US President Joe Biden accomplished his greatest task at the G7 summit, showing the world that he is not Donald Trump. He brought in a different tone to the summit from his predecessor by indulging in a frank and collaborative discussion of global issues.&nbsp;

As quoted by ABC, Biden in his first remarks at the summit said, "At every point along the way, we're going to make it clear that the United States is back". He added, "Democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future, that we're committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people".&nbsp;

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed US President Joe Biden as "a big breath of fresh air". Johnson said, "It’s a big breath of fresh air. It’s new, it’s interesting and we’re working very hard together. We went on for about an hour and 20 or so. It was a long, long, good session. We covered a huge range of subjects".&nbsp;

The next stop of Biden’s itinerary is a stop in Brussels for a NATO summit. As per an ABC news report, Biden's national security adviser told reporters it is a given that he will "of course" reiterate his strong commitment to the allies' common defence. Jake Sullivan said, "He feels the need to restate support for Article 5 as often as he is able to do so because for him, it's an article of faith -- for President Joe Biden and for the United States of America. And so he will proclaim that loudly and proudly".

Biden will be in Brussels alongside dozens of heads of state for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit. It will take place on Monday, 14 June, at the NATO Headquarters in Evere.&nbsp; 
Approximately 2,000 police officers, 300 motorcyclists, and members of State Security and military intelligence are being called in to give every delegation an appropriate escort and security.

US President Joe Biden accomplished his greatest task at the G7 summit, showing the world that he is not Donald Trump. He brought in a different tone to the summit from his predecessor by indulging in a frank and collaborative discussion of global issues.

US President Joe Biden accomplished his greatest task at the G7 summit, showing the world that he is not Donald Trump. He brought in a different tone to the summit from his predecessor by indulging in a frank and collaborative discussion of global issues. As quoted by ABC, Biden in his first remarks at the summit said, "At every point along the way, we're going to make it clear that the United States is back". He added, "Democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future, that we're committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people". Also Read | UK's Johnson hails Biden as 'a big breath of fresh air' British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed US President Joe Biden as "a big breath of fresh air". Johnson said, "It’s a big breath of fresh air. It’s new, it’s interesting and we’re working very hard together. We went on for about an hour and 20 or so. It was a long, long, good session. We covered a huge range of subjects". The next stop of Biden’s itinerary is a stop in Brussels for a NATO summit. As per an ABC news report, Biden's national security adviser told reporters it is a given that he will "of course" reiterate his strong commitment to the allies' common defence. Jake Sullivan said, "He feels the need to restate support for Article 5 as often as he is able to do so because for him, it's an article of faith -- for President Joe Biden and for the United States of America. And so he will proclaim that loudly and proudly". Biden will be in Brussels alongside dozens of heads of state for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit. It will take place on Monday, 14 June, at the NATO Headquarters in Evere. Approximately 2,000 police officers, 300 motorcyclists, and members of State Security and military intelligence are being called in to give every delegation an appropriate escort and security.

Biden's greatest task accomplished, heads forward for the NATO summit

Britain's Queen Elizabeth met US President Joe Biden under the canopy of the world's largest indoor rainforest on Friday as she hosted a reception for leaders of the Group of Seven richest nations, who are holding a three-day summit. 
 
The 95-year-old monarch was joined by the other senior members of the British royal family, with son and heir Prince Charles and his wife Camilla and grandson Prince William and his wife Kate also present. 
 
It was their first major public event together since the funeral in April of Prince Philip, the queen's husband of more than seven decades. 
 
At the reception, held at the Eden Project, whose distinctive bubble-like Biomes house thousands of plant varieties, the queen met Biden as US&nbsp;President for the first time. He is 13th American leader she has met during her record-breaking 69-year reign. 
 
"Joe and I are both looking forward to meeting the queen," Biden's wife Jill, who joined him at the Eden Project event, had said on Thursday. "That's an exciting part of the visit for us." 
 
They are also due to have tea with the monarch at Windsor Castle on Sunday after the summit has concluded. 
 
Following a photocall with the queen, Prince Charles addressed the G7 leaders about his Sustainable Markets Initiative, which aims to involve business and private sector investment in government efforts to combat climate change. 
 
"The fight against this terrible pandemic provides, if ever one was needed, a crystal-clear example of the scale, and sheer speed, at which the global community can tackle crisis when we combine political will with business ingenuity and public mobilisation," the prince told them. 
 
