to the pipeline, but calling darkside a criminal actor and it saying that they are looking into any foreign state actors. we are waiting for the president himself to come out and speak as welcome after meeting with some congressional leaders -- as well, after meeting with some congressional leaders. in terms of reaction from the stocks, the s&p is down 1/10 of 1%, bouncing back and forth after hitting a record high on friday. the u.s. 10 year is not moving much at all. doing a little bit of a dance today, although mostly lower. not nearly the drop we saw on friday, that recovery was almost instantaneous. the bloomberg dollar index is

down against other currencies. look at it against the pound, we are looking at 1.4142. the british currency took a huge jump. and new york crude now at $64.93 a barrel. this is where all the action has been today, as you may have guessed, from the hacking attack. new york crude is trading back up, but the swing has been more than a dollar a barso, a lot of. now first word news with mark crumpton in new york city. mark: the number of new coronavirus cases in the united states rose last week at the slowest pace since the pandemic began, as more americans are vaccinated. there were more than 286,000 new infections in the week that ended on sunday, up from the

prior week, but the lowest number since september. that is according to data compiled by johns hopkins university. deaths also rose at the slowest rate in the pandemic. in india, health authorities are worried about a fungal infection seen in some patients which can disfigure facial features and even kill. they say those patients that have been on medication for so time are particularly susceptible. india is still in the midst of the fastest-growing outbreak in the world. motorists from new york to atlanta face a threat of fuel shortages as a cyberattack couples north america's biggest petroleum pipeline. the attack on colonial pipeline comes just as the nation's energy industry is preparing to meet stronger fuel demand from summer travel. in the meantime, colonial pipeline said it will

"substantially restore services by the end of the week." the first time it has offered a timeline since it was hit by the cyberattack late last week. in jerusalem, the military reported that air raid sirens sounded today after palestinians and israeli police battled each other in the city. the violence took place on a day that israel celebrates taking control of east jerusalem from jordan in the 1967 war. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. matt? matt: thank you. now back to that pipeline hack and to some of the details we have heard from the group itself, known as darkside, capital d, capital s. our bloomberg intelligence

commodity strategist is joining us. mike, talk about the moves that we have seen in oil, on a day when everything else is kind of holding steady or going in one direction. now oil has been back and forth between gains and losses. i know that gas is really the main focus, though, but what are you looking at? mike: just what everybody else is. i fully expect the market to react, and this is bearish for their prices. in the short-term, it will pump up prices at the pump, but that will reduce demand and it will make problems with other things we need to spend money on. it will not affect supply at all. it might increase supply. the minute the stock market went down, copper and crude oil dropped. in the bigger picture, this shows us where we are going.

people are saying, i am not worried about filling up at the gas station, i will stay at home. matt: you think this will increase supply. tell us why and what do you see happening as we go into the summer driving season? mike: wholesale pump prices will go higher because of the summer and we will be switching to more efficient forms of gasoline, but overall, in terms of them macro or wholesale price, i think we will be around $70 a barrel for crude oil. the trend has been down since 2008. near the upper end of the range of the prophets are coming back. shale will come back. prophets will come back everywhere. and -- profits will come back everywhere. everybody is expecting demand to combat. and lessons -- come back. and lessons today, people think, i will just work from home, i do not have to drive to work anymore. that is the big shift. the world has changed.

matt: i thought it was interesting, though, that this group darkside, which on its own website said it does not want to cause social issues, big geopolitical unrest. it's funny that they are trying to play nice. the name is darkside. but is there any concern in the markets that we will see more of these ransomware attacks, any concern that we are going to see, you know, beyond the physical geopolitical problems that we usually see in the middle east and africa, will this become a bigger problem that the commodities markets will have to watch more closely? mike: thanks to this event, everybody is on top of it. we need to add it cybersecurity and make sure this doesn't happen again. it is only making our infrastructure stronger and i think that is really good in the big picture because it will help prevent a big picture attack from somebody who really wants to crush the global economy. we know that in events like

