Several noted minority community leaders, academics and anti-war crimes campaigners have pulled up six US congressmen for what they called “absolutely false projection” of the state of minorities in Bangladesh in a letter to President Biden, asking to take “appropriate measures” for banning Bangladeshi law enforcement and military personnel from participating in UN peacekeeping missions. They called it a “threat to the existing communal harmony in Bangladesh.”  Asked about the authenticity of the claim in the letter that “Since Sheikh Hasina's rise to power, the Hindu population has been halved,” Advocate Rana Dasgupta, leader of Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Oikya Parishad, outright rejected it. “I will say this claim is a travesty of truth,” he said. Read more: Palbari Puja Mandap in Sherpur: Sign of communal harmony for over a century Referring to a number of surveys, he added, “Between 1947 and 1971, under Pakistani rule, a whopping 9.7% of the population declined.” Since Bangladesh became independent, over the last five decades, Hindu population decreased around 10 percent. This happened considerably when the country was ruled by BNP and Jamaat, he said. In response to such assertions in the letter from the US congressmen, Dasgupta said, “As the national election is approaching, a certain group has become very active.” Referring to earlier lobbying efforts by Jamaat, a political party which has proven record of collaborating with the Pakistani Military junta in 1971 in the acts of genocide, abduction, loot, arson, and rape, Dasgupta, also a prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal, said: “With the singular objective to stop the war crimes trial and enjoy the culture of impunity, Jamaat spent money and struck an agreement with lobbyist groups overseas to get the backing of foreign governments in their favour.” Read: Jamaat demands the govt declare Ahmadiyyas 'non-Muslim' “On the international stage, a systematic smear campaign has been carried out against the trial process,” he said. The letter from the six congressmen also claims “Sheikh Hasina’s government also has persecuted Bangladesh’s minority Christian population – burning and looting places of worship, jailing pastors, and breaking up families when religious conversion occurs.” Leaders of the community including Nirmal Rozario, president of Bangladesh Christian Association, rejected this claim as well. “It is an outright lie. Rather, the reality is that with the return of AL, our community has been living in harmony – with assistance from the prime minister. The government’s development schemes connect the minorities as well,” he said. Eminent researcher and freedom fighter Ajoy Das Gupta, said, “A number of BNP leaders, including Rumeen Farhana, went vocal on social media, justifying the letter.” “BNP and Jamaat hold a sordid record of attacking minorities,” he added. Read more: ‘Hate campaign’ being run against Ahmadiyyas on Twitter, says member of community Calling such assertions “biased, a travesty of justice, and highly motivated,” the minority community leaders also called into question why the US congressmen did not bother to mention the “BNP-Jamaat sponsored hate campaign against minorities”, including a series of tweets posted from the verified account of Basherkella – known as a “Jamaat mouthpiece” – calling for “boycotting” the Ahmadiyya community.

US President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr Jill Biden have greeted Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and his wife Selina Momen on the occasion of New Year 2022. “May gifts from the heart be with you and your family this holiday season,” the US President and First Lady wrote while greeting Dr Momen and his wife.  Read: Bangladesh remains open to foreign observers in next polls: FM Earlier, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken greeted Dr Momen and wished his family a joyous and peaceful New Year. "May you and your family have a joyous holiday season and peaceful New Year," Secretary Blinken wrote in his New Year's message from the US State Department.  

