Month: May 2021

Voice of America confirmed Friday that incidents of plagiarism have taken place at the network and that an internal review has been launched into how complaints of wrongdoing are handled.The review was announced the day after The Washington Post reported that two former employees in VOA’s Africa division had raised complaints of plagiarism and editorial bias with supervisors and VOA’s standards editor that they said were not investigated in a timely manner.The complaints alleged that a freelance journalist plagiarized content and that, separately, a producer for the television show Our Voices plagiarized parts of some scripts.VOA has not named those involved in the complaints.In an email to staff Friday, acting VOA Director Yolanda Lopez said management “regrets recent incidents.””An internal review is underway to assess the handling of this matter and to ensure that any future incidents will be dealt with promptly and appropriately,” Lopez said, adding that VOA is committed to ensuring plagiarism does not occur and that any future allegations are “dealt with promptly and appropriately.”The email to staff included a revised copy of VOA’s policy on plagiarism.In the case involving the freelance reporter, two articles on the English language website were updated this week to include an editor’s note alerting readers that an earlier version contained material that VOA has determined was plagiarized.The complaints were raised by then-employees Jason Patinkin, a journalist in VOA’s English to Africa service, and Ayen Bior, a co-host of Our Voices who left VOA last year for a job at NPR.Patinkin said in a published interview that he resigned from VOA over the network’s handling of his unrelated complaints that the Horn of Africa service was showing pro-Ethiopian government bias in its coverage of the conflict in Tigray.The Horn of Africa service broadcasts to about 12 million people weekly in the Amharic, Afaan Oromoo and Tigrigna languages.Steven Springer, VOA’s editor for news standards and best practices, said that the network had taken action on the allegations of plagiarism, and that such cases are rare.”The fact that both of these incidents were put together in one place, yes, it seems like it’s an avalanche,” Springer said, adding that in almost 11 years in the position, he has “dealt with less than 10 possible cases.”The former VOA employees mentioned in the Post article both said there had been a delay in VOA management handling the situation or taking action.Springer said he makes his recommendations as quickly as possible after investigating allegations and reports back to the supervisors involved. But he can make only recommendations on the course of action.”In the case of the Our Voices program, I felt like I did that very expediently. I feel like I did that within a matter of days,” Springer said. “It was one that when I saw it … my reaction was, ‘OK, I know what this is.’ And I reported back.”His recommendation was that the scripts flagged did constitute plagiarism and that the supervisor should discuss the issue with those involved.But according to the Post, the content first flagged by Bior in February 2020 remained online until May 25.Springer confirmed that three episodes of Our Voices — from December 2018, and June and July 2019 — were removed from VOA’s website this week. A message appears in their place explaining the reason for their removal.The acting director’s statement Friday did not give specifics about the incidents but said the internal review will assess how they were handled.With the case of the freelancer, Springer said he had earlier recommended to the person overseeing the journalist’s work that the journalist not be used for radio reports because his “answers weren’t necessarily based on his own reporting. It was based on information he gleaned elsewhere.”After that, complaints were later raised about the freelancer’s plagiarized content appearing in web articles.A review of content the freelancer contributed to found two cases of plagiarized content. The freelancer is no longer used by VOA divisions.Kelly McBride, senior vice president and chair of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership at the Poynter Institute, said having transparent policies on dealing with allegations of plagiarism is good for journalists as well as their audience.”In most cases, plagiarism harms the journalists. It doesn’t harm the audience most of the time, assuming that the information is accurate and it also hasn’t been fabricated,” McBride said. “But in most cases, you can rectify the situation by adding in proper attribution and links to the original material. And it’s mostly embarrassing for the publication.””That solves most of the post-publication problems. I mean, you still have a problem with the individual” she said, adding that “some sort of discipline” is needed to send a message that plagiarism is wrong. 
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Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted Friday to block legislation that would create a panel to investigate the deadly January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers were meeting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory over Donald Trump. VOA’s Laurel Bowman has more.Producer: Bakhtiyar Zamanov.
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President Joe Biden is in the U.S. southern state of Virginia Friday, where he is delivering remarks about the progress the country has made in decreasing COVID-19 infections and increasing the vaccination rate.
“The future is going to be brighter,” President Biden told the crowd, citing a drastic drop in coronavirus infections.
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The nine people who were killed in a shooting at a California rail yard were remembered by their families, colleagues and friends as loving, kind-hearted and heroic.  
 
Paul Delacruz Megia enthusiastically embraced challenges in his job at the Valley Transportation Authority, his supervisor said. Taptejdeep Singh led people to safety during the shooting. Adrian Balleza was fun to work with, and Alex Fritch was the rock of his family.  
“He was stolen from us,” Megan Staker said of her boyfriend’s father, Abdolvahab Alaghmandan. “Our hearts are broken forever.”José Dejesus Hernandez III:
Jose Dejesus Hernandez III, 35, could fix anything, loved his hobbies and lived life with zest, according to his family.  
The Dublin, California, resident was a substation maintainer who had been partnered with Samuel Cassidy, the man who authorities say gunned down Hernandez and eight others, said his father, Jose Dejesus Hernandez II, a retired Valley Transportation Authority employee. He said he was not aware of issues Cassidy may have had with his son or others.
“He was somebody who was so fair. A very, very fair person and always leaning to the right side of things, always looking for the right thing to do,” said Hernandez, crying at times in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “He was a really good guy, a great kid, and now he’s gone.”
