Boris Johnson married his girlfriend Carrie Symonds at Westminster Cathedral in London over the weekend, according to UK newspapers including the Daily Mail and The Telegraph.
The British prime minister tied the knot in front of 30 guests, including close friends and family, on Saturday, the publications said.
No. 10 Downing Street confirmed the marriage to the BBC, saying that the couple were wed in a “small ceremony” on Saturday afternoon and planned to celebrate with friends and family in summer 2022.
The couple had sent out save the date invites for July 30, 2022, just days before the small ceremony at Westminster Cathedral, according to The Telegraph. The ceremony was so secret that some top aides only found out about the marriage afterward, the publication added.
Johnson and Symond’s one-year-old son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, was also said to have attended the wedding along with two official witnesses.
COVID-19 guidelines in the UK state that up to 30 people can attend a wedding indoors as of May 17.
A staff member told The Sun: “Yes, there was a wedding — it was the prime minister. His bride looked beautiful. She had a long dress with no veil.
“He was extremely happy, as you can imagine. He looked very smart in a very dapper suit. She came down the aisle and he didn’t take his eyes off her. They read their vows then shared a kiss. They looked besotted,” they added.
Their son Wilfred had also been baptized at the Catholic cathedral in September 2020, The Telegraph reported at the time.
Symonds, 33, the Conservative Party’s former head of communications, is Johnson’s third wife. Johnson, 56, is twice divorced and has four children with ex-wife Maria Wheeler, and is also reported to have two other children he fathered outside of his marriages.
The couple’s relationship was first reported in June 2019. They became the first non-married couple to move into Downing Street together upon Johnson’s election as prime minister the following month. Symonds confirmed they got engaged at the end of 2019 in a private Instagram post, the BBC previously reported.
Johnson is also the first British prime minister to get married while in office in almost 200 years — Lord Liverpool was the last prime minister to do so when he married Mary Chester in 1822.
No. 10 Downing Street did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
On this Memorial Day weekend, what does Vice President Kamala Harris decide to talk about in front of the Naval Academy’s graduating class? Solar power.
“Just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or solar panels, and I am positive, she will tell you a solar panel — and so would he,” she said.
(And if you want to see media bias in action, ABC News added “said to applause.” In truth, there was silence, until Harris gave a little chuckle to prompt the crowd in “please clap” fashion.)
Start with the pandering pronoun “joke.” Women have been members of the Navy and Marines for a century, and allowed to be in all combat units since 2016. Harris using a woman as her example was perfectly normal — but adding “and so would he” is just performance art for the woke. It isn’t a punchline, it’s a sneer.
Second, batteries. Solar panels collect energy, but it still needs to be stored for use at night. That Marine isn’t going to choose between a solar panel and a battery, she has to take both, and hopes the battery gets lighter.
China is spending its time taking over the South China Sea, bullying Hong Kong, Taiwan and John Cena, pushing its influence into Africa, preparing for the next century. Kamala Harris wants to make sure our soldiers are carbon neutral.
This isn’t the only example. Just months into the Biden-Harris administration, the CIA was lampooned for a recruitment video that stressed terms like “intersectional” and “cisgender” instead of, say, keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats.
China, Iran and Russia are thrilled. While we worry about sensitivity training, they are pushing boundaries around the world. They are laughing at us.
That Marine — he or she — just wants to know if we have serious leaders.
A house under foreclosure in Las Vegas displays a sign on Oct. 15, 2010, saying that it’s now bank-owned. Sen. Sherrod Brown has vowed increased scrutiny of Wall Street banks, in part after a surge in foreclosures in his hometown in Ohio over a decade ago.
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A house under foreclosure in Las Vegas displays a sign on Oct. 15, 2010, saying that it’s now bank-owned. Sen. Sherrod Brown has vowed increased scrutiny of Wall Street banks, in part after a surge in foreclosures in his hometown in Ohio over a decade ago.
Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) hasn’t forgotten the Great Recession.
In the first half of 2007, Brown recalls, there were more foreclosures in his hometown than anywhere else in the country. It was a period that led to the Global Financial Crisis: Millions of Americans lost their homes, while banks and other corporate sectors were rescued by billions of dollars in bailouts.
More than a decade later, Democrats control all three branches of government, and Brown and fellow populists like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., are in powerful perches to oversee the Big Banks.
And Brown, like many of these top Democrats, believes that too many American are still getting the short end of the stick.
“They never get bailed out,” Brown says in an interview with NPR. “They never get a second chance. They’re just not in a position in an economy like this, where Wall Street writes the rules, where they can get ahead.”
That anger has been magnified at a time when banks have seen their profits soar during the pandemic, in part, thanks to strong actions by the Federal Reserve to support markets.
And top Democrats believe they are justified in pushing for change at Big Banks.
They want to push the country’s largest financial institutions to be agents of social change. And they have specific goals, like expanding access to loans and impose fewer fees for average Americans, or more outreach to unbanked and underserved communities.
“They did very well during the pandemic,” Brown notes about the banks. “We’ve seen stratospheric compensation levels. We see stock buybacks and dividend distribution. Yet, wages throughout our economy are essentially flat.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown talks with reporters in Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown has pledged to increase scrutiny of major banks.
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Sen. Sherrod Brown talks with reporters in Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4. As chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Brown has pledged to increase scrutiny of major banks.
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Brown is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, which also includes Warren, another Democrat with a reputation for being tough on Wall Street.
The Massachusetts senator played a key role in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.
“You know, most people think of congress in terms of passing legislation, and yeah, that’s part of the job,” she tells NPR. “But the other part of the job is oversight.”
That oversight was in evidence when Brown’s committee this week brought in the chief executives of the country’s top six banks for questioning as part of an annual oversight.
