Clean house

WORKING ORDER

According to CNN, Joe Biden will today sign a presidential memorandum to “reverse restrictions on abortion access domestically and abroad imposed and expanded by the Trump administration” — specifically he will be rescinding a ban on government funding for foreign nonprofits that perform or promote abortions, aka the “Mexico City Policy”.

Biden will also sign orders to reopen federal marketplaces selling Affordable Care Act health plans, and lower recent barriers to joining Medicaid, The Washington Post reports.

Democrats also reintroduced legislation to bring America’s hourly minimum wage from a miserly US$7.25 to $15 — incrementally, mind you, with a final date of 2025, after which the wage would be tied with indexation (or, y’know, Republicans take the White House and nix it entirely) — while Biden will tomorrow sign orders expanding refugee intakes from Trump’s historically-low figures and establish a taskforce to reunite migrant families separated under the Trump administration, a policy NBC notes he pledged to sign on day one of this presidency.

On the other side of the aisle, Republicans have mostly gone silent after CNN revealed QAnon conspiracy theorist and new House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene repeatedly indicated support over Facebook for executing prominent Democrats in 2018 and 2019, and, separately, filmed herself confronting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg. The publication’s fact check finds the far-right conspiracy theorist has put out at least 11 false claims this months over the Capitol Hill siege, election results, Trump’s Twitter ban, and more.

PS: According to NBC, a family foundation linked to Biden’s new senior director for cybersecurity, Anne Neuberger, donated US$500,000 to Washington’s largest pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.

COURT OFF-GUARD

According to The Age, the first group of tennis players to finish hotel quarantine have left their accommodation overnight — it’s a process expected to last until Sunday, which means some players will actually exceed their 14 days of quarantine.

The news comes as Australia extends its travel-bubble suspension with New Zealand for another three days as the number of cases who had quarantined at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland grows to three, while ABC reports hotel quarantine will also be extended amid fears 12 arrivals had been staying at the Pullman at the same time as new cases.

In vaccine news, the BBC explains that German officials have announced AstraZeneca’s drug should only be given to people aged under 65, citing “insufficient data” over its efficacy for older people, while The Australian ($) notes that a representative for Pfizer, in the face of a possible export ban from the EU, has told the Senate COVID-19 inquiry the company may switch manufacturing to the US.

Curiously, CSL declined to appear at the hearing because, according to The Guardian, it said it was too busy making 50 million AstraZeneca vaccines to explain its role in the supply deal.

PS: On the economic front, The Australian ($) also reports that Australian Prudential Regulation Authority data due to be released today shows households and small businesses are now paying back more than 80% of the almost $250 billion in loans deferred at the height of the pandemic.

UNCOMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT

Finally, Anthony Albanese has hit back at suggestions that his plan to swap energy and health spokespeople Mark Butler and Chris Bowen, respectively, signals a retreat on climate policy, with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting the move is allegedly designed to symbolically shift attention to jobs creation. Albanese’s comments come after he unveiled the new shadow cabinet, with deputy Richard Marles the apparent winner with a COVID-19 super-portfolio that includes national reconstruction, employment skills, small business and science.

They also come after Energy Minister Angus Taylor all but confirmed his plans to build a gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley ($), because why would the Morrison government not throw more taxpayer funding at fossil fuels when its already on track to miss global Paris commitments?

But because investors aren’t entirely wedded to coal and gas at a point the earth exceeds 1.1 degrees of global warming, RenewEconomy reports that network distribution company CitiPower and not-for-profit Yarra Energy Foundation are planning to roll out community-scale batteries that act as “solar sponges” in areas of high rooftop PV across Melbourne.

PS: In a telling moment for Taylor’s plan, new US climate envoy John Kerry has rejected building out gas infrastructure in part because it runs the risk of creating stranded assets in a low-carbon economy.