Tag Archives: US news

World

‘I can’t keep doing this’: gig workers say pay has fallen after California’s Prop 22 | US news

Leave a comment

Weeks after Proposition 22 went into effect in California and exempted some major tech firms from fully complying with labor laws, workers for rideshare and delivery apps in the state claim poor working conditions have persisted and pay has decreased.

Drivers and labor groups opposed Prop 22, saying it would allow companies to sidestep their obligations to provide benefits and standard minimum wages to their workers even as they make billions of dollars. But the measure passed at the ballot box.

“It’s clear that as soon as Prop 22 passed, it was open season to start cutting my pay again,” said Peter Young, a rideshare driver for four years in Los Angeles. “I’m looking for other work. I can’t keep doing this at this pay. I’m doing food delivery right now. Everyone is ordering food online so there’s demand. It’s just that what they are choosing to pay me isn’t reliable any more and it’s getting lower.”

When the coronavirus pandemic started, Young switched from rideshare driving to relying on food delivery apps such as Uber Eats, Grubhub, and the Uber-owned Postmates. After Prop 22 passed, he claimed incentives offered to drivers ahead of the Prop 22 vote disappeared, and he has experienced cuts to his base pay amid unreliable fluctuations.

“If you try to earn money, just purely on the delivery fee, it comes out to about $5 an hour. A good day for me is maybe earning $100 before gas and expenses off eight hours of work,” said Young.

The minimum wage in California is $14 an hour as of January 2021, and $13 an hour for employers with less than 25 employees.

Ben Valdez has worked part-time as an Uber driver in Los Angeles for five years and continued through the pandemic. He works two to three days per week, 12 to 15 hours per day, and on average makes about $150 per day before expenses, but the pay has continued to vary widely.

“I’ve had maybe three or four nights where I literally made $4,” he said.

Through the pandemic, Valdez has paid for things like face masks and other personal protective equipment out of his own pocket and built his own protective partition in his vehicle out of a shower curtain.

“I was under the impression that I was going to get an additional 30 cents per mile after Prop 22,” said Valdez, but he hasn’t received that extra compensation because, according to Uber’s metrics, his pay exceeds their calculation of 120 percent of minimum wage.

A study by labor economists at the University of California, Berkeley, in October 2019 found Prop 22 guarantees a minimum wage of $5.64 an hour, as only engaged time is accounted for in the wage calculations.

“A lot of drivers were duped because they expected they were magically going to be able to qualify for benefits that the companies made it sound like they were going to pay for up front and that drivers were going to be getting reimbursement for the mileage,” said Valdez. “They also made drivers believe that if Prop 22 didn’t pass then Uber and Lyft were going to leave the state of California because they couldn’t afford to pay drivers as employees.”

In November, California voters passed Prop 22, with 58.63% of voters in favor of the amendment to exempt app-based gig workers from California assembly bill 5, which granted gig workers the rights of employees such as unemployment insurance, health insurance, minimum wage, and collective bargaining. Uber, Lyft, and other gig companies refused to comply with AB5 and threatened to shut down operations in the state of California if they were forced to do so.





 A protest by Uber and Lyft rideshare drivers against California’s Proposition 22, in October. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Prop 22, authored by Uber, Lyft, Instacart, and DoorDash, went into effect in mid-December 2020 after an aggressive public relations campaign of more than $200m launched by the companies. The companies outspent opponents to Prop 22 by 10 to one, making it the most expensive ballot measure in California’s history.

Disputes over Prop 22 continue in the wake of its passage.

Shortly after it passed, several gig apps announced fees for customers in California would increase to cover the costs of Prop 22 driver benefits after several of the apps claimed prices would hike if Prop 22 didn’t pass.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission recently proposed a $3,371 fine against Lyft for deceptive and improperly labeled campaign ads in support of Prop 22.

A class action lawsuit was permitted to proceed against Uber, filed by 4,800 drivers demanding back pay and benefits as the rideshare company refused to comply with AB5 before Prop 22 passed. On 10 February, the California supreme court declined to review a lower court ruling against Uber and Lyft over the classification of their drivers as employees before Prop 22 passed.

Rideshare drivers and the Service Employees International Union have filed a lawsuit claiming Prop 22 is unconstitutional because it prevents the California legislature from providing workers’ compensation to workers for the apps.