During that hearing, Warren asked Jamie Dimon, the chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, about overdraft fees the bank charged its customers during the pandemic, which she estimated at nearly $1.5 billion.
The heated exchange ended when Warren asked Dimon if he would volunteer to refund that money. He declined.
Warren is unapologetic about pushing banks to do more given their roles as critical institutions in society.
Bank executives, Warren says, “have a responsibility to execute on making their banks part of the solution to our economic and racial problems across this nation.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren heading to a news conference in Washington, D.C., in April 27. Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, tells NPR that a key part of her job as a lawmaker will be oversight.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren heading to a news conference in Washington, D.C., in April 27. Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, tells NPR that a key part of her job as a lawmaker will be oversight.
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But Republican lawmakers disagree with that very premise. They criticize executives for comments they have made – about voting rights, in particular, and they are critical of companies making business decisions based on environmental considerations.
“That ought to be left to elected lawmakers,” says Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., the ranking Republican on Brown’s Banking Committee.
Bankers aren’t naïve to the politics at play. Democrats have a small majority in the House of Representatives and a razor-thin majority in the Senate. And the midterm elections are less than two years away.
But even with a change in power in Congress, analysts warn banks are likely to face continued presure from Democrats — and society — on key aspects of their operations, from whom they lend money to where they invest.
“Banks have no choice but to address these issues, because it impacts their communities, their customers, and their employees,” says Mike Mayo, a banking analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. “You have to live in the real world, and the real world has these issues as part of the banks’ businesses.”
Rep. Maxine Waters fist bumps President Biden at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 28. Waters warns banks she will not be undermined in an interview with NPR.
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Rep. Maxine Waters fist bumps President Biden at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 28. Waters warns banks she will not be undermined in an interview with NPR.
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That message was made clear by Waters, a California lawmaker in a powerful position to influence banks as chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
“You know, what I have discovered about the banking community is that they have had a way of operating traditionally, historically, and they don’t change easily,” Waters tells NPR.
But Waters adds she will still demand changes in Wall Street.
“I think that many of them have come to understand that I can be dealt with, but I cannot be tricked. I cannot be fooled,” she says. “And I don’t accept being undermined.”
Officials initially said Mann was 17 years old, but later clarified he was 16 years old.
The chase and shooting happened May 18 when Mann fled from deputies after they tried to enforce a traffic stop near Torrid Avenue and North Carpenter Road in Modesto, officials said. Five teens were in that vehicle.
The officer involved in the shooting was identified as four-year veteran Deputy Gerardo Zazueta.
Body camera video shared by the sheriff’s office shows when deputies tried to enforce the traffic stop on Mann.
A deputy is seen walking up to the car and asking Mann to roll the window down before he speeds away, leading deputies on the chase.
Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse said the chase lasted more than 20 minutes and went speeds up to 60 mph on a 15-mile winding path through Modesto.
The chase ended when deputies were able to perform a successful PIT maneuver, officials said. The vehicle then spun out and drove in reverse for several yards before hitting the curb. It then drove forward, toward Deputy Zazueta, which is when he shot at Mann, officials said.
Body camera video of the shooting shows another deputy walking out of his vehicle and saying “shots fired.” The deputy approaches the suspect vehicle, and video shows several officers with guns drawn toward the car.
Officers are heard yelling “hands up,” then “get him out” as Mann is pulled out of the vehicle. Officers are then heard calling for first aid and a trauma kit.
Deputies are seen performing CPR, and Dirkse said CPR was continued for more than 15 minutes until paramedics arrived.
Dirkse said Zazueta did not turn on his body camera due to how the shooting unfolded.
“As Zazueta exited his patrol car, he was immediately confronted with a vehicle driving directly toward him. Deputy Zazueta had no time nor place to retreat. After firing his weapon, Deputy Zazueta ran to where his vehicle came to the rest and pulled the driver out and immediately began to render aid. Due to the rapid nature of how this critical incident unfolded, Deputy Zazueta did not activate his body warn camera,” Dirkse said.
Mann was taken to a nearby hospital after the shooting where he later died from his injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
The investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.
On this Memorial Day weekend, what does Vice President Kamala Harris decide to talk about in front of the Naval Academy’s graduating class? Solar power.
“Just ask any Marine today, would she rather carry 20 pounds of batteries or solar panels, and I am positive, she will tell you a solar panel — and so would he,” she said.
(And if you want to see media bias in action, ABC News added “said to applause.” In truth, there was silence, until Harris gave a little chuckle to prompt the crowd in “please clap” fashion.)
Start with the pandering pronoun “joke.” Women have been members of the Navy and Marines for a century, and allowed to be in all combat units since 2016. Harris using a woman as her example was perfectly normal — but adding “and so would he” is just performance art for the woke. It isn’t a punchline, it’s a sneer.
Second, batteries. Solar panels collect energy, but it still needs to be stored for use at night. That Marine isn’t going to choose between a solar panel and a battery, she has to take both, and hopes the battery gets lighter.
China is spending its time taking over the South China Sea, bullying Hong Kong, Taiwan and John Cena, pushing its influence into Africa, preparing for the next century. Kamala Harris wants to make sure our soldiers are carbon neutral.
This isn’t the only example. Just months into the Biden-Harris administration, the CIA was lampooned for a recruitment video that stressed terms like “intersectional” and “cisgender” instead of, say, keeping Americans safe from terrorist threats.
China, Iran and Russia are thrilled. While we worry about sensitivity training, they are pushing boundaries around the world. They are laughing at us.
That Marine — he or she — just wants to know if we have serious leaders.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
A bombshell new study claims to have proof that Chinese scientists created COVID-19 in a lab and then tried to reverse-engineer versions of the virus to make it look like it evolved naturally from bats.
