Joe Biden
Car rams into police at Capitol barricade; officer killed
A Capitol Police officer was killed Friday after a man rammed a car into two officers at a barricade outside the U.S. Capitol and then emerged wielding a knife, law enforcement officials said.
The suspect died at a hospital, officials said. Both officers were hospitalized, and one of them “succumbed to his injuries,” Capitol Police Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman told reporters.
Pittman did not identify the slain officer or suspect. Authorities said that there was no longer an ongoing threat and that the attack did not appear to be related to terrorism. There was also no immediate connection apparent between Friday’s crash and the Jan. 6 riot.
The crash and shooting happened at a security checkpoint near the Capitol as Congress is on recess. It comes as the Washington region remains on edge nearly three months after a mob of armed insurrectionists stormed the Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win.
Also Read- Capitol attack reflects US extremist evolution over decades
Five people died in the Jan. 6 riot, including Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was among a badly outnumbered force trying to fight off insurrectionists who supported former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the election. Authorities installed a tall perimeter fence around the Capitol and for months restricted traffic along the roads closest to the building, but they have begun pulling back some of the emergency measures in recent weeks.
There was no immediate connection apparent between Jan. 6 and Friday’s crash. Pittman said the suspect did not appear to have been on police radar. But the incident underscores that the building and campus remain potential targets for violence. It occurred about 100 yards (91 meters) from the entrance of the building on the Senate side of the Capitol.
The security checkpoint is typically used by senators and staff on weekdays, but lawmakers are away for recess. Fencing that prevented vehicular traffic near that area was recently removed.
The officials initially said the suspect was being taken to the hospital in critical condition. One of the officers who was injured was taken by police car to the hospital; the other was being transported by emergency medical crews, the officials said.
The U.S. Capitol complex was placed on lockdown after the shooting and staff were told they could not enter or exit buildings. Video showed National Guard troops mobilizing near the area of the crash.
Video posted online showed a dark colored sedan crashed against a vehicle barrier and a police K-9 inspecting the vehicle. Law enforcement and paramedics could be seen caring for at least one unidentified individual.
President Biden had just departed the White House for Camp David when the incident occurred. As customary, he was traveling with a member of the National Security Council Staff who was expected to brief him on the incident.
Promoting respect for rights a global effort, says US
The United States has said promoting respect for human rights is not something they can do alone but is best accomplished working with their allies and partners across the globe, including Bangladesh.
The US State Department released the 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, an annual report required by U.S. law on Tuesday.
Guided by the United Nations’ Universal Declarations on Human Rights and subsequent human rights treaties, the country reports do not draw legal conclusions, rate countries, or declare whether they failed to meet standards. The United States said it is committed to a world in which human rights are protected, their defenders are celebrated, and those who commit human rights abuses are held accountable.
As the United States and Bangladesh discuss common challenges, promoting democracy, good governance, and human rights will remain paramount, as discussed by Secretary of State Blinken and Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen in their February 21 phone call.
The United States and Bangladesh remain partners in addressing these matters together, said the US Embassy in Dhaka on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden is committed to a foreign policy that unites our democratic values with our diplomatic leadership, and one that is centered on the defense of democracy and the protection of human rights.
Leaders Summit on Climate: Kerry due Apr 9 to invite PM Hasina
John Kerry, the United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka on April 9 on a daylong visit during which Bangladesh will convey its priority issues to him on the climate front.
“Yes, we’re happy that he’s coming. We worked with him before, too,” Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told UNB on Wednesday.
Kerry will hand over the invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in person to attend the "Leaders Summit on Climate" to be held on April 22 and 23, Dr Momen said.
US President Joe Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Prime Minister Hasina, to the summit that he will host. The virtual summit will be live-streamed for public viewing.
The “Leaders Summit on Climate” will underscore the urgency – and the economic benefits – of stronger climate action. It will be a key milestone on the road to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) this November in Glasgow.
“We’ll be happy to convey our priority issues. We’ll also share the steps that Bangladesh has taken so far,” Dr Momen said.
Also read: Strict implementation of Paris deal only way forward for sustainable future: Dhaka
He said Bangladesh believes that adaptation is not enough and there has to be mitigation and Bangladesh needs support as promised by others. “It should be Kerry’s special target.”
Dr Momen said Bangladesh did not create the problem and those responsible countries should share responsibility of rehabilitating and protecting people from the river erosions.
During his recent meeting with Presidential Envoy on Climate John Kerry, the foreign minister discussed the global issue of climate change, and the possible US-Bangladesh collaboration in this connection.
