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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008767

“Experts say the surge is being driven by a combination of factors: the seasonality of the virus, waning immunity and many still unvaccinated Americans. And it underscores the likelihood COVID-19 is here to stay,” media reported.

For the first time in two months, COVID-19 case counts and deaths are rising again in most U.S. states, especially in the northern tier and Rocky Mountains, with a potential fifth wave of the pandemic in sight, according to local media reports.

In the week ending on Wednesday, case counts were higher in 29 states than they were the week before. A month ago, cases were rising in just 12 states. Compared to a week earlier, hospitals in 23 states reported a rising number of likely COVID-19 patients, according to a USA Today analysis of Johns Hopkins University data on Friday.

“Experts say the surge is being driven by a combination of factors: the seasonality of the virus, waning immunity and many still unvaccinated Americans. And it underscores the likelihood COVID-19 is here to stay,” reported the newspaper.

People ride scooters on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Oct. 25, 2021. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

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SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is behaving like other coronaviruses that have circulated the globe for decades, Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

“Look at the seasonality! It’s year after year after year,” he said. “It was so dramatic. We couldn’t believe it.” These common cold coronavirus illnesses were sharply seasonal, beginning in November and almost disappearing by May, only to return again the following year.

On Thursday, The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) reported that new COVID-19 infections were on the rise “despite booster shot rollouts, a new vaccine for children and a promising pill that can reduce hospitalizations and deaths.”

Students are seen on campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in Los Angeles, the United States, Sept. 23, 2021. (Xinhua)

“There’s a couple of things in this country we just have to make sure we’re paying attention to,” Andy Slavitt, former senior White House adviser for COVID-19 response, was quoted as saying. “One is, we haven’t nearly vaccinated enough people,” and “we have much of the world that’s still not vaccinated.”

VACCINE POPULARITY

More than six in 10 Americans, or 61 percent of people surveyed, think vaccines should be mandated for health workers, 59 percent support a mandate for school teachers and 53 percent think the shots should be required for students 12 or older, according to a U.S. poll released on Thursday.

The poll conducted by Monmouth University also said that 53 percent approve of U.S. President Joe Biden’s handling of the pandemic even as his overall approval rating dropped 4 points, from 46 percent to 42 percent, compared to a similar poll in September.

In the meantime, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), close to 100 percent of U.S. adults ages 65 and older have now received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, “bolstering the country’s vaccination rate as younger age groups continue to lag behind,” reported Forbes on Thursday.

In addition, as reported by PBS, U.S. universities that adopted COVID-19 vaccine mandates this fall have seen widespread compliance even though many schools made it easy to get out of the shots by granting exemptions to nearly any student who requested one.

“Facing pockets of resistance and scattered lawsuits, colleges have tread carefully because forcing students to get the vaccine when they have a religious or medical objection could put schools into tricky legal territory,” said the report.

Still, universities with mandates reported much higher vaccination rates than communities around them, even in places with high vaccine hesitancy. Some universities have seen nearly complete compliance, including at state flagship schools in Maryland, Illinois and Washington, it added.

BOOSTER DEBATE

On Thursday, Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis, facing one of the nation’s worst surges of new coronavirus cases, issued an executive order allowing all adults in his state to receive a vaccine booster dose, going further than current federal guidelines.

“Colorado is one of several states in the north and Mountain West where infections are once again on the rise, sending officials scrambling to slow the spread before another winter wave overwhelms the health-care system,” reported The Washington Post.

Polis’ unusual and unilateral move puts Colorado at odds with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) current guidance, and it came at a time of increasing debate over the eligibility requirements for additional immunizations.

Rochelle Walensky (R), director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is sworn in before testifying at a hearing of U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in Washington, D.C., the United States, on April 15, 2021. (Susan Walsh/Pool via Xinhua)

Some officials of U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration have pushed to make the boosters available to all adults amid increasing fears that the country could slide backward into a fifth pandemic wave, while others have urged caution.

The debate over booster eligibility centers on a request by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to the FDA to authorize the shots for everyone 18 and older who completed their vaccine regimen more than six months ago.

If the FDA grants the request, outside vaccine advisers of the CDC would probably need to weigh in before its director Rochelle Walensky makes a final decision.

In a meeting on Sunday with high-ranking health officials, Walensky said that she and the advisers want to scrutinize the drug companies’ data and might not agree to such a broad recommendation. It’s extremely rare for the CDC to overrule the recommendations of its advisers. 

