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Republican Party plans to pay for all Americans, $ 2400 for those earning less than $ 1.5 million, $ 500 for children
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed direct payments of $1,200 per person and $2,400 for couples as part of a sweeping Republican response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a copy of the legislation obtained by The Associated Press.
The GOP leader unveiled his plan Thursday as Congress raced to craft a $1 trillion rescue package to shore up households, healthcare and the U.S. economy amid the pandemic crisis and nationwide shutdown that’s hurtling the country toward a likely recession.
It’s an opening salvo in fast-track talks with Democrats as President Donald Trump urges Congress to “go big” to respond as Americans reel from the crisis.
Keeping paychecks flowing for idled workers as jobless claims skyrocket is a top priority for both the Republican and Democratic plans emerging from Congress.
McConnell’s proposal aligns with the Trump administration’s push to swiftly send checks to American households.
Under the GOP leader’s plan, the aid would be phased down at income thresholds of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple. Additionally, there would be $500 payments for each child.
But Democrats have their own proposals for ushering aid to Americans, and even McConnell’s GOP senators panned Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s idea of direct checks of $3,000 for a family of four — preferring instead to use the federal dollars to keep workers who are asked to stay home on the business payrolls.
“What I want is income, not one check,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., summing up the views of some exiting a long, private meeting of GOP senators on Capitol Hill. One or two checks “makes no sense to me,” he said.
“It’s not a check. It’s checks. It’s not a payment, it’s income,” Graham said. “The best thing for us to do is create an income stream.”
The swift-moving effort in an all-but-shuttered Capitol came as the first two lawmakers tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, others are self-isolating and the usually tradition-bound Congress faced calls to ease rules and allow remote voting.
Trump administration officials, including Mnuchin and economic adviser Larry Kudlow, are expected to return to Capitol Hill on Friday to launch bipartisan negotiations with Senate Democrats.
Vast government spending of untold sums is causing unease among GOP senators whose careers have been built on halting the flow of federal dollars and trying to halt rising debts.
But other Republicans said they had no choice but to provide a lifeline to Americans and small businesses.
The Treasury secretary said Thursday the checks would be direct-deposited into people’s accounts under the plan the Trump administration has proposed to Congress.
The payments would be $1,000 per adult and $500 per child so that a family of two parents and two children would receive $3,000, Mnuchin told Fox Business Network. The goal is to get that money out in three weeks, he said.
“That’s a lot of money for hard-working Americans,” Mnuchin said.
Republicans want to have small businesses send paychecks to workers being forced to stay home —through government loans that would not have to be repaid — to prevent employees being cast aside.
They also want to shore up industry. McConnell’s plan would provide $208 billion in loans and loan guarantees to distressed sectors of the economy, including $50 billion for commercial airlines and $8 billion for air cargo carriers, and $150 billion for other eligible businesses, but those loans would have to be paid back.
Democrats compiling their own priorities in the House and Senate suggest other ways to keep paychecks flowing in what Schumer called “employment insurance” — which he characterized as “unemployment insurance on steroids.”
At the same time, caring for the expected surge of sick Americans is a priority. Congress wants to ramp up production of medical supplies and rapidly erect temporary field hospitals under new authorities President Donald Trump invoked in the Defense Production Act.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged Trump to quickly use his new wartime authority to push manufacturers to start producing the medical supplies.
“There is not a day to lose,” Pelosi said in a statement. “We must put more testing, more protective equipment and more ventilators into the hands of our frontline workers immediately.”
The centerpiece of the White House effort is $500 billion to start issuing direct payments to Americans, starting early next month.
How to spend that money, though, remains a key question.
The Treasury Department proposed two $250 billion cash infusions to individuals: a first set of checks issued starting April 6, with a second wave by mid-May. Officials have previously said the money is expected to be allocated by income level, to exclude the super-wealthy.
Direct payments would go to U.S. citizens only, and would be “tiered based on income level and family size.” The two payments would be identical, with the second wave starting by May 18.
Meanwhile, industries of all kinds are lining up for help to avoid cratering the economy and devastating the home lives of their employees.
Groups representing hospitals, doctors and nurses are asking Congress for $100 billion to help the health care system respond to the challenge of COVID-19, which could involve providing treatment for tens of thousands of seriously ill people.
The total price tag is sure to grow beyond $1 trillion, lawmakers said.
Taken together, the administration plan promises half of the $1 trillion to families and individuals, with the other half used to prop up businesses and keep employees on payroll.
Trump has already signed into law a $100 billion-plus bill to boost testing for the coronavirus and guarantee paid sick leave for millions of workers hit by it. Earlier, Congress passed and Trump signed an initial $8.3 billion effort.
As Congress rushes to compile the sweeping economic rescue package, the biggest undertaking since the 2008 recession and financial crisis, in a matter of days, it also is considering its own way of doing business.
