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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.

All of the things you need to know now from the editors of TIME

(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.

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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.