U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has helped the U.S. through other crises like the Zika outbreak, is now taking on health misinformation around COVID-19, which he says continues to jeopardize the country’s efforts to beat back the virus.
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John Raoux/AP
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has helped the U.S. through other crises like the Zika outbreak, is now taking on health misinformation around COVID-19, which he says continues to jeopardize the country’s efforts to beat back the virus.
John Raoux/AP
With about a third of adults in the U.S. still completely unvaccinated, and cases of COVID-19 on the rise, the U.S. Surgeon General is calling for a war against “health misinformation.”
On Thursday, Dr. Vivek Murthy is releasing the first Surgeon General’s advisory of his time serving in the Biden administration, describing the “urgent threat” posed by the rise of false information around COVID-19 — one that continues to put “lives at risk” and prolong the pandemic.
Murthy says Americans must do their part to fight misinformation.
“COVID has really brought into sharp focus the full extent of damage that health misinformation is doing,” Murthy told NPR in an exclusive interview ahead of the advisory’s release. Surgeon General’s advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that demand immediate attention.
In some cases, he says, the simplest way to stop the spread is to not share something questionable you read online: “If you’re not sure, not sharing is often the prudent thing to do.”
The U.S. has dealt with misinformation around other public health crises, including decades of persistent rumors about HIV/AIDS, but Murthy says the coronavirus pandemic is underscoring just how problematic the false information and rumors related to health can be.
Rates of COVID-19 are rising nationwide, driven in large part by the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant. A recent analysis by NPR shows that cases are highest in places where vaccination rates lag. Multiple factors, including inadequate access to vaccines, can keep vaccination rates low in some communities, but Murthy says fear about possible side effects or extremely rare adverse events are also a powerful driver of vaccine hesitancy.
In many cases, false information about the vaccines feeds that hesitancy. According to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation, two-thirds of unvaccinated adults either believe vaccine myths or are unsure about whether they are true. Murthy says that means misinformation is literally putting lives at risk.
“Every life that is lost to COVID-19 when we have vaccines available, is a preventable tragedy,” Murthy says.
Murthy hopes that drawing public attention to the harms of misinformation will lead more Americans to take action in their own lives, including through simple one-on-one conversations with friends and family who are reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Rather than judging others, Murthy encourages people to listen to their concerns and come prepared with sources of good information to counteract the bad. Research shows that vaccine hesitant people are more likely to be open and listen to those they know. “These conversations are all driven by trust,” he says.
But Murthy also wants to see action on a larger scale.
In his advisory, he puts pressure on big tech companies to play a bigger role in combating health misinformation on their platforms. He wants to see algorithms tweaked to further demote bad information and companies to share more data with outside researchers and the government.
“The tech companies actually have a much better sense of how much misinformation is being transacted on their platforms, and without understanding the full extent of it … it’s hard to formulate the most effective strategies,” he says.
The new surgeon general’s advisory comes as welcome news to Imran Ahmed, the Chief Executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a group that tracks COVID-19 misinformation online. But Ahmed also says that asking individual Americans to fight misinformation won’t be enough.
His group has identified a dozen major spreaders of vaccine misinformation, and many continue to operate unchecked on social media. “At our last count 30 of 89 social media accounts for those 12 people have been taken down, but that means 59 are still up,” he says. “They’ve still got millions of viewers being pumped misinformation and lies on a daily basis.”
Social media companies profiting off clicks are spreading misinformation faster than it can be counteracted, Ahmed says. He’d like to see the surgeon general exert even more pressure on those companies.
“On tobacco packets they say that tobacco kills,” he says. “On social media we need a ‘Surgeon General’s Warning: Misinformation Kills.’ “
Fauci getting criticized for saying ‘no doubt’ children 3 years and older should wear masks, a CNN anchor dismissing critical race theory as a creation of Republicans, and a Texas State Democrat getting mocked for calling himself a ‘fugitive’ after fleeing the state to block voting bills round out today’s top media headlines
Prominent teachers’ union president Randi Weingarten went hyperbolic with her condemnation of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over a report that he was selling anti-Fauci campaign merchandise amid an apparent bump in coronavirus cases in his state.
The Washington Post ran a report on Tuesday with the headline, “DeSantis sells ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch as new coronavirus cases near highest in nation.”
In it, it detailed the T-shirts and drink koozies that Team DeSantis was selling mocking White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become the face of the federal response to the pandemic, all while the Sunshine State suffers “some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country.”
“New coronavirus infection numbers plummeted in Florida after vaccinations became widely available, but they have ticked up in recent weeks. The stateis reporting daily cases close to four times the national average—26 new infections per 100,000 residents, the second-highest number in the country. The state’s latest covid-19 death rate is almost double the national figure, and it ranks fourth for current hospitalizations,” the Post later detailed in the ninth paragraph of the report.
However, Weingarten reacted to the story by taking it to a whole new level.
“Disgusting. Millions of Floridians are going to die for Ron DeSantis’ ignorance and he’s choosing to profit from it. He doesn’t care about Floridians; he cares about furthering his own cruel agenda,” Weingarten tweeted.
The American Federation of Teachers leader caught the attention of many critics on Twitter, particularly for her claim that “millions” of Floridians will die under DeSantis.
“Hyperbole much?” The Week columnist Damon Linker asked.
“In education, we emphasize backing up claims with evidence. Please explain how you got to ‘millions’ or that his ignorance is responsible for them,” Red State senior editor Joe Cunningham told Weingarten.
