'Climate Guardian' Sentinel-6 satellite, jointly developed by Europe and the United States has been launched. The satellite will greatly help scientists keep track of the rise in global sea levels, one of the most daunting effects of climate change.

'Climate Guardian' Sentinel-6 satellite blasts off on ocean mission

Head of US government's coronavirus vaccine effort said on Sunday that the country hopes to begin a sweeping vaccination in early December. If such an effort takes place, it will mark first mass vaccination against coronavirus and will also be a decisive step against the global Covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than a million people worldwide. The number of active cases worldwide is more than 15 million at present.

"Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours of approval" by the US Food and Drug Administration, Moncef Slaoui told CNN.&nbsp;

"So I expect maybe on Day Two of the approval, on the 11th or the 12th of December."

Citing reports, AFP said that FDA vaccine advisors will meet between December 8 and 10 to discuss approval of vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna have said that their vaccines against COVID-19 are at least 95 per cent effective.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nasal-spray-that-aims-to-fight-covid-19-other-respiratory-illness-gets-million-dollar-funding-344698">Nasal spray that aims to fight Covid-19, other respiratory illness gets million-dollar funding</a>

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech confirmed on Friday (December 20) that they had applied to US health regulators for emergency use authorisation (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first to do so in the US as the pandemic rages around the world. The companies have said that they are prepared to ship vaccines as soon as they get a go-ahead from the government.

USA is the worst affected country in the world. It has had more than 12,000,000 coronavirus cases so far. The death tally is fast approaching 300 thousand. Nearly 5 million people are still affected due to coronavirus.

(With agency&nbsp;inputs)

Head of US government's coronavirus vaccine effort said on Sunday that the country hopes to begin a sweeping vaccination in early December. If such an effort takes place, it will mark first mass vaccination against coronavirus and will also be a decisive step against the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Head of US government's coronavirus vaccine effort said on Sunday that the country hopes to begin a sweeping vaccination in early December. If such an effort takes place, it will mark first mass vaccination against coronavirus and will also be a decisive step against the global Covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than a million people worldwide. The number of active cases worldwide is more than 15 million at present. "Our plan is to be able to ship vaccines to the immunization sites within 24 hours of approval" by the US Food and Drug Administration, Moncef Slaoui told CNN. "So I expect maybe on Day Two of the approval, on the 11th or the 12th of December." Citing reports, AFP said that FDA vaccine advisors will meet between December 8 and 10 to discuss approval of vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna have said that their vaccines against COVID-19 are at least 95 per cent effective. Also Read | Nasal spray that aims to fight Covid-19, other respiratory illness gets million-dollar funding Pfizer and its partner BioNTech confirmed on Friday (December 20) that they had applied to US health regulators for emergency use authorisation (EUA) of its COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first to do so in the US as the pandemic rages around the world. The companies have said that they are prepared to ship vaccines as soon as they get a go-ahead from the government. USA is the worst affected country in the world. It has had more than 12,000,000 coronavirus cases so far. The death tally is fast approaching 300 thousand. Nearly 5 million people are still affected due to coronavirus. (With agency inputs)

Covid-19 vaccination may start in early December in US: Top official

The top US diplomat met separately with the Afghan government and Taliban negotiation teams in a luxury hotel in the Qatari capital

US Secretary of State Pompeo meets Taliban, Kabul negotiators in Qatar

The U.S. decision to allow Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, to complete his parole on Friday freed him to move to Israel and ended one of the most rancorous and long-running disputes between the two allies.

It also capped what has been an extraordinary four-year stretch in the countries’ relationship, during which President Donald Trump’s treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been nothing short of lavish.

Here are some of the most noteworthy gifts Netanyahu has received&nbsp;Israeli army strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after alleged rocket attack

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-secy-of-state-pompeo-meets-taliban-afghan-negotiators-in-qatar-344628" hreflang="en">US Secy of State Pompeo meets Taliban, Afghan negotiators in Qatar</a>

Jerusalem

After buoying Palestinian hopes with early talk of striking “the ultimate deal” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump dashed them when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. That fulfilled a campaign promise of great importance to evangelical Christians, and to many Jews.

Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, but Palestinians consider East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war, the capital of their own future state.

U.S. policy before Trump had been that the status of Jerusalem should be resolved in peace talks. Congress had repeatedly urged the embassy move, but prior administrations kept it as a bargaining chip to induce Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.

Also read|<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/israeli-army-strikes-hamas-targets-in-gaza-after-alleged-rocket-attack-344608">&nbsp;Israeli army strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after alleged rocket attack</a>

There was more to come in Jerusalem, much of it provocative, as when the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, swung a sledgehammer to open an archaeological tunnel under a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem that was dug by a group leading efforts to bolster Israeli claims of sovereignty there.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added a stroke of his own last month, changing passport rules to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to list “Israel,” rather than “Jerusalem,” as their place of birth. The long-standing policy had avoided identifying the city as part of Israel.

Pressuring the Palestinians

The Palestinian response to the embassy move was to boycott the White House. The White House answered with a series of punitive measures.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/dead-end-israel-says-lebanon-is-changing-stance-on-maritime-border-344376">'Dead end': Israel says Lebanon is changing stance on maritime border</a>

Seeking to compel the Palestinians to drop their demand for millions of their refugees to be able to return to what is now Israel — a demand Israel has always rejected — the Trump administration cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East.

It steadily cut off all other aid: $200 million in support for the Palestinian Authority through the U.S. Agency for International Development, about $60 million in aid for Palestinian security forces, $25 million for hospitals in East Jerusalem and $10 million for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence efforts.

Next, the State Department ordered the closing of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s diplomatic mission in Washington. A month later, it abolished the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which oversaw relations with the Palestinians, and folded those operations into the new embassy.

Aiding Israel’s West Bank Ambitions

Led by Friedman, a longtime supporter of the settlements, the administration has repeatedly cheered those who envision the entire West Bank permanently in Israel’s hands.

The ambassador publicly endorsed the idea of Israeli annexation of West Bank territory, which Netanyahu made the centerpiece of his reelection campaigns, and the Trump peace plan contemplated Israeli annexation of as much as 30% of the West Bank.

Annexation was eventually suspended in exchange for normalization of ties with the United Arab Emirates — with the Trump administration offering to sell the Emiratis coveted F-35 fighters as a deal sweetener. Similarly, the administration wooed Sudan by removing it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.

But many other administration steps helped normalize Israel’s designs on land that the Palestinians want for a future state.

In late October, Friedman and Netanyahu signed agreements allowing U.S. government grants to go to Israeli research institutions in occupied territory. The only such institution is Ariel University, funded by Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who is a backer of both Trump and Netanyahu.

On Thursday, Pompeo visited a Jewish settlement near Ramallah, becoming the first secretary of state to do so. He also issued new guidelines for imports from the West Bank, requiring that products made in areas under Israel’s full control be labeled products of Israel. The move could require dates or olives grown by Palestinian farmers to be labeled “Made in Israel” to reach American consumers.