“I feel really sorry for all those families, because these things aren’t supposed to happen. I feel sorry for the family of even the person who did this thing,” he said.
Jesus Hernandez’s former wife, Sarah, said waiting to find out what happened Wednesday was torturous. She tried to channel her former husband’s logic and calm.
“I just tried to be very logical and think, ‘Thousands of people work there, there’s no way, let’s just wait to hear and not get worked up, I’m sure he’s fine, I’m sure he’s on scene and he can’t have his phone,’ ” Sarah Hernandez said.Taptejdeep Singh:
Taptejdeep Singh, 36, called another Valley Transportation Authority employee to warn him about Samuel Cassidy, saying he needed to get out or hide.
“He told me he was with Paul (Delacruz Megia), another victim, at the time,” coworker Sukhvir Singh, who is not related to him, said in a statement. “From what I’ve heard, he spent the last moments of his life making sure that others — in the building and elsewhere — would be able to stay safe.”
Singh’s co-workers also told his family that he left his office where people were hiding to warn others. He was shot when he ran into the gunman in a stairwell, his uncle Sukhwant Dhillon told local media outlets.
Karman Singh said his older brother had “a lion’s heart” and that he “died fighting for others, and trying to save his community, his VTA community.”
Annette Romo, wife of Timothy Romo, told the crowd: “I only have a few words to say: Never leave home without giving your loved one a kiss goodbye. Because that was the last I got.”
Bagga Singh said his cousin lived in Union City, California, and had a wife, two small children and many family members. He joined the VTA in 2014 as a bus operator trainee and later became a light-rail operator.
Singh said he has no idea why the gunman targeted his cousin.
Family members waited for hours at a Red Cross center Wednesday, hoping to learn Singh had survived. Eventually, someone from the sheriff’s department delivered the sad news.  
“It’s unbelievable,” Singh said.  Paul Delacruz Megia:
Paul Delacruz Megia, 42, always had a smile on his face, no matter what was thrown his way, a colleague at the transit agency told a news conference Thursday.  
Light rail superintendent Naunihal Singh said he shared an office with Megia, an assistant superintendent who started with the agency in 2002.  
“Even if he disagrees with you, he’ll take it with a smile,” Singh recalled. “Sometimes my demands could be unreasonable, but Paul always accepted it with a smile.”
Megia had two sons, a daughter and a stepson and had planned to leave Thursday for a family trip to Disneyland, his father Leonard Megia told The New York Times. He said his son left home at 4:30 a.m. to commute from his home near Tracy to work, but made sure to call his children every single morning to check in on them before they started school.
“He was a wonderful dad,” he said. “He’s my son and my best friend.”  Adrian Balleza:  
Adrian Balleza, 29, was kind-hearted and the type of colleague who tried to make work fun for his co-workers, a Valley Transportation Authority colleague told a news conference Thursday.  
Balleza joined the VTA in 2014 as a bus operator trainee and then became a maintenance worker and light-rail operator, said Glenn Hendricks, chair of the authority’s board.  
He is survived by his wife, Heather Balleza, and 2-year-old son.
“He was so happy to drive the bus. He was so happy that he got a new schedule. He started at four in the morning so he could come home and spend time with his family in the evening,” friend Beatrice Trotter told NBC-owned KNTV in San Jose.Alex Fritch:
Alex Fritch, 49, died at a hospital late Wednesday, surrounded by his children and parents, said his wife, Terra Fritch of San Jose.
“He was our rock, my safe place to fall. He was the love of my life,” Fritch told KTVU-TV.  
The couple got married after having known each other for just six months and had been together 20 years. They were supposed to travel to Hawaii next September to renew their vows, she said.
“He always tried to look on the bright side of things. He loved Mr. Rogers. He watched him all the time. He loved the documentaries. He loved movies,” she said.  
Fritch said she raced to the hospital after learning he had been shot. She said hospital staff moved him over in his bed so she could lie down with him.
“Alex was really fighting hard. He didn’t want to go anywhere, and I didn’t want him to go,” Fritch told the station.  Abdolvahab Laghmandan:
Abdolvahab Alaghmandan, 63, had been with the Valley Transportation Authority for 20 years and was dedicated to his job, his son Soheil Alaghmandan, 33, told the Mercury News in San Jose.
“He worked overtime. He worked through the entire pandemic,” Soheil said of his father. “He’s a tinkerer. He can fix anything.”
When Megan Staker moved to San Francisco from Des Moines in 2018 with her boyfriend Soheil, he took her home to meet his parents, Alaghmandan and Firoozeh Davallou, at their Castro Valley home, she told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Right away Abdi, as Alaghmandan was known, “became like a second father to me,” Staker told the Chronicle. “He brought so much joy and laughter to our lives.”Michael Joseph Rudometkin:
San Jose Supervisor Raul Peralez said he and his father were already planning another golfing outing with their longtime friend, Michael Joseph Rudometkin, 40.  
“Now that will never happen again,” Peralez posted on Facebook. “My family and I have lost a long time great friend and there are no words to describe the heartache we are feeling right now, especially for his family. Eight families are feeling this same sense of loss tonight and our entire community is mourning as well.”Lars Kepler Lane:
Lars Kepler Lane, 63, was her “soul mate” and the love of her life, said his wife, Vicki Lane.
