Abolishing the filibuster could allow Senate Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s agenda, but there are risks
While the US Senate has temporarily averted a showdown over its so-called filibuster rule, the issue appears likely to resurface, as the wafer-thin Democratic majority endeavors to pass Joe Biden’s legislative agenda into law – and Republicans try to stop them. Here’s what you need to know:
Continue reading...Countries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travel
Curfews and lockdowns Restrictions have largely been relaxed in most of Brazil’s 26 states, although several continue to limit opening hours for bars, restaurants and shops. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed this week in Brazil’s biggest state, Amazonas, after hospitals were overwhelmed.
Continue reading...App helping to fuel share-buying frenzy allows ‘limited buys’ after a $1bn cash injection to safeguard trades
Shares in companies including videogame retailer GameStop soared again on Friday, as an army of small investors taking aim at Wall Street regained access to amateur share trading platform Robinhood.
The app, weaponised by activist small investors to trap hedge funds in a “short squeeze” that has cost them $20bn on paper by some estimates, had suspended buying of stocks such as GameStop, cinema chain AMC and BlackBerry on Thursday.
Continue reading...Democratic congresswoman said Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff refused to wear masks and berated her
The Democratic representative Cori Bush said she is moving her office away from that of Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene due to safety concerns after Greene and her staff berated her and refused to wear masks.
Continue reading...The Reddit forum is at the center of a war between Wall Street and an army of small investors over the store – and Jaime Rogozinski is still getting to grips with it
Jaime Rogozinski always knew WallStreetBets, the Reddit forum he founded, was part of something big – but even he wasn’t prepared for quite how big.
Related: GameStop: how Reddit amateurs took aim at Wall Street’s short-sellers
Continue reading...Paper says Donald McNeil Jr ‘showed extremely poor judgement’ in using racist language on a Times-endorsed educational trip
The New York Times has confirmed the paper investigated and “disciplined” its high-profile public health and Covid-19 reporter after he used racial slurs during a trip with high school students in 2019.
Donald McNeil Jr, a 45-year veteran of the paper and its lead reporter on the coronavirus pandemic, was accused by a number of students of using the N-word during a Times-endorsed educational trip to Peru. The reporter also suggested he did not believe in white privilege and used stereotypes about Black teenagers, according to complaints filed to the paper, which were reported by the Daily Beast.
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The prospect that former president Donald Trump was ready to strike up on his own and split off from the Republican party appears to be receding, at least according to this report from Newsweek’s Jacob Jarvis. He writes:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump met in Florida yesterday, and it was discussed that Trump would back Republican candidates for 2022.
“President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022,” McCarthy said in a statement.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has told CNN he does not having any regrets over voting not to certify all of November’s election results, but also claimed that he was not attempting to overturn the election result – a statement that appears to contradict his earlier position. Manu Raju, CNN’s Chief Congressional correspondent, writes:
In the aftermath of pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol seeking to stop the January 6 certification of Biden’s win, the first-term Missouri Republican senator has faced a barrage of criticism over his decision to contest the results of Pennsylvania. But Hawley has said he has “no” regrets, telling CNN: “I was very clear from the beginning that I was never attempting to overturn the election.”
Yet before 6 January 6, Hawley didn’t rule out the possibility that Congress could throw out the electoral results and keep Trump in office.
Continue reading...Elon Musk ought to turn his hand to printers, and if only Anthony Fauci could sort out US healthcare
The first full week under President Biden and life undergoes an immediate improvement: save for a few pieces about plunging membership at Mar-a-Lago, there are almost no photos of Himself on the front pages. The daily anger spike is gone, leaving in its place a flat, sour, hungover feeling, and a sense of not knowing quite what to do.
Continue reading...‘Women’s bodies are not political bargaining chips’ says UNFPA director, as US funding restored after Trump era
The decision by US president Joe Biden to refund the UN population fund, UNFPA, offers “a ray of hope for millions of people around the world”, said the agency’s executive director.
Dr Natalia Kanem said the announcement on Thursday would have an “enormous” impact on the agency’s work, particularly as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian
Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.
Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war.
Continue reading...Obama-era diplomat Robert Malley will face task of repairing ties that worsened under Trump after withdrawal from nuclear pact
The Biden administration is expected name Robert Malley, a former top adviser in the Obama administration, as special envoy for Iran, according to multiple sources.
Malley was a key member of former Barack Obama’s team that negotiated the nuclear accord with Iran and world powers, an agreement that Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 in the face of strong opposition from Washington’s European allies.
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In addition to rescinding the ‘global gag rule’ on Thursday, Joe Biden ordered funding restored to the UN population fund, UNFPA, which Trump stopped.
