The Senate leader all but ended any chance of increasing direct payments, despite some Republican support for the effort.

‘No Realistic Path’ for Quick Vote on $2,000 Stimulus Checks, McConnell Says

A perfect metaphor for a year of giving up and giving in.

Working From Bed Is Actually Great

In a year that felt apocalyptic, Martin Kunze has been making plans for the actual end of the world, with some help from The Times.

News That Can Last a Million Years

Quotation of the Day for Thursday, December 31, 2020.

Quotation of the Day: Missouri Senator Says He’ll Join Election Challenge, Dividing the G.O.P.

“It confirmed in me how powerful those words printed on paper, and the images in between, could be.”

In the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei’s Father Burned the Family’s Books

For her first lead in a film, the actress wanted a character as challenging as many of those she’s played onstage. She found it in Kornel Mundruczo’s “Pieces of a Woman.”

Vanessa Kirby Has Been Waiting for a Role That Scares Her

“In the Land of the Cyclops,” the Norwegian author’s first essay collection to be published in English, circles the mysteries of artistic creation, including his own writing process.

In Searching Essays, Knausgaard Extols the Freedom and Limitations of Art

A new book examines the lives of these trailblazers, who paved the way for subsequent generations of illustrators but were invisible to the mainstream in their own time.

Superheroes and Trailblazers: Black Comic Book Artists, Rediscovered

An interim police chief has nearly finished her work, and the city is at a crossroads. Will a department handling one of the nation’s most controversial police shootings win back the city’s trust?

After Breonna Taylor Case, Louisville Police Face Precarious Next Chapter

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.

9 New Books We Recommend This Week

The prolific author describes her double life as “messy” and “imperfect.” Nevertheless, she publishes a lot of books.

Is Pam Jenoff a Law Professor Moonlighting as a Novelist, or Vice Versa? You Decide

Six new paperbacks to check out this week.

New in Paperback: ‘The Red Lotus’ and ‘This Is Big’

Anthony Warner’s girlfriend told the police last year he was building bombs in his R.V. Police officials said they took their inquiry as far as they could at the time.

Critics Say Nashville Police Could Have Done More With Tip About Bomber

Corrections that appeared in print on Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020.

Corrections: Dec. 31, 2020

A third grader reflects on the miserable year of 2020.

Forever Is Never

I’m thinking of the weight we’ve all been carrying this year, in my city and everywhere else.

The Bomb That Struck the Heart of Nashville

Covid case at F.A.A. center in Fort Worth leads to ripples of delays and diverted flights across the country.

Closing of Air Traffic Control Center for Virus Cleaning Halts Flights in Dallas

Simla, Colo., an isolated ranching community, is the site of the first known case in the United States of a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus.

The Small Colorado Town felt insulated from the Pandemic. Then Came the Coronavirus Variant.

Selected Times graphics, visualizations and multimedia stories from the year.

2020: The Year in Visual Stories and Graphics

David J. Kahn escorts the old year to the door.

Squirming, Maybe

The unverified intelligence echoes a similar report, deemed credible by the C.I.A. but dismissed by the president, that Russian military agents had offered payments for attacks on Americans in Afghanistan.

Trump Was Briefed on Uncorroborated Intelligence About Chinese Bounties

It was the first killing by a Minneapolis officer since George Floyd’s death in May. The chief said witnesses indicated that the man had fired first.

Minneapolis Police Fatally Shoot Man During Traffic Stop

Your Thursday Briefing

Ten teams will be fighting for seven playoff spots on a final regular-season Sunday when numerous playoff seedings can change.

N.F.L. Week 17 Predictions: Our Picks Against the Spread

At least 50 of those murders were verified by law enforcement officers, according to the F.B.I., which declared Mr. Little the “most prolific” serial killer in U.S. history.

Samuel Little, Serial Killer Who Confessed to 93 Murders, Dies at 80

A COVID‑19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19).

The World Health Organization issues its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.

December 31, 2020

Headlines from December 31, 2020

‘No Realistic Path’ for Quick Vote on $2,000 Stimulus Checks, McConnell Says

Working From Bed Is Actually Great

News That Can Last a Million Years

Quotation of the Day: Missouri Senator Says He’ll Join Election Challenge, Dividing the G.O.P.

In the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei’s Father Burned the Family’s Books

Billboard 200

Evermore

McCartney III

Music To Be Murdered By

Christmas

Merry Christmas

Historical Events

Historical Context for December 31, 2020