“Millions! Randi hopefully taught neither math nor science,” Townhall.com political editor Guy Benson wrote.
“All of her tweets make perfect sense once you realize everything she says is an example of Freudian projection,” Washington Free Beacon contributor Noah Pollack tweeted.
“Florida has 21 million residents, so more than 10% are going to die from policies he enacted months ago? Are you sure you’re in…education?” The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti said.
Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’ press secretary shot back at Weingarten, touting the governor’s record during the pandemic.
“Florida’s COVID death rate is lower than the national average, and unlike the Governor of New York, we don’t fudge the numbers,” Pushaw wrote. “Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten ruined the education of millions of kids by keeping them out of school for more than a year based on a conspiracy theory.”
Trump remains the clear leader of the party. If he decided to run again for president in a crowded 2024 primary field, he would get roughly half of the vote, with DeSantis in a distant second place at 19 percent, according to a new survey of GOP voters from veteran Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio. Everyone else — including former Vice President Mike Pence — would be in single digits.
Trump’s support would likely be even higher because it’s extremely unlikely that DeSantis, Pence or the others would even run against the former president, who’s the undisputed center of gravity in the party, Fabrizio said.
Fabrizio has polled for both Trump and DeSantis in the past.
“For all the talk of the party moving on from Trump, it’s not the case. If he runs, he’s still the 800-pound gorilla,” Fabrizio said. “But while it’s Trump’s party, there is a clear successor — and that’s DeSantis. He’s the crown prince.”
Trump’s standing among GOP voters has been virtually unchanged since Fabrizio’s last survey in February. But DeSantis has skyrocketed in popularity among Republican voters nationally.
Without Trump running, the poll shows DeSantis gets 39 percent of the theoretical GOP primary vote and Pence is at 15 percent. That’s a 22-point increase for the governor — and a smaller, 4-point decrease for the former vice president — since Fabrizio’s last survey.
The other potential contenders lag far behind. All are in single digits: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz registers at 7 percent, which puts him ahead of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (4 percent), Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (3 percent); South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 2 percent each.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Florida Sen. Rick Scott pulled in 1 percent each, and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley was under 1 percentage point.
While Democrats and some in Trump’s orbit have tried to create a wedge between DeSantis and the former president, insiders in both camps say there’s no friction. Fabrizio said DeSantis “has no interest in getting in a squabble with Trump. He’s a young guy with a whole political future in front of him, so why get in a fight with Trump? Why would he throw himself on a grenade?“
The veteran Republican pollster said it was notable that DeSantis has done so well while largely avoiding Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and question its legitimacy. Indeed, DeSantis earlier this month greeted President Joe Biden in Surfside, Fla., and thanked him for coming and pledging to help after a freakish collapse of a condominium that killed more than 90 people.
DeSantis, who faces his first reelection to a four-year term next year, has governed Florida as a hard-right conservative who revels in outraging liberals.
He pushed for limited voting restrictions after the 2020 election and advocated for a law banning “sanctuary cities” that protect undocumented immigrants. He successfully called for a ban on teaching “Critical Race Theory.” He tried to stop Twitter and Facebook from censoring politicians, like Trump, who post misinformation. On the opening day of Pride Week, he signed legislation restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports.
His reelection campaign is now selling merchandise that says “Don’t Fauci My Florida,” mocking the nation’s top disease specialist.
“There has been a huge amount of attention paid to DeSantis, whether it’s Covid response, comparing him to other governors or the legislation he has signed in Florida,” Fabrizio said. “It has just benefited him tremendously. At the same time, Pence has been lower profile. Politics abhors a vacuum, and DeSantis has filled that vacuum.”
Veteran Republican strategist Kevin McLaughlin agreed.
“Voters crave authenticity, and he comes across as very authentic,” McLaughlin said. “While some candidates are busy trying to ‘create’ an image or persona that will resonate with GOP presidential primary voters, DeSantis is just doing his job and letting his actions do all the talking.”
Noem, who has resisted any Covid lockdowns or shelter-in-place orders, highlighted that point in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend that many saw as a passing shot at DeSantis, who briefly locked down Florida last year but essentially outlawed mask mandates.
“We’ve got Republican governors across this country pretending they didn’t shut down their states, that they didn’t close their beaches, that they didn’t mandate masks, that they didn’t issue shelter-in-places,” Noem said. “Now, I’m not picking fights with Republican governors. All I’m saying is that we need leaders with grit, that their first instinct is to make the right decision, that they don’t backtrack, and then try to fool you into the fact that they never made the wrong decision. So demand honesty from your leaders.”
In South Carolina, the first-in-the-South primary state, conservative activist Jeff Davis said the grassroots is abuzz about DeSantis, whom he predicted would beat Haley in her home state.
“Trump is obviously the king, but DeSantis is standing up for what conservatives are asking for,” Davis said. “We want someone who stirs things up. That’s what Trump did. That’s what DeSantis is doing.”
Carbon border taxes are also designed to protect domestic manufacturing. If an individual country commits to cutting emissions domestically, it runs the risk that, for instance, its steel and cement factories will face higher costs and be at a disadvantage to foreign competitors with looser environmental rules. Steel and cement production could shift overseas as a result, undercutting the climate policy, since foreign factories would be emitting just as much or more carbon dioxide elsewhere.
“This legislation will assert American leadership on the climate crisis, but we also can’t be ‘Uncle Sucker’ where other countries, led by China, take advantage of what we are going to ask our country to undertake,” Mr. Markey said.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said he included the tariff because “it prevents other countries from polluting.”