Isolating Iran

After clashing with President Barack Obama over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu found Trump an approving audience for his denunciations of the agreement as too lenient: Trump pulled out of the deal in March 2018.

Pompeo articulated a strategy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran through severe economic sanctions, and laid down a 12-point set of demands of its leaders that could have been drafted by Netanyahu.

Seeking to repulse Iran’s expansionist moves in the Middle East, Israel mounted a campaign of airstrikes against Iranian forces and their proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq while, with the Trump administration’s encouragement, making common cause with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states against Iran.

Trump’s ordering of the killing in January of Gen. Qasem Soleimani eliminated one of Israel’s most feared adversaries. And an explosion in July that destroyed Iran’s center for advanced nuclear centrifuges, in Natanz, was described by some officials as a sign that a joint American-Israeli strategy was evolving into a campaign of short-of-war secret strikes against Iran.

International Backup

The Trump administration has repeatedly stood by Israel in its diplomatic fights, as when the United States withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council in protest of its frequent criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

The two countries also have assailed the International Criminal Court, of which neither is a member, for looking into potential crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and by Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians. In September, Pompeo called the ICC a “thoroughly broken and corrupted institution” and announced sanctions on two of its officials.

And the Trump administration has increasingly equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, both domestically and internationally. Building on that, Pompeo this week announced that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel would be deemed anti-Semitic, and that its adherents would no longer be eligible for federal government support.

The U.S. decision to allow Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, to complete his parole on Friday freed him to move to Israel and ended one of the most rancorous and long-running disputes between the two allies.

The U.S. decision to allow Jonathan J. Pollard, the American convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s, to complete his parole on Friday freed him to move to Israel and ended one of the most rancorous and long-running disputes between the two allies. It also capped what has been an extraordinary four-year stretch in the countries’ relationship, during which President Donald Trump’s treatment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been nothing short of lavish. Here are some of the most noteworthy gifts Netanyahu has received Israeli army strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after alleged rocket attack Also read| US Secy of State Pompeo meets Taliban, Afghan negotiators in Qatar Jerusalem After buoying Palestinian hopes with early talk of striking “the ultimate deal” to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump dashed them when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. That fulfilled a campaign promise of great importance to evangelical Christians, and to many Jews. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, but Palestinians consider East Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war, the capital of their own future state. U.S. policy before Trump had been that the status of Jerusalem should be resolved in peace talks. Congress had repeatedly urged the embassy move, but prior administrations kept it as a bargaining chip to induce Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians. Also read| Israeli army strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after alleged rocket attack There was more to come in Jerusalem, much of it provocative, as when the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, swung a sledgehammer to open an archaeological tunnel under a Palestinian neighbourhood of East Jerusalem that was dug by a group leading efforts to bolster Israeli claims of sovereignty there. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added a stroke of his own last month, changing passport rules to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to list “Israel,” rather than “Jerusalem,” as their place of birth. The long-standing policy had avoided identifying the city as part of Israel. Pressuring the Palestinians The Palestinian response to the embassy move was to boycott the White House. The White House answered with a series of punitive measures. Also read| 'Dead end': Israel says Lebanon is changing stance on maritime border Seeking to compel the Palestinians to drop their demand for millions of their refugees to be able to return to what is now Israel — a demand Israel has always rejected — the Trump administration cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides aid to Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. It steadily cut off all other aid: $200 million in support for the Palestinian Authority through the U.S. Agency for International Development, about $60 million in aid for Palestinian security forces, $25 million for hospitals in East Jerusalem and $10 million for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence efforts. Next, the State Department ordered the closing of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s diplomatic mission in Washington. A month later, it abolished the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which oversaw relations with the Palestinians, and folded those operations into the new embassy. Aiding Israel’s West Bank Ambitions Led by Friedman, a longtime supporter of the settlements, the administration has repeatedly cheered those who envision the entire West Bank permanently in Israel’s hands. The ambassador publicly endorsed the idea of Israeli annexation of West Bank territory, which Netanyahu made the centerpiece of his reelection campaigns, and the Trump peace plan contemplated Israeli annexation of as much as 30% of the West Bank. Annexation was eventually suspended in exchange for normalization of ties with the United Arab Emirates — with the Trump administration offering to sell the Emiratis coveted F-35 fighters as a deal sweetener. Similarly, the administration wooed Sudan by removing it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism. But many other administration steps helped normalize Israel’s designs on land that the Palestinians want for a future state. In late October, Friedman and Netanyahu signed agreements allowing U.S. government grants to go to Israeli research institutions in occupied territory. The only such institution is Ariel University, funded by Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who is a backer of both Trump and Netanyahu. On Thursday, Pompeo visited a Jewish settlement near Ramallah, becoming the first secretary of state to do so. He also issued new guidelines for imports from the West Bank, requiring that products made in areas under Israel’s full control be labeled products of Israel. The move could require dates or olives grown by Palestinian farmers to be labeled “Made in Israel” to reach American consumers. Isolating Iran After clashing with President Barack Obama over the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Netanyahu found Trump an approving audience for his denunciations of the agreement as too lenient: Trump pulled out of the deal in March 2018. Pompeo articulated a strategy of “maximum pressure” against Tehran through severe economic sanctions, and laid down a 12-point set of demands of its leaders that could have been drafted by Netanyahu. Seeking to repulse Iran’s expansionist moves in the Middle East, Israel mounted a campaign of airstrikes against Iranian forces and their proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq while, with the Trump administration’s encouragement, making common cause with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states against Iran. Trump’s ordering of the killing in January of Gen. Qasem Soleimani eliminated one of Israel’s most feared adversaries. And an explosion in July that destroyed Iran’s center for advanced nuclear centrifuges, in Natanz, was described by some officials as a sign that a joint American-Israeli strategy was evolving into a campaign of short-of-war secret strikes against Iran. International Backup The Trump administration has repeatedly stood by Israel in its diplomatic fights, as when the United States withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council in protest of its frequent criticism of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. The two countries also have assailed the International Criminal Court, of which neither is a member, for looking into potential crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan and by Israel in its treatment of the Palestinians. In September, Pompeo called the ICC a “thoroughly broken and corrupted institution” and announced sanctions on two of its officials. And the Trump administration has increasingly equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, both domestically and internationally. Building on that, Pompeo this week announced that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel would be deemed anti-Semitic, and that its adherents would no longer be eligible for federal government support.

For Netanyahu and Israel, Trump’s gifts kept on coming

The Indian Ocean is crucial to China's trade and energy. But it is India that enjoys a strategic advantage in these waters. What happens if India decides to stage a blockade? WION's Molly Gambhir tells you the answer.

Gravitas: Why China fears India

Despite widespread irregularities or lack of evidence of fraud, President Donald Trump's legal team used Thursday's press conference to go through the laundry list of far-fetched, well-dismissed claims on the 2020 election.

Delay in Trump-to Biden transition, Trump pushes legal challenges | WION-VoA Co-Production

Who did the minority groups vote for? | US Election 2020 | WION-VoA Co-Production

Navies of India, Australia, Japan and the US are participating in the Malabar exercise. China's state mouthpiece - Global times say the drills are an obvious step towards a 'mini-NATO'. WION's Molly Gambhir tells you how the QUAD alliance is evolving with the Malabar exercise.

