President Joe Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a White House visit this summer.&nbsp;

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden extended the invitation during a phone call on Monday with Zelenskyy, who has publicly raised concerns about the US&nbsp;President's plan to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and about a nearly completed Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline that would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine.

Biden made the invitation during a call that had been planned in advance of Biden's trip to Europe that culminates with a stop in Geneva next week for a face-to-face meeting with Putin as tensions in the US-Russia relationship remain high.

Zelenskyy tweeted his response: "Thank you @POTUS @JoeBiden for inviting me to visit the @WhiteHouse in July during our phone conversation. I look forward to this meeting to discuss ways to expand strategic cooperation between Ukraine and #USA."

Sullivan said Biden and Zelenskyy had the 'opportunity to talk at some length about all of the issues in the US-Ukraine relationship and President Biden was able to tell President Zelenskyy that he will stand up firmly for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its aspirations as we go forward."

The Ukrainians also indicated that the Biden administration had committed to sharing 900,000 COVID-19 vaccines with Kyiv. Last week, the White House announced plans to share 80 million vaccine doses 'most through the United Nations-backed COVAX programme'&nbsp;by the end of June.

About 6 million in the initial distribution of 25 million were to be directed by the White House to US&nbsp;Allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, the West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as to United Nations frontline workers.

"It will save the lives of many Ukrainians," Zelenskky said in a statement.&nbsp;The Biden administration disappointed Ukraine 'as well as many Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington' when it announced last month that it would not punish the German company overseeing the Russia-to-Germany pipeline known as Nord Stream 2, because it did not want to levy sanctions against an important European ally.

Russian gas currently flows through Ukraine en route to Europe, and Zelenskyy was hopeful that Biden would move to block the project that faced bipartisan opposition in Congress.

Zelenskyy reiterated his concerns about the pipeline during the call, according to the statement from his office.

 
Zelenskyy, in an interview with Axios published on Sunday, said he had urged Biden to join him 'at any moment and at any spot on the planet' before the planned Geneva meeting with Putin next week.

Ukraine has harbored hopes for increased military aid during the Biden administration and is looking for backing in its bid for NATO membership. Ukraine has long battled against Russia-backed separatists in the east and in the halls of government in Kyiv.

Crimea and large swaths of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region are under Russian occupation. Fighting in the region has claimed thousands of Ukrainian lives.

Russia launched a buildup of troops near the border earlier this year before announcing in April that it would pull back those forces.

The provocative move alarmed the US&nbsp;and other European allies. Zelenskyy, in the call, emphasised to Biden that there was still a high concentration of Russian troops and heavy weaponry there.

Zelenskyy found himself ensnared in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment, which centered around a 16-minute phone call in which Trump pressured the Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden and his son's dealings in the Eastern European nation in 2019.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

President Joe Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a White House visit this summer. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden extended the invitation during a phone call on Monday with Zelenskyy, who has publicly raised concerns about the US President's plan to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and about a nearly completed Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline that would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine.

President Joe Biden has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a White House visit this summer. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden extended the invitation during a phone call on Monday with Zelenskyy, who has publicly raised concerns about the US President's plan to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and about a nearly completed Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline that would allow Russia to bypass Ukraine. Biden made the invitation during a call that had been planned in advance of Biden's trip to Europe that culminates with a stop in Geneva next week for a face-to-face meeting with Putin as tensions in the US-Russia relationship remain high. Zelenskyy tweeted his response: "Thank you @POTUS @JoeBiden for inviting me to visit the @WhiteHouse in July during our phone conversation. I look forward to this meeting to discuss ways to expand strategic cooperation between Ukraine and #USA." Sullivan said Biden and Zelenskyy had the 'opportunity to talk at some length about all of the issues in the US-Ukraine relationship and President Biden was able to tell President Zelenskyy that he will stand up firmly for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and its aspirations as we go forward." The Ukrainians also indicated that the Biden administration had committed to sharing 900,000 COVID-19 vaccines with Kyiv. Last week, the White House announced plans to share 80 million vaccine doses 'most through the United Nations-backed COVAX programme' by the end of June. About 6 million in the initial distribution of 25 million were to be directed by the White House to US Allies and partners, including Mexico, Canada, South Korea, the West Bank and Gaza, India, Ukraine, Kosovo, Haiti, Georgia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well as to United Nations frontline workers. "It will save the lives of many Ukrainians," Zelenskky said in a statement. The Biden administration disappointed Ukraine 'as well as many Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington' when it announced last month that it would not punish the German company overseeing the Russia-to-Germany pipeline known as Nord Stream 2, because it did not want to levy sanctions against an important European ally. Russian gas currently flows through Ukraine en route to Europe, and Zelenskyy was hopeful that Biden would move to block the project that faced bipartisan opposition in Congress. Zelenskyy reiterated his concerns about the pipeline during the call, according to the statement from his office. Zelenskyy, in an interview with Axios published on Sunday, said he had urged Biden to join him 'at any moment and at any spot on the planet' before the planned Geneva meeting with Putin next week. Ukraine has harbored hopes for increased military aid during the Biden administration and is looking for backing in its bid for NATO membership. Ukraine has long battled against Russia-backed separatists in the east and in the halls of government in Kyiv. Crimea and large swaths of eastern Ukraine's Donbas region are under Russian occupation. Fighting in the region has claimed thousands of Ukrainian lives. Russia launched a buildup of troops near the border earlier this year before announcing in April that it would pull back those forces. The provocative move alarmed the US and other European allies. Zelenskyy, in the call, emphasised to Biden that there was still a high concentration of Russian troops and heavy weaponry there. Zelenskyy found himself ensnared in former President Donald Trump's first impeachment, which centered around a 16-minute phone call in which Trump pressured the Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden and his son's dealings in the Eastern European nation in 2019. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden invites Ukrainian president to White House this summer

Rob Goins is 57, a former Marine and a lifelong Republican in a right-leaning jigsaw of golf courses, strip malls and gated retirement communities pieced together in the Arizona desert. But ask about the Republican-backed review of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory here in Maricopa County, and Goins rejects the party line.

“There’s a lot of folks out there trying to make something out of nothing,” he said recently as he loaded purchases into his vehicle outside a Home Depot. “I don’t think there was any fraud. My opinion of this is that it’s a big lie.”

Goins is flesh-and-blood evidence of what political analysts here are all but shouting: The Republican-led state Senate’s autopsy of the 2020 vote, broadly seen as a shambolic, partisan effort to nurse grievances about Donald Trump’s loss here in November, risks driving away some of the very people the party needs to win statewide elections in 2022.

That Arizona Republicans are ignoring that message — and that Republicans in other states are now trying to mount their own Arizona-style audits — raises worrisome questions not just about their strategy, but about its impact on an American democracy facing fundamental threats.

Now in its seventh week, the review of 2.1 million votes in Arizona’s most populous county has ballooned not just into a national political spectacle, but also a political windsock for the Republican Party — an early test of how its renewed subservience to Trump would play with voters.

The returns to date are not encouraging for the party. A late-May poll of 400 Arizonans by the respected consulting firm HighGround Inc. found that more than 55% of respondents opposed the vote review, most of them strongly. Fewer than 41% approved of it. By about 45% to 33%, respondents said they were less likely — much less, most said — to vote for a Republican candidate who supported the review.

The review itself, troubled by procedural blunders and defections, has largely sacrificed any claim to impartiality. The Pennsylvania computer forensics firm that was conducting the hand recount of ballots quit without a clear explanation this month, adding further chaos to a count that election authorities and other critics say has been making up its rules as it went along.

“If they were voting on it again today, they would have withheld doing this, because it’s been nothing but a headache,” Jim Kolbe, a Republican congressman from southeast Arizona from 1985 to 2003, said of the Republican state senators who are backing the review. “It’s a black mark on Arizona’s reputation.”

Instead, the Republicans in the Arizona Senate have doubled down. And as the review’s notoriety has grown, pro-Trump Republicans in other states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have begun to promote their own plans to investigate the November vote, even though — as in Arizona — elections in those states have been certified as accurate and free from any fraud that could have affected the outcome.

The sudden interest in exhuming the November election is explained by another number from the poll in Arizona: While only about 41% of all 400 respondents said they supported the Maricopa audit, almost 77% of Republican respondents did.

Among the Trump supporters who dominate the Republican Party, skepticism about the election results, fueled almost entirely by Trump’s lies, remains unshaken, and catering to it is politically profitable.

Leslie Minkus, 77, is a business consultant in Chandler, another Republican stronghold just southeast of Phoenix. His wife, Phyllis, serves on the local Republican legislative district committee. “The majority of voters here in Arizona know that this election was stolen,” he said in an interview. “It’s pretty obvious that our alleged president is not more popular than previous presidents, and still wound up getting a majority of the vote.”

Opposition to the review by Democrats and some Republicans — including the Republican-run county board of supervisors and the Republican who is the chief county election officer — only shows that they have something to hide, Minkus added. And as for previous checks of ballots and voting equipment that showed no sign of fraud, he said, “I don’t think anybody would agree that the audits done in the past were independent.”

In conversations with a range of Phoenix-area residents, many who supported the review were more equivocal than Minkus.

“I think there was fraud going on. I mean, every election, there’s fraud,” said Eric Fauls, a 56-year-old California expatriate who moved to a golfing community in Surprise three years ago. “California — it was really bad — but I mean, California is never going to go Republican. With a swing state, it’s really important, so I think it’s worth doing an audit.”

Still, he said, “I don’t know if there’s enough evidence either way to make it legitimate.”

Most of the review's critics, on the other hand, left little doubt of their feelings.

“It’s a threat to our democracy. I think there’s no doubt about that,” said Dan Harlan, a defense-industry employee who changed his lifelong Republican registration to Democrat last year so he could help pick Trump’s opponent. “This audit is being conducted because the Republican Party refuses to look at long-term demographics and realize they can no longer be the party of the white male. And they’re doing everything they can to maintain power.

“It’s not about democracy; it’s about winning,” he said. “And when any organization becomes more concerned with maintaining itself, losing its core values is no longer important.”

Jane Davis, an 89-year-old retired nurse, was a Republican for 40 years before she re-registered as an independent and voted last year for Biden. The state Senate Republicans have backed an audit, she said, “to cause problems.”

“I think it’s ridiculous, and I object to their spending any taxpayer money” on the review, she said.

Chuck Coughlin, the Phoenix pollster who conducted the Arizona survey, said people like the Minkuses were in firm control of the state Republican Party in no small part because they are the ones who vote. Four in five Republican primary-election voters, he said, are 50 or older.

By itself, that white-hot core is not large enough to wield power in statewide elections, Coughlin said. But it is plenty large enough to advance Trump’s narrative of a corrupt elite that is stealing power from the nation’s true patriots, particularly when it is stoked by politicians.

“Historically on these big issues, you have a lively public discussion and then it goes away; the issue moves on to something else,” he said. “But this is an issue that we’re dwelling on because it’s to Trump’s advantage that the party continues to dwell on it — on his loss, and his victimhood and his identity.

“I feel legitimately bad for these people that they’re so wounded that they are willing to take their party and a heretofore vibrant democracy down with it.”

Indeed, some elections experts say that’s why the politics of the "audit," as extravagantly flawed as it is, may be more complex than meets the eye. If it is about winning elections and building a majority, it looks like a political loser. If it’s about permanent grievance and undermining faith in the democratic system for political gain, maybe not.

Karen Fann, the Arizona Senate president, and other Republicans have insisted that their election review is not intended to contest Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, but to address voters’ concerns that the election had been stolen. In practice, those experts say, the review keeps the stolen-election narrative front and center in the state’s politics, slowly eroding faith in representative government.

“The problem is that Americans have a real lack of trust in institutions these days,” said William Mishler, a longtime expert on democratic institutions at the University of Arizona. And even many who regard the Arizona election review as a discredited, amateur exercise “fear the mischief that’s likely to come out of this in the form of some further undermining of confidence in the election outcome.”

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a longtime student of the U.S. political system, said the Arizona election review highlighted a seismic shift in the rules of American democracy. In years past, political parties were forces for moderation, trying to appeal to as many voters as possible. Now, he said, one of the two major parties was taking precisely the opposite tack.

“We’ve had crazies in public life before,” he said. “We’ve had demagogues speaking out and sometimes winning high office. The difference this time is that they’re being encouraged rather than constrained by party and election officials.” Without some check on radicalism, he said, “our whole system breaks down.”

Mishler concurred. “What worries me is not that there’s a minority of crazies in the party,” he said of the Republicans. “It’s that there’s a majority of the crazies.”

That said, election inquiries only count votes. Mishler, Mann and Kolbe, the former representative, all said that a more imminent threat to democracy was what they called an effort by some Republicans to disregard votes entirely. They cited changes in state laws that could make challenging or nullifying election results easier, and a burst of candidacies by stolen-election advocates for crucial election posts such as secretary of state offices.

Arizona is among the latter. The race to replace Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state who announced last week that she was running for governor, already has attracted one Republican legislator who is an election conspiracy theorist and another who is perhaps the legislature’s leading supporter of restrictions on the right to vote.

“These are perilous times,” Mann said. “Arizona is just demonstrating it.”

Rob Goins is 57, a former Marine and a lifelong Republican in a right-leaning jigsaw of golf courses, strip malls and gated retirement communities pieced together in the Arizona desert.

Rob Goins is 57, a former Marine and a lifelong Republican in a right-leaning jigsaw of golf courses, strip malls and gated retirement communities pieced together in the Arizona desert. But ask about the Republican-backed review of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory here in Maricopa County, and Goins rejects the party line. “There’s a lot of folks out there trying to make something out of nothing,” he said recently as he loaded purchases into his vehicle outside a Home Depot. “I don’t think there was any fraud. My opinion of this is that it’s a big lie.” Goins is flesh-and-blood evidence of what political analysts here are all but shouting: The Republican-led state Senate’s autopsy of the 2020 vote, broadly seen as a shambolic, partisan effort to nurse grievances about Donald Trump’s loss here in November, risks driving away some of the very people the party needs to win statewide elections in 2022. That Arizona Republicans are ignoring that message — and that Republicans in other states are now trying to mount their own Arizona-style audits — raises worrisome questions not just about their strategy, but about its impact on an American democracy facing fundamental threats. Now in its seventh week, the review of 2.1 million votes in Arizona’s most populous county has ballooned not just into a national political spectacle, but also a political windsock for the Republican Party — an early test of how its renewed subservience to Trump would play with voters. The returns to date are not encouraging for the party. A late-May poll of 400 Arizonans by the respected consulting firm HighGround Inc. found that more than 55% of respondents opposed the vote review, most of them strongly. Fewer than 41% approved of it. By about 45% to 33%, respondents said they were less likely — much less, most said — to vote for a Republican candidate who supported the review. The review itself, troubled by procedural blunders and defections, has largely sacrificed any claim to impartiality. The Pennsylvania computer forensics firm that was conducting the hand recount of ballots quit without a clear explanation this month, adding further chaos to a count that election authorities and other critics say has been making up its rules as it went along. “If they were voting on it again today, they would have withheld doing this, because it’s been nothing but a headache,” Jim Kolbe, a Republican congressman from southeast Arizona from 1985 to 2003, said of the Republican state senators who are backing the review. “It’s a black mark on Arizona’s reputation.” Instead, the Republicans in the Arizona Senate have doubled down. And as the review’s notoriety has grown, pro-Trump Republicans in other states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have begun to promote their own plans to investigate the November vote, even though — as in Arizona — elections in those states have been certified as accurate and free from any fraud that could have affected the outcome. The sudden interest in exhuming the November election is explained by another number from the poll in Arizona: While only about 41% of all 400 respondents said they supported the Maricopa audit, almost 77% of Republican respondents did. Among the Trump supporters who dominate the Republican Party, skepticism about the election results, fueled almost entirely by Trump’s lies, remains unshaken, and catering to it is politically profitable. Leslie Minkus, 77, is a business consultant in Chandler, another Republican stronghold just southeast of Phoenix. His wife, Phyllis, serves on the local Republican legislative district committee. “The majority of voters here in Arizona know that this election was stolen,” he said in an interview. “It’s pretty obvious that our alleged president is not more popular than previous presidents, and still wound up getting a majority of the vote.” Opposition to the review by Democrats and some Republicans — including the Republican-run county board of supervisors and the Republican who is the chief county election officer — only shows that they have something to hide, Minkus added. And as for previous checks of ballots and voting equipment that showed no sign of fraud, he said, “I don’t think anybody would agree that the audits done in the past were independent.” In conversations with a range of Phoenix-area residents, many who supported the review were more equivocal than Minkus. “I think there was fraud going on. I mean, every election, there’s fraud,” said Eric Fauls, a 56-year-old California expatriate who moved to a golfing community in Surprise three years ago. “California — it was really bad — but I mean, California is never going to go Republican. With a swing state, it’s really important, so I think it’s worth doing an audit.” Still, he said, “I don’t know if there’s enough evidence either way to make it legitimate.” Most of the review's critics, on the other hand, left little doubt of their feelings. “It’s a threat to our democracy. I think there’s no doubt about that,” said Dan Harlan, a defense-industry employee who changed his lifelong Republican registration to Democrat last year so he could help pick Trump’s opponent. “This audit is being conducted because the Republican Party refuses to look at long-term demographics and realize they can no longer be the party of the white male. And they’re doing everything they can to maintain power. “It’s not about democracy; it’s about winning,” he said. “And when any organization becomes more concerned with maintaining itself, losing its core values is no longer important.” Jane Davis, an 89-year-old retired nurse, was a Republican for 40 years before she re-registered as an independent and voted last year for Biden. The state Senate Republicans have backed an audit, she said, “to cause problems.” “I think it’s ridiculous, and I object to their spending any taxpayer money” on the review, she said. Chuck Coughlin, the Phoenix pollster who conducted the Arizona survey, said people like the Minkuses were in firm control of the state Republican Party in no small part because they are the ones who vote. Four in five Republican primary-election voters, he said, are 50 or older. By itself, that white-hot core is not large enough to wield power in statewide elections, Coughlin said. But it is plenty large enough to advance Trump’s narrative of a corrupt elite that is stealing power from the nation’s true patriots, particularly when it is stoked by politicians. “Historically on these big issues, you have a lively public discussion and then it goes away; the issue moves on to something else,” he said. “But this is an issue that we’re dwelling on because it’s to Trump’s advantage that the party continues to dwell on it — on his loss, and his victimhood and his identity. “I feel legitimately bad for these people that they’re so wounded that they are willing to take their party and a heretofore vibrant democracy down with it.” Indeed, some elections experts say that’s why the politics of the "audit," as extravagantly flawed as it is, may be more complex than meets the eye. If it is about winning elections and building a majority, it looks like a political loser. If it’s about permanent grievance and undermining faith in the democratic system for political gain, maybe not. Karen Fann, the Arizona Senate president, and other Republicans have insisted that their election review is not intended to contest Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, but to address voters’ concerns that the election had been stolen. In practice, those experts say, the review keeps the stolen-election narrative front and center in the state’s politics, slowly eroding faith in representative government. “The problem is that Americans have a real lack of trust in institutions these days,” said William Mishler, a longtime expert on democratic institutions at the University of Arizona. And even many who regard the Arizona election review as a discredited, amateur exercise “fear the mischief that’s likely to come out of this in the form of some further undermining of confidence in the election outcome.” (STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.) Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a longtime student of the U.S. political system, said the Arizona election review highlighted a seismic shift in the rules of American democracy. In years past, political parties were forces for moderation, trying to appeal to as many voters as possible. Now, he said, one of the two major parties was taking precisely the opposite tack. “We’ve had crazies in public life before,” he said. “We’ve had demagogues speaking out and sometimes winning high office. The difference this time is that they’re being encouraged rather than constrained by party and election officials.” Without some check on radicalism, he said, “our whole system breaks down.” Mishler concurred. “What worries me is not that there’s a minority of crazies in the party,” he said of the Republicans. “It’s that there’s a majority of the crazies.” That said, election inquiries only count votes. Mishler, Mann and Kolbe, the former representative, all said that a more imminent threat to democracy was what they called an effort by some Republicans to disregard votes entirely. They cited changes in state laws that could make challenging or nullifying election results easier, and a burst of candidacies by stolen-election advocates for crucial election posts such as secretary of state offices. Arizona is among the latter. The race to replace Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state who announced last week that she was running for governor, already has attracted one Republican legislator who is an election conspiracy theorist and another who is perhaps the legislature’s leading supporter of restrictions on the right to vote. “These are perilous times,” Mann said. “Arizona is just demonstrating it.”

