Tag: address

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Politics

Vice President Kamala Harris unveils technique to handle unlawful immigration

Vice President Kamala Harris unveils strategy to address illegal immigration

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building during the National Bar Association’s virtual meeting in Washington, DC, the United States, on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday released a comprehensive strategy to address the root causes of migration amid the recent surge in illegal border crossings between the US and Mexico.

The strategy states that the pandemic and “extreme weather conditions” have exacerbated the causes of migration, including corruption, violence, human trafficking and poverty.

The announcement comes as the government faces a crisis on the southern border with migrant detentions reaching a 20-year high in recent months.

More than 1.1 million arrests were recorded in the first six months of this fiscal year, according to US Customs and Border Protection. And in June alone, there was a record high of almost 190,000 arrests.

While the Biden government has sent millions of doses of vaccine and hurricane aid to Central America, Harris noted that such short-term aid “is not enough to provide long-term relief”.

Instead, the Vice President’s strategy promises more sustained efforts to address the motives for migration, including a realignment of engagement in Central America.

“In Central America, the root causes of migration run deep – and migration from the region has a direct impact on the United States,” Harris wrote in a cover letter about the plan. “Because of this, our nation must work consistently with the region to address the needs that are causing people to leave Central America and come to our border.”

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden appointed Harris to lead the government’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and she visited the US-Mexico border in June as part of that effort.

The strategy is the Vice President’s latest move to address these root causes and is a core part of the Biden government’s broader plan, released Tuesday, to establish a “fair, orderly and humane immigration system.”

The plan is divided into five pillars but does not provide a detailed timetable or policy actions to be taken. The pillars include combating economic insecurity and inequality, combating democratic corruption and promoting respect for human rights.

The plan also addresses gang violence and crime, and the fight against sexual and gender-based violence.

Harris noted that the United Nations and the governments of Mexico, Japan and South Korea have pledged to join efforts to combat the motives for migrating from Central America.

“The United States cannot do this job on its own,” Harris wrote in the cover letter. “Our strategy is far-reaching – and focuses on our partnerships with other governments, international institutions, companies, foundations and civil society.”

On Tuesday, the White House also published a “Collaborative Migration Management Strategy” ordered by President Joe Biden in February. It outlines how the US will work with other countries to “manage safe, orderly and humane migration” in North and Central America.

Efforts include expanding employment opportunities and protection in countries where migrants leave, ensuring safe and humane border management, and creating more legal routes for entry into the United States

Dozens of migrants of Central American and Mexican descent are sleeping on the esplanade of the National Institute of Migration near the El Chaparral border crossing, waiting for US authorities to allow them to enter the country to begin their humanitarian asylum process.

Stringer | Image Alliance | Getty Images

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration for its immigration policies, claiming that the withdrawal of several directives enacted under former President Donald Trump encouraged illegal migration to the United States

Democrats and immigration supporters have also put pressure on Biden to ensure humane treatment of migrant children and families at the border and repeal a Trump-era public health ordinance known as Title 42.

The Health Ordinance has allowed border officials to deport migrants without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum.

On Monday, the Biden government also announced that it would speed up deportations for some migrant families through an “expedited deportation,” which allows immigration authorities to deport a migrant without a hearing from an immigration judge.

The expeditious deportation procedure will apply specifically to family units who are not deported to Mexico under Title 42 and who are not entitled to asylum, according to a statement by the Ministry of Homeland Security.

This decision drew further criticism from supporters of the left.

Categories
Politics

Elizabeth Warren presses Janet Yellen to deal with crypto market threats

Elizabeth Warren presses Janet Yellen to address crypto market threats

Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Holds a press conference outside of the Capitol on Tuesday, April 27, 2021 to reinstate the Universal Childcare and Early Education Act.

Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Senator Elizabeth Warren called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Tuesday to identify and address cryptocurrency risks and create a “comprehensive and coordinated” framework through which federal agencies can continuously regulate virtual coins.

Warren, a member of the Senate Banking Committee and longtime critic of the country’s largest banks, urged the Treasury Secretary to use her powers on the Financial Stability Oversight Council to create a more secure crypto market.

“The FSOC must act quickly to use its legal powers to address the risks of cryptocurrencies and regulate the market to ensure the safety and stability of consumers and our financial system,” the Massachusetts Democrat wrote in a letter to Yellen .

“As the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to grow and these assets become more embedded in our financial system, consumers, the environment and our financial system are exposed to increasing threats,” she added.

Warren named five risks posed by an under-regulated crypto market. In her words it is:

  • Exposure to hedge funds and other investment vehicles with no transparency
  • Risks for banks
  • Unique threats from stablecoins
  • Used in cyber attacks that can disrupt the financial system
  • Risks from decentralized financing

A Treasury Department spokesman did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Warren’s letter also came as she and other lawmakers held a hearing on the Senate Banking Committee entitled “Cryptocurrencies: What Are They Good For?”

Senators will grill Coin Center Executive Director Jerry Brito, Filecoin Foundation Chair Marta Belcher, and Angela Walch, a research fellow at University College London’s Center for Blockchain Technologies, during Tuesday’s hearing.