Gravitas: What China thinks about the Malabar Exercise

Highlighting the "strong bipartisan support" in the US "to strengthen its strategic partnership with India", India's foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday that India was looking to work with the new US Administration to "further strengthening and consolidating this multifaceted relationship for our mutual benefit and economic prosperity."

His comments come days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President-elect Joe Biden spoke with each other. The focus of their discussion was on Indo-Pacific, Covid pandemic, Climate Change among other things.

"As two mature, pluralistic and vibrant democracies with shared values, India and the US are natural partners of choice in forging a stable, peaceful and prosperous 21st century," Shringla pointed out,

"The India-US partnership is anchored in mutual trust and friendship, a shared commitment to democracy, converging strategic interests and the robust engagement of our citizens. I have personally witnessed the growing convergence in the strategic perspectives of India and the US over recent years," he said.

Foreign Secretary also spoke on commercial ties saying New Delhi believed that the US was a "natural partner for India" for its quest for building a resilient economy. &nbsp;&nbsp;

In October, 2+2 Dialogue took place between India and the US. Both sides have also been engaging in the Quad format and Malabar exercises. Foreign Ministers of the Quad countries (India, Australia, Japan and the US) had an in-person meeting in Tokyo earlier this year. New Delhi has also invited Australia for Malabar naval exercises that are underway now in the Indian Ocean.

Highlighting the "strong bipartisan support" in the US "to strengthen its strategic partnership with India", India's foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday that India was looking to work with the new US Administration to "further strengthening and consolidating this multifaceted relationship for our mutual benefit and economic prosperity.

Highlighting the "strong bipartisan support" in the US "to strengthen its strategic partnership with India", India's foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday that India was looking to work with the new US Administration to "further strengthening and consolidating this multifaceted relationship for our mutual benefit and economic prosperity." His comments come days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President-elect Joe Biden spoke with each other. The focus of their discussion was on Indo-Pacific, Covid pandemic, Climate Change among other things. "As two mature, pluralistic and vibrant democracies with shared values, India and the US are natural partners of choice in forging a stable, peaceful and prosperous 21st century," Shringla pointed out, "The India-US partnership is anchored in mutual trust and friendship, a shared commitment to democracy, converging strategic interests and the robust engagement of our citizens. I have personally witnessed the growing convergence in the strategic perspectives of India and the US over recent years," he said. Foreign Secretary also spoke on commercial ties saying New Delhi believed that the US was a "natural partner for India" for its quest for building a resilient economy. In October, 2+2 Dialogue took place between India and the US. Both sides have also been engaging in the Quad format and Malabar exercises. Foreign Ministers of the Quad countries (India, Australia, Japan and the US) had an in-person meeting in Tokyo earlier this year. New Delhi has also invited Australia for Malabar naval exercises that are underway now in the Indian Ocean.

Looking forward to work with new US administration: Foreign Secretary Shringla

Israel launched air strikes on Syria Wednesday, killing three troops and hitting Iranian targets in what the Israeli army called a retaliatory attack after it found explosive devices along its northern border.

An Israeli military statement said its fighter jets hit "military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds force and the Syrian Armed Forces," in overnight strikes.&nbsp;

The targets included "storage facilities, headquarters and military compounds" as well as "Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries", according to an army statement.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the strikes killed three of its soldiers and injured another.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/lead-scientist-behind-pfizers-covid-19-vaccine-ugur-sahin-says-life-will-not-return-to-normal-till-next-winter-343465">Lead scientist behind Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, Ugur Sahin, says life will not return to normal till next winter</a>

Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes on Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as government troops.

The Jewish state rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but has done so when responding to what it describes as aggression inside Israeli territory.

On Tuesday, Israel's military said it had discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on its side of a border crossing point with Syria.

Israel and Syria, neighbours still technically at war, have a border along the Golan Heights, which the Jewish State has occupied since the 1967 Six Day War.

According to the Israeli military statement, the IEDs "were placed by a Syrian squad led by Iranian forces."

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/volunteers-face-severe-hangover-headache-and-pain-after-getting-pfizer-vaccine-shot-342518">Volunteers face 'severe hangover', headache and pain after getting Pfizer vaccine shot</a>

Iran has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime throughout the civil war that has killed more than 380,000 and erupted after the brutal repression of anti-government protests.

Israel's army said it "holds the Syrian regime responsible for all the actions perpetrated from its territory and will continue to operate as necessary against the Iranian entrenchment in Syria."

US visit

The air strikes came hours before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to land in Israel for talks including on Iran, in what is likely to be his last visit to the staunch American ally before President Donald Trump leaves office.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called Trump his country's strongest-ever ally in the White House, has heaped praised on the administration for its hardline approach towards Iran.

Trump's so-called "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic Republic has included sanctions and scrapping of the nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and world powers during Barack Obama's presidency.

Israeli experts have said Netanyahu is concerned that President-elect Joe Biden, Obama's former vice president, will seek to re-engage Iran diplomatically, possibly by restoring the nuclear deal. &nbsp;

Israel launched air strikes on Syria Wednesday, killing three troops and hitting Iranian targets in what the Israeli army called a retaliatory attack after it found explosive devices along its northern border.

Israel launched air strikes on Syria Wednesday, killing three troops and hitting Iranian targets in what the Israeli army called a retaliatory attack after it found explosive devices along its northern border. An Israeli military statement said its fighter jets hit "military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds force and the Syrian Armed Forces," in overnight strikes. The targets included "storage facilities, headquarters and military compounds" as well as "Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries", according to an army statement. Syrian state news agency SANA said the strikes killed three of its soldiers and injured another. Also read| Lead scientist behind Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, Ugur Sahin, says life will not return to normal till next winter Israel has carried out hundreds of air and missile strikes on Syria since the civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah forces as well as government troops. The Jewish state rarely acknowledges individual strikes, but has done so when responding to what it describes as aggression inside Israeli territory. On Tuesday, Israel's military said it had discovered improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on its side of a border crossing point with Syria. Israel and Syria, neighbours still technically at war, have a border along the Golan Heights, which the Jewish State has occupied since the 1967 Six Day War. According to the Israeli military statement, the IEDs "were placed by a Syrian squad led by Iranian forces." Also read: Volunteers face 'severe hangover', headache and pain after getting Pfizer vaccine shot Iran has been a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime throughout the civil war that has killed more than 380,000 and erupted after the brutal repression of anti-government protests. Israel's army said it "holds the Syrian regime responsible for all the actions perpetrated from its territory and will continue to operate as necessary against the Iranian entrenchment in Syria." US visit The air strikes came hours before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is to land in Israel for talks including on Iran, in what is likely to be his last visit to the staunch American ally before President Donald Trump leaves office. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called Trump his country's strongest-ever ally in the White House, has heaped praised on the administration for its hardline approach towards Iran. Trump's so-called "maximum pressure" campaign against the Islamic Republic has included sanctions and scrapping of the nuclear deal agreed between Tehran and world powers during Barack Obama's presidency. Israeli experts have said Netanyahu is concerned that President-elect Joe Biden, Obama's former vice president, will seek to re-engage Iran diplomatically, possibly by restoring the nuclear deal.

