Fight over America’s energy future erupts on Canadian border
Over the past few years, a coalition of residents, conservationists and Native Americans waged a campaign funded by rival energy companies to quash an effort to send electricity produced from the La Grande River in Canada down through Maine and on to Massachusetts. The project is emblematic of fights occurring nationwide, as plans to build new clean energy infrastructure run into opposition from residents resistant to new development, preservationists and other companies with their own economic interests at stake. The New England Clean Energy Connect is the kind of large-scale, clean-energy infrastructure that will be required if the United States is to shift away from fossil fuels.
Worries over strain on health care grow as hot spots spread
When the coronavirus was in retreat across the United States in late February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued recommendations that veered away from depending on the number of new cases in a community to determine the need for safety measures. The focus shifted more toward the number of hospitalized people with the virus. The change turned most of the U.S. map green at a stroke. That strategy will be put to the test in the next few weeks, because hospitalizations are rising again. As of Thursday, an average of more than 18,000 people with COVID-19 are in U.S. hospitals, an increase of 20% from two weeks ago.
Pelosi increases pay scale for House staff, setting a new wage floor
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Friday announced she was instituting a higher pay scale for House staff, moving for the first time to set a floor on annual wages and boosting the maximum salary in a bid to improve working conditions on Capitol Hill and retain congressional staff. Under pressure from aides who have been increasingly vocal about long hours, poor pay and a difficult work environment, Pelosi established a minimum annual salary of $45,000 that she said must be implemented by Sept. 1. She also boosted to $203,700 the cap on what staffers can earn, a slight increase from the $199,300 maximum she announced last year.
CDC investigating 109 cases of hepatitis in children, including 5 deaths
The deaths of five children and what may be an unusual group of more than 100 hepatitis cases in young children in the United States are under investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency said Friday. The CDC said it was examining cases involving 109 children in 25 states and territories who had or have what the agency is calling “hepatitis of unknown cause.” Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the CDC, said most of the children had fully recovered. But more than 90% were hospitalized, 14% received liver transplants and more than half had adenovirus infections, he said.
Hotel explosion in Cuba leaves 22 dead
A powerful explosion rocked Havana on Friday, destroying parts of a luxury hotel and damaging nearby buildings. At least 22 people were killed and dozens were injured, the president’s office said. More were missing. Videos and photos shared on social media showed much of the facade of the Hotel Saratoga destroyed. The hotel, a popular destination for visitors and celebrities, was undergoing renovation work and was not open to guests at the time of the blast, government officials said. The president’s office said on Twitter that preliminary investigations indicated the explosion was caused by a gas leak.
In Israel, recriminations after rampage
Israeli forces were conducting a search Friday for two Palestinians suspected of killing three Israelis the night before in a rampage that extended a campaign of violence that has killed 19 people in the past month and a half. Two attackers killed three people and wounded several others in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox town of Elad on Thursday night, according to witnesses and an Israeli defense official. Israeli defense and political officials said they were holding the militant group Hamas responsible for the attack even though they had no information directly tying the two suspects to the group.
China’s Xi signals that he’s holding firm on ‘zero-COVID’
China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, strongly reaffirmed his commitment to the country’s “zero-COVID” policy Thursday, reinforcing an ideological hard line amid growing outcry against the economic costs and human toll of the tough pandemic control measures. “Persistence is victory,” read an official summary of a meeting led by Xi of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s elite Standing Committee. The remarks are Xi’s first public comments on China’s “zero-COVID” policy since Shanghai, the country’s financial capital and home to 25 million people, went into a punishing lockdown in late March to stifle a large coronavirus outbreak.
By wire sources