Biden voices support for humanitarian 'pause' in Israel-Hamas war

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, when responding to a heckler at a Minnesota campaign event Wednesday night, said he thinks there should be a humanitarian "pause" in the Israeli-Hamas war to get "prisoners" out of Gaza.

The 80-year-old Democrat was delivering remarks to some 200 supporters in the northern US state when a member of the audience shouted out to him.

"As a rabbi, I need you to call for a ceasefire right now," she said, referring to the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The president responded: "I think we need a pause. A pause means giving time to get the prisoners out."

Asked about his remarks, the White House later clarified that by "prisoners" the president was referring to hostages held by Hamas.

Biden engaged further with the woman, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the nickname Bibi.

"I'm the guy that convinced Bibi to call for a ceasefire to let the prisoners out. I'm the guy that talked to (Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-)Sisi to convince him to open the door" along Gaza's border with Egypt to allow freed hostages to leave.

Biden indicated that he was discussing the recent release of two US hostages formerly held by the Palestinian Islamist group.

The White House has previously called for "humanitarian pauses" to allow aid to be delivered into Gaza or to carry out evacuations, but has so far refused to discuss a ceasefire, believing it would exclusively play into the hands of Hamas.

The war between Israel and Hamas entered its 26th day on Wednesday.

In retaliation for the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli army has relentlessly bombed the Gaza Strip, and has launched an increasingly extensive ground operation into the territory.

Agence France-Presse

Biden aims to wrest influence from China in Pacific islands

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden is set to host leaders of Pacific island nations with an aim of countering China's ever-growing influence, proffering goodies ranging from an American football experience to shiny new embassies.

The summit of leaders from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum will take place Monday and Tuesday, one year after the first meeting, which was also in Washington.

According to senior administration officials, Biden will announce a more assertive US stance in the region, funding for infrastructure projects and strengthened maritime cooperation, in particular to fight against illegal fishing.

The forum brings together states and territories scattered across the Pacific Ocean, from Australia to sparsely populated micro-states and archipelagos.

There is "no question that there is some role that the PRC has played in all this," a senior White House official said on condition of anonymity, referring to China by the abbreviation of its formal name.

China's "assertiveness and influence, including in this region, has been a factor that requires us to sustain our strategic focus."

- Absence noted -

China's influence will be felt through the absence of the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, now closely aligned with Beijing.

Manasseh Sogavare, who was in New York this past week to attend the UN General Assembly, did not extend his stay in the United States.

"We're disappointed that he's chosen not to come to this very special summit," another White House official said.

Another goal of the meeting is to renegotiate "Compacts of Free Association" with the Marshall Islands before current terms expire Saturday.

The agreement, which Washington also has with Micronesia and the Palau archipelago -- other territories formerly under American administration -- allows the United States to have a military presence on the islands.

In exchange, Washington provides economic assistance and security guarantees, and inhabitants of the islands can live and work in the United States.

The Marshall Islands is demanding that any new agreement account for the effects of Washington's nuclear testing program there in the 1940s and '50s.

The Biden administration hopes to announce "very substantial progress" in the negotiations, the second White House official said.

- Enticements -

Biden had been due to follow up last year's inaugural summit with a meeting of Pacific leaders this May, in Papua New Guinea. But he cut short an Asia trip and returned stateside to address a debt-ceiling crisis.

For the Washington summit, Biden has prepared a full program, kicking off with an afternoon of American gridiron.

The leaders will travel by train on Sunday to Baltimore, where they will be guests of honor at an NFL game between the port city's Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts.

Monday's agenda features meetings and a lunch with Biden. On Tuesday, the leaders will meet with top officials on climate and the economy, and spend time with US lawmakers.

According to the administration officials, the United States will announce the establishment of diplomatic ties with the Cook Islands and Niue, a tiny territory with fewer than 2,000 inhabitants.

Washington has opened embassies in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, and wants to inaugurate one early next year in Vanuatu.

The Americans will also unveil millions in infrastructure aid, including funds for secure undersea telecommunications cables.

Finally, the White House intends to propose that the Pacific island states join the "Quad," a defense cooperation forum bringing together the US, Australia, India and Japan to cooperate on maritime surveillance, especially tracking down vessels engaged in illegal fishing.

Agence France-Presse

Biden: 'I don't want to contain China'

HANOI, Vietnam -- US President Joe Biden insisted Sunday he does not want to "contain" China, as the two powers face deepening divisions on trade, security and rights.

Biden said he had met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 summit in New Delhi -- a meeting the White House had not announced -- and discussed "stability".

The president revealed the encounter in Hanoi, where earlier in the day he agreed a deal to deepen ties with Vietnam as Washington looks to bolster its network of allies around Asia and the Pacific in the face of Beijing's rising influence.