One of the drivers who filed that lawsuit, Saori Okawa, worked as a full-time Uber driver in San Francisco for a year and was also working for Instacart and DoorDash when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

“Prop 22 hasn’t made anything better because the companies still don’t take into consideration the waiting time and driving time to stores, so their guaranteed 120 percent of minimum wage is fraudulent,” said Okawa.

She pays about $180 a week to rent a car through Uber’s partnership with Avis and spends about $90 on gas a week. She works five to six days a week from 7.30am to 6pm. She claimed the gig companies had changed base pay without giving a reason and she was still not provided adequate personal protective equipment while working during the pandemic, or compensated for the time she spent daily disinfecting her vehicle and herself.

“I’m scared and pray I don’t get coronavirus because that means being out of work for weeks without any financial support,” said Okawa.

A spokesperson for DoorDash said in an email: “We’re proud that DoorDash provides flexible earning opportunities for Dashers to supplement their income, and Prop 22 demonstrates that we can pair the independence Dashers want with even greater security. Following the implementation of Prop 22, Dashers in San Francisco are making more than $39 per hour that they’re on a delivery, and Dashers for the first time are able to earn money toward health insurance under this groundbreaking legislation.”

The spokesperson also claimed 90% of workers on DoorDash work fewer than 10 hours per week on the app, and on average dashers deliver less than four hours per week.

A Grubhub spokesperson said: “The new benefits from Prop 22 include earnings guarantees, healthcare subsidies and new insurance protections. Overall, Prop 22 ensures benefits for Grubhub drivers while protecting the flexibility they value. Regarding earnings specifically, drivers in California have more stability now with guaranteed earnings that are based on 120% of the local minimum wage, and total active delivery time.”

Uber, Postmates, and Instacart did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Read original article here

US

Stormy Daniels to Michael Cohen: Fox News movie brought back memory of sex with Trump | US news

Leave a comment

Stormy Daniels has said she could not remember key details of the sexual liaison she claims to have had with Donald Trump, until seeing a film about Roger Ailes’ sexual harassment of women at Fox News prompted her to remember.

“I went to see that movie Bombshell,” she said, “and suddenly it just came back.”

Daniels, an adult film star and director whose birth name is Stephanie Clifford, was speaking to Michael Cohen on the former Trump lawyer’s podcast, Mea Culpa, made by Audio Up Media. Excerpts were shared with the Guardian.

Daniels also described Trump “doing his best yet horrifyingly disturbing impression of Burt Reynolds”, on a bed, clad only in his underwear.

Daniels claims to have had sex with Trump in Nevada in 2006. He denies it, but a $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels reimbursed by Trump contributed to Cohen’s downfall in 2018.

Trump’s longtime fixer was jailed for tax fraud, lying to Congress and violations of campaign finance law. He cooperated with investigators and published a book, Disloyal, while completing a three-year sentence.

The payment to Daniels, and Cohen’s role in a payment to another woman, Playboy model Karen McDougal, during the 2016 election, are at the centre of ongoing investigations. Stripped of the protections of office, Trump is vulnerable to prosecution.

Daniels’ appearance on Cohen’s podcast marks a rapprochement between the two. After Cohen orchestrated Trump’s attempts to keep Daniels quiet, Daniels had harsh words for Cohen in her own book, Full Disclosure.

Daniels called Cohen a “dim bulb” and “a complete fucking moron”. She also detailed what she claims was a threat to her safety and that of her daughter, allegedly from Trump. In 2018, she said: “It never occurred to any of these men that I would someday have a voice.”

Cohen is now a vocal critic of his old boss. Daniels has remained a thorn in Trump’s side. She and Cohen appear to have realised their enemy’s enemy is their friend.

“Both of our stories will be forever linked with Donald Trump, but also with one another,” Cohen said. “Thanks for giving me a second chance.”

The details of Daniels’ alleged liaison with Trump at a charity golf event in Lake Tahoe in 2006 are well known, not least thanks to her book, which the Guardian first reported.

“I couldn’t remember,” she told Cohen, “how I got from standing in that bathroom doorway to underneath him on the bed, like I couldn’t remember how my dress came off or how my shoes got off, because I know I took my shoes off because I clearly remember putting them back on and they were buckled, like they’re really gold strappy heels that were not easy to, you know, come off.

