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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Biden’s 100 days: bold action and broad vision amid grief and turmoil

Biden’s solution to the myriad crises is an ambitious economic agenda that promises to ‘own the future’ by expanding the role of government in American life

On the 50th day of his presidency, Joe Biden marched into the Oval Office and took a seat behind the Resolute desk, where the massive, 628-page American Rescue Plan awaited his signature. Across the room hung a portrait of Franklin D Roosevelt, a nod to the transformative presidency Biden envisions for a nation tormented by disease, strife and division.

Related: Biden presidency: return to ‘normal’ belies an audacious agenda

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Val Demings: officer who shot Ma’Khia Bryant ‘responded as he was trained’

Val Demings, a Democratic congresswoman and a former police chief, said on Sunday the officer who fatally shot teenager Ma’Khia Bryant in Ohio this week “responded as he was trained to do”.

Related: Derek Chauvin was found guilty – how typical is that of US police who kill?

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‘We take safety seriously’: Fauci says J&J vaccine pause should raise confidence

Advisory panel voted to resume Johnson & Johnson vaccine as the administration tries to curb deadly outbreaks across the US

Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said on Sunday the recent pause on the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine should raise confidence in health agencies’ focus on vaccine safety, as the administration tries to curb deadly outbreaks across the US.

Related: No parades, no hugs: Disneyland is reopening - but will the magic be back?

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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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Trump delayed $20bn in aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, report finds

Funding was ‘unnecessarily delayed’ by bureaucratic obstacles, after hurricane killed thousands of people in 2017

The Trump administration delayed more than $20bn in hurricane relief aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, according to a report by the housing department’s office of the inspector General.

The efforts to deliver recovery funding to the island were “unnecessarily delayed by bureaucratic obstacles”, according to the 46-page report. The hurricane, which hit the island in 2017, killed thousands of people and left thousands more without electricity or water for months.

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George Floyd: a landmark moment for justice in America? – video

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin drew the attention of the world to Minneapolis, the focal point of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd. In some parts of the city people have reclaimed the streets, while others are under military occupation. With the area reeling from yet another recent police killing, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone spent time with activists, lawyers, witnesses and members of the Floyd family to see how this landmark moment in American racial justice is shaping the city

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‘We are able to breathe again’: George Floyd’s family reacts to Derek Chauvin verdict – video

Members of George Floyd’s family choked back tears while speaking of their relief that the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder in their brother's death. ‘Today, we are able to breathe again,’ George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd told reporters. The Floyd family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, said they were leaving the court knowing ‘that America is a better country’

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Derek Chauvin found guilty of George Floyd’s murder and taken away in handcuffs – video

Derek Chauvin has been convicted of murder for killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes, a crime that prompted a wave of protests in support of racial justice in the US and across the world. The jury swiftly and unanimously convicted Chauvin of all the charges he faced – second and third degree murder, and manslaughter – after concluding that the white former Minneapolis police officer killed the 46-year-old black man through a criminal assault by pinning him to the ground so he could not breathe properly. A lack of oxygen in turn caused brain damage, heart failure and death in May last year

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

  • Ex-president laments ‘when we scare people about immigration’
  • Bush signals he is out of step with modern Republican party
  • US politics – live coverage

George W Bush has called the Republican party under Donald Trump “isolationist, protectionist and … nativist” – a judgment unlikely to make the former US president new friends on the American right.

Related: George W Bush is back – but not all appreciate his new progressive image

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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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Walter Mondale, former US vice-president and celebrated liberal, dies aged 93

Former senator and ambassador lost one of the most lopsided US elections in history to Ronald Reagan

Walter F Mondale, the former vice-president and liberal leader who lost to Ronald Reagan in one of the most lopsided presidential elections, has died at the age of 93.

A towering figure in the Democratic party who resolutely put humility and honesty before the glitz of mass communication, Mondale’s death marked something of an end of an era in US politics. He was described by a biographer as the last major American politician to resist the allure of television.

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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: Republican vaccine deniers are hurting efforts to lift Covid restrictions

‘On the one hand they want to be relieved of the restrictions. On the other hand, they don’t want to get vaccinated’

Republicans who refuse the Covid-19 vaccination are actively “working against” efforts to lift the very coronavirus restrictions they insist are an infringement of their civil liberties, Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s leading infectious disease expert, said on Sunday.

Fauci, who was involved in a fiery exchange over the issue with the Republican congressman Jim Jordan on Thursday, told CNN’s State of the Union he was frustrated by recent studies showing that up to 45% of Republicans would not take the vaccine.

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The US is pulling out of Afghanistan. But it will never leave those of us who served there

Historians will judge America’s longest war. Now, the sounds of helicopters over my home take me back to Losano Ridge, Gardez, the men I fought for and those who did not return

I am one of more than 800,000 American military veterans who have served in Afghanistan since 2001. Tens of thousands more served in other capacities, from intelligence and diplomacy to aid and development. It’s fair to ask whether the end of the war affects how one views his or her own small role in the effort. If we didn’t “win”, whatever winning means in a war like this, did we matter? Were the sacrifices in vain?

Related: Damned either way, Biden opts out of Afghanistan as US tires of ‘forever wars’

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Empire of Pain review: the Sacklers, opioids and the sickening of America

Patrick Radden Keefe delivers a damning account of Purdue Pharma, Oxycontin and a family that grew rich

By 2016, opioids had torn a piece out of Appalachia and the rust belt. The deep drop in life expectancy among white Americans without four-year degrees would no longer be ignored. OxyContin, Purdue Pharma’s highly addictive painkiller, helped elect Donald Trump.

Related: George Floyd's girlfriend shared his opioids pain – Derek Chauvin refused to see it

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Biden faces pressure to end practice of rewarding donors with plum foreign posts

Former state department career staff urge president to dismantle pay-for-play operations and to prioritize gender parity

Joe Biden is coming under pressure from former state department career staff to match the diversity of his cabinet and senior administration positions in foreign postings – and to reform the longstanding practice in the US of rewarding political supporters with plum ambassadorial jobs.

More than three months into his first term, Biden’s foreign diplomatic slate remains open, with only one top ambassador – Linda Thomas-Greenfield, to the United Nations, nominated and confirmed.

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Roger Stone ‘funded lavish lifestyle’ despite owing $2m in taxes, US lawsuit says

US justice department accuses Trump ally and Republican operative of using a commercial entity to hide income

The US Department of Justice has sued Roger Stone, saying the close ally of former president Donald Trump owes about $2m in unpaid federal income taxes, according to a court document.

The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida on Friday, alleged that Stone and his wife, Nydia, used a commercial entity to “shield their personal income from enforced collection and fund a lavish lifestyle despite owing nearly $2m in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties”.

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