- Ocasio-Cortez praises Sanders’ campaign in nominating speech
- Colin Powell to endorse former vice-president
- Cindy McCain to detail husband’s ‘unlikely friendship’ with Biden
- Biden to be formally nominated on convention’s second night
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Ocasio-Cortez, like so many progressives, traces her political awakening to Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, where she worked as an organizer. A self-described democratic socialist, Ocasio-Cortez was elected to Congress in 2018, unseating the fourth-ranking House Democrat.
Since her shocking victory, she has helped organize and raise money for progressive challengers around the country, including Jamaal Bowman who won the Democratic primary this year, knocking off a 16-term incumbent in a deep-blue New York district.
Many progressives were furious that Ocasio-Cortez, widely viewed as the leader of a next generation of Democrats, was only allotted one minute to speak, while ample time was devoted on Monday night to Republican defectors, including former Ohio John Kasich, a staunch opponent of abortion.
Yet her invitation was a testament to influence within the party, rare for a first-term member of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Sanders in the primary, giving his campaign a much needed jolt in the uncertain days after the senator’s heart attack, has been critical of Biden’s establishment-minded approach to governing. In an interview last year, she mused that in another country, they would not belong to the same party.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s nominating speech for Bernie Sanders was a virtual passing of the torch. Sanders briefly led the primary contest earlier this year before falling impossibly behind Biden as fear of the coronavirus began to spread across the US.
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Sanders, who nearly eked out a victory in the Iowa caucuses, and then went on to win primary contests in New Hampshire, and Nevada before sweeping California on Super Tuesday, is expected to receive around 1,000 delegates.
In the same way Sanders popularized Medicare for all, she has championed the Green New Deal – both turning the issue into a rallying cry for young Democrats and an easy line of attack for Republicans. Climate is one of the key areas in which Biden has moved left, and she was included in the Biden-Sanders unity taskforces, created to forge a policy consensus between the often-warning progressive and moderate wings of the Democrtic party.
Addressing his supporters on Monday, Sanders said their movement had “moved this country in a bold new direction” but he was unequivocal in his endorsement of Biden, warning that the stakes were too high to stay home.
“The future of our democracy is at stake,” he said.
World news
Cardi B interviews Joe Biden and tells him ‘Trump out’ is election priority
- Rapper and Biden talk politics in wide-ranging Elle interview
- Democratic nominee fails to respond to Medicare for All query
In a wide-ranging interview released on Monday, Cardi B told Joe Biden her priority for the election in November is to get “Trump out”.
Related: Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion's WAP should be celebrated, not scolded | Dream McClinton
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US politics: virtual Democratic convention to start amid coronavirus crisis – live updates
- Pelosi recalls House early to fight postal service election ‘sabotage’
- Sanders says Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting a ‘crisis for democracy’
- Virtual Democratic convention to kick off with emphasis on unity
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3.57pm BST
Eva Longoria, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kerry Washington and Julia Louis-Dreyfus will help em...
No Covid-19 stimulus package progress as Trump makes more false claims – live
- Another 1.18m Americans file for unemployment
- Deutsche Bank gave Trump records to New York prosecutors - report
- Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘go away’ as Fauci warns long road ahead
- Join us today at 5pm ET for an online event with Eric Holder to discuss voter suppression in the 2020 election. Register now
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Joe Biden made clear this morning that Se...
Trump signs executive order to exclude undocumented people from census – live
- Order could cause certain areas to lose funding and representation
- Biden says Trump has ‘quit on this country’
- McConnell outlines Republican coronavirus relief bill
- US failure to report vital coronavirus data is hobbling response
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Donald Trump “cannot imprison Michael Cohen for writing a book”, the American Civil Liberties Union said, as the organization filed suit against the federal government.
Related: ACLU says Trump sent Michael Cohen back to prison 'for writing a book'
Joe Biden promised to give a raise to childcare workers, who he said are “too often underpaid, unseen, and undervalued.”