Lane said her husband knew the shooter and described him as quiet.  
“Why he had to shoot him I don’t know,” she said in an interview with San Francisco’s KGO-TV. “This just doesn’t seem real.”  
Her world shattered Wednesday night when she learned her husband of 22 years was one of the victims. He leaves behind four children and a dog he doted on, she said.  
Lars Lane joined the Valley Transportation Authority in 2001 as an electro mechanic and then became an overhead line worker, said Glenn Hendricks, chair of the VTA’s board.Timothy Michael Romo:
Timothy Michael Romo, 49, was an overhead line worker at the Valley Transportation Authority for 20 years, said Glenn Hendricks, chair of the VTA’s board.
He grew up in the Central Coast town of Greenfield, California, where his father, Mike Romo, was the mayor and police chief, for many years.  
The father of three was remembered by his children as smart, funny and someone who could fix anything, from a personal problem to a busted truck.
“He was my hero, my idol, everything I’ve ever wanted to be as a man and he led by example,” said his son, Scott. “He was my Superman.”
His wife, Annette, told the evening crowd: “I only have a few words to say: Never leave home without giving your loved one a kiss goodbye. Because that was the last I got.”
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Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to block legislation calling for the creation of a panel to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol aimed at preventing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Donald Trump.A vote on the measure had been expected Thursday but was delayed by lengthy consideration of another bill.Trump implored thousands of supporters who had come to Washington for a protest rally “to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat shortly before the riot that left five people dead, including a federal police officer.Republicans are expected to use a procedural tactic known as a filibuster to block the bill, which would launch a bipartisan investigation into the insurrection. If Republicans get their way, it would be the first successful use of a filibuster in the Biden presidency to stop Senate legislative action.The filibuster requires a super majority of senators, meaning 60 of the upper chamber’s 100 members must support a measure for it to pass.Because the 100-member Senate is equally divided, Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote in favor of the bill.That is unlikely because many Republican senators remain loyal to Trump and are expected to follow Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.McConnell, who once said Trump was responsible for “provoking” the riot, has more recently dismissed the legislation as nothing more than a “political exercise” since Senate committees are already investigating security shortcomings.The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which has 435 voting members, previously passed the legislation with some Republican support.
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President Joe Biden on Thursday warned naysayers in Congress not to “get in the way” of his big infrastructure plans as the White House panned a counteroffer from Republican senators to tap unused COVID-19 relief for a more modest investment in roads, highways and other traditional public works projects.After touring a manufacturing technology center at a community college in Cleveland, Biden held up a card with the names of Republican lawmakers who had rejected his coronavirus aid bill in Washington but later promoted its assistance when they were back home in front of voters. He warned them not to play similar games as he pushes this next legislative priority in Congress.”I’m not going to embarrass anyone, but I have here a list,” he said. “If you’re going to take credit for what we’ve done,” he continued, “don’t get in the way of what we need to do.”The political arguments over Biden’s ambitious proposals are quickly distilling into a debate over the size and scope of what all sides agree are sorely needed upgrades to the nation’s aging and outmoded infrastructure.Republican counterofferAs the president reaches for a soaring legislative achievement with his $1.7 trillion American Jobs Plan and a separate $1.8 trillion American Families Plan, he is assessing whether he can cut a bipartisan deal with Republicans or will have to push through his proposals with only Democratic votes.Republican senators outlined a $928 billion infrastructure proposal Thursday as a counteroffer to Biden, drawing a fresh red line against his plans raise the corporate tax, from 21% to 28%, to pay for new spending. Instead, the Republicans want to shift unspent COVID-19 relief dollars to help cover the costs, a nonstarter for many Democrats.The Republican senators said their offer, raised from an initial $568 billion, delivers on “core infrastructure investments” that Biden has focused on as areas of potential agreement. With about $250 billion in new spending, the GOP plan remains far from the president’s approach. Biden reduced his $2.3 trillion opening bid to $1.7 trillion in earlier negotiations.”It’s a serious effort to try to reach a bipartisan agreement,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the lead Republican negotiator.As Biden left for Ohio, he said he called Capito to thank her for the proposal, but told her, “We have to finish this really soon.”‘Not looking to punish anyone’Biden toured Cuyahoga Community College, the same school where he was to hold a campaign rally in March 2020 only to have it be the first one canceled due to the pandemic. He cast his return as a symbol of how far the nation has come back, and he tried to make the case that passing his jobs and families plans would further the economy’s recovery and prepare it for the decades ahead.The president said he was “not looking to punish anyone” with his tax plans. But said it was time for America’s wealthy and corporations to help invest in the nation’s future.”Do you want to give the wealthiest people in America another tax cut? I don’t begrudge them the money they make. Just start paying your fair share just a little bit,” Biden said.Talks are at a crossroads before a Memorial Day deadline to make progress toward a bipartisan deal. With slim majorities in the House and Senate, the Democratic president faces other hurdles if he decides to abandon talks with Republicans and tries to unite fractious Democrats.The Republican offer would increase spending by $91 billion on roads and bridges, $48 billion on water resources and $25 billion on airports, according to a one-page summary released by the GOP negotiators. It would provide for one-time increases in broadband investments, at $65 billion, and $22 billion on rail.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said on CNBC that it was time for the administration to “sober up and realize they don’t have a massive mandate in Congress to do all of the things they’re trying to do.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden and Capito are expected to meet next week, while Congress is on a break.The White House is also “continuing to explore other proposals that we hope will emerge” she said. A bipartisan group of lawmakers that includes Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is also preparing an alternative plan.Psaki made clear the administration’s concern over tapping pandemic funds. “We are worried that major cuts in COVID relief funds could imperil pending aid to small businesses, restaurants and rural hospitals using this money to get back on their feet after the crush of the pandemic,” Psaki said in a statement.Defining infrastructureCore differences remain between the White House and GOP negotiators over the definition of infrastructure: Republicans stick to traditional investments in roads, bridges, ports and water drinking systems, while Biden takes a more expansive view.Under Biden’s initial proposal, there is more than $300 billion for substantial upgrades to public schools, Veterans Administration hospitals and affordable housing, along with $25 billion for new and renovated child care centers.Biden’s proposal would spend heavily on efforts to confront climate change, with $174 billion to spur the electric vehicle market, in part by developing charging stations, and $50 billion so communities can better deal with floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters.One area of agreement is on boosting broadband, but the sides are apart on details. Republicans raised their initial offer to $65 billion in an earlier exchange; Biden is seeking $100 billion.
