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yehbru

Georgia Senate Republicans Seek To Nix No-Excuse Absentee Voting : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...-end-no-excuse-absentee-voting

US Politics Georgia Democrats Republicans Voting

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  • Republicans in the Georgia Senate have narrowly approved an omnibus voting bill that would end no-excuse absentee voting 16 years after Republicans first enacted it.
  • Instead of allowing anyone to request an absentee ballot, the bill would limit it to people who are over 65, are physically disabled, are required to be outside their voting precinct during the three-week in-person early voting period and Election Day, have a religious holiday that falls on Election Day, work in elections or qualify as a military or overseas absentee voter.
  • "This is not preventing anyone from voting by mail-in absentee," he said. "All this is doing is laying the groundwork for relieving the stresses as we continue to see moving forward."
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  • Gov. Brian Kemp, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and Duncan — all Republicans — have indicated they do not support curbing mail-in voting.
  • Sen. Sheikh Rahman, another Democrat, said Republicans should focus less on laws restricting voting and more on talking to voters about their policies.
  • The House has passed its own 66-page omnibus bill that would add additional ID requirements for absentee ballots, strip some power from the secretary of state's office and standardize early voting hours, making most counties add additional days and hours but limit larger, more diverse and Democratic-leaning counties.
yehbru

Uyghurs in China: What Biden should do about China's atrocities (opinion) - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics China US Biden Uighurs International

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  • China has since banned BBC World News from airing in the country and denied the abuse, telling CNN that "it is strictly forbidden to insult and abuse trainees in any way."
  • But the women's accounts add to a record that includes reports of forced abortions and sterilizations, high-tech surveillance, and Uyghur children being separated from their parents.
  • Either the United States and the world will finally go beyond tepid criticism and respond with real action, or we can forget about values, universal rights, and international law.
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  • A clear and consistent position from the US would allow for a whole-of-government response and ensure the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act and Section 307 of the Tariff Act are fully enforced. These laws sanction parties involved in human rights abuses, identify where goods produced with forced labor are entering the US supply chain, and bans their import.
  • Biden raised his concerns over the oppression of the Uyghurs which, while a good step, was insufficient when not backed by uniform US policy. What's needed is a comprehensive strategy that holds China accountable for its human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and prioritizes ending violence.
  • While former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rightly declared the crimes against the Uyghurs a genocide, the Trump administration's approach to China and to human rights more broadly was spotty and inconsistent at best.
  • In addition, a cross-agency response should focus in particular on allegations of gender-based violence perpetrated against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Biden has already established a White House Gender Policy Council and has made clear that he plans to engage with the UN's Women, Peace, and Security agenda (neglected by the Trump administration) to put gender equality and freedom from gender-based violence at the heart of US diplomacy.
  • Too often in the past, hosting the Olympics has allowed authoritarian regimes to peddle propaganda and gain legitimacy -- from the Nazis in 1936 to the Soviets in 1980 to the Chinese Communist Party in 2008 and Vladimir Putin's Russia in 2014. In response to China's oppression of Uyghur communities and other human rights abuses, over 180 human rights groups and international legislators are calling for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved from Beijing or boycotted altogether.
yehbru

International Women's Day 2021: Safe water is what women want (opinion) - CNN - 0 views

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politics women WHO water access International

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  • Of the many indirect consequences of Covid-19, growing gender inequality is an area of grave concern where the world is falling grievously behind. While women labor at the frontlines, comprising 70% of the world's healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), they are also leaving the workforce at a much higher rate than men, and doing over three-quarters of all unpaid care work, including the care of children.
  • according to the WHO, 2.2 billion people don't have 2faccess to safe drinking water and, according to UN Water, 4.2 billion don't have a safe place to use the toilet.
  • As healthcare facilities are overburdened during this pandemic, one study projects that 2fwithin six months, the world could see up to an additional 57,000 maternal and 1.2 million child deaths.
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  • In fact, basic and simple hygiene practices during antenatal care, labor and birth can reduce the risk of infections, sepsis and death for infants and mothers by up to 25%, according to the WHO
  • Even before the pandemic, approximately 2f 810 women died every day 2f from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth -- 94% of these deaths occurred in low and lower middle-income countries, according to UN Women.
  • Around the world, women and children spend 200 million hours every day collecting water, according to UNICEF. This makes up an additional 266 million hours of time each day lost because they have no toilet at home.
  • According to the World Bank, 18% of the workforce in water and sanitation are women, yet they make up less than one in four managerial or engineering staff, resulting in policies and systems that aren't designed for women's needs.
yehbru

