The US has vowed to cut its planet-heating emissions by at least half by the end of the decade, in a ramping up of ambition aimed at rallying other countries to do more to confront the climate crisis.
Ahead of a virtual gathering of dozens of world leaders in a climate summit called by Joe Biden, which begins on Thursday, the White House said the US will aim to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 50% and 52% by 2030, based on 2005 levels.
This new target, to be formally submitted to the United Nations, represents a stark break from the climate denialist presidency of Donald Trump and will ‘unmistakably communicate that the United States is back’, according to a White House official who was briefed on the emissions goal. ‘The United States isn’t going to wait, the costs of delay are too great and our nation is resolved to act right now,’ the administration official added.
The US is scrambling to regain international credibility after Trump pulled the country out of the Paris climate agreement. But the Biden administration said it has already helped secure improved emissions reductions from Canada, Argentina and Japan, meaning that, along with new pledges by countries such as the UK, governments that oversee half of the global economy have targets consistent with stopping the planet’s average temperature from rising above 1.5C, a key Paris goal to avoid disastrous climate impacts.
China, the world’s largest carbon polluter, has expressed some skepticism over the US’ return to the climate fold, but the country’s president, Xi Jinping, will attend Biden’s Earth Day climate summit and the White House is confident America retains its clout. ‘This new target gives us significant leverage to push for climate action abroad,’ said the White House official. ‘Every ton of reductions achieved in the United States has multiplier effect in inspiring climate action overseas.’” Read more at The Guardian
“Guilty verdicts in the George Floyd case have renewed hope of tangible police reform at state and national levels. The Senate’s top GOP negotiator has floated a compromise on the divisive issue of qualified immunity, which protects officers who don't break the law against personal liability in civil suits. Sen. Tim Scott has proposed shifting accountability from officers to their departments. Democrats want some sort of reform deal done by the anniversary of Floyd’s death on May 25. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced a police reform bill with more deescalation training and better record-keeping. His announcement followed yet another fatal police shooting, this one in Columbus of a Black teen, Ma'Khia Bryant, who charged two people with a knife. Many are asking why she couldn't have been subdued with nonlethal force. Meanwhile, the Justice Department launched a federal civil probe into policing practices in Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed. And today is the funeral of Daunte Wright, a Black man killed by police in nearby Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.” Read more at CNN
“India on Thursday recorded the world’s highest number of new coronavirus infections in a 24-hour period since the beginning of the pandemic, reporting a staggering 314,835 cases, as a surge tears through communities and inundates the nation’s hospital infrastructure.
The single-day case count surpasses a previous record set by the United States, when more than 313,000 infections were reported on Jan. 8, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.
The massive outbreak in India has been blamed on more contagious variants of the virus, as well as an early relaxation of restrictions and a slow-moving vaccination campaign.” Read more at Washington Post
“The risk of fully vaccinated people getting Covid-19 remains extremely low. In a new study, only two of these so-called ‘breakthrough infections’ were reported out of hundreds of vaccinated people. We know no vaccination fully protects against a disease, but this high protection rate is reassuring. New research about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also shows they do not appear to pose any serious risk during pregnancy. The CDC is putting together new guidance for vaccinated Americans, and the White House has announced new efforts to boost plateauing vaccination rates by offering incentives for businesses to allow their employees to get vaccinated.” Read more at CNN
“Brazil has shown the world in the past few months where the global plague may be headed: the young. As Andrew Rosati, Martha Beckand Simone Iglesias report, those under 59 now account for more than a third of Covid-19 deaths in the country, an alarming shift due at least partly to the fact that young people have trouble accepting they are at risk.” Read more at Bloomberg
“The pandemic’s renewed surge threatens to divide the world economy further between rich and poor, potentially damaging growth, Enda Curran and Eric Martin report.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Republican legislators in Oklahoma and Iowa have passed bills granting immunity to drivers whose vehicles strike and injure protesters in public streets.
A Republican proposal in Indiana would bar anyone convicted of unlawful assembly from holding state employment, including elected office. A Minnesota bill would prohibit those convicted of unlawful protesting from receiving student loans, unemployment benefits or housing assistance.
And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed sweeping legislation this week that toughened existing laws governing public disorder and created a harsh new level of infractions — a bill he’s called ‘the strongest anti-looting, anti-rioting, pro-law-enforcement piece of legislation in the country.’
