Biden set to announce new mask guidance for vaccinated people – US politics live

  • Sources say new CDC guidance relates to outdoor mask-wearing
  • Democratic president promises ‘new normal’ by Fourth of July

The Supreme Court accepted what will be a closely watched gun rights case today –it could have a major impact on gun rights across the country.

Here’s more from the AP:

The case marks the court’s first foray into gun rights since Justice Amy Coney Barrett came on board in October, making a 6-3 conservative majority.

The justices said Monday they will review a lower-court ruling that upheld New York’s restrictive gun permit law. The court’s decision to take on the case follows mass shootings in recent weeks in Indiana, Georgia, Colorado and California and comes amid congressional efforts to tighten gun laws.

"The outlook does not look good for gun safety laws at the Supreme Court...the Court could issue a radical Second Amendment ruling that jeopardizes future progress as well as lifesaving gun laws already on the books." @GiffordsCourage says in a statement.

Republican Alaska lawmaker Lora Reinbold is banned from Alaska Airlines flights, after she has repeatedly refused to wear a mask. Masks can help protect other people from exposure to Covid-19 and other illnesses, if worn properly.

The ban is a major problem for the lawmaker, because Alaska Airlines operates the only flight to and from the capital, Juneau. Instead, she had to make a 14-hour trek to get to work

We have notified Senator Lora Reinbold that she is not permitted to fly with us for her continued refusal to comply with employee instruction regarding the current mask policy,” airlines spokesman Tim Thompson told the Anchorage Daily News.

“This suspension is effective immediately, pending further review. Federal law requires all guests to wear a mask over their nose and mouth at all times during travel, including throughout the flight, during boarding and deplaning, and while traveling through an airport,” he said.

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US lawmakers ‘making progress’ on police reform – but it’s still early stages

There are few who see the passing of meaningful new laws as a guaranteed outcome – but people are still talking

In the aftermath of Derek Chauvin being convicted of murdering George Floyd, it seems like there is momentum for the US Congress to pass some kind of police reform bill.

Hearings on policing have been held and point people on both the Democratic and Republican sides are in talks. By most metrics, Congress is in a comfortable position to pass some kind of bill meant to deter police brutality and prevent another George Floyd or Eric Garner.

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US lifts pause on Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine – as it happened

  • CDC advisory panel said benefits outweigh risk of rare blood clots
  • Joe Biden urges world leaders to invest in green energy
  • Caitlyn Jenner announces run for California governor

That’s all for today – thanks for following along and have a nice weekend. Some key links from the day:

The CDC’s decision to lift pause on Johnson & Johnson means that the single-dose vaccine could become available again starting this weekend.

In Los Angeles, the county says it is preparing to resume J&J administration as soon as possible:

L.A. County prepping to resume administering Johnson & Johnson vaccine as soon as possible https://t.co/g5tTy8RU2p

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Greta Thunberg in climate call to young people: ‘No limits to what we can accomplish’ – live

John Kerry dismissed a question on whether he was concerned about Republican opposition to Joe Biden’s climate proposals.

The president’s special envoy for climate noted that many policies can be implemented through executive orders, combined with cooperation from the private sector.

John Kerry, Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate, said Donald Trump’s policies “destroyed” America’s credibility on the world stage when it comes to addressing climate change.

The former secretary of state noted that today, which is Earth Day, marks five years since he signed the Paris climate agreement in New York, with his granddaughter on his knee.

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‘Today we did it’: Joe Biden touts 200m vaccine shots administered – live

After nearly two decades of fighting, Biden has declared that the war in Afghanistan is coming to an end. The President plans to officially close the chapter by the anniversary of Sept. 11 this year, the New York Times reports.

But, it still remains unclear what that means for 40 remaining detainees still imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. Layers for two of the prisoners reportedly told federal judges this week that their clients could not be held after the war ends and filed motions for their release.

One of the detainees, Khalid Qassim, 44, is a Yemeni man who has been held without trial at Guantánamo for nearly 19 years; he was captured in late 2001 or early 2002 and is being held as a Qaeda trainee who “may have fought for the Taliban in or near Kabul and Bagram, Afghanistan, before fleeing to the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001.”

