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“You can misconstrue it however you want,” Fauci said to CNN, “that email was from a person to me saying ‘thank you’ for whatever it is he thought I said, and I said that I think the most likely origin is a jumping of species. I still do think it is, at the same time as I’m keeping an open mind that it might be a lab leak.”

He added, “The idea I think is quite farfetched that the Chinese deliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves as well as other people. I think that’s a bit far out.”

Ms Psaki said on Thursday at her daily press briefing, “The president and the administration feel that Dr Fauci has played an incredible role in getting the pandemic under control, being a voice to the public throughout the course of this pandemic.”

About 3,200 pages of emails covering Coronavirus outbreak since last year were released to media from Fauci’s inbox under freedom of information request.

After Donald Trump, a new wave of censorship in the United States

Climate & Wildlife Preservation: Biden suspends Trump approved Arctic oil drilling leases

US President Joe Biden has suspended all oil and gas drilling leases that were approved by former President Donald Trump in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. With this President Biden has taken a significant step towards his campaign promise of taking measures to protect climate and wildlife, and thus reviving political fight over the region. Alaska is home to polar bears among other wildlife, and also rich in oil reserves.

The remote region that pans across 19.6m acre is home to polar bears, snowy owls and caribou, along with other wildlife and migrating birds from six continents. Oil industry lobby and Republicans have been trying to open up the rich oil reserve refuge in region that is highly lucrative. The region is sacred to indigenous Gwitch’in communities and drilling is what they have been resisting for years to protect their region. Environmental groups, Democrats and many native tribes of Alaska have long been trying to block the advancements of Republicans and oil industry in region.

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On his first day in Oval Office, President Biden had signed an executive order that suggested requirement of an environmental review to address legal flaws in drilling program approved by Trump under Congress enacted 2017 law. The interior department after conducting the review and assessment said that it “identified defects in the underlying record of decision supporting the leases, including the lack of analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives” that is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The two parties have been in crosswires over the region when in 1995 former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, vetoed Republican plan of allowing drilling in refuge. President Biden has been a big advocate of bringing in environmental reforms and openly opposed drilling in the refuge. One of his main presidential campaign promises was to push for permanent reforms to protect environment which have been long demanded by the environmental groups.

Kristen Miller, acting executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, hailed Biden administration’s decision of suspending the Arctic leasing program. She said, “Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction, and we commend the Biden administration for committing to a new program analysis that prioritizes sound science and adequate tribal consultation.”

White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said in a statement, “President Biden believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country. He is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever.”

Climate & Wildlife Preservation: Biden suspends Trump approved Arctic oil drilling leases

After Donald Trump, a new wave of censorship in the United States

The removal of Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier from the US Space Force, who this month publicly declared his opposition to Marxism and critical race theory, is part of a new wave of censorship that is reaching its climax in the United States. This is supported by the constitutional expert Alan Dershowitz.

In an interview with “Epoch Tv Crossroads,” Dershowitz, a former Harvard Law School professor, expressed concern over Lohmeier’s firing and other incidents, such as the removal of former President Donald Trump from Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms. in January, as a result of the violation of the Capitol on January 6.On May 19, the Space Force relieved Lohmeier from the 11th Space Warning Squadron on charges of being “politically partisan”, because in an interview he denounced the spread of Marxism in the armed forces.

The Department justified the dismissal, saying Lohmeier made “public comments” considered “partisan political activity.” In a podcast, the military denounced the spread of Marxist ideology within the military and the damaging consequences of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s promotion of the critical theory of race.

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In recent years, critical race theory, which is rooted in Marxism, has been heavily disseminated throughout academia, entertainment, government, schools, and the workplace, coming to prominence after the rise of groups far left like Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Employers have included concepts of the doctrine – which some argue teaches that the United States is a fundamentally racist country and that one race is inherently superior to another – in their training in “racial and cultural sensitivity.”

Marxism advocates the destruction of institutions, the Western judicial system, the free market economy, and orthodox religions, demanding that they be replaced with institutions that conform to the ideology of the theory.

The law scholar and author of the new book “The Case Against the New Censorship: Protecting Free Speech from Big Tech, Progressives, and Universities,” has accused Democrats and Big Techs of engaging in censorship. “We are now in a very, very dangerous situation, where the left, which has enormous influence on American universities, on social media and certain types of politics in the media, is trying to suppress free speech, and it is succeeding, and we have to fight back,” says Dershowitz.