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Twelve companies and groups including Microsoft, Mastercard and Nestle’s Nespresso said Thursday that they would commit to making investments in Central America, a win for Vice President Kamala Harris as she aims to lower migration from the region into the United States. President Joe Biden has tasked Harris with leading U.S. efforts with Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Since then, Harris has taken a series of steps aimed at improving conditions and lowering migration from the region. Harris, who met with officials from these companies and groups Thursday, said economic opportunities in the region could be boosted via partnerships with the private sector. “In order for us as an administration, the United States government, to maximize the potential of our work, it has to be through collaboration, through public-private partnerships,” Harris told reporters at the start of the meeting. The meeting was attended by top executives from yogurt maker Chobani, food giant Nestle’s Nespresso unit, financial companies Bancolombia and Davivienda, as well as language-learning website Duolingo. Commitments by the companies include Microsoft’s agreeing to expand internet access to as many as 3 million people in the region by July 2022 and Nespresso’s plans to begin buying some of its coffee from El Salvador and Honduras with a minimum regional investment of $150 million by 2025, a White House official said. Chobani has agreed to bring its incubator program for local entrepreneurs to Guatemala, while Mastercard will aim to bring 5 million people in the region who currently lack banking services into the financial system and give 1 million micro and small businesses access to electronic banking, the official said. Areas of focusThe U.S. vice president’s push to spur regional economic growth will focus on six areas. These include expanding affordable internet access, combating food shortages by boosting farm productivity, and backing regional efforts to fight climate change and make a transition to clean energy. The plan will also aim to expand job training programs and improve public health access. In April, Harris unveiled an additional $310 million in U.S. aid to Central America. She is expected to visit Guatemala and Mexico on June 7-8, her first overseas trip as vice president. U.S. officials see corruption as a major contributor to a migrant exodus from the region, along with gang violence and natural disasters, issues that represent hurdles for companies investing in the region.Anti-corruption strategySome Central American leaders recently pushed back on the Biden administration’s anti-corruption strategy, which included releasing a list labeling 17 regional politicians as corrupt. On his trip next week to Costa Rica, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to use meetings with his Central American and Mexican counterparts gathered there to address corruption, governance and rule-of-law issues, said Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs. “These are some of the issues that are the drivers of why people leave their homes in the first place,” Chung told reporters in a briefing ahead of Blinken’s June 1-2 trip. “They don’t have confidence in their governments.”  
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will ask Congress for the authority to spend nearly $6 trillion in 2022, which would give him the resources to begin implementing an ambitious agenda of infrastructure investment and expanded social programs. However, the blueprint would also increase federal spending to a nearly unprecedented share of the U.S. economy and drive the national debt to new highs. The budget request will forecast continued increases in federal spending over the next decade, eventually rising to $8.2 trillion in 2031, according to The New York Times. Much of that increase reflects the $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan and $1.8 billion education and families plan the president wants to begin rolling out, though neither has yet passed Congress. Much of the new spending would be paid for with proposed tax increases on the wealthy and on corporations. However, the administration projects that the federal government will still run deficits of more than $1.3 trillion per year over the coming decade before the budget begins to trend back toward balance. FILE – A concrete pump frames the Capitol Dome during renovations and repairs to Lower Senate Park on Capitol Hill, May 18, 2021. President Joe Biden hopes to pass a massive national infrastructure plan.The budget is an important statement of the president’s policy goals and ambitions, but it’s up to Congress to determine how much will actually be spent in the coming year and how that government spending will be financed. Democrats currently hold slender majorities in the House and Senate, but Republicans will have an important say on spending and tax decisions in the coming months. In remarks delivered Thursday in Cleveland, Biden made the case for what he describes as an investment in the country’s future. “Now is the time to build [on] the foundation that we’ve laid to make bold investments in our families and our communities and our nation,” he said. “We know from history that these kinds of investments raise both the floor and the ceiling over the economy for everybody.” No big surprises The budget request is not expected to contain many surprises when the full details are released Friday. In April, the administration released a detailed description of its plan for fiscal 2022 discretionary spending — that is, funds the government is not obligated to spend under existing law as it must for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare. The budget will reflect a sharp divergence from the priorities of former President Donald Trump’s administration, which sought major cuts in many government agencies shortly after Trump took office. For example, the Department of Education budget would grow by 41% under Biden’s plan, the Commerce Department would get a 28% increase, the Department of Health and Human Services would get a 24% increase, and the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget would jump by 21%. Next year’s budget beginning October 1 will be free of spending caps, in place since 2013, which had kept discretionary defense spending and discretionary nondefense spending growing at approximately the same rate. The administration is expected to propose a 16% increase in nondefense outlays to $769 billion next year, but only 1.7% more in defense spending, bringing the Pentagon’s annual budget to $753 billion. Some priorities omitted There are a number of items on Biden’s broader agenda that are conspicuously absent from the proposal, including a pledge to forgive up to $10,000 per person in federal student loans.  