Good morning.
Two Democratic senators have resisted Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses despite having the support of scientists and public health experts.
The US Senate on Wednesday evening voted to overturn the mandate as new cases and hospitalisations continue to rise in the country.
The West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, who co-sponsored the bill, and Montana’s senator, Jon Tester, crossed Democratic party lines to vote yes and join 50 Republicans in their opposition to the public health policy, illustrating problems the US president faces even within a faction of his own party.
The bill is seen as a largely symbolic gesture, since it would also need to pass the Democratic-led House and would probably be vetoed by Biden.
Why did they co-sign the bill? Manchin, who is vaccinated and boosted, said the rule represents federal overreach. “It is not the place of the federal government to tell private business owners how to protect their employees from Covid-19,” he said.
Court rules Trump cannot block release of documents to Capitol attack panel
Donald Trump, the former US president, suffered a defeat on Thursday when a federal appeals court ruled against his effort to block the release of documents related to the 6 January attack on the US Capitol.
Trump is expected to appeal to the supreme court.
A select committee in the House of Representatives is investigating the events on and surrounding 6 January, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Amid scenes of violence that shocked the US and the world, five people eventually died and scores were injured.
Trump and a clique of his close advisers have repeatedly engaged in legal action over the committee’s investigations, including refusing to cooperate with it.
What did the court decide? In a 3-0 decision, the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia said there was a “unique legislative need” for documents that the committee has requested.
What did the judge say? In a 68-page ruling, Judge Patricia Ann Millett wrote: “On the record before us, former President Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment.”
Jussie Smollett found guilty of faking hate crime against himself
A jury has found the Empire actor Jussie Smollett guilty of faking a hate crime against himself to raise his celebrity profile.
The Chicago jury, which deliberated for more than nine hours, found Smollett guilty of five charges of disorderly conduct. He was acquitted on a sixth count, of lying to a detective in mid-February, weeks after Smollett said he was attacked.
The charges against Smollett, who is Black and gay, had become a touchstone in the US’s culture wars at the intersection of culture, racism, politics and celebrity. Many fellow stars initially rushed to support Smollett when he first made the accusations in January 2019.
What did Smollett say happened to him? Smollett told police he had been assaulted on a dark street by two masked men who yelled racist and homophobic slurs. He later denied any wrongdoing.
What actually happened? Two brothers testified that Smollett had recruited them to fake an attack on him and paid them $3,500. Prosecutors described the evidence against Smollett as “overwhelming”.
In other news …
A cargo truck jammed with more than 100 people thought to be migrants from Central America has rolled over and crashed into a pedestrian bridge in southern Mexico, killing at least 53 people and injuring dozens more.
Julian Assange can be extradited to the US, the high court has ruled as it overturned a judgment earlier this year. The decision deals a major blow to the WikiLeaks co-founder’s efforts to prevent his extradition to the US to face espionage charges, although options to appeal remain open to his legal team.
A Manhattan hotel has reopened as a homeless shelter despite protest from Billionaires Row residents. The residents spent more than $300,000 in lawsuits claiming “crime and loitering” by the occupants would lead to “irreparable injuries”.
Joe Biden has phoned the leaders of Ukraine and nine eastern European Nato states promising support if Russia attacks Ukraine. He also reassured the leaders that nothing would be agreed with Russia about the region behind the backs of its countries.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York sex-trafficking trial was unexpectedly adjourned early Thursday because an attorney needed medical care. The mid-morning adjournment meant that prosecutors were not able to rest their case against Maxwell yesterday.
Stat of the day: unemployment claims dropped to 184,000, the lowest level in 52 years
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in 52 years, more evidence that the US job market is recovering from last year’s coronavirus recession. Unemployment claims dropped by 43,000 to 184,000 last week, the lowest since September 1969, the labor department said on Thursday. The four-week moving average fell below 219,000, the lowest since the pandemic hit the US in March 2020.
Don’t miss this: when Amazon expands, these communities pay the price
Last year, with little warning, a new Amazon delivery station brought the rumble of semi-trailer trucks and delivery vans to Chicago’s Gage Park neighbourhood. The warehouse is located in a residential area within 1,500 feet of five schools. The neighbourhood is one of hundreds across the US where Amazon’s dramatic expansion has set in motion huge commercial operations. A joint investigation with Consumer Reports has found people of color and low-income residents are disproportionately affected.
… or this: South Korea cuts human interaction in push to build ‘untact’ society
Introduced in 2020, “Untact” is a South Korean government policy that aims to spur economic growth by removing layers of human interaction from society. It gathered pace during the pandemic and is expanding rapidly across sectors from healthcare, to business and entertainment. The push to create contactless services is designed to increase productivity and cut bureaucracy but has also fuelled concerns over the potential social consequences.
Climate check: frosts, heatwaves and wildfires hit the wine industry hard
Grapes are among the most sensitive crops to climate changes. For some producers, warming temperatures have been advantageous, at least in the short term. Changing rain patterns, earlier springs and droughts are starting to push wine production towards the poles. However, for many wine growers the climate crisis is making life much harder. As the crisis intensifies, growers around the world are scrambling to find solutions.
Last Thing: otters attack British man in Singapore park, biting him 26 times in 10 seconds
A man attacked by a pack of otters in a Singapore park has said he thought he was going to die during the ordeal. Graham George Spencer, a British citizen living in Singapore, said he had been chased, pinned down and bitten “26 times in 10 seconds” by a family of otters while out for an early morning walk in the botanic gardens. He said they had lunged at him, biting his ankles, legs and buttocks and causing him to fall over. “I actually thought I was going to die – they were going to kill me,” he said.
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