Black farmers speak out against the "festering wound" of racism in agriculture For the first time in US history, members of the House agriculture committee heard from Black farmers on the impact of systemic discrimination by the department of agriculture (USDA). Thursday’s hearing came on the heels of $5bn being allocated to socially disadvantaged farmers of color earlier this month as part of the coronavirus relief and economic stimulus package. The funding – $4bn for debt forgiveness, $1bn for other forms of support – is meant to account for generations of mistreatment of farmers of color by the USDA. “This festering wound on the soul of agriculture must be healed,” said congressman David Scott of Georgia, who was born on a farm in South Carolina owned by his grandparents and now serves as the first ever Black person to chair the committee. Black farmers offered familiar testimonies of racism in the industry and from the USDA. Sedrick Rowe, an organic peanut farmer in Georgia, spoke of crop buyers telling him they are done buying peanuts for the day when he shows up. PJ Haynie of the National Black Growers Council told of Black farmers getting by on non-irrigated land while their white neighbors used USDA assistance to irrigate theirs. Once making up about 14% of US farmers, Black farmers make up less than 2% today. Many were forced out by racist lending practices by the agriculture department that led to vast losses of land, income, profits and generation wealth. That wealth cannot be regained. Black farmers will never get the land they lost back. But the USDA seems to be trying to foster a renewed trust in the department. The health of millions of Americans may have been affected by weight gain and lack of exercise during the pandemic, even if they have avoided acute dangers of Covid-19 infection, emerging evidence collected by obesity researchers – and the anecdotal experiences of family physicians – suggests. “Ninety-eight per cent of my day is, ‘You haven’t been exercising, you’ve gained weight, and your diabetes is no longer controlled. We need to help you with that,’” said Dr Andrew Carroll, who is part of a multidisciplinary family medicine practice in Chandler, Arizona. “It’s very rare I’m reducing medications over the last year.” In several cases, doctors said major factors in worsening health were “lifestyle” factors, such as lack of exercise, poor diet and stress. More than 60% of American family doctors saw an increase in obesity among their patients, according to a survey of 910 doctors by American Academy of Family Physicians. Weight gain is not necessarily unhealthy in and of itself. However, excess weight is associated with a number of chronic health problems, such as increased risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer. Obesity is also associated with increased risks from Covid-19. “The overwhelming stress of living in a pandemic time is really impacting [patients’] medical health significantly,” said Carroll. Typical patients are “gaining weight on the order of 10 to 30lb,” he said. The immediate impact of Covid-19 in the US has been dire. More than 543,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and 29 million have been infected. For every person who dies, an estimated nine more grieve. Further, millions of people may experience the potentially disabling effects of “long-haul Covid” or depression from the isolation the pandemic has caused. The governors of Arkansas and Tennessee signed into law measures that ban transgender youth from sports teams this week. Republican Asa Hutchinson approved the measure, which bans transgender women and girls from competing in girls sports teams at their schools, over objections from child welfare groups and LGBTQ+ advocacy organizattions. The move is part of a worrying pattern, my colleague Sam Levin writes: Republican lawmakers in more than 25 US states have advanced legislation banning transgender children from certain sports teams and limiting their access to gender-affirming healthcare. Trans youth represent just a fraction of the US population – recent estimates suggest they make up 0.7% to 2% of youth. But conservative lawmakers have introduced more than 80 bills regulating their lives in the first three months of 2021, the highest-ever number of anti-trans legislative proposals filed in a single year. The volume of bills, which have spread in nearly every region of the country, and the coordinated campaigns behind some of them, suggests trans kids’ lives have become a central focus of the GOP culture war following the 2020 presidential election. Los Angeles officials have cleared out a large homeless encampment in a major city park, with police arresting those who refused to leave and detaining reporters covering massive protests. Authorities first moved Wednesday night to evict unhoused residents at Echo Park Lake, prompting huge protests in support of the more than 100 people who have increasingly camped out at the public park in central LA. Unhoused organizers have said that residents have built a safe community there that the city should not dismantle, while the city has said it has become unsafe and that they were offering shelter to those sleeping in the park. On Thursday night, during continued protests, LA police department (LAPD) officers detained an anchor and reporter from Spectrum News 1, an LA Times reporter and other independent journalists, prompting widespread backlash. The reporters were later released. LAPD, which made more than 180 arrests, said the reporters were ordered to disperse. But the journalists have said they repeatedly made clear that they were covering the demonstrations and they couldn’t be confined to a “media pen” away from the protests. National