Janet Yellen said: ‘As our economy continues to heal, it’s important to consider ways in which we can build back better.’ Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/EPA
Janet Yellen said: ‘As our economy continues to heal, it’s important to consider ways in which we can build back better.’ Photograph: Tasos Katopodis/EPA
That’s all from me today. Here’s a rundown of the day’s biggest stories:
The April jobs report showed the US economy added just 266,000 jobs last month. The report was met with much disappointment, given that economists had predicted the country would add nearly a million jobs.
Joe Biden acknowledged the US economy still has “a long way to go” after the disappointing jobs report. The president also argued the latest numbers demonstrated the need to pass his infrastructure bills, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. “Today’s report just underscores, in my view, how vital the actions we’re taking are,” Biden said, praising his coronavirus relief package. “We’re still digging out of an economic collapse that cost us 22 million jobs.”
Janet Yellen predicted the US will reach full employment sometime next year, despite the poor jobs numbers. “After all, one year ago, we learned we had lost over 20 million jobs in one single month,” the treasury secretary said at the White House press briefing. “I believe we will reach full employment next year.”
Four former police officers involved in George Floyd’s murder were indicted on federal charges. The officers – Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Kueng and Tou Thao – were charged with violating Floyd’s constitutional rights by allowing Chauvin to keep a knee on the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes. The news comes weeks after Chauvin was found guilty of murdering Floyd.
The Texas house approved a bill restricting voting rights, the latest in national, Republican-led push to limit access to the ballot.
Montana became the latest state to ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that correspond with their gender.
A California bar owner has been arrested on suspicion of selling counterfeit Covid-19 vaccination cards to undercover law enforcement agents, the Associated Press reports.
Undercover agents with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control had been investigating Todd Anderson, the owner of the Old Corner Saloon in Clements, California, a small town about 100 miles east of San Francisco.
“He was in possession of a number of other unfilled-out Covid-19 vaccination cards, a laminating machine, laminate and several other cards that were finished. And it appears that they were waiting to be given to people,” supervising agent Luke Blehm told Sacramento’s KTXL-TV. “That we know of, this is the only case that’s ever been done even nationwide possibly.”
Blehm was charged with three felonies, including identity theft and forging government documents, as well as misdemeanor falsifying medical records, according to the AP.
Emmanuel Macron hit out at “Anglo-Saxon” countries for failing to export vaccines as he arrived at an EU summit in Portugal, saying, “It is not really about intellectual property. Can you give intellectual property to laboratories that do not know how to produce and will not produce tomorrow? The main issue for solidarity is the distribution of doses. Today, the Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines. Today, 100% of the vaccines produced in the United States are for the American market.”
Angela Merkel has also criticized the US support for the patent waiver, saying on Thursday, ““The protection of intellectual property is a source of innovation and it must remain so in the future.”
The Trump administration “secretly obtained” phone records for three Washington Post journalists who covered the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, the Washington Post reports.
The Justice Department received records detailing who made calls, for how long and when for Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous for a period between 15 April 2017 and 31 July 2017, according to the report. The DOJ also obtained a court order allowing it to obtain “non content communication records” – ie records of who sent an email to whom and when – for the three reporters’ work email accounts, but did not actually acquire the records.
Such “metadata” could reveal a reporter’s confidential sources.
An article published by the three reporters on 21 July 2017 may explain why the DOJ was investigating them. Per the Post:
Those reporters wrote a story about classified U.S. intelligence intercepts indicating that in 2016, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) had discussed the Trump campaign with Sergey Kislyak, who was Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Justice Department officials would not say if that reporting was the reason for the search of journalists’ phone records. Sessions subsequently became President Donald Trump’s first attorney general and was at the Justice Department when the article appeared.
“We are deeply troubled by this use of government power to seek access to the communications of journalists,” said Cameron Barr, the Post’s acting executive editor. “The Department of Justice should immediately make clear its reasons for this intrusion into the activities of reporters doing their jobs, an activity protected under the First Amendment.”
A spokesman for the DOJ told the Post: “While rare, the Department follows the established procedures within its media guidelines policy when seeking legal process to obtain telephone toll records and non-content email records from media members as part of a criminal investigation into unauthorized disclosure of classified information. The targets of these investigations are not the news media recipients but rather those with access to the national defense information who provided it to the media and thus failed to protect it as lawfully required.”
Montana governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill Friday that bans transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that correspond with their gender, the Associated Press reported.
The bill is just one of more than 80 proposed laws introduced by Republican lawmakers this year to ban trans children from certain sports and limit their access to gender affirming healthcare.
Similar sports bans have been enacted in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia thus far, according to the AP.
In March, the Guardian published a series of reports on the Republican legislative assault on trans rights, including interviews with a number of children who are fighting to be able to play sports, use the bathroom at school, and receive appropriate medical care.