China is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases that are driving global warming, followed in descending order by the United States, the European Union, India, Russia, Japan, Brazil, Indonesia, Iran and Canada.
Scientists have warned that the world needs to urgently cut emissions if it has any chance to keep average global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which experts say the planet will experience catastrophic, irreversible damage. Temperature change is not even around the globe; some regions have already reached an increase of 2 degrees Celsius.
President Biden has promised to cut the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Senate leadership aide said the Biden administration has raised the idea of a carbon border tax with lawmakers. Earlier this year, it floated the notion of taxing carbon-intensive imports as part of a broader trade policy.
The budget resolution is yet to be written. That work will be done by various committees in the coming months.
SURFSIDE, Fla. – The search and recovery operation continues Wednesday at the site of the former 12-story Champlain Towers South in Miami-Dade County’s town of Surfside.
With the official death toll rising to nearly 100, the Miami-Dade Police Department released some of the 911 calls related to the tragedy about 1:30 a.m., June 24, at 8777 Collins Ave. Officers didn’t identify the callers
Surfside building collapse: Police release 911 calls from survivors
The 136-unit Champlain Towers South was built in 1981. After engineers reported in 2018 that the building had “major structural damage,” the building association reported Rosendo “Ross” Prieto, the former town’s chief building official, had reviewed the report and determined it was in “very good shape.”
About two months before the collapse, the president of the association informed residents the damage reported in 2018 had worsened and the cost of repairing it had ballooned and there was a proposal for a $15 million special assessment.
“A lot of this work could have been done or planned for in years gone by,” Jean Wodnicki, the condo association president, wrote.
Surfside building collapse 911 calls: ‘You got to get us out of here!’
On the morning of the tragedy, a 911 caller said there was a group who thought the roof had collapsed when they ran out of their apartments and got trapped in the parking garage. They didn’t know the residents of the northern section were trapped in a compact mountain of pancaked concrete.
“We are going back up to our apartments but some of the hallways are blocked and there is water coming in through to the bottom, through the garage,” the 911 caller said.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel evacuated survivors from the balconies of what was left standing of the building. The search-and-rescue operation went on day and night despite intermittent storms and spontaneous fires. Families waited in anguish. They found bodies and human remains.
Witnesses at the epicenter of sorrow saw a Miami veteran firefighter held his little girl after Florida Task Force 2 Miami pulled her body out of the rubble. Seven-year-old Stella Cattarossi died with her mother, aunt, and maternal grandparents. Many other families mourned more than one relative.
On the Fourth of July, while other areas of Miami-Dade had fireworks displays, engineers monitored the demolition of the Champlain Towers South ruins. This sped up the search-and-recovery mission that followed after thunderstorms that stemmed from Tropical Storm Elsa.
There were more than 14,000 tons of concrete and metal removed from the site. Maggie Castro, a firefighter and paramedic, is a spokeswoman for MDFR. On Wednesday, she said the rain continues to slow down the recovery operation.
“The rubble that’s being removed now is from the building we purposely collapsed days after the event,” Castro said. “Right now, the biggest issue is the weather. We have a lot of water accumulation so we’re attempting to de-water the area.”
COVID-19 deaths and cases are on the rise again globally in a dispiriting setback that is triggering another round of restrictions and dampening hopes for a return to normal life.
The World Health Organization reported Wednesday that deaths climbed last week after nine straight weeks of decline. It recorded more than 55,000 lives lost, a 3% increase from the week before.
Cases rose 10% last week to nearly 3 million, with the highest numbers recorded in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Britain, WHO said.
The reversal has been attributed to low vaccination rates, the relaxation of mask rules and other precautions, and the swift spread of the more-contagious delta variant, which WHO said has now been identified in 111 countries and is expected to become globally dominant in the coming months.
Sarah McCool, a professor of public health at Georgia State University, said the combination amounts to a “recipe for a potential tinderbox.”
“It’s important that we recognize that COVID has the potential for explosive outbreaks,” warned Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
Amid the surge, the death toll in hard-hit Argentina surpassed 100,000. Daily coronavirus deaths in Russia hit record highs this week. In Belgium, COVID-19 infections, driven by the delta variant among the young, have almost doubled over the past week. Britain recorded a one-day total of more than 40,000 new cases for the first time in six months.
In Myanmar, crematoriums are working morning to night. In Indonesia, which recorded almost 1,000 deaths and over 54,000 new cases Wednesday, up from around 8,000 cases per day a month ago, people near Jakarta are pitching in to help gravediggers keep up.
“As the diggers are too tired and do not have enough resources to dig, the residents in my neighborhood decided to help,” Jaya Abidin said. “Because if we do not do this, we will have to wait in turn a long time for a burial.”
In the U.S., with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, newly confirmed infections per day have doubled over the past two weeks to an average of about 24,000, though deaths are still on a downward trajectory at around 260 a day.
Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the U.S., reported its fifth straight day Tuesday of more than 1,000 new cases.
Tokyo is under a fourth state of emergency ahead of the Summer Games this month, with infections climbing fast and hospital beds filling up. Experts have said caseloads could rise above 1,000 before the Olympics and multiply to thousands during the games.
The spike has led to additional restrictions in places like Sydney, Australia, where the 5 million residents will remain in lockdown through at least the end of July, two weeks longer than planned. South Korea has placed the Seoul area under its toughest distancing rules yet because of record case levels.