The Foreign Minister recollected the vital contribution of Kerry towards the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and welcomed the decision of the US to return to the Paris Agreement.
He described various actions taken by the Government of Bangladesh under the prudent leadership of Prime Minister Hasina on mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Dr Momen also briefed John Kerry on all current and future activities of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) and the Global Centre on Adaptation (GCA) regional office in Dhaka.
Also read: John Kerry chosen as Biden’s climate tsar
Kerry recognised the extraordinary challenges faced by Bangladesh due to climate change and frequent natural disasters.
Agreeing that the international financial institutions could do more for the issue of climate change, he also opined that displacement due to climate change would be a vital security issue for everybody.
They agreed to work closely in the COP26 and other multilateral platforms in order to fulfil commitments under the Paris climate agreement and even go beyond Paris.
President Biden took action on his first day in office to return the US to the Paris Agreement.
Days later, on January 27, he announced that he would soon convene a leaders’ summit to galvanise efforts by the major economies to tackle the climate crisis.
Biden announces diverse first slate of judicial nominees
President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled his first slate of judicial nominees, a racially diverse and mostly female field that is a sharp departure from the largely white and male picks during Donald Trump's administration.
Biden's group includes candidates who, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate, would be the first Muslim federal judge in U.S. history, the first Asian American Pacific Islander woman to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the first woman of color to serve as a federal judge for the District of Maryland.
Three of the picks are Black women who were nominated to the federal courts of appeals, a pathway to the Supreme Court. The most prominent of the three is U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, whom Biden says he will nominate to the seat left vacant on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit by Judge Merrick Garland's departure to become Attorney General.
The D.C. Circuit, in particular, is a place where presidents have searched for Supreme Court justices. Three of the high court's current nine members have served on the D.C. Circuit.
Biden pledged during the campaign to nominate a Black woman to the high court if a vacancy opens during his term.
The White House said the 11 nominees are attorneys who have excelled in a range of legal positions, including as jurists, public defenders, prosecutors and public servants, as well as in the private sector and the military.
"This trailblazing slate of nominees draws from the very best and brightest minds of the American legal profession," Biden said in a statement. "Each is deeply qualified and prepared to deliver justice faithfully under our Constitution and impartially to the American people — and together they represent the broad diversity of background, experience, and perspective that makes our nation strong."
The White House said Biden's choices reflect his strong belief that the federal courts should reflect the "full diversity of the American people" in background and professional experience.
Trump leaned heavily on white men to fill judicial vacancies. More than 75% of Trump's judicial nominees were men, and 85% were white.
Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the organization was "gratified" that Biden was taking steps to diversify the federal bench.
"Such diversity will greatly enhance the judiciary and judicial decision-making," Ifill said in a statement.
Expelled from US at night, migrant families weigh next steps
In one of Mexico's most notorious cities for organized crime, migrants are expelled from the United States throughout the night, exhausted from the journey, disillusioned about not getting a chance to seek asylum and at a crossroads about where to go next.
Marisela Ramirez, who was returned to Reynosa about 4 a.m. Thursday, brought her 14-year-old son and left five other children — one only 8 months old — in Guatemala because she couldn't afford to pay smugglers more money. Now, facing another agonizing choice, she leaned toward sending her son across the border alone to settle with a sister in Missouri, aware that the United States is allowing unaccompanied children to pursue asylum.
“We're in God's hands,” Ramirez, 30, said in a barren park with dying grass and a large gazebo in the center that serves as shelter for migrants.
Also read: Immigrants cheered by possible citizenship path under Biden
Lesdny Suyapa Castillo, 35, said through tears that she would return to Honduras with her 8-year-old daughter, who lay under the gazebo breathing heavily with her eyes partly open and flies circling her face. After not getting paid for three months' work as a nurse in Honduras during the pandemic, she wants steady work in the U.S. to send an older daughter to medical school. A friend in New York encouraged her to try again.
“I would love to go, but a mother doesn't want to see her child in this condition,” she said after being dropped in Reynosa at 10 p.m.
The decisions unfold amid what Border Patrol officials say is an extraordinarily high 30-day average of 5,000 daily encounters with migrants. Children traveling alone are allowed to remain in the U.S. to pursue asylum while nearly all single adults are expelled to Mexico under pandemic-era rules that deny them a chance to seek humanitarian protection.
Families with children younger than 7 are being allowed to remain in the U.S. to pursue asylum, according to a Border Patrol official speaking to reporters Friday on condition of anonymity. Others in families — only 300 out of 2,200 on Thursday — are expelled.
Reynosa, a city of 700,000 people, is where many migrants are returned after being expelled from Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. The Border Patrol has said the vast majority of migrants are expelled to Mexico after less than two hours in the United States to limit the spread of COVID-19, which means many arrive when it's dark.
In normal times, migrants are returned to Mexico under bilateral agreements that limit deportations to daytime hours and the largest crossings. But under pandemic authority, Mexicans and citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras can be expelled to Mexico throughout the night and in smaller towns.
Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott acknowledged in an interview last year that agreements limiting hours and locations for deportations are suspended “on paper” but said U.S. authorities try to accommodate wishes of Mexican officials. The U.S. also coordinates with nongovernmental organizations.
“I would never sit here and look at you and say Tijuana is not dangerous, Juarez is not dangerous, Tamaulipas (state) is not dangerous,” Scott said. “However, a lot of it is like any other U.S. city. There are certain U.S. cities that there are pockets of it that are very dangerous and there are pockets of it that aren’t.”
Tamaulipas, which includes Reynosa, is among five Mexican states that the U.S. State Department says American citizens shouldn't visit. A U.S. travel advisory says heavily armed criminal groups patrol Reynosa in marked and unmarked vehicles.
More than 100 fathers, mothers and children who were expelled overnight waited in a plaza outside the Mexican border crossing at sunrise Saturday, many bitter about the experience and scared to venture into the city. Several said they left Central American in the past two months because they could finally afford it, but information about President Joe Biden's more immigrant-friendly policies contributed to their decisions. Some reported paying smugglers as much as $10,000 a person to reach U.S. soil.
Also read: Biden to prioritise legal status for millions of immigrants
Michel Maeco, who sold his land in Guatemala to pay smugglers $35,000 to bring his family of five, including children aged 15, 11 and 7, said he was going home after a 25-day journey. He left Guatemala after hearing “on the news” that Biden would allow families to enter the United States.
Maeco's family was expelled to the streets of Reynosa at 3 a.m. Saturday.
“Supposedly (Biden) was going to help migrants, but I see nothing,” said Maeco, 36.
A Honduran woman who declined to give her name said she left two months ago because her home was destroyed in Tropical Storm Eta and she heard Biden would “open the border” for 100 days — unaware that the president's 100-day moratorium on deportations, suspended by courts, doesn't cover new arrivals. She planned to send her 9-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son across alone to live with their aunt in Alabama while she returns to Honduras.
Underscoring the dangers, the Border Patrol said Friday that a 9-year-old Mexican girl died crossing the Rio Grande near the city of Eagle Pass.
Mexico's migrant protection agency, Grupos Beta, persuaded many overnight arrivals to be bused to a distant shelter. Crowds at the nearby park had thinned from a few hundred migrants days earlier.
Felicia Rangel, founder of the Sidewalk School, which gives educational opportunities to asylum-seeking children in Mexican border cities, sees the makings of a squalid migrant camp like in nearby Matamoros, which recently closed.
“If they get a foothold in this gazebo, this is going to turn into an encampment,” she said as a church distributed chicken soup, bread and water to migrants for breakfast. “They do not want another encampment in their country.”
Martin Vasquez is among the migrants staying for now. The 19-year-old was expelled after being separated from his 12-year-old brother, who was considered an unaccompanied child and will almost certainly be released to a grandfather in Florida. He said he was inclined to return to Guatemala, where he worked for a moving company, but wanted to wait a while “to see what the news says.”
Also read: Migrants evade Libyan coast guard to reach Europe
Biden leaves door open for Senate change to pass agenda
President Joe Biden at his first news conference Thursday left the door open to pushing for fundamental changes in Senate procedures to muscle key elements of his agenda such as immigration and voting rights past firm Republican opposition "if there's complete lockdown and chaos."
The 78-year-old president also, for the first time, said his "plan is to run for reelection, that is my expectation."
Biden at first backed a modification — but not elimination — of the filibuster. But he then suggested, at least on certain issues, he would go further. "If there's complete lockdown and chaos, as a consequence of the filibuster, then we're going to have to go beyond what I'm talking about," he said.
"I want to get things done. I want to get them done consistent with what we promised the American people," said Biden, who spent decades in the Senate. "I am going to say something outrageous: I have never been particularly poor at calculating getting things done in the United States Senate."
A pair of mass shootings, rising international tensions, early signs of intraparty divisions and increasing numbers of migrants crossing the southern border are all confronting the young Biden administration, which is also navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting economic devastation.
"I am going to deal with all of those problems," Biden pledged.
