Розділ: Повідомлення
Biden Travels to Georgia, a State that Secured His Legislative Ambitions
Marking his first 100 days in office, U.S. President Joe Biden traveled Thursday to Georgia, a state where Democratic victories in the Senate allowed him to pursue a far more ambitious legislative agenda. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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By Polityk | 04/30/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Florida Legislature Passes Bill Limiting Ballot Access
Florida’s Legislature on Thursday passed a bill that makes it harder to access drop boxes and mail-in ballots, the latest Republican-led state to push for what activists say is voter suppression.Republicans cite former President Donald Trump’s claims that President Joe Biden stole the November election as reasons for the sweeping measures. Judges discredited such claims, made without evidence, in more than 60 lawsuits that failed to overturn the election result.Democrats say the Republican measures are designed to lessen the impact of Black voters, whose heavy turnout helped propel Biden to victory and delivered Democrats two U.S. Senate victories in Georgia in January. Georgia passed major new voting restrictions in March.The bill in neighboring Florida, also a political battleground, includes stricter requirements about drop box staffing and requires voters to apply more frequently for mail-in ballots.The bill also stipulates a widening of the “no-solicitation” area around polling places and expands the definition of solicitations to include “the giving, or attempting to give, any item to a voter by certain persons.” Rights groups warn that will dissuade activists from handing out water and food to voters standing in long lines in the often-sweltering state.Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law.Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer who is representing a coalition of civil rights groups suing Georgia over its voting restrictions, tweeted that the Florida business community should have stood up against the bill.”These voter suppression laws are targeted at Black, Brown and young voters,” Elias tweeted. “Bill now heads to Governor’s desk. Watch this space for more news once it is signed.”A record 158 million people voted in the November elections, in part thanks to new rules that made voting easier during COVID-19 pandemic. New York University’s nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice found 29 states and the District of Columbia passed laws and changed procedures to expand voting access during the health crisis.
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By Polityk | 04/30/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Largest Aid Package in US History Caps First Weeks of Biden Presidency
U.S. President Joe Biden took office three months ago working with a Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats. While Biden faced twin economic and public health crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Capitol Hill was consumed by the second impeachment trial of his predecessor, Donald Trump. VOA congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson looks at the new president’s dealings with lawmakers during his first 100 days.Producer: Katherine Gypson.
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By Polityk | 04/30/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden Takes Victory Lap at Drive-In Rally on 100th Day in Office
Marking his 100th day as president of the United States, Joe Biden said Thursday that he had never been more optimistic about the future of America, because the country “is on the move again. We’re choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, light over darkness.”Biden spoke at a drive-in political rally near Atlanta, funded by the Democratic National Committee.”You’re proving democracy can deliver for the people,” the president said to the approval of the honking horns of the 315 vehicles in attendance on the grounds of the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, northeast of Atlanta.The U.S. Senate runoffs in January in the state of Georgia, with victories by Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, gave Biden’s Democrats unified control of the federal government.The president last month used the 50 Democratic seats in the Senate to get approval for his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, although no Republicans voted for it. The legislation also won approval in the House, also controlled by the Democrats.Response to protestersEarly in the president’s remarks on Thursday, he paused when a few demonstrators voiced concerns about detentions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, shouting, “Our families are dying!””I agree with you. I’m working on it, man. Give me another five days,” responded Biden. “Folks, you all know what they’re talking about. There should be no private prisons, none, period. That’s what they’re talking about — private detention centers. They should not exist, and we are working to close all of them.”The president then returned to reminding the audience he had kept his promise to get coronavirus vaccines into American arms and to deliver relief to millions of citizens.Biden’s victory lap came less than 24 hours after he delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress in which he promoted proposals to promote job growth, modernize infrastructure, and assist families with child care and education that would cost trillions of dollars.A U.S. president’s first 100 days has become a notable milestone since Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression.”American aspiration has defined these first 100 days,” Vice President Kamala Harris said earlier Thursday at a mass vaccination site inside a stadium in Baltimore.The vice president said that when she and Biden took office, “More than 10 million Americans were out of work. Schools were closed. Businesses were closed. And beyond the pandemic, our democracy was under assault. And our Capitol had just been attacked by insurgents.”Republican responseLittle of what the Biden-Harris team has achieved in its first 100 days has impressed the Republicans’ leader in the Senate.The Democrats’ agenda is “an attempt to continue dragging a divided country farther and faster to the left,” according to Senator Mitch McConnell.”Our president will not secure a lasting legacy through go-it-alone radicalism,” added McConnell in a statement to mark Biden’s 100th day in office. “He won’t get much done that way. It won’t be good for the country. And whatever the Democrats do get done through partisan brute force will be fragile.”
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By Polityk | 04/30/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Пуск ракети Vega з українським двигуном відбувся успішно – бюро «Південне»
З моменту першого пуску 2012 року ракета Vega стартувала 18 разів
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By Gromada | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
У ДБР розповіли, що шукали в «Кузні на Рибальському» та «Богдан Моторс»
Слідчі ДБР шукали докази в справі про ймовірний продаж Міністерству оборони неякісної військової техніки за завищеними цінами
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By Gromada | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
What is So Special About a US President’s First 100 Days?
More than three months after being sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, President Joe Biden will soon pass a milestone: his first 100 days in office.
On Friday, April 30, administration officials, reporters, the general public and Biden himself will mark the benchmark. But many Americans and people overseas may be wondering what is so special about a president’s first 100 days.
Despite the attention to the day, nothing in U.S. law or the U.S Constitution gives any significance to a president’s first 100 days.
In fact, there is nothing inherently more important about a president’s first 100 days in office than, say, the second 100 days or any other time differentiation of a president’s four-year term, which totals 1,461 days.
However, while the 100-day mark is mostly an arbitrary milestone, it has nevertheless become an important symbolic marker when news organizations, political analysts and academics consider how a new president’s administration is doing. The first 100 days often gives an indication of a president’s management style, priorities and speed in implementing campaign promises.
