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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho (now) and Joan E Greve and Martin Belam (earlier)

Joe Biden puts Kamala Harris in charge of stemming numbers of migrants at US-Mexico border – as it happened

Kamala Harris last week. She said earlier on Wednesday that she and Biden would both visit the border at some point.
Kamala Harris last week. She said earlier on Wednesday that she and Biden would both visit the border at some point. Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

Evening summary

  • North Korea has launched an unidentified projectile after it test-fired two short-range missiles over the weekend.
  • The Senate confirmed Rachel Levine as assistant health secretary, making her the first openly transgender person the Senate has confirmed. Also today the Senate confirmed David Turk as deputy energy secretary.
  • Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, nominated state assemblymember Rob Bonta for state attorney general, a position left vacant when Xavier Becerra was confirmed as secretary of health and human services.

It appears Donald Trump is in talks with “no-name app vendors” to create his own social media platform.

Axios is reporting that while everything is still in the early stages, Trump and his digital adviser Dan Scavino have in particular taken a liking to a platform called FreeSpace, an app that bills itself as a “social fusion for free-thinkers, athletes and entrepreneurs” that launched on 1 February.

Report: North Korea fires at least one unidentified projectile

Details are still emerging on this, but we’re hearing that North Korea has fired at least one unidentified projectile in its eastern waters. This is according to South Korea’s military.

CNN is reporting from an unnamed senior US official that an intelligence assessment has determined that the projectile is two ballistic missiles. Reuters is reporting that the Japan coast guard believes North Korea “may” have launched a ballistics missile

“It may have been a ballistic missile,” a Japan defense ministry spokesman told Reuters. “It has not fallen within Japanese territory and is not believed to have come down within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.”

This comes after North Korea test-fired two short-range missiles over the weekend. Biden administration officials played down last weekend’s launches last weekend, saying Joe Biden is still open to a dialogue with North Korea.

Updated

In the aftermath of the shooting in Boulder, Colorado, officials will likely appeal a ruling that blocked a ban on assault-style rifles.

The ban was passed by the city in 2018, but a judge blocked it in a ruling just 10 days ago. The suspect in the shooting is believed to have purchased the weapon used in the shooting after the ban was blocked.

Sam Weaver, the Boulder mayor, said he thought that stricter gun laws probably would have made a difference and that “making these weapons less available” was necessary.

“We will push on [the appeal], and we will also push our state legislature to put in a statewide ban,” he said.

Read more here:

Updated

The Senate has confirmed David Turk as deputy secretary of energy.

Rachel Levine confirmed as assistant health secretary

In yet another historic confirmation, the Senate has voted to confirm Rachel Levine as the assistant secretary for health, making Levine the first openly transgender person to earn a Senate confirmation.

It appears that senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski were the two Republicans who broke ranks to advance the nomination.

Updated

Other Democrats reportedly vying for the California attorney general nomination were impeachment star Adam Schiff, and Diana Becton, the Contra Costa county district attorney.

Out of the group, Rob Bonta has the most progressive record and was endorsed by the Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza.

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast coming in hot with some California news.

After much speculation, California governor Gavin Newsom has nominated state assemblymember Rob Bonta as the next state attorney general.

The role was left vacant after Xavier Becerra left to serve as the secretary of health and human services for the Biden administration.

Democrat Bonta, who represents Oakland, is California’s first Filipino attorney general.

The position of attorney general for the most populous state in the nation is one viewed in many political circles as a stepping stone to higher office. Besides Becerra, vice president Kamala Harris was state attorney general before she was elected to the US Senate.

Bonta, 48, had the backing of a several Asian American and Pacific Islander groups, as well as progressive groups and leaders on criminal and environmental justice. He had worked on a number of criminal justice-focused bills, including a measure to automatically expunge marijuana-related offenses from people’s records after California legalized recreational marijuana, to a bill to eliminate private prisons and one to end cash bail (the bail change was later reversed in a 2020 referendum).

Updated

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:

  • Joe Biden named Kamala Harris as the administration’s point person to stem the tide of migrants coming to the US. The announcement comes as border officials have reported an increase in the number of migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, arriving at the southern border.
  • The White House will allow a network camera into a migrant detention facility in Texas today. But the facility is managed by the department of health and human services, while specific concerns have been raised about crowded conditions at facilities managed by customs and border patrol.
  • Harris called on Congress to take action to address gun violence, after a mass shooting in Boulder resulted in 10 deaths. “These slaughters have to stop,” Harris said. The vice-president deflected a question about whether Biden will take executive action on gun violence, instead emphasizing that congressional legislation would have a longer-lasting impact.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said the US has not yet turned the corner in the coronavirus pandemic, despite encouraging vaccination numbers. The infectious disease expert warned that new coronavirus cases have leveled off at an alarmingly high rate in the US. “We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to turn the corner remains to be seen,” Fauci said at today’s briefing from the White House coronavirus response team.
  • The governor of Virginia signed a bill banning the death penalty, making Virginia the first southern state to do so. “Signing this new law is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do,” Governor Ralph Northam said before signing the bill. “There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South, or in this nation.”

Vivian will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Alexandra Villarreal reports for the Guardian:

Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he is charging Kamala Harris with diplomatic efforts to stem migration at the US-Mexico border, amid a deepening humanitarian challenge there.

The vice-president will collaborate with officials from Mexico and Central America, according to Reuters, taking on similar responsibilities to Biden’s when he responded to an influx of children and families as vice-president under the Obama administration.

“Needless to say, the work will not be easy,” Harris said. “But it is important work.”

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered nearly 9,500 children who came to the country unaccompanied by a parent or guardian at the south-western border last month, and more than 15,000 are currently in federal custody – nearly doubling the previous record, according to the Washington Post.

The arrival of so many vulnerable people, coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic, has sent administrators scrambling for more space to safely accommodate those children, many of whom are stranded in inhospitable CBP facilities long after the legal time limit of 72 hours.

Angus King, an independent senator from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, penned a Washington Post op-ed about ending the Senate filibuster.

King has previously indicated support for keeping the filibuster, but in the op-ed, he argued the future of the filibuster depended on Republicans’ actions.

“The reality is that once the filibuster is gone, it will never come back,” King wrote. “Why would a future majority ever impose such a limitation on its own power? And as succeeding Congresses swing dramatically between opposing ideological visions, so, too, would our laws.”

He went on to say, “But this argument is sustainable only if the extraordinary power of the 60-vote threshold is used sparingly on major issues or is used in a good-faith effort to leverage concessions rather than to simply obstruct. If, however, the minority hangs together and regularly uses this power to block any and all initiatives of the majority (and their president), supporting the continuation of the rule becomes harder and harder to justify, regardless of the long-term consequences.”

As of now, Senate Democrats do not have the votes to eliminate the filibuster because at least two of their members, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have stated they are opposed to the idea.

