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President Joe Biden has called on states and local authorities in the US to offer residents $100 (£71) to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

State and local governments will be able to access a $350bn (£250bn) coronavirus aid fund to pay for the incentives, the US Treasury has promised.

Federal workers and onsite contractors will also have to prove they are vaccinated, or else wear face masks, be socially distanced, and do regular testing.

Military personnel will have the COVID-19 vaccination added to the jabs they are already required to have.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the pace of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccinations in the United States during remarks in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 29, 2021
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US President Joe Biden is getting tough on federal workers who have not been vaccinated

Mr Biden said he wanted America’s four million federal employees to set an example to private employers and other citizens.

COVID-19 cases are rising rapidly in the US, fuelled by the highly-transmissible Delta variant, which is particularly dangerous for those who have not been vaccinated.

Mr Biden aimed to have 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by 4 July, but the latest figure shows 69.3% are partially vaccinated and about 60% are fully vaccinated.

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“It’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Mr Biden said in a White House address on Thursday.

“People are dying who don’t have to die.”

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University Law School, was optimistic that Mr Biden’s plan could work.

“People would much rather roll up their sleeves and get a jab, than undergo weekly testing and universal masking,” he said.

“In many ways, this is really not a mandate, it’s giving workers a choice.”

Mr Biden wants private businesses to follow his lead by imposing burdens for those who are not vaccinated.

Some larger businesses are already there: Facebook and Google have announced employees will have to prove they have been vaccinated before returning to work.

Airlines Delta and United are requiring new employees to show proof of vaccination, and finance firms Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley want workers to disclose their vaccination status but have stopped short of requiring them to be inoculated.

Jeff Hyman, a Chicago-based business author and recruiter for start-up companies, said: “I think we’ve reached this tipping point, and Mr Biden’s announcement will provide a lot of air cover for companies and boards of directors who have difficult decisions facing them.”

The White House is no longer gently encouraging vaccinations – analysis by Martha Kelner, US correspondent

We are at a pivotal point in the pandemic in the US with the Delta variant taking a firm grip and sending hospitalisations soaring in certain areas, prompting this urgent intervention from President Biden.

This was an address to the nation from the president, but aimed specifically at the unvaccinated, to whom he implored: “You don’t have to die”.

The take-up of the vaccine is divided along political and geographical lines, with just 34% of people in Alabama fully vaccinated, compared with 68% of people in Vermont.

Until now, the Biden administration had been content to allow corporate America to take the lead on mandatory vaccination and many Silicon Valley companies, like Facebook and Google, have banned employees from the office unless they get vaccinated.

Other companies have said employees can either get the vaccine or they will get fired.

But the dramatic rise in hospitalisations in the last few weeks has led to a shift in policy from the White House, which is no longer gently encouraging vaccinations but taking a significant step towards a firm order.

But the plan will not go through without opposition.

More than 100 bills have been introduced at state level banning employers from requiring vaccination and at least six states have approved these bills.

Some unions are also against the idea.

Brian Rothenberg, spokesman for United Auto Workers, said the union supported the vaccine but was against requiring people to have it.

Larry Cosme, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, had a similar view, saying: “Forcing people to undertake a medical procedure is not the American way and is a clear civil rights violation no matter how proponents may seek to justify it.”

The Justice Department has said federal laws take precedence and none of those forbid employers from requiring vaccinations.

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Court rules woman, 73, who took part in Charles Manson killings should be released on parole

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Court rules woman, 73, who took part in Charles Manson killings should be released on parole

A 73-year-old woman who took part in two killings on the orders of cult leader Charles Manson in 1969 should be released from prison on parole, a Californian appeals court has ruled.

Leslie Van Houten is serving a life sentence for helping Manson and other followers kill Leno LaBianca, a grocer in Los Angeles, and his wife Rosemary.

Van Houten was 19 at the time.

Mr LaBianca’s body was carved up during the killing and the couple’s blood was smeared on the walls.

The killings came the day after other Manson followers, not including Van Houten, killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others in violence that shocked Los Angeles and the nation.

Charles Manson is escorted to his arraignment on conspiracy-murder charges in connection with the Sharon Tate murder case in 1969
Pic:AP
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Charles Manson is escorted to his arraignment on conspiracy-murder charges in connection with the Sharon Tate murder case in 1969. Pic: AP

Van Houten, then one of Manson’s youngest followers, has spent more than 50 years in prison.

The appeal court’s ruling reverses an earlier decision by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who rejected parole for Van Houten in 2020.

She has been recommended for parole five times since 2016. All of those recommendations were rejected by either Mr Newsom or former California governor Jerry Brown.

Mr Newsom has said that Van Houten still poses a danger to society. In rejecting her parole, he said she offered an inconsistent and inadequate explanation for her involvement with Manson at the time of the killings.

Leslie Van Houten in a Los Angeles lockup in 1971
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Leslie Van Houten in a Los Angeles lockup in 1971. Pic: AP
Leslie Van Houten, a Charles Manson follower, sits in court during her parole hearing at the California Institution for Women at Frontera in 1986
Pic:AP
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Leslie Van Houten sits in court during her parole hearing at the California Institution for Women at Frontera in 1986. Pic: AP

But the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles has now ruled 2-1 to reverse Mr Newsom’s decision, writing there is “no evidence to support the Governor’s conclusions” about Van Houten’s fitness for parole.

