As Washington, D.C., and state capitals enact security measures, solo actors may pose a threat in coming weeks as extremist groups are advising followers to avoid large rallies but remain opposed to the incoming administration, according to people who track such groups.

Nonetheless, extremism watchdog groups and former law-enforcement officials say there is still a threat from lone-wolf extremists who are inspired by such groups. The far-right groups, which don’t accept the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Trump, could become more aggressive in the coming months after security is lowered, the watchdogs and ex-officials said.

“These are people that honestly are intent on doing what it is they’re going to do under the cover of darkness. They’re going to do it in a way that people are not going to see them coming.”

WASHINGTON—Authorities arrested a Virginia man Friday night who they said drove to a U.S. Capitol security checkpoint with a gun, 500 rounds of ammunition and unauthorized credentials for the presidential inauguration.

U.S. Capitol Police checked the credential Mr. Beeler presented against its authorized access list and confirmed he didn’t have permission to enter the area, according to a police statement filed in a District of Columbia court on Saturday.

Mr. Beeler said he began a contract job on Jan. 8 for MVP Protective Services, which he said was working with event company Live Nation Entertainment Inc. to provide security services for media leading up to and through the presidential inauguration next week. Representatives for those companies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment

Heightened security, including the presence of police barriers and foot patrols, has been a feature at the Midtown Manhattan building since the election of Mr. Trump in 2016. The NYPD and federal authorities currently maintain a 24-hour security force around the building.

Officials said the NYPD will work with federal authorities, including the U.S. Secret Service, to construct a new security program. Factors under consideration include the location of Mr. Trump’s primary residence after he leaves office and the character of any threats facing Mr. Trump, according to the officials.

“Anything that normalizes the use of the street is going to be a good thing for the neighborhood and visitors alike,” Mr. Barth said. “We won’t be sad to see the barricades and concrete blocks leave the neighborhood.”

Russian security forces detained opposition leader Alexei Navalny on his return to the country, heightening a confrontation between the Kremlin and its most vocal critic after he recovered in Germany from a near-fatal poisoning attack last summer.

His followers, who had congregated at a different airport west of Moscow, were barred from entering the arrival area by dozens of security officials, many in riot gear, who swarmed the area.

Russia’s federal prison service said in a statement that Mr. Navalny, who has been on the agency’s “wanted list” since Dec. 29, was detained for repeated violations of his probation. Further measures would be determined by a court, the agency said. Until then, Mr. Navalny would remain in custody, officials said.

Adherents of the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers have been charged for alleged roles in the riot. Several of the groups used violent rhetoric urging members to attend the D.C. rally the day of the Capitol riot.

An Indiana man, Jon Schaffer, identified as a member of the heavy metal band Iced Earth, was arrested on charges of engaging in violence in a restricted building, disorderly conduct and other crimes, and was photographed wearing a baseball cap at the riot bearing the words “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member,” according to an affidavit for his arrest filed on Saturday. The Anti-Defamation League calls the group an “antigovernment right-wing fringe organization.”

Another defendant, 24-year-old Colorado resident Robert Gieswein, appears to be affiliated with the Three Percenters, according to another affidavit filed Saturday seeking his arrest on federal charges.

Saudi Arabia Curbs Death Penalty in Move to Soften Image - WSJSaudi Arabia Curbs Death Penalty in Move to Soften Image - WSJRIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Saudi Arabia said Monday it had imposed a moratorium on capital punishment for drug-related offenses that led to an 85% reduction in executions, as the conservative Muslim kingdom seeks to soften its image to attract Western tourists and foreign investment.

The state-backed Human Rights Commission said 27 executions were recorded in 2020. That is down from 184 the year before, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International, when Saudi Arabia trailed only China and Iran globally.

Prince Mohammed, the 35-year-old de facto ruler, has previously said the government was working to change the law to reduce the punishment for some crimes from execution to life in prison.

The political fate of President Trump, and any ambitions he might have for reclaiming the White House in 2024, could be settled by who wins a debate over whether a president can be convicted through the impeachment process after leaving office—a matter on which the U.S. Constitution is silent.

The House impeached Mr. Trump last Wednesday for “high crimes and misdemeanors” for conduct culminating with a speech exhorting thousands of his followers to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol and “fight like hell” against congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“Impeaching a president after leaving office, I think, is unconstitutional. It’s never been done before for a reason: it sets up a never-ending retribution,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) told reporters Friday, though he added that it was “a big mistake” for Mr. Trump to whip up his followers.