In Arizona 2020 election review, risks for Republicans, and Democracy

President Joe Biden's meeting with leaders of the G7 leading industrial economies in an English seaside village this week will usher in a new focus on rallying US&nbsp;allies against common adversaries - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia and China. 
 
New COVID-19 variants and rising death tolls in some countries will loom large during the gathering from Friday to Sunday, alongside climate change, strengthening global supply chains and ensuring the West maintains its technological edge over China, the world's second-largest economy. 
 
Biden, a Democrat, vowed to rebuild relations with allies after four rocky years under former President Donald Trump, who pulled Washington out of several multilateral institutions and threatened at one point to quit NATO. 
 
"In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realising America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners," Biden wrote in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post on Saturday. 
 
The gathering will put Biden's 'America is back' motto to the test, with allies disillusioned during the Trump years looking for tangible, lasting action. 
 
It is a pivotal moment for the United States and the world, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on CNN on Sunday. 
 
"Is international cooperation going to be restored or are we still in this world where nationalism, protectionism and to some extent isolationism are dominating?" Brown asked.

Russia will be at the forefront of attention at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, and the days afterward when Biden meets with European leaders and NATO allies in Brussels, before heading to Geneva to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
 
The recent ransomware attack on JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, by a criminal group likely based in Russia, and Putin's financial backing for Belarus after it forced a Ryanair flight to land so it could arrest a dissident journalist on board, are pushing US&nbsp;officials to consider sharper action. 
 
On the sidelines of the NATO summit, Biden is also expected to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a crucial session between the sparring NATO allies after Ankara's purchase of Russian defence systems angered Washington and risked driving a wedge within the alliance. 
 
G7 finance ministers reached a landmark global deal on Saturday to set a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%, potentially hitting giant tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Biden and his counterparts will give the deal their final blessing in Cornwall. 
 
The Biden administration, which on Thursday detailed its plans to donate 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally by the end of June, is leaning heavily on allies to follow suit as the global pandemic death toll approaches 4 million, US&nbsp;and diplomatic sources say. 
 
Washington reversed course last month and backed negotiations over waivers for intellectual property protections at the World Trade Organization to speed vaccine production in developing countries, much to the chagrin of Germany and Britain. 
 
European diplomats say they see little common ground on the issue, and argue that any WTO compromise would take months to finalise and implement. That may prove a moot point if sufficient vaccine doses are shared with developing countries to slow - and eventually halt - the pandemic. 
 
Biden announced plans in May to require US&nbsp;government contractors and financial institutions to be more transparent about the climate change risks faced by their investments, and administration officials are pushing other countries to adopt similar plans. 
 
The UK also wants governments to require businesses to report such risks as a way to boost investment in green projects. But agreement on a way forward is unlikely to come in June. A deal could emerge at a UN&nbsp;climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. 
 
G7 countries also have different views on carbon pricing, which the International Monetary Fund views as a key way to curb carbon dioxide emissions and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. 
 
The Biden administration will urge allies to unite against China over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur minority, even as it seeks to maintain Beijing as an ally in the climate change fight. 
 
Sources following the discussions say they expect G7 leaders to adopt strong language on the forced labour issue. China denies all accusations of abuse in Xinjiang. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

President Joe Biden's meeting with leaders of the G7 leading industrial economies in an English seaside village this week will usher in a new focus on rallying US allies against common adversaries - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia and China.

President Joe Biden's meeting with leaders of the G7 leading industrial economies in an English seaside village this week will usher in a new focus on rallying US allies against common adversaries - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia and China. New COVID-19 variants and rising death tolls in some countries will loom large during the gathering from Friday to Sunday, alongside climate change, strengthening global supply chains and ensuring the West maintains its technological edge over China, the world's second-largest economy. Biden, a Democrat, vowed to rebuild relations with allies after four rocky years under former President Donald Trump, who pulled Washington out of several multilateral institutions and threatened at one point to quit NATO. "In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realising America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners," Biden wrote in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post on Saturday. The gathering will put Biden's 'America is back' motto to the test, with allies disillusioned during the Trump years looking for tangible, lasting action. It is a pivotal moment for the United States and the world, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on CNN on Sunday. "Is international cooperation going to be restored or are we still in this world where nationalism, protectionism and to some extent isolationism are dominating?" Brown asked. Russia will be at the forefront of attention at the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, and the days afterward when Biden meets with European leaders and NATO allies in Brussels, before heading to Geneva to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin. The recent ransomware attack on JBS, the world's largest meatpacker, by a criminal group likely based in Russia, and Putin's financial backing for Belarus after it forced a Ryanair flight to land so it could arrest a dissident journalist on board, are pushing US officials to consider sharper action. On the sidelines of the NATO summit, Biden is also expected to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, a crucial session between the sparring NATO allies after Ankara's purchase of Russian defence systems angered Washington and risked driving a wedge within the alliance. G7 finance ministers reached a landmark global deal on Saturday to set a minimum global corporate tax rate of at least 15%, potentially hitting giant tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Facebook Inc and Amazon.com Inc. Biden and his counterparts will give the deal their final blessing in Cornwall. The Biden administration, which on Thursday detailed its plans to donate 80 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally by the end of June, is leaning heavily on allies to follow suit as the global pandemic death toll approaches 4 million, US and diplomatic sources say. Washington reversed course last month and backed negotiations over waivers for intellectual property protections at the World Trade Organization to speed vaccine production in developing countries, much to the chagrin of Germany and Britain. European diplomats say they see little common ground on the issue, and argue that any WTO compromise would take months to finalise and implement. That may prove a moot point if sufficient vaccine doses are shared with developing countries to slow - and eventually halt - the pandemic. Biden announced plans in May to require US government contractors and financial institutions to be more transparent about the climate change risks faced by their investments, and administration officials are pushing other countries to adopt similar plans. The UK also wants governments to require businesses to report such risks as a way to boost investment in green projects. But agreement on a way forward is unlikely to come in June. A deal could emerge at a UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November. G7 countries also have different views on carbon pricing, which the International Monetary Fund views as a key way to curb carbon dioxide emissions and reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The Biden administration will urge allies to unite against China over allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang province, home to the Muslim Uighur minority, even as it seeks to maintain Beijing as an ally in the climate change fight. Sources following the discussions say they expect G7 leaders to adopt strong language on the forced labour issue. China denies all accusations of abuse in Xinjiang. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden G7, NATO to-do list: Unite allies, fight autocracy, attack COVID-19

US President Joe Biden will this week, overhaul the list of Chinese firms that US investors are allowed to own shares in. Biden is re-evaluating world powers' relationship with China in post-Trump era. He is aiming to do so while maintaining pressure on Beijing.

Trump, during his term as US President had barred Americans from buying shares in 31 Chinese companies that were seen by the US to be supplying or supporting China's military and security apparatus. These companies include major telecom firms, technology and construction firms such as China mobile, China Telecom, video surveillance firm Hikvision, and China Railway Construction Corp.

It was among a series of measures by the White House aimed at quelling the Asian giant's rise and which has left ties between the two severely strained.

Now, the Treasury Department will create a list of firms that'll be hit with financial penalties for links with Chinese defence and surveillance technology sectors, Bloomberg News reported without citing sources. The president is expected to sign the order this week, it added.

Previously, the sanctions and choice of targets were tied to a congressionally mandated Defense Department report.

The review from Biden administration has come after two Chinese successfully challenged the order in court, and Biden said it was needed to be sure it was legally watertight and sustainable.

While the Biden administration has pledged to take a more diplomatic line with China following the upheaval of his predecessor, he has said he will keep to a strict line on several issues including defence and technology.

He is expected to keep the list largely intact, while the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control will add new firms after consulting the departments of Defense and State.

Tough line on China has a rare cross-party support in US Congress. US lawmakers are determined to keep lid on China's growing clout.

(With inputs from agencies)

US President Joe Biden will this week, overhaul the list of Chinese firms that US investors are allowed to own shares in. Biden is re-evaluating world powers' relationship with China in post-Trump era.

US President Joe Biden will this week, overhaul the list of Chinese firms that US investors are allowed to own shares in. Biden is re-evaluating world powers' relationship with China in post-Trump era. He is aiming to do so while maintaining pressure on Beijing. Trump, during his term as US President had barred Americans from buying shares in 31 Chinese companies that were seen by the US to be supplying or supporting China's military and security apparatus. These companies include major telecom firms, technology and construction firms such as China mobile, China Telecom, video surveillance firm Hikvision, and China Railway Construction Corp. It was among a series of measures by the White House aimed at quelling the Asian giant's rise and which has left ties between the two severely strained. Now, the Treasury Department will create a list of firms that'll be hit with financial penalties for links with Chinese defence and surveillance technology sectors, Bloomberg News reported without citing sources. The president is expected to sign the order this week, it added. Previously, the sanctions and choice of targets were tied to a congressionally mandated Defense Department report. The review from Biden administration has come after two Chinese successfully challenged the order in court, and Biden said it was needed to be sure it was legally watertight and sustainable. While the Biden administration has pledged to take a more diplomatic line with China following the upheaval of his predecessor, he has said he will keep to a strict line on several issues including defence and technology. He is expected to keep the list largely intact, while the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control will add new firms after consulting the departments of Defense and State. Tough line on China has a rare cross-party support in US Congress. US lawmakers are determined to keep lid on China's growing clout. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden to review Donald Trump's China investment blacklist: Report

US President Joe&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;on Friday proposed a $6 trillion budget that for the first time in 45 years did not prohibit federal funds being used for abortion, as the Democrat leader fulfilled a campaign pledge.

The absence of the "Hyde amendment" in the proposed budget will be the subject of bitter debate in Congress, where elected Republicans will seek to reintroduce it.

The amendment limits the use of federal funds to finance abortions through Medicaid in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger. Medicaid is public health medical insurance intended for poorer Americans.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-set-to-scrap-ban-on-us-funds-for-abortion-counseling-359954">Biden set to scrap ban on US funds for abortion counseling</a>

Describing the amendment as "racist, sexist, deeply unjust, and immensely unpopular," Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, welcomed the move.

"President&nbsp;Biden's budget, which proposes ending the Hyde Amendment, is a historic step in the fight for reproductive freedom," she said.

"For far too long, the Hyde Amendment has put the government in control of a personal health care decision for many people with low incomes."

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/under-pressure-biden-drifts-leftward-on-abortion-climate-change-225427">Under pressure, Biden drifts leftward on abortion, climate change</a>

The amendment was first introduced after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that authorized abortion as long as the fetus cannot survive outside of the womb, i.e. before&nbsp;22 to 24 weeks.

Abortion divides the American population, with strong opposition, especially among evangelical Christians.

In recent years, several Republican-led states have sought to impose restrictive laws on abortion, forcing many clinics to close their doors.

The US Supreme Court agreed this month to hear a case that could pose a challenge to the landmark 1973 ruling.

Biden, a Catholic personally opposed to abortion but who defends women's right to choose, has often backed the Hyde amendment during his long career in the Senate, before changing tack during his campaign to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

US President Joe Biden on Friday proposed a $6 trillion budget that for the first time in 45 years did not prohibit federal funds being used for abortion, as the Democrat leader fulfilled a campaign pledge.

US President Joe Biden on Friday proposed a $6 trillion budget that for the first time in 45 years did not prohibit federal funds being used for abortion, as the Democrat leader fulfilled a campaign pledge. The absence of the "Hyde amendment" in the proposed budget will be the subject of bitter debate in Congress, where elected Republicans will seek to reintroduce it. The amendment limits the use of federal funds to finance abortions through Medicaid in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is in danger. Medicaid is public health medical insurance intended for poorer Americans. Also Read | Biden set to scrap ban on US funds for abortion counseling Describing the amendment as "racist, sexist, deeply unjust, and immensely unpopular," Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, welcomed the move. "President Biden's budget, which proposes ending the Hyde Amendment, is a historic step in the fight for reproductive freedom," she said. "For far too long, the Hyde Amendment has put the government in control of a personal health care decision for many people with low incomes." Also Read | Under pressure, Biden drifts leftward on abortion, climate change The amendment was first introduced after Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that authorized abortion as long as the fetus cannot survive outside of the womb, i.e. before 22 to 24 weeks. Abortion divides the American population, with strong opposition, especially among evangelical Christians. In recent years, several Republican-led states have sought to impose restrictive laws on abortion, forcing many clinics to close their doors. The US Supreme Court agreed this month to hear a case that could pose a challenge to the landmark 1973 ruling. Biden, a Catholic personally opposed to abortion but who defends women's right to choose, has often backed the Hyde amendment during his long career in the Senate, before changing tack during his campaign to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Biden's proposed budget lifts ban on funding abortions

US President Joe&nbsp;Biden's administration announced Tuesday it was halting petroleum development activity in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by former president Donald Trump to allow drilling.

The Interior Department said it was notifying firms of the freeze, pending a comprehensive environmental review that will determine whether leases in the area known as ANWR should be "reaffirmed, voided or subject to additional mitigation measures," the agency said in a statement.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-administration-approves-oil-drilling-in-alaska-wildlife-refuge-321327">Trump administration approves oil drilling in Alaska wildlife refuge</a>

The announcement deals a blow to the long-contested quest of oil companies to drill in the sensitive territory. The push for development picked up momentum after Trump announced the leasing plan last November shortly after losing reelection to&nbsp;Biden.

At a lease sale in January over some 1.6 million acres, US officials auctioned off 11 oil tracts. Major oil companies sat out the bidding, and nine of the leases went to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency, while two went to small companies.

Biden&nbsp;had promised to protect ANWR during the presidential campaign.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/restoring-environmental-rules-rolled-back-by-trump-could-take-years-358684">Restoring environmental rules rolled back by Trump could take years</a>

White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy noted&nbsp;Biden's promise and said the move reflected his belief that "national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country," according to a White House statement.&nbsp;

Biden&nbsp;"is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration's final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever," McCarthy added.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nine-things-the-biden-administration-could-do-quickly-on-the-environment-341877">Nine things the Biden administration could do quickly on the environment</a>&nbsp;

Environmentalists have long argued that safeguarding ANWR is critical to protect polar bears and other vulnerable wildlife and for indigenous populations that hunt caribou in the region.&nbsp;

But the oil industry has long sought to drill in the area, which is thought to potentially hold billions of barrels in oil. Key Alaska lawmakers such as Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, have strongly backed development.

The Alaska Wilderness League, which had joined other environmental groups in litigation against the Trump administration's development efforts, applauded the&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;administration's action.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-last-rush-trump-grants-mining-and-energy-firms-access-to-public-lands-351119">In last rush, Trump grants mining and energy firms access to public lands</a>&nbsp;

"Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction," said Kristen Miller, acting executive director for the Alaska Wilderness League.

Continued threat&nbsp;

"There is still more to be done. Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America," Miller said. "Now we look to the administration and Congress to prioritize legislatively repealing the oil leasing mandate and restore protections to the Arctic Refuge coastal plain."

But the American Petroleum Institute said the oil industry knows how to develop responsibly and that the decision will cost Alaska jobs and tax revenue.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-using-last-days-to-lock-in-policies-and-make-bidens-task-more-difficult-344719">Trump using last days to lock in policies and make Biden’s task more difficult</a>

"Policies aimed at slowing or stopping oil and natural gas production on federal lands and waters will ultimately prove harmful to our national security, environmental progress and economic strength," API official Kevin O'Scannlain&nbsp;said.

"At a time of economic recovery, this action only serves to withhold the good-paying jobs and economic revenue that safe and responsible oil and gas development would provide to local Alaskan communities."

The&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;administration's move on ANWR comes only days after it sanctioned another Trump administration plan on oil development in Alaska, involving a ConocoPhillips project in Alaska's North Slope in the former Naval Petroleum Reserve.

US President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday it was halting petroleum development activity in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by former president Donald Trump to allow drilling.

