden meets Republicans on virus aid, but no quick deal in sight.
- Deadliest US virus month ends with signs of progress; Italy reopens.
- Kremlin foe Navalny faces Moscow court that may jail him for years.
TAMER FAKAHANY
DEPUTY DIRECTOR – GLOBAL NEWS COORDINATION, LONDON
The Rundown
AP PHOTO
Myanmar lawmakers say army guarding them in government housing after military coup; Biden threatens sanctions
Hundreds of lawmakers from Myanmar’s Parliament are still confined inside government housing in the country’s capital, a day after the military staged a coup and detained senior politicians including Nobel laureate and de facto government leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The takeover came the morning that lawmakers from all of the country had gathered in the capital for the opening of the new parliamentary session and followed days of worry that a coup was coming.
One lawmakers told the AP that he and about 400 parliament members were able to speak with each another inside the compound and communicate with their constituencies by phone, but were not allowed to leave. The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for his safety.
Military Junta Back in Charge: The man installed by army leaders as Myanmar's new president is best known for his role in the crackdown on 2007 pro-democracy protests. Myint Swe was the army-appointed vice president who was elevated after the military arrested civilian leaders and declared a one-year state of emergency. But while Myint Swe is president, the real power lies with the country's top military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. He has been commander of the armed forces since 2011 and is due to retire soon, clearing the way for him to take a civilian leadership role if the junta holds an election as promised, Elaine Kurtenbach and Victoria Milko report.
U.S. Sanctions: President Joe Biden threatened new sanctions on Myanmar, calling the coup a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and rule of law.” Myanmar has been a Western democracy promotion project for decades and had been a symbol of some success. But over the past several years, there have been growing concerns about its backsliding into authoritarianism. Global opprobrium toward Suu Kyi has been acute over her resistance to rein in or condemn brutal massacres and the forced exodus of Rohingya Muslims by the Burmese army. Matthew Lee reports.
AP PHOTO/EVAN VUCCI
Biden meets Republicans on virus aid, but no quick deal in sight; Biden tries to show US as democracy beacon post-Capitol riot
President Joe Biden has told Republican senators he's unwilling to settle on too small a COVID-19 aid package after meeting for two hours over their slimmed down proposal.
Their $618 billion plan is about a third of what he's seeking. The Republicans are looking at fewer and smaller benefits, including $1,000 in direct payments to individuals earning up to $40,000 a year, or $80,000 for couples. Lisa Mascaro, Josh Boak and Jonathan Lemire report.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins says the meeting at the White House resulted in no compromise on differences. But she and the other Republicans say there was agreement to keep the discussions going.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats pushed ahead to lay the groundwork for passing their full package without relying on Republican support.
Biden and GOP senators offer competing COVID-19 relief plans.
Biden's Democracy Challenge: The president is facing two critical tests of whether the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol has damaged America’s own convoluted standing as a beacon for democracy. Protests in Russia and a military coup in Myanmar come as American credibility on the world stage is the lowest in recent memory after last month’s storming of the Capitol by a pro-Donald Trump mob looking to stop the certification of Biden’s victory. That adds to the weight on Biden as he seeks to fulfill a pledge to dramatically reposition the U.S. as a global leader following four years of foreign policy driven by Trump's “America First” mantra, Aamer Madhani reports.
AP PHOTO/ANDREW MEDICHINI
Pandemic's deadliest month in US ends with signs of progress; Small pleasures as Italy reopens after Christmas lockdown
The deadliest month of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. ended with some encouraging signs of progress: new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were plummeting, while vaccinations were picking up speed.
The critical question remains whether America can stay ahead of the fast-spreading mutations of the virus, report Michael Kunzelman and Michelle Smith.
The U.S. death toll has climbed past 443,000, with over 95,000 lives lost in January alone. Deaths are running at about 3,150 per day on average, down slightly, by about 200, from their peak in mid-January.
U.S. Teachers: The pandemic has cut instruction time in America's schools by as much as half, and many middle school and high school teachers have given up on covering all the material they normally do. Instead, they are cutting lessons. English teachers are deciding which books to skip. History teachers are condensing units. Science teachers are often doing without experiments. Certain topics must be taught because they will appear on important exams. But teachers are largely on their own to make difficult choices on what to prioritize and what to sacrifice, Michael Melia reports.