Updated

Jewel Wicker reports from Atlanta, Georgia:

With one week until Georgia’s legislative session is scheduled to end, Georgia Democrats have introduced bills in response to the Atlanta spa shootings.

According to the Associated Press, proposed bills “would require a five-day waiting period for gun purchases, establish a statewide translation system for 911 calls and create enhanced training for law enforcement emphasizing outreach in other languages.”

The legislative session is scheduled to end on March 31, and it is unlikely that any of the proposed legislation will make much progress in the Republican-led state.

Hollis Wright stands in front of the Gold Spa, where multiple people were killed in last week’s shooting in Atlanta.
Hollis Wright stands in front of the Gold Spa, where multiple people were killed in last week’s shooting in Atlanta. Photograph: John Spink/AP

“We’re definitely looking more toward next session, just because of the way that the process is,” Democratic state Rep. Marvin Lin said. “But that’s not the point. We needed to act now and send a message.” Lim is one of the Asian-American lawmakers sponsoring the Georgia bills.

Democrats have said some of the legislation is in response to reports that people who don’t speak fluent English may have had trouble communicating with first responders following the Atlanta spa shootings. Eight people, including six Asian women were killed in the shootings at three spas in metro Atlanta a week ago. Another person was shot but survived the attack.

Democratic Rep. Sam Park is the primary House sponsor for the bill that proposes a five-day waiting period for anyone seeking to purchase a gun. Although the bill is unlikely to pass, he has said he anticipates gun control being an important issue in future statewide elections.

“It’s important to demonstrate to the community that we’re fighting for them, that we’re fighting to protect our community to ensure that these sorts of horrific incidents do not happen again,” he said.

Republican state Sen. Tyler Harper is among the politicians who has expressed opposition to the legislation. “I think it’s just an unnecessary burden on law-abiding citizens being able to access and exercise their constitutional rights,” he said.

In response to the shootings in Atlanta, as well as a recent shooting in Colorado, Joe Biden recently said he supports bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.

“The Senate should immediately pass — let me say it again: The United States Senate — I hope some are listening — should immediately pass the two House-passed bills that close loopholes in the background check system,” he said.

Updated

Megan Rapinoe took her fight for equal pay to Congress as she testified on Wednesday in front of a committee examining “the economic harm caused by longstanding gender inequalities, particularly for women of color”.

The Olympic and World Cup champion testified at a hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. In her opening statement, the soccer star told the committee that: “I am here today because I know firsthand that this is true. We are told in this country that if you just work hard and continue to achieve - you will be rewarded, fairly. It’s the promise of the American dream. But that promise has not been for everyone.

“The United States women’s national team has won four World Cup championships and four Olympic gold medals on behalf of our country. We have filled stadiums, broken viewing records, and sold out jerseys, all popular metrics by which we are judged.

“Yet despite all of this, we are still paid less than men – for each trophy, of which there are many, each win, each tie, each time we play. Less.”

Rapinoe said she did not understand why pay inequality was still a problem in US Soccer, despite the USWNT’s success. “I feel like honestly we’ve done everything,” she said. “You want stadiums filled? We filled them.”

US Women’s Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Margaret Purce stopped by the White House briefing room this afternoon, and they posed for photos at the press secretary’s podium.

Rapinoe and Purce will soon be attending an event with Joe Biden to mark Equal Pay Day.

Rapinoe, who virtually testified during a House hearing on the gender pay gap earlier today, said she has not yet met with the president.

Asked what it’s like to be at the White House today, Rapinoe replied, “It’s really amazing. Both of us feel honored to even be invited and continue the fight that we’ve had for a long time.”

Rapinoe also noted that this is a “much more welcoming administration” than the last one when it comes to discussing issues like the gender pay gap.

Kamala Harris acknowledged the difficult task ahead of her, as she becomes the Biden administration’s point person on stemming the tide of migrants coming to the US.

“There is no question that this is a challenging situation,” the vice-president said at the White House, emphasizing the need to “address the root causes that cause people to make the trek” to the US.

“I look forward to engaging in diplomacy with government, with private sector, with civil society and the leaders of each in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to strengthen democracy and the rule of law and ensure shared prosperity in the region,” Harris said.

“I also look forward to working with members of the Congress, who I think share our perspective on the need to address root causes for the migration that we’ve been seeing. Needless to say, the work will not be easy, but it is important work.”

Republicans have been sharply critical of Biden’s immigration policies, and it will likely be very difficult to get any border-related legislation through the evenly divided Senate.

Joe Biden described Kamala Harris as “the most qualified person” to address the recent increase in migrants attempting to enter the US.

“This new surge we’re dealing with now started in the last administration, but it’s our responsibility to deal with it humanely,” Biden said at the White House moments ago.

The president reiterated his commitment to tackling the underlying issues that are spurring migrants to flee their home countries.

“The best way to keep people from coming is keep them from wanting to leave,” Biden said.

The president cited gang violence, drug cartels and natural disasters as some of the reasons why migrants decide to make the treacherous journey to the US-Mexican border.

Virginia governor signs bill banning death penalty

The governor of Virginia has signed a bill banning the death penalty, making it the first southern state to do so.

Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, signed the bill this afternoon at the Greensville Correctional Center, where the state’s execution chamber is located.

“Signing this new law is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do,” Northam said before signing the bill. “There is no place today for the death penalty in this commonwealth, in the South, or in this nation.”

Northam noted that the death penalty has historically been disproportionately applied to African Americans. “It is not fair, it is applied differently based on who you are. And the system has gotten it wrong,” the governor said.

The signing ceremony came a month after Virginia state legislators approved the bill banning the death penalty, a remarkable turn of events for a state that has executed more people than any other in the US.

Vice president Kamala Harris said that the US needs to address the root causes that cause so many people to travel on hazardous journeys to try to cross into the US without pre-arranged documentation.

The US president, Joe Biden, has just named her at the White House as the most senior member of his administration to oversee a humanitarian problem at the border that the administration has refused to call a crisis.

Harris said she will collaborate with Mexico to “accomplish shared goals”.

Biden said the increase in numbers of people coming to the border began under the Trump administration.

There have been surges in numbers fleeing poverty, violence, corruption, the climate crisis and, lately, related natural disasters, and heading to the US to seek asylum or in hopes of entering to join family already in America.

Biden met at the White House earlier with Harris and also with his health, immigration and security advisers.

Updated

Biden puts Harris in charge of US efforts with Mexico and Central America to stem uncontrolled flow of migrants to US-Mexico border

At the White Hose this afternoon, US president Joe Biden has named his Veep, Kamala Harris, to oversee US diplomatic efforts relating to the US-Mexico border and the causes of a build-up of desperate migrants crossing there, leading to thousands of children in border detention.

Biden said Harris’s goal will be to stem the flow of migration from Central America to the border and work to implement long-term strategy that addresses root causes of migration, Reuters reports.