this, let's be prepared and make sure our defenses are up, so that we can prevent this. it is a battle at the higher level, but everything is going digital and that is where the markets are going. matt: speaking of everything going electronic and digital, you have been at the forefront of analysis on the cryptocurrencies market. we had elon musk on snl over the weekend, and a lot of joking around about a joke currency, but i wonder if it changes the bigger picture of cryptocurrency that he has such a prominent investor. mike: i think it is unlikely that doj could go much higher, because the next level, to get to the next coin, binance -- they make money. for the big picture, it is massive speculation in the space. and bitcoin has stayed the same price. it is becoming the stable coin

in this space. 60 day volatility, they are almost a loss for the year. bitcoin is probably going to win when we have a flush in the space. yes, this is all speculation. i'm not intending to give doj to kids or put in a pension fund. matt: not buying it as a means of saving, rather than just buying -- rather just buying it for fun. thank you. time for our stock of the hour. we will stick with commodities in terms of miners. iron ore features have surged, copper jumping to another richter -- another record. we take a deeper dive with rithika. >> that shares are now lower, but they initially spiked. as you mentioned, we got the iron ore prices surging, copper

with a new record. copper now coming off the highs. and shares are coming down with freeport. but copper prices have doubled over the past year, and that has really helped miners. shares are up over the past year. and also in terms of revenue at freeport. not sure if we can get the chart back up, but at the height of the pandemic revenues were down 14%, but in the first quarter of this year a whopping boom, up 73%. we know the reason for it, freeport actually gets 7% of its revenues from copper, and that demand is now coming back up because of the economic recovery we are seeing. and it really kicked off with china, then demanded more co pper, but infrastructure plans

are booming around the world. and they also have a big focus on the green space. electric vehicles use four times as much copper as a normal car. but in terms of how far the rally can go, goldman sachs has a said that this commodities a cycle could be entering a goldilocks scenario in the next few years. the prices could go up to $15,000, so that would really help them out. but we have also seen spot demand wane, so it will be interesting to see how those prices do. matt: thank you. now to something that caught my eye. one of the most read stories on the terminal today, sechelles, which has vaccinated the most of any other country, says active cases of the disease doubled last week and now nearly 205 the coronavirus. -- 205,000 people have the coronavirus. and 37% of those people have

received two vaccine doses. shots were issued to 57% of those in alico related in -- those who were given the shot. coming up, defined crypto. elon musk attempted to define does coin during snl. we will be talking to sean neville, next. this is bloomberg.

matt: --

>> it is going to take over the world. >> so it is a hussle? -- hustle. ? matt: that was elon musk on saturday night live. here with more on the broader picture of crypto is the cofounder of circle, a finance company that provides coins and trading services. i think, sean, elon musk did a fine job on snl. it's nerve-racking when people are watching you do comedy for your first time ever, and he prefaces the whole thing by saying, you know, there are certain limitations to his comic abilities. nonetheless, the focus was on dogecoin. what do you make of the joke currency? sean: i can't really criticize

his performance, but i think it's interesting times when a few individuals'amusement can impacting market. our focus has been on the other side of it, how stable or what stable coins can do for global finance. so more looking at things built on top of the likes of ethereum as opposed to things like dogecoin, although i certainly cannot sit back and watch from an entertainment perspective what is happening. matt: it is quite amusing. but i agree with you that it is so fascinating to watch what is being built, especially on ethereum. talk to me about that specifically, because we have seen everything from bnb being built on ethereum, to digital

bonds built on the ethereum blockchain. how important is this technology and currency? sean: it is interesting to look at it in relation to bitcoin, where at bitcoin has a real use case, ethereum is obviously a token that can be used, but used to run a giant computer network. meaning that you can write smart contracts that do things. you can write them to allow people to get liquidity, do borrowing and lending. and an interesting way in which the rules are governed by software, run on this network. and there are others taking this idea to create financial interactions, leveraging those as well. it is certainly not perfect. there's some iterations that are

