Good morning.
Joe Biden yesterday outlined further plans to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, including a promise to make 600 million doses of vaccine available by the end of July, according to the president enough to vaccinate every American. Biden also said that teachers should “move in the hierarchy” of vaccination, as he predicted that most primary schools would reopen in office within his first hundred days.
Addressing a small and social distance story crowd in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during a town hall event, Biden was asked when life would return to normal, to which he replied, “By next Christmas, we will be in God’s will in a whole be different situation, than we are today. ”
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Latino and black Americans are vaccinated at much lower prices despite an excessively high risk of developing severe symptoms of coronavirus. Only 3% of Latinos and 4.5% of black Americans have received a vaccine shot so far, compared to 9.1% of white Americans.
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Fema opens its first Covid-19 mass vaccination site as part of the government’s efforts to increase the rate of vaccinations and reach communities affected disproportionately by the pandemic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has set up its first site in Los Angeles, with the goal of vaccinating up to 6,000 people a day.
At least 21 people have died as a result of severe winter weather
Extreme winter storms raging in the central and southern US have killed at least 21 people and left millions without power. Parts of the U.S. broke records with cold temperatures, while Texas experienced the worst power outages, with more than 4 million homes and businesses left without power on Tuesday as temperatures remained below freezing. In the Houston area, four family members died in a house fire after using the fireplace to stay warm.
Conservative commentators have sought to blame renewable energy for the power outages, with Texas Secretary of Agriculture saying “we must never build a wind turbine again” in the state. In fact, failures in gas, coal and nuclear energy accounted for nearly twice as many outages as renewable energy, the Texas Electric Reliability Council said Tuesday. But the disruptions could have a wider cause: some scientists have argued that the icy weather is linked to the climate crisis. According to experts, the rapid warming of the North Pole could help push icy air from the North Pole much further south, possibly to the border between the US and Mexico. One scientist said:
The current conditions in Texas are historical, certainly generational. But it cannot be blown away by hand as if it were completely natural. This is not happening despite climate change, it is partly due to climate change.
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Oil companies need to disclose their carbon emissions, BlackRock, the world’s largest investor, said. All companies in which the company invests are expected to do so, reads a letter in a sign of a reassessment of climate risks.
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Climate change has probably slowed down the migration of herbivorous dinosaurs, a study found that the dinosaurs probably arrived in the northern hemisphere years after their carnivorous relatives. The study has far-reaching implications for our understanding of beings.
Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani are charged with attacking Capitol
Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani are being taken to court by a Democratic congressman and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for their alleged role in the deadly Capitol attack. The lawsuit, brought under a historic law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, accuses the conspiracy to incite the violent uprising at the Capitol with the aim of preventing the election of Joe Biden.
It comes three days after Trump was acquitted during a Senate trial for inciting violence. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out that presidents are “not immune” to criminal or civil litigation.
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Steve Bannon believed Trump had early dementia and with the 25th Amendment waged secret campaign to remove him from office, claimed a TV producer. The former White House strategist apparently thought he could replace Trump as president.
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The majority of Republican voters want Trump to play a prominent role according to a new poll at 59% in the IDP. This is an increase of 18 points from the last poll taken after the riot in Capitol.
Fast food workers strike across US
Fast food and care workers in 15 U.S. cities went on strike yesterday demanding the minimum wage be raised to $ 15 an hour. Staff from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s were in action along with home care and nursing staff. This comes as Biden tries to push through an increase in the federal minimum wage of $ 7.25, which has not been increased since 2009.
The struggle for the minimum wage is a ‘moral issue presented as an economic one’, writes Hamilton Nolan, arguing that it is an outrage that the payment has not increased for more than ten years, despite the economic hardship which America endured at that time.
In other news …
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The daughter of the ruler of Dubai has claimed she is a hostage in a closed villa guarded by the police, in a series of video messages taken over the past two years on a smuggled telephone. Princess Latifa al-Maktoum tried to flee the emirate in 2018, but was forcibly returned. The messages have since ceased and fighters are calling for international intervention.
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Thousands take to the streets in Myanmar to protest against the military coup, after a new indictment was announced against detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi. She has not been seen in public since the coup. The military has also used internet blocking to destroy discord, but what is it and will it work?
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Harry and Meghan do not want to destroy their relationship with the queen during a ‘wide’ interview with Oprah Winfrey, with the royal couple who do not want to embarrass her by participating. The news of the interview led to reports that it was the last straw for Buckingham Palace, which would deprive them of their royal protection.
State of the day: the number of new global Covid cases dropped by 16% last week
Good news: The number of coronavirus cases reported worldwide dropped 16% last week to 2.7 million, the World Health Organization said. The number of new deaths also dropped by 10% to 81,000. Five of the six WTO world regions reported a double-digit percentage decrease in new cases, with only 7% an increase in the eastern Mediterranean.
Do not miss it: How did Biden handle the Iranian rocket attack?
After a barrage of rockets in northern Iran hit a U.S. military base, Biden confronted his first true test of his policy on Iran. Trump’s fiery rhetoric is over, replaced with a firm condemnation and commitment to finding the culprits, Martin Chulov writes in his analysis.
Last thing: The family of an anti-Trump Republican calls him a ‘disappointment for us and God’
Although most of us have experienced heated family debates over politics, centrist Republican Adam Kinzinger’s relatives have taken things a step further and published a screaming open letter describing him as ‘disappointing us and God’. Kinzinger called for Trump to step down after the attack on the Capitol, which led his family to say that he “went against your Christian principles and joined the ‘devil’s army’ (Democrats and the fake news media) . “They underlined the word ‘disappointment’ three times for emphasis.
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