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Sheet metal worker Demetrius Buttelman gestures after being inoculated with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site in New York last week. (Pool/Reuters)

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Federal health officials said Tuesday that fully vaccinated people can go without masks outdoors when walking, jogging or biking, or dining with friends at outdoor restaurants - a milestone development for tens of millions of pandemic-weary Americans after more than a year of masking up and locking down.

President Biden touted the relaxation of restrictions as another reason for people to get vaccinated, urging them to move forward not just to protect themselves and those around them, but so they can live more normally, by "getting together with friends, going to the park for a picnic without needing a mask."

Biden had set July 4 as a target for when people could get together for backyard picnics with a sense of normalcy, and both the new mask guidance and his remarks were geared to encouraging people to continue getting the shots.

" I ... want to thank everyone who has gotten the vaccine for doing your patriotic duty and helping us get on the path to Independence Day," Biden said in remarks on the North Lawn of the White House. He arrived at the lectern wearing a mask. He returned to the White House without one, saying he didn't have to put it on until he got back into the building.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on April 27 said it is safe for those who are fully vaccinated to remove their masks in small outdoor settings. (Reuters)

The latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as more than 52 percent of eligible people in the United States have gotten at least one shot, but the pace of inoculations appears to be slowing in the face of vaccine hesitancy, especially among rural residents and Republicans who believe the risks from the virus are overblown. Uptake has also been slower among communities of color because lack of health services and transportation have been barriers to access.

Officials said the changed guidance was aimed at helping those who are fully inoculated return safely to old routines, while encouraging others to get their shots to counter highly contagious new variants.

"Over the past year, we have spent a lot of time telling Americans what they cannot do, what they should not do," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing. "Today, I'm going to tell you some of the things you can do if you are fully vaccinated."

The recommendations also address growing calls from infectious-disease and other public health experts to relax mask mandates for the outdoors because breezes disperse airborne virusparticles, distancing is easier, and humidity and sunlight render the coronavirus less viable.

For that reason, the guidance says that even unvaccinated individuals may forego masks when walking, jogging or biking outdoors with household members. Officials still caution that crowded outdoor settings pose risks and urge everyone - both the vaccinated and unvaccinated - to wear masks when attending sporting events, live performances and parades.

The advice to the unvaccinated applies to adults and children alike, according to the CDC. None of the covid-19 vaccines used in the United States is authorized for children under 16.

A growing body of evidence suggests that people who are two weeks past their final shot are less likely to have asymptomatic infections or transmit the coronavirus to others. Officials don't know how long protection lasts and how much the vaccines protect against emerging virus variants.

But "taking steps toward relaxing certain measures for vaccinated people may help improve coronavirus vaccine acceptance and uptake," the guidance states. "Therefore, there are several activities that fully vaccinated people can resume now, at low risk to themselves, while being mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the disease to others."

Brightening U.S. picture

Walensky cited several factors motivating the changed guidance: Falling coronavirus case rates and climbing vaccinations (more than 37 percent of those over 18 are fully protected) make outdoor settings safer than before. Indoor settings have an almost 20-fold increased risk of transmission compared to outdoor ones, she noted.

If more people continue getting inoculated and cases drop further, she said, the CDC will release additional guidance for the fully vaccinated.

A year into pandemic, it's even more clear that it's safer to be outside

Asked how she would describe the nation's situation now compared to last month when she spoke of a feeling of "impending doom" as infections mounted, Walensky said that if the United States follows measures taken by other countries where "vaccinations continue to soar and the cases plummet, that we should be in good shape."

For states that currently have mask requirements outdoors, Walensky said the CDC feels it is no longer necessary for fully vaccinated to wear masks unless they are in crowded outdoor venues, such as stadiums and concerts, where it is hard to know who is vaccinated and who is not.

Tuesday's guidanceincludes a color-coded chart that shows activities that fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people can do indoors and outdoors, and which ones can be done without masks. The safest activities, highlighted in green, are outdoors in small gatherings. Activities with the greatest risk are indoor settings that involve behaviors such as singing, shouting, heavy breathing, inability to wear a mask or inability to maintain physical distancing, such as indoor high-intensity exercise class.

The nearly 96 million Americans who are fully vaccinated can now forgo masks for many outdoor activities, including:

° Walking, running, hiking or biking outdoors alone or with members of your household.

º Attending a small outdoor gathering with fully vaccinated family and friends.

º Attending a small outdoor gathering with a mix of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

º Dining at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households.

Officials say certain conditions increase risk: crowding, time spent, lack of ventilation and high community transmission. That's why the CDC is recommending that it is safest for fully vaccinated people to continue to wear well-fitted masks i n these settings, including:

º Attending a crowded outdoor event, such as a live performance, parade or sporting event.

º Visiting a barber or hair salon.

º Going to an uncrowded indoor shopping mall or museum.

º Going to an indoor movie theater.

º Attending a full-capacity service at a house of worship.

º Singing in an indoor chorus.

"The examples today show that when you are fully vaccinated, you can return to many activities safely ... and begin to get back to normal," Walensky said. "And the more people who are vaccinated, the more steps we can take toward spending time with people we love, doing the things we love to enjoy. I hope this message is encouraging for you. It shows just how powerful these vaccines are."

The agency also provided additional guidance for the fully vaccinated related to work, quarantine and testing. Fully vaccinated workers no longer need to isolate following an exposure, as long as they do not have symptoms. Fully vaccinated residents of non-healthcare congregate settings no longer need to quarantine following a known exposure. And fully vaccinated people without symptoms or known exposures may be exempted from routine screening tests - a change of enormous significance for schools trying to plan for summer school and fall reopening.

Monica Gandhi, an infectious-diseases expert at the University of California at San Francisco, applauded the CDC's action after arguing that accumulating evidence shows the low risk of outdoor transmission.

"Viral particles disperse effectively in the outside air," she said in an email, citing numerous studies, including one in Wuhan, China, that found just one of 7,324 infection events investigated was linked to outdoor transmission.

The rapid spread of covid-19 in the United States began in early 2020. A lot has changed in our day-to-day lives since then, including the use of face masks. (Allie Caren/The Washington Post)

Gandhi noted that the World Health Organization says masks are not necessary outside unless physical distancing, which the agency defines as about three feet, cannot be maintained.

She and others have said it's important for public health officials to provide incentives as "a great strategy to encourage those who are on the fence to get vaccinated."

"Public health messaging since the time of HIV that focuses on positive, rather than negative, reinforcement has been shown to be more effective, so the CDC guidelines that vaccinated people don't have to mask outdoors will hopefully help persuade some of the vaccine hesitant in the U.S. to get the vaccine," Gandhi said.

The CDC guidance said there is limited data on vaccine protection in people who are immunocompromised. It urges people taking immunosuppressive medications to discuss the need for personal protective measures with their health-care providers, even if they are fully vaccinated.

Growing pushback on masks

Even before the CDC's announcement, some states were already moving to ease mask mandates: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Monday cleared groups of fewer than 1,000 to gather outside without masks. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Tuesday said his state's rule requiring masks outdoors would expire Friday, except in certain situations where social distancing is impossible.

The issue has become even more politically charged recently as conservative media figures have used their platforms online and on cable news to turn outdoor masking rules into a cause celebre. Fox News host Tucker Carlson urged viewers this week to contact child protective services to report the parents of children seen masked outdoors.

"Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart," he said on his show, which is among the most watched on cable, regularly drawing 3 million viewers. "Call the police immediately, contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives."

His instructions were echoed Tuesday morning by Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at the Federalist, a conservative Web magazine. She tweeted: "Even if you're an outdoor mask enthusiast at this late date, despite the complete lack of scientific support for same, I think we all can agree that masking children outdoors, at the very least, is abusive, right?"

The comments illustrate how face coverings, which were scorned by President Donald Trump, remain a marker of political identity more than a year into the pandemic.

Isaac Stanley-Becker and Ben Guarino contributed to this report.

Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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CDC says fully vaccinated Americans can go without masks outdoors, except in crowded settings

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Please Note The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

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La retirada de las tropas estadounidenses de Afganistán ha comenzado

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La retirada de las tropas estadounidenses de Afganistán ha comenzado

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La retirada militar estadounidense de Afganistán ya está en marcha formalmente, según la Casa Blanca y varios funcionarios de defensa estadounidenses.

"Está en marcha una reducción", dijo el jueves la subsecretaria de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Karine Jean-Pierre, a los periodistas a bordo del Air Force One. "Si bien estas acciones inicialmente resultarán en un aumento de los niveles de fuerzas, seguimos comprometidos a sacar a todo el personal militar estadounidense de Afganistán para el 11 de septiembre de 2020".
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/29/politics/us-afghanistan-withdrawal-begun/index.html

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 Fernando Mañón          Estados Unidos necesita las confesiones de Emma Coronel  

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 Fernando Mañón          Estados Unidos necesita las confesiones de Emma Coronel  

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Omar Sánchez de Tagle es un periodista mexicano. Es jefe de Información en programas de Grupo Fórmula y Televisa.

Su conocimiento sobre las operaciones con recursos de procedencia ilícita del Cártel de Sinaloa son la clave para que Emma Coronel, esposa del narcotraficante Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán y detenida esta semana en Virginia, logre negociar su libertad con las autoridades de Estados Unidos.
Desde hace poco más de dos años, tras haber salido a la luz pública como la pareja de Guzmán, la averiguación sobre Coronel se convirtió en un tema cada vez más importante para las autoridades en Estados Unidos. En las investigaciones de las agencias estadounidenses se señala que ella conoce el manejo de la organización criminal pero, principalmente, la forma en que se lava el dinero.

Recibe noticias y columnas de opinión en español en nuestro boletín

Para el gobierno de Estados Unidos, la detención de Coronel se convierte en una pieza clave para conocer la estructura financiera del Cártel de Sinaloa. Su juicio, si bien es importante, podría ser solo un primer paso para asegurar su colaboración en el resto de investigaciones pendientes contra el cártel.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/es/post-opinion/2021/02/23/emma-coronel-detenida-estados-unidos-juicio-chapo-guzman/

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One day after President Biden's big speech to a joint session of Congress where he called for a new era of government spending, he and Vice President Harris will hit the road on Thursday to sell their agenda to the public, a campaign White House officials are calling the "Getting America Back on Track Tour."

Mr. Biden will spend his 100th day as president in Georgia, a state where Democrats picked up two crucial Senate seats in January, giving them a slim majority in that chamber. After visiting privately with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife in Plains, the Bidens will attend a drive-in car rally in Duluth intended to "highlight how he has delivered on his promises to the American people," according to his official schedule.

Ms. Harris, meanwhile, will travel to Baltimore, where she will tour a vaccination site and deliver a speech about what the administration has accomplished so far.

On Friday, Mr. Biden will travel to Philadelphia and Ms. Harris will go to Ohio.

A White House official said Mr. Biden and other officials would use the public events to promote the administration's early successes on the economy and the pandemic - themes Mr. Biden stressed in his address to Congress on Wednesday.

In his address, which clocked in at over an hour, Mr. Biden urged for the vast expansion of social safety net and education programs while promising to address climate change in a way that creates jobs and improves the economy.

"We're in a great inflection point in history," Mr. Biden said. "We have to do more than just build back. We have to build back better." To do that requires investments in infrastructure and expansion of early education programs, he said.

Though surrounded by many legislators whom Mr. Biden served with during his nearly four decades as a senator, the scene for his first major address to Congress was like none delivered by previous presidents. Because of the pandemic, the chamber was sparsely populated and those in attendance wore masks.

Progress against the virus, Mr. Biden said, must be matched by helping those who "feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that's rapidly changing." Improving access to high-speed internet and early education programs are necessary steps to help those who are struggling, he said.

He also positioned the urgent fight to stop global warming as an economic opportunity, one he argued could unite a deeply divided Congress, and country. "For me, when I think climate change, I think jobs," Mr. Biden said.

Passing his sweeping jobs plan, he said, can also be viewed as a down payment on the American economy. "All the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle: Buy American. Buy American," he said.

To push another key part of his agenda, Mr. Biden pointed to the siege on the Capitol nearly four months earlier. "As we gather here tonight, the images of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol - desecrating our democracy - remain vivid in all our minds," he said.

To "truly restore the soul of America," he continued, "we need to protect the sacred right to vote." He urged lawmakers to pass an enormous overhaul of election law known as H.R. 1.

Toward the end of his speech, Mr. Biden argued that the country needed the kind of big government initiatives not seen since the days of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

"In another era when our democracy was tested, Franklin Roosevelt reminded us, in America, we do our part," he said. "We all do our part. That's all I'm asking."

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'It's About Time,' Biden Says in Addressing Pelosi and Harris

President Biden began his speech by remarking on the historic significance of having two women - Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi - sitting on the dais behind him.

Madam Speaker. Madam Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words, and it's about time.

President Biden began his speech by remarking on the historic significance of having two women - Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi - sitting on the dais behind him. Credit Credit... Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President Biden kicked off his address to a joint session of Congress with a string of words that no American president has ever said before: "Madam Vice President and Madam Speaker."

For the first time, the president is delivering his speech while standing in front of two women - Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California. While Ms. Pelosi has spent several State of the Union addresses sitting on the podium behind the president, this is Ms. Harris's first time.

The two women greeted each other with a friendly elbow bump before the president arrived.

For an event that is wrapped up in pomp and circumstance, the images from such nights can leave a lasting impression. And this tableau - a visual representation that the first and second in line of presidential succession are both women - depicts the progression of women in American politics.

Hours before the speech, when asked on MSNBC about the historic moment, Ms. Pelosi said that while it's "exciting" it's also "about time."

President Biden on Wednesday invited the top Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to meet with him at the White House for the first time next month as he seeks to move his ambitious plans though Congress, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

While Mr. Biden has met regularly with Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, the May 12 meeting would mark the first time he has hosted their Republican counterparts, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.

The invitation, which became public hours before Mr. Biden was scheduled to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress, comes at a crucial moment in Mr. Biden's presidency, as he tries to build support for $4 trillion in new spending to boost the economy, close racial disparities and rebuild the nation's infrastructure. But Republicans are increasingly portraying him to voters as a radical liberal who, despite campaign promises, is unwilling to compromise across the aisle.

The White House did not immediately make clear its agenda for the meeting.

Mr. Biden and Mr. McConnell, an old friend, have spoken multiple times by phone since he became president. Mr. McCarthy has repeatedly requested to meet with Mr. Biden to discuss the influx of migrants at the southwestern border, but the two have not spoken.

Mr. Biden has been more free with invitations to rank-and-file Republicans - especially moderates who he had hoped might support his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan or his upcoming jobs package. So far, none have given him their support.

Democrats have begun advancing President Biden's first judicial nominees through the Senate Judiciary Committee, taking a significant step to counter the influence President Donald J. Trump had in steering the federal courts to the right.

In a marked and intentional contrast to Mr. Trump's picks, the two circuit court nominees and three district court candidates considered on Wednesday were all people of color with backgrounds that differed substantially from nominees traditionally chosen by presidents of both parties, including an emphasis on serving as a public defender.

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the chairman of the committee, noted that none of the 54 appeals court judges selected by Mr. Trump had been African-American. Mr. Biden's nominees would orient the courts back to "even-handedness, fair-mindedness and competence" while improving racial and professional diversity, Mr. Durbin said.

"We need it on the federal courts," he said.

Most of the focus on Wednesday was on two nominees to federal appeals courts - usually the last stop for major cases before the Supreme Court - Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, chosen for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Candace Jackson-Akiwumi for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago. Both are Black. Judge Jackson, currently a district court judge in Washington, is considered a potential future Supreme Court nominee by Democrats, and Ms. Jackson-Akiwumi would be the only Black judge on the Seventh Circuit.

The Biden White House and Senate Democrats are trying to move quickly to fill scores of federal court vacancies after Mr. Trump placed more than 220 conservative judges on the federal courts with the assistance of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who made judicial confirmations a high priority while he was majority leader. He said he was not surprised at the Democratic push.

"That's what I would do if I were in their shoes," Mr. McConnell said in a recent interview. "Pick as many outstanding liberals as you can, and try to get them confirmed as quickly as you can. I wrote the playbook on that. I can't blame them for taking a look at how it was done. I think it was done very effectively."

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Ahmaud Arbery's Final Minutes: What Videos and 911 Calls Show

Using security footage, cellphone video, 911 calls and police reports, The Times has reconstructed the 12 minutes before Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead in Georgia on Feb. 23.

In February, 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead in the south Georgia neighborhood of Satilla Shores. In the two months that followed, no arrests were made. But local residents and lawmakers protested what they said was a deadly combination of racial profiling and flawed self-defense laws. "When they stop you, make sure you got your cameras on. Make sure you got a video." Police did eventually arrest 2 suspects, but it was days after this video of the fatal shooting emerged. Gregory McMichael and his son Travis were charged with murder and aggravated assault. The case has reignited the national debate over racial violence. "I'm sure you saw the news about Ahmaud Arbery." "It looks like murder." "The American public saw the video." What exactly happened in the last moments of Mr. Arbery's life? Using security camera footage, cellphone video, and 911 calls and logs, The Times has reconstructed the critical 12 minutes from when Mr. Arbery appeared on Satilla Drive to his death, less than 300 yards away. It's around 1 p.m. on Feb. 23 when Ahmaud Arbery is out, less than 2 miles from his home. A security camera at 219 Satilla Drive is recording when Mr. Arbery enters the frame at around 1:04 p.m. He may have been jogging in the area, but he stops on the front lawn of 220 Satilla, a house being built across the street. Arbery glances around and wanders into the open construction site. Inside, security footage briefly captures him looking around. Meanwhile outside, a neighbor walks from Jones Road towards Satilla Drive and calls 911. The neighbor waits by the street corner. He will later tell the dispatcher that Arbery resembles a recent trespasser in the area. On multiple occasions before Feb. 23, several trespassers were caught on camera at 220 Satilla. The owner routinely alerted the police. On four occasions, what appears to be the same man was filmed. It's unclear if this was Arbery, but even if it were, this does not justify his shooting by neighbors outside on the street. The site's owner says nothing was ever stolen from the house during these incidents or on Feb. 23, and no property was ever damaged. But neighbors were aware of the trespasses and the community was on alert. Now, back to the day in question. It's 1:08 p.m. and Arbery is walking around inside the house. Four minutes after he entered, he walks out and runs off. In the top corner of the security footage, we can see down the street to 230 Satilla, the home of Travis McMichael. At 1:10 p.m., Travis and his father, Gregory, grab their guns, jump in a white truck, and leave the house to pursue Mr. Arbery. We don't have footage showing the next 3 minutes, but testimony Gregory McMichael gave police at the scene, and interviews by another witness, Roddy Bryan, indicate what happened. Gregory and Travis McMichael follow Arbery onto Burford Road. Their neighbor Roddy Bryan sees the pursuit, gets in his car and follows. The McMichaels try to cut Arbery off. Arbery doubles back and passes them. Bryan tries to block Arbery, but Arbery runs past him and toward Holmes Road. Gregory McMichael climbs from the cab to the bed of the truck armed with a handgun. We don't know exactly what happens next. But Bryan and the McMichaels end up following Arbery on Holmes Road. And we next see Arbery at 1:14 p.m. running back down Holmes Road away from Roddy Bryan and toward the McMichaels. Roddy Bryan is filming and - a warning - these scenes are distressing. Gregory McMichael dials 911 at this time. Let's watch this back and break down what happens. This is Arbery. He has been running from the vehicles for almost 4 minutes. Travis is standing by the driver's side of the truck, armed with a shotgun. Gregory is in the bed of the truck on the 911 call. Arbery doesn't know where to run. He veers right, then left and then darts around the right side of the vehicle. Arbery comes around the front of the truck. We see his white T-shirt through the windshield and here is Travis now leaning toward him. This is the instant the first shot is fired. Arbery is hit in the chest, his right lung, ribs, and sternum are injured. The two men wrestle over the gun. Gregory shouts: "Travis!" Arbery punches Travis. In the back of the truck, Gregory drops the cellphone. A second blast goes off out of frame. But we see the shotgun smoke here. Arbery is heavily bleeding. He throws another punch. Travis fires a final shot, which hits Arbery in his left upper chest. Travis walks away holding his gun. Gregory gets off the truck clutching his .357 Magnum. According to the police report, Gregory rolled Arbery over to see if he had a weapon. He did not. Police officers arrive within seconds of the shooting, and a minute or so later at 1:16 p.m., Police Officer R. Minshew reports: Two subjects on Holmes Road. Shots fired. Male on ground bleeding out. The police took Gregory McMichael's testimony and let the two men go. But now the McMichaels both face serious charges. Hi, this is Malachy and I reported this story. For transparency, a note about the security footage used in this video, which was first published by The Atlanta Journal Constitution. The time code you see here is incorrect. We know this because we lined up what we see in this video with what we hear in two 911 calls and we confirmed the time of those calls. These details and police logs also allowed us to determine that Gregory McMichael called 911 from his son's phone just before the fatal shooting. So in this video, we used the real time that events happened. Thank you for watching.

Using security footage, cellphone video, 911 calls and police reports, The Times has reconstructed the 12 minutes before Ahmaud Arbery was shot dead in Georgia on Feb. 23.

Three Georgia men were indicted on federal hate crime and attempted kidnapping charges in connection with the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man who was shot to death while jogging through a South Georgia neighborhood last year, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday.

The deadly encounter helped fuel nationwide racial justice protests last year, and the charges are the most significant hate crimes prosecution so far by the Biden administration, which has made civil rights protections a major priority.

The suspects - Travis McMichael, 35; his father, Gregory McMichael, 65; and William "Roddie" Bryan, 51 - were each charged with one count of interference with Mr. Arbery's right to use a public street because of his race and with one count of attempted kidnapping.

Travis and Gregory McMichael were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm. Travis McMichael is accused of shooting Mr. Arbery.

"As Arbery was running on a public street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, Travis and Gregory McMichael armed themselves with firearms, got into a truck, and chased Arbery through the public streets of the neighborhood while yelling at him, using their truck to cut off his route, and threatening him with firearms," the Justice Department said in a statement.

Mr. Bryan joined the chase and used his truck to cut off Mr. Arbery, the Justice Department said. The three men were accused of chasing after Mr. Arbery in their trucks in an attempt to restrain and detain him against his will.

The case also prompted an outcry after news reports and video footage indicated that a local prosecutor had wrongly determined that the pursuers had acted within bounds of Georgia's citizen's arrest statute, and that Mr. McMichael shot Mr. Arbery in self-defense.

Months after the February shooting, video surfaced that seemed to undercut the idea that Mr. McMichael acted in self-defense. The video showed Mr. Arbery jogging, then coming upon a man standing beside a truck and another man in the pickup bed. After Mr. Arbery runs around the truck, shouting is heard and then he reappears, tussling with the man outside of the truck. Three shotgun blasts are then fired.

The prosecutor, George E. Barnhill, the district attorney for Georgia's Waycross Judicial Circuit, later recused himself from the case, and the state took over the investigation.

The three men also face state charges with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit a felony. No date has been set for a trial.

Now 100 days into his presidency, President Biden is driving the biggest expansion of American government in decades, an effort to use $6 trillion in federal spending to address social and economic challenges at a scale not seen in a half-century. Aides say he has come into his own as a party leader in ways that his uneven political career didn't always foretell, and that he is undeterred by matters that used to bother him, like having no Republican support for Democratic priorities.

For an establishment politician who cast his election campaign as a restoration of political norms, his record so far amounts to the kind of revolution that he said last year he would not pursue as president - but that, aides say, became necessary to respond to a crippling pandemic. In doing so, Mr. Biden is validating the desires of a party that feels fiercely emboldened to push a liberal agenda through a polarized Congress.

The result is something few people expected: His presidency is transforming what it means to be a Democrat, even among a conservative wing of his party that spent decades preaching the gospel of bipartisanship.

"We've been very happy with his agenda, and we're the moderates," said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of Third Way, a Democratic think tank named after a governing style embraced by former President Bill Clinton that rejected liberal orthodoxy. "Some have said this is a liberal wish list. We would argue that he is defining what it is to be a 21st-century moderate Democrat."

Mr. Biden trumpeted his expansive agenda again on Wednesday night in his first address to Congress, casting his efforts to expand vaccinations and pour trillions of dollars into the economy as a way to unify a fractured nation.

"We're vaccinating the nation; we're creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs," he said. "We're delivering real results to people - they can see it and feel it in their own lives."

Mr. Biden, now 78, has pursued these sweeping changes without completely losing his instinct for finding the center point of his party. As the Democratic consensus on issues has moved left over the years, he has kept pace - on abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage, the Iraq war and criminal justice - without going all the way to the furthest liberal stance. Now, he is leading a party that accelerated leftward during the Trump administration, and finding his own place on the Democratic spectrum - the one with the most likelihood of legacy-cementing success.

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Live Updates: Biden and Harris Plan Trips to Promote Major Proposals

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President Biden heads to Georgia and Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Baltimore to sell their agenda as major and necessary investments in infrastructure, education and jobs. Mr. Biden has invited the top leaders in Congress to meet with him at the White House next month.

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Iñigo

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Sheet metal worker Demetrius Buttelman gestures after being inoculated with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a pop-up vaccination site in New York last week. (Pool/Reuters)

Please Note

The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

Federal health officials said Tuesday that fully vaccinated people can go without masks outdoors when walking, jogging or biking, or dining with friends at outdoor restaurants - a milestone development for tens of millions of pandemic-weary Americans after more than a year of masking up and locking down.

President Biden touted the relaxation of restrictions as another reason for people to get vaccinated, urging them to move forward not just to protect themselves and those around them, but so they can live more normally, by "getting together with friends, going to the park for a picnic without needing a mask."

Biden had set July 4 as a target for when people could get together for backyard picnics with a sense of normalcy, and both the new mask guidance and his remarks were geared to encouraging people to continue getting the shots.

" I ... want to thank everyone who has gotten the vaccine for doing your patriotic duty and helping us get on the path to Independence Day," Biden said in remarks on the North Lawn of the White House. He arrived at the lectern wearing a mask. He returned to the White House without one, saying he didn't have to put it on until he got back into the building.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on April 27 said it is safe for those who are fully vaccinated to remove their masks in small outdoor settings. (Reuters)

The latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as more than 52 percent of eligible people in the United States have gotten at least one shot, but the pace of inoculations appears to be slowing in the face of vaccine hesitancy, especially among rural residents and Republicans who believe the risks from the virus are overblown. Uptake has also been slower among communities of color because lack of health services and transportation have been barriers to access.

Officials said the changed guidance was aimed at helping those who are fully inoculated return safely to old routines, while encouraging others to get their shots to counter highly contagious new variants.

"Over the past year, we have spent a lot of time telling Americans what they cannot do, what they should not do," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing. "Today, I'm going to tell you some of the things you can do if you are fully vaccinated."

The recommendations also address growing calls from infectious-disease and other public health experts to relax mask mandates for the outdoors because breezes disperse airborne virusparticles, distancing is easier, and humidity and sunlight render the coronavirus less viable.

For that reason, the guidance says that even unvaccinated individuals may forego masks when walking, jogging or biking outdoors with household members. Officials still caution that crowded outdoor settings pose risks and urge everyone - both the vaccinated and unvaccinated - to wear masks when attending sporting events, live performances and parades.

The advice to the unvaccinated applies to adults and children alike, according to the CDC. None of the covid-19 vaccines used in the United States is authorized for children under 16.

A growing body of evidence suggests that people who are two weeks past their final shot are less likely to have asymptomatic infections or transmit the coronavirus to others. Officials don't know how long protection lasts and how much the vaccines protect against emerging virus variants.

But "taking steps toward relaxing certain measures for vaccinated people may help improve coronavirus vaccine acceptance and uptake," the guidance states. "Therefore, there are several activities that fully vaccinated people can resume now, at low risk to themselves, while being mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the disease to others."

Brightening U.S. picture

Walensky cited several factors motivating the changed guidance: Falling coronavirus case rates and climbing vaccinations (more than 37 percent of those over 18 are fully protected) make outdoor settings safer than before. Indoor settings have an almost 20-fold increased risk of transmission compared to outdoor ones, she noted.

If more people continue getting inoculated and cases drop further, she said, the CDC will release additional guidance for the fully vaccinated.

A year into pandemic, it's even more clear that it's safer to be outside

Asked how she would describe the nation's situation now compared to last month when she spoke of a feeling of "impending doom" as infections mounted, Walensky said that if the United States follows measures taken by other countries where "vaccinations continue to soar and the cases plummet, that we should be in good shape."

For states that currently have mask requirements outdoors, Walensky said the CDC feels it is no longer necessary for fully vaccinated to wear masks unless they are in crowded outdoor venues, such as stadiums and concerts, where it is hard to know who is vaccinated and who is not.

Tuesday's guidanceincludes a color-coded chart that shows activities that fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people can do indoors and outdoors, and which ones can be done without masks. The safest activities, highlighted in green, are outdoors in small gatherings. Activities with the greatest risk are indoor settings that involve behaviors such as singing, shouting, heavy breathing, inability to wear a mask or inability to maintain physical distancing, such as indoor high-intensity exercise class.

The nearly 96 million Americans who are fully vaccinated can now forgo masks for many outdoor activities, including:

° Walking, running, hiking or biking outdoors alone or with members of your household.

º Attending a small outdoor gathering with fully vaccinated family and friends.

º Attending a small outdoor gathering with a mix of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people.

º Dining at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households.

Officials say certain conditions increase risk: crowding, time spent, lack of ventilation and high community transmission. That's why the CDC is recommending that it is safest for fully vaccinated people to continue to wear well-fitted masks i n these settings, including:

º Attending a crowded outdoor event, such as a live performance, parade or sporting event.

º Visiting a barber or hair salon.

º Going to an uncrowded indoor shopping mall or museum.

º Going to an indoor movie theater.

º Attending a full-capacity service at a house of worship.

º Singing in an indoor chorus.

"The examples today show that when you are fully vaccinated, you can return to many activities safely ... and begin to get back to normal," Walensky said. "And the more people who are vaccinated, the more steps we can take toward spending time with people we love, doing the things we love to enjoy. I hope this message is encouraging for you. It shows just how powerful these vaccines are."

The agency also provided additional guidance for the fully vaccinated related to work, quarantine and testing. Fully vaccinated workers no longer need to isolate following an exposure, as long as they do not have symptoms. Fully vaccinated residents of non-healthcare congregate settings no longer need to quarantine following a known exposure. And fully vaccinated people without symptoms or known exposures may be exempted from routine screening tests - a change of enormous significance for schools trying to plan for summer school and fall reopening.

Monica Gandhi, an infectious-diseases expert at the University of California at San Francisco, applauded the CDC's action after arguing that accumulating evidence shows the low risk of outdoor transmission.

"Viral particles disperse effectively in the outside air," she said in an email, citing numerous studies, including one in Wuhan, China, that found just one of 7,324 infection events investigated was linked to outdoor transmission.

The rapid spread of covid-19 in the United States began in early 2020. A lot has changed in our day-to-day lives since then, including the use of face masks. (Allie Caren/The Washington Post)

Gandhi noted that the World Health Organization says masks are not necessary outside unless physical distancing, which the agency defines as about three feet, cannot be maintained.

She and others have said it's important for public health officials to provide incentives as "a great strategy to encourage those who are on the fence to get vaccinated."

"Public health messaging since the time of HIV that focuses on positive, rather than negative, reinforcement has been shown to be more effective, so the CDC guidelines that vaccinated people don't have to mask outdoors will hopefully help persuade some of the vaccine hesitant in the U.S. to get the vaccine," Gandhi said.

The CDC guidance said there is limited data on vaccine protection in people who are immunocompromised. It urges people taking immunosuppressive medications to discuss the need for personal protective measures with their health-care providers, even if they are fully vaccinated.