Parts of Spain, including Barcelona, moved to impose an overnight curfew. London Mayor Sadiq Khan said masks will be required on buses and trains even after other restrictions in England are lifted next week. Italy warned all those going abroad that they might have to quarantine before returning home.
Chicago announced that unvaccinated travelers from Missouri and Arkansas must either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test.
Connecticut lawmakers voted Wednesday to again extend Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency declarations, despite pushback from Republicans and some Democrats who argued it is time to get back to normal. Among other things, the move keeps in place orders requiring masks in certain settings.
An Alabama military base has ordered troops to show proof of vaccination before they can go maskless as the state sees an uptick in COVID-19 cases, a rise attributed to low vaccination rates. The measure was put in place Tuesday at Fort Rucker, home to the Army’s aviation program.
As troubling as the figures are around the world, they are still well below the alarming numbers seen earlier this year.
Seven months into the vaccination drive, global deaths are down to around 7,900 a day, after topping out at over 18,000 a day in January, according to Johns Hopkins data. Cases are running at around 450,000 a day, down by half since their peak in late April.
WHO acknowledged that many countries are now facing “considerable pressure” to lift all remaining precautions but warned that failing to do it the right way will just give the virus more opportunity to spread.
Pressure is growing worldwide to boost vaccination rates to counter the rise.
“If you have been waiting, if you have been on the fence, sign up and get that shot as soon as possible,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi pleaded.
Eighteen-year-old actress and singer Olivia Rodrigo appeared at the White House on Wednesday as part of an effort by President Joe Biden to persuade more young people. Getting a vaccination is something “you can do more easily than ever before,” she said.
While nearly 160 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, or over 55% of the population, young adults have shown less interest.
Ohio is planning another prize program to encourage vaccinations, and Gov. Mike DeWine urged the government to give the vaccines full approval instead of just emergency authorization to ease people’s doubts.
“The reality is we now have two Ohios,” said Bruce Vanderhoff, the state’s chief medical officer. “An Ohio that is vaccinated and protected on the one hand, and an Ohio that is unvaccinated and vulnerable to delta on the other.”
Michigan already started a COVID-19 vaccine sweepstakes and announced the first four $50,000 winners Wednesday. Bigger prizes, including a $2 million jackpot, are coming.
In Missouri, second only to Arkansas with the worst COVID-19 diagnosis rate over the past week, political leaders in and around St. Louis have stepped up efforts to get people vaccinated through gift cards and by enlisting beauty salons and barbershops to dispense information.
The federal Child Tax Credit is slated to begin its first monthly cash payments on July 15, when the IRS will begin disbursing checks to eligible families with children ages 17 or younger. The new enhanced credit is part of a government effort to use the tax code to help low- and moderate-income families weather the ongoing challenges of the pandemic.
The tax system “has become a machine for social change,” said Mark Steber, Jackson Hewitt’s chief tax information officer. “The pandemic supersized that.”
The enhanced Child Tax Credit (CTC) is the latest use of the tax code to deliver money into millions of household bank accounts, following three rounds of direct stimulus checks that were, in fact, tax rebates. President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan authorized an expansion of the CTC, which has existed since the late 1990s, to more quickly provide monthly checks to low- and moderate-income households.
The expansion boosts the credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for each child under 6 or $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. It also makes the CTC “refundable,” which means that people can get it even if they don’t owe federal income tax, which will increase the number of low-income households that qualify for the payments.
But not everyone will qualify. The CTC has an income cutoff of $75,000 for single taxpayers and $150,000 for joint filers to receive the full payment, with payments reduced by $50 for every $1,000 of income above those limits. The payments phase out entirely for single taxpayers earning $95,000 and joint filers earning $170,000. The IRS has said about 36 million households are in line to receive the payments, which will be sent each month until they end in December.
The checks are arriving at a time when the economy is rebounding, yet still bears the scars of the pandemic. Nearly 7 million fewer people are on payrolls today than prior to the pandemic, and one-quarter of Americans struggled to pay their household expenses in the previous week, according to Census survey data from mid-June.
“One thing the Child Tax Credit will do is create some stability to make sure there is a basic level of income for every child,” said LaDonna Pavetti, vice president for family income support policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “That is really critical because one thing we know about families who are on SNAP or [the welfare program] TANF is that their situations are very volatile.”
About 42.3 million people were receiving food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in April, an increase of about 15% since before the pandemic.
The IRS will begin disbursing the payments on Thursday, July 15. Here’s what some 36 million American families need to know:
Will I get my payment on July 15?
The IRS will send the money on Thursday, but it will probably require two to three business days for the direct deposits to land in bank accounts, Steber said.
“I wouldn’t expect the money on July 15 — that’s when the IRS will release the funds,” Steber said. “There will be some lag time for the money to hit your bank account.”
That’s similar to the third round of stimulus checks, for which the IRS disbursed 90 million payments on March 17. But many people didn’t get the deposits in their bank accounts for several days, causing some alarm among consumers who expected to see the money in their accounts that same day. The reason for the delay is partly due to the time required by banks to process and settle the funds, at which point the money can then be delivered to individual accounts.
Likewise, the IRS will mail paper checks to people for whom it doesn’t have bank account information. Those paper checks could take one to two weeks to arrive, Steber said.
What are the dates for the other payments?
The IRS says the monthly payments will be disbursed on these dates:
July 15
August 13
September 15
October 15
November 15
December 15
How will I receive the payments?
Steber of Jackson Hewitt said that many of the tax prep firm’s customers are asking how they’ll get their payments, such as via direct deposit or paper check.