UNFPA said the US decision to restore funding will have an “enormous” impact on the agency’s work, particularly coming as the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
Related: Joe Biden axes 'global gag rule' but health groups call on him to go further
It was a big day for the country’s first second gentleman, or as he is also known, the SGOTUS (yes).
Today, Kamala Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, tweeted that the title “second gentleman” has been officially recognized by Merriam Webster’s dictionary and wrote: “I might be the first, but I won’t be the last.”
President’s move to end ‘abortion ban’ on overseas funding hailed – now aid groups want apology for harmful Trump policies
Health groups around the world are celebrating the end of a harmful policy banning US funding for overseas aid organisations that facilitate or promote abortion, which was scrapped by the US president, Joe Biden, in a presidential memorandum on Thursday.
Reproductive rights advocates are urging the new administration to now go further and permanently repeal the Mexico City policy – known as the “global gag rule” – to prevent it being reinstated by a future Republican president. The policy has been blamed for contributing to thousands of maternal deaths in the developing world over the past four years.
Continue reading...A visibly angry Nancy Pelosi accused Republican leaders of showing disregard to the victims of school shootings after the QAnon-supporting congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was assigned a seat on the House education committee. Greene has previously suggested the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida was a 'false flag' and was filmed harassing a teenage survivor on Capitol Hill in 2019. 'She has mocked the killing of little children,' Pelosi said. 'What could they be thinking? Or is thinking too strong a word for what they might be doing?'
Continue reading...Mission is politically charged as China seeks to avoid blame for alleged missteps in outbreak response
An international team of World Health Organization experts has emerged from quarantine in the Chinese city of Wuhan, to begin much-delayed fieldwork into the origins of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic.
The fact-finding mission has been beset by controversy after the WHO accused China of dragging its heels over arrangements. The team arrived more than a year after doctors in the city first raised the alarm about a mystery new illness spreading among their patients.
Continue reading...Letter sent to Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy asks if Congress members can use personal allowances for additional security
Pervasive fear among some members of Congress that they will be the targets of further politically motivated violence following the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol has led more than 30 of them write a letter to House leaders.
The group sent the letter to the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Republican minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, asking for more support over security concerns.
Continue reading...Analysis: Pompeo’s replacement, Antony Blinken, has pledged to put experts at the center of diplomacy and listen dissenting views
No statues were toppled at the state department after Mike Pompeo’s departure. It was a changing of the guard, rather than regime change. But in one case at least, his legacy was brought down quickly and visibly.
On the day of the inauguration, workmen brought down a giant placard about “professional ethos” that the former secretary of state had erected at the main entrance to mark his first year in office.
Continue reading...Meteoric rise fizzles out after small investors are barred from trading in groups that had soared in value
Small investors mounting an assault on Wall Street speculators suffered a setback on Thursday as trading platforms banned them from buying more shares in GameStop, spawning conspiracy theories, political intervention and at least one lawsuit.
Amateur trading app Robinhood stopped users from investing any further in GameStop – a US chain of video games stores – and seven other companies on Thursday, after an extraordinary rise in their value, spurred by users of the chat forum website Reddit, that cost some hedge funds billions of dollars.
Continue reading...The Trump years were a powerful creative muse for self-published erotic and romance literature. We review four of the most memorable
If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to, say, have a sexual encounter with Mike Pence, Kindle has you covered.
In recent years, Amazon’s e-books market has nurtured a flourishing cottage industry of self-published romance and erotic literature – and the Trump years have inspired many to put pen to paper. The most successful authors (most write under pseudonyms) are known for their prolific publication, thesaurus-aided descriptions of the human anatomy, and responsiveness to current events.
Continue reading...French health authority says only enough doses left for second shots from 2 February; Brazil’s president rows back after criticism over patchy rollout
Turkey will receive the remaining portion of a second consignment of 10 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech by Friday morning, health minister Fahrettin Koca said, Reuters reports.
Turkey received 6.5 million doses of the second consignment on Monday, following an initial consignment of 3 million doses nearly a month ago. It has so far vaccinated nearly 1.7 million people, mostly health workers and elderly people, according to health ministry data.
The first portion of the 10 million dose second consignment of inactive vaccine had arrived at the weekend. As of this morning (Friday), the second portion will have arrived in our country. Vaccines consignments will continue in accordance with the procurement programme,” Koca said on Twitter.
The UK’s prime minister has given his reaction to the Novavax vaccine trial.
Good news that the @Novavax vaccine has proved effective in UK trials. Thank you to all the volunteers who made these results possible.
Our medicines regulator will now assess the vaccine, which will be made in Teesside. If approved, we have 60m doses on order.