Tag: Biden administration

130 countries sign on to global minimum tax plan, creating momentum for Biden push

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The White House believes countries need to move together to prevent firms from taking advantage of weak tax rules

President Biden on Thursday celebrated a victory in his drive to make corporations pay a larger share of the cost of government, as 130 countries endorsed a blueprint for a global minimum tax on giant businesses and pledged to work for final approval by the end of October.

The agreement announced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris showcased the president’s preference for patient diplomacy rather than the unilateral moves favored by his predecessor.

Potentially the most significant change in global tax rules in 100 years, the accord is designed to stop countries from competing to lure corporations by offering lower tax rates and to help governments fund their operations at a time of soaring pandemic-related expenses. Biden administration officials also describe the tax plan as a partial remedy for the offshoring of manufacturing jobs that have hollowed out American factory towns and fueled populist resentments. Continue reading.

Garland imposes moratorium on federal executions

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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday announced a moratorium on federal executions, a shift from the Trump administration, which had resumed the use of the death penalty in federal cases.

Garland said in the memo that the Justice Department would also review its policies and procedures to make sure they “are consistent with the principles articulated in this memorandum.” 

“The Department of Justice must ensure that everyone in the federal criminal justice system is not only afforded the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States, but is also treated fairly and humanely,” Garland said in a statement. “That obligation has special force in capital cases.” Continue reading.

U.S. Carries Out Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria

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The attacks were against weapons storage facilities used by Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon said had conducted drone strikes against places in Iraq where American troops, spies and diplomats were located.

WASHINGTON — The United States carried out airstrikes early Monday morning in Iraq and Syria against two Iranian-backed militias that the Pentagon said had conducted drone strikes against American personnel in Iraq in recent weeks, the Defense Department said.

“At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted defensive precision airstrikes against facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region,” the Pentagon spokesman, John F. Kirby, said in a statement.

Mr. Kirby said the facilities were used by Iranian-backed militias, including Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada, to store arms and ammunition for carrying out attacks against places where Americans were located in Iraq. There were no immediate reports of casualties but a military after-action review is ongoing, Pentagon officials said. Continue reading.

Biden administration removes Rodney Scott as head of U.S. Border Patrol

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The Biden administration has forced out the head of the U.S. Border Patrol, Rodney Scott, clearing a path for a leadership overhaul at an agency strained by a 20-year high in illegal border crossings, and whose top officials were broadly sympathetic to President Donald Trump.

Scott, a 29-year veteran, published a statement on social media Wednesday saying he had received a letter offering him the option to resign, retire or relocate. He said the notice did not provide a rationale for his removal, describing it a pro forma notice “so the new administration can place the person they want in the position.”

Scott’s departure was widely anticipated, with several of his current and former colleagues surprised he remained in the post long after President Biden’s inauguration. During last year’s presidential campaign, Scott appeared several times alongside Trump, eagerly defending his hard-line policies, leading some colleagues to privately express concern that Scott’s enthusiasm occasionally veered into partisanship. Continue reading.

The quest for a pill to fight viruses gets a $3.2 billion boost

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Antiviral drugs could help bring this pandemic to a close — and prepare for the next one

Before this pandemic is over, scientists are preparing to fight the next one.

Borrowing from the model used to create drugs that transformed HIV from a death sentence into a manageable disease, the Biden administration announced Thursday a $3.2 billion plan to stock the medicine cabinet with drugs that would be ready to treat future viral threats — whether a hemorrhagic fever, influenza or another coronavirus.

Anthony S. Fauci, chief medical adviser to the administration, and David Kessler, chief science officer for the covid-19 response, began brainstorming the idea late last year. With remarkably effective vaccines rolling out, their initial focus was on drugs that could make the next pandemic less devastating. But as virus variants emerged and it became clear that even a historic vaccination campaign wasn’t likely to eradicate the coronavirus, they accelerated the deadline. Continue reading.

U.S. Ends Trump Policy Limiting Asylum for Gang and Domestic Violence Survivors

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The decision will affect tens of thousands of cases moving through backlogged immigration courts.

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick B. Garland reversed on Wednesday Trump-era immigration rulings that had made it all but impossible for people to seek asylum in the United States over credible fears of domestic abuse or gang violence, marking one of the Justice Department’s most significant breaks with the previous administration.

