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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho, Joan E Greve and Martin Belam

Supermarket shooting in Boulder, Colorado, leaves several dead including officer – as it happened

Police officers secure the perimeter of the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado.
Police officers secure the perimeter of the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Photograph: Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images

Evening summary

  • Multiple people, including a police officer, were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
  • The Senate voted to confirm Boston mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary.
  • Prosecutors dropped all charges but one against Lakota activist Nick Tilsen in connection to the Mount Rushmore demonstration he led prior to a visit by Donald Trump last year.

Here’s a video clip from the press conference shared by the Boulder police department ...

Updated

The press briefing in Boulder has ended, but there are still a number of key details about this afternoon’s shooting that have yet to be released.

Police appear to be waiting to notify family members of the victims before they confirm the number of fatalities.

At the first press briefing, Commander Kerry Yamaguchi with the Boulder Police Department could not release many details about the shooting at King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado this afternoon, saying they were still in the early stages of the investigation.

All he could say at this time was that there were multiple fatalities, including one Boulder police officer. Just four hours since the first call came in about the shooting, the police department was still notifying the victims’ families.

One person of interest was in custody, and that person was injured in the incident. No other injuries were reported.

One person of interest is in custody, police said. That person was injured in the incident and is being treated for the injuries.

Multiple people were killed in the shooting in Boulder, Colorado, including one Boulder police officer, police confirmed.

Joe Biden also has his eyes on the shooting in Boulder, Colorado:

We’re keeping the liveblog open a little later while we learn more about the shooting in Boulder, Colorado. Police are expected to address the media momentarily:

Nick Tilsen, a Lakota activist who was arrested while leading a protest before Donald Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore last year, said he has negotiated with prosecutors to drop charges against him, the Associated Press reports.

Tilsen, the president of an Indigenous advocacy organization called NDN Collective, told the Associated Press that he will participate in a prison diversion program in exchange for all but one charge against him being dropped - assault of a law enforcement officer.

Tilsen faced up to 17 years in prison not for physically assaulting officers but for using “physical menace or credible threat” to put them “in fear of imminent bodily harm”. He had helped organize a demonstration that used vans to form a blockade on a road leading to Mount Rushmore to call for the Black Hills, which were seized from the Lakota despite treaties with the United States, to be returned to Indigenous control. For the Lakota people, the area is sacred and known as Paha Sapa — “the heart of everything that is.”

“The fact that the State is dropping these charges reveals that these were politically and racially motivated charges to begin with, exposing both the Sheriff and State prosecutor’s ill intent to abuse their positions of power to suppress our movement and overcriminalize Indigenous people,” Tilsen said in a statement. “How do I go from facing nearly 17 years in jail, to all charges being dropped? We organized, we fought, and we backed them into a corner where there was no longer any political upside for them to continue this unjust prosecution of myself and the other Land Defenders.”

Updated

The active shooter situation in Boulder, Colorado is still ongoing and authorities have not released much information from the scene at King Soopers grocery store.

Helicopter video streamed by local news showed two police officers escorting out a handcuffed, shirtless man in shorts with blood running one leg.

It’s unclear if anyone has been killed or injured.

Updated

Police are responding to an active shooter situation in Boulder, Colorado where there appear to be at least several injuries.

The situation is still unfolding, but if confirmed as a mass shooting, this will be the 102nd in the US since the start of the year, according to Gun Violence Archive.

Marty Walsh confirmed as labor secretary

The Senate voted 68-29 to confirm Democratic Boston mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary on Monday.

The Senate is on the floor voting on the nomination of Democratic Boston mayor Marty Walsh for labor secretary.

Arizona will open vaccine eligibility up to all residents 16 and older starting on Wednesday.

“Our goal has been and remains to get vaccine into the community as quickly, widely and equitably as possible,” Doug Ducey, Arizona’s governor, said in a press release. “Given a thorough review of vaccination data, anticipated vaccine supply, and current demand among prioritized groups, now is the time to take this critical next step.”

Arizona has so far administered more than 2.9m vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control, at a rate of 40,432 per 100,000 residents.

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast, taking over the blog for the brilliant Joan Greve.

In the next hour, the Senate is expected to consider on the nomination of Marty Walsh for labor secretary. So hang tight.

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Vivian Ho, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the US could see “another avoidable surge” of coronavirus if Americans are not vigilant about limiting the virus’ spread. Dr Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that many Americans are experiencing pandemic fatigue, after a year of taking precautions to avoid contracting the virus. “But we must find the fortitude to hang in there for just a little bit longer,” she said. “We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take.”
  • The Biden administration announced a team of senior officials will travel to Mexico and Guatemala, to meet with foreign leaders about the recent increase in migrants arriving at the US-Mexican border.
  • A US trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine showed the treatment is 79% effective at preventing symptomatic infections. AstraZeneca executives have said they intend to apply for an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, the treatment would be the fourth coronavirus vaccine to become available in the US.
  • A House Democrat released photos showing crowded conditions at a facility for migrant children in Texas. The photos from congressman Henry Cuellar come as criticism mounts over how the Biden administration has handled the recent increase in unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border.
  • Biden plans to propose spending $3 trillion to boost the US economy, according to multiple reports. The first part of the plan would be Biden’s long-awaited infrastructure package, which would reportedly call for deploying extensive resources to develop clean-energy sources and improve the nation’s transportation systems.

Vivian will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Moments ago, Lt Gen Karen Gibson was sworn in as the new sergeant at arms of the Senate.

The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, noted that this will be the first time that the sergeant at arms leadership team will be comprised entirely of women.

“Lt Gen Gibson has a tall order, but I have every confidence that she will perform her duties at the same exemplary standard she set over the course of her three-decade military career,” Schumer said. “Lt Gibson is ready to go.”

The former Senate sergeant at arms, Michael Stenger, resigned a day after the Capitol insurrection on January 6.