Growing pushback on masks

Even before the CDC's announcement, some states were already moving to ease mask mandates: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) on Monday cleared groups of fewer than 1,000 to gather outside without masks. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) on Tuesday said his state's rule requiring masks outdoors would expire Friday, except in certain situations where social distancing is impossible.

The issue has become even more politically charged recently as conservative media figures have used their platforms online and on cable news to turn outdoor masking rules into a cause celebre. Fox News host Tucker Carlson urged viewers this week to contact child protective services to report the parents of children seen masked outdoors.

"Your response when you see children wearing masks as they play should be no different from your response to seeing someone beat a kid in Walmart," he said on his show, which is among the most watched on cable, regularly drawing 3 million viewers. "Call the police immediately, contact child protective services. Keep calling until someone arrives."

His instructions were echoed Tuesday morning by Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor at the Federalist, a conservative Web magazine. She tweeted: "Even if you're an outdoor mask enthusiast at this late date, despite the complete lack of scientific support for same, I think we all can agree that masking children outdoors, at the very least, is abusive, right?"

The comments illustrate how face coverings, which were scorned by President Donald Trump, remain a marker of political identity more than a year into the pandemic.

Isaac Stanley-Becker and Ben Guarino contributed to this report.

Today's Headlines The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.

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CDC says fully vaccinated Americans can go without masks outdoors, except in crowded settings

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Please Note The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

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For four years, Maggie Lake imagined descending the majestic hill in the middle of her college campus with her classmates on commencement weekend. But she may need to wait a few more years. Colgate University's 2020 in-person graduation has been rescheduled twice, this time to 2022.

The administration says they already held a virtual ceremony last May and delaying an in-person one allows alumni, including Ms. Lake, and their families to participate safely. But grads say the special moment is gone-and it feels odd to take time off work to attend your commencement. "We're past the point of really caring," says Ms. Lake, 22, an investment banking analyst in Chicago. "It's kind of just done."

For 2020 graduates-and their parents-there are plenty of hurt feelings when it comes to how universities handled graduation. In a WSJ analysis of 50 schools, all held virtual celebrations last year and 32% will offer in-person graduations this year; 56% still plan to reschedule a celebration. After students left campuses in March 2020 to finish classes remotely, many colleges promised in-person celebrations would follow. Grads say they have sat through listless virtual ceremonies, filled out surveys about possible events and witnessed the Class of 2021 take to the stage before them. Schools say the pandemic makes it difficult to stick to promised plans, requiring in-person celebrations to be rescheduled again and again. Many 2020 grads have moved on and few fondly recall a final semester that fizzled out on Zoom instead of culminating in caps and gowns. Down the line, that could dim alumni loyalty and donations.

"There aren't any perfect solutions," says Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a trade group. "With no handshakes and no hugs, it's not going to be the experience that we hope for on college campuses."

Higher-ed institutions also see commencements as a way to kindle alumni giving by creating that "institutional memory and sense of giving," Dr. Pasquerella says. "The traditions that we have, including commencement, with its pomp and circumstance, are intended to create shared experiences that inspire people to give back."

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The Class of 2020 Feels Cheated on Graduation

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For four years, Maggie Lake imagined descending the majestic hill in the middle of her college campus with her classmates on commencement weekend. But she may need to wait a few more years. Colgate University's 2020 in-person graduation has been rescheduled twice, this time to 2022.

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Biden aumentará el salario mínimo para los contratistas federales a $ 15 la hora -Tamy Luhby. CNN.

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Biden aumentará el salario mínimo para los contratistas federales a $ 15 la hora -Tamy Luhby. CNN.

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Dos meses después de que su esfuerzo por aumentar el salario mínimo federal a $ 15 la hora se topara con la alerta del parlamentario del Senado, el presidente Joe Biden está listo para usar sus poderes ejecutivos para aumentar el salario de cientos de miles de trabajadores contratados federales.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/27/politics/minimum-wage-federal-contractors-biden/index.html

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‘This Is a Catastrophe.’ In India, Illness Is Everywhere. (Published 2021)

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As India suffers the world’s worst coronavirus crisis, our New Delhi bureau chief describes the fear of living amid a disease spreading at such scale and speed.

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The Pandemic Changed Where Americans Live

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The Pandemic Changed Where Americans Live

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Las grandes ciudades perdieron residentes, ya que los jóvenes se fueron a los suburbios y las personas mayores aceleraron los movimientos de jubilación, mientras que menos recién llegados llegaron a ocupar sus lugares.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pandemic-supercharged-changes-in-where-americans-live-11619536399

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The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, had a muted response to the news, describing the move as largely symbolic.

A torchlight procession in Yerevan on Friday to mark the 106th anniversary of the massacres in which about 1.5 million ethnic Armenians were killed during World War I. Credit... Karen Minasyan/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

WASHINGTON - President Biden on Saturday recognized the mass killings of Armenians more than a century ago as genocide, signaling a willingness to test an increasingly frayed relationship with Turkey, long a key regional ally and an important partner within NATO.

"Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring," Mr. Biden said in a statement issued on the 106th anniversary of the beginning of a brutal campaign by the former Ottoman Empire that killed 1.5 million people. "And we remember so that we remain ever vigilant against the corrosive influence of hate in all its forms."

The declaration by Mr. Biden reflected his administration's commitment to human rights, a pillar of its foreign policy. It is also a break from Mr. Biden's predecessors, who were reluctant to anger a country of strategic importance and were wary of driving its leadership toward American adversaries like Russia or Iran.

The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, gave a muted response to the news, which leaked days in advance, describing the move as largely symbolic. Later on Saturday, the country's foreign minister summoned the U.S. ambassador to protest the declaration, state media reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly denied that the killings amounted to genocide, had lobbied hard to prevent the announcement, mounting a conference and media campaigns before the anniversary on Saturday.

But in a call on Friday, Mr. Biden told Mr. Erdogan directly that he would be declaring the massacre an act of genocide, according to a person familiar with the discussion who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose details of the conversation.

A summary of the call provided by the White House said only that the pair had agreed to an "effective management of disagreements." The Turkish presidency said in a statement that both leaders agreed on the "importance of working together." They are scheduled to meet at a summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in June.

In his statement on Saturday, Mr. Biden acknowledged the Armenians who were forced to rebuild their lives.

"We affirm the history," he said. "We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated."

Since taking office, Mr. Biden has kept Mr. Erdogan at a distance, calling other world leaders - and leaving his Turkish counterpart, who enjoyed a friendly relationship with President Donald J. Trump, waiting for months.

After news broke on Wednesday of the impending announcement, Mr. Erdogan said in a statement that Turkey would "defend the truth against the lie of the so-called 'Armenian genocide.'"

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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week that Turkey would "defend the truth against the lie of the so-called 'Armenian genocide.'" Credit... Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Mr. Erdogan is widely expected to use the designation to whip up support at home, where he has increasingly adopted a nationalist-Islamist stance to retain his voter base. But political analysts said he was likely to tread carefully with the United States.

Relations between the countries have reached their lowest point in decades, as Mr. Erdogan has turned increasingly combative in his dealings with Washington, particularly after a failed coup in 2016. Mr. Erdogan has blamed the bid to oust him from power on a Turkish cleric living in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania, and by extension on the United States.

Tensions escalated with Turkey's deal to buy a missile system from Russia in 2017, which prompted the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Turkey in December. Syria, too, has been a flash point. Mr. Erdogan has bitterly criticized the United States military's support of Kurdish forces in Syria that are affiliated with a group that has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey, and his own operations there have further tested the Atlantic alliance.

Mr. Erdogan sees Turkey, a country of 80 million and a member of the Group of 20, as a regional power that deserves greater respect on the world stage. That view has fueled a greater geopolitical assertiveness demonstrated in military interventions in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Azerbaijan and in exploration for energy in contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean last year.

European leaders and members of the Biden administration advocate continued engagement with Mr. Erdogan's government because Turkey houses millions of Syrian refugees who might otherwise head to Europe. They also point to Turkey's support for Ukraine and Afghanistan, where it will maintain a small force to train Afghan army and police personnel as the United States and other coalition troops withdraw by Sept. 11.

Armenians mark April 24 as a memorial day for victims of the massacres. Credit... Chris McGrath/Getty Images

The White House's sustained silence toward Mr. Erdogan had been seen as a sign that Mr. Biden did not view Turkey as a priority and intended to manage the relationship at lower levels of the administration.

"They don't want to have a conflict with him, but they don't want to be too cozy with him either," said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the director of the Ankara office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Mr. Erdogan also would not seek to further damage relations over the genocide designation, said Asli Aydintasbas, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. By one count, at least 29 other countries have taken similar steps.

"In the past, Turkey used to issue all types of threats, but lately the policy toward genocide recognition from allies has been to shrug it off," she said. "They will issue denouncements, but not go so far as to create a crisis."

Mr. Unluhisarcikli, like other analysts and human rights defenders, questioned the timing and purpose of the announcement.

"The Turkish government will feel obliged to respond in ways that are consequential for the U.S. and for U.S.-Turkey relationship," he said.

The Turkish public will see it as evidence of American double standards, and anti-Western forces in Turkey will use it to incite fury, he said.

Both opposition and pro-government leaders attacked the expected designation.

"This is an improper, unfair stance," said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the largest opposition party, the Republican People's Party.

Dogu Perincek, the leader of the ultranationalist Patriotic Party, in an open letter to Mr. Biden, questioned his authority to issue such a declaration. "As is known, the genocide against the Jews was adjudicated at an authorized court," he wrote, "but regarding the 1915 incidents, there is no judicial ruling."

The killings of Armenians occurred at the end of World War I during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor of modern Turkey. Worried that the Christian Armenian population would align with Russia, a primary enemy of the Ottoman Turks, officials ordered mass deportations in what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century: Nearly 1.5 million Armenians were killed, some in massacres by soldiers and the police, others in forced exoduses to the Syrian desert that left them starved to death.

Turkey has acknowledged that widespread atrocities occurred during that period, but its leaders have adamantly denied that the killings were genocide.

In the days leading up to Mr. Biden's announcement, Armenians and human rights activists in Turkey expressed caution, partly because of years of political seesawing over the issue.

"Personally, it is not going to make me excited," Yetvart Danzikyan, the editor in chief of Agos, an Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper in Istanbul, said, pointing to a statement President Ronald Reagan issued in 1981 about the Holocaust that mentioned the "genocide of the Armenians" in passing.

Murat Celikkan, a journalist and longtime human rights activist, said the declaration would be good for American-Armenian citizens, but he did not expect it to change attitudes in Turkey or encourage reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.

"It did not change with more than 20 countries officially recognizing it, including Germany," he said.

In the United States, some Armenian activists welcomed the declaration as a step forward.

"The denial of the genocide has been such a painful chapter," said Bryan Ardouny, the executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America. "This is a really critical moment in the arc of history, in defense of human rights."

"The president is standing firmly against basically a century of denial and is charting a new course," he said.

Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Carlotta Gall from Istanbul. Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio contributed reporting from New York.

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Breaking With Predecessors, Biden Declares Mass Killings of Armenians a Genocide

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The Turkish government, as well as human rights activists and ethnic Armenians, had a muted response to the news, describing the move as largely symbolic. WASHINGTON - President Biden on Saturday recognized the mass killings of Armenians more than a century ago as genocide, signaling a willingness to test an increasingly frayed relationship with Turkey, long a key regional ally and an important partner within NATO.

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La vacuna de AstraZeneca tiene una eficacia de 79%, según el ensayo clínico en Estados Unidos

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La vacuna de AstraZeneca tiene una eficacia de 79%, según el ensayo clínico en Estados Unidos

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LONDRES— La Universidad de Oxford y AstraZeneca informaron el lunes 22 de marzo que su “vacuna para el mundo” contra el coronavirus es segura y tiene en general 79% de eficacia, según datos de un ensayo clínico largamente esperado en Estados Unidos, Chile y Perú. El régimen de dos inyecciones fue completamente eficaz previniendo casos graves de la enfermedad.

Los resultados, anunciados por medio de un comunicado de prensa, allanan el camino para que los reguladores estadounidenses decidan si autorizan o no la inyección de cuatro dólares de fácil transportación luego de que la compañía introduzca una solicitud en las próximas semanas. El régimen de dos inyecciones ya se está aplicando en muchos países, pero la autorización de la Administración de Medicamentos y Alimentos (FDA, por su sigla en inglés) abriría el mercado estadounidense y enviaría una fuerte señal al mundo sobre la calidad de la vacuna
https://www.washingtonpost.com/es/world/2021/03/23/vacuna-astrazeneca-eficiencia-covid-19-efectos-secundarios/
Fernando Mañón

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The investigation was a sign that President Biden intends to wield federal law enforcement as a tool to combat police abuses.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland has said that he considers civil rights issues, including addressing police misconduct, to be a priority. Credit... Pool photo by Andrew Harnik

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced on Wednesday a sweeping investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, signaling that the Biden administration will seek to combat police abuses around the country and apply stricter federal oversight to local forces.

The Justice Department will examine whether the Minneapolis police routinely use excessive force or treat minorities unfairly. The inquiry will also scrutinize police training and accountability practices, among other issues. Mr. Garland's announcement came a day after the conviction of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the murder last year of George Floyd, a Black man whose death spurred the largest racial justice protests in decades.

"Good officers do not want to work in systems that allow bad practices," Mr. Garland said in brief remarks delivered at the Justice Department. "Officers welcome accountability because accountability is an essential part of building trust with the community and public safety requires public trust."

The Minneapolis police have long faced accusations of racism. Black residents are more likely to be pulled over, arrested or roughed up than white residents. Black people, who account for 20 percent of the city's population, made up more than 60 percent of the victims in city police shootings from late 2009 through May 2019, police data shows.

The police force pledged to cooperate with the federal inquiry. "I look forward to sharing the great work done by our teams, day in and day out, with the Department of Justice and getting their feedback on how we can serve our communities even better," Chief Medaria Arradondo said in a statement, adding that he had sought federal help in overhauling the department for three years. Chief Arradondo testified against Mr. Chauvin this month.

President Biden had vowed as a candidate to fight excessive force by the police, and he called on lawmakers on Tuesday to resurrect the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a measure by Democrats aimed at curbing police misconduct and racial discrimination. Lawmakers in both parties said on Wednesday that they hoped Mr. Chauvin's conviction could help revive the bill, which seeks to curtail qualified immunity for officers, ease the way for prosecutions and mandate more changes for departments.

Mr. Chauvin is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in the state's only maximum-security prison, according to the authorities. Though officials at the prison in a suburb of St. Paul say Mr. Chauvin is being isolated for his own safety, prisoners are often sent to the wing as a punishment.

The Justice Department inquiry is a return to robust federal oversight of local policing that had been a hallmark of the Obama era. During the Trump administration, the Justice Department largely stopped opening civil investigations into broad police misconduct, known as pattern-or-practice investigations.

Such inquiries sometimes end in consent decrees, court-approved deals between the department and local governments that create and enforce a road map for training and operational changes. Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions had curbed the use of consent decrees, calling them unfair to police departments.

Former Attorney General William P. Barr opposed opening an investigation into the Minneapolis police last summer, officials said at the time, saying that officers were struggling to keep control of a city hammered by protests.

Mr. Barr instead offered financial help and training for the department to address its issues - incentives that the Obama administration also used to improve police forces - but the Minneapolis City Council declined the offer, according to a city official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe officials' deliberations.

Mr. Garland restored the Justice Department's use of consent decrees last week and called pattern-or-practice investigations "an important tool of the Justice Department to ensure police accountability" in a recent interview with ABC News.

He has also characterized civil rights issues, including addressing police misconduct, as one of his top priorities. He has said that he sees Vanita Gupta, a well-known civil rights lawyer who was confirmed on Wednesday to serve as the Justice Department's No. 3 official, as crucial to that mission, along with Kristen Clarke, Mr. Biden's choice to run the department's Civil Rights Division.

"They have skills that I do not have," Mr. Garland told civil rights leaders last week. "They have experiences that I do not have."

But overhauling police departments has always been a balancing act for the department, which relies heavily on state and local police forces to help fight crime. Mr. Garland and his top deputies were confirmed with broad support from police groups, and they have all said they do not support progressive proposals like defunding the police.

Civil rights activists have pressed federal law enforcement officials to do more to curb abuses, but Mr. Biden dismayed activists by reversing course on a promised police oversight commission.

That leaves the Justice Department as one of his most powerful weapons to fight police excesses. Because convictions in high-profile police killings are rare, the department has considered pattern-or-practice investigations a vital tool for overhauling police practices.

In the case of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy shot to death in 2014 by a Cleveland police officer, Justice Department officials opted not to seek an indictment of the officer, but did obtain a consent decree to overhaul the Cleveland Police Department.

Tamir's family has asked Mr. Garland to reopen the inquiry into his death in light of a New York Times report that Trump-era officials stopped prosecutors from pursuing a false statements case against the officer.

Federal prosecutors also face a high bar in pursuing charges of civil rights violations against the police. Years after a Staten Island grand jury declined to charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Garner, whom officers were trying to arrest on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes, the Justice Department said it would not file civil rights charges against the officer. Officials said prosecutors were unlikely to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he willfully violated Mr. Garner's civil rights.

Like Mr. Floyd, Mr. Garner gasped, "I can't breathe" as Officer Pantaleo wrapped his arm around his neck and squeezed. Mr. Garner's death, also captured on video, prompted nationwide protests and helped to catalyze the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Justice Department is enforcing 16 settlements with law enforcement agencies, including 12 consent decrees. Since January 2017, it has concluded the implementation of consent decrees in East Haven, Conn.; in Warren, Ohio; and with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona.

It also has four open investigations into law enforcement agencies, including two in Orange County, Calif.; another in Springfield, Mass.; and now in Minneapolis.

The department told officials there on Wednesday morning before Mr. Garland's announcement that it would be investigating the police.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota noted in a statement that the state's Department of Human Rights had opened its own civil rights investigation and obtained "a groundbreaking temporary restraining order" against the department. Now, "under the leadership of President Biden and Attorney General Garland, the United States Department of Justice is also answering the call," Mr. Walz said.

Mr. Garland said the federal investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department was separate from the existing Justice Department criminal investigation into whether Mr. Chauvin violated Mr. Floyd's civil rights.

The broader inquiry will be led by career lawyers and staff in the department's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota. They have already contacted community groups and residents and will question police officers as well, Mr. Garland said.

In addition to examining whether the department routinely uses excessive force - including during protests - investigators will look into whether officers' treatment of people with behavioral health disabilities is unlawful. They will also review the department's policies, including whether they are effective at ensuring that police officers act lawfully.

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Minnesota has been a flash point in the national debate over race and policing since George Floyd's killing last year. Credit... Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Mr. Floyd's death underscored longstanding allegations of racism against the Minneapolis police force that have been so serious and sustained that Chief Arradondo sued his own department earlier in his career. Black residents have often filed excessive force complaints against Minneapolis officers, including Mr. Chauvin, who pinned Mr. Floyd to the ground for more than nine minutes.

Officers already felt pressure because of the scrutiny from community members and elected leaders over the years, said Inspector Charles Adams of the Minneapolis Police Department. While a Justice Department investigation could be beneficial, he said, he also expressed concern that officers could be more reluctant to police proactively out of fear that an interaction could go wrong.

"Now that's going to heighten it even more," he said.

If federal investigators find that the department has engaged in unlawful policing, Mr. Garland said, the Justice Department would issue a public report. It can also sue the department and enter into a settlement agreement or consent decree to help ensure that the department is overhauled.

The challenges in addressing systemic racial inequities "are deeply woven into our history," Mr. Garland said, adding that it would take time and effort to build "trust between community and law enforcement."

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and John Eligon contributed reporting from Minneapolis.

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Justice Dept. Opens Broad Inquiry Into Minneapolis Police

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The investigation was a sign that President Biden intends to wield federal law enforcement as a tool to combat police abuses. WASHINGTON - Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced on Wednesday a sweeping investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department, signaling that the Biden administration will seek to combat police abuses around the country and apply stricter federal oversight to local forces.

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After Derek Chauvin Verdict, Minneapolis Isn’t Taking Down Plywood Just Yet

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After Derek Chauvin Verdict, Minneapolis Isn’t Taking Down Plywood Just Yet

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Las empresas de otras ciudades de EE. UU. Dan un suspiro de alivio después de los disturbios del año pasado tras el asesinato de George Floyd. Derek Chauvin fue declarado culpable de los tres cargos de la muerte de George Floyd

https://www.wsj.com/articles/after-derek-chauvin-verdict-minneapolis-isnt-taking-down-plywood-just-yet-11619033541

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Iñigo

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Sucre Lopez receives her second dose of the Moderna vaccine at a clinic in Connecticut on Tuesday. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)

President Biden on Wednesday sought to jump-start suddenly slowing vaccinations of Americans against the coronavirus, pressing businesses and nonprofits to give employees paid time off for the shots and touting government funding to underwrite some of the costs of that time.

The initiative, designed to encourage millions of unvaccinated people to get immunized, sends one of the strongest signals yet that vaccine demand is emerging as a bigger challenge than supply. It marks a shift from months of long waiting lists and limited opportunities for Americans to get vaccinated. Biden announced Wednesday that the United States will hit 200 million vaccination shots by Thursday, a target he had set out to meet by the end of April.

"I'm calling on every employer large and small in every state to give employees the time off they need, with pay, to get vaccinated," Biden said. "No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated."

Repeatedly declaring the country had entered a "new phase" in which all Americans 16 and older can get vaccinated, Biden warned that "the broad swath of American adults still remain largely unvaccinated," and lamented that "too many younger Americans may still think they don't need to get vaccinated."

"To put it simply, if you're waiting for your turn, wait no longer," he said.

Biden's pitch comes amid both hopeful and concerning signs in the nationwide effort to vaccinate people as quickly as possible. After weeks of accelerating daily inoculations, the average daily number of reported shots in arms slowed significantly over the past week, with an 11 percent drop in daily shots administered nationally, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 40 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. At the same time, most Americans who haven't been immunized say they're unlikely to get the shots, a recent poll showed. Meanwhile, a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine has complicated efforts to swiftly administer shots.

In an afternoon speech at the White House, Biden called on all companies to provide employees with paid time off to get shots and to rest if they feel unwell afterward.

The president highlighted a tax credit in his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief law, which will reimburse businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 500 employees for up to $511 per day of paid vaccination leave offered between April 1 and Sept. 30, to a maximum of 10 work days.

"Every employee should get paid leave to get a shot, and businesses should know that they can provide it without a hit to their bottom line," Biden said. "There's no excuse for not getting it done."

At least 134.4 million people have received one or both doses of the vaccine in the United States, according to Washington Post data. More than 87.6 million people are fully vaccinated, the data show. By Thursday, Biden said, 80 percent of American seniors will have had at least one shot.

But many Americans are still reluctant to get vaccinated. Polling shows opposition to the vaccine is much more pronounced among Republicans than Democrats.

The new tax credit is part of the government's quest to buttress efforts in the private sector aimed at encouraging vaccination. Large employers from American Airlines to Target have unveiled incentives for employees to get vaccinated, from an extra day off next year to free rides to vaccination sites.

The success of those initiatives could help determine how businesses approach requiring the vaccine for their employees - a vexed political debate that the administration has sought to leave to the private sector.

Short of mandates, however, Biden administration officials said they had examined research showing employers have outsize influence in reaching the remaining unvaccinated population. The tax credit, they said, would provide the financial support necessary to allow small businesses to make vaccination convenient for their employees.

The approach is wise, experts said, because some of the workers most at risk of coronavirus exposure may be reluctant to get vaccinated if it means sacrificing limited time off.

"I think it's a very smart move," said Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. An even more immediate way to support small businesses in guaranteeing paid time off, she said, would be to provide direct payments to employers who show that they're providing this benefit.

Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, welcomed the announcement, saying it was vital for government to help remove various "social determinants" blocking access to vaccination, from work to transportation to child care.

As Biden approaches his 100th day in office, he is eager to highlight the progress he has made in combating the pandemic. The president has made fighting the coronavirus the dominant focus of the early part of his presidency. He campaigned aggressively on the issue last year and signed the sweeping coronavirus relief bill into law earlier this year.

Biden pledged in a news conference in late March that the United States would administer 200 million coronavirus vaccine shots by the end of April - doubling a prior goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days in office. On Wednesday, he called hitting that milestone ahead of that deadline an "incredible achievement for the nation."

The president delivered his Wednesday address just days after residents 16 and older became eligible for vaccination, a dynamic Biden promoted this week in a video.

"We have enough of it, you need to be protected, and you need in turn to protect your neighbors and your family. So please, get the vaccine," Biden says in the video.

Biden said Wednesday he hoped the U.S. could help provide other countries with vaccines to address the pandemic, but that domestic supply had not yet reached a high enough level to do that in earnest.

"We don't have enough to be confident to give it send it abroad now. But I expect we're going to be able to do that," he said.

Dan Keating contributed to this report.

Updated April 21, 2021

President Joe Biden: The First 100 Days

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Biden presses employers to provide paid time off for vaccine shots, recovery

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President Biden on Wednesday sought to jump-start suddenly slowing vaccinations of Americans against the coronavirus, pressing businesses and nonprofits to give employees paid time off for the shots and touting government funding to underwrite some of the costs of that time.

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WASHINGTON-The Democratic-controlled House approved legislation Thursday that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state, but the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate amid broad Republican opposition and hesitation from some centrist Democrats.

Proponents cast the bill as a civil-rights priority, saying the city's residents deserve full self-rule and representation in Congress. Critics call it a power grab by Democrats to gain two more senators and point to possible constitutional hurdles.

Thursday's party line vote of 216-208 marks the second time the House has approved the measure, which is backed by the Biden administration. However, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) hasn't committed to bringing it up for a vote in the Senate, where current rules require 60 votes for passage and only 45 of the 50 Democrats are currently sponsoring the legislation.

"I believe strongly in D.C. statehood, and we will try to work a path to get it done, absolutely," Mr. Schumer said Tuesday when asked if he intended to bring the legislation up for a vote. But he didn't provide any time frame.

Were the bill to become law, most of present-day Washington, D.C., would take the name State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, in honor of Frederick Douglass. An area around the White House, the Capitol and the Supreme Court would remain as a two-square-mile federal area under the legislation. D.C. would be the first new state admitted to the U.S. since Hawaii in 1959, and proponents have already designed American flags that fit 51 stars.

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House Passes Bill Proposing to Make Washington, D.C., the 51st State

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WASHINGTON-The Democratic-controlled House approved legislation Thursday that would make Washington, D.C., the 51st state, but the bill faces an uphill battle in the Senate amid broad Republican opposition and hesitation from some centrist Democrats. Proponents cast the bill as a civil-rights priority, saying the city's residents deserve full self-rule and representation in Congress.

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Una investigación reveló que la mitad de los pacientes jóvenes con la condición inflamatoria, MIS-C, en un hospital de Londres experimentaron confusión, alucinaciones y otras afecciones, además de síntomas físicos.

Una fotografía muestra en la parte superior, tomografías computarizadas del cerebro de un niño que estaba sano antes de contraer el síndrome inflamatorio multisistémico en niños; y, en la parte inferior, las de un niño en edad escolar con el padecimiento. Credit... LaRovere et al., JAMA Neurology 2021

Los reportes sobre el misterioso síndrome inflamatorio relacionado con la COVID-19 que aqueja a algunos niños y adolescentes se han centrado principalmente en los síntomas físicos: comezón, dolor abdominal, ojos rojos y, en casos de mayor gravedad, problemas del corazón como baja presión sanguínea, fallas cardiacas y dificultad para bombear sangre.

Ahora, un nuevo trabajo de investigación muestra que una cantidad significativa de gente joven que padece ese síndrome también desarrolla síntomas neurológicos, entre ellos alucinaciones, confusión, dificultades para hablar y problemas con el equilibrio y la coordinación. El estudio realizado con 46 niños que eran atendidos en un hospital de Londres reveló que poco más de la mitad (24) experimentó esos síntomas neurológicos, sin haberlos presentado antes.

En comparación con los pacientes sin síntomas neurológicos, quienes sí los presentaron necesitaron respiradores en una proporción aproximada de dos a uno porque estaban "muy enfermos con un choque sistémico como parte de su estado hiperinflamatorio", comentó uno de los autores del estudio, Omar Abdel-Mannan, investigador clínico del Instituto de Neurología de University College de Londres. Los pacientes con síntomas neurológicos requirieron medicinas para mejorar la capacidad de contracción del corazón más o menos en la misma proporción, según señalaron los expertos.

La enfermedad, llamada síndrome inflamatorio multisistémico en niños (MIS-C, por su sigla en inglés), suele aparecer de dos a seis semanas después de una infección de COVID-19 que, a menudo, solo produce síntomas leves o ninguno. El síndrome es poco común, pero puede ser muy grave. Según los últimos datos de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades, se han presentado 3165 casos en 48 estados, Puerto Rico y el Distrito de Columbia, entre ellos 36 muertes.

Los nuevos hallazgos respaldan la teoría de que el síndrome está relacionado con un aumento repentino de la inflamación debido a una respuesta inmunitaria al virus, comentó Abdel-Mannan. Para los niños incluidos en la investigación, los síntomas neurológicos se solucionaron en gran medida cuando los síntomas físicos fueron tratados.

Hace poco, algunos médicos de Estados Unidos también reportaron síntomas neurológicos en niños con MIS-C. En un estudio publicado el mes pasado en JAMA Neurology, de 616 personas jóvenes que fueron internadas con el síndrome el año pasado en 61 hospitales, 126 tuvieron problemas neurológicos, y entre ellos hubo 20 que desarrollaron lo que los investigadores describieron como problemas "posiblemente fatales" como convulsiones o "encefalopatía grave".

Este nuevo reporte, presentado el martes como una investigación preliminar en el marco de un congreso anual de la Academia Estadounidense de Neurología, evaluó a menores de 18 años con el síndrome (tiene un nombre y acrónimo diferentes en el Reino Unido, PIMS-TS) que fueron internados entre abril y septiembre del año pasado en el Hospital Great Ormond Street (GOSH, por su sigla en inglés). Los datos también están incluidos en una prepublicación de un estudio más grande que aún no ha sido arbitrado.

Como en el caso de otros estudios sobre el síndrome, entre ellos los realizados en Estados Unidos, los investigadores mencionaron que la mayoría de las personas que padecían esa afección "no eran blancas", un patrón que, según los expertos en salud pública, refleja la desproporción en la que la pandemia ha afectado a las comunidades de color. Casi dos terceras partes de los pacientes fueron hombres y la edad promedio fue de 10 años.

Los 24 pacientes con síntomas neurológicos presentaron dolores de cabeza y 14 sufrieron de encefalopatía, un término general que puede incluir confusión, problemas de memoria o atención, y otros tipos de funciones mentales alteradas. Seis de los niños experimentaron alucinaciones, como "describir gente en la habitación que no se encontraba ahí o ver caricaturas o animales que se movían en los muros", comentó Abdel-Mannan, quien agregó que algunos experimentaron alucinaciones auditivas en las que "escuchaban voces de gente que no estaba presente".

Seis de los niños sufrieron debilidad o dificultad para controlar los músculos que se usan al hablar. Cuatro tuvieron problemas de equilibrio o coordinación. Un niño sufrió convulsiones y tres niños padecieron anormalidades en el nervio periférico, entre ellas debilidad en los músculos del rostro y los hombros. El daño en el nervio periférico en un paciente produjo un problema de pie caído para lo cual necesitó muletas y se le hizo una recomendación de trasplante del nervio, mencionó Abdel-Mannan, quien también está en su último año de residencia en neurología pediátrica en el GOSH.