The other, an Afghan named Asadullah Haroon Gul, who is about 40, was captured in 2007 by Afghan forces and turned over to the United States military. A basis for holding him is his past affiliation with a militia that made peace with the Afghan government in 2017, essentially breaking with the Taliban.

Related: My Brother’s Keeper: a former Guantánamo detainee's unlikely friendship with his guard

The House has passed legislation to curb presidential power to institute travel bans like those Trump imposed to limit entry into the US from predominantly Muslim countries.

The National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act (or the NO BAN Act), which prevents presidents from issuing future orders based on religion, requires bans to be temporary, and will give Congress more oversight, passed the house 218-208.

The Muslim Ban was always wrong, needless, and cruel and failed to live up to the requirements laid out by the Supreme Court. Religious bans have no place in our country or our laws and today, we are voting to make sure this never happens again. pic.twitter.com/njTtTEBuiU

Although the travel ban has been reversed, we must ensure that no future presidents abuse their power through executive action. That’s why I voted in support of the NO BAN Act. No president should have the authority to discriminate against migrants based on their religion.

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Biden says of Chauvin trial: ‘I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict’ – live

Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, said earlier today that he spoke to Joe Biden about the trial.

“He knows how it is to lose a family member,” Floyd told the “Today” show. “He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be okay.”

“He was just letting us know that he was praying for us and hoping that everything would come out to be OK.” -Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, on his phone conversation with President Joe Biden pic.twitter.com/OUEp6Lvbhw

Joe Biden addressed the Derek Chauvin murder trial moments ago in the Oval Office, as he prepared to meet with leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

The president confirmed he spoke to George Floyd’s family yesterday, as the jury began its deliberations. Biden noted he wanted to wait to contact them until after the jury was sequestered.

After phone call with George Floyd's family, President Biden says he is "praying the verdict is the right verdict," adding that he is only speaking out because the jury is sequestered. https://t.co/zstpyxCqRk pic.twitter.com/RcrACo79DU

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Maxine Waters criticised by Republicans for Minneapolis remarks – video

The Democratic representative Maxine Waters has come under criticism from the Republican house minority leader, after she expressed support for protesters against police brutality at a rally on Saturday in Brooklyn Center, the Minneapolis suburb where Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by police last week.

Waters said she would 'continue to fight in every way that I can for justice', prompting the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, to accuse Waters of 'inciting violence in Minneapolis'

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Fauci spars with Republican congressman over when to lift Covid restrictions – live

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy wished Mike Pence a speedy recovery, after the former vice-president’s office said he had a pacemaker implanted yesterday.

“Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers,” McCarthy said on Twitter.

Wishing my friend @Mike_Pence a swift recovery. Judy and I are thinking of you as you overcome this challenge—you are in our prayers. https://t.co/UPt1Lwa8k0

The CEO of Pfizer, Albert Bourla, has said people will “likely” need a third coronavirus vaccine dose within a year, with annual revaccinations also a possibility.

“We need to see what would be the sequence, and for how often we need to do that, that remains to be seen,” Bourla told a CNBC reporter during an event with CVS Health. The CEO’s comments were released today, but they were filmed two weeks ago.

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Fight to vote: why US democracy is at a tipping point – video

The new Georgia voting rights law makes it harder to vote, especially for communities that tend to vote for Democrats – and that's what Republicans want. But it's not just Georgia: these restrictive voting laws are being considered in nearly every state in America, from Arizona to Texas to Florida.

These efforts come on the heels of the 2020 presidential election, which Republicans lost by slim margins in several states. Many Republicans claimed they lost because of voter fraud – because people who were ineligible to vote found a way to skirt the rules and cast ballots. Election officials around the nation said there was no widespread fraud, but Republicans are using this argument to push for a wide array of laws that will skew election in their favor.

If enacted, Americans will have to ask a hard question: is the US still a democracy?

Alvin Chang and Sam Levine explain this Republican effort to suppress voting rights as part of the Guardian's Fight to Vote series

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Whitmer won’t go ‘punch for punch’ with Republican who called her a witch

  • Governor and others ‘ready for burning at stake’, GOP chair said
  • Democrat laments ‘layer of misogyny’ towards female leaders

Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, will not “go punch for punch” with Republican leaders in the state who have attacked her in misogynistic terms, one going so far as to call Whitmer and two other leading Democrats “three witches” set to be “burned at the stake”.

