Friday morning news - May 7, 2021

Biden pitches spending plans in Louisiana » President Biden spoke to a row of TV cameras in Louisiana Thursday standing in front of Lake Charles. A badly aging bridge served as his backdrop as he made a public pitch for his proposal to spend trillions on infrastructure and other priorities.

He called it a “once in a generation investment in America itself.”

BIDEN: Great jobs to modernize our bridges, our roads, our highways, our ports, our airports, our water pipes, our water projects, high speed internet...

The president has proposed $2.3 trillion dollars in spending on what he calls The America Jobs Plan. That’s in addition to another roughly $2 trillion for a separate spending proposal.

Biden said he’s willing to compromise on the tax hikes he recommended to help cover the cost.

Republicans too say they’re willing to compromise on an infrastructure investment, but they say only a portion of what Biden has proposed truly addresses infrastructure. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell:

MCCONNELL: And so we’ve laid out about a $600 billion dollar alternative, paid for, that deals with things that we commonly refer to as infrastructure.

It will ultimately be up to moderate Senate Democrats like West Viriginia’s Joe Manchin as to what concessions, if any, the White House will have to make.

Unemployment claims drop again to new pandemic low » Another reason Republicans object to the trillions in new spending—they say the president’s case that it’s necessary to revive the economy isn’t holding water.

That as the latest Labor Department report shows jobless claims falling once again to another pandemic low. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Unemployment claims fell below 500,000 last week for the first time since the pandemic struck 14 months ago.

Jobless claims fell nearly 17 percent from the prior week’s total of 590,000. And new applications for benefits have nearly been cut in half from a peak of 900,000 in January.

The job market is growing with the reopening of more businesses as more Americans get vaccinated.

The economy grew last quarter at a vigorous 6.4 percent annual rate, with expectations that the current quarter will be even better.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

U.S. rushing medical supplies to India » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. military is rushing badly needed supplies into India where health officials are still struggling to control a deadly COVID-19 surge.

AUSTIN: We’re moving urgently to support India’s frontline healthcare workers. And three U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxies and a C-17 Globemaster III have already delivered many tons of critical supplies.

But some have accused government officials in India of being slow to distribute life-saving supplies donated from abroad.

Under order by the Supreme Court, India's government agreed on Thursday to provide more medical oxygen to hospitals in the capital. That could help ease a 2-week shortage. The government raised the oxygen supply from 490 to 730 tons per day in New Delhi.

The number of new confirmed cases in India on Thursday breached 400,000 for the second time in recent weeks. The country continues to shatter global records for new infections, and experts say the official reported numbers of cases could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Study: Pfizer vaccine highly effective at blocking severe illness from UK, S. African variants »

The surge in India is fueled by more infectious variants. And two studies published this week show that the Pfizer vaccine is highly effective in protecting against severe disease caused by those variants. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The studies, conducted in Israel and Qatar, suggest that the vaccine largely prevents serious illness from the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., and the B.1.351 variant, originally found in South Africa.

The results show the vaccine to be 87 to 89 percent effective at blocking infection with the U.K. variant. And it was 72 to 75 percent effective against the South African strain.

But it was 100 percent effective at preventing severe, critical, or fatal disease from both variants. And overall, it was 97 percent effective at blocking severe illness from any form of the coronavirus.

The study was based on more than 200,000 coronavirus cases between Jan. 24th and April 3rd.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Gov. DeSantis signs election bill into law in Florida » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a new voting reform bill into law Thursday. GOP lawmakers sent the legislation to the governor’s desk after passing it on a straight party line vote.

The Republican governor said the law will help safeguard elections, in part by strengthening voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots. He noted that ID is already required to vote in person.

DESANTIS: We’re also banning ballot harvesting. We’re not going to let political operatives go get satchels of votes and dump them in some drop box. We’re also prohibiting mass mailing of ballots. We’ve had absentee voting in Florida for a long time. You request the ballot, you get it, and then you can mail it in.

Critics argue that will make voting tougher for handicapped voters. The law does allow, however, for an electoral Good Samaritan to collect and return the ballots of immediate family and up to two ballots from people who are unrelated.

Mirroring the controversy over new voting laws in neighboring Georgia, Democrats say the new measures aren’t about election security at all. They charge it’s an effort to make it tougher for minorities to vote. Several groups immediately vowed to challenge the law in court.

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