Pardon me, will you stay home?

Alex Connor, USA TODAY
·5 min read

There may be a secret scheme to obtain a presidential pardon. The world is far from reaching its climate goals. And we're answering your COVID-19 vaccine questions.

It's Alex. What's on your Spotify 2020 Wrapped? My No. 1 is Taylor Swift's "The 1."

But first, baby just say yes: Miss Swift debuted a snippet of her re-recorded 2008 single "Love Story" thanks to Ryan Reynolds. 🎶

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You really, really, really need to stay home for the holidays

Or at least that's how I imagine the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would have liked to phrase it. The agency is urging people not to travel for the coming winter holidays, a repeat of its guidance for Thanksgiving. For those who do decide to travel, the CDC is now recommending you get tested for COVID-19 before and after their trips. "Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase,'' said Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC's COVID-19 incident manager.

It appears we're in for a long, dark winter. The first day of December proved to be the most fatal since mid-April. According to Johns Hopkins data, 2,597 deaths were reported Tuesday — only 10 less than the record toll set April 15. And the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients nationwide stood on the brink of 100,000 Wednesday, an alarming statistic fueling enormous strain on the health care system and its brave but beleaguered workers.

  • CDC says recommended quarantine time after COVID-19 exposure may be shortened to seven or 10 days, down from 14.

Yellow dots mark the spots for proper social distancing as travelers line up to board an Amtrak train , Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in New York's Penn Station. Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged New Yorkers to just say no to Thanksgiving gatherings to help reduce COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, which he said are rising at a dangerous level.
Yellow dots mark the spots for proper social distancing as travelers line up to board an Amtrak train , Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in New York's Penn Station. Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged New Yorkers to just say no to Thanksgiving gatherings to help reduce COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, which he said are rising at a dangerous level.

It's happening!

The United Kingdom became the first western country to approve the widespread use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, the British government said Wednesday. The move makes the U.K. one of the first countries to begin vaccinating its population as it tries to curb Europe’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreak, with the first doses going to its most vulnerable.

What everyone’s talking about

The pardoning plot thickens

The Justice Department is reviewing possible evidence of a secret scheme to obtain presidential pardon in exchange for a "substantial political contribution." However, the heavily redacted records, made public Tuesday, did not identify possible suspects in the case. It did indicate that unnamed "senior White House officials" were the targets of the alleged plot. According to the 20-page filing, authorities are investigating an attempt to secure a pardon or a sentence reduction. President Donald Trump dismissed the investigation — conducted by his own administration — as “fake news” in a tweet Tuesday night.

UN report: Do better. ASAP 🌎

Five years since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the world is still far from meeting its climate goals. A report released Wednesday by the United Nations says the world isn't doing nearly enough to rein in fossil fuel production to the level that's needed to halt "catastrophic" levels of global warming. The report measures the gap between Paris Agreement goals and countries’ planned production of coal, oil and gas. Instead of reducing production, countries are planning and projecting an average annual increase of 2%, which by 2030 would result in more than double the production needed to reach the 1.5-degree Celsius limit

Trump formally withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement in November, but President-elect Joe Biden has said the U.S. would rejoin the accord on his first day in office.

  • "Past a point of no return": Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero still won't stop global warming, study says.

An oil refinery in Benicia, California.
An oil refinery in Benicia, California.

Real quick

Remembering the greats

It's the end of 2020 already, which means we're preparing USA TODAY's annual "Passages" feature, a tribute to icons we've lost this year. From John Lewis to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Chadwick Boseman to Kobe Bryant, the impact has been huge. And with nearly 300,000 of our friends and family having died of the coronavirus this year, the loss, immeasurable. Would you like to share your story or tribute, either of a public figure or of a loved one? Write it here and we may include it in print, online or in a future edition of The Short List.

A break from the news

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID-19, travel, vaccine, Trump, climate change: It's Wednesday's news