As a young student activist in 1980s Communist Poland, Tomasz Siemoniak —like many pro-democracy campaigners world-wide—looked up to America as a beacon of freedom.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, has already drawn a parallel between the riot in Washington and Hong Kong’s protests in 2019, accusing the U.S. of double standards as she expressed her “hope that the people of America will enjoy peace, stability and safety soon.”

“These recent events have stunned everyone, and in particularly the Belarusians, who saw the U.S. as an example of a stable, orderly democracy where honest elections are followed by a lawful transfer of power,” said Franak Viacorka, a senior adviser to Mr. Lukashenko’s opponent in the disputed election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. “We hope it was an aberration rather than the trend.

Mr. Ridenour, a social sciences and civics teacher at Dupo High School in southern Illinois, one of 40 states that require civics class for graduation, was used to having tough conversations with his civics students whose political views span both sides of the aisle, with more of them leaning to the right.

In a vigorous, civil debate, the teens looked up the definition to incite and discussed the constitutional right to protest and the 25th amendment.

he federal government annually spends about $3 million on civics education, according to an analysis of federal data by the National Council for the Social Studies.

Mr. Lee, the 52-year-old grandson of Samsung’s founder, received a 30-month prison sentence from a South Korean appeals court on Monday, in a retrial of his 2017 conviction for bribing South Korea’s former president. His prior time behind bars of roughly a year counts toward his new sentence. If granted early parole, Mr. Lee could walk free next year.

In a sign of his vast influence, Mr. Lee’s detainment triggered a selloff across Samsung’s affiliates, wiping away billions of dollars in market value. Samsung Electronics fell 3.4%, battery maker Samsung SDI Co. slid 4.2% and Samsung C&T Corp. , the conglomerate’s de facto holding company, dropped 6.8%.

Unlike in 2017, Samsung Electronics—the conglomerate’s crown jewel—isn’t in the middle of a historic run in memory-chip prices. That period was so fruitful that it negated the ill effects of the prior year’s embarrassing global recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.

MOSCOW—Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny urged supporters to take to the streets as he was ordered to be held in pretrial custody for 30 days, while Russia’s foreign ministry warned Western countries not to interfere in a case that is already worsening tensions with the U.S. and Europe.

He was remanded in custody until Feb. 15, and now faces a court decision that could turn a suspended sentence he received for an embezzlement case in 2014 into a real prison term. Authorities say he violated the terms of his parole while he was abroad recovering from August’s attack.

In short videos from the courtroom distributed among supporters, Mr. Navalny, 44 years old, said his detention showed that Mr. Putin fears his opposition movement, which will seek to make gains in a parliamentary election in September. He also called on supporters to hold public protests in a show of force.

WASHINGTON—President Trump is expected to issue as many as 100 pardons and commutations on his final day in office, but is leaning against some of the more controversial grants of clemency at the urging of his advisers, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The coming round of pardons, expected Tuesday, has been the talk of Washington in recent days, as allies on Capitol Hill and close to the White House have traded tips on how soon the list might come and who might be on it. Mr. Trump is also working to firm up his defense team for his second impeachment trial as he heads into his last full day of the presidency.

Democrats will have a hard time persuading 17 Republicans to join them in voting to convict Mr. Trump, but the president has grown increasingly worried about possible defections after 10 Republicans—a historic number—voted to impeach him in the House last week.

Employers cut 140,000 jobs last month, the first decline since the pandemic hit the country last spring, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate held steady at 6.7%, far below its April peak of 14.8%—a post-World War II high—but still almost twice its pre-pandemic level.

The December figures capped the worst year of job losses on record. The U.S. economy shed 9.4 million jobs last year, the most in any year since records began in 1939 and nearly double the 5 million lost during 2009, after the housing crash.

He employs 14 people, down from 30 before the pandemic. He has held off on hiring because he doesn’t know if his business can survive for long. “I put in more hours for myself,” instead of hiring another cook and a server, he said. “I don’t have a host. I’m doing most of the work being the host. I cannot afford extra employees.”

Congressional Democrats and progressive groups have urged President-elect Joe Biden to forgive most or all of the $1.6 trillion in federal student debt unilaterally in his first 100 days in office. They argue that existing law authorizes the executive branch to forgive student debt without any action from Congress.