Algunos pacientes se sometieron a escaneos cerebrales, estudios de conducción nerviosa o electroencefalogramas (EEG), entre ellos 14 que mostraron una menor actividad eléctrica en sus cerebros, según el estudio.

Trece de los 24 pacientes con síntomas neurológicos tuvieron que conectarse a un respirador y 15 necesitaron medicinas para mejorar sus contracciones cardiacas, señaló Abdel-Mannan. En contraste, tan solo 3 de los 22 niños sin problemas neurológicos requirieron respiradores y 7 necesitaron medicación para el corazón, mencionó. Ninguno de los niños con alucinaciones necesitó medicamentos psicotrópicos.

Tres niños tuvieron que ser hospitalizados de nuevo después de su estancia inicial, uno por otro episodio de encefalopatía y dos por complicaciones infecciosas, comentó Abdel-Mannan, pero agregó que no hubo muertes y "casi todos los niños tuvieron una recuperación funcional completa".

Abdel-Mannan dijo que un equipo liderado por la autora principal del estudio, Yael Hacohen , dará seguimiento a los pacientes que hayan tenido el síndrome, tanto a los que hayan desarrollado síntomas neurológicos como a los que no. Realizarán escanografías cerebrales y evaluaciones cognitivas para ver si los niños experimentan algún efecto psicológico o cognitivo a largo plazo.

Pam Belluck es una reportera de ciencia y salud cuyos galardones incluyen un Premio Pulitzer compartido en 2015 y el premio Nellie Bly a la mejor historia de primera plana. Es autora de Island Practice, un libro sobre un doctor peculiar. @PamBelluck

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Más efectos negativos de la COVID-19: algunos niños presentan síntomas neurológicos

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Una investigación reveló que la mitad de los pacientes jóvenes con la condición inflamatoria, MIS-C, en un hospital de Londres experimentaron confusión, alucinaciones y otras afecciones, además de síntomas físicos.

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Biden anuncia que EE. UU. Apuntará a reducir las emisiones de carbono hasta en un 52% para 2030 en la cumbre climática virtual

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Biden anuncia que EE. UU. Apuntará a reducir las emisiones de carbono hasta en un 52% para 2030 en la cumbre climática virtual

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/22/politics/white-house-climate-summit/index.html

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The European Union Medicines Agency said a warning should be added to the product information of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine that unusual blood clots are a very rare possible side effect, but that the benefits of taking the shot outweigh the risks.

The agency said that healthcare professionals should be on the lookout for the combination of blood clots and low platelet levels.

Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com

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EU Agency Says Benefits of J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Outweigh Risks but Calls for Blood-Clot Warning

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The European Union Medicines Agency said a warning should be added to the product information of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine that unusual blood clots are a very rare possible side effect, but that the benefits of taking the shot outweigh the risks.

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Minneapolis Braces for Derek Chauvin Verdict and Potential Unrest

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Minneapolis Braces for Derek Chauvin Verdict and Potential Unrest

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Mientras Minneapolis espera el veredicto en el juicio de Derek Chauvin, la madera contrachapada está subiendo en los negocios en anticipación a las protestas y las tropas de la Guardia Nacional están estacionadas por toda la ciudad.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/minneapolis-braces-for-derek-chauvin-verdict-and-potential-unrest-11618911004

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When George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis last May, the case drew comparisons to the death of Eric Garner six years earlier in New York.

The two men uttered the same dying words to the police officers forcefully restraining them: "I can't breathe."

But in Mr. Garner's case, none of the officers who pinned him on a Staten Island sidewalk and placed him in a banned chokehold ever faced criminal charges. On Tuesday, Mr. Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, said she was glad to hear that Derek Chauvin had been convicted of murdering Mr. Floyd.

"I am elated because, finally, we did get some justice," Ms. Carr said at a news conference in Manhattan after the verdict was announced in Minnesota.

A grand jury found that the officer who had placed Mr. Garner in the chokehold in July 2014 had not committed a crime. Federal prosecutors declined to bring civil rights charges. And it took the New York Police Department five years to fire the officer, Daniel Pantaleo. Only one other officer, Sergeant Kizzy Adonis, was disciplined.

Ms. Carr has spent the last six years speaking out against police misconduct. She stood beside Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in 2015 when he signed an executive order assigning a special prosecutor to investigate police killings of people who were unarmed. And she pushed for the successful repeal of a law shielding police disciplinary records. The police and city lawyers had invoked it to block her attempts to learn more about the case and the officers involved.

Ms. Carr attended Mr. Chauvin's murder trial and watched parts of it on television, but she said some moments were too intense to watch. She said she spoke with Mr. Floyd's family on Saturday, prayed for them and told them to expect a positive outcome.

"It was as if I was watching my son's trial," she said, although her son's case never made it to court. "But watching this, this gave me a glimmer of hope."

People in Minneapolis and other cities gathered in reaction to the verdict on Tuesday, describing it as a legal and symbolic victory honoring the life of George Floyd. Follow our visual coverage here.

[Follow live news coverage of Derek Chauvin's sentence hearing.]
The Minneapolis Police Department's initial inaccurate and misleading description of George Floyd's death last May "might have become the official account" of what took place, had it not been for video taken by a teenage bystander, Keith Boykin, a CNN commentator, wrote on Twitter.

The video, taken by Darnella Frazier, emerged the night of Mr. Floyd's death and drove much of the public's understanding of what took place. Chief Medaria Arradondo of the police department testified at Mr. Chauvin's trial that within hours of Mr. Floyd's death he received a text from a local resident telling him about the video.

Later, Chief Arradondo, who testified as a witness for the prosecution at Mr. Chauvin's trial, praised Ms. Frazier for her actions.

The murder trial of Derek Chauvin is at the center of a national reckoning on race and policing. But cycles of protests over systemic racism and policing are not new. We watched the trial with the families of Rodney King, Oscar Grant and Stephon Clark to see this moment in history through their eyes.

After the guilty verdict was announced Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Boykin and others on social media recirculated the police department's initial account of events. To many, it was further reason not to place full trust in the narratives offered by police officials, and underscored the need for independent video of police actions.

"Seriously, read it again knowing what we know," Jake Tapper, the CNN host, wrote on Twitter.

The initial news release, posted on the police department's website, is titled "Man Dies After Medical Incident During Police Interaction." It said Mr. Floyd, who was not identified by name, "physically resisted officers" on the scene who had ordered him out of his vehicle. "Officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted he appeared to be suffering medical distress," the release said.

The officers called for an ambulance and Mr. Floyd was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died, it said.

Then, in a separate one-sentence paragraph, the department said, "At no time were weapons of any type used by anyone involved in this incident."

State officials were investigating the episode and body cameras had been activated, the release said. It also noted, "No officers were injured in the incident."

Ms. Frazier's video helped shatter that narrative, and showed Mr. Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd's neck for several minutes.

Police officials from major cities across the country, who usually support each other especially in times of crises, welcomed the verdict against a former member of their ranks.

Commissioner Dermot Shea of the New York Police Department, by far the largest in the country, said on Twitter, "Justice has been served." Superintendent Shaun Ferguson of the New Orleans Police Department said the verdict "is justice delivered."

Chief Troy Finner of the Houston Police Department said, "Sometimes justice takes a little while, but it's going to get there." He added, "If there is anybody in the city who wants to celebrate, we are going to be there with you." But, he said, "Do it the right way."

In Seattle, the police department said, "Mr. Floyd's murder was a watershed moment for this country" and added: "From that pain, though, real change has begun."

And in Oakland, Calif., the police department called for people to be "compassionate, empathic, and forgiving." It also said, "Together we will work towards rethinking policing in America."

Last year, Ray Kelly, who retired in 2013 after serving 12 years as the New York City police commissioner, told The Wall Street Journal, "This is the worst act of police brutality that I've seen."

Read more

Following the verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin, friends and family of George Floyd tearfully thanked the many lawyers, bystanders, jurors and protesters who they said helped to bring justice.

"Today, the tears are pure joy," Chris Stewart, a lawyer for Mr. Floyd's family, said at a Hilton hotel in downtown Minneapolis. "Pure joy and pure shock, because days like this don't happen."

Though the family celebrated the trial's outcome, they noted that police violence against Black Americans persists, and that their fight is not over.

Philonise Floyd, one of Mr. Floyd's younger brothers, drew a line from his brother back to Emmett Till, a Black child who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, and whom he called "the first George Floyd." He also noted the recent fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was killed just a few miles from the courtroom where Mr. Chauvin was on trial.

"We ought to always understand that we have to march," he said. "We will have to do this for life. We have to protest, because it seems like this is a never-ending cycle."

Other family members called for broader police reform and for the passage of federal legislation that would increase law enforcement accountability and eliminate discriminatory policing practices.

"We can't bring him back," said Tera Brown, one of Mr. Floyd's cousins, "but we can save lives. And we want the actual reform that's going to not only give us the change we want but make sure not another family has to suffer what we've suffered."

Mr. Floyd's brother Terrence Floyd recalled him as the person who taught him to be strong, to be respectful and to speak his mind, and said he will salute him every day.

"I will miss him, but now I know he's in history," he said.

Read more

[Follow live coverage of the Derek Chauvin sentence hearing.]
President Biden praised a guilty verdict in the murder trial of the former police officer Derek Chauvin, but called it a "too rare" step to deliver "basic accountability" for Black Americans who have been killed during interactions with the police.

"It was a murder in full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see," Mr. Biden said of the death of George Floyd, who died after Mr. Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes, and whose death ignited nationwide protests. "For so many, it feels like it took all of that for the judicial system to deliver just basic accountability."

Mr. Biden delivered his remarks to the nation hours after taking the unusual step of weighing in on the trial's outcome before the jury had come back with a decision, and telling reporters that he had been "praying" for the "right verdict."

"This can be a giant step forward in the march toward justice in America," Mr. Biden said during his address.

Mr. Biden assumed the presidency during a national reckoning over race and has staked his political legacy around a promise to make racial equality, which includes an overhaul on policing, a central focus of his presidency. He has been outspoken about Mr. Floyd's death, calling it a "wake up call" for the nation.

In the wake of a series of recent police-involved shootings and other violent episodes that have taken place over the course of the trial, he has repeatedly called for Congress to pass an ambitious bill on policing reform, named for Mr. Floyd and co-authored by the vice president.

On Tuesday afternoon, the White House canceled an earlier speech Mr. Biden had planned to deliver on his infrastructure plan so that he could watch the verdict come in alongside Kamala Harris, the vice president, and a group of other aides in his private dining room just off the Oval Office.

The jury's deliberations had been closely tracked throughout the day: In the minutes before the verdict was delivered, White House aides were sprinting through the West Wing, phones in hand, and setting up a podium for Mr. Biden to deliver his remarks alongside Ms. Harris in Cross Hall. Just after the verdict was delivered the president was on the phone with members of Mr. Floyd's family.

"We're all so relieved," Mr. Biden said to a group of people who included Ben Crump, the Floyd family's attorney. "I'm anxious to see you guys, I really am. We're gonna do a lot and we're gonna stand until we get it done."

Ms. Harris, who spoke before Mr. Biden gave remarks, called for the passage of the bill that would overhaul how police officers engage people in minority communities.

"Here's the truth about racial injustice," Ms Harris said. "It is not just a Black America problem or a people of color problem. It is a problem for every American. It is keeping us from fulfilling the promise of liberty and justice for all, and it is holding our nation back from realizing our full potential."

Mr. Biden can trace his political success, in part, to how he responded to the nationwide protests that rose up in the wake of Mr. Floyd's death.

Last June, as his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, stoked tensions by tweet, calling the protests a result of the "radical left" and threatening to send in the National Guard, Mr. Biden traveled to Houston with his wife, Jill, to meet with Mr. Floyd's relatives.

The hour he spent with the Floyd family effectively created a split-screen with Mr. Trump that boosted his war chest and added momentum to his campaign.

"I won't fan the flames of hate," Mr. Biden said at the time. "I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country - not use them for political gain."

Read more

George Floyd had been dead only hours before the movement began. Driven by a terrifying video and word-of-mouth, people flooded the south Minneapolis intersection shortly after Memorial Day, demanding an end to police violence against Black Americans.

The moment of collective grief and anger swiftly gave way to a yearlong, nationwide deliberation on what it means to be Black in America.

First came protests, growing every day, until they turned into the largest mass protest movement in U.S. history. Nearly 170 Confederate symbols were renamed or removed from public spaces. The Black Lives Matter slogan was claimed by a nation grappling with the killing of Mr. Floyd and what that said about the country.

Over the next 11 months, calls for racial justice would touch seemingly every aspect of American life on a scale that historians say has not happened since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

On Tuesday, nearly a year later, Derek Chauvin, the white police officer charged with killing Mr. Floyd, was convicted of two counts of murder and manslaughter. The verdict brought a measure of relief and some solace to activists for racial justice who have been riveted to the courtroom drama for the past two weeks.

But for many Black Americans, real change feels elusive, particularly given how relentlessly the killing of Black men by the police has continued on, most recently of Daunte Wright just over a week ago.

There are also signs of backlash: Legislation that would reduce voting access, protect police, and effectively criminalize public protests, has sprung up in Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country.

Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, said to call what has transpired over the past year a racial reckoning is not right.

"Reckoning suggests that we are truly struggling with how to reimagine everything from criminal justice to food deserts to health disparities - we are not doing that," he said. Tuesday's guilty verdict for Mr. Chauvin, he said, "is addressing a symptom, but we have not yet dealt with the disease."

Moments before the verdict was announced, Derrick Johnson, president of the N.A.A.C.P., called Floyd's death "a Selma, Alabama, moment for America."

What happened in Selma in 1965 "with the world watching demonstrated the need for the passage of the 1965 Voting Right Act," he said."What we witnessed last year with the killing of George Floyd should be the catalyst for broad reform in policing in this nation."

The entire arc of the Floyd case - from his death and the protests through the trial and conviction of Mr. Chauvin - played out against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic, which further focused Americans' attention on the nation's racial inequities: People of color were among those hardest hit by the virus and by the economic dislocation that followed. And for many, Mr. Floyd's death carried the weight of many racial episodes over the past decade, a list that includes the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor.

Read more

On the sidewalk in front of the county jail in downtown Portland, Ore., Cyncyrie Cruz got the long-awaited news of the Derek Chauvin verdict via a phone call from her boyfriend.

"What is it? Tell me," she said. She started pacing.

Guilty on all three charges.

Ms. Cruz put her fist in the air and chanted George Floyd's name. Down the road, about two dozen otherpeople cheered on the street corner. A woman driving down the street shouted out of her car window, "We did it."

The celebrations were echoed across the country.

"I feel elated," said Gurpreet Singh, 46, who went to Union Square Park in New York in anticipation of the verdict. While nothing can bring Mr. Floyd back to life, Mr. Singh said,"at least this one wrong has been righted."

A short distance away in Washington Square Park, Chris Peoples, 34, said, "Justice was served."

And in Minneapolis, where Mr. Chauvin killed Mr. Floyd, it "felt like a weight was just lifted off the city's shoulder," said August Schutz, 22. "It was almost like you could hear a sigh of relief everywhere in the city."

At the same time, one celebrant after another emphasized that this was a verdict against just one man, and that a larger struggle for racial justice and against police brutality lay ahead.

"Things have changed," Mel Packer, 76, said amid a small but building crowd at Pittsburgh's Freedom Corner, tearfully recalling his time hitchhiking across the segregated South in the 1960s.

But "it's not enough," Mr. Packer, who is white, said. "Without massive police reform, it's not enough."

Tifanny Burks, 28, who is Black and organized protests in South Florida last summer with the Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward, described the verdict as "a sign, a beacon of hope that we're heading in the right direction," but called for much more systemic change, including defunding the police.

"My hope and my wish is that this verdict actually leads more people to abolition, to knowing that there's another way and that we don't have to have policing as we know it," Ms. Burks said. "The guilty on all three charges is not going to do it."

Tyson Joyner, a 44-year-old from Scranton, Pa., said at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington that the verdict represented a kind of progress but was also bittersweet.

"Today we're not as sad," said Mr. Joyner, who is Black. "But we're not going take this verdict and make it seem like everything is kumbaya and everything's done."

Reporting was contributed by Mike Baker from Portland, Ore.; Hailey Fuchs from Washington; Patricia Mazzei from Miami; Sarah Maslin Nir and Anushka Patil from New York; Bryan Pietsch from Denver; and Campbell Robertson from Pittsburgh.

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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the lead prosecutor in the state's case against Derek Chauvin, said during a news conference on Tuesday that "this is not the end," and that his office expects to present another case this summer.

Mr. Ellison did not elaborate on the other case, but three other officers who were with Mr. Chauvin during the arrest face aiding and abetting charges and are scheduled to be tried together in August. At George Floyd Square, a crowd chanted "One down, three to go" after the verdict was read, in reference to the other three officers.

The guilty verdict on all three counts - second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter - is a major victory for Mr. Ellison and his team, who brought 35 witnesses to the stand over three weeks of emotionally grueling testimony. The case was one of the most high-profile in decades, and their successful plea to the jury, "Believe your eyes," has further illustrated the power of video evidence in cases of police brutality.

Mr. Ellison praised the witnesses who testified during the trial - ranging from the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department to a 9-year-old girl who witnessed the arrest - many of whom condemned Mr. Chauvin's actions during their testimony.

"We put everything we had into this prosecution," he said. "We presented the best case that we could, and the jury heard us, and we're grateful for that."

Alongside Mr. Ellison were some of the prosecutors who presented the case at trial. Matthew Frank, an assistant attorney general for Minnesota, appeared to choke back tears as he thanked George Floyd's family. "This is for you, George Floyd, and for your family and friends," he said.

Jerry W. Blackwell, a prosecutor who presented evidence during trial and gave the rebuttal argument against the defense on Monday, also thanked the prosecution team, saying they had the courage and passion to "get into good trouble" by taking on this case.

"They stepped into the light and they shined," he said. "No verdict can bring George Perry Floyd back to us, but this verdict does give a message to his family that he was somebody, that his life mattered, that all of our lives matter, and that's important."

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[Follow live news coverage of the Derek Chauvin sentence hearing.]
The jury found Derek Chauvin guilty of all three counts he was facing - second-degree murder, third-degree murder and manslaughter - for the same crime: pinning George Floyd's neck to the asphalt with his knee until he stopped breathing.

When juries can choose among different counts and instead pick "all of the above," it raises questions of how one act can meet the definition of three separate crimes. In this case, Mr. Chauvin was found guilty of:

1) causing the death of a human being, without intent, while committing or attempting to commit an assault (second-degree murder);

2) unintentionally causing a death by committing an act that is eminently dangerous to other persons while exhibiting a depraved mind, with reckless disregard for human life (third-degree murder);

3) and creating an unreasonable risk, by consciously taking the chance of causing death or great bodily harm to someone else (manslaughter).

Neither murder charge required the jury to find that Mr. Chavin intended to kill Mr. Floyd. Nor did the manslaughter charge. So the jury could have determined a state of mind for Mr. Chauvin (the legal term of art is "mens rea") that would cover all three charges.

The separate acts the jury had to find Mr. Chauvin committed also seem compatible with one another. To streamline the language a bit, "committing an assault" and "committing an act that is eminently dangerous to other persons" and "creating an unreasonable risk" can all go together.

In fact, "eminently dangerous" is a synonym for unreasonably risky. And both coexist easily with committing an assault.

An appeals court could disagree with this analysis and throw out one or more of the counts.

Whether that affects Mr. Chauvin's sentence depends on how Judge Peter A. Cahill parses it. Because Mr. Chauvin has no criminal history, he would receive a 12.5-year sentence for the top charge if the judge followed Minnesota's sentencing guidelines. The maximum charge for second-degree murder, however, is 40 years.

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Derek Chauvin's murder conviction on Tuesday in the killing of George Floyd brought a flood of emotion from the streets of Minneapolis to the halls of Congress, tempered with exhortations not to view the verdict as a victory against systemic racism.

The mood seemed to be summed up in a statement from former President Barack Obama: "Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more."

Derrick Johnson, the president of the N.A.A.C.P., spoke of Mr. Floyd's young daughter, Gianna, and called for an end to qualified immunity, which shields police officers from lawsuits in which they are accused of violating people's constitutional rights.

"While justice has landed Derek Chauvin behind bars for murdering George Floyd, no amount of justice will bring back Gianna's father," Mr. Johnson said. "The same way a reasonable police officer would never suffocate an unarmed man to death, a reasonable justice system would recognize its roots in white supremacy and end qualified immunity. Police are here to protect, not lynch."

Karissa Lewis, national field director of the Movement for Black Lives, said in a statement that the verdict "doesn't fix an irredeemable, racist system of policing rooted in white supremacy."

"Minnesota police couldn't even go the full length of the trial without taking the life of another Black person, and now we're grieving for Daunte Wright just as we continue to grieve for George Floyd," Ms. Lewis said. "This repeat cycle of police killings, trials and no real substantive systemic change has to stop. Now is the time for a complete reimagining of public safety in the United States, so that no more fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, children, siblings or loved ones are lost to the hands of state violence."

Senator Raphael Warnock, a Democrat who is the first Black person to represent Georgia in the Senate, told reporters on Capitol Hill, "Hopefully this is the beginning of a turning point in our country, where - " he paused for several seconds before continuing - "people who have seen this trauma over and over again will know that we have equal protection under the law."

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus renewed their push, begun in the wake of Mr. Floyd's death last May, for expansive federal changes to policing. Their bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, would make it easier to prosecute officers for wrongdoing, add new restrictions on the use of deadly force and effectively ban chokeholds. It passed the House but has languished in the Senate.

"Today I am relieved, today I exhale, but today just marks the beginning of a new phase of a long struggle to bring justice in America," said Representative Karen Bass, Democrat of California, who is the bill's primary author.

Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina and the author of a narrower proposal that Republicans made last year and Democrats blocked, has been quietly negotiating with Ms. Bass and other Democrats for weeks. He said on Tuesday that he was "cautiously optimistic we'll find a path forward."

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said that Americans "should not mistake a guilty verdict in this case as evidence that the persistent problem of police misconduct has been solved, or that the divide between law enforcement and so many of the communities they serve has been bridged," and he said that the Senate would continue to work toward that end.

But even amid the emphasis on the verdict's limits, Bernice King, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., invoked her father's famous statement that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

"Today it bent toward justice," she wrote on Twitter, "thanks to the millions of people under the banner of #BlackLivesMatter standing up, speaking up and not letting up for humanity."

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Emily Cochrane, Nicholas Fandos and Azi Paybarah contributed reporting.

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Months before the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd, millions of people around the world watched footage of Mr. Floyd's death that had been recorded by a teenage witness.

Darnella Frazier was 17 when she recorded the cellphone video and uploaded it to Facebook in May, igniting international protests over racism and police abuse.

Ms. Frazier, now 18, was among the first witnesses called to testify by the prosecution. She said in court that she felt regret for not physically engaging the four officers at the scene, but that they were the ones ultimately at fault.

"It's been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life," Ms. Frazier said. She added, seemingly referring to Mr. Chauvin, "But it's like, it's not what I should have done, it's what he should have done."

Ms. Frazier has largely stayed out of the spotlight since Mr. Floyd's death, but she said his death has haunted her and that she has anxiety. Her voice was emotional on the stand and she cried several times during her testimony, which was off-camera.

"When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles, because they're all Black," Ms. Frazier said. "I have a Black father. I have a Black brother. I have Black friends.

She added: "I look at how that could have been one of them."

On the day of Mr. Floyd's death, Ms. Frazier said, she had been walking to the Cup Foods convenience store with her 9-year-old cousin to get some snacks when they came upon the arrest.

"I see a man on the ground, and I see a cop kneeling down on him," Ms. Frazier said. She described seeing Mr. Floyd "terrified, scared, begging for his life."

Ms. Frazier said that as a crowd of bystanders yelled more loudly at the officers, Mr. Chauvin reached for his mace. "I felt in danger when he did that," she said.

She made one of her first public comments last month, as the jury was being selected, when she wrote on Facebook and Instagram that Mr. Chauvin "deserves to go down" and wondered openly "what else got covered up if it was no evidence to see what really happened."

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Derek Chauvin Trial: Chauvin Found Guilty of Murdering George Floyd

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When George Floyd was killed by the police in Minneapolis last May, the case drew comparisons to the death of Eric Garner six years earlier in New York. The two men uttered the same dying words to the police officers forcefully restraining them: "I can't breathe."

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Iñigo

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When California's Monterey County allowed restaurants to reopen in March, indoor dining returned to the cliff-perched Sierra Mar, known for its spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

The Big Sur restaurant now featured some new pandemic touches: 18 tabletop mini-purifiers, 10 precisely distributed HEPA air purifiers, an upgraded heating and air conditioning system, and four sensors measuring the air quality in real time.

The bar was closed, and at a table in the back satsomeone new: an engineering professorwhose specialty is air quality.

"If this is going to work right, the ventilation keeps up with the head count," explained the expert, Mark Hernandez of the University of Colorado. Every 15 minutes, he would walk to the front deskto check how many people were now seated indoors. Then he would compare that number to the air's current levels of carbon dioxide and particulate matter, to see how much exhaled breath lingered in the air and what expelled aerosols it could contain.

Indoor dining remains risky, as the pandemic rages on, propelled by highly transmissible new coronavirus variants that threaten gains from widespread vaccination. The virus has been brutal for the restaurant industry. The National Restaurant Association estimates a loss of $240 billion in bar and restaurant sales and 2.5 million jobs during 2020. President Biden's covid-19 stimulus package provides $25billion in grants for restaurants and bars that lost revenue, but thousands of restaurants already have shut down permanently.

Those struggling to hold on are considering a broad range of air ventilation and filtration techniques to keep customers and staff safe. Sierra Mar's new air-quality experiment, partly funded by a regional foundation, cost about $30,000. That's a hefty expenditure that might be out of reach for many restaurants running on thin profit margins.

Mike Freed considers it a worthy investment. He's the managing partner of the Post Ranch Inn, the exclusive resort that contains Sierra Mar and caters to an affluent eco-conscious traveler. Since the setup, if successful, could potentially be utilized in other restaurants and indoor spaces, the Washington Post asked several experts on indoor air to review the restaurant layout and strategy. They agreed it should work to make the dining experience considerably safer, while noting 100 percent safety is unattainable.

These experiments in the restaurant industry may usher in a new data-driven relationship with indoor air, with people able to judge where they dine, vacation and work based on the quality and transparency of real-time readings.

"I've become obsessed with indoor air quality," says Freed, who spent about $7,500 to buy equipment. "I just think it's so important to our health."

The resort promises an "away from it all" experience, so air safety innovations need to be unobtrusive.

Staff glide through a dining room whose interior air circulation has been designed, says Hernandez, as a "seat belt in a place where you can't control your peers ... This is long overdue for public places."

At a time when its vista is clouded by recurrent wildfires, the Post Ranch Inn now displays the restaurant'sair quality updates on its website, so diners can time their escape around what they want to eat - and breathe.

On the table

An air purifier about the size of a water bottle sits on each table. It can't clean a lot of air quickly, but it can direct filtered air in a small area. And it runs on batteries.

While the portable air purifier can be tilted toward a person's face, Hernandez positioned it straight up, to reduce the risk of unmasked diners infecting others by breathing across the table. Instead, the device, made by Wynd and marketed as a personal air purifier, should push any shared or unfiltered air aloft.

On the floor

A key feature in Hernandez's design is a decades-old technology now deployed against the highly infectious coronavirus: the high-efficiency particulate air filter.

The pandemic has boosted an air purifier industry that already had expanded to curb air pollution's toxic effect on people's lungs and hearts. Some products make questionable claims, experts say. The most reliable and longstanding technology for cleaning air is to force it through a very fine filter made up of tiny strands of fiberglass.

"HEPA filtration has been a workhorse for decades, and it's a proven technology," said Richard Corsi, an indoor air expert at Portland State University.

Technically, to receive the HEPA rating, filters must capture 99.97 percent of particles that are .3 microns in size. The SARS-Cov-2 virus is slightly smaller than that.

HEPA filters capture smaller particles as well; and more importantly, the virus "is carried in aerosols that are larger because the virus comes out with lots of salts and proteins that are in respiratory fluid," said Linsey Marr, an expert on aerosols at Virginia Tech. "And even if all the water evaporates, there's still a ton of salt and protein compared to the virus."

Many purifier models pull in air on only one side, so their motors work harder and can be noisy. Sierra Mar uses a Mila air purifier model that pulls in air from underneath and all four of its sides - and does so relatively quietly.

That is key in an environment like a restaurant, where people raise their voices when it is noisy - and spew particles that hang around longer in still air.

Out of sight

High above the ocean, Sierra Mar restaurant has plenty of advantages in providing fresh air. Floor-to-ceiling windows open freely to catch Pacific breezes. In winter, its HVAC floor registers pump out warm air that naturally rises upward, reducing risk of airborne germs lingering in colder months.

To try and thwart the virus, Sierra Mar upgraded its HVAC filters to MERV 13 level filtration, a level that experts say should be able to capture manyparticles that contain the coronavirus. The system was also modified to increase the amount of fresh outdoor air pulled into the space, and three room dividers were installed.

Front and center

Hernandez designed a monitoring system for the restaurant as part of a $22,500 grant to the University of Colorado, where he teaches, from the Community Foundation for Monterey County. Four indoor air monitors from SenseWare provide real-time readings of key air quality indicators in four zones of the restaurant.

The key readings, Hernandez notes, are two. First, there is carbon dioxide, which humans exhale. So the closer that indoor levels are to the outdoor baseline, typically around 400 parts per million, the closer patrons are to breathing in fresh air, rather than air that recently came out of someone else's lungs.

Second are readouts of particulate matter, known as PM2.5 and PM10 for the size of the particles. (PM2.5 refers to particles2.5 microns in size and smaller, while PM10 refers to larger particles.) These are standard air quality measures of pollution levels most associated with the fruits of combustion, emerging from smokestacks and car tailpipes.

Hernandez' research focuses on using these same measures to assess the quantities of biological particulate matter that people shed. Aerosols from human respiratory systems, which could contain infectious viruses, will also fall in this generalsize range, with the smaller particles potentially posing the larger risk.

Therefore, low levels of both PM2.5 and PM10 are desirable for controlling the coronavirus, just as they are for avoiding the damaging health consequences of air pollution.

Outdoors, the Environmental Protection Agency's ambient air quality standards require PM2.5 levels to be below 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air (as an annual average).Hernandez's data indicates the restaurant has managed to keep particulates closer to 1 or 2 micrograms per cubic meter, even with people in the space.

The Post asked three indoor air experts to examine Sierra Mar's layout, including the location of vents and air filters, and some of the results Hernandez has gathered. They generally agreed that the devices used, and principally the HEPA filters, are known to work, so the design is likely creating a safer indoor experience.

[ How to assess the safety of indoor dining]

Nothing is perfectly safe, as Hernandez himself acknowledges. The aim is reducing risk, and Virginia Tech's Marr said the system Hernandez and Freed devise will do that "substantially."

"It relies on proven technologies: a combination of excellent ventilation and filtration," she said. "Real-time monitoring that is publicly available provides valuable information to the public, giving people confidence that the space is indeed low risk."

Portland State University'sCorsi added that mixing air together indoors is very important, on top of good air ventilation and filtration. The air purifiers are spaced out in part to help do this.

"When you do increase mixing in a space, that does break up that plume of concentrated aerosols between you and an infector," Corsi said. "That additional mixing causes dispersion, which makes the receptor inhale a lot lower amounts of the infector's respirable particles."

Donald Milton, who studies indoor air at the University of Maryland and pushed health authorities early on to recognize the virus's airborne transmission, also thought the system designed by Hernandez would make dining safer in general. But he drew a distinction between people eating at the same table - where the smaller cordless device, made by Wynd, pushes the air upward - and those who are further away.