Washington and Beijing are at loggerheads on a range of global issues, and Biden accused China of seeking to bend the international order to its will.

"One of the things that is going on now is China is beginning to change some of the rules of the game, in terms of trade and other issues," Biden told a news conference.

Washington has invested heavily in building alliances as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, including the Quad security dialogue with India, Australia and Japan, and the AUKUS pact with Britain and Australia.

But he insisted the United States is not seeking to box China in, but rather to establish clear ground rules for relations.

"I don't want to contain China. I just want to make sure we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it's all about," he said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the G20 as Beijing and Delhi tussle over territorial and other issues.

Agence France-Presse

Biden 'optimistic' on debt talks with Republicans as default looms

WASHINGTON —President Joe Biden said Sunday he remains "optimistic" about finding an agreement with his Republican opponents to raise the US debt limit and avoid a default, which his administration warned would cause "catastrophic" consequences.

Congressional Republicans are demanding budget cuts in exchange for lifting the US borrowing limit, while the White House has insisted for months that the nation's credit should not be up for negotiation.

Alarm bells are meanwhile ringing over the possibility of a first-ever US default, with uncertainty over the actual date the government would stop being able to pay its bills.

The two sides have remained at an impasse despite weeks of warnings from government officials and bankers that a default could unleash drastic consequences, including a possible recession and likely global financial contagion.

Nonetheless, Biden said Sunday he thinks he will eventually be able to reach a deal.

"I remain optimistic because I'm a congenital optimist, but I really think there's a desire on their part as well as ours to reach agreement. I think we'll be able to do it," Biden told reporters while out on a bike ride near his beach home in Delaware.

A much-anticipated new round of debt-ceiling talks between Biden and Republican leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was postponed from Friday until the coming week.

Asked if the Tuesday meeting was still on, Biden said: "I think so."

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned a default could occur by June 1, while the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office forecast on Friday the date of June 15.

"We shouldn't be here," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

"If Congress failed to raise the debt limit by the time of default, we would go into a recession and it'd be catastrophic," he warned.

"The United States of America has never defaulted on its debt -- and we can't."

'MASSIVE CUTS' 

Biden has stated he wants a "clean" hike of the debt ceiling, but Republicans are insisting any extension of the country's borrowing authority, currently capped at $31.4 trillion, come with substantial curbs on spending.

"It's time to bring spending levels back to pre-Covid, and then we can talk about raising the debt ceiling," Byron Donalds, a Republican representative from Florida, told FOX News on Sunday.

"If Joe Biden brings nothing to the table, if all he does is sit there with his hands in his pockets... then he's the one leading our nation into default."

Former president Donald Trump has encouraged Republican lawmakers to hold out for a default if Biden doesn't agree to "massive cuts."

The looming possibility of a default has also threatened Biden's upcoming trip to Asia for a G7 leaders meeting, among other events in the region.

Asked by reporters Sunday if he still planned to leave this week, Biden said: "That's my plan as it stands now."

'CONSTRUCTIVE' NEGOTIATIONS 

Adeyemo acknowledged "constructive" negotiations were ongoing at the staff level, while pushing back on assertions that Biden does not want to address ballooning US debt.

"The president's laid out a plan that includes $3 trillion in debt relief over 10 years," Adeyemo said, referring to Biden's budget request unveiled in March, which featured tax increases on the wealthy and businesses.

Congressional leaders should address ways to hammer out a deal on fiscal policy, "but as we have that conversation, there is no reason we shouldn't raise the debt limit and prevent default in this country, a default that could lead to a massive recession that would cost us millions of jobs," he said.

Lael Brainard, director of the White House's National Economic Council, maintained that a deal would be reached.

"Our expectation is that Congress will do what is necessary" to avoid a default, Brainard, a former Federal Reserve vice chair, told CBS Sunday show "Face the Nation."

Biden addressed the issue on Saturday in Delaware, where he talked briefly to reporters.

"They're moving along," he said of the talks. But while there was "real discussion," he added the two sides were "not there yet."

Agence France-Presse 

Yellen warns of 'chaos' if US fails to raise debt ceiling

WASHINGTON, United States - US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Sunday that unless Congress acts soon to raise the nation's debt ceiling, "financial and economic chaos would ensue."

Republicans have been pressing President Joe Biden to strike a deal to provide spending cuts in exchange for lifting the national borrowing limit, but Yellen insisted the onus remains on US lawmakers.

"It simply is unacceptable for Congress to threaten economic calamity for American households and the global financial system as the cost of raising the debt ceiling," she told ABC talk show "This Week."

Yellen had warned on Monday that the United States could run out of money to pay its financial obligations as early as June 1.

The ceiling on US public debt is legally fixed and can be raised only by passage of congressional legislation signed into law by the president.

