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Go, science! Go!: |
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© Giphy Via The Wall Street Journal’s Robbie Whelan, The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found only 5,800 COVID-19 infections among more than 66 million fully vaccinated Americans. https://on.wsj.com/3wYap48 I.e.: Only 0.008 percent of fully vaccinated people have gotten COVID-19. What to know about the cases among vaccinated individuals: “The CDC found that 29% of breakthrough infections were asymptomatic and 7% of patients experiencing a breakthrough infection were hospitalized. So far, 74 people have died after experiencing breakthrough infections. The agency is expected to publish some of these findings next week.” For context — from David Hirschwerk, an infectious-diseases physician who has treated at least one fully vaccinated COVID patient.: “The experience so far is that the vaccine remains highly effective and those who did have breakthrough infections have had very mild and manageable illnesses. This is really what we see each season with the influenza vaccine.” The full story: https://on.wsj.com/3wYap48 |
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Allow me to be The Good News Squad: |
| The first good news: Via CNBC’s Jeff Cox, as the $1,400 stimulus checks have been delivered, retail sales rose 9.8 percent in March (!), an even bigger gain than economists had expected. https://cnb.cx/3mMR2X0 The second good news: 576,000 Americans applied for unemployment insurance last week, showing a big decline from last week’s 769,000 and the biggest drop since the pandemic began. |
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| STOCK MARKETS LIKED THAT NEWS: |
| “The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up 200 points, or 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 jumped 29 points, or 0.7 percent in the opening minutes of trading, each surpassing recently set records.” https://bit.ly/2OWN6qc |
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| Happy Thursday — how are we already at the halfway mark of April?? I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@thehill.com — and follow along on Twitter @CateMartel and Facebook. Did someone forward this to you? Want your own copy? Sign up here to receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox daily: http://bit.ly/2kjMNnn |
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WATCH LIVE: The Hill's virtual Sustainability Imperative summit, Day 2 |
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Environmental sustainability is no longer optional; it's become an imperative. Join The Hill for a national multi-day virtual event including multiple tracks of programming featuring fireside chats with policy leaders and practitioners in the sustainability ecosystem including White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, former GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Gov. Jay Inslee, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, fashion designer Tracy Reese and many more. View the full schedule |
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| LATEST WITH GEORGE FLOYD’S DEATH | |
Derek Chauvin won’t testify: |
| Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin invoked his Fifth Amendment right this morning and will not testify in the trial of George Floyd’s death. https://bit.ly/3dkOQD1 Watch the 4 minute, 45 second exchange with Chauvin, his lawyer and the judge: https://bit.ly/3x1geOi |
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You get a sanction! And you get a sanction!: |
| Via The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant and Maggie Miller, “The Biden administration on Thursday announced sanctions against Russia for its involvement in a recent major cyber-espionage operation against the U.S., foreign influence operations around U.S. elections and other concerns.” https://bit.ly/3dlekQI Details: “As part of an executive order signed by President Biden, the administration through the Treasury Department will block U.S. financial institutions from purchasing bonds from Russia's Central Bank, National Wealth Fund or Ministry of Finance after June 14 and from lending funds to these institutions. The directive also leaves open the possibility for the administration to expand the sanctions on Russian sovereign debt.” Plus: “The Biden administration is expelling 10 personnel from the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington, some of whom U.S. officials say are representatives of Russian intelligence services.” More details on the sanctions: https://bit.ly/3dlekQI |
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| HOW BIDEN IS PUTTING 9/11 IN THE REAR VIEW: |
| Via The Hill’s Niall Stanage, “President Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan brings a final curtain down on the 9/11 era of foreign policy. That two-decade epoch was dominated by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.” https://bit.ly/32iXrzO |
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Just now from Pelosi — we will patiently wait: |
| Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she will not bring the bill to expand the Supreme Court to the House floor. https://bit.ly/3sjwjuP Instead: Pelosi says she will wait for President Biden’s commission to decide whether it is necessary.
In Pelosi’s words: “I don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad idea,” Pelosi said of expanding the court. “I think it’s an idea that should be considered and I think the president is taking the right approach to have a commission to study such a thing.”