Miami Beach officials have extended their spring break-related curfew into April, as police say they have arrested more then 1,000 people so far during this spring break season.

Jewel Wicker reports:

Miami Beach officials have extended a curfew and state of emergency into April, in response to large spring-break crowds of partygoers who have celebrated in the area’s bars and beaches despite the coronavirus.

The throngs of young people holidaying in Miami Beach have prompted a crackdown by police, which has included the use of ‘pepper balls’ fired into the crowds.

Miami Beach city commissioners said they were extending a curfew from Thursdays through Sundays between 8pm and 6am through 12 April.

Police say they have arrested more than 1,000 people – about twice as many as they arrested last year – during this spring break season. They say the curfews are necessary to maintain order, according to the local CBS affiliate.

Updated

Britain and the EU have taken joint action with the US and Canada to impose parallel sanctions on a senior Chinese officials involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province in the first such western action against Beijing since Joe Biden took office.

The move also marked the first time for three decades the UK or the EU had punished China for human rights abuses, and both will now be working hard to contain the potential political and economic fallout. China hit back immediately, blacklisting MEPs, European diplomats and thinktanks.

The US and Canada also imposed sanctions on several senior Chinese officials as part of the coordinated pressure campaign.

The UK foreign secretary, Dominic Raab said that China’s treatment of the Uighur minority was “the largest mass detention of an ethnic and religious group since the second world war”.

Evidence of repression in Xinjiang “is clear as it is sobering,” Raab said.

The sanctions will be imposed immediately and include travel bans and asset freezes against four officials, Raab told MPs.

Kamala Harris also told reporters that she plans to visit the US-Mexican border at some point, although she will not be doing so today.

“We were left with a very challenging situation. Let’s get these kids out of [Customs and Border Protection] custody and get them into [Health and Human Services] custody,” the vice-president said, per a pool report.

“We’ve got to treat this issue in a way that is reflective of our values as Americans and do it in a way that is fair and is humane,” Harris added.

The vice-president’s comments come as officials have reported a marked increase in the number of migrants attempting to enter the US. A group of senior administration officials are traveling to Mexico and Guatemala to discuss the situation with foreign leaders.

Kamala Harris is visiting a coronavirus vaccination site in Jacksonville, Florida, as part of the “Help is Here” tour to advertise the benefits of the relief bill.

After landing in Jacksonville, the vice-president took a few questions from reporters about the pandemic and the situation at the US-Mexican border.

Vice-President Kamala Harris arrives for a ‘Help is Here’ tour event in Jacksonville, Florida.
Vice-President Kamala Harris arrives for a ‘Help is Here’ tour event in Jacksonville, Florida. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Harris was asked whether she was concerned about warnings that the influx of spring break vacationers into Florida could contribute to a surge in coronavirus infections, as virus variants gain steam in the US.

“I’m here to emphasize the importance of vaccinations and getting the vaccine,” Harris replied, according to a pool report. “You know when it’s your turn, you got to get it.”

Harris added, “And regardless of what we’re talking about in terms of the various variants, one thing is for sure. If you get vaccinated when it’s your turn, you are much more likely to avoid contracting Covid, much less having severe symptoms or hospitalization or death.”

AOC endorses Turner to succeed Fudge in Ohio

If endorsements from Donald Trump are, as his adviser Jason Miller claims, “the most important in world history”, what are endorsements from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?

Valuable, certainly, if you’re on the left of the Democratic party.

Nina Turner.
Nina Turner. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Ask Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, who Ocasio-Cortez of New York thinks should be the party’s pick for the congressional seat vacated by Marcia Fudge, now housing and urban development secretary in the Biden administration.

Calling Turner a “bold, unapologetic progressive who has spent her entire career advocating for the working people of Northeast Ohio”, the politician informally known as AOC said: “I need her alongside me in Congress in the fight for racial, economic, social and environmental justice.”

The progressive wing of the party is pretty much all-in for Turner, who told the 19th she and Ocasio-Cortez have “been on this journey for awhile” and stand “in solidarity on the issues that will center the working poor and the barely middle class”. The 19th also pointed out that the Ohio seat which Turner aims to win is a good one for any Democrat to hold – because it has been thoroughly gerrymandered to make it very safe indeed.

Last August, as it happens, Turner spoke at a convention staged by the Movement for a People’s Party, which thinks Democrats and Republicans cannot meet the needs of the American people and a thus a third choice is needed. Turner, however, told the virtual event she was not going to leave Democratic ranks.

“I support the movement,” she said, “and I am very clear that there are some progressives who want to ‘#DemExit’ but there are some progressives who believe, ‘It’s my party, I can cry if I want to and I’m going stay inside and push’.

“I support both of those forces because I think at the end of the day, even though they might be going down slightly different roads, they are parallel and the end point is the same. That’s why I’m speaking at this convention: that yearning that some have to form another party, and also I do recognise and support those who say that they’re gonna stay inside the Democratic party and give ’em hell and keep pushing them to the left.

“Both of those forces are needed. I consider those yin and yang.”

Biden to propose spending $3 trillion on boosting US economy - reports

Joe Biden is expected to propose spending $3 trillion to boost the US economy, confront the climate crisis and reduce income inequality, according to reports.

The New York Times reports:

After months of internal debate, Mr. Biden’s advisers are expected to present a proposal to the president this week that recommends carving his economic agenda into separate legislative pieces, rather than trying to push a mammoth package through Congress, according to people familiar with the plans and documents obtained by The New York Times.

The total new spending in the plans would likely be $3 trillion, a person familiar with them said. That figure does not include the cost of extending new temporary tax cuts meant to fight poverty, which could reach hundreds of billions of dollars, according to estimates prepared by administration officials. Officials have not yet determined the exact breakdown in cost between the two packages.

Mr. Biden supports all of the individual spending and tax cut proposals under consideration, but it is unclear whether he will back splitting his agenda into pieces, or what legislative strategy he and Democratic leaders will pursue to maximize the chances of pushing the new programs through Congress given their narrow majorities in both chambers.