Also left out are funds for a “public option” health insurance plan that would allow Americans to buy into Medicare coverage, and measures to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. However, in presenting the budget, Biden is expected to encourage Congress to authorize such a program. Critics note that those programs would entail further government spending that would have to be paid for by tax increases, more deficit spending or reduced spending elsewhere. Approaching WWII spending levels The extraordinary efforts by the government to blunt the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 temporarily drove government spending as a percentage of economic output to the highest level since World War II. FILE – A woman walks past the signs of an employment agency, in Manchester, N.H., March 2, 2021.While the Biden budget will gradually reduce government spending as a share of the economy from the current highs, it still anticipates spending well above average levels for the past 70 years.  The budget plan relies on economic growth forecasts that see the U.S. economy growing at a rapid pace in the near term as it recovers from the pandemic, but then reverting to a growth rate of less than 2%. Biden’s plan would have the government spending nearly 25% of GDP on average over the next decade. Soaring national debt The total federal debt held by the public was already in excess of 100% of GDP when the pandemic struck, and the combination of lower output and even more borrowing drove it higher. However, even when the economy has recovered, the Biden budget forecasts a decade in which the debt stays well above the size of the GDP, cresting at an estimated 117% in 2031. “That’s a big debt number,” said Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Prior to the Great Recession, debt was 40% of GDP. Prior to the pandemic, it was 80%. This year, it started the year at 100%, and 106% is our World War II record — 117% just blows past that. That’s a lot more borrowing.” He pointed out that in addition to ignoring some of the administration’s other stated goals, such as student loan forgiveness and unemployment insurance reform, those numbers also assume no more crises that require government spending, such as another pandemic, a recession or military conflict, potentially leaving the country without the fiscal space to respond. “I don’t think that their plans are going to do enough to reduce our long-term structural debt, which is really going to require getting the costs of health and retirement programs under control and or fully financed,” Goldwein said. 
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The United States will share the results of a new deep-dive by its top intelligence agencies into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed millions of people across the globe. Before boarding Air Force One on Thursday for a visit to Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he would make the findings of the 90-day review public, “unless there’s something I’m unaware of.” Biden ordered the fresh review Wednesday amid growing speculation that COVID-19 might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory, with the White House promising to make additional resources available, including from the country’s national labs. President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Cleveland, May 27, 2021, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md.Top U.S. intelligence agencies said last year that their information supported “the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified” but that they would “continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence” to determine whether the outbreak began after the virus was transmitted to humans from animals in nature or as the result of a laboratory accident. FIE – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon, May 6, 2021.”Once this virus started appearing, there seems to have been a fair amount of activity or cover-up or lack of transparency, probably the best way to put it, and all of that is disturbing,” said General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  ”I think that the president is exactly right, we need to get to the bottom of it.”  The Wall Street Journal on Monday cited a U.S. intelligence report that researchers at a Wuhan, China, lab fell ill in November 2019, a month before the Chinese government reported to the World Health Organization the first cases of the illness that would be designated as COVID-19.   “It is most likely that this is a virus that arose naturally, but we cannot exclude the possibility of some kind of a lab accident,” Dr. Francis Collins, the National Institutes of Health director, told Senate lawmakers at a hearing on Wednesday.   The WHO, which is to conduct the second phase of an inquiry into the virus’s origins, has faced mounting criticism for dismissing the possibility that the new coronavirus escaped from the Chinese scientific facility, a supposition that officials in Beijing have repeatedly rejected.  Two months ago, the organization concluded in a report that it was ”extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 had escaped from the Wuhan lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology.   Collins told senators that the report ”satisfied nobody” and ”this time we need a really expert-driven, no-holds-barred collection of information, which is how we’re mostly really going to find out what happened.”  White House Bureau Chief Steve Herman contributed to this report.
 
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Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected Thursday to block legislation calling for the creation of a panel to investigate the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol aimed at preventing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory over Donald Trump.Trump implored thousands of supporters who had come to Washington for a protest rally “to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat shortly before the riot that left five people dead, including a federal police officer.Republicans are expected to use a procedural tactic known as a filibuster to block the bill which would launch a bipartisan investigation into the insurrection. If Republicans get their way, it would be the first successful use of a filibuster in the Biden presidency to stop Senate legislative action.The filibuster requires a super majority of senators, meaning 60 of the upper chamber’s 100 members must support blocking the measure. Because the 100-member Senate is equally divided, Democrats would need 10 Republicans to vote in favor of the bill.That is unlikely because many Republican senators remain loyal to Trump and are expected to follow Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell, who once said Trump was responsible for “provoking” the riot, has more recently dismissed the legislation as nothing more than a “political exercise” since Senate committees are already investigating security shortcomings.The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, which has 435 voting members, previously passed the legislation with some Republican support.