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are doing it for the pandemic. So if you don't mind me saying so, we must also do it for the planet," said Charles, 72, who has spent much of his life campaigning on environmental issues. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

Britain's Queen Elizabeth met US President Joe Biden under the canopy of the world's largest indoor rainforest on Friday as she hosted a reception for leaders of the Group of Seven richest nations, who are holding a three-day summit.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth met US President Joe Biden under the canopy of the world's largest indoor rainforest on Friday as she hosted a reception for leaders of the Group of Seven richest nations, who are holding a three-day summit. The 95-year-old monarch was joined by the other senior members of the British royal family, with son and heir Prince Charles and his wife Camilla and grandson Prince William and his wife Kate also present. It was their first major public event together since the funeral in April of Prince Philip, the queen's husband of more than seven decades. At the reception, held at the Eden Project, whose distinctive bubble-like Biomes house thousands of plant varieties, the queen met Biden as US President for the first time. He is 13th American leader she has met during her record-breaking 69-year reign. "Joe and I are both looking forward to meeting the queen," Biden's wife Jill, who joined him at the Eden Project event, had said on Thursday. "That's an exciting part of the visit for us." They are also due to have tea with the monarch at Windsor Castle on Sunday after the summit has concluded. Following a photocall with the queen, Prince Charles addressed the G7 leaders about his Sustainable Markets Initiative, which aims to involve business and private sector investment in government efforts to combat climate change. "The fight against this terrible pandemic provides, if ever one was needed, a crystal-clear example of the scale, and sheer speed, at which the global community can tackle crisis when we combine political will with business ingenuity and public mobilisation," the prince told them. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are doing it for the pandemic. So if you don't mind me saying so, we must also do it for the planet," said Charles, 72, who has spent much of his life campaigning on environmental issues. (With inputs from agencies)

Britain's Queen Elizabeth hosts Biden at G7 reception

US&nbsp;President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold their June 16 summit in an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a soothing setting for what promises to be heated talks.

Bitter disputes over election interference, cyber-attacks, human rights, and Ukraine hang over their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office on Jan 20. 
 
Strategic nuclear stability and regional conflicts will be on the table. Biden, who is due to arrive in Britain on Wednesday at the start of his first trip abroad as president, has said he would press Putin to respect human rights. 
 
<img alt="The Villa La Grange" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2d410448-b91d-43fe-ba18-24f94c7a86b6" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/villa_0.jpg" /> 
 
The Villa La Grange with Lake Geneva in the background. (Reuters Photo)

Putin said last Friday he expected the talks to be held in a positive atmosphere, though he anticipated no breakthrough. 
 
He said allegations that Russian hackers were behind a cyber attack that disrupted meat production in North America and Australia were an attempt to provoke a political row ahead of the summit, Interfax news agency reported.

Despite "destructive noise" by both sides, a mutual objective has emerged to put their relationship "on a more predictable and stable basis", said Robert Legvold, professor emeritus at Colombia University and a Russia expert. 
 
"Over time Geneva summits have been critical to the relationship," he told reporters in the Swiss city on Wednesday. 
 
"And when it comes to actually work out important areas of cooperation, strategic nuclear arms control, the majority of those talks have been in Geneva too."

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Diplomatic sources expect confirmation of the venue later on Wednesday or Thursday. The Swiss police and army have closed the two parks surrounding the Villa La Grange and installed barricades and barbed wire. 
 
Neutral Switzerland, which did not join Western sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine, lobbied hard to land the first big power summit in the Alpine country in decades.

'RESET' 
 
In the Cold War era, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva in Nov. 1985 and agreed to pursue cuts in their nuclear arsenals. 
 
In Geneva in 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a yellow box bearing a red "reset" button to symbolize improved ties under President Barack Obama. But the word "reset" was mistranslated into the Russian word for "overcharge", creating an awkward moment.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lavrov will accompany Biden and Putin. 
 
The classic villa is located in a park along the left bank. Dotted with redwood trees, rose bushes and ancient fountains, the park offers a stunning view of Lake Geneva and sailboats.

Biden is also scheduled to hold talks with Swiss President Guy Parmelin. 
 
Switzerland has represented U.S. interests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, often facilitating the transfer of prisoners between the two foes. Tax issues are likely to be raised after Biden referred to Switzerland as a "fiscal paradise" in April.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold their June 16 summit in an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a soothing setting for what promises to be heated talks.