British Professor Angus Dalgleish and Norwegian scientist Dr. Birger Sørensen wrote they’ve had primary evidence “of retro-engineering in China” since last year, but were ignored by academics and major medical journals, The Daily Mail reported Saturday, citing the soon-to-be-published study.
The study concludes: “the likelihood of it being the result of natural processes is very small.” The virus is still killing 12,000 people a day around the world.
Dalgleish is a London oncology professor known for breakthrough work on a vaccine for HIV. Sørensen is a virologist and chair of the pharmaceutical company Immunor, which developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate called Biovacc-19. Dalgleish also has a financial stake in that company.
It was during their COVID-19 vaccine research that the pair came across “unique fingerprints” indicating the virus didn’t come from nature, they said. The telltale clue: a rare finding in the COVID-carrying virus of a row of four amino acids, which give off a positive charge and bond to negative human cells.
“The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row,” Dalgleish told the Daily Mail. “The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it.”
They also tracked published Chinese research, some done working with American universities, to show how the tools to create the virus were allegedly built. A good part of the work reviewed involved “gain of function” research, which involves manipulating natural viruses in a lab to make them more infectious, allowing scientists to study their potential effect on humans.
The U.S. put a moratorium on such research in 2014. But it’s impossible to know if $600,000 funding for medical research in China was used for gain of function research, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress last week.
“A natural virus pandemic would be expected to mutate gradually and become more infectious but less pathogenic which is what many expected with the COVID-19 pandemic but which does not appear to have happened,” the scientists wrote.
Vietnam’s health minister said Saturday that the country has detected a “very dangerous” new coronavirus variant that appears to be a combination of strains first detected in India and the U.K.
Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said scientists discovered the new variant while examining the genetic makeup of a COVID-19 virus that had recently infected patients across the country. Long said the new variant appears to be highly transmissible and may spread more easily than other strains.
“Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the U.K.,” Long said Saturday, according to Reuters.
“That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the U.K. variant is very dangerous,” he told a government meeting, a recording of which was obtained by the news outlet.
Laboratory studies of the new variant showed the virus was able to replicate itself very quickly. Long said that could possibly explain why Vietnam has experienced a recent surge of outbreaks across 30 of the nation’s 63 municipalities and provinces, the Associated Press reported.
Though small genetic changes to the COVID-19 virus are common, the World Health Organization (WHO) has flagged four virus variants that remain of international concern. Among those include B117, or the variant first detected in the U.K., along with B16172, the variant first found in India. The other two strains were first identified in South Africa and Brazil.
Scientists have found that both the U.K. and Indian variants could be up to 50 percent more transmissible than other strains of COVID-19.
On Saturday, a WHO official told Newsweek that the organization has not yet made an assessment regarding the new Vietnam variant.
“We expect that more variants will continue to be detected as the virus circulates and evolves and as sequencing capacities are enhanced worldwide,” said Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead for COVID-19.
Van Kerkhove said that each variant identified needs to first be properly assessed by the agency.
“Our country office is working with the Ministry of Health in Vietnam and we expect more information soon. From what we understand, the variant they detected is the B.1.617.2 variant possibly with an additional mutation, however we will provide more information as soon as we receive it,” Van Kerkhove added.
A health worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) conducts a Covid-19 coronavirus swab test on a student at the Vinschool private school in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 22, 2021. NHAC NGUYEN/AFP/Getty Images
Vietnam has so far detected at least seven strains of COVID-19, according to Reuters. Though the country has maintained relatively high success in battling the pandemic – with just 35 deaths reported at the beginning of May – the nation has seen more than 3,500 new virus cases in recent weeks.
The Southeast Asian country has moved forward with a nationwide ban on all religious events after at least 85 people tested positive for the virus at a Protestant church in one city, according the AP. Across major metropolitan areas, authorities have banned large gatherings, closed public parks, and halted in-person activity at restaurants, bars, clubs and spas.
The nation has so far administered 2.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations, and is currently in talks with Moderna to receive enough shots to fully vaccine 80 percent of the population.
By Saturday, Vietnam has recorded a total of 6,396 cases and 47 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Employers are allowed under federal law to require workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine before they can physically return to the workplace, according to updated guidance issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday.
The decision may mean unvaccinated employees could be required to wear masks or work remotely.
The EEOC rules also gave the green light to companies offering incentives for staffers to get vaccinated, as long as the rewards are “not so substantial as to be coercive.”
“A very large incentive could make employees feel pressured to disclose protected medical information,” the EEOC said without providing examples.
Food manufacturer Bolthouse Farms is giving its vaccinated workers a $500 bonus, The Wall Street Journal reported, while retailer Dollar General is offering an extra four hours of pay for those who can prove they got a COVID shot.
In the months since the vaccines have become widely available, some workers have been blindsided by their bosses’ demands to get inoculated.
“It was shocking to me,” Bonnie Jacobson told The Post after losing her waitress job in Brooklyn in February. “I went through the stages: I’m hurt, I’m in shock — then I got mad.”
Workers across the country have gone to court to try to block inoculation requirements imposed by employers, MarketWatch reported this month.
Many of the workers’ legal claims point to a federal statute specifying that vaccines issued on an emergency basis can only be given voluntarily.
None of the COVID-19 shots have received formal approval from the Food and Drug Administration, which normally takes years to obtain.
Just over half of all adult Americans — 51 percent — have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But 88 percent of employers surveyed in an April poll by Arizona State University said they planned to encourage their workers to get the shot — and six in 10 said they intended to demand proof.
A 13-year-old girl has been in the hospital for over two weeks after suffering third-degree burns while apparently attempting to imitate a video she saw on social media, said her family, who are speaking out in case they can help prevent it from happening to someone else.
