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Good morning.

We’re overlaying what a Biden presidency means for Europe, how leaders the world over failed their residents and why thieves proceed to favor one 17-century Dutch portray.

After 4 years of a generally tumultuous trans-Atlantic relationship, the European Union is keen for “a political local weather change” and cooperation beneath President-elect Joe Biden. But when, as European leaders suspect, the incoming president finds himself consumed with home issues, the continent won’t put its own agenda on hold.

Governments and public well being organizations world wide responded slowly and ineffectually to the coronavirus outbreak, according to an interim report by a World Health Organization panel scheduled for launch in the present day.

Defective assumptions, ineffective planning and sluggish responses collectively helped gasoline a pandemic that has killed more than two million people and contaminated greater than 95 million. Repeatedly, the report concludes, those that had been chargeable for defending and main typically did neither.

Investigators mentioned they didn’t perceive why the W.H.O. had waited till Jan. 30 to declare a world well being emergency, nor why these clear warning alerts had been typically ignored.

Quote: “We’ve failed in our collective capability to return collectively in solidarity to create a protecting internet of human safety,” the Unbiased Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response wrote.

Listed below are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.

In different developments:

A video exhibiting chaos in a Covid ward at a hospital in El Husseineya, Egypt, went viral on social media this month, drawing outrage throughout the nation. The footage, filmed by Ahmed Nafei, a relative of one of many 4 sufferers who died in a single evening, appeared to point out that the hospital had run out of oxygen. The federal government rushed to disclaim the episode.

By speaking to witnesses and analyzing the footage, our investigative reporters discovered that the oxygen shortage was the result of an avalanche of problems on the hospital. By the point sufferers had been suffocating within the intensive care unit, a reduction supply of oxygen that had been ordered was already hours late and a backup oxygen system had failed.

Quote: “The entire world can admit there’s an issue, however not us,” one physician on the hospital mentioned.

In August, “Two Laughing Boys With a Mug of Beer,” a 17th-century painting by Frans Hals, vanished for the third time since 1988. Conservatively valued at greater than $10 million, the work is ordinarily housed at a tiny Dutch museum and has develop into a magnet for burglars.

Does its brushwork include some clue to hidden treasure or a secret code? Might or not it’s coveted by some cult that worships Hals, or maybe beer? The reply, consultants say, might be extra pedestrian: “They know they will get cash out of it from any individual,” mentioned the founding father of Artwork Restoration Worldwide.

Aleksei Navalny: A decide ordered the Russian opposition leader to be jailed for 30 days pending a trial. Mr. Navalny was arrested late Sunday upon his arrival in Moscow from Germany, the place he was recovering from a nerve-agent assault.

China: As most nations world wide battle with new lockdowns and layoffs in the course of the pandemic, China’s economy has bounced back after the country brought the coronavirus mostly under control.

Snapshot: Above, the previous champion rock climber Lai Chi-wai climbing a Hong Kong skyscraper on Saturday. Over the course of 10 hours, Mr. Lai climbed 800 ft up the glass facade of the 1,050-foot Nina Tower, elevating $735,000 to fund analysis on a robotic exoskeleton for sufferers with spinal twine accidents.

NASCAR goes digital: When the pandemic shut down motorsports, the trade turned to simulated racing. Ten months in, the gamble seems to be paying off.

Courthouse drama: Black artists and activists in Birmingham, England, say the town’s largest playhouse, the Birmingham Repertory Theater, has bought out by leasing its auditoriums to the criminal justice system.

What we’re studying: This long read from The Financial Times on how lockdown brought about a creativity disaster. It’s a robust reminder of the worth of serendipity and spontaneity.

Cook dinner: Loosely impressed by spanakopita, the basic Greek spinach and feta pie, this cozy baked pasta is likely to be the tastiest solution to eat your greens.

Pay attention: Take a spin down reminiscence lane with the rapper MF Doom’s 1999 debut report, “Operation: Doomsday.” Our critic calls it “one of the idiosyncratic hip-hop albums of the Nineties.”

Declutter: Embrace the instant, exhilarating relief of the Annoying Bag. Put in junk that’s getting in your nerves, then take it out to the trash.

Don’t lose coronary heart. At Home has our full collection of ideas on what to learn, cook dinner, watch and do whereas staying secure at house.

How do you mark essentially the most important occasions when the information is already so relentlessly exceptional? At The New York Instances, a method is to make the headlines very large.

A banner headline is often one which stretches throughout a newspaper’s entrance web page or web site. It makes use of jumbo letters and daring sort to convey the magnitude of a information merchandise, pushing different articles out of its method.

There have been lots of banner headlines on the entrance pages of The Instances this winter — excess of ordinary, based on Tom Jolly, the newspaper’s print editor.

“It’s exceptional,” he mentioned. “It’s undoubtedly a mirrored image of our world, and all the key information occasions which have made 2020 so memorable — and are making 2021 memorable, too.”

An “occasion headline” is even bolder than a banner. The only phrase topping the print newspaper on Jan. 14 — “Impeached” — was mentioned by a number of high Instances editors in conversations that went late into the evening, Tom mentioned.

Although such headlines are sometimes reserved for presidential election outcomes, that is a rare time. Over the previous three months, this ultra-dramatic structure has already been used 3 times. And counting.

Listed below are among the massive headlines:

When former Vice President Joe Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, the fog of a too-close-to-call election started to carry.

After President Trump falsely claimed that widespread voter fraud had stolen victory from him, The Instances known as election officers in each state.

And two days after the siege by Mr. Trump’s supporters on the Capitol, Democrats laid the groundwork to impeach the president for the second time.

That’s it for in the present day. See you tomorrow, with the most recent from The Instances.

— Natasha

Thanks
Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh supplied the break from the information. You’ll be able to attain Natasha and the crew at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.
• There’s no new episode of “The Every day” whereas we rejoice Martin Luther King’s birthday. As an alternative, we suggest The Sunday Read on how a gaggle of local weather activists determined to struggle world warming by doing no matter it takes.
• Right here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: “Later!” (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The phrase “legendness” — right here referring to the figure skating champion Dick Button — appeared for the primary time in The Instances yesterday, as famous by the Twitter bot @NYT_first_said.

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