The measures are part of a wave of new anti-protest legislation, sponsored and supported by Republicans, in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests swept the country following the death of George Floyd. The Minneapolis police officer who killed Mr. Floyd, Derek Chauvin, was convicted on Tuesday on murder and manslaughter charges, a cathartic end to weeks of tension.” Read more at New York Times
“Russian unrest. Russian police arrested over 1,400 protesters at rallies across the country organized by allies of jailed dissident Alexei Navalny. The protests appeared to be smaller in scale than others staged over the past few months, Reuters reported, a disappointment to organizers who hoped that overwhelming numbers would force authorities to allow independent doctors to assess Navalny’s health.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s did not mention Navalny in his state address but warned the West against any provocations, even as he said he did not want to ‘burn bridges.’ ‘But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn down or even blow up these bridges, they should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetrical, swift and harsh.’ Read more at Foreign Policy
“The Senate confirmed Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general after Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski broke ranks to join Democrats in the 51-49 vote. And Vice President Kamala Harris cast her first tie-breaking vote related to a Biden administration nominee, voting to advance the nomination of Colin Kahl as the Pentagon's undersecretary for policy.” Read more at CNN
“Facebook's independent Oversight Board will vote soon on whether to allow Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram — a monumental decision that has policymakers on edge around the world, Axios' Sara Fischer and Jonathan Swan report.
Why it matters: The decision will set a historic precedent for how the tech giant will treat accounts of world leaders moving forward. It’s also an important litmus test of the board’s independence.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told Axios: ‘I'm less concerned about the fate of Donald Trump as much as I am about the precedent that this is setting for the removal and de-platforming of everyone else.’
Khanna argued there should be a long waiting period if Trump is brought back: ‘[W]e still get threats at the Capitol of people who are inflamed by what he did.’
Around the world, leaders have condemned social media giants' banning of Trump's accounts, arguing that having platforms freeze the pages of world leaders is a slippery slope.
Republicans are still angry about the decision.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, said: ‘No corporate CEO or their ‘oversight board’ should be more powerful than the leaders you elect.’
Sources at Facebook tell Axios the company was initially expecting the board to uphold its decision, especially given that so many other platforms made similar calls in light of the Capitol attack.” Read more at Axios
“Nearly five months after Joe Biden was declared the official winner of the presidential race in Arizona, state Republicans are set to begin their own audit of millions of ballots, an unprecedented move many see as a thinly-veiled effort to continue to undermine confidence in the 2020 election results.
The GOP-controlled state senate ordered the audit, set to formally get underway this week, which may be one of the most absurd and alarming consequences to date of Donald Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election. It will be executed by a private Florida-based company. It also reportedly will be supported from far-right lawyer Lin Wood and observers from the far-right news network One America News Network.
The audit will be solely focused on Maricopa county, the largest in the state and home to a majority of Arizona’s voters. Biden narrowly defeated Trump in the county, a crucial battleground that helped the president win Arizona by around 10,000 votes. The audit will include a hand recount of all 2.1m ballots cast in the county, a process expected to take months.” Read more at The Guardian
“Biden is preparing to declare the massacre of an estimated million or more Armenians under the Ottoman Empire a ‘genocide.’ This may fracture relations with Turkey, but it will fulfill a promise set by Biden to put a name to the killings when a series of his predecessors stopped short. He will likely make the announcement during Remembrance Day on Saturday. Turkey’s government has often complained about foreign powers using the term ‘genocide’ to describe the mass killings that began in 1915. They contend it was wartime and there were losses on both sides, and they put the number of dead Armenians at a far lower count of 300,000.” Read more at CNN
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made another concession to Republicans in her quest to get a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission set up.
A source familiar with the situation tells us that Pelosi has now agreed that the commission can issue subpoenas in two different ways: a joint decision from the chair and vice chair -- meaning the top Democrat and Republican -- or a majority vote by the commission. This is a significant give by Pelosi, who had initially suggested either the Democratic chair could unilaterally issue subpoenas or subpoenas could be issued by a majority vote of the panel.
The concession means that any and all subpoenas will have to truly be bipartisan. This illustrates what we consider to be a real desire to get Republicans on board.
Earlier this week, Pelosi gave in on the makeup of the commission, conceding that it can be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, CNN reported.
Read between the lines: Pelosi has conceded on the bipartisan split and now she’s conceding on subpoena power -- two key objections by Republicans. There’s truly now just one issue left: scope. Republicans want this panel to investigate a wide range of political violence, and that’s unacceptable to Pelosi. So she’s trying to smoke them out. Pelosi seems to want Republicans to be left fighting on just that one issue of scope
Pelosi could name a select committee to handle this issue, but she would rather a bipartisan commission conduct the probe.” Read more at Punchbowl News
“The Trump administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled approximately $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the holdup, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post.
Congress requested the investigation into the delays to recovery aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left residents of the U.S. territory without power and clean water for months. But, the report said, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official declined to be interviewed by investigators during the course of the 2019 examination.