Israel air strikes in Syria kill three troops, hit Iranian targets

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller announced Tuesday that the US will withdraw thousands more US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq

U.S. troops to be withdrawn form Iraq and Afghanistan

Due to the economic fall out in pandemic many people in the US don't know where there next meal will come from. As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Food Bank For New York City gave out turkeys & canned goods to hundreds of families. Many had never imagined needing handouts to survive.

Food bank for New York gives free Turkey for Thanksgiving

The coronavirus is a bigger risk to the U.S. economy than a prolonged dispute over the presidential election result, according to a Reuters poll that showed the near-term economic recovery was slowing more than previously thought.

US: Coronavirus bigger risk to US economy than election dispute

Hate crimes in the United States rose to their highest level in more than a decade last year, while more murders motivated by hate were recorded than ever before, the FBI said Monday.

The sharp rise in homicides driven by hatred — there were 51 last year, according to the FBI — was attributed in large part to the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019. In that shooting, the authorities say a 21-year old gunman motivated by hatred toward Latinos stormed a Walmart and killed 23 people and injured many more.

The death toll in the El Paso attack more than doubled that of 2018’s deadliest hate-motivated crime, the mass shooting targeting Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Overall, the FBI collected data on 7,314 criminal incidents motivated by bias toward race or ethnicity or gender identity in 2019. It was the third straight year the metric surpassed 7,100 incidents, and it was the highest number since the FBI reported 7,783 incidents in 2008.

Experts say the FBI data likely undercounts the number of hate crimes in the U.S., both because many victims fail to report incidents and local agencies are not required to report hate crime data to the FBI.

For example, last year only 2,172 agencies reported hate crime data to the FBI, out of a total of more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies around the country, according to the FBI’s report. (Notable omissions from the data in recent years have included the death of a protester in 2017 during a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.)

“It’s important to note that, because of the nature of hate crime reporting, the FBI’s annual report vastly understates the real level of hate crimes in the country,” the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said Monday.

The SPLC noted that the rise in hate crimes in recent years has come as the number of white supremacy groups has surged. According to data collected by the center, the number of white nationalist groups grew 55% between 2017 and 2019.

The upswing in hate crimes last year underscored the upward trend in bias-motivated crimes during the Trump era, and the harsh rhetoric against Latino immigrants was seen as motivating the gunman in the El Paso shooting.

“Politics plays a role,” said Brian Levin, a professor at California State University, San Bernardino and the director of the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

“The president’s rhetoric has been identified in a series of actual attacks,” Levin added, “but moreover the day-by-day ticks of FBI hate crimes shows there are increases after sustained and fervent remarks by the president that enter into an online feedback loop that also ends up in other discourses, both at the water cooler and on television.”

The overall increase was fueled by a rise in attacks, in particular, against Hispanics and Jews. The FBI reported 953 anti-Semitic hate crimes last year, a 14% increase from the previous year and the most since 2008, according to a report by CSUSB that analyzed the latest FBI report and was published Monday.

Hate crimes directed at Latinos rose almost 9%, to 527 incidents last year from 485 incidents in 2018. At the same time, hate crimes against Black people fell to the lowest portion of all hate crimes since such data started to be collected by the FBI, although Black people were still far overrepresented in the statistics, according to Levin’s report. Last year, hate crimes targeting Black people fell slightly, by less than 1%.

“Blacks are still the No. 1 target, at twice the level they represent in the American population,” the report said.

In examining preliminary data from 2020, Levin found overall declines in hate crimes, which he explained as a result of social distancing measures and business closures from the coronavirus pandemic, except in three cities: Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio. And he has also found increases in bias crimes this year against two groups in particular, transgender people and Asian Americans; the latter, he said, was most likely affected by anti-Asian animus provoked by false claims about the pandemic.

Hate crimes in the United States rose to their highest level in more than a decade last year, while more murders motivated by hate were recorded than ever before, the FBI said Monday.

Hate crimes in the United States rose to their highest level in more than a decade last year, while more murders motivated by hate were recorded than ever before, the FBI said Monday. The sharp rise in homicides driven by hatred — there were 51 last year, according to the FBI — was attributed in large part to the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in August 2019. In that shooting, the authorities say a 21-year old gunman motivated by hatred toward Latinos stormed a Walmart and killed 23 people and injured many more. The death toll in the El Paso attack more than doubled that of 2018’s deadliest hate-motivated crime, the mass shooting targeting Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Overall, the FBI collected data on 7,314 criminal incidents motivated by bias toward race or ethnicity or gender identity in 2019. It was the third straight year the metric surpassed 7,100 incidents, and it was the highest number since the FBI reported 7,783 incidents in 2008. Experts say the FBI data likely undercounts the number of hate crimes in the U.S., both because many victims fail to report incidents and local agencies are not required to report hate crime data to the FBI. For example, last year only 2,172 agencies reported hate crime data to the FBI, out of a total of more than 15,000 law enforcement agencies around the country, according to the FBI’s report. (Notable omissions from the data in recent years have included the death of a protester in 2017 during a rally of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.) “It’s important to note that, because of the nature of hate crime reporting, the FBI’s annual report vastly understates the real level of hate crimes in the country,” the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, said Monday. The SPLC noted that the rise in hate crimes in recent years has come as the number of white supremacy groups has surged. According to data collected by the center, the number of white nationalist groups grew 55% between 2017 and 2019. The upswing in hate crimes last year underscored the upward trend in bias-motivated crimes during the Trump era, and the harsh rhetoric against Latino immigrants was seen as motivating the gunman in the El Paso shooting. “Politics plays a role,” said Brian Levin, a professor at California State University, San Bernardino and the director of the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. “The president’s rhetoric has been identified in a series of actual attacks,” Levin added, “but moreover the day-by-day ticks of FBI hate crimes shows there are increases after sustained and fervent remarks by the president that enter into an online feedback loop that also ends up in other discourses, both at the water cooler and on television.” The overall increase was fueled by a rise in attacks, in particular, against Hispanics and Jews. The FBI reported 953 anti-Semitic hate crimes last year, a 14% increase from the previous year and the most since 2008, according to a report by CSUSB that analyzed the latest FBI report and was published Monday. Hate crimes directed at Latinos rose almost 9%, to 527 incidents last year from 485 incidents in 2018. At the same time, hate crimes against Black people fell to the lowest portion of all hate crimes since such data started to be collected by the FBI, although Black people were still far overrepresented in the statistics, according to Levin’s report. Last year, hate crimes targeting Black people fell slightly, by less than 1%. “Blacks are still the No. 1 target, at twice the level they represent in the American population,” the report said. In examining preliminary data from 2020, Levin found overall declines in hate crimes, which he explained as a result of social distancing measures and business closures from the coronavirus pandemic, except in three cities: Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio. And he has also found increases in bias crimes this year against two groups in particular, transgender people and Asian Americans; the latter, he said, was most likely affected by anti-Asian animus provoked by false claims about the pandemic.

