BIDEN UNVEILS 'ONCE IN A GENERATION' SPENDING PLAN

President Joe Biden on Wednesday unveiled a $2 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at modernizing America's crumbling transport network, creating millions of jobs and delivering a "once-in-a-generation" investment that will enable the country to best China on the global economic stage.

Mr. Biden compared his "transformational" plan to the ambitious U.S. space program of the 1960s, saying it would boost the livelihoods of poor and middle-class Americans, take aim at global warming, and be funded by increased taxes on large companies and the rich.

"Today I'm proposing a plan for the nation that rewards work, not just rewards wealth. It builds a fair economy that gives everybody a chance to succeed. It's going to create the strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world," Mr. Biden said.

"It's a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we've seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago."

The plan called for sweeping upgrades to transportation, telecommunications and energy infrastructure, which the U.S. leader said was both about revitalizing an economy weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic and restoring its global competitiveness.

"We can't delay another minute. It's long past due," he said in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Biden's infrastructure plan -- the second massive spending initiative of his 10-week old administration, after the $1.9 trillion short-term COVID rescue bill passed earlier this month -- faces tough tests in a Congress worried about soaring deficits.

In doing so, it would expand the role of the government in the U.S. economy to levels not seen in decades.

"In fact, it's the largest American jobs investment since World War II. It will create millions of jobs, good-paying jobs," Mr. Biden said.

MACRON ORDERS COVID-19 LOCKDOWN ACROSS ALL OF FRANCE, CLOSES SCHOOLS

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a third wave of Covid-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

With the death tollMacron was forced to abandon his goal of keeping the country open to protect the economy.

"We will lose control if we do not move now," the president said in a televised address to the nation.

His announcement means that movement restrictions already in place for more than a week in Paris, and some northern and southern regions, will now apply to the whole country for at least a month, from Saturday.

Departing from his pledge to safeguard education from the pandemic, Macron said schools will close for three weeks after this weekend."It is the best solution to slow down the virus," Macron said, adding that France had succeeded in keeping its schools open for longer during the pandemic than many neighbours.

Macron said the vaccine rollout needed to be accelerated. It is only now finding its stride three months in, with just 12% of the population inoculated.

CHINA DODGES WHO'S CALL FOR FURTHER PROBE INTO WUHAN LAB LEAK THEORY OF CORONAVIRUS

China on Wednesday called for expanding the search for the origins of the coronavirus in other countries, mainly America, as it sought to sidestep the WHO chief's assertion that further probe is required on allegations that the deadly virus may have leaked from a bio-lab in Wuhan, saying he may have not been accurately quoted.

Releasing the much-awaited report of an experts team that probed the origin of Covid-19 after visiting the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, World Health Organisation chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reopened the Trump era allegation, saying that it required further probe.

Coming from the WHO chief with whom China had built a close rapport while battling the allegations that it suppressed facts related to the deadly virus early and acted late in containing it in Wuhan the assertion that it requires further probe caught Beijing by surprise.

"I don't think the quote is very accurate because what I see is the expert mission said they cannot exclude the possibility of lab leakage but they have found no scientific evidence for that," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said while answering a volley of questions on the experts team report and Dr Tedros' comments.

Instead, Hua harped on the expert team's remark that the lab leak theory is "extremely unlikely".

Hua pointed to China's oft-repeated charge that the virus has emanated from outside China which points finger at a US bio lab at Fort Detrick in Maryland which Beijing says should be opened for a probe by WHO experts team to ascertain whether it has any link to coronavirus.

PFIZER SAYS ITS VAX EFFECTIVE IN TEENS

Pfizer on Wednesday said its vaccine was safe and strongly protective in kids as young as 12. Most Covid-19 vaccines being rolled out worldwide are for adults, who are at higher risk from the virus.

Pfizer's vaccine is authorised for ages 16 and older. In a study on 2,260 US volunteers aged 12-15, preliminary data showed there were no cases of Covid-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared to 18 among those given dummy shots, Pfizer reported. Kids had side-effects similar to young adults, the company said.