Destini Crane, of Portland, Oregon, severely burned her neck and right arm and has had to undergo three skin-grafting surgeries after her family believes she was trying to copy a video on the popular video app TikTok.
The incident happened on May 13 in their home’s bathroom, her sister, Andrea Crane, told ABC News. Destini is currently unable to speak to tell them what happened. But based on what they found in the bathroom and after talking to her friends, they believe the seventh grader — who “lived for TikToks,” her mother said — was trying to copy a TikTok video in which someone draws a shape using a flammable liquid on a mirror and then lights it on fire.
Destini brought into the bathroom a candle, lighter and bottle of rubbing alcohol, which they believe exploded in the poorly ventilated space, setting her and other items on fire, her sister said. When they retrieved Destini’s phone, TikTok was still recording video, her mother, Kimberly Crane, told ABC News.
“I was in the living room talking with my mom, and I heard her scream my name,” Kimberly Crane recalled. “So I went and opened the bathroom door and everything was on fire. Destini was on fire. Things in the bathroom were on fire.”
Kimberly Crane brought her daughter outside and ultimately pulled her burning shirt off, she said. A neighbor had called 911.
Destini has been in the intensive care unit ever since, and her family is hoping she will be able to move to the burn unit soon for further care. She will likely need several more months to recover, including inpatient rehabilitation to regain use of her arm and mobility in her neck, shoulders and fingers, her sister said.
“Because of the burns she’s going to have limited mobility,” Andrea Crane said. “That is just going to be a lifelong thing, of her doing physical therapy to keep her mobility.”
Destini has been on pain medication, her family said, and they believe she knows she is in the hospital but doesn’t fully comprehend what happened to her.
“I know that when she wakes up and fully understands, she’s probably going to freak out,” her mother said. “But honestly I think that she’s strong enough to get through it.”
The family has said their church and Destini’s school have been supportive since the incident happened. Andrea Crane, a student at Western Oregon University in Monmouth, has also moved back home to help care for her sister, who loves to skateboard and play the online game Roblox.
“We’ve always been our unit,” she said. “Being in Monmouth just wasn’t an option for me, with wanting to be here and my family needing me.”
The two are sharing their story to hopefully encourage other families to be more present in children’s social media use.
“I just wasn’t present with her,” Andrea Crane said. “When she showed me TikToks and when she showed me what she was doing, I would be like, ‘Oh I’m busy,’ or, ‘I’m doing schoolwork.'”
“It’s really important to be present with your children, because we can monitor them, we have parental controls, we can do all that all we want, but things slip through,” she said. “And so it’s really important to be present with your children and have that transparency of, ‘Hey what are you into what? What are you doing right now?'”
The minimum age for TikTok is 13, according to the app’s terms of service.
The children’s online safety organization Internet Matters advises that teens “may be tempted to take risks to get more of a following or likes on a video so it’s important to talk about what they share.”
Common Sense Media recommends that parents share an account with kids over 13 so they can “keep an eye on what your kid is viewing and posting.”
Parents can limit content that may not be appropriate for all users by enabling the “restricted mode” in the account.
ABC News has reached out to TikTok for comment.
Amid reports of the so-called skull-breaker challenge last year, a prank that left some children with severe injuries, TikTok said in a post to its newsroom that “we do not allow content that encourages or replicates dangerous challenges that might lead to injury.”
“More importantly, we encourage everyone to exercise caution in their behavior whether online or off,” the company said. “Nobody wants their friends or family to get hurt filming a video or trying a stunt.”
Vice President Kamala Harris drew heat online Saturday for telling Americans to “enjoy the long weekend” — which ends with a national day of mourning.
Harris tweeted the celebratory words Saturday afternoon, alongside a picture of herself smiling. She did not mention Memorial Day, the upcoming federal holiday reserved for honoring military members that have died protecting the US.
Reactions to the tweet were largely negative and sarcastic, with one user replying, “I’ve never been able to “enjoy” Memorial Day. It became that much harder when I lost my son fighting for this country. Thanks anyway Madam Vice President.”
Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin finished Harris’s short sentence: “…and pay tribute to the courageous men and women of our nation’s military who sacrificed their lives in defense of our freedoms and liberties,” he wrote.
Even some admirers of the first female veep did not hesitate to share their displeasure.
“What a disappointing tweet from a person I like and support. Please do better,” one wrote.
Staunch supporters of the Democrat fired back at her detractors, two days ahead of the national holiday.
“[Harris] has done more to respect and honor soldiers and vets in 6 months than the previous administration did in 4 years. Back off,” a comment read.
On Friday, the White House issued a proclamation marking Memorial Day, signed by President Biden.
“Our Nation will never forget the courage and patriotism demonstrated by the countless women and men who laid down their lives so that we may continue to pursue a more perfect Union and to protect the unalienable rights Americans hold dear,” it read in part.
A man rides a bicycle on an empty street amid lockdown restrictions due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in Hanoi on May 10. On Saturday, Vietnam’s health ministry announced the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the country.
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A man rides a bicycle on an empty street amid lockdown restrictions due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in Hanoi on May 10. On Saturday, Vietnam’s health ministry announced the discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the country.
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Vietnam has detected a new coronavirus variant that is highly transmissible and has features of two other strains.
“Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the U.K.,” Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said, according to Reuters. “That the new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the U.K. variant is very dangerous.”
The announcement came on Saturday as the country is dealing with a recent spike of infections that started in May.
Long says the new variant might be responsible for the latest surge, according to the AP.
The new variant is more transmissible in the air and Long says scientists observed the variant’s ability to replicate quickly in lab cultures, according to VnExpress.
Seven other coronavirus variants had been detected in the country prior to Saturday’s announcement. The latest variant does not have a name yet, but the ministry of health plans to publish genome data of it.