Harris said earlier today that she and Biden would both visit the border at some point, and that she has visited before. The administration was caught flat-footed when it repealed a lot of Donald Trump’s exclusionary policies but did not put in place the physical facilities or repairs to the legal and immigration systems to cope with an increase in people crossing into the US, especially via Texas, in the last two months.

The police chief of Waterbury, Connecticut, has been testifying on Capitol Hill and hitting the airwaves explaining his views that tighter gun laws save lives.

NBC in Connecticut reports:

Addressing the Senate judiciary committee, Chief Fernando Spagnolo explained how his community has benefited from Connecticut’s strict gun laws, many of which have been adopted since the 2012 Sandy Hook school shootings.

“The events of that day, the loss of those young children and their teachers, shook the nation to its very core,” said Spagnolo.

Within a week there’ve been two mass shootings - one in Georgia another in Colorado. While Spagnolo and others advocated for stricter gun laws Tuesday, there was opposition.

“Every time there’s a shooting we play this ridiculous theatre where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” said Texas Republican Ted Cruz.

During his testimony, which he provided remotely, Spagnolo said between 2014 and 2019 there was a 41% reduction in gun homicide and 15% reduction in gun suicides in Waterbury. He attributed this to Connecticut’s gun laws.

Among Connecticut’s gun laws are mandatory background checks and disqualification for felons and those with a history of mental illness.

In 1999, Mike Lawlor helped craft some of these laws when he was an advisor for Governor Dannel Malloy. Lawlor, who is now a University of New Haven associate professor, helped author the Connecticut Red Flag Gun Laws. He said other states could benefit from what’s being done here.

“It’s not about banning all guns. It’s about regulating access to these firearms,” Lawlor said.

Spagnolo agrees and would like to see surrounding states mirror what Connecticut has done.

“It would certainly reduce the amount of guns that get in the hands of prohibited persons. It would make our community safer,” explained Spagnolo in an interview with NBC Connecticut following the hearing.

Louisiana may owe abortion clinics’ lawyers $8.6 million.

Taxpayers in the state of Louisiana might have to pay almost $9m in legal fees following the state’s failed attempts to enforce a restrictive 2014 abortion law, which the US Supreme Court struck down last June in a 5-4 decision.

In this file photo taken on March 04, 2020 Pro-choice activists supporting legal access to abortion protest during a demonstration outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, as the Court hears oral arguments regarding a Louisiana law about abortion access in the first major abortion case in years. - Abortion rights advocates on April 14, 2020 withdrew a petition to the US Supreme Court to force Texas to reinstate the right to abortion during the novel coronavirus pandemic, after an appeals court ruled in their favor.
In this file photo taken on March 04, 2020 Pro-choice activists supporting legal access to abortion protest during a demonstration outside the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, as the Court hears oral arguments regarding a Louisiana law about abortion access in the first major abortion case in years. - Abortion rights advocates on April 14, 2020 withdrew a petition to the US Supreme Court to force Texas to reinstate the right to abortion during the novel coronavirus pandemic, after an appeals court ruled in their favor. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

The law would have mandated that doctors who perform abortions obtain admitting privileges at a hospital no greater than 30 miles away, according to CBS News. If the law were upheld, the three facilities in Louisiana that provide abortions would have been required to stop performing them.

The Center for Reproductive Rights submitted a request Monday evening for $8,407,418.83 in attorneys’ fees, as well as $246,929.35 in “nontaxable expenses.” These costs stem from the firm’s legal work fighting the act. Since the Center for Reproductive Rights won its case, it is permitted to recoup costs associated with litigation, CBS News explained.

“Louisiana has spent immense resources and taxpayer money on this six-year Court battle,” said Julie Rikelman, a Center for Reproductive Rights attorney who fought the Louisiana legislation. “This time and money should be spent on real issues in Louisiana, like addressing the state’s maternal mortality crisis or the impacts of the Covid pandemic.”

In comparison to most other states, Louisiana is characterized by “below-average wealth,” CBS News reported, citing Moody’s Investor analysis. It’s one of the poorest US states.

Louisiana’s “Unsafe Abortion Protection Act” was almost “identical” to a Texas mandate, which the US Supreme Court blocked in 2016, the news organization said.

Texas taxpayers had to cover $2.5 m in fees for the Center for Reproductive Rights legal costs in that case. They also bore the cost of around $1m in costs generated by the Texas attorney general’s office in its failed efforts to defend the law.

Today so far

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

  • Kamala Harris called on Congress to take action to address gun violence, after a mass shooting in Boulder resulted in 10 deaths. “These slaughters have to stop,” Harris said. The vice-president deflected a question about whether Joe Biden will take executive action on gun violence, instead emphasizing that congressional legislation would have a longer-lasting impact.
  • Dr Anthony Fauci said the US has not yet turned the corner in the coronavirus pandemic, despite encouraging vaccination numbers. The infectious disease expert warned that new coronavirus cases have leveled off at an alarmingly high rate in the US. “We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to turn the corner remains to be seen,” Fauci said at today’s briefing from the White House coronavirus response team.
  • The White House will allow a network camera into a migrant detention facility in Texas today. But the facility is managed by the department of health and human services, while specific concerns have been raised about crowded conditions at facilities managed by customs and border patrol.

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

First dogs update: Joe Biden’s German shepherds, Champ and Major, have returned to the White House.

Jen Psaki said that the two dogs were at Camp David with the president and the first lady this past weekend, and the pets returned to the White House with them on Sunday.

The dogs were moved to Delaware two weeks ago, after Major gave someone at the White House a minor injury.

Jen Psaki confirmed an Axios report that Joe Biden met with a group of historians at the White House a couple weeks ago.

According to Axios, the president and the historians discussed whether Democrats should eliminate the Senate filibuster to help advance Biden’s agenda.

“It’s important to learn from what did and didn’t work in the past,” Psaki said of the meeting.

Jen Psaki told reporters that Joe Biden is focused on “common sense measures” to address gun violence in America.

“No one is talking about overturning or changing the Second Amendment,” the White House press secretary said.

Psaki noted that a majority of Americans supporting strengthening the background checks system for firearm purchases and banning assault weapons.

Jen Psaki was asked why the White House is allowing media access to an immigration facility that is managed by the department of health and human services, when concerns have been specifically raised about facilities managed by customs and border patrol.

“We’re also open to providing access there. This is just the first step in a process of providing greater access to the media,” Psaki said.

The White House announced this morning that a network camera would be allowed into a migrant detention facility managed by HHS, days after a Democratic congressman shared photos showing crowded conditions at a CBP facility in Texas.

Jen Psaki was asked about tension between the White House and members of the Asian-American community over the lack of Asian-American representation among the Biden administration’s senior officials.

The White House press secretary responded by noting that Kamala Harris is Indian-American, making her the first Asian American to serve as vice-president.

