HealthYahoo NewsWhy experts like Dr. Fauci think 'there's a really good chance' the worst of the U.S. pandemic is behind us
According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, two-thirds of Americans are either somewhat or very worried about the “newer, potentially more contagious” COVID-19 variants that have triggered huge overseas outbreaks and are now spreading in the United States. To be clear, worrying less about variants doesn't mean abandoning precautions; nothing will suppress cases and shorten the U.S. pandemic like wearing a mask, avoiding indoor gatherings, staying 6 feet apart and getting vaccinated. Asked if the worst of the pandemic was behind the U.S., Fauci told Yahoo News Tuesday that “it might be.”
PoliticsThe GuardianIlhan Omar leads calls to fire Senate official who scuppered $15 wage rise
The progressive Democrat Ilhan Omar has called for the firing of the government official who effectively blocked the party's plans to raise the minimum wage. Democratic plans to include a gradual raise to $15 in Joe Biden's $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus bill were effectively ended on Thursday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it should not be part of the package. The decision by Elizabeth MacDonough, who has held the non-partisan position since 2012, dashed hopes of including the raise in the bill – the first increase in over a decade.
U.S.NextSharkAsian Residents Believe They Were Targeted After Man Cuts Brakes of 18 Cars in Washington
Des Moines police in Washington state are searching for a man who was captured by several porch cameras sabotaging at least 18 cars by slashing their brakes. Jackie Tran, one of the victims, only realized what happened to her car when her brakes failed to respond after pulling out of her driveway, leaving her in a state of panic, according to KOMO News. In one of the porch camera footage, a man can be seen kneeling by a car and spending a minute to cut through its brake lines before moving away.
LifestyleArchitectural DigestNo Need to Call an Architect—These 9 Room Dividers Elegantly Get the Job Done
From ornate to subtle, these beautiful screens double as functional art Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
BusinessReutersAstraZeneca says it will have no vaccine supply shortfall in second quarter, EU wary
AstraZeneca will deliver 180 million COVID-19 vaccines to Europe in the second quarter, including 20 million to Italy, the head of its Italian unit was quoted as saying on Thursday, but EU officials remained wary about supply. Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing an EU official directly involved in talks with the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker, that AstraZeneca expected to deliver less than half the COVID-19 vaccines it was contracted to supply the European Union in the second quarter. Lorenzo Wittum, CEO and chairman of AstraZeneca in Italy, told daily Il Corriere della Sera that Italy would receive more than 5 million shots by the end of March, fewer than the 8 million previously agreed, leading to a total of 25 million doses by June.
PoliticsThe WeekNewly confirmed Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is 'obsessed' with creating 'clean-energy jobs'
The Senate on Thursday confirmed former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, 64-35, to lead the Energy Department, with 14 Republicans joining all 50 members of the Democratic caucus to give President Biden his 10th Cabinet-level appointee (plus one deputy secretary). After her confirmation, Granholm tweeted that she's "obsessed with creating good-paying clean energy jobs in all corners of America in service of addressing our climate crisis" and "impatient for results." Granholm repeated her priorities on MSNBC Thursday night.
U.S.NextSharkAsian Man in Critical Condition After Being Stabbed in the Back With a Butcher Knife in NY Chinatown
An Asian man is in critical condition after getting stabbed by a butcher knife in New York's Chinatown on Thursday evening. The 36-year-old local resident was attacked around 6:15 p.m. near the federal courthouse, near the corner of Worth Street and Baxter street next to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, reports PIX11. Call came in at 6:20 for report of a stabbing at Baxter Street and Worth Street.
U.S.Defense NewsU.S. Air Force top general isn’t ready to buy the E-7 Wedgetail just yet
The Air Force's top general wants to take a deliberative approach to replacing its aging E-3 airborne early warning and control planes and isn't ready to commit to the Boeing's E-7 Wedgetail, despite support from the service's top general in the Asia-Pacific. “I want to actually look at what options do we have,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown said during a roundtable with reporters for Air Force Association Air Warfare Symposium on Feb. 25. One of those fans is Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, commander of Pacific Air Forces, who told reporters on Feb. 24 that he is in favor of a near-term purchase of the Boeing 737-based Wedgetail to replace the aging E-3 Sentry, which is based on the older Boeing 707 and colloquially called the “AWACS.”
U.S.National ReviewDeSantis Defends COVID Record, Needling Critics: ‘The Lockdown States Got It Wrong’
Florida governor Ron DeSantis defended his state's response to the coronavirus pandemic in a Friday morning speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. DeSantis was the first elected official to speak to the conference, which is being held in Orlando, Fla. this year.
PoliticsThe WeekJournalist Tim O'Brien, who's seen Trump's taxes, thinks Trump's accountant will now flip in D.A. inquiry
Bloomberg's Tim O'Brien, one of the few journalists who has seen former President Donald Trump's tax returns, told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Thursday night he will sleep better now that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance finally has eight years of Trump's financial documents, from 2011 to 2019. Trump "is very afraid of what's in these documents, I think," because they put him in serious criminal jeopardy, O'Brien said, but he isn't the only one implicated. O'Brien went on to explain why he thinks it's likely Trump's chief accountant, Allen Weisselberg, will flip on Trump.