Italy Reopening: Much of Italy is gingerly reopening from pre-Christmas closures. The Vatican Museums welcomed a trickle of visitors to the Sistine Chapel and locals ordered their cappuccinos at outdoor tables for the first time in weeks. While many European countries remain in hard lockdowns amid surging infections and virus variants, most Italian regions graduated to the coveted “yellow” category of risk.
But Italy is by no means out of the woods. The country is averaging around 12,000-15,000 new confirmed cases and 300-600 COVID-19 deaths each day. But it appears to have avoided the severe post-Christmas surges in Britain and elsewhere thanks to tightened restrictions over the holidays. Trisha Thomas and Elisa Colella report from Rome.
- Tanzania’s health ministry says it has no plans to accept COVID-19 vaccines, just days after the president of the country of 60 million people expressed doubts about the vaccines without offering evidence. The East African government has been widely criticized for its approach to the pandemic.
- World Health Organization experts have visited an animal disease center in the Chinese city of Wuhan as part of their investigation into the origins of the pandemic.
PHOTOS: Virus uncertainty for China's Year of Ox vendors.
PHOTOS: New York City parks have become `people's everything.'
Does wearing two masks provide more protection? The AP is answering Viral Questions in this series.
AP PHOTO/ALEXANDER ZEMILIANICHENKO
Russia: Alexei Navalny Protests
State-run media in Russia has downplayed the nationwide demonstrations seeking the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who faces a court hearing today that may jail him for years, as small and claim that they show the failure of those opposed to the government.
But the Kremlin appears rattled. Tens of thousands on Sunday once again filled the streets across the vast country, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a ''czar'' and a ''thief.''
Two weekends of nationwide rallies and thousands of arrests is the largest outpouring of discontent in Russia in years. Navalny’s team said the turnout demonstrated “overwhelming nationwide support” for the Kremlin's fiercest critic.
His allies called for protesters to come to the courthouse today in Moscow, from where Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov report. Police have cordoned off the area.
Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have denied the charge.
Russia’s penitentiary service alleges that Navalny, while ill in Germany, violated the probation of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money-laundering conviction that he rejects as politically motivated.
Today, the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow will consider its request to turn his 3 1/2-year suspended sentence into one he must serve in prison.
That in turn could fuel more nationwide protests against the Kremlin.
Other Top Stories
Pakistan's Supreme Court has ordered a Pakistani-British man acquitted of the 2002 gruesome beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl off death row and moved to a so-called government “safe house." Ahmad Saeed Omar Sheikh, who has been on death row for 18 years will be under guard and won't be allowed to leave the safe house. He will be allowed to have his wife and children visit him. His father says the decision “is not complete freedom. It is a step toward freedom." Pakistan's government has been scrambling to keep Sheikh in jail since a Supreme Court order last Thursday upheld his acquittal generating expressions of outrage by Pearl's family and the U.S. administration.
GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell has blasted newly elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling the far-right Georgia Republican’s embrace of conspiracy theories and “loony lies” a “cancer for the Republican Party.” It comes as House Democrats are mounting an effort to formally rebuke Greene, who has a history of making racist remarks, promoting conspiracy theories and endorsing violence directed at Democrats. Democrats have said they will strip Greene of her committee assignments if House Republican leadership refuses to. Greene says Democrats will regret the move if the GOP regains the majority after the 2022 election.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has helped elect two allies to the top jobs in both houses of Congress, a success that is expected to help help him blunt a campaign by protesters who have been calling for the right-wing leader to be impeached. Any impeachment move would have to start in the lower house. Analysts say Bolsonaro still faces a tough road. He abandoned his own party shortly after being elected president and has struggled to find support for his policies in a complicated congressional landscape of many parties.
Parts of northern New England are waiting their turn to be pummeled by a heavy winter storm. Residents of the New York City region are digging out from under piles of snow that has shut down public transport, forced flights to be canceled and closed coronavirus vaccination sites. The National Weather Service said a foot or more could be on the ground in New England by the time the snow finally tapers off in the northernmost states by Wednesday evening. The lumbering storm dropped more than 13 inches of snow in Manhattan’s Central Park and as much as 16 inches in northern New Jersey.
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