"Maybe that system could protect you from the people you're eating at the same table with. That's a very challenging thing," Milton said, noting a device sitting on a crowded tabletop is more likely to be bumped or shifted into the wrong direction.

"But by having good mixing, good filtration of the air in the restaurant generally, you will reduce exposure to people at other tables."

Marr did note something that Hernandez has been careful about, but that could undermine others attempting the approach: You have to be very careful about where your air purifiers are located. You do not want them pulling air in such a way that you are actually "spreading aerosols between tables," Marr cautions.

In other words, do not line up two tables and then a purifier, or the air from the farthest table will travel across the central table to the machine, coursing around those seated at the central table along the way. That is the kind of simple, but consequential, mistake that we will learn to avoid in this new world of still invisible, but now demystified, air.

After collecting his measurements at the restaurant, Hernandez shared the data with The Post. It showed the setup worked, he said.

In the north sector of the restaurant, even as occupancy increased to 18 diners, airborne levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) never rose above 2 micrograms per cubic meter. That is even though outdoor PM2.5 levels that evening were at around 10 micrograms per cubic meter.

Indoor carbon dioxide levels rose across the restaurant as the occupancy level increased, but never eclipsed 600 parts per million. Outdoor levels are generally around 400 parts per million.

That rise is not enough to be dangerous, Hernandez suggests, and is actually in a sense good news when compared with the particle findings, since tiny molecules of carbon dioxide gas fly right through filters.

"The gases go up but the particles don't. That's the result of an engineering control," he said.

Hernandez, who has also implemented indoor air quality monitoring for a number of Colorado schools, argues that even once the current pandemic is over, the kind of design that he has created will remain in demand.

"It applies to the next pandemic, colds, flu, whooping cough, you name it," he said.

For restaurant owner Mike Freed, he is just hoping that California health regulators, and other restaurants, pay attention.

"I don't think this is rocket science," says Freed, "which is why it's mind-boggling to me that the public health officials aren't talking to the building scientists."

(Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Chris Mooney is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter covering climate change, energy, and the environment. He has reported from the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, the Northwest Passage, and the Greenland ice sheet, among other locations, and has written four books about science, politics and climate change. Aaron Steckelberg Aaron Steckelberg is a senior graphics editor who creates maps, charts and diagrams that provide greater depth and context to stories over a wide range of topics. He has worked at the Post since 2016. Jake Crump is a designer and web developer for The Washington Post since 2015.

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How one restaurant's experiment may help diners breathe safely

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. When California's Monterey County allowed restaurants to reopen in March, indoor dining returned to the cliff-perched Sierra Mar, known for its spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean.

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La venta retail está subiendo debido a la reactivación económica que esta surgiendo durante esta etapa de Covid-19

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Retail sales jumped 9.8% in March from the prior month as stimulus money, vaccinations and re-openings spurred a burst of shopping, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

"There were a lot of positive forces for consumers in March," said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America , ahead of the report. "The reopening progressed throughout March, with more and more states easing restrictions, more and more people becoming vaccinated and feeling comfortable re-engaging in the economy and activities that they did previously."

Economists said retail sales last month also likely moved higher as they came off weakness in February, when sales were damped by severe winter storms. The economists expect robust gains for autos because of strong consumer demand for vehicles and higher gasoline sales as prices at the pump rose last month.

Separate economic readings due Thursday are expected to show an increase in March industrial production and a decrease in the number of workers filing for unemployment benefits. U.S. consumer confidence is at its highest levels since the Covid-19 pandemic began, as signs of momentum in the economic recovery build. U.S. employers, for example, added a seasonally adjusted 916,000 jobs in March as the unemployment rate fell to 6%.

More Americans are also receiving the coronavirus vaccine, while a pause this week in the use of the Johnson & Johnson shot is expected to have a limited impact.

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Retail sales jumped 9.8% in March from the prior month as stimulus money, vaccinations and re-openings spurred a burst of shopping, the Commerce Department said Thursday. "There were a lot of positive forces for consumers in March," said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America , ahead of the report.

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Joe Biden 2 trillion infrastructure Bill

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Joe Biden 2 trillion infrastructure Bill

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/joe-biden-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal/index.html

Diego Lugo

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"La administración de Biden confirma que el agente ruso compartió los datos de las encuestas de Trump de 2016 como parte de los esfuerzos de interferencia electoral" -Katie Bo William de CNN

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"La administración de Biden confirma que el agente ruso compartió los datos de las encuestas de Trump de 2016 como parte de los esfuerzos de interferencia electoral" -Katie Bo William de CNN

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El gobierno de Biden reveló nuevos detalles sobre la extensa interferencia de Rusia en las elecciones estadounidenses de 2016 y 2020, incluida la divulgación por primera vez de que un agente ruso que recibió datos de encuestas internas de la campaña de Trump en 2016 los pasó a los servicios de inteligencia de Rusia.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/15/politics/biden-russia-election-interference/index.html

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Kim Potter, Officer Who Killed Daunte Wright, Charged With Second-Degree Manslaughter

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Kim Potter, Officer Who Killed Daunte Wright, Charged With Second-Degree Manslaughter

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El ex policía que mató a tiros a Daunte Wright, de 20 años, fue detenido y acusado de homicidio en segundo grado el miércoles, en un asesinato que ha provocado cuatro noches de protestas en este suburbio de Minneapolis.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/protesters-clash-with-police-over-daunte-wrights-death-for-third-night-11618406999

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District of Columbia statehood has long been out of reach. Proponents hope Democratic control of the federal government and the security issues raised over the past week could change that.

The badly flawed response to the riot at the Capitol has been cited as one argument in favor of giving Washington the powers that states have. Credit... Kenny Holston for The New York Times

WASHINGTON - On the day after a mob rampaged through the halls of Congress, the mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel E. Bowser, heaped praise on the Metropolitan Police Department officers who had rushed to restore order after the Capitol's police force was overwhelmed.

She also saw no small amount of irony in their role.

"I am heartened that our police and Guardspeople were able to get control," she said at a morning briefing, and then added: "I'm upset that 706,000 residents of the District of Columbia did not have a single vote in that Congress yesterday despite the fact their officers were putting their lives on the line to defend democracy."

The district's lack of representation in Congress is an old refrain for Ms. Bowser and her predecessors. Leaders in the district have battled for decades to persuade Congress to make Washington, D.C., a state, fruitlessly pressing the argument long embossed on the city's license plates: that denying it statehood amounts to "taxation without representation."

But Wednesday's riot, in which 56 city police officers were injured, has become Example One in a renewed and decidedly uphill effort to change the legislators' minds. From the city's growing role in policing protests and unrest to the mayor's inability to summon the National Guard, statehood supporters argue, continuing Washington's role as a sort of vassal to the federal bureaucracy is not simply unjust, but also outmoded.

Backers are counting on the Democratic Party's control of Congress and the White House to reinvigorate a push for statehood legislation that Republicans have long bottled up.

"Having a Democratic president who supports statehood will help us move the bill substantially," said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District's sole representative in Congress. Like delegates from other areas without statehood, such as Puerto Rico, she can introduce legislation and consider it in House committees, but cannot vote on final passage of bills on the House floor.

Still, she added, "I'm not saying we're going to move it across the finish line."

There are plenty of obstacles. The District of Columbia could presumably gain statehood by winning simple majorities in the House and the Senate - the Constitution sets no rules - but the move would surely face a filibuster from Republicans in the Senate, raising the bar to 60 of the chamber's 100 votes.

Even if statehood were approved, it would face an uncertain fate in court. Congress deliberately fashioned Washington as a federal district, and not a state, after Pennsylvania allowed scores of unpaid soldiers to march on the legislature in Philadelphia in June 1783, causing lawmakers to flee the city. There appears to have been little consideration of what voting rights Washington's residents would have.

Some experts say only a constitutional amendment could give Washington residents a voice in Congress. Just such an amendment cleared both houses in 1978, but only 16 of the 38 states needed for ratification approved it.

That lack of a voice rankles many in a fast-growing city, who argue that Washington has more residents than Vermont or Wyoming but no say in national affairs. The city's fight edged marginally forward last summer when the House of Representatives approved legislation granting statehood to much of Washington's 69 square miles, reducing the remaining District of Columbia to an enclave of federal offices, the Capitol and White House, and the Mall.

That proposal - a dodge around the constitutional mandate for a capital not beholden to any state - went nowhere in a Republican-controlled Senate that was disinclined to create a jurisdiction that would most likely be an impregnable Democratic stronghold. But the unexpected capturing of the Senate by Democrats in Georgia elections on Tuesday has inspired hopes of progress.

On Wednesday, statehood supporters seized on the Capitol Hill fiasco as further evidence of the case for statehood, citing the federal government's slow response to calls by Ms. Bowser and others to dispatch the District of Columbia National Guard to protect the Capitol. Governors can summon the National Guard in their states at will, but the District of Columbia Guard can be deployed only after approval by the Pentagon and, by extension, the president.

That approval was delayed while the mob controlled the Capitol, seemingly because President Trump did not sign off on the deployment. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller eventually approved the request after consulting with Vice President Mike Pence and other senior officials, but the decision was so opaque that the District of Columbia Council at one point posted an angry statement on its website claiming that the request had been rebuffed.

"It was obvious the Guard was wanted around 3 p.m., and authorization didn't occur for at least an hour, if not longer," Phil Mendelson, the Council chairman, said on Thursday. "Folks are trying to find out exactly what happened."

He added, "I can assure you that if the mayor had the ability to directly call or redeploy the Guard, that would have happened quickly."

The city's relations with the Trump administration have long been poisonous. After the federal government drew sharp criticism last summer for its blunt crackdown on people protesting racial inequalities, Ms. Bowser retaliated by declaring a section of Sixteenth Street closest to the White House Black Lives Matter Plaza, its new name emblazoned in huge letters on the pavement.

But the differences transcend administrations. They reflect irritants in a relationship that inextricably binds the city's roughly 710,000 residents - Ms. Bowser's estimate was slightly off - to a federal colossus that is vastly more powerful. The city regularly supports federal officials with assistance as mundane as building the reviewing stands for inaugural parades and as crucial as rescuing the Capitol from thugs. Ms. Bowser did not respond to a request for an interview.

To be sure, the city has reaped huge rewards from tourism, the federal government's devotion to the city's parks and culture, and the throng of businesses whose prosperity rests on the federal government.

But it remains more an appendage than a partner. The District of Columbia government gained substantial authority to govern itself in 1973, but Congress can overturn its laws on a whim (and has done so). The city can arrest people suspected in crimes, but not try them; the federal government runs the courts and decides which cases come to trial. Capitol Hill decides how much federal money the city gets for services like health care and, lately, pandemic relief, and some officials complain that it is being shortchanged.

Beyond the big issues, there is the sand in the gears. One Washington resident collects antique slot machines as a hobby, Mr. Mendelson said, but federal law bars placing slot machines in the capital city. Only an act of Congress can change that, and Congress is not interested. District of Columbia officials want to strictly enforce laws against hate crimes, he said, but discretion in prosecuting felons is reserved for the U.S. attorney for the district, a Trump administration appointee.

And then there are the deadbeat-dad arguments over money: As of October, the District of Columbia government claimed it was still owed $7.2 million for its work in assisting the inauguration of Mr. Trump four years ago, in 2017.

"Collecting has been a problem from time to time," Mr. Mendelson said. "But I don't think we have ever been stiffed for an inauguration."

The city's advocates are certain that relations will improve under a Biden administration. For starters, Ms. Norton said, Congress could approve legislation she has filed to transfer authority over the District of Columbia National Guard from the federal government to the mayor.

"I've been in the minority in my many years in Congress," she said, "but I expect to be able to do that now that we have control of the Senate."

Whether statehood might follow seems a long shot at best. But as supporters say, stranger things have happened - as recently as Wednesday, in fact.

"It's not going to be easy," said Derek Hyra, a professor at American University in Washington who specializes in the city's development and politics. "But I never thought you'd have a group of right-wing people storm the Capitol and be able to get in. I think anything is possible."

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The 51st State? Washington Revisits an Uphill Cause With New Fervor

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District of Columbia statehood has long been out of reach. Proponents hope Democratic control of the federal government and the security issues raised over the past week could change that. WASHINGTON - On the day after a mob rampaged through the halls of Congress, the mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel E.

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Los CDC informan 5.800 infecciones por covid en personas completamente vacunadas en EE.UU.

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Los CDC informan 5.800 infecciones por covid en personas completamente vacunadas en EE.UU.

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https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/04/15/cdc-infecciones-covid-completamente-vacunados-trax/

Gabriel Athie Chara

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Iñigo

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Vials seen Oct. 31, 2020. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Please Note

The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

The medical issues that led to Tuesday's recommended pause in administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are exceedingly rare, government health officials said at a news conference.

Six women who received the vaccine are known to have suffered cerebral venous sinus thrombosis - a rare form of stroke - and also had low platelet counts in their blood. Platelets help your blood clot to stop bleeding.

But the illness is severe. One of the six women has died, authorities said, and another is in critical condition. All the known cases are among women between the ages of 18 and 48.

So what should you look for if you are one of the 6.8 million people who have received Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine, or are scheduled to receive it soon?

First, health officials said the women's symptoms appeared to begin between six and 13 days after vaccination, with a median of nine days. That's important because the vaccine commonly causes some flu-like symptoms - including headache, body aches and fatigue - within 24 to 36 hours. Those common symptoms do not appear to signal a clotting issue.

But if severe headache, leg pain, abdominal pain or shortness of breath crop up in the week or two after receiving the vaccine, the recipient should consult a doctor to determine whether he or she has a low platelet count. At this point, government health experts do not have a probable cause but speculated that in very rare cases the Johnson & Johnson vaccine activates platelets in some way, leading to harmful blood clots that can cause strokes.

A low platelet count or history of blood clots, along with those symptoms in that time period, is a sign that caution is needed, said Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the Food and Drug Administration, who spoke at the Tuesday media briefing.

"If someone ends up with a very severe headache or any kind of shortness of breath, pain in their legs, pain in their abdomen ... they would want to seek medical attention, and if there are low platelets at that time," further discussion with a health-care provider is necessary, Marks said.

Catch up on the most important developments in the pandemic with our coronavirus newsletter. All stories in it are free to access.

The pause is also in part to alert health-care providers to be on the lookout for these symptoms and advise their patients, authorities said. One important thing for caregivers to know is that treating this condition with common anticoagulants such as heparin can cause additional harm and must be avoided, the officials said.

Though the known cases are all among women of childbearing age, "at this time it's not clear that there is any association with the oral contraceptive pill," Marks said. Of course, it's difficult to make any generalizations based on six cases.

And it's important to remember how rare this condition is. Among people with normal platelet counts, the disease affects between 2 million and 14 million people. That is an annual figure, however, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been distributed for only six weeks. The blood clots also appear to be similar to problems caused by the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe.

European regulators said it was "plausible" that the clots were linked to that vaccination. Johnson & Johnson disclosed Tuesday that the cases were being reviewed with European regulators and said the company was delaying its rollout there.

The clots have not been associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. They use different technologies than the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist affiliated with Georgetown University, urged people not to overreact and wait for additional information.

"I am a woman between the ages of 18 and 48 who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine eight days ago, and I recommend that people do what I'm doing, which is not panic," she said. "First of all, we don't know if these six cases are actually associated with the vaccine. We don't know if those six cases had some other conditions that would have predisposed them to having blood clots like this. We don't know a lot about it, which is why there's a pause."

Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the briefing there may have been underlying conditions among some of the six women who suffered these blood clots.

What do you want to know about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and blood clot risks? Share your questions with The Post.

Lisa Maragakis, an associate professor of medicine, infectious-disease and epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine added that "any time a message like this comes out, particularly for those who are within that two week window, there's a concern about 'What does this mean for me?'" Maragakis said. "I feel like overwhelmingly the message should be one of reassurance that we don't yet know if these events are even associated with a vaccine. But even if they are, we know that serious events can happen with vaccine. These events are serious but appear to be, at least at this point, very rare."

Rasmussen encouraged people to contextualize the available data. Six reports of this condition out of nearly 7 million shots delivered, she said, is "1 in 1,000,000 basically, or 1 in more than 1,000,000."

She added, "I'm not worried that I'm going to have a blood clot."

Acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock stressed that the risk of clots is tiny in comparison with the danger posed by the pandemic. Vaccines are the best protection against the coronavirus, she said.

"We're recommending a pause out of an abundance of caution, but on an individual basis, a provider and a patient can make a decision on whether to receive the vaccine," she said.

Carolyn Y. Johnson contributed to this report

Updated March 30, 2021

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What you should do if you've received the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

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Please Note The Washington Post is providing this important information about the coronavirus for free. For more free coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter where all stories are free to read.

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FDA, CDC call for pause in use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine after ‘extremely rare’ cases of blood clots

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FDA, CDC call for pause in use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine after ‘extremely rare’ cases of blood clots

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/13/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-blood-clots/

Patricio Jones

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Autoridades sanitarias de EE.UU. recomiendan pausar la vacuna Johnson & Johnson tras 6 casos de coágulo sanguíneo

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Autoridades sanitarias de EE.UU. recomiendan pausar la vacuna Johnson & Johnson tras 6 casos de coágulo sanguíneo

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https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/video/seis-casos-coagulos-sanguineos-vacuna-johnson-and-johnson-cdc-fda-vo-alejandra-oraa-cafe-cnn/

Gabriel Athie Chara

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Biden anunciará la retirada de las tropas estadounidenses de Afganistán antes del 11 de septiembre

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Biden anunciará la retirada de las tropas estadounidenses de Afganistán antes del 11 de septiembre

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El presidente Joe Biden, habiendo concluido que no hay una solución militar a los problemas políticos y de seguridad que afectan a Afganistán y decidido a centrarse en desafíos de seguridad nacional más urgentes, anunciará formalmente el miércoles que las tropas estadounidenses se retirarán del país antes del 20 aniversario del 11 de septiembre. ataques terroristas, dijo un alto funcionario de la administración.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/13/politics/biden-afghanistan-withdrawal/index.html

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Live Updates: Biden to Announce Full U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Sept. 11

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Live Updates: Biden to Announce Full U.S. Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Sept. 11

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https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/04/13/us/biden-news-today

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U.S. Seeks to Pause J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Use After Rare Blood-Clot Cases

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U.S. Seeks to Pause J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Use After Rare Blood-Clot Cases

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Las autoridades sanitarias de EE. UU. Recomendaron una pausa en el uso de la vacuna Covid-19 de Johnson & Johnson para investigar casos raros pero graves de coágulos de sangre, un retraso para los esfuerzos de vacunación que compiten contra las variantes del virus.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-seeks-to-pause-j-j-covid-19-vaccine-use-amid-clotting-reports-11618313210?mod=hp_lead_pos1

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Fed Chief Says U.S. Economy Is at an 'Inflection Point' as Risks Remain

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"It's going to be smart if people can continue to socially distance and wear masks," Jerome Powell said on "60 Minutes." WASHINGTON - The economy is at an "inflection point" and on the cusp of growing more quickly, the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome H. Powell, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday night.

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WASHINGTON - President Biden is expected to unveil a series of executive actions addressing gun violence on Thursday, weeks after back-to-back mass shootings left 18 people dead and pushed the issue of gun legislation to the forefront for an administration tackling multiple crises.

Mr. Biden is also expected to announce his intent to nominate David Chipman, a gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials said. The bureau has not had a permanent director since 2015.

The moves come as Mr. Biden has been under pressure to address gun violence, but has made clear that pushing legislation through a blockade of Republican opposition is not currently feasible. Officials reiterated on Wednesday that the proposals the president planned to unveil with Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, were only a start and that the president would continue to call on Congress to take action.

On Thursday, the Justice Department will announce three initiatives to fight gun violence.

One rule would help stop the proliferation of so-called ghost guns - kits that allow a gun to be assembled from pieces. White House officials would not say whether the administration would ultimately seek to classify ghost guns as firearms, only that the department was trying to stop criminals from buying kits containing all of the components and directions to build one.

A second rule would make clear that when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace transforms a pistol into a short-barrel rifle, that weapon is subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act. The gunman in the Boulder, Colo., shooting last month used a pistol with an arm brace, making it more stable and accurate, officials said.

Finally, the Justice Department will also publish model "red flag" legislation for states. The measure would allow police officers and family members to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from people who may present a danger to themselves or others. While Mr. Biden cannot pass national red flag legislation without Congress, officials said the goal of the guidance was to make it easier for states that want to adopt it to do so now. The department also plans to release a comprehensive report on firearms trafficking, which it has not done since 2000.

Mr. Biden's jobs plan calls on Congress to invest $5 billion over eight years to support evidence-based community violence intervention programs. Officials would not say whether they planned to try to increase the budget for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a move gun control advocates have pressed for.

With Congress unlikely to pass any gun legislation, the White House has underscored the importance of executive actions as a more realistic starting point to deliver on Mr. Biden's campaign promises to end gun violence. Susan E. Rice, the director of the Domestic Policy Council, has served as the administration's point person on the coming executive actions.

Still, gun control groups that supported Mr. Biden's candidacy have criticized the president for not making gun legislation a top priority, as he had promised on the campaign trail.

To others, Mr. Biden's decision to forge ahead with his ambitious jobs and infrastructure plan - even after two mass shootings - represented a more pragmatic approach by a president dealing with several crises and Republican opposition to gun control measures.

The House passed two gun control bills last month, but they are languishing in the Senate in the face of the chamber's 60-vote threshold for passing most legislation, which requires the support of at least 10 Republicans.

On Wednesday, officials previewing Mr. Biden's first moves to curb gun violence emphasized that they were only an "initial set of actions," tempering expectations for meatier or more specific initiatives by noting that Mr. Garland has been attorney general for less than a month.

"These much-needed executive actions will start saving lives right away," said Shannon Watts, the founder of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, "and our grass-roots army of nearly six million supporters looks forward to standing behind President Biden as he urges the Senate to follow his lead and act."

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Biden to Announce Several Executive Actions to Tackle Gun Violence

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WASHINGTON - President Biden is expected to unveil a series of executive actions addressing gun violence on Thursday, weeks after back-to-back mass shootings left 18 people dead and pushed the issue of gun legislation to the forefront for an administration tackling multiple crises.

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Nuevas medidas de Biden para que haya un mejor control de armas

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WASHINGTON-President Biden outlined a series of actions he said would help curb gun violence, as the White House seeks new ways to work around congressional Republicans who have objected to most Democratic gun proposals.

Mr. Biden said he wants untraceable weapons known as ghost guns that can be made from parts purchased online to be treated as firearms, requiring serial numbers and buyer background checks.

The president also said he wants pistols modified with the kind of arm brace used by the shooter who killed 10 people last month in Boulder, Colo., to be subject to restrictions that require buyers to pay a fee and submit identifying information to the Justice Department. A brace makes a firearm more stable and accurate.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the administration would write proposed rules to address both issues.

The administration also will make $1 billion in grants available to community violence intervention programs, and the Justice Department will issue a report on firearms trafficking, Mr. Garland said.

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Biden Outlines New Gun-Control Measures Including on 'Ghost Guns,' Arm Braces

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WASHINGTON-President Biden outlined a series of actions he said would help curb gun violence, as the White House seeks new ways to work around congressional Republicans who have objected to most Democratic gun proposals. Mr. Biden said he wants untraceable weapons known as ghost guns that can be made from parts purchased online to be treated as firearms, requiring serial numbers and buyer background checks.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/intelligence-globe-future-crises-/2021/04/08/303c350e-97df-11eb-962b-78c1d8228819_story.html

Patricio Jones

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Cinco gráficas para entender la cultura de armas en Estados Unidos

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Cinco gráficas para entender la cultura de armas en Estados Unidos

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https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/04/08/armas-estados-unidos-cultura-comparacion-mundo/

Gabriel Athie

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Iñigo Vazquez

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The trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin continues on April 8. This stream contains graphic content. (The Washington Post)

Testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin continued Thursday with a breathing expert saying that George Floyd died due to a "low level of oxygen" that caused brain damage, rebuking the defense's argument that drugs contributed to Floyd's death. Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist and national breathing expert from Hines, Ill., offered testimony as an unpaid witness that Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck for the "vast majority of the time" and that the pain from the pressure applied by the officer to Floyd was comparable to that of a surgery to remove a lung.

His testimony came after a use-of-force expert said that Chauvin had one knee on George Floyd's neck and was pressing down with most of his body weight - not moving for the entire nine minutes and 29 seconds the Black man was restrained and handcuffed on the ground. Jody Stiger, a longtime Los Angeles Police Department sergeant and prosecution witness, said Wednesday that Chauvin appeared to be using " pain compliance," an effort usually deployed by officers trying to gain control of a suspect - but that what the officer appeared to be administering on Floyd was "just pain."

Here's what to know:

Much of the defense's case Wednesday focused on the environment around Cup Foods and Floyd's history of drug use. At multiple points during cross-examination, Chauvin attorney Eric J. Nelson pressed Stiger and James Reyerson, a senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, about the attorney's claim that Floyd could be heard on body-cam footage saying, "I ate too many drugs." But when prosecutors played the clip again for Reyerson, the BCA official agreed with the prosecution that Floyd appeared to say, "I ain't do no drugs."

McKenzie Anderson, a crime scene team leader at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, testified that Chauvin's defense team requested that investigators search the police car Floyd was forced into because of a white pill found on the floor in the back seat.

Nelson repeatedly implied or insisted Wednesday that Chauvin did not have his fully body weight on Floyd's neck but rather had some pressure applied to his back.

Chauvin's defense also argued that Floyd saying, "I can't breathe," while officers attempted to put him in a squad car was a form of resisting arrest.

Floyd's airways were 85 percent restricted, making breathing 'at some stage unsustainable,' expert says

Tobin used several visual aids Thursday as he unpacked his opinion that Floyd died of a low level of oxygen, breaking down the mathematical formula behind the physics of breathing with a line graph.

Tobin explained how a 46-year-old man like Floyd can sustain about a 60 percent narrowing of their airways without dramatically increasing the effort required to draw a breath; he described 60 percent airway narrowing as more narrow than breathing through a straw.

The lines showing the effort it takes to breathe with no airway narrowing and 60 percent airway narrowing diverged only gradually over time. But with 85 percent of airway restriction - the degree to which he said Floyd was restricted when Chauvin's knee was on his neck - the increase in breathing effort increases exponentially.

"If you get 85 percent narrowing, now you see that the effort to breathe increases seven and a half times compared with what it was with no narrowing," Tobin said.

"Based on the formula here, you can tell that as you are narrowing and narrowing, the effort to breathe is going to become extraordinarily high and at some stage unsustainable," Tobin said. "You're just not going to be able to do it."

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Breathing expert estimates that Chauvin placed more than 91 pounds on Floyd's neck

Before the midmorning break Thursday, Tobin estimated that Chauvin placed 91.5 pounds, including at least half of his body weight, solely on Floyd's neck when the officer's feet were off the ground.

In a graphic presented to the court, Tobin explained that since Chauvin had his heels and toes off the ground, he was pressing down nearly 100 pounds of his weight directly on the neck.

" What we're seeing is that half of his body weight, plus half his gear weight, is coming down. That's 91.5 pounds ... coming down directly on Mr. Floyd's neck," Tobin said to prosecutors. "Everything is directed down on his knee."

Tobin added that even when Chauvin's toes were touching the ground, the officer was still placing nearly 87 pounds on Floyd's neck.

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Pain from pressure applied by Chauvin to Floyd's body made the man's left lung useless, Tobin testifies

When police officers pressed on the left side of Floyd's body, the pain was not that much different from the pressure felt in removing a lung, a breathing expert testified.

Tobin said Floyd's inability to have any front-to-back movement coupled with the pressure applied by Chauvin and other police officers caused pain that left his left lung useless.

"Because of the knee that was rammed in against the left side of his chest, sometimes the knee was down on the arm or in against the chest," said Tobin, a pulmonologist and unpaid witness. "So basically on the left side of his lung, it was almost like a surgical pneumectomy to me. ... So there was virtually very little opportunity for him to be able to get any air to move into the left side of his chest."

After reviewing the footage and materials, Tobin concluded that Floyd had to try to breathe by using his fingers and knuckles "to try and crank up the right side of his chest."

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Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck the 'vast majority of the time,' breathing expert testifies

Chauvin's left knee was on Floyd's neck about "90 percent of the time," Tobin, a pulmonologist and national expert in the mechanism of breathing, testified Thursday.

In characterizing Chauvin's knee being on Floyd's neck "the vast majority of the time," Tobin said he was focused on the first five minutes and three seconds of Floyd's restraint "because that is up to the time that we see evidence of brain injury."

Tobin's statements came as he was analyzing a computer-generated diagram that simulated how three of the responding police officers, including Chauvin, were positioned on Floyd.

He described Chauvin's left knee placement on Floyd's neck and his right knee on Floyds arm and chest. Tobin indicated that pressure not just on the neck but also on the back can restrict a person's breathing to the point that they can only take shallow breaths.

Tobin, a physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine in Hines, Ill., testified for the prosecution but was not accepting payment for his expert testimony, he told the court.

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How Chauvin used handcuffs while Floyd was on ground put the man in a 'vise,' Tobin says

Tobin said Thursday that the combination of how Chauvin and the officers used the handcuffs on Floyd and the position they had the 46-year-old on the pavement essentially put Floyd in a "vise" that affected his breathing.

"The way they're pushing down on his handcuffs, combined with the street ... we see that it's like the left side is in a vise. It's totally being pushed and squeezed in from each side," Tobin testified. "It's not just the handcuffs. It's how the handcuffs are being held, how they're being pushed, where they're being pushed that totally interfere with central features of how we breathe."

Tobin added that Floyd was being "squashed" between the handcuffs and the pavement.

"The way they were pressing in on the back, there was no way he could do any front-to-back movement," said the breathing expert.

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Floyd died of 'a low level of oxygen' that caused brain damage, breathing expert says

A breathing expert testified Thursday that Floyd died of "a low level of oxygen" that resulted in brain damage.

Martin Tobin, a pulmonologist and national breathing expert from Hines, Ill., offered his opinion that Floyd's shallow breathing led to arrhythmia, which caused his heart to stop.

"Mr. Floyd died from a low level of oxygen, and this caused damage to his brain that we see," Tobin testified to prosecutors.

Tobin, who clarified he is not a paid witness, said four forces caused the low level of oxygen: the handcuffs, Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck, Floyd being in a prone position and Chauvin's other knee on Floyd's back arm.

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Derek Chauvin used his body weight to pin George Floyd's neck and never moved, use-of-force expert says

MINNEAPOLIS - Derek Chauvin had one knee on George Floyd's neck and another on his back and was pressing down with most of his body weight for the entirety of the nine minutes and 29 seconds the Black man was restrained, handcuffed and facedown on a street, a use-of-force expert testified Wednesday.

Jody Stiger, a longtime Los Angeles Police Department sergeant and prosecution witness, said Chauvin never moved, according to his review of police body-camera footage, and also appeared to be gripping Floyd's hand in an effort to inflict pain on the man, even though he was no longer resisting.

During his second day of testimony at the former officer's murder trial, Stiger told the jury that Chauvin appeared to be using a "pain compliance" technique on Floyd's hand, "squeezing fingers or bringing knuckles together" and pulling his wrist into his handcuffs - an effort usually deployed by officers trying to gain control of a suspect. But because Floyd stopped resisting the moment officers placed him in a prone position on the ground, "at that point, it was just pain," Stiger said.

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Defense requested second search of police vehicle, with focus on drugs

A forensic scientist in charge of the crime scene testified that Chauvin's defense team requested that investigators search the police car Floyd was forced into because of a white pill found on the floor in the back seat.

McKenzie Anderson, crime scene team leader at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, said she did not originally collect the pill in the police car as evidence but gathered it as part of the case when she reprocessed the car after the defense had asked.

