COVID-19
Fact-checking Republican critiques of the Covid-relief package
Ahead of the Senate debate on the stimulus bill, Republican Senate leadership criticized the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package during a news conference Tuesday. Instead of focusing on the bill's economic provisions designed to revive the US economy, Republicans have attacked it for including funds for non-health care related spending and failing to push schools to reopen for in-person learning.
China sets growth target of 'above 6%' for 2021
Asia|: Beijing: China’s leaders set an economic growth target of “above 6 per cent” for 2021 on Friday, at the opening of the country’s annual legislative session. “A target of over 6 per cent will enable all of us to devote full energy to promoting reform, innovation, and high-quality development,” the Premier Li Keqiang will say, according to an advance copy of his speech. Officials avoided a specific target in 2020 for the first time in years, after the Covid-19 outbreak handed China its first economic contraction in decades. The freezing of the economy then raised some doubts about the Communist Party’s pledge of continued prosperity in return for unquestioned political power. Some analysts had believed that global uncertainty and distortions from the pandemic would lead China to holding off on a target for a second year. But with China containing the coronavirus domestically thanks to strict lockdowns and mass virus testing, the world’s second-largest economy is set for a strong comeback. “In setting this target, we have taken into account the recovery of economic activity,” Li said, according to the advance copy of his speech. The government usually sets economic growth targets that it regularly exceeds. Based on many analysts’ forecasts, China’s economy is expected to grow around 8 per cent to 9 per cent this year, said OCBC Bank’s head of Greater China research Tommy Xie. Apart from a growth target, China’s authorities are also looking to create over 11 million new urban jobs, and keep a surveyed urban unemployment rate of around 5.5 per cent, according to Li’s speech. China also set the budget deficit ratio at “around 3.2 per cent” — slightly lower than last year’s figure.
Burnett: Sen. Johnson is trying this as simplistic circus stunt
CNN's Erin Burnett says Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is not trying to improve the Covid-19 relief bill or change any senators minds by having the over 600 page bill read on the floor, but rather pulling a "simplistic circus stunt."
Abbott rejects Biden proposal for migrant testing at border, says it will create ‘magnet’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Thursday that he had rejected a Biden administration proposal for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to partner with Texas to test and potentially quarantine migrant adults and children surging across the border -- amid a controversy over the release of COVID-positive migrants into Texas.
Once-jailed Texas salon owner slams Abbott's reopening as 'too little, too late'
The Texas salon owner who was jailed last year for defying coronavirus lockdown orders criticized Gov. Greg Abbott’s recent decision to lift the state's mask mandate and capacity restrictions as "too little, too late."
Opinion: Democrats may look back on this bill with regret
The US Senate is expected to pass a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill in the coming days before it heads to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law. This may seem like a major win for the new administration and congressional Democrats, but it's actually a Pyrrhic victory -- one that they may come to regret in the weeks and months ahead.