The Senate plans to remain in session until the emerging coronavirus bill passes, with weekend sessions possible. The House, which is on recess, won’t be recalled until it’s time to vote.
In the House, Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., and Ben McAdams, D-Utah, released statements saying they had tested positive for COVID-19 — the first two known cases in Congress. Several other lawmakers have cycled in and out of self-isolation after exposure to individuals who had later tested positive for the virus.
On Thursday, McAdams told NBC’s “Today” show the House should consider changing its rules to allow remote voting.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he shares lawmakers’ concerns about the potential risks of congregating in groups and is considering ways to “adjust our voting procedures” to follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations on social distancing.
Economists say the country is probably already in recession and the massive rescue package now being drafted would probably not be enough to stop millions of job losses.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.
Between the Old and New Testaments, the discipline of fasting is mentioned nearly 70 times, but data suggests it’s not something many Christians prioritize in their lives.
In 2014, the Barna Group released a study of Lent, the season preceding Easter and a time when people often abstain from something for religious reasons, and the Christian data-collecting agency found only 17% of adults practiced Lenten fasting in the last three years.
A Pew Research Center analysis from last year revealed just 27% of Christians overall participate in religious fasting, with Catholics leading the way at 40% and Protestants coming in far behind at 18%.
That lack of focus on fasting, Pastor Ronnie Floyd explained on a recent episode of CBN’s “Faith vs. Culture,” is due to a dearth of teaching on the subject.
“I really think spiritual leaders have neglected it for a lot of reasons,” he said. “And how do you neglect something, for example, that is mentioned in 57 verses of the Bible? It has 69 references of the word in those 57 verses as ‘fast’ and ‘fasting.’”
Noting each of those passages centers on abstaining specifically from food, Floyd asked, “How in the world could we not talk about that, especially when we know Jesus said, ‘When you give, when you pray, when you fast.’ He did not say, ‘If you give, and if you pray, and if you fast.’”
The Arkansas-based minister and former Southern Baptist Convention executive is the author of the newly released, “The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting: 12 Ways God Will Change Your Life.”
In all his years of studying fasting, Floyd said there remains “a mystery” to fasting.
“It’s about me bringing myself — surrendering myself to God — without any ties whatsoever at all,” he said. “And whatever [God] does in it, then I conform to that will. … People are very transactional with God, and obviously, Scripture talks about, ‘If you’ll do this, God will do this,’ and I believe that. The only thing we can do is we go in with God’s promises about things we’re praying about when we begin to fast.”
“It’s on God to choose to do what He does and wants to do, and then it’s up to us to conform our lives and submit to to the will of God,” he added.
Sources:faithwire
യുഎസിൽ ടിക്ടോക്കിനെ നിരോധിക്കുന്ന നിയമം ശരിവച്ച് സുപ്രീം കോടതി. ടിക്ടോക്കിന്റെ ചൈന ആസ്ഥാനമായുള്ള മാതൃ കമ്പനി ബൈറ്റ്ഡാൻസ് ഈ ഞായറാഴ്ചയോടെ പ്ലാറ്റ്ഫോം വിൽക്കുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ യുഎസിൽ ടിക് ടോക്ക് നിരോധിക്കപ്പെടും. യുഎസിൽ 170 ദശലക്ഷത്തിലധികം ഉപയോക്താക്കളുണ്ടെന്നാണ് ടിക്ടോക് അവകാശപ്പെടുന്നത്. നിരോധന നിയമം യുഎസ് ഭരണഘടന മുന്നോട്ടുവയ്ക്കുന്ന അഭിപ്രായ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യ സംരക്ഷണത്തെ ലംഘിക്കുന്നെന്ന് ടിക് ടോക്ക് വാദിച്ചെങ്കിലും രാജ്യത്തെ പരമോന്നത കോടതി ആ വാദം ഏകകണ്ഠമായി നിരസിച്ചു.
ടിക് ടോക്ക് ആപ്പിന്റെ യുഎസ് പതിപ്പ് വാങ്ങാനായി ഒരാളെ കണ്ടത്തുക അല്ലാത്ത പക്ഷം ആപ്പ് സ്റ്റോറുകളിൽ നിന്നും വെബ് ഹോസ്റ്റിംഗ് സേവനങ്ങളിൽ നിന്നും നീക്കം ചെയ്യുക എന്നാണ് കോടതി നിലപാട്. തിങ്കളാഴ്ച അധികാരമേറ്റെടുക്കുന്ന ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപിന്റെ ഭരണകൂടമാണ് നിയമം നടപ്പിലാക്കേണ്ടതെന്ന് വൈറ്റ് ഹൗസ് പറഞ്ഞു. ഒട്ടും വൈകാതെ തന്നെ തീരുമാനമെടുക്കുമെന്ന് ട്രംപും അറിയിച്ചിരുന്നു.