"At the time I didn't give it any forensic significance," she testified.

The defense has emphasized Floyd's drug use, attributing it as the cause of his death. Investigators also found remnants of a pill with saliva matching Floyd's DNA in the police car, as well as his blood, Anderson said.

Other witnesses, forensic scientist Breahna Giles and forensic chemist Susan Neith, testified the pill in the police car contained methamphetamine and traces of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid increasingly found in American's illegal drug supply.

Anderson testified that no evidence was taken from the scene outside the Cup Foods other than Floyd's SUV and the police car taken for processing. It rained at the scene, possibly clearing away blood on the ground, testified Anderson, who said she has responded to about 30 crime scenes last year.

When she was originally tasked with reviewing Floyd's car, Anderson testified that she was told to search for "specific things," including pills, gum and money.

In Floyd's car, investigators recorded that they found white pills and a wrapper for suboxone, a type of opioid that can treat opioid use disorder but also can be abused.

Floyd's girlfriend testified last week about their struggle with opioids, saying they tried very hard to break that addiction many times.

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Nelson pushes lead investigator on attorney's claim that Floyd said, 'I ate too many drugs'

Using a composite of cellphone video from a bystander and body-camera footage, Nelson asked Reyerson if he saw signs Floyd's left arm was moving after Chauvin stood up from pressing his weight onto Floyd.

"I think from what I see here, it was Mr. Chauvin's shin that was compressing on the arm. And the knee was actually on the back," Reyerson said.

Later, when asked if Reyerson heard Floyd in the video say, "I ate too many drugs," he disagreed until Nelson played the audio from a police body camera for him again.

"Did it appear that Mr. Floyd said, 'I ate too many drugs?'" Nelson asked.

"Yes, it did," Reyerson replied.

But when prosecutors questioned Reyerson, they played a clip of the audio that made the special agent believe what Floyd said was, "I ain't do no drugs." Reyerson clarified it was different than what was presented by the defense team.

Earlier in the day when Nelson played the audio for Stiger, the police expert said he could not make out the indiscernible clip.

The defense has argued that drugs in Floyd's system, and not Chauvin's specific actions, contributed to his death.

Lead investigator says Chauvin's knee was on Floyd's neck

When the trial reconvened after lunch Wednesday, James Reyerson, a senior special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, told prosecutors that video evidence suggested that Chauvin's left knee was on Floyd's neck.

"It appears as though it's on the back of Mr. Floyd's neck," said Reyerson, the lead investigator in the case.

Reyerson's testimony goes against the defense's argument that Chauvin had his knee on Floyd's shoulder blade and back, not his neck.

Reyerson did agree with prosecutors that Chauvin's right knee appeared to be on Floyd's back.

Defense repeatedly argues Chauvin's weight wasn't fully on Floyd's neck

During cross-examination of the prosecution's use-of-force witness Wednesday, Nelson repeatedly implied or insisted that Chauvin did not have his fully body weight on Floyd's neck but rather had some pressure applied to his back.

Nelson showed footage of Floyd facedown on the ground indicating "Mr. Chauvin's calf appears to be above the shoulder blade," which Stiger agreed with Wednesday.

"And again, here you've got Mr. Chauvin's knee sort of at the base of the neck?"

"Correct. I would agree," Stiger said.

Nelson then showed side-by-side footage from former officer Alex Kueng's body-worn camera and a bystander's Facebook Live video. Nelson argued the perspective of Kueng's body-camera footage showed that Chauvin's knee appeared "more at the base of the neck, in between the shoulder blades."

The defense has revisited the argument several times over the past seven days of testimony that Floyd's death was not directly the result of a neck compression from Chauvin's knee.

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Live updates: Chauvin trial continues with breathing expert saying Floyd died from 'low level of oxygen' after officer had knee on neck for 'vast majority of the time'

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Testimony in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin continued Thursday with a breathing expert saying that George Floyd died due to a "low level of oxygen" that caused brain damage, rebuking the defense's argument that drugs contributed to Floyd's death.

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MEXICALI, Mexico-Thousands of migrant families who enter the U.S. illegally every week and request asylum are freely released in border towns. Thousands more are turned back to Mexico.

Which group they fall into is often not a matter of policy-but luck.

President Joe Biden has said the U.S. is sending most migrant families back across the border, but the treatment of parents with children depends on capacity at holding facilities and shelters on any given day. Border Patrol and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities regularly reach their Covid-19 reduced-capacity limits, while Mexican states routinely block the U.S. from returning families when their own shelters are full, the Biden administration has said.

When that happens, the migrant families are typically released in Texas, Arizona or California, after which they often travel elsewhere to stay with relatives or friends. Some are given instructions to check in with immigration authorities soon after they arrive at their destination, which helps the government keep track of them during an asylum process that can take years.

Others are given only a receipt of their arrest and permission to move on into the interior of the country, according to Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol. Those families are asked to contact immigration authorities after they reach their final destination, but aren't given a report date, CPB said.

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Some Migrant Families Are Released in U.S., While Others Are Sent Back Amid Border Chaos

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MEXICALI, Mexico-Thousands of migrant families who enter the U.S. illegally every week and request asylum are freely released in border towns. Thousands more are turned back to Mexico. Which group they fall into is often not a matter of policy-but luck. President Joe Biden has said the U.S.

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Biden anuncia restricciones limitadas de armas a medida que aumenta la presión tras los tiroteos masivos- Por Kevin Liptak CNN.

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Biden anuncia restricciones limitadas de armas a medida que aumenta la presión tras los tiroteos masivos- Por Kevin Liptak CNN.

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Las acciones ejecutivas, que Biden argumentó repetidamente no afectaron el derecho de portar armas de la Segunda Enmienda, incluyen esfuerzos para restringir las armas conocidas como "armas fantasma" que se pueden construir utilizando piezas e instrucciones compradas en línea.
Biden declaró "Gun violence in this country is an epidemic", "And it's an international embarrassment."

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/08/politics/gun-actions-joe-biden/index.html

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Dos presidentes visitaron Turquía. Solo al hombre se le ofreció una silla

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Dos presidentes visitaron Turquía. Solo al hombre se le ofreció una silla

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¿Desaire o descuido del protocolo? Los analistas dijeron que el gesto que dejó en una posición incómoda a Ursula von der Leyen, presidenta de la Comisión Europea, es un símbolo del trato que da Turquía a las mujeres.

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/04/07/espanol/turquia-Ursula-von-der-Leyen.html

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Fernando Mañon                Biden enviará vacunas excedentes a México, mientras Estados Unidos busca ayuda para controlar la inmigración 

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Fernando Mañon                Biden enviará vacunas excedentes a México, mientras Estados Unidos busca ayuda para controlar la inmigración 

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El gobierno del presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, ha acordado suministrarle a México dosis excedentes de la vacuna contra el coronavirus, mientras México se moviliza para ayudar a Estados Unidos a contener un aumento de la migración en su frontera sur, según altos funcionarios de ambos países involucrados en las conversaciones
Los funcionarios mexicanos y estadounidenses que describieron el acuerdo aseguraron que no se trata de un quid pro quo que condiciona la entrega de vacunas a la aplicación de medidas severas. En cambio, Estados Unidos dejó claro que buscó la ayuda de México para manejar una afluencia récord de adolescentes y niños centroamericanos. México se comprometió a acoger a más familias centroamericanas “expulsadas” por una orden de emergencia de salud de Estados Unidos, mientras al mismo tiempo instó a Biden a compartir el suministro de vacunas de Estados Unidos, dijeron los funcionarios, quienes hablaron bajo condición de anonimato porque no estaban autorizados para discutir las conversaciones.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/es/national-security/2021/03/19/vacunas-astrazeneca-mexico-estados-unidos-migracion-biden-amlo/

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Video: Watch Live: Biden Announces Executive Actions to Fight Gun Violence

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President Biden will announce a series of executive actions his administration will take to address gun violence, after back-to-back mass shootings in recent weeks.

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Biden to Unveil Gun Restrictions Including ‘Ghost Guns’ Measures

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Biden to Unveil Gun Restrictions Including ‘Ghost Guns’ Measures

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El presidente Biden planea revelar nuevas restricciones de armas, incluidas las armas imposibles de rastrear conocidas como armas fantasmas que se pueden fabricar a partir de piezas compradas en línea, y nominará a un alto defensor del control de armas para encabezar la Oficina de Alcohol, Tabaco, Armas de Fuego y Explosivos, dijeron las autoridades.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-unveil-ghost-gun-measures-11617827422?mod=hp_lead_pos6

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Silicon Valley industrial designer Ben Tang was walking in a park with his 6-year-old daughter about a year ago when a group of young men passed by and spat at them.

The incident left him feeling frustrated, he said. In the two decades since he had moved from China and later became an American citizen, he had experienced racism in the U.S. but never felt unsafe. Now he felt like he needed to be extra vigilant when he was out walking with his children.

His tipping point came in March, when a gunman killed eight people at three Atlanta-area spas, including six women of Asian descent. It spurred a realization: "If you don't speak out, nobody will hear you," he said.

Days later he attended his first ever political rally, in San Jose, Calif., in protest against anti-Asian violence. Thousands of other Asian-Americans came out in cities across the country that weekend, and many took to social media to voice support and raise awareness of recent anti-Asian hate crimes. For many of them, it was the first time they had been moved to publicly express the frustrations and fears that have been growing over the past year as hate crimes against Asian-Americans increased.

Some first-generation Asian immigrants are speaking openly with their children for the first time about racism and what it means to be a minority in the U.S., a change after years of espousing an immigrant ethos that dictates that they work hard and stay out of trouble.

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Violence Spurs Many Asian-Americans to Activism for First Time

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Silicon Valley industrial designer Ben Tang was walking in a park with his 6-year-old daughter about a year ago when a group of young men passed by and spat at them. The incident left him feeling frustrated, he said.

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Iñigo

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Farhan Towhid, 19, and Tanvir Towhid, 21, shot their parents, sister and grandmother before killing themselves after forming a suicide pact, police said. The grandmother is not pictured. (Bangladesh Association of North Texas)

The lengthy note from Farhan Towhid, a 19-year-old Texan,went up on Instagram over the weekend, beginning with an alarming claim: "Hey everyone. I killed myself and my family."

When a family friend saw the 11-page letter, they quickly called police to request a wellness check, warning that Towhid was suicidal.

On early Monday, police forced their way into the red brick house in Allen, Tex. Inside, they found six people dead: Farhan Towhid; his brother, Tanvir Towhid, 21; his father, Towhidul Islam, 54; his mother, Iren Islam, 56; his grandmother Altafun Nessa, 77; and his 19-year-old twin sister, Farbin Towhid.

They had all been shot to death, police said, by Farhan and Tanvir Towhid as part of a suicide pact the pair hadplanned out for over a month.

"It looks like the two ... sons entered into an agreement that they were going to [die by] suicide and that they were going to take their family members with them," Allen Police Department Sgt. Jon Felty told KRLD.

Police have not confirmed when the deaths took place but said it is likely the brothers killed their family members on Saturday night.

The mass killing of the family, which moved to the United States from Bangladesh about 15 years ago, left friends and neighbors in shock.

"We just can't believe it happened to this family," family friend Sied Chowdhury, 60, told The Washington Post. "They are a very loving family. We didn't see anything wrong with the family, any problems."

The Towhid family first settled in New York before moving to Allen, a northern suburb of Dallas, Chowdhury said. Towhidul, the father, worked in information technology while his wife, Iren, took care of the house and their children. A neighbor told the Dallas Morning News that Altafun, the grandmother, was visiting from Bangladesh and was scheduled to return home last week, but her flight got postponed because of the pandemic.

Farbin, Farhan's twin sister, had recently accepted a full scholarship to attend New York University, KDFW reported.

According to Farhan's note on Instagram, he and his brother Tanvir had struggled with mental illness for years.

Farhan wrote that he had suffered from depression since the ninth grade and had repeatedly harmed himself. His family had tried to help him, but he said that his mental health issues had recently worsened. He had been studying computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, he wrote, but was expelled from his dorm in the winter after telling a roommate that he planned to kill his family.

He moved home, where Tanvir, whom he described as "depressed and socially anxious," was staying.

Eventually, the pair decided to kill their family and then themselves, he wrote. "Instead of having to deal with the aftermath of my suicide, I could just do them a favor and take them with me," the note reads.

The pair bought guns, he wrote, adding that "gun control in the U.S. is a joke" because the pair lied when asked if they were suffering from mental illness. Police did not confirm how many guns were used in the shooting, adding that Tanvir was able to legally purchase a gun "recently," KXAS reported.

It is unclear when exactly Farhan allegedly posted the note to Instagram, but police said officers arrived at the home around 1 a.m. on Monday.

"We have never had an incident like this in the 21 years that I've been here," Felty told KXAS. "It's just a tragedy. There's no other way to describe it."

Felty said none of the neighbors reported hearing gunshots and that police received no reports of gunfire in the area. The family had never reported any issues to the police, he added.

Chowdhury said the Bangladeshi community in the area is still grappling with the news. The loss of the family, which was active in the Bangladesh Association of North Texas, leaves a void in the tightknit community.

The association's general secretary, Nahida Ali, called the news "horrific" and "shocking" in a Facebook post on Monday. The University of Texas at Austin also mourned the death of the brothers, whom the university described as former students.

"Today we received extremely sad news about the deaths of two former students," the university said in a statement shared with KTVT. "The news is devastating to our university. We express our deepest sympathies to their extended family and friends."

Some members of the Bangladeshi community arrived at the scene early on Monday morning and did not leave until the family's bodies were removed from the home around 6 p.m., Chowdhury said.

"I've never seen a crime like this," Chowdhury said. "This is hard to swallow. They had a lot of friends in the neighborhood. It's pretty heartbreaking for the community."

If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255). You can also text a crisis counselor by messaging the Crisis Text Line at 741741.

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Six family members shot to death in Texas after brothers formed murder-suicide pact, police said

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The lengthy note from Farhan Towhid, a 19-year-old Texan,went up on Instagram over the weekend, beginning with an alarming claim: "Hey everyone. I killed myself and my family." When a family friend saw the 11-page letter, they quickly called police to request a wellness check, warning that Towhid was suicidal.

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Ha llegado el momento de la verdad para el acuerdo nuclear con Irán

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Ha llegado el momento de la verdad para el acuerdo nuclear con Irán

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El momento de la verdad está aquí, en una sala de conferencias de Viena, donde el E3 + 2 del acuerdo nuclear (Reino Unido, Francia, Alemania, Rusia y China) e Irán se sentarán y conversarán sobre lo que viene a continuación.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/06/middleeast/iran-nuclear-deal-intl-cmd/index.html

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Nearly every U.S. state has now announced plans for when all adult residents will be eligible to be vaccinated - meeting, and in some cases, beating, President Biden's target date of April 19.

The U.S. vaccination campaign has steadily picked up pace: More than three million doses are being given on average each day, compared with well under one million when Mr. Biden took office in January, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every state has now given at least one dose to a quarter or more of its population. About 62.4 million people - 19 percent of Americans - have been fully vaccinated.

"Today, we are pleased to announce another acceleration of the vaccine eligibility phases to earlier than anticipated," Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said on Monday, announcing that all Maryland residents 16 or older would be eligible from Tuesday for a vaccine at the state's mass vaccination sites, and from April 19 at any vaccine provider in the state.

Also on Monday, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said residents 16 or older in his state would be eligible on April 19. Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington said later on Monday that city residents 16 or older would also be eligible on April 19.

That leaves two states, Oregon and Hawaii, keeping to Mr. Biden's original deadline of May 1. Their governors did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether they would broaden eligibility sooner, but Gov. Kate Brown of Oregon announced on Monday that all frontline workers and their families, as well as those 16 or older with underlying health conditions, would be eligible immediately.

In Hawaii, 34 percent of residents have received at least one dose; in Oregon, the figure is 31 percent. Alabama has vaccinated the lowest proportion of its residents, at 25 percent.

But as Ms. Brown noted in her announcement about eligibility - and as experts have warned for weeks - "we're in a race between vaccines and variants."

Along with dangerous coronavirus variants that were identified in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, new mutations have continued to pop up in the United States, from California to New York to Oregon.

The shots will eventually win, scientists say, but because each infection gives the coronavirus a chance to evolve further, vaccinations must proceed as fast as possible.

As that race continues, the optimism sown by the steady pace of vaccinations may be threatening to undermine the progress the nation has made. Scientists also fear Americans could let their guard down too soon as warmer weather draws them outside and case levels drop far below the devastating surge this winter.

Cases are now rising sharply in parts of the country, with some states offering a stark reminder that the pandemic is far from over: New cases in Michigan have increased 112 percent and hospitalizations have increased 108 percent over the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database.

The United States is averaging more than 64,000 new cases each day, an 18 percent increase from two weeks earlier. That's well below the peak of more than 250,000 new cases daily in January, but on par with last summer's surge after reopenings in some states, like Arizona, where patrons packed into clubs as hospital beds filled up. The United States is averaging more than 800 Covid-19 deaths each day, the lowest level since November.

Yet again, governors across the country have lifted precautions like mask mandates and capacity limits on businesses. Medical experts have warned that these moves are premature, and Mr. Biden has urged governors to reinstate the restrictions.

Travel is up again, too, with more than one million people passing through airport security each day in the United States since March 11, according to the Transportation Security Administration. On Sunday, more than 1.5 million people passed through T.S.A. checkpoints. The C.D.C. said last week that fully vaccinated Americans could travel domestically with low risk, but should still follow precautions like wearing masks.

North Korea said on Tuesday that it had decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The North's national Olympic Committee decided at a March 25 meeting that its delegation would skip the Olympics "in order to protect our athletes from the global health crisis caused by the malicious virus infection," according to Sports in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, a government-run website.

It is the first Summer Olympics that the North has missed since 1988, when they were held in Seoul, the South Korean capital.

North Korea, which has a decrepit public health system, has taken stringent measures against the virus since early last year, including shutting its borders. The country officially maintains that it has no virus cases, but outside health experts are skeptical.

North Korea's decision deprives South Korea and other nations of a rare opportunity to establish official contact with the isolated country. Officials in the South had hoped that the Olympics - to be held from July 23 to Aug. 8 - might provide a venue for senior delegates from both Koreas to discuss issues beyond sports.

The 2018 Winter Olympics, held in the South Korean city of Pyeongchang, offered similar hope for easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Yo-jong, the only sister of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, grabbed global attention when she attended the opening ceremony, becoming the first member of the Kim family to cross the border into South Korea.

Mr. Kim used the North's participation in the Pyeongchang Olympics as a signal to start diplomacy after a series of nuclear and long-range missile tests. Inter-Korean dialogue soon followed, leading to three summit meetings between Mr. Kim and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea. Mr. Kim also met three times with President Donald J. Trump.

But since the collapse of Mr. Kim's diplomacy with Mr. Trump in 2019, North Korea has shunned official contact with South Korea or the United States. The pandemic has deepened the North's diplomatic isolation and economic difficulties amid concerns over its nuclear ambitions. North Korea launched two ballistic missiles on March 25 in its first such test in a year, in a challenge to President Biden.

Since North Korea's first Olympic appearance in 1972, it has participated in every Summer Games except for the Los Angeles event in 1984, when it joined a Soviet-led boycott, and in 1988, when South Korea played host. North Korean athletes have won 16 gold medals, mostly in weight lifting, wrestling, gymnastics, boxing and judo, consistently citing the ruling Kim family as inspiration.

The Tokyo Games were originally scheduled for 2020 but were delayed by a year because of the pandemic. The organizing committee has been scrambling to develop safety protocols to protect both participants and local residents. But as a series of health, economic and political challenges have arisen, large majorities in Japan now say in polls that the Games should not be held this summer.

Even though organizers have barred international spectators,epidemiologists warn the Olympics could still become a superspreader event. Thousands of athletes and other participants will descend on Tokyo from more than 200 countries while much of the Japanese public remains unvaccinated.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand announced on Tuesday that her nation would establish a travel bubble with Australia, allowing travelers to move between the countries without needing to quarantine for the first time since the pandemic began.

The bubble, which will open just before midnight on April 19, is expected to deliver a boost to tourism and to families that have been separated since both countries enacted strict border closures and lockdown measures that have all but eliminated local transmission of the coronavirus.

The announcement came after months of negotiations and setbacks, as Australia battled small outbreaks and officials in both countries weighed testing requirements and other safety protocols.

"The director general of health considers the risk of transmission of Covid-19 from Australia to New Zealand is low and that quarantine-free travel is safe to commence," Ms. Ardern said at a news conference.

Since last year, Australia has permitted travelers from New Zealand to bypass its hotel quarantine requirements. New Zealand's decision to reciprocate makes the two countries among the first places in the world to set up such a bubble, following a similar announcement last week by Taiwan and the Pacific island nation of Palau.

Australians flying to New Zealand will be required to have spent the previous 14 days in Australia, to wear a mask on the plane and, if possible, to use New Zealand's Covid-19 contact tracing app. In the event of an outbreak in Australia, New Zealand could impose additional restrictions, including shutting down travel to a particular Australian state or imposing quarantine requirements, Ms. Ardern said.

She warned that the new requirements would not necessarily free up many spaces in New Zealand's overwhelmed hotel quarantine system, which has a weekslong backlog for New Zealanders wishing to book a space to return home. Of the roughly 1,000 slots that would now become available every two weeks, around half would be set aside as a contingency measure, while most of the others would not be appropriate for travelers from higher-risk countries, Ms. Ardern said.

Before New Zealand closed its borders to international visitors in March 2020, its tourism industry employed nearly 230,000 people and contributed 41.9 billion New Zealand dollars ($30.2 billion) to economic output, according to the country's tourism board. Most of the roughly 3.8 million foreign tourists who visited New Zealand over a 12-month period between 2018 and 2019 came from Australia.

Ms. Ardern encouraged Australians to visit New Zealand's ski areas, and said she would be conducting interviews with Australian media outlets this week to promote New Zealand as a tourism destination.

The bubble would also make it easier for the more than 500,000 New Zealanders who live in Australia to visit their families.

"It is ultimately a change of scene that so many have been looking for," Ms. Ardern said, addressing Australians. "You may not have been in long periods of lockdown, but you haven't had the option. Now you have the option, come and see us."

There was no need to pipe in crowd noise at Globe Life Field on Monday, as the Texas Rangers hosted the Toronto Blue Jays in front of the largest crowd at a sporting event in the United States in more than a year.

From the long lines of fans waiting to get into the stadium to the persistent buzz of the spectators during quiet moments, the game in Arlington, Texas, was a throwback to a time before the coronavirus crippled the country.

"It felt like a real game," Rangers Manager Chris Woodward said. "It felt like back to the old days when we had full capacity."

The official crowd of 38,238 fans, which was announced as a sellout, represented 94.8 percent of the stadium's 40,300-seat capacity. It topped the Daytona 500 (which allowed slightly more than 30,000 fans) and the Super Bowl (24,835), both of which were held in February, as the largest crowd at a U.S. sporting event since the pandemic began last year.

The lifting of capacity restrictions in Texas made the enormous crowd possible. And for Major League Baseball, which claims its teams collectively lost billions during a largely fanless 2020 season, it was a hopeful sign that large crowds can return to all of the league's games before too long. The open question is whether such events can be safe as the pandemic continues.

M.L.B. requires all fans over age 2 to wear masks at games this season, but a large percentage of the fans in Arlington went maskless. That will undoubtedly raise fears of the event resulting in a spike in coronavirus cases.

Garment workers in factories producing clothes and shoes for companies like Nike, Walmart and Benetton have seen their jobs disappear in the past 12 months, as major brands in the United States and Europe canceled or refused to pay for orders after the pandemic took hold and suppliers resorted to mass layoffs or closures.

Most garment workers earn chronically low wages, and few have any savings. Which means the only thing standing between them and dire poverty are legally mandated severance benefits that are often owed upon termination, wherever the workers are in the world.

According to a new report from the Worker Rights Consortium, however, garment workers are being denied some or all of these wages.

The study identified 31 export garment factories in nine countries where, the authors concluded, a total of 37,637 workers who were laid off did not receive the full severance pay they legally earned, a collective $39.8 million.

According to Scott Nova, the group's executive director, the report covers only about 10 percent of global garment factory closures with mass layoffs in the last year. The group is investigating an additional 210 factories in 18 countries, leading the authors to estimate that the final data set will detail 213 factories with severance pay violations affecting more than 160,000 workers owed $171.5 million.

"Severance wage theft has been a longstanding problem in the garment industry, but the scope has dramatically increased in the last year," Mr. Nova said. He added that the figures were likely to rise as economic aftershocks related to the pandemic continued to unfold across the retail industry. He believes the lost earnings could total between $500 million and $850 million.

The report's authors say the only realistic solution to the crisis would be the creation of a so-called severance guarantee fund. The initiative, devised in conjunction with 220 unions and other labor rights organizations, would be financed by mandatory payments from signatory brands that could then be leveraged in cases of large-scale nonpayment of severance by a factory or supplier.

Several household names implicated in the report made money during the pandemic. Amazon, for example, reported an increase in net profit of 84 percent in 2020, while Inditex, the parent company of Zara, made 11.4 billion euros, about $13.4 billion, in gross profit. Nike, Next and Walmart all also had healthy earnings.

Some industry experts believe the purchasing practices of the industry's power players are a major contributor to the severance pay crisis. The overwhelming majority of fashion retailers do not own their own production facilities, instead contracting with factories in countries where labor is cheap. The brands dictate prices, often squeezing suppliers to offer more for less, and can shift sourcing locations at will. Factory owners in developing countries say they are forced to operate on minimal margins, with few able to afford better worker wages or investments in safety and severance.

"The onus falls on the supplier," said Genevieve LeBaron, a professor at the University of Sheffield in England who focuses on international labor standards. "But there is a reason the spotlight keeps falling on larger actors further up the supply chain. Their behavior can impact the ability of factories to deliver on their responsibilities."

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Covid-19 Live Updates: U.S. Vaccinations Accelerate as Variants Linger

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Nearly every U.S. state has now announced plans for when all adult residents will be eligible to be vaccinated - meeting, and in some cases, beating, President Biden's target date of April 19. The U.S.

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Texas to ban government-mandated ‘vaccine passports’

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Texas to ban government-mandated ‘vaccine passports’

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/06/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/

Patricio Jones

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Amazon’s Clashes With Labor: Days of Conflict and Control

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Amazon’s Clashes With Labor: Days of Conflict and Control

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Amazon was built on an underdog philosophy, but its workers are finding a voice. That presents a problem for the company that goes far beyond the union vote in Alabama.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/05/technology/amazon-control-bathroom-breaks.html

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Shooting in Maryland Leaves Two Injured and Suspect Dead, Frederick Police Say

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Shooting in Maryland Leaves Two Injured and Suspect Dead, Frederick Police Say

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El personal de emergencia respondió a un tiroteo en Frederick, Maryland, el martes por la mañana.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/maryland-shooting-leaves-two-injured-suspect-dead-11617719578

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ARVADA, Colo.-Police have identified a 21-year-old man from a Denver suburb as the gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket on Monday.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of Arvada opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at the supermarket killing people ranging from 20 to 65 years of age, including a Boulder police officer, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

He has been charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.

The suspected gunman was shot in the leg during a gunbattle with police responding to the shooting, Chief Herold said. He is currently hospitalized and officials said they expect him to be booked into the Boulder jail later Tuesday.

Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said investigators hadn't identified a motive in the attack.

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Boulder Grocery Store Shooting Suspect Charged With 10 Counts of Murder

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ARVADA, Colo.-Police have identified a 21-year-old man from a Denver suburb as the gunman who shot and killed 10 people at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket on Monday. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa of Arvada opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon at the supermarket killing people ranging from 20 to 65 years of age, including a Boulder police officer, Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a news conference Tuesday morning.

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Iñigo

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Dozens of emergency response vehicles lined the streets around a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colo., as police responded to an active shooter. Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with customers rushing to exits at the front and back of the store after shots were fired. One witness told local media that the shooter did not say anything before he opened fire.

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Photos from the scene of a shooting at a Boulder grocery store

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Dozens of emergency response vehicles lined the streets around a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colo., as police responded to an active shooter. Witnesses described a chaotic scene, with customers rushing to exits at the front and back of the store after shots were fired.

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Biden impulsa reformas de armas aprobadas por la Cámara a raíz del tiroteo masivo en Colorado- Kevin Liptak.

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Biden impulsa reformas de armas aprobadas por la Cámara a raíz del tiroteo masivo en Colorado- Kevin Liptak.

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Después del tiroteo masivo en colorado, el presidente Biden insta a que la reforma de leyes que controlan la venta de armas sea regulada.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/23/politics/biden-gun-control-colorado-atlanta/index.html

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Supreme Court to Consider Death Sentence in Boston Marathon Bombing Case

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The justices will review a decision from a federal appeals court that overturned the death sentence imposed on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the attack. WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would review an appeals court's decision that threw out the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was convicted of helping carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

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Biden Administration Officials Put Together $3 Trillion Economic Plan

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Biden Administration Officials Put Together $3 Trillion Economic Plan

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Los funcionarios de la administración están elaborando un plan para una infraestructura de múltiples partes y un paquete económico que podría costar hasta $3 trillones y cumplir con elementos clave de la agenda de campaña del presidente Biden, según las personas involucradas en las discusiones. Se espera que el presidente sea informado sobre los detalles del paquete multiparte esta semana.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-officials-put-together-3-trillion-economic-plan-11616443881

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Honduras, un gran dolor de cabeza para Biden

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Honduras, un gran dolor de cabeza para Biden

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El país centroamericano es crítico para Estados Unidos en materia de migración y combate al crimen organizado, pero las estrategias unilaterales de Washington han fracasado. Es hora de buscar soluciones en concierto con la comunidad internacional.

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/03/22/espanol/opinion/honduras-juan-orlando-hernandez.html

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Biden will send Mexico surplus vaccine, as U.S. seeks help on immigration enforcement

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Biden will send Mexico surplus vaccine, as U.S. seeks help on immigration enforcement

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-mexico-immigration-coronavirus-vaccine/2021/03/18/a63a3426-8791-11eb-8a67-f314e5fcf88d_story.html

Patricio Jones

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Iñigo

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Former president Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando in February. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

On Jan. 9, The Post reported that then-President Donald Trump, in a call with Georgia's lead elections investigator, Frances Watson, had instructed her to "find the fraud." He mentioned that she could become a "national hero," reported the newspaper.

In both cases, the quotes were wrong, as The Post has acknowledged in a correction to the story. "Trump did not tell the investigator to 'find the fraud' or say she would be 'a national hero' if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find 'dishonesty' there. He also told her that she had 'the most important job in the country right now,'"reads the correction, in part.

The story landed on top of a tumult with little equal in modern memory: Since Nov. 3, 2020, Trump and his allies have attempted to convince his supporters that Joe Biden stole the election. That lie provided the rhetorical impetus for Trump supporters to storm the Capitol in January just as Congress was taking up the electoral college results.

Evidence of Trump's improper actions regarding those results piled up before and after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Here's the timeline: On Jan. 2, Trump took part in a phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, pressuring him to "'find' enough votes to overturn his defeat." The next day, Post reporter Amy Gardner surfaced a recording of that call. Then, on Jan. 9, Gardner broke the now-corrected story of Trump's call with Watson, which had taken place on Dec. 23. Tracking the phone history of a malfeasant president is a big job.

In a time of much overblown chatter about election irregularities, this call between the president of the United States and a state-level investigator was the real irregularity. "That was an ongoing investigation," Raffensperger told The Post at the time. "I don't believe that an elected official should be involved in that process."