Calling a vaccination “the most patriotic thing you can do,” President Joe Biden on Sunday mixed the nation’s birthday party with a celebration of freedom from the worst of the pandemic. He tempered the strides against COVID-19 with a warning that the fight against the virus wasn’t over. “Today, all across this nation, we can say with confidence: America is coming back together,” Biden declared as he hosted more than 1,000 service members, first responders and other guests for a July Fourth celebration on the South Lawn of the White House. Read: Biden urges shots for young adults as variant concern grows For Biden it was a long-awaited opportunity to highlight the success of the vaccination campaign he championed. The event was the largest yet of his presidency, the clearest indication yet that the U.S. had moved into a new phase of virus response. Shifting from a national emergency to a localized crisis of individual responsibility, the nation also moved from vaccinating Americans to promoting global health. “This year the Fourth of July is a day of special celebration, for we’re emerging from the darkness of a year of pandemic and isolation, a year of pain fear and heartbreaking loss,” the president said before fireworks lit up the sky over the National Mall. Noting the lockdowns that shuttered businesses, put millions out of work and separated untold numbers of families, Biden said: “Today we’re closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus. That’s not to say the battle against COVID-19 is over. We’ve got a lot more work to do.” Biden wanted all Americans to celebrate, too, after enduring 16 months of disruption in the pandemic and more than 605,000 deaths. The White House encouraged gatherings and fireworks displays all around the country to mark — as though ripped from a Hollywood script — the nation’s “independence” from the virus. And there was much to cheer: Cases and deaths from COVID-19 were at or near record lows since the outbreak began, thanks to the robust U.S. vaccination program. Businesses and restaurants were open, hiring was picking up and travel was getting closer to pre-pandemic levels. However, Biden’s optimism was measured for good reason. The vaccination goal he had set with great fanfare for July Fourth — 70% of the adult population vaccinated — fell short at 67%, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More concerning to officials was the gap between heavily vaccinated communities where the virus was dying out and lesser-vaccinated ones where a more infectious variant of the virus was already taking hold. Read: Biden promotes milestone of 300M vaccine shots in 150 days More than 200 Americans still die each day from COVID-19, and tens of millions have chosen not to get the lifesaving vaccines. “If you’ve had the vaccine, you’re doing great,” said Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center and St. Louis Board of Health. “If you haven’t had the vaccine, you should be alarmed and that’s just the bottom line, there’s no easy way to cut it.” “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that this country is in a significantly better place,” she said. Still, about 1,000 counties have a vaccination rate below 30%, and the federal government is warning that they could become the next hot spots as virus restrictions ease. The administration was sending “surge” teams to Colorado and Missouri. Additional squads of infectious disease experts, public health professionals and doctors and nurses were getting ready to assist in additional locations with a combination of low vaccination rates and rising cases. Overall, the vastly improved American landscape stood in stark contrast with much of the rest of the world, where there remained vast vaccine deserts and wide community spread that could open the door to even more dangerous variants. The Biden administration was increasingly turning the federal response to the complicated logistics of sending excess U.S. vaccines abroad in an effort to assist other nations in beating back the pandemic. With U.S. demand for vaccines falling even as they have been widely available for months, and as governments and businesses dangled an array of incentives at Americans to get a shot, officials were increasingly emphasizing that the consequences of disease now largely reflect the individual choices of those who are not yet vaccinated. “The suffering and loss we are now seeing is nearly entirely avoidable,” said the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. When asked about the potential risks of holding gatherings around July Fourth in areas where there are large pockets of unvaccinated individuals, White House press secretary Jen Psaki had countered that “if individuals are vaccinated in those areas, then they are protected.” The cookout and fireworks viewing at the South Lawn was “being done in the right way,” White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said in television interviews, and “consistent” with CDC guidelines. The White House was not requiring vaccinations but was asking guests to get a COVID-19 test and to wear a mask if they are not fully vaccinated. “For as much work there still is to do, it’s so important to celebrate the victories,” Davis said. “I’m OK with us having those pockets of joy and celebration as long as we still wake up the next day and continue to go to work and prioritize equity in vaccine distribution.”

