“More than 530,000 people in the US could die of Covid-19 by the end of this month, a new CDC projection claims. That would be about one death for every minute of the pandemic. The CDC has also expressed concern that emerging data may show the UK variant making its way around the world is even more deadly than the original strain. Researchers in the US are assuming there are far more cases of these international strains out there than are being reported. But there is some comforting news, too. Global vaccine confidence is rising, according to a survey, with more than half of people in 15 countries saying they’d take the vaccine if offered. And COVAX, a vaccine-sharing initiative, has announced its plan to distribute more than 330 million doses to developing nations in the first half of the year.” Read more at CNN
“New coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement.
The big picture: The U.S. still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.
By the numbers: Nationwide, the U.S. is averaging about 139,000 new cases per day — a 16% improvement over last week, which was a 16% improvement over the week before.
The number of new hospitalizations was also down last week, by just over 26%.
And deaths fell by about 6%, to an average of 3,097 deaths per day.
Between the lines: 139,000 cases and 3,000 deaths per day is still a very bad pandemic, but at least the numbers are headed in the right direction.
The U.S. is back at about the same caseload we were experiencing shortly before Thanksgiving.
The number of new daily cases fell over the past week in 42 states, and held steady in the remaining eight states. No state got worse — another sign that this improvement could be sustainable.
Yes, but: Experts warn that a more contagious variant of the virus is quickly becoming the dominant strain within the U.S.
As it gains more ground, each infected person is more likely to infect others. And because the U.S. still has so many infected people, that could cause cases to spike again.
But the best protection against another surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths is to get cases down and keep them there — and that’s what we’re doing.” Read more at Axios
“The Justice Department has now brought more than 180 federal criminal cases against rioters and others connected to the US Capitol siege. Prosecutors are digging into some of the histories of those involved, uncovering at least one case of stolen valor (when someone lies about military service or awards) and a New Mexico county official who said he wanted to return for President Biden’s inauguration with guns in his car. Newly minted Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says the type of domestic terrorism seen at the Capitol is ‘one of the greatest threats’ to the US right now, echoing the findings of a 2020 Homeland Security report. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a staggered pause of operations across the entire US military over the next 60 days so commanders can review the handling of extremism among their ranks.” Read more at CNN
“The House of Representatives will vote Thursday on removing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from her committees because of her past controversial statements and embracing of QAnon conspiracy theories. ‘It is clear there is no alternative,’ said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. The Democrat said he had conferred with his Republican counterpart Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about freshman Republican Greene and that a compromise short of stripping her committee assignments could not be reached. The Democratic-led House can pass the vote with a simple majority. The vote will decide whether Greene can stay on her committees for the rest of her term, which expires in January 2023.” Read more at USA Today
“Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney retained her post as the third most powerful House Republican, sidestepping broad backlash within the party for her vote last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump.
House Republicans debated Cheney’s fate during a tumultuous, hours-long, closed-door meeting Wednesday that was expected to signal the future direction of a party whose base is still fiercely loyal to Trump.
It ended with lawmakers voting 145-61 (with one abstention) by secret ballot to keep her as chair of the GOP Conference.
After the meeting, Cheney told reporters the vote made clear ‘that we're not divided and that we're not going to be in a situation where people can pick off any member of leadership. It was a very resounding acknowledgement that we need to go forward together, and we need to go forward in a way that helps us push back the really dangerous and negative Democratic policies.’” Read more at USA Today
“Canada has declared the Proud Boys a terrorist group. (This Wall Street Journal video documents the far-right group’s involvement in the Capitol riot.)” Read more at New York Times
“A court in Myanmar charged the country’s deposed leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, with an obscure infraction that could land her in prison for up to three years: illegally importing at least 10 walkie-talkies.” Read more at New York Times
“The United States has extended a key nuclear arms control treaty with Russia for the next five years. The New START Treaty -- the only one left regulating the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world -- was set to expire tomorrow. It allows for verifiable limits on Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarine launched ballistic missiles and heavy bombers. Biden made the treaty’s renewal a priority once he was in office, even as he launched a review of Russian malfeasance ranging from the SolarWinds hack to the alleged bounties Moscow offered for the death of US troops in Afghanistan. The treaty is one of several delicate issues the US will have to work with Russia on, including efforts to sanction North Korea and ensure stability in Afghanistan.” Read more at CNN
President Biden meets yesterday with Vice President Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democratic senators. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Getty Images
“President Biden told Republican senators he has ‘an open door and an open mind’ on his $1.9 trillion coronavirus plan. But he already has the votes, and overwhelming support in the country.
Why it matters: Well, power matters. And Biden holds all of it.
Get used to this. Democrats are gleeful as they watch the media fixate on family feuds inside the GOP, while Biden pushes out executive orders and pushes through this bill on his terms.
Biden embraces the reality that the two numbers that matter most to his presidency are coronavirus cases falling and economic growth rising.
Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president and longtime Biden confidant, was in the Oval this week for meetings with Republican and Democratic senators, and told me that the president ‘reaffirmed and deepened his explanation and commitment on the numbers and the substance’ of the full package.