Why 100 days?
For more than 150 years of American presidential history, no one was particularity interested in a president’s first 100 days. That changed, however, during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was first elected in 1932, during the Great Depression.
Roosevelt set out to make significant and quick changes in economic and social policy, through both legislative and regulatory actions.
On taking office, he summoned the U.S. Congress to a three-month special session and, by the end of his first 100 days, had passed 76 new laws, mostly aimed at easing the effects of the Depression.
Shortly after taking office, Roosevelt also gave the first of many so-called “fireside chats” in which he spoke directly to the American public over the radio and explained in simple terms how he was trying to solve the country’s problems.
In one fireside chat, the president noted how busy and important his first 100 days had been. The term stuck.
A high bar
Since then, U.S. presidents have understood they will be measured by how ambitious and successful their first 100 days in office are.
While the 100-day milestone is mostly arbitrary, the early days of a presidency can be a choice time for new presidents to make big gains in their agenda. A new president is usually still popular with the public, and lawmakers often have incentive to cooperate with a new leader, creating an opportunity for a president to pass major legislation.FILE – President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives his annual message to Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 7, 1943.While many presidents have pushed through legislation at the beginning of their first term, historians have found that no modern president has done as much in the first 100 days as Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roosevelt faced the unique circumstances of entering office during the Great Depression, the likes of which other presidents had not encountered.
As a result, many presidents try to lower expectations about what they can do in their first 100 days. As President John F. Kennedy said at his 1961 inauguration ceremony, “All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.”
One of President Barack Obama’s senior advisers, David Axelrod, called the 100-day benchmark the “journalistic equivalent of a Hallmark holiday” because it attracts a lot of fanfare but has no real significance.
Biden’s report card
Like Roosevelt, Biden also took office during a time of crisis — with the coronavirus pandemic gripping the world — and has sought to quickly act as president.
In his first 100 days, Biden has signed a host of executive orders relating to the pandemic and pushed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill through Congress.
Biden’s goal of administrating 200 million COVID-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days was met early, allowing the president to double his promised doses.
According to an Associated Press tracker, Biden has fulfilled or started to fulfill all his key campaign promises concerning fighting the coronavirus. Overall, the AP finds Biden has fulfilled 25 out of 61 promises and has started on 33 others.
In terms of the number of laws passed, Biden has signed 11 bills in his first 100 days, according to the website GovTrack, a relatively low number, with only George W. Bush signing fewer in modern history. The presidents who passed the most laws in their first 100 days after Roosevelt were Harry Truman, with 53, Kennedy, with 26, and Bill Clinton, with 22.
Biden has signed the most executive actions, which do not require passage through Congress, after Roosevelt, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The project says Biden has signed more than 100 executive orders, memoranda or proclamations since taking office. Before Biden, former President Trump held the No. 2 spot, with more than 85.
Remaining term
While a president’s first 100 days are an important indication of how a president is faring, they do not always indicate what actions a leader will take later in their term.
In fact, many observers point out that the major issues previous presidents faced often came much later in their terms. For example, George W. Bush had been president for more than 200 days when terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. President Ronald Reagan was in his second term when he famously called on Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
Roosevelt was also equally defined by events happening later in his presidential term: In 1941, he led the United States into World War II.
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Biden’s First 100 Days See Few Big Moves on Africa
U.S. President Joe Biden has focused most of his energy in his first 100 days in office on taming the coronavirus pandemic on home soil. But in this short, frantic period, he has made a few important gestures that have been welcomed in Africa. On his first day in office, he halted the U.S.’s plan to exit the World Health Organization. Biden’s reversal of his predecessor’s controversial decision to withdraw from the global body was greeted with near-universal approval, especially from African health experts, who said it could portend a more equitable world order. Biden also pledged an additional $2 billion to the COVAX facility, which aims to provide equitable vaccine access to poorer nations. And then, on April 20 — day 90 of his administration — he spoke words that echoed across the ocean. “We can’t leave this moment or look away thinking our work is done,” he said on the eve of the verdict in the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd in police custody. “We have to look at it, we have to, we have to look at it as we did for those nine minutes and 29 seconds. We have to listen. ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.’ Those were George Floyd’s last words. We can’t let those words die with him. We have to keep hearing those words.” FILE – A demonstrator holds a placard during a Black Lives Matter protest, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, June 9, 2020.Floyd, who was African American, was born in Houston and died in Minneapolis — but the African continent watched anxiously as a jury in April handed a guilty verdict to his killer, ex-policeman Derek Chauvin. Floyd’s slow suffocation the year before, pinned painfully under Chauvin’s knee as he cried for out for help and for his loved ones, sparked protests and calls for police reform in the U.S. African analysts, like Asanda Ngoasheng, a Cape Town-based diversity trainer and gender and race scholar, welcomed Biden’s admission that the U.S. has a racial justice problem. South Africa is also struggling to overcome its own racial justice issues after centuries of colonialism and the brutal, racist apartheid government.She also said Vice President Kamala Harris’ status as a powerful Black female leader lends weight to Biden’s desire to address racial justice — but said she wants to see more from the administration and from American institutions. “We praise Kamala and I think it’s great that we praise her, but people of color in institutionally racist institutions very rarely are able to make any change,” she said. “And so, unless and until we deal with the systems and the structures that keep prejudice in place, we are not going to see many changes in the United States and globally. And so, yay and great for America and Biden. But can you please talk about the institutional change that they are going to make?” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris looks on as U.S. President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 28, 2021.Johannesburg-based commentator Brooks Spector said that while Biden hasn’t made any big changes to Africa policy, the fact that he isn’t making radical, impulsive changes — as critics accused former president Donald Trump of doing — is a welcome change in itself. Spector recommends that Biden work to strengthen and maintain the African Growth and Opportunities Act, a U.S. trade program. “Much of what has to happen is going to be demonstrated by doing things on the ground in a slow, steady, consistent pattern, rather than these hectic policy changes of chopping and changing,” he said. “If you want to demonstrate your support for economic growth on the continent, then you carry out the policies that encourage economic growth.” Spector, who served as an American diplomat overseas for several decades, says time will tell in Biden’s impact on Africa. Presidential legacies, he said, are built over years, not days — even 100 of them.