ട്രംപിന്റെ സത്യപ്രതിജ്ഞാ ചടങ്ങിൽ ടിക് ടോക്ക് സിഇഒ ഷൗ സി ച്യൂപങ്കെടുക്കുമെന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു. ആപ്പുമായി പ്രവർത്തിക്കാനും അത് യുഎസിൽ ലഭ്യമാക്കാനുമുള്ള ട്രംപിൻ്റെ പ്രതിബദ്ധതയ്ക്ക് സി ച്യൂ നന്ദി അറിയിച്ചിരുന്നു.
ചൈനീസ് സർക്കാരുമായുള്ള ബന്ധത്തെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള ആശങ്കകൾ കാരണം, ഡെമോക്രാറ്റിക്, റിപ്പബ്ലിക്കൻ നിയമനിർമ്മാതാക്കൾ കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷമാണ് വീഡിയോ ഷെയറിംഗ് ആപ്പായ ടിക്ടോക് നിരോധിക്കാൻനിയമം പാസാക്കിയത്.എന്നാൽ ബീജിംഗിന് ഒരു വിവരവും കൈമാറുന്നില്ല എന്ന് ടിക് ടോക്ക് ആവർത്തിച്ച് വ്യക്തമാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com
The US Supreme Court has upheld a law that bans TikTok in the US unless its China-based parent company ByteDance sells the platform by this Sunday.
TikTok had challenged the law, arguing it would violate free speech protections for the more than 170 million users it says it has in the US.
But that argument was rejected unanimously by the nation’s highest court, meaning TikTok must now find an approved buyer for the US version of the app or face removal from app stores and web hosting services.
The White House said it would fall to incoming President Donald Trump’s administration, which takes office on Monday, to enforce the law. Trump vowed to make a decision in the “not too distant future”.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with other high-profile guests, said he wanted to thank the incoming president for his commitment to work with the app and keep it available in the US.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers voted to ban the video-sharing app last year, over concerns about its links to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly stated it does not share information with Beijing.
Passed in April last year, the law allows TikTok owner ByteDance until 19 January 2025 to sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avert an outright ban.
It would mean that from Sunday, Apple and Google will no longer offer the app to new users or provide any security updates to current users – which could kill it off eventually.
ByteDance has vowed not to sell TikTok and said it planned to shut US operations of the app on Sunday unless there is a reprieve.
The Supreme Court ruled without any dissenting opinion that the law did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection of free speech.
The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that upheld the statute after it was challenged by ByteDance.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the Supreme Court said.
“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
Pakistan — An International Christian Concern (ICC) analysis of data from the United States Commission on Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found that 20 Christians have remained behind bars in Pakistan for a total of 134 years for the crime of blasphemy.
USCIRF is a U.S. governmental commission that monitors religious freedom rights abroad. Due to the secrecy surrounding many foreign governments, USCIRF maintains that “it is difficult to obtain, confirm, and verify comprehensive information about all victims. It is also impossible to capture all incidents of victimization.”
Between 2002 and 2023, the Christians were detained or imprisoned in separate cases for alleged crimes, including “insulting the Prophet Muhammad,” a crime punishable by death under Pakistani law, “desecrating the Quran,” and “intending to outrage religious feelings.” All 20 remain incarcerated to this day.
Ten of the 20 Christians have received their sentence, with nine being sentenced to death and one individual receiving life imprisonment. The other 10 remain jailed as they wait for verdicts in their cases. Though death sentences don’t result in actual executions in Pakistan, they leave the accused languishing in prison for years or even decades.
One of the Christians, Asif Pervaiz, reportedly sent a text message to his manager at a factory that was deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad. Pervaiz was detained in 2013 and sentenced in 2020. The court order in Pervaiz’s case, reportedly viewed by Reuters, stated that the Christian “shall be hanged by his neck till his death” for “misusing” his phone.
In another case, friends Adil Babar and Simon Nadeem, both teenagers at the time of their arrest in 2023, were detained for allegedly calling a dog “Muhammad Ali.” According to USCIRF, they were charged with “insulting the Prophet Muhammad” and are awaiting sentencing.
Christians often feel the brunt of Pakistan’s stifling laws against religious freedom. According to ICC’s new Global Persecution Index, its latest report on Christian persecution around the globe, Pakistan’s restrictions on religious freedoms are expanding and growing more oppressive.
“Despite years of international advocacy to overturn or soften these [blasphemy] laws, Pakistan has only doubled down on the law, with legislation to increase punishments for blasphemy passing handily in the legislature in 2023,” the report stated.
Pakistan’s blasphemy laws allow authorities and mobs of Muslims to imprison, threaten, and attack Christians for their faith.
According to one ICC staffer, “The persecution of Christians in Pakistan, whether due to blasphemy or forced conversions, is increasingly common, and it often goes unpunished. Persecution will continue to increase until the persecutors are held accountable under the law.”
Sources:persecution
Pastor Helps Demystify the Meaning of Fasting: ‘Spiritual Leaders Have Neglected It’
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