Published : November 13, 2021

By : Xinhua

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008765

Developed countries need to take seriously the concerns of developing countries over such core issues as finance and adaptation. They must also strive to deliver on promises made a long time ago, to enhance mutual trust and ensure the success of COP26, the head of the Chinese delegation to COP26 said.

The Chinese delegation to COP26 wants all parties to work together in the same direction to reach consensus on the issues at the heart of the conference and make sure it is a success, the head of the delegation has said.

Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told Xinhua in an interview that the Chinese delegation has held close exchanges with other parties during the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“We hope to contribute to the success of the conference through constructive communication and consultation,” he said.

The two-week conference was scheduled to conclude on Friday, but is likely to extend into the weekend due to unresolved issues.

People participate in the ongoing 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, Scotland, the United Kingdom, Nov. 9, 2021. (Xinhua/Han Yan)

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In particular, developed countries need to take seriously the concerns of developing countries over such core issues as finance and adaptation. They must also strive to deliver on promises made a long time ago, to enhance mutual trust and ensure the success of COP26, Zhao said.

Financial support has been the main issue of concern for developing countries.

During the Copenhagen climate change conference in 2009, developed countries promised 100 billion U.S. dollars a year to help developing nations strengthen their resilience to climate change by 2020.

A man walks past an Earth model at the conference hall of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark, Dec. 17, 2009. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

“Twelve years on, the developed countries have failed to honor their commitments, which has tremendously jeopardized political mutual trust,” Zhao said.

It is “very unreasonable and unfair” that while developing countries have submitted ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), in line with the Paris Agreement, developed countries have failed to deliver  financial support. This issue is also affecting the progress of COP26, Zhao said.

The issue of finance is one of the core issues of difficulty that affect the progress of COP26, Zhao said.

“The developed countries have not yet shown their sincerity and confidence in delivering their pledges. Therefore, both sides are still negotiating. It seems that more efforts are still needed.”

Apart from finance, the main sticking points in the final phase of negotiations include temperature control targets, adaptation, and the rulebook of the Paris Agreement, Zhao said.

In order to effectively tackle the climate crisis, the parties need to “completely and comprehensively” deliver their promises according to the Paris Agreement, Zhao said. This must be done in line with the principle of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities, and respective capabilities as well as taking into account national conditions.

“We must realize that climate change has been an imminent challenge, but it must be addressed based on science and rules,” Zhao said. These rules are specified in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. “Those are the cornerstones of global effort to tackle climate change, which should not be shaken. Otherwise, it would be hard to achieve our common goal.”

Locals are seen near a submerged hotel facility after the rise in water level in Lake Baringo, Baringo County, Kenya, Oct. 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Sheikh Maina)

On Wednesday, China and the United States released the China-U.S. Joint Glasgow Declaration on Enhancing Climate Action in the 2020s. It was the result of numerous meetings and consultations between the two sides, and was released at a key moment in the conference.

Zhao said the document had demonstrated cooperation between China and the United States, contributed to the global fight against climate change, and injected positive energy into the UN conference. It was also welcomed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who tweeted:

“I welcome today’s agreement between China and the USA to work together to take more ambitious #ClimateAction in this decade. Tackling the climate crisis requires international collaboration and solidarity, and this is an important step in the right direction.”

Photo taken on Aug. 13, 2019 shows wind turbines amid blooming sunflowers in Sitan Township of Jingtai County in Baiyin, northwest China

Published : November 13, 2021

By : Xinhua

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008761

When John Huffington walked out of a Maryland prison in 2013, having served 32 years for a double murder in Harford County, he went straight to work. Even with a murder retrial hanging over his head, he was immediately hired as a logistics manager for Second Chance, which salvages buildings and provides job training in Baltimore, then oversaw a staff of 25 as director of workforce development for the Living Classrooms Foundation.

As Huffington worked, served on numerous task forces and boards and spoke around the country about the need to reintegrate prisoners into society – and about what he felt was his wrongful conviction – examples of his prosecutor withholding evidence from his lawyers continued to arise. Wanting his case resolved, Huffington reluctantly entered a plea in 2017 and was sentenced to his 32 years of time served.

Photo Credit: Washington Post photo by Tom Jackman.

Then, last month, longtime Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly, who had handled Huffington’s case for 36 years before retiring, was disbarred by the Maryland Court of Appeals – a move that has only occurred five times nationwide in such cases, according to the Innocence Project. In a 97-page ruling, the court found that Cassilly had committed “various instances of intentionally dishonest misconduct” and that he “intentionally failed to disclose exculpatory evidence as a prosecutor for over a decade” in Huffington’s case.

