“WASHINGTON — President Biden will propose a $6 trillion budget on Friday that would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion throughout the next decade.
Documents obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Biden’s first budget request as president calls for the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. The growth is driven by Mr. Biden’s two-part agenda to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending.
The proposal shows the sweep of Mr. Biden’s ambitions to wield government power to help more Americans attain the comforts of a middle-class life and to lift U.S. industry to better compete globally in an economy the administration believes will be dominated by a race to reduce energy emissions and combat climate change.
Mr. Biden’s plan to fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said the jobs and families plans would be fully offset by tax increases over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up.” Read more at New York Times
“President Biden has asked the U.S. intelligence community to ‘redouble their efforts’ to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and provide a report within 90 days.
Why it matters: There's growing circumstantial evidence of the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a lab accident.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday on previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence that three researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill enough to be hospitalized in November 2019.
The state of play: Biden said the U.S. intelligence community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’:
Human contact with an infected animal
Accidental laboratory leak
What they're saying: Biden said the U.S. intelligence community's current position is that ‘two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter — each with low or moderate confidence.’
CNN reports that Biden's team shut down an effort launched late in the Trump administration to prove COVID originated in a Chinese lab, citing concerns about the quality of its work.
Between the lines: Even in non-pandemic, non-new Cold War situations, it's often really difficult to trace back the origins of a new outbreak, Axios Future editor Bryan Walsh tells me.
It's just not normally this big a deal and so we're going to have a big vacuum in which we can add in whatever gray evidence we want.
Go deeper:The COVID lab-leak theory goes mainstream” Read more at Axios
“Facebook ends its ban on posts asserting Covid-19 was man-made. The social media titan’s policy shift reflects a deepening debate over the origins of the virus first identified in Wuhan, China. President Biden has ordered a U.S. intelligence inquiry into Covid-19's origins.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“In an attempt to salvage stalled negotiations, Senate Republicans on Thursday unveiled a revised counteroffer for infrastructure spending, outlining roughly $928 billion in a package that’s still far short of what the White House has proposed.
Only about a quarter of the total price tag appears to represent new spending above baseline levels under the ‘roadmap’ put forward by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) and her GOP counterparts. But lawmakers still stressed that their retooled approach “delivers on much” of what Biden had recommended in earlier talks between the two sides.
‘Senate Republicans continue to negotiate in good faith,’ Capito said at a press conference unveiling the blueprint.
The Republican plan proposes more than $500 billion for roads, $98 billion for public transit, $46 billion for passenger rail and more than $70 billion for water infrastructure. Republicans recommended additional spending for ports, waterways, airports and broadband connectivity, maintaining their belief that any package should hew to what they describe as traditional infrastructure.
White House to face key decisions on climate, elder care if bipartisan deal with GOP emerges
But the plan does not close the other gaps that exist with the White House, where Biden recommended more than $2 trillion in new spending on a wide range of areas, including elder care, parents and families. GOP Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.) on Thursday described the scope of the White House proposal as ‘socialism camouflaged as infrastructure.’” Read more at Washington Post
“Officials are continuing to gather information Thursday after a gunman opened fire at a light rail yard in San Jose, California, killing at least nine people. Police spokesman Russell Davis said the shooter, a rail yard employee who had a history of anger issues , according to those who knew him, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He said that other employees were among the victims. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said on Twitter that a vigil honoring the victims would take place at City Hall Plaza at 6 p.m. PT on Thursday.
Hours after the massacre, California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference and, while his voice cracked at times, lamented the country's latest mass shooting.” Read more at USA Today
“The proposed 9/11-style panel to study the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6 could be scuttled in the Senate as early as Thursday. Democrats have been pressing for a bipartisan review of the attack, but Republicans worry that it will be used as a weapon against them in the 2022 elections. Democrats would need at least 10 Republicans to join them to overcome a potential GOP filibuster of legislation creating the commission, and even among the seven Republicans who voted to convict former President Donald Trump of inciting the insurrection, opinion is divided.” Read more at USA Today
“For the global environmental movement, it was a landmark day.
A court in the Netherlands ordered Royal Dutch Shell yesterday to slash emissions harder and faster than planned; investors in Exxon Mobil won two board seats and promised to push the energy giant to diversify beyond oil and fight climate change; Chevron shareholders backed a proposal to force the company to cut pollution by its customers.
Once limited to waving placards outside annual corporate meetings, the climate movement has gone mainstream, Kevin Crowley writes. Some of the world’s largest institutional investors are now on board.
But it’s a race against time. Last year tied with 2016 as the hottest on record, and accelerating man-made warming is causing rising sea levels, melting ice, and extreme weather events, Laura Millan Lombrana writes.
However much the world welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, the fact is that overall national commitments to cut greenhouse-gas emissions fall short of what’s needed to fulfill it. Key unresolved issues, such as creating an international carbon market to put a price on emissions, remain.