The first part of the plan is expected to be Biden’s long-awaited infrastructure package, which would reportedly call for deploying extensive resources to develop clean-energy sources and improve the nation’s transportation systems.

But it’s unclear whether such a proposal could attract enough Republican support to make it through the evenly divided Senate.

The leading US public health expert Anthony Fauci will be the subject of a new book – for children.

Dr Fauci: How a Boy from Brooklyn Became America’s Doctor will be published on 29 June by Simon & Schuster.

The publisher told CNN the book was not endorsed by Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who has now served seven presidents but who rose to international fame last year as the coronavirus pandemic took hold. But the writer, Kate Messner, said she had spoken to Fauci “at the edges of his long work days”.

“Before Tony Fauci was America’s doctor,” she said, “he was a kid with a million questions, about everything from the tropical fish in his bedroom to the things he was taught in Sunday school.

“‘I’m really hopeful that curious kids who read this book – those we’re counting on to solve tomorrow’s scientific challenges – will see themselves in the pages of Dr Fauci’s story and set their goals just as high.”

Democrat releases pictures of minors in overcrowded migrant facility

The Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar brought more pain for the Biden administration by releasing pictures of an overcrowded immigration facility in Texas where he said more than 400 male minors were being held in one section meant for 250.

The White House is under growing pressure over conditions at the southern border, where federal authorities are trying to cope with an increase in migrant crossings from Mexico, many by unaccompanied minors, while staying true to Biden’s promise to implement a more humane policy than that pursued by Donald Trump.

Cuellar said the images showed a facility in Donna, Texas that contained eight plastic-divided “pods” used to hold migrants. He said he did not visit the facility himself. The pictures showed migrants covered in foil blankets and lying on plastic mattresses.

Under US policy, children are not supposed to be held in custody for more than three days. More than 2,000 have currently passed that limit. Controversy is also mounting over the Biden administration’s refusal to allow press access to such border facilities.

Migrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting in Donna, Texas.
Migrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting in Donna, Texas. Photograph: Rep. Henry Cuellar/Reuters

Cuellar gave the pictures to Axios and described “terrible conditions for the children”, who he said should be moved into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. Border Patrol agents were “doing the best they can under the circumstances”, the congressman said, but were “not equipped to care for kids” and “need help from the administration”.

“We have to stop kids and families from making the dangerous trek across Mexico to come to the United States,” Cuellar said. “We have to work with Mexico and Central American countries to have them apply for asylum in their countries.”

On Sunday the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, told TV networks the administration was working to speed up processing.

“I have said repeatedly from the very outset a Border Patrol station is no place for a child,” he told CNN. “That is why we are working around the clock to move these children.”

He blamed the chaos at the border on the Trump administration. To MSNBC, he said: “We are not expelling children, girls, fve, seven, nine years old back into the desert of Mexico, back into the hands of traffickers.”

Migrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting in Donna, Texas.
Migrants crowd a room with walls of plastic sheeting in Donna, Texas. Photograph: Rep. Henry Cuellar/Reuters

In response Trump lashed out, berating Mayorkas in a statement. On Monday morning, the former president was wrongly told by a Fox News host that Mayorkas had resigned.

“Well I’m not surprised,” Trump said. “Good, that’s a big victory for our country.”

The error was swiftly pointed out.

Trump was speaking from his resort in Palm Beach, Florida. At the White House in Washington, it was announced that senior US officials were heading to Mexico and Guatemala for talks aimed at resolving problems at the border.

Updated

A bizarre moment on Fox News earlier today, when host Harris Faulkner told her phone interview guest, one Donald J Trump, formerly of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC, that homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had resigned.

“Mr President,” Faulkner said, “your thoughts.”

“Well I’m not surprised,” said Trump. “Good, that’s a big victory for our country.”

Alas for Faulkner and Trump, though the “crisis” at the southern border with which Joe Biden’s homeland security secretary is grappling isn’t getting any less severe, it wasn’t actually so.

“Hold on,” said Faulkner. “Let me, let, let me stop, let me stop and listen to my team one more time. Forgive me. Forgive me. That has not happened, but I apologize.”

Faulkner’s composure as she switches to asking Trump about his statement attacking Mayorkas on Sunday night is, it has to be said, rather impressive.

“So let me clean up on aisle seven with my error,” she said. “He has not resigned and let me move right to what you are calling for and others, for him to move out of the way and possibly get somebody who can do the job, your thoughts.”

Here’s what Faulkner and Trump were, eventually, talking about:

Update: on Monday afternoon, a Fox News spokeswoman emailed the following statement: “The error stemmed from an audio issue in a virtual working environment. We corrected the mistake and continued on with the interview.”

Updated

Today so far

The White House briefing has now concluded. Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the US could see “another avoidable surge” of coronavirus if Americans are not vigilant about limiting the virus’ spread. Dr Rochelle Walensky acknowledged that many Americans are experiencing pandemic fatigue, after a year of taking precautions to avoid contracting the virus. “But we must find the fortitude to hang in there for just a little bit longer,” she said. “We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take.”
  • The Biden administration announced a team of senior officials will travel to Mexico and Guatemala, to meet with foreign leaders about the recent increase in migrants arriving at the US-Mexican border.
  • A US trial of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine showed the treatment is 79% effective at preventing symptomatic infections. AstraZeneca executives have said they intend to apply for an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. If approved, the treatment would be the fourth coronavirus vaccine to become available in the US.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

'We’re still at war with the virus,' White House says

White House press secretary Jen Psaki echoed comments from Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that Americans need to “remain vigilant” about limiting the spread of coronavirus.

Psaki noted that, despite many encouraging signs indicating a decrease in coronavirus infections and deaths in recent weeks, about 1,400 Americans are still dying of the virus each day.

“This is not over,” Psaki said. “We’re still at war with the virus.”

She added, “If we’re going to get to the point of defeating this virus, we need to remain vigilant.”