US President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday it was halting petroleum development activity in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by former president Donald Trump to allow drilling. The Interior Department said it was notifying firms of the freeze, pending a comprehensive environmental review that will determine whether leases in the area known as ANWR should be "reaffirmed, voided or subject to additional mitigation measures," the agency said in a statement. Also Read | Trump administration approves oil drilling in Alaska wildlife refuge The announcement deals a blow to the long-contested quest of oil companies to drill in the sensitive territory. The push for development picked up momentum after Trump announced the leasing plan last November shortly after losing reelection to Biden. At a lease sale in January over some 1.6 million acres, US officials auctioned off 11 oil tracts. Major oil companies sat out the bidding, and nine of the leases went to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state agency, while two went to small companies. Biden had promised to protect ANWR during the presidential campaign. Also Read | Restoring environmental rules rolled back by Trump could take years White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy noted Biden's promise and said the move reflected his belief that "national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country," according to a White House statement. Biden "is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration's final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever," McCarthy added. Also Read | Nine things the Biden administration could do quickly on the environment Environmentalists have long argued that safeguarding ANWR is critical to protect polar bears and other vulnerable wildlife and for indigenous populations that hunt caribou in the region. But the oil industry has long sought to drill in the area, which is thought to potentially hold billions of barrels in oil. Key Alaska lawmakers such as Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, have strongly backed development. The Alaska Wilderness League, which had joined other environmental groups in litigation against the Trump administration's development efforts, applauded the Biden administration's action. Also Read | In last rush, Trump grants mining and energy firms access to public lands "Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction," said Kristen Miller, acting executive director for the Alaska Wilderness League. Continued threat "There is still more to be done. Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America," Miller said. "Now we look to the administration and Congress to prioritize legislatively repealing the oil leasing mandate and restore protections to the Arctic Refuge coastal plain." But the American Petroleum Institute said the oil industry knows how to develop responsibly and that the decision will cost Alaska jobs and tax revenue. Also Read | Trump using last days to lock in policies and make Biden’s task more difficult "Policies aimed at slowing or stopping oil and natural gas production on federal lands and waters will ultimately prove harmful to our national security, environmental progress and economic strength," API official Kevin O'Scannlain said. "At a time of economic recovery, this action only serves to withhold the good-paying jobs and economic revenue that safe and responsible oil and gas development would provide to local Alaskan communities." The Biden administration's move on ANWR comes only days after it sanctioned another Trump administration plan on oil development in Alaska, involving a ConocoPhillips project in Alaska's North Slope in the former Naval Petroleum Reserve.

Biden administration halts oil drilling in Alaska wildlife refuge

Nineteen months after coronavirus began stalking the globe to claim at least 3.5 million human lives, the world has no clue to the origin of this devastating pathogen.

Speculation abounds over whether the deadly virus, SARS-CoV-2, which along with its mutations causes COVID-19, emerged naturally through human contact with an infected animal or as the result of an accidental leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.

The WHO’s report ruling out an accidental escape of the virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) failed to settle the issue satisfactorily. The report was questioned for a number of reasons including that it was cursory, done without access to adequate data or evidence from the Chinese government lab and its conclusions arrived at under pressure from Beijing.

In the event, it is not surprising that US President Joe Biden has asked his country’s intelligence agencies to redouble their efforts to establish the origin of the virus and come up with a report in 90 days.

Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo had kept up an unrelenting tirade against China, including accusations that:&nbsp;the virus was man-made; had escaped from the Wuhan lab in the course of secret experiments; and, experiments involving the virus were for military purposes, or what is known as “gain of function”. There were few takers for these, if only because Trump and his election team projected Candidate Biden as an agent of China.

Some may attribute Biden’s call for a fresh probe to his domestic compulsion to puncture Trump and demolish his constituency founded on conspiracy theories. Yet the probe has been welcomed beyond the US-led West, and India, the outgoing chair of the WHO executive board, strongly favours more studies to trace the origin of the virus.

The reason is that the WHO report does not convincingly answer how the virus came to be amongst us, from where it originated and who was Patient Zero. Besides, no primary evidence by way of data, reports, findings or notes of the scientists involved in research at the Wuhan lab was available to WHO’s team.

This lack of transparency on the part of the Chinese authorities had kept alive the demand for a deeper independent international probe. Of course, nothing is likely to be found in Wuhan nor will China make available any more evidence or records than it has.

Biden’s call for an enquiry is not directed at gaining any new evidence from China. Therefore, this would mean: US intelligence reviewing the data and evidence collected since the pandemic’s outbreak; analysing existing evidence, not all of which may have&nbsp;been examined by their computers and analysts; and, reviewing databases for any clues that may have been overlooked.

At a larger level, the US announcement to bring out a new report lends credence to the theory of the virus having come for WIV, which was dismissed as a conspiracy theory in the past.

It is also an implicit call to friends and allies of the US to bring forth evidence that they can gather through their own intelligence agencies and science institutions.

As if on cue, British intelligence agencies, scientists and medical journals in the UK have come up with reports that hold the lab escape of the virus to be “feasible”.

The possibility of the investigation ordered by Biden tracing the origin of COVID-19 to the Chinese lab is unlikely. Even so, the enquiry is necessary for Biden to put this political hot potato behind him, for moving on to his other priorities.

However, for the US report to be credible, it must reveal the role of American institutions and scientists who had long-standing cooperation and projects with the Wuhan lab.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the world’s most authoritative voice on combating the pandemic, was also associated with the WIV; and, one doctor has admitted to the US National Institute of Health funding ($600,000) the Wuhan lab.

What did US cooperation and joint projects with WIV entail? Which are the institutions and scientists from other countries that, over the years, were associated with WIV? How much of US and western funding did WIV receive and what were these projects? Were these “gain of function” research for military purposes?

Unless the US enquiry initiated by Biden answers these questions, the report may not carry very much more credibility than the WHO’s conclusions about the origin of the virus.

(The author is Editorial Consultant, WION TV.)

(Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

Nineteen months after coronavirus began stalking the globe to claim at least 3.5 million human lives, the world has no clue to the origin of this devastating pathogen.

Nineteen months after coronavirus began stalking the globe to claim at least 3.5 million human lives, the world has no clue to the origin of this devastating pathogen. Speculation abounds over whether the deadly virus, SARS-CoV-2, which along with its mutations causes COVID-19, emerged naturally through human contact with an infected animal or as the result of an accidental leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The WHO’s report ruling out an accidental escape of the virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) failed to settle the issue satisfactorily. The report was questioned for a number of reasons including that it was cursory, done without access to adequate data or evidence from the Chinese government lab and its conclusions arrived at under pressure from Beijing. In the event, it is not surprising that US President Joe Biden has asked his country’s intelligence agencies to redouble their efforts to establish the origin of the virus and come up with a report in 90 days. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump and his secretary of state Mike Pompeo had kept up an unrelenting tirade against China, including accusations that: the virus was man-made; had escaped from the Wuhan lab in the course of secret experiments; and, experiments involving the virus were for military purposes, or what is known as “gain of function”. There were few takers for these, if only because Trump and his election team projected Candidate Biden as an agent of China. Some may attribute Biden’s call for a fresh probe to his domestic compulsion to puncture Trump and demolish his constituency founded on conspiracy theories. Yet the probe has been welcomed beyond the US-led West, and India, the outgoing chair of the WHO executive board, strongly favours more studies to trace the origin of the virus. The reason is that the WHO report does not convincingly answer how the virus came to be amongst us, from where it originated and who was Patient Zero. Besides, no primary evidence by way of data, reports, findings or notes of the scientists involved in research at the Wuhan lab was available to WHO’s team. This lack of transparency on the part of the Chinese authorities had kept alive the demand for a deeper independent international probe. Of course, nothing is likely to be found in Wuhan nor will China make available any more evidence or records than it has. Biden’s call for an enquiry is not directed at gaining any new evidence from China. Therefore, this would mean: US intelligence reviewing the data and evidence collected since the pandemic’s outbreak; analysing existing evidence, not all of which may have been examined by their computers and analysts; and, reviewing databases for any clues that may have been overlooked. At a larger level, the US announcement to bring out a new report lends credence to the theory of the virus having come for WIV, which was dismissed as a conspiracy theory in the past. It is also an implicit call to friends and allies of the US to bring forth evidence that they can gather through their own intelligence agencies and science institutions. As if on cue, British intelligence agencies, scientists and medical journals in the UK have come up with reports that hold the lab escape of the virus to be “feasible”. The possibility of the investigation ordered by Biden tracing the origin of COVID-19 to the Chinese lab is unlikely. Even so, the enquiry is necessary for Biden to put this political hot potato behind him, for moving on to his other priorities. However, for the US report to be credible, it must reveal the role of American institutions and scientists who had long-standing cooperation and projects with the Wuhan lab. Dr Anthony Fauci, the world’s most authoritative voice on combating the pandemic, was also associated with the WIV; and, one doctor has admitted to the US National Institute of Health funding ($600,000) the Wuhan lab. What did US cooperation and joint projects with WIV entail? Which are the institutions and scientists from other countries that, over the years, were associated with WIV? How much of US and western funding did WIV receive and what were these projects? Were these “gain of function” research for military purposes? Unless the US enquiry initiated by Biden answers these questions, the report may not carry very much more credibility than the WHO’s conclusions about the origin of the virus. (The author is Editorial Consultant, WION TV.) (Disclaimer: The views of the writer do not represent the views of WION or ZMCL. Nor does WION or ZMCL endorse the views of the writer.)

ON THE MARGIN: Biden revives hunt for COVID-19 origins

President Joe Biden marked his first Memorial Day weekend as commander in chief by honouring the nation's sacrifices in a deeply personal manner as he paid tribute on Sunday to those lost while remembering his late son Beau, a veteran who died six years ago to the day.

As a cold rain fell, Biden made his annual appearance at the commemoration in New Castle, not far from his Wilmington home, a day before he planned to do the same at Arlington National Cemetery on the official observance.

The death of his son from brain cancer at age 46 is ever-present for the elder Biden, with the loss defining so much of his worldview, dotting his speeches and stirring his empathy for others in pain.

The Memorial Day weekend, long an important moment for Biden, took on added poignancy this year as the president spoke frequently and emotionally of his own loss while expressing the gratitude of a nation for the sacrifices of others.

"I can't thank you enough for the continued service for the country," said Biden, addressing a crowd of Gold Star military families and other veterans in a ceremony at War Memorial Plaza in the shadow of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. "I know how much the loss hurts."

"They're the guardians of us and we're the guardians of their legacy," Biden said of those who served in the armed forces. "Despite all the pain, I know the pride you feel in the loved one you have lost."

Though a tent was overhead, the cold wind whipped the rain onto the guests as they watched a lone military trumpeter play taps at a memorial to Delaware's fallen troops.

Biden appeared to pay the chill no mind, remaining for the entirety of the 75-minute ceremony and mouthing the words to the closing rendition of 'God Bless America'. When it was time, he snapped a salute to the wreath laid at the memorial.

(With inputs from agencies)

President Joe Biden marked his first Memorial Day weekend as commander in chief by honouring the nation's sacrifices in a deeply personal manner as he paid tribute on Sunday to those lost while remembering his late son Beau, a veteran who died six years ago to the day.

President Joe Biden marked his first Memorial Day weekend as commander in chief by honouring the nation's sacrifices in a deeply personal manner as he paid tribute on Sunday to those lost while remembering his late son Beau, a veteran who died six years ago to the day. As a cold rain fell, Biden made his annual appearance at the commemoration in New Castle, not far from his Wilmington home, a day before he planned to do the same at Arlington National Cemetery on the official observance. The death of his son from brain cancer at age 46 is ever-present for the elder Biden, with the loss defining so much of his worldview, dotting his speeches and stirring his empathy for others in pain. The Memorial Day weekend, long an important moment for Biden, took on added poignancy this year as the president spoke frequently and emotionally of his own loss while expressing the gratitude of a nation for the sacrifices of others. "I can't thank you enough for the continued service for the country," said Biden, addressing a crowd of Gold Star military families and other veterans in a ceremony at War Memorial Plaza in the shadow of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. "I know how much the loss hurts." "They're the guardians of us and we're the guardians of their legacy," Biden said of those who served in the armed forces. "Despite all the pain, I know the pride you feel in the loved one you have lost." Though a tent was overhead, the cold wind whipped the rain onto the guests as they watched a lone military trumpeter play taps at a memorial to Delaware's fallen troops. Biden appeared to pay the chill no mind, remaining for the entirety of the 75-minute ceremony and mouthing the words to the closing rendition of 'God Bless America'. When it was time, he snapped a salute to the wreath laid at the memorial. (With inputs from agencies)

For Biden, a deeply personal Memorial Day weekend observance

If President Joe Biden gets his way, it will soon be far easier to immigrate to the United States. There will be shorter, simpler forms and applicants will have to jump through fewer security hoops. Foreigners will have better opportunities to join their families and more chances to secure work visas.

A 46-page draft blueprint obtained by The New York Times maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand the legal immigration system, including methodically reversing the efforts to dismantle it by former President Donald Trump, who reduced the flow of foreign workers, families and refugees, erecting procedural barriers tougher to cross than his “big, beautiful wall.”

Because of Trump’s immigration policies, the average time it takes to approve employer-sponsored green cards has doubled. The backlog for citizenship applications is up 80% since 2014, to more than 900,000 cases. Approval for the U-visa program, which grants legal status for immigrants willing to help the police, has gone from five months to roughly five years.

In almost every case over the past four years, immigrating to the United States has become harder, more expensive and takes longer.

And while Biden made clear during his presidential campaign that he intended to undo much of his predecessor’s immigration legacy, the blueprint offers new details about how far-reaching the effort will be — not only rolling back Trump’s policies, but addressing backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents.

The blueprint, dated May 3 and titled “D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System,” lists scores of initiatives intended to reopen the country to more immigrants, making good on the president’s promise to ensure America embraces its “character as a nation of opportunity and of welcome.”

“There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration,” said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, the chief of staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, of the efforts to reverse Trump’s agenda. “In the same way that they took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on.”

Since taking office four months ago, Biden has struggled with a historic surge in migration by Central American children and teenagers that has prompted some Republicans to accuse the president of flinging open the nation’s borders to people trying to enter the country illegally, a charge the White House rejects.

In fact, Biden does want to open the country to more immigrants. His ambition, as reflected in the blueprint, is to rebuild and expand the opportunities for foreigners to enter the United States — but to do so legally.

Divided into seven sections, the document offers detailed policy proposals that would help more foreigners move to the United States, including high-skilled workers, trafficking victims, the families of Americans living abroad, American Indians born in Canada, refugees, asylum-seekers and farmworkers. Immigrants who apply online could pay less in fees or even secure a waiver in an attempt to “reduce barriers” to immigration. And regulations would be overhauled to “encourage full participation by immigrants in our civic life.”

Even with a more restrictive and slower immigration system, about 1 million people obtained green cards in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Most had been waiting for years. In the final year of the Obama administration, 1.2 million people received green cards.

But if Biden accomplishes everything in the document, he will have gone further than just reversing the downward trend. He will have significantly increased opportunities for foreigners around the globe to come to the United States, embracing robust immigration even as a divisive, decadeslong political debate continues to rage over such a policy.

Most of the changes could be put into practice without passage of Biden’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States illegally but has stalled in a bitterly divided Congress. While surveys show that most Americans support increased immigration, many Republican voters have eagerly backed Trump’s more restrictive policies.

White House officials declined to comment directly on the Homeland Security Department’s blueprint, saying that such documents go through many drafts and that decisions about specific steps to address legal immigration remain in flux. But they said the president remained committed to significantly rolling back the restrictions imposed by his predecessor.

That effort will take time and has not yet caught the public’s attention like the surge of crossings at the southwest border. But conservative activists who have for years demanded lower levels of legal immigration are vowing a fight to stop Biden and extract a political price for his actions.

“They just want to shovel people in here,” said Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a former Virginia attorney general who served as the acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services under Trump. “They are not running an immigration system for the benefit of America, and certainly not for the benefit of ordinary Americans. ”

Most research has shown that legal immigration to the United States has benefits for the country’s economy, especially at a time when the country’s population growth is slowing. But Cuccinelli and others who favor severe restrictions on immigration say it is obvious to them that letting foreigners compete for jobs — especially when the country is still recovering from an economic downturn like the one created by the pandemic — will hurt the prospects for American citizens.

“The No. 1 job for the immigration services is to make sure that immigration does not hurt Americans,” said Roy Beck, the founder of NumbersUSA, a group dedicated to far lower levels of legal immigration.

Motivated by that belief, Cuccinelli set in motion a transformation of the government’s legal immigration system during the Trump administration — changing his agency from one that confers benefits on foreigners into a “vetting agency,” in part by issuing numerous restrictions on offering asylum for immigrants and trying to raise fees.

The increased vetting, as well as travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, helped contribute to the result the Trump administration had sought: The influx of immigrants slowed significantly, as winning legal approval to enter the United States became much harder.

With fewer immigrants coming through the pipeline, there has been less money to finance Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is supported almost entirely by fees paid by immigrants. Restoring the agency to full capacity is at the heart of Biden’s effort to expand legal immigration, according to the document and interviews with administration officials.

A central element of the blueprint is addressing backlogs in the immigration system.

The administration is planning to fast-track immigration applications by expanding virtual interviews and electronic filing, as well as limiting the requests for evidence from applicants. Biden has tapped Cass R. Sunstein, a former Obama administration official and legal scholar at Harvard Law School, to remake the immigration system so it is “more effective and less burdensome” than it has been in decades by “reducing paperwork and other administrative requirements.”

Biden wants to restore opportunities for foreign employees through the existing H-1B visa program, which is intended for workers with special skills. The administration also intends to create new pathways for foreign entrepreneurs who wish to “start-up businesses and create jobs for U.S. workers,” according to the document.

Officials are working on a regulation that could allow migrants to win asylum in the United States if they are victims of domestic violence or their relatives were persecuted. During the Trump era, Attorney General William Barr moved to end asylum protection for those who said they deserved it for those reasons.

Biden is also aiming to expand immigration opportunities for LGBTQ refugees from countries where they are persecuted or where same-sex marriages are not recognized.

In addition, he wants to revamp a program that provides a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally who help law enforcement by cooperating with police or testifying in court.

The waiting list for the U-Visa program has ballooned, leaving crime victims and survivors of domestic abuse vulnerable to abusers who may threaten to report them for deportation if they continue to talk to the police, said Leslye E. Orloff, director of the national immigrant women’s advocacy project at American University.

The Biden administration is considering extending protections to immigrants who cooperate even before they make it on the official waiting list for the visa, according to the document.

“They’re recognizing that there’s danger for these victims,” Orloff said.

Critics say the Biden administration is ignoring the negative consequences of their efforts. The H-1B program has been attacked as a loophole for tech companies to import cheap foreign workers to compete for jobs. Granting asylum to the victims of domestic abuse could open the door to accepting millions of additional people. And some Republicans say Biden should not loosen vetting of foreigners, though officials insist they will continue to screen for terrorists and other threats.

As the Biden administration pushes forward with the changes, officials appear willing to use emergency rules and presidential memos to avoid the lengthy regulatory process, in much the same way that Trump put his own agenda in place. But that could make Biden’s immigration legacy subject to a similar reversal by a Republican president in the future.

“The question looming over all of this work is how do you do this in a way that isn’t easily so capsized next time around,” said Doug Rand, a founder of Boundless Immigration, a technology company in Seattle that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship.