Now, Huffington is asking Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for a pardon. A pardon will not erase his conviction, nor does it enable him to collect from a state fund set up to compensate those who were wrongly convicted. Prisoners who served with him and were exonerated have received millions.

“I just want my name back,” Huffington, 59, said in an interview. “This should not have happened. It’s my name.”

He said when he went to rent an apartment, he was required to provide a portfolio prepared by his lawyers at Ropes & Gray, who have represented him for more than 30 years, to land a place to live. He has no pension or other means to support himself when he retires.

Huffington feels the state of Maryland owes plenty of apologies for the handling of the May 1981 slayings of Diane Becker and Joseph Hudson in Abingdon. Apologies to him, for the 32 years spent in prison, but also to the victims’ families, “because they’ve been lied to.” The citizens of Maryland also deserve an apology, he said, because the prosecutor “abused his power. He lied to them too.”

Cassilly and the victims’ families strongly disagree.

Cassilly learned of his disbarment through a phone call from a Baltimore Sun reporter. “Do I care? I don’t give a d—,” the retired prosecutor told the Sun, saying that he had done nothing wrong and his case “fell into the whole anti-criminal justice movement, where the cops are the bad guys and the prosecutors are the bad guys.”

Cassilly did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post, but he wrote in the Aegis, a Harford County newspaper, that after he was “unduly disbarred,” he was still confident that Huffington was a killer. He said when he received an FBI report in 1999 that strongly criticized the work of an FBI hair evidence examiner in Huffington’s trial, he found it “did not say that the examiner lied, testified falsely or made a mistake,” and so he never provided it to Huffington’s lawyers.

The report reviewed a hair analysis done by an FBI agent and found that it was unclear whether the agent had “performed the appropriate tests in a scientifically acceptable manner,” or that the agent had personally done the tests at all. The agent testified that hairs found at the crime scene matched Huffington’s, in a type of analysis later found scientifically unreliable.

The National Whistleblower Center uncovered the report through a Freedom of Information Act request and later supplied it to The Washington Post. The Post shared the report with Huffington’s lawyers in 2011, which was the first time they had seen it. The disclosure led to DNA tests performed in 2013 that determined the crime scene hairs weren’t his. His lawyers filed for a writ of actual innocence, which was then granted by a Maryland court.

When Huffington was released on bail, pending a third murder trial, one of the victims’ families expressed disgust.

“We are deeply saddened and once again outraged,” William Watson, Becker’s older brother, told the Aegis, “that the system of justice, designed to bring justice to victims, has failed once again. This represents judicial malfeasance of the greatest magnitude.”

By 2013, Huffington had already amassed a lengthy resume. He had launched the Alternatives to Violence Program in prison. He had created a way for inmates to document their educational and program achievements for presentation to the parole board. And he had earned his bachelor’s degree in management science from Coppin State University.

But he had also been in prison when his mother died and was denied the right to attend her funeral in 2008.

“That’s the one thing that’s so unforgivable,” Huffington said. “There’s no way to process it. I had to talk to a tombstone this morning, that’s what I had to do.”

As Huffington’s lawyers prepared for a third trial, they found that his phone records from 1981, which would have supported his alibi that he was at home when the slayings occurred, according to Huffington, had been subpoenaed. But they hadn’t been provided to the defense in 1981, and in 2013 the prosecutors no longer had them, he said.

The defense learned that a key piece of evidence, a vodka bottle with Huffington’s fingerprint on it – supposedly used to kill Becker – also had numerous other untested fingerprints on it, according to his lawyers. When the defense asked for DNA testing on the hairs that supposedly placed Huffington at the scene, Cassilly filed a motion to have the physical evidence destroyed, which was rejected. Huffington said DNA testing on clothing he allegedly wore did not show any trace of blood and that prosecutors delayed DNA testing on the hair, which also did not match Huffington. The defense also found that Cassilly had testified for parole on behalf of the co-defendant while writing a letter to Huffington’s parole opposing his release, Huffington said.

As the disclosures came in, Huffington kept working on prisoner reentry programs and other community building initiatives around Baltimore. He became a founding board member of PIVOT, a program to reintegrate female prisoners, as well as worked with Ray Lewis’s Power52 Foundation to provide solar employment training for at-risk adults and served on the governor’s Collateral Consequences Workgroup. He testified in front of a Senate committee seeking to reinstitute Pell Grants for disadvantaged students.