Psaki also highlighted the White House’s announcement last night that the administration is creating a role for an Asian-American liaison.

The press secretary’s comments come after Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat of Illinois, threatened to oppose some of Biden’s nominees if he did not appoint more Asian Americans to top posts.

Jen Psaki said there are “current discussions and analysis internally” about what executive actions Joe Biden might take to address gun violence.

The White House press secretary echoed comments from Kamala Harris, who said this morning that it was important to recognize congressional legislation is the longer-lasting answer to strengthening gun regulations.

Biden has come under intensified pressure to advance more gun restrictions in response to the recent shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, which collectively resulted in 18 deaths.

The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, has now taken over the podium in the briefing room.

Psaki said Joe Biden will be meeting with his economic advisers over the next several days to finalize his initial spending proposals as part of his “Build Back Better” plan.

Those proposals are expected to include Biden’s long-awaited infrastructure plan, although it’s unclear that package will be able to make it through the evenly divided Senate.

The White House announced earlier today that Biden will be traveling to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, next week to deliver remarks on his “Build Back Better” agenda.

A reporter asked Heather Boushey what the Biden administration is doing to get American women back in the workforce, as data indicates that the pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on women’s jobs.

“The most important thing we need to do is wrap our hands around this pandemic,” Boushey said.

Boushey, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, cited increased vaccinations and the reopening of schools and childcare centers as developments that will make it easier for women to reenter the workforce.

White House marks Equal Pay Day

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

Psaki was joined by Cecilia Rouse, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, and Heather Boushey, a member of the council.

Rouse opened her comments by noting that today is Equal Pay Day, which marks the number of days from January 1 of last year that the average woman must work to make as much money as an average man did last year.

Rouse, who is the first Black woman to lead the Council of Economic Advisers, emphasized that the gender pay gap was even worse for women of color. She joked that she should really be speaking to reporters in August because of how long it takes for the average Black woman to make as much money as the average man did last year.

Updated

A group of 12 state attorneys general have sent a letter to the CEOs of Twitter and Facebook, urging the social media companies to crack down on misinformation about coronavirus vaccines on their platforms.

The group, led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, warned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that such misinformation is “threatening the health of our communities” and “slowing progress in getting our residents protected from the virus”.

“A small group of individuals use your platforms to downplay the dangers of COVID-19 and spread misinformation about the safety of vaccines,” the attorneys general wrote.

“‘Anti-vaxxers’ are using social media platforms to target people of color and Black Americans specifically, members of communities who have suffered the worst health impacts of the virus and whose vaccination rates are lagging.”

The attorneys general called on Dorsey and Zuckerberg to “take immediate steps to fully enforce your companies’ guidelines against vaccine misinformation”.

The letter comes one day before Dorsey, Zuckerberg and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai are scheduled to testify at a House hearing on online disinformation.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

In a very unusual move, Senators Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, the respective Democratic and Republican leaders, both spoke at the first Senate hearing on a sweeping voting rights bill, underscoring the way the fight over voting rights has exploded at the center of American politics.

As the Senate leaders of their respective parties, both Schumer and McConnell rarely speak during hearings. Both gave lengthy opening speeches on Wednesday.

Schumer repeatedly referenced the fact that there are hundreds of bills pending in state legislatures that would restrict voting rights, saying they were “one of the greatest threats we have to modern democracy in America.”

“This is infuriating. I would like to ask my Republican colleagues, why are you so afraid of democracy? Why, instead of trying to win voters over that you lost in the last election, are you trying to prevent them from voting?” he said.

Ticking through a number of measures that make it harder to vote, Schumer became particularly infuriated over an Arizona measure that would require voters to get mail-in ballots notarized.

“How are poor people gonna pay for a notary?” he said. “It’s one of the most despicable things I’ve seen in all my years.”

McConnell downplayed Democratic concerns about voter suppression as hyperbole. He said the law was not needed, pointing to high turnout in the 2020 election, and that the new federal law would cause chaos.

“States are not engaging in trying to suppress voters whatsoever. This is clearly an effort by one party to rewrite the rules of our political system,” he said.

But McConnell’s comments are undercut by many members of his own party, who have openly said they are trying to block people from voting.

“Everybody shouldn’t be voting,” John Kavanagh, an Arizona Republican, told CNN earlier this month. David Ralston, the speaker of the Georgia House, said last year that more mail-in voting would be “devastating to Republicans.” Donald Trump also last year dismissed efforts to make it easier to vote, saying, “You’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.”

In recognition of Equal Pay Day, House speaker Nancy Pelosi called on lawmakers to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to address the gender pay gap.

The Democratic speaker released a statement noting that the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic fallout has had a disproportionate effect on American women.

Megan Rapinoe testifies virtually during a House oversight committee hearing on the gender pay gap.
Megan Rapinoe testifies virtually during a House oversight committee hearing on the gender pay gap. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

“As we crush the virus and Build Back Better For The People, we must act to end the gender wage gap and strengthen women’s economic security by passing Chair Rosa DeLauro’s Paycheck Fairness Act, which is being advanced today under the leadership of Education and Labor Committee Chair Bobby Scott,” Pelosi said.

“Next month, the House will pass this critical legislation to strengthen and modernize the Equal Pay Act and send it to the Senate where they must act swiftly to join us in delivering results for America’s women.”

It will be difficult for Senate Democrats to pass the legislation, given that they will need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to support the bill in order to get it approved.

The House is holding a hearing on the gender pay gap today, and US Women’s Soccer star Megan Rapinoe spoke at the hearing.

Updated

Harris demands action on gun violence: 'Slaughters have to stop'

Decrying two mass shootings in the United States in less than a week, Kamala Harris said on Wednesday that “these slaughters have to stop” but deflected a question about whether Joe Biden was prepared to take executive action to restrict access to guns, calling instead for action by Congress.

“We should first expect the US Congress to act,” the US vice-president said on the CBS This Morning program. “I’m not willing to give up on what we must do to appeal to the hearts and minds and the reason of the members of the US Senate.”

Two gun safety bills have been passed by the Democratic-controlled House, but under current rules unless Republicans in the Senate budge from their opposition to any such legislation – which they have shown no sign of doing – the bills cannot advance.

In a wide-ranging interview on CBS, Harris lamented a shooting on Monday evening in a Colorado grocery store in which 10 were killed, and a series of shootings at three massage parlors in the Atlanta area a week earlier that left eight dead including six women of Asian descent.

“We are seeing tragedy after tragedy after tragedy,” Harris said.

But challenged on what action the Biden administration would take to confront the mass shooting epidemic, Harris indicated that no unilateral executive action was immediately on the table.

“I don’t think the president is excluding that,” Harris said, “but I want to be clear that if we really want something that is lasting, we need to pass legislation.”