President Joe Biden will call for free preschool for all three- and four-year-old children, a $200 billion investment to be rolled out as part of his sweeping American Families Plan being unveiled Wednesday in an address to Congress. The administration said the historic investment would benefit 5 million children and save the average family $13,000. It calls for providing federal funds to help the states offer preschool, with teachers and other employees earning $15 an hour. Also Read:Climate Change: Biden's administration urged to take genuine leadership role “These investments will give American children a head start and pave the way for the best-educated generation in U.S. history,” the administration said. The new details are part of Biden’s $1 trillion-plus package, an ambitious next phase of his massive infrastructure investment program, this one focused on so-called human infrastructure — child care, health care, education and other core aspects of the household architecture that undergird everyday life for countless Americans. Together with Biden’s American Jobs Plan, a $2.3 trillion infrastructure investment to be funded by a corporate tax hike, they add up a whopping $4 trillion effort to fulfill his campaign vow to Build Back Better. The American Families Plan would be paid for by hiking taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Americans, in keeping with the president’s vow not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 a year. Ahead of Wednesday’s speech, lawmakers have been pushing to make sure key priorities are included. A group of leading centrist and progressive Democrats met late Tuesday with the White House to discuss its priority of making permanent the Child Tax Credit, which was increased to as much as $300 a month as part of a COVID-19 relief package. Right now, that benefit expires in 2022 and Biden has suggested extending it to 2025. Also Read: Biden: We'll 'manage the hell' out of feds' COVID response “We’re hopeful,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, the chairman of the Banking Committee and advocate for a permanent child tax credit. “We want it to be permanent because it’s so important for so many people’s lives.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to have secured one top priority for Democrats, lowering the cost of buying health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Biden’s plan is expected to extend the enhanced health insurance subsidies that had been approved as part of COVID-19 relief, rather than allowing them to expire in 2022, according to a Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. But another key priority of Pelosi and Democrats — lowering prescription drug costs — is not expected to be in the package, the aide said. Also unlikely to make the final draft is a push from progressives led by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to reduce the Medicare eligibility age, which is now set at 65, and expand Medicare’s benefits to include access to dental, vision and hearing aid care for seniors. Sanders vowed Tuesday to add those provisions once Congress begins drafting the legislation. “The bill that we’re going to be writing will include negotiations with pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices raising substantial sums of money, and using that to expand Medicare,” Sanders said at the Capitol. The president’s speech and the rollout of the American Families Plan come as Biden is marking his first 100 days in the White House, a rare moment for congressional action. Democrats narrowly control the House and Senate, giving the president’s party the full sweep of power for the first time in a decade. Also Read: Biden's first 100 days: Where he stands on key promises While Biden is determined to reach out for bipartisanship, Republicans in Congress have largely panned his proposals as big government spending and vowed to oppose them. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called Biden’s administration the “bait and switch” presidency for talking up bipartisanship but then leaving Republicans behind to negotiate legislation only with Democrats. “President Biden ran as a moderate but I’m hard pressed to think of anything at all that he’s done so far that would indicate some degree of moderation,” McConnell said Tuesday. But Biden’s Democratic allies in Congress are just as determined to ensure to seize this rare alignment of political power to deliver on long-sought priorities. “What I’d like to hear him talk about is the importance of investing in the American people and in our infrastructure,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. “It’s been decades since we’ve done that as a country.” Republicans complain that the White House is stretching the traditional definition of infrastructure beyond roads and bridges to include electric vehicle charging stations, veterans hospitals, child care centers and other developments. But Democrats counter that times have changed. “Childcare is infrastructure,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a press conference. “Infrastructure is all about people being able to get to work — roads, bridges, communications — and childcare is part of that.” The White House has portrayed its plan as a Robin Hood-style effort to tax the rich in order to spend on benefits for the middle class and poor. It’s an argument that the hundreds of billions of dollars controlled by the wealthiest sliver of the country would lead to better results for the country if they were distributed instead to families. In addition to free preschool, the American Families Plan would extend an expanded child tax credit through 2025, giving parents monthly payments of at least $250 per child. The plan would also provide free community college and paid family leave, among other benefits. Funding the initiative would be a tax increase on the extremely rich, most notably a near doubling of the capital gains tax rate on incomes above $1 million to 39.6%. Similarly, the top income tax bracket for those households earning beyond $400,000 is expected to revert to 39.6%, according to a Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss the planning. That had been the top rate before the 2017 GOP tax overhaul approved by Donald Trump. Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said revenue from the capital gains tax “would help invest directly in our kids and our families and our future economic competitiveness.” Republican leaders have said they are unwilling to undo the 2017 tax law, their signature achievement of the Trump presidency, to pay for what they view as big spending by Democrats. No Republicans voted for Biden’s coronavirus rescue plan, which was signed into law last month. Last week, Republican senators proposed an alternative infrastructure plan focused on more traditional highway and bridge investments that would be one-fourth the cost, paid for by tolls and other user fees.

