First: Covid ‘will get worse before it gets better’, says Biden | US News

Good Morning.

Joe Biden used the first full day of his presidency to strengthen the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, revealing a “wartime” strategy to combat the virus. Speaking from the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris and America’s leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden warned that the pandemic would “get worse before it gets better” and predicted that the death toll could rise. to 500,000. at the end of next month. So far, more than 410,000 American lives have been lost to the coronavirus.

As part of Biden’s plan, the Defense Production Act has been invoked to increase the production of PPE and other resources. Masks are now required to be worn on federal property, at airports, and on many trips, and people traveling to the U.S. must show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding the plane and self-quarantining. arrival. The President is ready to sign executive orders today aimed at fighting food insecurity and expanding safety protections for federal workers.

Fauci was at the conference in his new role as head of the US delegation to the World Health Organization, chosen by Biden in one of his first acts as president. After a tortuous relationship with Donald Trump, in which he was forced to repeatedly contradict the president for selling unsubstantiated claims about the pandemic, Fauci welcomed Biden’s focus on truth and transparency.

[Under Trump] You didn’t feel like you could actually say something and there would be some repercussion about it. The idea that you can come up here and … let science do the talking. It’s a somewhat liberating feeling. “

The public health expert also announced some big changes in the direction of US global cooperation on public health issues, revealing that the US would join the international vaccine exchange scheme, Covax, and repeal the City of Mexico. The latter, also known as the global gag rule, prevented foreign NGOs from performing or promoting abortions as a condition of receiving US aid for family planning.

• Biden’s exercise bike could be a threat to cybersecurity, according to some experts who fear that the interactive tablet on the bike, which has a microphone and webcam, could be hacked. In 2017, Michelle Obama was given a specially modified Peloton that came without a camera or microphone.

• A WHO plan for pharmaceutical companies to share information about the coronavirus has received no contributions, the Guardian has learned. The Covid-19 Technology Access Group (C-Tap) was launched in May last year to share information, including diagnostics, therapies, and trial data.

Mitch McConnell wants to delay Trump’s impeachment trial

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to delay the start of Trump’s impeachment for at least a week to give the former president more time to review the case. House Democrats voted to impeach Trump last week for his incitement to the Capitol siege earlier this month, a violent attempt to overthrow democracy that left five dead. They want a speedy trial as the case reaches the Senate, arguing that if it is prolonged it will prevent the country from moving forward.

Seventeen Republicans would have to join the Democrats in impeaching Trump for him to be convicted – unlikely, but not impossible. If that happens, Trump could be barred from holding public office again. Tom McCarthy explains where the impeachment process is and what the future might hold.

• Senior Justice Department officials tried to prevent an investigation into his role in Trump’s immigration policies. Refusing to be interviewed by the department’s inspector general about the family separation policy. Former attorney general Jeff Sessions was one of those who refused to cooperate.

• The woman who allegedly stole Pelosi’s laptop will be released from jail, a federal judge ruled yesterday. Riley June Williams reportedly helped carry off the Speaker of the House’s laptop when she stormed the Capitol as part of a violent mob of Trump supporters. She is scheduled to be released into the custody of her mother, with travel restrictions.

After four years, the US takes a step towards the climate crisis

John Kerry pledged the United States to fight the climate crisis after a four-year absence under Donald Trump, in his first remarks as the new US climate envoy. Speaking to business leaders at a G20 forum yesterday, he warned that the environmental outlook was bleak and said “no country or continent is doing the job.” Kerry called for a “total transformation of the global economy” to achieve net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, and that climate action must be dramatically accelerated.

In pushing for serious change, Kerry might have the right idea: David Sirota argues that Biden needs to be more radical if he wants a lasting legacy. According to Sirota, Obama did not achieve lasting change because he was too focused on the middle ground, and Biden should not do the same.

That reverence for the status quo, and deference to Wall Street after the financial crisis and housing collapse, ultimately helped create the reaction conditions for Trump’s rise.

In other news …

• Russia has stopped aides to opposition leader Alexei Navalny ahead of planned demonstrations this weekend in 65 cities against Navalny’s arrest. Navalny was arrested when he returned to Russia on Sunday from Germany, where he was recovering after being poisoned by novichok, believed to be the work of the Russian state.

• The release of the latest James Bond movie has been delayed again due to coronavirus. After repeated delays, the film, Daniel Craig’s last as 007, will arrive in October. The film has been marred by a host of problems, from Craig’s ankle injury to the resignation of a writer and an on-set explosion.

• Jeff Bezos’ space travel company is “very close” to flying humans, after successfully completing his 14th mission to space earlier this month. The firm Blue Origin hopes to take six space tourists on a flight to witness three minutes of weightlessness.

Stat of the day: climate disasters have cost the world economy $ 650 billion in the past three years

More than a million young people have urged governments to act on the climate crisis ahead of a meeting of world leaders next week to discuss how to adapt to extreme weather, wildfires and floods. In the past three years alone, climate-related disasters are estimated to have cost around $ 650 billion globally. The UN wanted this to be raised to $ 54 trillion by 2040.

Don’t miss this: ‘California is America, just before’

Many of Biden’s top teams are from California, and part of his political agenda is expected to be based on measures planned or enacted in the Golden State. With experts describing California as a “living laboratory for progressive ideas,” Gabrielle Canon looks at how the state will affect Biden.

The latest: a dog spent three days waiting outside the hospital for its owner

A devoted dog waited for three days outside a hospital in Turkey where his owner, Cemal Senturk, was being treated, after following the ambulance that took him there. Senturk’s daughter would take the dog, named Boncuk, which means pearl, back home, but Boncuk ran back to the hospital. The couple reunited Wednesday when Senturk got out in a wheelchair and they returned home together.

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