Since the pandemic began, Vietnam has reported 6,713 cases and 47 deaths as of Saturday. A little more than half of the cases and 12 of the deaths were reported in the last month, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
A majority of the latest cases reported came from the Bac Ninh and Bac Giang provinces, both of which have a large industrial presence. Hundreds of thousands of people work there to manufacture goods for big tech companies including Samsung, Canon and Apple.
Early on in the pandemic, Vietnam was praised for low case numbers and deaths. The country’s aggressive social distancing policies and experience with prior epidemics were seen as effective measures in stopping the spread.
But since cases as increasing again, restrictions have been put in place again. All religious events are banned nationwide, and authorities in major cities have closed public parks and nonessential businesses to help stop large gatherings, according to the AP.
Nearly 29,000 people or .03% of the country has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with just over 1 million doses being administered.
“Politics, pressures of this place, personalities, politics by personal destruction, has been something that unfortunately is becoming more prevalent than I’d like to see it around this place,” Brady said.
The variant detected in India, known as B.1.617, is believed to be more transmissible, the World Health Organization said this month, citing a study that had yet to be peer reviewed, and it could be more resistant against antibodies from vaccines or previous infections, according to the organization.
That variant has been spreading in Britain and now accounts for most of the new cases detected there.
Vietnam, a nation of around 97 million people, has been credited for its forceful approach to containing the virus, having recorded only 6,856 cases and 47 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. But it has faced a surge of cases in recent weeks, with more than half the country’s total cases reported this month. Only 1 percent of the population has been vaccinated, according to a New York Times database.
At least 85 people tested positive as part of a cluster at a Protestant church in Ho Chi Minh City, the Health Ministry said. Worshipers sang and chanted while sitting close together without wearing proper masks or taking other precautions, according to The Associated Press.
It’s one of JOE BIDEN’s most oft-repeated catchphrases: “Don’t tell me what you value; show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.”
On Friday afternoon, Biden showed us his budget. Here’s what it tells us about what his White House values — and the signals it sends about where he’s willing to spend the most political capital.
— Domestic spending: The budget makes good on some of the promises Biden made on the campaign trail — which many activists and allies were getting antsy about — with massive investments in combating climate change and a range of domestic programs aimed at both the middle class and people living in poverty. Included in the $6 trillion budget:
$2.3 trillion for infrastructure, including $115B for roads and bridges, $174B for electric vehicles, $85B to modernize transit, $111B on drinking water infrastructure and $100B to expand high-speed broadband access.
$1.8 trillion for Biden’s “families plan,” including $200B for universal free pre-K, $109B for free community college, $85B in Pell Grants, $225B for child care and $225B for a national paid family medical leave program.
$1.5 trillion in discretionary spending, including major increases for the Education Dept., Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development.
— Taxes: Biden’s plan includes $3.6 trillion in tax increases for corporations and wealthy individuals. NYT’s Alan Rappaport puts it like this: “Starting at the end of 2021, the top individual income tax rate would rise to 39.6 percent from 37 percent, reversing the Trump administration’s tax cuts for the highest income taxpayers.”More on that from the NYT
— Deficits and debt: Even with those tax increases, Biden’s budget would run a $1.8 trillion deficit next year. Over the next decade, the federal debt would exceed the size of the entire U.S. economy — growing to 117% of GDP by 2031.
Another important aspect of a White House budget proposal: It starts the clock on the Hill, so be on the lookout for what changes they decide to make because they will be there.
— Remember, y’all: If Democrats want to pass bills through reconciliation (which, behind the scenes, they admit they do) then a budget resolution must be passed to allow that to happen.
Here are three interesting reads if you want to understand the budget and some of the political fights we can expect to see soon:
“The budget plan the White House unveiled on Friday projects economic growth of 2 percent or less per year for most of the next decade, after factoring in inflation. That’s not much different than the sluggish pace the U.S. endured in the decade after the financial crisis and Great Recession, a disappointing economic performance that damaged BARACK OBAMA’s presidency.
“So where is the ‘Build Back Better’ economic revolution that Biden and White House officials have talked up in recent weeks in selling their plans to spend roughly $4 trillion on the infrastructure and on family programs?
“Some analysts suggested that the administration is essentially admitting that its proposed surge in federal spending — which administration officials hope to offset over time with higher taxes on the rich and corporations — won’t actually boost the economy much at all.” More on that from Ben
— At WaPo, Colby Itkowitz notes that Biden’s budget plan “made official his opposition to the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old ban on federal funding for abortions that he long supported before reversing his stance during the presidential campaign.” As Itkowitz notes, the request “is not binding and requires Congress to also agree not to include it,” so you can expect to see some debate on this front coming soon.
— And over at WSJ, Richard Rubin points out Biden’s budget would actually keep a Trump-era tax break on businesses: “Owners of closely held businesses would still get a 20% tax deduction … leaving high-income people who run construction companies and manufacturing firms benefiting — for now. … Although Mr. Biden campaigned on limiting the break, the deduction went untouched in the first $2.4 trillion worth of net tax increases that were detailed by the Biden administration on Friday.”
BIDEN’S SATURDAY: The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS have nothing on their public schedules.
PLAYBOOK READS
THE WHITE HOUSE
WHO PRESSURE BUILDS — “Biden’s renewed focus on covid origins ramps up pressure on WHO for more aggressive investigation,” WaPo: “The U.S. initiative was partly a response on dismissive remarks about an investigation made by a Chinese official at a WHO event on Tuesday, officials said. The WHO, an overstretched United Nations agency responsible for coordinating the international response to the pandemic, is feeling the pressure. But it has few powers to investigate on its own.
