Tag: demands

Categories
Politics

U.N. Secretary Normal calls Israel-Palestinian violence appalling, calls for finish

U.N. Secretary General calls Israel-Palestinian violence appalling, demands end

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony for fallen soldiers of the Israeli wars at Yad Lebanim House on the eve of Memorial Day in Jerusalem on April 13, 2021.

Debbie Hill | Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the violent conflict between militants from Israel and the Gaza Strip on Sunday as “extremely appalling” and called for an immediate ceasefire as the worst outbreak of fighting in years lasts seven days and weighs heavily on civilians.

“This latest round of violence only continues the cycles of death, destruction and despair and pushes all hopes for coexistence and peace further into the horizon,” Guterres said during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

“The fight has to stop. It has to stop immediately. Missiles and mortars on one side and air and artillery bombardments on the other have to stop,” he said. “I appeal to all parties to heed this call.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that there would be no immediate end to the Israeli campaign against militant groups.

Israeli air strikes early Sunday killed at least 42 Palestinians, including 10 children, according to Gaza health officials, bringing the death toll in Gaza to at least 188 since the fighting began on Monday. In Israel, 10 people were killed in rocket attacks by Hamas and other militant groups.

“We will do everything we can to restore order. It will take time,” Netanyahu said during an interview on CBS ‘Face the Nation. “I hope it won’t be long. It’s not right now.”

A Palestinian mourns the bodies of a member of the Kawlak family who were killed in an overnight Israeli air strike in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City as they prepared for their funeral in front of Al-Shifa Hospital on May 16, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

Israel and Hamas, which govern the Gaza Strip, have both vowed to continue the cross-border fire after Israel targeted and destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed some media offices. Hamas fired 120 rockets overnight to destroy the al-Jalaa building, although many were intercepted.

“Our campaign against the terrorist organizations continues with full force,” said Netanyahu in a televised address. “We are now acting as long as necessary to restore peace and quiet to you, the citizens of Israel.”

Netanyahu argued that the Israelis had received information that Hamas military offices were located in the Gaza Strip but had not produced any evidence. “It’s a perfectly legitimate target,” he said of the building, adding that the military had warned civilians against the evacuation.

The AP condemned the attack and demanded evidence from Israel that the building had Hamas offices. “We had no evidence that Hamas was in the building or was active in the building,” the AP said in a statement.

People rescue a wounded child from rubble as search and rescue work continues on rubble of a building after Israeli army air strikes struck buildings in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on May 16, 2021.

Ashraf Amra | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Guterres said the UN was actively working for an immediate ceasefire on all sides. “The fighting could drag Israelis and Palestinians into a spiral of violence with devastating consequences for both communities and for the entire region,” said Guterres.

“It has the potential to spark an unstoppable security and humanitarian crisis and further fuel extremism not just in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel but throughout the region, potentially creating a new place of dangerous instability,” he said.

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield did not call for a ceasefire on Sunday but said the US would offer support if the parties seek a ceasefire.

“The United States has made it clear that we are ready to do our support and good offices if the parties seek a ceasefire because we believe that Israelis and Palestinians alike have the right to live in safety,” Greenfield told im UN Security Council meeting.

President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday to address the worsening conflict. Biden’s envoy Hady Amr also came to Israel on Friday to de-escalate the fighting.

An air bomb hits Jala Tower during an Israeli air strike in Gaza City controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement on May 15, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

The president has reiterated its support for Israel’s right to self-defense against missile strikes, but Abbas shared concerns that “innocent civilians, including children, have tragically lost their lives in the ongoing violence,” according to an ad from das White House.

Biden also reiterated on Saturday a “strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best way to achieve a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to Abbas’ appeal.

Despite diplomatic efforts to end the conflict and avoid more civilian casualties, the fighting continues.

Rep. Adam Schiff, DC.A., chairman of the U.S. Intelligence Committee, called for a ceasefire during an interview on CBS Sunday morning.

“I think the government needs to put more pressure on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to stop the violence,” said Schiff.

– Reuters contributed to the coverage

Categories
World News

EU calls for vaccine makers ‘ship’ provides

EU demands vaccine makers 'deliver' supplies

Employee Jessica Mueller brings the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine into a freezer in the vaccine warehouse, where the cans will be stored in Irxleben near Magdeburg, eastern Germany, before being distributed on January 8, 2021.

RONNY HARTMANN | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called on coronavirus vaccine makers to deliver on their pledges to deliver millions of doses to the block and beyond.