According to the lawyer, big tech companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are now engaged in “massive censorship” that endangers freedom of speech itself. “It’s not good for the country, it’s not good for the Constitution, it’s not good for freedom of speech. It’s not good for any standard and it has to stop. And we consumers must ask that Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter stop this censorship ».

Twitter executives have indicated that Trump, who had around 90 million followers on the platform, will remain suspended indefinitely, while Facebook’s “Supervisory Board” agreed earlier this month to maintain his ban, but has set a time limit. Companies have also attracted some attention for their alleged political bias as well as unbalanced moderation of user content. Critics say much of corporate moderation over the past year has unfairly targeted posts by conservatives and individuals believed to be Trump supporters.

Meanwhile, various leftist groups have also challenged the way social media companies operate, arguing that they have not adequately addressed the disinformation that is spreading online.” As for what Donald Trump tweets, I may not agree with every single word he says, but he has the right to say it. And most importantly, people forget that the First Amendment has two aspects, one, the speaker’s right, hence Donald Trump, and to be able to speak, that’s a part of it. But the second part that is largely ignored, is the right of you and me, the audience, to listen, read and see what it has to say to accept or reject it in the ideas market. When you ban a speaker, you also prohibit his viewers and listeners from having access to that speech, and this is an equally dangerous aspect of violating the rights of free speech.

Texas Voting Rights: Democrats leave House floor restricting voting bill passage for now

Sunday was a “dark day for democracy” in America as Texan Republicans pushed a highly restrictive voting bill in middle of the night. Democrats walked off the House floor stymieing the bill for now as Republicans were left short of required quorum required to approve the bill before the midnight deadline. This has effectively ‘killed’ Senate Bill 7 for this year’s session. Republican Governor Greg Abbott however, rekindled hopes of bill revival as he tweeted Sunday night of adding “election integrity” as top of the list to be discussed by lawmakers in a special session he intends to call. “Legislators will be expected to have worked out the details when they arrive at the Capitol for the special session,” Abbott said.

Sunday night at 10:45 pm, CT, Democrats walked off the House floor. Dade Phelan, the Republican Speaker had thus no choice but to adjourn the House due to lack of 100 members quorum required. With this Texas was left out to join 14 fellow GOP controlled states including Florida and Georgia who have capitalized on former President Donald Trump’s unbacked accusations and lies around 2020 Presidential elections and adopted strict new voting restrictions, making voting for these states residents harder.

Election Integrity & Bail Reform were emergency items for this legislative session.

They STILL must pass.

They will be added to the special session agenda.

Legislators will be expected to have worked out the details when they arrive at the Capitol for the special session.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 31, 2021

There is no clarity yet on when Abbott is planning to call in the special session. Furthermore, it is also not clear if Republicans would seek to edit already drafted Senate Bill 7 or present it in the current draft.

The decision to leave the House by Democrats came after hours of debate and as Republicans refused to take questions around bill from Democrats. Rep. Nicole Collier, who chairs the Texas Legislative Black Caucus said, “We used all the tools in our toolbox to fight this bill, and tonight we pulled out that last one. We are no longer going to stand and let them continue to push measures that disenfranchise our voters.”

What was in the voting bill?

The Senate Bill 7, if passed, would have made main-in voting difficult for the voters. They would have to provide more information. Furthermore, it would have prevented local officials from sending absentee ballot applications to people who request one and also prohibit them working with “get out the vote” groups that work locally to encourage Texans to vote through mail-in ballots. Also, after-hours and drive through options of voting would have been prohibited. It is to be noted that these options had enabled Black and Latino workers in Houston area to cast their votes in 2020 election.

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President Joe Biden too called out the Texan bill calling it “un-American” and said it is “part of an assault on democracy that we’ve seen far too often this year — and often disproportionately targeting Black and Brown Americans.”

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The US economy grew by 6.4% in three months

The United States appears to have overcome the coronavirus health crisis. The recovery appears strong: the US economy grew by 6.4% annualized in the first quarter, as confirmed by the second reading of GDP, even if economists expected an even better figure (+ 6.6%), while the demand for unemployment benefits have hit a new low since the start of the pandemic, dropping to 406k applications last week from 444k the previous week, a more than expected decline.