“WHO emergencies chief MIKE RYAN said Friday that the organization was still consulting with an expert team that visited the virus’s initial epicenter of Wuhan, China, earlier this year about how to proceed with their investigation. All hypotheses remain open, he said.”
SANCTIONS INCOMING — “White House announces sanctions over Belarus’ passenger plane interception,” by Myah Ward: “The Biden administration on Friday night further condemned Belarus’ May 23 forced take down of a civilian airliner, calling it a ‘direct affront’ to international norms and announcing sanctions against the former Soviet republic.
“‘Belarus’s forced diversion of a commercial Ryanair flight under false pretenses, traveling between two member states of the European Union, and the subsequent removal and arrest of RAMAN PRATASEVICH, a Belarusian journalist, are a direct affront to international norms,’ White House press secretary JEN PSAKI said in a statement. ‘These events took place amid an escalating wave of repression by the Lukashenka regime against the aspirations of the people of Belarus for democracy and human rights.’”
CONGRESS
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK —Battle Born Collective, the progressive advocacy group started by HARRY REID alum REBECCA KIRSZNER KATZ and ADAM JENTLESON, is releasing a memo to Democrats raising the alarm that time is running out on the “For the People Act” (HR1 and S1) as well as filibuster reform.
— Why it matters: Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER says the Senate will take up S1 in the last week of June — which is right around the corner. And Democrats are feeling the heat from the base to get something done in this space. Read the memo
MUTUAL RESENTMENT GROWS WITHIN SENATE — “‘Pretty damn scary’: Failure of Jan. 6 commission exposes Senate wounds,” by Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine: “Democrats thought they’d given [Maine GOP Sen. SUSAN] COLLINS everything she wanted on the commission, and still she came up short of breaking a filibuster. Collins and other Republicans came away worried that [Majority Leader CHUCK] SCHUMER would rather thrash their party as obstructionist than try and get the three more votes he needed to reach the required 60. The resulting bitterness recalled the tension that’s long built up in the House, as the lingering scars of the pro-Trump Capitol attack splinter the two parties on even the most anodyne legislation.
“The Senate … has so far avoided the mutual resentment that’s taken hold on the other side of the Capitol. And the upper chamber is still on track to pass Schumer’s bipartisan China competitiveness bill. Even so, the scuttled commission vote was a microcosm of Congress’ failed efforts to move forward after Jan. 6: Two senators from opposite parties supported the same goals and briefly turned their frustrations on each other as 10 Republicans wouldn’t come on board. It doesn’t bode well for a Senate that controls much of Biden’s agenda.”
FILIBUSTER FALLOUT — “Democrats grapple with the enemy within: What to do about the filibuster rule that could kill their agenda,”WaPo:“[I]nternal tensions emerged in a Democratic caucus meeting on Wednesday afternoon during which the [upcoming voting rights] legislation was discussed, according to multiple senators who attended. … [West Virginia Sen. JOE] MANCHIN came and sat in silence inside the Capitol Hill conference room as a prominent Democratic elections lawyer, MARC ELIAS, catalogued the threats to voting rights being waged in states across the country. Then, several of Manchin’s colleagues rose and made impassioned cases for action.
“None mentioned Manchin by name, but those present knew whom they had to persuade. And the words of one particular senator — Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.), who also has a track record of winning in a Republican state — made a particular impression, the senators present said.”
FROM SICKNICK’S LOVED ONES — “‘All talk and no action’: Sicknick’s mother and girlfriend say they were disappointed by GOP senators,” by CNN’s Jeremy Herb: “In an exclusive interview with CNN’s JAKE TAPPER Friday, GLADYS SICKNICK and her son’s girlfriend SANDRA GARZA said they were clinging to hope that they could change the minds of senators opposed to the independent commission, but were still not surprised at the ultimate outcome.
“‘They went through their motions, but you can tell that underneath they were being nice to us,’ Sicknick said of her meetings Thursday.”
DEMS SEE AN OPENING ON HEALTH CARE — “Democrats plot Medicaid expansion backdoor in red states refusing program,” by Rachel Roubein and Susannah Luthi: “Expanding coverage to the estimated 2.2 million people lacking affordable health insurance options in the Medicaid expansion holdout states would fulfill a Biden campaign pledge while his other key health care promises, like government drug price negotiations and a public option, face tough odds in Congress. Democrats also believe it would deliver a major win for their party heading into tightly contested midterm elections next year, given that Medicaid expansion has polled well — including in states where Republican leaders have blocked it for years.
“However, the new effort carries risks that Democratic lawmakers, White House officials and health care advocates have been struggling to resolve in behind-the-scenes discussions over the past few months, say people involved in those talks. One challenge is designing a program that won’t invite backlash from a health care industry ready to battle Democrats on other sweeping changes. Another concern is inadvertently rewarding states that blocked Medicaid expansion for years. Any plan would also come with a steep price tag.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
YIKES — “U.S. Soldiers Expose Nuclear Weapons Secrets Via Flashcard Apps,” Bellingcat: “For U.S. soldiers tasked with the custody of nuclear weapons in Europe, the stakes are high. Security protocols are lengthy, detailed and need to be known by heart. To simplify this process, some service members have been using publicly visible flashcard learning apps — inadvertently revealing a multitude of sensitive security protocols about U.S. nuclear weapons and the bases at which they are stored. …
“[T]he flashcards … reveal not just the bases, but even identify the exact shelters with ‘hot’ vaults that likely contain nuclear weapons. They also detail intricate security details and protocols such as the positions of cameras, the frequency of patrols around the vaults, secret duress words that signal when a guard is being threatened and the unique identifiers that a restricted area badge needs to have.”