Opinion: The global economy won't recover if we don't get vaccines to developing countr... - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics Global Covid Vaccine Pandemic Economy

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  • The International Monetary Fund recently projected global GDP growth at 5.5% this year and 4.2% in 2022
  • As our note to the recent G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors points out, there is a major risk that as advanced economies and a few emerging markets recover faster, most developing countries will languish for years to come.
  • We estimate that, by the end of 2022, cumulative per capita income will be 13% below pre-crisis projections in advanced economies — compared with 18% for low-income countries and 22% for emerging and developing countries, excluding China.
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  • Before the crisis, we forecast that income gaps between advanced economies and 110 emerging and developing countries would narrow between 2020 and 2022. But we now estimate that only 52 economies will be catching up during that period, while 58 are set to fall behind.
  • Last year, advanced economies on average deployed about 24% of GDP in fiscal measures, compared with only 6% in emerging markets and less than 2% in low-income countries
  • Insuring vaccine producers against the downside risks of overproduction may be an option worth considering.
  • Faster progress in ending the health crisis could raise global income cumulatively by $9 trillion between 2020 and 2025. That would benefit all countries, including around $4 trillion for advanced economies — which beats by far any measure of vaccine-related costs.
  • One risk going forward — especially in the face of diverging recoveries — is the potential for market volatility in response to changing financial conditions. Major central banks will need to carefully communicate their monetary policy plans to prevent excess volatility in financial markets, both at home and in the rest of the world.
  • For its part, the IMF has stepped up in an unprecedented manner by providing over $105 billion in new financing to 85 countries and debt service relief for our poorest members. We aim to do even more to support our 190 member countries in 2021 and beyond.
  • The alternative — to leave poorer countries behind — would only entrench abject inequality. Even worse, it would represent a major threat to global economic and social stability. And it would rank as a historic missed opportunity.
yehbru

New Zealand On Alert As A Family Tests Positive For The Coronavirus : Coronavirus Updat... - 0 views

www.npr.org/...new-coronavirus-cases-detected

Politics Global New Zealand Covid

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  • After three members of a family in New Zealand's largest city tested positive for the coronavirus, the city of Auckland has gone into lockdown — and the entire country is on high alert.
  • With just 2,330 confirmed cases and 25 deaths since the coronavirus pandemic began, the island nation has been one of the most successful countries in the world at controlling the spread of the coronavirus.
  • But no one in the infected family had recently traveled, and authorities are investigating how the infection might have occurred.
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  • "As we continue to explore all possible sources of transmission for these cases, we will take a particularly close interest in this workplace because of its obvious connections to the border," said Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, one of the country's top health officials.
  • A border will be put in place around Auckland, but people will be able to cross the border by getting an exemption from the government, Ardern said.
  • The rest of the country now goes to Alert Level 2 for the same amount of time. That requires physical distancing, greater record-keeping by businesses and compulsory mask-wearing on public transportation. Mass gatherings will be limited to 100 people.
yehbru

Opinion: Navalny's stand shows Putin a new generation of freedom seekers are no longer ... - 0 views

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Politics Global Russia Navalny Putin Freedom Protest