“Education and job training,” Huffington said, “are the only two things that have been proven to reduce recidivism. If you’re not going to invest in the time while they’re there [in prison], if you just want to warehouse them, you’re going to get what you get when they come home. So I’m passionate about that.”

In 2017, Cassilly offered Huffington a deal: An Alford plea, in which a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but does admit prosecutors have enough evidence to convict. A judge found him guilty and sentenced him to time served as part of a plea agreement.

“That was easily the hardest decision of my life,” Huffington said. “I didn’t want to do that.”

But he felt he had worked into a position where he was advocating effectively for those who needed it, having an impact on a variety of lives, and didn’t want to risk it with another trial.

“I have a voice in some of the hallowed halls,” Huffington said. “I have access and I’m supposed to be here, to utilize my voice.”

“Those were the most difficult conversations I’ve had with a client in my career,” attorney Chong S. Park said of Huffington.

But the judge handling his third trial had clerked for the judge who originally sentenced Huffington to death in 1984 – a sentence later commuted to life. She told Huffington “you are guilty of two gruesome and horrendous murders,” and Huffington then felt his plea was more of a sure thing, saying, “It’s important to me that I reclaim my life.”

Park said the Harford County state’s attorney could move to vacate the conviction, as Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has done in more than a dozen wrongful conviction cases, which then enables the defendant to receive money from the state. Gavin Patashnick, a spokesman for Harford County State’s Attorney Albert Peisinger, Jr., said his office could not comment on the case.

Michael Ricci, a spokesman for Hogan, said the governor had not received the pardon request.

“We are always working through pardon petitions,” Ricci said, “and we will consider this request when we receive it.”

Published : November 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

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MOSCOW – Russia on Friday brushed aside a Belarusian threat to cut supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe, soothing European gas markets and circumventing President Alexander Lukashenkos attempt to escalate his confrontation with Europe.

European leaders accuse Lukashenko of orchestrating a migrant crisis on Belarus’s border with the European Union in retaliation for sanctions, a claim Minsk denies. Lukashenko’s approach has hardened Europe’s position, with new sanctions being weighed.

Lukashenko’s ally Russia has backed the Belarusian leader so far, but the Kremlin’s rejection of his threat to cut Russian gas supplies transiting Belarusian territory to Europe showed limits to the degree of support from Moscow, especially where its gas interests are concerned.

Making clear that Moscow would not accept a minor transit player dictating its gas supply to Europe, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would honor its obligations to Europe on gas regardless of what Minsk might do.

“Russia has been, is and will be a country that honors every obligation on gas supply to European consumers, as well as contractual obligations,” Peskov said. “Russia’s reliability as a supplier and a partner under current and future contracts is beyond doubt.”

Peskov said the Belarusian leader did not consult Moscow before he spoke, although Putin has been in regular contact with Lukashenko.

“No, they [Lukashenko’s statements] are not coordinated in any way. Yes, he is our ally, but it’s a sovereign state,” Peskov said.

Natural gas prices in Europe fell back Friday after Peskov’s remarks. On a benchmark futures market in the Netherlands, prices stabilized after a spike Thursday, Reuters reported.

European leaders do not recognize Lukashenko’s legitimacy, rejecting the August 2020 presidential election and refusing to communicate with him. German Chancellor Angela Merkel twice turned to Putin this week to ask that he use his influence with the Belarusian leader to end the border crisis.

Putin responded that E.U. leaders must engage directly with Minsk. Russia says it has no part in the migrant crisis unfolding on the border of Belarus and Poland.

With growing numbers of migrants stranded in freezing conditions in a forest on the border of Belarus and Poland, the Turkish civil aviation authority announced Friday that because of the crisis it would block citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen from flying to Belarus.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had earlier warned of possible E.U. sanctions against third-country airlines facilitating the flow of migrants.

“Due to the problem of illegal border crossings between the European Union and Belarus, it has been decided that the citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen who want to travel to Belarus from Turkish airports will not be allowed to buy tickets and boarding until further notice,” a statement from the Turkish aviation authority said Friday, offering refunds.

Poland has deployed thousands of troops to the border to prevent migrants from entering its territory, and Lithuania has constructed a 13-foot-high razor-wire fence on its border with Belarus.

Polish officials have accused Belarus of pushing migrants across the border into Poland, a claim Belarus denies. Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin said Friday that Belarus’s neighbors, including Poland, seemed ready to start a war on the border and “draw Europe into it.”