“And I just, there’s like 60 seconds where I just had no recollection of it and it’s not in the book, and nobody really wanted to ask about it. They just wanted to know the details of what his appendage, or lack of appendage, looked like. And I was like, it really bothered me for like years, like, I definitely wasn’t drinking so I’m like why don’t I remember this.

“And I’ll never forget this moment. I went to see that movie Bombshell, and suddenly it just came back.”

Bombshell was directed by Jay Roach, starred Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie and was released in 2019. It told the story of the downfall of Roger Ailes, chief executive of Fox News and a key Trump ally, over sexual harassment.

Trump denies accusations of sexual harassment and assault by multiple women. Shortly before the 2016 election, Fox News killed a story about Trump and Daniels. Ailes resigned in July that year and died the following May.

Daniels’ own case against Trump for defamation is heading for the supreme court. She told Cohen: “I’ve already lost everything, so I’m taking it all the way.”

Of Lake Tahoe in 2006, Daniels also told Cohen she now remembered thinking, ‘Oh fuck, how do I get myself in this situation. And I remember even thinking I could definitely fight his fat ass, I can definitely outrun him. There’s a bodyguard at the door. But I wasn’t threatened, I was not physically threatened.

“And then so I tried to sidestep … I was like, trying to remember really quickly, where did I leave my purse, like I gotta get out of here. And I went to sidestep and he stood up off the bed and was like ‘This is your chance.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ and he was like, ‘You need to show me how bad you want it or do you just want to go back to the trailer park.’”

Daniels has said Trump told her he would get her a slot on The Apprentice, the reality TV show for which he was then most famous. At the time of the alleged encounter, Trump’s third wife, Melania Trump, had recently given birth to their son, Barron.

Daniels told Cohen she went to the bathroom, then “was genuinely like startled to see him waiting” when she came out.

“I just froze,” she said, “and I didn’t know what to say. He had stripped down to his underwear and was perched on the bed doing his best yet horrifyingly disturbing impression of Burt Reynolds.”

She “didn’t say anything for years”, she said, “because I didn’t remember.” Now the star of a ghost-hunting reality TV show, Spooky Babes, she added: “I’ve been face to face with evil in the most intimate way. Demons don’t scare me anymore.”

Daniels has described what she says happened next. Speaking to CBS 60 Minutes in 2018, she said: “And I was like, ‘Ugh, here we go.’ And I just felt like maybe it was sort of … I had it coming for making a bad decision for going to someone’s room alone.”

The interviewer, Anderson Cooper, said: “And you had sex with him.”

“Yes,” Daniels said.

Read original article here

US

Kamala Harris uses casting vote to pass Covid relief budget resolution | US news

Leave a comment

The US Senate has passed a budget resolution that allows for the passage of Joe Biden’s $1.9tn (£1.4tn) Covid-19 relief package in the coming weeks without Republican support.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, broke a 50/50 tie by casting a vote in favour of the Democratic measure, which sends it to the House of Representatives for final approval. It marked the first time Harris, in her role as president of the Senate, cast a tie-breaking vote after being sworn in as the first female vice-president on 20 January.

The House passed its own budget measure on Wednesday. Congress can now work to write a bill that can be passed by a simple majority in both houses, which are controlled by Democrats. Mid-March has been suggested as a likely date by which the measure could be passed, a point at which enhanced unemployment benefits will expire if Congress does not act.

The vote came at 5.30am on Friday at the end of a marathon Senate debate session, known among senators as a “vote-a-rama”, a procedure whereby they can theoretically offer unlimited amendments.

US cases

Biden is scheduled to meet with Democratic House leaders and committee chairs early on Friday morning to discuss the Covid economic stimulus, and is expected to make public remarks on the progress at an 11.45am EST (1645 GMT) briefing.

There was dissent from Republicans in the Senate overnight, particularly over plans for a $15 federal minimum wage. Iowa’s Republican senator, Joni Ernst, raised an amendment to “prohibit the increase of the federal minimum wage during a global pandemic”, which was carried by a voice vote.

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders said he still intended to support bringing the measure through: “We need to end the crisis of starvation wages in Iowa and around the United States.”

He outlined plans to get a wage increase, phased in over five years, included in a budget reconciliation bill. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 an hour, and has not been raised since 2009.

In a tweet after the vote, Sanders said: “Today, with the passage of this budget resolution to provide relief to our working families, we have the opportunity not only to address the pandemic and the economic collapse – we have the opportunity to give hope to the American people and restore faith in our government.”