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  • Navalny had previously survived an assassination attempt by poisoning from the Russian government which it denies, and then recovered in a safe foreign country, so why would he go back to Russia?
  • Though necessary at that moment, our escape delivered something that dictators crave. They want to be feared, and nothing cements that more than running from them.
  • When news of Navalny's poisoning and evacuation from Russia broke, it drew support and empathy for his campaign of exposing Putin's misgovernance. Inadvertently, however, it also further instilled the fear of Putin into those who oppose him.
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  • Just as dictators love to be feared, democracy and freedom activists hate to give dictators the comfort of believing they are feared.
  • The importance of Navalny's stand is that he carries on his shoulders the hopes of freedom for millions oppressed by Putin's dictatorship. Whilst one person cannot fight the battle and win, the nature of the assignment of speaking truth to power requires that the face of such a movement continues to inspire those in the trenches and those still on the side-lines, by displaying courage through being present to face the beast on the battleground.
  • The more important reason I returned, however, was to send a message simultaneously to both dictator Mugabe and the people of our nation, that a new generation of freedom seekers was no longer prepared to run from the regime.
  • It's about the genuine belief that Putin's regime must be challenged and democratically dismantled. It's about his understanding of the grave responsibility to keep an idea alive that ignites hope and creates a pathway to freedom.
yehbru

Opinion: To stop the global pandemic, rich countries need to stop hoarding vaccines - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics US Covid Pandemic Vaccine Global distribution

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  • The European Union has in recent weeks been engaged in a dispute with vaccine makers after AstraZeneca admitted it was expecting a major shortfall in production, and has been accused of prioritizing deliveries to the UK. In response, European officials have introduced temporary export restrictions on vaccines produced in its territories, giving member states the option of limiting exports outside the EU to countries like the UK, the United States and even South Africa.
  • Wealthy countries are locked in a self-defeating and ultimately avoidable zero-sum game over vaccine supplies. And it is a game that poorer countries will inevitably lose -- to the cost of us all.
  • Rich countries have ordered enough doses to vaccinate their populations three times over, while 9 in 10 people in nearly 70 poorer countries are unlikely to be vaccinated at all this year.
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  • They might be seated first, but the plane will only take off to its Covid-free destination once all the passengers -- both rich and poor -- are on board.
  • The situation in South Africa underscores exactly why the world can't afford to engage in this everyone-for-themselves approach. As new variants of Covid-19 emerge, including a new strain identified by South African scientists that appears to be more contagious than the original strain, the stakes have become even higher for ensuring rapid and equitable delivery of vaccines.
  • Getting the vaccine to the world's poorest will require an approach based on solidarity rather than competition, with governments and companies working together to boost global supply rather than fight over it.
  • There are some glimmers of hope: The recent news that companies including Pfizer, Sanofi, GSK and Curevac have struck deals with each other to produce more vaccines shows that progress can be made together
  • Pharmaceutical companies must fulfil their human rights responsibilities too, which is why Amnesty International is campaigning for companies, including AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, to share their knowledge and technology so that everyone in the world will have a fair shot at a vaccine.
yehbru

Opinion: The global problems Biden can't avoid - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics US Covid Biden Global

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  • . But he has also committed to reestablishing international US leadership, with "humility and confidence"
  • As IRC's 2021 Watchlist reveals, this toxic mix is driving unprecedented humanitarian need and reversing decades of hard-won progress worldwide. As our report notes, the 20 countries in crisis on the list represent just 10% of the global population, but account for 85% of those in humanitarian need.
  • The Covid-19 pandemic has increased global humanitarian needs by 40% over the last year alone -- increasing the pressure on already fragile societies
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  • And while wealthy nations have allocated over $11 trillion for domestic Covid-19 responses, the UNs' Global Covid Humanitarian Response Plan -- meant to coordinate and rally support for crisis -- and conflict-affected countries -- is currently less than 40% funded.
  • Analysis by the International Chamber of Commerce found that the global economy could lose as much as $9.2 trillion if vaccines are not equitably distributed to low-income countries, with wealthy nations bearing half that loss. Unmanaged instability, insecurity, migration and climate change have similar consequences for US interests.
  • Women and girls bear the greatest brunt of humanitarian crises and are critical to resolving them and rebuilding their communities. With women representing 70% of the global care workforce and producing as much as 70% of the food in some low-income nations, there is a double dividend in prioritizing them.
  • America's absence during the previous administration created a spiral of disengagement that has left the world leaderless at this crucial time. And while the US cannot resolve these challenges alone, US leadership can encourage others to share the burden.
  • Sustained improvement in these destabilizing displacement crises will deliver humanitarian and strategic benefit -- but it will take aid, diplomacy, sustained engagement and coordination with donors, UN agencies and international financial institutions.
  • The Institute for Economics and Peace estimates that for every $1 the US spends on conflict prevention, it saves $16 in response costs.
  • Of the nearly $4 trillion has allocated to combat the pandemic, just less than 0.2% has been allocated to support the international Covid-19 response, including $4 billion for the global vaccine effort. The ICC study indicates that the $27.2 billion needed to close the gap on global vaccine distribution could deliver a return "as high as 166 times the investment."
  • The US cannot lead without getting its own house in order -- keeping President Biden's commitment to resettle 125,000 refugees in his first year; building a humane, credible, efficient US asylum system that protects those in need of safety; reinvigorating humanitarian diplomacy, engagement with the UN and the multilateral financing institutions to leverage US resettlement and aid into global action. 2021 celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Refugee Convention.
  • With the US presidency of the UN Security Council in March, the Biden administration can lead the world in reinvigorating the laws of war and rally other democratic nations to hold violators accountable.
yehbru