Your comments face an unprecedented challenge for the EU when it comes to introducing vaccines in each of the 27 Member States. The EU’s vaccination campaign began on December 27, a later start than the UK or US, and the patchy, slow rollouts in many of its members have worried officials and the public.

“Europe has invested billions to support the development of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccines. To create a truly global common good,” said von der Leyen at the virtual Davos Agenda summit. “And now companies have to deliver. They have to meet their obligations.”

“Europe is determined to contribute to this global common good, but it also means business,” she said

“We were turned inwards”

A few hours later and at the same time, Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more cooperation and multilateralism in the life-saving blows.

She told the World Economic Forum: “It has become even clearer to me than before that we have to take a multilateral approach, that a self-isolating approach will not solve our problems.”

The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the high level of interdependence and networking in the world, and Germany initially made the mistake of looking inward to defeat the pandemic instead of working with others.

“We looked inward and cut ourselves off from each other, but very quickly we learned the lesson (not to do that),” she said.

Lack of vaccine

With the increase in infections and related bans, the EU is now faced with the challenge of vaccine shortages. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca have warned of production issues that will either mean a temporary cut in production and the supplies the EU is receiving, and in the case of AstraZeneca, could mean it cannot meet a commitment to deliver 80 million Cans until the end of March.

An unnamed official told Reuters last week that AstraZeneca announced that the supply would instead be around 31 million doses, around 60% less than envisaged by the EU, which is expected to use the vaccine for emergencies later this week.

The news, understandably, enraged the bloc, which threatened to restrict exports of vaccines from the EU. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine is made in Belgium.

Talks between the EU and AstraZeneca are due to resume on Wednesday. The former asked the pharmaceutical company to provide detailed plans for the manufacture and sale of vaccines. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement on Monday that an “export transparency mechanism” would be put in place to assess vaccine exports from the EU.

Haves vs. have-nots

The supply of vaccines is also a hot topic of conversation outside of Europe, which like other wealthy nations has at least started its vaccination campaigns. The poorer countries say they are at the bottom when it comes to access to life-saving footage.

Last week, the World Health Organization head said the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines was at “serious risk” and warned of “catastrophic moral failure” if vaccines were not distributed fairly.

This point was repeated on Tuesday by Angel Gurria, Secretary General of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“This is the biggest test for all of humanity, and especially for OECD countries, as most of those countries bought three, five or even ten times as many vaccines as their entire population,” Gurria told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe “. “”

These vaccines are “badly needed” in developing countries and could “be a very important source of overseas aid support and international cooperation,” he added. “We won’t get rid of this pandemic until it’s gone everywhere,” he said.

Categories
Politics

Biden accuses Trump’s Pentagon and OMB of obstruction, calls for cooperation

Biden accuses Trump's Pentagon and OMB of obstruction, demands cooperation

President-elect Joe Biden said Monday his transition team had encountered “roadblocks” and “obstacles” among the heads of the Trump administration at key agencies, hampering the new administration’s efforts to prepare for the presidency.

But one of those agency chiefs, incumbent Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, pushed back Biden’s criticism and highlighted the recent dispute between President Donald Trump’s Pentagon and the President-elect.

“The truth is that many of the agencies vital to our security have suffered tremendous damage,” Biden said during a speech in Delaware after briefing from his national security and foreign policy agency review teams.

“Many of them have been undermined in terms of human resources, capacity and morale. Political processes have stunted or stopped,” he said.

Biden, who will take office in less than a month, highlighted the Department of Defense and the Office of Administration and Budget in his speech.

“Our team has received exemplary cooperation from some agencies,” said Biden. “We have encountered obstacles from the political leadership of that ministry from others, particularly the Ministry of Defense.”

He later added, “We have encountered obstacles from the political leadership in the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Administration and Budget. At the moment we are simply not getting all of the information we need from the outgoing administration for key national security areas.”

“In my opinion it’s nothing less than irresponsibility,” said Biden.

In a statement later Monday, incumbent defense chief Miller defended his agency’s coordination with Biden’s team.

“The Department of Defense conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials and provided over 5,000 pages of documents – far more than originally requested by Biden’s transition team,” Miller’s statement said.

Included in this statement is a bulleted list of “transition facts” which indicates that all interviews with the transition team are being conducted for the first time in practical light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency’s efforts “are already outperforming the youngest administrations in more than three weeks,” said Miller, “and we continue to plan additional meetings for the remainder of the transition and respond to any information requests in our area of ​​responsibility.”