Video of Pelosi’s full reasoning: https://bit.ly/3gbM9Wb |
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The talk of Capitol Hill: |
| Via The Hill’s Mike Lillis, “The barbed debate over racial justice is exploding this week on Capitol Hill, as Democrats in both chambers are charging ahead with a host of proposals to empower minorities amid the national clash over police bias, brutality and the future of law enforcement.” https://bit.ly/32hFCky In the House: “Two panels considered bills Wednesday to promote reparations for the descendants of slaves and to grant statehood to Washington, D.C., the nation’s historically Black capital city.” In the Senate: “Democrats advanced their efforts to seat President Biden’s pick to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division and to pass legislation combating the recent rash of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.” Plus, in the House and Senate: “And Democrats in both chambers are fighting to enact legislation to expand voting rights, with particular designs on empowering Black and other minority voters.” |
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| LATEST WITH THE CORONAVIRUS | |
Happening on Capitol Hill — Anthony Fauci should narrate children’s books after this pandemic: |
| Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and White House Chief Science Officer David Kessler testify on Capitol Hill to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch live: https://bit.ly/3gesll4 |
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Tidbit — the J&J hesitancy is rising: |
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© Twitter ^YouGov added a bit more information in response to an inquiry from FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver: The gist: Perceptions of Moderna and Pfizer have *not* dropped. “No statistically significant differences between pre- and post-announcement sentiment toward other vaccines, and the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are seen about the same as they were in our last poll in late Feb.” The full back and forth: https://bit.ly/32jQ0Ip |
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| CASE NUMBERS: |
| Coronavirus cases in the U.S.: 31,423,436 U.S. death toll: 564,387 Breakdown of the numbers: https://cnn.it/2UAgW3y |
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| VACCINATION NUMBERS: |
| Total number of vaccinations administered in the U.S.: 195 million shots have been given. Seven-day average of doses administered: An average of 3.35 million doses For context: The U.S. population is roughly 331 million. Breakdown of the numbers: https://bloom.bg/3iVTPLH |
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WATCH LIVE: The Hill's virtual Sustainability Imperative summit, Day 2 |
|
Environmental sustainability is no longer optional; it's become an imperative. Join The Hill for a national multi-day virtual event including multiple tracks of programming featuring fireside chats with policy leaders and practitioners in the sustainability ecosystem including White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, former GE CEO Jeff Immelt, Gov. Jay Inslee, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, fashion designer Tracy Reese and many more. View the full schedule |
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| THIS DESERVES ITS OWN SECTION | |
Started from the bottom, now we're here!: |
| NBC Washington’s Adam Tuss has been posting photos from his tour of the new concourse at Reagan National Airport. Here’s the full thread of photos: https://bit.ly/3mTIwW3 
© Twitter COOL — I’ll take one of these chairs to go, please: https://bit.ly/2QsjPno Oooh, check out the plugs between seats: https://bit.ly/3mPeK4G Outdoor photos: Via Fox 5’s Tom Fitzgerald: https://bit.ly/3mMXlKa I promise you won’t have ANY further questions about the bathroom after watching this video: Here’s a full narrated tour, via WTOP’s Neal Augenstein: https://bit.ly/3sfyFeo |
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| WHAT WE ALL WANT TO KNOW — WHEN DOES THE NEW TERMINAL OPEN: |
| On April 20, via WTOP News: https://bit.ly/3dlo8Kw |
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What a year it has been: |
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© Twitter The side-by-side comparisons: https://bit.ly/3uV8LhU |
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Tidbit from the White House: |
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© Twitter |
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| The House and Senate are in. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in Washington, D.C. 10:15 a.m. EDT: President Biden and Vice President Harris received the President’s Daily Brief. Noon: A roll call vote in the Senate. The Senate’s full agenda: https://bit.ly/3e6i5bD 12:30 p.m. EDT: President Biden has lunch with Vice President Harris. 2 p.m. EDT: President Biden and Vice President Harris meet with the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Executive Committee. 2:30 – 9 p.m. EDT: First and last votes in the House. The House’s full agenda today: https://bit.ly/2Q3jBmU |
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| 10 a.m. EDT: Day 14 of the Derek Chauvin trial. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3uVMOyS 12:30 p.m. EDT: White House press secretary Jen Psaki holds a press briefing. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3ae03Dk |
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| NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF...: | |
| Today is National Banana Day. 
© Giphy |
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| And because you made it this far, here’s a llama’s first kiss. Be cool about it, c’mon!: https://bit.ly/3mWAcoz |
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