Opinion: The world watches, stunned as Trump is cleared - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics US Trump Biden Impeachment Global

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  • The BBC was one of many outlets that carried the Senate proceedings live. France24 television broadcast much of the proceedings on their English and French services, with simultaneous translation into French, including the final vote and subsequent responses by Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell
  • In some even quite liberal quarters abroad Trump's acquittal now simply reinforces a fundamental belief that America has strayed off course.
  • Indeed, just as President Joe Biden was announcing he would sanction Myanmar's military leaders for seizing power by force of arms, the House impeachment managers were describing in brutal detail how then-President Trump sought to strongarm himself into a second term he'd failed to win at the ballot box.
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  • The great fear in many quarters abroad is that Trump's budding autocracy was not simply a brutal interregnum, and that Biden's administration is but a brief interlude before America plunges again into the deep spiral that has marked the last four years.
  • It's likely that much (but not all) of the world has watched not out of pure curiosity or voyeurism but out of horror and fear, that Trump's actions and the fact that only seven of the 50 Republican senators were willing to vote for his conviction -- too few to cross the two-thirds majority threshold needed to convict -- have only accelerated the dimming of democracy and freedom America represented
  • "speaks to something increasingly problematic about the American political system's ultimate ability to curtail presidential abuses of power: for many the impeachment process no longer presents much of a threat or deterrent to bad, or even illegal, behavior by the most powerful figure in the land," noted The Guardian newspaper.
  • President Biden was dialing up China's Xi Jinping, reading him the riot act as Trump never did -- warning him that America would no longer ignore gross human rights abuses from Xinjiang to Hong Kong, nor its military's threats from the South China Sea to Taiwan.
  • "Trump did not change my perception of America and Americans, he showed all of us the two faces of America, while many until now had seen only one."
yehbru

Georgia medical center suspended from vaccination program after inoculating school dist... - 1 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics US Covid Vaccine Georgia Schools

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  • A rural Georgia medical center has been suspended from the state's Covid-19 vaccination program for six months after the facility administered vaccines to staff of the local school district.
  • The Georgia Department of Public Health was notified Tuesday that the Medical Center of Elberton had been vaccinating Elbert County School District staff members who were outside of the Phase 1A+ category of people eligible for the vaccine.
  • "It's hard to wear a mask when you're trying to teach students sounds," Superintendent Jarvis told CNN affiliate WXIA. "The vaccination for teachers, bus drivers, school nutrition workers ... they should be considered in the first group in my opinion."
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  • During the suspension, the rural medical center won't be eligible for Covid-19 vaccine shipments, though it will be allowed to use the remaining vaccine inventory for second-dose administration to patients "as applicable," DPH said.
  • But health experts across the country say that the distribution of the vaccine is slow, and it will be months longer until all Americans can be inoculated.
yehbru

If Republicans don't denounce Marjorie Taylor Greene's extremism, they'll own it (opini... - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