The markets are also reflecting positive signs: the S&P 500 index gained 90% from the low recorded in March 2020, also thanks to the push of the ultra-accommodative monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, accompanied by a formidable fiscal stimulus, which the US president, Joe Biden wants to continue delivering over the next decade to modernize infrastructure and revive the American middle class. “We’ll get some money back from that 1%” of the super-rich in America who benefited from Donald Trump’s tax cuts, “Biden said, during a speech in Ohio about an economic intervention in Cleveland, in ‘Ohio.

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According to the New York Times, the White House will announce a $ 6 trillion plan in 2022, which will extend over the next ten years. Biden’s plan, which also includes large funds for health and education, would bring federal spending to levels never seen after the Second World War, with a deficit of over 1,800 billion. Despite the administration’s intention to raise taxes on large multinationals and the wealthiest people. But according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the federal government is putting on the table a budget plan “in step with the times”. Therefore “we cannot act as if we were in 2010,” you said inviting Congress to “increase the pace of spending.”

And while Biden’s plan will raise the federal debt-to-GDP ratio above its current level by around 100% over the next decade, the movie is “fiscally responsible”, partly because the interest burden to finance federal debt is currently negative, as long-term government bond yields of 1.6% are below the rate of inflation. While the recently observed inflation “will be temporary, not endemic.” Although Yellen expects the price hike to last several months, he predicts that we will see “high annual rates of inflation until the end of this year”. However, investments will increase the supply capacity of the economy and will allow “faster growth in future years without inflation”.

If anything, the problem will be finding a compromise with the Republicans to get the new mega stimulus approved. Yesterday, to Biden’s proposal to scale back the infrastructure package already announced, from 2.3 to 1.7 trillion, the Republicans responded with an offer of 928 billion over the next 5 years, to be financed by redirecting federal aid for Covid, a hypothesis opposed by the Democrats.

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Did Ukraine use Giuliani to undermine Biden’s candidacy in US Presidential Elections?

Federal investigation by New York prosecutors is underway into role of Ukraine in 2020 US Presidential election. The New York Times has reported that the investigation is to determine role of Ukrainian officials to undermine Joe Biden’s candidacy and help Donald Trump in process. The report by NYT cites unnamed sources having “knowledge of the matter”. The criminal investigation includes determining whether Ukraine used Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, to spread misleading information about Biden to impact his presidential candidacy.

The said investigation had started in Trump’s final months in office and is being carried out by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York. This is however, separate from the investigation into dealings by Giuliani in Ukraine.

One of the interest in investigation is Andriy Derkach, a member of Parliament in Ukraine. He was also sanctioned by US Department of Treasury, identifying him as an “active Russian agent for over a decade”.

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Though Giuliani is not directly under investigation for any wrongdoing, his dealings with officials in Ukraine while he was serving as personal lawyer of Donald Trump while he was in office, is a subject under investigation by Manhattan prosecutors. Giuliani is however, under investigation to determine if he violated ‘foreign lobbying laws’ by working on behest of Ukrainian officials when he attempted ousting of the then US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

The extent and fierceness of investigation into foreign body election meddling has bolstered ever since US intelligence had laid out extensive Russia’s meddling in 2016 Presidential election. Giuliani’s dealings’ investigations took a new focus last month when federal agents searched his Manhattan apartment and office on warrants as part of the long going investigation by Southern District of New York. Authorities seized 18 electronic devices in the process.

Giuliani hasn’t been charged with a crime. He pointed out that all his activities in Ukraine were in capacity as Trump’s lawyer and that he “never represented a Ukrainian national or official before the United States government.”

Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello told NYT while defending his client’s efforts, “When you investigate allegations of corruption, you talk to all sorts of people, some are credible, and some are not.”

After Donald Trump, a new wave of censorship in the United States

How police reform is going in the United States?

The US President Joe Biden received in the White House the family of George Floyd, the African American man killed in Minneapolis by policeman Derek Chauvin, on the occasion of the first anniversary of his death. The murder of Floyd started one of the largest civil rights protest movements in recent American history, one of the goals of which was to deeply and, in some cases, radical reform the structure and practices of the American police.