US has not yet turned the corner in the pandemic, Fauci says

A reporter asked Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about whether she believes the country has turned the corner in the coronavirus pandemic.

The reporter noted Walensky is normally “guarded” when it comes to offering an optimistic assessment about the country’s progress in the pandemic, but she seemed more optimistic today.

“Yes, I am normally guarded. I remain guarded,” Walensky said.

The CDC director said she is “enthusiastic” about vaccination rates in the US, but she noted that footage of people vacationing on spring break and ignoring social-distancing guidelines continued to worry her.

“We’re still hanging out at 55,000 cases a day, and we’re watching what is happening with people are vacationing right now, and that concerns me a lot,” Walensky said.

Dr Anthony Fauci echoed Walensky’s concerns, saying it was crucial that Americans continue to be vigilant about limiting the spread of coronavirus as vaccinations ramp up over the next couple of months.

“We are at the corner. Whether or not we’re going to turn the corner remains to be seen,” Fauci said. “When you’re at that level [of new cases], I don’t think you can declare victory and say you’ve turned the corner.”

Updated

A reporter asked Dr Anthony Fauci about concerns that AstraZeneca included outdated data in its press release about the effectiveness of its coronavirus vaccine.

AstraZeneca said Monday that its vaccine was 79% effective at preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections, but a US health agency pointed out that those numbers relied on older data and that the actual effectiveness rate was slightly lower.

Fauci said he expected AstraZeneca to release a “modified statement” about the vaccine, but the health expert said he believed the vaccine to still be a very good option for protection against coronavirus.

Senior White House adviser Andy Slavitt also emphasized the Food and Drug Administration would be doing a robust review of the vaccine before granting AstraZeneca an emergency use authorization.

Dr Anthony Fauci celebrated research indicating that the coronavirus vaccines are already proving extremely effective at preventing infections among healthcare workers.

More than 2 million Americans are receiving vaccine shots every day, and about 70% of Americans aged 65 or older have now received at least their first dose.

“At the end of the day, that is what is going to end the pandemic in this country,” Fauci said.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed concern about the recent trend in America’s coronavirus caseload.

“I continue to be worried about the latest data and the apparent stall we are seeing in the trajectory of the pandemic,” Walensky said.

The number of new coronavirus cases in the US has been on the decline, but public health experts have recently warned that new cases have stagnated at an alarmingly high level.

84 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, Slavitt says

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

Senior White House adviser Andy Slavitt announced that 84 million Americans have now received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose. Roughly 1 in 6 American adults are fully vaccinated.

That means the US has administered more shots than any other country in the world. Slavitt also noted that vaccine output has tripled since Joe Biden took office in January.

Slavitt then highlighted today’s announcement that $81 billion in funds from the relief bill will soon be made available to states to help safely reopen schools.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Senator Amy Klobuchar and other leading senate Democrats are holding their first hearing on a bill that would implement a significant overhaul of America’s voting system, including some of the most powerful voting rights protections in decades.

The bill would require states to offer early voting, as well as same day and online voter registration, among other measures.

It would also limit extreme partisan gerrymandering by establishing independent commissions to redraw district lines, taking power away from lawmakers.

This bill has passed the US House previously, but this is the first time the bill has gotten a hearing in the US Senate. But looming in the background is a fight over the filibuster, a 60-vote threshold that requires voting legislation to move forward.

Senate Democrats are increasingly calling for tweaks to that rule that would allow them to pass legislation. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has pledged a “nuclear winter” if that happens.

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said he does not believe the two background checks bills that the House passed earlier this month would be effective in preventing mass shootings.

“I don’t think it would address this issue, but if the Senate majority leader, Senator Schumer, wants to bring it up, well, I’d be happy to debate it,” McConnell told Fox News.

Schumer has pledged to take up universal background checks legislation in the Senate, and Joe Biden has implored the upper chamber to pass the bills already approved by the House, after the Boulder shooting left 10 people dead.

Echoing other Republicans, McConnell argued that the true cause of mass shootings was not lax gun regulations but mental illness.

“These acts of violence are horrendous,” McConnell said. “It reminds us that the real challenge here is mental illness, and identifying people who are likely to do this kind of thing in advance is very, very difficult.”

Experts have said that blaming mass shootings on the mentally ill unfairly stigmatizes those with mental health diagnoses and prevents America from addressing gun violence.

Joe Biden will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, next Wednesday to discuss his “Build Back Better” plan, the White House just announced.

“On Wednesday, March 31, the President will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to deliver remarks on his economic vision for the future and the Biden-Harris Administration’s plan to Build Back Better for the American people,” the White House said in a statement.

The president and the vice-president have been traveling across the country in recent weeks to advertise the benefits of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill and preview Biden’s other legislative priorities.

According to reports, Biden plans to release his initial spending requests, which will include details on his infrastructure package, next week.

White House to allow camera into migrant detention facility

The White House has just announced that one network camera will be allowed in to a migrant detention facility in Texas today, as a group of senior officials and lawmakers visits the site.

In a statement to today’s pool reporters, the White House said, “On Wednesday March 24th a delegation of Members of Congress and White House officials will travel to visit the Office of Refugee Resettlement Carrizo Springs Influx Care Facility. The Department of Health and Human Services will be allowing one network pooled camera into the Carrizo Springs Facility to accompany this visit. The pooled footage will be available to other media outlets following the delegation’s departure.”

Reporters have been calling on the White House to allow them access to the facilities, as criticism mounts over how the Biden administration has responded to the recent increase in migrants arriving at the US-Mexican border.

Those demands intensified earlier this week, after a Democratic congressman released photos showing crowded conditions at a Customs and Border Protection facility that was holding dozens of migrants.

The facility that officials are visiting today is one of the HHS sites, which are generally better equipped to hold migrant children. Children attempting to enter the US are supposed to be released from border patrol custody within 72 hours, but reports indicate some are being held for several days.

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

Joe Biden is facing increased pressure to strengthen federal gun regulations, after a mass shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, left 10 people dead on Monday.

But it’s very unclear whether a bill to strengthen background checks or ban assault weapons can make it through the evenly divided Senate.

With the Senate filibuster in place, Democrats need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to support their proposals to get them passed, and that is a very difficult task given the high degree of partisanship in Congress.

According to Axios, Biden is now more open to the idea of gutting the filibuster if it means advancing his agenda. Axios reports:

President Biden recently held an undisclosed East Room session with historians that included discussion of how big is too big — and how fast is too fast — to jam through once-in-a-lifetime historic changes to America. ...

The historians’ views were very much in sync with his own: It is time to go even bigger and faster than anyone expected. If that means chucking the filibuster and bipartisanship, so be it. ...

People close to Biden tell us he’s feeling bullish on what he can accomplish, and is fully prepared to support the dashing of the Senate’s filibuster rule to allow Democrats to pass voting rights and other trophy legislation for his party.