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“Cryptocurrencies and other digital assets present significant risks right now, and the risks they pose are increasing as they permeate the traditional financial system and more and more people are investing,” Walch told lawmakers in a written statement. Her Twitter bio advises readers “not to own crypto”.

Warren’s letter is the latest in a series of calls from Capitol Hill for tighter market regulation.

Perhaps the most prominent example came in February when lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle pecked executives at brokerage firm Robinhood, social media website Reddit, market maker Citadel Securities, and video game retailer GameStop about “gamifying” stock trading.

However, regulating crypto markets has proven to be a more difficult task given the sheer number of different assets as well as the novelty of the technology behind digital currencies. To date, it is unclear which body – the FSOC, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or Congress itself – will ultimately be responsible for the day-to-day oversight of crypto trading.

That’s probably why Warren addressed her letter to Yellen in her role at FSOC.

Established after the 2008 financial crisis, the FSOC is headed by the Treasury Secretary and brings together 10 state financial regulators, including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodities Future Trading Commission.

The council’s role is to identify risks to the financial industry and coordinate a regulatory response between cabinet departments and other agencies, as no single regulator is responsible for overseeing and addressing global risks to financial stability.

The SEC, under the new leadership of Chairman Gary Gensler, is currently considering approving exchange-traded funds that track Bitcoin’s performance. Many investors say that given the recent rally in Bitcoin and the extensive amount of futures and other derivatives trading in the space, the decision cannot come soon enough.

So far, Gensler has said investor protection should apply to crypto exchanges, and the Federal Reserve is considering issuing central bank digital currency.

Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, including ranking member Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, argue that Congress should better understand the potential uses of cryptocurrencies while keeping illegal activity at bay.

Toomey and Lummis are investigating the value and possible uses of so-called stablecoins or digital currencies that are linked to national currencies such as the US dollar.

“It’s important to note that people have raised legitimate issues with cryptocurrencies,” Toomey said in prepared remarks on Tuesday morning. “But we shouldn’t lose sight of the enormous potential benefits that distributed ledger technology offers.”

“We should also keep in mind that private innovation has made most of these developments possible,” he added. “We shouldn’t suppress the concepts of individual entrepreneurship and empowerment that made this innovation possible.”

– CNBC’s Stephanie Dhue contributed to this article.

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Business

President Biden’s first formal tackle drew practically 27 million viewers.

President Biden’s first formal address drew nearly 27 million viewers.

Almost 27 million people watched President Biden’s first official address at a joint congressional session on Wednesday evening, to a large television audience these days but a much smaller audience than similar speeches by other presidents, according to Nielsen’s data.

The speech, which aired on all major networks and cable news networks starting at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, attracted a much larger television audience than the Oscars program, which aired on ABC on Sunday and was watched by approximately 10 million people. The audience, however, was significantly smaller than that for President Donald J. Trump’s first official address to Congress in 2017, which was attended by 48 million people.

The television audience for Mr. Biden’s address also lagged behind that for equivalent speeches from other recent presidents. Barack Obama had an audience of 52 million in 2009; George W. Bush pulled 40 million in 2001; and Bill Clinton’s first address was seen by 67 million in 1993.

Several factors contributed to the lower ratings. Due to public health and safety concerns at the Capitol, Mr. Biden’s speech came later in his presidency than that of his youngest predecessors, all of which took place in February. There was also less pomp on Wednesday. Instead of a personal audience of 1,600 Senators, Supreme Court justices, and other dignitaries who sat on the cheek with members of the House of Representatives, only 200 people were in attendance due to socially distant restrictions.

TV audience ratings have generally declined in recent years as more people have canceled cable subscriptions in favor of streaming, a shift accelerated by pandemic viewing habits. And the number of people watching TV in spring tends to be lower compared to winter.

According to Nielsen, ABC had the largest audience for the address at around 4 million viewers, and MSNBC was right behind at 3.9 million. Fox News and the Fox Broadcasting Networks had the smallest audience with 2.9 million viewers (Fox News) and 1.6 million viewers (Fox Broadcast).

The Fox audience stepped in for post-anchor analysis and commentators and the Republican counter-argument from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. In the 30 minutes following the address, Fox News was the only network with an increase in viewership, averaging 3.2 million viewers.

The analysis of the language was different depending on the network. Fox News agent Ben Domenech called Mr. Biden’s speech a “handkerchief of lies”. On MSNBC, anchor Brian Williams referred to it as “Rooseveltian in size and girth”.

Categories
World News

Jane Austen Museum to Handle Ties to Slavery

Jane Austen Museum to Address Ties to Slavery

Austen’s novels are about a tight upper class of British society and are set in picturesque villages that are largely cut off from the problems of the outside world. “Jane Austen is now standing on a pedestal as an expression of something delightful, comforting, beautiful, clever,” said Paula Marantz Cohen, English professor and dean of Honors College at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Many of her fans, she said, want to enjoy her stories about a simpler time and place.