Lawyers Guild legal observers were also detained and released. The Times reported that the final two unhoused residents who did not leave Echo Park were arrested Friday morning. The park has become a major battleground in the city’s worsening housing homelessness crisis during the pandemic, with activists urging the city to stop spending resources on policing unhoused people and instead prioritize long-term housing. Our earlier coverage: Ban on US water shutoffs could have prevented thousands of Covid deaths – study Nina Lakhani A national moratorium on water shutoffs could have prevented almost half a million Covid infections and saved at least 9,000 lives, according to new research. Good hygiene is essential to preventing the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus. Amid pressure from public health experts and rights groups, hundreds of utilities and states suspended disconnections for overdue bills to ensure households kept running water for hand-washing and sanitation. But many refused, others let the bans expire after a few months, and Congress refused to step in with a national moratorium. By the end of 2020, 211 million Americans – including a disproportionate number of households of color – faced the threat of having their taps turned off during the worst public health and economic crisis in modern history. This patchwork protection cost thousands of American lives between April and December last year, according to research by Cornell University and the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch (FWW). Researchers found that states which suspended disconnections significantly reduced their growth rates of Covid infections and deaths, compared to states without similar orders. The biggest reduction was seen in states with comprehensive bans covering all private and public utilities. If similar policies had been adopted across the US, the study model shows that Covid cases might have been reduced by 4% and deaths by 5.5% in the 41 states without a full moratorium. “This research clearly shows us that the pain and suffering caused by the pandemic was exacerbated by political leaders who failed to take action to keep the water flowing for struggling families,” said Wenonah Hauter, FWW’s executive director. The findings come amid growing pressure on Michigan and New York state officials to extend their state moratoriums, both of which expire at the end of March. Failure to do so would leave a further 27 million people at risk of losing their water supplies for unpaid bills, as concerns grow about a potential third wave. Advocates are also urging Joe Biden to impose a national moratorium and make water a priority in the forthcoming infrastructure bill. Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh – blogging from the west coast. Joe Biden spoke with Boris Johnson today. The two leaders spoke about global health security, and “discussed the importance of developing ambitious climate goals” the White House said. Here’s the official readout of the call: They discussed the importance of developing ambitious climate goals, noting the opportunities provided by the Leaders Summit on Climate and the UK’s G7 presidency. They agreed to work closely together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China and Iran. The leaders also affirmed the importance of preserving political stability in Northern Ireland. A further note on those “foreign policy priorities”: After the US and Britain, along with the European Union and Canada, imposed sanctions on Chinese officials accused of involvement in widespread abuses against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, China responded with counter-sanctions against British and EU officials. “The prime minister and president reflected on the significant action taken by the UK, US and other international partners earlier this week to impose sanctions on human rights violators in Xinjiang and expressed their concern about retaliatory action taken by China,” a spokesman for Johnson said. Today so far That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague Maanvi Singh will take over the blog for the next few hours. Here’s where the day stands so far: Joe Biden condemned the Georgia law restricting voting access, describing the legislation as “Jim Crow in the 21st century”. “Instead of celebrating the rights of all Georgians to vote or winning campaigns on the merits of their ideas, Republicans in the state instead rushed through an un-American law to deny people the right to vote,” the president said in a statement released this afternoon. “This is Jim Crow in the 21st century. It must end. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act.” Two voting rights groups have already filed a federal lawsuit against the Georgia bill. The New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter argued that the law, which was signed by the Republican Governor Brian Kemp last night, violates the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the US constitution. Dominion Voting Systems has filed a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of having “sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process”. Fox has criticized the lawsuit as “baseless” and defended the integrity of its election coverage. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said she remains “deeply concerned” about coronavirus case numbers, even as vaccinations ramp up across the country. Dr Rochelle Walensky noted coronavirus cases and hospitalizations have slightly increased in recent days. “Please take this moment very seriously,” the CDC director said. Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned. After arriving in Delaware moments ago, Joe Biden spoke to reporters about the Georgia voting law for a few minutes. Asked about what action he might be able to take on voting rights, the president said, “We’re working on that right now. We don’t know quite exactly what we can do at this point. The Justice Department’s taking a look as well.” A reporter then asked Biden whether the need for voting rights legislation changed the calculus on eliminating the Senate filibuster. “Well, look, we’ll see. ... You have to have 50 votes, 51 votes,” Biden said. “Right now, that doesn’t exist. That doesn’t exist. So you know, look, the only thing I’ve been relatively good at in my long career in the Senate is figuring out when to move and when not to move. You got to have the votes.” As of now, at least two Democratic senators -- Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona -- have indicated they do not support eliminating the filibuster. Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders to a virtual summit on climate change next month, the White House just announced. “The Leaders Summit on Climate will underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action. It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow,” the White House said in a statement. “By the time of the Summit, the United States will announce an ambitious 2030 emissions target as its new Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. In his invitation, the President urged leaders to use the Summit as an opportunity to outline how their countries also will contribute to stronger climate ambition.” The list of invited leaders includes Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, although it’s unclear whether they will attend. The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports: Activists in Georgia vowed on Friday to keep up an aggressive campaign to pressure Republicans over their support for the law restricting voting access, saying they were undeterred by its final passage through the legislature. Two voting rights groups, the New Georgia Project and Black Voters Matter, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law hours after Governor Brian Kemp signed it Thursday evening. They say the law violates both the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the US constitution, noting that provisions in it “serve no legitimate purpose other than to make absentee, early, and election-day voting more difficult – especially for minority voters.” Several more lawsuits are expected in the coming days. “We are filing this lawsuit for one simple reason: SB 202 should be classified as a violation of voting rights. It is a violation of our dignity and our power,” Nse Ufot, chief executive of the New Georgia Project, said in a statement. “Georgia’s Black, Brown, young, and new voters are here to stay. We will organize, knock on doors, and show up to the polls ten times over. And we will fight for solutions and progress for all Georgia voters.” The Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, argued the Georgia law restricting voter access underscored the need to pass the For the People Act. The Democratic-controlled House passed the election reform legislation earlier this month. “We saw it in Georgia last night. We see it across the country,” Schumer said in a tweet. “A concerted, nationwide and racist effort by Republican state legislatures to limit the right of American citizens to vote. The #ForThePeople Act is a priority of this Congress to fight this and renew Democracy.” With the filibuster in place, it will be very difficult for Senate Democrats to get the For the People Act passed because they will need to convince 10 of their Republican colleagues to join them in supporting the bill. Many Republican senators have already signaled they do not support the election reforms proposed in the legislation. Joe Biden continued to condemn the Georgia voting law moments ago, as he departed the White House to travel to his home state of Delaware for the weekend. “It’s an atrocity,” the president said of the Georgia law, adding that the legislation was “designed to keep people from voting”. Biden specifically cited the provision prohibiting people from giving water to voters waiting in line as inhumane. “You don’t need anything else to know that this is nothing but punitive,” Biden said. “You can’t provide water for people about to vote. Give me a break.” The president is traveling to Delaware with his son, Hunter, and Hunter’s wife and son. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said this afternoon that Joe Biden intended to release a statement about the Georgia law. Psaki was also asked about the arrest of Park Cannon, the Democratic state legislator who was handcuffed while trying to watch Governor Brian Kemp sign the controversial bill yesterday. “Anyone who saw that video would have been deeply concerned by the actions that were taken by law enforcement to arrest her,” Psaki said of Cannon. “The largest concern here, obviously beyond her being treated in the manner she was, which is of course of great concern, is the law that was put into place,” the press secretary added. “It should not be harder, it should be easier to vote.” Joe Biden concluded his statement on the Georgia law by arguing that the American people should get to decide the future of US voting laws. “I will take my case to the American people – including Republicans who joined the broadest coalition of voters ever in this past election to put country before party,” the president said. “If you have the best ideas, you have nothing to hide. Let the people vote.” Polls have showed that a broad majority of Americans support some of the voting policies that Democrats have proposed, including same-day voter registration and automatic registration.