Department of Defense officials, the statement added, “have worked with the utmost professionalism to support transition activities on a compressed schedule and they will continue to do so in a transparent and collegial manner that upholds the best traditions of the department. The American people expect nothing less and that’s what I’m still committed to. “

The Bureau of Administration and Housekeeping did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Biden applauded his agency review teams for doing “an excellent job” despite the pandemic and delays in receiving federal funding through Trump’s General Services Administration. These obstacles emerged when the president refused to allow Biden and his electoral team and others continued their efforts to overturn the elections.

According to Biden, it is an urgent concern “to ensure that nothing is lost during the handover between the administrations”.

“We need a comprehensive look at the current budget planning of the Department of Defense and other agencies to avoid the confusion and catch-up that our opponents may be trying to exploit.”

While the president-elect’s remarks were among his most critical of the Trump administration from the Wilmington lectern, they were not the first instance of Biden’s struggles with Trump’s Department of Defense.

Tensions between the Pentagon and Biden’s team became public earlier this month over Miller’s decision to cancel meetings with the Transition team for the rest of the year.

Miller said in a statement that there was a “mutually agreed vacation break” but a Biden spokesman replied that no such agreement had been made.

“Let me be clear: there was no mutually agreed vacation break,” transition spokesman Yohannes Abraham told reporters.

It was weeks after the election when defense officials confirmed that the transition process within the Pentagon had begun.

“The first meeting today was via videoconference. It was a good, productive meeting and we set some ground rules,” said Tom Muir, director of Washington Headquarters Services, during a Pentagon briefing on November 24th.

“They look forward to participating in discussions here at the Pentagon,” added Muir, who will facilitate the transition process.

Muir said at the time that the Biden team will have dedicated office space in the Pentagon and reasonable access to information.

Categories
Politics

Trump calls for greater stimulus checks in Covid reduction invoice

Trump demands bigger stimulus checks in Covid relief bill

United States President Donald Trump attends a medal ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on December 3, 2020.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

In a stunning tweet Tuesday night, President Donald Trump called the US $ 900 billion Covid Aid Bill passed by Congress an inappropriate “disgrace” and called on lawmakers to make a number of changes to the measure, including larger direct payments to individuals and families.

Trump also suggested that his administration could be the “next administration,” despite losing to President-elect Joe Biden. The relief bill passed by Congress on Monday was partially negotiated by a senior Trump administration official, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Trump himself has not been in the talks since before the elections.

The president’s tweet, which included a video discussing what he thought the law’s many shortcomings are, including overseas funding, came less than 24 hours after the Senate passed the measure. The foreign aid provision is part of a $ 1.4 trillion move to maintain government funding that has been combined with the Covid Relief Act.

Trump did not threaten a veto in the video and was expected to sign the laws along with the bill to keep the government open. The legislation passed both Houses of Congress with a majority with a veto-safe majority.

“I’m asking Congress to change this bill and increase the ridiculously low $ 600 to $ 2,000 or $ 4,000 for a couple,” Trump said in the video.

In another twist, House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, one of Trump’s political arch enemies, agreed to his request for $ 2,000 in payments. “The Democrats are ready to unanimously bring this to the ground this week. Let’s do it!” she tweeted.

Spokespersons for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The package includes, among other things, increased unemployment benefits, more small business loans, a direct payment of $ 600 to individuals, and funds to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.

Legislators wanted to avoid phasing out unemployment programs that would result in 12 million people losing benefits the day after Christmas. They also tried to prevent an eviction moratorium from expiring. Without the moratorium, tens of millions of people could lose their homes by the end of the month.

The amount of direct payments was a major sticking point in the final bill, which came after months of failed talks and false starts while the economy struggled to recover and hundreds of thousands of Americans died from the coronavirus.

GOP Senator Josh Hawley and independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who is negotiating with Democrats, had called for $ 1,200 checks for individuals, which would have matched what the government sent to people in the earlier stages of the pandemic this spring.

Mnuchin told CNBC earlier this week that people could get stimulus checks as early as next week.

Trump also said if Congress fails to deliver the aid package it desires, it will be left to the next administration.

“And maybe I am that administration and we will make it,” he said.

Trump lost to Biden in the November election. However, the president continued to falsely insist that he did indeed win the election and that he was the victim of widespread electoral fraud. Several judges have denied Trump and Trump’s efforts in court to overturn Biden’s victory.

Later on Tuesday, Trump hit the Republican leadership of the Senate, particularly McConnell and the Senate majority whip, John Thune, RS.D. McConnell and Thune have said the Senate would not stand in the way of confirming Biden as the winner of the presidential election.