First Thing: Pelosi delays vote on Biden’s infrastructure bill
Good morning.
Democrats will return to the negotiating table on Friday morning after reaching an impasse over Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, with Nancy Pelosi delaying a planned vote, as legislative and fiscal deadlines loom.
On the line is a $3.5tn plan to expand the social safety net, as well as a $1tn public works measure. Centrists in the party have pushed for the former to be pared down, with Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona arguing the agenda’s cost is too high.
Meanwhile, the progressive wing of the party has said it will sink the infrastructure vote if there is not an agreement on the broader package, with the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, saying she wanted to see the Senate approve the proposal first before supporting the smaller bill.
What’s in the social spending plan? The $3.5tn proposal would extend the child tax credit, establish universal preK education, and create a federally paid family and medical leave system. It would also establish a number of programs to fight the climate crisis and propel the country toward renewable energy.
Why are moderates holding out? Manchin, who is a major recipient of donations from the fossil fuel industry, has described the $3.5tn package as “fiscal insanity” and said he would not support a package that cost more than $1.5tn. He said a budget any bigger risks “changing our whole society to an entitlement mentality”.
Over half of US police killings are mislabelled or unreported
More than half of all killings by US police go unreported, with the Black victims making up a majority, a sweeping new study has found.
Between 1980 and 2018, more than 55% of deaths from police violence were either misclassified or went unreported, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation found, with Black Americans 3.5 times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans.
Is there racial disparity? Yes.Almost 60% of all fatal police encounters involving Black Americans were misclassified, while the government’s database missed about half of police-involved deaths of Hispanic people, 56% of police-involved deaths of non-Hispanic white people, and a third of deaths involving non-Hispanic people across other races.
How did researchers reach these figures? They compared data from the US National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), a government database for tracking the US population, with non-governmental, open-source databases that monitor police violence.
Apple, Amazon and Disney back groups against US climate bill
As Democrats struggle to get a historic social spending proposal over the line, analysis has found that Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Disney are
among the companies supporting business groups fighting the landmark climate legislation.
The support of prominent businesses, who would see their taxes raised in order to fund the plan, flies in the face of their pledges to combat the climate crisis. Amazon has promised to cut emissions to net zero by 2040, while Microsoft has committed to being “carbon negative” within a decade.
What would the climate plan do? It would establish a system to phase out emissions from the US electricity system, provide payments to prop up carbon-free nuclear energy and support the adoption of electric vehicles.
How important is the proposed bill? It is the first significant attempt at climate legislation in more than a decade; it it fails, it is likely to stall efforts to push other countries into meaningful action at November’s UN climate talks.
In other news …
Tens of thousands of workers could strike in the coming weeks across America, in industries ranging from healthcare to Hollywood and academia, as they call for higher wages and better working conditions.
A hospital in the western New York city of Buffalo has recorded its highest single-day patient count ever, after staff shortages triggered by the state’s vaccine mandate resulted in units closing and the inability to discharge patients.
Human rights lawyers and experts have called on the UK to ban so-called conversion therapy, following a government pledge to do so three years ago.
Stat of the day: 80 women were killed between Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa’s deaths
Eighty women were killed in the UK between the deaths of Sarah Everard, who was murdered by a police officer in March, and the murder of schoolteacher Sabina Nessa on 17 September, according to the Counting Dead Women project. Meanwhile, data from the Femicide Census shows at least 15 serving or former police officers have killed women since 2009.
Don’t miss this: Daniel Craig on Bond, fried eggs, and regrets
Five movies later, Daniel Craig is about to finally be free from the “bonds of Bond”. But not before he answers a series of questions set by friends, actors and Guardian readers, which range from which role he wishes he hadn’t played to whether he ever allows himself a fried breakfast. “I eat greasy fried eggs at least once a week,” the 53year-old says.
Last Thing: ‘I fell down a hidden well’
When 67-year-old Chris Town offered to help a friend move into her new home, he ended up getting more than he bargained for. While helping to erect a bed frame, Town accidentally stepped on a patch of weak floorboards, falling through 15ft into a well. Recalling his father’s advice to avoid panicking, he managed to tread water until the emergency services arrived. Sign up
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