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Report finds Saudi crown prince approved killing of Jamal Khashoggi – live Report finds Saudi crown prince approved killing of Jamal Khashoggi – live
(32 minutes later)
Report released by Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Mohammed bin Salman approved killing of Washington Post columnistReport released by Office of the Director of National Intelligence says Mohammed bin Salman approved killing of Washington Post columnist
As Joe Biden and Jill Biden go about their engagements in Texas, here is some more reporting from Reuters, including some interesting comments that went down on Air Force One en route from the capital to Houston.
The Guardian further notes that Abbott took aim at renewable energy during the big freeze, even though the worst problem was frozen natural gas pipes, not frozen windmills. There was a trait during the disaster of state officials and business leaders seeming to do more finger-pointing than finger-lifting to help people. We won’t even relive the details of right-wing Senator Ted Cruz’s Cancun jaunt here...
And Abbott then managed to ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Biden to issue a major disaster declaration for all of the state’s 254 counties.
Joe Biden has arrived in Texas. Air Force One touched down in Houston in the last hour. The president plans to tour areas that suffered winter storm damage in the Arctic conditions that engulfed the Lone Star state last week.
The presidential motorcade rolled to the Harris County Office of Emergency Management.
My colleague Erum Salam just emerged from that miserable and, for too many, deadly deep freeze.
Secretary of state Antony Blinken is issuing details of a new policy that will allow the US state department to act against individuals, such as the Saudi government operatives who killed Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, who directly engage in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.Secretary of state Antony Blinken is issuing details of a new policy that will allow the US state department to act against individuals, such as the Saudi government operatives who killed Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, who directly engage in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.
My colleague Julian Borger notes as such.My colleague Julian Borger notes as such.
A statement issued by Blinken notes that “the world was horrified by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey” in October 2018.A statement issued by Blinken notes that “the world was horrified by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey” in October 2018.
He goes on: “Individuals should be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without fear of government retribution, retaliation, punishment, or harm.He goes on: “Individuals should be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without fear of government retribution, retaliation, punishment, or harm.
“Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs. President Biden said in a statement released last October on the second anniversary of the murder that Mr. Khashoggi’s death would not be in vain, and that we owe it to his memory to fight for a more just and free world.”“Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs. President Biden said in a statement released last October on the second anniversary of the murder that Mr. Khashoggi’s death would not be in vain, and that we owe it to his memory to fight for a more just and free world.”
In announcing what the department is calling the Khashoggi Ban, Blinken added that the government “is announcing additional measures to reinforce the world’s condemnation of that crime, and to push back against governments that reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms.”In announcing what the department is calling the Khashoggi Ban, Blinken added that the government “is announcing additional measures to reinforce the world’s condemnation of that crime, and to push back against governments that reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms.”
Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the ban allows the State Department to impose visa restrictions on individuals who, “acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work, or who engage in such activities with respect to the families or other close associates of such persons.”Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the ban allows the State Department to impose visa restrictions on individuals who, “acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work, or who engage in such activities with respect to the families or other close associates of such persons.”
Aboard Air Force One, Psaki answered a handful of questions related to Khashoggi’s murder.Aboard Air Force One, Psaki answered a handful of questions related to Khashoggi’s murder.
Asked if Biden raised the report in his call with the Saudi King earlier this week, Psaki referred to a readout, which said he raised the war in Yemen and concerns over human rights abuses.Asked if Biden raised the report in his call with the Saudi King earlier this week, Psaki referred to a readout, which said he raised the war in Yemen and concerns over human rights abuses.
Asked if Biden had concerns about MBS being in line to succeed King Salman, Psaki said that was a matter for the government of Saudi Arabia. “The president has been clear, and we’ve been clear by our actions that we’re going to recalibrate the relationship, including ensuring that engagement happens counterpart to counterpart,” she added.Asked if Biden had concerns about MBS being in line to succeed King Salman, Psaki said that was a matter for the government of Saudi Arabia. “The president has been clear, and we’ve been clear by our actions that we’re going to recalibrate the relationship, including ensuring that engagement happens counterpart to counterpart,” she added.
Asked whether the state department was weighing sanctions in response Khashoggi’s killing, she replied: “We’ve been clear at every level that our intention is to recalibrate the relationship and this will be a different relationship with the Saudi government. At the same time, we of course we want to end the war in Yemen, we want to ensure that humanitarian crisis is addressed and the president and every member of our team is not going to hold back in voicing concern, and taking action as needed.Asked whether the state department was weighing sanctions in response Khashoggi’s killing, she replied: “We’ve been clear at every level that our intention is to recalibrate the relationship and this will be a different relationship with the Saudi government. At the same time, we of course we want to end the war in Yemen, we want to ensure that humanitarian crisis is addressed and the president and every member of our team is not going to hold back in voicing concern, and taking action as needed.
