House passes stimulus - US bombs Syria - Climate pledge shortcomings

Democrats in both chambers aim to have the legislation passed and to President Joe Biden’s desk before March 14, when unemployment aid programs expire. The House approved it in a 219-212 mostly party line vote, as two Democrats joined all Republicans in opposing it.
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The House plan includes: payments of $1,400 to most individuals, along with the same amount for each dependent. Checks start to phase out at $75,000 in income and go to zero for individuals making $100,000. A $400 per week unemployment supplement through Aug. 29. An expansion of the child tax credit to give families up to $3,600 per child over a year.
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Democrats, who hold narrow majorities in the House and Senate, opted to approve the legislation alone through budget reconciliation rather than hammer out a smaller aid package with Republicans. The process enables a bill to pass with a simple majority in the Senate.

In an essay published in Medium on Wednesday, former aide Lindsey Boylan described several problematic episodes with Cuomo, including an unsolicited kiss in his Manhattan office, an invitation to play strip poker on a government airplane, and an internal email from another aide indicating that the governor considered her a “better looking sister” of a rumored former girlfriend.
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Boylan’s allegations come as the governor, who was for much of last year hailed as a hero for his handling of the pandemic, also faces a federal investigation into claims his administration deliberately undercounted the number of Covid-related deaths in New York nursing homes.
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Boylan, who is running for Manhattan borough president, went public with allegations of alleged sexual harassment in a series of remarks on Twitter in December but did not provide details. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who has a contentious relationship with the governor, issued a call for an investigation into Cuomo’s behavior.

The airstrikes, which targeted Iranian-backed militia groups in Eastern Syria, came in response to recent attacks and threats against Americans and coalition personnel in Iraq, the Department of Defense said. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Department of Defense had briefed congressional leadership before the action last night.
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Some Democrats questioned the legality of the military response, raising a longstanding debate over presidential and congressional authority over military action. Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned against the president overreaching in his powers to declare military actions.
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“As a matter of international law, the United States acted pursuant to its right to self-defense as reflected in Article 50-1 of the UN Charter. The strikes were both necessary to address the threat and proportionate to the prior attacks,” Psaki said. In 2017, just a few months into then-President Trump’s administration, he too delivered a retaliatory airstrike on militants in Syria.

News reports shortly after the assassination cited classified intelligence pointing to Mohammed bin Salman (often referred to by his initials, MBS) as having personally ordered the killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. That intelligence included, among other things, information about the crown prince’s phone calls in the days before the murder, and calls by the kill team to a senior aide to the crown prince.
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On Friday, shortly after the report was released, Secretary of State Tony Blinken announced the Biden administration would impose “visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.” Politico reports that the US will also sanction Saudi officials involved in the plot — but not MBS.
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President Joe Biden has taken a different tact. After calling Saudi Arabia a “pariah” during the campaign, in power he’s curtailed MBS’s access to the Oval Office, making clear that Biden considers his direct counterpart in the country to be MBS’s father, King Salman, the man who actually sits on the Saudi throne.

The U.N. analysis comes as presidents and prime ministers face pressure to ramp up the promises they made as part of the Paris climate accord in 2015. Through the end of last year, roughly 75 countries representing about 30 percent of global emissions had updated their initial plans ahead of a key U.N. climate summit this fall in Scotland.
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Even if countries follow through, their combined impacts would put the world on a path to achieve only a 1 percent reduction in global emissions by 2030, compared to 2010 levels. By contrast, scientists have said that emissions must fall by nearly 50 percent this decade for the world to realistically have a shot at avoiding devastating temperature rise.
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Only two of the world’s 18 largest emitters — the European Union and the United Kingdom — submitted plans with substantially bolder emissions-cutting targets in 2020. So far, they are the exception among the globe’s biggest carbon polluters. The Chinese have no plans to begin scaling back their pollution until emissions levels peak around 2030.