to a lockdown on eve of runoffs britain returns …

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China’s iron-fist tactics to tame the coronavirus have led to an unlikely result: freedom. Page B1.Normal, in an Upside Down World

LONDON — Prime MinisterBoris Johnson imposed a strictnew national lockdown on Mon-day as Britain’s desperate race tovaccinate its population risked be-ing overtaken by a fast-spreadingvariant of the coronavirus thatwas on track to overwhelm the na-tion’s beleaguered hospitals.

After several days of frighten-ingly high and escalating casenumbers, Mr. Johnson orderedschools and colleges in England toclose their doors and shift to re-mote learning. He appealed toBritons to stay at home for all buta few necessary purposes, includ-ing essential work and buyingfood and medicine.

The nationwide restrictions, of-ficials warned, will remain inplace until at least the middle ofFebruary.

The decision was a fresh set-back for Mr. Johnson, coming at atime when the arrival of two vac-cines appeared to provide a routeout of the crisis after nine fraughtmonths and fierce criticism of hishandling of the pandemic.

On the day that the first doses ofa vaccine developed by As-traZeneca and the University ofOxford were administered, thegood news was drowned out bythe reintroduction of the type ofsweeping restrictions used lastspring when the pandemic firstthreatened to run out of control.

In recent weeks, the new, highlytransmissible variant of the virushas taken hold in London andsoutheast England, prompting analarming spike in case numbers,to close to 60,000 a day, andputting hospitals under acutepressure.

On Sunday, Mr. Johnson ac-

Virus Surging,Britain ReturnsTo a Lockdown

Stringent and SweepingLimits Into February

Continued on Page A5

By STEPHEN CASTLEand MARK LANDLER

ATLANTA — On the eve ofGeorgia’s high-stakes Senate run-offs, a top state election official onMonday delivered a stinging con-demnation of President Trumpover his false claims of voterfraud, and issued an emotional ap-peal to Georgians to ignore thepresident’s disinformation andcast their ballots on Tuesday in arace that will determine control ofthe Senate.

The official, Gabriel Sterling,ticked off a point-by-point rebuttalof Mr. Trump’s grievances abouthis loss in Georgia to Joseph R. Bi-den Jr., which the president airedmost recently over the weekend ina phone call with Secretary ofState Brad Raffensperger, a fellowRepublican. Mr. Trump pressuredMr. Raffensperger during the con-versation to “find” votes to over-turn his general election loss.

“I wanted to scream,” Mr. Ster-ling said at an afternoon newsconference, referring to his reac-tion to the call between Mr. Trumpand Mr. Raffensperger. Mr. Ster-ling, the state’s voting system im-plementation manager, said thepresident’s allegations of fraudhad been “thoroughly debunked.”

“I personally found it to besomething that was not normal,out of place, and nobody I knowwho would be president would dosomething like that to a secretaryof state.”

His sharp rebuke offered themost vivid example of how Mr.Trump’s sustained assault onGeorgia’s voting integrity hasroiled the state’s politics ahead ofTuesday’s runoffs. Even as Mr.Trump prepared to campaign inNorthwest Georgia on Mondaynight for the two Republican in-cumbents, Kelly Loeffler and Da-vid Perdue, party officials worriedthat his unfounded claims of arigged election would depressturnout among their base.

The president and Mr. Bidenwere making last-ditch efforts tosway the outcome of the two run-off races that decide not just whichparty will control the Senate butthe arc of Mr. Biden’s first-termpolicy agenda. If the two Demo-cratic challengers, Jon Ossoff andthe Rev. Raphael Warnock, both

GEORGIA OFFICIALDENOUNCES TRUMP ON EVE OF RUNOFFS

Republican ‘Wantedto Scream’ When

He Heard Call

This article is by Richard Fausset,Rick Rojas and Maggie Astor.


WASHINGTON — PresidentTrump’s relentless effort to over-turn the result of the electionthat he lost has become the mostserious stress test of Americandemocracy in generations, oneled not by outside revolutionariesintent on bringing down thesystem but by the very leadercharged with defending it.