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New claims for jobless benefits in the United States dropped for the fourth straight week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as the world’s biggest economy continues its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.  A total of 406,000 out-of-work employees filed for unemployment compensation, down 38,000 from the revised figure of the week before, the agency said. The figure was the lowest total since mid-March 2020 when the pandemic first swept into the country, although still nearly twice the pre-coronavirus weekly average of 218,000 in 2019. More than half of U.S. adults have now been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, boosting the economic recovery, although the pace of inoculations has dropped from its peak a few weeks ago. The continuing drop in the number of jobless benefit claims could presage more hiring, but U.S. employers only added 266,000 more jobs in April, down from the robust 916,000 figure in March. Nearly 10 million people remain officially unemployed in the U.S. With the steady recovery, many employers are reporting a shortage of workers, particularly for low-wage jobs such as restaurant servers and retail clerks. Many businesses complain they are unable to find enough applicants for the job openings, even though the jobless rate remains at 6.1%, much higher than the 3.5% rate in March of last year before the pandemic was declared.  The federal government approved sending $300-a-week supplemental unemployment benefits to jobless workers through early September on top of less generous state-by-state payments. But at least 21 of the 50 states, all led by Republican governors, are now ending participation in the federal payments sooner, contending that the stipends let workers make more money than they would by returning to work and thus are hurting the recovery by not filling available job openings. The employment picture in the U.S. has been boosted as money from President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package filters through the economy. The measure could add to hiring and consumer spending, as millions of Americans, all but the highest wage earners, are now receiving $1,400 stimulus checks from the government or have already been sent the extra cash.  FILE – President Joe Biden speaks about infrastructure spending at Carpenters Pittsburgh Training Center, March 31, 2021, in Pittsburgh.Biden will propose an additional $6 trillion in government spending on infrastructure repairs and assistance for children and families on Friday, according to The New York Times, but the fate of the proposal in a politically divided Congress is uncertain. Numerous Republican lawmakers have voiced opposition to the size of the Democratic president’s spending plans and his proposals to pay for them with higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans.    
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After so many years — and episode re-watches — could there BE anything left to learn about “Friends”?As the highly-anticipated, almost two-hour reunion special for HBO Max shows (and with apologies to Matthew Perry for continuing to borrow his lines), “Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.”One thing that we didn’t need to learn (because we already knew it) was just how truly there these six characters were for the audience.In the 1990s and early-aughts, the cast of “Friends” provided hours of joy — first just on Thursday nights when new episodes aired, but soon enough five nights a week in syndication. Within the past decade, diehard and casual fans alike could spend any time of any day with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Perry and David Schwimmer, as the show became available on streaming services. This sextet has helped their audience get through so much, now including the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did “Friends” see a spike in viewership in the earliest lockdown days according to Nielsen, but also, just before the world fully reopens, they gathered together to shoot “Friends: The Reunion.””It was life-changing, not only for us but for whoever watched it, and that’s just such a great feeling,” Cox said of her experience on “Friends.”Within the special, they reminisced over their time working together while walking around recreated versions of Joey and Chandler’s apartment, Monica and Rachel’s (turned Monica and Chandler’s) apartment and the Central Perk coffeehouse, as well as while sitting down on the ironic orange couch for an outdoors interview with “The Late Late Show’s” James Corden.They performed scene readings from “The One Where Ross Finds Out,” “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” and the Season 4 premiere, “The One With The Jellyfish.” They also took part in a trivia game, designed and shot identically to the one in “The One With The Embryos.”In doing all of these things, they revealed behind-the-scenes tidbits and showed off special relationship dynamics that expanded even the biggest fan’s knowledge of their favorite show. The one thing they did NOT do was dance in a fountain.Here are 18 things learned from “Friends: The Reunion.”The one where Ross and Rachel were on a break!