POLITICS ROUNDUP
MONEY PROBLEMS FOR MANDEL? — “Josh Mandel’s Senate campaign sees exodus of fundraisers, sources say,” Columbus Dispatch: “Three fundraisers recently resigned from Republican JOSH MANDEL’S U.S. Senate campaign, prompting questions about the strength of his fundraising operation, according to Republican sources close to the campaign.”
RANKING (IN) THE BOROUGHS — “How Ranked-Choice Voting Could Affect New York’s Mayoral Race,” by NYT’s Nate Cohn: “New York City will use a ranking system in the mayor’s race for the first time. A phenomenon known as ‘ballot exhaustion,’ when every candidate ranked by a voter has been eliminated, could prove decisive.”
GEORGIA PLAYS THE WAITING GAME — “‘Up in the air’: In Georgia politics, the wait is on for top 2022 races,” by the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Greg Bluestein: “After [Sen. RAPHAEL] WARNOCK’s special election victory over GOP incumbent KELLY LOEFFLER, it seemed a heavyweight Republican would enter the race against him within weeks, if not days. … But a string of big-name candidates passed on the race, starting with former U.S. Sen. DAVID PERDUE and former U.S. Rep. DOUG COLLINS. While other heavyweights are considering a bid, most are waiting on a decision by [University of Georgia football great HERSCHEL] WALKER, who former President DONALD TRUMP said would be ‘unstoppable’ if he runs.
“Enterprising Republicans aren’t usually so eager to step aside for an out-of-state political newcomer to decide — Walker has lived in Texas for years — but support from the former president could be enough to swing a GOP primary. ‘Is the Herschel Walker news a pump fake or just a delayed handoff? That’s the $1 million question in Georgia politics right now,’ said STEPHEN LAWSON, a GOP operative and senior adviser to Loeffler, who is considering a comeback bid.”
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
PILLOW TALK — “MyPillow CEO flew Kristi Noem to GOP governors conference on his private jet,”by Daniel Lippman: “South Dakota Gov. KRISTI NOEM flew on MyPillow CEO MIKE LINDELL’S private jet on her way to the Republican Governors Association spring meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, according to two people familiar with the matter.
“Lindell, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was kicked out of the event after he had promised to confront Arizona Gov. DOUG DUCEY and Georgia Gov. BRIAN KEMP about why they aren’t pushing to overturn the 2020 election results in their states. … Lindell was able to gain access to the RGA meeting as a guest of Noem’s and as a prospective member, according to one of the people familiar with Noem’s travel arrangements.”
DEEP IN THE HEART — “Texas bill limiting teaching of current events, historic racism appears headed for governor,”Texas Tribune:“Many educators and education advocacy groups had opposed the bill, which still states that teachers cannot be compelled to discuss current events and if they do, they must ‘give deference to both sides.’ Opponents say it limits honest conversations about race and racism in American society. … The version now apparently heading to the governor also bans the teaching of The New York Times’ 1619 Project.”
MEDIAWATCH
FOX DIALS IT UP TO 11 — “Fox News Intensifies Its Pro-Trump Politics as Dissenters Depart,” by NYT’s Michael M. Grynbaum: “For seven years, JUAN WILLIAMS was the lone liberal voice on ‘The Five,’ the network’s popular afternoon chat show. On Wednesday, he announced that he was leaving the program, after months of harsh on-air blowback from his conservative co-hosts. … DONNA BRAZILE, the former Democratic Party chairwoman, was hired by Fox News with great fanfare in 2019 as a dissenting voice for its political coverage. … Brazile has now left Fox News; last week, she quietly started a new job at ABC.
“Onscreen and off, in ways subtle and overt, Fox News has adapted to the post-Trump era by moving in a single direction: Trumpward. … In January, the network fired its veteran politics editor, CHRIS STIREWALT, who had been an onscreen face of the early call in Arizona for Mr. Biden. This month, it brought on a new editor in the Washington bureau: KERRI KUPEC, a former spokeswoman for Mr. Trump’s attorney general William P. Barr. She had no journalistic experience.”
REPORTER ARRESTED IN ZIMBABWE — “Zimbabwe Authorities Arrest Local Reporter Working for The New York Times,” NYT: “The reporter, JEFFERY MOYO, 37, who was arrested on Wednesday, has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers have called the accusation spurious. Efforts by the lawyers to secure his release have so far been unsuccessful. Mr. Moyo, who is based in Harare and has a wife and 8-year-old son, has done work for The Times and a number of other news organizations, including The Globe and Mail of Canada. His arrest has come amid a crackdown on press freedom in the southern African country.”
TRUMP CARDS
TRUMP LASHES OUT AT (PAUL AND FRED) RYAN — “A time for abusing: Trump nukes Paul Ryan’s Reaganesque vision for GOP,” by David Siders: “At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. on Thursday night, [former House Speaker PAUL] RYAN had opened a speaker series billed as a conversation about the future of the Republican Party. Trump replied by trashing Ryan from Mar-a-Lago the next morning … [calling] the former House speaker a ‘RINO’ and a loser. And then Trump, the rare Republican who has criticized Reagan himself, went after FRED RYAN, chair of the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.
“‘Ronald Reagan would not be happy to see that the Reagan Library is run by the head of the Washington Post, Fred Ryan,’ Trump wrote. ‘How the hell did that happen? No wonder they consistently have RINO speakers like Karl Rove and Paul Ryan. They do nothing for our forward-surging Republican Party!’”
— “Fifty years of ‘Imagine,’” by Spectator’s Christopher Sandford: “Perhaps the real secret to the song’s eternal popularity is that it taps into our modern obsession with feeling good about ourselves.”
— “Is Gerrymandering About to Become More Difficult?”by POLITICO Magazine’s Zack Stanton: “A new approach in the way the Census aggregates its data could make it more difficult to do extreme gerrymandering, says Moon Duchin.”
