Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
- Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- The House of Representatives is expected to hold a final vote tomorrow (March 10) to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan. The vote was originally expected to take place today after legislation passed out of the Senate, but a senior Democratic aide says it will “most likely” be on Wednesday. [CNN]
- About 300 refugees who had been approved and prepared to arrive in the United States last week for resettlement have had their flights canceled after bureaucratic hurdles from the Biden administration. Although the Biden administration had announced it would be raising refugee caps and undoing restrictions implemented by Donald Trump, processes grinded to a halt because Biden reportedly hasn’t formally signed off on the higher cap. [HuffPo]
- A new order from Joe Biden would allow about 300,000 Venezuelans in the U.S. to apply for Temporary Protected Status. If it is granted, recipients would be permitted to remain and work in the U.S. for 18 months. The move is seen as a way to apply pressure on Venezuelan President Maduro. [NBC Latino]
- During an International Women’s Day protest ended in violence with at least 81 people injured as police used force against hundreds of demonstrators, many of them women voicing their outrage at the country’s rampant gender violence. Many of them also used the march to speak out against President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has backed a politician accused by several women of rape. [NYT]
- A Brazilian Supreme Court justice in Brazil threw out several criminal cases against the former leftisit President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which restores his right to seek the presidency again. Da Silva was president from 2003 to 2010 and had been considered the front-runner in the 2018 election eventually won by current president Jair Bolsonaro. [NYT]
- Cardi B’s 2018 single “Bodak Yellow ” has earned an RIAA diamond certification, making rap history. The designation, which means the song went 10-times platinum and sold 10 million units. Cardi is the first female rapper ever to have achieved the milestone. [Complex]
- Selena Gomez is on the cover of Vogue this month. In an interview, she discusses her Mexican upbringing and becoming more politically active in issues such as immigration. She also talks about her new Spanish-language EP, which is out on Friday. [Vogue]