Politics US Republicans Democrats Majorie Taylor Greene

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  • CNN's review this week of hundreds of posts and comments from Greene's Facebook account from 2018 and 2019 -- before she was elected to Congress --revealed that she had repeatedly advocated executing prominent Democratic politicians.
  • "Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off."
  • Greene "liked" a comment that said "a bullet to the head would be quicker" to remove House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other comments about executing so-called "deep state" FBI agents.
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  • In a way, her online behavior is less troubling than the fact that hundreds of her congressional Republican colleagues have stayed silent about it.
  • Senators have privately expressed "disdain" about Trump's conduct both in undermining the result of the 2020 election and in the run-up to the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol that put all of their lives in danger. Still, it is widely reported that they are concerned about how a vote to convict Trump might lead to a political backlash.
yehbru

Why The Coronavirus Variant From Brazil Is Especially Worrisome To Scientists : Goats a... - 0 views

www.npr.org/...-about-the-variant-from-brazil

Politics US Brazil Covid Vaccine Mutation

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  • There's one from the U.K., which is more contagious and already circulating in the United States. There's one from South Africa, which is forcing Moderna and Pfizer to reformulate their COVID-19 vaccines and create "booster" shots, just to make sure the vaccines maintain their efficacies.
  • A variant called P.1, which emerged in early December in Manaus, Brazil, and by mid-January had already caused a massive resurgence in cases across the city of 2 million people.
  • "Manaus already had 75% of people infected [in the spring of last year]."
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  • Scientists don't understand why the variant has spread so explosively in Brazil, and the variant carries a particularly dangerous set of mutations.
  • One study estimated that the population should have reached herd immunity and the virus shouldn't be able to spread easily in the community. So why would the city see an even bigger surge 10 months later? Could P.1 be evading the antibodies made against the previous version of the virus, making reinfections easier?
  • "So when we see a whole lot of mutations in [those surfaces], it raises the possibility that the mutations might be conferring immune escape." That is, the mutations are helping the virus evade antibodies or escape recognition by them. In essence, the mutations are providing the virus with a type of invisibility cloak.
  • "In fact, it was really quite a dramatic drop-off in sensitivity. We saw that in half of the serum, the antibodies were significantly less effective against the new variant [from South Africa]." So far, scientists haven't tested out P.1 in similar neutralization experiments, but P.1 has two mutations that scientists have already shown reduce antibody binding.
  • "We've been here before with the flu. We're having to live with influenza and figure out a way of staying ahead of the virus by making vaccines on a yearly basis," said Gupta at the University of Cambridge.
yehbru

DHS Warns Of 'Heightened Threat Environment' From Domestic Violent Extremists : Biden T... - 1 views

www.npr.org/...om-domestic-violent-extremists

Politics US Biden Trump Department of Homeland Security Violent Extremists

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  • The Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin on Wednesday warning of a continued threat from domestic violent extremists.
  • "a heightened threat environment across the United States, which DHS believes will persist in the weeks following the successful Presidential Inauguration."
  • "Information suggests that some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence," the bulletin said.
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  • Homeland Security and the FBI issued no such bulletin in advance of the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., despite chatter online that suggested violence could occur that day. The bulletin posted on Wednesday said some extremists may be "emboldened" by the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
  • It also said that some violent extremists are driven by "long-standing racial and ethnic tension," including opposition to immigration, citing the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman killed 23 people.
  • "The domestic terrorism attack on our Capitol earlier this month shined a light on a threat that has been right in front of our faces for years. I am glad to see that DHS fully recognizes the threat posed by violent, right-wing extremists, and is taking efforts to communicate that threat to the American people," he said in a statement posted on Twitter.
yehbru

Covid-19 stats are dipping, as variants lurk and vaccines lag - CNN - 0 views

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Politics US Covid Biden Vaccine Variant World Health Organization