In the 220 years since a de-feated John Adams turned overthe White House to his rival,firmly establishing the peacefultransfer of authority as a bed-rock principle, no sitting presi-dent who lost an election hastried to hang onto power byrejecting the Electoral Collegeand subverting the will of thevoters — until now. It is a sce-nario at once utterly unthinkableand yet feared since the begin-ning of Mr. Trump’s tenure.

The president has gone wellbeyond simply venting his griev-ances or creating a face-savingnarrative to explain away a loss,as advisers privately suggestedhe was doing in the days afterthe Nov. 3 vote. Instead, he hasstretched or crossed the bound-aries of tradition, propriety andperhaps the law to find any wayhe can to cling to office beyondhis term that expires in twoweeks. That he is almost certainto fail and that President-electJoseph R. Biden Jr. will be inau-gurated on Jan. 20 does notmitigate the damage he is doingto democracy by underminingpublic faith in the electoral sys-tem.

Mr. Trump’s hourlong tele-phone call over the weekend withGeorgia’s chief election official,Brad Raffensperger, pressuringhim to “find” enough votes tooverturn Mr. Biden’s victory inthat state only brought into starkrelief what the president hasbeen doing for weeks. He hascalled the Republican governorsof Georgia and Arizona to getthem to intervene. He has sum-moned Michigan’s RepublicanLegislature leaders to the WhiteHouse to pressure them tochange their state’s results. Hecalled the Republican speaker ofthe Pennsylvania House multipletimes seeking help to reverse the

NEWS ANALYSIS

An Insurgency Ledby the Oval Office

By PETER BAKER


SHOWDOWN G.O.P. leaders fear a move by Senator Josh Hawley willcleave the party and bring a bloody fight over its future. PAGE A15

CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Scenes in Georgia before Tuesday’s elections to determine Senate control. Senator Kelly Loeffler isfacing the Rev. Raphael Warnock, while Senator David Perdue is being challenged by Jon Ossoff.

NICOLE CRAINE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMESCHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

DUSTIN CHAMBERS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES AUDRA MELTON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

The sharp drop in visitors since thepandemic pressed a small community inChianti to cling to the essentials. PAGE A7

A Taste of Old TuscanyA. J. Edelman, despite knowing his newsport’s risk to his brain, is trying toreturn to the Olympics. PAGE B8

In the Bobsled for Israel

The oil-rich country is running out ofmoney, which could destabilize it andempower its old rival, Iran. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL A6-9

Economic Crisis Threatens IraqThe Jaguars and the Chargers issueddismissals, joining the Jets, on a quieter-than-usual Black Monday. PAGE B9

SPORTSTUESDAY B7-10

2 More N.F.L. Coaches FiredLinda Zall toiled anonymously insidethe C.I.A. to help scientists intensifystudies of a changing planet. PAGE D1

SCIENCE TIMES D1-8

A Spy for Planet EarthThe secret creation of the union followsincreasing demands for policy over-hauls and is likely to escalate tensionswith top leadership. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Google Employees UnionizeCritics say a so-called transparencyplan is designed to derail new publichealth protections by limiting whatresearch the agency can use. PAGE A16

NATIONAL A10-16

E.P.A. Move Is Blow to Science

A new look for the South Carolina statetree on its flag has drawn complaintsthat it looks like a toilet brush. PAGE A10

Scrubbing a Palmetto Design

Helena Zenge, 12, was chosen to play arole alongside Tom Hanks in a new film.She had never heard of him. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

Too Young to Be Star-Struck

In his new book, Adam Jentleson ex-plains why the Senate is where ambi-tious legislation goes to die. PAGE C1

Fed Up With FilibustersThe police say an “admitted conspiracytheorist” believed the Moderna vaccinewould harm people. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-5

Pharmacist Sabotaged Shots

A proposal to attack “problem sharks”has upset scientists who dispute theidea of their existence. PAGE D3

Taking Aim at a Predator

Michelle Goldberg PAGE A18

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A18-19

With his presidential inaugura-tion just weeks away, Joseph R. Bi-den Jr. is confronting an economiccrisis that is utterly unparalleledand yet eerily familiar.

