USA - Coronavirus vaccine: Biden says vaccine mandates ′lifesaving′

US President Joe Biden on Thursday advocated for COVID-19 vaccine mandates to force roughly 67 million unvaccinated American adults to get the jab, even as he acknowledged that the requirements weren't his "first instinct.''

"There is no other way to beat the pandemic than to get the vast majority of the American people vaccinated,'' Biden said in Chicago at an event promoting the mandates.

Read more at: Coronavirus digest: Biden says vaccine mandates ′lifesaving′ | News | DW | 08.10.2021

USA - vaccine booster shot: Some scientists say Biden jumped gun with vaccine booster plan - by Rachana Pradhan, Kaiser

The Biden administration’s plans to make COVID-19 booster shots available next month has drawn a collective scream of protest from the scientific community.

As some scientists see it, the announcement is rash and based on weak evidence, and they worry it could undercut confidence in vaccines with no clear benefit of controlling the pandemic. Meanwhile, more information is needed on potential side effects or adverse effects from a booster shot, they say.

Read more at: Some scientists say Biden jumped gun with vaccine booster plan

USA: Biden pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030

President Biden is expected to pledge to cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% from 2005 levels by 2030, according to a senior White House official. The administration will express this as a range that has not yet been announced.

Read more at: Biden pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2005 levels by 2030 - CBS News

USA: Biden to the nation and world: 'America is rising anew'

President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress that “America is rising anew,” and pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a vital moment to rebuild the U.S. economy and fundamentally transform government roles in American life.

Biden marked his first 100 days in office as the nation pushes out of a menacing mix of crises, making his case before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators because of pandemic restrictions.

Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president urged a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.

He speech took place in a setting unlike any other presidential address in the familiar venue, with the U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after the building was stormed in January by insurrectionists protesting his election. The nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress for the first time was one of the most watched moments of Biden’s presidency so far, a chance to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant.

“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.

Read more at: Biden to the nation and world: 'America is rising anew'

USA: Covid-19 - another Biden heritage from Donald Trump: : US tops 25 million coronavirus cases

More than 25 million cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed across the United States. Experts say the true number is likely to be higher. More than 417,500 in the US have died with the virus.

The daily number of deaths has exceeded 4,000 in recent weeks - including on Wednesday when Joe Biden was sworn into office.

President Biden signed a raft of new measures last week, including boosting vaccinations and testing.

Read more at: Covid-19: US tops 25 million coronavirus cases - BBC News

EU-China Deal: How should Biden respond to the EU-China deal? - by Jeff Rathke,

The United States has been transfixed by President Trump’s efforts since Nov. 3 to overturn the results of the presidential election, but America’s friends and adversaries alike are moving to position themselves for the Biden administration.

This will constrain the 46th president's room for maneuver — an example is the agreement in principle between the European Union (EU) and China on a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), concluded in the last days of 2020. The successful push to conclude the CAI (largely led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel) took many by surprise, because just a few months earlier it was foundering on concerns about China’s international assertiveness and doubts in Europe about the wisdom of tying the EU’s fate more closely to Beijing. Washington should resist the temptation to try to scupper the deal by exploiting divisions in Europe; instead, it should develop a positive agenda with the EU that focuses on achievable priorities in an effective China approach.

Read more at How should Biden respond to the EU-China deal? | TheHill

USA: Biden plans stimulus aid worth trillions, pushes $2,000 cheques

United States President-elect Joe Biden plans to roll out an economic stimulus package worth trillions of dollars on Thursday that includes relief for unemployed Americans and rent forbearance for tenants.

The president-elect said Friday’s dismal jobs report — which saw the economy shed 140,000 jobs in December — makes it clear that Americans need more immediate and direct relief from the coronavirus pandemic and that taking action now will help the economy even with deficit financing.

Biden, a Democrat, said the bipartisan COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in December was a very important step, but amounted to just a “down payment” on broader efforts needed to help Americans. The package included $600 cheques, but Biden wants the amount increased to $2,000

Read more at: Biden plans stimulus aid worth trillions, pushes $2,000 cheques | Business and Economy News | Al Jazeera

Capitalism and the Green New Deal - by Bob Urie

Optimism that the incoming Democratic administration will take decisive action to address environmental decline is misplaced. An analogy, in terms of the institutional and political backdrop and an alleged public purpose, is the Affordable Care Act. Sentiment amongst its supporters is that the ACA was better than nothing. In fact, the ACA did not improve health outcomes. What it accomplished was to secure the role of health insurance companies as healthcare intermediaries and increase executive pay. Thomas Ferguson’s ‘investment model,’ where policy favors are exchanged for political contributions, well predicted this outcome.

Read more at: Capitalism and the Green New Deal - CounterPunch.org

EU extends a hand (or two) to Joe Biden – By David M. Herszenhorn

In a sign of just how eager Brussels is to move past the acrimony created by President Donald Trump, the European Commission and Council have put forward competing policy papers outlining how they would like the EU to team up with the new U.S. administration on a wide array of policy issues.

Read more at: EU extends a hand (or two) to Joe Biden – POLITICO

USA: Joe Biden warning dashes UK hopes of early US trade deal

Britain’s hopes of securing an early trade deal with the US have been dashed by a warning from Joe Biden, the president-elect, that America will not sign a trade deal with anyone until the US has sorted out its competitiveness.

Read more at:Joe Biden warning dashes UK hopes of early US trade deal | Trade policy | The Guardian

USA: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline - by James Traub

A few years ago I developed a moderately cheering theory about the effects of four years of U.S. President Donald Trump. The thought came to me while I was covering the French presidential elections in 2017. Very few French voters seemed to be attracted to Emmanuel Macron’s Anglo-American brand of liberalism, but they voted for him in overwhelming numbers against Marine Le Pen because they felt called to defend so-called republican values against her populist nativism. The French had a collective memory of their own brush with fascism during the Vichy era and the 1930s. So, too, the Spanish, who kept their own right wing firmly in check. Perhaps, I thought, Americans’ own problem was historical complacency; if so, Trump could provide a kind of homeopathic remedy which would inoculate them against the full-blown disease of authoritarianism without making them gravely ill.

I was wrong. The democratic catharsis that I hoped this election would produce did not happen and is not happening. I need not recite the evidence, as so many others have, including Foreign Policy’s editor, Jonathan Tepperman. It is enough to say that my medical metaphor got it backward: Trump exploited a preexisting condition of contempt for democratic norms and then made it vastly worse.

Read more at: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline

USA - Live: Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania - by Lauren Chadwick

Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States after being projected to win the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He is also projected to win the state of Nevada.

Read more at: Live | Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania | Euronews

USA Presidential Elections - Fundraising: Biden and Allies Collect More Cash Than Trump for Second Straight Month

Democrat Joe Biden edged out Republican Donald Trump in fundraising for a second straight month in June, data from the rival US presidential campaigns showed on Wednesday.

Biden and allied Democratic groups raked in over $141 million during the month, while President Trump and closely tied groups hauled $131 million.

Biden and Allies Collect More Cash Than Trump for Second Straight Month | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com