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  • The United States still is at one of its worst spots of the coronavirus pandemic. Daily deaths are near a peak, and other daily stats still are stunningly high compared to where they'd been before a late 2020 surge.
  • Yet Covid-19 case and hospitalization numbers have been falling. Vaccines are here, more versions may be near and warmer weather is approaching.
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci made that prediction last week, assuming 70% to 85% of the US population was vaccinated by end of summer.
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  • And variants of the virus that appear to be more transmissible are turning up more frequently, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which warns they could worsen the already raging spread of the virus.
  • experts including Fauci are optimistic that current vaccines will largely protect against known variants, though they warn the more the virus spreads, the greater chance mutations could defeat current vaccines.
  • Health experts had warned that the November-December holidays, with boosts in travel and indoor gatherings, would send Covid-19 cases soaring.
  • And the country has reported fewer than 200,000 new cases a day for 10 straight days -- the longest such stretch since before Thanksgiving.
  • Experts have said movements in the volume of deaths can lag weeks behind case and hospitalization numbers, because those who succumb to the disease can first be sick for weeks.
  • The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has stressed that rich nations need to do more to ensure vaccines are available worldwide.
  • Researchers also are eying a variant found in California, Fauci said Monday, though it is unclear if it is more transmissible.
  • "The best way you prevent the evolution of mutants is to suppress the amount of virus that's circulating in the population. And the best way to do that is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as you possibly can," Fauci told CNN on Monday.
  • Evidence indicates the effectiveness of vaccine-induced antibodies might be diminished against the mutant first seen in South Africa, but "it's still well within the cushion-range of being an effective vaccine," Fauci said.
  • Moderna said it would develop a potential booster shot against this variant, just to be safe.
  • Biden said Monday he hoped to eventually increase the pace to 1.5 million shots a day. The time frame also would shrink if some people get one-dose vaccines, such as the candidate from Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to reports result of its Phase 3 trials soon.
  • That includes one first identified in the UK (B.1.1.7), one first seen in Brazil (P.1) and one seen in South Africa (B.1.351).
  • Biden last week signed an executive order requiring masks in federal buildings and on federal lands, and asked Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office.
yehbru

Can The Forces Unleashed By Trump's Big Election Lie Be Undone? : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...mps-big-election-lie-be-undone

Politics US Trump Election

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  • Among the thousands of falsehoods Trump has uttered during his presidency, this one in particular has earned the distinction of being called the "big lie." It's a charged term, with connotations that trace back to its roots in Nazi Germany.
  • "I think the American public has a real good, clear look at who they are," Biden told reporters two days after the Capitol was attacked. "They're part of the big lie, the big lie."
  • Reflecting on his birth country's history, Schwarzenegger said, "It all started with lies and lies and lies and intolerance. So, being from Europe, I've seen firsthand how things can spin out of control."
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  • "It doesn't mean that Trump is quite a fascist himself," Snyder adds. "Imagine what comes after that, right? Imagine if the big lie continues. Imagine if there's someone who's more skillful in using it than he is. Then we're starting to move into clearly fascist territory."
  • "The big lie fills in this space which used to be taken up by a lot of little truths, by hundreds and thousands and millions of little truths," Snyder says. "We've let that slip away. And then the big lie comes in and fills in the gap."
  • "I don't actually think that we should get caught up in the origins of where this term — the big lie — comes from," she says, "because this is clearly a lie on a large scale that was meant to have political consequences and was also intended to pit one group of people within society against another."
  • Trump has told so many falsehoods that he has effectively normalized lying, Hill says, and he has taken his cues from the autocrats he publicly admires.
  • Neutralizing the big lie won't be easy, Hill says. "Some people will always believe it. That is also an element of the big lie. It takes root. And no matter what you do, it becomes extraordinarily hard to refute it for some people.
  • "the lie outlasts the liar."
yehbru

Death Penalty: As Trump leaves office, Supreme Court liberal justices lash out at unpre... - 0 views

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Politics US Trump Death Penalty _supreme Court