A White House reporter asked Jen Psaki if Joe Biden’s new goal is to have administered 200m coronavirus vaccine doses by the time he hits the 100-day mark of his presidency.

Biden announced on Friday that the US has administered 100m doses since he took office in January, keeping a promise he made as president-elect.

“We may be able to double it,” Biden told reporters about his initial promise to distribute 100m doses over his first 100 days.

Psaki said the White House coronavirus response team was working on setting a new goal for vaccine administration, and she promised to keep reporters updated as those conversations continue.

Updated

A Fox News reporter pressed Jen Psaki on the recently released photos showing crowded conditions in border patrol facilities where some unaccompanied migrant children are being held.

The White House press secretary said that the photos demonstrate what Biden administration officials have been saying all along, that these facilities are not suitable to hold children amid a global pandemic.

Psaki said the alternative to at least briefly holding children in these facilities was sending them back to make a treacherous journey home, which the administration considers an inhumane option.

Updated

Jen Psaki emphasized that most of the people arriving at the US-Mexican border are still turned away, despite the recent increase in migrants arriving at the border.

The White House press secretary said that it was impossible to measure how successful the administration’s messaging on immigration had been because officials could not calculate how many migrants chose not to come to the US in recent weeks.

Multiple senior administration officials, including Psaki, have repeatedly said that this is not the time to come to the US, as the Biden administration recalibrates the immigration system after four years of Donald Trump’s leadership.

Jen Psaki said that senior administration officials’ trip to Mexico and Guatemala was partly meant to request the countries’ help in reducing the number of migrants traveling to the US.

In a statement released this afternoon, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said officials would meet with leaders in Guatemala to “address root causes of migration in the region and build a more hopeful future in the region”.

Echoing recent comments from immigration officials, Psaki said, “This is not the time to come. Our borders are not open.”

A White House reporter asked Jen Psaki when journalists would be allowed access to the facilities where migrant children are being held near the US-Mexican border.

The White House press secretary said that the Biden administration is “working to finalize details” for a media visit to the facilities. Psaki said she hoped to have an update in the coming days.

Psaki’s comments come amid a marked increase in the number of unaccompanied children attempting to enter the US.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is now holding her daily briefing with reporters.

Psaki noted that the Biden administration is continuing its “Help is Here” tour to advertise the benefits of the coronavirus relief bill.

Vice-President Kamala Harris is traveling to Florida today, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff is traveling to Des Moines, Iowa.

Joe Biden will also travel to Ohio tomorrow to showcase how his administration is working to expand access to healthcare, Psaki said.

Senior US officials to travel to Mexico and Guatemala amid migrant increase

The Biden administration has just announced that two senior officials will travel to Mexico and Guatemala to discuss the recent increase in migrants attempting to enter the US.

Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in a statement, “Special Assistant to the President and Coordinator for the Southwest Border, Ambassador Roberta Jacobson will travel to Mexico on March 22 to engage with Mexican government officials to develop an effective and humane plan of action to manage migration.”

Horne added that Juan Gonzalez, the senior director for the Western Hemisphere, will join Jacobson in Mexico. Gonzalez will then travel on to Guatemala to meet with senior officials there and “address root causes of migration in the region and build a more hopeful future in the region”.

Ricardo Zuniga, the state department’s Northern Triangle special envoy, will also join the trip.

The announcement comes as border officials have reported an increase in the number of migrants arriving at the US-Mexican border.

The increase has led to Republican criticism of Joe Biden’s immigration policies, as the new president and his administration attempt to handle the situation in a safe and humane manner amid a global pandemic.

Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser, said that Johnson & Johnson will deliver a “nice increase” in coronavirus vaccine shipments this week.

But Slavitt declined to say whether Johnson & Johnson will reach its target of delivering 20 million doses by the end of the month. The adviser simply said Johnson & Johnson’s output would not be “far away” from that goal.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine was approved for emergency use late last month, but the company’s stockpile of available doses upon approval was smaller than administration officials initially anticipated.

The US has ordered 200 million total vaccine doses from Johnson & Johnson, and Joe Biden has promised that every American adult will be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by May 1.

Dr Anthony Fauci celebrated the “good results” from the US trial of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which showed the treatment was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic infections.

Senior White House adviser Andy Slavitt echoed those comments, describing the results as “great news for the US and the world”.

Fauci also noted that many European countries have already authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine, so the US trial is “an important contribution to global health in general”.

But Slavitt emphasized that the AstraZeneca vaccine has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization.

“We cannot and will not get ahead of the FDA,” Slavitt said. “We have a rigorous process that will come once an EUA is submitted.”

Walensky warns relaxing Covid restrictions could cause 'another avoidable surge'

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded with Americans to remain vigilant about taking precautions to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The CDC director acknowledged that many Americans are experiencing pandemic fatigue, after a year of taking such precautions.

“But we must find the fortitude to hang in there for just a little bit longer,” Walensky said. “We are at a critical point in this pandemic, a fork in the road, where we as a country must decide which path we are going to take.”

She added, “I am worried that if we don’t take the right actions now, we will have another avoidable surge, just as we are seeing in Europe right now.”

Walensky’s comments come as a number of states, including Texas and Mississippi, are relaxing coronavirus-related restrictions, sparking concern among public health experts.

Updated

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reiterated her call for Americans to remain vigilant about preventing the spread of coronavirus.

Walensky said the US is currently at “a fork in the road” on its pandemic response, and the everyday actions of Americans could determine how quickly the country gets the virus under control.

She warned that the coronavirus variants appear to be gaining steam in the US and thus could represent a serious threat to the country’s recent progress.

The CDC director asked Americans to “recommit to doing the right thing” by continuing to wear a well-fitting mask, socially distancing and getting vaccinated as soon as possible.

Updated

Biden administration to launch drive-through vaccination site in Washington state

The White House coronavirus response team is now holding a briefing to provide an update on the vaccine distribution process.

Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser, announced that the state of Washington will soon receive its first federally funded community vaccination site.

Slavitt said residents of Yakima county, which has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, would soon be able to drive through the Washington state fair grounds and get a shot.

Similar sites already established in other states have received “great reviews,” Slavitt said.

The senior adviser noted that these federally funded sites are helping to ensure a more equitable pandemic response, as over 60% of the shots there have gone to people of color.

One House Democrat has raised concerns about leaders’ reported plans to try to overturn a Republican victory in an Iowa congressional race.

Congressman Dean Phillips of Minnesota said in a tweet, “Losing a House election by six votes is painful for Democrats. But overturning it in the House would be even more painful for America. Just because a majority can, does not mean a majority should.”

Phillips’ comments come hours after Politico reported details on House Democrats’ plans to try to oust Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who beat Democrat Rita Hart by six votes in November.

Politico reports:

Democrats say [Hart] ... has every right to ask the House to resolve one of the closest House races in American history. Congress, they point out, has dealt with 110 such contested election cases over the past 90 years. Only three, however, resulted in the declared winner being ousted and replaced, according to the House Administration Committee.

The Iowa case could become the fourth. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who chairs the Administration panel that will adjudicate the first part of this case — and is a longtime ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi — has said her panel members are keeping an open mind, that nothing is predetermined and that Hart has the burden of proof.
But a source close to the process confirmed to Playbook that the effort to oust Miller-Meeks in favor of Hart has been blessed by the top echelons of House Democratic leadership. And the DCCC has brought in — and is paying the legal fees for — top Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias, this person said.

Given Democrats’ narrow majority in the House, Pelosi would need almost every member of her caucus to support the efforts to unseat Miller-Meeks, and Phillips’ comments are an early sign that she will not have the votes to do so.

Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, lashed out against Joe Biden over his immigration policies this morning.

Abbott raised the possibility that Biden’s response to the recent increase in migrants attempting to enter the US could lead to “an explosion of Covid in the locations where the Biden administration is putting these migrants”.

“The Biden administration is importing Covid into the state of Texas, exposing more Texans to that, and who knows what we’re going to see?” Abbott told Fox News.

The Republican governor did not mention the fact that he chose to lift Texas’ statewide mask mandate earlier this month, despite urgent warnings from health experts that Americans must remain vigilant about preventing the spread of coronavirus.

Abbott’s comments fit into a long history of xenophobic warnings that migrants bring diseases into their destination countries.

Trump endorses primary challenger to Georgia secretary of state

Donald Trump has officially endorsed congressman Jody Hice’s primary challenge to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

“Jody has been a steadfast fighter for conservative Georgia values and is a staunch ally of the America First agenda. Unlike the current Georgia Secretary of State, Jody leads out front with integrity,” Trump said in a statement released by his political action committee.

The former president added, “Jody loves the people of Georgia, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Trump repeatedly clashed with Raffensperger, a Republican, in the weeks after Joe Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes in November. The state conducted three counts of the ballots to ensure the accuracy of the results.

In a January 2 phone call with Raffensperger, Trump pressed the election official to “find” enough votes to give him a win in Georgia. Prosecutors in the state have launched a criminal investigation of the call.

Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the president, previewed the endorsement in recent interviews, including one with the Guardian last week.

“Pay attention to Georgia tomorrow,” Miller told MediaBuzz yesterday. “There’s a big endorsement that’s coming that’s going to really shake things up in the political landscape in Georgia.”

More than 124 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have already been administered in the US, according to the Bloomberg News tracker.

About 24.5% of the US population has received at least one vaccine dose, and 13.3% of the country is fully vaccinated.

The US has been administering an average of 2.49 million doses a day over the last week, a statistic that the White House coronavirus response team will likely emphasize at this morning’s briefing.

Last week, Joe Biden celebrated 100 million doses being administered since he took office, achieving a campaign promise weeks ahead of schedule.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

The White House coronavirus response team is holding a briefing this morning, and the health experts will likely address the latest promising news about the AstraZeneca vaccine.

A US trial for the vaccine showed it to be 79% effective in preventing symptomatic infections, and AstraZeneca executives have said they plan to apply for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

If it receives approval, the AstraZeneca treatment will be the fourth coronavirus vaccine to receive US approval.

The briefing will get underway in about an hour and a half, so stay tuned.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken is on his way to Europe. He’s back on 25 March.

The department of state say that the visit will “reaffirm the United States’ commitment to our Allies and European partners on our shared agenda.”

He will attend the Nato Ministerial meeting, “engage with European Union leaders, and meet with Belgian officials”.

Sam Levine in New York and Daniel Strauss in Washington report for us today on the forthcoming showdown in the Senate over the filibuster:

The US Senate is rapidly hurtling towards a high stakes showdown over the filibuster, a once arcane procedural maneuver that stands in the way of Democratic efforts to pass sweeping voting rights legislation, among other measures.

A fight over the filibuster, which sets a 60-vote threshold to move legislation forward, seemed inevitable after Democrats narrowly took control of the senate in January. But urgency has escalated in recent weeks as Republicans in state legislatures across the country aggressively push new voting restrictions.

The Senate last week introduced S1, a vast voting rights bill that already passed the US House. With the filibuster fully in place, it doesn’t stand a chance of passing.

And the problem for Democrats is that there is no consensus in the Senate caucus about what, exactly, they should do about the filibuster. Some Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona the most prominent among them, are staunchly opposed to getting rid of the procedure entirely, saying it guarantees the minority has input into lawmaking. That means Senate Democrats will probably have to find some way of moderating the rule to allow them to pass legislation.

“The filibuster as is, the status quo, is not sustainable and it will not be like this in 12 months,” said Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor who served as Barack Obama’s chief of staff. “The thing we don’t know is what changes are palpable to the senators.”

There are a range of ideas floating around. One that seems to be gathering support is the so-called talking filibuster. It would require senators who want to filibuster a bill to actually speak on the floor for the entire time they want to hold up the legislation. Other ideas include exempting voting rights legislation from the filibuster or lowering t60-vote threshold to move forward.