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Нацрада не переоформила супутникову ліцензію каналу «НАШ»
Як вважає голова Нацради, питання вимагає «додаткового дослідження», більшість членів утрималися від голосування
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By Gromada | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Апеляційний суд пом’якшив домашній арешт Білковському у справі через акцію під ОП
Олексій Білковський є одним із семи людей, яким повідомили про пдіозру за участь у акції під Офісом президента 20 березня
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By Gromada | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
AP Fact Check: Biden Skews Record on Migrants; GOP on Virus
Taking a swipe at his predecessor, President Joe Biden gave a distorted account of the historical forces driving migrants to the U.S. border, glossing over the multitudes who were desperate to escape poverty in their homelands when he was vice president.In his speech to Congress on Wednesday night, Biden also made his spending plans sound more broadly supported in Washington than they are.The Republican response to Biden’s speech departed from reality particularly on the subject of the pandemic. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina tried to give the Trump administration credit for turning the tide on the coronavirus in what was actually the deadliest phase.A look at some of the claims:The sun rises as asylum-seeking migrant families from Honduras and El Salvador walk towards the border wall after crossing the Rio Grande River into the United States from Mexico on a raft, in Penitas, Texas.IMMIGRATIONBIDEN: “If you believe in a pathway to citizenship, pass (immigration legislation) so over 11 million undocumented folks, the vast majority who are here overstaying visas, pass it.”THE FACTS: He’s making an unsubstantiated claim.There is no official count of how many people entered the country legally and overstayed visas. The government estimates that 11.4 million were living in the country illegally as of January 2018 but doesn’t distinguish between how many entered legally and stayed after their visas expired and how many arrived illegally.Robert Warren of the Center for Migration Studies of New York, a former director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s statistics division who has studied visa overstays for decades, has done the most recent work on the issue. He estimated that, as of 2018, 46% of people in the country illegally overstayed visas — not a majority, let alone a “vast majority.”BIDEN: “When I was vice president, the president asked me to focus on providing help needed to address the root causes of migration. And it helped keep people in their own countries instead of being forced to leave. The plan was working, but the last administration decided it was not worth it. I’m restoring the program and I asked Vice President Harris to lead our diplomatic effort to take care of this.”THE FACTS: That’s wrong.Biden led Obama’s efforts to address a spike in migration from Central America, but poverty and violence have been endemic for decades. Hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. aid have gone to Central America annually, even during Donald Trump’s presidency, but migration from Mexico and Central America has continued unabated with periodic spikes.In March, the number of unaccompanied children encountered by U.S. border authorities reached nearly 19,000, the highest number on record in the third major surge of families and children from Central America since 2014 under both Democratic and Republican administrations.Biden championed aid during what Obama called “a humanitarian crisis” of Central American children at the border in 2014. But while assistance fell under Trump, hundreds of millions of dollars have flowed in every year. Biden has proposed $861 million in Central American aid next year as a first installment on a $4 billion plan, compared with annual outlays of between $506 million and $750 million over the previous six years.A painter works on steel support beams underneath the Manhattan Bridge, part of New York’s aging infrastructure, April 6, 2021.SPENDINGBIDEN, on his economic proposals: “There’s a broad consensus of economists — left, right, center — and they agree that what I’m proposing will help create millions of jobs and generate historic economic growth.”THE FACTS: He’s glossing over the naysayers. Some economists, also bridging the ideological spectrum, say he’s spending too much or in the wrong way. Biden’s pandemic relief plan did enjoy some bipartisan support, even getting a general seal of approval from Kevin Hassett, who was Trump’s chief economist. But his policies have also drawn bipartisan criticism.For one, Larry Summers, who was Barack Obama’s top economist and Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary, warned that Biden’s relief package risks rates of inflation not seen in a generation.Biden’s latest proposals on infrastructure and families would require substantial tax increases on corporations and wealthy investors — leading to criticism by many CEOs and more conservative economists that growth could be compromised. Biden’s economics team says the resulting programs and infrastructure would boost growth.The plan to increase capital gains taxes drew the scorn of Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and Republican adviser. He said the White House is wrong to focus on the sliver of people being taxed and what matters is how much of the economy would be taxed.“The wealth taxes are a draconian tax on the annual return to that capital,” he said. “What matters is the amount of economic activity that is taxed, not the number of people.”BIDEN: “We kept our commitment, Democrats and Republicans, sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85% of all American households.”THE FACTS: Republicans made no such commitment.Republicans in both the U.S. Senate and House opposed the bill containing the $1,400 stimulus checks, known as the American Rescue Plan, portraying it as too big and too bloated.All but one Democrat supported the legislation.While no Republicans voted for this year’s coronavirus bill, they supported sending checks to Americans in previous rounds of relief legislation. A relief law passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in December, when Trump was still president, provided $600 checks to many Americans.Some Republicans have boasted to their constituents about programs created by the coronavirus bill despite voting against it.FILE – A prescription is filled at a pharmacy in Sacramento, Calif. On Friday, May 11 2018, Trump is scheduled to give his first speech on how his administration will seek to lower drug prices.DRUG PRICESBIDEN, arguing that Congress should authorize Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. “And by the way, that won’t just help people on Medicare — it will lower prescription drug costs for everyone.”THE FACTS: That may be a bit of wishful thinking.Under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill, private insurers that cover working-age Americans and their families would indeed be able to get the same discounts as Medicare. But while Pelosi should be able to drive her legislation through the House, the situation in the Senate is different.If just a few Democratic senators have qualms about her expansive approach, Biden may have to settle for less. So there’s no guarantee that a final bill would lower prescription drug costs for everyone.Sen. Tim Scott delivers the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress, April 28, 2021, in Washington.REPUBLICAN RESPONSESOUTH CAROLINA SEN. TIM SCOTT: “This administration inherited a tide that had already turned. The coronavirus is on the run! Thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the Trump administration, our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines.”THE FACTS: That’s a real stretch.Biden took over in the midst of the winter wave of COVID-19, the worst to hit the nation. It’s true that cases and deaths had begun to decline from their peak in the second week of January, but the tide had far from turned. Daily cases were averaging more than three times higher than they are now.And while the Trump administration shepherded the delivery of two highly effective vaccines, the supply of doses was short of meeting demand and several state governors were complaining about jumbled signals from Trump’s team.Trump was focused on his campaign to overturn the election results and did not devote much public attention to the pandemic as his term came to an end.SCOTT: “Just before COVID, we had the most inclusive economy in my lifetime. The lowest unemployment rates ever recorded for African Americans, Hispanics and Asians. And a 70-year low nearly for women. Wages were growing faster at the bottom than at the top — the bottom 25% saw their wages go up faster than the top 25%. That happened because Republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all Americans.”THE FACTS: His statistics are selectively misleading.Nothing is false on its face in terms of numbers. Yet the gains reflected the longest expansion in U.S. history — something that started during Obama’s administration and simply continued under Trump without much change in growth patterns.The labor force participation for women was below its 2001 peak, so the unemployment rate claims by Scott tell an incomplete story. The Black and Hispanic unemployment rates were lower because the total unemployment rate was lower. Yet both still lagged those of white workers by a large degree.Scott also neglects to credit the Federal Reserve, which kept interest rates near historic lows to support growth and keep the recovery from the Great Recession going.