Joe Biden will host members of the US Women’s national soccer team at the White House today as part of his push to secure better pay for American women, who earn 82 cents on average for every dollar earned by men.

Today is Equal Pay Day, which marks how much longer into a new year US women on average must work to earn what the average man earned the previous year.

Andrea Shalal reports for Reuters that the pay gap is far greater when calculated for Black women, who earn 63 cents on the dollar, and Latina women, who earn just 55 cents.

The soccer squad led by Megan Rapinoe, which won the Women’s World Cup for a second consecutive time in 2019, has sued US Soccer, alleging gender discrimination. Fans backed them up, shouting “equal pay” during the World Cup final match.

The coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout has exacerbated disparities, triggering what Vice President Kamala Harris has called a “national emergency” for women.

Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package includes provisions aimed at getting the 2 million women who left the labor force during the Covid-19 pandemic back to work. His next legislative push, valued at some $3 trillion, will also expand child care infrastructure and create jobs, administration officials say.

Margaret Purce, right, celebrating her goal against Colombia earlier this year, will be at the White House today.
Margaret Purce, right, celebrating her goal against Colombia earlier this year, will be at the White House today. Photograph: John Raoux/AP

Rapinoe and teammate Margaret Purce will join Biden at the White House. Rapinoe is also due to testify to a US House Committee hearing on the issue.

“They are heroines because they champion this issue for all women,” said Jennifer Klein, co-chair of the newly established White House Gender Policy Council. “This is really true in literally every country in the world – women are paid less.”

The team reached a settlement in December with US Soccer on certain working conditions, including team travel and accommodations, but is still fighting in the courts to achieve equal pay to the men’s soccer team.

Michigan Covid surge raises fears it’s an early sign of things to come across US

A recent jump in Michigan Covid cases and hospitalizations is alarming public health officials and raising fear that it could be an early sign of things to come across the rest of the country.

Michigan recorded nearly 17,000 new cases last week, which represents a more than 300% increase from the same week last month. Its per-capita rate over the last week is the nation’s fourth highest, while its positivity rate recently hit 9% – the highest mark since mid-January.

The state’s numbers, especially hospitalizations, are a cautionary tale that underscores the need for a speedier vaccine rollout here and nationwide, said Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

“We could very well see an increase of cases in a number of states, and we already are seeing that in Michigan, but if you address the vaccine supply bottleneck then it won’t translate into a huge surge,” she said. “At the end of the day, whether there’s a real surge will depend on vaccinations.”

The state’s latest jump is attributable to the confluence of several developments, experts say: the proliferation of more contagious variants, reopening of schools, Covid fatigue and a loosening of Covid restrictions, among other issues.

Though mortalities remain low, increases in deaths have followed similar jumps in cases and hospitalizations during the state’s previous surges. Hospitalizations surged by 20% between Friday and Monday, which Nuzzo called a “worrisome detail”. Though the number of cases is still important, hospitalization figures are “key” as the vaccination effort races against time.

“Now I’m looking even more closely at hospitalizations and deaths because what we should see is that those continue to decline, even if cases go up,” Nuzzo said. “[Michigan’s hospitalization numbers] suggest that there are some vaccination gaps that need to be plugged.”

The state ranks in the nation’s bottom third in percentage of the population that’s fully vaccinated, but as of 22 March had the second-highest increase in new vaccinations over the last week, indicating that its rollout is accelerating.

The data on who is being vaccinated may offer some clues as to why hospitalizations are up despite the rollout. While about 25% of the state’s population has received a first dose, only 15% of Detroit residents have. The city’s residents on the whole suffer from a higher rate of underlying health issues that are often behind the more serious cases.

Read more of Tom Perkins’ report from Detroit here: Michigan Covid surge raises fears it’s an early sign of things to come across US

The Biden administration have been under attack from Republicans over school re-opening, so will be buoyed by the results of a survey that they have released today, which shows that nearly half of the nation’s elementary schools were open for full-time classroom learning as of last month.

However, the share of students learning in-person has varied greatly by region and by race, with most non-white students learning entirely online, according to results from a national survey conducted by the Biden administration.

The results mark the starting line for president Joe Biden’s pledge to have most K-8 schools open full-time in his first 100 days in office. But they also show that he never had far to go to meet that goal.

The administration plans to update the initial data set each month to show how many U.S. schools are teaching in-person, online or through a combination. The federal government did not previously collect information on the topic, making it difficult to track progress on reopening schools.

Collin Binkley writes for the Associated Press that the survey casts new light on a period of particularly bitter debate in the school reopening process. In January, officials in California, Chicago and other locales were still locked in stalemate with teachers over reopening plans, with vaccines often arising as a sticking point.

Since January, however, the push to reopen has gained steam in many areas.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a roadmap to reopening in February, and this month the agency relaxed guidelines around social distancing in schools. Amid pressure from Biden, dozens of states are now focusing on giving Covid-19 vaccines to teachers and other school staff.

As more schools invite students back to the classroom, many parents are conflicted, according to a separate poll from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. It found that a majority of parents are at least somewhat concerned that in-person instruction will lead to more people being infected, but a slightly larger share are at least somewhat concerned that their children will face setbacks in school because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to tracking school teaching methods, the new federal survey also tracks how many students have enrolled in each type of learning.

Updated

Sam Levine has also written for us today about the broader issue of voters rights and the dangers facing American democracy from restrictive new legislation in the coming months:

Seizing on Donald Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election, Republicans have launched a brazen attack on voting, part of an effort to entrench control over a rapidly changing electorate by changing the rules of democracy. As of mid-February, 253 bills were pending to restrict voting in 43 states. Many of those restrictions take direct aim at mail-in and early voting, the very policies that led to November’s record turnout.

“The fragility of democracy has been exposed at levels that I think even white America was blind to,” said Brown, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

Republicans have openly talked about their intentions. “Everybody shouldn’t be voting,” John Kavanagh, a Republican in the Arizona state legislature, told CNN earlier this month. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”

Some Republicans say that their efforts to put new voting restrictions in place are part of an effort to restore confidence in elections and prevent voter fraud, which is extremely rare.

But others have shown that their motivation is anti-democratic. Trump dismissed proposals to make it easier to vote last year by saying: “You’d never have a Republican elected in this country again.” And this month, Michael Carvin, a lawyer representing the Arizona Republican party, said something similar when Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked him what interest the party had in defending two Arizona voting restrictions. Lifting those restrictions, Carvin said, “puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game.”

More danger lies ahead. Later this year, Republicans in many states will redraw electoral districts for both congressional and state legislative offices across the country, something the constitution mandates once per decade. This will give Republicans an opportunity to pack GOP-friendly voters into certain districts while spreading Democratic voters thin across others, further distorting democracy and ensuring their re-election.