The call happened; it was an abuse of presidential authority; and it failed to corrupt the investigators working under Raffensperger. But Trump wasn't quite the plain-spoken rogue depicted in The Post's story. We know this because the Wall Street Journal's Cameron McWhirter last week published a recording of Trump's six-minute call with Watson.

On the recording, there was no "find the fraud." But there was this: "If you can get to Fulton, you are going to find things that are going to be unbelievable - the dishonesty," said Trump.

There was no "national hero." But there was this: "When the right answer comes out, you'll be praised. ... People will say, 'Great.' Because that's what it's about - that ability to check and to make it right," Trump told Watson.

The Post's account of the call rested on one source - "an individual familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the conversation." Though that source wasn't identified in the Jan. 9 story, The Post did identify her in its follow-up based on the Wall Street Journal scoop: "The Washington Post reported on the substance of Trump's Dec. 23 call in January, describing him saying that Watson should 'find the fraud' and that she would be a 'national hero,' based on an account from Jordan Fuchs, the deputy secretary of state, whom Watson briefed on his comments."

In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog, Fuchs said, "I believe the story accurately reflected the investigator's interpretation of the call. The only mistake here was in the direct quotes, and they should have been more of a summary." Fuchs said that The Post disclosed her role in the story with her permission, and that she'd gotten the debriefing from the investigator - a direct report of hers - "shortly" after the call from Trump concluded.

"I think it's pretty absurd for anybody to suggest that the president wasn't urging the investigator to 'find the fraud,'" Fuchs added, "These are quotes that [Watson] told me at the time."

The New York Times quickly matched The Post's reporting, including the inaccurate quotes. It added a correction on Monday. CNN has appended this editor's note to its story: "An earlier version of this story, published January 9, presented paraphrasing of the President's comments to the Georgia elections investigator as direct quotes. The story has been updated following the discovery of an audio recording of the call." ABC News dealt with the issue via an editor's note.

We asked The Post about claims that the newspaper's action amounts to a retraction and about its reliance on one source for the quotes. In a statement, The Post responded:

We corrected the story and published a separate news story last week - at the top of our site and on the front page - after we learned that our source had not been precise in relaying then President Trump's words. We are not retracting our January story because it conveyed the substance of Trump's attempt to influence the work of Georgia's elections investigators.

That, it did. Misreporting the words of the highest elected official in the land is a serious lapse - and one that, in this case, seems so unnecessary: The existence of the call itself is a towering exclusive. When it comes to phone calls, the only good sources are the ones who are dialed in. The former president's partisans will attempt to memorialize The Post's story as a fabrication or "fake news." But a central fact remains: As the Journal's recording attests, Trump behaved with all the crooked intent and suggestion that he brought to every other crisis of his presidency.

Read more from Erik Wemple:

President Biden heals America by muting Tucker Carlson

Failed prosecution of Iowa reporter was an attack on journalism

Judge tosses absurd Trump campaign lawsuit against the New York Times

Fox Corp. chief advances fiction that Fox News is just a mirror image of MSNBC

Tucker Carlson: Capitol riot wasn't racist! FBI: Uh, wrong.

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Opinion | The Post publishes correction on Trump call with Georgia investigator

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On Jan. 9, The Post reported that then-President Donald Trump, in a call with Georgia's lead elections investigator, Frances Watson, had instructed her to "find the fraud." He mentioned that she could become a "national hero," reported the newspaper. In both cases, the quotes were wrong, as The Post has acknowledged in a correction to the story.

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Cuatro grandes mentiras sobre las vacunas contra el Covid-19
Ahora que las campañas de vacunación contra el Covid-19 son un hecho, las noticias falsas alrededor de las vacunas son aún más recurrentes en Internet. El antídoto no fue la causa de las nuevas variantes del virus y el fármaco tampoco se puede conseguir a través de las redes sociales
https://www.google.com.mx/amp/s/amp.france24.com/es/programas/revista-digital/20210210-mentiras-vacunas-covid19-fakenews-redes-sociales

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-israel-delivered-the-worlds-fastest-vaccine-rollout-11616080968?mod=hp_lead_pos10

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TEL AVIV-In the world's fastest coronavirus vaccine rollout to date, Israel has given at least one shot to nearly 60% of its residents, a feat propelled by an ample supply of doses and an uncommon healthcare system that combines competition with tax-funded universal coverage.

Israel, a small, wealthy nation with a young population, was uniquely qualified to confront the pandemic: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secured enough vaccine stocks by paying more, as well as by offering access to Israelis' personal health data to gauge the vaccine's effectiveness. Its healthcare system had the means to quickly deliver the shots into the arms of Israelis.

The country's four health-management organizations used centralized data-keeping, technology and the cradle-to-grave ties between Israelis and their doctors to speed up the vaccination drive, targeting residents nationwide with text messages, emails and phone calls. The efficiencies of Israel's HMOs have been honed by years of competing for patients-and for the tax revenue gained by adding each new member-as they try to outdo each other in quality and availability of care.

"It's really a unique structure," said economist Moshe Bar Siman Tov, who oversaw Israel's coronavirus response last year. "I'm not sure it's possible to duplicate it. It's a mixture of socialist fundamentals and entrepreneurial spirit."

Israel's bars and restaurants reopened last week to vaccinated people, prompting street parties in Tel Aviv, and the country is now looking ahead to a broader economic rebound.

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How Israel Delivered the World's Fastest Vaccine Rollout

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TEL AVIV-In the world's fastest coronavirus vaccine rollout to date, Israel has given at least one shot to nearly 60% of its residents, a feat propelled by an ample supply of doses and an uncommon healthcare system that combines competition with tax-funded universal coverage.

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AstraZeneca's Covid-19 Vaccine Is Cleared by Europe After Blood-Clot Concerns

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The European Union's health agency said Thursday a new expert analysis concluded that the benefits of using a Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca PLC outweigh its potential risks and inoculations with it should proceed. The European Medicines Agency's safety committee found the vaccine to be "safe and effective in preventing Covid-19, and its benefits outweigh its risk," said committee chair Sabine Straus.

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The Kremlin described the U.S. president's response to an interview question as "very bad," and recalled its ambassador to "analyze what needs to be done" about the countries' relations.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., then vice president, meeting with Vladimir V. Putin, then Russia's prime minister, in 2011. Credit... Maxim Shipenkov/EPA, via Shutterstock

MOSCOW - Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States and unleashed a storm of derision aimed at President Biden after he said in a television interview that he thought President Vladimir V. Putin was a killer.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said late Wednesday that it had summoned its envoy in Washington, Anatoly I. Antonov, to Moscow "in order to analyze what needs to be done in the context of relations with the United States."

"We are interested in preventing an irreversible deterioration in relations, if the Americans become aware of the risks associated with this," the Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria V. Zakharova, said in a statement.

Ms. Zakharova did not specify whether a specific event had prompted the decision to recall Mr. Antonov, but the rare move came as Russian officials reacted with fury to an interview with Mr. Biden aired by ABC News. In the interview, when asked whether he thought Mr. Putin was a "killer," Mr. Biden responded: "Mmm hmm, I do."

Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin's spokesman, described Mr. Biden's comments as "very bad."

"He clearly does not want to improve relations with our country, and we will be proceeding based precisely on this," Mr. Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

Despite Mr. Biden's long-running criticism of Mr. Putin, some Russian analysts had voiced hope that the Kremlin could forge a productive working relationship with the White House on areas of common interest. While Mr. Biden told ABC that he would continue to look for places "where it's in our mutual interest to work together" with Russia, some officials in Moscow responded by dismissing the possibility of any cooperation.

"This is a watershed moment," Konstantin I. Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia's upper house of Parliament, wrote in a post on Facebook on Thursday in reference to Mr. Biden's interview. "Any expectations for the new U.S. administration's new policy toward Russia have been written off by this boorish statement."

Mr. Kosachev warned that Russia would respond further, without specifying how, to Mr. Biden's comments "if explanations and apologies do not follow from the American side."

On state television, news programs devoted extensive airtime to describing Mr. Biden as confused and out of touch, while politicians lined up to voice their anger and threaten a response.

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The Russian Embassy in Washington. Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly I. Antonov, has been summoned to Moscow. Credit... Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Pyotr O. Tolstoy, the deputy chairman of the lower house of Parliament, thundered that "the only language" that Americans understand "is, unfortunately, the language of force." Another senior lawmaker, Andrei A. Turchak, described Mr. Biden's utterance as "a challenge to our entire nation."

Russian officials did not immediately make specific threats. But an escalation of tensions with the West has often accompanied domestic crackdowns by the Kremlin, which claims that the United States is secretly backing opposition politicians in Russia in order to weaken Mr. Putin. For instance, Russia's internet regulator warned this week that it was preparing to block access to Twitter in the country entirely starting in one month, after restricting access to the American social network last week.

Some Western officials accuse Mr. Putin, among other things, of ordering the assassination attempt of his most vocal domestic critic, Aleksei A. Navalny, by a military-grade nerve agent in Siberia last year. Mr. Putin has denied playing any role in that near-deadly poisoning, quipping in December that if Russian agents had wanted to kill the opposition leader, "They would have probably finished the job."

The Russian government has also been linked to attacks on foreign soil, including the poisoning of the former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in 2018 and the shooting death of a former commander of Chechen separatists in Berlin the following year.

Mr. Putin signed a law in 2006 legalizing targeted killings abroad - legislation that Russian lawmakers said at the time was inspired by American and Israeli conduct.

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Russia Erupts in Fury Over Biden's Calling Putin a Killer

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The Kremlin described the U.S. president's response to an interview question as "very bad," and recalled its ambassador to "analyze what needs to be done" about the countries' relations. MOSCOW - Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States and unleashed a storm of derision aimed at President Biden after he said in a television interview that he thought President Vladimir V.

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Senado confirma por estrecho margen a Xavier Becerra como secretario de Salud y Servicios Humanos. Por Alex Rogers de CNN.

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Senado confirma por estrecho margen a Xavier Becerra como secretario de Salud y Servicios Humanos. Por Alex Rogers de CNN.

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Resumen: El senado confirmó a Xavier Becerra como secretario de salud y servicios humanos. Defendió el plan de vacunación como uno suficientemente ambicioso y aseguró que Biden lograría retomar el rumbo en cuanto a la pandemia.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/xavier-becerra-confirmation-vote/index.html

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Texas Grocer H-E-B Is Caught in the Middle of Mask Divide

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Texas Grocer H-E-B Is Caught in the Middle of Mask Divide

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Firm’s messaging shows how lifting the state’s face-covering mandate put some businesses in a bind
https://www.wsj.com/articles/texas-grocer-h-e-b-is-caught-in-the-middle-of-mask-divide-11616059802

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Tiroteo en Atlanta: las claves de los ataques a varios salones de masajes

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Tiroteo en Atlanta: las claves de los ataques a varios salones de masajes

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Las autoridades locales, junto con el FBI, investigan el tiroteo en el que murieron ocho personas, seis de ellas asiáticas.

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/03/17/espanol/tiroteo-atlanta.html

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Iñigo

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience.

A third round of stimulus checks, part of the Biden administration's "American Rescue Plan," has been signed into law.

Use the calculator below to see how large a check you'll receive. If you've already filed your 2020 taxes, the check will most likely be based on that income. If you haven't, it will be based on your 2019 taxes.

The $1.9 trillion bill looks a little different from the legislation originally approved by the House. Provisions for increasing the minimum wage to $15 were struck down by the Senate parliamentarian, and the income eligibility for stimulus payments was narrowed.

[ What's in the Senate's $1.9 trillion covid bill: Checks, unemployment insurance and more]

Americans with income below a certain threshold - $75,000 for individuals, $112,500 for heads of household and $150,000 for couples filing jointly - will each receive $1,400 per person as a direct deposit or mailed check. Households will receive an additional $1,400 for each dependent claimed on their most recent tax filings.

What's different this time

At $1,400 per individual, this will be the largest stimulus check yet for most Americans. The first round paid $1,200, and the second paid $600. Before the Georgia Senate runoff, Biden pushed for a $2,000 stimulus payment. His administration now considers the latest bill and the December checks to be part of the same round of stimulus, for a total of $2,000.

[ Calculate how much you would get from the expanded child tax credit]

As with the last two payments, some Americans will get a partial check if their income is above the threshold. However, these amounts will phase out much faster than in the past two coronavirus relief bills. That means that some Americans who received money in the first two rounds of checks won't get anything this time.

Stimulus check phaseout for single tax filers

[ Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty in defining move of presidency]

The narrowed eligibility was a concession from Biden to moderate Democrats, whose votes were needed for passage of the bill in a closely divided Senate.

Unlike the first round of checks, dependents will get the same amount as adults. The first round gave just $500 per dependent vs. $1,200 for adults. The second round gave $600 to everyone.

In addition to the stimulus checks, the massive economic package extends unemployment benefits into September, increases the child tax credit, and reserves billions for state and local aid, coronavirus testing and vaccinations, and other provisions such as rental aid and food assistance.

correction

A previous version of this page miscalculated how stimulus checks for dependents would phase out.
Ashlyn Still is a graphics reporter on the elections team. Leslie Shapiro has been a Graphics Reporter for The Washington Post since 2016, focusing on data visualization and new media storytelling.

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Calculate how much you would get from the $1,400 (or more) coronavirus checks

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Warning: This graphic requires JavaScript. Please enable JavaScript for the best experience. A third round of stimulus checks, part of the Biden administration's "American Rescue Plan," has been signed into law. Use the calculator below to see how large a check you'll receive.

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/16/europe/who-astrazeneca-europe-coronavirus-tuesday-intl/index.html

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Russia hopes to boost its image worldwide with the Sputnik V vaccine. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Buried deep in the dry, 72-page annual report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lay a startling admission: U.S. health officials under former president Donald Trump worked to convince Brazil to reject Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.

The document, released in January, drew little attention at first. But that changed on Monday when the official Twitter account for the Sputnik V vaccine posted a screenshot of the previously-overlooked claim, and criticized the United States for effectively blocking Russia's attempts at vaccine diplomacy.

"We believe countries should work together to save lives," the tweet read. "Efforts to undermine the vaccines are unethical and are costing lives."

Brazil, which has the second-highest coronavirus death toll worldwide, has struggled to obtain adequate vaccine supplies. But the Health Attaché office within HHS's Office of Global Affairs pushed the country to turn down offers of help from the Russians last year, according to the report.

Under a section titled "Combating malign influences in the Americas," the HHS report states that countries including Russia "are working to increase their influence in the region to the detriment of US safety and security." The global affairs office coordinated with other U.S. government agencies "to dissuade countries in the region from accepting aid from these ill-intentioned states," it says.

In a Monday night statement, the U.S. Embassy in Brazil said that its diplomats "have never discouraged Brazil from accepting vaccines against Covid-19 that have been authorized by their respective regulatory bodies." But that response didn't amount to a full denial, since Brazilian regulators have yet to approve the Sputnik V vaccine.

In a statement, Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "the Embassy of Brazil in Washington has not received consultations or actions from United States authorities or companies regarding the possible purchase, by Brazil, of the Russian vaccine against Covid-19."

Negotiations over vaccine purchases "have been guided by principles such as the sense of urgency and the sovereign choice of suppliers," the statement said.

A Kremlin spokesman declined to comment directly on the HHS report on Tuesday, according to Reuters, but said that Sputnik V was never given a fair chance to succeed because so many countries are being urged not to buy it.

"In many countries the scale of pressure is quite unprecedented," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying.

Did we underestimate Russia's vaccine?

Initial skepticism toward Russia's coronavirus vaccine was rooted in more than just politics: The shot was released before it could undergo the extensive vetting that most countries require. But despite the early lack of safety and efficacy data, it's now been approved in more than a dozen countries. A recent peer-review study in respected British medical journal The Lancet found that its efficacy was on par with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

And with wealthier nations hoarding so-called "Western" vaccines, a growing number of nations have turned to Russia, giving the Kremlin an image boost worldwide.

Even Brazil has gotten on board, despite the apparent pressure and the fact that its regulators still haven't signed off. Last week, the government announced that it had reached a deal to buy 10 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.

The federal government announced its purchase of the Sputnik V vaccine one day after state governors had signed a deal with Russia to bring almost four times more doses to Brazil.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his government have faced widespread criticism over slow negotiations to purchase vaccines from foreign companies. Bolsonaro has repeatedly dismissed the threat posed by covid-19 over the past year.

MEanwhile, the virus continues to spread rapidly in the country, straining an already overburdened health care system. Only 2.3 percent of the population has received the two doses of the AstraZeneca or Sinovac vaccine.

Heloísa Traiano in Rio de Janeiro contributed to this report.

Updated March 11, 2021

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U.S. officials pushed Brazil to reject Russia's coronavirus vaccine, according to HHS report

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Buried deep in the dry, 72-page annual report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lay a startling admission: U.S. health officials under former president Donald Trump worked to convince Brazil to reject Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. The document, released in January, drew little attention at first.

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JPMorgan Chase is currently planning for summer interns in New York and London to come to the office this year, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday, as big financial firms anticipate a return to something approaching normality and the pandemic starts to loosen its hold on the workplace.

The plan to bring back in-person internships in July is another sign that corporate giants believe a version of pre-pandemic working life is near. JPMorgan usually hires hundreds of summer interns each year, and last year's class, as at most Wall Street firms, was virtual.

In London, the bank plans to let its teams start bringing in employees on March 29, when the British government will end "stay at home" rules imposed in December, according to one of the people briefed on the matter. But in-person staffing will not surpass 50 percent of a building's capacity, and teams are likely to rely on scheduled rotations of employees.

Big banks, more than many other industries, have been eager to re-establish some level of in-office working, but are wrestling with when and how to do it. Leaders like Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive, and David Solomon, his counterpart at Goldman Sachs, have expressed worries that prolonged remote working could hurt businesses like trading and fray corporate cultures.

"This is not ideal for us and it's not a new normal," Mr. Solomon said at an industry conference in February. "It's an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible."

Both JPMorgan and Goldman were among the banks that moved to bring more workers back to the office last summer, though they were forced to ask employees to self-isolate after workers tested positive for Covid-19 cases.

In New York, JPMorgan teams have been allowed to bring some employees into the office at their discretion, in keeping with government rules.

News of JPMorgan's internship plans was reported earlier by Financial News.

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JPMorgan Chase is planning for summer interns to go to the office.

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JPMorgan Chase is currently planning for summer interns in New York and London to come to the office this year, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday, as big financial firms anticipate a return to something approaching normality and the pandemic starts to loosen its hold on the workplace.

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How many doses of the vaccine have been delivered and administered
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tracking-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-11611355360

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The New York governor has been abandoned by top Democrats in his state, but the president is asking for investigations to proceed before passing judgment.

Should he become drawn into the turmoil surrounding Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, President Biden could encourage him to resign or to not seek a fourth term in 2022. Credit... Amr Alfiky/The New York Times

So far, President Biden has only made a passing comment on the crises that have engulfed Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and he seems to be hoping to avoid getting pulled in any further.

But as a longtime friend of the New York governor, Mr. Biden is one of the only people in the nation with the potential to prevent a protracted standoff between an increasingly isolated Mr. Cuomo and the rest of the Democratic Party. That has strained Mr. Biden's efforts to stay firmly on the sidelines as the governor faces a fusillade of calls to resign.

Mr. Cuomo is confronting a spiraling set of allegations and investigations involving sexual harassment, a toxic workplace, the manipulation of the number of deaths at New York nursing homes and perceived loyalty tests from the governor's vaccine czar.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Cuomo have not spoken, people close to both men said. Asked on Sunday night whether Mr. Cuomo should resign, Mr. Biden said only, "I think the investigation is underway, and we should see what it brings us."

The governor and his allies have urged people to wait for the results of the investigations to buy time, in the hope of stabilizing Mr. Cuomo's support. And Mr. Biden appears inclined to give him that time - at least for now.

But a prolonged period of intraparty sparring over Mr. Cuomo's future could be problematic for Mr. Biden. It threatens to distract from his early initiatives, including mass vaccination efforts and his party's imperative to sell the public on the nearly $2 trillion stimulus package Mr. Biden signed into law last week.

The New York Times and Washington Post reported over the weekend that Larry Schwartz, the governor's vaccine czar and a longtime lieutenant, had tried to assess the loyalty of county executives to Mr. Cuomo during phone calls about vaccine distribution - drawing particular attention at the White House on Monday.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said that the reports were "concerning" and that Mr. Schwartz's calls were "inappropriate reported behavior."

The calls prompted one executive to file a preliminary complaint with the state attorney general office's public integrity bureau. Mr. Schwartz denied that he discussed vaccines in a political context.

Ms. Psaki insisted there were "checks" in the system to prevent the vaccine from being distributed based on favoritism.

On Tuesday, the White House will hold its weekly call on the coronavirus with the National Governors Association, which Mr. Cuomo typically leads as chairman of the group. "I would expect to join the call tomorrow; we'll leave that up to him," Ms. Psaki said.

Both of New York's senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, called for Mr. Cuomo to resign last Friday, along with most of the state's Democratic congressional delegation. One factor in the timing for members of Congress who made their announcements in quick succession was the desire not to overshadow Mr. Biden's signing the pandemic relief package, according to people involved in the discussions.

Mr. Cuomo was surprised by the statement from Ms. Gillibrand and Mr. Schumer; he had believed earlier that day that they would not join the calls against him, according to someone familiar with his thinking.

Still, the governor has flatly refused to contemplate resignation while questioning the motives of the women who have accused him of sexual harassment, invoking "cancel culture," a favorite Republican talking point, as he dug in on Friday.

"There's a job to do, and New Yorkers elected the governor to do it," Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Mr. Cuomo, said Monday. "He remains focused on vaccine distribution and a state budget that's due in two weeks, and we're thankful for the help that the White House has provided on both those fronts."

During the presidential campaign, Mr. Biden successfully avoided getting dragged into controversies that didn't directly relate to him. But the bullying behavior Mr. Cuomo is accused of is contrary to the standard Mr. Biden has set for his own White House.

There are currently two investigations into the sexual harassment allegations against Mr. Cuomo, one overseen by the state attorney general's office and another by the State Assembly.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Cuomo have taken different paths when accused of inappropriate conduct. When Mr. Biden in 2020 was accused of sexual assault by a woman who had worked in his Senate office decades earlier, he denied her allegation but did not impugn her motives. Mr. Cuomo defensively has suggested that some of his accusers may have malevolent motivations.

A senior administration official said Mr. Biden's desire to stay away is driven partly by his personal relationship with Mr. Cuomo and partly by pragmatism.

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Both of New York's senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, have called on Mr. Cuomo to resign. Credit... Pete Marovich for The New York Times

Should he eventually become drawn into the issue, Mr. Biden's options range from encouraging Mr. Cuomo to resign to asking him not to run for office again in 2022, as the governor has indicated he still plans to do.

"Biden has a long friendship with Cuomo, and I think he and [Nancy] Pelosi and others are clearly hoping the situation will resolve itself through this investigative process, and they're giving him that much leash, but how tenable that will be over time is very questionable," said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

While it would be an extraordinary move for Mr. Biden to intervene, there is precedent for a Democratic president wading into a messy situation involving a New York governor of his own party. In 2009, Mr. Obama delivered a message through intermediaries to then-Gov. David Paterson that he wanted him not to run for another term the following year.

Mr. Paterson, mired in constant controversy, had become an unwanted distraction for the Obama administration; he soon announced he would not run again, opening the way for Mr. Cuomo to run in 2010.

But there was a significant difference between Mr. Paterson and Mr. Cuomo: Mr. Paterson's poll numbers were dismal, at 21 percent approval in June 2009, and threatened the Democrats' hold on a seat that a Republican, George Pataki, had held for three terms, until 2006.

Mr. Cuomo has much stronger support from his constituents. A new Siena College poll on Monday showed that only 35 percent of New York voters want Mr. Cuomo to resign immediately (and only 25 percent of Democrats), though the survey was taken mostly before the wave of congressional demands for him to quit.

Still, support for Mr. Cuomo has eroded significantly from the highs of his coronavirus press briefings in the spring of 2020 - when he hit 71 percent approval - and even from February, when his approval among all voters was 56 percent in a Siena College poll.

His current approval rating, 43 percent, is lower than his disapproval rating, 45 percent. Among Democrats, however, his support remains high, at 59 percent, the survey showed, and 61 percent among Black voters.

A prolonged period of intraparty sparring over Mr. Cuomo's future could distract from the president's early initiatives. Credit... Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times

Already, a majority of state legislators - and more than 40 percent of Democratic lawmakers in Albany - have called for Mr. Cuomo's resignation. The State Assembly has launched an impeachment inquiry, and beyond Mr. Biden, the politician with the most control over Mr. Cuomo's fate is the Assembly speaker, Carl E. Heastie, who will determine if and when to proceed.

Impeaching and removing a governor is a serious undertaking, and Mr. Cuomo can hope that it is too big a leap even for those who signed a letter urging his resignation.

"Calling the Legislature's bluff on an impeachment vote, he recognizes casting a vote for impeachment is a heavy vote for many to make," said Bakari Sellers, a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, who voted to impeach then-Gov. Mark Sanford in 2009. (Mr. Sanford was eventually censured.)

"The state is about to be flush with Covid cash," Mr. Sellers said. "Better days ahead for constituents. Hang on until you become everyone's favorite bank."

Some members of Congress and their aides were put off by a statement that the former senior member of the delegation, Representative Nita Lowey, of Westchester, had made in defense of Mr. Cuomo, according to a person familiar with the matter. The members had the sense that Ms. Lowey was inappropriately "instrumentalized" as a shield for Mr. Cuomo, the person said, adding that while it wasn't the precipitating event for other members to speak out last Friday, it had left an impression.

A member of the Cuomo family had reached out to Ms. Lowey before her statement, according to another person familiar with the events.

"That's ridiculous," Ms. Lowey. "I don't get used for things like that." She said she's known the Cuomos for decades, since they were neighbors in Queens.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Cuomo have been relatively close politically in recent years. In 2015, when Mr. Biden was considering a belated run for president, they met in New York; though Mr. Cuomo was formally backing Hillary Clinton at the time, he did not discourage Mr. Biden from a White House run.

In 2018, when Mr. Cuomo faced a primary challenge of his own from Cynthia Nixon, the actress and activist, Mr. Biden offered a full-throated endorsement of Mr. Cuomo at the New York Democratic Party convention.

Mr. Biden's fondness for Mr. Cuomo does not necessarily extend to the staff level. The governor's sharp-elbowed political operation has jabbed at many people in his path over the years.

Mr. Biden tapped Mr. Cuomo for a prime-time speech on the first night of the Democratic convention last year at the height of the governor's popularity. The prerecorded address, which did not mention Mr. Biden by name until near the end, was thrust on convention organizers with little opportunity for revision, according to people involved in the process; they said the Cuomo team was among the most difficult to work with in planning the entire four-day event.

Mr. Cuomo's political operation also submitted a production bill that far exceeded other similar convention videos; convention officials declined to pay the full amount.

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Can Biden Stay on the Sidelines of the Andrew Cuomo Saga?

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The New York governor has been abandoned by top Democrats in his state, but the president is asking for investigations to proceed before passing judgment. So far, President Biden has only made a passing comment on the crises that have engulfed Gov. Andrew M.

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¿Puede Biden ayudar a contener el declive democrático de México?

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¿Puede Biden ayudar a contener el declive democrático de México?

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El presidente de Estados Unidos podría persuadir a Andrés Manuel López Obrador de que valores comunes hacen buenos vecinos, más si son socios y amigos.

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/03/15/espanol/opinion/amlo-biden-mexico.html

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Principe William niega que la familia real es racista

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His comment, after remarks made by the couple in their interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired this week, was the first from a member of the royal family in a public appearance.

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Prince William Says British Royals Are 'Not a Racist Family'

Prince William denied Britain's royal family was racist on Thursday, following an interview where his brother, Prince Harry, and Harry's wife, Meghan, alleged a family member had raised concerns about their son's skin tone.

Reporter: "Sir, have you both, have you spoken to your brother since the interview?" "I haven't spoken to him yet, but I will be." "And can you just let me know is the royal family a racist family, sir?" "We're very much not a racist family."

Prince William denied Britain's royal family was racist on Thursday, following an interview where his brother, Prince Harry, and Harry's wife, Meghan, alleged a family member had raised concerns about their son's skin tone. Credit Credit... Pool photo by Justin Tallis

LONDON - Prince William on Thursday denied that Britain's royal family was racist, in his first public comments after his brother, Prince Harry, and Harry's wife, Meghan, alleged in a bombshell interview that a family member had raised concerns about their child's skin tone and shared revelations about a rift in the usually tight-lipped institution.

Asked by a reporter whether the royal family was racist, Prince William said it was "very much not a racist family," in remarks that were recorded and posted on social media by Richard Palmer, a royal correspondent for the Daily Express in London.

William also said he had not spoken with Harry since the interview, which aired on Sunday in the United States and Monday evening in Britain. "But I will do," he added.

In the interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry called the British press racist and Meghan said that royal life was so emotionally isolating that it had left her contemplating suicide. The accusations have set off a national discussion around entrenched racism within the monarchy, with observers saying it may have damaging and long-term consequences for its reputation.

The British news media has also been swept into the reckoning. An influential professional society denied that coverage of the couple was racist, prompting an outcry from more than 160 journalists who pointed out examples of prejudice in news coverage, as well as diversity issues in British newsrooms. One of Meghan's sharpest critics, Piers Morgan, a co-host of the ITV news show "Good Morning Britain," resigned after his on-air attack against her prompted over 40,000 complaints to Britain's broadcasting regulator.

Meghan and Harry did not reveal who was behind the racist comment about the couple's son, but Ms. Winfrey indicated after the interview that Harry had asked her to reveal that it was neither Queen Elizabeth II nor her husband, Prince Philip.

Regarding his brother, "the relationship is 'space' at the moment," Harry said, but added: "Time heals all things, hopefully."

He said that ties with Prince Charles, his father, were strained and that he felt let down by him. Charles had stopped taking his calls, he said.

"I will always love him, but there's a lot of hurt that's happened," Harry said, referring to his father. The monarchy, he said, could be a prison: "My father and my brother, they are trapped. They don't get to leave."

The royal family offered an official response to the interview on Tuesday, saying that "the whole royal family is saddened." Though they said "some recollections may vary," they did not deny the accusations and said they were particularly concerned about the issue of racism that the couple raised, which would be dealt with privately. William's remarks were the first on the issue by a family member during a public appearance.

The comments came as he and his wife, Kate - also known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - visited a school in London after the reopening of schools in England this week. It was their first public appearance since Harry and Meghan's interview aired.

Their visit, which focused on mental health, was timed to mark the start of an initiative for mental health resources in schools.

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Prince William Calls Royals 'Not a Racist Family' After Meghan and Harry Interview

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His comment, after remarks made by the couple in their interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired this week, was the first from a member of the royal family in a public appearance.

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Control de Armas ha sido aprobada con 227 a favor y 203 en contra

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WASHINGTON-The House passed a pair of gun-control bills that were blocked in the last Congress, a priority for Democratic leaders frustrated by years of little success on the issue amid broad Republican opposition.

The vote was 227 to 203 on a measure to expand background checks to nearly all gun sales. Eight Republicans supported the bill, while one Democrat opposed it.

The House separately voted to extend the window for background checks to 10 days from three days, giving law-enforcement authorities more time to vet individuals before they can buy guns. The vote was 219-210, also mostly along party lines, with two Republicans voting in favor and two Democrats against.

Both gun measures passed the House in 2019, after Democrats regained control of the chamber in the midterm elections, but languished in the Senate when then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) declined to schedule votes.

The legislation's prospects in the now Democratic-controlled Senate are uncertain, but the effort could provide more momentum to the party's effort to change the rules in the closely divided chamber to make it easier to pass bills.