-- matt: it looks like the satellite feed has frozen. hopefully, we have not been hacked. but we will try to get sean neville back, the cofounder of circle, to talk more about the crypto space. it is so fascinating that the european investment bank, the finance arm of the european union, sells digital bonds on ethereum. outside of the crypto space, there was not a lot of mention this in the mainstream media. and the fact we do not make huge headlines and a drama out of the fact that such a conservative institution is creating digital bonds based on blockchain technology leads me to believe we could be closer to the mainstream for this, or may be are already there and i am easily amazed.

so, thank you to sean neville. we'll try to get him back on. is he back? i think i am hearing that he is back. sean: i am back. matt: great. it's a little satellite issue. it happens. let me ask you about oversight and regulation, because this is probably one of the keys impacting mainstream adoption of this technology. how do you think it is going and how much further do we have to go? sean: we founded circle in 2013 and we went in eyes wide open that we would be working with policymakers all around the world. there is a role for public sector policymaking and private-sector innovation that makes a lot of sense. in the area of identity, there are looming valuable solutions to solve.

obviously, transacting on public blockchain's is nonanonymous, but there are better ways to deal with identity and ways that we can control as consumers and businesses that do not attempt to map previous versions of identity on public blockchains, but really help us manage identity in a more effective way. that's part of the discussion going forward. but the short answer is in a traditional software company, compliance and regulation does not necessarily sit at the same table as product and engineering. in this world it has to, and that is how we have always looked at it. matt: i want to finally ask you about boston. we have been covering this very closely lately as a city, but also a hotbed for tech startups. is there a culture there that

makes it ripe for such, i would say futuristic businesses, but they are businesses we are looking at right now, really working in mainstream finance. sean: one interesting thing about boston is it has an enormous portfolio of universities. a heavy experience in working in regulated industries, like biotech and digital finance. it's a place that has proximity to europe, to canada, miami and austin. so, it's attractive for a number of reasons. and we have been very happy here at her home in boston. -- at our home in boston. matt: sean neville there, thank you. bloomberg technology speaks to business leaders and thinkers in boston, exploiting the state of biotech and -- exploring the state of biotech and fintech.

emily chang will host at that tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in your. -- in new york. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is "bloomberg markets." i'm matt miller. the number of new covid cases last week hit an eight month low as more americans are vaccinated. in the ok, the prime minister announced more restrictions will be relaxed next week. we have with us the executive director of the international vaccine access center at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. the easy work has been done in the u.s. and the remaining parts will be vaccinating those who are hesitant, but should the u.s. focus on getting the vaccine out to countries like india, to africa and south

america in order to stop concerns about mutants spreading? >> yes, that is exactly right. thank you for having me. our work is not done here in the united states. we still need to do better in increasing our vaccine coverage. if we look at the total u.s. population, it is only just over a third that have been fully vaccinated, so there is still more work getting increased access to those who cannot get the vaccine and addressing the skepticism and mistrust. but you are right, we are at a crucial time in finding the pandemic and the u.s. needs to do all it can and really be a leader in addressing these global vaccine in equities, and getting vaccines to those countries that are particularly seeing surges in cases, like india, like brazil and turkey, where there is the greatest

probability of these new variants emerging. matt: are we getting better visibility into how this virus is mutating and how it's doing in terms of the spread and at the fatality of it? dr. moss: i think that we are doing better, but there's still, even on that score, a long way to go. i think that we know globally the numbers of reported cases, the number of recorded deaths are probably grossly undercounted, so we do not really have accurate metrics of that. and we still need to do more in terms of being able to genotype this virus to attract new variants. even in the united states, we have only genotyped a small fraction of the number of viral cases, and there's some

