Good morning.
Two-thirds of American workers will be required to get vaccinated against Covid-19 under fresh mandates announced by Joe Biden on Thursday.
The president took a stern approach to those who continued to refuse a jab as Delta cases surge, saying: “Many of us are frustrated with the nearly 80 million Americans who are still not vaccinated even though the vaccine is safe, effective and free.”
The mandate, which will affect 100 million workers, will require all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly. Business that do not comply could face fines of up to nearly $14,000 per violation.
The Biden administration will also require all workers in healthcare settings that receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement be vaccinated, affecting more than 17 million healthcare workers.
He also called on large entertainment venues to ask attendees for proof or vaccination or a negative test result.
More than 175 million people who are already fully vaccinated will be offered booster shots when the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant approval.
Meanwhile, staff at colleges are nervous about the start of the semester, with some colleges adopting unclear contact tracing systems while others shun mask and vaccine mandates.
Biden administration sues Texas over extreme abortion ban
The Biden administration has sued Texas over its near-total ban on abortion, calling it “clearly unconstitutional”. Senate bill 8 outlaws abortion from about six weeks – a point at which most women are not aware they are pregnant.
What is Senate bill 8? The law, which came into effect on 1 September, bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected and incentivizes private citizens to sue abortion providers seen as helping women get a termination beyond that time.
What does the justice department say? It is arguing that the law, which offers no exceptions for rape or incest, “illegally interferes with federal interests”, and the US attorney general said the department would protect rights under a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances.
California takes aim at Amazon with landmark bill
California lawmakers have passed a bill that would disrupt many of the algorithmically determined systems that Amazon uses to monitor workers. The bill, which is yet to be signed by the governor, Gavin Newsom, would affect all warehouse jobs in the state.
What does the bill mean for warehouse workers?
Warehouses would be made to disclose the metrics used to track their employees to government agencies and the workers themselves.
Penalties for “time off-task” would be banned. These are used to discourage employees from using the bathroom and other necessary breaks, leading to reports of workers urinating in bottles.
The bill also prohibits retaliation against workers who complain, after several employees reported being fired for doing so.
In other news …
More than 100 international passengers flew out of Afghanistan on Thursday in the first large-scale departure since the US withdrawal last month. The flight, which was approved by the Taliban, came amid a worsening human rights situation in the country.
The civil rights leader Al Sharpton has urged Biden to abolish the filibuster. The president has so far resisted calls to scrap the centuries-old parliamentary tool – which Sharpton said flew in the face of the Biden’s pledges to protect voting rights.
The US and China must not “veer into conflict”, Xi Jinping and Biden have agreed in the leaders’ first phone call in seven months. The discussion comes amid frustrated efforts to improve relations between the powers.
California is expected to become the first state to outlaw “stealthing”, the act of removing a condom during sex without consent. The bill, which has been sent to the governor’s office, would make it a civil, but not criminal, offence.
Stat of the day: the world will have 27bn Covid vaccine doses by June 2022
By June 2022, 27bn Covid vaccine doses will have been produced – enough to fully immunise the world’s population twice over. Despite this, if the slow and unequal pace of distribution continues, more than half the world will remain unvaccinated by next summer. The former UK prime minister Gordon Brown calls on rich countries to distribute the doses equitably.
Don’t miss this: Muslim Americans on the toll of 9/11
The 9/11 attacks killed 2,977 people and injured thousands. Together with the planes, Erum Salam writes, the terrorists hijacked the religion of more than 1.8 billion people on that day. In the ensuing years, Muslim Americans have endured racism, government surveillance and violent hate crimes. Muslim Americans in the arts, politics, healthcare, education and the media speak about the “huge toll” that moment had on their lives.
Last Thing: creepy crawl space
In 1995, when Amber Dawn was 20, a stranger secretly lived in the crawl space of her attic for six months. She would come home to find cans of soda and ramen packets missing, and for a while assumed her brother, who had a key, was eating her food. Although the experience continued to haunt her for years, Dawn now jokes “he was the best roommate I ever had: he kept to himself and always put the toilet seat down”. Still, she’s thankful to now be living in a house without an attic.
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