The Republican-led House of Representatives, positioning itself for a showdown with Biden, voted in late April to lift the borrowing limit but only with drastic cuts to rein in what that party sees as excessive spending.

The bill has no chance of being adopted in the Senate, with its Democratic majority.

Biden has so far refused to negotiate, noting that the debt ceiling has routinely been raised scores of times over the years -- including under former Republican president Donald Trump.

But Republicans insist Biden's refusal to talk is the principal obstacle.

"The president has refused to negotiate," Senator James Lankford, a Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told ABC. "That has been the most stunning part about this."

Biden is set to meet on Tuesday with the leaders of both parties in Congress.

"I know he wants to set up a process in which spending priorities and levels are discussed," said Yellen, "but these negotiations should not take place with a gun pointed at the head of the American people."

She sidestepped questions about the possibility Biden might use a novel interpretation of the US Constitution to simply keep paying the nation's bills, saying that in the absence of congressional action, "there are simply no good options."

The impasse has raised the possibility of the country's first-ever default, with profound implications for the US and global economies.

Analysts say markets would be shaken and interest rates would lastingly rise, causing households and businesses to pull back on spending.

A default, Biden's economic advisors warn, could cause the loss of eight million jobs and send GDP plunging by six percent.

Since the United States hit its $31.4 trillion borrowing limit in January, the Treasury has taken extraordinary measures to allow it to continue financing the government's activities.

But as Yellen said Monday, those measures will soon be exhausted.

Agence France-Presse

Biden vows to hold those responsible for bank failures 'fully accountable'

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday vowed to hold "fully accountable" the people responsible for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and a second financial institution, Signature Bank, as he sought to reassure Americans their deposits are safe.

"I am firmly committed to holding those responsible for this mess fully accountable and to continuing our efforts to strengthen oversight and regulation of larger banks so that we are not in this position again," Biden said in a statement.

"The American people and American businesses can have confidence that their bank deposits will be there when they need them," the president added, in remarks he also posted on Twitter.

Agence France-Presse

US says China balloon 'fleet' is global as NATO joins concern

WASHINGTON - The United States said Wednesday that suspected Chinese spy balloons like the one it shot down were part of a "fleet" that has spanned five continents, as NATO joined in voicing concern.

Pointing to global ramifications of the incident that has animated the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was giving data to allies as it assesses the recovered debris.

"We already shared information with dozens of countries around the world, both from Washington and through our embassies," Blinken said.

"We're doing so because the United States was not the only target of this broader program, which has violated the sovereignty of countries across five continents," he told a joint news conference with NATO's visiting chief.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking separately to reporters on Air Force One, described the balloons as part of a "fleet" and said they had been spotted around the world for several years.

A huge white balloon carrying sophisticated equipment traversed the continental United States last week before President Joe Biden ordered the military to shoot it down just off the east coast in the Atlantic.

China insists that the balloon was merely conducting weather research, but the Pentagon described it as a high-tech spying operation. The balloon floated at an altitude far higher than most airplanes and crossed directly over at least one sensitive US military site.

'PATTERN BY CHINA'

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, whose visit to Washington followed a trip to Japan and South Korea, said the balloon showed the need for countries across the alliance to protect themselves.

"The Chinese balloon over the United States confirms a pattern of Chinese behavior where we see that China over the last years has invested heavily in new military capabilities," Stoltenberg said.

"We've also seen increased Chinese intelligence activities in Europe. They use satellites, they use cyber and, as we've seen over the United States, also balloons. So we just have to be vigilant," he said.

Stoltenberg also issued a new warning that China was drawing lessons from the war in Ukraine, which NATO countries have been supporting as it fights back Russian invaders.

"What happens in Europe today could happen in Asia tomorrow," Stoltenberg said, pointing to China's pressure on Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by Beijing.

The Washington Post, quoting US officials, reported that the Chinese surveillance program has been run partly out of the southern island of Hainan.

Updating old technology, the balloons have been used to monitor the military assets of nearby rivals such as Japan, India and Taiwan, the newspaper said.

Biden, in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, said that his orders to shoot down the balloon showed that the United States would not hesitate to act when needed.

But he also stressed that the United States did not want conflict with China. The balloon episode led Blinken to postpone a trip to China in which he had hoped to work at easing tensions.

China, which voiced regret about the air intrusion but later denounced the US decision to down it, responded to Biden that it would also "firmly defend" its interests.

US officials said they took measures to prevent the balloon's instruments from collecting confidential information during its flight.

They say that the decision to wait until the balloon reached water was the only way to ensure the safety of people on the ground.

Biden's Republican rivals say he should have ordered the balloon to be destroyed as soon as it was identified.

Agence France-Presse

Biden admits 'very slight' US recession possibility

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden conceded Tuesday that a "slight" recession was a possibility following a downcast IMF economic forecast, amid rising inflation and uncertainty after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"I don't think there will be a recession," Biden told CNN. "If it is, it'll be a very slight recession. That is, we’ll move down slightly."