“If you are a taxpayer and get your refund electronically deposited into your bank account, that’s how you’ll get the CTC,” Steber said.
In other words, if you’ve provided the IRS with your bank account information in order to receive a tax refund, the tax agency will directly deposit the CTC payment into that account. If you do not have a bank account or haven’t provided the IRS with your bank information, the agency will mail you a check.
However, if you want to make sure you are getting a direct deposit, you can check the IRS’ Child Tax Credit Update Portal. The online tool will also allow you to update your bank account information.
What if I had a child in 2021 — how will the IRS know?
The IRS is basing the payments on the most recent tax filing for families. In other words, a family’s 2020 tax return is the most recent data available to the agency, which wouldn’t include children born or adopted in 2021.
However, the IRS says it will add the ability to update your information to include a child born or adopted in 2021 through its Child Tax Credit Update Portal.
While that function isn’t yet available, it could be added within the next few weeks, Steber says. Families that added a child in 2021 should keep an eye on that and update their information as soon as possible if they want to receive the monthly checks, he said.
I’d rather get a big refund next year — can I opt out?
As noted above, the expanded CTC provides a $3,600 credit for each child under 6 years old and $3,000 for each child age6 to 17.
The monthly payments represent half of the total credit, with the cash deposits running from July through December. For example, a family with one child under 6 will receive half of the $3,600 credit in cash, or $1,800, which will be split into six monthly checks of $300 each.
The remainder of the CTC is claimed when you file your 2021 taxes early next year.
Some taxpayers who want to get a bigger tax refund in 2022 have asked if they could opt out of the monthly payments and simply claim the entire $3,600 or $3,000 tax credit on their 1040s. The answer is yes, Steber said.
Other people may want to opt out of the payments if they aren’t eligible — such as if their income is higher in 2021, disqualifying them from receiving the payment, or if they are divorced and their ex-spouse is claiming their child as a dependent, instead of themselves claiming that child. (You can find more information on the CTC’s age and income eligibility here.)
If you do receive money through the CTC that you aren’t eligible to receive, you’ll eventually have to pay that back to the IRS next year during the 2021 tax filing season — another reason why some people may want to opt out, Steber said.
Will I need to pay taxes on the CTC payments?
No, because the CTC payments aren’t considered income, Steber said.
“Much like the stimulus payments, these are tax credits,” he noted.
But recipients should keep track of how much they receive from the IRS, because they will need to reconcile those payments on their 1040s in early 2022. That’s because half of the CTC will be claimed on your tax return, so you’ll need to know how much you received to accurately report that information.
Will I need to report the CTC payments on my taxes?
Yes, because parents will claim the other half of the expanded CTC payments when they file their tax returns for 2021.
The IRS will send a letter to each household in early 2022 stating the amount of CTC received. You should keep that letter for your records, Steber said.
Misreporting CTC payments on your 1040 could cause a delay in your tax refund in 2022. Some taxpayers have been caught in limbo this year because they didn’t accurately report their stimulus payments on their 1040s, which triggers a review by IRS employees, adding more time to process refunds. The IRS currently has a backlog of about 35 million tax returns, with many held up because of errors on those tax returns.
Will the expanded CTC continue beyond 2021?
Right now, the Biden administration is pushing for the expanded tax credit to be renewed beyond 2021, but it’s unclear whether that will happen, Pavetti of the CBPP said.
Under Biden’s plan, the monthly payments would be extended for five more years, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told “CBS This Morning” last month.
“He thinks this is a central benefit that will help families, help get women back to work,” Psaki said, noting that more than 1 million women have left the workforce during the pandemic to care for their children and families.
The expanded CTC should help parents pay for basics such as child care, groceries, school supplies and the costs of raising a family, experts say. “It’ll help them to just meet the additional needs that comes with having kids,” Pavetti said. “The CTC will just be a huge benefit for families that are struggling.”
CAIRO, July 14 (Reuters) – A surge of coronavirus cases in several Middle Eastern countries could have dire consequences, aggravated by the spread of the Delta variant and low vaccine availability, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.
After a decline in cases and deaths in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region for eight weeks, the agency said there had been significant increases in cases in Libya, Iran, Iraq and Tunisia, with sharp rises expected in Lebanon and Morocco. (Graphic on global cases and deaths)
Next week countries across the region will mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, which traditionally includes religious and social gatherings where infections could spread.
“WHO is concerned that the current COVID-19 upsurge may continue to peak in the coming weeks, with catastrophic consequences,” the agency’s regional office said in a statement.
A lack of adherence to public health and social measures and “increasing complacency by communities”, as well as low vaccination rates and the spread of new variants, were to blame, the WHO said. (Graphic on global vaccinations)
The agency highlighted Tunisia as the country with the highest coronavirus mortality rate per capita in the region and in Africa, and noted that daily cases had almost doubled in Iran over four weeks to early July.
Overall, the number of reported COVID-19 cases in the Eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and Djibouti as well as Middle Eastern states, had surpassed 11.4 million, the statement said.
More than 223,000 deaths had been reported, it added.
Protesters at a #FreeBritney Rally outside the Los Angeles Courthouse today. A judge has cleared the pop star to choose her own lawyer.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
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Protesters at a #FreeBritney Rally outside the Los Angeles Courthouse today. A judge has cleared the pop star to choose her own lawyer.
Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has allowed Britney Spears to hire her own lawyer. Matthew S. Rosengart, a prominent Hollywood lawyer and former federal prosecutor, has been approved as Spears’ choice to take up the case.
