Biden vows nation to back bridge cleanup
DUNDALK, Md. — President Joe Biden got a firsthand look Friday at efforts to clear away the “mangled mess” of remains of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, as cranes, ships and diving crews work to reopen one of the nation’s main shipping lanes.
Aboard Marine One, circling the warped metal remains and the mass of construction and salvage equipment trying to clear the wreckage of last week’s collapse, which killed six workers, Biden got an up-close view of the devastation.
On the ground later, he received a briefing from local officials, the U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers on the situation in the water and its impacts on the region. “I’m here to say your nation has your back and I mean it,” Biden said from the shoreline overlooking the collapsed bridge in Dundalk, just outside Baltimore. “Your nation has your back.”
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will announce his
latest effort to broaden student loan relief next week for new categories of borrowers, according to three people familiar with the plans, nearly a year after the Supreme Court foiled his administration’s first attempt to cancel debt for millions who attended college.
Biden will detail the plan Monday in Madison, Wisconsin, where the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin is located. The actual federal regulations — outlining who would qualify to get their student loan debt reduced or eliminated — are not expected to be released then, said the people, who were granted anonymity to detail a proposal not yet made public.
DALLAS — Some who hope to witness Monday’s total
solar eclipse may see the sun obscured by clouds instead of by the moon.
There’s still some time for forecasts to change, but meteorologists predict that eclipse day storms could blanket parts of the path, which stretches from Mexico and Texas through Maine and parts of Canada.
Clouds are expected in much of the eclipse’s path Monday thanks to storms that are moving across the central U.S. As of Friday afternoon, the Northeastern U.S. looks like it has the best chance of clear skies, along with large patch of the central U.S. near southeastern Missouri and southern Illinois.
ROME — An international campaign to ban surrogacy
received a strong endorsement Friday from the Vatican, with a top official calling for a broad-based alliance to stop the “commercialization of life.”
A Vatican-affiliated university hosted a two-day conference promoting an international treaty to outlaw surrogacy, be it commercial arrangements or so-called altruistic ones. It’s based on the campaigners’ argument that the practice violates U.N. conventions protecting the rights of the child and surrogate mother.
At issue is whether there is a fundamental right to have a child, or whether the rights of children trump the desires of potential parents.
The conference, which also drew U.N. human rights representatives and experts, marked an acceleration of a campaign that has found some support in parts of the developing world and western Europe.