countries that are doing better than the u.s., but even in a country like india, where there is massive transmission, there needs to be more genotyping so we get a better handle on the variants. and characteristics, are they causing more severe disease, are they more transmissible? matt: we need to push hard to vaccinate the rest of the people in the u.s., but get the vaccine out to those countries that need them now and monitor the virus as it mutates. thank you for joining us from the bloomberg school of public health. that school is supported by michael bloomberg, the founder of bloomberg lp. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i mark crumpton with bloomberg's first word news. the president is preparing for his first face-to-face meeting

with kevin mccarthy and mitch mcconnell. it comes as republicans ramp up opposition to the president's economic plan. there is not much expectation for breakthrough at the meeting. last week, mitch mcconnell said he is 100% focused on blocking the president's agenda. north america's biggest petroleum pipeline is pledging to restore deliveries of gasoline and other fuels to the eastern u.s. and by the end of the week, after a cyber attack halted shipments. clinical pipeline says that segments of its line are being brought back online in steps. fuel shortages could affect the east coast. the fbi is looking into the disruption. americans it set a record for pandemic era air travel, then broke it over mother's day weekend. the transportation security administration says more than

1.7 million people were screened at checkpoints on sunday, the highest number since march of 2020. but those crowds are still smaller than before the pandemic. sunday's tsa account was down 29% from the team -- from the same time two years ago. . spain says it is 100 days from reaching herd immunity with 70% of the population vaccinated, in line with the previous prediction from the government that immunity would be achieved by the end of august. spain has so far administered about 19 million vaccine doses with nearly 6 million people fully vaccinated. global news, 24 hours a day, on air and on bloomberg quicktake, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪

amanda: welcome to "bloomberg markets." matt: we welcome our audiences each day at this hour. here are top stories we are falling from around the world. north america's biggest petroleum pipeline is set to be brought back online after a cyber attack. we'll talk to rob lee of dragos on enhancing national infrastructure. prime offering, amazon taps the bond market with a sale that could total $15 million. we'll bring you the latest on the retail giant and the investment-grade market. plus, we will hear how the cyberattack is impacting commodities prices with jeff kerry, global head of commodities research at goldman sachs.

amanda: and matt, interesting day in the markets. inflation fears potentially creeping back in, but certainly rotation out of the leaders of this market. nasdaq is the worst. and the faang groups are suffering, that includes tech and communications. and up for amazon with facebook down. and if we take a look at one number that was jumping out today, it is the five year treasury breakevens, levels not seen since 2006. part of the market are signaling that higher yields are ahead. we are not seeing that in the treasury yet. but it is a big week for bond options. commodities are hitting records, iron ore, copper -- hard not to feel that that is inflationary. and you mentioned amazon, it is in the category of compani issuing bonds that do not need

to. we can say that with some certainty based on the cash flow. but we have seen this a lot. reportedly, this is a up to $15 million. the longest includes a 40 year security. if investors are looking for a place to park cash, that feels a little safer, it could be a player like amazon. matt: absolutely. why not? they are getting free money. maybe more than free. and getting paid, after inflation, to take the money. investor great issuance is the second-highest in a decade this year. if you take a look at a chart that our producer put together, you will see 2020 was off the hook. but we are still doing better than any other year, at the height of the pandemic. and apparently there is more to

come, amanda. amanda: yeah, as we understand it, and we do rely on the folks at bloomberg that know most about these things. molly sims is one of them, who might tell us if there is more in the pipeline. your story today is very highly red on the terminal today, why not a bond issuance? because you can, you do. and amazon is joining the party. molly: amazon is not the only company that has done this, we've seen other cash rich companies in the same boat that have borrowed money because it is cheap and it is there, especially among the tech cohorts, like apple and oracle did. so, i guess from the surface level it would seem pretty opportunistic for amazon in this case, and they certainly do not need the money. they are sitting on $73 billion