Change could not come soon enough for Jenn Hawk, 37, who is living with her Argentine husband in Poland, where he works, even though her autistic son is in the Washington area with his father.

Because of delays in processing her husband’s immigration application, she is faced with a choice: stay in Poland with the man she married, or go back to the United States alone to be with her 10-year-old son.

Hawk filed to sponsor her husband’s immigration to the United States in October of 2020, spending $575 on the application. But they are facing a delay of more than 1 1/2 years before they can even submit their financial and medical information, let alone get an interview with an immigration officer.

“I just want to go home,” Hawk said. “It seems like they’re doing everything in their power to restrict that from being a possibility.”

If President Joe Biden gets his way, it will soon be far easier to immigrate to the United States. There will be shorter, simpler forms and applicants will have to jump through fewer security hoops.

If President Joe Biden gets his way, it will soon be far easier to immigrate to the United States. There will be shorter, simpler forms and applicants will have to jump through fewer security hoops. Foreigners will have better opportunities to join their families and more chances to secure work visas. A 46-page draft blueprint obtained by The New York Times maps out the Biden administration’s plans to significantly expand the legal immigration system, including methodically reversing the efforts to dismantle it by former President Donald Trump, who reduced the flow of foreign workers, families and refugees, erecting procedural barriers tougher to cross than his “big, beautiful wall.” Because of Trump’s immigration policies, the average time it takes to approve employer-sponsored green cards has doubled. The backlog for citizenship applications is up 80% since 2014, to more than 900,000 cases. Approval for the U-visa program, which grants legal status for immigrants willing to help the police, has gone from five months to roughly five years. In almost every case over the past four years, immigrating to the United States has become harder, more expensive and takes longer. And while Biden made clear during his presidential campaign that he intended to undo much of his predecessor’s immigration legacy, the blueprint offers new details about how far-reaching the effort will be — not only rolling back Trump’s policies, but addressing backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents. The blueprint, dated May 3 and titled “D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System,” lists scores of initiatives intended to reopen the country to more immigrants, making good on the president’s promise to ensure America embraces its “character as a nation of opportunity and of welcome.” “There are significant changes that need to be made to really open up all avenues of legal immigration,” said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, the chief of staff at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, of the efforts to reverse Trump’s agenda. “In the same way that they took a broad-stroke approach to closing off avenues, I think we want to take a broad approach toward opening up the legal avenues that have always been available but that they tried to put roadblocks up on.” Since taking office four months ago, Biden has struggled with a historic surge in migration by Central American children and teenagers that has prompted some Republicans to accuse the president of flinging open the nation’s borders to people trying to enter the country illegally, a charge the White House rejects. In fact, Biden does want to open the country to more immigrants. His ambition, as reflected in the blueprint, is to rebuild and expand the opportunities for foreigners to enter the United States — but to do so legally. Divided into seven sections, the document offers detailed policy proposals that would help more foreigners move to the United States, including high-skilled workers, trafficking victims, the families of Americans living abroad, American Indians born in Canada, refugees, asylum-seekers and farmworkers. Immigrants who apply online could pay less in fees or even secure a waiver in an attempt to “reduce barriers” to immigration. And regulations would be overhauled to “encourage full participation by immigrants in our civic life.” Even with a more restrictive and slower immigration system, about 1 million people obtained green cards in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Most had been waiting for years. In the final year of the Obama administration, 1.2 million people received green cards. But if Biden accomplishes everything in the document, he will have gone further than just reversing the downward trend. He will have significantly increased opportunities for foreigners around the globe to come to the United States, embracing robust immigration even as a divisive, decadeslong political debate continues to rage over such a policy. Most of the changes could be put into practice without passage of Biden’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for millions of people living in the United States illegally but has stalled in a bitterly divided Congress. While surveys show that most Americans support increased immigration, many Republican voters have eagerly backed Trump’s more restrictive policies. White House officials declined to comment directly on the Homeland Security Department’s blueprint, saying that such documents go through many drafts and that decisions about specific steps to address legal immigration remain in flux. But they said the president remained committed to significantly rolling back the restrictions imposed by his predecessor. That effort will take time and has not yet caught the public’s attention like the surge of crossings at the southwest border. But conservative activists who have for years demanded lower levels of legal immigration are vowing a fight to stop Biden and extract a political price for his actions. “They just want to shovel people in here,” said Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, a former Virginia attorney general who served as the acting head of Citizenship and Immigration Services under Trump. “They are not running an immigration system for the benefit of America, and certainly not for the benefit of ordinary Americans. ” Most research has shown that legal immigration to the United States has benefits for the country’s economy, especially at a time when the country’s population growth is slowing. But Cuccinelli and others who favor severe restrictions on immigration say it is obvious to them that letting foreigners compete for jobs — especially when the country is still recovering from an economic downturn like the one created by the pandemic — will hurt the prospects for American citizens. “The No. 1 job for the immigration services is to make sure that immigration does not hurt Americans,” said Roy Beck, the founder of NumbersUSA, a group dedicated to far lower levels of legal immigration. Motivated by that belief, Cuccinelli set in motion a transformation of the government’s legal immigration system during the Trump administration — changing his agency from one that confers benefits on foreigners into a “vetting agency,” in part by issuing numerous restrictions on offering asylum for immigrants and trying to raise fees. The increased vetting, as well as travel restrictions imposed during the pandemic, helped contribute to the result the Trump administration had sought: The influx of immigrants slowed significantly, as winning legal approval to enter the United States became much harder. With fewer immigrants coming through the pipeline, there has been less money to finance Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is supported almost entirely by fees paid by immigrants. Restoring the agency to full capacity is at the heart of Biden’s effort to expand legal immigration, according to the document and interviews with administration officials. A central element of the blueprint is addressing backlogs in the immigration system. The administration is planning to fast-track immigration applications by expanding virtual interviews and electronic filing, as well as limiting the requests for evidence from applicants. Biden has tapped Cass R. Sunstein, a former Obama administration official and legal scholar at Harvard Law School, to remake the immigration system so it is “more effective and less burdensome” than it has been in decades by “reducing paperwork and other administrative requirements.” Biden wants to restore opportunities for foreign employees through the existing H-1B visa program, which is intended for workers with special skills. The administration also intends to create new pathways for foreign entrepreneurs who wish to “start-up businesses and create jobs for U.S. workers,” according to the document. Officials are working on a regulation that could allow migrants to win asylum in the United States if they are victims of domestic violence or their relatives were persecuted. During the Trump era, Attorney General William Barr moved to end asylum protection for those who said they deserved it for those reasons. Biden is also aiming to expand immigration opportunities for LGBTQ refugees from countries where they are persecuted or where same-sex marriages are not recognized. In addition, he wants to revamp a program that provides a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally who help law enforcement by cooperating with police or testifying in court. The waiting list for the U-Visa program has ballooned, leaving crime victims and survivors of domestic abuse vulnerable to abusers who may threaten to report them for deportation if they continue to talk to the police, said Leslye E. Orloff, director of the national immigrant women’s advocacy project at American University. The Biden administration is considering extending protections to immigrants who cooperate even before they make it on the official waiting list for the visa, according to the document. “They’re recognizing that there’s danger for these victims,” Orloff said. Critics say the Biden administration is ignoring the negative consequences of their efforts. The H-1B program has been attacked as a loophole for tech companies to import cheap foreign workers to compete for jobs. Granting asylum to the victims of domestic abuse could open the door to accepting millions of additional people. And some Republicans say Biden should not loosen vetting of foreigners, though officials insist they will continue to screen for terrorists and other threats. As the Biden administration pushes forward with the changes, officials appear willing to use emergency rules and presidential memos to avoid the lengthy regulatory process, in much the same way that Trump put his own agenda in place. But that could make Biden’s immigration legacy subject to a similar reversal by a Republican president in the future. “The question looming over all of this work is how do you do this in a way that isn’t easily so capsized next time around,” said Doug Rand, a founder of Boundless Immigration, a technology company in Seattle that helps immigrants obtain green cards and citizenship. Change could not come soon enough for Jenn Hawk, 37, who is living with her Argentine husband in Poland, where he works, even though her autistic son is in the Washington area with his father. Because of delays in processing her husband’s immigration application, she is faced with a choice: stay in Poland with the man she married, or go back to the United States alone to be with her 10-year-old son. Hawk filed to sponsor her husband’s immigration to the United States in October of 2020, spending $575 on the application. But they are facing a delay of more than 1 1/2 years before they can even submit their financial and medical information, let alone get an interview with an immigration officer. “I just want to go home,” Hawk said. “It seems like they’re doing everything in their power to restrict that from being a possibility.”

Biden aims to rebuild and expand legal immigration

US President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/joe-biden">Joe Biden</a> has vowed to demand fair human rights from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin in their June summit.

The two leaders have not been on best terms in the past few weeks, especially since the US leader called Putin a 'killer'.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/battleship-diplomacy-nato-conducts-massive-war-games-as-russia-tensions-simmer-388001" hreflang="en">Battleship diplomacy: NATO conducts massive war games as Russia tensions simmer</a>

This June 16 summit will be the first face-to-face meeting of the two leaders and Biden has vowed to make it clear that the US will not allow abuse of human rights.

"I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights," Biden said.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-and-russian-foreign-ministers-to-meet-in-iceland-in-bid-to-ease-friction-386073" hreflang="en">US and Russian foreign ministers to meet in Iceland in bid to ease friction</a>

US has been openly critical of Russia since Biden took control of the White House in January 2021 and has also imposed sanctions on allegations of Russian authorities organising SolarWinds cyberattack and for allegedly meddling in the US election 2020.

Biden has also been biased towards Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and has openly criticised Putin for allegedly poisoning the Russian opposition leader.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to demand fair human rights from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin in their June summit. The two leaders have not been on best terms in the past few weeks, especially since the US leader called Putin a 'killer'.

US President Joe Biden has vowed to demand fair human rights from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin in their June summit. The two leaders have not been on best terms in the past few weeks, especially since the US leader called Putin a 'killer'. Also read | Battleship diplomacy: NATO conducts massive war games as Russia tensions simmer This June 16 summit will be the first face-to-face meeting of the two leaders and Biden has vowed to make it clear that the US will not allow abuse of human rights. "I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights," Biden said. Also read | US and Russian foreign ministers to meet in Iceland in bid to ease friction US has been openly critical of Russia since Biden took control of the White House in January 2021 and has also imposed sanctions on allegations of Russian authorities organising SolarWinds cyberattack and for allegedly meddling in the US election 2020. Biden has also been biased towards Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and has openly criticised Putin for allegedly poisoning the Russian opposition leader.

Biden says will demand end to 'abuse of human rights' from Putin

After four years when the National Endowment for the Arts lived under the threat of elimination, President Joe Biden on Friday proposed a 20% increase in the budget for the agency to $201 million.

If approved by Congress for the 2022 fiscal year, it would be the largest increase — in dollar terms — in the organization’s history, the agency said.

The proposal in Biden’s inaugural $6 trillion budget is a sharp turnaround from the years under President Donald Trump when, year after year, Trump proposed eliminating funding for the agency, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public television and radio outlets around the country.

Still, it must survive congressional scrutiny. Though Trump’s budgets called for the elimination of the agency every year, its funding actually expanded a bit over the course of his term as arts advocates leaned on lawmakers to hold the line and save an agency that largely serves as a clearinghouse for grants to arts organizations across the country.

“President Biden’s budget represents a significant commitment to the arts and cultural sector and reflects the continued importance of arts organizations and cultural workers to the health and vitality of the country,” Ann Eilers, the agency’s acting chair, said in a statement.

The agency said that the “increased investment in the agency will allow it to provide critical support to the arts sector as it struggles to reopen, rehire workers, and generate arts activities that will help fuel the economy.”

The endowment had long been in the cross hairs of Republicans as a symbol of wasteful liberal largesse when, in 2017, Trump became the first president to make a formal proposal to eliminate it. That sparked active lobbying efforts by arts advocates, and the agency survived because of bipartisan support in Congress.

During the Trump years, the agency’s budget grew by about $17 million, to $167.5 million in 2021.

Biden has long been regarded as a consistent advocate for government funding for the arts. The American Alliance of Museums cheered Biden’s plan, saying in a statement it was “a welcome change from the past four years.”

The proposed spending plan is still tiny compared to the cultural budgets in European countries where financial support for the arts is viewed as a government function. For example, Britain’s culture ministry has annually spent more than $1 billion on the arts for years.

According to the endowment’s analysis, the Biden spending plan would be the largest single-year increase in its funding since the jump between 2009 and 2010 when its budget rose from $155 million to $167.5 million. It fell again the following year.

After four years when the National Endowment for the Arts lived under the threat of elimination, President Joe Biden on Friday proposed a 20% increase in the budget for the agency to $201 million.

After four years when the National Endowment for the Arts lived under the threat of elimination, President Joe Biden on Friday proposed a 20% increase in the budget for the agency to $201 million. If approved by Congress for the 2022 fiscal year, it would be the largest increase — in dollar terms — in the organization’s history, the agency said. The proposal in Biden’s inaugural $6 trillion budget is a sharp turnaround from the years under President Donald Trump when, year after year, Trump proposed eliminating funding for the agency, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public television and radio outlets around the country. Still, it must survive congressional scrutiny. Though Trump’s budgets called for the elimination of the agency every year, its funding actually expanded a bit over the course of his term as arts advocates leaned on lawmakers to hold the line and save an agency that largely serves as a clearinghouse for grants to arts organizations across the country. “President Biden’s budget represents a significant commitment to the arts and cultural sector and reflects the continued importance of arts organizations and cultural workers to the health and vitality of the country,” Ann Eilers, the agency’s acting chair, said in a statement. The agency said that the “increased investment in the agency will allow it to provide critical support to the arts sector as it struggles to reopen, rehire workers, and generate arts activities that will help fuel the economy.” The endowment had long been in the cross hairs of Republicans as a symbol of wasteful liberal largesse when, in 2017, Trump became the first president to make a formal proposal to eliminate it. That sparked active lobbying efforts by arts advocates, and the agency survived because of bipartisan support in Congress. During the Trump years, the agency’s budget grew by about $17 million, to $167.5 million in 2021. Biden has long been regarded as a consistent advocate for government funding for the arts. The American Alliance of Museums cheered Biden’s plan, saying in a statement it was “a welcome change from the past four years.” The proposed spending plan is still tiny compared to the cultural budgets in European countries where financial support for the arts is viewed as a government function. For example, Britain’s culture ministry has annually spent more than $1 billion on the arts for years. According to the endowment’s analysis, the Biden spending plan would be the largest single-year increase in its funding since the jump between 2009 and 2010 when its budget rose from $155 million to $167.5 million. It fell again the following year.

National Endowment for the Arts funding would rise under Biden plan

Ethiopian pro-government demonstrators denounced the United States on Sunday for imposing restrictions on aid over the Tigray conflict, at a massive rally organised by the authorities to show support for their positions. 
 
More than 10,000 people attended the rally, some carrying banners written in English, Arabic and Amharic. Slogans included: 'USA show us your neutrality', 'Ethiopia doesn't need a caretaker', and 'Fill the dam', a reference to a huge Nile dam opposed by Egypt and Sudan. 
 
The demonstration was larger than typical pro-government rallies, and the public criticism of the United States was rare. 
 
Ethiopia is facing increasing international pressure over the conflict in Tigray, where it and neighbouring Eritrea sent troops last year to oust the regional authorities. 
 
A week ago, the United States imposed restrictions on economic and security assistance to Ethiopia over the conflict. Washington also said it would bar current or former Ethiopian or Eritrean officials it deems responsible for the crisis. 
 
The filling of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has also sparked international disputes. Ethiopia says the dam's electricity is needed to develop its economy; Sudan and Egypt say it violates their rights to Nile waters down river. 
 
"We will never kneel down. The preconditions and travel restrictions by the US&nbsp;and its allies are completely unacceptable. It needs to be corrected," Adanech Abebe, mayor of Addis Ababa, told the rally organised by the Ministry of Youth. 
 
Nejash Sheba, a 23-year-old Addis Ababa trader and member of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party, told Reuters, he had been told by local officials to organise people in his area, and had brought 100 others with him to the rally. 
 
"I came here to show my support to Prosperity Party and to denounce the restrictions put on Ethiopia by America."

Ethiopian pro-government demonstrators denounced the United States on Sunday for imposing restrictions on aid over the Tigray conflict, at a massive rally organised by the authorities to show support for their positions.

Ethiopian pro-government demonstrators denounced the United States on Sunday for imposing restrictions on aid over the Tigray conflict, at a massive rally organised by the authorities to show support for their positions. More than 10,000 people attended the rally, some carrying banners written in English, Arabic and Amharic. Slogans included: 'USA show us your neutrality', 'Ethiopia doesn't need a caretaker', and 'Fill the dam', a reference to a huge Nile dam opposed by Egypt and Sudan. The demonstration was larger than typical pro-government rallies, and the public criticism of the United States was rare. Ethiopia is facing increasing international pressure over the conflict in Tigray, where it and neighbouring Eritrea sent troops last year to oust the regional authorities. A week ago, the United States imposed restrictions on economic and security assistance to Ethiopia over the conflict. Washington also said it would bar current or former Ethiopian or Eritrean officials it deems responsible for the crisis. The filling of the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has also sparked international disputes. Ethiopia says the dam's electricity is needed to develop its economy; Sudan and Egypt say it violates their rights to Nile waters down river. "We will never kneel down. The preconditions and travel restrictions by the US and its allies are completely unacceptable. It needs to be corrected," Adanech Abebe, mayor of Addis Ababa, told the rally organised by the Ministry of Youth. Nejash Sheba, a 23-year-old Addis Ababa trader and member of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party, told Reuters, he had been told by local officials to organise people in his area, and had brought 100 others with him to the rally. "I came here to show my support to Prosperity Party and to denounce the restrictions put on Ethiopia by America."