She told reporters to “stay tuned” for announcements about further actions the administration will take in response to the report’s findings.She told reporters to “stay tuned” for announcements about further actions the administration will take in response to the report’s findings.
More news is trickling out about how the US intends to respond to the intelligence report implicating the Saudi crown prince in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.More news is trickling out about how the US intends to respond to the intelligence report implicating the Saudi crown prince in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
According to Politico, the Treasury will unveil sanctions today targeting top Saudi officials for their involvement in Khashoggi’s assassination. However, the prince is not expected to be sanctioned despite the report’s conclusion that he approved of the plot to “capture or kill” Khashoggi.According to Politico, the Treasury will unveil sanctions today targeting top Saudi officials for their involvement in Khashoggi’s assassination. However, the prince is not expected to be sanctioned despite the report’s conclusion that he approved of the plot to “capture or kill” Khashoggi.
The State Department is expected to make an announcement later this afternoon.The State Department is expected to make an announcement later this afternoon.
The State Department has identified 76 Saudi Arabian individuals who may be subject to sanctions under what it is calling the “Khashoggi policy,” according to Bloomberg News.The State Department has identified 76 Saudi Arabian individuals who may be subject to sanctions under what it is calling the “Khashoggi policy,” according to Bloomberg News.
The State Department outlined the new policy in a fact sheet sent to lawmakers but not yet released publicly, according to Bloomberg. It part of an effort to hold accountable individuals involved in Khashoggi’s death.The State Department outlined the new policy in a fact sheet sent to lawmakers but not yet released publicly, according to Bloomberg. It part of an effort to hold accountable individuals involved in Khashoggi’s death.
The new policy, according to a copy of the fact sheet, would “impose visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.”The new policy, according to a copy of the fact sheet, would “impose visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities.”
The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an unclassified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Friday.The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an unclassified report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Friday.
“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” ODNI said in a partly-redacted four-page summary.“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” ODNI said in a partly-redacted four-page summary.
It based the assessment on the 35-year-old prince’s “control of decision-making in the kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of [the prince’s] protective detail in the operation, and [his] support for the using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi”.It based the assessment on the 35-year-old prince’s “control of decision-making in the kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of [the prince’s] protective detail in the operation, and [his] support for the using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi”.
“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization,” the report states.“Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom’s security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince’s authorization,” the report states.
The release of the assessment was expected to be accompanied by further actions from the Biden administration.The release of the assessment was expected to be accompanied by further actions from the Biden administration.
Read the summary in full here [PDF].Read the summary in full here [PDF].
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Director of National Intelligence would release the long-awaited intelligence report on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One that the Director of National Intelligence would release the long-awaited intelligence report on the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Friday.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is holding a briefing with reporters before the chamber votes on Biden’s stimulus package later today.House minority leader Kevin McCarthy is holding a briefing with reporters before the chamber votes on Biden’s stimulus package later today.
House Republicans are urging the caucus to vote “no” on the legislation, assailing it as too costly and a progressive “payoff”.House Republicans are urging the caucus to vote “no” on the legislation, assailing it as too costly and a progressive “payoff”.
During the briefing, he called workaround plans to target big companies that don’t pay workers $15 an hour “stupid.”During the briefing, he called workaround plans to target big companies that don’t pay workers $15 an hour “stupid.”
Asked about his recent conversations with Trump, McCarthy said he had not secured a commitment from the former president not to back primaries against Republicans who broke with him.Asked about his recent conversations with Trump, McCarthy said he had not secured a commitment from the former president not to back primaries against Republicans who broke with him.
Among those Republicans is Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has drawn conservative ire over her vote to impeach Trump. Though Cheney easily beat back an attempt to strip her of her leadership position, she already faces several primary challengers.Among those Republicans is Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who has drawn conservative ire over her vote to impeach Trump. Though Cheney easily beat back an attempt to strip her of her leadership position, she already faces several primary challengers.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has said he would help Cheney in her election. Asked if he planned to do the same, McCarthy said evasively that Cheney hadn’t asked yet for his help.Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has said he would help Cheney in her election. Asked if he planned to do the same, McCarthy said evasively that Cheney hadn’t asked yet for his help.
But she shouldn’t have to ask. It has long been the policy of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to back incumbents in their primaries.But she shouldn’t have to ask. It has long been the policy of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) to back incumbents in their primaries.
