| The U.S. lifted its pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The Oscars are (finally) back. It's the weekend's biggest news. |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccine lifted in US | | Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine has been made available in parts of the U.S. again after an 11-day pause initiated when a rare blood clotting disorder was associated with the shot . The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined the benefits of the J&J vaccine outweighed the risks of keeping it off the market. Out of nearly 8 million who received the vaccine, 15 people have developed the condition and three have died. Moving forward, everyone who receives the shot should receive an information sheet mentioning the rare clotting problem and the symptoms to look out for, officials said. California and New York were among states administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine Sunday after their governors signed off on resuming use of the one-dose shot. Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia also have given the green light to the J&J vaccine. | | | Finally, the Oscars | | That golden guy is back, but this time with social-distancing guidelines. After a pandemic-plagued year and the weirdest awards season ever, the Oscar is set to return like never before on Sunday at the 93rd Academy Awards, taking place at Los Angeles' historic Union Station with additional events at the show's traditional home, the Dolby Theatre, and international locations via satellite. The movie industry will have something to celebrate for a change. Outside of the eight best picture candidates – which has been led by Chloé Zhao's acclaimed road-trip tale "Nomadland" – most of the drama this Oscar race has been centered on the unpredictable best actress category: Recent SAG Awards winner Viola Davis could make history as the first Black woman to take home two Oscars. The awards show is scheduled to start at 8 EDT/5 PDT on ABC. | | |  | | Director Chloe Zhao, left, appears with actress Frances McDormand on the set of "Nomadland." (Searchlight Pictures via AP) ORG XMIT: NYET729 | | AP | | Real Quick | | | US plans to help India amid dire COVID-19 situation | | The U.S. will send desperately needed vaccine supplies and experts to India, which is overwhelmed by one of the worst coronavirus surges the world has seen , National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday. The U.S. will also consider sending to India millions of surplus AstraZeneca vaccines, which have not yet been authorized in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC's "This Week." Britain and the European Union have also vowed to send resources to India. The outreach effort comes as the U.S. and other developed nations have drawn complaints for stockpiling vaccines while poorer nations struggle to obtain them. Sullivan said the U.S will make available raw materials to help India manufacture Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India, along with therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and personal protective equipment. | | | 53 crew members dead after sunken Indonesian sub is found | | The Indonesian navy has confirmed that its missing submarine sank with all 53 crew members off the coast of Bali . Officials said the KRI Nanggala 402 was found in three sections after a sonar scan detected a submarine-like object at 2,800 feet, Reuters reported. The submarine disappeared after its last reported dive Wednesday off the resort island of Bali. Search teams found items from inside the submarine in the ocean Saturday, indicating the vessel had cracked and sunk, leaving no hope of survivors. "Those items can only have come from inside the submarine, and you don't just open the hull and release things," Frank Owen, secretary of the Submarine Institute of Australia, told USA TODAY. "That means the hull has been breached and once that has happened, there's no possibility of recovery." | | | Biden recognizes the killing of 1.5M Armenians by Ottoman Turks as 'genocide' | | President Joe Biden on Saturday formally recognized the systematic killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923 as an act of "genocide," a long-sought declaration among Armenian-Americans that could further strain U.S.-Turkey relations. While largely symbolic, Biden's declaration is significant because of the potential geopolitical fallout. Turkey's foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this week that Biden would "harm ties" if he made the genocide declaration. But Alan Makovsky, an expert on Turkey and former State Department official, said Biden's declaration will not have a major impact on U.S.-Turkey relations. | | P.S. Like this roundup of stories? Sign up for "The Short List" newsletter here. | | This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Contributing: Associated Press. | | | | MORE ARTICLES | | | | | | | |