During the debate Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said “This is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable. Notwithstanding the actual needs, notwithstanding all the talk about bipartisan unity, Democrats in Congress are plowing ahead. They’re using this phony budget to set the table to ram through their $1.9 trillion rough draft.”

The $1.9 trillion relief package proposed would be used to speed Covid-19 vaccines throughout the nation. Other funds would extend special unemployment benefits that will expire at the end of March and make direct payments to people to help them pay bills and stimulate the economy. Democrats also want to send money to state and local governments dealing with the worst health crisis in decades.



Read original article here

US

Republicans clash over futures of Marjorie Taylor Greene and Liz Cheney – live | US news

Leave a comment

Civil rights lawyers Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke are poised for key roles in the Biden administration. Sam Levine writes for us:

On her last day at the justice department in 2017, Vanita Gupta considered taking a picture as she left the agency’s headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue. But she decided against it. Gupta, the outgoing head of the department’s civil rights division, once described as the “crown jewel” of the agency, didn’t really want to remember the moment, she told a reporter who was shadowing her for the day.

Jeff Sessions, then the incoming attorney general, was poised to unwind much of the painstaking progress Gupta, 46, and her colleagues had spent the last four years building. It was no secret that Sessions opposed the kind of court agreements the justice department used to fix unconstitutional policing policies across the country (“dangerous” and an “exercise of raw power” in Sessions’ eyes). Nor were there any illusions that Sessions would try very hard to enforce the Voting Rights Act, already on its last legs after the supreme court gutted a key provision in 2013 (Sessions described the landmark civil rights law as “intrusive”).

Many of those concerns came to pass. Trump’s justice department not only did little to enforce some of the country’s most powerful civil rights protections for minority groups, but in several cases it opposed them. It filed almost no voting rights cases and defended restrictive voting laws, tried to undermine the census, challenged affirmative action policies, sought to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, and limited the use of consent decrees to curb illegal policing practices. Gupta took a job as the head of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition of civil rights groups across the country, where she became one of the leading figures pushing back on the Trump administration.

Joining Gupta in that effort was Kristen Clarke, a 47-year-old former justice department lawyer who leads the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, founded in 1963 to help attorneys in private practice enforce civil rights. As her group filed voting rights and anti-discrimination lawsuits across the country over the last few years, Clarke spent hours nearly every election day briefing journalists on reports of incoming voting problems. Reports of long lines, voting machine malfunctions, translator issues – no problem was too small. The monitoring sent a message that civil rights groups would move swiftly against any whiff of voter suppression.

Now, after years of leading the fight for civil rights from outside the justice department, both women are poised to return to its top levels, where they can deploy the unmatchable resources of the federal government. Last month, Joe Biden tapped Gupta to serve as his associate attorney general, the No 3 official at the department, and Clarke to lead the civil rights division. If confirmed by the Senate, Gupta would be the first woman of color to be the associate attorney general; Clarke would be the first Black woman in her role.

“They are both independently legit civil rights champions with a long deep history,” said Justin Levitt, who worked with Gupta at the justice department and knows both women well. “They’re going to make a really spectacular, really powerful team.”

Read more of Sam Levines’s report here: They took Donald Trump to task. Now they’re ready to reshape the justice department

Read original article here

Health

Latinos dying daily from Covid-19 increase 1,000% in Los Angeles county | US news

Leave a comment

The average number of Latino residents dying from coronavirus each day in Los Angeles county has increased by more than 1,000% since November, according to county public health officials.

Los Angeles is battling one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the US, amid a winter surge that has left hospitals across the region overwhelmed. LA county’s Latino population has faced the brunt of the crisis.

In November, the average number of Latino residents in LA county dying from Covid-19 each day stood at 3.5 per 100,000 residents. Now, it is 40 deaths per 100,000 residents. “That’s an increase of over 1,000%,” said Barbara Ferrer, the county public health director at a briefing this week.

“Los Angeles under Covid-19 has won the world series in baseball, the championship in basketball and holds the title for most Covid-19 infections and the most Latinos who are losing their lives,” said Sonja Diaz, the founding director of the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles, to the Guardian.

Los Angeles county’s population is 48.6% Latino, but Latinos are dying at a rate of more than one-and-a-half times that of all Los Angeles residents. As of this week, 231 Latinos died per 100,000 people in Los Angeles county, according to county data, as compared to 82 white people per 100,000. “Our Latinx community is, in fact, bearing the worst of this pandemic,” said Ferrer.