Related: ‘Dumb son of a bitch’: Trump attacks McConnell in Republican donors speech

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How an arcane budget provision could let Democrats advance their agenda

Senate parliamentarian’s decision widens path for Democrats to enact Joe Biden’s sprawling infrastructure plan

A novel interpretation of an arcane parliamentary procedure has presented congressional Democrats with an unexpected – and tantalizing – new opportunity to advance some of their most ambitious legislative goals despite their slim majorities and fierce Republican opposition.

This week, the Senate parliamentarian determined that Democrats can employ a fast-track process known as budget reconciliation more times than previously understood, potentially allowing them to pass multiple legislative packages without any Republican support before next year’s midterm elections – if they can keep their own members in line.

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House ethics committee opens Matt Gaetz misconduct investigation – live

The FBI has arrested a man involved in the Jan.6 attack on the US Capitol, who allegedly had plans to detonate a bomb to take down the FBI, CIA, and other agencies, the Washington Post reports.

Seth Aaron Pendley was arrested Thursday, Justice Department officials said, after he allegedly sought materials for explosives from an undercover FBI agent. His plans, according to a criminal complaint, hinged on bombing the Amazon Web Services building in Ashburn, Va, in an attempt to disable Internet access in key government agencies, hinder operations, and upset “the oligarchy”.

Feds just charged Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, of Wichita Falls, with trying to blow up a data center in Virginia. Allege he tried to buy an explosive device from an undercover FBI employee in Ft. Worth, bragged to friends on Facebook he was at Jan. 6 Capitol attack @CourthouseNews pic.twitter.com/EHMk5z3QFH

The case highlights a growing concern among law enforcement and terrorism experts that the insurrection could inspire further domestic terrorist attacks, and officials praised the unidentified person who first alerted them to Pendley’s online posts.

‘We are indebted to the concerned citizen who came forward to report the defendant’s alarming online rhetoric, said Prerak Shah, the acting U.S. attorney in Dallas. “In flagging his posts to the FBI, this individual may have saved the lives of a number of tech workers’”.

As the Biden Administration scrambles to make space for the growing number of people crossing the US-Mexico border, officials announced that migrant families will now be held at hotels in Arizona, the Associated Press reports.

According to a statement from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will takeover several hotels in the Phoenix area along the southwest border.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — which places unaccompanied children with “sponsors,” most often parents and close relatives — has found space in convention centers, military bases and other large venues. Los Angeles County officials said Friday that its fairgrounds will be used to temporarily house up to 2,500 unaccompanied children.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and frequent Biden critic, asked the administration to close a holding facility for unaccompanied children at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, citing allegations that they aren’t getting enough to eat and boys are unsupervised in showers.

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Joe Biden to announce executive actions to address gun violence – live

Calls are mounting for the Biden administration to set up a national tracking system of Covid-19 deaths among frontline healthcare workers to honor the thousands of nurses, doctors and support staff who have died and ensure that future generations are not forced to make the same ultimate – and in many cases needless – sacrifice.

Health policy experts and union leaders are pressing the White House to move quickly to fill the gaping hole left by the Trump administration through its failure to create an accurate count of Covid deaths among frontline staff. The absence of reliable federal data exacerbated critical problems such as shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that left many workers exposed, with fatal results.

Related: Calls mount for Biden to track US healthcare worker deaths

The number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the US-Mexican border hit a record high last month, the US Customs and Border Protection agency said today.

According to CBP’s newly released figures, 18,890 unaccompanied children arrived at the southern border in March, representing a 100% increase from February.

Related: Migrants held in overcrowded Texas facility, photos released by congressman show

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Biden announces US has administered 150m Covid vaccine doses – as it happened

– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh

Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican congressman who is being investigated over child sex trafficking charges, and who reportedly shared nude pictures of women with colleagues, is speaking at former president Donald Trump’s resort in Doral, at a rally for a pro-Trump women’s group.