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
With Massive Spending Plans, Biden Seeks to Remake Relationship Between Federal Government and Americans
In his first 100 days as president of the United States, Joe Biden has governed less like a chief executive whose party is clinging to the barest of majorities in the House and Senate, and more like a transformative figure with a broad public mandate for societal change. In an address to a pandemic-diminished joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, he took a further step in his effort to remake the relationship between the federal government and the American people with a $1.8 trillion proposal to expand Americans’ access to education, provide financial support to families with children, guarantee paid family and medical leave for workers, and reduce healthcare costs. Speaking to a socially distanced audience in the House chamber, where more seats were empty than were occupied, Biden described “a once-in-a-generation investment in our families – in our children” that would help the United States in the competition with the rest of the world to “win the 21st century.” Biden’s plans, while they poll well with the general public, are still remarkably ambitious in a country where political divisions often trump even voters’ professed policy preferences. President Joe Biden turns from the podium after speaking to a joint session of Congress, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.American Families Plan The proposal Biden outlined on Wednesday, called the American Families Plan, is the latest move by his administration to substantially transform the relationship between the federal government and the American people. It would be paid for by increasing tax revenue through rate hikes and stepped-up enforcement targeting wealthy tax evaders. Tonight, I introduced the American Families Plan — an ambitious, once-in-a-generation investment to rebuild the middle class and invest in America’s future. Learn more: U.S. Senator Scott speaks with reporters as he transits the subway system beneath the U.S. Capitol in Washington‘Even More Taxing, Even More Spending’ Republicans in Congress immediately tied the new proposal to the administration’s previous efforts, noting their combined $6 trillion price tag and expansion of the federal government’s role in American life.“Tonight, we also heard about a so-called ‘Family Plan’ – even more taxing, even more spending, to put Washington even more in the middle of your life, from the cradle to college,” said Sen. Tim Scott, the South Carolina Republican who delivered his party’s official rebuttal to the president’s remarks. “The beauty of the American Dream is that families get to define it for themselves,” said Scott. “We should be expanding opportunities and options for all families, not throwing money at certain issues because Democrats think they know best.”Broad Changes Proposed The change in access to education is the most wide-ranging element in the American Families Plan, theoretically making two years of prekindergarten instruction and two years of community college available to all Americans free of charge. The plan would also extend some of the financial support to families put in place by the American Rescue Plan, a bill passed earlier this year in response to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, that bill provided families with refundable tax credits of between $3,000 and $3,600 per child paid out on a monthly basis.It would also guarantee that, for children up to the age of 5, American families pay no more than 7% of their annual income for child care, and would guarantee up to 12 weeks of paid medical and family leave for workers.FILE – The headquarters of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Washington is seen in this file photo, Apr. 13, 2014.Paid for with Tax Revenue The proposal would cost $1.8 trillion in total, with approximately $1 trillion in direct spending, and an additional $800 billion in targeted tax relief. However, the Biden administration insists that the plan would be paid for by changes to the administration of tax laws, and would deliver large economic benefits to the nation as well. The administration projects that an investment of $80 billion in the Internal Revenue Service’s enforcement capabilities will generate some $700 billion in increased tax revenue in the coming decade. Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Institute in Washington, called the increased funding for the IRS, which has been critically underfunded over the past decade, “a good investment.” However, she said, “The question is whether it will get back as much money as the president has claimed it will. It’s hard to say at this point because we don’t have enough information.” Jesse Oni contributed to this report
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Рада Європи проаналізувала дотримання прав журналістів в Україні та світі
В Україні зафіксовано випадки прихованого стеження, залякування та перешкоджання діяльності журналістів – звіт
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By VilneSlovo | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
Scott Says Biden Has Failed to Unite Country
U.S. Senator Tim Scott said President Joe Biden has failed to unite the nation and that his proposals for infrastructure spending and the newly announced package for education and families are pulling the nation further apart. Delivering the Republican response to the Democratic president’s first joint address to Congress on Wednesday night, Scott said, “Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.” Biden spent a section of his address celebrating the progress in combatting the coronavirus pandemic, including far exceeding his administration’s goal for vaccinations at this point in his presidency. Scott said Biden “inherited a tide that had already turned,” crediting the Trump administration’s program to accelerate vaccine development, as well as several packages Congress passed last year to deliver trillions of dollars in aid to business, state governments and direct payments to individuals.Television lighting is set up near the U.S. Capitol as U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, April 29, 2021.He described Democrats as unwilling to work with Republicans on more aid, as Democrats passed a new round of coronavirus aid after Biden took office. The parties clashed over the size of that measure, with Democrats arguing the government needed to take more action, while Republicans argued for more targeted spending. Scott also expressed objection to the pace of schools reopening amid the pandemic, arguing that other countries had already allowed their children to go back to their classrooms. “Science has shown for months that schools are safe,” he said. Responding to Biden’s new proposal to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to pay for expanded access to preschool, community college, child care and paid family leave, Scott described the plan as putting the federal government “more in the middle of your life, from the cradle to college.” He said families should be able to define the American dream for themselves and that there should be expanded opportunities for all. Scott, who is the only Black Republican senator, also said Democrats have brought race into unrelated policy disputes, saying, “Race is not a political weapon to settle every issue.” “Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them,” Scott said. “If they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor. From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.” He added, “America is not a racist country.”