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House Passes Gun-Control Measures Backed by Democrats

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The House passed bills to expand background checks to nearly all gun sales and extend the window for background checks to 10 days from three days. The bills were a priority for Democratic leaders, and passed mostly along party lines.

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https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/03/11/prince-william-uk-royal-family-racism-prince-harry-meghan-diane-abbott-berman-intv-newday-intl-ldn-vpx.cnn

Diego Lugo

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Iñigo

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A pandemic year

February 2020

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

January

February

Every point of light is a life lost to coronavirus

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March 11, 2021
Weeks before American life ground to a halt, the coronavirus was blazing a mostly silent path across the country, burrowing deep into people's lungs and launching an attack that would expose nationwide vulnerabilities, scar a generation and reshape the world.

For most people, March 11 was when the covid-19 crisis first became real. It was the day of a high-profile diagnosis, major event cancellations and an official designation: pandemic. Schools closed, streets emptied and commuters stayed home.

We didn't know it then, but the virus already had infected thousands of Americans. Over the next 12 months, leaders bungled opportunities to quell its spread, case levels rose, fell and rose again, hope endured, and more than 525,000 people lost their lives.

Scientists developed vaccines in record time. Misinformation and lies spread as quickly as the pathogen itself. Racial and economic inequalities compounded. A new president was elected.

This timeline, based on data gathered and analyzed by The Washington Post and hundreds of articles written by its journalists, tells the story of a singular period - the year of covid-19.

March 2020

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March

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March 2020

Mount Sinai Health System hospital staff in Manhattan get a refresher course in March on the proper use and fit of personal protective equipment, which remained scarce for months. (Sharon Pulwer for The Washington Post) (Sharon Pulwer For the Washington Post)

March 11: The World Health Organization declares the novel coronavirus a pandemic. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he is "deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction."

Actor Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, say they've tested positive for the virus while at work in Australia. Hanks is the first American celebrity to announce a diagnosis.

The NBA suspends its season. Most college and pro leagues follow suit. A dozen states close schools. Many people begin working from home. American life grinds to a halt.

March 12: Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, testifies before Congress that the U.S. testing system is not working. "Yeah, it is a failing," he says. "Let's admit it."

March 13: President Donald Trump declares a national emergency.

March 15: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Americans should cancel gatherings of 50 or more people for two months. Several states impose shutdown orders, closing bars and restaurants and banning large groups.

March 16: Trump tells Americans to avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 and to stop eating in restaurants and taking nonessential trips for the next 15 days. It is the closest the federal government will come to calling for a nationwide shutdown.

March 17: The official U.S. death toll surpasses 100 - and experts predict it will rise quickly.

March 19: Trump tells Post associate editor Bob Woodward that he has intentionally misled Americans and minimized the danger: "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic," as Woodward recounts later in his September book.

But it is everywhere. The virus tears through the Seattle region. It's taking hold in New York City - and in Detroit, Chicago and New Orleans. More than 16,000 people are infected.

March 21: Nursing homes are the first hot spots. Residents account for at least a quarter of all deaths, and probably more. Once inside, the virus is "an almost perfect killing machine."

March 23: Under pressure from conservatives, Trump says he's considering nixing the guidelines for social distancing he announced a week earlier, saying: "We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself."

March 26: The United States records its 1,000th official coronavirus death, fewer than 10 days after the toll passed 100. Behind every reported death, every data point on a curve or chart, is a name and a story.

March 28: Trouble with the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment emerges. State and hospital leaders are unable to secure enough masks, ventilators and other essential gear.

April

April 2: Most Americans are living under stay-at-home orders.

April 3: In a reversal, the federal government recommends that people wear masks in public. Trump emphasizes that mask-wearing is voluntary and says, "I don't think I'm going to be doing it."

April 7: Emerging demographic data confirms that covid-19 is infecting and killing Black Americans at an alarming rate - a devastation that people in predominantly Black communities know all too well.

The virus is spreading at a head-spinning pace. In just one month, the United States has gone from about 1,000 cases to nearly 400,000. Almost 15,000 people are dead - a toll that won't be fully revealed for weeks. Urban hospitals are nearing capacity.

April 11: The U.S. coronavirus death toll is the highest in the world, passing Italy.

Omar Rodriguez, left, and Nicholas Cassese take calls April 2 at the Gerard J. Neufeld funeral home in Elmhurst, Queens. (Ryan Christopher Jones for The Washington Post)

'Too much on humanity'

In the epicenter of the epicenter, the noise never stops. On the streets of Elmhurst, Queens, sirens wail day and night as ambulances transport the sick from their homes to the hospital. In one funeral home, the phone rings again and again.

"Christ have mercy," says Omar Rodriguez, who does embalming at the Gerard J. Neufeld funeral home. Workers are tallying the covid-19 deaths they handled that day.

"It's too many," says Joe Neufeld Sr.

Outside Elmhurst Hospital Center - which is "filled to the brim" - Kamal Hossain lists his symptoms: "We cannot breathe properly, we had diarrhea, vomiting. My entire house has the same problem."

Hossain's wife works there, and he thinks she brought the virus home. It's his third time trying to get care at the facility. The line outside stretches for hours. Local leaders are pleading for help.

Outside an overflowing funeral home in Brooklyn, authorities find dozens of bodies stored in moving trucks. For Tamisha Covington, who lost her mother, it is one indignity too many.

"Already, we're grieving for our mothers, our family members, our friends," she says. "This is too disrespectful to the dead. This is too disrespectful to us. This is too much on humanity."

April 16: Four weeks after Trump declared a national emergency, 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment aid. It's the steepest level of job loss since the Great Depression.

April 17: Trump tweets"LIBERATE MINNESOTA," "LIBERATE MICHIGAN" and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA," encouraging protesters who are ignoring social distancing guidance and demanding that their states reopen. Shutdown opposition is spreading, aided by Trump and right-wing groups.

April 24: Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican and one of the last leaders to issue a stay-at-home order, allows business to reopen. Georgia is the first state to do so.

Even as Georgia bucks restrictions, rural counties in the state's southwest are suffering some of the highest rates of covid-19 deaths per capita in the country. In the hardest-hit places, African Americans make up most of the population, and about 30 percent of residents live in poverty.

April 27: A Post investigation reveals for the first time the scope of the hidden death toll: The United States recorded an estimated 15,400 "excess deaths" in the pandemic's first weeks - nearly two times as many as were publicly attributed to the virus at the time.

April 29: At an event with corporate executives, Trump says the virus will vanish: "It's going to go. It's going to leave. It's going to be gone."

April 30: The federal government's social distancing guidelines expire, and most states push ahead with reopening plans.

But the virus is still spreading. Nearly 30,000 people are infected each day, and nearly 2,000 are dying. Every day.

May

Anissa Merriam, left, her nana Melinda Flores-Walker and family friend Kristen Reiley celebrate Merriam's 22nd birthday on May 6 in Gilbert, Ariz. (Caitlin O'Hara for The Washington Post.)

May 1: From Michigan to California, gun rights supporters, anti-vaccination activists and business owners protest coronavirus restrictions. Some are heavily armed, some are displaying hate symbols.

People assemble at the Capitol in Lansing, Mich., to protest the governor's virus restrictions. (Neil Blake/Grand Rapids Press/AP)

'Not afraid to use them'

They show up armed. One man brings a noose. Another, an ax. Others wear combat gear and carry long guns.

Across the country, people are protesting state-mandated shutdowns and social distancing orders - and their rhetoric is increasingly violent.

From the steps of the Michigan Capitol, Stefan Kril calls the governor "a criminal" and, with a snarl, adds that "she's fired." He turns to the crowd below and shouts: "Whoever's in charge of her, fire her ass!"

Two weeks before, hundreds of protesters forced their way into the building, chanting "Our house!" and "Lock her up!" - a strain of anger that grips the world's attention months later during the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

Elsewhere, people wave signs calling for leaders to be hanged and crowd into local government meetings to accuse officials of "contributing to the demise of what was once the greatest nation in history" but is now "enslaved to a Communist Party."

One of the men who brought guns into the Michigan Capitol in late April appears on a live stream from inside. "I don't carry my guns for show. I am not afraid to use them," William Null says. In five months, the FBI charges him and a dozen others in a plot to kidnap Whitmer.

Burton High School sophomore Am'Brianna Daniels attends her Spanish class online on May 14 in San Francisco. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

May 15: Trump announces his administration's vaccine development program. He dubs it Operation Warp Speed.

May 19: Forty-three states have begun at least some form of reopening, hoping to boost their economies. Seven never had stay-at-home orders.

May 24: The virus is surging across rural America, where populations are poorer, older and more prone to health issues. Rural counties now have some of the highest rates of covid-19 cases and deaths in the country, topping even the hardest-hit New York City boroughs.

May 25: Crowded beaches, parties and pools during Memorial Day weekend alarm health officials. One calls the scene an "international example of bad judgment."

May 27: U.S. coronavirus deaths surpass 100,000. The toll goes unmarked by national requiem or collective mourning.

Demonstrators gather at a George Floyd memorial site in Minneapolis on June 5. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

May 31: Millions flood streets across the country to protest the killing of George Floyd and police violence against Black Americans, sparking fears of a new round of virus outbreaks. Health officials will later say that the protests, which continue for days, probably did not cause a spike in cases.

June

June 3: A Post investigation finds that U.S. cities squandered early chances to protect Black residents from the virus. Poor data reporting obscured the disproportionate impact, many of the first testing sites were set up in areas with many White residents, and local governments targeted few education campaigns specifically to African Americans.

June 8: In the West and across the South, more than a dozen states set records for new infections reported. Many of these places had avoided the brunt of the pandemic through the spring.

June 17: "The numbers are very minuscule compared to what it was," Trump says. "It's dying out."

Delia Vargas was one of many who walked off the job at an Oakland, Calif., McDonald's after 35 workers got sick. A judge ordered the restaurant to provide adequate masks and gloves. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

In mid-June, new infections begin a sharp, month-long rise. Unemployment also hits a new level: 13 straight weeks in which more than 1 million people have filed for aid for the first time.

'Like I was trapped in a box'

It feels like the walls are closing in. That's how Jayden, 12, describes living in his parents' car in Kissimmee, Fla. The pandemic stripped them of jobs and forced them into homelessness, part of an unprecedented wave of people who found themselves suddenly unemployed.

"It felt like I was trapped in a box," Jayden says. "Like someone tossed me in a cage where the bars were thick, and it was like you can't even stick your hand through it, and then they locked the cage and then disposed of the key."

His parents, Sergine Lucien and Dave Marecheau, are trying to get Jayden and his sister a permanent home.

Sergine Lucien and Dave Marecheau check their phones May 14 before going to sleep in their car in a parking lot in Kissimmee, Fla. (Eve Edelheit for The Washington Post)

In Atlantic City, Donnell Johnson thought things were about to get better. Once homeless himself, he had a job lined up - but then the virus came and he never got to start.

"It seems like everything that was starting to look up for me and my family drastically changed within one day with this pandemic," he says.

He's not getting help from the government and his debt is growing.

"We are struggling," he says. "There's nowhere to turn to. Backed up in rent. Cable bill, phone bill, we're backed up in everything."

Nash Ismael, 20, comforts his sisters Nadeen, 18, left, and Nancy, 13, at the grave of their parents on Father's Day in Troy, Mich. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

June 25: Americans are living through a split-screen pandemic. The country records its highest-ever single-day case count, yet leaders push ahead with reopenings.

June 26: The governors of Texas and Florida reverse course and shut down bars in their states as infections and hospitalizations soar.

July

July 8: Trump pressures the CDC to change guidance on school reopening and threatens to cut funding for schools that do not fully open for in-person learning.

President Donald Trump visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda on July 11. (Patrick Semansky/AP)

July 11: Trump wears a mask in public for the first time, more than three months after his own public health officials recommended face coverings for all Americans.

July 13: A study finds that more than 5 million Americans lost their health insurance from February to May, the largest such loss in the country's history.

The United States sets back-to-back records on July 16 and 17, recording nearly 150,000 new infections in 48 hours. Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Arizona lead the country in reported cases.

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld prepares to receive either a coronavirus vaccine or a placebo, administered by physician Chao Wang, as medical student Jake Bart explains the procedure during a clinical trial in Rockville in late July. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)

July 27: Two coronavirus vaccines - one from Pfizer-BioNTech and one from Moderna - mark a major milestone: The beginning of 30,000-person trials, the final phase of testing.

July 31: The official U.S. death toll passes 150,000, a mark it was never expected to reach. Latinos and Native Americans represent an increasing proportion of the deaths.

August

Aug 1: A superintendent of schools in rural Arizona issues one of many warnings from educators thinking about reopening schools: "I'm sorry, but it's a fantasy. Kids will get sick, or worse. Family members will die. Teachers will die."

Aug. 3: Teachers across the country protest school reopenings, carrying symbolic gravestones and caskets. Meanwhile, hundreds of returning students and staff members test positive or enter quarantine, and Trump continues his pressure campaign to resume in-person learning.

Aug. 7: Nearly 500,000 people converge on Sturgis, S.D., for a 10-day motorcycle rally. Attendees gather in bars, restaurants and tattoo parlors. The virus spreads, and there are additional outbreaks in the Midwest.

Aug. 9: The school year is underway, but plans everywhere are in flux. Some schools begin online, some in person. Others try a bit of both but change their minds.

Ella Bebwell, 9, participates during teacher Danielle Whittington's fourth-grade reading and language arts class Aug. 25 at Columbia Elementary School in Mississippi. (Edmund D. Fountain for The Washington Post)

Aug. 13: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden calls for a nationwide mask mandate.

Aug. 17: Kristin Urquiza, whose father died of covid-19, speaks at the Democratic National Convention, furious with Trump and Republican governors who play down the virus. She is one of many turning her grief into action.

Aug. 25: Universities sound alarms as infections soar on campuses and in surrounding communities nationwide.

September

Sept. 5: Epidemiologists predict a cold-weather virus surge: "There is a wave coming, and it's not so much whether it's coming, but how big is it going to be?"

But that warning comes as the summer surge relents. On Sept. 8, the country reports fewer than 25,000 new infections for the first time in three months. The plateau will be short-lived. In another three months, the country will report a daily caseload 10 times that number.

Sept. 10: Trump says the country has "rounded the final turn." The next day, Fauci contradicts him: "I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with that."

Sept. 13: More than 200 meat plant workers have died and federal regulators have issued only two small fines to companies flouting safety rules. An earlier Post investigation found companies failing to contain outbreaks and encouraging some employees to continue working on site even while sick.

'Are you trying to kill us?'

Jitu Brown says it three times: "We are scrambling in our communities for our lives. For our lives. For our lives."

Brown, an organizer on Chicago's South Side, has battled structural racism for years. Now, in the middle of the pandemic, he's watching the same pattern play out.

"When we talk about racism, you don't have to go an hour away to another site. You can go one train stop to the next train stop," he says.

In Chicago, covid-19 is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods harder than anywhere else, and the city's African Americans represent a highly disproportionate share of cases and deaths.

From coast to coast, the virus is infecting and killing people of color at alarmingly high rates - a fact that escaped officials in the pandemic's early months, when governments were not tracking and reporting data by race and ethnicity.

Wiltaire Morisset's loved ones grieve in Delray Beach, Fla., on Oct. 10. (Cindy Karp for The Washington Post)

But local leaders like Demetrius Young knew. A city commissioner in Albany, Ga., Young feels abandoned by the state and federal governments. "For Black folks, it's like a setup," he says. "Are you trying to kill us?"

In Texas, where Latinos are more likely to be hospitalized or die of the virus than White people, Oralia Soto is infected but doesn't have time to see a doctor. When she finally does, her condition is dire and she dies days later - one of 15 members of her family that the virus sickens or kills.

"It is just too much to handle," says Brenda Benitez, Soto's niece. "I feel numb inside. I just pray."

Sept. 18: Emails surface showing Trump political appointees attempting to silence a top CDC official who issued stark warnings about the coronavirus, contradicting the administration. "She is duplicitous," one wrote.

Sept. 22: The official U.S. death toll tops 200,000, with no end in sight. Trump says: "It's a shame."

Sept. 26: More than 150 people pack into the White House Rose Garden to celebrate the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Few wear masks.

October

President Donald Trump visits Duluth, Minn., for a campaign event on Sept. 30. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Oct. 2: Trump says he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the virus. Less than 24 hours later, he is flown to a hospital for treatment.

Oct. 5: Trump returns to the White House, playing down the virus that put him in the hospital, telling Americans: "Don't be afraid of Covid." He received cutting-edge treatment unavailable to nearly everyone else.

Oct. 9: The Rose Garden ceremony was " a superspreader event, " Fauci says, after at least 11 attendees test positive.

Oct. 19: Trump claims that "people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots" and says journalists covering the pandemic are "dumb bastards."

Two days before the presidential election, the United States records more than 100,000 new cases in 24 hours for the first time. The same day, in a blitz of campaign rallies, Trump declares at least four times that the country is "rounding the turn" on the pandemic. But worse is still to come.

November

Election worker Kathryn Dilley, 70, does some cleaning at a polling place in Grand Rapids, Mich. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

Nov. 3: It is Election Day, and many Americans already have cast their ballots in a record-setting, pandemic-spurred wave of early voting.

Nov. 7: Biden wins the presidential election, officially inheriting the public health crisis as the country enters the worst-yet stretch of the pandemic.

Voters in Houston line up for early voting on Oct. 13. (Mark Felix for The Washington Post)

'Like my life depended on it'

Jimmy Wright is the first in line, 5 a.m., with his doughnuts and coffee - and an oxygen tank. It's time for early voting in Columbus, Ohio, and even though Wright is fresh off a long-haul battle with covid-19, he's not going to miss the chance to cast his ballot.

"My lungs are damaged, my breathing is damaged," Wright says. "I'm just glad to be alive."

Wright is one of about 94 million Americans who vote early in 2020. On Election Day, more than 60 million others cast ballots, the highest percentage to vote in any election since 1900. Many vote by mail. Others, like Wright, risk their lives going to the polls.

Jimmy Wright, 61, turns out for early voting in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 8. (Maddie McGarvey for The Washington Post)

In Chattanooga, Tenn., Shajuana Dawson travels there with her kids. The virus has infected all three of them.

"It's the sickest I've seen my children," Dawson says. "It makes me so angry that people - especially our politicians - aren't taking it seriously."

Rosemarie Waldron drops her ballot off with one hand and waves an American flag with the other. The 88-year-old Rutherford, N.J., resident says she wants a government that will control the pandemic, one that "functions for the welfare of all the people instead of one that just looks out for themselves."

"I voted," she says, "like my life depended on it."

Trump refuses to concede and will insist for months that the election was "rigged." His scores of lawsuits will be rejected, including at the Supreme Court.

Mark Ahrens, 63, talks with physical therapist Emily Passint in his hospital room in Eau Claire, Wis., on Nov. 19. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Nov. 9: Pfizer-BioNTech reports that its vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at protecting people from the virus. A week later, Moderna reports that its vaccine is nearly 95 percent effective, a sign that the country could have two vaccines by the end of the year.

Nov. 19: The day the death toll reaches 250,000, the CDC urges Americans to avoid travel and gatherings during the Thanksgiving holiday, warning that those activities could supercharge virus spread.

Nov. 23: Americans don't listen. Air travel reaches an all-time pandemic high. Exactly two weeks later, the country is recording an average of 200,000 new infections every day - precisely the surge experts feared.

December

Nurses in Apple Valley, Calif., perform the prone positioning maneuver on a critically ill patient Dec. 10. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Dec. 8: Biden announces his plan to address the pandemic during his first 100 days in office, including a federal mask mandate, striking a sharp contrast with the Trump administration.

Dec. 11: The Food and Drug Administration authorizes the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use, a rare glimmer of hope during one of the pandemic's darkest hours. Two days later, the first doses of that vaccine are distributed nationwide.

Dec. 14: More than 300,000 have died, with a quickening pace of death and worse still to come.
California emerges as the new U.S. hot spot, posting record-breaking - and unnerving - numbers: more than 50,000 new infections in a single day. More than 100,000 in 48 hours. A soaring positivity rate. If California were a country, it would be among the world leaders in new cases. "Our hospitals are under siege," Los Angeles County's public health chief says.

Nurse Charlene Grier prepares a dose at Temple Health on Dec. 16. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)

Dec. 18: The FDA authorizes Moderna's vaccine, a turning point that gives the country its second tool to fight the virus. Two days later, the first vials of the Moderna vaccine ship across the country.

'A small beacon of hope'

At last, good news. Vaccines.

Mary Ellen Day exhales and laughs after the shot hits her arm. People applaud. She tears up.

Day, a nurse at Temple Health in Philadelphia, is among the first to receive a dose of coronavirus vaccine - marking a desperately anticipated moment. A signal that the end may be beginning.

"Nobody was prepared for this," Day says. "Nobody's prepared for a pandemic of this magnitude."

The early days were terrifying. She was working with covid-19 patients and watching her colleagues fall ill. They weren't sure how it spread, weren't sure how to protect themselves.

"Thank God we have the vaccination now," she says. "It's just taking steps to getting back to a little bit of normalcy."

Nurse Mary Ellen Day prepares to be vaccinated at Temple Health in Philadelphia on Dec. 16. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)

Daisy Solares, a respiratory therapist at the University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore, was taking care of coronavirus patients early on. Then, the virus came for her father.

"It means a lot," she says after getting inoculated. "Basically, in honor of him."

There are still many tall hurdles to clear: producing enough doses, distributing them equitably, persuading people to be vaccinated.

But for now, says Justin Chazhikatt at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, "This is just a small beacon of hope for the future."

Dec. 21: Americans once again ignore pleas to stay home for the holidays. Pre-Christmas travel sets a pandemic record, outpacing Thanksgiving.

Dec. 26: A more contagious variant of the coronavirus, first found in the United Kingdom, spreads across the world. The United States hasn't yet reported a case, and experts suggest it may be undetected because of the the country's glacial pace of genetic sequencing.

Nurse Patricia Cummings administers a dose of the Moderna vaccine to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at United Medical Center in Washington on Dec. 29. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)

Dec. 29: A growing body of evidence suggests that the virus does not spread much in schools - if the right steps are taken, including mask-wearing, social distancing and ample ventilation.

Dec. 30: The vaccination campaign is off to a chaotic, confused and slower-than-expected start. The country will fall well short of its goal to distribute 20 million doses by the end of the year.

January

Nyesha Montes De Oca, 38, paints the toenails of her mother, Irene Gonzalez, 66, at a Los Angeles mortuary on Jan. 13. "Million-dollar Red," she says. "Her favorite." (Philip Cheung for The Washington Post)

Jan. 6: A Trump-supporting mob storms the U.S. Capitol in a failed insurrection that turns deadly. Many among the riotous crowd would later say they were motivated in part by restrictions put in place to curb virus spread.

Jan. 8: The United States records more than 313,000 new cases in a single day, shattering the previous record and revealing the consequences of holiday travel and gatherings.

The country witnesses the deadliest 48 hours of the pandemic. It sets back-to-back fatality records. At least 8,345 people die, more than doubling the body count of America's worst calamities: the Battle of Antietam, Pearl Harbor and Sept. 11, 2001.

Jan. 14: Companies scramble to increase vaccine production, and officials estimate that the United States will have enough doses to inoculate 70 percent of the adult population by the end of July.

Jan 15: Researchers estimate that the U.K. variant is 50 percent more contagious. The CDC predicts that it will be dominant in the United States within two months, the most dire warning yet about mutations.

Workers in Hagerstown, Md., on Jan. 13 lower the casket of a man who died of the virus. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

Jan. 19: Covid-19 has now killed more than 400,000 Americans, the milestone coming on the final full day of Trump's presidency, which will be defined by his mismanagement of the crisis.

Biden opens his inaugural activities with a vigil at the Lincoln Memorial, honoring victims of the pandemic. It's the country's first real requiem.

Jan. 20: In his inaugural address, President Biden pauses for a moment of silence to remember the 400,000 felled by the virus. "We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation," he says. He then signs an executive order mandating masks on all federal property. That day, the virus kills 4,440 more Americans. It is a record.

Jan. 22: The Biden administration announces plans to open as many as 100 federally run vaccination sites across the country, dramatically expanding the government's direct role in combating the pandemic.

Jan. 25: Moderna begins work on a vaccine designed to protect against the variants.

Jan. 26: Biden says he is close to securing an extra 200 million doses of the two approved coronavirus vaccines, increasing U.S. supply by 50 percent.

It is a long year of long lines. Here, people await virus testing Jan. 4 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Jan. 29: Clinical trials show a single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson to be effective at preventing illness, hospitalization and death, raising the prospect that a third option could be close to authorization.

Jan. 31: Essential workers, particularly grocery and food workers, are pushed back in the vaccine line as states prioritize people 65 and older, delaying vaccination for people at the highest risk of exposure.

February

Feb. 1: The CDC reports that race and ethnicity data was missing for nearly half of all vaccine recipients, repeating a pattern seen in case and death data and stymieing equity efforts.

Feb. 5: Preliminary data show a virus variant that originated in South Africa may be able to reinfect people who have recovered from covid-19. Meanwhile, the U.K. variant spreads rapidly in the United States. The variants mean the coronavirus is here to stay as a perennial - albeit, lesser - threat.

James Campbell, 65, waits to be vaccinated at the Community of Hope health clinic in Washington. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Feb. 10: The CDC's guidance on mask-wearing changes again, as officials urge Americans to double up to better protect themselves from virus variants.

Feb. 13: A lack of infrastructure - pharmacies, hospitals, transportation - emerges as a major impediment to distributing vaccines in communities of color.

Feb. 14: The catastrophic winter wave finally ebbs. Stressed hospitals are finding reprieve and the number of new daily cases falls below 100,000 for the first time since early November.

Feb. 19: Winter storms batter Texas and much of the country, delaying the distribution of 6 million vaccine doses.

People wait for water at a virus testing and vaccination site in Houston after a major freeze affected municipal supplies. (Michael Stravato for The Washington Post)

Feb. 23: The U.S. death toll surpasses 500,000, a number greater than the combined American losses in combat from the Civil War, World War I and World War II. "The people we lost were extraordinary," Biden says at a sunset vigil for the dead.

Feb. 25: The Ad Council launches one of the largest public education efforts in U.S. history, telling the tens of millions of Americans still unsure about vaccination: "It's Up to You." More than 50 million Americans have now been vaccinated.

Feb. 26: Experts begin forecasting a summer that looks somewhat normal - as long as vaccinations continue and variants don't outrace them.

Acting Staff Sgt. Lindsey Campbell administers vaccine doses Feb. 22 in the parking lot of an amusement park in Bowie, Md. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Feb. 27: The FDA authorizes the easier-to-use, single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and the country gets a third tool against the mutating virus. Within 48 hours, shots begin shipping to sites across the country.

March

March 2: Biden says the country will have enough vaccine doses for every American adult by the end of May, two months earlier than previously projected. Texas and Mississippi rescind their restrictions, ignoring the warnings of health officials. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) boasts in an all-caps tweet: "Texas is OPEN 100%. EVERYTHING."

March 4: The Penn Relays, the nation's oldest and largest track-and-field competition, is canceled for the second year in a row.

March 6: A record number of Americans - nearly 3 million - receive a coronavirus vaccine, and the country is now averaging more than 2 million doses administered every day.

March 8: The CDC issues guidance for vaccinated people: grandparents who have received the shot can finally hug their grandchildren.

March 10: Congress passes a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill, sending it to Biden's desk for signing. The legislation will deliver $1,400 checks to many Americans, a boost in unemployment payments and a raft of other programs in an attempt to hoist the country out of a deep economic hole.

After a year, more than 50,000 new infections are still being reported each day. But some people are acting as though the pandemic has ended - gathering in crowds, tossing masks into burning trash cans. Meanwhile, experts repeat familiar warnings: Beware another surge. There is hope and there is division, clarity and confusion. America ends one year living with a pandemic, unsure what the next will bring.

About this story

Kate Harrison Belz, Rhonda Colvin, Drea Cornejo, Jacqueline Dupree, Alyssa Fowers, Arelis R. Hernández, Jasmine Hilton, Greg Jaffe, Stephanie McCrummen, Zoeann Murphy, Alden Nusser, Skyler Reid, Monica Rodman, Robert Ray and Youjin Shin contributed to this report.

Editing by Ann Gerhart. Copy editing by Paula Kelso. Photo editing by Karly Domb Sadof. Video editing by Reem Akkad and Ashleigh Joplin. Additional editing by Matt Callahan and Courtney Kan. Design and development by Junne Alcantara.
March 11, 2021
Coronavirus: What you need to read

A pandemic year: How future generations will judge humanity's performance against the coronavirus | What it felt like to lose time - and all other things coronavirus took away | A viral tsunami: How the underestimated coronavirus took over the world | Sorrow and stamina, defiance and despair. It's been a year.

Coronavirus maps: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Cases and deaths worldwide

Vaccine tracker: See how many people have received one or both doses in your state

What you need to know: Guidance for vaccinated people| Variants | Symptoms guide | Masks FAQ | Your life at home | Personal finance guide | Follow all of our coverage and sign up for our free newsletter
Got a pandemic question? Are you planning a long-awaited reunion after you get vaccinated? We want to hear from you We answer one every day in our coronavirus newsletter Show More Show Less Reis Thebault is a reporter covering national and breaking news. He has worked on the local desks of the Boston Globe and the Columbus Dispatch. He joined The Washington Post in June 2018. Tim Meko designs and develops maps, data visualizations and explanatory graphics. Before coming to The Post, he led the visuals team at the Urban Institute and was an infographics artist at the Columbus Dispatch. Junne Alcantara is a designer, art director and animator working throughout the newsroom to design print and digital projects.

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A year of the pandemic: Sorrow, stamina, defiance, despair

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For most Americans, March 11 was the day the coronavirus crisis first became real. Fifty-two weeks later, millions have fallen ill and millions more have been vaccinated. More than 525,000 are dead. This timeline tells the story of a singular period in history.

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ANÁLISIS | Biden busca trazar un camino para salir de la pandemia en un discurso en horario de máxima audiencia

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ANÁLISIS | Biden busca trazar un camino para salir de la pandemia en un discurso en horario de máxima audiencia

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https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/03/11/biden-pandemia-discurso-analisis-collinson-trax/

Gabriel Athie Chara

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President Biden's much-anticipated stimulus bill is on the verge of becoming law. Here is what's actually in it.

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Seven weeks into President Biden's term, his first major piece of legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act, is set to become law. The House passed a final version of the bill this afternoon, and it now heads to Biden's desk, where he is expected to sign it on Friday.

But the $1.9 trillion relief package, which he proposed even before taking office, is more than a stopgap measure to shore up the economy or respond to the coronavirus pandemic. As our economics reporter Jim Tankersley wrote in a recent analysis, it amounts to a major federal investment in low- and middle-income Americans, reducing their tax burdens and sending many of them thousands of dollars in cash. In that, it is virtually without precedent in recent American politics.

The bill, Tankersley writes, seeks to "power a rapid increase in economic growth by aiming money at people who need help right now to pay their bills, buy groceries and stave off eviction or foreclosure - as opposed to higher earners who would be more likely to save the money."

It contains a number of provisions that have little to do directly with the coronavirus and that aim to strengthen the country's frayed social safety net. Those provisions include an increase in health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act and increased tax credits for families with children, particularly the poorest families. (One thing that is not included, of course, is an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a provision that left-leaning lawmakers had pushed for but was ruled out by the Senate's parliamentarian.)

The $1.9 trillion package enjoys broad public support, with 70 percent of Americans expressing a favorable opinion of it, according to a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. That includes nearly all Democrats and more than two in five Republicans - although no Republican lawmakers in Congress voted for the bill.

Read on for a rundown of what's in the bill - and, yes, a clarification on who exactly will receive those much-discussed $1,400 checks.

