Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
American Democracy
President Biden said in a speech in Atlanta Tuesday that “sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world’s greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self”.
He was referring to the U.S. Senate filibuster which allows the minority party to block legislation that fails to garner 60 votes. Biden wants to get rid of it in the case of voting rights legislation.
Since Democrats won the the 2020 election clearly defeating Republicans led by former President Trump, many Republican States have passed voting laws that would make it harder for minority voters to make their voices heard in elections.
And Biden railed against “forces that attempted a coup—a coup against the legally expressed will of the American people—by sowing doubt, inventing charges of fraud, and seeking to steal the 2020 election from the people.”
“They want chaos to reign,” he said. “We want the people to rule.”
Analysts however say Biden has little chance of driving through a suspension of the filibuster over voting laws, and the stage has been set for a Republican advantage in the next elections because the Voting Rights Act won’t pass.
However undemocratic, Republicans will be successful in restricting mail-in or absentee voting, blocking Election Day as a holiday, and in redrawing districts critics contend deny representation to minority voters.
Djokovic’ Immigration Form
The saga of tennis star Novak Djokovic seems to drag on in Australia even after hew was released from immigration detention, when a court ruled he has an exemption from Covid vaccines because he had caught Covid in December.
On an immigration form Djokovic did not disclose travels to other countries including Spain and Serbia before entering Australia, which he now blames on his agent who filled out the document.
He also admits to being interviewed by a French journalist one day after he tested positive for Covid in December.
Novak Djokovic's mother has said she is worried that her son could still be deported from Australia and miss the first open of the year on Jan 17, because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
Canada’s Quebec and Covid
Canada’s French speaking province Quebec, will impose a tax on the unvaccinated as Premier François Legault pointed to the makeup of intensive-care hospitalizations in Quebec as justification.
Unvaccinated Quebeckers make up just 10 per cent of the province’s adult population but comprise about half of those admitted to ICU with the disease, he said.
Legault: “It’s a question of equity,” “Right now, these people put a very important burden on our health care network. I think it’s normal that the majority of the population are asking that there be a consequence.”
Europe Covid
7 million new cases of Covid were recorded in Europe in the first week of January and it’s being described as a “huge tidal wave of cases”. The World Health Organization is warning half of Europe will become infected with Omicron in the next six to eight weeks.
Germany has reported more than 80,000 new daily Covid-19 infections, marking a new daily record.
A total of 80,430 coronavirus cases and 384 deaths were recorded for Tuesday.
Norway, also set a new daily record with 9,622 new infections registered in the last 24 hours, This is 3,000 cases more than the average of the previous seven days.
Russian officials say that country could hit one hundred thousand cases a day soon.
In Britain political consequences may be huge for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who will face questions today, about throwing a party in his official residence in May of 2020, while everyone else was in lock down.
At the time people couldn’t attend funerals or see dying family member in hospitals, and relatives couldn’t visit loved ones in nursing homes. Boris Johnson attended a now not so secret party with his wife at Number 10 Downing Street with at least 30 other people and Johnson may be forced to resign after being accused of lying to Parliament.
China Covid Outbreak
So far China has been successful in bringing in massive Covid lockdowns effecting millions to contain Covid outbreaks, but Omicrons rapid spread may pose a grave threat.
Authorities in China's northern port city of Tianjin and central province of Henan have further tightened Covid restrictions as the highly contagious Omicron spread amongst its 14 million residents. 97 people have caught the variant so far, and a second round of mass testing on millions will begin today.
Other News…
-North Korea says it carried out a test of a hypersonic missile on Tuesday that travels at five times the speed of sound and could threaten the U.S.
-After talks with the U.S., Russia will meet with NATO today, followed by further talks with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Thursday
-Researchers in Britain have excavated the fossilized remains of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile believed to have lived 180 million years ago.
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Dana
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-quebec-to-impose-tax-on-unvaccinated/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/01/11/russia-sounds-alarm-over-looming-omicron-surge-a76014
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59948920
https://www.france24.com/fr/asie-pacifique/20220111-la-cor%C3%A9e-du-nord-dit-avoir-test%C3%A9-un-missile-hypersonique-agence-officielle
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/11/us/politics/biden-filibuster-voting-rights.html