Agence France-Presse

White House pushes to address US teacher shortage

Joe Biden's administration on Wednesday announced it is taking action to tackle a US-wide teacher deficit brought about in part by low salaries, as it coordinates with online organizations and unions to boost recruitment.

First Lady Jill Biden, herself a longtime community college educator, was set to present the initiatives later in the day at the White House.

"Too many schools are struggling to fill vacancies for teachers" and other critical school professionals, the administration said in a statement as it called for increases in teacher pay.

"On average, teachers make about 33 percent less than other college-educated professionals," the White House said, pointing out that after accounting for inflation, the average weekly wage for public school teachers increased just $29 between 1996 and last year.

While the US executive branch does not have direct control over teacher hiring or pay at the federal level – that is the responsibility of state and local governments º it nevertheless hopes to take indirect action.

The White House announced new initiatives by three online companies aimed at showcasing public school job opportunities, steering graduates towards careers in education, and holding nationwide virtual hiring fairs for teachers.

The US departments of education and labor issued a joint letter Wednesday to school districts urging them to boost teacher pay through use of emergency relief funds distributed from late 2021 to alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The White House also highlighted an initiative by several labor organizations that are coordinating to expand teacher apprenticeship programs.

And it urged teachers to take advantage of student loan forgiveness mechanisms for which they are eligible.

Agence France-Presse

Biden hails $22 bln investment by S. Korea's SK Group

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden hailed progress in the US bid to revamp its 21st century economy after huge South Korean group SK announced a $22 billion investment in US semiconductor and other cutting edge industries.

"This pathbreaking announcement represents clear evidence that the United States, Korea, and its allies are back and winning the technology competition of the 21st century," Biden said in a virtual meeting at the White House with the top executives from SK Group, South Korea's second largest conglomerate.

"America is the key destination for advanced technologies," he added, stressing that the investment signaled success for his broader policy of "working with our allies."

The announcement came just before the meeting where Biden, who is recovering from a Covid infection, appeared on video, while SK Chairman Chey Tae-won joined other executives and senior White House officials in person.

The conglomerate said in a statement it plans to "increase its new investment in the United States by $22 billion in areas including semiconductors, green energy, and bioscience, creating tens of thousands of new high-tech, high-paying American jobs."

"This is in addition to SK's recently announced investment of $7 billion to build two new gigafactories in Tennessee and Kentucky as part of a joint venture with Ford Motor Company," the statement said.

According to a White House spokesman, SK Group's growing commitment reflects a push to rebuild US-based manufacturing and supply chains, which have been severely disrupted by fallout from the global Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns.

"From the beginning of his administration, President Biden has focused on an American industrial strategy to rebuild our infrastructure and our supply chains here at home, drawing good-paying manufacturing jobs back to America," the spokesman said.

"This announcement by SK Group is also another proof point of the success of the administration's efforts to create more resilient and secure supply chains and outcompete the rest of the world in the technologies of the future," he added.

The Department of Commerce says that foreign investment reached nearly $334 billion in 2021, the peak since 2016. Manufacturing accounted for the biggest share of any industry, at $121 billion.

The Biden administration is pushing Congress to quickly pass a proposed $52 billion subsidy package for boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturers, warning that reliance on foreign producers amounts to a national security risk.

Speaking Monday to senior economic and national security staff, as well as representatives from manufacturers and a trade union, Biden said government backing for domestic producers means the United States will "be able to stay in the game."

Congress must pass this bill as soon as possible," he said, citing both the economic and national security "imperative" of securing production of the tiny components needed for everything from smart phones to cars and weapons.

Agence France-Presse

Omicron coronavirus variant ‘not a cause for panic’, says Biden

President Joe Biden on Monday told Americans not to "panic" over the newly identified COVID-19 variant Omicron and said he does not foresee new lockdowns or extending travel restrictions for now.

The virus variant, first detected in South Africa but already appearing in multiple countries, "is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic," Biden said.

He stressed that the United States was in a good position to control Omicron's spread without having to resort to lockdowns or more travel bans beyond restrictions already imposed on eight southern African countries.

"We have more tools today to fight the variant than we've ever had before," he said, adding that his chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci expects current vaccines to work against the new variant, with boosters enhancing protection.

"We'll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion," Biden said in nationally televised remarks from the White House, flanked by Fauci and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Biden promised a "detailed strategy" for the fight against COVID-19 this winter but signaled that Americans will not be subjected to burdensome measures.

"Not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing, and more," he said, specifying that he does not see a need now for ordering vaccine or testing mandates on domestic air travel.

The United States, Canada and the European Union have all severely restricted entry of travelers from South Africa and seven other countries in the region. However, Biden also said "I don't anticipate" more travel bans.