worth of securities and cash, but if you are getting paid to borrow to the dune of $15 million, it is there for the taking -- tune of $50 million, it is there -- $15 million, it is there for the taking. matt: fantastic reporting, molly. i was talking with you earlier today about this, that not only do they have no problem raising this money at supertight spreads, but they do not even have to do a road show. they're such a good credit, that they ask and they receive. molly: which is typical of a large investment-grade company. the row shows we usually see -- road shows that we usually see our for those companies that investors are not familiar with, so we have seen about 50

first-time issuers in the high-yield market this year alone. i think a lot of those companies have done road shows, but amazon come even though it is a company that does not come to the bond market often, the numbers really speak for themselves. and they do have a good amount of debt outstanding from the few times they have come. so, investors are familiar with the name. and i would say they are comfortable in knowing what is going on at the company. matt: for me, it is mind-boggling, especially that you can do a 40 year issue. i realize amazon has been around for a wild, but not that long. you have to count -- while, but not that long. you will have to count on real domination from them in the next few decades. molly, we will look to you for more. molly smith broke the story today. coming up, looking to the darkside. we discussed the ransomware

group that launched the cyberattack, allegedly, on colonial pipeline. they say it was not of them, but a client to whom they sold the ransomware. we will talk to cybersecurity veteran, the ceo of dragos, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

matt: this is "bloomberg markets." north america's biggest petroleum pipeline is still halted after a cyberattack three days ago, although colonial pipeline now says it ceases service backed by the end of the

week. the u.s. energy secretary spoke earlier, saying that this is not the end for these types of attacks. >> this issue of cyberattacks on our critical infrastructure, especially energy infrastructure, is not going away. this is a serious example of what we are seeing across the board in many places, and it tells you that we need to invest in our systems. matt: joining us is robert lee, the ceo of drago, a cybersecurity company. let me get your take on this darkside did it or didn't. the government says that they did this. they themselves, on their website on the dark web, say it was a client to whom they sold of the software to who did it. and they said, we do not mean this. we are not in it for the geopolitical, you know, they

geopolitical issues and we will vet our customers from now on. rob: they are still responsible. the have workedy -- they worked with a lot of these such affiliates. but it is interesting to see a group come out and say i think that i bit off more than i can chew. it's interesting to watch. amanda: we may have to go to the president, rob. but i want to ask you if this is not the eye-opener that you would say we need, there's a lot of info to share there so how at risk is it? rob: the reality is as our investor if researcher goes through a digital transformation, taking advantage of claude resources and new technology, that opens up access for these adversaries to get access to these environments. industrial clients want to pay out because they want to get back to operations. so we are all vulnerable.

it is not freak out and scare the public, but it is an investment that we need to make. amanda: when you say we, we just heard from the energy secretary, but where's the right investment that should happen? rob: it needs to happen at the individual companies. there is a role for the government, but the government trying to think of technology and things like that are not necessary. the reality is a lot of if researcher owners know what they need. matt: i have to cut you off, but it is for the president of the united states. robert lee talking about the hack. let's listen to president joe biden. pres. biden: i have been personally brief every day. the department of energy is working directly with colonial, to get the pipelines back operating at full capacity as quickly and as safely as possible. the fbi is also engaged to

assess and address this attack. the agencies across the government have acted quickly to mitigate any impact on our fuel supply. and over the weekend, at my direction, the department of transportation issued an emergency order to loosen restrictions on truck drivers in order to allow more fuel to be transported by tanker. we're prepared to take additional steps, depending on how quickly the company is able to bring its pipeline back to full capacity. the federal bureau of investigation has determined colonial's network was infected by ransomware, and it is a criminal act, obviously. the fbi released details of the attack so that others can take steps to prevent being affected. my administration takes issue -- takes this very seriously. we have efforts underway with

the doj and fbi to disrupt them and prosecute the ransomware criminals. and my administration will be pursuing a global effort of ransomware attacks by transnational criminals, who often use global money laundering networks to carry them out. my administration is also committed to safeguarding our critical infrastructure, much of which is privately owned and managed, like colonial. private entities are making their own determinations on cybersecurity, so to jumpstart greater private sector investments in cybersecurity, we launched a new initiative in april. it begins with a 100 day sprint to improve cybersecurity in the electric sector. and we'll follow that with a similar initiatives in natural gas and water. in addition to companies stepping up, we need to invest to safeguard our critical