US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to hold their June 16 summit in an 18th-century Swiss villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a soothing setting for what promises to be heated talks. Bitter disputes over election interference, cyber-attacks, human rights, and Ukraine hang over their first face-to-face meeting since Biden took office on Jan 20. Strategic nuclear stability and regional conflicts will be on the table. Biden, who is due to arrive in Britain on Wednesday at the start of his first trip abroad as president, has said he would press Putin to respect human rights. The Villa La Grange with Lake Geneva in the background. (Reuters Photo) Putin said last Friday he expected the talks to be held in a positive atmosphere, though he anticipated no breakthrough. He said allegations that Russian hackers were behind a cyber attack that disrupted meat production in North America and Australia were an attempt to provoke a political row ahead of the summit, Interfax news agency reported. Despite "destructive noise" by both sides, a mutual objective has emerged to put their relationship "on a more predictable and stable basis", said Robert Legvold, professor emeritus at Colombia University and a Russia expert. "Over time Geneva summits have been critical to the relationship," he told reporters in the Swiss city on Wednesday. "And when it comes to actually work out important areas of cooperation, strategic nuclear arms control, the majority of those talks have been in Geneva too." Also Read | US Prez Joe Biden to meet 55 world leaders during his visit Diplomatic sources expect confirmation of the venue later on Wednesday or Thursday. The Swiss police and army have closed the two parks surrounding the Villa La Grange and installed barricades and barbed wire. Neutral Switzerland, which did not join Western sanctions against Russia for its 2014 annexation of the Crimea region from Ukraine, lobbied hard to land the first big power summit in the Alpine country in decades. 'RESET' In the Cold War era, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their first summit in Geneva in Nov. 1985 and agreed to pursue cuts in their nuclear arsenals. In Geneva in 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a yellow box bearing a red "reset" button to symbolize improved ties under President Barack Obama. But the word "reset" was mistranslated into the Russian word for "overcharge", creating an awkward moment. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lavrov will accompany Biden and Putin. The classic villa is located in a park along the left bank. Dotted with redwood trees, rose bushes and ancient fountains, the park offers a stunning view of Lake Geneva and sailboats. Biden is also scheduled to hold talks with Swiss President Guy Parmelin. Switzerland has represented U.S. interests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, often facilitating the transfer of prisoners between the two foes. Tax issues are likely to be raised after Biden referred to Switzerland as a "fiscal paradise" in April.

Biden set to meet Putin in 18th-century Swiss villa for first summit

The audiotape of a July 2019 phone call shows former US&nbsp;President Donald Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless allegations about Trump's 2020 election rival Joe Biden, CNN reported on Monday. 
 
CNN said it had obtained the audio of the call between Giuliani, US&nbsp;diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy which it said was the precursor of a Trump-Zelenskiy call which was at the center of Trump's 2019 impeachment. 
 
In the call, Giuliani said he wanted Zelenskiy to say he was putting a prosecutor in charge and "he's gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out," according to CNN. 
 
Trump, a Republican, denounced as a political witch hunt allegations that he pressed Zelenskiy during a phone call to dig up dirt on Biden. The Democratic-led US&nbsp;House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, but he was acquitted by the then-Republican-dominated Senate early in 2020. 
 
Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, a Democrat, and left office in January 2021. 
 
In April, federal prosecutors investigating Giuliani's business dealings in Ukraine at the time he was serving as Trump's lawyer raided his home and office, seizing cell phones and computers. 
 
Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, has not been charged. He said after the raids that his conduct had been 'absolutely legal and ethical'. 
 
Giuliani began representing Trump in April 2018 in connection with then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US&nbsp;presidential election. 
 
(With inputs from agencies)

The audiotape of a July 2019 phone call shows former US President Donald Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless allegations about Trump's 2020 election rival Joe Biden, CNN reported on Monday.

