AP News in Brief at 6:02 p.m. EST

Vaccine comes too late for the 300,000 US dead

When Brittany Palomo was hired as a nurse in March, her parents tried to talk her out of it, fearful of the fast-spreading coronavirus. All the more reason, she told them, to start the career that had been her long-held dream.

The pandemic, though, is a nightmare -- one that has now claimed 300,000 lives in the U.S. and counting.

“Wake up, my little girl, wake up!” Palomo's mother, Maria Palomo Salinas, screamed, her grief echoing through a Harlingen, Texas, hospital, when her daughter died of COVID-19 complications around 2 a.m. on a Saturday in late November.

Palomo was 27 and, as a health care worker, was probably weeks away from getting the new vaccine that could have protected her from the virus. Instead, she became yet another victim of the relentless outbreak whose U.S. toll is accelerating as it eclipses another round-number mark.

“The numbers are staggering -- the most impactful respiratory pandemic that we have experienced in over 102 years, since the iconic 1918 Spanish flu,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said days before the U.S. reached the milestone.

___

Biden clears 270-vote mark as electors affirm his victory

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Electoral College gave Joe Biden a majority of its votes Monday, confirming his victory in last month's election in state-by-state voting that took on added importance this year because of President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede he lost.

California's 55 electoral votes put Biden over the top, clearing the 270-vote mark that affirmed he will be the nation's next president.

Heightened security was in place in some states as electors met on the day by federal law. Electors cast paper ballots in gatherings that took place in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with masks, social distancing and other virus precautions the order of the day. The results will be sent to Washington and tallied in a Jan. 6 joint session of Congress over which Vice President Mike Pence will preside.

There was little suspense and no surprises as all the electoral votes allocated to Biden and Trump in last month's popular vote went to each man.

In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the six battleground states that Biden won and Trump contested — electors gave Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris their votes Monday in low-key proceedings. Nevada’s electors met via Zoom because of the coronavirus pandemic.

___

Trump says Barr resigning, will leave before Christmas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is resigning amid lingering tension with the president over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son.

Barr went Monday to the White House, where Trump said the attorney general submitted his letter of resignation. “As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,” Trump tweeted.

Trump has publicly expressed his anger about Barr’s statement to The Associated Press earlier this month that the Justice Department had found no widespread election fraud that would change the outcome of the election. Trump has also been angry that the Justice Department did not publicly announce it was investigating Hunter Biden ahead of the election, despite department policy against such a pronouncement.

Barr in his resignation letter said he updated Trump Monday on the department's “review of voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election and how these allegations will continue to be pursued." He added that his last day on the job would be Dec. 23.

Trump said Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, whom he labeled “an outstanding person,” will become Acting Attorney General.

___

'Democracy prevailed': Biden aims to unify divided nation

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden will tell Americans on Monday that “democracy prevailed” as electors across the country cast votes affirming his victory in last month’s election.

In a speech from his longtime home of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden will aim to guide Americans past the tumult of the campaign and President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept defeat.

“If anyone didn’t know it before, we know it now. What beats deep in the hearts of the American people is this: Democracy,” Biden plans to say, according to excerpts of the speech released by his campaign. “The right to be heard. To have your vote counted. To choose the leaders of this nation. To govern ourselves.”

After garnering a record of more than 81 million votes, Biden is trying to build momentum as he prepares to assume the presidency on Jan. 20. But he's faced headwinds as Trump has refused to concede and has instead pursued baseless legal challenges that have been roundly rejected by judges across the political spectrum, including the justices at the Supreme Court.

Though Trump's actions have threatened core democratic norms, including the peaceful transfer of power, Biden will argue that America's system of government remains in tact.

___

US agencies, companies secure networks after huge hack

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. government agencies and private companies rushed Monday to secure their computer networks following the disclosure of a sophisticated and long-running cyber-espionage intrusion that experts said almost certainly was carried out by a foreign state.

It was not yet clear who was responsible for the intrusion, though it was reportedly conducted by Russia, and the extent of the damage is not yet known. The potential threat was significant enough that the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity unit directed all federal agencies to remove compromised network management software and thousands of companies were expected to do the same.

What was striking about the operation was its potential scope as well as the manner in which the perpetrators managed to pierce cyber defenses and gain access to email and internal files at the Treasury and Commerce departments and potentially elsewhere. It was stark evidence of the vulnerability of even supposedly secure government networks, even after well-known previous attacks.