"The degree of the spread impacts on whether or not there's a need for any travel restrictions," he said.

Agence France-Presse

US to release oil from reserves after OPEC+ rebuffs call for more crude

WASHINGTON - The United States said on Tuesday it would release 50 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves in a coordinated move with China, India, South Korea, Japan and Britain to cool prices after OPEC+ producers rebuffed calls for more crude.

The White House issued the statement after a source in the US administration said Washington had been hashing out a plan with major Asian energy consumers to drive down prices from near three-year highs. Britain had not previously been mentioned.

US President Joe Biden, facing low approval ratings amid rising inflation ahead of next year's congressional elections, has repeatedly called on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, to pump more oil.

But the group has rebuffed the requests, as members have already been struggling to meet its existing targets for production increases and amid fears a resurgence of coronavirus cases could once again drive down demand.

The release from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be in the form of a loan sale to companies, which must return the crude at a later date, and was the first time the United States had coordinated a release with some of the world's largest oil consumers, US officials said.

OPEC+ states, including US allies in the Gulf, meet again on Dec. 2 to discuss policy but have shown no sign of any change in tack to heed US calls.

The unprecedented effort by Washington to team up with major Asian economies to lower energy prices sends a warning to OPEC and other big producers that they need to address concerns about high crude prices, up more than 50 percent so far this year.

An OPEC+ source, speaking before the group's December meeting, said a release from reserves would complicate the maths for OPEC+, as it monitors the market on a monthly basis.

Suhail Al-Mazrouei, energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, one of OPEC's biggest producers, said earlier Tuesday he saw "no logic" in increasing UAE supply to global markets.

(Reporting Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Sonali Paul in Melbourne and Ghaida Ghantous in the United Arab Emirates; Writing by Richard Valdmanis and Edmumd Blair; Editing by Carmel Crimmins)

-reuters

6 things Joe Biden will likely do on immigration

When he enters the White House, Joe Biden will likely seek to reverse much of President Donald Trump's immigration legacy and push ahead with his own agenda.

While some measures could be quickly rescinded, the multitude of Trump administration changes could take months or years to undo.

Here is what to expect from Biden in six key immigration policy areas:

1. IMMIGRATION REFORM AND 'DREAMERS'

Biden plans to send an immigration bill to Congress on his first day in office in January that includes a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the country illegally, a campaign official told Reuters.

The bill would also address the status of so-called “Dreamers” living in the United States illegally after entering as children. Under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program started by former President Barack Obama, roughly 644,000 Dreamers are granted deportation relief and work permits.

Trump sought to end DACA, but the US Supreme Court ruled in June that his administration did not follow proper legal procedures.

Biden's immigration reform bill will include a path to citizenship for more than 400,000 people covered by the Temporary Protected Status program. Trump moved to phase out most enrollment in the program, but was slowed by legal challenges.

2. TRUMP'S TRAVEL BANS

On Day One of his presidency, Biden intends to rescind Trump’s travel bans on travelers from 13 countries, most of them either majority-Muslim or African nations.

Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order that banned travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations from entering the United States. The administration reworked the order several times amid legal challenges and the Supreme Court upheld a version of it in 2018. The countries subject to entry restrictions have changed over the years.

The bans could be easily undone, as they were issued by executive order and presidential proclamation, according to policy experts, but lawsuits from conservatives could delay the process.

3. TRUMP'S PANDEMIC RESTRICTIONS

Trump implemented a series of sweeping restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic that kept some legal immigrants and travelers from entering the United States.

The measures include travel bans that block the entry of many people coming from Brazil, China, Europe and Iran in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Trump also barred entry of certain immigrants seeking permanent residence and temporary foreign workers, including certain skilled workers with H-1B visas, saying he needed to protect American jobs.

A federal judge in October blocked Trump's temporary foreign worker ban from being applied to hundreds of thousands of businesses, a ruling the Trump administration has appealed.

While Biden has criticized some of these restrictions, he has not said if he would immediately reverse them. He has not commented on emergency border rules implemented in March that allow U.S. authorities to rapidly expel border crossers, including unaccompanied children and asylum seekers.

A Biden campaign official told Reuters the Democrat would look to public health officials for guidance on pandemic-related border closures.

4. SKILLED FOREIGN WORKERS

The Trump administration finalized a pair of regulations in October that likely will curb U.S. companies’ use of skilled foreign workers, especially in the tech industry.

The regulations significantly increase the minimum wages companies must pay to workers enrolled in the program. The rules also narrow the definition of “specialty occupations” eligible for the visas.

Biden has not said whether he would roll back the measures if elected, but his campaign website said he would work with Congress to reform the H-1B visa program to ensure the visas are "aligned with the labor market and not used to undermine wages."