“Everything is on the table,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, said on Wednesday.

Read more of Sam Levine and Daniel Strauss’ report here: ‘Everything is on the table’: Senate prepares for showdown over filibuster

Trump expected to endorse challenger to Georgia's Brad Raffensperger – reports

If you are a regular visitor to the Donald J Trump website to see what the ex-president is up to these days, you’ll notice from the articles in his news feed that he is still obsessing over investigations into the phone calls he made to officials in Georgia about the state’s election results. Dominick Mastrangelo writes for the Hill this morning that we can expect to see a more concrete intervention over that:

Former President Trump is expected to back a primary challenger to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to a new report, after election officials shot down Trump’s unproven claim of widespread voter fraud and a “stolen” election in the state.

Three people familiar with the former president’s thinking confirmed the plan to Politico and top aide Jason Miller teased a “big” endorsement from Trump coming on Monday during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

Rep Jody Hice is widely expected to primary Raffensperger from the right after backing Trump’s voter fraud claims and supporting the former president’s effort to overturn the election results.

Read more here: The Hill – Trump expected to endorse Raffensperger challenger: report

Carla K. Johnson and Nicky Forster have some rather counter-intuitive reporting this morning for the Associated Press, looking at figures which suggest that some of the states that tried to push vaccinations the fastest have actually ended up with a slower vaccine roll-out.

How is that possible? The explanation, as experts see it, is that the rapid expansion of eligibility in states such as South Carolina and Florida caused a surge in demand too big to handle, and led to serious disarray. Vaccine supplies proved insufficient or unpredictable, websites crashed and phone lines became jammed, spreading confusion, frustration and resignation among many people. They’ve now vaccinated smaller shares of their population than those that moved more slowly and methodically, such as Hawaii and Connecticut.

“The infrastructure just wasn’t ready. It kind of backfired,” said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and health data specialist at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. She added: “In the rush to satisfy everyone, governors satisfied few and frustrated many.”

The findings could contain an important go-slow lesson for the nation’s governors, many of whom have announced dramatic expansions in their rollouts over the past few days after being challenged by President Joe Biden to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1.“

If you’re more targeted and more focused, you can do a better job,” said Sema Sgaier, executive director of Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit health-data organization that conducted the analysis in collaboration with the Associated Press. “You can open it up if you have set up the infrastructure to vaccinate all those people fast.”

“It got a little chaotic,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “We created far more demand than there was supply. That stressed the system and that may have left the system less efficient.”

Plescia said the analysis suggests that “a more methodical, measured, judicious, priority-based approach despite people’s perception actually can be as efficient, or more efficient, than opening things up and making it available to more people.”

In retrospect, health workers and nursing home residents were the easy groups to vaccinate. Doses could be delivered to them where they lived and worked.
“We knew where they were and we knew who they were,” Wurtz said. As soon as states went beyond those populations, it got harder to find the right people.

There’s a little more here on those AstraZeneca Covid vaccine trial results from Josephine Mason and Ben Blanchard at Reuters.

They note that while it was hailed as a milestone in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic when it first emerged as a vaccine contender last year, the AstraZeneca shot has since been dogged by confusion over its efficacy, dosing regimen and possible side-effects as well as supply setbacks in Europe.

The latest data should help address some of those concerns, analysts said. Based on more than 32,000 people, the trial was larger and elderly volunteers featured more prominently than in previous trial results from the UK.

US trials of rival vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which are already being deployed in the United States, have showed efficacy rates of around 95%.
But the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is already widely used outside the United States, is seen as crucial to tackling the spread of Covid-19 across the globe because it is easier and cheaper to transport than rival shots.

It uses a modified version of a chimpanzee common cold virus to teach the human body to make proteins from the novel coronavirus to generate an immune response and prevent infection.

The AstraZeneca vaccine has already been granted a conditional marketing authorisation or emergency use in more than 50 countries, spanning four continents. But it has yet to be approved in the United State. If the AstraZeneca vaccine gets US approval, it would be the fourth after Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The latest CDC figures show that at least 81.4 million people have received one or both doses of a Covid vaccine in the US.

Justin McCurry in Tokyo reports for us on a new controversy with the US military presence in the Asia-Pacific region – volunteers claim that the soil being used to build a new US airbase on Okinawa ‘contains remains of war dead’:

Millions of cubic tonnes of soil due to be used to build a controversial US airbase on the Japanese island of Okinawa contains the remains of Japanese and Americans who died in one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war, according to citizen excavators.

The volunteers, who search for the bones of people who were killed or killed themselves during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa, have demanded that Japan’s defence ministry end work to clear the land, calling it an affront to the dignity of the war dead.

The battle, which lasted almost three months, left 200,000 Japanese and Americans dead, including more than a quarter of Okinawa’s civilian population. Most died during the invasion, while others, on the orders of Japanese soldiers, killed themselves in groups, huddling in caves before detonating grenades.

The remains of an estimated 2,800 victims still remain buried, according to the Okinawan prefectural government.

Takamatsu Gushiken, the head of Gamafuya (cave diggers), said the soil, from two locations on the island’s southern tip, are likely to contain bone fragments from Okinawan civilians, Japanese and American soldiers, and Koreans who had been conscripted to fight for imperial Japan.

“The Japanese government’s plans will destroy the dignity of war victims … I can barely believe it,” said Gushiken, 67. “Civilians and soldiers are going to be used to build a military base.”

Soil from the sites, which have been cleared of trees and cordoned off, will be used in a reclamation project to build an offshore runway for a US marine corps base being built in Henoko, a village on Okinawa’s pristine north-east coast.

Read more of Justin McCurry’s report here: Soil to build new US airbase on Okinawa ‘contains remains of war dead’

Jury selection is due to continue today in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged in the death of George Floyd last year in a violent arrest that spurred nationwide protests against racism.