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  • the liberal justices of the Supreme Court spent Trump's last full week in office battling his administration's long-term objective to execute 13 federal death row inmates in six months.
  • Late Friday night, over the fiery objection of two Supreme Court justices, Dustin John Higgs became the 13th federal inmate to be put to death.
  • Sotomayor wrote: "To put that in historical context, the Federal Government will have executed more than three times as many people in the last six months than it had in the previous six decades."
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  • But Justice Stephen Breyer -- the only sitting justice who believes the court should reconsider the constitutionality of the death penalty -- and Justice Sonia Sotomayor lashed out in a late-night order that recounted details of all the executions.
  • Breyer said the court needed to address a myriad of questions including whether the government's protocol risks extreme pain and needless suffering. He said that all of the claims brought -- many last-minute -- were not frivolous.
  • In December 2019, the court denied an appeal by the government when a District Court judge temporarily blocked the federal government from carrying out executions.
yehbru

Trump finishes with worst first term approval rating ever - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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Politics US Trump Election Approval Rating

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  • A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that President Donald Trump's approval rating stands at 33%, while his disapproval is at 60%.
  • The result is that Trump's final first term approval rating looks to be the lowest on record dating back since scientific polling began.
  • Heading into January, Trump had a 44% approval rating to 53% disapproval rating. That was not significantly different from his 45% approval rating going into the election.
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  • It means Trump will be the first president in the polling era to end his first term with an approval of below 40%, the first with a disapproval rating north of 50% and the first with a negative net (approval - disapproval) rating.
  • Unlike Trump, the average president has ended his first term since Franklin D. Roosevelt with an approval rating of just south of 60%. Even the presidents who are unsuccessful in their tries for another term often get boosts .
  • Before Trump, the previous lowest approval rating for a president at the end of his term belonged to Jimmy Carter. He remains the only president besides Trump to finish his first term with an approval rating below 50%.
  • Trump, of course, did the very opposite. He did not try to reach out to Democrats, nor did he try to achieve non-partisan or bipartisan goals in his final two months.
yehbru

How some states are administering Covid-19 vaccines at twice the speed of others - CNN - 0 views

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Politics US Covid Vaccine

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  • More than 31 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed to states and other jurisdictions in the United States, but only 12.2 million -- 39% -- have actually been administered, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • North Dakota and West Virginia lead the nation, having administered more than 65% of distributed doses. Read MoreIn comparison, Alabama and Georgia have administered only 23% of their doses and five other states have administered 30% or less.
  • In the states moving faster, strategic planning and communication, reliance on strong local partnerships and states taking ownership of the process have each played a role.
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  • "You'll hear 72 hours in Colorado all the time," he said. "We have moved vaccine from one place to another. And we are at a point now where providers understand our expectation and how seriously we take it."
  • But nationwide, the federal program has had mixed feedback, with some nursing home directors and other health care providers blaming poor logistics and bureaucracy for the slow rollout.
  • The state also broke from federal guidance on groups prioritized to receive the vaccine first, emphasizing speed over specifics.
  • In anticipation of Covid-19 vaccine emergency use authorization, Monument Health in South Dakota started to build databases of individuals under their care that would be eligible to receive the vaccine and proactively reach out to them, Dr. Shankar Kurra, vice
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Investigators pursuing signs US Capitol riot was planned - CNNPolitics - 0 views

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Politics US Trump Capitol Riot Investigation

shared by yehbru on 14 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Among the evidence the FBI is examining are indications that some participants at the Trump rally at the Ellipse, outside the White House, left the event early, perhaps to retrieve items to be used in the assault on the Capitol.
  • By Wednesday morning, the FBI reported that it had received more than 126,000 digital tips from the public regarding the attack on the Capitol -- more than three times the number of tips received on Monday.
  • On January 4, for example, local police arrested the leader of the Proud Boys, Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, in Washington, DC.
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  • Already, the public efforts by prosecutors and the FBI to encourage people who participated In the riot to turn themselves in is yielding fruit. Some attorneys have reached out to arrange for safe surrender of their clients in order to gain a measure of leniency and lessen the chance of a police raid on their homes, two officials said.
  • "With this strike force that was established to focus strictly on sedition charges, we're looking at in treating this just like a significant international counterterrorism or counterintelligence operation," DC US Attorney Michael Sherwin said Tuesday.
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