The president has now concluded his speech on the distribution of coronavirus vaccines. Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden announced the US has administered 200m vaccine doses since he took office, fulfilling a promise the president made to the American people. As of Monday, all American adults are eligible to receive a vaccine. “To put it simply, if you’ve been waiting for your turn, wait no longer,” Biden said.
- Biden also announced a new federal program providing US workers with paid time off when they get vaccinated. The program is meant to encourage all American adults to get vaccinated, now that the vaccines are more widely available. “No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated,” the president said.
- The justice department announced an investigation into the Minneapolis police department, a day after a jury found former officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd. The attorney general, Merrick Garland, said the justice department will investigate “potentially systemic policing issues in Minneapolis”.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Joe Biden has announced a new federal program to provide American workers with paid leave when they receive their coronavirus vaccinations.
“No working American should lose a single dollar from their paycheck because they chose to fulfill their patriotic duty of getting vaccinated,” the president said.
Biden emphasized that many more American adults need to get vaccinated, especially now that vaccines are more widely available.
“To put it simply, if you’ve been waiting for your turn, wait no longer,” Biden said.
Vaccines can both help prevent coronavirus infections among those who receive them and protect the broader community from an outbreak, the president noted.
Echoing public health experts, Biden reiterated that vaccines are the country’s way out of the pandemic.
More than 80% of Americans over the age of 65 will have received at least one coronavirus vaccine dose by tomorrow, Joe Biden said.
The president said the country is “entering a new phase” in its vaccination efforts, now that all American adults are eligible to receive a vaccine.
“Now our objective is to reach everyone – everyone over the age of 16 in America,” Biden said at the White House.
Joe Biden is now delivering an update on his administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic at the White House.
As expected, the president announced the country will soon administer the 200 millionth vaccine dose since he took office in January.
Biden said data will soon show that “today we did it,” with 200m doses delivered by his 92nd day in office.
The president initially promised to administer 100m doses over his first 100 days, but he doubled that goal after hitting 100m shots last month, weeks ahead of schedule.
Joe Biden has been briefed on the fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant in Columbus, Ohio, the White House press secretary told reporters moments ago.
Jen Psaki described the death of Bryant as “tragic,” noting it came “just as America was hopeful of a step forward” following the announcement of a guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial.
On the subject of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, Psaki said the president intended to use the bully pulpit to ensure a policing reform bill makes it to his desk soon.
“The stage we’re in now is that leaders on the Hill need to have discussions among themselves about where they can find agreement,” Psaki said.
Ohio county where girl, 16, was killed is state’s deadliest for police shootings
Joe Biden’s desire to re-establish US leadership on the climate crisis will face a severe test this week at a summit the president hopes will rebuild American credibility and kickstart a spluttering international effort to stave off the effects of global heating.
Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a two-day virtual gathering starting on Earth Day, Thursday, as the opening salvo in negotiations leading to crunch United Nations talks in Scotland later this year. Scientists say the world is severely lagging in tackling the climate crisis and its heatwaves, storms and floods, with planet-heating emissions set to roar back following a dip due to coronavirus shutdowns.
Much will hinge upon cooperation between China, the world’s worst producer of planet-heating emissions, and the US, historically the worst polluter. On Saturday, John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, struck an agreement in Shanghai to urgently address what Kerry called the “beyond catastrophic” consequences of allowing temperatures to spiral upwards.
The compact is broadly seen as encouraging but comes amid US-China tensions on issues including human rights and trade. The US also faces a deficit in credibility after the presidency of Donald Trump, which saw the country leave the Paris climate accords and dismantle environmental protections.
Joe Biden faces major test building US credibility at climate summit
The White House noted in its statement that all American adults are now eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine, as of Monday.
“Now is the time to step up our efforts to reach every working-age adult in America, and today’s announcement to help employers offset the cost of paid time off is an important step in getting America’s workforce vaccinated,” the White House said.
Joe Biden will call on US employers to provide workers with paid time off to receive their coronavirus vaccinations, the White House has just announced.
In a new statement, the White House confirmed the president will use his speech this afternoon to announce that tomorrow the country will hit 200 million vaccine doses distributed since he took office in January.
Biden will also lay out his vision to incentivize more Americans to get vaccinated, as shots become more widely available across the country.
“As the Administration works to get even more people vaccinated, President Biden will call on employers across America to do everything they can to help their employees – and their communities – get vaccinated,” the White House said.
“As part of that effort, President Biden is calling on every employer in America to offer full pay to their employees for any time off needed to get vaccinated and for any time it takes to recover from the after-effects of vaccination. He will announce a paid leave tax credit that will offset the cost for employers with fewer than 500 employees to provide full pay for any time their employees need to get a COVID-19 vaccination or recover from that vaccination.”
As of now, about 40% of the US population has receive at least one coronavirus vaccine dose, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.
The president will deliver his speech on vaccine administration strategy in about an hour, so stay tuned.
Republican Senator Tim Scott told Capitol Hill reporters that he believes a bipartisan compromise on a policing reform bill will be reached in “the next week or two”.
According to Scott, there are still four to five outstanding issues that Democrats and Republicans must work out before the compromise bill can be introduced.
The House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act last month, but that version of the bill likely cannot make it through the evenly divided Senate.
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said this morning, “We will not rest until the Senate passes strong legislation to end the systemic bias in law enforcement.”
Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd, praised Joe Biden as a “great man” in an interview with The View this morning, a day after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murdering George Floyd.
The president spoke to Floyd’s family on Monday, as the jury in Minneapolis began its deliberations over the charges against Chauvin.
Floyd noted Biden has spent some time with the family on “numerous” occasions since his brother’s death last year.
“He just made us feel a lot better because the president has so much to do, and he spent just that time with us,” Floyd said. “That made us all feel good.”
The Guardian’s Peter Beaumont and Sam Jones report:
With intense international interest in the US trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, news organisations around the world had been live blogging the proceedings and were quick to reflect the ruling by the jury.
Most reporting focused on two themes: a sense of relief in the US that the jury had delivered a verdict many judged correct and the question over what it meant for the future of the US’s fraught racial relations.
“On Tuesday, the United States closed a transcendental chapter in its racial history, which is this country’s original sin,” wrote El País’s US bureau chief, Amanda Mars. “In a country where police convictions are rare, for many activists this could be a turning point in the long trajectory of police brutality against black people.”
Under the headline “America relieved by historic verdict in the George Floyd case”, the French newspaper Le Monde described the crowd gathered outside the courtroom, eyes fixed to their phones, describing a cheer as the verdict of guilty was delivered. The Times of India reflected a similar sentiment: “Tears of joy, relief after conviction in Floyd murder case”.
For its part, Germany’s mass-market tabloid Bild was blunt: “Killer Cop Guilty!”
‘Guilty, guilty, guilty’: world’s media react to Chauvin trial verdict
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also said yesterday that the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial could not replace legislation to address policing reform, echoing Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s words moments ago.
The progressive congresswoman argued it was shameful that the country did not know whether Chauvin would be found guilty, despite the evidence against him.
“We saw a murder in front of all of our eyes, and yet we didn’t know if there would be a guilty verdict -- it tells you everything,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an Instagram video.
She added, “And that’s why I think it’s really important that this verdict is not used as a replacement for policy change.”
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