“Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death last year in the US, behind heart disease and cancer, early CDC data reveals. The virus also led to a global increase in stillbirths, maternal mortality and depression.” Read more at CNN
“The ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial of Pfizer/BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine confirms its protection lasts at least six months after the second dose, the companies said Thursday.
It's the first look at how long protection for a coronavirus vaccine lasts, and while six months is a modest target, it's longer than the 90 days of protection been the best estimate offered to date.
The vaccine remains more than 91% effective against disease with any symptoms for six months, the companies said. And it appeared to be fully effective against the worrying B.1.351 variant of the virus, which is the dominant strain circulating in South Africa and which researchers feared had evolved to evade the protection of vaccines, the companies said.” Read more at CNN
“Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson says millions of doses of their coronavirus vaccine were ruined in a manufacturing mix-up, federal officials confirmed Wednesday. A batch of a key ingredient didn't pass an FDA quality inspection.” Read more at NPR
“America is on the verge of a fourth wave of the pandemic.
It should be far less deadly than the previous three. But this persistent failure to contain the virus will only make it harder to put COVID-19 behind us, Axios' Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon report.
Roughly 63,000 Americans per day were diagnosed with COVID over the past week. That's a 17% increase from the week before, and echoes the rising caseloads of the second wave last summer.
Average daily caseloads increased over the past week in 25 states. The biggest spikes were in Michigan and New York.
Even as vaccinations climb, new cases declined in only five states, mainly in the Southeast.
What we're watching: Hospitalizations are still rising. But 73% of seniors have gotten at least one dose of vaccine.” Read more at Axios
“The Derek Chauvin murder trial enters its fourth day Thursday, a day after jurors watched four police body-cam videos . In the videos, George Floyd, a Black man, could be heard pleading for his life and saying ‘I can't breathe.’ The videos also revealed Chauvin defended his tactics after an ambulance left the scene, remarking to a bystander that Floyd was ‘a sizable guy’ and ‘probably on something.’ Jurors also heard from Cup Foods employee Christopher Martin, 19, who took the counterfeit $20 from Floyd – the incident that led to the call to police that brought Chauvin and the other officers to the scene. Martin said he ‘saw Derek with his knee on George's neck on the ground’ during his testimony. ‘If I had just not taken the ($20) bill, this could have been avoided,’ Martin added.
Other witnesses Wednesday included:
•Cup Foods customer Christopher Belfrey, 45, said he was ‘startled’ by what he saw and began recording on his phone.
•Charles McMillian, a 61-year-old man who lives near Cup Foods, broke down on the witness stand at one point as he recounted his memories.
•Minneapolis firefighter and trained EMT Genevieve Hansen, 27, returned to the stand, saying she thought Floyd ‘needed medical attention’ and ‘officers didn't let’ her into the scene.
Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the May 2020 death of Floyd.” Read more at USA Today
“Georgia lawmakers have approved a bill that would overhaul the state’s citizen’s arrest law, rolling back a Civil War-era statute one year after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery.
The state’s governor, Brian Kemp, is expected to sign the bill into law, which would make Georgia the first state to move toward repealing a citizen’s arrest statute. Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law, which was enacted in 1863 to allow white citizens to capture slaves fleeing north, and was later used to justify hundreds of lynchings, was cited by a prosecutor last year who initially declined to arrest Arbery’s assailants.
Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was jogging when he was chased and then gunned to death by three white men. His pursuers said they suspected him of robberies.
The bill approved on Wednesday would strike citizen’s arrest from state law, but would still allow security officers, private investigators, and off-duty officers to detain someone they believe has committed a crime. Kemp called the latter provisions a ‘critical balance.’
‘I look forward to signing it into law as we continue to send a clear message that the Peach state will not tolerate sinister acts of vigilantism in our communities,” Kemp said in a statement.’” Read more at The Guardian
“In a sharp rebuke to Trump-era policies, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday formally scrapped a blueprint championed by his predecessor to limit U.S. promotion of human rights abroad to causes favored by conservatives like religious freedom and property matters while dismissing reproductive and LGBTQ rights.
Blinken said a report prepared for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that sought to pare down the number of freedoms prioritized in U.S. foreign policy was ‘unbalanced,’ did not reflect Biden administration policies and would not guide them. The report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights had been harshly criticized by human rights groups.
‘One of the core principles of human rights is that they are universal. All people are entitled to these rights, no matter where they’re born, what they believe, whom they love, or any other characteristic,’ Blinken said. ‘Human rights are also co-equal; there is no hierarchy that makes some rights more important than others.’
