AP News in Brief at 6:04 a.m. EDT
Fallout from riot, virus leaves toxic mood on Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON (AP) - The mood is so bad at the U.S. Capitol that a Democratic congressman recently let an elevator pass him by rather than ride with Republican colleagues who voted against certifying Joe Biden's election.
Republicans say it's Democrats who just need to get over it - move on from the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, end the COVID-19 restrictions and make an effort to reach across the aisle toward bipartisanship.
Not yet 100 days into the new Congress, the legislative branch has become an increasingly toxic and unsettled place, with lawmakers frustrated by the work-from-home limits imposed by the virus and suspicious of each other after the horrific riot over Trump's presidency.
Particularly in the House, which remains partly shuttered by the pandemic and where lawmakers heard gunshots ring out during the siege, trust is low, settled facts about the Jan. 6 riot are apparently up for debate and wary, exhausted lawmakers are unsure how or when the 'œPeople's House'ť will return to normal.
One newer congresswoman said it's 'œheartbreaking'ť to see what has become of the institution she cherished, in the country she has taken an oath to defend from enemies foreign and domestic.
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'Speak out:' Biden, Harris decry racism during Atlanta visit
ATLANTA (AP) - President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris offered solace to Asian Americans and denounced the scourge of racism at times hidden 'œin plain sight'ť as they visited Atlanta, just days after a white gunman killed eight people, most of them Asian American women.
Addressing the nation after a roughly 80-minute meeting with Asian American state legislators and other leaders Friday, Biden said it was 'œheart-wrenching'ť to listen to their stories of the fear among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders amid what he called a 'œskyrocketing spike'ť of harassment and violence against them.
'œWe have to change our hearts," he said. "Hate can have no safe harbor in America.'ť
Biden called on all Americans to stand up to bigotry when they see it, adding: 'œOur silence is complicity. We cannot be complicit.'ť
'œThey've been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed; they've been verbally assaulted, physically assaulted, killed," Biden said of Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic.
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As vaccinations lag, Italy's elderly again pay a price
BERGAMO, Italy (AP) - One year ago, Bergamo's state-of-the-art Pope John XXIII Hospital verged on collapse as doctors struggled to treat 600 patients, with 100 of them in intensive care. Army trucks ferried the dead from the city's overtaxed crematorium in images now seared into the collective pandemic memory.
The picture is much improved now: The hospital is treating fewer than 200 virus patients, just one quarter of whom require intensive care.
But still unchanged as Italy's death rate pushes upward once again is that the victims remain predominantly elderly, with inoculation drives stumbling in the country and elsewhere in Europe.
'œNo, this thing, alas, I was not able to protect the elderly, to make clear how important it would be to protect the elderly,'' said Dr. Luca Lorini, head of intensive care at the hospital named for the mid-20th century pope born in Bergamo. 'œIf I have 10 elderly people over 80 and they get COVID, in their age group, eight out of 10 die.'ť
That was true in the first horrifying wave and remained 'œabsolutely the same'ť in subsequent spikes, he said.
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A New Year in Iran, but the country's crises remain the same
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The Persian New Year, Nowruz, begins on the first day of spring and celebrates all things new. But as families across Iran hurried to greet the fresh start - eating copious crisp herbs, scrubbing their homes and buying new clothes - it was clear just how little the country had changed.
A year into the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated Iran, killing over 61,500 people - the highest death toll in the Middle East - the nation is far from out of the woods. And although Iranians had welcomed the election of President Joe Biden with a profound sigh of relief after the Trump administration's economic pressure campaign, the sanctions that have throttled the country for three years remain in place.
'œI was counting down the seconds to see the end of this year,'ť said Hashem Sanjar, a 33-year-old food delivery worker with a bachelor's degree in accounting. 'œBut I worry about next year.'ť
Once again, Nowruz, a joyous two-week celebration rooted in gatherings - at homes, in parks and squares - will be stifled by the pandemic. Gone from Tehran's streets are the performers dressed as 'œHajji Firuz,'ť the ancient folk figure who dances, sings and bangs tambourines to ring in the holiday. Gone too are the usual piles of old furniture, which families can no longer afford to throw out for the new year.
A nightly curfew in the capital forbids residents from venturing out after 9 p.m. Health officials are pleading with the public to stay home. And the government has banned travel to cities hardest-hit by the virus.
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Sister Jean gets the vaccine and seat at the NCAA Tournament
The best COVID-19 vaccine shots in America just might be the two that went into Sister Jean's arm.
The breakout star and model for the most coveted bobblehead of the 2018 NCAA Tournament is now eight months beyond her 101st birthday and still serving as chaplain for the Loyola of Chicago basketball team. It took two vaccinations and some serious wrangling, but Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt was back on the scene Friday in Indianapolis watching her beloved Ramblers in person, sporting brand-new, brick-red kicks but the same radiant smile - a fresh reminder for a pandemic-weary fan base that a little perseverance still goes a long way.
In this case, thankfully, she didn't have to wait long. The eighth-seeded Ramblers were deadly behind the arc and dominated the boards to pull away for a relatively easy 71-60 win over No. 9 Georgia Tech. Loyola's next opponent, Midwest Regional No. 1 seed Illinois, is bound to provide a much stiffer test of Sister Jean's faith.