The audiotape of a July 2019 phone call shows former US President Donald Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani pressuring Ukrainian officials to investigate baseless allegations about Trump's 2020 election rival Joe Biden, CNN reported on Monday. CNN said it had obtained the audio of the call between Giuliani, US diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy which it said was the precursor of a Trump-Zelenskiy call which was at the center of Trump's 2019 impeachment. In the call, Giuliani said he wanted Zelenskiy to say he was putting a prosecutor in charge and "he's gonna investigate and dig up the evidence, that presently exists and is there any other evidence about involvement of the 2016 election, and then the Biden thing has to be run out," according to CNN. Trump, a Republican, denounced as a political witch hunt allegations that he pressed Zelenskiy during a phone call to dig up dirt on Biden. The Democratic-led US House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, but he was acquitted by the then-Republican-dominated Senate early in 2020. Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden, a Democrat, and left office in January 2021. In April, federal prosecutors investigating Giuliani's business dealings in Ukraine at the time he was serving as Trump's lawyer raided his home and office, seizing cell phones and computers. Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, has not been charged. He said after the raids that his conduct had been 'absolutely legal and ethical'. Giuliani began representing Trump in April 2018 in connection with then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. (With inputs from agencies)

Giuliani pressed Ukrainians to probe Biden allegations in 2019 call: CNN

The summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next week in Geneva is about communicating America's views to the Russians and not about deliverables, the White House has said.

Biden and Putin are scheduled to meet in Geneva on June 16, after the US president attends the G-7 Summit in the United Kingdom, a NATO meeting and the US-European Union Summit in Brussels.

"We don't think in terms of US-Russia Summits as being about deliverables because if you are going to wait for really significant deliverables you could be waiting a long time conceivably," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Monday.

"So what we need to think about the summit is doing and is fundamentally, is giving us an opportunity to communicate from our president to their president what American intentions and capabilities are and to hear the same from their side. That has value in and of itself," he said.

Responding to a question, Sullivan said in terms of the timing, it is hard from US perspective to find a better context for a meeting with the Russian president than after time spent with the world's leading market economies, the G7, plus India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa.

"After his meeting with the presidents of the European Union. And then, and only then going into this session to be able to talk through the complex set of issues in the US-Russia relationship. That from our perspective is the right context within which to engage Russia," he said.

On the US-Russia Summit, he said as far as whether it comes too early in his presidency, "if you think about what we've dealt with from the outset on Russia it has been a busy time". "We've extended the New START Agreement. We've imposed costs for election interference and for SolarWinds. We've dealt with a Russian build up on the Ukraine border and of course, we are contending with a range of issues on the cyber and ransomware domain. So we feel that it is an effective and appropriate context and time period for us to have this summit," Sullivan said.

He said the relationship between the US and Russia is not about relationship and trust. "It's about a relationship of verification, it's about a relationship of clarifying what our expectations are and laying out that if certain types of harmful activities continue to occur there will be responses from the United States," Sullivan said.

(With inputs from agencies)

The summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next week in Geneva is about communicating America's views to the Russians and not about deliverables, the White House has said.

The summit meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next week in Geneva is about communicating America's views to the Russians and not about deliverables, the White House has said. Biden and Putin are scheduled to meet in Geneva on June 16, after the US president attends the G-7 Summit in the United Kingdom, a NATO meeting and the US-European Union Summit in Brussels. "We don't think in terms of US-Russia Summits as being about deliverables because if you are going to wait for really significant deliverables you could be waiting a long time conceivably," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Monday. "So what we need to think about the summit is doing and is fundamentally, is giving us an opportunity to communicate from our president to their president what American intentions and capabilities are and to hear the same from their side. That has value in and of itself," he said. Responding to a question, Sullivan said in terms of the timing, it is hard from US perspective to find a better context for a meeting with the Russian president than after time spent with the world's leading market economies, the G7, plus India, South Korea, Australia and South Africa. "After his meeting with the presidents of the European Union. And then, and only then going into this session to be able to talk through the complex set of issues in the US-Russia relationship. That from our perspective is the right context within which to engage Russia," he said. On the US-Russia Summit, he said as far as whether it comes too early in his presidency, "if you think about what we've dealt with from the outset on Russia it has been a busy time". "We've extended the New START Agreement. We've imposed costs for election interference and for SolarWinds. We've dealt with a Russian build up on the Ukraine border and of course, we are contending with a range of issues on the cyber and ransomware domain. So we feel that it is an effective and appropriate context and time period for us to have this summit," Sullivan said. He said the relationship between the US and Russia is not about relationship and trust. "It's about a relationship of verification, it's about a relationship of clarifying what our expectations are and laying out that if certain types of harmful activities continue to occur there will be responses from the United States," Sullivan said. (With inputs from agencies)

Summit meeting with Russia is to communicate and not about deliverables: White House

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.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/its-crunch-time-and-bidens-climate-gambit-faces-steep-hurdles-386960">It’s crunch time, and Biden’s climate gambit faces steep hurdles</a>

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.

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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.

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"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.

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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

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