| | | | | | | Presented By Facebook | | | | Axios AM | | By Mike Allen ·Dec 26, 2020 | | Happy Saturday and happy Kwanzaa! - Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,181 words ... 4½ minutes.
| | | | | | 1 big thing ... Job 1 for '21: Vaccinate the world |  | | | Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios | | | | If you're reading this in Europe, the U.S. or one of several other wealthy countries, you will probably have access to a vaccine in 2021, Axios World author Dave Lawler writes. - But if you're in a lower-income country, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, you could be waiting until 2023.
The first vaccines to gain regulatory approval in the West — from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna — are bound almost exclusively for wealthy countries, at least in the near term. - Many rich countries have hedged their bets by buying enough doses of several different vaccine candidates to cover their populations even if some candidates aren't approved.
- If you combine doses purchased and reserved, the U.S. has dibs on nearly one-quarter of the global supply, with 2.6 billion doses, according to a Duke tracker.
The Economist Intelligence Unit projects that the most fortunate countries — including the U.S., U.K., EU and Japan — will spend the first half of 2021 vaccinating priority groups and the second half of the year vaccinating the remainder of their populations. - In other high-income countries — as well as in countries like China, Brazil, India and Russia that are producing or manufacturing vaccines at scale — mass vaccinations will begin next year but likely continue into early 2022.
What to watch: President-elect Biden has said he'll re-engage with the World Health Organization and restore America's global leadership, but he hasn't spoken about a U.S. role in global vaccine distribution. |     | | | | | | 2. Trump's real deadline | | Marine One departs the South Lawn on Wednesday. Photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Expanded unemployment benefits will lapse for millions of struggling Americans if President Trump doesn't sign the stimulus bill today, the N.Y. Times' Alan Rappeport reports (subscription): - "States cannot pay out benefits for weeks that begin before the bill is signed, meaning that if the president does not sign the bill [today], benefits will not restart until the first week of January. But they will still end in mid-March, effectively trimming the extension to 10 weeks from 11."
The backdrop: Stark pleas ... Teachers, counselors and social workers tell Alice's Kids in Mount Vernon, Va., what kids need this year, the WashPost reports: - "A high school student with aspirations of attending college needed help paying for a digital textbook."
- "A girl who loves to jump rope ... owned only a pair of sandals needed new shoes."
- "A 6-year-old whose mother fled domestic violence needed more-challenging books.
- "A printer. A folding table. Winter clothes that fit."
🍽️ How you can help: Axios gives to Feeding America, which has a "Find a Food Bank" feature that makes it easy to help your neighbors. | | | | | | | | 3. 🎸 Music City mystery | | Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP Nashville Mayor John Cooper said the explosion of an R.V. parked downtown on Christmas morning was "a deliberate bomb," but the motive remains a mystery: - "This morning's attack on our community was intended to create chaos and fear in this season of peace and hope," the mayor said at a dinnertime briefing.
The mayor saluted six police officers who were on the scene at the time of the blast. They had answered a pre-dawn "shots fired" call, only to discover an R.V. blaring a warning — in a woman's voice, authorities believe — to evacuate. - "These incredible heroes — who ran to danger, with uncertain outcomes ahead of them — were responsible for so many injuries being saved," Cooper said.
- "This is a YEAR where we understand what first responders mean to our community, time and time again."
