Biden says US ‘ready to move immediately’ if vaccine approved for young teens – live

Jack Herrera reports:

Just months after ICU capacities were at zero in Los Angeles, the county has made a turnaround. But officials advise caution, and warn that vaccine hesitancy is catching up.

Related: LA reports no Covid deaths for two days in a row in major pandemic milestone

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

Here’s where the day stands so far:

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Biden raises US refugee admissions cap to 62,500 after delay sparks anger

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.

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Liz Cheney says Trump’s ‘big lie’ poisons democracy as split with Republicans grows

Republican who voted to impeach Trump under increasing fire from members of her own party who are loyal to former president

Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who voted to impeach Donald Trump, is coming under fire from members of her own party after her tweet that the former president did not lose the election unfairly. The spat illustrates the split between Republicans loyal to Trump and those willing to criticize the former president.

“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”

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Joe Biden: time for corporations and richest Americans to ‘start paying their fair share’ – video

The US president, Joe Biden, has said it is time for corporations and the richest Americans to ‘start paying their fair share’ as he pitched his $4tn infrastructure and welfare plans at an event in Virginia.

Speaking at a community college in Norfolk, Biden made the case for increasing taxes on the wealthiest in the US to fund his $1.8tn American families plan and $2tn infrastructure plan. The packages would provide funds for childcare, invest in free universal pre-schooling and rebuild America’s transport and public housing.

‘I think it’s about time we started giving tax breaks and tax benefits to working class families and middle class families, instead of just the very wealthy,’ Biden said.

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‘Decades ahead of his time’: history catches up with visionary Jimmy Carter

A new film rejects the popular narrative and recasts the former president, 96, as hugely prescient thinker, particularly on climate change

When I reach Jimmy Carter’s grandson by Zoom, he answers wearing a Raphael Warnock campaign T-shirt. Jason Carter is a lawyer and politician himself, mid-40s, animated and well-read, with blue eyes reminiscent of his grandfather’s. He’s just got off the phone with his 93-year-old grandmother, Rosalynn. It’s a special day; Joe Biden is on his way to the Carter house in Plains, Georgia.

“My grandfather has met nearly everyone in the world he might want to,” Jason Carter says. “Right now, he’s meeting with the president of the United States. But the person he’d say he learned the most from was Rachel Clark, an illiterate sharecropper who lived on his family’s farm.

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Mitt Romney booed and called ‘traitor’ at Utah Republican convention

Only Republican to twice vote to impeach Trump gets hostile reception as censure motion narrowly fails

Mitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday – and called a “traitor” and a “communist” as he tried to speak.

Related: Bush: ‘Anglo-Saxon’ ideals show pro-Trump Republicans ‘want to be extinct’

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Mitt Romney booed while speaking at Utah Republican convention – video

Mitt Romney was loudly booed at the Utah Republican party convention on Saturday, and called a 'traitor' and a 'communist' as he tried to speak. 'Aren’t you embarrassed?' the Utah senator asked the crowd of 2,100 delegates at the Maverik Center in West Valley City. 'I’m a man who says what he means, and you know I was not a fan of our last president’s character issues.'

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Bush: ‘Anglo-Saxon’ ideals show pro-Trump Republicans ‘want to be extinct’

Former president speaks as lone anti-Trump Republican seeks House seat in Texas special election

Ahead of a special election on Saturday to replace a Texas congressman who died after contracting Covid-19, former president George W Bush said the ascendancy of supporters of Donald Trump suggest Republicans “want to be extinct”.

Related: George W Bush on Trump’s Republicans: ‘Isolationist, protectionist, nativist’

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How Biden’s firm line with Republicans draws on lesson of Obama’s mistakes

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.

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Trump’s border wall hits a wall as Pentagon cancels parts funded from its budget

Defense department will cancel all construction paid for with military funds originally intended for other purposes

The US Department of Defense said on Friday it was cancelling the construction of parts of former president Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico that were being built using military funds.

All unobligated money was being returned to military, the Pentagon said.

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Restorationists urge Jill Biden to erase Melania Trump’s Rose Garden makeover

A petition, signed by more than 54,000 people, calls on Biden to return the garden to its ‘former glory’ as Jacqueline Kennedy designed

Efforts to erase the Trump family legacy have reached the White House potting sheds and nurseries with Jill Biden being urged to restore the mansion’s garden to a state that predates ex-First Lady Melania Trump’s 2019 makeover.

An online petition calling on the first lady to return the Rose Garden to its “former glory” has been signed by more than 54,000 people. The petition says Biden’s predecessor “had the cherry trees, a gift from Japan, removed as well as the rest of the foliage and replaced with a boring tribute to herself”.

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Joe Biden’s 100 days in office rally interrupted by protesters – video

During a speech at a drive-in rally in Duluth, Georgia, to mark 100 days in office, Joe Biden was briefly interrupted by protesters calling for an end to private prisons, a demand that Biden agreed to, saying that the US was 'working to close all of them'.