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
America ‘Ready for Takeoff,’ Biden Tells Congress
“After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for takeoff,” U.S. President Joe Biden told a joint session of Congress, using the occasion to push his proposed $4 trillion in government spending and tout his overall performance in coping with a series of historic crises since taking office in January. The president, in an address on Wednesday evening, said he had inherited a nation in crisis facing the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.” The address on the eve of his 100th day in office, was not deemed a ‘State of the Union’ presentation because it was delivered in the first year of a new president’s term. It was also shorn of some of the typical pomp of the annual presidential speech to both the House and Senate because of coronavirus restrictions. Typically, as many as 1,600 people packed the House chamber to attend a presidential speech. Only 200 people, mostly members of Congress joined by a small number of officials from other government branches plus select family members, attended. They were socially distanced in the House chamber and wore masks.U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to deliver his first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 29, 2021.Biden spoke from the same dais that insurrectionists overtook on January 6 when supporters of his predecessor, Donald Trump, stormed past law enforcement officers into the U.S. Capitol to try to block the official certification of Biden as the winner of last November’s presidential election over the incumbent. The attack on the Capitol, which remains heavily guarded, left five people dead. More than 400 people have been arrested on various charges related to the siege. “The image of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol, desecrating our democracy, remains vivid in all our minds,” said Biden. “Lives were put at risk, many of your lives. Lives were lost. Extraordinary courage was summoned.” The president said the insurrection was “an existential crisis, a test of whether our democracy could survive — and it did.” Biden devoted the bulk of his 65-minute address to domestic policy issues, although he did mention matters beyond America’s borders. The president said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that the United States will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific “just as we do for NATO in Europe – not to start conflict – but to prevent one.” Biden said he had responded proportionally to Russia’s interference in U.S. elections and the cyber-attacks it launched on government and business. That does not however prevent, according to the president, potential cooperation between Washington and Moscow on nuclear arms reduction and combatting climate change. During the address, Biden proposed a $1.8 trillion expansion of national government assistance for American children and families.U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his first address to a joint session of the U.S. Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 29, 2021.The plan features two years of government-paid, pre-kindergarten education for the country’s youths and two years of free community college for young adults, all of it to be paid for with higher taxes on the country’s wealthiest people and corporations. Massive spending for infrastructure, jobs creation and education is justified because “China and other countries are closing in fast,” said the president. Such spending, if approved by Congress, would usher in a much bigger national government footprint in American life, way more than most Republican lawmakers would like but would not go as far as some progressive Democrats envision. In remarks directed to the audience of millions at home, Biden said his American Jobs Plan is “a blue-collar blueprint to build America” with millions of “good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced.” Republicans contend his infrastructure and family spending plans are too costly and assail Biden’s plans to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest of Americans. Delivering the opposition party’s televised rebuttal, the only Black Republican in the Senate, Tim Scott of South Carolina, said Biden had inherited from Trump “a tide that already turned” due to the previous administration’s operation to launch vaccine production and economic policies that were the most inclusive in decades. “A president who promised to bring us together should not push agendas that tear us apart,” added Scott. In a statement, one of Scott’s Republican colleagues in the Senate, Ted Cruz of Texas was more critical of Biden’s address, saying it outlined “his socialist vision for our country,” and that “I can summarize his speech in three words for you: boring, but radical.” National surveys this week show Biden with an average approval rating of 53%, according to a polling aggregator, Real Clear Politics. In his speech, Biden also touted his administration’s early success in getting Americans vaccinated against the coronavirus, with more than 200 million shots already administered even as the death toll has risen to a world-leading total of more than 573,000. U.S. health officials eased mask-wearing suggestions this week, but millions of Americans are refusing, for various reasons, to get vaccinated, or skipping the second shot of a two-dose regimen. “Go and get the vaccination,” Biden implored in his Wednesday evening address. In addition to discussing his plans for domestic spending, Biden discussed his goal of engaging with other nations and taking a leadership role on the world stage, a contrast from Trump who often touted his “America First” stance and withdrew from international pacts that he viewed as poorly crafted or too costly for the United States. Mentioning the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, the president said: “We’re going to be working closely with our allies to address the threats posed by both of these countries, through diplomacy as well as stern deterrence.” He added that American leadership “means ending the forever war in Afghanistan.” It remains to be seen if Biden and congressional Democrats “are willing to engage in real negotiation that would result in changes to many of the proposals highlighted in his speech,” Bipartisan Policy Center President Jason Grumet said in a statement to VOA. “Key Administration proposals to modernize infrastructure, provide paid leave, and strengthen childcare have a history of strong bipartisan support, but it will not be possible to build upon this history if the administration pursues a legislative process that excludes Republicans.”
