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 Biden to Visit South Korea, Japan in May

U.S. President Joe Biden is set to travel to South Korea and Japan next month to meet with leaders and discuss economic and security ties. 

The White House announced the trip Wednesday, saying Biden would go to the region May 20-24. 

In South Korea, Biden will hold talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was elected in March. 

In Japan, Biden is due to meet with Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and to hold talks with leaders from the Quad group of countries that includes Japan, Australia, India and the United States.
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France’s Election Offers Lessons to US Ahead of Midterms  

This week’s French presidential contest boiled down to a debate between nationalism and globalism — and globalism prevailed in the victory of President Emmanuel Macron, an ally of President Joe Biden. What can the U.S. learn from this as Biden’s party faces elections? VOA’s Anita Powell reports.
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Bill to Help Taiwan Regain WHO Status Passes Congress

The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation Wednesday calling on the State Department to submit a plan to help Taiwan regain its observer status at the World Health Organization, seeking to boost the island as it faces pressure from China.

The House passed the bill 425-0, sending it to the White House because it passed the Senate in August. Congressional aides said they expected President Joe Biden to sign the measure into law.

Taiwan is excluded from most global organizations such as the WHO, the U.N. health agency, because of the objections of China, which considers the island one of its provinces and not a separate country.

The measure directs the U.S. secretary of state to establish a strategy for obtaining observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of the WHO.

Taiwan was stripped of that status in 2017.

Urging support for the bill, Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly praised Taiwan’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that it had only 37,000 confirmed cases despite a population of 23.5 million, and that it shared expertise and donated protective equipment internationally.

“Taiwan’s leadership and contribution to global health security demonstrate why it ought to be part of the general conversation on public health,” he said.

Taiwan has raised its alert level since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, wary that Beijing might make a similar move on the island, though it has reported no signs this is about to happen.

Similar concerns have fueled efforts in the United States to support Taiwan, such as increasing its participation in international organizations like the WHO.
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House 1/6 Panel Wants to Hear from McCarthy after New Audio 

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol is redoubling its efforts to have GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy appear for an interview amid new revelations concerning his private conversations about the deadly attack, the chairman said Tuesday.

Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the panel expects to decide this week about issuing a second request to McCarthy, who has declined to voluntarily appear before the panel. The committee is also looking at summoning a widening group of House Republicans for interviews, Thompson said, as more information emerges about their conversations with the Trump White House in the run-up to the Capitol siege.

The committee is racing to wrap up this phase of its work amid newly released audio recordings of McCarthy’s private remarks after the Jan. 6 attack, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol trying to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

In a Jan. 10, 2021, audio recording released Tuesday by The New York Times, McCarthy tells fellow Republican leaders that Trump’s far-right allies in the House are “putting people in jeopardy” with their public tweets and comments that could put other lawmakers at risk of violence.

Earlier, the Times reported that McCarthy, in conversations with House Republicans, had blamed Trump for the attack. The audio recordings released by the Times are part of reporting for a forthcoming book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future.

Thompson said the committee met most of Tuesday deciding next steps on McCarthy and other House members.

“We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and we’ll go from there,” Thompson said at the Capitol.

The panel had previously sought interviews from McCarthy and Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, two Trump allies central to the effort to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election that Trump lost to Biden.

All three have declined to voluntarily appear, but the committee has stopped short of taking the more dramatic step of issuing subpoenas to the sitting members of Congress to compel their testimony.

Thompson noted that the earlier invitation to McCarthy was sent “before this latest revelation that was reported on tape.” He told reporters that “in all probability” McCarthy would get another invitation.

At the same time, the panel is broadening its outreach to a potentially much wider group of Republican lawmakers who are now known to have played a more substantial role than previously understood ahead of the riot and as it unfolded.

“We’ll make a decision on any others before the week is out,” Thompson said.

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, a Trump ally who was with a group of lawmakers who met in December 2020 at the White House, has suggested he would appear before the panel. Brooks also spoke at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally before the mob descended on the Capitol.

Additionally, the panel is now eyeing other House Republican lawmakers reported to have been working closely with Mark Meadows, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, as they sought to challenge Biden’s win.

A handful of lawmakers’ names were included in testimony released late Friday as part of a court filing as the committee seeks access to Meadows’ text messages.

“We will probably look at engaging some of the lawmakers by invitation at this point, and we’ll go from there,” Thompson said Tuesday.

The panel is working swiftly to launch public hearings, which it hopes to both start and conclude by June, before issuing an initial report of its findings in fall.
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Biden to Deliver Eulogy for Madeleine Albright

President Joe Biden will eulogize former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at her funeral Wednesday at the Washington National Cathedral.  

The invitation-only service will be livestreamed beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern time.  

“When I think of Madeleine, I will always remember her fervent faith that ‘America is the indispensable nation,'” Biden wrote in a statement after Albright’s death last month. 

Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also will give speeches, along with Albright’s three daughters. Musicians Chris Botti, Judy Collins, and Herbie Hancock will perform.  

Albright, who died last month at age 84, was appointed by President Clinton in 1997 as the country’s 64th secretary of state and the first woman to serve in that position. She had previously served as his U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. 

An immigrant from Prague, Czechoslovakia, she helped steer Western foreign policy in the aftermath of the Cold War, in addition to promoting human rights and democracy around the world.  

During an interview on “PBS NewsHour” last month, President Clinton said that Albright “represented America’s best possible future.” 

Her death was “an immense loss to the world in a time when we need the lessons of her life the most,” President Clinton said in a statement. 
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Biden Returns to In-Person Fundraising in Pacific Northwest

U.S. President Joe Biden is returning to in-person political fundraising with the easing of coronavirus precautions that limited his exposure to large crowds. The president’s ability to draw political donations is especially important for Democrats as the face serious challenges to sustain their majorities in the House and Senate. VOA’s Natasha Mozgovaya has the story from Seattle.
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