FACEBOOK TO LET YOU TURN OFF ALGORITHMIC RANKING IN NEWS FEED

Facebook on Wednesday introduced several features to give users more control over their News Feed, including the ability to turn off the feeds algorithmic ranking and display content in order it was posted.

The social network said it is making it easier to sort and browse News Feed, giving users more control over what you see.

“Now, you can control your commenting audience for a given public post by choosing from a menu of options ranging from anyone who can see the post to only the people and pages you tag,” the company said in a statement.

The company recently launched ‘Favourites’, a new tool where the users can control and prioritise posts from the friends and pages they care about most in News Feed.

By selecting up to 30 friends and pages to include in Favourites, their posts will appear higher in ranked News Feed and can also be viewed as a separate filter.

People who use Favourites frequently can access it from the Feed Filter Bar, a new menu at the top of News Feed.

Android app users can access the Feed Filter Bar when they scroll up on News Feed. The same functionality will be available in the iOS app in the coming weeks.

“By adjusting your commenting audience, you can further control how you want to invite conversation onto your public posts and limit potentially unwanted interactions,” Facebook further said.

In addition, Facebook is introducing a new tool that lets users limit who can comment on their posts and expanding the content covered by its “Why am I seeing this?” feature.

JAILED KREMLIN CRITIC ALEXEI NAVALNY STARTS HUNGER STRIKE OVER LACK OF MEDICAL CARE

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny declared a hunger strike on Wednesday in an attempt to force the prison holding him outside Moscow to provide him with proper medical care for what he said was acute pain in his back and both legs.

The fate of Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics, is in focus after he said last week that being woken up by a guard every hour during the night amounted to torture and that his appeals for treatment for acute back and leg pain had been ignored.

In a handwritten letter addressed to the governor of his prison which was posted to social media by his team on Wednesday, Navalny said his daily requests for a doctor of his choice to examine him and for proper medicine for his problems to be provided had been ignored.

"I demand that a doctor be allowed to see me, and until this happens, I am declaring a hunger strike," he said in the letter.

Medical professionals on Sunday published an open letter demanding the 44-year-old opposition politician get proper care.

"We fear for the worst. Leaving a patient in this condition ... may lead to severe consequences, including an irreversible, full or partial loss of lower limb functions," the letter said.

SUU KYI LOOKS HEALTHY, SAYS LAWYER

Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in good health in a video meeting on Wednesday, one of her lawyers said, as the U.S. ordered its non-essential Embassy staff to leave after “horrifying” violence against opponents of a coup.

Ms. Suu Kyi, 75, was arrested on February 1, the day the military seized power. She faces charges that include illegally importing six handheld radios and breaching coronavirus protocols.

“Amay looks healthy, her complexion is good,” her lawyer Min Min Soe said, using an affectionate term meaning “mother” to refer to Ms. Suu Kyi.

Only the legal cases against her filed since the coup were discussed during the video conference, the lawyer said.

The military has also accused her of bribery in two recent news conferences.

Her lawyers say the charges were trumped up and dismissed the accusation of bribery as a joke.

The next hearing in her case is on Thursday.

EX-PM MADHAV KUMAR NEPAL TO LAUNCH A POLITICAL PARTY

Nepal will soon have a new national political platform along the Marxist-Leninist ideological lines. Sources have told The Hindu that the new political outfit will be led by former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who had rebelled against Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli in the now defunct Nepal Communist Party.

The decision to create a new political outfit was taken in the second week of March after PM Oli went ahead and held a meeting of the Central Committee of the party. “PM Oli held the meeting of the Central Committee without consulting the senior members of the CPN-UML. This showed that he is planning to centralise authority around himself. We do not believe that he alone should be allowed to lead a party on the Marxist-Leninist lines which is a popular ideology in Nepal. We have already begun reaching to the provinces and will soon formalise the launch of the new party,” said a source in Kathmandu.