"This is the part of the horror film where a happy ending seems in sight, but it is obvious to those paying attention that the monster is not dead and that the worst may be yet to come." That's how New York Times columnist Ezra Klein described this moment in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. We're in a new year, there's a new president, and the record-breaking development of vaccines that work has wounded the monster, but there are deadly battles still ahead. Chief among them: the highly-contagious variants of the COVID-19 virus.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and businessman Jared Kushner, along with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and otherEuropean leaders, pose for a group photo at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, December 15, 2025.
Kay Nietfeld/Pool via REUTERS

The European Union just pulled off something that, a year ago, seemed politically impossible: it froze $247 billion in Russian central bank assets indefinitely, stripping the Kremlin of one of its most reliable pressure points.