Twelve jurors and one alternate have been seated since the trial began two weeks ago: five white women, two white men, three Black men, one Black woman and two multiracial women, according to court records.

Jonathan Allen reports for Reuters that Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said he wants to find two more alternates before opening arguments, which are scheduled to begin on 29 March.

Cahill and the lawyers in the case have questioned more than 60 potential jurors in court to weigh their impartiality. Potential jurors all completed an unusually detailed 16-page questionnaire last year asking them their knowledge of the arrest and their opinions of Chauvin, policing, the media and the Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice.

All of them have said they were aware of video. Almost all said they had seen at least some of the footage, which sparked global protests against police brutality and racism.

Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.

Trump still being investigated over Capitol riot, top prosecutor says

Federal investigators are still examining Donald Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol.

Departing acting US attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin confirmed that the former president is still under investigation over the 6 January putsch in an interview with CBS 60 Minutes on Sunday.

“Maybe the president is culpable,” he said.

Sherwin also said there were now more than 400 cases against participants in the riot and said that if it is determined Brian Sicknick, the Capitol police officer who died, did so because he was hit with bear spray, murder charges would likely follow.

“It’s unequivocal that Trump was the magnet that brought the people to DC on 6 January,” Sherwin said. “Now the question is, is he criminally culpable for everything that happened during the siege, during the breach?

“…Based upon what we see in the public record and what we see in public statements in court, we have plenty of people – we have soccer moms from Ohio that were arrested saying, ‘Well, I did this because my president said I had to take back our house.’ That moves the needle towards that direction. Maybe the president is culpable for those actions.

“But also, you see in the public record too militia members saying, ‘You know what? We did this because Trump just talks a big game. He’s just all talk. We did what he wouldn’t do.’”

Trump addressed a rally outside the White House on 6 January, telling supporters to “fight like hell” to stop Congress certifying his election defeat by Joe Biden, which he falsely claims was the result of voter fraud. A mob broke into the Capitol, leading to five deaths including a Trump supporter shot by law enforcement.

Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but acquitted when only seven Republican senators could be convinced to vote him guilty.

Lawsuits over the insurrection, one brought by the Democratic congressman Bennie Thompson under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, are among proliferating legal threats to Trump now he has lost the protections of office.

More than 100 police officers were allegedly assaulted during the riot. Sicknick died the next day. Cause of death has not been released. But two men have been charged with assaulting the 42-year-old officer with a spray meant to repel bears.

Roger Stone faces fresh scrutiny as Capitol attack investigation expands

Peter Stone report for us today from Washington that Roger Stone faces fresh scrutiny as the Capitol attack investigation expands:

As the federal investigation of the 6 January Capitol insurrection expands, scrutiny of Donald Trump’s decades-long ally Roger Stone is expected to intensify, given his links to at least four far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who had been charged, plus Stone’s incendiary comments at rallies the night before the riot and in prior weeks, say ex-prosecutors and Stone associates

Although Stone was not part of the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob that shocked America, the self-styled “dirty trickster” – who was convicted on seven counts in the Russia investigations into the 2016 elections but later pardoned by Trump – had numerous contacts with key groups and figures involved in the riot in the weeks before and just prior to its start.

The night before the riot, Stone spoke at a Washington DC “Rally to Save America” where the former president’s unfounded claims that the election was stolen by Democrats were pushed and Stone urged an “epic struggle for the future of this country, between dark and light, between the godly and the godless, between good and evil”.

Early on 6 January, Stone was seen in cellphone videos near a Washington hotel hanging out with six members of the far-right militia Oath Keepers serving as his “bodyguards”, including three who have been charged in the federal investigation. Stone, according to Mother Jones, also raised funds for “private security” events on 5 January and 6 January before the Capitol attack, which included a rambling talk by Trump urging his supporters to “fight like hell”.

Congressional investigators looking into the far-right Proud Boys, including some charged in the riot, have also reportedly been looking into ties that Stone had with their leaders Enrique Tarrio and Ethan Nordean, who were seen in a video in contact with Stone at another demonstration in DC the night before the December 12 rally, according to Just Security

Read more of Peter Stone’s report here: Roger Stone faces fresh scrutiny as Capitol attack investigation expands

New York Republican Rep Tom Reed announces he is retiring amid sexual misconduct claim

New York Republican Rep Tom Reed, who was accused last week of rubbing a female lobbyist’s back and unhooking her bra without her consent in 2017, apologized to the woman yesterday and announced that he will not run for reelection next year.

Reed, who was first elected to Congress in 2010, had been among the members of Congress calling for the resignation of Democratic Gov Andrew Cuomo over sexual harassment allegations. In late February, Reed said he was seriously considering running for governor against Cuomo should the Democrat seek a fourth term next year.

Reed, 49, said in a statement that the incident involving then-lobbyist Nicolette Davis occurred “at a time in my life in which I was struggling.” He said he entered treatment that year and realized he was “powerless over alcohol.”

Rep. Tom Reed speaking to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington last December.
Rep. Tom Reed speaking to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington last December. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

A former mayor of Corning, New York, Reed is co-chair of the House of Representatives’ bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. He voted against impeaching former President Donald Trump in January but voted in favor of certifying the 2020 election of Democrat Joe Biden.

Karen Matthews report for that Associated Press that Reed apologized to his wife and children, and to Davis, and said he planned “to dedicate my time and attention to making amends for my past actions.”

Reed also said in his statement Sunday that he would not seek any elective office in 2022.

The announcement came two days after The Washington Post reported the allegations from Davis, who was 25 and a lobbyist for insurer Aflac when she said Reed, seated next to her at a Minneapolis bar, unhooked her bra from outside her blouse and moved his hand to her thigh.

“A drunk congressman is rubbing my back,” she texted a co-worker at Aflac that evening, adding later, “HELP HELP.”

Reed released a statement Friday saying, “This account of my actions is not accurate.”