For months, during the protests, the slogan defunds the police had been one of the most popular, and in the last year, numerous legislative proposals for reform have been presented both at the federal level is local. Biden last month promised that within a year of Floyd’s death he would have a comprehensive police reform passed by Congress: he failed, the law is still under discussion in the Senate, but in the meantime. dozens of states and municipalities have passed new laws and regulations. Overall, while far from the demands of civil rights protesters, the new rules have ensured some small steps forward, but for now they are failing to reduce the problem of police violence.

The federal law that Biden and the Democratic Party would like to pass as soon as possible is called the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” and is a broad reform that regulates police activities in many respects. of sight. It prevents certain behaviours considered dangerous, such as techniques to immobilize suspects that put pressure on the neck, and controversial practices such as no-knock warrants, i.e. search warrants that allow agents to enter private property without warning first (in 2020 Breonna Taylor was killed by the police in an operation of this type). The law also provides for the creation of a national register of policemen who have problematic behavior and prohibits religious or racial profiling, that is, investigative activities based on suspicions related to ethnicity or religion instead of evidence.

Above all, the law would abolish the principle of qualified immunity, a legal device that gives immunity from civil lawsuits to all public officials and not only policemen as long as their conduct is considered “in good faith” and does not violate “legal rights or clearly defined constitutional “. The principle, sanctioned by the Supreme Court decades ago to avoid spurious complaints to public officials, has recently been used in the vast majority of cases of police brutality to avoid consequences at the level of civil justice, which often makes it impossible for the families of the victims. get even just compensation.

The abolition of this immunity is the main element of disagreement between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and the reason why the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” has not yet been passed: the law is easily passed in the House, where the Party Democrat has an absolute majority, but 60 votes are needed to pass the Senate, and therefore the collaboration of some Republican senators. Negotiations are still ongoing, and the hopes for a bipartisan vote are good enough, according to the New York Times.

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In addition to this federal law, dozens of state and city governments have passed local laws and regulations. In an April article, The New York Times calculated that after George Floyd’s death, more than 30 US states passed more than 140 new regulations, and in the meantime, these numbers have increased: last week the governor of the state of Washington signed 12 police reform laws.

Four states have reduced immunity for police officers, 10 have made it mandatory for policemen to have a video camera on at all times, 16 have banned manoeuvres that oppress suspects’ necks and 5 have restricted the use of no-knock warrants. Many states have also made it easier to report abuses and acts of police brutality.

Most of these new regulations have been passed in states where the Democratic Party governs, but not only: in some cases, such as Colorado, there have been bipartisan legislative initiatives, and some police reform laws have also been passed in Republican states such as Kentucky, Indiana, and Iowa.

Many city administrations, on which the budget of the local police offices depends, have mainly dealt with cutting or limiting the funds allocated to the police, based on the defund the police philosophy, whose goal was not to zero the budget of the police forces. order, but to transfer part of the funds to social services such as drug and mental disorder rehabilitation programs and educational programs.

Currently, in the United States, it is the police that intervenes – in some cases resorting to violence – in many problematic contexts which in other countries, such as Europe, are usually managed by health or social organizations and operators. The idea of completely removing the funds from the police was instead expressed only by some radical groups of the civil rights movement and was adopted as a polemical element especially by the political forces of the right.

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US to significantly contribute help rebuild Gaza, to reopen embassy in Jerusalem

During his first day of his first official visit to the Middle East region, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States would make “significant contributions” towards the rebuilding of Gaza that has witnessed destruction during the recent Israel and Palestinian conflict. The US Secretary of State further said that US embassy in Jerusalem would be reopened to manage diplomatic relations with Palestinians in a more positive and progressive way. The embassy had earlier been downgraded by former US President Donald Trump.

Blinken made his first official trip to the region rounding up the ceasefire announced between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militants in Gaza Strip, finally putting an end to 11 days of bloodshed and violence in both sides. He announced that Biden administration would be asking Congress to pass $75 million in aid for Palestinians. This would include $5.5 million immediate aid to help rebuild Gaza.

