The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send thousands of Haitians to a home country they fled because of natural disasters and political turmoil.
Related: White House criticizes border agents who rounded up migrants on horseback
Continue reading...Speaker says she will work to build consensus on Biden’s separate $3.5tn social agenda, which has caused division within the party
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said on Sunday Democrats will pass a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure bill this week.
Related: ‘We couldn’t be more inconsistent’: discordant Democrats imperil Biden’s agenda
Continue reading...In a letter to Democrats on Saturday the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, set her sights high, saying Joe Biden’s $3.5tn spending package, a bipartisan infrastructure deal worth $1tn and a measure to expand government funding “must pass” next week.
Related: ‘We couldn’t be more inconsistent’: discordant Democrats imperil Biden’s agenda
Continue reading...Press secretary Jen Psaki says ahead of general assembly meeting: ‘Our relationship with China is one not of conflict but of competition’
• US to lift travel ban for vaccinated travelers from UK and most of EU
• Joe Biden: fate of spending plan with show extent of power
Hi all – Sam Levin in Los Angeles taking over our live coverage for the rest of the day.
Covid has now killed roughly as many US residents as the 1918-19 Spanish flu did – approximately 675,000 people. More from the AP:
The US population a century ago was just one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the failure to take maximum advantage of the vaccines available this time.
“Big pockets of American society — and, worse, their leaders — have thrown this away,” medical historian Dr Howard Markel of the University of Michigan said of the opportunity to vaccinate everyone eligible by now.
COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000. The 1918-19 influenza numbers are rough guesses. The population of the U.S. at the time was about one-third the size of what it is today. https://t.co/07AY1140fQ
Biden departs for New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. pic.twitter.com/Fn0BdGP2dx
Joe Biden will make his first speech to the United Nations as president on Tuesday, seeking to “close the chapter on 20 years of war” and begin an era of intensive diplomacy, our worlds affairs editor Julian Borger writes.
Related: Biden’s UN speech is an opportunity to show ‘America is back’
Continue reading...The president is about to embark on a legislative push with almost no room for error
In what could be the most consequential stretch of his presidency, Joe Biden faces an autumn sprint to advance a once-in-a-generation expansion of the social safety net.
Related: House Democrats are scared to tax billionaires – that’s a costly mistake | Robert Reich
Continue reading...Thousands will show proof of vaccination to attend star-studded Central Park extravaganza as city averages nearly 1,900 cases a day
As coronavirus cases continued to rise across the US, thousands were expected nonetheless to attend a concert in Central Park on Saturday night, staged to celebrate New York City’s recovery amid the pandemic.
Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Jennifer Hudson, Carlos Santana, LL Cool J and Andrea Bocelli were included in the lineup for We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert. Most tickets distributed by the city were free, with attendees required to show proof of vaccination.
Continue reading...Lawmakers approve Democrats’ budget resolution on party-line 50-49 vote hours after passing $1tn infrastructure bill
Democrats pushed a $3.5tn framework for bolstering family services, health and environment programs through the Senate early Wednesday.
The overnight vote advances Joe Biden’s plans for reshaping federal priorities, and came hours after passing a $1tn infrastructure package.
Continue reading...The Senate convened for a rare weekend session on Saturday with the majority leader, Chuck Schumer, encouraging the authors of a bipartisan infrastructure plan to finish writing their bill.
Related: Trump tries to defend ‘just say the election was corrupt’ demand to DoJ
Continue reading...The president reset the tone from the Trump era and passed a huge Covid relief bill but other priorities have hit formidable political obstacles
Angela Merkel thrice called him “dear Joe”. He pledged unity in taking on “democratic backsliding, corruption, phony populism”. But he also warned: “If we don’t leave right now, we’re going to miss dinner” – one that included crispy sea bass, black pepper tagliatelle and kabocha squash.
Joe Biden’s meeting with German chancellor last week offered comfort food for anyone nostalgic for the old global order. But as Merkel leaves the stage after 16 years, certain of her legacy as a towering figure in European politics, Biden is still striving to make his mark.
Continue reading...It is one of the most delicate balancing acts in American politics: how to keep together a Democratic party whose lawmakers range from the democratic socialism of the New York congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to the staunch conservatism of the West Virginia senator Joe Manchin.
But as Joe Biden’s administration has pushed both parts of his ambitious infrastructure plan through Congress, top Democratic officials and aides have made a point of working hard to keep the fractious sects of the party on Capitol Hill in check.