It’s a devastating trend that’s reflected in other parts of the state as well. Latinos represent 38.9% of California’s population, yet constitute 55% of positive Covid-19 cases and nearly half the deaths.

Diaz pointed out this is because Latinos make up much of the essential workforce and are often forced between risking exposure to the virus and earning a paycheck.





A Latino worker wears a mask and gloves as he crosses a street in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles. Photograph: Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images

“Nationally, Latino households have 1.6 wage earners per household compared to 1.2 in non-Hispanic households,” Diaz said. “That means there are more Latino households with adults who leave the house every day because of the hyper-segmentation of Latino workers in essential working situations. That means they are going to be more exposed to Covid-19, just to ensure they have the money necessary to keep shelter and food in their homes. They’re going to work not because they’re aspiring to be heroes but because our economy and the current decision-making of our leaders require that they show up to work.”

Many in these positions have reported having to work through unsafe conditions with no protective gear and no social distancing measures, Diaz said, and don’t have access to sick leave, despite legislation requiring employers to provide sick leave related to Covid-19.

“No matter what, these people of color are showing up to work and they are showing up to work under dangerous conditions that have not been remedied,” Diaz said. “We’re still expecting these low wage workers to show up to work without any of the common sense safety measures necessary.”

California this week lifted its statewide stay-at-home order after recording improving trends in the state’s rate of infections, hospitalizations and intensive care unit capacity as well as vaccinations.

The announcement came after a relentless surge of cases following the winter holidays had overwhelmed the state’s medical system and left many counties with limited ICU capacity.

Parts of the state, including southern California and the San Joaquin valley region, are still seeing high rates of infection, however.

Meanwhile, the state is trying to speed up vaccination after a slow start earlier in the year. Most regions are now vaccinating residents over the age of 65, in addition to healthcare workers and first responders.

Diaz fears what reopening will do to the Latino population. Already throughout Latino communities Los Angeles county, everybody knows somebody who has had the virus.

“We are an embarrassment to industrialized societies in our ability to get Covid-19 under control,” Diaz said. “As a result, Californians of color are getting sick and dying and having a difficult time recovering at the same time millions of Californians are requiring them to put their bodies on the line.”

Read original article here

US

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was an FBI informant | US news

Leave a comment

Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012, according to a former prosecutor and a transcript of a 2014 federal court proceeding obtained by Reuters.

In the Miami hearing, a federal prosecutor, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Tarrio’s own lawyer described his undercover work and said he had helped authorities prosecute more than a dozen people in various cases involving drugs, gambling and human smuggling.

Tarrio, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, denied working undercover or cooperating in cases against others. “I don’t know any of this,’” he said, when asked about the transcript. “I don’t recall any of this.”

Law enforcement officials and the court transcript contradict Tarrio’s denial. In a statement to Reuters, the former federal prosecutor in Tarrio’s case, Vanessa Singh Johannes, confirmed that “he cooperated with local and federal law enforcement, to aid in the prosecution of those running other, separate criminal enterprises, ranging from running marijuana grow houses in Miami to operating pharmaceutical fraud schemes.”

Tarrio, 36, is a high-profile figure who organizes and leads the rightwing Proud Boys in their confrontations with those they believe to be antifa, short for “anti-fascism”, an amorphous and often violent leftist movement. The Proud Boys were involved in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January.

The records uncovered by Reuters are startling because they show that a leader of a far-right group now under intense scrutiny by law enforcement was previously an active collaborator with criminal investigators.

Washington police arrested Tarrio in early January when he arrived in the city two days before the Capitol Hill riot. He was charged with possessing two high-capacity rifle magazines, and burning a Black Lives Matter banner during a December demonstration by supporters of former president Donald Trump. The DC superior court ordered him to leave the city pending a court date in June.

Though Tarrio did not take part in the Capitol insurrection, at least five Proud Boys members have been charged in the riot. The FBI previously said Tarrio’s earlier arrest was an effort to pre-empt the events of 6 January.

The transcript from 2014 shines a new light on Tarrio’s past connections to law enforcement. During the hearing, the prosecutor and Tarrio’s defense attorney asked a judge to reduce the prison sentence of Tarrio and two co-defendants. They had pleaded guilty in a fraud case related to the relabeling and sale of stolen diabetes test kits.