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
US Agents Raid New York Home, Office of Former Trump Lawyer
U.S. federal agents seized electronic devices in daybreak raids Wednesday at the New York home and office of Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor who became former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, as investigators probe Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine linked to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign.Robert Costello, Giuliani’s lawyer, confirmed that agents had executed a search warrant for the two Giuliani locations, but condemned the raids.“What they did today was legal thuggery,” Costello told The New York Times. “Why would you do this to anyone, let alone someone who was the associate attorney general, United States attorney, the mayor of New York City, and the personal lawyer to the 45th president of the United States?”FILE – Rudy Giuliani, as an attorney for President Donald Trump, addresses a gathering during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Aug. 1, 2018.The long-running investigation conducted by U.S. prosecutors in New York centers on whether Giuliani, an outspoken Trump political supporter and adviser last year, acted illegally as an unregistered foreign agent and sought to influence U.S. policy toward Ukraine.Giuliani, ahead of the November election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, sought information in Ukraine that might have been damaging to then-candidate Biden, especially as it related to the lucrative payments made to his son, Hunter Biden, for his work on the board of a Ukrainian natural gas company. At the same time, the elder Biden oversaw U.S. policy on Ukraine when he was vice president under former President Barack Obama.Investigators are also looking at the role Giuliani played in Trump’s eventual ouster of Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who testified about her experiences during the Trump administration at Trump’s first impeachment case in the House of Representatives.As part of the pressure campaign to investigate then-candidate Biden’s activities in Ukraine, Trump personally appealed to Ukraine’s president in a July 2019 phone call to provide damaging evidence about Biden and his son, leading to the first of Trump’s two impeachments.The Democratic-controlled House charged Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but he was later acquitted in the then-Republican-controlled Senate.
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Harris, Pelosi Make History Seated Behind Biden at Speech
Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday as the first women to share the stage in Congress during a presidential address. In President Joe Biden’s first prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, he was flanked by Pelosi and Harris, two California Democrats. “It’s pretty exciting. And it’s wonderful to make history. It’s about time,” Pelosi said hours before the speech during an interview on MSNBC. Pelosi already knows what it feels like to sit on the rostrum in the House chamber and introduce a president for speeches. She has sat there for several addresses by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. FILE – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California waits before then-President Donald Trump arrives to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 4, 2020.Women’s advocates said seeing Harris and Pelosi seated together behind Biden would be a “beautiful moment.” But they noted that electing a woman to sit in the Oval Office remains to be achieved, along with the addition of an equal rights amendment to the Constitution. Biden helped usher the moment along by pledging to pick a woman for his running mate and selecting Harris, then a U.S. senator from California. “This is a great start, and we have to continue to move forward to give women their equal due,” said Christian Nunes, president of the National Organization for Women. Pelosi made history by becoming the first female House speaker during Bush’s presidency. He acknowledged the moment by noting during his address to Congress after Pelosi’s election that he had the privilege of being the first president to open with the words “Madam Speaker.” Pelosi, 81, reclaimed the powerful leadership post during Trump’s presidency and sat behind him during his final two speeches to Congress, famously ripping up her copy of Trump’s remarks in 2020 after he finished addressing lawmakers. Harris, 56, made history last year when she became the first woman and first Black and Indian American person elected vice president. In her role as president of the Senate, she joins Pelosi in presiding over the joint session of Congress. FILE – In this image from Senate TV, Vice President Kamala Harris sits in the chair on the Senate floor to cast the tie-breaking vote, her first, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2021.Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said Wednesday night would show men, women, boys and girls that women can attain and hold high-level positions and that they are as entitled to them as men are. Walsh also noted Biden’s promise to put a woman on his ticket, and pointed, as well, to the diversity of his Cabinet. She said the setting behind Biden on Wednesday was likely to make him feel proud — not just personally, “but I also think proud for the country and proud for his party. And I think he will clearly see the historic implications of this and the role that he played in making that happen.” “For all of us who care about women’s public leadership, we still look forward to the day when the person standing at the podium, in front, is a woman,” Walsh added. “But for now, this is a particularly gratifying moment.” Harris’ office declined to comment Wednesday on her historic role in the president’s address, preferring to let the moment speak for itself. Apart from the speech Wednesday, Harris and Pelosi have notched another first in U.S. and women’s history. They are first and second, respectively, in the line of presidential succession.
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By Polityk | 04/29/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Міністр цифрової трансформації розповів, коли у всіх українських школах з’явиться швидкісний інтернет
Протягом двох наступних років 95% території України буде покрито швидкісним інтернетом, заявив Михайло Федоров
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By Gromada | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Бойовик «ЛНР» в ефірі і «єврейські дивізії СС»: Нацрада оштрафувала канали NewsOne та «НАШ»
Канали отримали попередження і штрафи за порушення законодавства України, повідомляє регулятор
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By VilneSlovo | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Свобода слова
100 Days: Is Biden Keeping His Promise of Multilateralism?
Upon taking office, President Joe Biden pledged to bring multilateralism back to U.S. foreign policy, a pivot from the America First doctrine under President Donald Trump. Here are some areas where Biden has kept his promise to reengage with the world, and some where he may be holding back. Climate change Last week the world witnessed a dramatic foreign policy shift between a president who withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord commitments to one who convened FILE – World leaders are shown on a screen as President Joe Biden speaks to the virtual Leaders Summit on Climate, from the East Room of the White House, April 23, 2021.At the summit, Biden announced he will cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and rallied leaders to declare their own ambitious targets in the run-up to the U.N. Conference on climate later this year in Glasgow. The U.S. is also doubling its annual public climate financing to help developing countries by 2024, renewing the so far unmet pledge by developed countries to increase climate financing to at least $100 billion per year by 2020. But the global effort on climate change will depend on its largest emitters. Citing the challenge of achieving carbon neutrality in such a short time frame while maintaining its rapid economic development, Chinese President Xi Jinping stuck with Beijing’s initial target of 2060. India, the world’s third largest emitter, and Russia, the fourth largest also made no new commitments on reducing emissions. Nuclear arms control Under Biden, the U.S. has revived arms control efforts, part of the president’s plan to downgrade nuclear weapons in U.S. defense policy and to extend the New START treaty with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The administration has returned to indirect nuclear negotiations with Iran, an about-face from Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Signed by Iran and world powers, the JCPOA placed restrictions on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. FILE – Attendees wait for the start of a meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission in Vienna, Austria, April 17, 2021. (EU Delegation in Vienna/Handout via Reuters)Negotiations have been difficult, partly because the Iranians are demanding all sanctions be removed — something the administration is unwilling to do. With many forces inside Iran’s political establishment, regional powers including Saudi Arabia and Israel, as well as Republicans in Congress rejecting the deal’s revival, Biden’s slow, step by step process may be a liability, said Mohsen Milani, executive director of the Center for Strategic & Diplomatic Studies and professor of politics at the University of South Florida. “The longer these negotiations take, the more these forces have the chance to sabotage the process and derail it,” he said. On North Korea, Biden is strengthening alliances with Japan and South Korea to help restrain Pyongyang, rather than personally courting Kim Jong Un as Trump had done. Still, the central challenge is having a decades-old U.S. policy that demands the North Korean leader give up all his nuclear weapons in one fell swoop, despite no indication that he would, said Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. “Working well with allies won’t change the fact that our policy needs to be grounded in realism and in sound diagnosis of the problem,” O’Hanlon said. “It’s not clear we are headed there yet.” Pandemic recovery In July 2020, President Trump formally withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization, accusing the U.N. body of being under China’s control in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. While Biden rejoined the WHO in the first hours of his presidency, some 100 days later he has yet to offer a comprehensive strategy to speed up global pandemic recovery efforts. On vaccine sharing, the Biden administration is operating on a strategy of “oversupplied and overprepared” to ensure that it is prepared to vaccinate children and deal with emerging variants. Only this week did the White House announce it will begin sharing up to 60 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, unused in the U.S. because it has not yet been granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. FILE – Nursing home residents receive a coronavirus vaccine at King David Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, a nursing home facility, in Brooklyn’s Bath Beach neighborhood in New York City, Jan. 6, 2021.But with some 230 million doses administered and 29 percent of Americans fully vaccinated, the Biden White House is under pressure to do more, including to support the temporary waiver of TRIPS — Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights — to be discussed at a formal meeting at the World Trade Organization on April 30. On Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said so far there has been no decision on a waiver, which would allow countries to make generic versions of the vaccines. Mathew Kavanagh, director of the Global Health Policy and Politics Initiative at Georgetown University, said it “looks incredibly stingy” and “geopolitically dumb” for the administration not to get behind vaccine patent waivers, especially considering aggressive Chinese and Russian vaccine diplomacy.“The administration says it’s serious about multilateralism but is so far ignoring calls from WHO, the U.N., and African, Asian, and Latin American governments to share the vaccine science,” Kavanagh said. In March, Biden and other leaders of the Quad countries — Australia, India, and Japan — launched a financing plan to boost COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution for countries in the region, with a focus on Southeast Asia, where the Chinese have been aggressively pushing vaccine diplomacy efforts. The initiative is in addition to the $4 billion that was approved under the Trump administration to support COVAX, the U.N. mechanism to ensure vaccine access to middle-and lower-income countries. Meanwhile Biden is criticized by conservatives for not continuing Trump’s push for reforms at the WHO. The world deserves an accountable and effective World Health Organization, said Brett D. Schaefer, the Jay Kingham Fellow in International Regulatory Affairs at Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. “By failing to tie U.S. membership and funding to reform, Biden squandered key leverage and made this outcome less likely.” Trade agreements Americans of various political leanings, not just Republicans, have embraced Trump’s populist anti-globalization narrative. That means there now appears to be little political will to strike new international trade deals. In Congress for example, there is little appetite to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the 11-country free trade deal spanning Asia and the Pacific. In the meantime, Beijing last year finalized its 15-nation trade deal called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. RCEP members make up nearly a third of the world’s population and account for 29% of global gross domestic product. Analysts say China’s emergence as a major U.S. competitor means the Biden administration may need to include trade agreements as a larger part of its foreign policy approach. Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, said there is a need to reassure America’s trading partners that Washington will be a reliable partner if they face economic retaliation from China. Otherwise, he said, “they will continue to hedge against the prospect of America as not being sufficiently reliable as a partner,” and that could mean less cooperation on U.S. policy priorities.
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By Polityk | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Укрзалізниця назвала найпопулярніші напрямки на травневі свята
Попит на квитки 30 квітня виявився на 23% вищий за середнє значення з початку року, повідомили у пресслужбі компанії
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By Gromada | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Кличко: після скасування локдауну на вулиці Києва вийдуть додаткові патрулі
Контроль за дотриманням обмежень посилять за допомогою не лише патрулів Нацполіції, але й муніципальної охорони, заявив Кличко
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By Gromada | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Суспільство
Biden to Address Joint Session of Congress
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to discuss his goal of engaging with other nations and taking a leadership role on the world stage as he gives an address Wednesday night to a joint session of Congress. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said ahead of the speech that Biden’s comments on foreign policy would include “taking America’s seat back in the world, what our values are as a country.” She said the president would likely talk about a number of foreign policy priorities, “including our engagement with China.” The Biden administration’s push to work more with allies, which this month included coordinating with fellow NATO members on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, is a departure from four years of foreign policy under former President Donald Trump that focused on prioritizing U.S. interests. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Biden to the House chamber to speak about “vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment,” in a speech that comes as the president marks 100 days since taking office. Psaki said the main policy initiative Biden will highlight is a domestic program for “investment in education and childcare.”President Joe Biden removes his face mask to speak about COVID-19, on the North Lawn of the White House, April 27, 2021, in Washington. The proposal involves $1.8 trillion in spending over 10 years that includes universal preschool, two years of free community college, subsidized childcare for qualifying families, monthly payments of at least $250 for parents and expanding availability of free and reduced-fee school lunches. Administration officials say Biden is proposing to largely pay for the initiatives with tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. Psaki said Biden will also discuss the administration’s efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and unemployment, as well as immigration, police reform and gun safety. The administration is planning the speech as a launching point to seek support for Biden’s initiatives, with the president, Vice President Kamala Harris and members of Biden’s Cabinet planning to travel to different parts of the country for events on Thursday and Friday. Republicans will seek to counter Biden’s message with a rebuttal speech Wednesday by South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Typically, a presidential speech before a joint session of Congress would include an invited audience of the 535 members of the House and Senate, the vice president, Cabinet members, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Supreme Court justices, members of the diplomatic corps, and a number of special guests sitting with the first lady, some whom the president notes in the speech as a way of highlighting a certain policy. Wednesday’s audience will be more restricted. Chief Justice John Roberts is expected to be the only justice in attendance. Psaki also said there will not be the traditional box of seating with first lady Jill Biden and guests, and that Cabinet members will be watching the speech from home. Not having Cabinet members in the House chamber also eliminates another tradition linked to presidential addresses. In order to ensure continuity of government in case of a disaster, one Cabinet member is typically selected to stay away from the Capitol so that high-level officials are not all in the same place. Wednesday’s speech will be conducted under heavy security, with a ring of fencing still standing in the immediate area surrounding the Capitol following the January 6 storming of the site by Trump supporters. Security has eased somewhat in Washington since the attack, with a more extensive perimeter fence on Capitol Hill and another temporary fence extending beyond the White House complex now removed.