And all of this comes at a moment when the US supreme court appears wholly uninterested in protecting voting rights. The increasingly conservative supreme court has signaled in recent years that it is not going to stand in the way of lawmakers who make it harder to vote, issuing significant decisions that gutted the Voting Rights Act while also giving the green light to aggressive voter purging and extreme partisan redistricting.

Read more of Sam Levine’s report here: US democracy on the brink – Republicans wage ‘coordinated onslaught’ on voting rights

Sam Levine has interviewed Stacey Abrams for us. In the piece she says:

The coordinated onslaught of voter suppression bills is not the norm. What’s happened over the last 15 years has been a steady build where we’ve seen bills passing in multiple state legislatures over time. It was absolutely voter suppression, but it was this slow boil. It’s that terrible analogy of the frog in the water as the water starts to boil. Unless this is what you do and unless this is what you pay attention to, folks like me were watching, but it was fairly invisible to the untrained eye that voter suppression was sweeping across the country, especially beyond the boundaries of the south.

What is so notable about this moment, and so disconcerting, is that they are not hiding. There is no attempt to pretend that the intention is not to restrict votes. The language is different. They use the veil, they used the farce of voter fraud to justify their actions. Their new term of art is election integrity. But it is a laughable word or phrase to use. It is designed based on anything but a question of integrity. The truth of the matter is there is no voter fraud. The truth of the matter is we had the most secure election that we’ve had.

US politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams arrives to meet with US President Joe Biden at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
US politician and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams arrives to meet with US President Joe Biden at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

And therefore, their integrity is really insincerity. They are responding to the big lie, to the disproven, discredited and, sadly, the blood-spilled lie of voter fraud. And they are responding to it by actually doing what the insurrectionists sought, doing what the liars asked for.

I would say it’s inexorably linked to race, but I want to be really clear. Black voters are of course at the center of the target, but what is happening in Arizona, what is happening in Florida is also attacking Latino voters. They are attacking the energy and enthusiasm of Native American voters. They are attacking Asian American voters. While Black voters are of course at the center because of the historical animus that seems to exist towards our participation in elections, this is also about attacking other communities of color. And we are seeing it being done with an assiduousness and an attention to detail that is, as we said before, unparalleled, except for when you look at the actions of Jim Crow.

Read more of Sam Levine’s interview here: Stacey Abrams on Republican voter suppression – ‘They are doing what the insurrectionists sought’

Kamala Harris says that she will 'absolutely' visit the US-Mexico border 'at some point'

In a TV interview this morning vice president Kamala Harris has stated that Joe Biden has not ruled out taking executive action to tackle gun violence. However she told the CBS News This Morning program that but Congress should pass gun control legislation for a more lasting impact

Reuters note that Harris said Biden was prepared to sign two recent gun-related bills passed by the Democratic-led House of Representatives and urged the narrowly-divided Senate to pass them as well.

Pressed on immigration, Harris has promised that she will be visiting the US-Mexico border.

The vice president accepted that the border situation was a problem, and interviewer Gayle King said to Harris: “There doesn’t appear to be a game plan.”

The fact checkers at Washington Post set themselves the task of assessing Joe Biden’s claim yesterday that 1990s action on assault weapons lowered the number of mass shootings in the US. His chief of staff Ronald Klain was obviously happy enough with their findings to tweet it out this morning.

Here’s a reminder of what Biden actually said yesterday:

We can ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in this country once again. I got that done when I was a senator. It passed. It was the law for the longest time. And it brought down these mass killings. We should do it again.

First the caveats in the fact check: “Part of the problem is that the assault weapons ban existed for only 10 years, and there are relatively few mass shootings per year, making it difficult to fully assess its impact. Adding to the complexity, researchers use different definitions for a ‘mass shooting,’ which can vary from at least three to six people killed. There is not even an settled definition of ‘assault weapons,’ though most people would include the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.”

But this is Glenn Kessler’s overall verdict:

Biden said the 1994 law brought down mass killings. The biggest hurdle for him is that correlation does not necessarily equal causation. But Biden also was careful to cite both the ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines — and new research increasingly supports the idea that restrictions on LCMs were effective in reducing the death toll when the law was in effect.

Moreover, recent research also supports the contention that mass shootings have increased since the law expired. What once was a hunch, unsupported by rigorous research, has now been largely confirmed. Biden did not say that, but it helps bolster the case that the law was more effective than originally understood.

If Biden had suggested the decrease in shootings was large, as Clinton did two years ago, he might have been in line for at least One Pinocchio. But we will leave this unrated. The body of research now suggests the 1994 law was effective in reducing mass-shooting deaths.

Read more here: Washington Post – Biden’s claim that the 1994 assault-weapons law ‘brought down’ mass shootings

Blinken to tell Nato allies US won't force them into 'us-or-them' choice over China

Just a quick snap from Reuters here with a preview of what Antony Blinken is expected to say in Brussels today. He will tell Nato allies later that China is a threat to the West but that it will not force anyone to choose sides between Washington and Beijing.

“The United States won’t force allies into an ‘us-or-them’ choice with China,” Blinken, on his maiden voyage to Europe as Washington’s top diplomat. “Countries can work with China where possible,” he will say, noting that climate change is an area where cooperation was necessary.

The speech is due at 1400 GMT, which is 10am EDT.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) meets secretary of state Antony Blinken (L) in Brussels this morning.
Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) meets secretary of state Antony Blinken (L) in Brussels this morning. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Asian and Black Americans saw largest rise in online hate in 2020

Asian Americans and Black Americans experienced major rises in online hate in the past year, a new report has found, despite recent steps that social media firms have taken to address harassment.

A survey released on Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate speech organization founded in 1913, discovered that in 2020 Asian Americans experienced the largest single rise in severe online hate and harassment year-over-year in comparison to other groups, with 17% reporting having experienced sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats, swatting, doxing or sustained harassment, compared to 11% last year.

The survey’s release comes as the Asian American community grapples with an increase in real-world violence, most recently the murders of six Asian women working at massage parlors in Georgia, and a 75-year-old man from Hong Kong who died after being robbed and assaulted by a man police said had a history of victimizing elderly Asian people. Stop AAPI Hate, a group dedicated to tracking crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, documented 3,800 hate-related incidents targeting Asian Americans in 2020.

“Not surprisingly, after a year where national figures including the president himself routinely scapegoated China and Chinese people for spreading the coronavirus, Asian-Americans experienced heightened levels of harassment online, just as they did offline,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive officer of the Anti-Defamation League.

The study also noted a rise in hate speech against other minority groups, including African Americans, who saw a sharp rise in race-based harassment – a different category than the record increase for Asians – from 42% last year to 59% this year. That jump came as protests over the killing of Black Americans, sparked by the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and others in 2020, put America’s anti-Black racism at the forefront once again.

For the third consecutive year, LGBTQ+ respondents reported higher rates of overall harassment than all other demographics, with 64% saying they have been harassed online due to their identities.