The prosecutor said Tarrio’s information had led to the prosecution of 13 people on federal charges in two separate cases, and had helped local authorities investigate a gambling ring.

Tarrio’s then lawyer Jeffrey Feiler said in court that his client had worked undercover in numerous investigations, one involving the sale of anabolic steroids, another regarding “wholesale prescription narcotics” and a third targeting human smuggling. He said Tarrio helped police uncover three marijuana grow houses, and was a “prolific” cooperator.

In the smuggling case, Tarrio, “at his own risk, in an undercover role met and negotiated to pay $11,000 to members of that ring to bring in fictitious family members of his from another country”, the lawyer said in court.

In an interview, Feiler said he did not recall details about the case but added, “The information I provided to the court was based on information provided to me by law enforcement and the prosecutor.”

An FBI agent at the hearing called Tarrio a “key component” in local police investigations involving marijuana, cocaine and MDMA, or ecstasy. The Miami FBI office declined comment.





 A Proud Boy displays an ‘Enrique Tarrio Did Nothing Wrong’ shirt as Trump supporters gather for the ‘Stop The Steal’ rally that preceded the Capitol assault on 6 January Photograph: Amy Harris/Rex/Shutterstock

There is no evidence Tarrio has cooperated with authorities since then. In interviews with Reuters, however, he said that before rallies in various cities, he would let police departments know of the Proud Boys’ plans. It is unclear if this was actually the case. He said he stopped this coordination after 12 December because the DC police had cracked down on the group.

Tarrio on Tuesday acknowledged that his fraud sentence was reduced, from 30 months to 16 months, but insisted that leniency was provided only because he and his co-defendants helped investigators “clear up” questions about his own case. He said he never helped investigate others.

That comment contrasts with statements made in court by the prosecutor, his lawyer and the FBI. The judge in the case, Joan A Lenard, said Tarrio “provided substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution of other persons involved in criminal conduct”.

As Trump supporters challenged the Republican’s election loss in often violent demonstrations, Tarrio stood out for his swagger as he led crowds of mostly white Proud Boys in a series of confrontations and street brawls in Washington DC, Portland, Oregon, and elsewhere.

The Proud Boys, founded in 2016, began as a group protesting against political correctness and perceived constraints on masculinity. It grew into a group with distinctive colors of yellow and black that embraced street fighting. In September their profile soared when Trump called on them to “Stand back and stand by.”

Tarrio, based in Miami, became the national chairman of the group in 2018.

In November and December, Tarrio led the Proud Boys through the streets of DC after Trump’s loss. Video shows him on 11 December with a bullhorn in front of a large crowd. “To the parasites both in Congress, and in that stolen White House,’” he said. “You want a war, you got one!” The crowd roared. The next day Tarrio burned the BLM banner.

Former prosecutor Johannes said she was surprised that the defendant she prosecuted for fraud is now a key player in the violent movement that sought to halt the certification of President Joe Biden.

“I knew that he was a fraudster, but had no reason to know that he was also a domestic terrorist,” she said. – Reuters

Read original article here

World

Coronavirus live news: US nears 25m cases as three infections linked to Australian Open confirmed as UK strain | World news

Leave a comment













21:17

Melissa Davey

In December, the UK reported a Covid-19 variant of concern, commonly referred to as the B117 variant, which appeared to be more transmissible. Since then, scientists have established that B117 is somewhere between 50% to 70% more transmissible than other variants. If more people are getting sick, there is more pressure on health systems, and in the UK health services are so overloaded a country-wide lockdown has been enforced.

While many scientists say B117 does not appear more deadly, researchers on the UK government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group found it may increase the death rate by 30% to 40%, though their sample size was small and they said more research is needed. With B117 now detected in more than 50 countries, understanding the variant is urgent.

But other variants of concern have also been identified, including in California, South Africa and Brazil.

So exactly what is a variant, and how many are there? And why are some variants of more concern than others?

Answers at the link below:













20:56

Helen Sullivan

And what a year it has been. In just over a month’s time, I will have been liveblogging international developments in the coronavirus pandemic for eight hours a day, every day on the global blog – which has been running non-stop around the world almost uninterrupted for more than a year.

This time last year, I was living in Beirut, having just returned from reporting on the bushfires in Australia.