Ricchetti said Biden made it clear that he welcomes ‘fine-tuning or amendments or recommendations,’ but ‘underscored that he’s committed to his plan and to the elements he outlined’ — and to moving quickly.
What we're watching: Ricchetti said the president wants to have ‘a bipartisan and unifying dialogue in the country,’ including conversations he's already had with mayors and local elected officials, ‘so that this isn’t just about a dialogue with senators and members of Congress. It is a dialogue with the country.’
Ricchetti said Biden treated a GOP counterproposal ‘with an open mind and with respect. He was also honest ... in underscoring why he proposed what he did — that he was committed to every one of the elements in his package.’
The bottom line: Democrats will dismiss any whining about Biden's stimulus as D.C. noise or Republican hypocrisy. They'll be right on both fronts.” Read more at Axios
“President Joe Biden on Thursday is expected to address the National Prayer Breakfast, a Washington tradition that calls on political combatants to set aside their differences for one morning. The breakfast has sparked controversy in the past, particularly when then-President Donald Trump used 2020's event to slam his political opponents and question their faith . Some liberals have viewed the event warily because of the conservative faith-based group that is behind it. Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, an honorary co-chair of this year's gathering, said the event will be ‘an inclusive and positive event.’ Coons also told reporters that Biden's remarks would take a different tack than those of Trump. Biden, the nation's second Catholic president, attends Mass every week and, in his only event before being sworn in as the 46th president Jan. 20, attended Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington.” Read more at USA Today
“Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning America to ‘just lay low’ rather than gathering for Super Bowl parties on Sunday. President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser said during TV interviews Wednesday that now isn’t the time to host watch parties because of the possibility that guests could be infected with the coronavirus and sicken others. The NFL has capped attendance for the game in Tampa at 22,000, citing the pandemic and citywide coronavirus mandates. Fauci says the best thing people can do is watch the game on TV at home with the people in your household. ‘You don't want parties with people that you haven't had much contact with,’ he told NBC's ‘Today’ show. ‘You just don't know if they're infected, so as difficult as that is, at least this time around, just lay low and cool it.’” Read more at USA Today
“Covid is killing Native Americans at a faster rate than any other community in the United States, shocking new figures reveal.
American Indians and Alaskan Natives are dying at almost twice the rate of white Americans, according to analysis by APM Research Lab shared exclusively with the Guardian.
Nationwide one in every 475 Native Americans has died from Covid since the start of the pandemic, compared with one in every 825 white Americans and one in every 645 Black Americans. Native Americans have suffered 211 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 121 white Americans per 100,000.
The true death toll is undoubtedly significantly higher as multiple states and cities provide patchy or no data on Native Americans lost to Covid. Of those that do, communities in Mississippi, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas have been the hardest hit.
The findings are part of the Lab’s Color of Coronavirus project, and provide the clearest evidence to date that Indian Country has suffered terribly and disproportionately during the first year of the deadly coronavirus pandemic.” Read more at The Guardian
“The stock market rebels battling Wall Street hedge funds from their bedrooms and kitchen tables are ratcheting up pressure on U.S. President Joe Biden to tackle a problem decades in the making.
The frenzy triggered by retail investors over shares of companies like GameStop has raised new questions about the stability of the financial system. But it has also thrust record inequality into the spotlight.
The rich-poor gap, which Biden lists as one of America’s four crises alongside racism, climate change and Covid-19, has accelerated during the pandemic.
It’s partly fueled by supercharged markets: The wealthiest 1% own more than half of equity in corporations and mutual fund shares in the U.S. Globally, the 500 richest people added $1.8 trillion to their combined net worth last year, a 31% increase.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has called a meeting of regulators today to discuss the market volatility, Saleha Mohsin reports. The issue has united politicians in calls for investigations, with both the House and Senate planning hearings.
As Christopher Condon writes, after years of deregulation under Donald Trump, the new administration has a chance to show it’s prepared to look into potential market manipulation and improve consumer protections.
It’s not clear if there will be an immediate outcome. But Yellen, who also led the Federal Reserve and was a vice chair during the 2008 financial crisis, has signaled she’s ready to act. — Michael Winfrey Read more at Bloomberg
“To understand the back and forth over President Biden’s coronavirus relief bill, it helps to look back at a little history.
In Bill Clinton’s first weeks as president, he pushed for legislation meant to reduce the deficit, bring down interest rates and spark the economy. It received no votes from Republicans in the House or the Senate and passed only when Vice President Al Gore broke a 50-50 Senate tie.
In Barack Obama’s first weeks as president, he pushed for legislation to halt the financial crisis and revive the economy. It received no votes from House Republicans and only three from Senate Republicans, one of whom (Arlen Specter) soon switched parties.
This week, when I first saw the Biden administration’s unenthusiastic reaction to a coronavirus proposal from Senate Republicans, I was confused. Biden views himself as a dealmaker, and a president typically benefits from forging a bipartisan compromise.
So why isn’t Biden pursuing a two-step strategy — first pouring himself into a bipartisan deal and then following up with a Democratic bill that fills in the pieces he thinks were missing? Why does he instead seem to be leaning toward a single bill that would need only Democratic support to pass?
