Good morning. We’re covering China’s latest vaccine push, and a look at the consequences of Agent Orange in Laos. |
 | | Waiting to receive the Sinovac vaccine in Hong Kong last month.Isaac Lawrence/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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Fast track to a visa: Taking China’s vaccines |
That rule may make the visa process difficult for people in countries like the U.S. and most nations in Europe, where no Chinese-made vaccines have been approved for use. |
The move puts diplomatic pressure on other countries to give regulatory approval to Chinese vaccines. Beijing has not allowed vaccines developed in other countries to be produced or administered in China. |
Details: The rules, which enable visitors to bypass strict requirements like a negative nucleic acid test, detailed health and travel records, and a government agency invitation, currently apply to visitors from Hong Kong, Britain, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and at least a dozen other countries. |
 | | A factory in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. Alex Plavevski/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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Coal vs. China’s climate ambitions |
Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, has promoted a vision for growth that does not include greenhouse gas emissions, but companies and regions dependent on fossil fuels aren’t making it easy. |
The goal is to move toward two signature commitments: Making sure that China’s carbon emissions peak before 2030, and reaching net carbon neutrality before 2060. |
The problem, in a word, is coal: It has fueled China’s industrial takeoff and made it the world’s top-polluting nation in recent decades. Powerful provinces, state-owned companies and industry groups say China still needs to use large amounts of coal for years to come. |
Paradoxes ahead: China’s new national energy plan promises to expand hydro, solar, wind and nuclear power, but also indicates that new coal-fired power stations would keep being built. The country’s annual carbon dioxide emissions are already roughly equal to the next three biggest emitters combined: the United States, the European Union and India. |
 | | President Vladimir Putin of Russia.Pool photo by Alexei Druzhinin |
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Putin ordered 2020 election meddling |
The report did not name Russia’s targets but seemed to refer to Rudolph Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, who relentlessly pushed allegations of corruption about Mr. Biden and his family. China considered similar efforts, but concluded that such an operation would fail, the report found. |
The U.S. intelligence community also determined that Iran attempted to aid Mr. Biden in the final days of the election by spreading emails that falsely claimed to be from the far-right group the Proud Boys. Unlike in 2016, there were no efforts by Russia or other countries to change actual ballots, the report found. |
 | | U.S. officials meet with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga for talks in Tokyo on Tuesday.Pool photo by Eugene Hoshiko |
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 | | Choi, 19, was born with a severe spinal deformity and a heart defect. He was sent to Vientiane, Laos’s capital, for examination, diagnosis and cardiac surgery.Christopher Anderson |
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America has never taken responsibility for spraying Agent Orange, an herbicide laced with one of the most toxic substances ever created, over Laos during the Vietnam War. But generations of ethnic minorities have endured the consequences. The Times Magazine looked at one of the last untold stories of the American war in Southeast Asia. |
More than a century of the Book Review |
- In 1905, shortly before the publication of “The House of Mirth,” a portrait of Edith Wharton became the first photograph to appear on the section’s cover.
- In 1926, after A.A. Milne introduced the world to Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, one young reader — Milne’s son, the original Christopher Robin — threatened “to take revenge upon his dad by writing poems about him.”
- In 1953, after the English publication of Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex,” which would go on to shape the modern women’s movement, a reviewer called it “a truly magnificent book, even if sometimes irritating to a mere male.”
- In 1988, after “Beloved” did not win the National Book Award, the Book Review published a statement in Toni Morrison’s defense, signed by 48 Black writers.
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 | | Con Poulos for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. |
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Samin Nosrat loves to use this recipe for Kuku Sabzi, a Persian herb frittata, for the contrast between its vivid herbaceous interior and its dark, sweet crust. It’s part of her collection of 10 essential Nowruz recipes. |
Thomas Dyja’s “New York, New York, New York” describes the city’s history over the past four decades, its revival in recent years, and the problems it will face in the future. |
See you next time. — Melina and Amelia |
P.S. Our correspondent Matina Stevis-Gridneff joined The Globalist to unpack the political drama surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine. |
The latest episode of “The Daily” is on U.S. conservatives divided over wind energy. |
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