And environmentalists are still facing setbacks: One of Australia’s top coal producers just won a court battle against a nun and Greta Thunberg-inspired teenagers over a mine expansion. Biden’s Justice Department is also defending the approval by his predecessor, Donald Trump, of a massive Conoco project in Alaska in federal court.
That said, there’s no longer much doubt that public and institutional pressure is fueling momentum for policy change.
The question is whether it translates into action fast enough to stem the damage to the planet.” — Karl Maier Read more at Bloomberg
“Democrats have yet to convince their entire Senate caucus to back the House-passed For the People Act – let alone beat the filibuster
After six months of aggressive Republican efforts to restrict voting access, Democrats are facing new questions about how they will actually pass voting rights reforms through Congress.
The most recent hand-wringing comes as Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democratic senator, made clear earlier this month he still is not on board with the For the People Act, which would require early voting, automatic and same-day registration, and prevent the severe manipulation of district boundaries for partisan gain.
Senate Democrats, including Manchin, met privately on Wednesday to map out a path forward on the bill, which has already passed the US House. They were mostly mum about the discussions of that meeting but overall resolute that some kind of voting rights bill has to pass. Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said: ‘It was a really productive meeting.’
Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia said: ‘I think members of the caucus understand the urgency and we’re focused on getting something passed. We have an obligation to the American people to find a way to protect our democracy.’
Manchin’s opposition comes at a critical moment when there is escalating concern about aggressive state Republican efforts to curtail access to the ballot. Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Montana have all put new restrictions in place this year. Many see this as an existential moment for the Democratic party and fear that Republicans will permanently reap the benefits of a distorted electoral system if Democrats cannot pass federal legislation. There is heightened urgency to act quickly so that crucial protections can be in place when the once-per-decade redistricting process gets under way later this year.
‘There is a ticking timebomb,’ said Wendy Weiser, the director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice, which supports the bill. ‘It will be a significant failure if [Congress] doesn’t pass these two pieces of major voting legislation. It will be a significant failure for the country, for the American people … I don’t think Joe Manchin wants that on himself.’
Manchin is concerned the bill still does not have enough Republican buy-in, and favors an alternative piece of legislation that would reauthorize the Voting Rights Act and require election changes to be pre-approved by the federal government. Some observers say that solely passing that bill, named the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would be inadequate to undo the suppressive laws that have gone into effect and that trying to get bipartisan support for the measure is a fool’s errand, given the Republican party’s embrace of Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Senator Mitch McConnell has also taken a personal interest in trying to sink the bill, saying it would be devastating to Republicans, McClatchy reported earlier this month.
The West Virginia senator’s concern highlights an even bigger question looming over the Democratic party – how to pass any priority legislation with only, at best, 51 votes in the Senate. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has set August as a deadline for passing a voting rights bill – a deadline the White House has embraced.” Read more The Guardian
“Ford plans to invest $30 billion in vehicle electrification efforts by 2025, and the company said it anticipates that 40% of its global sales by 2030 will be fully electric vehicles. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“Specific language about the QAnon conspiracy theory has all but disappeared from mainstream social media platforms. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“New York will raffle off public college scholarships for teens who receive a coronavirus vaccine in the next six weeks. Go deeper.” Read more at Axios
“45% — The percentage by which Shell must reduce its carbon emissions by 2030, compared with 2019 levels. In a first-of-its-kind ruling, a Dutch court found that the oil giant was partially responsible for climate change. While Shell is expected to appeal, the decision could set a precedent for other jurisdictions in Europe and open oil companies to new legal jeopardy over their carbon emissions.
40% — The share of its global sales that Ford expects to come from electric vehicles by 2030. The company said it would spend $30 billion by 2025 on electric-vehicle development, upping its prior commitment of $22 billion.
6.3% — The percentage of hospitality and restaurant industry workers who tested positive for marijuana last year, among those who were tested for drugs. As more states legalize the drug, increasing numbers of U.S. workers are testing positive, even as the overall share of positive drug tests plateaued last year.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Former Sen. Claire McCaskill is under consideration for a plum ambassadorship in western Europe — another sign President Biden will tap party allies over big-dollar donors when he starts to name his political ambassadors as soon as next week, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.
Why it matters: Biden will have political antennae across the globe.
McCaskill is to be joined in the diplomatic corps by Rahm Emanuel, who has been promised ambassador to Japan ... L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, headed for India ... and Tom Nides, Democratic confidant and former deputy SecState, in line for Israel.
Cindy McCain is expected to be the ambassador to the World Food Program in Rome.
Ken Salazar — President Obama's Interior secretary, and a former senator from Colorado— is preparing to go to Mexico.
Nick Burns, a career diplomat, is Biden's likely choice for China.
The intrigue: Biden is also considering former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who endorsed him at the Democratic convention, for an ambassadorship.
Former Sen. Chris Dodd turned down an embassy offer, and will instead be available for discreet diplomatic missions as one of Biden’s oldest Senate friends.
