Biden lands win, but virus surge threatens to derail agenda

NEW YORK (AP) - Joe Biden wagered his campaign and now his presidency on the premise that government itself could still work, even at a time of fractious political division.

When the Senate voted this week, with bipartisan support, to begin work on an infrastructure bill that Biden supported, he seemed to have proof of the concept.

But the triumph was overshadowed by the surging delta variant of the coronavirus that has forced the restoration of mask guidelines, imperiled the nation´s economic recovery and threatened Biden´s central promise that he would lead the United States out of the pandemic.

"Democrats have to put wins on the board going into 2022, and COVID clouds on the horizon make getting infrastructure and reconciliation done all that much more important," said Robert Gibbs, former press secretary to President Barack Obama.

He added that it´s "imperative for the Biden administration to communicate on this regularly and prepare for us for the ups and downs of this pandemic."

The president´s first six months in office, for which he has received strong marks in most public polls, featured the full vaccination of more than 60% of Americans, the creation of more than 3 million new jobs and the passage of a sweeping $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill.

And in recent days, he has made progress along the massive, two-pronged infrastructure track that could pour $4.5 trillion into the United States´ economy while he also eyed future moves on voting rights and immigration.

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West African health officials race to vaccinate amid spikes

DAKAR, 바카라사이트추천 Senegal (AP) - A resurgence of coronavirus cases in West Africa is hitting the region hard, inundating cemeteries where funeral numbers are rising and hospitals where beds are becoming scarce.

Those visible shifts are also pushing a reluctant population to seek out the vaccines in larger numbers at a time when shipments of doses are arriving from multiple sources after nearly grinding to a halt in recent months.

Thousands of new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the region in the past few weeks amid low vaccination rates and the spread of the delta variant, with some countries seeing their highest numbers since the pandemic began.

Residents who were previously wary of getting shots as conspiracy theories spread online are now lining up by the thousands from Liberia to Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal.

"At the beginning, there were people who gave false information, but when people noticed an increase of contaminations and deaths, people understood that only vaccination can save them," said Bamba Fall, mayor of the Medina municipality in Senegal´s capital, Dakar.

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Biles out of vault and uneven bars; beam and floor possible

TOKYO (AP) - Simone Biles is opting not to defend her Olympic vault title, pulling out of Sunday's event finals for both vault and uneven bars while she focuses on her mental health.

The 24-year-old six-time Olympic medalist removed herself from competition during the team finals on Tuesday and sat out Thursday's all-around final as wel

/>Biles said on social media Friday that she is dealing with what is defined as "the twisties": the sudden inability to feel comfortable while twisting in midair.

Biles said she's battled the issue before, but typically only when it comes to vault and floor exercis
/>This time around, it's a problem on all four apparatuses. She is scheduled to compete in both the balance beam and floor exercise finals next week.

Biles had been working on performing the Yurchenko Double Pike vault in Tokyo. She unveiled the vault - one never done by a woman in competition - in Ma

/>If she had been able to successfully land the vault, which requires the gymnast to do a roundoff and back handspring onto the table before two backward somersaults with her hands clasped behind her legs, the vault would then carry her name in the sport's Code of Points.

USA Gymnastics said Biles will continue to be evaluated daily to determine her potential readiness for future competitions.

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Evictions loom after Biden, Congress fail to extend ban

WASHINGTON (AP) - A nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday night after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a COVID-19 surge.

More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days, as nearly $47 billion in federal housing aid to the states during the pandemic has been slow to make it into the hands of renters and landlords owed payment

/>The moratorium expires at midnight Saturday.

Tensions mounted late Friday as it became clear there would be no resolution in sight. Hours before the ban was set to expire, Biden called on local governments to "take all possible steps" to immediately disburse the fund
/>Evictions could begin as soon as Monday.

"There can be no excuse for any state or locality not accelerating funds to landlords and tenants that have been hurt during this pandemic," Biden said in a statement.

"Every state and local government must get these funds out to ensure we prevent every eviction we can," he said.

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Senate work on infrastructure plan slides into Saturday

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senators are returning to the Capitol for a rare Saturday session as they try to make further progress on a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure plan.

A bipartisan group of senators helped it clear one more hurdle Friday and braced to see if support can hold during the next few days of debate and efforts to amend it.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the chamber should be able to process the legislation quickly given the bipartisan suppor

/>But as Friday evening came around, the full text of what promises to be a massive bill was not finished by the time lawmakers adjourned.

"We may need the weekend, we may vote on several amendments, but with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues I believe we can finish the bipartisan infrastructure bill in a matter of days," Schumer said.

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, predicted, "It's going to be a grind."

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Justice Department says Russians hacked federal prosecutors

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Russian hackers behind the massive SolarWinds cyberespionage campaign broke into the email accounts some of the most prominent federal prosecutors´ offices around the country last year, the Justice Department said.

The department said 80% of Microsoft email accounts used by employees in the four U.

/>attorney offices in New York were breached. All told, the Justice Department said 27 U.S. Attorney offices had at least one employee's email account compromised during the hacking campaign.

The Justice Department said in a statement Friday that it believes the accounts were compromised from May 7 to De
/>27, 2020. Such a timeframe is notable because the SolarWinds campaign, which infiltrated dozens of private-sector companies and think tanks as well as at least nine U.S. government agencies, was first discovered and publicized in mid-December.

The Biden administration in April announced sanctions, including the expulsion of Russian diplomats, in response to the SolarWinds hack and Russian interference in the 2020 U.

/>presidential election. Russia has denied wrongdoing.

Jennifer Rodgers, a lecturer at Columbia Law School, said office emails frequently contained all sorts of sensitive information, including case strategy discussions and names of confidential informants, when she was a federal prosecutor in New York.

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Olympic Latest: China's windsurfing gold is 20th of Olympics

TOKYO (AP) - The Latest on the Tokyo Olympics, which are taking place under heavy restrictions after a year´s delay because of the coronavirus pandemic:

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MEDAL ALERT

China won its 20th gold medal of the Tokyo Olympics when Lu Yunxiu edged Charlie Picon of France in women´s windsurfin

/>Lu finished the competition with 36 points to Picon´s 38. Emma Wilson of Britain took the bronze in sailing´s first medal of the Tokyo Games.

China leads all countries with the 20 golds, followed by Japan with 17 and the United States with 16. The United States has the most medals with 4
/>China has 42 and ROC, 34.

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Si, Oui, Hai: Interpreting joy and heartbreak at Tokyo Games

TOKYO (AP) - Ask him how many languages he speaks, and Alexandre Ponomarev replies: "If you mean to make myself understood, I've lost count."

Count 'e

/>Ponomarev speaks Russian, Ukranian, English, German, Spanish, French and Danish. And gets by in Swedish, Portuguese, Italian and Norwegian.

Ahh, but how about your Japanese?

"Muzukashi," replied Ponomarev, which means "difficult" in Japanese, and can be interpreted to mean he doesn't speak much.

OK, nobody's perfect.

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Bring in the kids: Estonian city targets youths for jabs

TARTU, Estonia (AP) - With her father in tow, 13-year-old Gloria Raudjarv marched through a vaccination center inside a sports hall in Estonia´s second-largest city and up to a nurse for her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

So far, around half of Tartu's teenagers from 12 to 17 have already received their first vaccine shot, and local health officials are working to reach 70% by the time school resumes on Sep

/>1.

"I really want to go to school already, we have been distance learning for so long," she said, gripping her vaccination certificate.

Two months after the European Medicines Agency recommended that the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech be expanded to children 12 to 15, large disparities in the access to vaccination are being seen for youths across Europ

/>Last week, the EU drug regulator also cleared the vaccine made by Moderna for the same age group.

While countries like Estonia, Denmark and France are actively encouraging families to vaccinate their children before the new school year begins, others such as Sweden and the United Kingdom have yet to begin mass vaccinations for those under 18.

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Glimpses of bygone era in English seaside holiday village

SHALDON, England (AP) - They are simple pleasures that hark back to analog, unplugged summer days: a book and a picnic blanket, a bucket and spade, fish and chips.

They are also the traditional trappings of the great British seaside holiday that is making a comeback amid foreign travel concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back in the day, as the eagerly awaited school summer break loomed on the horizon, one question dominated the playground: "Where are you off to on holiday?"

This was the ´70s, and time may have dimmed the memories, but I don´t recall any of the 30 children in my class saying they were heading oversea

/>I was part of the last generation for whom the British seaside holiday was still king.

Its heyday stretches back to Victorian times and probably peaked in the post-war years of the 1950s and 1960s. Full employment and annual paid leave gave the working and middle classes the financial clout to take a break on the coast each summer.

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