Ethiopians criticise United States at pro-government rally

The Senate has confirmed geneticist Eric Lander to be President Joe Biden's chief science adviser, one of the last unfilled Cabinet posts in the Biden administration.&nbsp;

Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, was approved by a voice vote on Friday to serve as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a position Biden has elevated to Cabinet rank. Lander, who also is a mathematician and molecular biologist, was lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome, the so-called 'book of life’.&nbsp;

His nomination was delayed for months as senators sought more information about meetings he had with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier, who was charged with sex trafficking before his apparent suicide. Lander also was criticised for downplaying the contributions of two Nobel Prize-winning female scientists.&nbsp;

At his confirmation hearing last month, Lander apologised for a 2016 article he wrote that downplayed the work of the female scientists. At the hearing, he also called Epstein 'an abhorrent individual’.&nbsp;

Lander said he "understated the importance of those key advances'' by biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. The two were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.&nbsp;

"I felt terrible about it, I made a mistake. And when I make a mistake, I own it and try to do better,'' Lander said.&nbsp;

"I should have written those paragraphs differently to make my intention crystal clear. I have enormous respect for Doctors Doudna and Charpentier and the important work they've done throughout their careers.''&nbsp;

He only met with Epstein twice, in 2012, Lander said, and never requested or received funds from Epstein or his foundation.&nbsp;

Sen Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said at a May 20 committee meeting that she wished Biden had named a woman as science adviser, but that Lander had pledged to work to elevate women and minorities in science.&nbsp;

Lander said in a statement on Friday that Biden's elevation of the science post made clear that science and technology will be central to solving the nation's most urgent challenges, including health, environmental quality and justice for all Americans.&nbsp;

Lander's confirmation leaves Biden's Cabinet nearly complete. The only remaining unfilled Cabinet post is that of Office of Management and Budget director. Shalanda Young has been serving as acting OMB director after her confirmation as deputy director. Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination for OMB head after several senators said they would not vote for her. &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies) &nbsp;

The Senate has confirmed geneticist Eric Lander to be President Joe Biden's chief science adviser, one of the last unfilled Cabinet posts in the Biden administration.

The Senate has confirmed geneticist Eric Lander to be President Joe Biden's chief science adviser, one of the last unfilled Cabinet posts in the Biden administration. Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, was approved by a voice vote on Friday to serve as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, a position Biden has elevated to Cabinet rank. Lander, who also is a mathematician and molecular biologist, was lead author of the first paper announcing the details of the human genome, the so-called 'book of life’. His nomination was delayed for months as senators sought more information about meetings he had with the late Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier, who was charged with sex trafficking before his apparent suicide. Lander also was criticised for downplaying the contributions of two Nobel Prize-winning female scientists. At his confirmation hearing last month, Lander apologised for a 2016 article he wrote that downplayed the work of the female scientists. At the hearing, he also called Epstein 'an abhorrent individual’. Lander said he "understated the importance of those key advances'' by biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. The two were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. "I felt terrible about it, I made a mistake. And when I make a mistake, I own it and try to do better,'' Lander said. "I should have written those paragraphs differently to make my intention crystal clear. I have enormous respect for Doctors Doudna and Charpentier and the important work they've done throughout their careers.'' He only met with Epstein twice, in 2012, Lander said, and never requested or received funds from Epstein or his foundation. Sen Maria Cantwell, a Washington Democrat, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said at a May 20 committee meeting that she wished Biden had named a woman as science adviser, but that Lander had pledged to work to elevate women and minorities in science. Lander said in a statement on Friday that Biden's elevation of the science post made clear that science and technology will be central to solving the nation's most urgent challenges, including health, environmental quality and justice for all Americans. Lander's confirmation leaves Biden's Cabinet nearly complete. The only remaining unfilled Cabinet post is that of Office of Management and Budget director. Shalanda Young has been serving as acting OMB director after her confirmation as deputy director. Neera Tanden withdrew her nomination for OMB head after several senators said they would not vote for her. (With inputs from agencies)

Senate confirms geneticist Lander as Biden science adviser  

President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal represents the largest increase in federal spending since World War II and offers the most detailed look to date at the White House’s economic priorities.

The administration is in negotiations with lawmakers over how to enact the next phases of its agenda, and many of the provisions in the budget will be met with resistance from Republicans. But the proposal offers a new view into the costs of the Biden administration’s infrastructure and jobs plans and the effect that this broad expansion of the social safety net would have on the economy over the next decade.

The budget also underscores the Biden administration’s belief that the fiscal situation is manageable and that, given historically low interest rates, now is the time to make major investments to combat climate change and reduce income inequality. White House officials see that spending as crucial to making the U.S. economy more competitive in the long run.

The proposal, which will be formally released Friday, will further fuel the political debate over whether the country can afford such ambitious plans given the ballooning budget deficit.

“It is not the president’s fault that he inherited such a terrible debt situation, but it will fall to him to provide leadership on how to fix it,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It is quite welcome that they talk about paying for all the new initiatives, but the huge amount of upfront borrowing calls into question whether the promised savings would ever actually materialize.”

Here’s a look at some of the economic aspects of Biden’s plan:

The debt is not a hill to die on

The national debt surpassed the size of the economy last year, and it shows no sign of shrinking. The president’s budget projects that the total debt held by the public would more than exceed the annual value of economic output, rising to 117% of the size of the economy in 2031.

The administration believes that this is not the best metric for understanding the nation’s debt burden, which it acknowledges needs to be addressed in the long term. Much of the spending in the budget is “mandatory” for programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that her preferred metric was how much the United States paid in interest on the money it had borrowed when compared with the overall economy. She noted that this burden would eventually rise, as interest rates do, but that the United States was expending relatively few resources to pay interest on the debt.

Net interest costs are $303 billion this year, or 1.4% of gross domestic product. That is well below the 2% of gross domestic product that they have averaged over the past 50 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

“It remains well within and under historic norms, and I think it needs to stay that way,” Yellen said of interest costs at a House hearing Thursday. “That’s a metric that I am looking at to judge the sustainability of federal finances.”

Bringing growth forecasts back to Earth

Administrations have long used overly rosy economic growth projections as a way to make their fiscal promises appear feasible. During the Trump administration, the White House envisioned years of sustained growth at 3% or beyond, making it possible for its $1.5 trillion tax cuts to pay for themselves and to provide a balanced budget.

The Biden White House avoids such gimmicks in its budget. It assumes that the economy will rebound to grow 5.2% this year and 4.3% in 2022 before settling to grow 1.8% to 2% for the rest of the decade. Those rates are in line with what the Congressional Budget Office has forecast.

The projections could open up the Biden administration to criticism that its policies are setting the United States up for years of sluggish growth — the same type of criticism that the Obama administration faced from Republicans. However, some economists argued Thursday that gross domestic product was not the best gauge of the economy’s health.

“Most importantly, a lot of the benefits of the President’s policies are improving inclusion, opportunity, climate,” Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter. “So even if they didn’t add anything to growth, they would still likely be an improvement.”

No inflation worries here

The biggest critique of the Biden economic agenda is whether the economy is overheating. Prices of nearly everything have been picking up in recent months, but the White House insists this is the “transitory” result of an economy that is starting to reopen. It blames signs of inflation on logistical issues such as shortages and supply chain bottlenecks rather than more fundamental matters.

The Biden budget largely sticks to this script. It projects that the consumer price index will rise to 2.1% this year, reach 2.2% percent in 2023 and then settle in at 2.3% annually from 2025 through 2031.

The steadiness of the numbers belies the fact that some Biden administration officials, including Yellen, have acknowledged as recently as Thursday that there would be high rates of inflation throughout the rest of the year.

The inflation bench mark in the budget will be a key one to watch as Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have seized on the rising prices to argue that Biden has been bad for consumers.

Corporations will pick up the tab

To help pay for its proposals, the Biden administration is preparing an overhaul of the tax code, the brunt of which will be felt by large corporations.

The budget details the White House’s plan for a $2 trillion corporate tax hike, which would be achieved by raising the corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21% and imposing tougher measures to curb offshoring. The proposals for the corporate tax code reverse or change many of the provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was Trump’s signature legislative achievement.

One key provision in that law that is not addressed, however, is the fate of the individual income tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers that are set to expire before 2026. Biden’s budget proposal assumes that they will, in fact, sunset.

That puts the onus on the administration to propose a plan for additional tax cuts in order to keep the president’s pledge that no taxpayer who earns less than $400,000 will have their taxes go up.

The Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, which led the drafting of the 2017 law, took note of the omission.

“This is the latest example of President Biden abandoning his lofty promise that he can fund trillions of dollars in new spending simply by taxing the wealthy or corporations alone,” they said in a statement.

President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal represents the largest increase in federal spending since World War II and offers the most detailed look to date at the White House’s economic priorities.

President Joe Biden’s $6 trillion budget proposal represents the largest increase in federal spending since World War II and offers the most detailed look to date at the White House’s economic priorities. The administration is in negotiations with lawmakers over how to enact the next phases of its agenda, and many of the provisions in the budget will be met with resistance from Republicans. But the proposal offers a new view into the costs of the Biden administration’s infrastructure and jobs plans and the effect that this broad expansion of the social safety net would have on the economy over the next decade. The budget also underscores the Biden administration’s belief that the fiscal situation is manageable and that, given historically low interest rates, now is the time to make major investments to combat climate change and reduce income inequality. White House officials see that spending as crucial to making the U.S. economy more competitive in the long run. The proposal, which will be formally released Friday, will further fuel the political debate over whether the country can afford such ambitious plans given the ballooning budget deficit. “It is not the president’s fault that he inherited such a terrible debt situation, but it will fall to him to provide leadership on how to fix it,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It is quite welcome that they talk about paying for all the new initiatives, but the huge amount of upfront borrowing calls into question whether the promised savings would ever actually materialize.” Here’s a look at some of the economic aspects of Biden’s plan: The debt is not a hill to die on The national debt surpassed the size of the economy last year, and it shows no sign of shrinking. The president’s budget projects that the total debt held by the public would more than exceed the annual value of economic output, rising to 117% of the size of the economy in 2031. The administration believes that this is not the best metric for understanding the nation’s debt burden, which it acknowledges needs to be addressed in the long term. Much of the spending in the budget is “mandatory” for programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that her preferred metric was how much the United States paid in interest on the money it had borrowed when compared with the overall economy. She noted that this burden would eventually rise, as interest rates do, but that the United States was expending relatively few resources to pay interest on the debt. Net interest costs are $303 billion this year, or 1.4% of gross domestic product. That is well below the 2% of gross domestic product that they have averaged over the past 50 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “It remains well within and under historic norms, and I think it needs to stay that way,” Yellen said of interest costs at a House hearing Thursday. “That’s a metric that I am looking at to judge the sustainability of federal finances.” Bringing growth forecasts back to Earth Administrations have long used overly rosy economic growth projections as a way to make their fiscal promises appear feasible. During the Trump administration, the White House envisioned years of sustained growth at 3% or beyond, making it possible for its $1.5 trillion tax cuts to pay for themselves and to provide a balanced budget. The Biden White House avoids such gimmicks in its budget. It assumes that the economy will rebound to grow 5.2% this year and 4.3% in 2022 before settling to grow 1.8% to 2% for the rest of the decade. Those rates are in line with what the Congressional Budget Office has forecast. The projections could open up the Biden administration to criticism that its policies are setting the United States up for years of sluggish growth — the same type of criticism that the Obama administration faced from Republicans. However, some economists argued Thursday that gross domestic product was not the best gauge of the economy’s health. “Most importantly, a lot of the benefits of the President’s policies are improving inclusion, opportunity, climate,” Jason Furman, a Harvard professor and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter. “So even if they didn’t add anything to growth, they would still likely be an improvement.” No inflation worries here The biggest critique of the Biden economic agenda is whether the economy is overheating. Prices of nearly everything have been picking up in recent months, but the White House insists this is the “transitory” result of an economy that is starting to reopen. It blames signs of inflation on logistical issues such as shortages and supply chain bottlenecks rather than more fundamental matters. The Biden budget largely sticks to this script. It projects that the consumer price index will rise to 2.1% this year, reach 2.2% percent in 2023 and then settle in at 2.3% annually from 2025 through 2031. The steadiness of the numbers belies the fact that some Biden administration officials, including Yellen, have acknowledged as recently as Thursday that there would be high rates of inflation throughout the rest of the year. The inflation bench mark in the budget will be a key one to watch as Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have seized on the rising prices to argue that Biden has been bad for consumers. Corporations will pick up the tab To help pay for its proposals, the Biden administration is preparing an overhaul of the tax code, the brunt of which will be felt by large corporations. The budget details the White House’s plan for a $2 trillion corporate tax hike, which would be achieved by raising the corporate income tax rate to 28% from 21% and imposing tougher measures to curb offshoring. The proposals for the corporate tax code reverse or change many of the provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was Trump’s signature legislative achievement. One key provision in that law that is not addressed, however, is the fate of the individual income tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers that are set to expire before 2026. Biden’s budget proposal assumes that they will, in fact, sunset. That puts the onus on the administration to propose a plan for additional tax cuts in order to keep the president’s pledge that no taxpayer who earns less than $400,000 will have their taxes go up. The Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, which led the drafting of the 2017 law, took note of the omission. “This is the latest example of President Biden abandoning his lofty promise that he can fund trillions of dollars in new spending simply by taxing the wealthy or corporations alone,” they said in a statement.

Biden’s budget sees low inflation, rising debt and slow economic growth

US President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a trusted political ally, as America's next ambassador to India, according to media reports.

Biden is expected to announce the names of political ambassadors, including for India, as soon as next week, according to a report in Axios.

President Biden, a Democrat, is also expected to announce Nicholas Burns as the ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel and Tom Nides as ambassadors to Japan and Israel respectively, the report in the American news website said on Wednesday.

Garcetti, 50, who served as the co-chair of Biden's presidential campaign, was initially considered for the Cabinet.

Garcetti is the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, after New York City.

The important position of the US envoy to India has been lying vacant since January 20.

In the absence of a full-time ambassador, Daniel Smith, the director of the Foreign Service Institute, who recently served as acting Secretary of State and Acting Deputy Secretary of State, has been sent to New Delhi to serve as Charge d'Affaires, ad interim.

However, the White House declined to comment on the nomination of Burns or Garcetti, saying no one is final until they're announced," an AP news report said.

According to the Axios report, the White House is still finishing the vetting process for potential ambassadors, including Garcetti, following which, Biden is expected to formally send more than a dozen names to the Senate to begin the confirmation process for his first batch of political ambassadors, which also include appointments for France, Italy and Canada.

The president began reviewing names of potential ambassadors in March, and officials are putting a premium on diversity in assembling the first batch that he'll send to the Senate, the report said.

US President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a trusted political ally, as America's next ambassador to India, according to media reports.

US President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, a trusted political ally, as America's next ambassador to India, according to media reports. Biden is expected to announce the names of political ambassadors, including for India, as soon as next week, according to a report in Axios. President Biden, a Democrat, is also expected to announce Nicholas Burns as the ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel and Tom Nides as ambassadors to Japan and Israel respectively, the report in the American news website said on Wednesday. Garcetti, 50, who served as the co-chair of Biden's presidential campaign, was initially considered for the Cabinet. Garcetti is the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles, the second-largest city in the United States, after New York City. The important position of the US envoy to India has been lying vacant since January 20. In the absence of a full-time ambassador, Daniel Smith, the director of the Foreign Service Institute, who recently served as acting Secretary of State and Acting Deputy Secretary of State, has been sent to New Delhi to serve as Charge d'Affaires, ad interim. However, the White House declined to comment on the nomination of Burns or Garcetti, saying no one is final until they're announced," an AP news report said. According to the Axios report, the White House is still finishing the vetting process for potential ambassadors, including Garcetti, following which, Biden is expected to formally send more than a dozen names to the Senate to begin the confirmation process for his first batch of political ambassadors, which also include appointments for France, Italy and Canada. The president began reviewing names of potential ambassadors in March, and officials are putting a premium on diversity in assembling the first batch that he'll send to the Senate, the report said.

Biden expected to nominate Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as US ambassador to India: Reports

US President Joe&nbsp;Biden's push to get major economies to agree on a 15 per cent minimum tax rate for multinational corporations has hit turbulence after Ireland's finance minister expressed "significant reservations" about the plan.

The objection from Dublin's finance minister Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday carries weight because Ireland hosts an outsized number of technology and pharmaceutical firms that were attracted to the country for its lower tax rate.&nbsp;

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"We do have really significant reservations regarding a global minimum effective tax&nbsp;rate status at such a level that it means only certain countries, and certain size economies can benefit from that base -- we have a really significant concern about that," Donohoe told Sky News.

His objections come as finance ministers from the Group of Seven advanced nations&nbsp;are set to meet next week in London, where they could endorse the US proposal.

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Biden's administration last week called for an agreement on the unified tax rate of a minimum of 15 per cent rate in negotiations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G20.

The European Union's top economies France and Germany said they would support a tax at that level, and the IMF's leader on Tuesday also offered her endorsement.

A person close to the G7 talks told AFP they expect a political agreement next week, though two other people with knowledge of the matter said member states may opt for a less definitive measure.

Funding infrastructure

Finance chiefs have characterized a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate. They say that "race to the bottom" saps revenues that could go to other government priorities.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-president-joe-biden-vows-flexibility-in-landmark-2-trillion-infrastructure-bill-377181">US President Joe Biden vows flexibility in landmark $2 trillion infrastructure bill</a>

For&nbsp;Biden, a global tax agreement also would help maintain US competitiveness, since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs program with a price tag of around $2 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will represent the United States at next week's meeting, and her deputy, Wally Adeyemo, told Reuters on Monday that he expects to see "a lot of unified support" for the plan from the G7 nations.&nbsp;

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last week called the 15 per cent proposal "a good compromise."&nbsp;

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said establishing a global minimum tax would be "a benefit," and something the Washington-based crisis lender has long supported.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/republicans-reject-biden-infrastructure-bill-despite-reduced-cost-386738">Republicans reject Biden infrastructure bill despite reduced cost</a>

"Why? Because when we have it, there is no race to the bottom and less tax avoidance," Georgieva said&nbsp;Tuesday during a conversation with The Washington Post.&nbsp;

That means "more money in the public purse to invest in education and healthcare, and infrastructure, digitalization -- all the good things we recognize we have to invest more into."

However, she acknowledged the challenge in finding "the sweet spot" for the global economy between those priorities and the best rate for national governments, given some countries have relied on low tax rates to compete for revenue.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-to-push-through-infrastructure-plan-even-without-republican-support-375366">Biden to push through infrastructure plan even without Republican support</a>

Ireland is among that group, and according to Sky News, Donohoe said it intends to hold its corporate tax rate at 12.5 per cent for a few more years.

Last month, Dublin's finance ministry released a projection saying it could lose two billion euros ($2.4 billion) each year in revenue starting in 2025 if a global minimum tax rate is enacted.

US President Joe Biden's push to get major economies to agree on a 15 per cent minimum tax rate for multinational corporations has hit turbulence after Ireland's finance minister expressed "significant reservations" about the plan.