Where were you at the end of January 2020? Let me know on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Updated


20:53

Monday marks one year since first cases in Australian state of New South Wales

In Australia, the state minister for health in New South Wales has noted that Monday will mark a year since the state confirmed its first four cases of coronavirus.

Today marks a week with no new local cases confirmed in the state:

Brad Hazzard
(@BradHazzard)

Tomorrow is one very challenging year since NSW had first 4 Covid19 cases. But today, with incredible support of our community (testing)& stellar work of front line @NSWHealth (inc⭐️Tracers),@nswpolice @NSWHPathology it is one week since our last local transmission of Covid19.

January 24, 2021













20:50

Summary

Here is a summary of the key developments from the last few hours:

  • The US is nearing 25m cases. I’ll post a summary shortly. For now, the US is nearing an astonishing 25 million cases of coronavirus – a quarter of the global total and one in every thirteen people in the country. There are currently 24,985,689 confirmed infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
  • UK to quarantine arrivals from high-risk countries – reports. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is preparing to force travelers from countries where there is a high risk of Covid to go into quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Britain, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday.
  • Three infections linked to Australian Open confirmed as UK strain. Coronavirus infections linked to the Australian Open are continuing to emerge, with a further three non-players – two men in their 30s and one in his 50s confirmed to have the highly contagious UK strain of the virus.
  • Mainland China confirmed 80 new coronavirus cases on 23 January, down from 107 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Sunday. The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 65 of the new cases were local infections. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 92 from 99 cases a day earlier. The total number of confirmed cases in Mainland China now stands at 88,991, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,635.
  • A possible community case of Covid is being reported in the northernmost New Zealand province of Northland. The “probable” case is in the community, a ministry of health spokesperson said, rather than a managed isolation facility. The director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and the minister of covid-19 response, Chris Hipkins, will hold a media stand-up at 4pm to share the latest information.
  • It has been a year since the Wuhan lockdown. The Chinese city of Wuhan marks one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown. On 23 January 2020, Wuhan shocked the globe by confining its 11 million anxious citizens to their homes, starting a cycle that would spread across the world. But China largely brought its outbreak under control and Wuhan is nothing like the ghost town of a year ago, with traffic humming, sidewalks bustling, and citizens packing public transport and parks.
  • Hong Kong and Oslo tightened measures. Thousands of people in one of Hong Kong’s poorest and most densely packed districts have been ordered to stay in their homes. Norway’s government, meanwhile, has imposed the strictest restrictions seen in the region of the capital, Oslo, since March after the discovery of the British variant in a retirement home.
  • A French lockdown ‘likely’. A French government source has told AFP that “the hypothesis of confinement is more and more likely,” citing projections of a surge in cases due to the more transmissible British strain.
  • Fabric masks still work, said the WHO. The World Health Organization says it has no plans to change its guidance recommending fabric face masks as new coronavirus variants spread because the mutated strains are transmitted in the same way. The statement comes after Germany and Austria made medical masks mandatory on public transport and in shops, allowing only surgical or FFP2 masks rather than fabric.
  • There is a shortage of vaccines in Brazil. Brazil has just started its vaccination campaign but scientists are already warning the hard-hit country will quickly run out of doses and even syringes, some blaming the government for the shortages.


20:38

Possible community case in New Zealand

Eleanor de Jong

An update on New Zealand now, where a possible community case of Covid is being reported in the northernmost province of Northland.

The “probable” case is in the community, a ministry of health spokesperson said, rather than a managed isolation facility.

The director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and the minister of covid-19 response, Chris Hipkins, will hold a media stand-up at 4pm to share the latest information.

The last case of covid-19 in the community was recorded in Auckland on November 18 and contained within a matter of days after central Auckland was shut down.

Overall less than 2000 people contracted coronavirus in 2020, and 26 people died. New Zealand is pursuing an elimination strategy towards the disease.


20:27

Mexico’s Health Ministry on Saturday confirmed 20,057 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 1,470 additional fatalities, bringing the country’s total to 1,752,347 cases and 149,084 deaths, Reuters reports.

The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.


20:07

Mainland China reports 80 new cases vs 107 a day earlier

Mainland China confirmed 80 new coronavirus cases on 23 January, Reuters reports, down from 107 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Sunday.

The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 65 of the new cases were local infections. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 92 from 99 cases a day earlier.

The total number of confirmed cases in Mainland China now stands at 88,991, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,635.