Access to HUD information was delayed or denied on several occasions. And several former senior administration officials in the Office of Management and Budget refused to provide requested information about decision-making related to the Puerto Rico relief funds.” Read more at Washington Post
“Tech battle | The U.S. Senate is poised to act within weeks on bills taking aim at China and bolstering American competitiveness in technology and manufacturing. The move indicates bipartisan sentiment in Congress to counter China’s growing power and to voice concern about Beijing’s treatment of its Uyghur population and Hong Kong democracy activists.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Next month's Indianapolis 500, at 40% capacity, will be the world's biggest sporting event since the start of COVID-19, AP reports.
The NCAA allowed 8,000 fans in Indianapolis for the April 5 men's March Madness final.
The Alabama spring football game last weekend hosted 47,218 fans.
An Australian Rules cricket match in Melbourne drew 51,723 in March.
For race day: Grandstand seating will be socially distanced; fans will have an option to return their tickets for an account credit.” Read more at Axios
“South Korea dismisses sex slave case. A South Korean court has dismissed a lawsuit against Japan brought by a group of women forced into sexual slavery during World War II. In January, a judge ruled in favor of a different group of victims and had ordered Japan to pay compensation. The judge in Wednesday’s case upheld Japan’s state immunity as one of the plaintiffs vowed to take the case to an international court. The case of South Korea’s euphemistically described ‘comfort women’ has been a source of tension between the two countries for decades; Japan considers the matter closed after it issued an official apology and set up a $9.3 million victims fund in 2015.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“A Belt and Road competitor. The European Union and India plan to create their own infrastructure alliance in a direct challenge to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The plan would see the two powers work together on projects within their states as well as in Asia and Africa.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Canada’s Huawei case. The extradition case of Meng Wanzhou, the Huawei executive arrested in Canada on behalf of U.S. authorities, has been delayed by three months, in a win for the defense. Meng’s lawyers had argued for more time after additional documents had become available that her defense team may enter as evidence. The documents allegedly show that HSBC bank was aware of Huawei’s dealings in Iran, and that a company unit had not contravened sanctions by doing business there.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Russia’s space future. Russia is planning to launch its own space station in 2030 as it plans to leave the International Space Station (ISS) alliance it has been a part of since 1998. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, said negotiations would now begin with NASA partners to hand over responsibility for the Russian segment of the ISS. The move to leave the ISS comes after Russia and China recently signed a memorandum to pursue a joint base on the moon or within its orbit.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Eateries from Miami to Martha’s Vineyard to Los Angeles are facing the same problem ahead of summer: not enough workers, Axios' Erica Pandey reports.
The big picture: Millions of restaurants are hiring all at once, and — after a deadly pandemic — the jobs of waiters, cooks, and hosts seem more dangerous than they ever have before.
The pandemic wiped out 2.5 million restaurant jobs and forced more than 100,000 eateries to shutter. And now the ones that made it through 2020 can't find staffers.” Read more at Axios
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“It’s 2021. Cannabis is legal in many parts of the country. So now, states are finding ways to regulate its usage. In New York, Illinois, and Vermont, authorities have taken steps to impose taxes on or otherwise limit products with higher concentrations of THC. Supporters say that ‘this is not your Woodstock weed’ and some cannabis products have dangerous levels of THC.” [Vox] Read more at Associated Press / Jennifer Peltz
“THC is the chemical in cannabis that is responsible for most of its psychological effects. It directs the brain to release dopamine, which creates a strong sense of euphoria, all while affecting the centers of the brain that control pleasure, movements, coordination, thinking, and concentration.” [Vox] Read more at Life Science / Alina Bradford
“The potency of THC in cannabis products has tripled in recent decades. A study of 38,681 samples of cannabis confiscated by the Drug Enforcement Agency from 1995 to 2014 found that THC concentration increased from 4 percent to 12 percent by 2014.” [Vox] Read more at US National Library of Medicine
“When cannabis was legalized in Colorado in 2014, it was mostly sold in flower form. By 2019, concentrates with high THC levels took up roughly a third of the market.” [Vox] Read more at Denver Post / Alex Burness
“Some researchers are finding that excessive use of products with high THC concentrations shares a correlation with psychotic episodes that may lead to schizophrenia. Opposing scientists and marijuana advocacy groups are wary of these claims, as USA Today noted in a review of the evidence in 2019.” [Vox] Read more at USA Today / Jayne O'Donnell, Trevor Hughes, and Stephanie Innes
“Advocates for looser restrictions contend that low potency caps would crush the industry and push users back to the black market. States have so far fallen on either side of the issue, with potency caps being solidified in Vermont, New York, and Illinois but failing to gain traction in Arizona and Washington.” [Vox] Read more at Axios / John Frank
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