US President Joe Biden's push to get major economies to agree on a 15 per cent minimum tax rate for multinational corporations has hit turbulence after Ireland's finance minister expressed "significant reservations" about the plan. The objection from Dublin's finance minister Paschal Donohoe on Tuesday carries weight because Ireland hosts an outsized number of technology and pharmaceutical firms that were attracted to the country for its lower tax rate. Also Read | US President Joe Biden vows flexibility in landmark $2 trillion infrastructure bill "We do have really significant reservations regarding a global minimum effective tax rate status at such a level that it means only certain countries, and certain size economies can benefit from that base -- we have a really significant concern about that," Donohoe told Sky News. His objections come as finance ministers from the Group of Seven advanced nations are set to meet next week in London, where they could endorse the US proposal. Also Read | It’s crunch time, and Biden’s climate gambit faces steep hurdles Biden's administration last week called for an agreement on the unified tax rate of a minimum of 15 per cent rate in negotiations with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and G20. The European Union's top economies France and Germany said they would support a tax at that level, and the IMF's leader on Tuesday also offered her endorsement. A person close to the G7 talks told AFP they expect a political agreement next week, though two other people with knowledge of the matter said member states may opt for a less definitive measure. Funding infrastructure Finance chiefs have characterized a minimum tax as necessary to stem competition between countries over who can offer multinationals the lowest rate. They say that "race to the bottom" saps revenues that could go to other government priorities. Also Read | US President Joe Biden vows flexibility in landmark $2 trillion infrastructure bill For Biden, a global tax agreement also would help maintain US competitiveness, since he has proposed hiking domestic corporate taxes to pay for an infrastructure and jobs program with a price tag of around $2 trillion. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will represent the United States at next week's meeting, and her deputy, Wally Adeyemo, told Reuters on Monday that he expects to see "a lot of unified support" for the plan from the G7 nations. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last week called the 15 per cent proposal "a good compromise." IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said establishing a global minimum tax would be "a benefit," and something the Washington-based crisis lender has long supported. Also Read | Republicans reject Biden infrastructure bill despite reduced cost "Why? Because when we have it, there is no race to the bottom and less tax avoidance," Georgieva said Tuesday during a conversation with The Washington Post. That means "more money in the public purse to invest in education and healthcare, and infrastructure, digitalization -- all the good things we recognize we have to invest more into." However, she acknowledged the challenge in finding "the sweet spot" for the global economy between those priorities and the best rate for national governments, given some countries have relied on low tax rates to compete for revenue. Also Read | Biden to push through infrastructure plan even without Republican support Ireland is among that group, and according to Sky News, Donohoe said it intends to hold its corporate tax rate at 12.5 per cent for a few more years. Last month, Dublin's finance ministry released a projection saying it could lose two billion euros ($2.4 billion) each year in revenue starting in 2025 if a global minimum tax rate is enacted.

Biden's global tax proposal faces setback after Ireland objects

US President Joe Biden called Egypt's President Abdelfattah al-Sisi on Monday and they discussed strengthening the Gaza ceasefire, urgent humanitarian aid to the strip and international reconstruction efforts, the Egyptian presidency said.&nbsp;

The two leaders also discussed ways to revive the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians after the latest wave of violence between the two sides, the presidency said in a statement.&nbsp;

Egypt brokered the ceasefire, now in its fourth day after 11 days of hostilities. Cairo will be a stop during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region later on Monday.&nbsp;

"Biden made clear his country's determination to work to restore calm and restore conditions as they were in the Palestinian territories, as well as coordinating efforts with all international partners to support the Palestinian Authority as well as reconstruction," the statement said.&nbsp;

In Washington, the White House said in a statement that Biden in the call thanked Egypt for its 'successful diplomacy and coordination with the United States' to end the hostilities.&nbsp;

Biden and Sisi discussed the urgent need to deliver humanitarian assistance in Gaza and support rebuilding efforts 'in a manner that benefits the people there and not Hamas', it said.&nbsp;

It was Biden's second call to Sisi within days to discuss the conflict. But this time, the discussion was expanded to bilateral relations and some regional issues, including Libya and Iraq.&nbsp;

Biden and Sisi exchanged views on the giant Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile and Egypt sees as an existential threat, the presidency said. Sudan is concerned about the dam's safety and about regulating water flows through its own dams and water stations.&nbsp;

The statement said "it was agreed to strengthen diplomatic efforts during the coming period in order to reach an agreement that preserves water and developmental rights for all parties."&nbsp;

The White House statement said Biden "acknowledged Egypt’s concerns about access to Nile River waters and underscored the US interest in achieving a diplomatic resolution that meets the legitimate needs of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia."&nbsp;

Sisi and Biden also discussed human rights in Egypt and their "commitment to engage in a transparent dialogue... in this regard," the presidency said.&nbsp;

Biden "underscored the importance of a constructive dialogue on human rights in Egypt," according to the White House statement.&nbsp;

Sisi, who ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power in 2013, has overseen an extensive crackdown on political dissent that has steadily tightened in recent years. He has said there are no political prisoners in Egypt and that stability and security are paramount.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies) &nbsp;

US President Joe Biden called Egypt's President Abdelfattah al-Sisi on Monday and they discussed strengthening the Gaza ceasefire, urgent humanitarian aid to the strip and international reconstruction efforts, the Egyptian presidency said.

US President Joe Biden called Egypt's President Abdelfattah al-Sisi on Monday and they discussed strengthening the Gaza ceasefire, urgent humanitarian aid to the strip and international reconstruction efforts, the Egyptian presidency said. The two leaders also discussed ways to revive the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians after the latest wave of violence between the two sides, the presidency said in a statement. Egypt brokered the ceasefire, now in its fourth day after 11 days of hostilities. Cairo will be a stop during the visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region later on Monday. "Biden made clear his country's determination to work to restore calm and restore conditions as they were in the Palestinian territories, as well as coordinating efforts with all international partners to support the Palestinian Authority as well as reconstruction," the statement said. In Washington, the White House said in a statement that Biden in the call thanked Egypt for its 'successful diplomacy and coordination with the United States' to end the hostilities. Biden and Sisi discussed the urgent need to deliver humanitarian assistance in Gaza and support rebuilding efforts 'in a manner that benefits the people there and not Hamas', it said. It was Biden's second call to Sisi within days to discuss the conflict. But this time, the discussion was expanded to bilateral relations and some regional issues, including Libya and Iraq. Biden and Sisi exchanged views on the giant Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile and Egypt sees as an existential threat, the presidency said. Sudan is concerned about the dam's safety and about regulating water flows through its own dams and water stations. The statement said "it was agreed to strengthen diplomatic efforts during the coming period in order to reach an agreement that preserves water and developmental rights for all parties." The White House statement said Biden "acknowledged Egypt’s concerns about access to Nile River waters and underscored the US interest in achieving a diplomatic resolution that meets the legitimate needs of Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia." Sisi and Biden also discussed human rights in Egypt and their "commitment to engage in a transparent dialogue... in this regard," the presidency said. Biden "underscored the importance of a constructive dialogue on human rights in Egypt," according to the White House statement. Sisi, who ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power in 2013, has overseen an extensive crackdown on political dissent that has steadily tightened in recent years. He has said there are no political prisoners in Egypt and that stability and security are paramount. (With inputs from agencies)

Egypt's Sisi, Biden discuss Gaza ceasefire, reconstruction 

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today that US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit next month in Geneva.

The meeting between the two leaders is set to take place on June 16 in the Swiss city.

"The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship," Jen Psaki said.

Kremlin said President Biden and Putin will be discussing "issues of strategic stability" including "resolving regional conflicts" and the pandemic.

Biden had met Putin earlier in 2009 as Obama's vice president. Biden&nbsp;had imposed sanctions against Russia's alleged role in the massive Solar Winds cyber attack amid tensions with the Putin regime.

However, the Biden&nbsp;administration had waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2, the Russian-controlled builder of&nbsp;Russia-Germany gas pipeline which the US government had termed as a security risk.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier met last week in Reykjavik, Iceland for nearly two and half hours to prepare the ground work for the summit.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today that US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit next month in Geneva.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said today that US President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit next month in Geneva. The meeting between the two leaders is set to take place on June 16 in the Swiss city. "The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship," Jen Psaki said. Kremlin said President Biden and Putin will be discussing "issues of strategic stability" including "resolving regional conflicts" and the pandemic. Biden had met Putin earlier in 2009 as Obama's vice president. Biden had imposed sanctions against Russia's alleged role in the massive Solar Winds cyber attack amid tensions with the Putin regime. However, the Biden administration had waived sanctions against Nord Stream 2, the Russian-controlled builder of Russia-Germany gas pipeline which the US government had termed as a security risk. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier met last week in Reykjavik, Iceland for nearly two and half hours to prepare the ground work for the summit.

Biden, Putin summit talks to take place in Geneva next month

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it would soon make an announcement about a possible summit between President Vladimir Putin and US&nbsp;President Joe Biden. 
 
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Moscow and Washington needed to cooperate on cybersecurity in order to stop hackers who ill-wishers say work for the Russian state. 
 
He also said that the two men needed to discuss strategic nuclear stability, something which affected the world. 
 
Biden, who in March said he thought Putin was a "killer", prompting Moscow to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations, has said he would like to hold talks with Putin during a planned trip to Europe next month. 
 
Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, citing sources, reported on Monday that the summit will be held in Switzerland.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it would soon make an announcement about a possible summit between President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Moscow and Washington needed to cooperate on cybersecurity in order to stop hackers who ill-wishers say work for the Russian state.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it would soon make an announcement about a possible summit between President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Moscow and Washington needed to cooperate on cybersecurity in order to stop hackers who ill-wishers say work for the Russian state. He also said that the two men needed to discuss strategic nuclear stability, something which affected the world. Biden, who in March said he thought Putin was a "killer", prompting Moscow to recall its ambassador to Washington for consultations, has said he would like to hold talks with Putin during a planned trip to Europe next month. Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, citing sources, reported on Monday that the summit will be held in Switzerland.

Kremlin says it will soon make announcement on possible Putin-Biden summit

The Biden administration on Saturday extended special protections to Haitians living temporarily in the United States after being displaced by a devastating 2010 earthquake, reversing efforts by the previous administration to force them to leave the country.

The decision, announced by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, makes good on President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to restore a program that shields thousands of Haitian migrants from the threat of deportation under the restrictive policies put in place under President Donald Trump.

Mayorkas said the new 18-month designation, known as temporary protected status, would apply to Haitians already living in the United States as of Friday.

“Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mayorkas said in a statement Saturday.

The protections, created in a 1990 law, allow foreigners who have had to flee their homes because of natural disasters and conflict to work and live in the United States. The Obama administration granted the temporary protected status to Haitians living in the United States illegally after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January 2010.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the new designation could protect as many as 150,000 Haitians from having to return to the political and security crisis in their home country.

“The last thing our country should be doing is forcing an entire community in the U.S. to decide between packing up their lives and tearing their families apart by self-deporting, or becoming undocumented and forced into the shadows of our society,” Menendez said in a statement Saturday.

As part of its hard-line efforts to curb legal and illegal immigration, the Trump administration sought to end protections for about 400,000 immigrants living in the United States, including Haitians.

Lawsuits blocked the cancellations, but in September a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration, putting hundreds of thousands of immigrants on notice that they would have to leave the country or face deportation. The Trump administration agreed to keep the protections in place at least through early 2021, meaning a new administration could decide to continue the policy.

The Biden administration on Saturday extended special protections to Haitians living temporarily in the United States after being displaced by a devastating 2010 earthquake, reversing efforts by the previous administration to force them to leave the country.

The Biden administration on Saturday extended special protections to Haitians living temporarily in the United States after being displaced by a devastating 2010 earthquake, reversing efforts by the previous administration to force them to leave the country. The decision, announced by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, makes good on President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to restore a program that shields thousands of Haitian migrants from the threat of deportation under the restrictive policies put in place under President Donald Trump. Mayorkas said the new 18-month designation, known as temporary protected status, would apply to Haitians already living in the United States as of Friday. “Haiti is currently experiencing serious security concerns, social unrest, an increase in human rights abuses, crippling poverty, and lack of basic resources, which are exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mayorkas said in a statement Saturday. The protections, created in a 1990 law, allow foreigners who have had to flee their homes because of natural disasters and conflict to work and live in the United States. The Obama administration granted the temporary protected status to Haitians living in the United States illegally after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January 2010. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the new designation could protect as many as 150,000 Haitians from having to return to the political and security crisis in their home country. “The last thing our country should be doing is forcing an entire community in the U.S. to decide between packing up their lives and tearing their families apart by self-deporting, or becoming undocumented and forced into the shadows of our society,” Menendez said in a statement Saturday. As part of its hard-line efforts to curb legal and illegal immigration, the Trump administration sought to end protections for about 400,000 immigrants living in the United States, including Haitians. Lawsuits blocked the cancellations, but in September a federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration, putting hundreds of thousands of immigrants on notice that they would have to leave the country or face deportation. The Trump administration agreed to keep the protections in place at least through early 2021, meaning a new administration could decide to continue the policy.

US grants temporary protections to thousands of Haitians

Republican lawmakers have rejected a new White House infrastructure proposal that lowers the overall price tag in a bid to gain the opposition party's support, potentially raising the likelihood President Joe&nbsp;Biden's Democrats pass the measure on their own.

The White House on Friday had proposed reducing the cost of the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan to $1.7 trillion by having other bills cover some of the projects it would pay for and cutting out some spending altogether, but a key Republican lawmaker said she still wouldn't support it.

"There continue to be vast differences between the White House and Senate Republicans when it comes to the definition of infrastructure, the magnitude of proposed spending and how to pay for it," said a spokeswoman for Shelley Moore Capito, who is part of a group of Republican senators negotiating with the&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;administration over the proposal.

"Based on today's meeting, the groups seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they were after one meeting with President&nbsp;Biden. Senate Republicans will further review the details in today's counteroffer and continue to engage in conversations with the administration."

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-president-joe-biden-vows-flexibility-in-landmark-2-trillion-infrastructure-bill-377181">US President Joe Biden vows flexibility in landmark $2 trillion infrastructure bill</a>

Biden&nbsp;had in March proposed the measure that would direct money towards fixing roads and bridges as well as expanding services like broadband internet and increasing climate change resiliency across the United States.

But with his Democratic Party controlling Congress by a small margin, he is under pressure to find Republican support for the bill, and on Friday Press Secretary Jen Psaki said he would cut its cost down by $500 billion "in the spirit of finding common ground."

"This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size, giving on some areas that are important to the president... while staying firm in areas that are most vital to rebuilding our infrastructure and industries of the future, making our country more competitive with China," she told reporters.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-to-push-through-infrastructure-plan-even-without-republican-support-375366">Biden to push through infrastructure plan even without Republican support</a>

he Republican rejection increases the chances that Democrats will attempt to pass the measure through a parliamentary procedure that could see it clear the Senate without opposition votes, which the party's leader in the chamber has hinted they could do.&nbsp;

There were also signs the party's progressive wing&nbsp;would not support a scaled-down bill.

"A smaller infrastructure package means fewer jobs, less justice, less climate action, and less investment in America's future," Democratic Senator Ed Markey tweeted after the White House detailed the proposal. "This is not the time for half-measures, half-spending or foot-dragging. Now is the time to go big, to go bold, and to go fast."

Paying for it

The infrastructure plan is among two major spending bills&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;is pushing, along with his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan aimed at expanding education and social protections.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-outlines-far-reaching-plan-to-reengineer-us-infrastructure-374638">Biden outlines far-reaching plan to reengineer US infrastructure</a>

After taking office in January,&nbsp;Biden&nbsp;won passage of a $1.9 trillion measure intended to help the world's largest economy recover from the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">COVID-19</a> downturn, a measure paid for by deficit spending.

The president is under pressure to find ways to offset the costs of the new spending plans.

He has proposed ending tax cuts and loopholes benefiting small businesses to pay for the American Families Plan, while hiking the corporate tax rate to pay for the infrastructure proposal.

In detailing the new counter proposal, Psaki said the White House rejected ideas from Republicans to increase gas taxes or impose user fees instead of raising taxes on corporations.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-to-pay-for-infrastructure-plan-with-15-years-of-corporate-taxes-374595">Biden to pay for infrastructure plan with 15 years of corporate taxes</a>

Biden&nbsp;"believes that the extraordinarily wealthy companies... many of whom have not paid taxes in recent years, can afford a modest increase to pay for middle class jobs," Psaki said.

However the overall price tag could be lowered by shifting money in the original plan intended to pay for research, supply chains, manufacturing and small businesses to other bills, while funds for roads and bridges, as well as broadband, would be slashed.

Spending on improved rail transportation would stay, "especially considering China's level of investment in such projects," Psaki said, while money for the removal of lead pipes and projects to bolster the country against climate change would also remain.

Republican lawmakers have rejected a new White House infrastructure proposal that lowers the overall price tag in a bid to gain the opposition party's support, potentially raising the likelihood President Joe Biden's Democrats pass the measure on their own.

Republican lawmakers have rejected a new White House infrastructure proposal that lowers the overall price tag in a bid to gain the opposition party's support, potentially raising the likelihood President Joe Biden's Democrats pass the measure on their own. The White House on Friday had proposed reducing the cost of the $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan to $1.7 trillion by having other bills cover some of the projects it would pay for and cutting out some spending altogether, but a key Republican lawmaker said she still wouldn't support it. "There continue to be vast differences between the White House and Senate Republicans when it comes to the definition of infrastructure, the magnitude of proposed spending and how to pay for it," said a spokeswoman for Shelley Moore Capito, who is part of a group of Republican senators negotiating with the Biden administration over the proposal. "Based on today's meeting, the groups seem further apart after two meetings with White House staff than they were after one meeting with President Biden. Senate Republicans will further review the details in today's counteroffer and continue to engage in conversations with the administration." Also Read | US President Joe Biden vows flexibility in landmark $2 trillion infrastructure bill Biden had in March proposed the measure that would direct money towards fixing roads and bridges as well as expanding services like broadband internet and increasing climate change resiliency across the United States. But with his Democratic Party controlling Congress by a small margin, he is under pressure to find Republican support for the bill, and on Friday Press Secretary Jen Psaki said he would cut its cost down by $500 billion "in the spirit of finding common ground." "This proposal exhibits a willingness to come down in size, giving on some areas that are important to the president... while staying firm in areas that are most vital to rebuilding our infrastructure and industries of the future, making our country more competitive with China," she told reporters. Also Read | Biden to push through infrastructure plan even without Republican support he Republican rejection increases the chances that Democrats will attempt to pass the measure through a parliamentary procedure that could see it clear the Senate without opposition votes, which the party's leader in the chamber has hinted they could do. There were also signs the party's progressive wing would not support a scaled-down bill. "A smaller infrastructure package means fewer jobs, less justice, less climate action, and less investment in America's future," Democratic Senator Ed Markey tweeted after the White House detailed the proposal. "This is not the time for half-measures, half-spending or foot-dragging. Now is the time to go big, to go bold, and to go fast." Paying for it The infrastructure plan is among two major spending bills Biden is pushing, along with his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan aimed at expanding education and social protections. Also Read | Biden outlines far-reaching plan to reengineer US infrastructure After taking office in January, Biden won passage of a $1.9 trillion measure intended to help the world's largest economy recover from the COVID-19 downturn, a measure paid for by deficit spending. The president is under pressure to find ways to offset the costs of the new spending plans. He has proposed ending tax cuts and loopholes benefiting small businesses to pay for the American Families Plan, while hiking the corporate tax rate to pay for the infrastructure proposal. In detailing the new counter proposal, Psaki said the White House rejected ideas from Republicans to increase gas taxes or impose user fees instead of raising taxes on corporations. Also Read | Biden to pay for infrastructure plan with 15 years of corporate taxes Biden "believes that the extraordinarily wealthy companies... many of whom have not paid taxes in recent years, can afford a modest increase to pay for middle class jobs," Psaki said. However the overall price tag could be lowered by shifting money in the original plan intended to pay for research, supply chains, manufacturing and small businesses to other bills, while funds for roads and bridges, as well as broadband, would be slashed. Spending on improved rail transportation would stay, "especially considering China's level of investment in such projects," Psaki said, while money for the removal of lead pipes and projects to bolster the country against climate change would also remain.