As he rounds out his first 100 days in office, President Joe Biden’s focus on reigning in the coronavirus during the early months of his administration seems to have paid off: He can check off nearly all his campaign promises centered on the pandemic. Biden has delivered on a number of his biggest campaign pledges focused on climate change and the economy as well. But some issues have proven to be tougher for the administration — including immigration, where Biden is grappling with how to enact promised reforms in the face of a steep increase in unaccompanied minors seeking to cross the border. On some of his promises, Biden is waiting for Congress to act. Where Biden stands on some of his key promises: IMMIGRATION — Raise refugee cap to 125,000, up from the 15,000 set by President Donald Trump. Nowhere close. The White House first said it would stick to Trump’s 15,000 cap due to “humanitarian concerns.” After facing backlash from Democrats, it shifted gears and said Biden would increase the historically low cap on refugees set by Trump — but probably not all the way to the 62,500 that Biden previously had planned. And the numbers actually admitted this year are likely to be closer to 15,000. — Surge humanitarian resources to the border and encourage public-private partnerships to deal with an increase in migration there. Yes, but is it enough? The Department of Homeland Security has deployed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help deal with the crisis a major increase of border arrivals, and Biden signed an executive order asking officials to prepare plans for using humanitarian resources there. He has yet to establish any new public-private partnerships. The largest number of unaccompanied children ever at the border created massive overcrowding at Customs and Border Protection facilities and set off a mad scramble for temporary space at convention centers, military bases and other large venues. — Reform the U.S. asylum system. Incomplete. Biden signed an executive order in February directing his officials to craft a strategy for migration, including refugees and asylum seekers. Biden has promised to unveil a new “humane” asylum system but he and his aides have been mum on timing and offered no specifics. He’s eliminated some Trump-era policies, like a requirement that new asylum seekers to wait in Mexico. But he has kept a controversial Trump-era policy that allows Customs and Border Protection to expel undocumented migrants to avoid the spread of COVID-19. And Biden has yet to articulate a plan to manage asylum flows beyond proposing that billions of dollars be spent to address root causes in Central America. — Deliver a comprehensive immigration reform bill to Congress within his first 100 days. Done. — End travel restrictions on people from a number of Muslim-majority countries. Done. — Reverse Trump-era order expanding criteria for deporting immigrants and return to Obama-era principle of prioritizing deportations of immigrants posing a national security, border security or public health risk. Done. — Stop funding and building the border wall. Done. — Reverse Trump’s public charge rule discouraging immigrants from using public benefits. Done. — Restore the Obama-era principle of deporting foreigners who are seen as posing a national security threat or who have committed crimes in addition to the crime of illegal entry. Done. — Freeze deportations for 100 days. Attempted, but blocked in court. — Streamline and improve the naturalization process for green card holders. In progress. Biden signed an executive order in February ordering a plan to improve the naturalization process, and the Department of Homeland Security has since revoked some Trump-era rules, sought public input into naturalization barriers and reverted to a 2008 version of the U.S. civics test for applicants, considered more accessible than the Trump-era revamp. — End family separation and create task force to reunite families separated at the border. In progress. Biden signed executive orders ending the policy and establishing a task force focused on reuniting families. The task force is making slow progress as it pores over thousands of records. — Order a review of Temporary Protected Status No review has been ordered, but Biden’s Department of Homeland Security has granted TPS for Venezuelans and Burmese, extended it for Syrians and extended a related program for Liberians. — Convene a regional meeting of leaders, including officials from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Canada, to address the factors driving migration and propose a regional resettlement solution. Not yet. Vice President Kamala Harris, tasked with dealing with the root causes of migration, has spoken to the leaders of Mexico and Guatemala, but no regional meeting is on the horizon. — Protect those often described as “dreamers” — young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents — and their families by reinstating DACA, the Obama-era policy defending thems from deportation. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in March his agency was issuing a rule to “preserve and fortify DACA,” but the policy faces a Texas court challenge that could invalidate protections for those often decribed as “dreamers.” — Ensure that personnel within Immigration and Customs Enforcement and within Customs and Border Protection abide by professional standards and are held accountable for inhumane treatment. Biden included funding for training and investigating misconduct in his immigration bill and in the budget he proposed to Congress. His administration has faced questions about allegations of abuse in at least one Texas facility, which are being investigated. — End prolonged migrant detention and invest in a case-management system to process people. There’s been no announcement of added investments in case-management systems. The administration did roll out plans to release parents and children within 72 hours of their arrival in the United States in March. Officials subsequently acknowledged that hundreds of children have been held by Border Patrol for much longer, due to an increase in unaccompanied minors arriving at the border and a lack of facilities to house them. ___ DOMESTIC POLICY — Reverse transgender military ban. Done. — Establish police oversight board. Abandoned. The Biden administration said it was scrapping the idea, after consultations with civil rights groups and police unions that said it would be counterproductive. — Direct attorney general to deliver a list of recommendations for restructuring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other Justice Department agencies to better enforce gun laws Not yet. — Direct FBI to issue report on delays in background checks for gun purchases. Not yet. — Reauthorize Violence Against Women Act Requires congressional action. — Sign Equality Act Requires congressional action. — Create Cabinet-level working group focused on promoting union organizing tasked with delivering a plan to increase union density and address economic inequality Not yet. ___ COVID-19 — Rejoin World Health Organization Done. — Ensure 100 million vaccines have been administered before the end of his first 100 days, later increased to 200 million. Done. — Increase access to testing and establish pandemic testing board. Done. — Issue mask mandate on federal property and ask Americans to wear masks for 100 days. Done. — Extend nationwide restrictions on home evictions and foreclosures. Done. — Continue to pause student loan payments. Done. — Safely reopen a majority of K-8 schools. According to data collected by Burbio, a school-tracking site, as of April 18 62% of schools offered in-person learning every day. It’s unclear what percentage of those schools are elementary schools. — Push for passage of $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief legislative package announced last week. Done; the bill passed in March. ___ CLIMATE — Rescind Keystone XL oil pipeline permit, protect the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, rejoin the Paris Climate agreement and embrace the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol to reduce harmful hydrofluorocarbons, or HFC’s. Done. — Convene climate world summit and persuade nations to set more ambitious emissions pledges. Done. — Ban new oil and gas leases on federal lands and offshore waters. Sort of — he’s imposed an indefinite moratorium on new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. — Reverse Trump rollbacks on 100 public health and environmental rules. In progress. Biden signed an executive order on Inauguration Day ordering a review of Trump-era rules on the environment, public health and science, and has begun the process of rolling back some. ___ ECONOMY — Roll back Trump’s 2017 cuts to corporate tax rates. In progress. Biden has proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from the 21% rate set by Trump’s 2017 overhaul of the tax code. — Provide $2,000 in direct payments as part of COVID-19 relief. Done. The aid package approved right before Biden became president offered $600 in direct payments to eligible Americans. Biden said the payment should have been $2,000. His $1.9 trillion relief package included $1,400 in additional direct payments, which with the prior round adds up to $2,000. — Pause federal student debt payments. Done. — Order a review of U.S. supply chains. Done. ___ FOREIGN POLICY — “End the forever wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East” and terminate U.S. involvement in the Yemen civil war. In progress. Biden announced that the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan would begin by May 1 and the redeployment would be done no later than Sept. 11. Biden announced he was ending American support for the five-year Saudi Arabia-led military offensive in Yemen. — Put human rights at the center of foreign policy. Mixed. Biden has directly raised concerns with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Hong Kong, human rights abuses against Uyghur and ethnic minorities in the western Xinjiang province, and its actions toward Taiwan. He’s repeatedly raised concerns about the jailing and treatment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. But Biden declined to hold Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, directly responsible for the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi even after the publication of U.S. intelligence showing Salman approved of the hit. — Improving relations with allies who had rocky relations with Trump. Mostly accomplished. Allies like Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Germany’s Angela Merkel, who had stormy relationships with Trump, have praised Biden for his efforts reclaim U.S. leadership on climate issues, and leaders in the Indo-Pacific have been pleased by early efforts at coordination on China policy. — Reversing the embrace of “dictators and tyrants like Putin and Kim Jong Un.” Mostly accomplished. Biden has levied two rounds of sanctions against the Russians. His administration decided to be measured in its approach with Putin and has said that he’s interested in finding areas where the U.S. and Russia can find common ground. Biden’s team acknowledges they have sought to reengage with North Korea, but have been rebuffed. — Quickly rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran so long as Tehran comes back into compliance. Mixed. Indirect talks are under way among other signatories of the 2015 deal, including British, German, French, Chinese and Russian officials, with American officials down the hall. But the path forward is less than certain as Tehran has thus far refused to come into compliance with the old deal without sanctions relief and it recently began enriching uranium to its highest purity ever. — Recognize World War I-era atrocities against Armenians as genocide. Completed. As a candidate, Biden said, if elected, he’d make it U.S. policy to recognize the killings and mass deportations by Ottoman Empire forces of hundreds of thousands of Armenians more than a century ago — something past presidents have avoided doing out of concern of angering strategic ally Turkey. Biden followed through on the promise on the annual commemoration Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. Turkey swiftly condemned the move.

