For the last 10 days the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine has been in limbo as U.S. health authorities declared a recommended "pause" on administering the shot.

Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee is meeting again to discuss whether use of the vaccine should resume — and whether any warnings should accompany the shot.

Japan's central government has declared a third state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic with new restrictions imposed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo prefectures. Local leaders requested the move as they face a sharp rise in new coronavirus cases.

The declaration comes as Tokyo prepares to host the Summer Olympics, slated to begin in July, and just before Japan enters one of its biggest holiday seasons, Golden Week, in late April.

The U.S. is joining an international search for a missing Indonesian submarine that lost contact with its base earlier this week. Authorities said the KRI Nanggala 402, if still intact, has less than a day of oxygen to sustain its crew of 53.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby announced Thursday evening on Twitter that at Indonesia's request, the U.S. was "sending airborne assets to assist in the search for the missing submarine."

Russian jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Friday he is calling off a more than three-week prison hunger strike that doctors say left him near death.

It's not hard to imagine a world where a search for the phrase "jazz connoisseur" turns up a photo of the grinning mug of Phil Schaap. As a historian and educator, a Grammy-winning reissue producer, a curator and a pontificator, Schaap has more than earned his prestigious stature as the 2021 A.B.