Hate crimes in US rose to highest level in more than a decade in 2019

People who purchase a firearm during the pandemic are more likely to be suicidal than other firearm owners, according to a study by Rutgers University researchers.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that about 70 per cent of those who bought a firearm during the COVID-19 pandemic reported having suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, compared to 37 per cent of the rest of the community of gun owners.

"People who were motivated to purchase firearms during COVID-19 might have been driven by anxiety that leaves them vulnerable to suicidal ideation," said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health."While this does not guarantee an increase in suicide rates, it represents an unusually large surge in risk made more troubling by the fact that firearms purchased during COVID-19 may remain in homes beyond the pandemic."

According to Anestis, more than 2.5 million Americans became first-time gun owners during the first four months of 2020, with an estimated two million firearms purchased alone in March 2020 when the initial surge of the coronavirus pandemic began.

"Firearm owners are usually no more likely than non-firearm owners to experience suicidal thoughts. It is possible that a higher-risk group is driving the current firearm purchasing surge, introducing long-term suicide risk into the homes of individuals who otherwise may not have acquired firearms during a time of extended social isolation, economic uncertainty and general upheaval," Anestis said.In the Rutgers study, researchers surveyed 3,500 Americans, approximately one-third of whom were firearm owners, and asked about their reasons for purchasing a gun during the pandemic, their methods of gun storage and whether they had ever experienced thoughts of suicide.

The study looked at three groups: people who were existing firearm owners who did not purchase a firearm during the pandemic, people who purchased a firearm during the pandemic and non-firearm owners.The study found that, of those who bought a firearm during the pandemic, 70 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, 56 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous year and 25 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous month.

By contrast, individuals who did not buy guns during the pandemic were only 56 per cent, 24 per cent and 12 per cent respectively likely to have had suicidal thoughts during those time periods.

People who purchased a firearm during the pandemic also were found to be more likely to have storage habits that made the firearms less secure, such as switching between unloading their firearms and loading them before storage; using locking devices and then removing them, or switching between storing a firearm outside and inside the home."The increase in firearm purchases is concerning given that suicide is three times more likely in homes with firearms, and there is a hundred-fold increase in an individual`s suicide risk immediately following the purchase of a handgun," said Anestis. "And unsafe firearm storage increases that risk."&nbsp;

People who purchase a firearm during the pandemic are more likely to be suicidal than other firearm owners, according to a study by Rutgers University researchers.

People who purchase a firearm during the pandemic are more likely to be suicidal than other firearm owners, according to a study by Rutgers University researchers. The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that about 70 per cent of those who bought a firearm during the COVID-19 pandemic reported having suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, compared to 37 per cent of the rest of the community of gun owners. "People who were motivated to purchase firearms during COVID-19 might have been driven by anxiety that leaves them vulnerable to suicidal ideation," said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health."While this does not guarantee an increase in suicide rates, it represents an unusually large surge in risk made more troubling by the fact that firearms purchased during COVID-19 may remain in homes beyond the pandemic." According to Anestis, more than 2.5 million Americans became first-time gun owners during the first four months of 2020, with an estimated two million firearms purchased alone in March 2020 when the initial surge of the coronavirus pandemic began. "Firearm owners are usually no more likely than non-firearm owners to experience suicidal thoughts. It is possible that a higher-risk group is driving the current firearm purchasing surge, introducing long-term suicide risk into the homes of individuals who otherwise may not have acquired firearms during a time of extended social isolation, economic uncertainty and general upheaval," Anestis said.In the Rutgers study, researchers surveyed 3,500 Americans, approximately one-third of whom were firearm owners, and asked about their reasons for purchasing a gun during the pandemic, their methods of gun storage and whether they had ever experienced thoughts of suicide. The study looked at three groups: people who were existing firearm owners who did not purchase a firearm during the pandemic, people who purchased a firearm during the pandemic and non-firearm owners.The study found that, of those who bought a firearm during the pandemic, 70 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, 56 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous year and 25 per cent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous month. By contrast, individuals who did not buy guns during the pandemic were only 56 per cent, 24 per cent and 12 per cent respectively likely to have had suicidal thoughts during those time periods. People who purchased a firearm during the pandemic also were found to be more likely to have storage habits that made the firearms less secure, such as switching between unloading their firearms and loading them before storage; using locking devices and then removing them, or switching between storing a firearm outside and inside the home."The increase in firearm purchases is concerning given that suicide is three times more likely in homes with firearms, and there is a hundred-fold increase in an individual`s suicide risk immediately following the purchase of a handgun," said Anestis. "And unsafe firearm storage increases that risk."

US study reveals people who purchased firearms during pandemic more likely to be suicidal

French President Emmanuel Macron has accused New York Times and other American publications of legitimising violence. How is he backing up his claim? WION's Molly Gambhir has the answer.

Gravitas: Is the U.S. media legitimising violence?

A federal judge in New York has ruled that Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, has illegally assumed his position and invalidated Wolf's suspension for the of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

US:  New York court invalidates suspension of DACA, restored after new ruling

Donald Trump has insisted he is not conceding the US election, despite seemingly acknowledging for the first time that Democrat Joe Biden won.

Incumbent U.S President Donald Trump acknowledges Biden's win | US Election 2020

The longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has repeatedly clashed with President Trump and his administration

Anthony Fauci’s new COVID-19 guidance; says 'Follow restrictions and do what you’re told'

The United States govt will have to now delay the ban on Chinese app TikTok. The step is not compliant with the court order in favor of the Chinese social media giant.

US govt to delay ban on Chinese app TikTok, court ordered against ban

In United States, the top Democrats have accused the Republicans for 'poisoning' the democracy after refusing to accept the Joe Biden as the President-elect.

US: Democrats accuse Republicans for 'poisoning' democracy after refusing to accept Biden as President

US President Donald Trump made his first official post-election appearance Wednesday for what should have been a moment of national unity to mark Veterans Day.

Donald Trump makes first public appearance since losing election

US President-elect Joe Biden in phone calls with the leaders of Australia, Japan and South Korea emphasised on maintaining a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Joe Biden's call to Asian leaders amid growing China threat

Two critical unemployment programs are set to expire at the end of the year, potentially leaving millions of Americans vulnerable to eviction and hunger and threatening to short-circuit an economic recovery that has already lost momentum.

As many as 13 million people are receiving payments under the programs, which Congress created last spring to expand and extend the regular unemployment system during the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of both major parties have expressed support for renewing the programs in some form, but Congress has been unable to reach a deal to do so. It remains unclear how the results of last week’s election will affect prospects for an agreement.

That means that for now, at least, people like Randy Williams must prepare for the possibility that they are weeks away from losing their only income.

Williams, 56, lost his job as a manager at a Memphis, Tennessee-area Cracker Barrel in the first weeks of the pandemic. His state jobless benefits ran out last month, leaving him to rely on a 13-week extension under the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which ends in late December.