The big picture: White House officials are working to ensure that his picks reflect the diversity of the country, meaning that many wealthy white male donors will see their ambassadorial ambitions quashed after a lifetime of giving.
Biden will likely draw on political allies and donors for roughly 30% of the 190-ish available ambassadorships.
The remaining 70% will go to career foreign service officers.” Read more at Axios
“In and out | U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged to grant $100 million in aid for Palestinians during his whirlwind visit to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt and Jordan. But, as Nick Wadhams writes, with U.S. foreign-policy interests focused on reviving the Iran nuclear accord and on strategic competition with China, there’s little appetite in Washington for putting greater efforts into trying to resolve the underlying source of the Israel-Gaza tensions.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Competence question | Boris Johnson is battling a major attack on his authority after his former chief adviser declared the U.K. prime minister unfit for his job. During almost seven hours of testimony to lawmakers, Dominic Cummings catalogued the government’s ‘disastrous’ pandemic failures and what he said were Johnson’s leadership blunders.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Women at work | Keeping women at home is a luxury the world’s largest exporter of crude can no longer afford. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic overhaul of Saudi Arabia, designed to prepare the kingdom for a post-oil future amid sputtering growth, means families are increasingly dependent on women working, Vivian Nereim explains.” Read more at Bloomberg
“Lukashenko defiant. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused the West of waging a ‘hybrid war’ against him in his first public remarks since the forced diversion of a Ryanair flight in order to arrest a dissident journalist sparked international condemnation. Without giving details, Lukashenko said detained journalist Roman Protasevich had been planning a ‘bloody rebellion,’ in remarks before Belarus’s parliament. Faced with growing isolation from his Western neighbors, Lukashenko is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ‘working lunch’ on Friday according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Mali’s turmoil. Mali’s interim President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane resigned on Wednesday, days after they were arrested by the military following a cabinet reshuffle. Vice President Assimi Goita, a colonel who led the coup against Mali’s government in August, has assumed power following the purge. Goita has maintained that elections will still go ahead next year as planned and that negotiations for the release of the transitional leaders are ongoing. The U.N. Security Council ‘strongly condemned’ the move in a joint statement on Wednesday, adding to French President Emmanuel Macron’s denunciation of a ‘coup within a coup.’” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Ecuadorian authorities have confirmed that a giant tortoise found two years ago on the Galápagos islands is a member of a species thought to have died out a century ago. Galápagos national park officials determined the tortoise was a Chelonoidis phantasticus with the help of DNA testing from Yale University scientists. The last time such an animal was seen was in 1906, when a California Academy of Sciences expedition found (and subsequently killed) a male specimen. Galápagos park officials are now mounting an expedition to Fernandina Island—where the species originates—to search for more tortoises in an attempt to save the species from extinction.” Read more at Foreign Policy
A full moon is seen during totality of a total lunar eclipse as the moon enters Earth's shadow for a "Super Blood Moon" on May 26, 2021 in Chico, Calif.PATRICK T. FALLON, AFP via Getty Images
“Sky watchers in parts of the country witnessed one of the greatest sky spectacles of the year early Wednesday as a full moon, supermoon andlunar eclipsehappened at the same time, creating the super flower blood moon.
Tap here to see more stunning photos from around the world.” Read more at USA Today
“Lives Lived: When a caterpillar chomps through one sausage, one cupcake and one slice of watermelon, it might get a stomach ache. It might also become the star of a top-selling children’s book. Eric Carle, the author of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ has died at 91.” Read more at New York Times
“Two weeks after Ellen DeGeneres said her talk show would be ending with its upcoming season, NBCUniversal announced that the daytime slot would eventually be taken over by ‘The Kelly Clarkson Show.’
Clarkson, a three-time Grammy winner who rose to fame as the first-ever winner of ‘American Idol,’ launched her talk show in September 2019 to successful ratings. The show earned three Daytime Emmys in its first season, including a hosting award for Clarkson (who has also served as a judge on ‘The Voice’). Her celebrity interviews and heartwarming segments featuring everyday Americans undoubtedly appeal to an audience overlapping with DeGeneres’s, and will replace ‘Ellen’ beginning fall 2022.” Read more at Washington Post
“School of Rock star Jack Black was among those paying tribute to Kevin Clark, who as a 13-year-old had played drummer Freddy in the hit 2003 film, after Clark was killed in a road accident on Wednesday 26 May.
The Chicago Sun Times reported that Clark, 32, had been hit by a car while cycling in the Avondale area of the city late at night.
Black posted a photograph of himself with Clark in the movie on social media, alongside a more recent picture, writing: ‘Devastating news. Kevin is gone. Way too soon. Beautiful soul. So many great memories. Heartbroken. Sending love to his family and the whole School of Rock community.’” Read more at The Guardian
‘He loved music’ … Kevin Clark, second left, gets a drumming lesson from Jack Black in School of Rock.Photograph: Andrew Schwartz/Paramount/Scott Rudin Prods/Mfp/New Century/Sor Prods/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock