President Joe Biden is promising a majority of elementary schools will be open five days a week by the end of his first 100 days in office, restating his goal after his administration came under fire when aides said schools would be considered open if they held in-person learning just one day a week. Biden’s comments, during a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, marked his clearest statement yet on school reopenings. Biden had pledged in December to reopen “the majority of our schools” in his first 100 days but has since faced increasing questions about how he would define and achieve that goal, with school districts operating under a patchwork of different virtual and in-person learning arrangements nationwide.Joel Balcita comforts his daughter Sadie just before she starts her first day of grade 1 at P.S. 130 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, Sep. 29, 2020.”I said open a majority of schools in K through eighth grade, because they’re the easiest to open, the most needed to be open in terms of the impact on children and families having to stay home,” Biden said.  He said comments by White House press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this month that one day a week of in-person learning would meet his goal were “a mistake in the communication.”  Asked when the nation would see kindergarten through eighth grades back to in-person learning five days a week, Biden said, “We’ll be close to that at the end of the first 100 days.” He said he expected many schools would push to stay open through the summer, but suggested reopening would take longer for high schools due to a higher risk of contagion among older students. The town hall touched on a range of issues related to the coronavirus, from protections for small businesses to the administration’s vaccination plans. Biden said that by the end of July there would be 600 million doses of the vaccine available, enough to vaccinate every American. But with many of his answers, he sought to emphasize the need for funding to achieve his goals. The town hall was aimed at selling his $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package directly to the American people, part of an effort designed in part to put pressure on Republican lawmakers and refocus Congress on speedy passage of the bill now that his predecessor’s impeachment trial is behind him.U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Feb. 16, 2021.Biden underscored how much he wants to move beyond Donald Trump on Tuesday night, repeatedly refusing to talk about the former president and saying at one point, “I’m tired of talking about Donald Trump.” “For four years, all that’s been in the news is Trump. For the next four years, I want to make sure all the news is the American people,” he said, to applause from the audience. During the town hall, Biden also offered a flavor of the moderate stance that helped win him purple states like Wisconsin in 2020. He resisted a questioner’s request for his administration to embrace the progressive goal of forgiving $50,000 in student loan debt, reiterating his commitment to forgiving just $10,000. He suggested one of the ways to improve policing was to provide more funding to police departments, running counter to calls from some progressives to defund the police. He also said he was optimistic about passing legislation to study police reforms. He also weighed in on the immigration bill his administration is expected to unveil this week. Biden affirmed that a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants is essential for any bill he’ll support, but also suggested he’d be open to a piecemeal approach to immigration reform rather than a comprehensive bill, if necessary. “There’s things I would do by itself, but not at the expense of saying I’m never going to do the other,” he said. Biden seemed to revel in his first opportunity for extended interaction with ordinary Americans since the inauguration. Comforting a second-grader who hasn’t been able to go school and was worried about getting the virus, Biden told the girl that children are less likely to get infected, adding, “I wouldn’t worry about it, baby, I promise you.”U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Feb. 16, 2021.He also offered an intimate description of living in the White House, expressing his discomfort with being tended to by staff. With about a month of White House living under his belt, Biden joked that he wakes up in the morning, looks at his wife, Jill, and asks, “Where the hell are we?” Biden stressed that his massive virus aid bill already has broad public support and noted some analysts have argued in favor of significant government spending to help boost the economy. “Now is the time we should be spending,” Biden said. The House is expected to vote on the measure next week. Biden landed on a slick, snow-covered tarmac to below-freezing weather about 90 minutes before the evening program. He took questions from a small audience of Democrats, Republicans and independents invited for a small, socially distant gathering at the historic Pabst Theater. Biden’s trip to Wisconsin, a political battleground state he narrowly won last November, comes as coronavirus infection rates and deaths are falling after the nation endured the two deadliest months so far of the pandemic. The White House is also reporting an increase in the administration of vaccines throughout the country after a slow start. But Biden has stressed that the nation still has a long road ahead as thousands of Americans die each day in the worst U.S. public health crisis in a century. The virus has killed more than 485,000, and newly emerging variants are complicating the response effort.  The Biden administration is trying to get enough Americans vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity” and allow life to return to a semblance of normalcy. But it’s unclear when the vaccination will be widely accessible to Americans.  Biden’s team hopes funding provided in the coronavirus aid bill will help accelerate vaccination production and distribution. His team also argues that the federal government must keep open the spigot of government relief to help people who are suffering economically and to get the country back to pre-pandemic employment levels. But many GOP lawmakers continue to bristle at the price tag of a package that calls for sending $1,400 checks to most Americans as well as assistance for businesses, schools and homeowners and renters. 
…

It’s as if the world has been turned upside-down, or at least its weather. You can blame the increasingly familiar polar vortex, which has brought a taste of the Arctic to places where winter often requires no more than a jacket. Around the North Pole, winter’s ultra-cold air is usually kept bottled up 15 to 30 miles high. That’s the polar vortex, which spins like a whirling top at the top of the planet. But occasionally something slams against the top, sending the cold air escaping from its Arctic home and heading south. It’s been happening more often, and scientists are still not completely sure why, but they suggest it’s a mix of natural random weather and human-caused climate change. This particular polar vortex breakdown has been a whopper. Meteorologists call it one of the biggest, nastiest and longest-lasting ones they’ve seen, and they’ve been watching since at least the 1950 s. This week’s weather is part of a pattern stretching back to January. “It’s been a major breakdown,” said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod. “It really is the cause of all of these crazy weather events in the Northern Hemisphere.” “It’s been unusual for a few weeks now — very, very crazy,” Francis said. “Totally topsy-turvy.” Record cold in warmer placesRecord subzero temperatures in Texas and Oklahoma knocked millions off the power grid and into deep freezes. A deadly tornado hit North Carolina. Other parts of the South saw thunder snow and reports of something that seemed like a snow tornado but wasn’t. Snow fell hard not just in Chicago, but in Greece and Turkey, where it’s far less normal. Record cold also hit Europe this winter, earning the name the “Beast from the East.” “We’ve had everything you could possibly think of in the past week,” said Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini, noting that parts of the U.S. have been 50 degrees (28 degrees Celsius) colder than normal. “It’s been a wild ride.”A man walks at Filopapos hill as snow falls, with the ancient Acropolis hill and the Parthenon temple, in background, Athens, on Feb. 16, 2021.It was warmer Tuesday in parts of Greenland, Alaska, Norway and Sweden than in Texas and Oklahoma. And somehow people in South Florida have been complaining about record warmth that is causing plants to bloom early. In the eastern Greenland town of Tasiilaq, it’s been about 18 degrees (10 degrees Celsius) warmer than normal, which “is a bit of a nuisance,” said Lars Rasmussen, a museum curator at the local cultural center. “The warm weather makes dog sledding and driving on snow scooters a bit of a hassle.” Several meteorologists squarely blamed the polar vortex breakdown or disruption. These used to happen once every other year or so, but research shows they are now close to happening yearly, if not more, said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston. The spinning top gets toppledThe polar vortex spends winter in its normal place until an atmospheric wave — the type that brings weather patterns here and there — slams into it. Normally such waves don’t do much to the strong vortex, but occasionally the wave has enough energy to push the spinning top over, and that’s when the frigid air breaks loose, Gensini said. Sometimes, the cold air mass splits into chunks — an event that usually is connected to big snowstorms in the U.S. East, like a few weeks ago. Other times, it just moves to a new place, which often means bitter cold in parts of Europe. This time it did both, Cohen said. There was a split of the vortex in early January and another in mid-January. Then at the end of January came the displacement that caused cold air to spill into Europe and much of the United States, Cohen said. Both Cohen and Francis said this should be considered not one but three polar vortex disruptions, though some scientists lump it all together.  While both the vortex and the wave that bumped it are natural, and polar vortex breakdowns happen naturally, there is likely an element of climate change at work, but it is not a sure thing that science agrees on, Cohen, Gensini and Francis said. Warming in the Arctic, with shrinking sea ice, is goosing the atmospheric wave in two places, giving it more energy when it strikes the polar vortex, making it more likely to disrupt the vortex, Cohen said. “There is evidence that climate change can weaken the polar vortex, which allows more chances for frigid Arctic air to ooze into the Lower 48,” said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd. Pattern has been observed for decadesThere were strong polar vortex disruptions and cold outbreaks like this in the 1980s, Cohen said. “I think it’s historic and generational,” Cohen said. “I don’t think it’s unprecedented. This Arctic outbreak has to be thought of in context. The globe is much warmer than it used to be.” It also feels colder because just before the outbreak, much of the United States was experiencing a milder-than-normal winter, with the ground not even frozen on Christmas Day in Chicago, Gensini said. The globe as a whole is about the same temperature as the average was from 1979 to 2000 for this time of year, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. That’s still warmer than the 20th-century average, and scientists don’t think that this month has much of a chance to be colder than the 20th century average for the globe, something that hasn’t happened since the early 1980s. One reason is that it will soon warm back up to normal when the polar vortex returns to its regular home, Cohen said. As for people thinking this cold outbreak disproves global warming, scientists say that’s definitely not so. Even with climate change, “we’ll still have winter,” said North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello. “What we’re seeing here is we’re pretty unprepared for almost every type of extreme weather. It’s pretty sad.” 
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will be using his first ministerial meeting with NATO allies Wednesday to try to repair the frayed relationship, acknowledging that long-standing ties were, at times, strained under former U.S. President Donald Trump.The change in tone and approach, as senior U.S. defense officials described it Tuesday, comes as the United States and NATO are staring down major decisions on force levels in Afghanistan and on how to best confront powers like Russia and China, which remain set on bending international norms in their favor.But the officials said the Biden administration believes the ability to make progress on any of the pressing issues facing the alliance depends on putting the relationship back on solid footing.”It is fair to say that over the last four years, the public perception of the U.S. commitment and our intent have been a little bit unclear,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters ahead of the start of two days of virtual meetings.Austin “is really focused on trying to revitalize our relationship with the alliance,” the official said, adding the secretary intends to assure NATO that Washington’s commitment to mutual defense, referred to as Article 5 under the treaty, “remains ironclad.”NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a media conference ahead of a NATO defense minister’s meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Feb. 15, 2021.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg signaled a desire to reset the U.S.-NATO relationship earlier this month.“There’s no denying that over the last four years, we had some challenging times. And there’s no secret that also I had some difficult discussions with the former president,” he said. “It is in the security interests of both Europe and North America, the United States, to start again.”Yet while the Biden administration and NATO seek to mend any lingering rifts, they are being confronted by their first major decision — what to do in Afghanistan, where the U.S. faces a May deadline for withdrawing its remaining 2,500 troops from the country.Afghanistan“There have not been any decisions on Afghanistan troop levels,” the senior defense official said, calling the NATO ministerial a chance for the U.S. to consult with alliance members, who have another 7,000 troops stationed there.”The United States and NATO went into Afghanistan together. We will adjust together. And if the time is right, we will leave together,” the official added, echoing comments from the FILE – A convoy of U.S. troops, a part of NATO’s reinforcement of its eastern flank, drive from Germany to Orzysz in northeast Poland, March 28, 2017.US forces in EuropeWashington’s NATO allies are also going to want to hear about the fate of U.S. troops currently stationed across Europe.Under the direction of Trump, the U.S. announced last July it would be pulling about 12,000 troops from Germany, sending some of them to Belgium, Italy and Poland, while bringing the rest back home. Under Biden, that plan has been put on hold. And Washington is likely to assure allies that at the least, U.S. forces will not be pulling back.”I would in no way expect to see anything that would look like, say, a withdrawal,” a senior U.S. defense official said. “The posture in Europe is critical to U.S. national security interests.”RussiaAlong with assuring U.S. European allies of a continued U.S. presence, defense officials will also prioritize standing up to Russia.“Revitalizing the U.S. relationship with the alliance, a change in our tone and approach, a desire to work with our allies and partners … that is all inextricably tied to what we have seen from Russia,” the senior defense official said.Defense spendingOne area where there is likely to be some degree of continuity from the Trump administration to the Biden administration is on defense spending.Pentagon officials said Tuesday while they are appreciative of the NATO allies who have made good on the alliance-wide pledge for all members to spend 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, it is not enough.”We expect all allies to live up to this commitment,” the senior defense official said. “There’s more work to be done … you’re going to very much hear that.”VOA Afghan service contributed to this report. 
…

Amy Cooper, the white woman arrested last year for calling 911 on a Black birdwatcher in New York’s Central Park, had her criminal case thrown out Tuesday after completing a diversionary counseling program that prosecutors said was meant to educate her on the harm of her actions. Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said Manhattan prosecutors were satisfied with Cooper’s participation in the program — described as an alternative, restorative justice solution — and were not seeking to pursue the case any further. Such outcomes are standard for first-time offenders facing misdemeanor charges, Illuzzi said. Judge Anne Swern, presiding over the matter by video because of the coronavirus pandemic, agreed to dismiss the charge of filing a false police report and said she would seal Cooper’s case file, in accordance with state law. The confrontation, captured on video the same day George Floyd died while in Minneapolis police custody, drew worldwide attention and was seen by many as a stark example of everyday racism. Reaction from birdwatcherChristian Cooper, the birdwatcher who recorded the video and was the subject of Amy Cooper’s 911 call, said he was caught off guard and learned of the dismissal only when The Associated Press called him shortly thereafter. Illuzzi said he declined to participate in the matter. There is no relation between Christian Cooper and Amy Cooper. Christian Cooper later issued a statement highlighting what he said was another racial injustice, saying he was “far more outraged” by the U.S. Congress denying statehood to the mostly nonwhite District of Columbia “than by anything Amy Cooper did.” “That gross racial injustice could be fixed by Congress now, today, and that’s what people should be focused on — not last year’s events in Central Park,” Christian Cooper said. Amy Cooper’s lawyer, Robert Barnes, praised prosecutors for a “thorough and honest inquiry” into the allegations and said he agreed with the decision to dismiss the case. “We thank them for their integrity, and agree with the outcome,” Barnes said. “Many others rushed to the wrong conclusion based on inadequate investigation, and for some, there may be legal consequences coming.” 911 callAmy Cooper, 41, drew widespread condemnation and was fired from her job as a portfolio manager at investment firm Franklin Templeton after frantically calling 911 on May 25 to claim she was being threatened by “an African American man” who had confronted her for walking her dog without a leash. When police called Amy Cooper back in an attempt to locate her in the park, she falsely claimed the man, Christian Cooper, had “tried to assault her,” Illuzzi said. The second call was not recorded on video, Illuzzi said. It was previously reported incorrectly that Cooper was the one who called 911 again. Illuzzi said that when officers arrived, Christian Cooper was gone and Amy Cooper admitted he hadn’t tried to assault her. Illuzzi said Amy Cooper’s false claim could have led to a physical confrontation between police and Christian Cooper if they had gotten to him first.  “The simple principle is: One cannot use the police to threaten another and, in this case, in a racially offensive and charged manner,” Illuzzi said. Amy Cooper’s diversionary program included education about racial equality and five therapy sessions focused on making her appreciate that racial identities shape our lives, but that they should not be used to cause harm, Illuzzi said. The prosecutor said Amy Cooper’s therapist described it as a “moving experience” and that she learned “a lot in their sessions together.” Criticism of dismissalTo some, the dismissal of Amy Cooper’s case after a series of counseling sessions felt like a slap on the wrist — and a slap in the face.  Eliza Orlins, a public defender who is running to replace Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., tweeted: “This isn’t surprising. This is how the system was designed to function — to protect the privileged from accountability.” Ernest Owens, a prominent Black journalist, tweeted: “White privilege, 2021.” In the video posted on social media, Christian Cooper claimed Amy Cooper’s cocker spaniel was “tearing through the plantings” in the Ramble, a secluded section of Central Park popular with birdwatchers, and told her she should go to another part of the park. When she refused, he pulled out dog treats, causing her to scream at him to not come near her dog. Amy Cooper also warned him she would summon police unless he stopped recording. “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” Amy Cooper is heard saying in the video as she pulls down her face mask and struggles to control her dog. “Please call the cops,” said Christian Cooper. “There’s an African American man, I’m in Central Park, he is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. … Please send the cops immediately!” she said during the 911 call before the recording stops. Amy Cooper’s 911 call inspired New York lawmakers to pass a law making it easier to sue a person who calls police on someone “without reason” because of their background, including race and national origin. San Francisco lawmakers passed a similar law. Amid the backlash, Amy Cooper released an apology through a public relations service, saying she “reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions.” 
 
…

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will be speaking with Oprah Winfrey, their first major television interview since quitting royal duties and buying a home last year in the U.S.The 90-minute “Oprah With Meghan and Harry: A CBS Primetime Special” will air March 7, CBS announced Monday. Winfrey knows the couple well. She attended their wedding in 2018 and lives near them in Montecito, California.”Winfrey will speak with Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex, in a wide-ranging interview, covering everything from stepping into life as a Royal, marriage, motherhood, philanthropic work to how she is handling life under intense public pressure,” according to CBS. “Later, the two are joined by Prince Harry as they speak about their move to the United States and their future hopes and dreams for their expanding family.”On Sunday, a spokesperson for Meghan and Harry confirmed that they were expecting a second child. Their first son, Archie, was born in 2019.
 
…