Already, Williams is struggling to get by on his $275 weekly benefit check, the maximum allowed in Tennessee. He has fallen behind on rent, racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and turned to a food pantry run by a church.

Even with the benefits, “I may have got behind on this or that, robbing Peter to pay Paul this month,” he said. “But without it, I’m dead in the water.”

The expanded unemployment programs are some of the last vestiges of the trillions of dollars in aid that Congress provided through a series of emergency measures in the spring. That spending — which included direct checks to most U.S. households, $600 a week in supplemental unemployment benefits and hundreds of billions of dollars in support for small businesses — offset the pandemic’s financial toll for many families and helped fuel an economic recovery that was initially stronger than many forecasters expected.

Much of that assistance expired over the summer, however. Economic gains have slowed significantly since then, and studies have found that millions of Americans fell into poverty as aid dried up. Employment data released Friday showed that the number of people out of work for more than six months, the standard threshold for long-term unemployment, rose 1.2 million in October, to 3.6 million.

The year-end benefits cliff could be even more damaging. Many families have depleted any savings they built when the $600 supplement was available. A partial federal eviction moratorium is scheduled to expire at the end of the year, although it could be extended. And benefits checks won’t just shrink, as they did over the summer; they will disappear.

“The safety net still has kind of held up until now, and I think we have been maybe lulled into a sense of complacency,” said Andrew Stettner, an expert on unemployment benefits at the Century Foundation, a progressive policy research group. “We’re just putting people in this really precarious financial position where the damage of unemployment can just hit really hard.”

Nearly 4 million Americans are receiving benefits under the pandemic compensation program. That number has doubled in the past month and is expected to keep rising as more people reach the end of their state benefits, which last 26 weeks in most of the country.

If the program ends at the end of the year, some workers will be able to continue to receive benefits under a federal program not tied to the pandemic. But those benefits aren’t available in some states, including Tennessee, and don’t cover some types of workers, like freelancers.

Congress last spring created a separate emergency program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, to cover people left out of the normal unemployment system, such as freelancers and self-employed workers as well as those unable to work because of pandemic-related child care issues and similar obstacles. There were 9.3 million people in that program in mid-October, according to federal data, although some experts on the unemployment system believe that figure overstates the total.

By any measure, millions are in danger of losing their benefits. Many economists warn that the harm would extend not just to individual workers but also to the broader economy.

“Those households then have to dramatically cut back on their spending, they then fall further behind on their rent, and that means that their landlords suffer and the businesses that they would have been buying from will suffer,” said Jesse Rothstein, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Conservative economists have long argued that unemployment benefits can be counterproductive because they discourage recipients from seeking or accepting jobs. That argument has been persuasive with many Republican lawmakers, who fought to end extended benefits during the last recession a decade ago and who have been skeptical of offering more generous benefits during the current crisis.

Progressives, including Rothstein, have countered that the disincentive effects of benefits are small, especially when jobs are scarce, and that giving workers a lifeline lets them seek out better jobs. In recent years, researchers have also used new data sources to study what happens when benefits run out and have found clearer evidence that losing benefits creates significant hardship for families.

Bruce Meyer, a University of Chicago economist and longtime critic of unemployment benefits, said he remained unconvinced by many of the traditional progressive arguments for unemployment insurance. But he said he found the new data compelling.

“Unemployment insurance does not help you get a better job; it keeps you out of work and lets your skills deteriorate,” he said. “But it keeps you from starving.”

The threat of losing benefits is amplified during a pandemic. Matt Weis, chief program officer at the National Able Network, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, said he had long counseled job seekers to look for a “survival job” — one that will pay the bills while they look for more permanent work. But that is a harder argument to make when many sources of stopgap work, like seasonal retail and fast food, could carry health risks.

“It’s just putting people in a really, really tricky situation,” Weis said. “Do I preserve my health and the health of my family by staying home and not working? OK, fine, how do I do that? I’ve got bills to pay.”

Two critical unemployment programs are set to expire at the end of the year, potentially leaving millions of Americans vulnerable to eviction and hunger and threatening to short-circuit an economic recovery that has already lost momentum.

Two critical unemployment programs are set to expire at the end of the year, potentially leaving millions of Americans vulnerable to eviction and hunger and threatening to short-circuit an economic recovery that has already lost momentum. As many as 13 million people are receiving payments under the programs, which Congress created last spring to expand and extend the regular unemployment system during the coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of both major parties have expressed support for renewing the programs in some form, but Congress has been unable to reach a deal to do so. It remains unclear how the results of last week’s election will affect prospects for an agreement. That means that for now, at least, people like Randy Williams must prepare for the possibility that they are weeks away from losing their only income. Williams, 56, lost his job as a manager at a Memphis, Tennessee-area Cracker Barrel in the first weeks of the pandemic. His state jobless benefits ran out last month, leaving him to rely on a 13-week extension under the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which ends in late December. Already, Williams is struggling to get by on his $275 weekly benefit check, the maximum allowed in Tennessee. He has fallen behind on rent, racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and turned to a food pantry run by a church. Even with the benefits, “I may have got behind on this or that, robbing Peter to pay Paul this month,” he said. “But without it, I’m dead in the water.” The expanded unemployment programs are some of the last vestiges of the trillions of dollars in aid that Congress provided through a series of emergency measures in the spring. That spending — which included direct checks to most U.S. households, $600 a week in supplemental unemployment benefits and hundreds of billions of dollars in support for small businesses — offset the pandemic’s financial toll for many families and helped fuel an economic recovery that was initially stronger than many forecasters expected. Much of that assistance expired over the summer, however. Economic gains have slowed significantly since then, and studies have found that millions of Americans fell into poverty as aid dried up. Employment data released Friday showed that the number of people out of work for more than six months, the standard threshold for long-term unemployment, rose 1.2 million in October, to 3.6 million. The year-end benefits cliff could be even more damaging. Many families have depleted any savings they built when the $600 supplement was available. A partial federal eviction moratorium is scheduled to expire at the end of the year, although it could be extended. And benefits checks won’t just shrink, as they did over the summer; they will disappear. “The safety net still has kind of held up until now, and I think we have been maybe lulled into a sense of complacency,” said Andrew Stettner, an expert on unemployment benefits at the Century Foundation, a progressive policy research group. “We’re just putting people in this really precarious financial position where the damage of unemployment can just hit really hard.” Nearly 4 million Americans are receiving benefits under the pandemic compensation program. That number has doubled in the past month and is expected to keep rising as more people reach the end of their state benefits, which last 26 weeks in most of the country. If the program ends at the end of the year, some workers will be able to continue to receive benefits under a federal program not tied to the pandemic. But those benefits aren’t available in some states, including Tennessee, and don’t cover some types of workers, like freelancers. Congress last spring created a separate emergency program, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, to cover people left out of the normal unemployment system, such as freelancers and self-employed workers as well as those unable to work because of pandemic-related child care issues and similar obstacles. There were 9.3 million people in that program in mid-October, according to federal data, although some experts on the unemployment system believe that figure overstates the total. By any measure, millions are in danger of losing their benefits. Many economists warn that the harm would extend not just to individual workers but also to the broader economy. “Those households then have to dramatically cut back on their spending, they then fall further behind on their rent, and that means that their landlords suffer and the businesses that they would have been buying from will suffer,” said Jesse Rothstein, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. Conservative economists have long argued that unemployment benefits can be counterproductive because they discourage recipients from seeking or accepting jobs. That argument has been persuasive with many Republican lawmakers, who fought to end extended benefits during the last recession a decade ago and who have been skeptical of offering more generous benefits during the current crisis. Progressives, including Rothstein, have countered that the disincentive effects of benefits are small, especially when jobs are scarce, and that giving workers a lifeline lets them seek out better jobs. In recent years, researchers have also used new data sources to study what happens when benefits run out and have found clearer evidence that losing benefits creates significant hardship for families. Bruce Meyer, a University of Chicago economist and longtime critic of unemployment benefits, said he remained unconvinced by many of the traditional progressive arguments for unemployment insurance. But he said he found the new data compelling. “Unemployment insurance does not help you get a better job; it keeps you out of work and lets your skills deteriorate,” he said. “But it keeps you from starving.” The threat of losing benefits is amplified during a pandemic. Matt Weis, chief program officer at the National Able Network, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization, said he had long counseled job seekers to look for a “survival job” — one that will pay the bills while they look for more permanent work. But that is a harder argument to make when many sources of stopgap work, like seasonal retail and fast food, could carry health risks. “It’s just putting people in a really, really tricky situation,” Weis said. “Do I preserve my health and the health of my family by staying home and not working? OK, fine, how do I do that? I’ve got bills to pay.”