Texas Republicans passed their bill restricting voting rights on Friday afternoon, after cutting a deal with Democrats in backroom negotiations overnight.
“Nobody deserves to wake up and find out that their rights have been further restricted. But time and time again during this legislative session, that’s what Texans have experienced,” said Wesley Story, communications manager for Progress Texas, a rapid response media organization for progressive messaging.
The Texas house of representatives voted 78-64 to give Senate Bill 7 (SB7) final approval, setting up an opportunity for the Republican-controlled legislature to create a Frankenstein of voting restrictions behind closed doors.
“This is really one of the last straws of … this nonstop attack – on communities of color, on immigrant communities, on communities that just don’t have as much of a voice – to try to prevent them from speaking out,” said Gene Wu, a state representative.
“We’re just tired of our districts being told that they’re second-class citizens.”
Armed with more than 100 amendments, opponents of Senate Bill 7 tore into the legislation on Thursday evening. Their long-winded debate was intended “to drive home the point and to really emphasize that there is no reason for this legislation”, Wu said.
In response, the state house approved a series of amendments addressing some of SB7’s most controversial provisions. Those amendments, in part, target the bill’s severe criminal penalties, along with concerns over emboldening partisan poll watchers.
The legislation will now probably go to a conference committee, where both legislative chambers can reconcile differences in the versions they passed.
The White House released its first set of visitor logs on Friday, disclosing the names of 400 visitors during the first 12 days of Joe Biden’s presidency.
The release means that the Biden administration will be the first to disclose White House visitors for the entirety of its first year. Donald Trump refused to release any visitor logs, while Barack Obama only disclosed logs dating from 15 September 2009 – about eight months into his presidency.
“These logs give the public a look into the visitors entering and exiting the White House campus for appointments, tours, and official business — making good on President Biden’s commitment to restore integrity, transparency, and trust in government,” the White House said in a press release.
The disclosure of White House visitors is voluntary, and the administration will not release “select records that implicate privacy, national security, or other concerns”. This includes withholding the names of “purely personal guests of the First and Second Families” and “particularly sensitive meetings”, such as potential supreme court nominees.
The logs are unusually sparse due to the coronavirus pandemic. An analysis by Bloomberg News found that one in five of the 400 visitors were members of the groups that performed for the inauguration, the Marine Band and Herald Trumpets.
“As vaccinations increase and the pandemic response continues to make progress, we look forward to welcoming many more visitors onto the White House campus and back into the People’s House,” the White House said.
Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong picking up the blog from the San Francisco bay area, where we’re bracing for unusually early fire weather amid another climate crisis-fueled drought.
Suffice it to say that it's very unusual that NorCal has seen Red Flag Warnings straight through calendar this year. Vegetation is very rarely dry enough to trigger in spring, even with strong winds, but vegetation remains at/near record dry levels in many places. #CAwx#CAfirehttps://t.co/97rlEVhytM
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
The April jobs report showed the US economy added just 266,000 jobs last month. The report was met with much disappointment, given that economists had predicted the country would add nearly a million jobs.
Joe Biden acknowledged the US economy still has “a long way to go” after the disappointing jobs report. The president also argued the latest numbers demonstrated the need to pass his infrastructure bills, the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. “Today’s report just underscores, in my view, how vital the actions we’re taking are,” Biden said, praising his coronavirus relief package. “We’re still digging out of an economic collapse that cost us 22 million jobs.”
Janet Yellen predicted the US will reach full employment sometime next year, despite the poor jobs numbers. “After all, one year ago, we learned we had lost over 20 million jobs in one single month,” the treasury secretary said at the White House press briefing. “I believe we will reach full employment next year.”
Four former police officers involved in George Floyd’s murder were indicted on federal charges. The officers -- Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J Kueng and Tou Thao -- were charged with violating Floyd’s constitutional rights by allowing Chauvin to keep a knee on the Black man’s neck for more than nine minutes. The news comes weeks after Chauvin was found guilty of murdering Floyd.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have just met with the administration’s “jobs cabinet,” the group of senior officials working to advance the president’s infrastructure plan through Congress.
The president’s Twitter account shared a photo of the meeting, which comes as Republicans have vowed to oppose Biden’s infrastructure bills.
“My Jobs Cabinet and I are hard at work making sure the working people of this country — the middle class — are no longer left out in the cold,” Biden said. “We’re going to make sure they get to share in the benefits of a rising economy with the American Jobs Plan.
My Jobs Cabinet and I are hard at work making sure the working people of this country — the middle class — are no longer left out in the cold. We’re going to make sure they get to share in the benefits of a rising economy with the American Jobs Plan. pic.twitter.com/OCtwZ4fnWa