The president praised the conviction of Derek Chauvin, the police officer found guilty of killing George Floyd, and declared that 'America is on the move again, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, light over darkness'. Georgia is a particularly important state for Biden after he became the first Democrat to win there since Bill Clinton in 1992 

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‘You changed America’: Biden marks first 100 days in Georgia – a state key to his victory

President promoted his $4tn plans to rebuild crumbling US infrastructure and expand the social safety net at drive-in rally

On his 100th day as US president, Joe Biden spontaneously lowered his black face mask, leaned towards the microphone and shouted: “Go Georgia, we need you!”

It was a fitting moment in a state that has more claim than most to be the ground zero of a potentially transformative presidency.

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White House investigating ‘unexplained health incidents’ similar to Havana syndrome

Two US officials experienced symptoms similar to ones suffered abroad that were probably result of directed energy device

The White House has said it is investigating “unexplained health incidents” after a report that two US officials in the Washington area experienced sudden symptoms similar to the “Havana syndrome” symptoms suffered by American diplomats and spies abroad.

Related: CIA file on Russian ESP experiments released – but you knew that, didn't you?

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Joe Biden’s speech to Congress: five key takeaways

The president introduced his $1.8tn plan to invest in America, funded by raising the capital gains rate for the wealthy

As Biden took the podium, he brushed past a sparse, masked crowd. He fist-bumped and elbow-tapped lawmakers and members of his cabinet – greeting a crowd that was physically distanced, and ideologically divided.

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Biden declares ‘America is on the move again’ in first congressional address – video

Joe Biden argued that ‘America is on the move again’ in his first address to Congress, on the eve of his 100th day in office. The president, flanked by two women – Vice-President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – for the first time in US history, addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the 6 January assault on the Capitol, plans to raise the minimum wage, police reform, climate change and historic levels of investment in the country. Due to social distancing measures, only 200 people, mainly politicians, attended rather than the usual 1,600 guests

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‘Crisis into opportunity’: Biden lays out vision for sweeping change in speech to Congress

President pushes ambitious families and jobs plans, calling for a ‘blue-collar blueprint’ to rebuild America

Joe Biden argued that “America is on the move again” in his first address to Congress, where he unveiled a sweeping $1.8tn package for families and education and pitched his “blue-collar blueprint” to re-build America.

Flanked by two women – Vice-President Kamala Harris and House speaker Nancy Pelosi – for the first time in US history, the president gave his speech on the eve of his 100th day in office as the country continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

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Joe Biden to set out plans to reshape America in first address to Congress – live

Joe Biden will also speak about gun violence during tonight’s speech, according to USAToday. On the presidential campaign trail, Biden pledged to reinstate the assault weapons ban and create a voluntary gun buyback program.

A White House official told the newspaper that Biden will talk about gun violence as an epidemic, which he has done in the past, and urge Congress to reinstate a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

The president’s plea appears to echo a similar one made by Obama at the State of the Union in 2013, two months after Sandy Hook, in which he told Congress victims of gun violence — many of whom were seated in the room — “deserve a vote.” Biden presided over the Senate chamber when a gun safety package failed to pass two months later.

Despite the uphill battle, Democrats are heeding the president’s call. Last week Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., reintroduced a bill to remove protections for manufacturers and sellers from consumer negligence lawsuits and allow victims of gun violence to pursue legal recourse. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a key Democrat leading gun control efforts, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper last week that he’s made calls to almost half the Republican caucus “asking them to keep an open mind.”

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter, Sam Levine, has an alarming story this morning on Republican efforts to make it harder to vote in Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office:

Even as attacks on voting rights have escalated in recent years, the Republican effort since January marks a new, more dangerous phase for American democracy, experts say.

Related: The Republicans’ staggering effort to attack voting rights in Biden’s first 100 days

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Biden hails ‘stunning progress’ on Covid but warns Americans: ‘Do not let up now’ – live

For Democrats it has been a hundred days of sweeping legislation, barrier-breaking appointments and daring to dream big. For Republicans, a hundred days in the political wilderness.

The party that just four years ago controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress now finds itself shut out of power and struggling to find its feet. As Joe Biden forges ahead with ambitions to shift the political paradigm, Republicans still have a Donald Trump problem.

Related: Republicans still orbiting Trump dark star fail to derail Biden’s first 100 days

Senate Democrats are pushing Biden to admit more refugees into the US.

Biden’s announcement earlier this month that he would not increase refugee admissions from the record low cap of 15,000 that Donald Trump set before leaving office. After intense pushback from advocates and Democratic lawmakers, Biden said he’d increase the cap by 15 May.

Related: Biden walks back refugee admissions policy after outcry and will lift cap in May

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