vaccine developers would not need to conduct lengthy randomized controlled trials for vaccines that have been adapted to protect against concerning coronavirus variants.

“The emergence of the virus variants raises new concerns about the performance of these products,” Dr. Woodcock said in a statement Monday. “We want the American public to know that we are using every tool in our toolbox to fight this pandemic, including pivoting as the virus adapts.”

Moderna has already begun developing a new version of its vaccine that could be used as a booster shot against a virus variant that originated in South Africa, known as B.1.351, which seems to dampen the effectiveness of the existing vaccines.

it had shaken their faith in an already weakened American democracy.

“Donald Trump’s acquittal confirms the profound division of the Republican Party,”

The uncertain future of the United States’ political system was a recurring topic for international observers.

The president had made the call, but he was actually looking for Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. Mr. Lee gave the phone to Mr. Tuberville, who has told reporters that he informed Mr. Trump that Vice President Mike Pence had just been escorted out as the mob got closer to the Senate chamber.

House prosecutors used the information about this call to argue that Mr. Trump was clearly aware that the vice president was in danger and that he had a callous disregard for Mr. Pence’s safety.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Mr. Trump said

The Republicans who broke with their party to find Donald J. Trump guilty were an eclectic group, bound by their shared lack of concern about retribution from the former president or his followers.

Mr. Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, became part of a small minority in his party — and one of only a few officials in the South — to acknowledge President Biden’s victory.

Mr. Cassidy was one of only seven Republican senators who voted on Saturday to convict him.

The campaign has gone mostly virtual during the pandemic, forcing the crowded field of candidates to sit in front of their computers attending one online forum after another.

The pandemic has simplified the routine, but in a stultifying way: Nearly everything is online, making it easier — perhaps much too easy — to organize events. Instead of working out numerous logistics, organizers simply have to find a suitable time, and send out invitations.

“While as a reporter I find it useful to hear politicians and candidates speak extemporaneously and not solely from talking points, I am tired of cooking dinner at 11 p.m.,” she said.

back online a month after Amazon and other tech giants cut off the company for hosting calls for violence around the time of the Capitol riot.

Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet.

Parler relied on help from a Russian firm that once worked for the Russian government and a Seattle firm that once supported a neo-Nazi site.

Calls have grown for a bipartisan, independent investigation into the law enforcement and administrative failures that led to the first breach of the Capitol complex

“There’s still more evidence that the American people need and deserve to hear,” Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware, said over the weekend on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that a commission would “make sure that we secure the Capitol going forward and that we lay bare the record of just how responsible” Mr. Trump was for the attack.

Ms. Pelosi said the panel would be assigned to “investigate and report on the facts and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol complex” as well as “the interference with the peaceful transfer of power.”

Kelly J. Baker is a writer and scholar of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. She sees frightening similarities between that culture and the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Many Americans associate the K.K.K. with white hoods, burning crosses and anti-Black racism but are less familiar with its white Protestant ambitions and antipathy toward Catholics and Jews. Dr. Baker explores that history in her book

White Christianity and this white supremacist Trump extremism are definitely not a new combination.

But unlike many Chinese entrepreneurs, she mixed with critics of the party, organizing dinners and salons that brought together liberal intellectuals, retired officials and longtime dissenters.

Now, Ms. Geng is set to stand trial in Beijing on Tuesday and may spend years in prison for her support for those at odds with China’s deepening authoritarianism,

“It’s a selective system of enforcement,” Ms. Cai added. “They can make up whatever they want when they want to slap a crime on you.”

Thousands of families on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border are betting that laxer rules coming from the Biden administration will make it easier for them to get to the United States and remain here. And tougher rules by the Mexican government make it more difficult for the U.S. to deport them back to Mexico. Throw in fears about further spread of the coronavirus, and it has the makings of the administration’s first self-made crisis.

As with Newton’s third law of motion, every progressive action will have an equal and opposite Trumpian reaction. Which is why Biden needs to seize the middle ground here.

It’s an improvement that relief may now be capped at $2,800 for couples making less than $100,000 a year (or $1,400 for individuals making less than $50,000). But I’d rather we spend more money on the neediest rather than sending relief to the middle class.

The Department of Justice said on Friday that Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. was one of 13 people who had been charged in federal court after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.

A man who had an assault rifle was charged with threatening Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, after he traveled to Washington for the pro-Trump rally on Wednesday and sent a text message saying he would put “a bullet in her noggin on Live TV,” the federal authorities said.

Mr. Meredith was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition, according to court records.

Vice President Mike Pence will attend President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration on Jan. 20, an aide to the vice president said on Saturday, a split with President Trump’s decision not to go.

Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump have not spoken since Wednesday, an administration official said,

In the days leading to the joint session of Congress, Mr. Trump had publicly and privately pressured Mr. Pence to overturn the certifications and throw them back to the states so that Mr. Trump could try to undo results in states that he had lost.

President Trump has not ordered the flags on federal buildings to fly at half-staff in honor of Brian D. Sicknick, a police officer who was killed after trying to fend off pro-Trump loyalists during the siege at the Capitol on Wednesday.

While the flags at the Capitol have been lowered, Mr. Trump has not issued a similar order for federal buildings under his control.

Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.

In many ways, the jobs report is a pandemic report.

the job report shows we need to provide more immediate relief for working families and businesses now.

Next week, I’ll be here with you all laying out the groundwork for the next Covid economic relief package that meets the critical moment. Vaccines give us hope. But the rollout has been a travesty.

Ms. Pelosi appeared to be seeking to have the Pentagon leadership essentially remove Mr. Trump from his authorities as the commander in chief. That could be accomplished by ignoring the president’s orders or slowing them by questioning whether they were issued legally.

some Defense Department officials clearly resented being asked to act outside of the legal authority of the 25th Amendment and saw it as more evidence of a broken political system.

The one issue that has worried officials the most is Iran’s announcement that it has begun enriching uranium to 20 percent purity — near the quality to make a bomb.

Twitter said on Friday that it had permanently suspended President Trump from its service “due to the risk of further incitement for violence,” effectively cutting him off from his favorite method of communicating with the public and capping a series of actions by mainstream sites to limit his online reach.

“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

It concluded that Mr. Trump’s tweets since Wednesday’s attack were “likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on Jan. 6, 2021, and that there are multiple indicators that they are being received and understood as encouragement to do so.”

While only the Senate votes to confirm the secretary, House approval of General Austin’s waiver is also required. The House Armed Services Committee will not be holding a hearing on the matter until the day after Mr. Biden is sworn in.

“It is very clear that we are in unprecedented times with internal threats and the real possibility of additional chaos, and this gives openings to adversaries externally,” said Arnold L. Punaro, a retired two-star Marine general and former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “If there was ever a time when you want a president’s confirmed secretary of defense in place as the only other civilian in the chain of command and fully in charge of the military — active duty, guard and reserve — it’s now.”

It is not clear what measures the Biden team is planning to take as an interim step to manage the Pentagon should the confirmation process drag past Inauguration Day.