Politico reports:

Women for America First announced late Tuesday that Gaetz would be a speaker at the three-day “Save America Summit.” This is the same group that helped organize the “March for Trump” rally in Washington that took place just hours before the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead.

The organization praised Gaetz as one of the “few members of Congress” willing to “stand up & fight on behalf of President Trump & his America First agenda.” Women For America First says on its website that “We won’t be pushed around by bullies who tell us who we are ‘supposed’ to like. And we’re not going to keep quiet just because the Washington, D.C. power elites and mainstream media want us to!”

Related: Katie Hill: Matt Gaetz backed me but he must quit if nude-photo reports are true

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Biden’s $2tn infrastructure plan ‘needs to be changed’, says key Democrat Manchin – live

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

The Guardian’s Abené Clayton reports:

The bankruptcy trial for the National Rife Association (NRA) kicked off this morning, and for the first time embattled CEO Wayne LaPierre and other NRA executives will be testifying about the organization’s finances in open court.

Good morning. Today is the first day of the @NRA’s trial in bankruptcy court. For those of you who can’t wait, here are some disturbing excerpts from Wayne LaPierre’s deposition (filed over the weekend). #nrabankruptcytrial

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Republicans claim Biden $2tn infrastructure plan a partisan tax hike

  • President proposes environmental measures and tax rises
  • Mississippi governor cites Green New Deal, a GOP bogey

Republicans opposed to Joe Biden’s proposed $2tn infrastructure bill claimed on Sunday that it was effectively a partisan tax hike that allocated too much money to electric vehicles and other environmental initiatives.

Related: Florida faces 'imminent' pollution catastrophe from phosphate mine pond

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Beautiful Things review: Hunter Biden as prodigal son and the Trumpists’ target

The president’s son recounts his struggles and his father’s love with honesty – yet still seems blind to glaring political realities

Robert Hunter Biden is not a rock star. Instead, the sole surviving son of Joe Biden – senator, vice-president, president – is a lawyer by training and a princeling by happenstance. Regardless, life on the edge comes with consequences.

Related: Lucky review: how Biden beat Trump – and doubters like Obama and Hillary

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US Capitol lockdown: suspect and one officer dead after vehicle rams barrier – live

Robert Contee of the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department has just said at the briefing outside the US Capitol that the attack by a man driving a car at Capitol Police officers “does not appear to be terrorism related”.

Acting chief of the Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, just described the now-deceased suspect in the attack as having got out of the vehicle after ramming her officers and crashing into a barrier and then he “ran aggressively” at them, brandishing a knife.

Robert J Contee III, the acting chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of DC, said the attack “does not appear to be terrorism related”.

The MPD acting chief also said the suspect does not seem to have been previously known to law enforcement.

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Biden unveils ‘once-in-a generation’ $2tn infrastructure investment plan

American Jobs Plan would rebuild roads, highways and bridges; confront the climate crisis and curb wealth inequality

Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled what he called a “once-in-a-generation” investment in American infrastructure, promising a nation still struggling to overcome the coronavirus pandemic that his $2tn plan would create the “strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world”.

Speaking at a carpenters’ training center outside of Pittsburgh, where he launched his campaign two years ago, Biden returned as president to elaborate on his campaign pledge to “rebuild the backbone of America”.

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Biden pushes plan to rebuild US infrastructure as Covid cases rise – live

The Republican governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, announced today that he is lifting the statewide mask mandate.

Hutchinson said recent data on coronavirus case numbers in the state had led him to conclude that the mandate was no longer necessary.

President Biden yesterday: Masks, please.

Gov. Asa Hutchison (R-AR) today: pic.twitter.com/m20KMNVedE

Related: 'I'm scared': top US official shares sense of 'doom' as Covid cases rise

During her press briefing this afternoon, Jen Psaki also criticized the World Health Organization’s report on the origins of coronavirus.

The White House press secretary said China had “not been transparent” about the early days of its coronavirus outbreak.

WATCH: @PressSec says the @WHO COVID-19 origins report "doesn't lead us to a closer understanding or greater knowledge than six months ago about the origins", adding that China has "not been transparent, they have not provided underlying data" on the virus. pic.twitter.com/6KRK7112zn

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