House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the Democrats have held the majority in the House of Representatives as counting continues in the US election. Pelosi says campaigning on healthcare helped the Democrats retain their majority, with their message amplified during the coronavirus pandemic. 'Our purpose in this race was to win so that we could protect the Affordable Care Act and that we could crush the virus,' she says
Continue reading...
Guardian World News
Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment is a wake-up call for women voters | Cecile Richards
It’s not only Roe v Wade on the line. Parental leave, affordable childcare, equal pay, the Affordable Care Act - all are under threat
The pandemic and its collateral economic crisis have illustrated like never before that women are the backbone of America. Before Covid-19, women made up more than half the workforce, nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers, and the majority of caregivers. One in three jobs held by women has been designated as essential. Right now, millions of women are pulling off an impossible balancing act: working while trying to keep their families safe and healthy during a terrifying time. Others have lost jobs, have had their wages or hours cut, and more than 800,000 women have left the workforce.
This crisis is disproportionately burdening women, especially women of color. They need immediate relief, but instead of solving this crisis, Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have focused on one thing: pushing through a supreme court nominee who wants to take away healthcare for millions and strip away rights women have had for decades. And they’re doing it against the will of the majority of Americans, who believe that voters should decide who makes the next appointment to the court.
Continue reading...
Biden attacks Trump’s ‘rushed and unprecedented’ confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett – US politics live
- Full story: Barrett confirmed in major victory for conservatives
- Why Barrett’s addition to court may undermine climate fight
- Bob Woodward: The Trump Presidency – live event today
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
Cecile Richards writes for us this morning that with the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court, it is not only abortion rights and Roe v Wade on the line. Parental leave, affordable childcare, equal pay, the Affordable Care Act - all are under threat. That should be a wake-up call to female voters, she says.
It’s outrageous that an impeached president who lost the popular vote can install a supreme court justice who would gut the Affordable Care Act despite majority support for the law – a law that made it so that women can no longer be charged more for health coverage because of our gender, or denied insurance because of a pre-existing condition such as breast cancer. It’s equally outrageous to see Republican senators prioritizing this bad-faith confirmation process despite their failure to pass a desperately-needed coronavirus relief bill. But none of this is surprising. Barrett’s nomination is part of a broader effort by the extreme right to allow minority views to rule over the will of the majority of Americans – in this case, women.
Women have been the majority of voters in every national election since 1964, and we represent the majority of mail-in ballots and early votes heading into November. Over the last four years, we have shown our political force by marching for women’s rights and Black lives, volunteering for causes, and donating to campaigns. We are a supermajority, and we should have the undivided attention of every elected official in this country. But we don’t, and that’s because deliberate efforts to undermine our democracy have created a system that’s less and less responsive to the needs of the people, especially women.
Related: Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment is a wake-up call for women voters | Cecile Richards
Twitter will begin “pre-bunking” misinformation at the top of American users’ timelines in the final week before the US election, the company has announced. Facts about voting by mail and, once the count begins, election results, will be placed on the top of the timeline in an effort to get ahead of viral falsehoods before they are even posted.
Continue reading...
“Election experts confirm that voting by mail is safe and secure, even with an increase in mail-in ballots,” says one message the company will run. “Even so, you might encounter unconfirmed claims that voting by mail leads to election fraud ahead of the 2020 US elections.”
Twitter says the practice is an important new tool in its fight against viral misinformation, because it does not require the company to wait for a specific falsehood to be shared and then debunked. Under the company’s current approach, the only people to ever see its fact-check labels, which are applied to topics including Covid and voting, are those who have already seen a tweet with misinformation, placing the company on a permanent back foot.
“Pre-bunk” branding aside, the approach mirrors the strategy Facebook and Instagram have been using to fight Covid misinformation since the early days of the pandemic. Both sites have received prominent banners at the top of their respective feeds, which Facebook says has led to more than 600 million people clicking through to read information from health authorities including the NHS and WHO.
Coronavirus live news: ‘We cannot give up’ warns WHO chief; protests flare in Italy
Protests against Covid restrictions turn violent in Milan and Turin; US deaths up 10%; Pope to celebrate Christmas without congregation. Follow the latest updates
- Global coronavirus report: Italian police use tear gas to disperse anti-lockdown rally
- Pope Francis criticised for rarely wearing face masks
- Survey uncovers widespread belief in ‘dangerous’ Covid claims
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Tumbling numbers of pregnancies and marriages in Japan during the coronavirus pandemic are likely to intensify a demographic crisis in the rapidly ageing nation, Reuters reports.
Japan has the most aged society in the world, with more than 35% of its population expected to be 65 and over by 2050, a trend that poses risks for economic growth and straining government finances.
“I reckon the spread of the coronavirus is having many people worried about getting pregnant, giving births and rearing babies,” Tetsushi Sakamoto, minister in charge of responses to Japan’s declining birthrates, told a news conference on Friday.
Recently published official data showed the number of notified pregnancies in the three months to July fell 11.4% from a year earlier, while the number of marriages over the same period dropped 36.9%. The sharp decline in marriages matters because the majority of babies in Japan are born in wedlock.
The US Trump administration will this week announce a plan to cover out-of-pocket costs of Covid-19 vaccines for millions of Americans who receive Medicare or Medicaid, Politico reported late on Monday, citing four people with knowledge of the plan.
Continue reading...
According to the plans, Medicare and Medicaid will now cover vaccines that receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. The changes are expected to be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the report added.