Some Austen scholars say passages in her novels “Emma” and “Mansfield Park” suggest that she supports abolitionism, others say it is unclear. Few of her letters survived. But her favorite authors – Samuel Johnson, Thomas Clarkson, and William Cowper – were abolitionists. Nevertheless, like almost all English families of all kinds in the 18th century, her family had ties to the slave trade, according to “Jane Austen: A Life”, a book by Claire Tomalin.

Addressing the issue of slavery, Sherard Cowper Coles, President of the Jane Austen Society, said, “This is England’s story and as we understand it we should relate and update it.”

But Mr Cowper Coles, a former diplomat who was Britain’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009-10, warned: “It is not fair to expect people to have awareness outside of their time. But even in our time we are aware of slavery and live with its consequences in Minneapolis and in many other places. “

Frances Brook, a tour guide in England who has taken groups to Austen sites, said she was in favor of the museum that presented more context about Austen’s time, but that it would have “woken up” to judge her for wearing cotton and taking sugar in their tea -is gone a little too far. “Like the rest of us, Austen did things in her everyday life that contradicted her broader views of the world,” said Ms. Brook, who last visited the museum in 2017.

Prof Johnson, of Princeton, said the museum’s attempt to add context to Austen’s life would not suppress readers’ enthusiasm for her.

“Just because you involve Austen in the mess of the story doesn’t mean you don’t love her,” she said.

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Business

Company Leaders Focus on The way to Deal with Georgia’s Voting Legal guidelines

Corporate Leaders Discuss How to Address Georgia's Voting Laws

As Republicans in Texas and other states continue to push restrictive electoral laws, corporate chiefs across the country have stepped up efforts in recent days to oppose such laws and defend the right to vote.

Two prominent black executives are urging big corporations to sign a new declaration against “discriminatory laws,” and PayPal and Twilio announced on Monday that they had agreed to add their names. BlackRock, the investment firm, would likely sign the statement but hadn’t yet committed, according to someone familiar with the situation. Other companies were also under discussion to sign up, said two people familiar with the considerations.

A group of large law firms formed a coalition “to challenge voter suppression legislation”.

And an Apple-funded film starring Will Smith pulled its production out of Georgia on Monday in protest of the state’s new electoral law, a warning shot for other lawmakers.

“Corporations are always reluctant to engage in partisan warfare,” said Richard A. Gephardt, a Democrat and former House majority leader, who speaks to corporate leaders about their responses. “But this is about whether we will protect democracy. If you lose democracy, you lose capitalism. “

Texas is fast becoming the next major battleground in the battle for access to voting. Two collective bills that would introduce a number of voting restrictions are working their way through the legislation there.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, a Republican, has signaled firm support for both bills, an indication that Governor Greg Abbott, also a Republican, will be quick to sign them if they make it to his desk.

Large Texas-based companies, including American Airlines and Dell Technologies, have already spoken out against the bills. And AT&T, which is headquartered in Dallas, has stated that it doesn’t endorse bills that restrict access to voting, despite not specifically mentioning Texas.

The statements angered Republicans in Texas, and Mr. Patrick made a tough reprimand aimed specifically at American Airlines.

“Well, let me tell you something, Mr. American Airlines, I’ll take it personally,” he said at a press conference last week. “You are questioning my integrity and the integrity of the governor and the integrity of the 18 Republicans who voted for it,” he added, referring to the 18-13 vote that passed one of the Senate bills.

The Texas bills were the focus of a discussion on Saturday afternoon when more than 100 corporate executives met on Zoom to discuss what, if anything, they should do to shape the debate over voting rights.

Several participants in the call, organized by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at Yale who regularly brings executives together to discuss politics, strongly advocated the need for companies to use their clout to defy new state laws that would make voting difficult.

Mia Mends, the Chief Administrative Officer of Sodexo, who is Black and is based in Houston, urged the other executives to concentrate their forces in Texas and said she was doing the same.

“One of the things I do this week is call a lot of our executives on the phone and say, ‘We need you to take a stand. We need your company to take a stand, ”said Ms. Mends in a later interview. “And that means not just saying that we support voting rights, but also speaking specifically about what we need and what we would like to change in the bill.”

The Zoom meeting began with testimony from Ken Chenault, a former head of American Express, and Ken Frazier, executive director of Merck, who said they were asking companies to sign a statement against restrictive electoral laws, according to several people who attended the Attended meetings.

Last month, Mr. Chenault and Mr. Frazier organized 70 other black leaders to sign a letter calling on companies to crack down on laws that restrict voting rights, such as the one passed by Georgia.

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Updated

April 12, 2021, 3:04 p.m. ET

Later in the Zoom session, Chip Bergh, executive director of Levi Strauss & Company, identified the bills as a threat to democracy, and towards the end, Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, discussed the importance of confirming corporate executives confirm that the 2020 election was for sure. One of the last speakers was James Murdoch, former CEO of 21st Century Fox, who spoke about the importance of healthy democracy.

Also on the call was Brad Karp, the chairman of the Paul Weiss law firm. On Monday, Mr Karp said he had organized the coalition of law firms, which includes Skadden. Cravath, Swaine & Moore; and Wachtell Lipton.