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By Polityk | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Bidens to Visit Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter While in Georgia
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit the 39th president, Jimmy Carter, and his wife, Rosalynn, while in Georgia this week, the White House said Tuesday. The White House had previously announced that Biden would attend a drive-in rally in Atlanta on Thursday to mark his 100th day in office, which comes a day after his first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening. The Bidens will now add in a trip to Plains, Georgia, to visit the Carters.In this image from video, former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, seen in a photo as they speak on audio only, during the second night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 18, 2020.The 96-year-old former president and the 93-year-old former first lady were unable to attend Biden’s inauguration because of the coronavirus pandemic. Both couples are now vaccinated, and the Carters have resumed worshipping in-person at their longtime church. Biden was a young Delaware senator and Carter ally during the Georgian’s term in the White House, from 1977 to 1981. Carter is now the longest-lived American president in history.
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By Polityk | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Republican Senator Scott Wants ‘Honest Conversation’ After Biden Speech
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina has been tapped to deliver the Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday.Scott, 55, is the only Black Republican in the Senate and is popular across the Republican Party.He said he is honored to be selected and he is looking forward to having “an honest conversation with the American people.””We face serious challenges on multiple fronts, but I am as confident as I have ever been in the promise and potential of America,” he said.One of Scott’s signature issues is the creation of “opportunity zones” to provide tax incentives for businesses to invest in low-income urban areas. The zones were passed into law with the 2017 tax bill.Another one of his signature issues is criminal justice reform. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, Scott proposed legislation to reform the police, but it stalled without Democratic support.“Now is the time for reform,” Scott said of the bill in a news release on June 17, 2020. “The murder of George Floyd and its aftermath made clear from sea to shining sea that action must be taken to rebuild lost trust between communities of color and law enforcement.”He is currently working with Senator Corey Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, on another criminal justice reform bill.Scott, a former congressman who entered the Senate in 2013, has been vocal about race issues, and last year he opened up to The Associated Press about his interactions with law enforcement.”I’m thinking to myself how blessed and lucky I am to have 18 different encounters and to have walked away from each encounter,” he said.Scott was raised in poverty by a single mother, and according to his official biography, he nearly flunked out of high school. He says his grandfather picked cotton as a child.Before entering politics, Scott ran an insurance agency, which he still owns.He sits on the Senate Finance Committee, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs and three others.”Senator Tim Scott is not just one of the strongest leaders in our Senate Republican Conference. He is one of the most inspiring and unifying leaders in our nation,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement announcing the selection.”As Sen. Scott likes to say, he is living his mother’s American dream, and he has dedicated his career to creating more opportunity for our fellow citizens who need it most.”
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By Polityk | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
Shaken US Capitol on High Alert for Biden’s First Address to Congress
President Joe Biden’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday will take place in a U.S. Capitol on high alert, with memories fresh of the deadly January 6 attack on the building by supporters of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The crowd inside the Capitol will be a small fraction of the hundreds of members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, top government officials and guests who typically attend, to allow for more social distancing in a COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 572,000 Americans. But security will be higher than usual, even for what is officially designated a “National Special Security Event,” with the Secret Service in charge of security. “The Secret Service and all law enforcement and public safety partners have worked hard collectively in preparation to secure this significant event,” said a Secret Service representative, adding that “every security contingency is accounted for.” FILE – Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, Feb. 26, 2021.U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday said she is confident about security for Biden’s speech. “I actually had a very strong briefing on Monday. I said I wish I had had this briefing, you know, before January 6. But we insisted on knowing every detail of it,” she told reporters. The limitations on attendance, she said, mostly are being driven by COVID-19 precautions, but security also is playing a role. The white-domed building is still surrounded by a black steel mesh fence with some 2,250 armed National Guard troops from the District of Columbia and 18 states on duty in the city — the vestiges of a much larger force put in place after Trump supporters stormed the building as Congress was voting to certify Biden’s election victory. Five people, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, died from or following the violence, and dozens of police were injured in clashes with rioters. More than 400 people have been charged in connection with the attack, and authorities expect at least 100 more will be charged, federal prosecutors said in a court filing last week. District of Columbia authorities have asked the Pentagon to authorize the district’s National Guard contingent to help local police handle any anti-Biden protests coinciding with Wednesday’s address. “The D.C. National Guard is prepared to support D.C. law enforcement, pending approval” by Acting Army Secretary John Whitley, the D.C. National Guard said in a statement. It was not immediately known if Whitley would approve the request. The National Guard deployment already has cost more than $520 million, according to the U.S. National Guard Bureau.
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By Polityk | 04/28/2021 | Повідомлення, Політика