The planned rule will also address other Covid-19 related issues like expanding flexibility for Medicaid patients seeking care for the coronavirus, Politico reported.
CMS did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular working hours.
Democrats hold Senate floor overnight to protest Amy Coney Barrett confirmation – live
- Trump aide admits ‘we’re not going to control pandemic’ as Pence staff test positive
- Nearly 60 million Americans cast early vote as record-shattering turnout expected
- Many midwest Democrats stayed home in 2016. Will they turn out for Biden?
The summer has been characterised by a series of extreme weather events on both coasts of the US, and that looks set to continue.
Hundreds of thousands of Californians lost power as utilities sought to prevent the chance of their equipment sparking wildfires and the fire-weary state braced for a new bout of dry, windy weather.
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy has just described himself as “sad and furious” on his way home from the Senate in the early hours of the morning having been part of the Democrats night long occupation of the Senate floor.
Just finished the 3-5am shift on the Senate floor in protest of the vote later today on radical Amy Coney Barrett.
Continue reading...
She will rule to invalidate Obamacare, causing 23M to lose insurance in the middle of a pandemic. Catastrophic.
Both sad and furious on my rainy drive home. pic.twitter.com/hVEw3AvibW
Amy Coney Barrett: key moments from the supreme court confirmation hearings – video
Amy Coney Barrett spent most of her time avoiding key questions during three days of Senate hearings to confirm her as a supreme court justice.
Barrett would become the third justice on the court to be appointed by Donald Trump – and her confirmation would give conservatives a bulletproof, six-justice majority on the nine-member court, which decides cases by a simple majority.
Barrett, a conservative Christian who has criticized the high court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), who has publicly opposed reproductive rights and who was a trustee at a school whose handbook included a stated opposition to same-sex marriage, is seen on the left as part of a power play by Donald Trump
Continue reading...
Amy Coney Barrett hearing begins third day with more questioning from senators – live
- Each committee member will get 20 minutes to speak
- Barrett dodges abortion and healthcare questions
- Trump and Biden offer different visions of US role in world
- Trump in trouble as Florida’s seniors shift towards Biden
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
A bit of non-hearing news: a judge has extended the voter registration deadline in Virginia after an accidentally cut cable caused the online system to shut down yesterday.
The AP reports:
Wednesday’s order by U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney, Jr. in Richmond is an effort to make up for several hours of lost time on Tuesday, which had been the last day to register before the November general election.
The shutdown of the state’s website caused ‘a tremendous harm’ to the people who want to register to vote, Gibney said.
During his questioning of Amy Coney Barrett, Republican Chuck Grassley made the bizarre claim that Democrats “don’t really care about Obamacare.”
“This is all a charade. It’s time to get real. This is all just a distraction,” Grassley said. “They want government-run Medicare for All.”
Continue reading...
Kamala Harris questions Amy Coney Barrett over the Affordable Care Act – video
Supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was questioned by Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris over the Affordable Care Act, known popularly as Obamacare, during day two of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing. Barrett made the claim that she was not aware of Donald Trump’s campaign promise to appoint justices who would dismantle Obamacare. Harris also tackled Barrett’s views on abortion, making a carefully laid-out case that despite Barrett’s equivocation and insistence that she is unbiased on the issue of reproductive rights, she is far from it. Republicans want to have Barrett confirmed before election day
Continue reading...
- Amy Coney Barrett dodges abortion, healthcare and election law questions
- Kamala Harris grilling prompts doubtful claim from Amy Coney Barrett
Amy Coney Barrett supreme court nomination hearings begin in Washington – live
- Supreme court hearing sets stage for partisan clash
- Barrett was member of anti-abortion group that promoted clinic criticized for misleading women
- Barrett to say she will judge cases on law not personal views
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
During the break in Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination hearing, Trump urged Republicans to push their own healthcare agenda in their opening statements.
“We will have Healthcare which is FAR BETTER than ObamaCare, at a FAR LOWER COST,” Trump said in a tweet. “PEOPLE WITH PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS WILL BE PROTECTED AT AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL THAN NOW.”
We will have Healthcare which is FAR BETTER than ObamaCare, at a FAR LOWER COST - BIG PREMIUM REDUCTION. PEOPLE WITH PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS WILL BE PROTECTED AT AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL THAN NOW. HIGHLY UNPOPULAR AND UNFAIR INDIVIDUAL MANDATE ALREADY TERMINATED. YOU’RE WELCOME!
We have reached the first break in Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination hearing before the Senate judiciary committee.
The hearing is scheduled to reconvene in about 35 minutes, when more members of the committee will deliver their opening statements.
Continue reading...
Trump claims he no longer has Covid-19 and is ‘immune’ – live updates
- Biden retains double-digit national lead over Trump as election looms
- Forecast projects 395,000 US Covid-19 deaths by February
- Taliban says it hopes Trump wins election
- Republicans express fears Trump will lose presidential election
- Sign up for Fight to Vote – our weekly US election newsletter
Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has said Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee Amy Coney Barrett should, if confirmed, step aside from contentious cases.
Reuters reports:
Democratic opposition to Barrett on policy issues has focused on her possible role in deciding a case before the Supreme Court in which Trump and Republican-led states are seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare law, often called Obamacare.
“She doesn’t come unbiased and that’s why she should recuse herself,” Schumer said on Sunday.
Donald Trump claims he is immune to Covid-19 – video
Continue reading...