Belarusian and Russian paratroopers conducted a joint tactical training exercise in Belarus as part of a readiness check, the ministry said Friday.

The Turkish decision to stop citizens of Iraq, Syria and Yemen from flying to Minsk plugs one route being used by migrants trying to reach Europe via Belarus, but others remain. Dozens of special flights are departing from Middle Eastern countries to Minsk every week.

The Belarusian airline Belavia announced Friday that it had stopped citizens from the three countries flying from Turkey to Belarus “consistent with the decision of the Turkish authorities.” But it continues to operate other routes, as do many other airlines.

The E.U. has introduced four sanctions packages since October last year over the “fraudulent” 2020 election, the repression of opposition figures and activists, and the forced landing of a Ryanair flight in May to arrest independent Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.

Lukashenko’s government appears to be shifting migrants out of Belarusian cities and towns to a growing camp on the border, where authorities say more than 1,700 people have camped in the forest.

The migrant crisis came to a head Monday when a large column of migrants, escorted by armed Belarusian forces, walked toward the border with Poland to try to cross into the European Union.

The Belarusian State Border Committee said Friday that another group, of about 100 migrants, was moving toward the border.

“The situation remains tense. The camp is periodically replenished with new arriving groups of people. Refugees are seeking medical assistance due to long periods in conditions where temperatures are falling,” the committee said, according to BelTA, the country’s state news agency.

The Iraqi government has offered to arrange flights to help its citizens who wish to return from Belarus.

Published : November 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

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Hypersonic weapons that can fly five times the speed of sound will add $21.5 billion to the Navys budget and $7 billion to the Armys in coming years, according to an estimate compiled by the Pentagons independent cost assessment office.

It’s the first authoritative evaluation of how much the services may spend to develop and build the agile and speedy new missiles that can fly low and evade radar and missile defenses. Based on internal Defense Department estimates on the number of weapons planned, that amounts to about $106 million per missile for the Army and $89.6 million for the Navy.

Global competition to develop hypersonics was underscored by China’s reported test of two such weapons over the summer, including the launch into space of an orbiting weapon capable of carrying a nuclear payload. Last year, China deployed its first hypersonic weapon, the DF-17, leaving the U.S. lagging in producing a class of weapons that Pentagon officials have seen since 2017 as giving China a perceived advantage.

The U.S.’s hypersonic weapons, which it says will be nonnuclear, are in the early product development phase, which is typically top-heavy with one-time costs before production processes are refined.

The Pentagon cost office estimates the Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike program consists of $10.1 billion in development, $11 billion in production and $400 million for related military construction. The Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program is estimated at $4.4 billion for development and $2.5 billion for production. The office’s internal assessment, made available to Bloomberg News, shows an expected total of 66 missiles for the Army, which includes 48 development models, and 240 missiles for the Navy.

The Navy is overseeing development of the booster rocket and separate glide body for its use and the Army’s. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are the top program contractors. Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos Holdings, is developing the glide body.

The cost per missile – which includes ancillary equipment such as storage canisters – may produce sticker shock inside the Defense Department and in Congress. The Pentagon already faces what’s been called a “bow wave” of burgeoning costs for projects, from expanding the Navy to maintaining the F-35 jet to modernizing the land-air-sea triad of nuclear weapons.

The concern over the potential price tag was reflected by the Pentagon’s top official overseeing hypersonic development, Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, who said in October that “we need to figure out how to drive towards more affordable hypersonics.”

Asked to elaborate on her comment, Shyu invoked one-time costs in the early stages of building and developing prototypes for the new weapons as a consideration. In a statement, she cited the need to build out “our production environment,” such as Lockheed’s newly opened hypersonic system factory in Courtland, Ala.

“Our goal is to make hypersonic weapons at costs comparable to today’s traditional weapons when we compare weapons of similar size, weight and complexity,” she said.

Among the challenges, Shyu said, is developing new materials and processing to reduce the cost of thermal protection needed to shield hypersonic glide systems from excessive heat within Earth’s atmosphere.

The new cost projection, ordered up by Congress, is “in close alignment with the Army and Navy cost estimates for their respective programs,” Navy Lt. Cmdr. Tim Gorman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

Gorman provided the cost office’s estimated totals for the Army and Navy programs but said that the Defense Department’s in-house estimates of the costs per missile won’t be released, because they are considered premature.

The Navy plans to buy 40 development-model hypersonic systems through 2025, including four already funded plus seven this fiscal year, 11 in fiscal 2023, 10 in 2024 and eight in 2025. It would then acquire production models for deployment, starting with four in 2025, 14 in fiscal 2026 and 16 each in 2027 and 2028, with purchases continuing through 2040 toward the eventual total of 240, according to the internal Pentagon estimates.

