AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST

Biden aims for quicker shots, ‘independence from this virus’

WASHINGTON (AP) — One year after the nation was brought to a near-standstill by the coronavirus, President Joe Biden pledged in his first prime-time address Thursday night to make all adults eligible for vaccines by May 1 and raised the possibility of beginning to “mark our independence from this virus” by the Fourth of July. He offered Americans fresh hope and appealed anew for their help.

Speaking in the White House East Room, Biden honoured the “collective suffering” of Americans over the past year in his 24-minute address and then offered them a vision for a return to a modicum of normalcy this summer.

“We are bound together by the loss and the pain of the days that have gone by,” he said. “We are also bound together by the hope and the possibilities in the days in front of us.”

He predicted Americans could safely gather at least in small groups for July Fourth to “make this Independence Day truly special.”

But he also cautioned that this was a “goal” and attaining it depends on people’s co-operation in following public health guidelines and rolling up their sleeves to get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Only that, he said, can bring about an end to a pandemic that has killed more than 530,000 Americans and disrupted the lives of countless more.

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The Latest: Biden urges Americans to ‘stick with the rules’

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

President Joe Biden is urging Americans to “stick with the rules” as he wraps up his address to the nation on the one-year anniversary of the beginning of coronavirus pandemic.

He is voicing optimism that the United States will edge toward a semblance of normalcy in the coming months, noting “there is hope and light of better days ahead if we all do our part.”

But the president is also warning that “we may have to reinstate restrictions” if Americans fail to stay vigilant about social distancing and other precautions to help stem the virus.

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Resignation demands grow as police get Cuomo groping report

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s grip on power appeared increasingly threatened Thursday as a majority of state legislators called for his resignation, Democrats launched an impeachment investigation and police in the state capital said they stood ready to investigate a groping allegation.

The firestorm around the Democrat grew a day after the Times Union of Albany reported that an unidentified aide had claimed Cuomo reached under her shirt and fondled her at his official residence late last year.

The woman hasn’t filed a criminal complaint, but a lawyer for the governor said Thursday that the state had reported the allegation to the Albany Police Department after the woman involved declined to do so herself.

“In this case the person is represented by counsel and when counsel confirmed the client did not want to make a report, the state notified the police department and gave them the attorney’s information,” said Beth Garvey, the governor’s acting counsel.

An Albany Police Department spokesperson, Steve Smith, didn’t immediately return a message from The Associated Press, but told The New York Times police had reached out to a representative for the woman.

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As pandemic enters 2nd year, voices of resilience emerge

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has seen death, economic hardship and anxiety on an unprecedented scale. But it has also witnessed self-sacrifice, courage and perseverance.

In India, Brazil, South Africa and other places around the globe, people are helping others and reinventing themselves.

“I’ve been adaptable, like water,” said a woman whose dream of becoming a U.S. boxing champion was dealt a blow by the crisis, though not necessarily a knockout punch.

Their voices and images can inspire, even though the future is as uncertain for them as it is for everyone else.

THE VIOLINIST

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Prince William defends UK monarchy against racism accusation

LONDON (AP) — Prince William insisted Thursday that his family is not racist as he became the first British royal to speak out about accusations of bigotry made by Prince Harry and Meghan, his brother and sister-in-law.

William made the comments in response to questions shouted at him by reporters during a visit to an East London school. While members of the royal family often ignore such queries, William used the opportunity to address the explosive allegations that have rocked the monarchy.

“We’re very much not a racist family,” William, 38, said as his wife, Kate, walked by his side.

Buckingham Palace is struggling to quiet criticism after Harry and Meghan alleged that the duchess was the victim of racism and callous treatment during her time as a working member of the royal family. The palace tried to respond to the charges, made during an interview with U.S. TV host Oprah Winfrey, with a 61-word statement that critics called “too little, too late.”

William, second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles, made the comments during a visit to School21 to mark students’ return to classrooms following a national lockdown.

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EXPLAINER: Ex-cop trial to include ‘spark of life’ on Floyd

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors trying a white former Minneapolis police officer in George Floyd’s death plan to use a legal doctrine called “spark of life” to humanize Floyd in front of jurors.