The Tennessean Police Chief John Drake said the city received no threats: "When I was briefed this morning, I thought maybe it was gonna be a propane explosion from an RV." ⚡ Latest update. | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | It's time to update internet regulations | | |  | | | | The internet has changed a lot in 25 years. But the last time comprehensive internet regulations were passed was in 1996. We want updated internet regulations to set clear guidelines for addressing today's toughest challenges. Learn More | | | | | | 4. 🕯️ Email from Boston: A Christmas of simple pleasures | | A caravan of firefighters in St. Lucie County, Fla., brought joy yesterday to Fort Pierce families in need. Photo: Eric Hasert/Treasure Coast Newspapers via Reuters Axios' Glen Johnson sends this dispatch for the 2020 time capsule: On our family calls today, a lot of consistent commentary about how this Christmas has been more like a Thanksgiving — simple, not a lot of parties, focus on family. People have been stressed but not exhausted by company and personal parties. They can't congregate in big groups, so have taken a little risk to be in the barest essential family unit. We opened presents today and focused on what each person got. We called relatives and shared thanks for our respective health. And we reveled in the simplest pleasure of just being together. The highlight for our family? A simple toast to being with each other on Christmas Eve. Everyone had their drink of choice in hand and raised them to being with one another. | | | | | | | | 5. Retailers expect DOUBLE last year's returns | | Christmas Eve on Second Avenue. Photo: Anthony Behar/Sipa USA via Reuters Shoppers are expected to return twice as many items as they did during last year's holidays, costing companies roughly $1.1 billion, AP writes from Narvar, a software company that manages online returns for hundreds of brands. - Why it matters: Retailers don't want the returns, but they do want shoppers who may not feel safe going to stores to be comfortable buying things they haven't seen or tried on in person.
What's new: Many companies are offering more locations where customers can drop off returns, which cuts down shipping costs and gets refunds to shoppers more quickly. - Kohl's last year began allowing Amazon returns at its 1,000 stores — customers drop off items for free, with no box or label needed.
- This year, Amazon customers can also return items at 500 Whole Foods Market stores. That's in addition to Amazon's deal with UPS to allow similar drop-offs at UPS stores.
| | | | | | | | 6. American decoupling: Biden counties = 70% of nation's economy | Graphic: Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program President-elect Biden won just over 500 counties, encompassing 71% of America's economic activity. President Trump won more many more counties — more than 2,500 — but they represent just 29% of the economy, the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program calculates. Why it matters: The nation's economic geography is getting even more rigidly divided, Brookings Metro writes. - "Biden captured virtually all of the counties with the biggest economies in the country (depicted by the largest blue tiles in the ... graphic), including flipping the few that Clinton did not win in 2016."
| | | | | | | | 7. Christmas warning: Deepfake Queen | | Channel 4 in Britain posted a deepfake version of Queen Elizabeth's festive message, with Her Majesty talking slyly about trusting our screens — and busting into a TikTok dance. "You'll have to move that camera back," she said. - Why it matters: "Channel 4 said the broadcast was intended to give a 'stark warning' about the threat of fake news," The Guardian reports.
🎥 See the video. ... How they did it. Hat tip: Ina Fried | | | | | | | | 8 . 1 slope thing: When skiing becomes an uphill sport | | Mountaineers ski to the Vallée Blanche, a glacial valley in the Mont Blanc massif, from the Aiguille du Midi peak in Chamonix, France. Photo Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images With ski lifts closed in France for hygiene, powderhounds have taken to ski touring — ascending the mountain using nylon skins attached to their skis, then detaching them to ski down, Pete Kiehart reports for the N.Y. Times (subscription). - It can take four times as long to go up as it does to ski down.
Why French lifts are closed until at least Jan. 7: - "When you go out skiing in the cold, the first thing that happens is your nose starts to run," Miles Bright, an English mountain guide based in Chamonix, France, told The Times. "And what do you do? You wipe your nose" on your gloves. Then your gloves touch the lift.
Seth Thomas Pietras, a 40-year-old corporate affairs director who lives in Chamonix, said: "Lifts help us, but they don't limit us." | | | | | | | | A message from Facebook | | Internet regulations need an update | | |  | | | | It's been 25 years since lawmakers passed comprehensive internet regulations. But a lot has changed since 1996. We want updated regulations to set clear guidelines for protecting people's privacy, enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms and more. Learn More | | | | 📬 Thanks for starting your weekend with us. Please invite your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM. | |
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