US President Biden warns US Covid-19 deaths will top 500,000 next month

US President Joe Biden warned the nation to prepare for its darkest days in the yearlong pandemic, predicting that as many as 100,000 more Americans will die over the next month as he overhauls the federal coronavirus response and presses Congress for more aid. More than 400,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States since the pandemic began.

 

But Biden’s plea for the nation to assume a “wartime” footing did not immediately sway a recalcitrant Congress, where Republican opposition to his $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan only hardened. Even some liberal Democrats made clear they would not rubber-stamp the new president’s approach. Highlighting the enormous stakes for his presidency, Biden unveiled the new administration’s 200-page blueprint for battling the pandemic on Thursday, his first full day in office.

 

He emphasised that scientists and doctors would lead the effort — a rebuke of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who sidelined many of the government’s medical experts and instead surrounded himself with advisers who encouraged his disregard for public health precautions.

 

Biden will mark his third day in office with executive actions to boost food assistance for impoverished Americans and use federal contracts as a step toward his proposed nationwide minimum-wage hike, seeking immediate help for an economy struggling to cope with Covid-19. The executive actions Biden signs on Day 3 also include a restoration of rights for federal workers that were stripped by his predecessor Trump.

 

While consequential for those affected, the measures offer a shadow of the relief included in Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 aid plan. That package faces challenges in Congress after moderate Republicans this week said they saw no need to rush on another big spending bill after last month’s $900 billion effort. Senator Susan Collins of Maine became the latest to express opposition to the idea of a big new package, while Senator Roy Blunt, a member of GOP leadership, called it a “non-starter.”

 

Impeachment Article to Senate on Monday

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to send the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, launching the start of the former president's trial on a charge of incitement of insurrection over the deadly Capitol riot.

 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the schedule Friday. “There will be a trial,” Schumer said.