Shana Alesi gave a Covid-19 booster vaccine to Marine Corps veteran Bill Fatz in Hines, Ill., on Friday.Scott Olson/Getty Images
“States are beginning to roll out coronavirus booster shots for older and at-risk Americans — and trying to make sense of new and broad guidelines.
President Biden said that 20 million people could get boosters immediately because they had gotten their second Pfizer-BioNTech shots at least six months ago. In all, 60 million people will be eligible for a third Pfizer shot over the coming months.
People 65 and older, residents of long-term care facilities and adults who have certain medical conditions qualify for the boosters. But after Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, overruled her experts Friday by including people at greater risk of exposure to the virus because of their jobs, millions of people whom her advisory committee had left out became eligible for a third shot.
‘Those of us overseeing vaccine rollouts don’t have a clear idea of what to do,’ said Dr. Clay Marsh, West Virginia’s Covid-19 czar.
The F.D.A. is reviewing data for a Moderna booster but has not received an application from Johnson & Johnson for a booster of its vaccine.'“ Read more at New York Times
From left: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader. Sarahbeth Maney/The New York Times
“President Biden’s economic agenda will be put to the test this week. Can the top two Democrats in Congress get it done?
The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi face a daunting set of challenges: A $1 trillion infrastructure bill awaits consideration in the House on Monday, a $3.5 trillion social policy and climate change measure is still being stitched together, and a possible government shutdown looms on Friday followed by a potential debt crisis next month.
Without a single vote to spare in the Senate and as few as three in the House, Democrats are projecting confidence that Schumer and Pelosi can pull off what could become a feat of legislative legend. By not even engaging Republicans on the infrastructure bill, Republicans say that Democratic leaders have guaranteed its eventual collapse.” Read more at New York Times
“The House Budget Committee has advanced the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending plan as party leaders set their sights on teeing up the package for a vote in the lower chamber this coming week, despite brewing inner party divisions.
The Democratic-led committee passed the package in a 20-17 vote on Saturday afternoon, piecing together the chunks of legislation approved by 13 House committees earlier this month that make up the spending plan, an essential cornerstone of President Biden’s economic agenda.
Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) joined Republicans in voting against advancing the legislation, citing concerns about the pace his colleagues are moving to advance the spending plan. Democrats hope to pass the package using a process called reconciliation that allows them to bypass the Senate GOP filibuster.
The defection underscores the obstacles leadership faces as they try to unite different factions of the party amid spending negotiations.
Democrats have moved quickly to craft the multitrillion-dollar spending package as a Monday deadline to vote on a separate, bipartisan infrastructure package quickly approaches.” Read more at The Hill
“MACKINAC ISLAND — Michigan businesswoman, political megadonor and former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos implicitly criticized the GOP's ongoing capture by former President Donald Trump in a Saturday address to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference.
DeVos told attendees at the biennial conference on Mackinac Island she worries that ‘principles have been overtaken by personalities’ in today's political environment.
Though personalities can be important to point the party toward its policies, ‘ours is not a movement dependent on any one person,’ DeVos said.
‘Politics now are so often about people, not the policies that impact lives directly.’
It appeared to be a rare GOP acknowledgement and criticism of what amounts to something close to a cult of personality surrounding Trump — who was defeated in November after one term in office — for many Republican activists.” Read more at USA Today
“WASHINGTON — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York and the highest-profile progressive in the House, apologized on Friday to her constituents for an abrupt decision to pull back her vote against providing $1 billion in new funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, suggesting she had done so after being subjected to ‘hateful targeting’ for opposing it.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the liberal group known as the Squad, was one of two members who voted ‘present’ as the measure to help Israel replace missile interceptors overwhelmingly passed the House on Thursday on a vote of 420 to 9. She was seen weeping on the House floor after she switched her vote from ‘no’ to ‘present.’
The episode captured the bitter divide among Democrats over Israel, which has pit a small but vocal group of progressives who have called for an end to conditions-free aid to the country against the vast majority of the party, which maintains that the United States must not waver in its backing for Israel’s right to defend itself.
In a lengthy letter on Friday, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez told her constituents that she opposed the funding, citing ‘persistent human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,’ and had pleaded with top Democrats to delay the vote.” Read more at New York Times
Campaign posters showing the three candidates for German chancellor lined a street in Berlin on Saturday.John Macdougall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“Germans are deciding who will lead them out of the coronavirus pandemic and into a greener future after Angela Merkel steps down.
Whoever wins will have large shoes to fill: After 16 years as chancellor, Merkel leaves behind a transformed Germany. Her country is among the richest in the world. Her decision to welcome more than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in 2015 and 2016 stands as perhaps the most consequential moment of her tenure. Some refugee families even paid homage to her by naming their children after her.
But while traveling through Germany now, our reporter found that almost everywhere there was a nagging sense that the new normal was being threatened by epic challenges.” Read more at New York Times
An Amtrak train derailed in Montana on Saturday afternoon, injuring dozens.Kimberly Fossen, via Associated Press
“At least three people were killed and 50 others injured after an Amtrak train derailed in Montana, the authorities said.
Amtrak said that five cars on an Empire Builder train derailed at roughly 4 p.m. on Saturday, setting off a frantic response by rescuers who scrambled to extricate passengers from cars. About 141 passengers and 13 crew members were on board, ‘with injuries reported,’ Amtrak said.
The train, which was headed west, derailed just outside Joplin, Mont., which is about 200 miles north of Helena. Rescuers from six counties responded to the scene.” Read more at New York Times
The former diplomat Michael Kovrig embraced his wife Vina Nadjibulla in Toronto after his release from detention in China on Saturday.Chris Helgren/Reuters
“HAVEN, Wis. — Golf is a game of decorum.
Except in the Ryder Cup, where some combination of pressure, patriotism and pride routinely leads players to engage in frisky gamesmanship, clash over rulings and stoke or shush fans if it gives them an emotional advantage.
This year’s Ryder Cup, however, was shaping up to be an exception to the usual peevishness. As the midpoint of the three-day event neared on Saturday, the American team was calmly overpowering the European side, whose golfers appeared lifeless and beaten. But that changed in the stretch of roughly one hour when there were four testy episodes involving players from both teams.
Brooks Koepka defiantly and profanely disputed the decision of two rules officials who declined to give him a free drop. His American teammate, Jordan Spieth, and the caddie for his European opponent Jon Rahm had an animated quarrel about the proper place for a drop after Rahm hammered a shot into Lake Michigan. Bryson DeChambeau and Shane Lowry each gestured with their putters in protest after short putts were not conceded, although DeChambeau’s putt was far lengthier.
Perhaps not by coincidence, what was looking like an American rout suddenly became a tight, taut contest. After the United States won three of four team matches on Saturday morning to take a six-point lead in the event, the European team stormed back in the afternoon and at one point appeared capable of winning three of those four matches.
But as the sun was setting along Lake Michigan in central Wisconsin, the Americans rallied to earn two victories that gave them a commanding 11-5 lead heading into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, which are each worth one point. The Americans would need to win only three and a half points on Sunday to win the Ryder Cup for just the second time since 2008.” Read more at New York Times