President Joe Biden is preparing to unveil a series of executive actions aimed at addressing gun violence, delivering his first major action on gun control since taking office. Biden on Thursday will also nominate David Chipman, a former federal agent and adviser at the gun control group Giffords, to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to senior Biden administration officials. Also Read:Biden's big infrastructure plan hits McConnell, GOP blockade Biden has faced increasing pressure to act on gun control after a spate of mass shootings across the U.S. in recent weeks, but the White House has repeatedly emphasized the need for legislative action on guns. While the House passed a background-check bill last month, gun control measures face slim prospects in an evenly divided Senate, where Republicans remain near-unified against most proposals. Biden will be joined by Attorney General Merrick Garland at the event, and most of the actions will come from the Justice Department. Biden is expected to announce tighter regulations requiring buyers of “ghost guns” to undergo background checks. The homemade firearms — often assembled from parts and milled with a metal-cutting machine — often lack serial numbers used to trace them. It’s legal to build a gun in a home or a workshop and there is no federal requirement for a background check. The president’s plans were previewed by a person familiar with the expected actions who was not authorized to publicly discuss them. Senior administration officials confirmed that the Justice Department would issue a new proposed rule aimed at reining in ghost guns within 30 days, but offered no details on the content of the rule. The Justice Department will also issue a proposed rule within 60 days tightening regulations on pistol-stabilizing braces, like the one used by the Boulder, Colorado, shooter in a massacre last month that left 10 dead. The rule would designate pistols used with stabilizing braces as short-barreled rifles, which, under the National Firearms Act, require a federal license to own and are subject to a more thorough application process and a $200 tax. The Justice Department will also publish model red flag legislation within 60 days, which the administration says will make it easier for states to adopt their own red flag laws. Such laws allow for individuals to petition a court to allow the police to confiscate weapons from a person deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. And it will begin to provide more data on firearms trafficking, starting with a new comprehensive report on the issue, which the Biden administration says it hasn’t done in over two decades. The president will also announce investments in community violence intervention programs, which are aimed at reducing gun violence in urban communities, across five federal agencies. Administration officials hinted there may be more to come from the administration on guns, calling the round of executive actions “initial steps” that were completed under Garland’s purview within the first few weeks of his tenure. The ATF is currently run by acting Director Regina Lombardo. Gun-control advocates have emphasized the significance of the ATF director in enforcing the nation’s gun laws, and Chipman is certain to win praise from them. During his time as a senior policy adviser with Giffords, he spent considerable effort pushing for greater regulation and enforcement on ghost guns, reforms of the background check system and measures to reduce the trafficking of illegal firearms. Prior to that, Chipman spent 25 years as an agent at the ATF, where he worked on stopping a trafficking ring that sent illegal firearms from Virginia to New York, and served on the ATF’s SWAT team. Chipman is a gun owner himself. He also is an explosives expert and was among the team involved in investigating the Oklahoma City Bombing and the first World Trade Center bombing. He also was involved in investigating a series of church bombings in Alabama in the 1990s. He retired from the ATF in 2012. Chipman and a White House spokesman both declined to comment. During his campaign, Biden promised to prioritize new gun control measures as president, including enacting universal background check legislation, banning online sales of firearms and the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But gun-control advocates have said that while they were heartened by signs from the White House that they took the issue seriously, they’ve been disappointed by the lack of early action. With the announcement of the new measures, however, advocates lauded Biden’s first moves to combat gun violence. “Each of these executive actions will start to address the epidemic of gun violence that has raged throughout the pandemic, and begin to make good on President Biden’s promise to be the strongest gun safety president in history,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. Feinblatt in particular praised the move to regulate ghost guns, which he said “will undoubtedly save countless lives,” and lauded Chipman as an “invaluable point person” in the fight against illegal gun trafficking. He also said the group is looking forward to continuing to work with the Biden administration on further gun control measures, but it’s unclear what next moves the White House, or lawmakers on Capitol Hill, will be able to take. Biden himself expressed uncertainty late last month when asked if he had the political capital to pass new gun control proposals, telling reporters, “I haven’t done any counting yet.” For years, federal officials have been sounding the alarm about an increasing black market for homemade, military-style semi-automatic rifles and handguns. Ghost guns have increasingly turned up at crime scenes and in recent years have been turning up more and more when federal agents are purchasing guns in undercover operations from gang members and other criminals. It is hard to say how many are circulating on the streets, in part because in many cases police departments don’t even contact the federal government about the guns because they can’t be traced. Some states, like California, have enacted laws in recent years to require serial numbers be stamped on ghost guns. The critical component in building an untraceable gun is what is known as the lower receiver, a part typically made of metal or polymer. An unfinished receiver — sometimes referred to as an “80-percent receiver” — can be legally bought online with no serial numbers or other markings on it, no license required. A gunman who killed his wife and four others in Northern California in 2017 had been prohibited from owning firearms, but he built his own to skirt the court order before his rampage. And in 2019, a teenager used a homemade handgun to fatally shoot two classmates and wound three others at a school in suburban Los Angeles. Plans for Biden’s announcement Thursday were first reported by Politico.