Tag Archives: 2020 in review

Politico reports: The U.S. death rate increased by 15 percent last year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the deadliest year in recorded U.S. history, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention will announce, according to two senior administration officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The agency will summarize its findings in an upcoming issue of …

The Victor Harbor Times reports: Sydney has largely banned crowds for its world-renowned pyrotechnic display, while Melbourne’s fireworks are cancelled. NSW restrictions were tightened further on Wednesday as the state battles to control its growing outbreak. Residents in Greater Sydney, including Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains, will be restricted to hosting five visitors in their homes, including children. And …

The Hill reports: Former first lady Michelle Obama was named the most admired woman in the U.S. for the third consecutive year according to Gallup polling released Tuesday. Ten percent of Americans named Obama as their most-admired woman, followed by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman elected to the office, with 6 percent. First lady Melania Trump received 4 …

The Associated Press reports: This is the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time — due mainly to the coronavirus pandemic. Final mortality data for this year will not be available for months. But preliminary numbers suggest that the United States is on track to see more than 3.2 million deaths …

NPR reports: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris defeated Donald Trump twice this year: Once at the polls and again for Time’s ‘Person of the Year.’ Time’s choice to name Biden and Harris over Trump, who was also shortlisted, marks the first time a president-elect and vice president-elect have appeared together on a Person of the Year cover. Harris is also …

The Associated Press reports: A plea from Dr. Anthony Fauci for people to “wear a mask” to slow the spread of the coronavirus tops a Yale Law School librarian’s list of the most notable quotes of 2020. The list assembled by Fred Shapiro, an associate director at the library, is an annual update to “The Yale Book of Quotations,” which …

Axios reports: Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, told AP that after the World Health Organization declared on March 11 the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic, searches for the word on Merriam-Webster.com were 115,806% higher than for the same period in 2019. Runners up for word of the year based on lookup surges related to the pandemic were …

Entertainment Tonight reports: Beyoncé is the 2021 GRAMMY Awards most nominated artist with nine nominations. Even more impressively, the singer pulled out front this year without even releasing an album. Instead, Queen Bey is being recognized in major categories — including Song of the Year and Record of the Year — for her Black Lives Matter anthem, “Black Parade” and …

Variety reports: YouTube will not produce its annual YouTube Rewind celebratory recap video this year — with the video giant saying it doesn’t feel appropriate, given the chaos of 2020. YouTube announced the decision to scrap Rewind in a statement on Twitter. “Since 2010, we’ve ended the year with Rewind: a look back at the year’s most impactful creators, videos …

The Guardian reports: Lockdown, the noun that has come to define so many lives across the world in 2020, has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionary. Lockdown is defined by Collins as “the imposition of stringent restrictions on travel, social interaction, and access to public spaces”, and its usage has boomed over the last year. Other pandemic-related …