Trump takes ‘swipe’ at Biden over kids – follow live

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has been mocked after posting a video of herself on social media working out and declaring: “This is my Covid protection.”

The Georgia representative can be seen in the clip lifting weights and performing energetic pull-ups on a high bar.

Our reporter, Joe Sommerlad, has the full story below:

US employers added 916,000 jobs in March, in a sign that a sustained economic recovery from the pandemic recession is beginning to take hold as vaccinations accelerate.

The March increase, which was the highest since August, was nearly double February’s figure of 468,000, the Labor Department said on Friday.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate declined from 6.2 per cent to 6 per cent.

However, the economy remains more than 8 million jobs short of the number it had before the pandemic started – although forecasters predict nearly all those lost jobs could be recovered by the end of this year.

In an encouraging sign, about 500,000 women returned to the workforce last month and found jobs.

Women disproportionately lost jobs or stopped looking for work during the pandemic, in many cases because they had to care for children attending school online from home.

Officials from Tehran and Washington will travel to Vienna next week as part of efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, although they will not hold direct talks, diplomats have said.

The presence of both countries at the meeting would mark a step forward in the relationship between the two nations, even without face-to-face talks.

“Iran and the US will be in the same town, but not the same room,” a European diplomatic source told Reuters.

Meanwhile, a Western diplomat said a shuttle diplomacy approach would be adopted.

Iran, China, Russia, France, Germany and Britain – all parties to the 2015 deal – discussed the possible return of the US to the agreement on Friday.

The EU, which is coordinating efforts to revive the deal, said next week’s participants in Vienna would seek to “clearly identify sanctions-lifting and nuclear implementation measures”, including through convening meetings of relevant expert groups.

“In this context, the coordinator will also intensify separate contacts in Vienna with all JCPOA participants and the United States,” it added in a statement, referring to the acronym for the deal.

Former president Donald Trump has made an apparent veiled attack on Joe Biden’s son over his well-documented struggle with alcohol and drugs.

In an interview for Real America’s Voice, Mr Trump said the key to good parenting was keeping children away from drugs, cigarettes and alcohol.

Our reporter, Joe Sommerlad, has the full story below:

Proposals by Democrats to overhaul voting rights in the US have won solid support from Americans in a new survey.

The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found about half of Americans supported expanding access to early and mail voting, while about three in 10 opposed the proposals – the rest had no opinion.

Automatic voter registration was the most popular Democratic proposal in the survey, endorsed by 60 per cent of Americans.

However, there were stark partisan divides in the poll, with many Republicans opposing measures to make it easier to register and vote.

There was one clear area of agreement though, as nearly three-quarters of all Americans (including majorities in both parties) said they supported laws requiring voters to present photo identification – even though the Democrats’ proposals would ease those laws.

“When you ask questions that are focused specifically on voting, you can’t help but step into what is a super-charged debate that is still resonating coming off the 2020 election,”  Rep John Sarbanes, one of the lead sponsors of the Democrats’ bill, said.

“There continues to be a lot of misinformation around what it means to have accurate and fair elections and voting in this country.”

California has administered more than 18 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, as of Thursday, with 6.7 million people now fully vaccinated.

However, Governor Gavin Newsom has warned that it may take months to reach herd immunity in the state due to supply issues.

He said the state administered 2.5 million shots last week, which is about the amount California expects to receive next week.

California’s case and death rates remain low but health officials have urged people to continue wearing masks and maintain social distancing rules in order to avoid another surge.

Joe Biden has set about convincing Americans that his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan is necessary, with a five-member “Jobs Cabinet” helping in the effort.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed this week to oppose the plan “every step of the way” due to objections to corporate tax increases.

More details from AP can be found below:

Representatives from Iran and world powers, including China, Russia and the UK, will meet next Tuesday in Vienna to discuss the 2015 nuclear deal, following virtual talks aimed at reviving the agreement.

The parties discussed the possible return of the US to the deal and how to ensure its full and effective implementation by all sides on Friday.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, a senior negotiator in the talks, told Iranian TV that the participants had agreed to meet in person next week after “frank and serious” talks.

Two European diplomatic sources also confirmed the meeting to Reuters.

The Biden administration has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the deal.

However, officials said that the US and Iran had not yet agreed to a meeting on reviving the deal and were communicating indirectly via European nations.