The service intends to field its initial weapons on the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer by 2025 and on the Virginia-class submarine by 2028, according to fiscal 2022 budget documents cited by the Congressional Research Service.

The Army plans to buy 48 development models and 18 production versions. The development models would include 12 in fiscal 2023 and 14 in fiscal 2024, according to the internal figures. The production models would be bought in fiscal 2025 and 2026.

The Army intends to field its first prototypes for testing in fiscal 2023 to I Corps’ 5th Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Brigade.

Published : November 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans who helped pass President Joe Bidens infrastructure bill are split on whether to join him Monday for the White House signing ceremony and witness the $1.2 trillion package become law.

On Friday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration invited a “broad group” of Republicans to the ceremony, including members of Congress, governors, mayors and other individuals “who played a role in helping move the infrastructure bill forward.”

“The president looks forward to thanking them for their work, for working together to get this done for the American people,” Psaki said.

Tensions over the bill’s passage have grown among Republicans, raising questions within the party of whether any agreement with Biden and his agenda should be tolerated. Former president Donald Trump has said Republicans who voted for the measure – 19 senators and 13 House members – should be “ashamed of themselves” for “helping the Democrats.”

“I love all the House Republicans. Well, actually I don’t love all of you. I don’t love the 13 that voted for Biden’s infrastructure plan,” Trump said during an event hosted by the House Republican campaign arm on Monday.

Other Republican lawmakers – most notably Trump loyalists Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina – have led criticism and attacks against their colleagues who backed the bill, calling them “traitors” and encouraging people to contact their offices.

Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich. – a moderate who voted for the infrastructure package – told CNN on Monday that a caller left a message with his office filled with expletives and death threats. “I hope you die,” the caller said, adding that he hoped everybody in Upton’s family died as well.

On the Senate side, Republicans have avoided lashing out against their colleagues who voted in favor of the bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who voted for it and drew Trump’s wrath, has even tried to give more credit to his Senate caucus for helping pass the package.

McConnell, however, will not be attending the signing ceremony Monday. He told a Kentucky radio station that he has “other things I’ve got to do” that day.

“This bill was basically written in the Senate by a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats – all the House did last week was simply take up the Senate bill and pass it,” McConnell said. “This bill was crafted in the Senate, 19 Republicans voted for it, I was one of them, I think it was good for the country and I’m glad it passed.”

Of the other 18 Republican senators who backed the bill, only Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they plan on attending the White House’s signing ceremony. Murkowski, who announced her re-election bid Friday, has defended the bill to critics from her own party, saying it is “not about a win for Biden, or a win for the Democrats.”

“This is about meeting our nation’s needs,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News. “And for those who, in my view, are going to be so petty that they would deny good, solid policy because they don’t want the person holding the keys to the White House today to be able to say they got that under their watch, what a shame on us that we’re not willing to put the priorities of the country first over the politics of this.”

Other Republican senators have begun promoting the bill to their constituents. Sen. Kevin Cramer, who voted in its favor, highlighted the aspects of the package that will benefit his home state of North Dakota during a news conference Wednesday.

“What I look for is opportunities where there are winners on all sides. And that’s what we have in this bill,” he said. “The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is the right thing to do for North Dakota and our country.”

Cramer, however, does not plan on attending the signing ceremony on Monday. Neither does Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., whose office said he would be out of town. The Senate is in session Monday afternoon, with a vote scheduled in the evening.

Spokespeople for the other Republicans who voted for the bill declined to say Friday whether the senators would attend.

On the House side, only Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., has said he plans on attending the event. Reed is retiring at the end of his term after being accused of sexual misconduct by a former lobbyist. Reed apologized and said he would take “full responsibility” for his actions.

Spokesman for the other House Republicans did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During a Cabinet meeting, Biden said he wants to hold the event outside, “God willing,” with the weather permitting. The forecast for Monday is sunny with a high of 48.

Published : November 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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Former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos on Friday announced that she would drop her 2017 lawsuit alleging former president Donald Trump had defamed her by denying he had sexually assaulted her years earlier.

Zervos did not give a reason for ending the case, which had advanced far enough that attorneys were discussing when Trump might be questioned in a deposition.

Zervos’ attorneys said in a statement that she “no longer wishes to litigate against the defendant and has secured the right to speak freely about her experience.”

