Biden says US is securing 600 million vaccine doses by July
BETHESDA, Md. — President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans.
Biden made the announcement at the sprawling National Institutes of Health complex just outside Washington as he visited some of the nation’s leading scientists on the frontlines of the fight against the disease. He toured the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory that created the COVID-19 vaccine now manufactured by Moderna and being rolled out in the U.S. and other countries.
The U.S. is on pace to exceed Biden’s goal of administering 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office, with more than 26 million shots delivered in his first three weeks.
“That’s just the floor,” Biden said. “Our end goal is beating COVID-19.”
Biden announced on Thursday that the U.S. had secured contractual commitments from Moderna and Pfizer to deliver the 600 million doses of vaccine by the end of July — more than a month earlier than initially anticipated.
Lincoln Project to launch outside probe amid new revelations
NEW YORK — The Lincoln Project, one of the best-known and best-funded organizations in the so-called Never Trump movement, announced plans late Thursday to launch an external investigation to review the tenure of a co-founder accused of sexual harassment.
The announcement came hours after The Associated Press reported that members of the organization’s leadership were informed in writing and in subsequent phone calls of at least 10 specific allegations of sexual harassment against co-founder John Weaver, including two involving Lincoln Project employees. The revelations raised questions about the Lincoln Project’s statement last month that it was “shocked” when accusations surfaced publicly this year.
In a statement released Thursday evening, the organization announced that its board had decided to retain “a best-in-class outside professional” to review Weaver’s tenure “to establish both accountability and best practices going forward for The Lincoln Project.”
The organization also encouraged anyone bound by a nondisclosure agreement to contact the Lincoln Project “for a release.”
The situation threatens the stature of not just the Lincoln Project but also the broader coalition of establishment-oriented Republican groups working to excise Trump from the party.
From wire sources
Law firm details sexual misconduct by global ministry leader
NEW YORK — Ravi Zacharias, who died in May after a high-profile career leading a global Christian ministry, engaged in sexual misconduct with massage therapists and carried on many amorous extramarital relationships via text message and email, according to a scathing, in-depth report from a law firm hired by the ministry.
Five of the therapists said Zacharias touched them inappropriately, and one said she was raped, according to the report. It said investigators searching Zacharias’ mobile devices found more than 200 photographs of younger women, including nude images of a salon employee in Malaysia.
In blunt terms, the report by Atlanta-based Miller &Martin said Zacharias had lied in claiming in 2017 that “I have never engaged in any inappropriate behavior of any kind.”
Coinciding with the report’s release on Thursday, the board of directors of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries issued a statement of “corporate repentance.” The board apologized for earlier statements that belittled accusers and pledged steps to support victims, combat abuse and harassment, and reassess the management structure, which is overseen by Zacharias’ eldest daughter, ministry CEO Sarah Davis.
“We are devastated by what the investigation has shown and are filled with sorrow for the women who were hurt by this terrible abuse,” the board said.
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Democrats pushing Biden’s COVID-19 bill through House panels
WASHINGTON — Democrats pushed half of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan through a House committee Thursday, advancing $1,400 payments for millions of Americans and other initiatives that Republicans call too costly, economically damaging and brazenly partisan.
The Ways and Means Committee approved its $940 billion chunk of Biden’s proposal on a 25-18 party-line vote, highlighting a frenzied week that’s seeing a dozen House panels fashion contributions to the sprawling measure. On Wednesday, the Education and Labor Committee approved another top Democratic priority — a boost in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 hourly over five years.
“Yes it will. We’re very proud of that,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters when asked if the overall House bill would include the minimum wage increase. Its fate remains precarious in the more moderate Senate.
The House bill would provide hundreds of billions for state and local governments and to boost vaccination efforts, raise tax credits for children and increase unemployment benefits and federal health care assistance. Democratic leaders hope for House passage later this month, with Senate approval and a bill on Biden’s desk by mid-March.
In committee after committee, Republicans futilely launched waves of amendments at the Democratic measures in an attempt to derail the new president’s top initial priority — a massive bill aimed at stemming the deadly pandemic and resuscitating an economy that’s shed 10 million jobs and shuttered countless businesses.
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New video captures pepper-sprayed girl’s wait for EMTs
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A 9-year-old Black girl pepper sprayed by police pleaded “please don’t do this to me” and “it burns” as she waited handcuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser for 16 minutes, according to new police body camera footage released Thursday.
The city of Rochester suspended police officers seen in an initial video released Sunday spraying a chemical irritant in the face of the distraught and handcuffed child. Mayor Lovely A. Warren said the city released almost 90 minutes of additional video from the Jan. 29 detainment in order to be transparent.
In the video, the girl can be heard wailing and whimpering that she wants her dad and saying her eyes are burning as an officer tells her an ambulance is on its way but has been slowed by the snowy roads.
“Officer, please don’t do this to me,” she says at one point.
“You did it to yourself, hon,” the officer responds.
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Kim lays blame at officials for N. Korea’s economic failures
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ripped into the performance of his Cabinet and fired a senior economic official he appointed a month ago, saying they’d failed to come up with new ideas to salvage an economy in decay.
The report by state media on Friday comes during the toughest period of Kim’s nine-year rule. The diplomacy he had hoped would lift U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear program is stalemated, and pandemic border closures and crop-killing natural disasters last year deepened the damage to an economy broken by decades of policy failures.
Some analysts say the current challenges may set up conditions for an economic perfect storm in the North that destabilizes markets and triggers public panic and unrest.
The current challenges had forced Kim to publicly admit that past economic plans hadn’t succeeded. A new five-year plan to develop the economy was issued during the ruling Workers’ Party congress in January, but Kim’s comments during the party’s Central Committee meeting that ended Thursday were rich with frustration with how the plans were being executed so far.
During Thursday’s session, Kim lamented that the Cabinet was failing in its role as the key institution managing the economy, saying it was producing unworkable plans while displaying no “innovative viewpoint and clear tactics.”