The answer has a lot to do with history: For decades, congressional Republicans have opposed — almost unanimously — any top priority of an incoming Democratic president. Biden and his aides believe they will be playing Charlie Brown to a Republican Lucy if they imagine this time will be different.
Democrats, of course, also tend to oppose Republican presidents’ policies and often try to obstruct them. But on the question of legislative compromise, there really has been a recent difference between the parties. (Which can be a difficult thing for us journalists to acknowledge: We’re more comfortable portraying the parties as mirror images of each other.)
In 2001, George W. Bush’s tax cut was supported by 12 Democrats in the Senate and 28 in the House. His education bill also received significant Democratic support, as did multiple virus relief bills during Donald Trump’s presidency. Some Democrats saw these bills as opportunities to win policy concessions.
Republicans have a taken different tack. Perhaps the clearest example is Obamacare, the final version of which received no Republican votes even though it included conservative ideas and Obama was eager to include more in exchange for Republican support. But top Republicans, led by Senator Mitch McConnell, thought that any support of the bill would strengthen Obama and weaken them.
‘It’s either bipartisan or it isn’t,’ McConnell told The Times in 2010, explaining the strategy.
On the surface, this time seems different, given that 10 Republican senators went to the White House on Monday to talk with Biden about a compromise virus bill. But that meeting may have been as much about show, on both sides, as substance.
Senator Susan Collins and other Republican senators after a meeting with President Biden on Monday.Doug Mills/The New York Times
Of the 10 Republicans, a few — like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — have occasionally sided with Democrats on a major issue. Others, however, have not — including Jerry Moran of Kansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Todd Young of Indiana. And Biden would need at least 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster. With any fewer, he would be back to pursuing the same 51-vote strategy (known as reconciliation) he now seems to be pursuing.
Democrats’ central fear is a repeat of Obamacare, in which months of negotiation in 2009 nonetheless ended without Republican support. Biden would have then wasted his first months in office — and the country would have gone without additional money for vaccination, virus testing, unemployment insurance and more.
As Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, told me: ‘Democrats, including many now in the White House, remember 2009 very clearly, and they fear being strung along for months only to come away empty-handed. That’s not to say Republicans aren’t bargaining in good faith, but holding that 10 together could be difficult.’
Biden himself has made the same point in private conversations. ‘He said, basically, I don’t want to go down the path we went down in 2009, when we negotiated for eight months and still didn’t have a product,’ Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said on ‘Morning Joe’ yesterday.
One more point: Neither side is committing itself to a strategy yet. If Democrats proceed with the reconciliation approach, they and Republicans can continue negotiating over the substance of the bill. Bush used reconciliation for his 2001 tax cut and still received 40 votes from congressional Democrats in the end.
The latest: Biden met with congressional Democrats at the White House yesterday. He said he was open to restricting eligibility for his proposed $1,400-per-person checks but not to reducing the maximum amount. ‘I’m not going to start my administration by breaking a promise to people,’ Biden reportedly said.” Read more at New York Times
“McKinsey & Company agreed to a $573 million settlement over its role in the opioid epidemic. A lawsuit claimed that the firm worked to drive OxyContin sales.” Read more at New York Times
“Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) will be out today with a plan for how Congress could update antitrust laws to give enforcers better odds and more ammunition for taking on Big Tech, Ashley Gold and Margaret Harding McGill write.
Why it matters: Klobuchar will lead the Senate Judiciary antitrust panel, putting her in position to take the lead on rewriting competition laws.
What's next: Her new bill aligns with proposals from House Democrats and some populist Republicans, upping the chances she can get it passed. Read more at Axios
“A new policy that prohibits Minneapolis police officers from turning off their cameras to have private conversations while responding to an incident takes effect on Thursday. The change is intended to increase accountability and transparency, according to a statement from Police Chief Medaria Arradondo and Mayor Jacob Frey. Officers have been required to activate their cameras when they are dispatched to a call or initiate any police activity since Justine Diamond was shot and killed by Minneapolis officer Mohamed Noor in 2017. Several other police policies were changed after the death of George Floyd last May, which sparked nationwide protests.” Read more at USA Today
“One woman was treated to a rare sighting in New York City's Central Park late last month – a snowy owl. It's the first reported sighting of the bird, native to the Arctic, in Central Park in 130 years – since December 1890. Avid bird-watcher Becky DePorte, who photographed the bird on Jan. 27, said the spectacle drew a large crowd of birders, photographers and people out walking their dogs. The feathered visitor appears to be sticking around – it was again spotted at about 6 p.m. Wednesday flying east across the park's reservoir, according to ABC7NY. ‘It's as rare as can be. People have never seen them in Central Park in their lifetimes,’ David Barrett, of the Manhattan Bird Alert, told the station. ‘It looks like the same owl. It has a lot of barring on it, so it's indicative of perhaps a young female snowy owl.’” Read more at USA Today
A rare snowy owl was spotted in New York's Central Park for the first time in 130 years.REBECCA DEPORTE
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