Yet her celebratory fist bump at the buzzer was one of the signature moments of the first full day of an NCAA Tournament canceled a year ago due the pandemic. The time away hardly blunted the tourney's reputation for producing upsets, though to be fair, ranking teams based on a string of chaotic conference tournaments and a shortened regular season - 20 percent of games wound up cancelled - was probably more hit-and-miss than usual.
The biggest takedown was scored by No. 15 seed Oral Roberts, which needed overtime to escape second-seeded Ohio State 75-72. That marked just the ninth time in tournament history it happened.
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'An all-hands moment': GOP rallies behind voting limits
On an invitation-only call last week, Sen. Ted Cruz huddled with Republican state lawmakers to call them to battle on the issue of voting rights.
Democrats are trying to expand voting rights to 'œillegal aliens'ť and 'œchild molesters,'ť he claimed, and Republicans must do all they can to stop them. If they push through far-reaching election legislation now before the Senate, the GOP won't win elections again for generations, he said.
Asked if there was room to compromise, Cruz was blunt: 'œNo.'ť
'œH.R. 1'²s only objective is to ensure that Democrats can never again lose another election, that they will win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and of the state legislatures for the next century,'ť Cruz said told the group organized by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed, conservative group that provides model legislation to state legislators.
Cruz's statements, recorded by a person on the call and obtained by The Associated Press, capture the building intensity behind Republicans' nationwide campaign to restrict access to the ballot. From statehouses to Washington, the fight over who can vote and how - often cast as 'œvoting integrity'ť - has galvanized a Republican Party in search of unifying mission in the post-Trump era. For a powerful network of conservatives, voting restrictions are now viewed as a political life-or-death debate, and the fight has all-but eclipsed traditional Republican issues like abortion, gun rights and tax cuts as an organizing tool.
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Sources: Feds have no evidence yet for GA hate crime charge
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal investigators have so far not found evidence that clears the high bar for federal hate crime charges against a man who has been accused of killing eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
Seven of the eight people killed were women; six were of Asian descent. The crime has stitched together stigmas about race, gender, migrant work and sex work.
Though investigators have not ruled out ultimately filing hate crime charges, they face legal constraints in doing so. Federal statutes require prosecutors to prove that the victims were targeted because of specific factors, like race, gender identity, religion, national origin or sexual orientation, or the suspect infringed on a federally or constitutionally protected activity. To successfully prosecute a hate crimes case, prosecutors typically seek tangible evidence, such as the suspect expressing racism in text messages, in internet posts or to witnesses.
No such evidence has yet surfaced in the Georgia probe, according to the officials, who have direct knowledge of the investigation into the suspect, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long. They were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Friday.
Advocates have said even if the shooter didn't specifically target the victims and because some were Asian, he still could have been acting with bias against them. Three of the women died at the Gold Spa in Atlanta, while the fourth woman died across the street at Aromatherapy Spa. Four other people were killed and one was wounded at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock, in Atlanta's northwestern suburbs. Their deaths come as crimes against Asian Americans are spiking.
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Spa shootings could be first test of Georgia hate crimes law
ATLANTA (AP) - The murder case against a white man charged with shooting and killing six women of Asian descent and two other people at Atlanta-area massage businesses this week could become the first big test for Georgia's new hate crimes law.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, told police that the attacks Tuesday at two spas in Atlanta and another massage business near suburban Woodstock were not racially motivated and claimed to have a sex addiction. Authorities said he apparently lashed out at what he saw as sources of temptation but were still investigating his motive.
Because most of the victims were women of Asian descent, there's skepticism of that explanation and public clamoring for hate crime charges, especially among the Asian American community, which has faced rising numbers of attacks since the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
But, like many states, the Georgia law enacted last summer does not provide for a standalone hate crime, instead allowing an additional penalty when a person is convicted of another crime.
'œIt's not something you get arrested for. It's a sentence enhancer,'ť said Pete Skandalakis, a former prosecutor and executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia.
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UN official: Myanmar people want UN sanctions, peacekeepers
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The people of Myanmar have huge expectations from the United Nations and the international community following the Feb. 1 coup, with many calling for sanctions and some urging the U.N. to send peacekeepers to stop the killings of peaceful protesters seeking a return to democracy, the top U.N. official in the country said Friday.
Acting resident and humanitarian coordinator Andrew Kirkwood said in a video briefing to U.N. reporters from Myanmar's largest city Yangon that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other U.N. officials have been very consistent about what's really needed: 'œcollective member state actions in the Security Council.'ť
Guterres echoed that message again on Friday, saying 'œa firm, unified international response is urgently needed'ť to stop the violence by security forces and return Myanmar to the path of democracy, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
'œMany people will have seen people carrying placards saying, '~how many more bodies?'" Kirkwood said. 'œPeople are really looking for concerted international action in terms of sanctions. Frankly, some people here want to see peacekeepers."
'œThere's a huge expectation on the United Nations, with the entire international community," he said. 'œWe are doing everything we can in the current situation, and there is still frustration among the people that the international community hasn't done more to date.'ť
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AP Week in Pictures: Global
MARCH 13 - 19, 2021
This photo gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from around the world.
The selection was curated by AP photo editors Jacqueline Larma, Enric Marti and Patrick Sison.
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