Read more of Kari Paul’s report here: Asian and Black Americans saw largest rise in online hate in 2020, report finds

US sinks to new low in rankings of world's democracies

The US has fallen to a new low in a global ranking of political rights and civil liberties, a drop fueled by unequal treatment of minority groups, damaging influence of money in politics, and increased polarization, according to a new report by Freedom House, a democracy watchdog group.

The US earned 83 out of 100 possible points this year in Freedom House’s annual rankings of freedoms around the world, an 11-point drop from its 94 ranking a decade ago. The US’s new ranking places it on par with countries like Panama, Romania and Croatia and behind countries such as Argentina and Mongolia. It lagged far behind countries like the United Kingdom (93), Chile (93), Costa Rica (91) and Slovakia (90).

“Dropping 11 points is unusual, especially for an established democracy, because they tend to be more stable in our scores,” Sarah Repucci, Freedom House’s vice-president for research and analysis, told the Guardian. “It’s significant for Americans and it’s significant for the world because the United States is such a prominent, visible democracy, one that is looked to for so many reasons.”

While Freedom House has long included the US in its global ranking of freedoms, it traditionally has not turned an eye inward and focused on US democracy. But this year, Repucci authored an extensive report doing just that, a move motivated by increasing concern over attacks on freedoms in the US.

The report details the inequities that minority groups, especially Black people and Native Americans face when it comes to the criminal justice system and voting. It also illustrates that public trust in government has been damaged by the way rich Americans can use their money to exert outsize influence on American politics.

And it points out that extreme partisan gerrymandering – the manipulation of electoral district lines to boost one party over the other – has contributed to dramatic polarization in the US, threatening its democratic foundations. Gerrymandering, the report says, “has the most corrosive and radicalizing effect on US politics”.

Read more of Sam Levine’s report here: US sinks to new low in rankings of world’s democracies

Secretary of state Antony Blinken has arrived in Brussels, Belgium. He’ll have talks with Nato counterparts and officials from the European Union over the next couple of days.

Boulder shootings suspect allegedly bought assault rifle after ban on sale was blocked

Background checks and cool-off periods have been mentioned for a long time in US politics as a way of slowing down gun purchases. Overnight the Associated Press have reported that the suspect accused of opening fire inside a crowded Colorado supermarket was a 21-year-old man who allegedly purchased an assault weapon less than a week earlier.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought the weapon on 16 March, six days before the attack at a King Soopers store in Boulder that killed 10 people, including a police officer, according to an arrest affidavit. It was not immediately known where the gun was purchased.

The shooting came 10 days after a judge blocked a ban on assault rifles passed by the city of Boulder in 2018. That ordinance and another banning large-capacity magazines came after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

A lawsuit challenging the bans was filed quickly, backed by the National Rifle Association. The judge struck down the ordinance under a Colorado law that blocks cities from making their own rules about guns.

Investigators have not established a motive for Monday’s attack, but they believe Alissa was the only shooter, Boulder county district attorney Michael Dougherty said.

The attack was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting since a 2019 assault on a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where a gunman killed 22 people in a rampage that police said targeted Mexicans.

If you needed a refresher course on the arguments Republicans use to oppose any kind of gun restrictions after mass shooting events, then Sen Ted Cruz was on hand yesterday. Overnight Aaron Blake delivered this for the Washington Post:

While there has certainly been resistance to gun restrictions even shortly after tragedies in the past, generally that opposition takes a while to build. Lawmakers don’t want to be seen as prejudging potential solutions with emotions still raw.

By contrast, on Tuesday Sen Ted Cruz angrily hit back at those pushing new restrictions and those who criticized the restrictions’ opponents, accusing them of “ridiculous theater.”

“Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders,” Cruz said.

Sen Tommy Tuberville set the line at any increased background checks, saying, “I think we’ve got enough background checks.”

The GOP pushback isn’t a coincidence; it’s a reflection of its base. Even as mass shootings have increased in recent years, Republican voters have dug in more against efforts to pass new gun restrictions. Democrats will often cite polls showing the vast majority of Americans favor increased background checks — which is true — but when the framing is turned to the more basic question of whether you favor or oppose increased gun restrictions, Republicans are vehemently against.

Read more here: Washington Post – ‘Ridiculous theater’: Sen Cruz’s pushback on gun restrictions epitomizes high hurdles

In the aftermath of the shootings in Boulder and Atlanta over the last few days, gun control measures are right back in the forefront of US politics. Yesterday Joe Biden directly appealed for lawmakers to enact measures that are already waiting. Annie Karni and Catie Edmondson report on his efforts – and where they might falter – for the New York Times:

In brief, somber remarks from the White House, Mr. Biden called on the Senate to pass a ban on assault weapons and to close background check loopholes, saying that doing so would be “common sense steps that will save lives in the future.”

“This is not and should not be a partisan issue — it is an American issue,” Mr. Biden said. “We have to act.”

Biden noted that he had to draft a proclamation to keep the White House flags at half-staff because they had already been lowered to honor eight people killed by a gunman in the Atlanta area less than a week earlier. “Another American city has been scarred by gun violence and the resulting trauma,” the president said.

As a senator, Biden was a prominent supporter of the original assault weapons ban in 1994, which expired a decade later and has never been renewed. Since then, Mr. Biden has been involved in other gun control proposals that have gone nowhere in Congress, and he was described by aides as realistic about the difficulty of passing any meaningful legislation this time around.

Read more here: New York Times – Biden seeks assault weapons ban and background checks

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Wednesday. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and some of what is in the diary for today…

  • Joe Biden called for a new assault weapons ban in response to the Boulder shooting. The president also called on the Senate to immediately pass the two background checks bill that the House approved earlier this month.
  • The Boulder police identified the 10 victims of yesterday’s mass shooting at a grocery store. The shooting suspect has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder, the Boulder police chief said.
  • Americans can now sign up for health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) until 15 August. The extension will give Americans who lost health coverage during the pandemic more time to sign up.
  • There were 51,587 new cases of coronavirus in the US yesterday. The nation is just a couple of days away from recording its 30 millionth case. It comes thirteen months after former president Trump said of Covid: “It’s going to disappear.”
  • At least 83.9 million people have now received one or both doses of a vaccine in the US.
  • The Senate confirmed Shalanda Young as the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Young will immediately step in as acting director of the agency.
  • Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Fed Chair Jerome Powell testify to the Senate Banking and Housing committee at 10am (1400 GMT).
  • Jen Psaki’s press briefing will also have an economics focus today. That’s at 12.30, and she will be joined by Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Cecilia Rouse, and Member of the Council of Economic Advisers Heather Boushey.
  • Biden will host members of the US women’s soccer team including Margaret Purce and Megan Rapinoe. They will be marking Equal Pay Day, and that’s at 4.15pm.
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