Biden commutes 37 federal death row sentences. And, a push to understand long COVID

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President Biden used his clemency powers in the present day to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 males on federal demise row. They’ll now serve life in jail with out parole. It is one of the vital important strikes towards capital punishment in latest presidential historical past. Biden did not commute the sentences of the opposite three males, who have been concerned in instances of terrorism or hate-fueled mass homicide.

🎧 Biden launched an announcement this morning saying he condemns the individuals convicted of homicide on federal demise row and grieves the victims of the crimes, NPR’s Deepa Shivaram tells Up First. He defined his determination to commute the sentences was guided by his conscience, his expertise as a public defender, and his time as a senator, vice chairman and president. The potential of the incoming administration resuming federal executions that he halted in 2021 performed an element within the consideration to commute the sentences, based on Biden’s assertion.

The Nationwide Institutes of Well being introduced a $300 million funding to analysis remedies for lengthy COVID. The company, in complete, has directed $1.8 billion towards learning the illness, which has been linked to excessive fatigue, mind fog, and coronary heart issues.

🎧 Affected person advocacy teams say there’s an excessive amount of give attention to understanding why individuals get sick and never sufficient give attention to relieving individuals’s struggling, says Sarah Boden with NPR-KFF Well being Information collaboration. Within the U.S., there are an estimated 17 million adults with lengthy COVID. Many are unable to work or care for his or her households. The NIH says there’s actual urgency to find remedies for the illness’s long-term results, however scientists first want a stable understanding of the underlying biology.

Lebanon is filled with antiquities just like the Greco-Roman ruins, Crusader castles and Ottoman structure, however some have been broken within the Israel-Hezbollah warfare. With a shaky ceasefire in place, officers are working to evaluate the harm to those cultural heritage websites.

🎧 NPR’s Lauren Frayer lately visited a number of of these websites. She noticed the Byzantine fortifications of a walled previous metropolis destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. “These are a number of the iconic websites you see on postcards of Lebanon,” she says. In mid-November, the United Nations added 34 websites in Lebanon to its listing of protected cultural properties hoping to stop harm to them. But it surely didn’t assist with all of them. The World Financial institution estimates the price of harm and financial losses from the warfare in Lebanon to be about $8.5 billion. Rebuilding can’t start in loads of areas till Israeli troops totally withdraw.

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