Some progressives have called on Senators to “overrule” or even fire the Senate parliamentarian after she determined that a proposed $15-an-hour minimum-wage increase must be stripped from Biden’s covid relief bill.Some progressives have called on Senators to “overrule” or even fire the Senate parliamentarian after she determined that a proposed $15-an-hour minimum-wage increase must be stripped from Biden’s covid relief bill.
But the White House has said vice president Kamala Harris – who would cast the tie-breaking vote in an evenly split Senate – has no intention of overruling the parliamentarian.But the White House has said vice president Kamala Harris – who would cast the tie-breaking vote in an evenly split Senate – has no intention of overruling the parliamentarian.
Yet even if the White House was willing to challenge the ruling, it’s not certain Harris would have the chance to do so. At least two Democratic senators have said they did not support legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and Harris only votes if there is a tie to break.Yet even if the White House was willing to challenge the ruling, it’s not certain Harris would have the chance to do so. At least two Democratic senators have said they did not support legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and Harris only votes if there is a tie to break.
Guardian bureau chief David Smith sends another virtual dispatch from CPAC, where Republican senator Ted Cruz just left the stage.Guardian bureau chief David Smith sends another virtual dispatch from CPAC, where Republican senator Ted Cruz just left the stage.
Cruz has joked about his disastrous decision last week to fly to Cancun, Mexico, for a family holiday as people struggled for food and warmth following a snowstorm in his home state of Texas.Cruz has joked about his disastrous decision last week to fly to Cancun, Mexico, for a family holiday as people struggled for food and warmth following a snowstorm in his home state of Texas.
“Orlando is awesome,” Cruz told CPAC in Orlando, Florida. “It’s not as nice as Cancun, but it’s nice.”The senator went on to rail against “cancel culture”, coronavirus restrictions in restaurants and the “shrill” and “angry” left in speech that earned laugher and applause. He paid tribute to late rightwing radio host Rush Limbaugh and mixed in references to Saturday Night Live, Star Wars, Star Trek and the Mel Gibson film Braveheart.“We’re gathered at a time where the hard left, where the socialists control the levers of government, where they control the White House, where they control every executive branch, where they control both houses of Congress,” Cruz said.“Bernie [Sanders] is wearing mittens and AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] is telling us she was ‘murdered’.” Cruz put a shrill emphasis on the word “murdered” to mock the Democratic congresswoman who has told how she feared for her life during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.He went on: “And the media desperately, desperately, desperately wants to see a Republican civil war. Liberty is under assault and what are we going to do? I’ll tell you, we will fight.”Cruz was among the most prominent Senate Republicans who voted to challenge the result of the 2020 election. He issued a warning to members of his own party who want to “erase the last four years” and banish Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.“They look at Donald Trump and they look at the millions and millions of people inspired who went to the battle fighting alongside President Trump, and they’re terrified and they want him to go away. Let me tell you this right now: Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere.”That promise got the biggest applause of his speech. Cruz went on: “The Republican Party is not the party just of the country club. The Republican Party is the party of steel workers and construction workers and pipeline workers and taxi cab drivers and cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses and the men and women with calluses on their hands who are working for this country“That is our party. And these ‘deplorables’ are here to say.”“Orlando is awesome,” Cruz told CPAC in Orlando, Florida. “It’s not as nice as Cancun, but it’s nice.”The senator went on to rail against “cancel culture”, coronavirus restrictions in restaurants and the “shrill” and “angry” left in speech that earned laugher and applause. He paid tribute to late rightwing radio host Rush Limbaugh and mixed in references to Saturday Night Live, Star Wars, Star Trek and the Mel Gibson film Braveheart.“We’re gathered at a time where the hard left, where the socialists control the levers of government, where they control the White House, where they control every executive branch, where they control both houses of Congress,” Cruz said.“Bernie [Sanders] is wearing mittens and AOC [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] is telling us she was ‘murdered’.” Cruz put a shrill emphasis on the word “murdered” to mock the Democratic congresswoman who has told how she feared for her life during the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January.He went on: “And the media desperately, desperately, desperately wants to see a Republican civil war. Liberty is under assault and what are we going to do? I’ll tell you, we will fight.”Cruz was among the most prominent Senate Republicans who voted to challenge the result of the 2020 election. He issued a warning to members of his own party who want to “erase the last four years” and banish Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.“They look at Donald Trump and they look at the millions and millions of people inspired who went to the battle fighting alongside President Trump, and they’re terrified and they want him to go away. Let me tell you this right now: Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere.”That promise got the biggest applause of his speech. Cruz went on: “The Republican Party is not the party just of the country club. The Republican Party is the party of steel workers and construction workers and pipeline workers and taxi cab drivers and cops and firefighters and waiters and waitresses and the men and women with calluses on their hands who are working for this country“That is our party. And these ‘deplorables’ are here to say.”
