Friday morning news - April 23, 2021

Biden hosts virtual climate summit » President Joe Biden opened a virtual climate summit on Thursday by making a new commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. He vowed the United States would cut fossil fuel emissions up to 52 percent by 2030.

BIDEN: The signs are unmistakable. The science is undeniable, but the cost of inaction keeps mounting. The United States isn't waiting. We are resolving to take action, not only our federal government, but our cities and our states all across our country, small businesses, large businesses, large corporations, American workers in every field.

Biden’s plan would nearly double the reductions the Obama administration pledged to make under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. He also pledged to double U.S. funding for climate initiatives in less wealthy countries by 2024. And he said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation would make one-third of its new investments climate-focused within two years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking through an interpreter, welcomed Biden’s proposals.

MERKEL: I am delighted to see that the United States is back—back to work together with us in climate politics because there can be no doubt about the world needing your contribution if we are going to meet our ambitious goals.

Forty world leaders joined the video conference. Many made their own pledges to reduce carbon emissions. Russia and China did not.

And Senator Marco Rubio said U.S. efforts are meaningless without comparable commitments from Beijing.

RUBIO: They’re the world’s leading polluter in terms of emissions of carbon. Even as they’re here at the summit, they’re funding billions of dollars of fossil-fuel powered plants all over the world, including within China. Their emissions continue to climb. And that’s what I always tell people, that U.S. action alone is irrelevant when you have countries like China who continue to increase their emissions. And they’re not going to stop doing it.

The summit attendees will reconvene again today for another round of virtual talks.

House passes bill to make Washington, D.C., 51st state » The U.S. House has approved a measure that would make Washington, D.C., the nation’s 51st state. Speaker Nancy Pelosi framed the issue as one of fairness.

PELOSI: For more than two centuries, the people of Washington, D.C., have been denied their right to participate in our and their democracy.

Although Washington has its own local elected leaders, it is a federal district. That means Congress has the power to veto or alter any local laws.

But Republicans say the issue has nothing to do with giving the city’s residents more of a say in their own affairs. Congressman Kevin McCarthy said it’s all about control of the federal government.

MCCARTHY: The House Democrats are moving on D.C. statehood, another ploy to consolidate power so they can jam through socialist policies like the Green New Deal, court-packing, and defunding police.

The bill would give the new state one representative in the House and two senators, all of which would most likely be Democrats.

The measure passed on a party-line vote. Democrats don’t have enough votes in the Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster. But even if they did, the bill would likely face legal challenges.

India breaks record for most COVID cases » India passed a grim milestone in the pandemic on Thursday. The country reported nearly 315,000 new infections, a global daily record.

India has logged almost 16 million cases since the pandemic began. But that’s still only a fraction of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

Dr. K. Srinath Reddy is president of the India Public Health Foundation. He said the country thought it had passed the worst of the pandemic.

REDDY: We were lulled into a sense of complacency. Because the various measures of the pandemic, whether it was the daily case count, or the daily death count, or even the test-positivity rates, all of them started declining.

The surge in new cases has strained the medical system to the breaking point. Many hospitals are reporting shortages of beds and medicine. But the biggest concern is oxygen.

The New Delhi High Court has ordered the government to divert oxygen from industrial use to hospitals. The judges called the situation a national emergency.

Healthcare workers are administering 2.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines each day. But less than 10 percent of Indians have gotten a shot.

Biden gives tax credit to businesses to encourage vaccination » Vaccination rates in the United States are much higher. More than half of U.S. residents have received at least one shot. And the government reported Wednesday that manufacturers are sending providers 28 million new doses each week.

But the pace of vaccinations has started to slow. And the Biden administration wants to give people added incentive to get the shot.

BIDEN: Until you are fully vaccinated, you are still vulnerable. The vaccine can save your life. The second reason to get vaccinated is to protect your community, your family, your friends and your neighbors.

On Wednesday, the president urged large employers to give workers time off to get the shot. And he announced a tax credit for small businesses to provide paid leave for employees who want to get vaccinated. It would also cover time off employees need to recover from side effects.

The roughly $500 dollar per employee per day credit is part of the $1.9 trillion virus relief package passed last month.

Putin announces troop pullback in Ukraine » Russia’s defense minister made a surprise announcement Thursday.

SHOIGU: MAN SPEAKING RUSSIAN

Troops massed on the border with eastern Ukraine are coming home. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the military exercises in Crimea and wide swathes of western Russia are over.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the news.

Zelenskyy and Western leaders had voiced concern about the troop buildup in recent weeks. And Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no signs of backing down.

But the troop pullback is only a partial de-escalation. Heavy weapons deployed to western Russia will stay put. Shoigu said Moscow plans another massive military exercise in the region later this year.

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