Spears, who joined the hearing by phone, also told the Los Angeles court that she wants her father charged with conservatorship abuse.
After Spears’ blistering public comments about the conservatorship last month, various parties in Britney Spears’ orbit started making some legal moves: Bessemer Trust, the wealth management company that had signed on to be co-conservator of Spears’ estate, asked to resign. Her longtime court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III also requested to resign, asking the court to appoint someone else in his place. Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, as well as Jodi Montgomery, the conservator of her personal life, have also initiated different routes for Britney Spears to choose her own legal representation.
TMZ first reported last week that Spears had approached Rosengart, asking him to represent her.
Presumably, Rosengart will be the one to follow through on Britney’s wishes to end the conservatorship, and start the process of proving Britney Spears willing and able to care for herself.
Britney Spears supporters gathering outside a Los Angeles courthouse before her June 23rd testimony.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
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FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
Britney Spears supporters gathering outside a Los Angeles courthouse before her June 23rd testimony.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
#FreeBritney activists are keeping a close eye on the proceedings, and gathered outside the courtroom, like they did last month. Only this time the hearing was held in person (the last one was remote), and the judge restricted any recording after Spears’ testimony leaked online.
Disability rights activists have also been watching this case closely. Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union teamed up with 25 disability rights organizations to file an amicus brief in support of Britney Spears choosing her own lawyer. In a statement, they called Spears’ probate conservatorship “a court-ordered legal status that strips people with disabilities of their civil liberties,” adding that the right to choose one’s own counsel is a key part of the Sixth Amendment.
Politicians have been paying attention too, with everyone from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, voicing their support for Britney Spears. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. spoke in front of #FreeBritney activists ahead of the hearing to show his support for the movement. “Britney’s been abused by the media, she’s been abused by her grifter father, and she’s been abused by the American justice system,” he said, while calling for a federal change to conservatorship laws.
A Florida judge has approved the sale of the oceanfront property where a collapsed Florida condominium once stood, with proceeds intended to benefit victims – as emergency calls released to the public show the disbelief, panic and confusion that unfolded the night of the deadly disaster.
At a hearing, Miami-Dade circuit judge Michael Hanzman ordered that the process begin to sell the site of the Champlain Towers South, which could fetch $100m to $110m, according to court records.
Hanzman’s ruling came as part of a series of lawsuits filed in the wake of the 24 June collapse, which left at least 95 people dead and others still missing. A cause has not yet been pinpointed, although there were several previous warnings of major structural damage at the 40-year-old building.
The court-appointed receiver handling finances related to the condo, attorney Michael Goldberg, said the judge wanted the sale to move quickly.
“He wants us to start exploring a potential sale,” Goldberg said of the judge in an email. “He did say he wants the land to be sold and the proceeds to go directly to the victims as soon as possible.”
Goldberg said the decision did not necessarily preclude a buyer from turning at least some of the site into a memorial, as some have advocated. Other survivors want the structure rebuilt so they can move back in.
The judge put the lawsuits on a fast track and authorized Goldberg to begin disbursing insurance money to victims and families.
Meanwhile, recordings were released by the police of 911 calls made as the building collapsed in the early hours of 24 June.
“Oh my God! The whole building collapsed!” one caller told a dispatcher at the local Miami-Dade police department. The names of callers were not released.
“We’ve gotta get out. Hurry up, hurry up. There’s a big explosion,” a second caller said, adding: “There’s a lot of smoke. I can’t see anything. We gotta go.”
A cause has not yet been pinpointed, although there were several previous warnings of major structural damage at the 40-year-old building.
One caller, a woman, said she saw what appeared to be a large depression near the swimming pool, which had concrete problems that are being investigated.
“I woke up because I was hearing some noise. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I looked outside and I saw the patio area sinking down. The pool area started sinking down,” the caller said, adding: “There are many parts of the building that went down. The building just went into a sinkhole. There will be many, many people dead.”
During a news conference on Tuesday, Levine Cava said the number of people considered missing in the collapse had dwindled as authorities work to identify everyone connected to the building. The mayor said 14 people remained unaccounted for, which includes 10 victims whose bodies have been recovered but not yet identified – leaving potentially four more victims to be found and the eventual death toll likely to be close to 100.
Gen. Austin Scott Miller lands at Joint Base Andrews after leaving post as commander of troops in Afghanistan
Gen. Austin Scott Miller, commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, arrived home in the U.S. on Wednesday to a congratulatory reception, as the Taliban’s momentum grows in the wake of the American withdrawal from the country.
Miller, who stepped down from his post on Monday in Kabul, was received by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley at Joint Base Andrews. Both men greeted Miller with handshakes and pats on the back.
Meanwhile, the Taliban claims to have seized a strategic border crossing with Pakistan. This was after they pushed the Afghanistan government’s forces out of several districts and took control of various weapons and military vehicles in the process.
Former President George W. Bush, in a rare comment on a sitting president’s decisions, called the withdrawal a “mistake” and warned that the consequences will be “unbelievably bad.” Bush first sent troops to Afghanistan following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“This is a mistake,” Bush said in an interview with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle. “They’re just going to be left behind to be slaughtered by these very brutal people, and it breaks my heart.”
The White House has acknowledged that there was no “mission accomplished” for the U.S., but that President Biden does not believe the conflict can be solved militarily.
But corporate lobby BusinessEurope denounced the plan, saying it “risks destabilising the investment outlook” for sectors such as steel, cement, aluminium, fertilisers and electric power “enormously”.