“Legislators are warned that laws that are unconstitutional or illegal are being pushed back by the legal community,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice, a New York think tank that works with the coalition. “This is beyond the pale. You hear this from the business community and you hear it from the legal community. “

The electoral law debate puts companies at the center of an increasingly heated partisan struggle.

“CEOs are currently struggling with what to do and how to respond,” said Daniella Ballou-Aares, executive director of the Leadership Now project, a consortium that promotes democratic principles and helped organize the Zoom call . “There is a lot of confusion.”

In addition to making statements, business leaders are weighing what action they can take to influence the political decisions of Republican lawmakers, who have made voting a priority.

A drastic step is to get business out of a state. Major League Baseball was moving its all-star game from Atlanta to Denver in 2021 due to Georgia law, and Mr. Smith and director Antoine Fuqua said Monday they no longer planned on making their movie “Emancipation” in the state.

“Emancipation” was the first major production to cite the law as the reason for leaving the state, which has become a hub for film and television production. In the film, due to begin production this summer, Mr. Smith will play an enslaved man who has emancipated himself from a plantation in the south and joined the Union army.

“We cannot in good conscience provide economic support to a government that passes regressive electoral laws designed to restrict electoral access,” said Smith and Fuqua in a joint statement. “The new electoral laws in Georgia are reminiscent of electoral barriers that were passed at the end of the reconstruction to prevent many Americans from voting.”

A few years ago, when Republicans came up with bathroom bills that discriminated against transgender people, large corporations threatened to take their business out of states like Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas. These laws did not prevail.

Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola, both based in Atlanta, campaigned behind the scenes for changes to Georgian legislation before it was passed last month, saying their efforts helped bring some of the most restrictive regulations like the elimination to eliminate the Sunday vote.

Companies did not publicly oppose it before the law was passed. But when Delta and Coca-Cola later criticized it and alerted other companies that almost every state was proposing electoral laws, Republican leaders struck.

“My warning to American corporations, if you will, is to stay out of politics,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, last week. “It’s not what you’re designed for. And don’t let the left intimidate you into dealing with issues that put you in the middle of America’s biggest political debates. “

However, the business community does not seem to be stepping back as more companies and groups of companies prepare to get involved.

“All of these CEOs came together days after McConnell warned companies to stay out of politics,” said CNBC founder Tom Rogers, who attended the Zoom meeting. “When they were called up, they said as a group that they would not be intimidated not to voice their views on their issues.”

Texas, like Georgia, is a major corporate state, with businesses and their employees drawn in part to tax incentives and the promise of affordable real estate. Several Silicon Valley companies have moved or expanded their presence in Texas in the past few years.

Apple plans to open a $ 1 billion campus in Austin next year and manufactures some of its high-end computers at a facility in the area.

In December, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced that it would move its headquarters from California to the Houston area, while software company Oracle would move its headquarters to Austin. And last month Elon Musk posted a plea for engineers on Twitter to move to Texas and take jobs at SpaceX, its aerospace company.

Mr. Musk’s other companies, Tesla and the Boring Company, have also expanded their presence in the state in recent months.

None of these companies has yet spoken out against the Texan legislation. And for now, at least, there’s little evidence that the growing outcry of big business is changing Republican priorities.

“Texas is next,” said one executive who attended the Zoom meeting but asked to remain anonymous. “We’ll see whether the business obligations there will have a significant impact.”

The coverage was contributed by Nick Corasaniti, Kate Conger, Lauren Hirsch and Nicole Sperling.

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Health

President Biden Takes 1st Tentative Steps to Deal with International Covid-19 Vaccine Scarcity

Biden Takes First Tentative Steps to Address Global Vaccine Shortage

WASHINGTON – President Biden was under heavy pressure on Friday to donate excess coronavirus vaccines to nations in need to otherwise address global shortages and partnered with Japan, India and Australia to increase global manufacturing capabilities Expand vaccines.

In an agreement announced at the so-called Quad Summit, a virtual meeting of the heads of state and government of the four countries, the Biden government pledged to provide financial support to enable Biological E, a large vaccine manufacturer in India, to manufacture at least 1 Billion doses of coronavirus to help vaccines by the end of 2022.

This would fix acute vaccine shortages in Southeast Asia and beyond without risking the domestic setback of exporting cans in the coming months as Americans demand their shots.

The United States has fallen far behind China, India and Russia in the race to adopt coronavirus vaccines as an instrument of diplomacy. At the same time, Mr Biden is accused of hoarding vaccines from global health lawyers who want his government to route supplies to nations in need desperately seeking access.

The president insisted that Americans come first and has so far refused to make any specific commitments to free US-made vaccines, despite tens of millions of doses of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca’s vaccine idling in American manufacturing facilities .

“If we have a surplus, we will share it with the rest of the world,” Biden said this week, adding, “We will first make sure that the Americans are taken care of first, but then we will try the rest of the world to help. “

In fact, the president still has a lot of work to do domestically to keep the promises made in the past few days: All states must question all adults for vaccinations by May 1st so that enough vaccine doses are available by the end of May to vaccinate every American adult, and that by July 4th, if Americans continue to follow public health guidelines, life should return to a semblance of normalcy.

Vaccine supplies seem on track to meet these goals, but the president still needs to put in place the infrastructure to manage the doses and overcome reluctance in large parts of the population to take them.

Still, Mr Biden has also made restoring US leadership a core part of his foreign policy agenda after his predecessor’s alliances frayed and relations with allies and global partners strained. His Foreign Secretary, Antony J. Blinken, said in a recent BBC interview that a global vaccination campaign would be part of this effort. Washington is “determined” to be an “international leader” in vaccinations.

Foreign policy experts and global health activists see clear diplomatic, public and humanitarian reasons for this.

“It’s time for US leaders to ask themselves: When this pandemic is over, do we want the world to remember America’s leadership in helping distribute life-saving vaccines, or will we leave that to others?” said Tom Hart, the North American executive director of One Campaign, a nonprofit founded by U2 singer Bono and dedicated to eradicating global poverty.

The federal government has bought 453 million surplus doses of vaccine, the group says. She has asked the Biden administration to share 5 percent of their doses overseas when 20 percent of Americans have been vaccinated, and gradually increase the percentage of divided doses as more Americans receive their vaccines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13.5 percent of people in the United States who are 18 years of age or older were fully vaccinated as of Friday.

The authoritarian governments of China and Russia, less affected by national public opinion, are already using vaccines to expand their sphere of influence. As the Biden government plans its strategy to counter China’s growing global clout, Beijing is polishing its image by shipping vaccines to dozens of countries on multiple continents, including Africa, Latin America, and the Southeast Asian backyard in particular.

Russia has been providing vaccines to Eastern European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a time when Biden officials want to unify the European Union against Russian influence on the continent.

“We may be outdone by others who are more willing to share, even if they do so for cynical reasons,” said Ivo H. Daalder, former NATO ambassador and president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “I think countries will remember who was there for us when we needed them.”

Updated

March 13, 2021, 3:49 p.m. ET

In the face of worrying and highly contagious new varieties in the US and around the world, public health experts say vaccinating people overseas is necessary to protect Americans too.

“It has to be sold to Americans to keep Americans safe over the long term, and it has to be sold to a highly divided, toxic America,” said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert with Centers for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that’s impossible. I think Americans are beginning to understand that in a world of variation, anything that happens outside of our borders increases the urgency to act really quickly. “

Mr Blinken also said this to the BBC: “Until everyone in the world is vaccinated, nobody is really completely safe.”

The quad vaccine partnership announced at the summit on Friday includes different commitments from each of the nations, according to the White House.

In addition to supporting the Indian vaccine maker, the US has pledged at least $ 100 million to bolster vaccination capacity overseas and support public health efforts. Japan is “in discussion” to provide loans to the Indian government to expand the production of vaccines for export and will support vaccination programs for developing countries. Australia will allocate $ 77 million for vaccine provision and delivery assistance with a focus on Southeast Asia.

The four countries will also form one  Quad Vaccine Experts Group by  Top scientists and government officials who will work to overcome production hurdles and funding plans.

Mr Morrison said the government deserves “some credit” for the effort, adding, “It shows diplomatic ingenuity and speed.” However, a spokesman for One Campaign, which focuses on extreme poverty, said his group would still see a plan for the United States’ vaccine supply, noting that Africa had given far fewer doses per capita than Asia.

Mr Biden’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production helped the United States produce up to a billion doses by the end of the year – far more than needed to vaccinate the roughly 260 million adults in the United States.

What you need to know about the vaccine rollout

A government-brokered deal to see drug company Merck manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, which the president celebrated in the White House on Wednesday, will help achieve that goal. Also on Wednesday, Mr Biden directed federal health officials to source an additional 100 million doses of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

The government has stated that these efforts are aimed at having enough vaccines for children, booster doses, to face new varieties and unforeseen events. Jeffrey D. Zients, Mr Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, told reporters Friday that the Johnson & Johnson-Merck deal would also “expand capacity and ultimately benefit the world”.

Not only did Mr Biden resist the urge to dump excess doses, but he also criticized the Liberal Democrats for blocking a motion by India and South Africa for a temporary waiver of an international intellectual property agreement that would make it easier for poorer countries to access generic versions of Coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

“I understand why we should prioritize our supply to Americans – it was paid for by American taxpayers, President Biden is President of America,” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Liberal Democrat from California. “But there is no reason to prioritize the profits of pharmaceutical companies over the dignity of other countries.”

Mr Biden recently announced a $ 4 billion donation to Covax, the international vaccine initiative supported by the World Health Organization. David Bryden, director of the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, a nonprofit that supports health workers in low- and middle-income countries, said money was also urgently needed to train and pay these workers to administer vaccines overseas.

However, that donation and the Quad’s announcement of financial support for vaccine production on Friday fell short of the urgent demands of public health advocates for the United States to provide ready-to-use doses that can be quickly injected.

However, the quad’s focus on Southeast Asia most likely reflects an awareness of China’s gratitude in the region for Beijing’s focus in its vaccine distribution efforts.