In his later statement yesterday, he said, “In reflection, my personal depiction of this event is irrelevant. Simply put, my behavior caused her pain, showed her disrespect and was unprofessional. I was wrong, I am sorry, and I take full responsibility.”

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine 79% effective with no increased blood clot risk – US trial

My colleague Sarah Boseley, the Guardian’s Health Editor, brings what looks like some good news for vaccine roll-out in the US. A major trial has found that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 79% effective, with no increased blood clot risk. This paves the way for FDA approval. She writes:

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large trial in the US, Chile and Peru. The vaccine was 100% effective against severe or critical disease and hospitalisation and was safe, the drugmaker said on Monday, releasing results of the late-stage human trial study of more than 32,000 volunteers across all age groups.

AstraZeneca said an independent safety committee conducted a specific review of blood clots in the US trial, as well as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), which is an extremely rare blood clot in the brain, with the help of an independent neurologist.

The company said the panel found “no increased risk of thrombosis or events characterised by thrombosis among the 21,583 participants receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. The specific search for CVST found no events in this trial”.

The results of the US trial have been long-awaited, delayed by the demands of the regulator that substantial numbers of people from older age groups and different ethnicities should be recruited to settle the question of how well it works in the over-65s.

The US trial involved nearly 32,500 people, which is larger than any of their other trials of this vaccine, and about 20% were 65 or older. Nearly two-thirds were not in the best of health – 60% had underlying conditions including diabetes, severe obesity and heart disease, which would put them at serious risk if they caught the virus.

Read more here: AstraZeneca Covid vaccine 79% effective with no increased blood clot risk – US trial

Here’s how Amy Wang at the Washington Post summed up the weekend’s media appearances by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. She writes:

Mayorkas, who appeared on almost all of the major political shows Sunday morning, sought to push a consistent message as the Biden administration is being pressed about conditions in overcrowded detention centers for unaccompanied immigrant children.

“The border is closed. We are expelling families. We are expelling single adults,” Mayorkas said Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” adding that unaccompanied minors should not attempt to make any journey to the U.S.-Mexico border now. “We strongly urge, and the message is clear, not to do so now. I cannot overstate the perils of the journey that they take.”

But the message coming from the administration has at times been conflicting, particularly Mayorkas’s message that asylum seekers should not come “now” while other members of the administration have said they should not come, period, and should seek asylum from where they are. That has frustrated even some of their Democratic allies steeped in immigration issues.

Democrats have emphasized they are attempting to take a more humane approach to immigration. Mayorkas on Sunday reiterated that the Biden administration would not “expel into the Mexican desert” young, vulnerable children like the last administration did.

Mayorkas also blamed Trump for dismantling processes such as the Central American Minors Program, which laid out an “orderly, human and efficient way of allowing children to make their claims under United States law in their home countries.” It would take time to rebuild such processes, he said repeatedly.

Read more here: Washington Post – Mayorkas says ‘the border is closed,’ defends Biden’s immigration strategy

Stephen Collinson at CNN offers this analysis of the Biden administration response to the situation on the US-Mexico border, where there has been a rapid increase in the number of unaccompanied children entering the country:

After weeks of refusing to call the crossings that have overwhelmed border posts a “crisis,” the administration is making an aggressive attempt to defuse the situation and the toxic politics it has stirred in Washington.

“I know what’s going on in those facilities,” Biden said after returning to the White House from Camp David, pledging to travel to the border himself “at some point.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, on TV on Sunday, dismissed accusations that the Biden administration reversed some of ex-President Donald Trump’s policies it considered inhumane before it was ready to handle an influx. He could not give a precise timeline for when thousands of children could be moved from cramped border patrol stations to more suitable accommodation that is especially crucial amid the pandemic.

Mayorkas also would not guarantee immediate press access to the inside of migrant border posts, citing restrictions due to Covid-19. The failure to do so has called into question the new White House’s vows for more transparency and Biden’s own pledge to always level with Americans and to tell them the truth about the extent of national crises.

The Homeland Security secretary also sought to counter false claims by Biden’s Republican critics that the new White House has simply thrown open the border to everyone.”We are elevating our messaging, so that the individuals do know that they cannot come to the border. The border is closed,” Mayorkas told Bash.

Read more here: CNN – Biden vows to ease border surge as Republicans sense a political opening

Good morning, and welcome to Monday’s live coverage of US politics. Here’s a catch-up on the main stories, and some of what we have in the diary for today.

  • Homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, did the media round on Sunday, referring to the number of migrants at the US southern border as a “challenge” not a “crisis”, and attempting to put blame squarely on the previous administration.
  • President Joe Biden told reporters “I know what’s going on in those facilities” and said he would visit the US-Mexico border “at some point”.
  • Georgia senator Rev Raphael Warnock said “We all know hate when we see it” about the Atlanta spa shootings, which law enforcement officials say do not appear to have been racially motivated, despite most of the victims being Asian American.
  • More than a thousand people were arrested in chaotic scenes at Miami Beach, as city officials voted to extend the curfew there.
  • The Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca was found to be 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large trial in the US, paving the way for it to apply for FDA approval.
  • There were 33,243 new coronavirus cases recorded in the US yesterday, with 429 further deaths. At least 81.4 million people have now received one or both doses of the vaccine.
  • Donald Trump will soon use “his own platform” to return to social media, an adviser said on Sunday, months after the former president was banned from Twitter for inciting the US Capitol riot.
  • The main thing in President Joe Biden’s diary today is a 7pm (2300 GMT) virtual meeting with the Senate Democratic Caucus during their annual retreat.
  • There’s a Covid response team briefing at 11am and Jen Paski’s White House press briefing at 12.30pm.
  • Vice President Kamala Harris is heading to Florida where she will visit a vaccination center and and a food pantry.
  • The Senate will today consider the nomination of Labor Secretary nominee Marty Walsh.
  • Also in Congress this morning will be a bicameral hearing into the long-running attempts to grant statehood to the District of Columbia.
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