After that, Biden would support expanding the number of high-skilled visas, the website says.

5. REFUGEES

Biden has said he would raise the annual ceiling for refugee admissions to 125,000 but has not said how quickly that would happen.

Trump has sharply curbed refugee admissions and his administration announced in September that it would allow no more than 15,000 refugees in the 2021 fiscal year, a figure Biden will likely increase.

Refugee advocates caution it may take years to rebuild the pipeline of vetted refugees ready to travel to the United States, as well as the capacity of resettlement groups to receive them.

Biden said in late October that he would “immediately” grant humanitarian protections to Venezuelans living in the United States, which would allow them to remain in the country and obtain work permits. He cited economic hardship in that country under the government of President Nicolás Maduro.

6. THE US-MEXICO BORDER

Biden’s immigration plan would end the diversion of Pentagon funds to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and instead invest in screening infrastructure at ports of entry.

He said in August that he would not tear down border walls built under Trump but would halt construction.

Biden has vowed to end Trump's restrictive asylum policies, beginning with a program known as "remain in Mexico." Under the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, non-Mexican migrants are forced to wait in Mexico for their U.S. immigration court dates.

During an Oct. 22 presidential debate, Biden criticized the program, saying it left migrants "sitting in squalor" on the other side of the Rio Grande River, which separates the United States and Mexico.

Biden has said he will prioritize the reunification of any migrant children separated from their families under Trump administration policies.

As of Oct. 20, lawyers and non-profit organizations seeking to reunite families separated at the US-Mexico border by the Trump administration were not able to locate the parents of 545 children.

-reuters-

Biden on cusp of presidency after gains in Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrat Joe Biden was on the cusp of winning the presidency on Friday as he opened up narrow leads over President Donald Trump in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Those put Biden in a stronger position to capture the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take the White House. The winner will lead a country facing a historic set of challenges, including a surging pandemic and deep political polarization.

Trump remained in the White House residence Friday morning as his campaign insisted the election wasn’t over. Biden was at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, as the vote count continued.

The focus on Pennsylvania, where Biden led Trump by more than 9,000 votes, and Georgia, where Biden led by more than 1,500, came as Americans entered a third full day after the election without knowing who will lead them for the next four years. The prolonged process added to the anxiety of a nation whose racial and cultural divides were inflamed during the heated campaign.

With his pathway to reelection appearing to greatly narrow, Trump was testing how far he could go in using the trappings of presidential power to undermine confidence in the vote.

On Thursday, he advanced unsupported accusations of voter fraud to falsely argue that his rival was trying to seize power in an extraordinary effort by a sitting American president to sow doubt about the democratic process.

“This is a case when they are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the podium of the White House briefing room.

Biden spent Thursday trying to ease tensions and project a more traditional image of presidential leadership. After participating in a coronavirus briefing, he declared that “each ballot must be counted.”

“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working,” Biden said. “It is the will of the voters. No one, not anyone else who chooses the president of the United States of America.”

Trump showed no sign of giving up and was was back on Twitter around 2:30 a.m. Friday, insisting the “U.S. Supreme Court should decide!”

Trump’s erroneous claims about the integrity of the election challenged Republicans now faced with the choice of whether to break with a president who, though his grip on his office grew tenuous, commanded sky-high approval ratings from rank-and-file members of the GOP. That was especially true for those who are eyeing presidential runs of their own in 2024.

Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said unequivocally: “There is no defense for the President’s comments tonight undermining our Democratic process. America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before.”

But others who are rumored to be considering a White House run of their own in four years aligned themselves with the incumbent, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who tweeted support for Trump’s claims, writing that “If last 24 hours have made anything clear, it’s that we need new election integrity laws NOW.”

Trump’s campaign engaged in a flurry of legal activity to try to improve the Republican president’s chances, saying it would seek a recount in Wisconsin and file lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.

Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits there on Thursday.

In Pennsylvania, officials were not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law. It’s a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming without proof that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.

Mail ballots from across the state were overwhelmingly breaking in Biden’s direction. A final vote total may not be clear for days because the use of mail-in ballots, which take more time to process, has surged as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump campaign said it was confident the president would ultimately pull out a victory in Arizona, where votes were also still being counted, including in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous area. The AP has declared Biden the winner in Arizona and said Thursday that it was monitoring the vote count as it proceeded.

“The Associated Press continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona as they come in,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor. “We will follow the facts in all cases.”

Trump’s campaign was lodging legal challenges in several states, though he faced long odds. He would have to win multiple suits in multiple states in order to stop vote counts, since more than one state was undeclared.

Some of the Trump team’s lawsuits only demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted. A judge in Georgia dismissed the campaign’s suit there less than 12 hours after it was filed. And a Michigan judge dismissed a Trump lawsuit over whether enough GOP challengers had access to handling of absentee ballots

Biden attorney Bob Bauer said the suits were legally “meritless.” Their only purpose, he said “is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process.”

Weissert reported from Wilmington, Delaware. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Alexandra Jaffe in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Trump, allies aim to delegitimize impeachment from the start

WASHINGTON — They’re calling it a circus, a farce and even zany.

President Donald Trump and his Republican allies spent weeks trivializing the House impeachment inquiry ahead of Tuesday’s historic unveiling of formal charges against the president.


Where Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton treated the prospect of impeachment as a serious threat to their presidencies, Trump’s boosters have tried to brush off the whole thing. Believing that acquittal by the GOP-controlled Senate is all but certain, they’re out to convince voters to punish the president’s Democratic accusers — or at least tune out the Washington spectacle.

To that end, they have belittled the impeachment process with mockery, schoolyard taunts and an unyielding insistence that Trump did not a single thing wrong. They have stonewalled, refusing to allow witnesses to testify; protested by declining to send their own lawyers to hearings; and dished out the ultimate Trumpian insult: calling the proceedings boring.

In the process, the president and his allies have largely glossed over the substance of allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making light of what is likely to be only the third presidential impeachment in the nation’s history.

It’s a strategy borne of Trump’s instincts and informed by the results of polling and focus groups. The president and his allies believe the effort has been effective, especially when it comes to keeping independent voters skeptical of the process. It is also a reflection of the country’s increasingly polarized political environment.

“Why would we legitimize this process that the American people can’t even follow, aren’t digesting,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Monday when asked why the White House had chosen not to participate in the House proceedings. She equated cooperation to “colluding with an illegitimate process.”

She showed her disdain for the effort by accusing Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, Democrat-New York, of “playing a game of Inspector Clouseau, Secret Squirrel” by waiting so long to unveil the articles of impeachment that were announced Tuesday.

GOP critics have been going all-out to find new ways to mock what Trump has long called a “witch hunt” and a “sham.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, compared the impeachment hearings to “the cantina bar scene in Star Wars. It’s surreal.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the “zaniness that’s taking place on Capitol Hill.” And Rep. Devin Nunes, the House intelligence committee’s top Republican, called the House hearings “a show trial, a planned result of three years of political operations and dirty tricks.”

But even if GOP legislators are more than willing to complain and erect parliamentary roadblocks, many lawmakers, particularly the senators who would serve as jurors in an eventual Senate trial, have been less comfortable defending the president’s conduct.


Nor has that been a priority for White House aides, who have been firing off rapid response emails about procedural unfairness but have done little to engage on the substance of the charges.

During the early days of the inquiry there was tension between the West Wing and the president’s outside allies, who felt the White House was doing too little to defend the president against the charges. Trump himself was initially unwilling to bring on new staff or set up a “war room,” concerned that such a move would suggest he felt vulnerable or make him look guilty.

Ultimately, Trump consented to the hiring of former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi and Republican strategist Tony Sayegh, a move that has helped to mollify some outside critics.

There also was a sense of confusion early on, as administration officials and allies struggled to keep up with rapidly unfolding news about Trump’s attempts to get Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden. Even some of the president’s closest supporters were unclear about details of his interactions with the president of Ukraine.

With little clarity about what really had happened, Republicans took aim at the process, seeing it as an easy place to start. Once the scope become clearer, officials inside and outside the building began to refine their messaging, based in part on polling and focus group testing.

America First Policies, a nonprofit backing Trump’s policies, for instance, conducted focus groups early in the process that focused specifically on independent voters who might be open to voting for Trump in 2020.

Kelly Sadler, a spokeswoman for the group, said the sessions turned up frustration with Congress over endless investigations and not perusing bread-and-butter issues. Many people, she said, felt the impeachment inquiry was highly partisan — a sentiment reflected in polling data — and felt the whole endeavor was a waste of time and money, especially given the quickly-approaching 2020 election.

The group has targeted its advertising to speak to those frustrations, which are also reflected in messaging from the American Action Network, which is tied to House GOP leadership and has spent millions on anti-impeachment ads.

As Republicans have pushed to delegitimize the House impeachment process, they also are professing great reverence for an expected Senate trial on friendlier turf. Trump sees a Senate trial as a forum where his allies will be able to publicly defend him and turn the tables on Democrats in dramatic Court TV fashion.

“It’s pretty clear the president wants a trial,” said White House spokesman Hogan Gidley. He offered a list of some of the witnesses Trump would like to call, including House intelligence committee Chairman Adam Schiff, the whistle blower whose complaint sparked the inquiry, as well as Biden and his son, Hunter, who had dealings in Ukraine.


“The president’s eager to get his story out,” Gidley said.