Continue reading...A lead Republican negotiator has welcomed Joe Biden’s withdrawal of his threat to veto a $1.2tn bipartisan infrastructure bill unless a separate Democratic spending plan also passes Congress.
Related: White House seeks to put infrastructure deal back on track after Biden blunder
Continue reading...In the summer of 1981, public health professionals faced a terrifying crisis. Their work helped shape victories against the current pandemic – but some fear hard-won ground is lost
As Anthony Fauci marks 40 years since HIV emerged, he regrets how the extraordinary disruptions that Covid-19 have wreaked upon society have hampered efforts to tackle the major pandemic that preceded it.
Continue reading...President’s budget proposal seeks to end Hyde amendment that limits insurance coverage of terminations for nearly 8m women
For the first time in nearly 30 years, a US president has released a budget that doesn’t ban federal funding for abortion.
On Friday, Joe Biden released his full budget proposal for fiscal year 2022, and in keeping with his campaign promise on abortion access, Biden did not include the Hyde amendment, an annual budget rider that bans federal Medicaid money from being used for almost all abortions. (There are exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest or that would threaten the pregnant person’s life.)
Continue reading...President said last month he would leave Trump-era figure of 15,000 in place this year
Joe Biden has formally raised the US cap on refugee admissions to 62,500 this year, weeks after facing bipartisan blowback for his delay in replacing the record-low ceiling set by Donald Trump.
Refugee resettlement agencies have waited for Biden to quadruple the number of refugees allowed into the United States this year since 12 February, when a presidential proposal was submitted to Congress saying he planned to do so.
Continue reading...The president has sought bipartisan support but not at the cost of delay and dilution of his bold policies
Joe Biden started his presidential campaign with promises to be a unifying force in Washington who would help lawmakers come together to achieve bipartisan reform. But over his first 100 days in office, Biden’s message to Republicans in Congress has been closer to this: get on board or get out of my way.
This willingness to go it alone if necessary appears to be a hard-won lesson from the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when Democrats negotiated with Republicans on major bills only to have them vote against the final proposals.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...Courteney Ross’s testimony showed how police departments fail in their duty to protect those who battle addiction
Of all the accounts of George Floyd’s life and death heard in a Minneapolis courtroom this week, perhaps the least expected was his girlfriend’s description of their shared struggle with opioid addiction.
Courteney Ross’s wrenching testimony gave a very human glimpse into the remorseless search for a fix and a mutual fight to shake off drug dependency.
Continue reading...Anti-Asian racism is on the rise around the world. The Pulitzer-winning author reflects on his own experiences as a Vietnamese American – and the dark history that continues to fuel the current hate
On 16 March eight people were killed in Atlanta, Georgia, by a 21-year-old white man: all but one were women, and six were Asian. The shootings take their place in a much longer story of anti-Asian violence. The Covid pandemic has given us a particular insight into this phenomenon: verbal and physical assaults against Asians have accelerated in the US over the last year, with 3,800 documented incidents involving spitting, knifings, beatings, acid attacks – and murder. The majority of the victims have been women.
Though the Atlanta killings took place in Asian massage parlours, the shooter has said he did not target the women because of their race. Instead, he claimed to be a sex addict bent on “removing temptation”. Regardless of his denial – whether it is a lie or self-deception – it is obvious that he targeted these women because they were Asian. “Racism and sexism intersect,” says Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociology professor. This intersection has been a driving force in western attitudes towards Asia and Asian women, who are routinely hypersexualised and objectified in popular culture.
Continue reading...Miami Beach officials have warned that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destroying restaurant property and refusing to wear masks has become a serious threat to public safety, after 1,000 arrests were made.
At a last-minute meeting, city officials voted to extend a highly unusual 8pm curfew for another week along famed South Beach, with the possibility of extending it well into April if needed, and stressed this wasn’t the typical spring break crowd. They said it’s not college students, but adults looking to let loose in one of the few states fully open during the pandemic.
Continue reading...As unaccompanied children reach the US, Republicans seek political gain. The White House has a fight on its hands
Lauded for his human touch, Joe Biden is facing an early political and moral test over how his government treats thousands of migrant children who make the dangerous journey to America alone.
Related: Is there a crisis at the border? Advocates in Texas say it's 'political manipulation'
Continue reading...