Today's politics recap
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The governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, announced she would allow the state’s indoor mask requirement to lapse tomorrow. Customers at most businesses in New York had previously been required to wear masks or show proof of coronavirus vaccination. “Given the declining cases, given declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to lift this, in effect tomorrow,” Hochul said this afternoon.
- The chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm applauded Hochul’s decision, which comes days after several other Democratic governors announced plans to relax mask requirements. “It’s time to give people their lives back,” Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said. “With science as our guide, we’re ready to start getting back to normal.”
- However, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency continues to “recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission”. According to the CDC’s own data, 99.5% of all US counties currently qualify as areas of high and substantial transmission, even as the number of new coronavirus cases across the country has decreased in the past few weeks.
- The House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection has issued a subpoena to Peter Navarro, who served as Donald Trump’s top trade adviser. In its subpoena letter, the committee said it was seeking records and testimony in connection to reports that Navarro worked with Steve Bannon to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
- The National Archives is asking the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s handling of White House documents, according to the Washington Post. The news follows revelations that the Archives took possession of 15 boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago that should have been turned over to the agency at the end of Trump’s term, reigniting questions about whether his administration violated the Presidential Records Act.
– Joan E Greve
US-Canada bridge blockade risks huge economic damage, governments warn
Tracey Lindeman in Ottawa:
Blockades on the busiest border bridge between Canada and the US could have a serious impact on the economies of both countries, disrupting the automotive industry, agricultural exports, and causing multimillion-dollar losses, the two countries’ governments have said.
The warnings came as business associations said that manufacturing plants at the heart of North America’s automotive industry face potential shortages, shutdowns, layoffs as “freedom convoy” protesters continue to block traffic on the Ambassador Bridge, between the car-manufacturing cities of Detroit and Windsor.
“I think it’s important for everyone in Canada and the United States to understand what the potential impact of this blockage is on workers, on the supply chain,” the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said on Wednesday.
Tiff Macklem, the governor of the Bank of Canada said: “If there were to be prolonged blockages at key entry points into Canada that could start to have a measurable impact on economic activity in Canada,” he said. “We’ve already got a strained global supply chain. We don’t need this.”
Late on Wednesday, Ford announced that it had been forced to close an engine plant in Windsor, and reduce hours at a second factory because of the blockade.
David Adams, president of auto industry group Global Automakers of Canada, told the Guardian that between 5,000 and 7,000 trucks use the Ambassador Bridge daily to deliver automotive parts. The bridge is responsible for 27% of all Canada-US trade.
“It’s a pivotal border crossing,” he said.
Vehicles are Canada’s second-largest export, with the US buying more than 90% of that supply.
Business associations warned that manufacturers in the region risk losing $50m a day because of delays.
Meanwhile hundreds of protesters remain encamped in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, and others blockaded a second international bridge in Alberta also remained.
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