The Democratic candidate noted 40% of childcare workers are still on SNAP or Medicaid, calling that figure “unacceptable.”
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Healthcare is Trump’s Achilles heel. Republicans don’t get it | Lloyd Green
Five million Americans have lost their health insurance in a pandemic - yet Republicans are still trying to end Obamacare
Like Moloch, the ancient pagan god, Donald Trump is ever ready to demand that Americans sacrifice themselves for his greater good. He commanded that states open up early, and then this happened: Arizona, Florida, and Texas are looking like Wuhan redux. Come this fall, the president also expects that parents will put their children in harm’s way for the sake of his...
Covid-19 survivors could lose health insurance if Trump wins bid to repeal Obamacare
- ACA prevents denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions
- Abolition could mean Covid-19 victims could be turned down
Millions of Americans who have survived Covid-19 or face future infections could lose their insurance or be barred from getting coverage should the Trump administration successfully repeal Obamacare.
The Trump administration asked the supreme court late Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act – a move that, if successful, would bring a permanent end to the health insurance reform law popularly known as Obamacare.
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Coronavirus live news: soldiers sent to southern Italian town amid tension over new outbreak
WHO needs $31.3bn over 12 months for vaccines; France plans 1.3m tests to find ‘hidden clusters’; Mike Pence to hold first taskforce briefing in weeks
- Global report: rationing returns to Australia as panic buying spreads
- Swedes rapidly losing trust in Covid-19 strategy, poll finds
- England: major incident declared as people flock to south coast
- UK coronavirus updates – live
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The Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) is in talks to test a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by Italian researchers, the dean of the Brazilian university told Reuters.
With the world’s worst outbreak outside the US, Brazil has become a leading front in the global race for a vaccine, as clinical trials are likely to yield results faster in places where the virus is widespread.
Soraya Smaili, the president of Unifesp, said on Wednesday: “We are already in advanced discussions with Italy’s Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute. We expect to bring it here, the accord is already moving forward and we’ll be able to do a lot of studies with this vaccine.”
The Italian researchers want to conduct midstage trials and final phase three studies involving thousands of subjects in Brazil, Smaili said.
Around the world at a glance:
Some powerful US senators are pushing back against an attempt by the Trump administration’s Treasury Department to weaken a watchdog panel involved with overseeing $2.4tn in pandemic aid, according to three congressional aides. The Trump administration has petitioned the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare law, which added millions to the healthcare safety net, seeking to scrap coverage during the novel coronavirus crisis.
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More than 9.62 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 489,208 have died, a Reuters tally showed as of 1222 GMT on Friday.
Russia reported on Friday 6,800 new coronavirus cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally of infections to 620,794.
Trump administration asks supreme court to axe Obamacare
Democrats call legal push amid coronavirus crisis an ‘act of unfathomable cruelty’
- Coronavirus – latest updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to invalidate the Obamacare lawthat added millions to the healthcare safety net but has been at the centre of political controversy.
The government advocate, Noel Francisco, argued in a filing late on Thursday that the Affordable Care Act (ACA), one of Ba...
Coronavirus US live: death toll nears 80,000 as Trump rages over Russia
- Fauci and two other task force members to self-quarantine
- Coronavirus – latest global updates
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Precautions against Covid-19 infection have been stepped up at the White House but are hampered by the cramped and poorly ventilated conditions in the West Wing, Kevin Hassett, a special adviser to Donald Trump on the pandemic response, said on Sunday.
Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin has been talking to Fox News Sunday about the Trump administration’s attempts to reopen and restart the stalled US economy, and whether there will be another huge stimulus bill. Democrats who control the House want one of those but the White House doesn’t – that’s the short version.
The White House is “absolutely pushing for a payroll tax cut”, Mnuchin says. Most observers think that is a non-starter, because Democrats won’t let it. Payroll taxes, meaning deductions from regular paychecks, include funds for Social Security and Medicare, vital social benefits.
Related: US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?
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