infrastructure. that's one of the many things that my american jobs plan was designed to do. i want to also update people on the progress we've made in our recovery and next steps we will be taking. as we learned on friday, the economy created 266,000 jobs in april. in fact, altogether, since the time we took office, we have created more than 1.5 million jobs in the country. it is the most jobs created in the first 200 days of any president on record, more than three times the solid job creation president carter saw, and more than six times what president reagan saw. in the three months before i got here, our country was creating roughly 60,000 jobs a month. three months since we have gotten here, we have been creating 500,000, on average 500,000 jobs a month. in the first quarter qamar economy grew at six -- first

quarter qamar economy grew at 6.5% rate. and because of the market rescue plan, forecasters are projecting that we will see the fastest economic growth in nearly 40 years in the months to come. we're moving in the right direction. so let's be clear, our economic plan is working. i never said, and no serious analyst ever suggested, that climbing out of the deep hole our economy was in would be simple, easy, immediate or perfectly studied. remember, 22 million americans lost jobs in the pandemic. so, some months will exceed expectations, others will fall short. the question is what is the trendline? are we heading in the right direction? are we taking the right steps to keep it going? the answer is yes. i also want to offer a little

bit more detail on the jobs numbers in particular for this month. these monthly reports are a snapshot, as you know, of one -- they take one week, a moment in time. the snapshot was taken around the week of april 12. since then, covid-19 counts are down by more than 40%. and vaccination rates among working age americans has roughly doubled since then. this survey was taken before every adult was eligible to be vaccinated. so back then, 18% of working age adults were fully vaccinated. today, 34% of working adults are fully vaccinated. no wonder things feel better today. with that context, here are the

steps we will be taking to maintain our progress. first, today we are opening a portal for state and local governments to apply for their first funds from the american rescue plan. because state and local governments have the balance budgets and a lot of them had to lay off employees when the economy -- the state and local employees -- when the economies slowed. we are talking about 1.3 million state and local employees out of work. now, but now the money we are just your bidding, -- we are going to be disturbing will make it possible for many workers to go back to work. second, this is a year-long program. and we are delivering assistance to tens of thousands of restaurants and bars across the

country. today, we are sending out first relief checks to 16,000 hard-hit restaurants, with help from more to follow. a lot more people will be employed. third, the employer's bring back laid-off workers. to help them, we will remind them that there is progress -- some programs they can take a vantage of. employers can hire back laid-off workers part-time without the workers having to give up all unemployment benefits. another example, the american rescue plan, in it we expand on employee retention tax credits. this can provide a recovering, small or medium-sized business a direct credit for each worker that they keep on or a job that they rehire. fourth, we are going to provide real help for people struggling

with the challenge of childcare, which is making it hard for many parents who need to work, especially women, to get back to work. during this crisis, thousands of childcare providers and centers were forced to close, because they could not make ends meet with fewer students and higher costs to keep them safe. as a result, parents lost childcare. and tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs. in fact, there are 150,000 fewer childcare jobs now than there were pre-pandemic. the american rescue plan has already allocated funds to states, to address the immediate challenge to our economy and of too few childcare operations. this is the largest investment in childcare since world war ii.