‘Past unbalanced statements that suggest such a hierarchy, including those offered by a recently disbanded State Department advisory committee, do not represent a guiding document for this administration,’ he said. ‘At my confirmation hearing, I promised that the Biden-Harris Administration would repudiate those unbalanced views. We do so decisively today.’
Blinken also reversed a Trump administration decision to remove sections on reproductive rights from the State Department’s annual human rights reports on foreign countries. ‘Women’s rights — including sexual and reproductive rights — are human rights,’ he said.
Blinken made the announcement repudiating the commission’s report as he rolled out the annual human rights reports. The reports, covering last year, highlighted a declining trend in human rights around the world and the impact that the coronavirus pandemic had on rights practices. It noted that some governments had ‘used the crisis as a pretext to restrict rights and consolidate authoritarian rule.’
Human rights advocates condemned the report from Pompeo’s Commission on Unalienable Rights when he unveiled it last year to great fanfare from religious and social conservatives. The report was part of a broader Trump administration effort to restore the primacy of what officials considered the values of America’s Founding Fathers.
Pompeo had promoted the report at events from Pennsylvania to Indonesia and in numerous interviews with conservative media in the hope it would serve as a guide for future administrations.
Nearly all references to the commission’s report and Pompeo’s advocacy of it have been removed from the State Department’s website, although they remain available on archived pages.
The Biden administration has already repealed several Trump-era human rights decisions. Those have included reengaging with the U.N. Human Rights Council, abandoning the so-called Geneva Consensus and Mexico City rule that oppose abortion rights and restoring LGBTQ protections as a matter of administration policy.” Read more at NBC News
“President Joe Biden is set to convene his Cabinet in person for the first time today at the White House. The 25-person group will discuss, among other things, the first part of the President’s brand-new infrastructure plan that he unveiled yesterday. According to Biden, the plan will focus on American-based companies and products to modernize 20,000 miles of roads and fix the country’s 10 ‘most economically significant bridges.’ Environmental groups were mostly optimistic about the plan, but some said it doesn’t do enough to tackle the urgency of the climate crisis. It won’t be all infrastructure today, though. Biden’s cabinet will also discuss the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief package and other top priorities.” Read more at CNN
“Rita Hart, a Democrat who ran for Congress in 2020 in southeastern Iowa and lost by only six votes, withdrew her request on Wednesday to have the House overturn the election results, ending a bitter dispute that had threatened to become a political liability for her party.
The decision cemented Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican doctor, as the winner of one of the closest House contests in American history. It also spared Democratic leaders from having to weigh in on whether to throw out the results of a contested vote months after President Donald J. Trump’s false claims of a stolen election fueled a partisan clash and a deadly riot at the Capitol.
Republicans had signaled that they were ready to turn the dispute into a political cudgel against the majority party, and some vulnerable Democrats who had come under attack on the issue in their districts were deeply uncomfortable with the prospect of intervening.” Read more at New York Times
“Then-Attorney General Bill Barr went to great lengths to avoid being seen near Rep. Matt Gaetz after he was alerted to the federal probe into the Florida Republican’s alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, according to Politico. Barr is said to have gotten several briefings about the investigation, at least partly to ensure that the then-attorney general didn’t inadvertently find himself standing next to Gaetz at any public events, according to one source cited by Politico. The Department of Justice reportedly went so far as to cancel a planned appearance by Barr at a meet-and-greet with House Republicans after it was learned that Gaetz would be in attendance.
Gaetz has repeatedly claimed to be the victim of a wild, $25 million extortion scheme since The New York Times broke the news late Tuesday that federal prosecutors were looking into whether he violated sex trafficking laws by allegedly paying the unnamed teen to travel with him. He has denied having relations with the teen and both he and his father have blamed the allegations on an ‘organized criminal extortion’ scheme, one they say was hatched by a former intelligence officer and a Florida lawyer who tried to rope Gaetz in on a plan to rescue an American hostage in Iran long believed to be dead.” Red more at The Daily Beast
“The Pentagon on Wednesday swept away Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition.
The new regulations allow transgender people who meet military standards to enlist and serve openly in their self-identified gender, and they will be able to get medically necessary transition-related care authorized by law, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a briefing.