But Republicans in the Senate caution that Trump may not get the show he wants because Senate rules require a majority of senators to approve individual witnesses, and some are weary of creating a spectacle. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that no decisions have been made yet about the length or structure of a Senate trial.

“The Senate has two choices: It could go down the path of calling witnesses and basically having another trial or it could decide — and again 51 members could make that decision — that they have heard enough,” he said.

/atm

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Biden, Buttigieg say no compromises on overhauling gun laws

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa  – Democratic presidential candidates Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, moderates who project themselves as pragmatic collaborators, are taking a no-compromise approach on the overhaul of the nation’s gun laws after the latest mass shooting.

Campaigning separately in eastern Iowa on Monday, the former vice president and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, say the minimum provisions include universal background checks, a ban on military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition, and red flag laws to allow officials to confiscate firearms from dangerous people.

Biden told reporters before a Labor Day picnic in Cedar Rapids that inaction from President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans is “disgraceful.” Asked if there’s room for negotiation, he declared: “None. This is one we have to just push and push and push and push and push.” Buttigieg also rejected compromise, saying after a campaign event in Cedar Rapids: “There is just no good faith in the congressional GOP nor, I believe, in the White House when it comes to dealing with this issue.”

Their comments come two days after a gunman toting an assault-style rifle went on a rampage in Odessa, Texas, killing seven people around town before being gunned down by police. The FBI said the shooter “was on a long spiral of going down.” This shooting occurred less than a month after two other high-profile mass shootings, in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.

Biden’s and Buttigieg’s positions represent a rare case of absolutism from the two men. Despite their generational divide, at ages 76 and 37, both have staked their campaigns in part on calls for a more civil, productive governing process in Washington.

They both pointed to public opinion polls are a reason for their uncompromising approach. According to national public opinion polls for the past several years, large majorities of Americans support requiring background checks for all gun buyers. Majorities, though smaller, also support banning the sale of military-style weapons such as the AR-15.

“Look, you can either defy the American people or you can defy the NRA,” Buttigieg said. “You have a choice.”

Yet any movement to tighten gun laws has stopped cold for years with Republicans controlling one or both chambers of Congress.

Buttigieg and Biden both predicted that intransigence will draw voters’ ire at the ballot box.

“If Republicans don’t make that right choice this time, I think they will be punished with the loss of power. And maybe that’s what it will take to motivate them to come a little more in line with the American people,” Buttigieg said.

Added Biden: “It’s going to result in seeing some of them defeated.”

Trump expressed a commitment Sunday, hours after the latest deadly mass shooting, to work with a divided Congress to “stop the menace of mass attacks.”

He notably came out in favor of background checks in 2018 after 17 students and adults were killed at a Parkland, Florida, high school, only to quickly retreat under pressure from the National Rifle Association. He’s followed the same course after recent killings in California, Ohio and Texas.

Another Democratic presidential candidate, Amy Klobuchar, on Monday noted Trump’s reversal.

“He flipped” after talking to the NRA, Klobuchar said. “That’s what happens.”

The Minnesota senator stopped short of taking the same stance as Biden and Buttigieg, however. Klobuchar has co-sponsored a Senate proposal to ban military-style weapons. But she acknowledged that’s more of a wish-list item for Democrats given GOP control of the Senate.

For now, she said, the “minimum of what we should do” includes expanded background checks, the red flag laws and closing the so-called boyfriend loophole that deals with gun rights for perpetrators of domestic violence.

Federal law that bars those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence against spouses and “similarly situated” companions from possessing firearms. The prohibition has been applied in cases of live-in companions, but Klobuchar argues it doesn’t go far enough to protect some victims who weren’t living with their abuser.

Democrats’ broad field of presidential candidates has been unified in calling for stricter gun laws. But Biden’s strong position Monday stands out given his advocacy for more compromise on Capitol Hill.

Previously, he has said he is capable of working with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and recalled that, as a young senator in the 1970s, he found ways to work with Southern segregationist senators elected during the Jim Crow era.

This time, he said, there’s no place for a bargain because Republicans are being “irrational.”


“I’ll work with Mitch McConnell where we can agree, but on this one he’s not going to agree because he is where the president is,” Biden said. “So we just have to beat them, flat out beat them.” /gsg

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Second suspicious package sent to Biden

WASHINGTON —  A law enforcement official says a second package addressed to former Vice President Joe Biden has been intercepted at a mail facility in Wilmington, Delaware.

The official says it has similar markings and characteristics as the packages containing bombs sent to other prominent Democrats.

The official said another package addressed to Biden was also found Thursday morning, that one at a postal center in New Castle, Delaware.

The official wasn’t authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Several packages containing pipe bombs packed with shards of glass have been intercepted in the last few days. They targeted Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, CNN and others.

A New York City police bomb squad has recovered a suspicious package addressed to Robert De Niro.  /ee

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net