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Bhutto’s defeat clouds the already uncertain Pakistan-U.S. relationship. Under Ronald Reagan, Congress and the White House brushed aside concerns over Pakistan’s human-rights record and its nuclear weapons program. Its logistical support for the Afghan rebels took priority. In the years following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan received more than $4 billion in U.S. military and economic aid. After the Soviet pullout from Afghanistan, criticism of the Islamabad government renewed....

“They need to stop playing Russian roulette with the U.S. economy,” Biden said at the White House. “Republicans just have to let us do our job. Just get out of the way. If you don’t want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don’t destroy it.” Tensions between the parties continue to rise as the October 18 deadline to allow more borrowing approaches so that the government can continue operation, even with a total public debt of $28....

The DNC sent emails to those on its mailing list seeking donations after the release of the Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and in one case a plea for funds was attributed directly to President Joe Biden. The court overturned 1973’s landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade that found a constitutional right to abortion along with 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed Roe. The DNC appealed for $7 donations in emails attributed to Team DNC and DNC HQ, respectively, and made the same request in an email ostensibly from President Biden “to help elect Democrats up and down the ballot this November....

Or he would have, if these were normal times, and if insults to Poles and Hungarians were deemed worthy of major media outlet reporting. Protestations from Poles and the Hungarian foreign minister aside, however, no firestorm broke out in English-speaking media—and for one very simple reason. To the media class, the categorization of Poland and Hungary as “totalitarian regimes” was not a gaffe at all. It did not lead to fact-checking or hasty denials....

The funds are for the “purpose of meeting unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs of refugees, victims of conflict, and other persons at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan,” said Biden’s order, issued on Monday evening. Biden’s order draws its authority from the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962, he said. The act authorizes the president to help people displaced by conflict, persecution and other risks around the world....

“Whatever the motivation we know this: too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying,” Biden said after a lengthy meeting with Asian American community leaders in Atlanta on Friday. “It’s been a year of living in fear just to walk down the street.” Authorities have not determined that the shootings at three spas in the Atlanta area were racially motivated, but Asian American advocates have pushed for the violent spree to be classified as a “hate crime” because the businesses were predominantly run by women of Asian descent....

Since supporting rebels in the 2011 uprising that sought to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and later intervening directly in 2014 to take on the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), Washington’s policy in the country has undergone several major shifts. The most recent overhaul occurred in 2019, when then-President Donald Trump drew back U.S. positions to focus solely on the oil-rich northeast and a desert garrison in the south, part of stated plans to withdraw that never materialized....

The serious challenge at the border involves the lives of children, teen migrants and families, many displaced by violence in their home country, who are seeking asylum in the United States. A record number of unaccompanied children crossed the border in March, eclipsing the previous record in May 2019. But the White House, after an early bumbling of its messaging, has put a laser focus on blaming the Trump administration for gutting the asylum system....

That’s going to mean taking concrete action against the ICC, as the Trump administration did last year, rather than merely paying lip service to complaints against the organization as it prepares to press bogus war crimes against the Jewish state. But while the Biden administration has said the right things about the ICC’s outrageous trashing of international law, everything we know about the Biden foreign policy team makes it highly unlikely that it will do anything to sanction this prototypical multilateral institution....

In Pakistan, unprecedented flooding has left more than 1,000 people dead and more than a third of the country under water. Epic drought is drying up rivers from China to Europe to California, intensifying water and food shortages. When it comes to climate change, the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, the Inflation Reduction Act can’t be an excuse for complacency. It must be the start of a furious race to protect people and our planet....

President Joe Biden has not held a single traditional political rally in the run-up to the 2022 midterms. He has only endorsed a handful of Democrats running for Congress, and rarely appears alongside them on the campaign trail, a concession to his low approval ratings and concerns in the party that his presence could hurt Democrats who find themselves locked in tough reelection fights. Instead, Biden has focused his midterm efforts on raising money to help the party retain control of the House and Senate....

During an interview with Fox 2 today, Biden was asked whether the Trump administration has done anything during this COVID-19 crisis that he’s supported. “I think what he’s done appropriately is that he started off talking about the need to have the social distancing, realizing that, starting off by listening to the scientists, listening to Dr. Fauci and others,” the former vice president responded. Biden, who became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race earlier this month, has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump and his administration over their allegedly inadequate handling of the pandemic....

On Friday, Biden formally rolled out his aggressive, federally backed delivery plan to meet his goal of getting 100 million shots administered in his first 100 days in office. “Some wonder if we’re reaching too far with that goal—is it achievable?” Biden said. “Let me be clear: I’m convinced we can get it done. “This is the time to set big goals and to pursue them with courage and conviction, because the health of the nation is at stake,” he added....

The Reed family had previously spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and also made public statements pressuring the Biden administration to secure Reed’s release, which may prove difficult due to souring diplomatic relations amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Reed family protested in front of Resource Connection of Tarrant County in Texas as Biden spoke inside. Biden called them after his speaking engagement. “[During the call, Biden] kept saying over and over again how horrible he felt that he couldn’t stop [to talk with us],” Trevor’s mother Paula Reed told KTVT....

A new Morning Consult/Politico poll released on Wednesday found that Biden’s approval reached its highest point in months, with 43 percent of voters approving of his job performance—a six-point increase from last month’s record low of 37 percent. Biden also saw the same percentage increase among independent voters. While the latest survey marks the highest rating Biden has received since May, a majority of voters, 55 percent, still disapprove of his job performance....

The initiative, launched in 2016 when Biden was Vice President, is personal to the president because he lost his son Beau Biden in 2015 at the age of 46 to brain cancer, and while experts said the lofty goals can help bring attention to cancer research and treatments, the reality of reducing the death rate as drastically as Biden suggests would be difficult, assuming it’s possible to begin with, according to The Associated Press....

American allies, the Financial Times reports, are deeply concerned. Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Australia—all U.S. treaty partners—are intensively lobbying the Biden administration to not adopt a “No First Use” policy. “Allies are essentially, in unison, collectively panicking,” said “one senior congressional source” to the paper. “They don’t believe their numerous and repeated overtures are being reported up to Biden administration principals, and to the president himself.” The disarmament community has long wanted the United States to declare it will never first use nuclear weapons in a conflict....

Many K-through-12 schools across the country are currently on winter break, although some started breaks early or returned to remote learning only amid news of Omicron’s spread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that the highly contagious variant had quickly become the most dominant U.S. strain on Monday, while the first related death was reported in an unvaccinated Texas man on the same day. Biden defended his COVID-19 vaccine mandates as a plan “not to control your life, but to save your life and the lives of others” during a speech from the White House on Tuesday before he addressed the issue of schools....

Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, both saw an increase in their overall favorability, according to a poll conducted by ABC News and Ipsos on Friday and Saturday. In the wake of the DNC, held from August 17 to 20, about 45 percent of Americans now view Biden favorably compared to just 40 percent prior to the convention—an increase of 5 percentage points. Harris saw a 6-point jump, with 41 percent now viewing her favorably compared to 35 percent before the convention....

Of course, President Donald Trump’s performance was more energetic, informed and convincing. The president went issue by issue, making a strong case for keeping Joe Biden out of the Oval Office. But Joe Biden didn’t deign to leave his basement and travel to Ohio to actually debate. He was there to do damage control. The future of America depends not on Biden’s stale talking points, wrongfully memorized statistics and useless attacks on the debate stage, but on the fires, bullets and barricades on America’s city streets....