Category: Foreign Policy

Biden backs COVID-19 vaccine patent waivers

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The Biden administration will support a proposal to waive international patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines, according to a top administration official.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement Wednesday that the “extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures.”

The U.S. will begin participating in World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations over the exact language of the waiver, which supporters say would make the details of vaccine production widely available and allow lower-income countries to make doses themselves. Continue reading.

Trump muddles Republican messaging on Afghanistan

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Donald Trump’s hearty endorsement of pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by September has undercut efforts by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other key Republicans to question President Biden’s strategy. 

More broadly, the former president has focused the nation’s attention on China as the United States’s premier national security concern, putting pressure on Senate Republicans to support legislation Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to move to respond to Beijing’s growing influence and power. 

McConnell is the most powerful Republican leader in Washington, but he doesn’t have the same unrivaled platform that he did when he was in the same position — head of the minority opposition in Washington — at the start of former President Obama’s tenure.  Continue reading.

The number of migrant children in Border Patrol custody is down significantly.

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The Biden administration is starting to see some success in its efforts to suitably house the migrant children flooding to the southwest border, with a fraction of the number of children in Customs and Border Protection custody than there were a month ago.

Over the past month, the number of migrant children in the jail-like facilities of the Border Patrol dropped 83 percent, from 5,767 on March 29 to 954 on Thursday, according to government statistics. The length of time children are staying in border shelters is down as well, from an average of 133 hours to 28. By law, children are not supposed to stay in border shelters for more than 72 hours.

The improvements are attributable in part to an increase in facilities overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services where children can be housed under better living conditions. Continue reading.

Senate intel leaders vow to ‘get to the bottom’ of increasing directed-energy attacks

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U.S. personnel have reported symptoms similar to the “Havana Syndrome” attacks from 2016.

The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee vowed on Friday to “get to the bottom of” a series of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel around the world, after POLITICO reported that such attacks appear to be increasing.

“Ultimately we will identify those responsible for these attacks on American personnel and will hold them accountable,” wrote Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in a statement.

The statement came a day after POLITICO reported that U.S. officials are investigating a suspected directed-energy attack on U.S. government personnel in Miami in 2020, as well as at least two additional possible attacks on U.S. soil. Continue reading.

FBI warned Giuliani, key Trump ally in Senate of Russian disinformation campaign targeting Biden

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The FBI warned Rudolph W. Giuliani in late 2019 that he was the target of a Russian influence operation aimed at circulating falsehoods intended to damage President Biden politically ahead of last year’s election, according to people familiar with the matter.

The warning was part of an extensive effort by the bureau to alert members of Congress and at least one conservative media outlet, One America News, that they faced a risk of being used to further Russia’s attempt to influence the election’s outcome, said several current and former U.S. officials. All spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter remains highly sensitive.

Giuliani received the FBI’s warning while deeply involved with former president Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign and related activities in Ukraine to surface unflattering or incriminating information about the Biden family. The revelation comes as the FBI this week seized Giuliani’s cellphone and other electronic devices as part of a long-running criminal investigation into whether the onetime New York mayor and personal attorney for Trump acted as an unregistered foreign agent. Continue reading.

US troops begin leaving Afghanistan

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The U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan has officially begun in line with President Biden’s order for all U.S. troops to be out by Sept. 11, the White House confirmed Thursday.

“A drawdown is underway,” deputy White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling on Air Force One.

Biden ordered the withdrawal earlier this month, intent on bringing to a close America’s longest war by the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that sparked the conflict. Continue reading.

White House to restrict travel from India

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The White House will restrict travel from India starting at midnight on Tuesday, May 4, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on Friday.

Driving the news: The Biden administration cited a steep rise in coronavirus cases in the country and the possible emergence of multiple variants.

Biden recognizes Armenian genocide

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President Biden on Saturday formally declared that the massacre of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire more than a century ago was “genocide,” a move that is likely to exacerbate tensions with Turkey.

In doing so, Biden is fulfilling a campaign promise and becoming the first sitting president since Ronald Reagan to use the term “genocide” to describe the mass killings that occurred during the 20th century at the end of World War I.

“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. Continue reading.

Putin Warns of a Russian ‘Red Line’ the West Will Regret Crossing

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In a state-of-the nation speech, President Vladimir Putin warned of a “fast and tough” response to security threats, in a message seemingly aimed at President Biden and delivered amid large protests.

MOSCOW — He warned ominously of “red lines” in Russia’s security that, if crossed, would bring a powerful “asymmetric” response. He reminded Western leaders once again of the fearsomeness of his country’s modernized nuclear arsenal. And he boasted of Russia’s moral superiority over the West.

Yet even as President Vladimir V. Putin lashed out at foreign enemies real or perceived in a state-of-the-nation speech on Wednesday, tens of thousands of Russians defied a heavy police presence to pour into the streets to challenge his rule. In Moscow, some gathered across the street from the Kremlin to chant, “Go Away!”

It was a snapshot of Russia in the third decade of Mr. Putin’s rule: a leader facing an increasingly angry and desperate opposition but firmly in power with his country’s vast resources and huge security apparatus at his disposal. Continue reading.

Trump praises Putin on Fox News — after Alexei Navalny hospitalized in prison

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Former President Donald Trump on Monday praised his relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

The statements came after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was transferred to a prison hospital and the Pentagon warned about Russia’s troop build-up along the border with Ukraine.

Fox News personality Sean Hannity asked Trump what he would do differently if he were to run again in 2024 and win. Continue reading.