Republicans reject Biden infrastructure bill despite reduced cost

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday it would repeal the changes made by the Trump administration to an important law made to stop banks from discriminating against racial minorities and the poor. &nbsp;

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, one of the nation's bank regulators, said it plans to reconsider the regulations it wrote in 2020 governing a law known as the Community Reinvestment Act. The Civil Rights Era law requires banks to document how well they are lending to the communities that surround their branches, in an effort to make sure that banks are not just lending to the wealthy or to white customers. &nbsp;

The OCC said it plans to start from scratch, and told banks to effectively ignore the 2020 changes while the agency rewrites the regulations. &nbsp;

Trump's Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting, had made revising the Community Reinvestment Act a cornerstone of his tenure. The law is widely respected by the industry and activists alike, but both sides have agreed for years that law was out of date. Many banks now operate entirely online, ATMs are ubiquitous, and it was increasingly more difficult to define what a ‘community' was in order to comply with the law. &nbsp;

But the changes the OCC made last year were considered too broad for many activists and for Congressional Democrats, who oversee banks on the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee.&nbsp;

For example, banks would have been given credit under the law for issuing credit cards and personal loans something banks were already doing, particularly the largest institutions. &nbsp;

The regulations would have also given banks credit, under certain circumstances, for loans they make to build or improve facilities such as sports stadiums and hospitals.&nbsp;

The argument from activists was that the changes would have made it easier for many banks to pass their CRA exams, and would disincentivise them from opening branches or approving mortgages in low income neighbourhoods.&nbsp;

"CRA was, and still is, a civil rights bill," said Black Rep Gregory Meeks, D-New York, last year at a Congressional committee to review Otting's changes. "Your proposal would undermine that."&nbsp;

The changes proposed by Otting were so drastic that the other two bank regulators that have authority under the law, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, refused to sign on. This left banks wondering, which regulator to follow when it came to compliance. &nbsp;&nbsp;

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday it would repeal the changes made by the Trump administration to an important law made to stop banks from discriminating against racial minorities and the poor.

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday it would repeal the changes made by the Trump administration to an important law made to stop banks from discriminating against racial minorities and the poor. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, one of the nation's bank regulators, said it plans to reconsider the regulations it wrote in 2020 governing a law known as the Community Reinvestment Act. The Civil Rights Era law requires banks to document how well they are lending to the communities that surround their branches, in an effort to make sure that banks are not just lending to the wealthy or to white customers. The OCC said it plans to start from scratch, and told banks to effectively ignore the 2020 changes while the agency rewrites the regulations. Trump's Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting, had made revising the Community Reinvestment Act a cornerstone of his tenure. The law is widely respected by the industry and activists alike, but both sides have agreed for years that law was out of date. Many banks now operate entirely online, ATMs are ubiquitous, and it was increasingly more difficult to define what a ‘community' was in order to comply with the law. But the changes the OCC made last year were considered too broad for many activists and for Congressional Democrats, who oversee banks on the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee. For example, banks would have been given credit under the law for issuing credit cards and personal loans something banks were already doing, particularly the largest institutions. The regulations would have also given banks credit, under certain circumstances, for loans they make to build or improve facilities such as sports stadiums and hospitals. The argument from activists was that the changes would have made it easier for many banks to pass their CRA exams, and would disincentivise them from opening branches or approving mortgages in low income neighbourhoods. "CRA was, and still is, a civil rights bill," said Black Rep Gregory Meeks, D-New York, last year at a Congressional committee to review Otting's changes. "Your proposal would undermine that." The changes proposed by Otting were so drastic that the other two bank regulators that have authority under the law, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, refused to sign on. This left banks wondering, which regulator to follow when it came to compliance.

Biden reverses Trump changes to law that prevented racial discrimination by banks 

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday released their tax returns, according to which in 2020, she had an income of more than USD 1 million as compared to his USD 607,336.

The President and the first lady, Jill, a teacher, filed their income tax return jointly and reported federal adjusted gross income of USD 607,336, down from USD 985,223 in 2019.

Also read-&nbsp;<a href="Under pressure, Biden works for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza violence ">Under pressure, Biden works for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza violence&nbsp;</a>

The first couple paid USD 157,414 in federal income tax and their 2020 effective federal income tax rate is 25.9 per cent, the White House said.

On the other hand, the Vice President and second gentleman Doug Emhoff reported federal adjusted gross income of USD 1,695,225.

Also read-&nbsp;<a href="Venmo account of Biden discovered in less than 10 minutes: Report ">Venmo account of Biden discovered in less than 10 minutes: Report</a>&nbsp;

They paid USD 621,893 in federal income tax, amounting to a 2020 effective federal income tax rate of 36.7 per cent. They also paid USD 125,004 in California income tax.

The second gentleman paid USD 56,997 in District of Columbia income tax. They contributed USD 27,006 to charity in 2020.

According to the White House, the President and the first lady also reported donating USD 30,704 or about 5.1 per cent of their total income&nbsp;to 10 different charities.

The largest reported gift to charity was USD 10,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation, a public charity dedicated to ensuring that all children are free from the threat of abuse.

The President and the first lady also released their Delaware income tax return and reported paying USD 28,794 in Delaware income tax.

The first lady also released her Virginia income tax return and reported paying USD 443 in Virginia income tax.

As required by law, the President and Vice President also released their public financial disclosure reports.

The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires high-level federal officials to publicly disclose their personal financial interests.

The public filing system serves to prevent financial conflicts of interest by providing for a systematic review of the finances of government officials.

"Those finances are set forth in annual disclosures, which are reviewed and certified by the independent Office of Government Ethics. Neither the President nor the Vice President have any conflicts of interest," the White House said.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday released their tax returns, according to which in 2020, she had an income of more than USD 1 million as compared to his USD 607,336.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday released their tax returns, according to which in 2020, she had an income of more than USD 1 million as compared to his USD 607,336. The President and the first lady, Jill, a teacher, filed their income tax return jointly and reported federal adjusted gross income of USD 607,336, down from USD 985,223 in 2019. Also read- Under pressure, Biden works for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza violence The first couple paid USD 157,414 in federal income tax and their 2020 effective federal income tax rate is 25.9 per cent, the White House said. On the other hand, the Vice President and second gentleman Doug Emhoff reported federal adjusted gross income of USD 1,695,225. Also read- Venmo account of Biden discovered in less than 10 minutes: Report They paid USD 621,893 in federal income tax, amounting to a 2020 effective federal income tax rate of 36.7 per cent. They also paid USD 125,004 in California income tax. The second gentleman paid USD 56,997 in District of Columbia income tax. They contributed USD 27,006 to charity in 2020. According to the White House, the President and the first lady also reported donating USD 30,704 or about 5.1 per cent of their total income to 10 different charities. The largest reported gift to charity was USD 10,000 to the Beau Biden Foundation, a public charity dedicated to ensuring that all children are free from the threat of abuse. The President and the first lady also released their Delaware income tax return and reported paying USD 28,794 in Delaware income tax. The first lady also released her Virginia income tax return and reported paying USD 443 in Virginia income tax. As required by law, the President and Vice President also released their public financial disclosure reports. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires high-level federal officials to publicly disclose their personal financial interests. The public filing system serves to prevent financial conflicts of interest by providing for a systematic review of the finances of government officials. "Those finances are set forth in annual disclosures, which are reviewed and certified by the independent Office of Government Ethics. Neither the President nor the Vice President have any conflicts of interest," the White House said.

Biden reports drop in income, releases tax returns

President Joe Biden and aides worked behind the scenes on Monday pressing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid what one source said was frustration over Israel's bombing of a Gaza building that housed some news organisations.&nbsp;

Biden is facing growing pressure from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party to play a more vocal role, but US officials say he and his team have opted for a quieter effort, talking with Israeli officials and US allies in the Arab world.&nbsp; 
 
Watch: US asks Israel for 'justification' for strike on media building

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"Our calculation at this point is that having those conversations behind the scenes ... is the most constructive approach we can take,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.&nbsp;

Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their third conversation since the violence erupted.&nbsp;

The White House said Biden 'encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians' and that the two leaders 'discussed progress in Israel’s military operations against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza’.&nbsp;

"The president expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end," a White House statement said.&nbsp;

Supporters of the Biden administration demanded quicker action.&nbsp;

“We’re really frustrated that the administration is not moving with more urgency,” said Logan Bayroff, spokesman for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group.&nbsp;

Twenty-eight senators, more than half of the Democratic caucus, issued a statement on Sunday calling for an immediate ceasefire 'to prevent any further loss of civilian life and to prevent further escalation of conflict.'&nbsp;

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday, he also wanted to see a ceasefire reached quickly.&nbsp;

The Biden administration has increasingly relied on Egypt because of its influence with Hamas, whose rocket barrages into Israeli cities have prompted a fierce response from Israel and led to the biggest outbreak in hostilities since 2014. &nbsp;

The administration would like to get on a glide path to de-escalation in coming days, leading to what a source familiar with the situation called a humanitarian pause in the violence to let relief assistance be delivered to Gaza and build a sustainable calm.&nbsp;

The United States was believed to be preparing significant initiatives on Gaza humanitarian reconstruction, the source said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

President Joe Biden and aides worked behind the scenes on Monday pressing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid what one source said was frustration over Israel's bombing of a Gaza building that housed some news organisations.

President Joe Biden and aides worked behind the scenes on Monday pressing for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas amid what one source said was frustration over Israel's bombing of a Gaza building that housed some news organisations. Biden is facing growing pressure from lawmakers in his own Democratic Party to play a more vocal role, but US officials say he and his team have opted for a quieter effort, talking with Israeli officials and US allies in the Arab world. Watch: US asks Israel for 'justification' for strike on media building "Our calculation at this point is that having those conversations behind the scenes ... is the most constructive approach we can take,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their third conversation since the violence erupted. The White House said Biden 'encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians' and that the two leaders 'discussed progress in Israel’s military operations against Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza’. "The president expressed his support for a ceasefire and discussed US engagement with Egypt and other partners towards that end," a White House statement said. Supporters of the Biden administration demanded quicker action. “We’re really frustrated that the administration is not moving with more urgency,” said Logan Bayroff, spokesman for J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group. Twenty-eight senators, more than half of the Democratic caucus, issued a statement on Sunday calling for an immediate ceasefire 'to prevent any further loss of civilian life and to prevent further escalation of conflict.' Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday, he also wanted to see a ceasefire reached quickly. The Biden administration has increasingly relied on Egypt because of its influence with Hamas, whose rocket barrages into Israeli cities have prompted a fierce response from Israel and led to the biggest outbreak in hostilities since 2014. The administration would like to get on a glide path to de-escalation in coming days, leading to what a source familiar with the situation called a humanitarian pause in the violence to let relief assistance be delivered to Gaza and build a sustainable calm. The United States was believed to be preparing significant initiatives on Gaza humanitarian reconstruction, the source said. (With inputs from agencies)

Under pressure, Biden works for ceasefire in Israel-Gaza violence 

US President Joe Biden on Saturday (local time) held telephonic conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reaffirmed his strong support for Israel`s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups.

Biden noted in his conversation with Netanyahu that "this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children," according to a readout of the call released by the White House.

"The President reaffirmed his strong support for Israel`s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel," the White House said in a statement.

"The President updated the Prime Minister on high-level US engagement with regional partners on this issue and discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts",&nbsp;it added.He raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection.

The President shared his grave concern about the intercommunal violence across Israel.Biden welcomed the statements by the Prime Minister and other leaders opposing such hateful acts and encouraged continued steps to hold violent extremists accountable and to establish calm.Both the leaders discussed the current tensions in Jerusalem and expressed their shared desire for Jerusalem to be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all faiths and backgrounds, according to a readout of the call released by the White House.

"The President voiced his concern about violent confrontations in the West Bank. He expressed his support for steps to enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom, and economic opportunity that they deserve and affirmed his support for a two-state solution. The leaders agreed to continue the close consultation between their teams and to remain in touch in the days ahead,"it added.

Biden also spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed the violence in Gaza, in which he called for Hamas, the authority`s rival, to stop firing rockets into Israel.It was the first phone call between the two leaders since Biden assumed office.

President Biden "stressed the need for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel", and the two men "expressed their shared concern that innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives amidst the ongoing violence," the White House said.

The White House says Biden "expressed his support for steps to enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom, and economic opportunity that they deserve" and highlighted the recent US decision to resume assistance to the Palestinian people, including economic and humanitarian assistance to benefit Palestinians in the West bank and Gaza.

Israeli warplanes on Saturday destroyed a building in Gaza City with offices of various media groups, including Al Jazeera and the American Associated Press.

Al-Jala Tower is fourth multi-storey building targeted by Israeli warplanes since Monday. At least 139 people, including 39 children and 22 women, have been killed and 950 more injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The conflict between Israel-Palestine escalated after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem amid eviction protests, which left scores of Palestinians and police officers wounded.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday (local time) held telephonic conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reaffirmed his strong support for Israel`s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups.

US President Joe Biden on Saturday (local time) held telephonic conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reaffirmed his strong support for Israel`s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups. Biden noted in his conversation with Netanyahu that "this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children," according to a readout of the call released by the White House. "The President reaffirmed his strong support for Israel`s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel," the White House said in a statement. "The President updated the Prime Minister on high-level US engagement with regional partners on this issue and discussed ongoing diplomatic efforts", it added.He raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection. The President shared his grave concern about the intercommunal violence across Israel.Biden welcomed the statements by the Prime Minister and other leaders opposing such hateful acts and encouraged continued steps to hold violent extremists accountable and to establish calm.Both the leaders discussed the current tensions in Jerusalem and expressed their shared desire for Jerusalem to be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all faiths and backgrounds, according to a readout of the call released by the White House. "The President voiced his concern about violent confrontations in the West Bank. He expressed his support for steps to enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom, and economic opportunity that they deserve and affirmed his support for a two-state solution. The leaders agreed to continue the close consultation between their teams and to remain in touch in the days ahead,"it added. Biden also spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and discussed the violence in Gaza, in which he called for Hamas, the authority`s rival, to stop firing rockets into Israel.It was the first phone call between the two leaders since Biden assumed office. President Biden "stressed the need for Hamas to cease firing rockets into Israel", and the two men "expressed their shared concern that innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives amidst the ongoing violence," the White House said. The White House says Biden "expressed his support for steps to enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom, and economic opportunity that they deserve" and highlighted the recent US decision to resume assistance to the Palestinian people, including economic and humanitarian assistance to benefit Palestinians in the West bank and Gaza. Israeli warplanes on Saturday destroyed a building in Gaza City with offices of various media groups, including Al Jazeera and the American Associated Press. Al-Jala Tower is fourth multi-storey building targeted by Israeli warplanes since Monday. At least 139 people, including 39 children and 22 women, have been killed and 950 more injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The conflict between Israel-Palestine escalated after Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem amid eviction protests, which left scores of Palestinians and police officers wounded.

Biden calls Netanyahu, reaffirms US support for Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas, other terror groups

After BuzzFeed News said, it easily found the US president on the payment app Venmo, accounts for Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden were removed on Friday. The discovery raised several national security questions.&nbsp;

The news website was looking for US President’s account after it was mentioned in a New York Times report on White House conditions and working practices.&nbsp;

It took 'less than 10 minutes' to find president’s account by using only a combination of the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature, said BuzzFeed.&nbsp;

Not just this, it also found nearly a dozen Biden family members and mapped out a social web that encompasses not only the first family but a wide network of people around them in the process, it said. &nbsp;

These include the president’s children, grandchildren, senior White House officials and all of their contacts on Venmo.&nbsp;

Although the White House did not immediately comment, the accounts for the president and first lady were removed by late Friday as per BuzzFeed.&nbsp;

According to a Venmo spokesperson, “The safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. We are consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all Venmo users to be able to provide a safe, secure way to send and spend money.”&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

After BuzzFeed News said, it easily found the US president on the payment app Venmo, accounts for Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden were removed on Friday. The discovery raised several national security questions.

After BuzzFeed News said, it easily found the US president on the payment app Venmo, accounts for Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden were removed on Friday. The discovery raised several national security questions. The news website was looking for US President’s account after it was mentioned in a New York Times report on White House conditions and working practices. It took 'less than 10 minutes' to find president’s account by using only a combination of the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature, said BuzzFeed. Not just this, it also found nearly a dozen Biden family members and mapped out a social web that encompasses not only the first family but a wide network of people around them in the process, it said. These include the president’s children, grandchildren, senior White House officials and all of their contacts on Venmo. Although the White House did not immediately comment, the accounts for the president and first lady were removed by late Friday as per BuzzFeed. According to a Venmo spokesperson, “The safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we take this responsibility very seriously. Customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. We are consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all Venmo users to be able to provide a safe, secure way to send and spend money.” (With inputs from agencies)

Venmo account of Biden discovered in less than 10 minutes: Report 

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that there was no evidence of Russian government involvement in a cyberattack that crippled functioning of Colonial pipeline. The company manages huge network of fuel supply within the US.

However, Biden said that there were indications that the ransomware was "in Russia".&nbsp;

"So far there is no evidence based on, from our intelligence people, that Russia is involved," Biden said in the White House.&nbsp;

"Although there is evidence that the actors, ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this."

