| By Dan Donahue, NBC Nightly News |
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| Good Monday afternoon. Al Roker is tracking the monster snowstorm blasting the Northeast, coronavirus variants have now been found in 33 states, and we have an NBC News Exclusive interview with new Secretary of State Tony Blinken. |
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| Here is what’s in our Nightly Rundown. |
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Biggest snowstorm in years slams Northeast |
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| A potentially historic winter storm is blasting the Northeast at this hour, threatening to bring over a foot of snow to millions of Americans. |
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| Some 70 million people across 17 states, up and down the East Coast, are under winter alerts for this long-duration, powerful nor’easter. |
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| Officials are warning residents to stay off the roads as the storm brings whiteout conditions along the I-95 corridor. |
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Here are the current impacts: |
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- New York City: 13-18 inches, with locally higher amounts possible. Snow potentially turning into sleet this evening. Wind gusts up to 40 mph. The storm is the biggest to hit the city since 2016.
- Boston: 5-10 inches. Heavy snowfall this afternoon, with possible thundersnow. Snow changes to rain tonight. Wind gusts up to 40 mph. Precipitation ends late tomorrow.
- Philadelphia: 6-12 inches. Snow mixing with sleet and freezing today. Wind gusts up to 35 mph. Precipitation ends late tomorrow night, into Wednesday morning.
- Washington, D.C.: 2-4 inches. Precipitation ends late tonight.
- Chicago: Received 10.8 inches, the first double digit snowstorm since 2015.
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| Al Roker will have the newest track as we come on the air. |
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| New York under state of emergency amid first major snowstorm of 2021 |
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Monster storm complicating Covid vaccination efforts |
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| The massive nor’easter is also disrupting public health efforts to vaccinate people against Covid along the Northeast corridor. |
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| In Boston, Fenway Park officially opened as a mass vaccination site today, but the storm forced the stadium to adjust its hours. |
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| In New York City, all city-run Covid vaccination and testing sites are closed down for the day. |
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| Vaccinations at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, where the Giants and the Jets play, were canceled. |
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| In Pennsylvania, state-run testing centers in Armstrong, Cumberland, Jefferson, Monroe and Wayne Counties were also closed due to snowfall. |
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| The disruption comes just as the White House Covid Task Force says the pace of Covid vaccinations is picking up. |
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| The seven-day average is snow 1.3 million doses administered a day, according to Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the task force. |
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| Of the nearly 50 million doses of vaccine distributed around the U.S. so far, 31.1 million have been administered as of Sunday, according to the CDC. |
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New Covid cases and hospitalizations down, but variants spreading |
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| After suffering through the deadliest month of the pandemic, with more than 90,000 lives lost in January, the U.S. is seeing a decline in new Covid cases and hospitalization. |
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| But highly contagious coronavirus variants continue to spread across the country, threatening to cause yet another surge. |
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| There are now 467 cases of the U.K. variant across 33 states, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said today at the White House Covid Task Force briefing. |
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| Over the weekend, Maryland became the second state to confirm a case of the South Africa variant, which may be more resistant to vaccines. |
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| South Carolina was the first state to detect the South Africa strain in the U.S., reporting two cases last week. |
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| Another variant from Brazil has been detected in just one state so far, Minnesota. |
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| Dr. Anthony Fauci reiterated at today’s briefing that the U.S. must vaccinate as many people as possible to stop the variants. “Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate,” Fauci said. |
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| Visit our map tracking where the South African, U.K. and Brazilian variants have been found in the U.S. |
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- The U.S. has reported some 26.3 million cases and roughly 443,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to our NBC News tally.
- The White House Covid Task Force announced the first over-the-counter, at-home Covid test will soon be available. The test, manufactured by Ellume USA, is said to be roughly 95 percent accurate, and work in 15 minutes.
- The new CDC rules requiring masks on airplanes, and on public transportation like buses and subways, go into effect just before midnight tonight.
- “Captain Tom” Moore, the 100-year-old WWII veteran who raised millions for Britain's National Health Service by walking laps around his garden, is hospitalized after testing positive for Covid.
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Biden to meet with Senate Republicans on Covid rescue |
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| President Biden will welcome a group of Republican senators to the White House this evening, as they try to find common ground on another Covid relief package for the American people. |
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| Biden’s $1.9 trillion proposal includes $1,400 stimulus checks, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, and $350 billion in state and local aid. |
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| Over the weekend, 10 Republican Senators, who include Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, sent Biden a letter with their own proposal. |
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| The GOP plan comes with a much smaller $618 billion price tag, and would reduce the size of the stimulus checks to $1,000. It does not include a provision to raise the minimum wage, or aid to state and local governments. |
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| The negotiations between the White House and Senate Republicans will be a major test of Biden’s calls for unity. |
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| Biden has repeatedly spoken of his desire for a bipartisan approach to Covid relief, but he has not ruled out passing his plan through budget reconciliation, which would only require a simple majority in the Senate. |
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Myanmar’s civilian leader urges people to resist military coup |
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| Myanmar is now under the control of the country’s military, after the army staged a takeover of the government early this morning. |
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| Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s civilian government, urged people across the country to resist the power grab. |
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| “I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military,” according to a statement that included Suu Kyi's name, but not her signature. |
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| Suu Kyi and other civilian officials have been detained, just before legislators who were elected in November were set to begin a new parliamentary term. |
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| Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, or NLD, won 83 percent of the vote in the November election. |
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| The country's election commission has rejected allegations of impropriety, but the military said it seized control in response to “election fraud.” |
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| Military's leader Min Aung-Hlaing will now head the government, according to Myawaddy TV, which is controlled by the army. |
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| President Biden called the military takeover a “direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law,” in a statement. |
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| “The United States will stand up for democracy wherever it is under attack,” Biden added. |
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GameStop stock falls as Dow Jones rebounds |
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| GameStop shares fell over 31 percent today and were briefly halted, while the Dow climbed nearly 230 points, rebounding after the market’s worst weekly sell-off since October. |
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| GameStop stock had surged a staggering 1,625 percent in January, fueled by online investors who handed major losses to hedge funds that shorted the stock, betting that its price would fall. |
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| Robinhood, the popular no-fee trading app, said today it raised another $2.4 billion from investors as it rides out the market volatility. |
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| Robinhood was criticized last week when it placed limits on how much GameStop stock their customers, mostly young and amateur investors, could trade. |
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What else we’re watching: |
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- Police in Rochester, New York, have released body cam video showing police pepper spraying a 9-year-old girl while responding to a report of “family trouble.”
- “Westworld” star Evan Rachel Wood has publicly accused musician Marilyn Manson of having “horrifically abused me for years.”
- The family of legendary singer Tony Bennett revealed that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016.
- Actor Dustin Diamond, best known for portraying Screech on “Saved by the Bell,” has died weeks after he was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Diamond was 44.
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| Watch us this evening at 6:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. CT on NBC, or check your local NBC station listing. After the broadcast, access Nightly News video on NBCNightlyNews.com or the NBC News app. |
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