His decisions came in closely watched cases where his predecessors, the former attorneys general Jeff Sessions and William P. Barr, broke with precedent to overturn decisions by immigration appeals judges that would have allowed such asylum claims.

The decisions — applicable to all cases in the system, including appeals — will affect tens of thousands of migrants. Hundreds of thousands of Central Americans fleeing gang extortion and recruitment and women fleeing domestic abuse have arrived in the United States since 2013, and many cases are still being adjudicated, given an enormous backlog in immigration courts. Continue reading.

Biden to pick Cuban-born Navy veteran to be Navy secretary

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Carlos Del Toro spent more than two decades in the Navy and later founded a tech company

President Joe Biden announced Friday he plans to tap Carlos Del Toro, a Navy veteran and CEO of a technology company, to be the next Navy secretary.

Born in Cuba, Del Toro is a 1983 graduate of the Naval Academy who spent more than two decades in the Navy, including serving as the commanding officer of the USS Bulkeley, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

In 2004, Del Toro founded SBG Technology Solutions, and has served as the firm’s CEO ever since. Continue reading.

Biden officials move to reinstate Alaska roadless rule, overturning Trump policy

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The proposal would affect 9.3 million acres of forest, including vast areas of old growth, that Bill Clinton originally protected in 2001.

The Biden administration said Friday that it would “repeal or replace” a rule allowing roads and other types of development in more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, reviving 20-year-old protections President Donald Trump had stripped three months before leaving office.

The move was outlined in the administration’s new regulatory agenda. The notice from the White House said the change was consistent with President Biden’s Jan. 27 executive order “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis.” The Agriculture Department expects to publish the proposed rule in August, the notice said.

In an email, USDA communications director Matt Herrick said the department “recognizes the Trump administration’s decision on the Alaska roadless rule was controversial and did not align with the overwhelming majority of public opinion across the country and among Alaskans.” Continue reading.

Opinion: Five finance ministers: Why we need a global corporate minimum tax

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Every nation is facing inequities brought on by dramatic technological change, the surging market power of big companies and the fierce competitive pressures resulting from capital mobility. The worst global health crisis in a century has also challenged the world’s economies — especially their public finances — in extraordinary ways. Some countries are beginning to emerge from the covid-19 crisiswhile others are still mired in its depths. Each of us, in our capacity as finance ministers, sees two pressing concerns that could threaten all of our economies despite the differences between them.

First, wealthy people and corporations are doing much better than those at the bottom of the economic ladder. Low-wage workers and parents are forced to choose between their health and the safety of their children, on the one hand, and their livelihoods, on the other. As a result, they have disproportionately borne the brunt of the pandemic’s economic harms. Small businesses are suffering after shuttering to protect their communities. Meanwhile, corporate revenue has soared, and high-income workers and shareholders have emerged from the crisis relatively unscathed.

The second problem is a consequence of the first. Governments desperately need revenue to rebuild their economies and make investments to support small businesses, workers and families in need. And they’ll need more, as the pandemic recedes, to address climate change and longer-run structural issues. Revenue must come from somewhere, though. For too long, revenue has been drawn too heavily from workers, whose incomes are easy to report and calculate. Capital income is more difficult to tax because capital is mobile and income more susceptible to sophisticated accounting games. Continue reading.

Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez is Mexico’s finance minister. Sri Mulyani Indrawati is Indonesia’s finance minister. Tito Mboweni is South Africa’s finance minister. Olaf Scholz is Germany’s vice chancellor and minister of finance. Janet L. Yellen is U.S. treasury secretary.

The Biden administration seeks to rally allies and the private sector against the ransomware threat

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No longer considered only a criminal matter but a danger to national security

For years, the federal government treated ransomware as a criminal menace — not as urgent as hacking by foreign spies. But after a spasm of high-profile attacks that jarred the nation, the U.S. government now has begun framing the issue as a matter of national — and global — security.

The FBI director this week compared it to the challenge posed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. On Thursday, a top White House cyber official urged corporate America to strengthen its computer security. And on Friday, the White House said that President Biden will raise the issue of Russia’s harboring ransomware criminals when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin June 16 in Geneva.

“We know that the ransomware threat is urgent, it’s complex, and it’s been increasing over the last several years,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “It feels new to us over the last couple of weeks, but it has been increasing rapidly around the world over the last several years.” Continue reading.