The inspector general’s investigation was spurred by allegations that the FBI failed to promptly address complaints made in 2015 against Nassar. USA Gymnastics had conducted its own internal investigation and then the organization’s then-president, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBI’s field office in Indianapolis. But it took months before the bureau opened a formal investigation.
At least 40 girls and women said they were molested over a 14-month period while the FBI was aware of other sexual abuse allegations involving Nassar. Officials at USA Gymnastics also contacted FBI officials in Los Angeles in May 2016 after eight months of inactivity from agents in Indianapolis.
The inspector general’s office found that “despite the extraordinarily serious nature” of the allegations against Nassar, FBI officials in Indianapolis did not respond with the “utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required.”
When they did respond, the report said, FBI officials made “numerous and fundamental errors” and also violated bureau policies. Among the missteps was a failure to conduct any investigative activity until more than a month after a meeting with USA Gymnastics. Agents interviewed by phone one of three athletes, but never spoke with two other gymnasts despite being told they were available to meet.
The European Union on Wednesday unveiled sweeping new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade.
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The European Union on Wednesday unveiled sweeping new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade.
Virginia Mayo/AP
BRUSSELS — The European Union unveiled sweeping new legislation Wednesday to help meet its pledge to cut emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade, including a controversial plan to tax foreign companies for the pollution they cause.
The legislation presented by the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, encompasses about a dozen major proposals, ranging from the de-facto phasing out of gasoline and diesel cars by 2035 to new levies on gases from heating buildings.
They involve a revamp of the bloc’s emissions trading program, under which companies pay for carbon dioxide they emit, and introduce taxes on shipping and aviation fuels for the first time.
Most of the proposals build on existing laws that were designed to meet the EU’s old goal of a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels — and must be endorsed by the 27 member countries and EU lawmakers.
World leaders agreed six years ago in Paris to work to keep global temperatures from increasing more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees C (2.7 F) by the end of the century. Scientists say both goals will be missed by a wide margin unless drastic steps are taken to reduce emissions.
“The principle is simple: emission of CO2 must have a price, a price on CO2 that incentivizes consumers, producers and innovators to choose the clean technologies, to go toward the clean and sustainable products,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
The commission wants to exploit the public mood for change provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s already channeling more than one-third of a massive recovery package aimed at reviving European economies ravaged by coronavirus restrictions into climate-oriented goals.
The aim of the “Fit for 55” legislation, commission officials say, is to ween the continent off fossil fuels and take better care of the environment by policy design, rather than be forced into desperate measures at some future climatic tipping point, when it’s all but too late.
European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that by failing to act now, “we would fail our children and grandchildren, who in my view, if we don’t fix this, will be fighting wars over water and food.”
Given the implications, the proposals are certain to be subject to intense lobbying from industry and environmental groups as they pass through the legislative process over at least the next year. They’ll also face resistance because of the very different energy mixes in member countries, ranging from coal-reliant Poland to nuclear-dependent France.
Germany’s environment minister, Svenja Schulze, said negotiations need to focus on maintaining the ambitious targets in a reliable way, be fair to the poor and ensure all of Europe “goes down this path together.”
“National solo efforts won’t lead to the goal,” she said. “There needs to be a coordinated, massive expansion of sun and wind power from the North Sea to the Mediterranean.”
Echoing the thoughts of some climate scientists, Oxfam EU head Evelien van Roemburg urged the member countries and lawmakers to be more ambitious than the European Commission.
“They must step up ambition by ensuring all EU climate rules contribute to carbon emission cuts of at least 65% in 2030, rather than the current 55%,” she said.
Among the legislation’s most controversial elements is a plan for a “Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.” It would impose duties on foreign companies and therefore increase the price of certain goods, notably steel, aluminum, concrete and fertilizer.
The aim is to ease pressure on European producers that cut emissions but struggle to compete with importers that don’t have the same environmental restrictions.
The question is how the EU — known for its staunch defense of open trade — will ensure that the carbon tax complies with World Trade Organization rules and not be considered a protectionist measure.
Another concern is the need to help those likely to be hit by rising energy prices. The commission is proposing the creation of a “social climate fund” worth several billion euros to help those who might be hardest hit.
“This fund will support income and it will support investments to tackle energy poverty and to cut bills for vulnerable households and small businesses,” von der Leyen said.
But Martha Myers, a member of the climate justice team at Friends of the Earth Europe, said the decision to extend emissions trading to buildings “throws low-income people into high energy price waters while offering only a swimming float of support to relieve energy poverty.”
Under Fit for 55, a drastic acceleration in sales of battery-powered cars also is likely as the EU aims for a 100% reduction in auto emissions.
Hildegard Mueller, president of the German Association of the Automobile Industry, said the industry supports the EU goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. But she said that goal can only be accomplished “if the consumers and companies can implement these goals.”
Mueller warned of a “substantial” impact on jobs at auto suppliers that would struggle with the pace of the changeover.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Wednesday morning that the president will “continue making the case for the duel track approach to build the economy back better by investing in infrastructure, protecting our climate, and supporting the next generation of workers and families.”
She noted in a follow-up that she misspelled the word “dual.”
Democratic leaders hope to push versions of the resolution through the House and Senate before lawmakers leave Washington for the August recess.
But they acknowledged Tuesday night that their work is cut out for them because the budget plan offers only a broad outline on spending that would have to be fleshed out in subsequent legislation.
“We know we have a long road to go,” Schumer said.
“I make no illusions how challenging this is going to be,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the caucus.