— “Divided Highway,”by Reuters’ Andy Sullivan: “As a freeway comes down, Syracuse, New York, faces its legacy of segregation.”
— From the archives: “The Long and the Short of Richard G. Darman,”by WaPo’s Marjorie Williams, July 29, 1990: “George Bush’s budget director is (choose one): a) A brilliant idealist committed to the long-term public interest; b) An ambitious cynic fed by the thrill of the game; c) Trying really hard to have it both ways.”
PLAYBOOKERS
IN MEMORIAM — “Foster Friess, Big Donor to Republicans, Dies at 81,” NYT: “Foster Friess, a Wyoming businessman who founded an investment firm, made a fortune and gave a lot of it away to Republican presidential candidates and charities, sometimes with flair, died on Thursday in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 81.His organization, Foster’s Outriders, which confirmed the death, said he had been receiving care at the Mayo Clinic there for myelodysplastic syndrome, a disorder of the blood cells and bone marrow.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Adrian Culea is now director of the White House travel office. He previously was the director of travel operations for the Biden campaign and is also a Sean Patrick Maloney and NBA alum.
TRANSITIONS — Rufus Gifford has been nominated to be chief of protocol with the rank of ambassador in the State Department. He previously was deputy campaign manager for the Biden campaign. … End Citizens United and Let America Vote announced a slate of new hires: Tina Olechowski will be comms director, Ebonee Dawson will be political director, Jessica Church will be director of state and local campaigns, Brian Wietgraf will be deputy research director, Mai-Thy Tyler will be deputy director of state and local campaigns and Chanelle Kacy-Dunlap will be social media manager.
WEEKEND WEDDING — Sery Kim, former congressional candidate for Texas’ 6th Congressional District special election and a Trump SBA alum, and Michael Cybulski, a major in the U.S. Marine Corps currently stationed at CENTCOM, got married by the Justice of the Peace in the Tarrant County Historic Courthouse in Texas on Friday. The two meet on Hinge in August 2019. Pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Aaron Keyak, former Jewish engagement director for the Biden campaign and transition, and Avigail Goldgraber, a senior manager at Accenture, welcomed twin boys on Friday. The boys will not be named prior to their Brit Millah, per Jewish tradition. Pic… Another pic
— Leah Dempsey, VP and senior counsel for federal advocacy at ACA International, and Mark Dempsey, director of investment adviser compliance at ICMA-RC, welcomed Leo Jay Dempsey on Friday at Sibley Hospital. Pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) … McClatchy’s Francesca Chambers … Philip Klein … FP1 Strategies’ Jon Conradi … Bri Gillis … Matthew Dowd (6-0) … Todd Flournoy … Dayna Geldwert … Lee Satterfield, nominee to be assistant secretary for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the State Department … Chris Quillian (5-0) … The Forward’s Jacob Kornbluh … Alex Ford of Halcyon Strategy … Annette Guarisco Fildes … Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson … Nucor’s Eileen Bradner … Mary Ryan Douglass … NPR’s Terence Samuel … Jacob Alderman … former Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Tom Coleman (R-Mo.) … Danny Crouch
“Fox News Sunday”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg … Sen. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Panel: Jason Chaffetz, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Juan Williams.
“Face the Nation”: Scott Gottlieb … Art Acevedo … Kevin Washington … Stephen Kaufer … Paul Gionfriddo.
“The Sunday Show”: Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) … Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) … Matthew Dowd … Jonathan Greenblatt … Stanley Nelson … Jazz Hampton … Marco Williams … Arun Gandhi … Bernice King … Donna Edwards.
“Meet the Press”: Matthew Pottinger … Peter Hotez … Chuck Rosenberg … Andrew Weissmann. Panel: Geoff Bennett, Stephanie Cutter, Sara Fagen and Anne Gearan.
“State of the Union”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg … Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) … Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) … Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
“Inside Politics”: Panel: Seung Min Kim, Jonathan Martin, Catherine Lucey, Brittany Shepherd and Yasmeen Abutaleb.
“This Week”: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Panel: Keith Alexander, Tom Bossert and Niloofar Howe. Panel: Jonathan Karl, Terry Moran, Michel Martin and Laura Barrón-López.
“Full Court Press”: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) … Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.).
The remains of 215 children, including some as young as three, have been found in a mass grave on the grounds of a former residential school that was once part of a nationwide effort in Canada to separate Indigenous children from their families in an attempt to assimilate them.
The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced the discovery in a news release on Thursday, saying the remains were found after working with a “ground penetrating radar specialist” to confirm the mass grave at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Chief Rosanne Casimir called it an “unthinkable loss,” and said that while the deaths had been long spoken about, the residential school never documented them.
“We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” Casimir said. “We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the discovery was heartbreaking, calling it “a painful reminder of that dark and shameful chapter of our country’s history.”
The residential school system in Canada served as mandatory boarding schools for indigenous youth and were run by churches and the federal government for more than 150 years during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Conditions at the schools were poor. Children were often not allowed to speak their own language and received harsh punishment if they did. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse, with staff not being held accountable.
What happened at the schools amounted to “cultural genocide” according to the report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
The report said the residential schools were “a systematic, government- sponsored attempt to destroy Aboriginal cultures and languages and to assimilate Aboriginal peoples so that they no longer existed as distinct peoples.”
The school system began to shut down in the 1970s, and the Kamloops Indian Residential School closed in 1978. But the effects are still being felt in the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc community today, Casimir said.
Thursday’s announcement is only the first of the preliminary findings. The radar survey of the rest of the school grounds is set to continue and “will hopefully bring some peace and closure to those lives lost and their home communities,” according to the statement from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.
When and how the children died is still to be determined, but the rest of the preliminary findings from the grounds survey are expected to be released in mid-June.
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