Millions face loss of jobless aid: ‘Without it, I’m dead in the water’

US Supreme court judged have signaled that they are unlikely to strike down the Affordable care act or the Obamacare.

US Supreme court unlikely to strike down Obamacare

On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joe Biden. It was like a tearful goodbye between two old friends.

“We are more like family. That’s the way the vast majority of Americans feel about Canada and Canadians,” Biden said to a hall packed with politicians in Ottawa. “The friendship between us is absolutely critical to the United States.”

He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very badly.”

After four years of surprise tariffs, stinging insults and threats from Trump, a giddy jubilation and sense of deep relief spread across Canada on Saturday with the news that Biden had won the presidency. Many Canadians hope to return to the status of cherished sibling to the United States, and that the president-elect’s personal connection to Canada, and that of his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, will help heal the wounds.

“With Biden, we see the United States as having a centrist conciliator, a friend to Canada, and somebody we can be relaxed with and have genuine disagreements with without being disagreeable,” said Frank McKenna, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States.

He added that people in his yoga class Monday said “Namaste for Joe Biden.”

“People have been walking on eggshells for four years for fear of annoying the president or his sycophants,” he said.

Over the weekend, Trudeau made a congratulatory call to Biden. “We’ve worked with each other before, and we’re ready to pick up on that work and tackle the challenges and opportunities facing our two countries — including climate change and COVID-19,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter, citing two issues where he has deep disagreements with Trump.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.)

For those who have watched Trudeau maintain a disciplined silence in the face of Trump’s attacks, it was easy to read quiet celebration in Trudeau’s message. He said he and Biden had “agreed to keep in touch and work closely together.”

Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, noted that many of Biden’s positions mirror those of the Trudeau government, including the advancement of women’s rights and the importance of fighting climate change.

“This is a man who is more aligned with the Canadian value set, regardless of party,” said Heyman, who was sworn in as ambassador by Biden in 2014, and ran a campaign to get overseas Democrats to vote this year.

Both Biden and Harris have personal connections to Canada. At that state dinner four years ago, Biden noted that his first wife, Neilia, had Canadian family roots, and said that both his sons dreamed of becoming “Mounties,” members of Canada’s national police force.

He recalled that when Neilia and their baby daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident in 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father, reached out to him personally “and commiserated with me.”

Harris spent her formative teenage years in Montreal, after her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer specialist, got a job working at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital. Students and teachers gathered on the steps of her alma mater, Westmount High School, on Monday with “Congratulations Kamala” signs. Quebec’s premier, François Legault, noted on Twitter that she had “spent part of her youth in Montreal.”

“We hope to see you soon. You will always be welcome in Quebec,” he wrote.

Few countries had as much at stake in the U.S. elections as Canada. The two countries share the world’s longest border, and two-thirds of Canada’s population lives within 60 miles of it. Roughly three-quarters of Canada’s exports head to the United States, and before the pandemic, many Canadians crossed over regularly to shop, vacation or visit.

As Trudeau says frequently, sometimes with obvious restraint, the relationship with the United States is Canada’s most important, but it is also one that has suffered serious damage in the past four years.

The previous five presidents made a point of traveling to Canada for a state visit within a few months of taking office, and each visited multiple times. Trump went only once as president, for the 2018 Group of 7 meeting, and lashed out at Trudeau as he left, calling the prime minister “very dishonest and weak.”

By then, he had slapped tariffs on the country’s steel and aluminum, claiming national security concerns, which most Canadians found deeply unfair and insulting. Trudeau relied on quiet diplomacy and a team of surrogates who built alliances with people around Trump, and eventually Canada reached a critical new trade deal with the United States and Mexico.

But Canadian feelings toward Trump continued to sour, plummeting to the lowest view of any president over the past 20 years. Recent polls show that as many as 4 in 5 Canadians hoped Biden would be elected president. In an editorial, The Globe and Mail, a leading newspaper, said, “Our downstairs neighbors have gone long enough without an adult in the White House.”

Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party, said at a news conference last week, “It would be better for the world if Trump loses.”

The 5,525-mile border between the United States and Canada has been closed since March, when the number of daily new coronavirus infections took off in both countries. Despite the huge economic and personal implications, the vast majority of Canadians support keeping it shut until the United States reduces its infection rate, which is now triple Canada’s.

“The single biggest thing that matters to Canada is whether Biden will be able to bring the virus under control,” said Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Given how polarized the United States remains, that seems unlikely, she said.

“The politicization of the pandemic is not going to go away,” Stein said.

On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joe Biden.