Like previous Covid-19 relief bills, this legislation includes direct checks to Americans, as well as an extension of the federal supplement to state unemployment benefits. An original Democratic proposal had included an extension of $400 a week in supplemental assistance. But after moderate Democrats objected, the number was lowered to $300 - exactly half the amount that was given out in the first relief bill 12 months ago.

The legislation includes a round of $1,400 stimulus checks for individuals making less than $75,000 a year and for married couples earning under $150,000. Those earning slightly more will get reduced checks, and people who make over $80,000 or couples making over $160,000 will not receive any. Biden said over the weekend that the stimulus payments would start landing in Americans' bank accounts later this month.

The bill includes $14 billion aimed at speeding up vaccine distribution, and $130 billion to help schools reopen safely by providing for improved ventilation, hiring extra janitors and distributing more personal protective equipment. It also will send $350 billion to state and local governments, which have had their finances threatened by the economic downturn over the past year.

In separate news, Biden announced today that he would move to secure another 100 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's single-shot vaccine by the end of 2021. The hope is to make enough shots available to vaccinate children across the country if the vaccines are approved for them, and possibly to administer booster doses if needed to combat virus variants.

This bill goes well beyond the Trump-era Covid relief packages in a number of areas, particularly health care. It includes $34 billion to temporarily strengthen provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including significant increases to subsidies for middle-income Americans who buy private health insurance on the exchange marketplace.

Frequently Asked Questions About the New Stimulus Package

The stimulus payments would be $1,400 for most recipients. Those who are eligible would also receive an identical payment for each of their children. To qualify for the full $1,400, a single person would need an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or below. For heads of household, adjusted gross income would need to be $112,500 or below, and for married couples filing jointly that number would need to be $150,000 or below. To be eligible for a payment, a person must have a Social Security number. Read more.

Buying insurance through the government program known as COBRA would temporarily become a lot cheaper. COBRA, for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, generally lets someone who loses a job buy coverage via the former employer. But it's expensive: Under normal circumstances, a person may have to pay at least 102 percent of the cost of the premium. Under the relief bill, the government would pay the entire COBRA premium from April 1 through Sept. 30. A person who qualified for new, employer-based health insurance someplace else before Sept. 30 would lose eligibility for the no-cost coverage. And someone who left a job voluntarily would not be eligible, either. Read more

This credit, which helps working families offset the cost of care for children under 13 and other dependents, would be significantly expanded for a single year. More people would be eligible, and many recipients would get a bigger break. The bill would also make the credit fully refundable, which means you could collect the money as a refund even if your tax bill was zero. "That will be helpful to people at the lower end" of the income scale, said Mark Luscombe, principal federal tax analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting. Read more.

There would be a big one for people who already have debt. You wouldn't have to pay income taxes on forgiven debt if you qualify for loan forgiveness or cancellation - for example, if you've been in an income-driven repayment plan for the requisite number of years, if your school defrauded you or if Congress or the president wipes away $10,000 of debt for large numbers of people. This would be the case for debt forgiven between Jan. 1, 2021, and the end of 2025. Read more.

The bill would provide billions of dollars in rental and utility assistance to people who are struggling and in danger of being evicted from their homes. About $27 billion would go toward emergency rental assistance. The vast majority of it would replenish the so-called Coronavirus Relief Fund, created by the CARES Act and distributed through state, local and tribal governments, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. That's on top of the $25 billion in assistance provided by the relief package passed in December. To receive financial assistance - which could be used for rent, utilities and other housing expenses - households would have to meet several conditions. Household income could not exceed 80 percent of the area median income, at least one household member must be at risk of homelessness or housing instability, and individuals would have to qualify for unemployment benefits or have experienced financial hardship (directly or indirectly) because of the pandemic. Assistance could be provided for up to 18 months, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Lower-income families that have been unemployed for three months or more would be given priority for assistance. Read more.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that middle-aged, middle-class citizens should see their insurance premiums cut by more than half as a result of this bill. The provision will expire after two years, setting up yet another fight in 2022 over the fate of the health care law.

Biden's bill increases the annual Child Tax Credit to $3,000, a bump of $1,000, and raises it to $3,600 for parents of children under 6. The plan also closes a loophole that had excluded the lowest-income households by allowing people to collect the full benefit even if they pay little or no tax.

Were you forwarded this newsletter? Is there anything you think we're missing? Anything you want to see more of? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.

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President Biden's much-anticipated stimulus bill is on the verge of becoming law. Here is what's actually in it. Seven weeks into President Biden's term, his first major piece of legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act, is set to become law.

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La casa de representantes aprueba legislación que aumentará la inspección requerida para comprar armas. 

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La casa de representantes aprueba legislación que aumentará la inspección requerida para comprar armas. 

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El presidente Joe Biden instò a que se prohibiera la venta de armas de asalto. De igual manera pidió que se tomara conciencia del peligro que resulta el portar armas, así como las medidas que tendrán que acatar las empresas productoras de armas.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/11/politics/background-checks-gun-bills-house-vote/index.html

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La casa de representantes aprueba legislación que aumentará la inspección requerida para comprar armas. 

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La casa de representantes aprueba legislación que aumentará la inspección requerida para comprar armas. 

# data[].attributes.body
El presidente Joe Biden instò a que se prohibiera la venta de armas de asalto. De igual manera pidió que se tomara conciencia del peligro que resulta el portar armas, así como las medidas que tendrán que acatar las empresas productoras de armas.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/11/politics/background-checks-gun-bills-house-vote/index.html

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Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility Varies From State to State

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Covid-19 Vaccine Eligibility Varies From State to State

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Los estados están haciendo que los nuevos grupos sean elegibles para las vacunas Covid-19 a un ritmo más rápido pero desigual, creando discrepancias que están avivando la confusión y alentando a algunas personas a viajar a lugares con políticas más indulgentes.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-vaccine-eligibility-depends-partly-on-where-you-are-11615467610

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Joe Biden en el escenario mundial: deliberación y una cautela tal vez excesiva

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Joe Biden en el escenario mundial: deliberación y una cautela tal vez excesiva

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Pero las decisiones se toman más rápido que en el gobierno de Obama, cuando Biden, como vicepresidente, se quejaba de las reuniones interminables.
https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/03/05/espanol/joe-biden-politica-exterior.html

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El gobernador de Texas Greg Abbott fue criticado después de levantar las restricciones del coronavirus. Por Eric Bradner, CNN.

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El gobernador de Texas Greg Abbott fue criticado después de levantar las restricciones del coronavirus. Por Eric Bradner, CNN.

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El día de ayer, el gobernador de Texas Greg Abbott fue criticado por levantar las restricciones referentes a la pandemia. Joe Biden incluso se refirió a estas medidas como pensamiento neandertal. Las restricciones a empresas y el mandato del uso obligatorio de cubrebocas, fueron levantados.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/03/politics/biden-abbott-texas-coronavirus/index.html

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WASHINGTON-The Biden administration is imposing sanctions against Russia for actions against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained by the Kremlin after surviving a near-fatal poisoning attack last year.

The U.S. joined with the European Union in sanctioning Russian officials and entities in connection with the poisoning, saying Mr. Navalny was targeted for uncovering "uncomfortable truths" about the Russian government.

"With today's action we're sending a clear signal to Russia that there are clear consequences for the use of chemical weapons," a U.S. official told reporters, calling for the release of Mr. Navalny and allies who have been detained.

U.S. officials didn't name those targeted by the sanctions but said more details would be announced soon. The U.S. also didn't impose sanctions in response to the massive SolarWinds hack, a suspected Russian espionage operation targeting U.S. government agencies and private businesses.

The sanctions Tuesday were the first to target Russia under President Biden and come as the administration is reviewing further measures in response to other issues, including SolarWinds and Moscow's offer of bounties for attacks on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

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U.S. Sanctions Russia Over Moves Against Navalny

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WASHINGTON-The Biden administration is imposing sanctions against Russia for actions against Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was detained by the Kremlin after surviving a near-fatal poisoning attack last year. The U.S. joined with the European Union in sanctioning Russian officials and entities in connection with the poisoning, saying Mr. Navalny was targeted for uncovering "uncomfortable truths" about the Russian government.

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Biden insta a los demócratas del Senado a rechazar las píldoras venenosas que podrían hundir el plan de ayuda antes de impulsar su aprobación Por Clare Foran y Manu Raju, CNN

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Biden insta a los demócratas del Senado a rechazar las píldoras venenosas que podrían hundir el plan de ayuda antes de impulsar su aprobación Por Clare Foran y Manu Raju, CNN

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https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/politics/stimulus-covid-relief-bill-senate/index.html

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Barçagate: Bartomeu, expresidente del FC Barcelona, es puesto en libertad provisional con cargos

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Barçagate: Bartomeu, expresidente del FC Barcelona, es puesto en libertad provisional con cargos

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https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2021/03/02/barcagate-expresidente-barcelona-libertad-provisional-barcagate-orix/

Gabriel Athie Chara

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Iñigo Vazquez

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Merck & Co. has agreed to help Johnson & Johnson produce its new coronavirus vaccine, according to Biden administration officials. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. will help make Johnson & Johnson's single-shot coronavirus vaccine - an unusual pact between fierce competitors that could sharply boost the supply of the newly authorized vaccine, according to senior administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been announced, said they began scouring the country for additional manufacturing capacity after they realized in the first days of the administration that Johnson & Johnson had fallen behind in vaccine production. They soon sought to broker a deal with Merck, one of the world's largest vaccine makers, which had tried and failed to develop its own coronavirus vaccine.

Under the arrangement, Merck will dedicate two facilities in the United States to Johnson & Johnson's shots. One will provide "fill-finish" services, the last stage of the production process during which the vaccine substance is placed in vials and packaged for distribution. The other will make the vaccine itself, and has the potential to vastly increase supply, perhaps even doubling what Johnson & Johnson could make on its own, the officials said.

"It's a historic partnership," said one of the officials, adding that the companies "recognize this is a wartime effort." He praised their sense of "corporate citizenship."

The officials declined to provide details about how Merck's involvement will affect the projected supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the timetable for distributing it. It could easily take two months to get the "fill-finish" plant ready and a few more months to equip the other facility to make the vaccine, according to a person familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue.

The Biden administration's efforts to ramp up production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine suggest that it sees the vaccine playing a bigger role in addressing the challengesahead, such as the eventual need for children's vaccine and possibly for boosters to counter virus variants, said a person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it. Johnson & Johnson is conducting a trial of a two-shot vaccine, with the doses given two months apart, with results not expected until at least May.

Johnson & Johnson did not respond to a request for comment. Merck did not comment on the deal but said it "remains steadfast in our commitment to contribute to the global response to the pandemic.''

The administration officials indicated Biden would wield the powers ofthe Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to give Merck priority in securing equipment it will need to upgrade its facilities for vaccine production, including the purchase ofmachinery, bags, tubing and filtration systems.

In teaming up with Merck, Johnson & Johnson has a partner with a century-long tradition of making vaccines. In the United States, Merck is the sole supplier of the combination childhood vaccine that protects against measles, mumps and rubella. It developed Gardasil, which protects against the human papillomavirus. Andit won Food and Drug Administration approval for an Ebola vaccine in 2019.

But the company, which makes vaccines in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, encountered setbacks in its own quest to developa coronavirus vaccine. Merck announced on Jan. 25 that it was halting work on two experimental shots for the virus. The vaccine did not stimulate enough antibodies in Phase 1 human clinical trials to justify continuing, the company said.

Johnson & Johnson has been searching the world for manufacturing sites where it could produce doses of vaccine on a global scale. It has publicly disclosed more than half a dozen manufacturing sites on four continents that it said were winnowed from more than 100 possibilities.

``While the science and the biology, the chemistry is certainly challenging ... the engineering feat of actually producing it is just as challenging, and we've been working very, very closely with partners around the world,'' Johnson & Johnson's CEO Alex Gorsky told CNBC on Monday.

Johnson & Johnson's vaccine uses an adenovirus vaccine as a vector -- a harmless cold virus that does not replicate in the body - to deliver DNA instructions into a healthy human cell. The cell uses the genetic instructions to create a replica of a coronavirus spike protein that triggers an immune response that can recognize - and respond to - the real thing. The U.S. government paid the company $2 billion for development and clinical trials and preorders at a price of $10 per dose just days after it received emergency authorization from federal regulators.

The FDA on Saturday authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccinefor use in those 18 and older. The company said it would immediately ship nearly 4 million doses in the United States, and a total of 20 million by the end of March, which is 17 million less than expected under its government contract. Its current schedule calls for a recovery from those delays, with the company saying it is on track to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June. A top company executive told Congress last week that it has a goal of manufacturing 1 billion doses worldwide by year's end.

Most of Johnson & Johnson's partnersdisclosed to date are contract manufacturing companies, but now it is moving to team with larger drug companies that have seen their own vaccine projects delayed or fizzled.

Sanofi - which had to reboot its clinical trials of a vaccine candidate after early stumbles - announced last week that it would help Johnson & Johnson with final production steps and bottling in vials in Europe. Projected capacity from a Sanofi plant in France is 12 million doses per month.

BioNTech, Pfizer's German partner on its mRNA vaccine, also announced deals in January for rivals Sanofi and Novartis to fill and finish vaccine vials in Europe.

The manufacturing process is time-consuming: The company ferments large batches of its vaccine in vats at a contract manufacturing facility in Baltimore operated by Emergent, as well as locations in the Netherlands and India. That brewing step takes two months.

Then the vaccine needs to be put into its final formulation and packaged into vials for shipping, which takes another five to six weeks, including testing for purity. In the United States and Europe, that final ``fill-finish'' process for vaccines has created bottlenecks across the industry as manufacturers have flooded the supply chain with demand to finish hundreds of millions of doses.

Johnson & Johnson has agreements for fill-finish work to be done by two companies in the United States: Grand River Aseptic, with plants in Michigan, and Catalent, at a plant in Indiana. Catalent also isperforming fill-finish operations for Moderna, which is obligated to deliver 300 million doses of its mRNA vaccine to the government by the end of July.

In Italy, Catalent also is helping Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca manufacture vaccine.

Moderna said on Feb. 16 that Catalent had suffered short-term delays on final production of Moderna's vaccine but that the disruptions would not affect monthly deliveries to the U.S. government. The Financial Times reported on Saturday that Catalent's system for automatic visual inspection of Johnson & Johnson vials had broken down, forcing staff to inspect vials manually.

Catalent did not respond to a request for comment. The company told investors in an earnings call last month that it had sufficient, dedicated capacity at its Bloomington, Ind., plant to handle the vaccine volume for both companies.

Merck's help in making Johnson & Johnson's vaccine probably will require it to examine its product lines and decide what can be delayed or shifted, said John Grabenstein, a consultant and former executive director of medical affairs for vaccines at Merck.

``The question is, where is the bottleneck? The filling machines and the packaging machines are often the rate-limiting step,'' he said. From a technical standpoint, it's not too hard for other companies to help out, he said.

``It's not just a mechanical engineering problem. It's what products might get displaced to do this extra work,'' he said. ``Is there idle equipment? Oftentimes there isn't.''

Merck continues working ona pair of coronavirus treatments. One is an antiviral pill it is developing with a small company called Ridgeback Bio. It purchased worldwide rights to the drug last year from Ridgeback and has entered a late-phase clinical trial in an ongoing collaboration.

The other experimental Merck drug is an anti-inflammatory protein that it received as part of the purchase last year of a smaller company, OncoImmune. The treatment is being tested in a Phase 3 trial. Merck signed a $356 million agreement with the U.S. government in December to manufacture up to 100,000 doses that will be ready to ship in case the drug wins FDA authorization this year.

- Isaac Stanley-Becker contributed to this report

Biden administration, vaccine makers scramble to outflank virus variants

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FDA review confirms safety, efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases

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Biden to announce 'historic partnership': Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, officials say

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President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. will help make Johnson & Johnson's single-shot coronavirus vaccine - an unusual pact between fierce competitors that could sharply boost the supply of the newly authorized vaccine, according to senior administration officials.

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Biden sabrá tender puentes con México, según analista

(CNN) - El presidente de México, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, le pedirá al presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, que comparta parte del suministro de la vacuna contra el covid-19 de EE.UU. con su vecino del sur, dijo a CNN un funcionario del Gobierno mexicano informado sobre los planes para la conversación.

Los dos líderes sostendrán una reunión bilateral virtual este lunes.

El aspecto que podría tener la colaboración -un acuerdo de compra, una donación, un préstamo- no está definido, según el funcionario del gobierno.

El primer paso es preguntar si Estados Unidos está dispuesto a cooperar, dijo la fuente.

México ha comprado suministros de vacunas contra el covid-19 tanto de Rusia como de China hasta ahora, pero no ha recibido ninguna vacuna directamente desde EE.UU., su aliado más importante y su mayor socio comercial.

Pfizer, una empresa estadounidense, ha enviado vacunas contra el covid-19 a México, pero fueron producidas en laboratorios europeos y han llegado en un suministro relativamente limitado.

México tiene acuerdos de compra vigentes por cientos de millones de dosis de vacunas con diferentes fabricantes de vacunas en todo el mundo, la gran mayoría de los cuales aún no se han cumplido.

Hasta el domingo por la noche, México informó haber administrado poco menos de 2,5 millones de dosis de vacunas contra el coronavirus.

López Obrador dice que propondrá un programa de inmigración laboral legal a Biden

El presidente de México dijo el sábado que propondrá al presidente estadounidense un acuerdo que permita a los trabajadores mexicanos migrar legalmente a Estados Unidos.

López Obrador dijo que el programa de inmigración laboral legal es uno de los temas que discutiría con Biden en su reunión bilateral virtual de este lunes.

"Si no se tiene mano de obra mexicana ¿cómo se garantiza el incremento de la producción en Estados Unidos? Vamos por eso proponiendo un acuerdo", dijo López Obrador en un evento en el estado mexicano de Zacatecas.

"Si hay (mexicanos) quienes quieran, no por necesidad, sino para ir a buscarse la vida a otras partes, quieran ir a trabajar a Estados Unidos, que lo puedan hacer, pero por la vía legal, mediante un acuerdo con el gobierno estadounidense", dijo el presidente hablando de la iniciativa que propondría.

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Fuente: López Obrador pedirá a Biden compartir vacunas contra covid-19

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El presidente de México, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), le pedirá este lunes al presidente de EE.UU., Joe Biden, que comparta parte del suministro estadounidense de la vacuna contra covid-19 con su vecino del sur, dijo a CNN un funcionario del Gobierno mexicano.

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Supreme Court appears to favor upholding voting laws lower court found unfair to minorities

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Supreme Court appears to favor upholding voting laws lower court found unfair to minorities

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-voting-rights-act/2021/03/02/3515c4d0-7b62-11eb-b3d1-9e5aa3d5220c_story.html

Patricio Jones

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Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, during a court hearing in Moscow last month. Credit... Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

The Biden Administration declassified an intelligence finding on Tuesday that Russia's F.S.B., one of its leading intelligence agencies, orchestrated the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny, and announced its first sanctions against the Russian government for the attack and the imprisonment of the opposition politician.

The sanctions closely mirrored a series of actions that European nations and Britain took last October and expanded on Monday. Senior administration officials said it was part of an effort to show unity in the new administration's first confrontations with the government of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

But none of the sanctions were specifically directed at Mr. Putin, or the country's intelligence chiefs or the oligarchs that support the Russian leader.

In announcing the role of the F.S.B., or Federal Security Service, in the poisoning, American intelligence officials were confirming the reports of many news organizations, some of which traced the individual agents who tracked Mr. Navalny and attacked him with Novichok, a nerve agent that Russia has used against other dissidents. It was unclear if the United States planned to release a formal report, as it did last week when it confirmed two-year-old findings on the role of the Saudi crown prince in the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, or would simply summarize the key finding in the Navalny case.

The sanction actions were notable chiefly because they are the first Mr. Biden has taken in five weeks since he became president. While most past presidents have come into office declaring they would seek a reset of relations with Russia, Mr. Biden has done the opposite - warning that Mr. Putin is driving his country back into an era of authoritarianism, and promising to push back on violations of human rights and efforts to destabilize Europe.

One official told reporters on Tuesday morning that the administration was not seeking to reset relations, but also was not seeking to escalate confrontations. The test may come in the next few weeks, when the administration is expected to announce its response to the SolarWinds cyberattack, in which suspected Russian hackers bore deeply into nine government agencies and more than 100 companies, stealing data and planting "back doors" into their computer networks.

History suggests the new sanctions may have little effect.

In 2018 the Trump administration announced sanctions against Russia for the use of a nerve agent against a former Russian double agent living in Britain, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia, and expelled dozens of Russian diplomats. But that proved little deterrent to the F.S.B. using the same technique against Mr. Navalny.

White House officials are expected to announce the sanctions later on Tuesday, and the Treasury Department will publish a list of the names of those under sanctions.

But a senior official conceded that the action was, in many ways, catching up to designations that the Europeans have already made. The official said the main effort was to assure that the U.S. and Europe were "on the same page" after several months in which European sanctions went beyond any imposed by Washington.

The European Union on Monday approved the imposition of sanctions on four senior Russian officials considered responsible for the prosecution and imprisonment of Mr. Navalny.

The decision, approved by the member states, will go into effect as early as Tuesday, when the sanctions are published, and is the first time the European Union has used new powers under its version of the Magnitsky act, which allows Brussels to sanction human rights violators worldwide.

The new sanctions are narrowly drawn to hit those directly and legally responsible for Mr. Navalny's conviction in what appeared to be a show trial and subsequent imprisonment upon his return to Russia from Germany, where he recuperated from the poisoning.

The European Union has already sanctioned six Russians and a state scientific research center in response to the poisoning of Mr. Navalny.

These latest European sanctions, which are travel bans and asset freezes, cover four individuals: two prosecutorial officials, the head of Russia's national guard and the head of Russia's prison service.

They are Igor Krasnov, who became Russia's prosecutor-general a year ago; Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, whose Investigative Committee handles investigations into major crimes and reports directly to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin; Viktor V. Zolotov, head of Russia's National Guard and a former Putin bodyguard, who threatened Mr. Navalny in September 2018; and Aleksandr Kalashnikov, head of the federal prison service.

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Biden administration accuses Russian intelligence of poisoning Navalny, and announces its first sanctions.

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The Biden Administration declassified an intelligence finding on Tuesday that Russia's F.S.B., one of its leading intelligence agencies, orchestrated the poisoning of Aleksei A. Navalny, and announced its first sanctions against the Russian government for the attack and the imprisonment of the opposition politician.

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Fearing Covid-19 Surge, Florida Officials Crack Down on Spring Breakers

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Fearing Covid-19 Surge, Florida Officials Crack Down on Spring Breakers

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Los oficiales de Miami Beach han reforzado las restricciones. Refuerzan las reglas sobre el distanciamiento social, el alcohol y el ruido antes de las vacaciones de primavera. El alcalde de Miami Beach, Dan Gelber, citó las preocupaciones de los especialistas en salud pública de que las multitudes pudieran generar otra oleada de casos de COVID-19.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/fearing-covid-19-surge-florida-officials-crack-down-on-spring-breakers-11614607216

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President Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against the militias whose attacks in Erbil this month killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member.

The airstrikes authorized by President Biden were meant to punish the perpetrators of the rocket attack but not to escalate hostilities with Iran, the Pentagon said. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON - The United States on Thursday carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias responsible for recent attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq.

President Biden authorized the strikes in response to the rocketing in Iraq and to continuing threats to American and coalition personnel there, said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, who spoke with reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III in California.

A rocket attack on Feb. 15 on the airport in Erbil, in northern Iraq, killed a Filipino contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others, including a Louisiana National Guard soldier and four American contractors.

American officials said the strikes were a relatively small, carefully calibrated military response: seven 500-pound bombs dropped on a small cluster of buildings at an unofficial crossing at the Syria-Iraq border used to smuggle across weapons and fighters.

The strikes were just over the border in Syria to avoid diplomatic blowback to the Iraqi government. The Pentagon offered up larger groups of targets but Mr. Biden approved a less aggressive option, American officials said.

The American airstrikes on Thursday "specifically destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point used by a number of Iranian-backed militia troops, including Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada," Mr. Kirby said.

"This proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic measures, including consultation with coalition partners," he added. "The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel."

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Roof damage in Erbil after a rocket attack last week. The attack killed a civilian contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others. Credit... Azad Lashkari/Reuters

Mr. Kirby said the American retaliation was meant to punish the perpetrators of the rocket attack but not to escalate hostilities with Iran, with which the Biden administration has sought to renew talks on a nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump had shelved.

"We have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq," Mr. Kirby said.

The attack on the Erbil airport was claimed by a little-known group called Awliya al Dam, or Guardian of the Blood, brigades. The group also claimed responsibility for two bombings against U.S. contractor convoys in August.

Little is known about the group, including whether it is backed by Iran or related to the organizations that used the facilities the American airstrikes targeted on Thursday. Some American officials contend that the group is merely a front for one of the better-known Shia militias.

Michael P. Mulroy, a former top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, said the limited strikes appeared intended to signal that Iran's use of militias as proxies would not allow them to avoid responsibility for attacking Americans. But the time and place of the attack also were significant.

"The decision to strike in Syria instead of Iraq was likely to avoid causing issues for the Iraqi government, a key partner in the continuing efforts against ISIS," Mr. Mulroy said in an email. "It was smart to strike in Syria and avoid the blowback in Iraq."

Mr. Biden had discussed the rocket attacks in a phone call on Tuesday with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi of Iraq. A White House statement afterward said that the two agreed "that those responsible for such attacks must be held fully to account."

The retaliatory strikes, which took place about 6 p.m. Thursday in Washington, or 2 a.m. Friday in eastern Syria, had been in the works for several days as American intelligence agencies worked to establish high confidence that the two Iraqi militia were responsible for the rocket attacks.

American officials said the attack killed a "handful" of militia, but the Pentagon did not provide any detailed assessment of the damage.

Saberin News Telegram channel, which is affiliated with Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, reported one dead and several injured. It said the strikes targeted an empty building and another structure used by the militia. The bases were in an area between Al Qaem and Abu Kamal, near the Syria-Iraq border.

Mr. Biden authorized the strikes on Thursday morning, as his defense secretary was at a hotel in San Diego, preparing to visit the aircraft carrier Nimitz, which was returning home from the Persian Gulf.

Mr. Austin expressed confidence that the facilities targeted were used by militia groups responsible for the attacks. Speaking to reporters aboard his plane Thursday evening, he said that the Biden administration had been "deliberate" in its approach.

"We allowed and encouraged the Iraqis to investigate and develop intelligence and it was very helpful to us in refining the target," he said.

The Biden administration has taken a more measured response to the rocket fusillade in Erbil than Mr. Trump's pitched campaign against Iran and past actions of its proxies in Iraq - one that often caught the Iraqi government in the crossfire.

Administration officials have said since the Erbil attack that the United States would respond to the strike at a time and place of its choosing.

Even so, the deliberateness of the new administration's approach has raised questions both in Washington and in Baghdad about where Mr. Biden's red lines are when it comes to responding to attacks from Iranian-backed militias that target Americans in Iraq.

The United States military has drawn down the number of its troops in Iraq to under 2,500 and has pulled out of several bases there over the past two years. It says Iraq no longer needs the help it did in the past to fight the Islamic State, though American officials have acknowledged that militia attacks also factored into the decision to move troops to bases more easily defended.

Iran has made clear that it intends to retaliate further for the American drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 that killed a top Iranian commander, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, and a senior Iraqi security official. Days after that strike, the Iranian government launched missile attacks against U.S. forces at the Ain al Assad air base in Iraq's Anbar Province, wounding more than 100 troops.

Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.

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U.S. Airstrikes in Syria Target Iran-Backed Militias That Rocketed American Troops in Iraq

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President Biden ordered retaliatory strikes against the militias whose attacks in Erbil this month killed one civilian contractor and wounded a U.S. service member. WASHINGTON - The United States on Thursday carried out airstrikes in eastern Syria against buildings belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militias responsible for recent attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq.

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¿En que se diferencia la vacuna de Johnson & Johnson de las de Pfizer y Moderna?

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¿En que se diferencia la vacuna de Johnson & Johnson de las de Pfizer y Moderna?

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Una sola dosis, refrigeración más sencilla y, aparentemente, con menos efectos secundarios. Así es la vacuna que esta semana comenzará a distribuirse en Estados Unidos.

https://www.nytimes.com/es/2021/03/01/espanol/johnson-johnson-vacuna.html

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Secretos en la UN de escala entre Rusia y Turquía fuerzas militares en Libia

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https://www.washingtonpost.com

Pato Jones

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Hours into widespread blackouts in Texas last week, the state's power regulator took an unusual step: It stopped relying on the deregulated market to set electricity prices and did so itself.

The Texas Public Utility Commission said it raised prices to a market cap of $9,000 per megawatt hour during a six-minute emergency meeting Feb. 15 because the computer that was supposed to help match supply and demand on the power grid wasn't working properly, and it needed to intervene to relieve a growing crisis.

But the higher prices didn't result in additional power production, because many generators were dealing with frozen equipment or fuel shortages, and were unable to deliver more megawatts, no matter the price. Some electric-market participants now say the commission's action turned an energy crisis into a financial catastrophe for many electricity buyers, who were left paying billions of dollars more for the same limited supply of electricity as before.

The role of the PUC, a three-member panel appointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, in last week's power fiasco is poised to garner more attention as state lawmakers review what went wrong. Up to now, most attention has focused on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot, the state's nonprofit grid operator, but the PUC is the state's chief electric regulator, and took key actions during the crisis.

State hearings examining the causes of the power collapse began Thursday.

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Texas Power Regulator's Decision to Raise Prices in Freeze Generates Criticism

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Hours into widespread blackouts in Texas last week, the state's power regulator took an unusual step: It stopped relying on the deregulated market to set electricity prices and did so itself. The Texas Public Utility Commission said it raised prices to a market cap of $9,000 per megawatt hour during a six-minute emergency meeting Feb.

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Personas mueren a causa de envenenamiento debido a la helada que ocurrió en semanas anteriores en Texas. 

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Personas mueren a causa de envenenamiento debido a la helada que ocurrió en semanas anteriores en Texas. 

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The harsh winter storm that hit Texas and other states last week has been blamed for dozens of deaths, though officials said that it would be weeks or months before the human cost of the freezing weather and utility crisis is known and that it might never be fully accurate.

The failure of the state's electrical grid during the weeklong cold snap left more than four million Texans without electricity and heat, many for days on end in subfreezing temperatures. Many residents also lost access to water, and 14.6 million were ordered to boil water to make it safe to drink. Power had been restored in most of the state by Tuesday morning, but 7.5 million people in 204 counties remained under boil-water orders.

So far, nearly 80 people have died a result of the storm and its effects, according to the Associated Press.

An 11-year-old boy was found frozen in his bed, his family told the Houston Chronicle. A grandmother and three grandchildren died in a house fire as they were trying to stay warm, the Chronicle also reported. At least six deaths occurred near the Abilene area, local media reported, including a patient who couldn't get medical treatment due to a lack of water and three elderly men who were found dead in subfreezing homes.

Harris County, which includes Houston, has confirmed at least 15 hypothermia deaths and one fatal fall on ice, according to its forensics institute. Several others died from carbon-monoxide poisoning after taking unsafe measures to stay warm, according to the county's top executive. In Travis County, which includes Austin, the medical examiner's office is busy processing more than 80 cases from last week to determine causes of death, an official said.

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Full Death Toll From Texas Storm Could Take Months to Determine

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The harsh winter storm that hit Texas and other states last week has been blamed for dozens of deaths, though officials said that it would be weeks or months before the human cost of the freezing weather and utility crisis is known and that it might never be fully accurate.