Biden news: Congress passes $1.9 trillion Covid bill as president says US to share surplus vaccines
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Your support makes all the difference.Congress has passed the $1.9 trillion (£1.37 trillion) coronavirus relief bill. Joe Biden will sign it into law on Friday afternoon. The package will provide a direct payment of $1,400 (£1,009) to most Americans.
GOP representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator Lindsey Graham have decried the bill as racist towards white people. As high a figure as 75 per cent of Americans approve of the bill according to polls, including 59 per cent of Republicans.
“It’s a remarkable, historic, transformative piece of legislation which goes a very long way to crushing the virus and solving our economic crisis,” House SpeakerNancy Pelosi said on Tuesday.
Speaking after the passage of the bill, Mr Biden, announcing a further order of 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, said if the US had surplus vaccines they would be shared with other countries that need the extra doses.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the US and China will meet in Anchorage, Alaska on 18 March, the first such meeting between the Biden administration and the People’s Republic. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend with NSA Jake Sullivan.
FBI releases new video showing pipe bomb suspect
The FBI has released a new video showing a person putting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committee in Washington DC on 5 January.
The footage shows a person wearing a grey hoodie laying one device outside the DNC and walking in an alley near the RNC, where a bomb was later found.
Steven D’Antuono, assistant director of the FBI’s Washington office, told the public: “We are asking for you to come forward and speak to us about any odd or out-of-character behaviours”.
Fauci says US death toll would have been ‘unimaginable’ this time last year
Anthony Fauci, the US’ leading infectious diseases expert, has said that the country’s death toll of 525,000 would have been “unimaginable” this time last year.
He made the comment to CNN on Wednesday morning.
Lauren Boebert criticised for using gunshot sound in Pelosi attack ad
Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert has been widely criticised for an advert attack against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - which ends with shooting sound effects.
The video shows the pro-gun Colorado politician walking along what she termed “Fort Pelosi”, the security fence put up outside the US Capitol after the building was stormed on 6 January.
“It’s time to cut the c**p and remember, this is the people’s house,” Ms Boebert says at the end of the video, before a gunshot is heard.
One Twitter user asked: “Why is there a sound gunshot at the end of your video? Was that a threat to Speaker Pelosi?”
Lauren Boebert under fire after releasing Pelosi attack ad with gunshot sound effect
Congresswoman says Democrats want to ‘protect themselves’ with security fences, despite events of 6 January
Biden accused of ‘locking the door’ on ‘diversity’ visa applicants
President Joe Biden has been accused of “locking the door” on thousands of visa applicants who were denied entry by Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Muslim’ ban, afer partially rescinding the order in recent days.
The criticism comes as visa applicants from more than dozen predominantly Muslim countries banned from applying for visas by the former president can now do so.
However, thousands of applicants who were selected to receive “diversity visas” were excluded.
Mr Biden previously called his predecessor’s ban “a stain on our national conscience”.
Biden accused of ‘locking the door’ on ‘diversity’ visa applicants after partially rescinding Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’
‘This is unacceptable,’ says progressive Democrat Ayanna Pressley
Biden’s first 50 days of executive orders
Joe Biden has had a busy start to his presidency, writes Andrew Naughtie.
These are the executive orders the president has signed so far:
Biden’s first 50 days: All the executive orders the president has signed so far
What has Biden done so far?
41 Republicans vote against Taylor Greene’s motion to adjourn
Controversial Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has again tried to adjourn proceedings in the House - in an attempt to stop the $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill passing through Congress.
In total, 41 of her Republican peers voted with the Democrats against her motion, twice as many as did so last week.
Rep. Katie Porter tells oil executive to stop patronising her
The Democratic congresswoman Katie Porter laid into an oil executive on Tuesday for being patronising.
Mark Murphy, president of Strata Production Company, a New-Mexico-based oil firm, had implied that the Californian politician did not understand a tax provision specific to his industry.
She told him: “You get to deduct 70 per cent of your costs immediately, and other businesses have to amortise their expenses over their entire profit stream.
“So please don’t patronise me by telling me that the oil and gas industry doesn’t have any special tax provisions. Because if you would like that to be the rule, I would be happy to have Congress deliver.”
Our senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle reports:
Congresswoman takes down oil exec suggesting she doesn’t understand tax rule
Katie Porter, a former professor who taught classes about bankruptcy, has become a social media favorite for her rapid-fire, well-informed questioning of powerful executives
Another Oath Keeper facing charges for Capitol riot
Another alleged member of the Oath Keepers who was seen with Trump-ally Roger Stone at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally on 6 January is facing Capitol riot charges.
Court filings said Joshua James, an alleged member of the militia group, was arrested at his Birmingham, Alabama, home on Tuesday.
As first reported by ABC News, the FBI were said to have identified the 33-year-old through photos taken inside the US Capitol building on the day of the riot, in which five people died.
Another Oath Keeper seen with Roger Stone at ‘Stop the Steal’ rally facing charges for Capitol riot
Joshua James described as ‘security detail for a speaker at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies and events’
What is in Biden’s stimulus bill?
Joe Biden’s ambitious $1.9trn coronavirus relief bill will most likely pass through Congress on Wednesday. But what does it contain?
My colleague Joe Sommerlad has the details:
What’s in Joe Biden’s Covid stimulus bill?
American Rescue Plan will be the second-largest economic stimulus bill in US history if passed
Trump meets with Dick Morris, report says
The New York Times reports that Donald Trump has been meeting with veteran political consultant Dick Morris as he looks at options to take his political career forward in his new post-White House reality.
Mr Morris is said to have encouraged the former president to take the Republican Party head-on.
Mr Trump has sent cease-and-desist letters to the Republican National Committee and other GOP organisations telling them not to use his image or name in their appeals for donations.
The letters are said to have little legal standing.
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