Biden opened his first formal news conference by doubling his original goal on COVID-19 vaccines by pledging that the nation will administer 200 million doses by the end of his first 100 days in office. The administration had met Biden's initial goal of 100 million doses earlier this month — before even his 60th day in office — as the president pushes to defeat a pandemic that has killed more than 545,000 Americans and devastated the nation's economy.
But while Biden had held off on holding his first news conference so he could use it to celebrate progress against the pandemic and passage of a giant COVID-19 relief package, he was quickly pressed about all sorts of other challenges that have cropped up along the way.
Also read: Biden, Harris and others to promote relief plan's benefits
While seemingly ambitious, Biden's vaccine goal amounts to a continuation of the existing pace of vaccinations through the end of next month. The U.S. is now averaging about 2.5 million doses per day and an even greater rate is possible. Over the next month, two of the bottlenecks to getting Americans vaccinated are set to ease as the U.S. supply of vaccines is on track to increase and states lift eligibility requirements to get shots.
The scene looked very different from what Americans are used to seeing for formal presidential news conferences. The president still stood behind a podium against a backdrop of flags. But due to the pandemic, the White House limited attendance and only 30 socially distanced chairs for journalists were spread out in the expansive room.
"It's an opportunity for him to speak to the American people, obviously directly through the coverage, directly through all of you," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. "And so I think he's thinking about what he wants to say, what he wants to convey, where he can provide updates, and, you know, looking forward to the opportunity to engage with a free press."
Biden is the first chief executive in four decades to reach this point in his term without holding a formal news conference. While he has been on pace with his predecessors in taking questions from the press in other formats, he tends to field just one or two informal inquiries at a time, usually in a hurried setting at the end of an event or in front of a whirring helicopter.
Pressure had mounted on Biden to hold a formal session, which allows reporters to have an extended back-and-forth with the president on the issues of the day. Biden's conservative critics have pointed to the delay to suggest that Biden was being shielded by his staff.
West Wing aides have dismissed the questions about a news conference as a Washington obsession, pointing to Biden's high approval ratings while suggesting that the general public is not concerned about the event. The president himself, when asked Wednesday if he were ready for the press conference, joked, "What press conference?"
Behind the scenes, though, aides have taken the event seriously enough to hold a mock session with the president earlier this week. And there is some concern that Biden, a self-proclaimed "gaffe machine," could go off message and generate a series of unflattering news cycles.
"The press conference serves an important purpose: It presents the press an extended opportunity to hold a leader accountable for decisions," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, presidential scholar and professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "A question I ask: What is the public going to learn in this venue that it couldn't learn elsewhere? And why does it matter? The answer: The president speaks for the nation."
Also read: Americans largely back Biden's virus response
Biden was expected to point to a surge in vaccine distribution, encouraging signs in the economy and the benefits Americans will receive from the sweeping stimulus package.
But plenty of challenges abound.
His appearance comes just a day after he appointed Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the government's response to the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, where the administration faces a growing humanitarian and political challenge that threatens to overshadow Biden's legislative agenda.
In less than a week, two mass shootings have rattled the nation and pressure has mounted on the White House to back tougher gun measures. The White House has struggled to blunt a nationwide effort by Republican legislatures to tighten election laws. A pair of Democratic senators briefly threatened to hold up the confirmation of Biden appointees due to a lack of Asian American representation in the Cabinet. And both North Korea and Russia have unleashed provocative actions to test a new commander in chief.
In a sharp contrast with the previous administration, the Biden White House has exerted extreme message discipline, empowering staff to speak but doing so with caution. The new White House team has carefully managed the president's appearances, which serves Biden's purposes but denies the media opportunities to directly press him on major policy issues and to engage in the kind of back-and-forth that can draw out information and thoughts that go beyond curated talking points.
Having overcome a childhood stutter and famously long-winded, Biden has long enjoyed interplay with reporters and has defied aides' requests to ignore questions from the press. He has been prone to gaffes throughout his long political career and, as president, has occasionally struggled with off-the-cuff remarks.
Also read: Biden plans to order 100 mln more Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine doses
Those are the types of distractions his aides have tried to avoid, and, in a pandemic silver lining, were largely able to dodge during the campaign because the virus kept Biden home for months and limited the potential for public mistakes.
Firmly pledging his belief in freedom of the press, Biden has rebuked his predecessor's incendiary rhetoric toward the media, including Donald Trump's references to reporters as "the enemy of the people." Biden restored the daily press briefing, which had gone extinct under Trump, opening a window into the workings of the White House. And he sat for a national interview with ABC News last week.
Biden has also delivered a series of well-received speeches, including his inaugural address, and has shown that he can effectively communicate beyond news conferences, according to Frank Sesno, former head of George Washington University's school of media.