Echoing Walensky, Fauci urged the nation’s mayors and governors to hold off on easing public health restrictions. If the number of Covid-19 cases stagnates at its current level – roughly 70,000 new infections per day, it risks leaving the US vulnerable to another deadly surge, he said.
Slavitt ended the briefing on a similar note, stressing: “We are not there by a long shot. The progress we have made is better than where we were weeks ago but it is nowhere near the baseline that we need to achieve as a country.”
Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged Americans to get the vaccine available to them as soon as they are eligible.
He said vaccines and other public health and virus mitigation efforts are the best defense against the spread of virus variants.
Despite a promising decline in Covid-19 deaths and hospitalizations over the last several weeks, Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned of a “very concerning shift in the trajectory”.
“The latest data suggest that these declines may be stalling, potentially leveling off at a very high number,” Walensky said, noting that the declines followed the deadliest and worst surge of the year-long pandemic.
She said cases have been ticking upward over the past three days and that the most recent seven-day average is slightly higher than the seven-day average earlier this week.
The data may be starting to reflect the impact of some of the virus variants, Walensky said. The CDC estimates that the B117 variant currently accounts for 10% of new cases in the US.
The agency, she said, is “sounding the alarm” about the spread of variants.
“Things are tenuous,” she said. “Now is not the time to relax restrictions.”
Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for Covid-19 response, is urging the Senate to quickly take up the administration’s coronavirus stimulus package, known as the American Rescue Plan, after the House passes the bill later today.
“We cannot defeat this virus as rapidly as we need to without action from Congress,” he said during a coronavirus briefing this morning.
He said the bill is “critical” to re-opening schools safely, expanding genetic sequencing to detect for mutations and addressing disparities in poor and minority communities that have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic.
“This legislation will enable Americans across the country to defeat Covid-19 and get back to normal life more quickly,” he said.
Any doubts that former US president Donald Trump still commands a near religious following will be dispelled by the appearance of a golden statue at a major conservative conference.
A viral video shows two men in suits pushing the kitsch monument through the corridors of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, where admirers snap photos of it.The statue is larger than life, with a golden head and Trump’s trademark suit jacket with white shirt and red tie. Bizarrely, the disgraced ex-commander in chief also appears to be sporting stars and stripes shorts.The statue is fitting because of the golden thread that runs through Trump’s career. An intelligence dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, contained the salacious – and still unproven – allegation that Trump watched sex workers perform “golden showers” by urinating on each other in a Russian hotel room in 2013.In 2018, the Guggenheim Museum in New York reportedly turned down a White House request to borrow a painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh and instead offered the administration an 18-carat gold toilet – an installation by artist Maurizio Cattelan.Trump is due to give his first post-White House speech at CPAC on Sunday and there is plenty of other evidence that he remains hugely popular with this section of the Republican party.Attendees can buy $2 bumper stickers that say “Trump is my president”, “Biden is not my president”, “Trump 2024” and a picture of the 45th president with the question “Miss me yet?” One t-shirt has a picture of Trump with the slogan “Undefeated impeachment champ”; another shows Joe Biden with an Adolf Hitler-style moustache and the words “Not my dictator”.Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, got the event under way on Friday by claiming that his state’s lack of coronavirus restrictions were a success story.“We are in an oasis of freedom in a nation that’s suffering from the yoke of oppressive lockdowns,’’ he told attendees. “We look around in other parts of our country, and in far too many places, we see schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed. And while so many governors over the last year kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up.”More than 30,000 people in Florida have died from Covid-19.
Joe Biden departed the White House before for Houston, where he will tour the storm-battered city after millions of Texans lost power and water last week.
Holding hands with his wife, Jill Biden, the first couple took no questions as they climbed onto Marine 1 and headed to Joint Base Andrew.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki is expected to brief reporters aboard Air Force One shortly after take off.
The nomination of Neera Tanden to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget is dangling by a thread, her fate seemingly resting in the hands of one Republican senator: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
CNN is reporting that Murkowski, who has not announced how she plans to vote on the nomination, will meet with Tanden on Monday.
The meeting comes after Murkowski learned of a disapproving tweet by Tanden, a prolific, if problematic, tweeter whose liberal use of the platform has all but doomed her nomination. In the 2017 tweet, Tanden criticized Murkowski after the senator praised a Republican push to cut corporate taxes.