Millions of Americans are out ofwork, small businesses are strug-gling to survive, hunger is ramp-ant, and people across the countryfear being kicked out of theirhomes. The moment was simi-larly perilous exactly 12 yearsago, when Mr. Biden was the vicepresident-elect and preparing totake office.

“I remember the utter terror,”said Cecilia Rouse, who was an

economic adviser in the ObamaWhite House and has been chosento lead Mr. Biden’s Council of Eco-nomic Advisers.

The $900 billion pandemic reliefplan that moderate lawmakerspowered through Congress lastmonth provides the incoming ad-ministration with some breathingroom. This second tier of aid willdeliver $600 stimulus checks, as-

sist small businesses and extendfederal unemployment benefitsthrough mid-March.

But as Mr. Biden has madeclear, it is simply a “down pay-ment” — a brief bridge to getthrough a dark winter and notnearly enough to restore the econ-omy’s health.

Roughly 19 million people arereceiving some type of unemploy-ment benefit, and many businessowners wonder whether they willbe able to survive the year. The co-ronavirus crisis has worsenedlongstanding inequalities, withworkers at the lower end of the in-come spectrum — who are dispro-portionately Black and Hispanic

$900 Billion in Aid Won’t Buy Biden Much TimeBy PATRICIA COHEN Better Signs, but More

Resistance, Than in2009 Recession


ALBANY, N.Y. — New York, theonetime center of the pandemic,faced a growing crisis on Mondayover the lagging pace of coronavi-rus vaccinations, as deaths con-tinued to rise in the second waveand Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo cameunder mounting pressure to over-haul the process.

The small number of vaccine re-cipients is particularly striking inNew York City, where roughly110,000 people — in a city of morethan eight million — have re-ceived the first of two doses neces-sary to help prevent serious casesof the disease. That is about aquarter of the total number ofdoses received by the city.

The concern over vaccinationsin New York echoes problems re-ported during a sluggish rolloutacross the nation, and comes as aman in his 60s became the state’sfirst confirmed case of a more con-tagious variant of the virus. Theman was recovering, but Mr.Cuomo said early indicationswere that the case — in the north-ern city of Saratoga Springs —was evidence of communityspread.

“I think it is much more wide-spread than people know,” Mr.Cuomo said.

The confirmation of the variantin New York could complicate theplanned inoculation of some 19.5million residents, with criticismbeginning to mount over the roll-out. On Monday, Mayor Bill de

New York LagsIn VaccinationsWhile Toll RisesThis article is by Jesse McKinley,

Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Emma G.Fitzsimmons.


WASHINGTON — Republicandivisions deepened on Mondayover an effort to overturn Presi-dent-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’svictory, as lawmakers weighedtheir fear of alienating PresidentTrump and his supporters againstthe consequences of voting to re-ject a democratic election.

With a Wednesday vote loom-ing on whether to certify the elec-tion results, the last-ditch bid todeny Mr. Biden the presidencyhas unleashed open warfareamong Republicans, leaving themscrambling to stake out a defensi-ble stance on a test that carriesheavy repercussions for their ca-reers and their party.

On Monday, as Mr. Trump

ratcheted up his demands for Re-publicans to try to block Mr. Bi-den’s election, elder statesmen ofthe party and some rank-and-filelawmakers rushed to provide po-litical cover for those disinclinedto go along.

In the House, seven Republi-cans, some of whom are part of theconservative Freedom Caucus,which normally aligns with Mr.Trump, released a statement ar-guing at length against the effort.

“The text of the Constitution isclear,” the lawmakers, led by Rep-resentative Chip Roy of Texas,wrote. “States select electors.Congress does not. Accordingly,our path forward is also clear. We

Seeking Cover to Defy TrumpAs Warfare Rages in the G.O.P.

By CATIE EDMONDSON and EMILY COCHRANE


EXECUTIVES’ PUSH More than 170 business leaders signed a letterurging Congress to certify the Electoral College vote. PAGE B3

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . No. 58,929 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, TUESDAY, JANUARY 5, 2021

Today, partly cloudy skies, spottyrain or snow showers, high 41. To-night, partly cloudy, low 33. Tomor-row, clouds and sunshine, high 41.Weather map appears on Page B10.

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to a lockdown on eve of runoffs britain returns …

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