Biden news: President says women ‘thrive’ in military as female generals held back under Trump promoted

Joe Biden has nominated two female generals for four-star commands after their promotions were previously held back under the Trump administration, according to a New York Times report.

General Jacqueline Van Ovost of the Air Force and Lieutenant General Laura Richardson of the Army were both first considered for a promotion back in the fall of 2020, as senior leaders of the Pentagon all agreed they should be given four-star commands.

Despite the positive reviews from Pentagon leaders, Mark Esper and General Mark Milley, Donald Trump’s joint chiefs of staff at the time, reportedly held back from asking the White House about the promotions due to who was in charge at the time.

Danielle Zoellner reports.

A member of the Oath Keepers militia group seen flanking Roger Stone on the morning of the 6 January Capitol riot has been arrested, according to ABC News.

Quoting an anonymous law enforcement official, the outlet said Roberto Minuta, of New York, would appear in court on Monday after he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigations on the weekend.

Mr Minuta was first seen on video with Mr Stone, a Donald Trump adviser and pardon recipient, in Washington DC just hours before the Capitol was breached by rioters.

In the video, posted by ABC News, Mr Stone is talking to a woman as men wearing Oath Keeper insignia stand in the background.

In a comment to ABC, Mr Stone said: “I had no advance knowledge of the riot at the Capitol. I could not even tell you the names of those who volunteered to provide security for me, required because of the many threats against me and my family.”

In a speech celebrating International Women’s Day, Joe Biden touted increasing opportunities for women in the US military and urged leaders at the Pentagon to continue making progress towards gender equality.

From elevating more women to military leadership roles to taking “relatively straightforward” steps such as designing armor and military gear that fits women properly, Mr Biden indicated he hoped to create a force where women could “thrive.”

Griffin Connolly has more from today’s speech.

“There’s no end in sight!” says Fox host Brian Kilmeade of the cancellation. “Nobody is perfect enough for the masses. I’m not saying he’s a perfect cartoon character but, believe it or not, I’m not looking to cartoons as my role models.”

Fox News came to the defence of Looney Tunes character Pepe Le Pew after the cartoon skunk was cancelled from an upcoming film, Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Le Pew appeared in the first Space Jam movie starring Michael Jordan but was cut from the LeBron James-led sequel during production, according to Deadline.

While no reason was given for the removal of the scene, the news came after The New York Times published a column claiming the character "added to rape culture".

Writer Charles M Blow argued in the article, itself about the six cancelled Dr Seuss books, that the skunk normalized rape culture. He defended the take on Twitter after "right-wing blogs" got mad.

In the scene cut from the Space Jam sequel, to be released on 16 July, Le Pew was to appear as a bartender in a black-and-white Casablanca scene hitting on a character played by Jane the Virgin actress Greice Santo, according to Deadline.

Santo's character pulls her arm away and pours a drink on Le Pew before LeBron James tells the skunk he can't grab other Looney Tunes without consent. The live-action portion of the scene was reportedly filmed in June 2019, but it was never animated after a change of director on the movie.

A spokesperson for Santo, who has spoken out about her own sexual harassment, said she was upset over the scene being cut.

“This was such a big deal for Greice to be in this movie. Even though Pepe is a cartoon character, if anyone was going to slap a sexual harasser like him, Greice wished it would be her," the spokesperson said.

"Now the scene is cut, and she doesn’t have that power to influence the world through younger generations who’ll be watching Space Jam 2, to let younger girls and younger boys know that Pepe’s behaviour is unacceptable.”

GameStop stock has surged again after the company announced it was planning to turn itself from a bricks and mortar retailer into a technology business.

The value of its stocks was up by as much as 53 per cent on Monday to more than $210.87.

The spike came after GameStop announced that Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen is chairing a new committee to transform the business.

Graeme Massie has the latest.

Senator Bernie Sanders fiercely defended California governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, just as an effort to recall him appeared to cross a crucial threshold.

“Right-wing Republicans in CA are trying to recall @GavinNewsom for the crime of telling people to wear masks and for listening to scientists during Covid,” Sanders tweeted. “Extremist Republicans have done enough to undermine democracy already. We must all unite to oppose the recall in California.”

Leaders of the movement working to remove Newsom announced Sunday that their petition has garnered 1.95 million signatures. If at least 1.5 million of those signatures are valid, the recall could go ahead.

Nathan Place and Gustaf Kilander report.

Joe Manchin said he may block Joe Biden's climate change and infrastructure package unless Republicans are allowed more influence during negotiations.

Mr Manchin, who describes himself as a "moderate" Democrat, carries an important vote in the near evenly-divided Senate. He wants to see Republicans have more say in the negotiations than they did in the $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus discussion.

Democrats managed to pass the coronavirus stimulus using reconciliation, which only requires a simple majority. Mr Manchin said he refused to use reconciliation to pass the climate and infrastructure package.

Graig Graziosi reports.

Up to 8 million eligible Americans have not yet claimed their stimulus checks, according to the US Treasury Department.

The department revealed in January that the number consisted of both those who qualified for the initial $1,200 direct payments that were part of the CARES Act that passed in March 2020 as well as the $600 direct payments that were issued in December.

These payments were sent by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) based on data collected from 2018 and 2019 tax returns. But up to 8 million people who qualified for the payments did not receive them because the IRS did not have their information on file.

Danielle Zoellner reports.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg slammed President Joe Biden’s handling of the climate crisis on Sunday, saying he hasn’t done “nearly enough.”

On The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC, she was asked how she’d grade the new US president’s efforts on climate change so far. She refused to assign a grade, but made it clear it would not be an A+.

“You should rather look at the science and whether his policies are in line with the Paris Agreement and to stay below 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius,” Ms Thunberg told Hasan. “And then you can clearly see that, no, it’s not nearly enough in line with the science.”

Nathan Place reports.