Corden asked the six stars to reveal whose side of that infamous argument they fell on, and they all agreed that Ross and Rachel were on a break when he slept with Chloe (Angela Featherstone). Admittedly, they all had different levels of enthusiasm about that belief, but the authorities have spoken, so debate no more!The one with the crush
Borrowing a question that Janice (Maggie Wheeler) once posed to the six characters, Corden asked the six actors who became romantically involved with each other while filming. “The first season I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer admitted. “It was reciprocal,” she shared. But, he went on, “It was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship and we never crossed that boundary. We respected that.” LeBlanc piped up with a fake cough and a “Bullshit,” which sent the audience into wild applause. But he was joking, and Aniston clarified that she once told Schwimmer, “It’s going to be such a bummer if the first time you and I kiss is on national television.” But, “sure enough, the first time we kissed was in that coffee shop. So we just channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel.”The one where Ross and Rachel almost didn’t end up together
“Friends” co-creator David Crane, who was sitting in the COVID-safe audience during Corden’s interview and gave in an off-site interview for the special, shared that in working on the final season, the writers’ room did consider more ambivalent endings about the status of Ross and Rachel. But ultimately love won out definitively because, “People have been waiting 10 years to see this couple get together, we’ve got to give them what they want, we just have to find a way to do it so the journey is unexpected.”The one without a movie
For anyone holding out hope that the experience these actors had coming together for only the second time since “Friends” wrapped in 2004 would spark interest in more, we’re sorry to burst your bubble, but that is not going to happen. “That’s all up to Marta and David,” Kudrow said. “I once heard them say, and I completely agree, that they ended the show very nicely, everyone’s lives are very nice, and they would have to unravel all of those good things in order for there to be stories. And I don’t want anyone’s lives to be unraveled.” Kudrow also added, “At my age, saying like, ‘Floopy’ — stop. You have to grow up.” Aniston took things farther and said they probably wouldn’t even do another reunion like this.The one with where they are now
Kudrow may have crushed many people’s dreams about actually seeing where the characters would be at this place in time, but she said she imagines Phoebe is still married to Mike (Paul Rudd), with kids, living in Connecticut. “I think she was probably the advocate for her kids…and all of the other kids who were a little different, creating the arts program,” she said. Aniston said Ross and Rachel got married and had some kids, and Ross still “played with bones.” Cox said she believed that because Monica is so competitive, she would still be “in charge of the bake sale in elementary school,” even though her and Chandler’s kids would be out of school by now. “She’s just got to keep things going, PTA. And you are still making me laugh every day,” she said to Perry. “Just wanted to make sure I factored in somewhere,” he replied. And Joey? “I think he probably opened a sandwich shop on Venice Beach,” LeBlanc said.The one where the audience inspired Monica and Chandler’s relationship
The audience reaction was so loud — and long — at the reveal that Chandler and Monica slept together in “The One With Ross’ Wedding Part 2,” it made the writers re-think plans for that storyline. Originally, Crane said, it was going to be a “brief thing where we had fun with it afterward, ‘What did we do?'” Since that episode was the fourth season finale, the writers and producers had time to reflect on the reaction, and ultimately expanded it from being “just one night in London,” as Crane said it was originally meant to be. This opened up a wealth of stories, from dating in secret, to having multiple characters find out about the relationship at different times, to eventually getting engaged, married and adopting twins.The one with the grudge against MarcelWhen asked what part of the show the cast members did not enjoy, poor Marcel came to mind immediately. Cox clarified that this was because “the monkey scared me,” but Schwimmer had some serious complaints. “The monkey didn’t do its job right,” he said. Marcel (real name: Katie) was a trained working capuchin, of course, but Schwimmer noted there would be choreographed bits the human actors worked out that didn’t perfectly align with the monkey’s own timing to hit his mark, “so we’d have to reset, we’d have to go again, because the monkey didn’t get it right. This kept happening over and over.” But he didn’t stop there: Schwimmer also remembered how Marcel would be fed live grubs while sitting on his shoulder. “I’d have monkey grubby hands all over. It was just time for Marcel to [expletive] off.” (The irony is that the producers shared a story about how Schwimmer had such a bad time doing a previous TV show he had quit this side of the biz to only focus on theater and in order to get him to agree to do “Friends,” they had to swear up and down it would be different. And it was different, but not always better for him, judging by his still-palpable anger about the monkey all these decades later.)The one with missing set pieces
As detail-oriented as the production design team and art department were in rebuilding the sets for this special reunion, they could not replace every item exactly. Cox pointed out that the cookie jar in Monica’s kitchen was different because the “original cookie jar is at Lisa Kudrow’s house.” Additionally, Aniston shared she took a mug from the original set and LeBlanc took the foosball from that iconic table. While those items are small enough that the casual viewer would never know, “Friends” fans have been re-watching the old episodes for years in anticipation of a reunion like this and certainly would have freeze-framed moments in the kitchen to call out that cookie jar, if nothing else, had Cox not said something.The one with the beam
The beam should have been the seventh billed in the “Friends” reunion, as almost every cast member called it out when stepping onto the set of Monica’s apartment. In early episodes (and others that James Burrows directed), there was a wooden archway that separated the kitchen and living room sets on that part of the soundstage. It provided a convenient piece of story in Season 3’s “The One with the Giant Poking Device” when Monica banged her nephew’s head into it, but it limited camera angles and interfered with lighting, so it was usually absent, wreaking havoc with continuity and raising questions about just how much work a renter could do on a New York City apartment. It was restored in all of its nostalgic glory for the reunion special, truly bringing the experience full-circle.The one with Courteney Cox’s cheat sheets