"His strongest communication is not extemporaneous. He can ramble or stumble into a famous Biden gaffe," said Sesno in a recent interview. "But to this point, he and his team have been very disciplined with the message of the day and in hitting the words of the day."
NATO prepares 'virus-free' zone for summit; Biden invited
Since the coronavirus started spreading through Europe over a year ago, NATO’s headquarters in Brussels has been off-limits to the media and others, but the military alliance now aims to get ahead of Belgium’s vaccine program and have its staff guaranteed to be “virus-free” for a summit in June.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his NATO counterparts are meeting Tuesday in person at the 30-country organization’s headquarters to prepare the summit of national leaders, including President Joe Biden. It’s the first face-to-face meeting of ministers at NATO since 2019.
The European Union, in contrast, called off an in-person summit in Brussels as virus cases spike and will now meet this week by videoconference. Belgium’s health authorities have said the country stands “at the foot of a third wave” of infections unless restrictions are strictly respected.
Also read: US, China wrap up testy 1st face-to-face talks under Biden
Across town at NATO on Thursday, around 20 Polish medical personnel will begin inoculating some of the estimated 4,000 people who work at the military alliance’s headquarters against COVID-19.
They plan to administer around 3,500 AstraZeneca vaccines.
Before the foreign minsters’ meeting he will chair, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Poland as “a highly valued ally” that is helping “to support NATO, to manage the consequences of the pandemic.”
“This is a joint fight, and we are stronger together. And of course, the vaccines will help and support our work here at the headquarters of NATO,” Stoltenberg said.
Asked for details, NATO said the offer is available to all headquarters staff, including people working at the 30 national delegations. It didn’t reply to questions as to why a vaccination campaign is needed and why people working at NATO should have priority for shots.
Also read: Putin points finger at US after Biden’s ‘killer’ remark
Belgium is currently vaccinating people over 65 and those with medical conditions that might endanger their lives should they catch the virus. The disease has killed more than 22,000 people in the country.
Around 7% of the population has been vaccinated, and the government’s program is not running fast enough to ensure that everyone at NATO would be inoculated by the time leaders from Europe and North America gather in about three months. A Belgian official at NATO declined to comment.
NATO did say that “we continue to coordinate closely with the Belgian authorities” and that it will help arrange vaccinations for contractors, personnel from partner countries and the families of NATO staff through a Belgian vaccination center.
In Warsaw, the Polish government official in charge of the national vaccination program, Michal Dworczyk, said that as an ally, Poland was prepared “not only to take but also to give,” and that the vaccines will help ensure health safety at the NATO summit.
Dworczyk insisted that the program will not hurt government efforts to fight the coronavirus, despite some worry in Poland that the vaccine rollout is moving too slowly. He said the 3,500 doses make up less than 1% of the shipments the country is due to receive this week and that the medical personnel involved won’t be taken from hospitals treating COVID-19 patients.
Many people in Poland didn’t show up for AstraZeneca appointments last week because of the concern about the possibility of blood clots — fears the government rejects — and the vaccine doesn’t appear to be in short supply.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Poland has received around 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine and administered just over 640,000 doses, leaving around 600,000 doses in storage.
Also read: Biden, Harris and others to promote relief plan's benefits
Since the coronavirus began spreading, NATO’s sprawling headquarters complex has been off-limits to reporters, but some were being allowed back in for Tuesday’s meeting, provided they could show a recent negative virus test result.
In downtown Brussels, journalists can freely enter the European Parliament building with their media credentials after passing through a temperature scanner.
Donald Trump was the first U.S. president to meet with his NATO counterparts at the new headquarters, in May 2017. The move from the old headquarters wasn’t complete, and the leaders had the building mostly to themselves. The plan for Biden’s inaugural gathering is to have more staff on hand, aiming to ensure that the environment for the summit is as safe as it can be in terms of the coronavirus.
Japan, US to share China worry as ministers meet in Tokyo
Japan and the United States joined forces Tuesday to criticize China's “coercion and aggression" in Asia as senior ministers from both countries held their first in-person talks since President Joe Biden took office in January.
Biden, Harris and others to promote relief plan's benefits
Let the sales push begin.
Biden aims for quicker shots, 'independence from this virus'
One year after the nation was brought to a near-standstill by the coronavirus, President Joe Biden pledged in his first prime-time address to make all adults eligible for vaccines by May 1 and raised the possibility of beginning to "mark our independence from this virus” by the Fourth of July. He offered Americans fresh hope and appealed anew for their help.