If Mr Biden is widely viewed as helping the world recover from the coronavirus pandemic, that could become part of his legacy when President George W. Bush made a huge investment in public health funding in the 2000s the AIDS crisis in Africa responded. More than a decade later, Bush and the United States continue to be revered across much of the continent for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), which the government said has spent $ 85 billion and saved 20 million lives.

Michael Gerson, a former Bush White House speechwriter and policy advisor who helped shape the Pepfar program, said its impact has been both moral and strategic and that the program has been “an enormous amount of money to the United States.” goodwill “in Africa.

“I think the principle here should be that the people who need it most should get it, no matter where they live,” he said. “There is little moral sense in giving the vaccine to a healthy American 24-year-old in front of a front-line worker in Liberia.”

But he added, “It’s very difficult for an American politician to explain.”

Ana Swanson contributed to the coverage

Categories
Health

Biden Takes First Tentative Steps to Handle International Vaccine Scarcity

Biden Takes First Tentative Steps to Address Global Vaccine Shortage

WASHINGTON – President Biden was under heavy pressure on Friday to donate excess coronavirus vaccines to nations in need to otherwise address global shortages and partnered with Japan, India and Australia to increase global manufacturing capabilities Expand vaccines.

In an agreement announced at the so-called Quad Summit, a virtual meeting of the heads of state and government of the four countries, the Biden government pledged to provide financial support to enable Biological E, a large vaccine manufacturer in India, to manufacture at least 1 Billion doses of coronavirus to help vaccines by the end of 2022.

This would fix acute vaccine shortages in Southeast Asia and beyond without risking the domestic setback of exporting cans in the months ahead as Americans demand their shots.

The United States has fallen far behind China, India and Russia in the race to adopt coronavirus vaccines as an instrument of diplomacy. At the same time, Mr Biden is accused of hoarding vaccines from global health lawyers who want his government to route supplies to nations in need desperately seeking access.

The president insisted that Americans come first and has so far refused to make any specific commitments to free US-made vaccines, despite tens of millions of doses of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca’s vaccine idling in American manufacturing facilities .

“If we have a surplus, we will share it with the rest of the world,” Biden said this week, adding, “We will first make sure that the Americans are taken care of first, but then we will try the rest of the world to help. “

In fact, the president still has a lot of work to do domestically to keep the promises made in the past few days: All states must question all adults for vaccinations by May 1st so that enough vaccine doses are available by the end of May to vaccinate every American adult, and that by July 4th, if Americans continue to follow public health guidelines, life should return to a semblance of normalcy.

Vaccine supplies seem on track to meet these goals, but the president still needs to put in place the infrastructure to manage the doses and overcome reluctance in large parts of the population to take them.

Still, Mr Biden has also made restoring US leadership a core part of his foreign policy agenda after his predecessor’s alliances frayed and relations with allies and global partners strained. His Foreign Secretary, Antony J. Blinken, said in a recent BBC interview that a global vaccination campaign would be part of this effort. Washington is “determined” to be an “international leader” in vaccinations.

Foreign policy experts and global health activists see clear diplomatic, public and humanitarian reasons for this.

“It’s time for US leaders to ask themselves: When this pandemic is over, do we want the world to remember America’s leadership in helping distribute life-saving vaccines, or will we leave that to others?” said Tom Hart, the North American executive director of One Campaign, a nonprofit founded by U2 singer Bono and dedicated to eradicating global poverty.

The federal government has bought 453 million surplus doses of vaccine, the group says. She has asked the Biden administration to share 5 percent of their doses overseas when 20 percent of Americans have been vaccinated, and gradually increase the percentage of divided doses as more Americans receive their vaccines.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13.5 percent of people in the United States who are 18 years of age or older were fully vaccinated as of Friday.

The authoritarian governments of China and Russia, less affected by national public opinion, are already using vaccines to expand their sphere of influence. As the Biden government plans its strategy to counter China’s growing global clout, Beijing is polishing its image by shipping vaccines to dozens of countries on multiple continents, including Africa, Latin America, and the Southeast Asian backyard in particular.

Russia has been providing vaccines to Eastern European countries like Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a time when Biden officials want to unify the European Union against Russian influence on the continent.

“We may be outdone by others who are more willing to share, even if they do so for cynical reasons,” said Ivo H. Daalder, former NATO ambassador and president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “I think countries will remember who was there for us when we needed them.”

Updated

March 12, 2021, 5:39 p.m. ET

In the face of worrying and highly contagious new varieties in the US and around the world, public health experts say vaccinating people overseas is necessary to protect Americans too.

“It has to be sold to Americans to keep Americans safe over the long term, and it has to be sold to a highly divided, toxic America,” said J. Stephen Morrison, a global health expert with Centers for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t think that’s impossible. I think Americans are beginning to understand that in a world of variation, anything that happens outside of our borders increases the urgency to act really quickly. “

Mr Blinken also said this to the BBC: “Until everyone in the world is vaccinated, nobody is really completely safe.”

The quad vaccine partnership announced at the summit on Friday includes different commitments from each of the nations, according to the White House.

