State of the Union address - Ukraine-Taiwan parallels - Child Covid vaccine efficacy

Biden highlighted the bravery of Ukrainian defenders and the commitment of a newly reinvigorated Western alliance that has worked to rearm the Ukrainian military and cripple Russia’s economy. Biden announced that the U.S. is following Canada and the E.U. in banning Russian planes from its airspace. He also said the Justice Department was launching a task force to go after crimes of Russian oligarchs.
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Biden outlined plans to address inflation by reinvesting in American manufacturing capacity, speeding supply chains and reducing the burden of childcare and eldercare on workers. He proposed new initiatives on mental health that dovetail with growing bipartisan interest in Congress amid evidence that the pandemic has damaged the national psyche.
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Biden [pitched] his plan to authorize Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, as well as an extension of more generous health insurance subsidies now temporarily available through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces where 14.5 million people get coverage.

[Apple] outlined a number of actions in response to the invasion, including stopping all exports into its sales channels in the country. It added that Apple Pay and other services had been limited, and that Russian state media, RT News and Sputnik News, were no longer available for download from the Apple Store outside Russia.
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The decision came after Ukrainian officials called on tech companies to take further action. Neighboring countries made similar requests, with the prime ministers of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sending a letter to the chief executives of Google, Facebook and Twitter last week.
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Reddit [announced] it quarantined its r/Russia channel to address a rise in misinformation – making it more difficult for users to find by suspending it from searches and feeds. Meta has taken steps including barring Russian state-run media from selling ads on its platforms, removing networks of accounts spreading misinformation, and blocking access to RT and Sputnik across the European Union.

Taiwan has not reported any unusual maneuvers by the Chinese military in recent days. But in the last two years Beijing has ramped up what Taiwan has condemned as military aggression, regularly sending warplanes close to the island to deter what China perceives as a growing campaign for Taiwan independence.
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But fears of imminent Chinese invasion are unfounded for a number of reasons, experts and Taiwanese officials say. While Ukraine and Russia share a 1,200-mile land border, Taiwan is an island separated from mainland China by 100 miles of water. Any invasion would be a complex operation that the world could see coming well beforehand.
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Taiwan, a major exporter of electronics, also plays a much bigger role in the global economy. While Taiwan is Washington’s ninth-largest trading partner, Ukraine ranks 67th. China also sees Taiwan as different from Ukraine, but for a different reason: It is an “inalienable” part of Chinese territory and not a sovereign nation, government officials say.

A study from New York state released Monday suggests that [the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine provide less protection to children aged 5 to 11 than to adolescents 12 to 17]. But new data from 10 states released Tuesday tell a different story.
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The new data, published by the CDC, suggest that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine aren’t very protective against infection for either age group in the face of the Omicron variant, but that protection against severe illness appears to be holding up equally. They do not suggest more rapid or more marked waning among the younger group of children.
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In the CDC study, vaccine effectiveness against emergency department or urgent care visits when the Omicron variant was circulating was between 34% to 45% for adolescents ages 12 through 17 and 51% for children ages 5 through 11. Vaccination of children aged 5 through 11 only began in November so they were likely more recently vaccinated than children aged 12 to 17 during that period.

The measure passed on Monday would categorize lynching as a federal hate crime, carrying a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. Lawmakers estimated they had tried more than 200 times to pass a measure to explicitly criminalize a type of attack that has long terrorized Black Americans. This bill was approved 422 to 3, and was expected to pass the Senate, where it enjoys broad support.
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[The bill] surfaced in the summer of 2020, amid a wave of racial justice protests, and ignited a fight on the Senate floor after Senator Rand Paul objected to its quick passage, calling it overly broad. On Monday, Mr. Paul said he would support the measure.
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The House vote came on the final day of Black History Month, when House leaders also tried and failed to pass another bill that would bar racial discrimination based on natural hair and hairstyles, including cornrows, twists and braids. The measure drew bipartisan support but fell short of the two-thirds that would have been needed.