On a snowy evening in December 2016, a month after Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada held a rare farewell state dinner for the departing vice president, Joe Biden. It was like a tearful goodbye between two old friends. “We are more like family. That’s the way the vast majority of Americans feel about Canada and Canadians,” Biden said to a hall packed with politicians in Ottawa. “The friendship between us is absolutely critical to the United States.” He ended with a toast: “Vive le Canada. Because we need you very, very badly.” After four years of surprise tariffs, stinging insults and threats from Trump, a giddy jubilation and sense of deep relief spread across Canada on Saturday with the news that Biden had won the presidency. Many Canadians hope to return to the status of cherished sibling to the United States, and that the president-elect’s personal connection to Canada, and that of his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, will help heal the wounds. “With Biden, we see the United States as having a centrist conciliator, a friend to Canada, and somebody we can be relaxed with and have genuine disagreements with without being disagreeable,” said Frank McKenna, a former Canadian ambassador to the United States. He added that people in his yoga class Monday said “Namaste for Joe Biden.” “People have been walking on eggshells for four years for fear of annoying the president or his sycophants,” he said. Over the weekend, Trudeau made a congratulatory call to Biden. “We’ve worked with each other before, and we’re ready to pick up on that work and tackle the challenges and opportunities facing our two countries — including climate change and COVID-19,” the prime minister wrote on Twitter, citing two issues where he has deep disagreements with Trump. (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM.) For those who have watched Trudeau maintain a disciplined silence in the face of Trump’s attacks, it was easy to read quiet celebration in Trudeau’s message. He said he and Biden had “agreed to keep in touch and work closely together.” Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada, noted that many of Biden’s positions mirror those of the Trudeau government, including the advancement of women’s rights and the importance of fighting climate change. “This is a man who is more aligned with the Canadian value set, regardless of party,” said Heyman, who was sworn in as ambassador by Biden in 2014, and ran a campaign to get overseas Democrats to vote this year. Both Biden and Harris have personal connections to Canada. At that state dinner four years ago, Biden noted that his first wife, Neilia, had Canadian family roots, and said that both his sons dreamed of becoming “Mounties,” members of Canada’s national police force. He recalled that when Neilia and their baby daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident in 1972, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father, reached out to him personally “and commiserated with me.” Harris spent her formative teenage years in Montreal, after her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a breast cancer specialist, got a job working at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital. Students and teachers gathered on the steps of her alma mater, Westmount High School, on Monday with “Congratulations Kamala” signs. Quebec’s premier, François Legault, noted on Twitter that she had “spent part of her youth in Montreal.” “We hope to see you soon. You will always be welcome in Quebec,” he wrote. Few countries had as much at stake in the U.S. elections as Canada. The two countries share the world’s longest border, and two-thirds of Canada’s population lives within 60 miles of it. Roughly three-quarters of Canada’s exports head to the United States, and before the pandemic, many Canadians crossed over regularly to shop, vacation or visit. As Trudeau says frequently, sometimes with obvious restraint, the relationship with the United States is Canada’s most important, but it is also one that has suffered serious damage in the past four years. The previous five presidents made a point of traveling to Canada for a state visit within a few months of taking office, and each visited multiple times. Trump went only once as president, for the 2018 Group of 7 meeting, and lashed out at Trudeau as he left, calling the prime minister “very dishonest and weak.” By then, he had slapped tariffs on the country’s steel and aluminum, claiming national security concerns, which most Canadians found deeply unfair and insulting. Trudeau relied on quiet diplomacy and a team of surrogates who built alliances with people around Trump, and eventually Canada reached a critical new trade deal with the United States and Mexico. But Canadian feelings toward Trump continued to sour, plummeting to the lowest view of any president over the past 20 years. Recent polls show that as many as 4 in 5 Canadians hoped Biden would be elected president. In an editorial, The Globe and Mail, a leading newspaper, said, “Our downstairs neighbors have gone long enough without an adult in the White House.” Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party, said at a news conference last week, “It would be better for the world if Trump loses.” The 5,525-mile border between the United States and Canada has been closed since March, when the number of daily new coronavirus infections took off in both countries. Despite the huge economic and personal implications, the vast majority of Canadians support keeping it shut until the United States reduces its infection rate, which is now triple Canada’s. “The single biggest thing that matters to Canada is whether Biden will be able to bring the virus under control,” said Janice Stein, founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Given how polarized the United States remains, that seems unlikely, she said. “The politicization of the pandemic is not going to go away,” Stein said.

After Trump’s tariffs and insults, Canada is relieved at Biden’s win

The Trump campaign, on Monday (November 9) pressed ahead to challenge the results of the election won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden. During a news conference at Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Trump campaign counsel Matthew Morgan urged transparency and suggested that there outstanding legal votes that had yet to be counted.

Trump campaign files lawsuit in a Pennsylvania Federal Court

The Chinese media struck an optimistic tone on Joe Biden's victory in the US Presidential election. They say that, the relations between two countries could be restored to a state of greater predictability.

US Election 2020: Chinese media strikes optimistic tone on Biden's victory

The deadline for the UK to strike a deal with an EU comes to a near. The conditions were already not in favour of the British PM Boris Johnson & now with Joe Biden coming to the White House. the US will be under increased pressure to strike a Brexit deal.

Fears of worsening US-UK ties with no-deal outcome | US-Brexit vision under Biden

#GravitasPlus with WION's Palki| Will Joe Biden's Presidency be good for India? Will he support India against China? Will Kamala Harris' election to the White House help India?

Gravitas Plus: Is Joe Biden good for India?

Incumbent US President Donald Trump received a defeat at the hands of Joe Biden just a day ago. But if reports are true, another storm may be heading his way. As per a news report published by Daily Mail, Melania Trump may soon divorce her husband.

Daily Mail has quoted former aides of Donald Trump who, from their quotes published in the news report, have appeared to suggest a serious marital discord in America's first couple.&nbsp;

Stephanie Wolkoff, a former aide of Donald Trump made a claim to Daily Mail and said that Melania Trump was negotiating a postnuptial agreement in order to give their son Barron&nbsp;an equal share of the Trump fortune. Wolkoff claimed that Donald Trump and Melania had separate bedrooms in the White House and that their marriage was just 'transactional'.

Also Read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/biden-vows-to-unite-america-in-first-address-as-us-president-elect-341540">Biden vows to unite America in first address as US president-elect</a> 
 
Daily Mail quoted another former Trump aide, Omarosa Newman who claimed that Melania was 'counting every minute' before Donald Trump was out of the Oval Office so that she could divorce him. Newman said that Melania is apprehensive that Donald Trump would punish her if she divorced him while he was still in office as this would be a great humiliation to incumbent US President.&nbsp;

Incumbent US President Donald Trump received a defeat at the hands of Joe Biden just a day ago. But if reports are true, another storm may be heading his way. As per a news report published by Daily Mail, Melania Trump may soon divorce her husband.

Incumbent US President Donald Trump received a defeat at the hands of Joe Biden just a day ago. But if reports are true, another storm may be heading his way. As per a news report published by Daily Mail, Melania Trump may soon divorce her husband. Daily Mail has quoted former aides of Donald Trump who, from their quotes published in the news report, have appeared to suggest a serious marital discord in America's first couple. Stephanie Wolkoff, a former aide of Donald Trump made a claim to Daily Mail and said that Melania Trump was negotiating a postnuptial agreement in order to give their son Barron an equal share of the Trump fortune. Wolkoff claimed that Donald Trump and Melania had separate bedrooms in the White House and that their marriage was just 'transactional'. Also Read | Biden vows to unite America in first address as US president-elect Daily Mail quoted another former Trump aide, Omarosa Newman who claimed that Melania was 'counting every minute' before Donald Trump was out of the Oval Office so that she could divorce him. Newman said that Melania is apprehensive that Donald Trump would punish her if she divorced him while he was still in office as this would be a great humiliation to incumbent US President.

Melania to leave Donald Trump? Former aides predict divorce

us-1

Us, News on Us, stories on Us, articles on Us, Us stories at Wion, Us news, Us latest news

us 1