Her attorneys, Beth Wilkinson and Moira Penza, said she had received nothing from Trump in return for dropping the case.

Trump’s attorney in this case, Alina Habba, had recently sought to file a counterclaim against Zervos, saying Trump’s words were protected by a New York state law intended to protect free speech. The “anti-SLAPP” law – the acronym stands for strategic lawsuits against public participation – is intended to protect people from harassing lawsuits related to their participation in public life.

“She had no choice,” Habba said of Zervos, “as the facts unearthed in this matter made it abundantly clear that our client did nothing wrong.”

In a statement Friday evening, Trump said it was “incredibly important to fight for the truth and justice. Only victory can restore one’s reputation!”

Habba began representing the former president this fall, and previously filed a $100 million suit against Trump’s niece Mary Trump for allegedly violating the terms of a 2001 settlement by giving financial records to the New York Times. That suit also targeted the Times itself and three reporters; the newspaper called it “an attempt to silence independent news organizations” and pledged to fight in court.

In 2016, Zervos alleged that Trump forced himself on her in a Los Angeles hotel room a decade before. Her case against Trump, which was filed in New York Supreme Court in 2017, faced a lengthy series of delays when the former president asserted he was immune from such lawsuits while in office.

It was not until March 30, nearly two months after Trump left the White House, that the New York State Court of Appeals dismissed Trump’s appeal based on his immunity argument because it was moot.

The Zervos case recently seemed poised to go forward with the possibility of a Trump deposition by the end of the year. In a conference with the judge’s court attorney early last month, the parties were pushed to complete depositions before January. It was not immediately clear if Trump or Zervos had been deposed before reaching an agreement to end the case.

A similar New York defamation case brought against Trump by author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll was transferred to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan when the Justice Department moved to intervene on Trump’s behalf. Justice Department officials in the Biden administration are appealing a ruling that denied the department’s ability to represent the former president on the grounds that he was acting as a government employee when he made disparaging comments about Carroll.

Carroll’s attorneys on Friday said that their suit would continue. “E Jean Carroll has no intention of withdrawing her complaint against Donald Trump,” attorney Julie Fink said in a statement.

Also on Friday, a New York state judge dismissed a 2019 lawsuit filed against Trump’s company by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Cohen had sought more than $1.9 million from Trump to cover legal bills, which he said resulted from his work for the company.

In his decision, Judge Joel M. Cohen wrote that Cohen’s case was undercut by two problems. First, his arguments relied heavily on oral agreements, which were canceled out by written agreements.

And, the judge wrote, much of the legal bills resulted from work done for Trump personally, for his 2016 campaign, or for the now-defunct Trump Foundation – “but not out of his service to the business of the Trump Organization, which is the only defendant in this case.”

Kimberly Benza, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said in a statement that “Mr. Cohen’s attempts at self-enrichment … once again failed.”

“Having won this case, we now look forward to seeking monetary damages against Mr. Cohen for all of his despicable conduct,” Benza wrote.

Cohen’s attorneys declined to comment on the decision. Cohen previously pleaded guilty to campaign violations, financial crimes, and lying to Congress, and was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison.

One bright side for Cohen: Since he filed the suit, more than half of the outstanding legal bills were either paid by Trump’s company, or canceled by the law firms themselves, according to his lawyers.

Published : November 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008749

The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 13.54 million across Southeast Asia, with 30,512 new cases reported on Friday (November 12), higher than Thursday’s tally at 28,847. New deaths are at 409, increasing from Thursday’s number of 386. Total Covid-19 deaths in Asean are now at 283,528.

Laos’ Office of Prime Minister announced that the Pha That Luang festival to be held on November 17-19 will feature only religious ceremony. To prevent the spreading of Covid-19, there will be no processions, stage performances or merchant stalls allowed in the festival areas. The country reported 1,198 new cases and one death on Friday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 52,175 patients and total 94 deaths.

Brunei’s Public Health Ministry said it will soon announce regulations for the organization of wedding ceremony under Covid-19 disease control measures. It is expected that up to 30 participants will be allowed for indoor wedding, while outdoor ceremony can be joined by up to 200 guests, whereas strict disease control measures must be employed.
 

Published : November 13, 2021

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40008724

Its been found that white neighborhoods have twice as many vaccination sites as other neighborhoods and within those neighborhoods, the sites tend to cluster in more affluent areas in “another round of prioritization for predominantly white neighborhoods.”

 Amajor British newspaper has revealed inequality of access among U.S. kids for coronavirus vaccines which have been rolled out to this group.