U.S.NBC NewsFormer U.S. gymnastics coach dies by suicide after sex crime charges filed in Michigan
Police found the body of a former U.S. gymnastics coach who had ties to disgraced doctor Larry Nassar hours after he was criminally charged in Michigan on Thursday. State police troopers found the body of the man, John Geddert, who died by suicide, in a rest area off an interstate at 3:24 p.m. ET in Grand Ledge, Michigan, said Kelly Rossman-McKinney, a spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Geddert, who led the U.S. women's gymnastics team at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London, was charged with 20 counts of human trafficking and forced labor resulting in injury, one count of racketeering, two counts of criminal sexual conduct and one count of lying to police, according to a state criminal complaint filed in Eaton County.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Oklahoma man released early from prison accused in 3 family deaths
An Oklahoma man who had been released early from prison in January as part of a mass commutation effort is now accused of three killings, including the death of a neighbor whose heart he cut out, authorities said.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden's trade pick vows to work more closely with allies
President Joe Biden's pick to be the top U.S. trade envoy is promising to work with America's allies to combat China's aggressive trade policies, indicating a break from the Trump administration's go-it-alone approach. In a written testimony for her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee, Katherine Tai, Biden's choice for U.S. trade representative, said she would “prioritize rebuilding our international alliances and partnerships, and re-engaging with international institutions'' to present Beijing with “a united front of U.S. allies. Fluent in Mandarin, Tai served several years as head of China enforcement at the trade representative's office.
U.S.TheGrioTexas federal judge rules that national moratorium on evictions is unconstitutional
A federal judge has ruled that the national moratorium on evictions instituted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge John Barker did not issue an injunction; however, the Donald Trump appointee said he expected the CDC to respect his ruling. The federal government cannot say that it has ever before invoked its power over interstate commerce to impose a residential eviction moratorium,” Barker wrote in his ruling.
PoliticsThe GuardianWhat the Neera Tanden affair reveals about the Washington DC swamp
When sifting through the wreckage to try to make sense of this epoch, future anthropologists should dust off whatever records will be preserved about Neera Tanden's star-crossed nomination to an obscure-but-powerful White House office. As a political operative and head of a corporate-funded thinktank, she does not have especially relevant experience for the appointment – in fact, whether in gubernatorial administrations, mayoral offices or Capitol Hill budget committees, there are far more qualified experts for this gig. Critics allege that Tanden busted a union of journalists.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderWhile Biden visits storm-torn Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz will be giving a speech on 'cancel culture' in Florida
President Joe Biden heads to Texas on Friday to tour some of the areas hit hardest by the winter storm last week. While he's there, he won't be meeting with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz has a speaking engagement that day at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida.
PoliticsThe WeekNew York prosecutors finally have Trump's tax records — and the public will likely never see them
In the race to get former President Donald Trump's tax records, New York prosecutors have won. While it was more of a marathon than a sprint, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday that it had received Trump's tax records a year and a half after first requesting them. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance and his team will now be able to dig through what sources tell CNN are "millions of pages" of documents spanning January 2011 to August 2019.
WorldReutersIreland sees strong early evidence that vaccines are working
Ireland is beginning to see strong early evidence that its COVID-19 vaccine rollout is protecting healthcare workers and care home residents from catching the disease, health officials said on Thursday. Ireland has administered almost 360,000 vaccines among its population of 4.9 million, so far to healthcare workers, care home residents and most recently people aged over 85. Ireland is mainly relying on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and has administered much smaller amounts of the Moderna and AstraZeneca shots.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden raises human rights in call with Saudi king as intelligence officials to release report on Khashoggi killing
President Joe Biden has spoken with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud of Saudi Arabia ahead of the release of a report from US intelligence officials that is expected to reveal that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved and likely ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. A White House report of their phone call on Thursday did not disclose whether they discussed the findings in the report. The leaders “discussed regional security, including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the war in Yemen, and the US commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups,” according to a readout of their call.
LifestyleMiami HeraldThis spot in the Florida Keys was just named one of the best coastal cities in America
Everybody loves the Florida Keys. Especially Key West, which international travel website Big 7 Travel placed in one of the top 10 spots on its annual 50 Best Coastal Towns in the United States report. “Many consider Key West to be the best beach area in the States,” Big 7 Travel writes.
U.S.Architectural Digest9 Products to Help You Become a Better Plant Parent
You can't buy a green thumb, but at least you can buy the right tools Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldCBS NewsOxford vaccine may be key weapon against new COVID variants
In the meantime, buoyed by the fact that their vaccine is relatively easy to update, scientists at Britain's Oxford University are modifying it in a preemptive strike to prevent new coronavirus variants, including the variant first discovered in South Africa, from taking hold. Chief designer Professor Sarah Gilbert told CBS News that her team has already been working for months on modifying their vaccine to tackle new variants of the coronavirus and expects to have a new version ready in the fall. The ability to turn on a dime is down to the "plug and play" platform used in the original Oxford vaccine, Gilbert said.
PoliticsThe IndependentGold statue of Trump appears at CPAC conference
A golden statue of Donald Trump, wearing shorts in the print of the US flag and carrying a wand, has caused a stir on Twitter since a video of it being wheeled into the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) conference surfaced on the social networking site. A Bloomberg reporter shared footage of staff at the conservative conference wheeling a golden statue of the former US president across the conference floor. Voices in the background can be heard saying “awesome” and “that is so cool” in reaction to the golden model of Mr Trump.
PoliticsUSA TODAYMarjorie Taylor Greene faces backlash after attacking congresswoman with transgender daughter
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the freshman congresswoman whose support for QAnon and other extremist conspiracy theories has made her a flashpoint in the House, is facing condemnation again for putting up a sign denying the existence of transgender identities — across the hall from another congresswoman who has a transgender child. Newman talked about the importance of the Equality Act for transgender individuals such as her daughter. Greene then posted a tweet denying her daughter's gender identity.
WorldBusiness InsiderBiden orders airstrikes against infrastructure used by 'Iranian-backed militant groups' in Syria
The US launched airstrikes Thursday night against "Iranian-backed militant groups" in Syria. The Defense Department said the strikes were carried out at the direction of President Joe Biden. The strikes came after rocket attacks targeting US forces in Iraq.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”