Join Hafta-Ichi to Research the article “Biden to address nation as Covid deaths rise sharply before Thanksgiving – live updates | US news”
10:23
Jessica Glenza
Millions of Americans are traveling and gathering for the Thanksgiving holiday, in spite of dire and urgent warnings from US doctors, nurses, health authorities and hospitals not to do so.
The travel raises the possibility of a “surge superimposed on a surge,” in the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and of a wave of deaths as Christmas arrives.
“There is so much community transmission all over the United States that the chances of you encountering somebody that has Covid-19 is actually very, very high, whether it’s on an airplane, at the airport or at a rest area,” said Dr Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist for New York City hospitals.
Nearly 12.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 258,000 have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. Doctors and nurses have reported severe burnout, and some healthcare facilities have seen emerging staff shortages. States such as North Dakota have recently led the world in the death rate from the disease.
In spite of this, several recent surveys show a meaningful minority of Americans have not changed Thanksgiving plans, and intend to go ahead with travel and gatherings.
A New York Times survey showed more than a quarter of Americans still planned to dine with people outside their household. An Axios-Ipsos poll found 39% of Americans had not changed their travel plans at all, while 61% have decided to limit gatherings to those only in their household, have small dinners and avoid travel.
Read more of Jessica Glenza’s report here: Millions of Americans to travel and gather for Thanksgiving despite expert warnings
10:16
This is the speculation, by the way, that Donald Trump is going to put in an unscheduled appearance in Pennsylvania today. Jeremy Diamond is a CNN White House correspondent.
Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1)
News: Trump is expected to join Giuliani in Gettysburg, PA tomorrow where GOP state lawmakers are holding a “hearing” on allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, two sources familiar with the plans tell me. Not on his schedule, but being planned as an unannounced movement
Pennsylvania Senate Republicans issued a media advisory about the meeting yesterday, saying:
At the request of Senator Doug Mastriano, the Senate Majority Policy Committee will hold a hearing to discuss recent issues regarding the 2020 General Election in Pennsylvania.
“Elections are a fundamental principle of our democracy – unfortunately, Pennsylvanians have lost faith in the electoral system. It is unacceptable,” said Mastriano. “Over the past few weeks, I have heard from thousands of Pennsylvanians regarding issues experienced at the polls, irregularities with the mail-in voting system and concerns whether their vote was counted. We need to correct these issues to restore faith in our republic.”
“We want assurance that the issues encountered during this past election don’t happen again in the future,” said Majority Policy Committee Chair Senator David G. Argall. “Senator Mastriano requested this meeting because Pennsylvanians deserve a fair election.”
They are billing it as “Senate committee to discuss election issues”, although it sounds like it is more of a press conference than any kind of hearing in the state legislature with official standing.
Pennsylvania certified the results of its election yesterday, formalizing Joe Biden’s victory over Trump. Biden secured 50% of the vote to Trump’s 48.8%, giving him a final victory tally of 80,555.
Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf)
Today @PAStateDept certified the results of the November 3 election in Pennsylvania for president and vice president of the United States.
As required by federal law, I’ve signed the Certificate of Ascertainment for the slate of electors for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
If you missed it, here’s the key moment from that Joe Biden interview last night, when he said his presidency would not be “a third Obama term”.
“We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” Biden said. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”
He went on to say that his administration aimed to represent the “spectrum of the American people as well as the spectrum of the Democratic party” Biden added, agreeing that he’d even consider appointing a Republican who voted for Trump.
“I want this country to be united,” Biden said.
Biden expressed his wish to pursue a “progressive” agenda. Asked if he’d consulted with progressive senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on cabinet appointments, the president-elect said “there’s nothing really off the table” when it comes to who he’ll tap to join his administration. But, he said, “taking someone out of the Senate, taking someone out of the House … is a really difficult decision that will have to be made”.
Joe Biden in his NBC interview last night
Here’s Maanvi Singh’s report on last night: Joe Biden says ‘this is not a third Obama term’ in first sit-down interview
10:06
Hi, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics for Wednesday. Last night Joe Biden gave his first sit-down TV interview since winning the election, and he also unveiled some of his key picks for his cabinet. Here’s a catch-up on where we are, and a little of what we can expect today…
Joe Biden said ‘this is not a third Obama term’ on NBC last night. “We face a totally different world than we faced in the Obama-Biden administration,” he said. “President Trump has changed the landscape.”
As president-elect Biden introduced his top team at an event yesterday, vice president-elect Kamala Harris said: “When Joe asked me to be his running mate, he told me about his commitment to making sure we selected a cabinet that looks like America – that reflects the very best of our nation. That is what we have done.”
Multiple reports suggest Donald Trump plans to pardon his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn before he leaves office. Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about his contact with the former Russian ambassador to the US.
Conservative news outlet OANN was suspended from YouTube after promoting a sham cure for Covid-19.
There were 172,935 new cases of coronavirus recorded yesterday, and 2,146 further deaths in the US. The country has recorded more than 100,000 cases per day every day for over a fortnight now, and yesterday’s deaths total was the highest daily figure since May.
All eyes are on how many people decide to travel today ahead of Thanksgiving, with the pandemic raging across the nation.
Republicans are going to be holding an event about voter fraud in Pennsylvania at the Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg today. At least we think it is the hotel, and not Wyndham Total Landscaping or something like that. There are rumors swirling around that Donald Trump might attend this in person with Rudy Giuliani. If so, it would be the first time the outgoing president had left the DC area since losing the election – but it isn’t on his public engagements diary yet.
We do know that Joe Biden will be giving a Thanksgiving address from Wilmington, Delaware.
Hafta Ichi
Source: The Guardian
Keyword: Biden to address nation as Covid deaths rise sharply before Thanksgiving – live updates | US news
.png?width=140&height=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=32ea9797a92d7f3aaeca5c2eadf8ffbf)