Yahoo Finance First Thing: US domestic terror threat will be ongoing 'for weeks'
Good morning.
The Department of Homeland Security warned of a heightened domestic terror threat on Wednesday, issuing a national terrorism bulletin that described an ongoing threat of anti-government violence following the inauguration of Joe Biden. The bulletin suggested that insurrection at the Capitol earlier this month, which left five dead and senators cowering in the building, may inspire and encourage extremists to carry out further attacks. It warned the threat would persist for weeks.
An explosive report from Reuters on Wednesday revealed the leader of the Proud Boys was previously a law enforcement informer. Enrique Tarrio leads the far-right group, which encourages violence against the left and was involved in the Capitol attack, but officials confirmed that Tarrio himself had helped to prosecute more than a dozen people in cases from drugs to people-smuggling. The incidents appear to have happened before the creation of the Proud Boys, but shed new light on the leader of the group, which is under intense scrutiny from law enforcement.
Chinese robots helped spread disinformation after the US election, including a debunked video that claimed to show ballots being burned, which was shared by Eric Trump. The same network of bots shared anti-US propaganda including calls for violence ahead of the Capitol attack.
The congresswoman who supported executing Nancy Pelosi will not face action from Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, indicated her support for the killing of Democrats including Pelosi, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, said he simply “planned to have a conversation” with Greene. Survivors of the Parkland shooting are also calling for Republicans to censure Greene over her claims the attack was a “false flag” and that the victims were “crisis actors”.
Biden gets serious on the climate crisis
Joe Biden unveiled a series of executive orders to tackle the climate crisis on Wednesday, warning of the “existential threat” it posed to the world. The new president instructed the government to pause and review all fossil fuel activity on public lands, end fossil fuel subsidies, and turn the government’s extensive fleet of cars and trucks into electric vehicles. Biden also pledged to address the disproportionate impact of the climate crisis on people of color in the US.
We have already waited too long to deal with this climate crisis, we can’t wait any longer,” Biden said. “We see it with our own eyes, we feel it in our bones. It’s time to act.”
The measures cannot come soon enough: research shared on Wednesday found the planet is at its hottest for at least 12,000 years. Analysis of ocean surface temperature found climate change, driven by human activity, had put the world into “uncharted territory”.
The Doomsday Clock will not be pushed back as a result of Biden’s election, the panel behind the clock, a measure of the “world’s vulnerability to catastrophe”, said. While the group welcomed Biden’s election, they said the world remained dangerously close to climate change and nuclear disaster, and stands at “100 seconds to midnight”.
San Francisco will remove the names of Washington and Lincoln from its schools, after its school board voted to get rid of a number of politicians and historical figures they deemed unworthy of the honor, over their links to issues including slavery, oppression and racism. In total, 44 schools will be renamed.
It will be ‘months’ before everyone who wants the Covid vaccine gets it
Most Americans will have to wait “months” for a coronavirus vaccine, the White House coronavirus taskforce warned in its first public briefing under Biden. This week, the government has been hitting its target of 1m vaccinations a day, the taskforce said, and in total about 24m doses have been administered. In contrast to Trump’s appearances at the briefings, where he peddled “miracle cures” and promised the virus would “go away”, Biden did not feature at the event, enabling scientists to “speak independently”.
In California, the state government has come under fire for lifting its stay-at-home order, with health experts and frontline workers warning the move could worsen and prolong the coronavirus crisis. The state governor, Gavin Newsom, said he had based the decision on projections that intensive care unit capacity would rise above 15% in four weeks’ time. But a number of regions are still battling a steep rise in coronavirus cases, and healthcare systems are on the brink of collapse.
The WHO fact-finding team in Wuhan is beginning its investigation into the origins of coronavirus after leaving quarantine. It comes after the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the US had “great concern” over China’s “misinformation” about coronavirus, and wants an investigation into the origins of the virus.
People in LA are stalking spare coronavirus vaccine doses, turning up at the end of the day to injection centres and queueing in line for hours in the hope there will be spare doses of the Pfizer vaccine after authorities have finished vaccinating those on the official list for the day.
In other news …
Biden has vowed to back Japan to counter growing Chinese military activity in the volatile Asia-Pacific region, and committed to defend a group of islands administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing. This marks a shift from the approach taken by Trump, who publicly considered pulling US troops from Japan and South Korea.
The White House is “monitoring” the soaring share price of GameStop amid a surge in betting by small investors that was causing market volatility, said the press secretary, Jen Psaki. Finding this story a bit confusing? You’re not the only one. This piece explains what is going on.
Ghislaine Maxwell said she had no memory of anything amiss at Jeffrey Epstein’s properties despite accusations from dozens of women and girls of sexual abuse, court documents from 2016 show. She is accused of helping Epstein traffic women and girls for sex, to which she has pleaded not guilty.
Stat of the day: tuberculosis kills almost as many people each year as coronavirus has so far
There are plenty of jaw-dropping statistics in this long read, in which Rowan Hooper explores the relationship between resources and health to ask whether we could cure all disease with $1tn. He compares coronavirus with other devastating diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, and asks what we can learn from the eradication of polio.
Don’t miss this: how much is the ecosystem worth?
In the 1990s, a team of researchers priced the value of the ecosystem to humans at about $33tn – nearly double global GDP at the time. The question is likely to be on the agenda during environmental discussions at Davos this week, and again in UN discussions on an agreement on biodiversity later this year. Patrick Greenfield asks experts how much the ecosystem is worth in financial terms, from elephants to dead trees.
Last thing: a crochet doll of Bernie Sanders has sold for $20,000
When Bernie Sanders turned up to the inauguration in his warm coat and mittens, and sat cross-legged on a fold-up chair, he probably did not expect the moment to become a meme that would rock the internet. But he almost definitely did not expect the image to be made into a crochet doll that would sell for $20,300. Tobey King posted an image of the doll on social media before auctioning it on eBay, and said the money would be donated to Meals on Wheels America.
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