As LeBlanc walked through Monica’s meticulously-recreated kitchen during the special, he paused at the table and pondered aloud whether Cox’s line would still be written on it. Although he sounded like he was kidding at first, he revealed to Aniston, Kudrow and Schwimmer that he caught her doing it once and asked her what it was. “Mind your business,” he recalls her telling him. While he didn’t name what episode this happened during, it would not be a surprise if she did it often. The writers used to rework jokes during the live tapings so much that the show became notorious for its tapings running extremely late. Their bar for quality was so high, they would finesse as much as they could based on the live audience’s reaction on Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. lot, which required the cast members to be quick on their feet to absorb the new material immediately. Cox ended up joining the group as they were reminiscing over her keeping scripts in the sink and she added, “I had so much of my dialog within these apples,” while messing with the bowl on the table.The one where they gambled on Jennifer Aniston
Don’t let Rachel herself know, but Crane referred to the character as “incredibly selfish, self-involved, spoiled.” He noted that, “In the wrong hands, you don’t like Rachel.” This is partially why she was the last character cast. When they found Aniston, they felt she was perfect but she was already committed to a show called “Muddling Through.” They hired her anyway and shot the pilot, as well as a few subsequent episodes, figuring they’d see what show won later. “If CBS would have picked [‘Muddling Through’] up,” Crane recalled, “we would have had to reshoot the first three episodes of ‘Friends.'” Aniston added that she loved “Friends” so much she actually went to her other producers and asked to be released from it. The response? “That show’s not going to make you a star,” she remembered being told.The one with Janice’s laugh
Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler’s on-again-off-again girlfriend Janice, shared that she created Janice’s iconic laugh (second only to her delivery of, “Oh my god”) because she was acting opposite Perry, who was so funny she knew she would end up laughing in the scene and potentially ruining the take. So she worked a unique laugh into the scene as Janice’s response to Chandler, and the rest is history.The one with Matthew Perry’s confession
Perry revealed to his former cast mates that he often “felt like I was going to die if [the audience] didn’t laugh” at his jokes on tape night. “It’s not healthy, for sure, but I would sometimes say a line and they wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and just go into convulsions. … I would freak out.” It was something he kept to himself while working on the show, but he said he felt like that “every single night.”The one with technology
Schwimmer, who directed 10 episodes of “Friends” (and two of its spinoff “Joey!”) marveled at the sitcom cameras on the stage today, compared to what they used on “Friends.” These, he noted, could be operated by one person, but back then, each one required three. “It was a huge crew,” he said. ” four cameras, the choreography was incredible.”The one with memory lapses
Much fun was to be had with the fading memories of cast members — but to be fair, they don’t binge their own show. In fact, a few of whom shared they never watch the show at all. “There are seasons I’ve never seen,” said Kudrow, which Perry seconded. Schwimmer said he only recently looked back at some episodes because his daughter has started watching the show. LeBlanc seemed to have the most details teed up and ready to be talked about (somehow he magically even correctly identified Joey’s hand twin just by looking at hands), but even he didn’t remember that the length of Rachel’s letter to Ross was 18 pages… front and back. Perry didn’t remember that by the end of the series, the foosball table had been destroyed; Aniston still thought Chandler’s job was a transponster; Schwimmer didn’t remember the titular plot in “The One With The Ball” (Season 5) even though his character started the challenge of not dropping the ball in the story. Nobody remembered Mr. Heckles’ name — though Kudrow knew the actor who played him was Larry Hankin (who made a surprise guest appearance, in costume) and no one could finish the lyrics to the barbershop quartet’s message from Ross in the third season episode, “The One With All The Jealousy.” Behind-the-scenes details fared better, though: Aniston even remembered what some of her fellow actors were wearing during the first table read.The one with real-life friends as character inspirations
Co-creators Marta Kauffman and Crane have always talked about being inspired by their own lives in New York City in their 20s when creating the show, but here Kauffman revealed that the character of Chandler was even named after one of her friends. (We hope he didn’t take offense when, in the fourth season, Joey listed multiple reasons Chandler is a terrible name when he was trying to get Phoebe to name one of the triplets Joey instead of Chandler.) In this same interview package, Crane shared the one-line pitch for the show as being “about that time in your life when your friends are your family,” which seems both like a perfectly universal show any network would want and also way too broad to be sold on that alone today.The one with the rough audition
The night before LeBlanc was set to audition for “Friends,” he told Corden, he was running lines with a friend who said that because the show was about a group of friends hanging out, they should go out drinking. They did, and LeBlanc crashed at his place after, where, after he “got up [to go to the bathroom] too fast, I kind of blacked out, as you do, and fell face-first into the toilet,” he said. “A huge chunk of meat came off my nose.” When he went in the next day, Kauffman asked what happened. “I told the truth and got the job,” he said. What made this story even more special was that executive producer Kevin Bright revealed in an interview package that the role of Joey, in the end, came down to LeBlanc and Louis Mandylor — who went on to play Carl, the guy Joey hired to pretend to be his twin brother to get into a medical science study in the sixth season.The one with an on set injury
Not to make this all about LeBlanc, but the reunion special also revealed how he dislocated his shoulder during the third season of “Friends,” which resulted in him wearing a sling for a few episodes. In “The One Where No One’s Ready,” he had to dive for the chair after Chandler came back into Monica’s apartment fully dressed and vying for the vacated seat. During one take, which the cast watched raw footage of together, LeBlanc landed wrong on his left arm, resulting in production being paused so he could go to the hospital. Although they wrote the sling into a few episodes so everybody could go back to work, they didn’t finish filming this particular episode until LeBlanc’s arm was healed. “What started out the simplest ‘Friends’ episode,” Bright said, “ended up taking the longest amount of time to shoot.” If you’re superstitious, you might say the reason this episode went so wrong was because the cast didn’t do their usual pre-show huddle that night. “It was sort of early on, but then after that we’d say, ‘Do we need to do the huddle?’ And he’d say, ‘Yeah,'” Kudrow said of LeBlanc. 
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Videos of Navy pilots pursuing flying objects with amazing capabilities have struck a nerve in Washington. Matt Dibble looks into the latest UFO mystery.
Producer: Matt Dibble
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Videos of Navy pilots pursuing flying objects with amazing capabilities have struck a nerve in Washington. Matt Dibble looks into the latest UFO mystery.
Producer: Matt Dibble
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