The resolution, if approved, would pave the way for Democrats to pass a later spending bill in the Senate through the so-called budget reconciliation process. That means Democrats would need only a simple majority in Senate — which is evenly divided 50-50 with Republicans — rather than the 60 votes that the GOP could demand through the filibuster rules.
If all 50 Senate Democrats back such a bill, they could pass it even with no Republican support, as Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris could cast the tie-breaking vote.
Senate Democratic leaders are working to satisfy both the moderates in the caucus, who have expressed unease about funding the mammoth spending plans, and the progressives who have called for much more money to be spent.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Schumer credited with leading the charge to include expanded Medicare coverage in the budget resolution, and other progressives had initially pushed for a $6 trillion price limit for a budget. Biden had proposed less than $5 trillion.
Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., expressed a starkly different sentiment Tuesday, telling reporters, “I think everything should be paid for. We’ve put enough free money out.”
In a statement Wednesday morning, Manchin said he looks forward to reviewing the agreement crafted by the Senate Budget Committee.
“I’m also very interested in how this proposal is paid for and how it enables us to remain globally competitive,” he said. “I will reserve any final judgment until I’ve had the opportunity to thoroughly evaluate the proposal.”
The budget will reportedly align with Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on people making less than $400,000 annually.
Sanders said Tuesday night the legislation demonstrates that “the wealthy and large corporations are going to start paying their fair share of taxes, so that we can protect the working families in this country.”
Another progressive, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told NBC News that she hoped Biden will assure the caucus that he is “going to put all his energy into making this happen.”
Warren also said she wanted to hear from the president about how their efforts will impact key policy areas, “because of all of those pieces — childcare, climate, home and community based care, the Child Tax Credit, free community college — all of those are about how we build a future going forward.”
The senator added that she “will always be pushing to make the number bigger but right now, my job is to say, ‘that’s a lot of money.'”
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban are pressing on with their surge in Afghanistan, saying they seized a strategic border crossing with Pakistan on Wednesday — the latest in a series of key border post to come under their control in recent weeks.
The development was the latest in Taliban wins on the ground as American and NATO troops complete their pullout from the war-battered country. On Tuesday, an Afghan official said a senior government delegation, including the head of the country’s reconciliation council, would meet the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, to jump-start the long-stalled peace talks between the two sides.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted a video purporting to show Taliban fighters Wednesday in the southeastern town of Spin Boldak along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. On the Pakistani side, residents of the border town of Chaman reported seeing the Taliban’s signature white flag flying just across the boundary line and Taliban fighters in vehicles driving in the area.
However an Afghan government official from southern Kandahar province, where Spin Boldak is located, denied that the Taliban had taken control. The official declined to be identified by name, without explaining why.
The Taliban have in recent weeks taken a string of major Afghan border crossings, including with Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The border crossing with Iran at Islam Qala in Afghanistan’s western Herat province is particularly lucrative and an important trade route.
SpinBoldak is a key crossing for all goods from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi to Afghanistan, a landlocked nation dependent on the Arabian Sea port.
Last week, the Taliban said they now control 85% of Afghanistan’s territory — a claim that is impossible to verify but that was considerably higher than previous Taliban statements that more than a third of the country’s 421 districts and district centers were in their control.
Many Afghan districts have fallen to the Taliban without a fight as Afghan forces abandoned their posts. Reports indicated that Spin Boldak also fell without a fight.
In northern Afghanistan, a traditional stronghold of U.S.-allied warlords, more than 1,000 Afghan military men fled across the border into northern Tajikistan last week ahead of the advancing Taliban. Iran also reported a few hundred Afghan troops crossing into Iran.
The taking of key border crossings will likely mean significant revenue for the Taliban while also strengthening their hand in any future negotiations with the Kabul government.
The Taliban surge has also resulted in tens of thousands of Afghans fleeing their homes — some as a result of the fighting, but many out of fear of what life might be like under Taliban rule.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, acknowledged the ongoing chaos in remarks Wednesday. However, he pointed to the decades of unrest in the country since the 1979 Soviet invasion.
“The fact is that Afghanistan has been at war for 43 years — it isn’t that Afghanistan has been peaceful and now we are withdrawing and therefore it’s becoming a battleground,” Khalilzad told an online seminar organized by the Beirut Institute. “The Taliban were making progress each year over the last several years while we were still there.”
The Taliban leadership has tried to present a softer image — even saying that once they return to power in Afghanistan, girls can attend school and women will be allowed to work. However, in areas where they have gained control, reports from villagers say women are often being ordered inside, allowed out only when accompanied by a male relative.
In the video circulated by Mujahid, an unidentified Taliban fighter says that while they could have killed the Afghan soldiers at the border crossing, they were ordered by their leadership not to hurt them but to send them home.
The Taliban were expected to bring their senior leaders to the talks in Doha, where the insurgent movement has long maintained a political office.
The negotiations are aimed at ending the violence that has steadily increased since the U.S. signed a deal with the insurgent movement in February last year spelling out the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
There are rising concerns for what lies ahead and thousands of Afghans are trying to leave the country amid growing anxiety about the future. Outgoing U.S. commander Gen. Scott Miller, who officially stepped down at a ceremony in Kabul on Monday, has warned that increasing violence seriously hurts Afghanistan’s chances of finding a peaceful end to decades of war.
Miller also warned of a possible civil war as U.S.-allied warlords have been resurrecting their militias in an attempt to stop the Taliban surge. The militias have a violent history.
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Gannon reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
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