Colonial Pipeline is slowly restoring the fuel supply. On Monday, it said that operations were being "brought back online in a stepwise fashion" after Saturday's complete shutdown due to a cyberattack.

The affected pipeline ships gasoline and jet fuel from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the populous East Coast through 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of conduit, serving 50 million consumers.

Just a few days ago Colonial Pipeline operations were crippled due to a cyberattack. It was a ransomware attack. Such an attack encrypts computer systems and seeks to extract payment.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified DarkSide as the group which produced the ransomware used in the attack.

(With inputs from agencies)

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that there was no evidence of Russian government involvement in a cyberattack that crippled functioning of Colonial pipeline.

US President Joe Biden said on Monday that there was no evidence of Russian government involvement in a cyberattack that crippled functioning of Colonial pipeline. The company manages huge network of fuel supply within the US. However, Biden said that there were indications that the ransomware was "in Russia". "So far there is no evidence based on, from our intelligence people, that Russia is involved," Biden said in the White House. "Although there is evidence that the actors, ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this." Colonial Pipeline is slowly restoring the fuel supply. On Monday, it said that operations were being "brought back online in a stepwise fashion" after Saturday's complete shutdown due to a cyberattack. The affected pipeline ships gasoline and jet fuel from the Gulf Coast of Texas to the populous East Coast through 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of conduit, serving 50 million consumers. Just a few days ago Colonial Pipeline operations were crippled due to a cyberattack. It was a ransomware attack. Such an attack encrypts computer systems and seeks to extract payment. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified DarkSide as the group which produced the ransomware used in the attack. (With inputs from agencies)

No evidence of Russian government being behind ransomware attack, says Biden

US President Joe Biden will join a virtual summit of eastern European NATO states held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, with a focus on security in the Black Sea region and Ukraine. &nbsp;

The summit of the Bucharest Nine, a group of European countries on the eastern edge of NATO, will be jointly hosted by Iohannis and Poland's President Andrzej Duda and aims at coordinating the security positions of countries in the region.&nbsp;

"Glad to welcome Joe Biden to the Bucharest9 Summit, which I host in Bucharest today," Iohannis said on his Twitter account.&nbsp;

"Together with President Andrzej Duda we'll also welcome ... Jens Stoltenberg in preparation of NATO Summit, focusing on Transatlantic ties, NATO 2030, defence and deterrence on the eastern flank."&nbsp;

Biden, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia will video-conference into the gathering. &nbsp;

"In ... the statement that the nine will publish after the meeting there will be the issue of security in the Black Sea region and the related security issues in Ukraine," the head of Poland's National Security Bureau, Pawel Soloch, told reporters.&nbsp;

Earlier this month, Washington said it could increase security help for Kyiv after Russia moved troops near its border with Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops are in conflict with Moscow-backed separatists.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies) &nbsp;

US President Joe Biden will join a virtual summit of eastern European NATO states held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, with a focus on security in the Black Sea region and Ukraine.

US President Joe Biden will join a virtual summit of eastern European NATO states held in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Monday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said, with a focus on security in the Black Sea region and Ukraine. The summit of the Bucharest Nine, a group of European countries on the eastern edge of NATO, will be jointly hosted by Iohannis and Poland's President Andrzej Duda and aims at coordinating the security positions of countries in the region. "Glad to welcome Joe Biden to the Bucharest9 Summit, which I host in Bucharest today," Iohannis said on his Twitter account. "Together with President Andrzej Duda we'll also welcome ... Jens Stoltenberg in preparation of NATO Summit, focusing on Transatlantic ties, NATO 2030, defence and deterrence on the eastern flank." Biden, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and the presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia will video-conference into the gathering. "In ... the statement that the nine will publish after the meeting there will be the issue of security in the Black Sea region and the related security issues in Ukraine," the head of Poland's National Security Bureau, Pawel Soloch, told reporters. Earlier this month, Washington said it could increase security help for Kyiv after Russia moved troops near its border with Ukraine's eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops are in conflict with Moscow-backed separatists. (With inputs from agencies)

Biden to join eastern European NATO states summit, focus seen on Ukraine 

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit.&nbsp;

Biden told reporters at the White House, he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia's build-up of military forces near Ukraine.&nbsp;

"It does not impact my desire to have a one-on-one meeting and you'll notice he had more troops before. He's withdrawn troops," he said.&nbsp;

Asked about meeting Putin in June, he said: "I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on."&nbsp;

The United States has said it supports Ukraine amid what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week called Moscow's 'reckless' troop build-up.&nbsp;

Biden and his advisers would like to add a summit with Putin in a third country while the US president is in Europe in mid-June for a Group of Seven meeting in Britain and talks with NATO allies in Brussels.&nbsp;

But negotiations with the Russians on staging the summit are continuing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.&nbsp;

"We're working through the question of some logistics - place, location, time, agenda, all the specifics - that was always going to happen at a staff level. It's really up to them what they want to achieve," she said.&nbsp;

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying Russia was studying the possibility of a Putin-Biden meeting.&nbsp;

"We continue to analyse the situation," TASS quoted Peskov as saying when asked whether the Russian side has officially agreed to the proposed summit.&nbsp;

The United States has a number of grievances with Russia, including its treatment of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. But Psaki said these grievances do not need to be resolved in advance of a Biden-Putin summit.&nbsp;

"Obviously, human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, values are all issues the president, Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken, National Security Adviser (Jake) Sullivan raised with their counterparts. But the invitation to have a discussion and have a meeting was not offered with the prerequisite that every issue is resolved in advance. We expect we will still continue to have disagreements," she said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday he expected to be able to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon and the White House said ongoing differences between the United States and Russia would not need to be resolved in advance of a summit. Biden told reporters at the White House, he wanted to meet Putin despite Russia's build-up of military forces near Ukraine. "It does not impact my desire to have a one-on-one meeting and you'll notice he had more troops before. He's withdrawn troops," he said. Asked about meeting Putin in June, he said: "I'm confident we'll be able to do it. We don't have any specific time or place. That's being worked on." The United States has said it supports Ukraine amid what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week called Moscow's 'reckless' troop build-up. Biden and his advisers would like to add a summit with Putin in a third country while the US president is in Europe in mid-June for a Group of Seven meeting in Britain and talks with NATO allies in Brussels. But negotiations with the Russians on staging the summit are continuing, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "We're working through the question of some logistics - place, location, time, agenda, all the specifics - that was always going to happen at a staff level. It's really up to them what they want to achieve," she said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cited by Russian news agency TASS as saying Russia was studying the possibility of a Putin-Biden meeting. "We continue to analyse the situation," TASS quoted Peskov as saying when asked whether the Russian side has officially agreed to the proposed summit. The United States has a number of grievances with Russia, including its treatment of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. But Psaki said these grievances do not need to be resolved in advance of a Biden-Putin summit. "Obviously, human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, values are all issues the president, Secretary (of State Antony) Blinken, National Security Adviser (Jake) Sullivan raised with their counterparts. But the invitation to have a discussion and have a meeting was not offered with the prerequisite that every issue is resolved in advance. We expect we will still continue to have disagreements," she said. (With inputs from agencies)

US President Biden says he is confident he can meet Russia's Putin soon 

Drugmakers&nbsp;on Thursday said US President Joe&nbsp;Biden's support for waiving&nbsp;patents of COVID-19&nbsp;vaccines could disrupt a fragile supply chain, and that, rich countries should instead share more generously with the developing world.

Biden&nbsp;on Wednesday threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19&nbsp;vaccines, angering research-based pharmaceutical companies.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-backs-india-led-fight-to-waive-covid-vaccines-patents-383092">US backs India-led fight to waive Covid vaccines patents</a>

If adopted by the World Trade Organisation, the proposal would invite new manufacturers that lack essential know-how and&nbsp;oversight from the inventors to crowd out established contractors, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) said.

"I have heard many (vaccine&nbsp;makers) talking about 'our resources are stretched, our technicians are stretched'," IFPMA Director General Thomas Cueni told Reuters. He warned of a possible free for all if "sort of rogue companies" were allowed to become involved.

Vaccine&nbsp;developers echoed his comments that waiving intellectual property rights was not a solution.

"Patents are not the limiting factor for the production or supply of our&nbsp;vaccine. They would not increase the global production and supply of&nbsp;vaccine&nbsp;doses in the short and middle term," said Germany's BioNTech, which aims to supply up to three&nbsp;billion doses together with Pfizer this year.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-supports-global-waiver-of-intellectual-property-protection-for-covid-19-vaccines-383100/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

BioNTech said it took more than a decade to develop its&nbsp;vaccines manufacturing process and replicating it required experienced personnel and a meticulous technology transfer, among several other factors beyond&nbsp;patents.

Another German company CureVac, which hopes to release trial results on its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)&nbsp;vaccine&nbsp;as early as this month, said&nbsp;patents were not to blame for supply bottlenecks.

"Since mRNA technology has emerged as the key technology in the fight against COVID-19, the world now needs the same raw materials in unfathomable amounts. The biggest problem is how to coordinate this," a spokeswoman said.

IFPMA's Cueni said the real bottlenecks were trade barriers, in particular the US Defense Production Act (DPA).

The DPA is a decades-old US law that prioritised procurement orders related to US national defence, but it has been widely used in non-military crises, such as natural disasters.

Cueni said the way to kickstart low-income countries' vaccination campaigns, was for rich countries to donate&nbsp;vaccine, rather than widen eligibility to young and healthy people at home.

Moderna, which on Thursday reported quarterly results, said waiving intellectual property rights would not help to increase the supply of its&nbsp;vaccines in 2021 and 2022.

The US drugmaker said last year it would not enforce its&nbsp;vaccine&nbsp;patents. CureVac said on Thursday it would also not enforce its&nbsp;patents during the pandemic and that it knew of no other developer that would.

Italy's ReiThera which is in late-stage tests on an experimental COVID-19&nbsp;vaccine was also critical of&nbsp;patent&nbsp;waivers.

"There is proprietary know-how that has to be transferred by the owner. And then there is the problem with process materials, which at the moment have delivery times of almost a year," ReiThera's chief of technology Stefano Colloca said.

In contrast to the industry reaction, the GAVI&nbsp;vaccine&nbsp;alliance, which co-leads the COVAX dose-sharing programme with the WHO and faces major supply constraints, welcomed&nbsp;Biden's support for waiving intellectual property rights.

Drugmakers on Thursday said US President Joe Biden's support for waiving patents of COVID-19 vaccines could disrupt a fragile supply chain, and that, rich countries should instead share more generously with the developing world.

Drugmakers on Thursday said US President Joe Biden's support for waiving patents of COVID-19 vaccines could disrupt a fragile supply chain, and that, rich countries should instead share more generously with the developing world. Biden on Wednesday threw his support behind waiving intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, angering research-based pharmaceutical companies. Also read | US backs India-led fight to waive Covid vaccines patents If adopted by the World Trade Organisation, the proposal would invite new manufacturers that lack essential know-how and oversight from the inventors to crowd out established contractors, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) said. "I have heard many (vaccine makers) talking about 'our resources are stretched, our technicians are stretched'," IFPMA Director General Thomas Cueni told Reuters. He warned of a possible free for all if "sort of rogue companies" were allowed to become involved. Vaccine developers echoed his comments that waiving intellectual property rights was not a solution. "Patents are not the limiting factor for the production or supply of our vaccine. They would not increase the global production and supply of vaccine doses in the short and middle term," said Germany's BioNTech, which aims to supply up to three billion doses together with Pfizer this year. BioNTech said it took more than a decade to develop its vaccines manufacturing process and replicating it required experienced personnel and a meticulous technology transfer, among several other factors beyond patents. Another German company CureVac, which hopes to release trial results on its messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine as early as this month, said patents were not to blame for supply bottlenecks. "Since mRNA technology has emerged as the key technology in the fight against COVID-19, the world now needs the same raw materials in unfathomable amounts. The biggest problem is how to coordinate this," a spokeswoman said. IFPMA's Cueni said the real bottlenecks were trade barriers, in particular the US Defense Production Act (DPA). The DPA is a decades-old US law that prioritised procurement orders related to US national defence, but it has been widely used in non-military crises, such as natural disasters. Cueni said the way to kickstart low-income countries' vaccination campaigns, was for rich countries to donate vaccine, rather than widen eligibility to young and healthy people at home. Moderna, which on Thursday reported quarterly results, said waiving intellectual property rights would not help to increase the supply of its vaccines in 2021 and 2022. The US drugmaker said last year it would not enforce its vaccine patents. CureVac said on Thursday it would also not enforce its patents during the pandemic and that it knew of no other developer that would. Italy's ReiThera which is in late-stage tests on an experimental COVID-19 vaccine was also critical of patent waivers. "There is proprietary know-how that has to be transferred by the owner. And then there is the problem with process materials, which at the moment have delivery times of almost a year," ReiThera's chief of technology Stefano Colloca said. In contrast to the industry reaction, the GAVI vaccine alliance, which co-leads the COVAX dose-sharing programme with the WHO and faces major supply constraints, welcomed Biden's support for waiving intellectual property rights.

Drugmakers say Biden misguided over vaccine patent waiver

Under former US President Donald Trump, Washington pressurised its allies to pack up oil imports from Iran just because it wanted to put “maximum pressure” on the Islamic republic. Around the same time, Washington also put pressure on fellow NATO members to up their military budgets. It also pressed US allies to fight Huawei.

US President Joe Biden promised to put an end to this maximalist approach towards diplomacy. But just 100 days into office, Biden seems to have changed his mind. Washington is pressing Taiwan to supply microchip so that the Biden administration can revive and drive the American economy.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-us-is-pressing-taiwan-for-microchips-383079">Watch |</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-us-is-pressing-taiwan-for-microchips-383079/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Microchips are tiny wafers of semiconducting materials and are needed in smartphones, computers and gaming consoles. Each car has over 1,000 microchips which help in controlling the car radio, the climate control system, tyre pressure etc. Currently, there is a global shortage of microchips and automakers are feeling the pinch.

From General Motors to Ford, auto-companies have been forced to shut plants and press break on production in the US. This has threatened Biden's promise of accelerating economic recovery. Autoworkers are facing cuts in their hours and wages. Additionally, this has threatened Biden's approval ratings as he stares at mid-term elections and Democrats struggle to hold their House majority.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/taipei-to-dispatch-military-aircraft-ships-to-counter-chinese-activities-in-taiwan-strait-382948" hreflang="en">Taipei to dispatch military aircraft, ships to counter Chinese activities in Taiwan Strait</a>

The situation is so dire that in April, the White House convened a summit to address chip shortage. Now, America is exporting its problem and directing the pressure towards an ally.

Taiwan has the world's largest semiconductor manufacturing industry and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is among the world's leading microchip producers and makes nearly 12 million microchips a year.

America wants these wafers to be shipped to US automobile companies. But the demand for Taiwanese microchips is not limited to the US alone. The TSMC, for example, has clients across Europe, Japan, South Korea, even China but Washington wants priority. The US is leveraging its position as Taiwan's main defence exporter. As the main foreign source of weapons, Taiwan need US to defend itself from China.

“Not a day goes by that we don't push on that”, said US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo told an executive from General Motors. “There are so many American jobs on the line”, she added. US is betting on Taiwan's vulnerability against an increasingly aggressive China.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/economic-warfare-against-tech-sector-taiwan-bans-recruitment-for-jobs-in-china-to-combat-brain-drain-381547" hreflang="en">Economic warfare against tech sector: Taiwan bans recruitment for jobs in China to combat brain drain</a>

Trump's legacy of pressing adversaries and allies alike still lingers in the White House. American diplomacy under Biden is increasingly being shaped by national politics.

Be it the refugee cap, or helping a natural ally like India in times of a global healthcare crisis, Biden believes in testing the waters at home first. And he is not shy of escalating pressure on an ally if it serves his national interest. Biden promised to be different from Rrump when he declared “America is back”. But 100 days in office and America is back to its old tactics.

Under former US President Donald Trump, Washington pressurised its allies to pack up oil imports from Iran just because it wanted to put “maximum pressure” on the Islamic republic.

Under former US President Donald Trump, Washington pressurised its allies to pack up oil imports from Iran just because it wanted to put “maximum pressure” on the Islamic republic. Around the same time, Washington also put pressure on fellow NATO members to up their military budgets. It also pressed US allies to fight Huawei. US President Joe Biden promised to put an end to this maximalist approach towards diplomacy. But just 100 days into office, Biden seems to have changed his mind. Washington is pressing Taiwan to supply microchip so that the Biden administration can revive and drive the American economy. Watch | Microchips are tiny wafers of semiconducting materials and are needed in smartphones, computers and gaming consoles. Each car has over 1,000 microchips which help in controlling the car radio, the climate control system, tyre pressure etc. Currently, there is a global shortage of microchips and automakers are feeling the pinch. From General Motors to Ford, auto-companies have been forced to shut plants and press break on production in the US. This has threatened Biden's promise of accelerating economic recovery. Autoworkers are facing cuts in their hours and wages. Additionally, this has threatened Biden's approval ratings as he stares at mid-term elections and Democrats struggle to hold their House majority. Also read: Taipei to dispatch military aircraft, ships to counter Chinese activities in Taiwan Strait The situation is so dire that in April, the White House convened a summit to address chip shortage. Now, America is exporting its problem and directing the pressure towards an ally. Taiwan has the world's largest semiconductor manufacturing industry and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) is among the world's leading microchip producers and makes nearly 12 million microchips a year. America wants these wafers to be shipped to US automobile companies. But the demand for Taiwanese microchips is not limited to the US alone. The TSMC, for example, has clients across Europe, Japan, South Korea, even China but Washington wants priority. The US is leveraging its position as Taiwan's main defence exporter. As the main foreign source of weapons, Taiwan need US to defend itself from China. “Not a day goes by that we don't push on that”, said US Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo told an executive from General Motors. “There are so many American jobs on the line”, she added. US is betting on Taiwan's vulnerability against an increasingly aggressive China. Also read: Economic warfare against tech sector: Taiwan bans recruitment for jobs in China to combat brain drain Trump's legacy of pressing adversaries and allies alike still lingers in the White House. American diplomacy under Biden is increasingly being shaped by national politics. Be it the refugee cap, or helping a natural ally like India in times of a global healthcare crisis, Biden believes in testing the waters at home first. And he is not shy of escalating pressure on an ally if it serves his national interest. Biden promised to be different from Rrump when he declared “America is back”. But 100 days in office and America is back to its old tactics.

What does US pressure on Taiwan for microchips say about Biden administration?

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