It’s a doctrine with roots in a 1985 state Supreme Court case, and one that several legal experts said makes Minnesota a rarity in explicitly permitting such testimony ahead of a verdict.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank told Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill on Wednesday that he plans to invoke the doctrine during Derek Chauvin’s trial. It allows prosecutors to call witnesses to testify about crime victims’ lives, ostensibly to portray them as more than a statistic. Defence attorneys complain the doctrine allows prosecutors to play on jurors’ emotions and has nothing to do with evidence. If Cahill allows prosecutors to go too far, he could hand Chauvin grounds for an appeal.

Here’s a look at the doctrine and the potential ramifications of it coming into play during Chauvin’s trial.

WHAT IS THE “SPARK OF LIFE” DOCTRINE?

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Pace of spending for pandemic aid? Try $43,000 every second

BALTIMORE (AP) — To pay out his coronavirus relief package, President Joe Biden must spend an average of $3.7 billion every day for the rest of this year. That’s $43,000 every second of every day until midnight chimes on 2022.

For the amount of time that readers took to reach this sentence, Biden needs to disburse nearly $800,000 to stay on track.

That’s according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, and even then, the Biden administration would still have plenty of the $1.9 trillion to spend in later years as a vaccinated country battles back to economic health.

The president signed the aid package into law Thursday without a comprehensive plan in place to distribute all of the funds, which will be a core focus of the administration in coming weeks.

The level of spending is a testament to the complexity of addressing a disease that seeped so widely across the nation in less than a year, and the economic pain that it has wrought.

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UN chief blasts vaccine nationalism, hoarding, side deals

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief criticized the “many examples of vaccine nationalism and vaccine hoarding” as well as side deals with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that undermine access to all people in the world.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement marking one year since the U.N. World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic that “the global vaccination campaign represents the greatest moral test of our times.”

Ensuring that all people are vaccinated — and “many low-income countries have not yet received a single dose” — is essential to restart the global economy “and help the world move from locking down societies to locking down the virus,” he said.

Guterres reiterated his call for COVID-19 vaccines to be seen as “a global public good.”

“The world needs to unite to produce and distribute sufficient vaccines for all, which means at least doubling manufacturing capacity around the world,” he said. “That effort must start now.”

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Myanmar junta kills more protesters, adds Suu Kyi accusation

MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar’s security forces shot to death at least 10 people protesting the military’s coup Thursday, spurning a U.N. Security Council appeal to stop using lethal force and as an independent U.N. expert cited growing evidence of crimes against humanity.

The military also lodged a new allegation against the deposed government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, alleging that in 2017-18 she was illegally given $600,000 and gold bars worth slightly less by a political ally. She and President Win Myint have been detained on less serious allegations and the new accusation was clearly aimed at discrediting Suu Kyi and perhaps charging her with a serious crime.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said at a news conference in the capital that former Yangon Division Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein had admitted giving the money and gold to Suu Kyi, but presented no evidence.

Myanmar has been roiled by protests, strikes and other acts of civil disobedience since the coup toppled Suu Kyi’s government Feb. 1 just as it was to start its second term. The takeover reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian nation after five decades of military rule.

Local press reports and posts on social media on Thursday said there were six deaths in Myaing, a town in the central Magway Region, and one each in Yangon, Mandalay, Bago and Taungoo. In many cases, photos of what were said to be the bodies of the dead were posted online.

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Carlson, Times tussle over online harassment of journalist

NEW YORK (AP) — Tucker Carlson’s belittling of a reporter for The New York Times this week for publicly discussing how she had been harassed reveals both a toxic online culture and bad blood between the newspaper and Fox News Channel and its most popular personality.

The targeting of reporter Taylor Lorenz started a day after the International Women’s Media Foundation announced that it was starting a new resource centre for journalists subject to online abuse.

Lorenz, a technology reporter who covers internet culture for the Times, on Tuesday had tweeted her followers to consider supporting women who were enduring online harassment.

“It’s not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life,” she tweeted. “No one should have to go through this. The scope of attack has been unimaginable. It has taken everything from me.”

Carlson pointed out the tweet that night on his show, which usually reaches between 3 million to 4 million viewers each weeknight. He cited her as a privileged person claiming victimhood.