“It’s a reminder that offense is easier than defense and we still have a lot of work to do,” said Suzanne Spaulding, a former U.S. cybersecurity official who is now a senior adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The campaign came to light when a prominent cybersecurity firm, FireEye, learned it had been breached. FireEye would not say who it suspected, though many experts quickly suspected Russia given the level of skill involved, and alerted that foreign governments and major corporations were also compromised.

___

Early in-person voting begins in Georgia Senate runoffs

ATLANTA (AP) — Early in-person voting began Monday in the runoff elections for Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats, with lines reported to be shorter than in the first days of early voting for the general election last month.

More than half of the record 5 million votes in the Nov. 3 general election were cast during its three-week early voting period. Early in-person voting could be even more important in the Jan. 5 runoffs because of the short period for voters to request and return ballots by mail.

The two races in which Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff try to oust Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

No one expects turnout to be as high as it was for the general election. But Bernard Fraga, an Emory University professor who studies voting, said overall turnout could reach 4 million.

President Donald Trump has relentlessly pushed baseless claims of widespread fraud in the general election, in which he lost in the state of Georgia. In an overnight tweet just hours before early voting began, he continued his attack on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, pushing him to take action or risk harming the chances for Perdue and Loeffler.

___

Supreme Court won't revive Kansas voter registration ID law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Kansas that sought to revive a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. A federal appeals court had declared the law unconstitutional.

Kansas had been the only state to require people to show a physical document such as a birth certificate or passport when applying to register to vote. The issue is distinct from state laws that call for people to produce driver licenses or other photo IDs to cast a vote in person.

The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led President Donald Trump’s now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kobach was a leading source for Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election.

Roughly 30,000 people were prevented from registering to vote during the three years the law was in effect, and the state's own expert estimated that almost all of those were U.S. citizens who were eligible to vote.

Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project who argued the case, said the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the case will "finally close this chapter on Kris Kobach’s sorry legacy of voter suppression.”

___

EXPLAINER: What to know about COVID-19 vaccination in the US

NEW YORK (AP) — The first shots of COVID-19 vaccine are being delivered, but it will likely be months before doses are widely available for everyone at U.S. drugstores and doctor's office.

Details are still being worked out, but officials expect widespread availability by the middle of next year. A second coronavirus vaccine is being reviewed this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and others are in development.

Even with vaccination, you'll still need to take precautions, like wearing a mask and social distancing, health officials say. That’s because there’s still some unknowns, including how much it reduces spread or how long protection lasts.

WHO'S GETTING THE SHOTS FIRST?

The limited doses of Pfizer's vaccine are going to the most vulnerable first — health care workers and nursing home residents. That means the shipments are going to sites selected in advance by state officials. Hospitals are doling out the shots to their employees. For nursing homes, the government is partnering with CVS and Walgreens, which will be giving the shots in the homes.

___

Hunger study predicts 168,000 pandemic-linked child deaths

PARIS (AP) — Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has set back decades of progress against the most severe forms of malnutrition and is likely to kill 168,000 children before any global recovery takes hold, according to a study released Monday by 30 international organizations.

The study from the Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium draws on economic and nutrition data gathered this year as well as targeted phone surveys. Saskia Osendarp, who led the research, estimates an additional 11.9 million children — most in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa — will suffer from stunting and wasting, the most severe forms of malnutrition.

Women who are pregnant now “will deliver children who are already malnourished at birth, and these children are disadvantaged from the very start,” said Osendarp, executive director of the Micronutrient Forum. “An entire generation is at stake.”

The fight against malnutrition had been an unheralded global success until the coronavirus pandemic struck.

“It may seem like it’s a problem that is always with us but the numbers were going down prior to COVID,” said Lawrence Haddad, executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. “Ten years of progress eliminated in 9 to 10 months.”

___

UAW agrees to monitor, voting changes after corruption probe

DETROIT (AP) — An independent monitor will watch the United Auto Workers’ finances and operations, and members will decide how they pick future leaders under a reform agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The deal was announced Monday in the wake of a wide-ranging federal probe into corruption that reached into the upper ranks of the 400,000-member union.

It forestalls a possible federal takeover of the UAW due to the probe into bribery and embezzlement that has lasted more than five years.

The monitor, to be nominated by the union and approved by the Justice Department, will stay in place for six years unless all sides agree to end or extend the term. The deal, spelled out in a federal court consent decree, still must be approved by a U.S. district judge.

Matthew Schneider, the U.S. attorney in Detroit, said Monday that the probe of the union has ended, but investigators still are pursuing unspecified individuals.