In addition to supporting the Indian vaccine maker, the US has pledged at least $ 100 million to bolster vaccination capacity overseas and support public health efforts. Japan is “in discussion” to provide loans to the Indian government to expand the production of vaccines for export and will support vaccination programs for developing countries. Australia will allocate $ 77 million for vaccine provision and delivery assistance with a focus on Southeast Asia.

The four countries will also form one  Quad Vaccine Experts Group by  Top scientists and government officials who will work to overcome production hurdles and funding plans.

Mr Morrison said the government deserves “some credit” for the effort, adding, “It shows diplomatic ingenuity and speed.” However, a spokesman for One Campaign, which focuses on extreme poverty, said his group would still see a plan for the United States’ vaccine supply, noting that Africa had given far fewer doses per capita than Asia.

Mr Biden’s efforts to ramp up vaccine production helped the United States produce up to a billion doses by the end of the year – far more than needed to vaccinate the roughly 260 million adults in the United States.

What you need to know about the vaccine rollout

A government-brokered deal to see drug company Merck manufacture Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, which the president celebrated in the White House on Wednesday, will help achieve that goal. Also on Wednesday, Mr Biden directed federal health officials to source an additional 100 million doses of the vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.

The government has stated that these efforts are aimed at having enough vaccines for children, booster doses, to face new varieties and unforeseen events. Jeffrey D. Zients, Mr Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, told reporters Friday that the Johnson & Johnson-Merck deal would also “expand capacity and ultimately benefit the world”.

Not only did Mr Biden resist the urge to dump excess doses, but he also criticized the Liberal Democrats for blocking a motion by India and South Africa for a temporary waiver of an international intellectual property agreement that would make it easier for poorer countries to access generic versions of Coronavirus vaccines and treatments.

“I understand why we should prioritize our supply to Americans – it was paid for by American taxpayers, President Biden is President of America,” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Liberal Democrat from California. “But there is no reason to prioritize the profits of pharmaceutical companies over the dignity of other countries.”

Mr Biden recently announced a $ 4 billion donation to Covax, the international vaccine initiative supported by the World Health Organization. David Bryden, director of the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, a nonprofit that supports health workers in low- and middle-income countries, said money was also urgently needed to train and pay these workers to administer vaccines overseas.

However, that donation and the Quad’s announcement of financial support for vaccine production on Friday fell short of the urgent demands of public health advocates for the United States to provide ready-to-use doses that can be quickly injected.

However, the quad’s focus on Southeast Asia most likely reflects an awareness of China’s gratitude in the region for Beijing’s focus in its vaccine distribution efforts.

If Mr Biden is widely viewed as helping the world recover from the coronavirus pandemic, that could become part of his legacy when President George W. Bush made a huge investment in public health funding in the 2000s the AIDS crisis in Africa responded. More than a decade later, Bush and the United States continue to be revered across much of the continent for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), which the government said has spent $ 85 billion and saved 20 million lives.

Michael Gerson, a former Bush White House speechwriter and policy advisor who helped shape the Pepfar program, said its impact has been both moral and strategic and that the program has been “an enormous amount of money to the United States.” goodwill “in Africa.

“I think the principle here should be that the people who need it most should get it, no matter where they live,” he said. “There is little moral sense in giving the vaccine to a healthy American 24-year-old in front of a front-line worker in Liberia.”

But he added, “It’s very difficult for an American politician to explain.”

Ana Swanson contributed to the coverage

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Politics

Biden inaugural tackle used phrase ‘democracy’ greater than some other president’s

Biden inaugural address used word 'democracy' more than any other president's

President Joe Biden speaks after being sworn in as the 46th President of the United States during the 59th inauguration of the President at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2021.

Patrick Semansky | AFP | Getty Images

Standing on the spot where there had been a deadly riot at the US Capitol two weeks earlier, President Joe Biden delivered an inaugural address that uses the word “democracy” more than any other inaugural address in US history.

“This is America’s day. This is democracy day,” said Biden at the beginning of the speech. “The will of the people was heard and the will of the people was heeded. We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”

Biden used the word 11 times in his address. This precedes the addresses of Harry Truman, who said “democracy” nine times in his 1949 address, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, who also did so at his third swearing-in ceremony in 1941, according to a CNBC analysis of speeches by the American Presidential Project . The project is an archive of public documents maintained by the University of California at Santa Barbara.

“What fascinated me about it was that it started and ended with democracy,” said Bill Antholis, director and CEO of the Miller Center, a non-partisan subsidiary of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarships.

Antholis, former executive director of the Brookings Institution and a member of the Clinton administration, traced the subject of Biden’s speech back to the Capitol uprising and the events that preceded it.

“I think this was a very different speech than the one that would have been written if Trump had admitted on the morning of November 4th,” said Antholis. “And since the insurrection attacked both the physical symbol and a key process in our democracy, Biden spoke at a very timely moment.”

