Good morning.
Deb Haaland has made history by becoming the first Indigenous cabinet secretary in US, when she was confirmed as Joe Biden’s secretary of the interior. The Senate confirmed her by a 51-40 vote, Haaland having won over some Republican senators including Lindsey Graham and Lisa Murkowski.
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Who is Deb Haaland? A member of Laguna Pueblo, one of 574 sovereign tribal nations located across 35 states, the 60-year-old is a representative for New Mexico. She has previously told the Guardian that her priorities include climate change, tribal consultation and green economic recovery – and that she is willing to reach across the aisle to put those in motion.
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What will her role include? She will oversee 70,000 staffers who manage one fifth of all land in the US and 1.7bn acres (688m hectares) of coastline. Haaland will manage national parks, wildlife refuges and natural resources like gas, oil and water. She will also be responsible for overseeing tribal affairs.
Two Capitol rioters have been charged with a ‘bear spray’ assault on an officer who died
Two men have been charged with assaulting Brian Sicknick, a police officer who died after pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January. Julian Elie Khater, 32, from Pennsylvania, and George Pierre Tanios, 39, from West Virginia, were arrested by the FBI Sunday, and charged with spraying Sicknick with a “toxic spray”, thought to be designed to protect against bears. Sicknick died in hospital the next day. The cause of his death is still unknown.
Did the FBI make an incomplete background check on Brett Kavanaugh?
The FBI is again facing questions over the thoroughness of its background check on the supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, after a lawmaker suggested the investigation was “fake”. The FBI was called in during his confirmation process to investigate claims made by Dr Christine Blasey Ford that Kavanaugh sexually assault her, which he denies. At the time, some Democratic senators accused the agency of being incomplete.
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What are the criticisms of the check? Two key witnesses were never interviewed, Ford and Kavanaugh; some witnesses who wanted to testify allegedly were not accepted; and the FBI reportedly did not assign any individual to accept or gather evidence.
These questions resurfaced after Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democratic senator and former prosecutor serving on the judiciary committee, called on the newly confirmed attorney general, Merrick Garland, to help facilitate “proper oversight” into the process.
The situation in Myanmar is deteriorating
There have been increasing levels of violence in Myanmar since a military coup last month, with at least another 20 people killed during protests on Monday. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local group tracking fatalities, some of those killed were bystanders, and were not participating in the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, the economic situation is also deteriorating. The UN world food programme warned of a “very serious” economic crisis in Myanmar as food and fuel prices increase rapidly. In some townships, the price of rice has risen by 35%, while fuel has increased 15% nationally.
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Poverty was already a serious problem before the coup, with six out of 10 households were unable to afford a nutritious diet. The coronavirus pandemic only made this worse; by the second half of 2020, four out of five households reported losing almost 50% of their income.
In other news …
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Derek Chauvin’s attorney is trying to delay the George Floyd murder trial, arguing that news the city of Minneapolis had agreed a record $27m settlement for Floyd’s family could make a fair trial impossible. Chauvin, a white police officer, is charged with murdering Floyd last year.
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Gavin Newsom is preparing to fight off a recall election, launching a political committee to raise money to defend his seat on Monday and presenting an ad presenting the gubernatorial recall as a Republican attempt to grab power. Calling a recall election in California is reasonably easy, requiring signatures equivalent to 12% of voters in the last election. These petitions have been launched against every California governor for the last 61 years, but are rarely successful.
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Mitt Romney has called for a boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, not by withdrawing athletes but by implementing an “economic and diplomatic” boycott. According to the Utah senator, this would mean Americans would not travel there and the US would sent “dissidents religious leaders and ethnic minorities” in lieu of a delegation of diplomats.
Stat of the day: 100 people were arrested while on spring break in Miami
Miami Beach police used pepper spray to disperse spring break crowds this weekend, as people gathered on beaches despite coronavirus restrictions. In total, 100 people were arrested over the weekend, CNN reported, with the mayor saying the area had “a problem with too many people coming here to let loose”.
Don’t miss this: can Wall Street save the planet?
After decades of supporting polluters, and throwing their weight against legalisation to restrict them, Wall Street is supposedly greening up its act. Last year, a record number of corporations pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions. So why the new focus on the climate crisis, and will it make a difference? Dominic Rushe reports.
Last Thing: Nebraska and Colorado are in battle over beef
When Colorado encouraged people to avoid eating meat one day a week for environmental reasons, Nebraska was not impressed. Governor Pete Ricketts slammed the move, describing it as a “direct attack on our way of life”, and introducing its own counter, pro-meat day; “Meat on the Menu day”.
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