19:58

No new local cases in Australian state of Victoria

Victoria has recorded its 18th straight day without a local coronavirus case as the state’s residents enjoy greater freedom to gather indoors, AAP reports.

The zero cases recorded on Saturday – as well as one case in Victoria’s hotel quarantine system – came from just under 12,000 tests.

Only 30 active coronavirus cases remain in the state.

It comes as more visitors are allowed in Victorian households, with the indoor gathering limit at homes doubled from Saturday from 15 to 30.

The smaller limit on home gatherings had been introduced on New Year’s Eve as the state battled a cluster linked to a Black Rock Thai restaurant.

More Victorians stranded interstate will also be able to return home, thanks to a further easing of interstate border restrictions.

Updated


19:56

UK to quarantine arrivals from high-risk countries – reports

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is preparing to force travelers from countries where there is a high risk of Covid to go into quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Britain, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday.

Via Reuters: Travellers from Brazil and South Africa, and neighbouring countries, will be met on arrival and escorted to hotels to quarantine, under plans being discussed by UK ministers, the Daily Mail said.

Johnson favoured a more targeted approach than making all air passengers go into quarantine, said the report, which added that the quarantine decision would be taken on Monday.

Britain has recorded more than 3.5 million Covid infections – the fifth-highest in the world – and nearly 96,000 deaths.













19:54

Three infections linked to Australian Open confirmed as UK strain

Coronavirus infections linked to the Australian Open are continuing to emerge as the states and territories continue their run of no new locally acquired cases.

Victorian authorities on Saturday reported one new case linked to the Open, a man in his 20s who is not a player.

A further three non-players – two men in their 30s and one in his 50s – have meanwhile been confirmed to have the highly contagious UK strain of the virus.

Covid-19 Quarantine Victoria said all three had been in hard lockdown since they landed in Melbourne.

“The residents arrived in Melbourne on a dedicated Australian Open charter flight on 15 January and returned their first positive tests on 15, 17 and 18 January,” a spokesperson said.

There are 10 active cases linked to the Open and 970 people associated with the tournament in quarantine.


19:48

Eleanor de Jong

A possible outbreak of Covid-19 is being reported in New Zealand, in the northernmost province of Northland.

The probable case has emerged in the community, but is NOT a probable case of community transmission, according to the New Zealand Department of Health.

The outbreak – if confirmed – is said to be related to a person recently released from a managed isolation facility, the New Zealand Herald reports.

The director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, and the minister of covid-19 response, Chris Hipkins, will hold a media stand-up at 4pm to share the latest information.

Updated


19:46

Australian state of New South Wales confirms zero local cases

Calla Wahlquist

New South Wales has recorded no new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Sunday and three in hotel quarantine. It brings the number of new cases listed in Australia today to four, all in hotel quarantine, after Victoria reported one new case in Melbourne’s quarantine hotels. Queensland has recorded no new cases on Sunday.

Health officials in NSW have urged people to get a Covid-19 test if they have any cold or flu symptoms, however mild, after just 11,344 tests were conducted in the 24-hours to 8pm last night – well below the daily target of 30,000 tests.




Arriving passengers at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith International airport are sent onto buses for mandatory 14 day quarantine on January 22, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Photograph: James D Morgan/Getty Images

Authorities say they have also detected fragments of the virus in sewage tests at the Warriewood and North Head treatment plants,. The former covers about 70,000 people in the Northern Beaches area, and the latter has a catchment of 1.3 million people from a large chunk of Sydney extending north of the Parramatta River from Western Sydney to Manley.

NSW Health said the detection “likely reflects known recent confirmed cases in those areas,” but urged anyone living in those areas to get tested if they had any symptoms.













19:43

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.

I’ll be bringing you the latest developments from around the world, with a focus on Australia, for the next few hours.

I’ll post a summary shortly. For now, the US is nearing an astonishing 25 million cases of coronavirus – a quarter of the global total and one in every thirteen people in the country. There are currently 24,981,398 confirmed infections, with

In Australia, meanwhile, the states of New South Wales and Victoria have recorded zero local cases. We’re awaiting the numbers from Queensland.

And three infections in hotel quarantine linked to the Australian Open have been confirmed to be the UK strain of the virus.

As always, you can say Hi (or shout at me) on Twitter @helenrsullivan.

Updated



Read original article here