The changes come after a two-month Pentagon review aimed at developing guidelines for the new policy, which was announced by President Biden days after he took office Jan. 20.” Read more at Boston Globe
“33 LGBTQ students are suing the Department of Education in a class-action lawsuit filed Monday. The students allege that they faced discrimination at 25 federally funded Christian colleges and universities in 18 states.” Read more at NBC News
“Facebook took down an interview with Donald Trump conducted by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump for her show ‘The Right View.’ A company spokesman said the video was not permitted on Facebook and Instagram because of the former president's indefinite suspension from the platforms after the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.” Read more at USA Today
“Four people, including a child, were killed after a suspect opened fire at an office building in Orange, California, on Wednesday evening, police said. A police spokeswoman also told reporters the suspect in the shooting was injured and taken to a local hospital and is in critical condition. Officers recovered one gun, she said.” Read more at USA Today
“U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued two young children – a 3-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl – who smugglers dropped from a 14-foot-high border wall and abandoned in New Mexico, officials said. “ Read more at USA Today
“A Florida woman was repeatedly raped and assaulted in front of her young son by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2008 in Naples, Florida, according to a lawsuit filed last week. The suit also contains a story where, during a trip, Epstein ushered the woman to a waterway filled with alligators and warned her that she would end up being eaten by the reptiles if she told anyone what he had done.” Read more at USA Today
“The 2021 baseball season gets underway Thursday, with all 30 teams scheduled to start on the same day for the first time since 1968. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series in 2020 after an abbreviated 60-game season, but the league is on track to play a full 162-game slate in 2021. Thursday's matchups include the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays in a battle of AL East contenders and the Washington Nationals facing the New York Mets with Cy Young winners Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom set to pitch.” Read more at USA Today
“President Joe Biden has backed athletes in doing whatever they can to show their opposition to Georgia’s new voter suppression laws. Speaking to ESPN on Wednesday night, the president singled-out the upcoming Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Atlanta, and said he would give his full support if the MLB decided to move the game out of Georgia. ‘I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly,’ Biden told ESPN’s Sage Steele in an interview. ‘I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them. They’re leaders.’ Biden went on to describe the new laws—which would place ID requirements on voting and limit the use of ballot drop boxes—as ‘Jim Crow on steroids.’ The CEOs of Coca-Cola and Delta, both headquartered in Atlanta, issued statements Wednesday slamming the restrictive voting law that passed last week.” Read more at The Daily Beast
“A federal court issued a temporary restraining order against the company that made Lil Nas X’s ‘Satan Shoes,’ released to promote his new song. The Brooklyn company MSCHF was ordered to no longer fulfill any orders for the customized Air Max 97s, which are rumored to contain a drop of human blood in the sole, and feature a Nike swoosh despite no official license from the athletics company.The limited run of 666 pairs of sneakers has likely already sold out. The musician himself was not named in the suit. Nike said in a statement, ‘We do not have a relationship with Lil Nas or MSCHF. Nike did not design or release these shoes and we do not endorse them.’” Read more at The Daily Beast
“The L.A. County Sheriff’s office has determined the cause of Tiger Woods’ mysterious and injurious car crash last month, but investigators are keeping mum. L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that ‘privacy issues’ prevent his team from releasing the information without the champion golfer’s permission. Villanueva said Wednesday, ‘A cause has been determined, the investigation has concluded. We have reached out to Tiger Woods and his personnel... There’s some privacy issues on releasing information on the investigation so we’re going to ask them if they waive the privacy and then we will be able to do a full release on all the information regarding the accident.’ In mid-February, Woods careened off the road in Southern California, severely injuring both his legs and nearly losing his life. He stayed in the hospital for several weeks for surgery and recovery and recently returned home to begin rehabilitation.” Read more at The Daily Beast
“A newly discovered species of meat-eating dinosaur in Argentina has been named the ‘one who causes fear’ by the scientists who found a well-preserved skull of the ancient beast. The Llukalkan aliocranianus was ‘likely among the top predators’ during the Late Cretaceous Period because of its formidable size, extremely powerful bite, very sharp teeth, huge claws and keen sense of smell.” Read more at USA Today
“Macron orders national lockdown. French President Emmanuel Macron has ordered a third nationwide lockdown as the country struggles to contain an increase in COVID-19 cases. Schools will close for three weeks under the new restrictions as Macron said the lockdown would last at least a month. With just 12 percent of its population partially vaccinated, France’s vaccine campaign has largely tracked the EU average. Its rate of new infections is much higher than the EU average, however: France has seen roughly 570 new cases per day per million residents over the past week, whereas the EU average stands at 380 new cases per million (which is still nearly twice as high as the U.S. figure).” Read more at Foreign Policy
“About 30 million people were in the risk areas for severe weather as of Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. Damaging winds and tornadoes were main threats from Mississippi to the Carolinas, but heavy rain could also trigger additional flooding in Tennessee. The Weather Service also issued a flash flood watch for parts of Tennessee and surrounding states. Meanwhile, a blast of unusually cold air is poised to roar across the eastern U.S. over the next couple of days. In the eastern U.S., temperatures will be 15 to 25 degrees below average, the weather service said, and even colder wind chill values will enter the Southeast, Appalachians, and interior sections of the Northeast on Thursday. Freeze warnings and frost advisories are also in effect across portions of the Midwest and South for both Thursday and Friday mornings. And further north, in some parts of upstate New York, there could be as much as a foot of snow Thursday and into Friday.” Read more at USA Today
“Francisco Lindor and the New York Mets have agreed to a $341m, 10-year deal, keeping the All-Star shortstop in Queens for the long haul after acquiring him from Cleveland in the offseason, according to a person familiar with the agreement.