Mr. Biden, a Democrat, has said he supports writing off $10,000 in student debt for every borrower as part of a package of measures to help households financially during the pandemic. About 43 million Americans owe $1.6 trillion in federal student loans.

Some congressional Democrats have urged Mr. Biden to forgive $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers.

The closely watched 5-year 5-year forward inflation swap rate for the euro area rose above 1.35% Tuesday, the highest in over a year. It continued to hover near that level Wednesday. The metric shows an average expectation for price increases over five years.

Forecasts for higher prices are playing out in the bond market. Germany’s 10-year break-even rate, or the difference in yield between its benchmark bond and a price level-linked bond, climbed above 1% for the first time since February.

The headline inflation rate stood at minus 0.3% in November, at which level it is expected to remain December.

The total for the week ended Jan. 9 also was the highest in nearly five months and put claims well above the roughly 800,000 a week they had averaged in recent months

The U.S. labor-market recovery stalled last month with the December jobs report showing the U.S. lost 140,000 payroll positions. The economic recovery’s slowdown has included weakness in household spending, though economists expect the economy to rebound later this year as a Covid-19 vaccine is distributed through the population.

Employers cut 140,000 jobs in December, marking the first decline since the pandemic hit last spring. The leisure and hospitality industry bore the brunt of the decline, shedding 498,000 jobs as a surge in coronavirus infections forced many restaurants and bars to close or scale back operations.

There are two ways for the federal government to address income inequality. One is to redistribute more money to people at the bottom of the income ladder. The other is to use the tools of fiscal and monetary policy to drive unemployment low enough to drive up demand and wages for those workers.

Mr. Biden proposed raising the child tax credit 50% to $3,000 or more for the year and making it refundable, meaning families who owe less tax than the credit would get a check for the difference. He would extend and boost enhanced weekly unemployment insurance benefits by $100 from the $300 in December’s stimulus package to $400. He would extend a 15% increase in food stamps through the summer, raise the maximum earned-income tax credit for childless adults by nearly $1,000 and extend it to more people.

Those steps, plus adding $1,400 to the $600-per-adult checks approved in December, would slash the poverty rate from 12.6% to 9%, or by more than 11 million people, according to an analysis by the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University. The number of children in poverty would drop by half, or 5 million.

Retail sales, a measure of purchases at stores, restaurants and online, declined a seasonally adjusted 0.7% in December from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday. That marked the third consecutive month of declines, and November’s retail sales were revised lower to a 1.4% drop, after a stretch of growth last spring and summer.

According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales rose 8.3% compared with the same period a year ago, exceeding the trade group’s estimate of a 3.6% to 5.2% increase. Home-improvement and online retailers posted big gains, while sales at apparel chains and department stores—which historically tend to do well during the season—continued to decline. Holiday sales exclude restaurants, gasoline and auto sales, and measure the year-over-year gains in the combined November-December period.

Recent private-sector data suggested a mixed start to this year. NPD Group, which tracks retailers, said Thursday that sales at retailers focused on items such as apparel and personal-care products increased 27% in the week ended Jan. 9—the largest increase in that category since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s tracker of 30 million credit and debit cardholders recorded a 2.7% decline in spending from a year earlier in the week through Jan. 11.

Dominic Barton, then head of management consultants McKinsey & Co. and now Canada’s ambassador to China, summed up the view shared by many of capitalism’s winners in a 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review: “Business leaders today face a choice: We can reform capitalism, or we can let capitalism be reformed for us.”

Even the Business Roundtable, the main U.S. corporate lobbying group, signed up for stakeholder capitalism, the idea of paying more attention to the needs of workers, local communities and the environment.

Indeed, not much has changed for the people who objected to capitalism’s rawer moments. More than 17 million Americans were thrown out of work when the pandemic hit, and unemployment remains above 10 million.

“Economists don’t always agree, but I think there is a consensus now: Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now—and long-term scarring of the economy later,” Ms. Yellen will say. “Over the next few months, we are going to need more aid to distribute the vaccine; to reopen schools; to help states keep firefighters and teachers on the job.”

Mr. Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, unveiled last week, provides for another round of direct stimulus payments, extended and enhanced jobless benefits, funding for schools and first responders and the creation of a nationwide vaccination program. It also includes longstanding Democratic priorities, such as raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and expanding paid leave for workers.

which at $21.6 trillion exceeds the annual output of the U.S. economy.