It marks the first time a court has overruled a governor’s denial of parole to a Manson follower, according to the Los Angeles Times.

However, California Attorney General Rob Bonta could still ask the California Supreme Court to stop her release.

Neither his office nor Mr Newsom’s immediately responded to requests for comment on whether they would do so, according to local reports.

Nancy Tetreault, Van Houten’s lawyer, said she expects Mr Bonta to ask the state’s supreme court to review the court’s decision in a process that could take years.

Manson, who died in prison in 2017 at age 83, instructed his mostly young and female followers to murder seven people in August 1969 in what prosecutors said was part of a plan to spark a race war.

Although Manson, one of the 20th century’s most notorious criminals, did not personally kill any of the seven victims, he was found guilty of ordering their murders.

Read more:
Manson’s life and crimes

Charles Manson pictured in 2017
Pic:California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation/AP
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Charles Manson pictured in 2017. Pic: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation/AP

The death sentences given to Manson and his followers were commuted to life in prison after capital punishment was ruled unconstitutional in 1972.

Van Houten’s 1971 original conviction and death sentence was initially overturned on appeal, but she was retried, convicted and sentenced to prison in 1978.

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Ron DeSantis calls Trump’s COVID lockdown criticisms ‘ridiculous’ at his first US presidential campaign event

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Ron DeSantis calls Trump's COVID lockdown criticisms 'ridiculous' at his first US presidential campaign event

Ron DeSantis has begun his bid to become the Republican candidate for US president by claiming he is America’s saviour and calling some of frontrunner Donald Trump’s criticisms “ridiculous”.

The Florida governor wants to be his party’s candidate to challenge Joe Biden in next year’s presidential election.

His key rival for the GOP nomination is former president Mr Trump, who has a big lead in opinion polls and an unbreakable grip on the party, according to some commentators.

At his first event as a candidate, Mr DeSantis, 44, told around 500 people at an evangelical Christian church in Iowa on Tuesday the US is “going in the wrong direction. We can see it and we can feel it.”

His clearest criticisms of the frontrunner came when speaking to reporters afterwards.

Promising to “fight back” against the former president, he rubbished Mr Trump’s suggestion that New York’s pandemic response was better than Florida’s, calling it “detached from reality.

“That criticism is ridiculous. But it is an indication that the former president would double down on his lockdowns.

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“When we disagreed [while Mr Trump was president], I never bashed him publicly because he was taking all this incoming from the media, the left, and even some Republicans.

“And the whole collusion was a total farce. And he was treated very, very poorly. And that bothered me, and it still bothers me to be honest.

20-year-old Jack Spoonmore of Adel, Iowa holds a Ron DeSantis campaign sign
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Supporters outside the DeSantis rally in Des Moines

“So, I never really would air those disagreements. Well, now he’s attacking me over some of these disagreements, but I think he’s doing it in a way that the voters are going to side with me.”

Read more:
Ron DeSantis as American president is exciting for some, but frightening for others
The controversial Florida governor taking on Mickey Mouse and Donald Trump

Republican Florida Governor Ron Desantis arrives with his wife Casey to kick off his campaign for the 2024 Republican U.S. presidential nomination
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Ron Desantis and his wife Casey at the Iowa event

The governor’s appearance came six days after a stumbling online announcement to launch his bid.

Mr DeSantis becomes the latest in a crowded Republican contest to decide whether the party will move on from Trump in 2024 as it aims to retake the White House from Democrat Joe Biden.

Those already in the GOP field include Trump, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina senator Tim Scott, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson.

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Sometimes described as “Trump without the chaos”, Mr DeSantis has nicknamed Florida “the place where woke
goes to die” and taken on the Disney Corporation after it opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early years.

Mr DeSantis’ campaign funds could increase by up to $80m (£64,724m) after a department in his own administration changed state rules, NBC said.

A state-level political committee Mr DeSantis led for the past five years, known as Friends of Ron DeSantis, is widely expected to transfer the sum to a federal super PAC called Never Back Down backing his bid for president.

The change overturns at least five years of state election rules, NBC said.

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Prince Harry: US court to hear challenge over Duke of Sussex’s visa following drug revelations

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Prince Harry: US court to hear challenge over Duke of Sussex's visa following drug revelations

A federal judge will hear an appeal from a conservative think tank to unseal Prince Harry’s US immigration records following revelations in his book that he took drugs.

Nile Gardner, of the Heritage Foundation, tweeted on Tuesday a hearing on his organisation’s suit will be heard on 6 June.

He wrote that the “Prince Harry immigration records case will be held in Washington, DC Federal Court in front of a US Federal Judge”.

He also announced the proceedings will be open to the press.

Past drug use can be grounds to deny a visa application for the US.

The Heritage Foundation is trying to discover if the revelations in the Duke of Sussex’s memoirs Spare were documented in his visa application.

In the book, it was revealed Harry had taken cocaine, smoked marijuana and tried magic mushrooms.

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It comes amid an ongoing High Court trial involving the duke, in which he is bringing a contested claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over allegations of unlawful information gathering.

He is also awaiting rulings over whether similar cases against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), and News Group Newspapers (NGN) – which publishes The Sun – can go ahead.

A judgment is also expected in the duke’s libel claim against ANL over an article on his case against the Home Office.

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