On pursuing peace: This has nothing to do with [U.S. pressure]. It has to do with the fact that we are realists. We recognize the facts on the ground created by the previous government, and we honor previous agreements. . .But we expect the other side to honor them as well, and that is what has been lacking. On his commitment to peace: I made my adjustment to reality when I accepted the Oslo accords before the [1996] elections....
Intelligence on the arrangement comes after White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a six-hour meeting with Yang Jiechi, a senior Chinese foreign policy adviser, in Zurich, Switzerland. During the meeting, Sullivan voiced concerns to Yang regarding China’s recently increased assertiveness against Taiwan, the human rights abuses suffered by ethnic minorities in the country, and Beijing’s attempts to quell pro-democracy sentiment in Hong Kong, according to a White House statement....
VineSight, a self-described AI startup “that detects fake news on social networks,” released a new analysis of misinformation directed at 2020 candidates on Twitter. The report found that Biden received 30 percent of all candidate-targeted misinformation leading up to and following the July debates, while Harris received 27 percent. The falsehoods identified by VineSight were not run-of-the-mill social media jabs, but high-performing tweets that passed a certain threshold for virality....
While neither Biden nor Trump is on the ballot this year, midterms will have a major impact on the president’s agenda if Republicans can take control of the House of Representatives, the Senate or both. Trump has weighed in to the elections by offering a string of endorsements, including to GOP Senate candidates in tight races where the power of the former president’s backing will be tested. A poll from The Economist/YouGov conducted from September 24 to 27 showed that clear majorities of Americans do not want Trump and Biden to run for the White House again in 2024....
On Friday, the Biden administration filed an emergency request with the high court in its attempt to prevent reinstating what is known as the “remain in Mexico” border policy, Bloomberg reported. The policy, which Trump put in place in 2019, requires immigrants and asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting their immigration court proceedings in the United States. Under Biden, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security formally ended the policy in June....
The announcement during a Thursday press briefing at the White House received criticism from conservative media outlets like National Review and The Daily Caller, the latter of which published an article about the press briefing under a banner referring to “Big Brother Biden.” Murthy and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki discussed their efforts as part of a “new campaign” to fight virus-related misinformation. An advisory recently published by Murthy’s office details steps that tech outlets, private citizens, local governments and media outlets can take to battle misinformation when they come across it....
The Family Reunification Task Force said it identified “nearly all” children who were separated under Trump’s policy and plan to review another 1,723 cases, bringing to total closer to the American Civil Liberties Union’s numbers of more than 5,500. Of the children identified, 1,786 were reunited with a parent, 1,965 have been contacted, and the whereabouts of 391 have not been established. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below....
Analysts and commentators have focused significant attention on Biden’s tanking poll numbers, which have plummeted by double-digits since he first took office last January. While the president’s approval rating remains underwater, it continues to hover just above that of Trump during the same period of his time serving as commander-in-chief. FiveThirtyEight’s compilation of polls shows that as of April 15, Biden’s approval rating stood at an average of 41.6 percent while his disapproval among voters was 52....
In an executive order, Biden said that the U.S. government is dedicated to investing in biotechnology that will advance the U.S.’s food security, with the documents acknowledging the promise of “cultivating alternative food sources” and “looking to improve food security and drive agricultural innovation through new technologies…[including] foods made with cultured animal cells.” Lab-grown meat is considered to be the future of meat production in the face of climate change....
“The health and safety of the public is our number one priority,” read a statement from the campaign. “We have been and will continue to consult with relevant officials, including our recently announced Public Health Advisory Committee, regarding steps the campaign should take to minimize health risks for staff and supporters.” “As a result of those conversations and at the request of elected officials in Illinois and Florida, we will no longer hold large crowd events on Friday and Monday in those states,” the statement continued....
The Biden Election Commission (formerly known as the Commission on Presidential Debates) is going to try to rig the debate against President Trump. Without consultation, the pro-Biden establishment changed the topics for the debate and set up a new rule for muting microphones. The pro-Biden commission selected as the supposedly neutral moderator NBC reporter Kristen Welker, who was a registered Democrat in 2012 and then changed to unaffiliated in 2016....
Recent data indicated more than 11 million positive cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. with 249,975 fatalities attributable to COVID-19. Trump has often promised that a vaccine would be available soon but no vaccine has yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for widespread use. On Monday, Cuomo expressed a lack of faith in the White House’s vaccine distribution plan. Biden, who has attacked Trump’s coronavirus response plan, has already started to assemble his COVID-19 response team....
As Washington and Tehran navigate high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, their mutual involvement in Yemen raises the prospect of a separate path toward engagement. But experts are divided as to whether this presents a feasible solution as long as the U.S. continues a maximalist approach to the nuclear agreement first reached by the two countries and other major powers in 2015. That same year, Saudi Arabia launched a war against the Zaidi Shiite Muslim rebels of Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, a group accused of receiving direct support from Iran....
On Friday, the House of Representatives is likely to pass a $1.9 trillion relief package that would increase the minimum wage to $15 in 2025. While Democrats hoped to pass the package in the Senate with a simple majority vote by way of budget reconciliation, the Senate parliamentarian advised that minimum wage violated the Byrd Rule, which restricts what can be included in reconciliation legislation. That puts Democrats in a position where they need Republican support they likely don’t have....
“You got to hope it’s a nowhere to go but up situation,” Paul Maslin, a top Democratic pollster, told Newsweek. “His fundamental problem is the country is still not feeling good about itself, and it’s on his watch now.” The administration is still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, aftermath from the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and one of the president’s key agenda items—the sweeping $1.7 trillion Build Back Better Act—stalled after opposition from a critical Democratic senator....
Responding to the White House’s recently released Interim National Security Strategic Guidance that described China as “the only competitor potentially capable of combining its economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to mount a sustained challenge to a stable and open international system,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang blasted a document he claimed bore a “Cold War mentality.” He dismissed the strategy as “an excuse to continue to seek hegemony, which reflects its stubborn hegemonic mentality....
The president will come face-to-face with his Democratic presidential rival in Cleveland, Ohio, for the first time in the 2020 election campaign. With just over a month to go until polling day, Trump is likely to face questions over his tax returns as well as his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and anti-police brutality protests that have swept the country. According to bookmaker Betfair, the former vice president is “strong odds-on favorite” in the first head-to-head contest of the election....
Fauci suggested during a Tuesday Senate hearing that reopening the country prematurely would lead to “needless suffering and death.” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Biden tweeted his agreement with Fauci’s assessment. “I would trust the guy who’s one of our nation’s top public health experts, not the one who pondered injecting disinfectant into the body and looked directly at a solar eclipse,” Biden wrote. Biden has long criticized Trump’s approach to handling the coronavirus....
The poll, which was conducted by St. Pete’s Polls, for FloridaPolitics.com and AARP Florida, surveyed 3,018 registered voters in the state from July 13 to July 14. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points. According to the poll, Biden leads Trump in support from registered voters between the ages of 18 and 29, as 53.6 percent of this group sided with the former vice president, while 41 percent said they would vote for Trump....
Biden and Manchin spoke on the phone Monday afternoon for the second time in a week regarding the various aspects of the president’s bill. “The president looks forward to speaking directly with Senator Manchin about and making the case for why the president feels this legislation should move forward,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters before the call. Manchin is seen as a crucial vote if the bill has any hope of passing before the Senate’s self-imposed Christmas deadline....
