the next few minutes. But first let's give you
your need to know headlines this morning and a big
marker has just been passed. Covid deaths in the
US have now hit a number that was once unfathomable
. Yesterday, the United States passed one million covid
deaths and that's according to johns Hopkins University, That
number equivalent to the population of san Jose California,
which is the 10th largest city in the us.
Now it took the us just 27 months after the
country confirmed its very first case of the virus to
finally hit this point. And meanwhile, another story
we've been following new Mexico's wildfires continue to spread.
The largest burning fire is near is now near santa
fe. This is the combined hermits peak caf canyon
fire. This satellite video also shows that the cookes
peak fire. Now the fire's you're seeing here have
burned more than 250 square miles in the state.
Earlier this week. New Mexico's governor asked President biden
to declare the fire is a disaster. In hopes
of freeing up federal financial aid Officials say about 170
homes have been destroyed and more than 15,000 homes are
currently under mandatory evacuation orders. Meanwhile, attacks on
the Ukrainian City of Mariupol are ramping up. That
is Russia looks to take full control of that region
. Russian forces began storming units of the Assad Stall
steelworkers facility earlier this week. That's where soldiers and
civilians had been staying for up to two months.
An estimated 2000 Ukrainian fighters were said to be holed
up in that plant. Meanwhile, the new york
Times report is now shedding new light on how the
U. S. Is helping Ukraine throughout the ongoing
war. Senior administration officials telling the outlet that the
U. S. Obtained intelligence has been helping Ukraine's
armed forces helped kill a dozen Russian generals all on
the front lines. And now to the latest on
the student debt discussion. Eight Attorney general is now
asking that president biden cancel federal student debt entirely.
Biden previously expressed hesitation at fully canceling student loan debt
, worrying that he didn't have the power to do
so. The attorneys general, including those of new
york Illinois and Washington State, believe that the president
has the authority to cancel the debt through executive action
. Student debt cancelation has been a priority for many
liberals as a way to alleviate the financial burden of
higher education and at the same time garner support from
younger voters during the pandemic, the government has allowed
43 million borrowers to pause payments on$1.7 trillion dollars
in student loans. Plus, we're gonna help you
set up your summer budget in the face of rising
inflation. We'll have some live expert insight later this
half hour on that. All right. Meanwhile,
the world of politics is waking up this morning.
So let's go to aerial Hickson who is live out
front of the White House for us, bringing us
the biggest stories unfolding in our nation's capital and Ariel
. As you said at the top. We're still
talking about abortion today. Oh, we definitely still
are in the wake of the leak of that draft
Supreme Court opinion ending roe V wade. Many democrats
and abortion rights proponents have called on lawmakers to pass
a law protecting abortion rights. Now, despite their
efforts, this isn't likely to happen. And how
do we know this? Well, we've already seen
it play out with the bill earlier this year.
The Women's Health Protection Act of 2021 is the law
essentially codifying the holding in Roe v Wade. It
puts into federal law the right to access and perform
abortions while also superseding most state laws that restrict abortion
access. The bill passed the House in september of
last year, but it failed in the Senate earlier
this year. Now, the main obstacle here for
the Senate is the filibuster. There aren't 60 votes
to pass abortion related legislation and democrats do not have
the votes to get rid of the filibuster for any
kind of legislation. They also don't have everyone in
their own caucus on board. For example, joe
Manchin Senator joe Manchin is an abortion opponent. And
unfortunately for the democrats, the math is really not
on their side baker absolutely aerial. So can democrats
now do anything really to push back on this potential
court decision that we're expecting to happen by june potentially
here. Great question there, but the tough answer
really is no democrats really can't. The only recourse
that they really have here is turning out to vote
in november and in 2020 for now, President biden
alluded to this on Tuesday in a statement responding to
the draft opinion, he said quote at the federal
level, we will need more pro choice senators and
a pro choice majority in the house to adopt legislation
that codifies roe, which I will work to pass
and signed into law. Democrats need a lot to
change for them and it starts with the makeup of
Congress Speaker Absolutely aerial Hickson life force this morning out
in front of the White House. Thank you Hannah
! Alright, elsewhere. Meanwhile, a group of
florida residents are suing florida governor Ron DeSantis over the
state's repeal of Disney World's Special Tax District. Now
, the three residents suing argue the repeal of the
district violates their federal and state constitutional rights as taxpayers
in the state. They also cite reports saying they
, along with many others Florida taxpayers would be responsible
for the district's debt, which some believe to be
as much as$1 billion. This comes despite claims
by Governor de Santis that residents would not have to
bear the burden of Disney's debt. Reedy Creek.
The special tax district issued a statement last week to
investors saying that the district cannot legally be dissolved until
its debts are paid off. However, Disney itself
has yet to comment on the matter. Meanwhile,
over and out to a new study on youth as
trans youth are unlikely to de transition or identify with
their birth sex. Five years after they socially transitioned
, a study from the trans Youth project in Princeton
Revealed that 94% of trans Children that were tracked were
still living as trans boys or trans girls. 317
kids ranging from ages 3 to 12 were part of
the largest sample of its kind that, according to
the study's lead author here, that the remaining 6%
from that study had the transition, as the study
called it, with only 2.5% identifying with their birth
sex. Again, now this comes as Republican states
continue to restrict access to gender affirming care for trans 00:06:00.959 --> minors.