“No offense, but this sounds like you’re high on your own supply,” Tanden wrote. “You know, we know, and everyone knows this is all just garbage. Just stop.”
Tanden’s tweets have been at the center of the drama surrounding her nomination, with several senators pointing to her “divisive” and “overly partisan” tweets as a reason for voting against her.
Without Murkowski’s support, Tanden’s nomination is likely all but doomed. Several moderate Republicans have announced their opposition to her confirmation, as has Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, leaving Tanden at least one vote shy of the 50 votes she needs to be confirmed.
So far, the White House has stood by their nominee, pointing to her contrition and arguing that there is still a path for her. Whether that’s true may be clearer after her meeting with Murkowski on Monday.
The decision by the Senate parliamentarian that the $15 minimum wage would have to be removed from the American Rescue Plan has renewed calls for senators to abolish a procedural took known as the filibuster.
The filibuster requires a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the Senate, which is split evenly between the parties.
Democrats are using a budgetary maneuver known as reconciliation to bypass the filibuster and advance the $1.9tn rescue package on simple majority vote. But the project is subject to certain rules that limit what can be included in legislation passed through reconciliation.
Democrats aren’t even sure they have 50 votes in the Senate to approve a federal minimum wage increase of $15 an hour, making it highly unlikely that a standalone measure would attract the requisite 60 votes.
As such, many progressives are calling on Democrats to abolish the filibuster, which would allow the party to advance legislation with simple majorities. Partisan gridlock has already resulted in the abolishment of the filibuster for cabinet and Supreme Court nominations.
Though support for removing the filibuster is growing, Democrats currently do not have enough votes to do so. Senator Joe Manchin, one of the few moderate Democrats in the caucus, has said he is strongly opposed to eliminating the procedural tool because it forces a bipartisan consensus.
But progressives say the tool is an arcane relic, famously used to delay the advancement of civil rights legislation, that is standing in the way of good governance.
Democrats are not giving up the fight to pass a $15 minimum wage as part of the coronavirus stimulus package.
Senator Bernie Sanders, chair of the powerful budget committee who helped popularize calls for raising the federal minimum wage during his presidential runs, said he was considering an amendment to the bill that would remove tax deductions for big corporations that refused to pay workers at least $15 per hour, while offering incentives for smaller businesses to do so.
“Count me in,” said Senator Brian Schatz, a Democrat from Hawaii.
Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate finance committee, said he would continue to explore all options, including a “tax penalty for mega-corporations that refuse to pay a living wage.”
Such a provision would effectively mandate a minimum wage hike without doing so explicitly and could help bring along skeptics like Democratic senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona who said they were opposed to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the minimum wage increase would remain in the relief bill the House is expected to pass later this evening, leaving it to the Senate to strip it from legislation later.
“House Democrats believe that the minimum wage hike is necessary,” she said in a statement Thursday night. “Therefore, this provision will remain in the American Rescue Plan on the Floor tomorrow.”
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Robert Burns writes for the Associated Press today about the choice facing Joe Biden over Afghanistan – to withdraw all troops by May, as promised by his predecessor and risk a resurgence of extremist dangers, or stay and possibly prolong the war.
Afghanistan presents one of the new administration’s tougher and more urgent decisions. The US public is weary of a war nearly 20 years old, but pulling out now could be seen as giving the Taliban too much leverage and casting a shadow over the sacrifices made by US and coalition troops and Afghan civilians.
Biden has not commented in detail on Afghanistan since taking office. He said during the 2020 campaign that he might keep a counterterrorism force in Afghanistan but also would “end the war responsibly” to ensure US forces never have to return.
“I would bring American combat troops in Afghanistan home during my first term,” he wrote last summer in response to written questions from the Council on Foreign Relations, although the US mission there already shifted some years ago from combat to advising Afghan security forces. “Any residual US military presence in Afghanistan would be focused only on counterterrorism operations.”
The administration says it is studying the February 2020 so-called Doha deal in which the Taliban agreed to stop attacking US and coalition forces and to start peace talks with the Kabul government, among other things, in exchange for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops by 1 May, 2021. Senior US officials have asserted for months that the Taliban has fallen short of its Doha commitments.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that he has assured US allies and partners in Afghanistan there will be no “hasty” pullout, and that Washington’s focus is on diplomacy. “Clearly, the violence is too high right now, and more progress needs to be made in the Afghan-led negotiations, and so I urge all parties to choose the path towards peace,” he told reporters.
A further hint of the administration’s thinking may be its repeated reference to reviewing “compliance” with the Doha agreement, suggesting the possibility that the administration ultimately will argue that Taliban noncompliance makes the 1 May deadline void, or at least moveable.