Most common use of the word “democracy” in the President’s inaugural speeches

  • Joe Biden (2021): 11
  • Harry Truman (1949): 9
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt’s third address (1941): 9
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second address (1937): 7
  • George HW Bush (1989): 5
  • Bill Clinton’s second address (1997): 4
  • Bill Clinton’s first address (1993): 4
  • Warren G. Harding (1921): 4
  • William Henry Harrison (1841): 4

Antholis noted that the term “democracy” was used more widely in political speech in the 20th century, during the time of Woodrow Wilson’s presidency, which began in 1913. Wilson, a former political science professor, adopted the term. Antholis said that Truman and Roosevelt saw themselves as “Wilsonians,” which may explain their use of the term.

Wednesday’s speech was also in stark contrast to President Donald Trump’s inaugural address four years ago when Trump spoke of “American slaughter”.

“One of the things that stood out was the normality of a very moving ceremony and the way he talked about democracy as permanent,” said Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and former director for Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton.

“The images that the word carnage convey are terrible,” said Kathleen Kendall, a research professor of communications at the University of Maryland. “Biden did the opposite. I would say his main point is that America has been tested and has risen to the challenge.”

Words like “America,” “democracy,” and “unity,” all used by Biden are words that most Americans see and respond positively to, Kendall added.

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Politics

Biden Cupboard nominees pledge to make use of federal powers to handle crises

Biden Cabinet nominees pledge to use federal powers to address crises

US President-elect Joe Biden speaks to reporters as he announces candidates and candidates during a press conference at his interim headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware on December 11, 2020.

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WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden introduced several of his candidates to head domestic affairs agencies on Friday, highlighting how members of his cabinet would use the powers of the federal government to help Americans in need.

Accompanied by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris at the event at a Wilmington, Delaware hotel, Biden began making brief remarks on the coronavirus pandemic before introducing his candidate to lead the Department of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack.

He also introduced his nominee for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio; his candidate for Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Denis McDonough; and for US sales representative Katherine Tai.

Biden also announced that Susan Rice, a former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, has agreed to serve as director of the White House Home Affairs Council, a powerful position in the west wing that will give Rice broad influence on a number of issues .

Taken together, Biden said his candidates bring “deep experience and bold new thinking” to federal agencies and the White House. “Most of all, they know how the government can and should work for all Americans.”

Biden stressed how any member of his cabinet would help Americans face multiple overlapping crises: the coronavirus pandemic, a deep recession, and an impending spike in evictions and food insecurity.

For example, Fudge will “use every lever at her disposal to help the millions of Americans facing eviction – trying to pay their mortgage and find their way through this crisis,” Biden said.

U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge speaks on December 11, 2020 after being named Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President-elect Joe Biden (R) in Wilmington, Delaware.

Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images

And Vilsack “knows the full range of resources available in the [Department of Agriculture] Get immediate assistance to those most in need and address crises in rural America. “

The nominees also made brief comments, emphasizing how various federal agencies would help a nationwide recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Rice spoke last and tied everything together.

US President-elect Joe Biden (R) watches as former National Security Advisor to Obama Susan Rice makes remarks after being unveiled as Biden’s decision to present his home affairs council on December 11, 2020 at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, to direct.

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

“Today we face a profound series of crises: a relentless pandemic, a troubled economy, urgent demands for racial justice and justice, a climate that needs healing, a democracy that needs to be repaired, and a world that needs renewed Americans for leadership “, she said.

“Our top priorities will be to help end the pandemic and revitalize an economy that cares for all, brings dignity and humanity to our broken immigration system, promotes racial justice, justice and civil rights for all, and ensures that healthcare is affordable and to be accessible and educate and train Americans to compete and thrive in the 21st century, “Rice continued.

“I firmly believe that we can all move up or down together – absolutely all of us.”

Just 40 days before his inauguration, Biden is putting together a cabinet that is unprecedented in its racial and gender diversity. Tai, Fudge, and Rice are all women of color.

Earlier this week, Biden announced that retired General Lloyd Austin was his decision to run the Pentagon, making Austin the first black man to ever be appointed Secretary of Defense.

However, Biden has come under heavy pressure from civil rights groups to add even more diversity to his cabinet, particularly nominating an Asian American for a top position in the cabinet.

On Friday, several groups representing Asian Americans and Pacific islanders released a joint statement criticizing “the remarkable absence of Asian American cabinet secretaries” in the Biden administration.

“President-elect Biden is well on the way to being the first president in over 20 years to fail to nominate an Asian American for the role of cabinet secretary in his administration,” said the statement made by the National Council Asia Pacific has submitted to CNBC Americans.

But Asian Americans aren’t the only group currently pressuring Biden to be more prominent in his White House: on Tuesday, he and Harris met with leaders of older civil rights groups, including the NAACP and the National Urban League.

They called on Biden to create a new position in the White House, a racial justice advisor who should be tasked with coordinating government-wide efforts to combat systemic racism.

Biden has so far refused to comment on the specific recommendations and inquiries he receives from lawyers. But he told CNN last week, “Every advocacy group out there is pushing for more and more of what they want. That is their job.”

However, in the same interview, Biden also defended his cabinet selection, noting that they were already “the most diverse cabinet ever announced in American history”.