The announcement was made after meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. During the meeting with Abbas, Blinken talked about plans for a new envoy, details of the large aid that included 1.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. “As I told the president, I’m here to underscore the commitment of the United States to rebuilding the relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, a relationship built on mutual respect and also a shared conviction that Palestinians and Israelis alike deserve equal measures of security, freedom, opportunity and dignity,” said Blinken.

In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the announcement, Blinken assured that Hamas would not be allowed to benefit from the aid.

In a rare event from Biden administration, Blinken publicly criticized settlement activity in the strip while underlining US’s commitment to two-state solution.

Date of reopening of the consulate general in Jerusalem hasn’t been announced. The consulate historically operates independently from US mission to Israel. Blinken said to the press, “We’re just beginning the process. I can’t give you a timeline on how long that will take. But I can tell you that it’s, I think, important to have that platform to be able to more effectively engage [with] not just the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinians from different walks of life, the NGO community, the business community, and others.”

Addressing the violence during the conflict that led to casualties on both sides of Israel and Palestinians, Blinkin called the losses “profound”. He said, “Casualties are often reduced to numbers. But behind every number is a human being — a daughter, a son, a father, a mother, a grandparent, a best friend. And as the Talmud teaches, to lose a life is to lose the whole world, whether that life is Palestinian or Israeli.”

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Blinken also expressed that US welcomes holding of the ceasefire but also said that it is not enough. He said violence during this round of conflict was an expression of deep-lying issues that need to be resolved. “I say this as a father, no child whether Israeli or Palestinian or American is a statistic. We know the human consequences when violence takes the upper hand and we are determined that that not be the case. The loss of any child is a universe of loss and in some ways incomprehensible except to those who suffered the loss,” he said.

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Yet another bloody week-end in the United States. The country witnessed a new wave of violence between Friday and Saturday, bringing the country’s death toll to over 7,500 since the beginning of the year. According to CNN, according to which there have been over 200 mass shootings in the country since the beginning of this year, with an increase of 23% compared to 2020.

A six-year-old boy died after being hit by a bullet in a dispute between his mother and another driver on a California highway, Freeway 55, local media said. The boy’s mother, Aiden Leos, was taking her son to school in Orange County 50 kilometers from Los Angeles when one car cut off the other. Someone in the car behind fired a single shot at the car the child was traveling in. The bullet passed the trunk and hit little Aiden in the back. “Mom, my stomach hurts!” Aiden shouted as his mother, in full panic, immediately stopped. An off-duty police officer stopped and gave the boy a heart massage and forced breathing, and the ambulance urgently transported him to the hospital where Aiden was pronounced dead.

Police officer Florentino Olivera told the Los Angeles Times it was “an isolated case of road rage.” Police closed the busy Freeway 55 for hours during the investigation. A white sedan with a man and a woman on board is actively sought. It is the latest in a growing number of shoot-outs in the US. In an equally senseless road ‘accident’ earlier this week, a group of family members were talking on the sidewalk when a man on an electric scooter passed through the group. When a woman shouted at him to go slower, the man stopped, put on a mask, and shot, seriously injuring the woman and a 5-year-old child, according to the police reconstruction. Officers are looking for a 26-year-old homeless man, Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said.

Minneapolis remembers George Floyd

May 25 marks the first anniversary of the African American’s death and the city remains split: racial tensions have remained unresolved; the police department is in crisis and under investigation by the Justice Department.And above all, the crime rate and violence are on the rise. In recent weeks, a six-year-old girl was killed and two other children were seriously injured in a shooting. Three other people were killed in two separate shootings on the night between Friday and Saturday.

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For the anniversary of the death of the ‘good giant’, who has become the face of the Black Lives Matter movement, President Joe Biden receives in the White House the family of Floyd killed by former agent-executioner Derek Chauvin, convicted by the jury and waiting to know its final sentence. For Biden, this is an important appointment to ‘reunite’ the United States and the Americans after four years of divisions with Donald Trump and to try to turn the page and show the tolerant and open face of America.

At the meeting, however, the president presents himself with ‘empty hands’: the awaited police reform is at a standstill in Congress where negotiations have been stalled for days now. The goal of approving it for today, as Biden wished, is difficult and almost impossible despite the pressure and forward flight of the individual states. Pending federal rules, New York prosecutor Letitia James has indeed proposed a tightening on the use of force by law enforcement: there can only be a “last resort” after all other alternatives have been tried.