today, my administration is releasing guidance to states to help them get the funds they need to allow dramatic expansion and the availability of childcare in this country. with the funds, states can help providers reopen and stay open, and provide safe and healthy learning environments for more than 5 million children. these funds will also allow states to provide over 800,000 families subsidies to pay for child care. simply put, this could help working parents get back to work. this one-time investment is a real answer to a real problem our economy is facing right now. look, the fifth thing, we will make a clear anybody collecting unemployment, who is offered a suitable job, must take the job

or lose unemployment benefits. there are a few covid-19 related exceptions, so that people are not forced to choose between basic safety and a paycheck, but otherwise, that is the law. i know there has been discussion since friday's report that people are being paid to stay-at-home rather than go to work. we do not see much evidence of that. that's a major factor. we do not -- it's easy to say the line has been because of the generous unemployment benefits, that's it's a major factor in labor shortages. americans wnt to work -- want to work. as my dad used to say, a job is a lot more than a paycheck, it is about your dignity, place in the community. you look a kid in the eye and

say everything is going to be ok. those who say americans will not work underestimate the american people. so, we'll insist that the law is followed with respect to benefits. we're not going to turn our backs on our fellow americans. 22 million people lost their jobs in this pandemic through no fault of their own. they lost their jobs to a virus and to a government that bungled its response in a crisis and failed to protect them. we still have 8 million fewer jobs than we did when the pandemic started. and for many of those folks, the unemployment benefits are a lifeline. no one should be allowed to game the system. and we will insist the law is followed, but let's not take our eye off the ball. families who are just trying to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, they are

not the problem. we need to focus on the real problems in front of us, beating this pandemic and creating jobs. again, the law is clear, if you are receiving unemployment benefits and you are offered a suitable job, you cannot refuse that job and keep getting unemployment benefits. we're also working to overcome all of the barriers that may be making it harder for people to get back to work, like childcare, getting vaccinated, get in the schools open. we are making progress on all of these things, and we need others to step up and play a role as well. for example, we need employers to step up in a couple ways. first, we need them to get help for their people and get them vaccinated. two weeks ago, i announced that we would provide a tax credit to employers, if they give workers paid time off to get a shot and recover from the effects, the

side effects, if any. our economy cannot achieve its full potential until we get more people vaccinated. employers can help with that. we also need to recognize that people will come back to work if they are paid a decent wage. the last congress, before i became president, gave businesses over 1.4 trillion dollars in covid relief. congress -- over $1.4 trillion in covid relief. as approved in the money, but it came from the iraqi people and it went to american businesses, many of them big businesses, to help them get through the pandemic and keep their doors open. i'm not questioning it. it was the right thing to do. but my expectation is that, as the economy comes back, that these companies will provide fair wages and safe work environments. if they do, they will find plenty of workers. and we are all going to come out

of this together better than before. so we need to stay focused on creating jobs, beating the pandemic, and building back better for tomorrow. the american rescue plan is jus that, a rescue plan. it's to get us out of the crisis and back on track. but it is not nearly enough. that's why we need the american jobs plan, an 80 year investment strategy tl -- 8 year investment strategy to help people share in the benefits of a rising economy and put us in a position to win the competition with china and the rest of the world in the 21st century. that is the next stage, that is what we are doing now, we are working to get that passed. thank you, all. may god protect our troops. reporter: how can you protect

things from a state actor? pres. biden: we can do both. i will be meeting with president putin, and so far there is no evidence that russia is involved, although there is evidence that the ransomware is in russia. they have some responsibility to do with this. thank you. reporter: what about -- doses, mr. president? amanda: you have been listening to president biden, discussing not just the coronavirus, but recovery funds, talking about how there will be help for people to return to jobs, if a suitable job offer is made. also talking about employers stepping up to get people vaccinated. >> let's get you up to speed with all the rest of the first word news. mark: the british government is announcing more pandemic rules

to be relaxed, beginning next week. restaurants and pubs will be allowed to serve customers indoors. speaking at a conference today, boris johnson also said the u.k. is on track to easefurther on j. >> this means the rule of six or two households that is applied outdoors will now apply indoors, and the limit for outdoor meetings will increase to 30. from next monday, you'll be able to sit inside a pub or restaurant, go into the cinema, and children can use indoor play areas. mark: earlier today, the chief u.k. medical officer downgraded the alert level from 4 to 3, meaning the pandemic is in general circulation but transmission is no longer high or rising exponentially. federal health officials have decided to limit how they monitor vaccinated people