Good morning.
The White House has announced a $1.8tn plan to overhaul the US’s social infrastructure, from childcare, to education and health. Key aspects of the American Families Plan include:
A national childcare programme.
Universal preschool.
Free tuition for community college.
Health insurance subsidies.
Tax cuts for low and middle-income workers.
A national family leave program – the US is the only wealthy nation that does not have a federal policy for paid maternity leave, and is one of very few that does not offer paid paternity leave.
The proposal would be funded by undoing Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and closing their tax loopholes, and by increasing the capital gains rate for millionaires and billionaires.
What’s the likelihood of this passing? Republican lawmakers have strongly opposed Biden’s spending plans, but were unable to block the American Rescue Plan from being passed. Democrats don’t need this bipartisan support; while most bills need to get 60 votes in the Senate, Democrats can pass budget-related measures with only 51 votes through a process called reconciliation. The chamber is split 50:50, but Kamala Harris has the tie-breaking vote.
Andrew Brown was shot five times by police, attorneys for his family said
An independent autopsy showed that Andrew Brown, a black man killed by police last week, was shot five times, according to attorneys for his family. The fatal wound was a shot to the back of his head, they said, sharing a death certificate signed by the local medical examiner that listed that as the cause of death and described it as homicide.
Brown was shot last Wednesday by deputies serving a drug-related search and arrest warrant in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He is thought not to have been armed.
Officials in Texas are seeking a posthumous pardon for George Floyd for a 2004 drug conviction for which he spent 10 months in jail. Floyd was arrested for possession of 0.3g of crack cocaine worth $10 on the word of one officer. That officer is now accused of furthering narcotic trafficking in Houston and of murder, and a number of convictions he was involved in have begun to unravel.
California officials are taking on Nestlé
Officials in California are attempting to stop Nestlé from draining millions of gallons of water from the San Bernardino forest, as drought conditions became more severe across the golden state. Water officials have drafted a cease-and-desist order against the food and beverage giant, which bottles the water for its Arrowhead brand.
Who is impacted? Nestlé is taking its water from Strawberry Creek, a tributary of the Santa Ana river. Watersheds in the region also provide drinking water for around 750,000 residents, and habitats for deer, fox and mountain lions, and threatened Alameda whipsnakes.
Is there a backstory? Oh yes. For many years, local environmentalists have caused the firm of draining water supplies at the expense of communities and eco-systems. Nestlé argues its rights to California spring water dates back to the 1800s, but in 2017, an investigation found the company was taking far more that its share. According to one environmental group, Nestlé has drained up to 25 times as much water as it is allowed.
Fully vaccinated Americans can go outside without a mask – except in crowds
Fully vaccinated Americans can go outdoors without a mask, except in large crowds, Joe Biden announced yesterday. The president assured the public that the risk of transmitting or contracting the virus while outside if fully vaccinated, was “very very low”. But as he praised the “stunning progress” the US has made against the virus, Biden urged Americans not to “let up now” – and to go and get their vaccination.
There has been an 80% drop in deaths among elderly people and 70% drop in hospitalisations, with two-thirds now fully vaccinated. Across the population, 215m vaccine shots have been administered and cases and deaths are down dramatically, Biden said.
Who are the top team behind all this? Seven officials, including Kamala Harris, have been critical in steering the Biden administration’s first 100 days. Daniel Strauss and Maanvi Singh explain who they are and what they do.
But it wasn’t all good news. Dr Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser, said countries had failed to provide a “global response” to prevent the coronavirus crisis in India. Fauci said wealthier nations had a responsibility to support the health infrastructure of poorer countries.
India recorded 360,960 new cases in 24 hours leading up to Wednesday morning alone – a new global record. The total death toll has now passed 200,000, as the current surge brings hospitals to their knees, forcing them to turn away patients as oxygen supplies run dry.
Crematoriums in Delhi are being forced to build makeshift funeral pyres on spare patches of land, as they are inundated with bodies from the explosion of coronavirus cases in the city. “People are just dying, dying and dying,” said Jitender Singh Shanty, who is coordinating more than 100 cremations per a day at the site in the east of the city. “If we get more bodies then we will cremate on the road.”
In other news …
Arizona has passed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that bans the procedure if it is due solely to a survivable genetic abnormality in the foetus. Doctors who perform an abortion because the child has a genetic issue can face felony charges.
A New York Post reporter has resigned, claiming she was forced to write an incorrect story about Kamala Harris, which claimed that migrant children were being given a copy of the vice-president’s book, Superheroes Are Everywhere, as part of a welcome kit in Los Angeles. She said being ordered to write the story was her “breaking point.”
Scientists have found a way to remove polluting microplastics from the environment, using bacteria. Researchers at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University want to use bacteria to create “tape-like microbe nets that can capture microplastics in polluted water to form an easily disposable and recyclable blob.”
Stat of the day: one in 10 Indigenous Americans don’t have access to safe tap water or basic sanitation
The US government has not done enough to ensure Indigenous American tribes have clean drinking water and sanitation, and this must change, a report has said. An estimated one in 10 Indigenous Americans don’t have access to safe tap water or basic sanitation, which causes a range of health conditions. Tribe leaders said this breaks the pledges the government made in return for the cessation of land, which promised they’d get a “liveable reservation and a home conducive to health and prosperity”.
Don’t miss this: more than 360 bills with voting restrictions have been introduced by Republicans since Biden’s inauguration
Since Biden took office on 20 January, lawmakers have been launching unprecedented attacks on the right to vote. More than 360 bills that propose voting restrictions have been introduced so far, with some states attempting to make mail-in voting harder, others criminalising minor voting errors. Michigan is even trying to stop the state’s top election official from providing a link to an absentee ballot application on a state government website.
Last Thing: what is the beef between Apple and Facebook?
A long-standing feud between Apple’s Tim Cook and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg over data privacy and industry control might be coming to a head this week, as Apple launches a new operating system that “threatens to kneecap Facebook’s business model,” Kari Paul writes. One expert said they’re “playing a game of chicken.” Read more about the high profile tit-for-tat, and what it might mean for the rest of us.
Sign up
First Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.