MLB Network first reported the news about Lindor’s contract.
The four-time All-Star’s deal will be the third-richest based on total value in major league history, trailing only the contracts for the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout ($426.5m) and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts ($365m).
Lindor was eligible for free agency after this season and said this spring he wouldn’t negotiate with the Mets on a long-term deal after opening day. Less than 24 hours before New York star their season Thursday night in Washington, an agreement was reached.
The 27-year-old Lindor has two Gold Gloves in six seasons with the Indians, who drafted him in 2011, hitting .285 with an average of 29 homers, 86 RBIs and 21 stolen bases per 162 games.” Read more at The Guardian
The Dutch went first in 2001; who has same-sex marriage now?
AMSTERDAM (AP) — “Twenty years ago, just after the stroke of midnight on April 1, the mayor of Amsterdam married four couples in City Hall as the Netherlands became the first country in the world with legalized same-sex marriages.
“There are two reasons to rejoice,″ Mayor Job Cohen told the newlyweds before pink champagne and pink cake were served. ″You are celebrating your marriage, and you are also celebrating your right to be married.″
Same-sex marriage is now legal in 28 countries worldwide, as well as the self-governing island of Taiwan. That includes most of Western Europe. Yet its spread has been uneven — Taiwan is the only place in Asia to take the step; South Africa is the only African country to do so.” Read more at AP
“33 — The number of hate crimes against Asians recorded by the New York Police Department in the first three months of 2021, compared with three total in all of 2019. After a 65-year-old Asian-American woman was attacked as she walked to a church near Times Square Monday, the NYPD said that a man named Brandon Elliot has been arrested and charged with assault as a hate crime. Elliot kicked the woman to the ground and told her, ‘You don’t belong here,’ police officials said.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“$785 — The average price per ton of containerboard, a material used to make corrugated shipping boxes, up more than $100 since summer 2020. Box pricing fell at the start of the pandemic but skyrocketed in June after the economic stimulus kicked in and spending largely shifted from services to goods. Producers should expect an additional price hike in April, a trade publication warned.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“150% — The planned increase in available seats on American Airlines flights to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands this summer. As more Americans get vaccinated, commercial carriers are scrambling to add new flights to meet expected demand. But it’s hard to forecast travel trends when many Americans have been stuck inside for a year, and some airlines are scheduling ‘placeholder’ flights six to nine months before departure dates to boost flexibility.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Lives Lived: The white minority government in Rhodesia imprisoned Janice McLaughlin, an American nun, for exposing atrocities against Black citizens. Years later, when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, she returned to help establish an educational system. McLaughlin died at 79.” Read more at New York Times
Ryan Kaji with his parents last year.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images For Nickelodeon
“Ryan Kaji is 9. He’s also the highest-earning YouTuber of the last three years. Kaji is largely popular for videos where he reviews toys, and Forbes reported that he made nearly $30 million last year.
The children’s section of YouTube is lucrative: Half of the 10 most popular videos on the platform are for children, and the catchy kids’ song ‘Baby Shark’ is its most-viewed video. But as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, Kaji’s success goes far beyond the ad money from his videos. Like the Olsen twins and JoJo Siwa before him, he has an empire built on merchandising.
Kaji’s parents have made deals with Walmart and Target for toys and clothes, as well as TV deals with Amazon and Nickelodeon. A footwear line with Skechers is in the works. The bulk of Kaji’s revenue now comes from the licensing side.
Other children’s YouTube channels are also cashing in: Cocomelon, which has more than 100 million subscribers, has a line of toys. Pinkfong, the educational brand behind ‘Baby Shark,’ has merchandise and a Nickelodeon series.” Read more at New York Times
No posts