More than 360,000 children under the age of 12 have already received their first shot, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Jorge Caballero, a board-certified anesthesiologist and co-founder of volunteer group Coders Against Covid, has found that white neighborhoods have twice as many vaccination sites as other neighborhoods, The Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

Children play with water at a park in New York, the United States, July 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

Within those neighborhoods, the sites tend to cluster in more affluent areas in “another round of prioritization for predominantly white neighborhoods,” he told The Guardian.

Interest in the vaccine is roughly equal across racial and ethnic groups, but access seems to be more limited, he said.

Caballero is concerned about equal access to vaccine for children and is calling for transparent data on race and ethnicity among children’s vaccinations from the CDC, according to The Guardian.

These inequities mirror previous disparities around testing and adult vaccinations, he said.

“We continue to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again. We’re just not being proactive enough in terms of addressing the gaps,” he was quoted as saying.

“All we’re striving for is just equity,” Caballero added.

For several months, children have accounted for one-quarter of new cases in the United States despite the availability of vaccines for those aged 12 and up, according to the British newspaper.

Published : November 12, 2021

By : Xinhua

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A coalition of 10 U.S. states, led by Missouri, has filed a lawsuit against the Joe Biden administrations COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed on health care workers, which they said was “unconstitutional and unlawful.”

The political battle over COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates continued in the United States, as the federal government pushed through its vaccination campaign with young children being targeted in the latest efforts.

On Thursday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated that 224,660,453 people have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, making up 67.7 percent of the whole U.S. population; fully vaccinated people stood at 194,382,921, accounting for 58.5 percent of the total. A total of 26,087,147 people, or 13.4 percent of fully vaccinated group, received booster shots.

Photo taken on Feb. 23, 2021 shows the school billboard of George H. W. Bush Elementary School in Dallas, Texas, the United States. (Photo by Dan Tian/Xinhua)

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MIXED SCENARIO

A coalition of 10 U.S. states, led by Missouri, has filed a lawsuit against the Joe Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed on health care workers, which they said was “unconstitutional and unlawful,” reported The Hill on Wednesday.

Missouri was joined in the suit by eight other states with GOP governors: Nebraska, Arkansas, Iowa, Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and New Hampshire. Kansas, the 10th state, has a Democratic governor, but is a reliably Republican state in presidential elections.

“Unfortunately, with this latest mandate from the Biden Administration, last year’s healthcare heroes are turning into this year’s unemployed,” Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in an official statement, adding that requiring health care workers to get a vaccination or face termination is “unconstitutional and unlawful, and could exacerbate healthcare staffing shortages to the point of collapse, especially in Missouri’s rural areas.”

Also on Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that a ban imposed by Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbott on school mask mandates violates the Americans With Disabilities Act, “a decision that could have national implications as several other states are embroiled in legal battles over face-covering requirements for children,” reported The Washington Post.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel is the latest development in the closely watched feud, and it allows local leaders to once again decide whether they want to implement mask mandates in their school districts.

School mask mandates have been a contentious issue for months, with the disputes moving from school board meetings to courtrooms. A handful of GOP-led states, including Arizona and Florida, passed similar bans on mandates. The CDC recommended that schools require their students, teachers and staff to wear masks.

MIXED DEVELOPMENTS

On Wednesday, the White House estimated that nearly a million young children have gotten COVID-19 shots since the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was cleared for 5- to 11-year-olds last week, a figure that White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients described as a “good start.”

Because of a lag in reporting to the CDC, which gathers vaccination data, the White House did its own analysis by collecting information from pharmacies and state and local health officials, said Zients, adding that officials “estimate conservatively” that 900,000 children have had their first shots.

Nearly 20,000 pharmacies, clinics and physicians’ offices in the United States are offering the doses to younger kids. Besides for the almost 1 million jabs, an additional 700,000 pediatric vaccination appointments have been scheduled for the coming days at pharmacies across the nation, according to Zients.

Students attend an in-person class in a school in Los Angeles, California, the United States, on April 13, 2021. (Xinhua)

A widely reported COVID-19 fatality case in recent days was that Jack Nyce, an officer with the San Francisco Police Department, died of coronavirus after he allegedly missed a deadline to be vaccinated against the disease.

Nyce, 46, a 17-year veteran with the department, died on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19 last Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper reported that Nyce missed the city’s deadline to receive a vaccine and was placed on a 30-day administrative leave. 

Published : November 12, 2021

By : Xinhua