Category Archives: Joe Biden

Biden echoes Obama as White House releases photo of briefing on strike

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Picture bore striking similarities to 1 May 2011 image, when US special forces killed Osama bin Laden

The White House on Tuesday released a picture of Joe Biden being briefed on the CIA drone strike which killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida and a chief planner of the 9/11 attacks, in Kabul last weekend.

The move came amid widespread celebration of the killing in the United States and the apparently successful attack provides a welcome fillip to Biden, whose popularity has plunged during 2022 as the nation gears up for crucial midterm election in November.

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How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader

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After a decades-long hunt the simple habit of sitting out on the balcony gave the CIA an opportunity to launch ‘tailored strike’

In the end it was one of the oldest mistakes in the fugitive’s handbook that apparently did for Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top al-Qaida leader killed, according to US intelligence, by a drone strike on Sunday morning: he developed a habit.

The co-planner of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had acquired a taste for sitting out on the balcony of his safe house in Sherpur, a well-to-do diplomatic enclave of Kabul. He grew especially fond of stepping out on to the balcony after morning prayers, so that he could watch the sun rise over the Afghan capital.

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Ayman al-Zawahiri: al-Qaida leader killed in US drone strike in Afghanistan, Joe Biden says

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President ordered strike on Kabul safe house last month during a high-level meeting, administration says

A US drone strike in Afghanistan has killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Joe Biden announced on Monday.

The US president described the death of Zawahiri, who was Osama bin Laden’s deputy and successor, as a major blow to the terrorist network behind the September 11 2001 attacks.

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Democrats prepare for showdown over key spending and climate bill – as it happened

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Antony Blinken, secretary of state, said at global nonproliferation discussions at the United Nations today that a return to the 2015 nuclear deal remains the best outcome for the United States, Iran and the world.

Reuters is reporting that Blinken made a point to repeat a warning from the US that North Korea is preparing to conduct its seventh nuclear test.

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Joe Manchin hails expansive bill he finally agrees to as ‘great for America’

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Rewritten $739bn bill, now called the Inflation Reduction Act, that tackles US debt and the climate crisis could pass Senate this week

West Virginia Democratic senator Joe Manchin on Sunday hailed the legislation he almost killed off, calling the rewritten $739bn bill he agreed to last week to pay down US debt and tackle the climate crisis “great for America”.

Manchin, on a tour of all five Sunday morning TV politics talk shows, told CBS’s Face the Nation that the energy and climate deal he’s now supporting will tackle inflation because it will be “aggressively producing more energy, to get more supply, to get the prices down”.

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Biden under ‘strict isolation measures’ as he continues to test positive for Covid

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President feels well, White House says, after he tests positive only days after he tested negative

Joe Biden continued to test positive for coronavirus on Sunday and will “continue his strict isolation measures” his physician said.

The US president feels well, the White House said. Biden tweeted about the economy and about regretting being unable to meet in person to commiserate with military veterans and their families visiting Capitol Hill in support of a long-awaited bipartisan bill that would expand healthcare access for those exposed to toxic burn pits.

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China conducts military exercises off Taiwan after warning Pelosi to scrap visit

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PLA carries out ‘live-fire exercises’ after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told not to visit the island democracy

China said it was conducting military exercises off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, to scrap possible plans to visit the island democracy.

The ruling Communist party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was conducting “live-fire exercises” near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province from 8am to 9pm, the official Xinhua news agency said. The Maritime Safety Administration warned ships to avoid the area.

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DoJ reportedly preparing court fight to get Trump insiders to testify – live

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Prosectors expect former president to try to invoke executive privilege to prevent his ex-officials from speaking

An impassioned plea from a 12-year-old girl has gone viral after she spoke to West Virginia Republican lawmakers during a public hearing for an abortion bill that would prohibit the procedure in nearly all cases.

On Wednesday, Addison Gardner of Buffalo middle school in Kenova, West Virginia, was among several people who spoke out against a bill that would not only ban abortions in most cases but also allow for physicians who perform abortions to be prosecuted.

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Biden hails ‘most significant legislation to tackle climate crisis’ after Manchin says yes – live

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Joe Biden “was not involved” in negotiations over the newly announced Inflation Reduction Act, Joe Manchin has said, claiming credit instead for himself and his own aides.

In a press call Thursday morning that shed a little more light, but not very much, on how the bill came to be, the Democratic West Virginia senator said:

It was me and my staff. And then we worked with [Senate majority leader Chuck] Schumer’s staff. My staff was driving it. We wrote the bill. Schumer’s staff would look at it and we would negotiate, and we worked that through them.

President Biden was not involved.

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Joe Biden hails Senate deal as ‘most significant’ US climate legislation ever

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Proposal backed by centrist senator Joe Manchin also addresses healthcare, tax rises for high earners and cutting federal debt

Joe Biden has hailed a congressional deal that represents the biggest single climate investment in US history – and hands him a badly needed political victory.

In a stunning reversal, Senate Democrats on Wednesday announced an expansive $739bn package that had eluded them for months addressing healthcare and the climate crisis, raising taxes on high earners and corporations and reducing federal debt.

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Xi Jinping tells Joe Biden not to ‘play with fire’ over Taiwan in two-hour call

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US president reiterates opposition to undermining peace in Taiwan amid tension over potential Pelosi trip

The Chinese president has warned Joe Biden against “playing with fire” over Taiwan in a highly anticipated phone call that lasted more than two hours on Thursday, as tensions remain high over the House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s possible trip to the island next month.

“Those who play with fire will be perished by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this,” said Xi Jinping, according to a Chinese statement. He also urged the US to implement the three joint communiques that serve as the foundation for relations between the two countries “both in word and in deed”. Xi vowed “resolutely” to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity and said this is “the firm will of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people”.

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‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

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Mike Pompeo and Mark Esper support visit to ‘freedom-loving Taiwan’ but Biden concerned any trip would antagonise Beijing

Plans for Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker, to visit Taiwan have prompted opposition from China and the American military but support from Republicans in Washington, including former members of the Trump administration.

Trump’s second secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN: “I think if the speaker wants to go, she should go.”

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Biden says Trump ‘lacked the courage to act’ during January 6 attack

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President criticizes Trump for inaction during Capitol riot, saying he ‘watched it all happen’ from the comfort of the White House

Joe Biden has said that his presidential predecessor Donald Trump “lacked the courage to act” as a mob of his supporters tried to halt the congressional certification of his defeat in the 2020 election by mounting the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

In virtual remarks Monday to the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Biden – who was recovering from Covid-19 – said police officers defending the Capitol were “speared, sprayed, stomped on, brutalized” for hours by white nationalists and other Trump sycophants who bought his false claims that he’d been robbed of victory by electoral fraudsters.

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Judge blocks Georgia DA from investigating ‘fake elector’ in setback for Trump inquiry – as it happened

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Dan Cox, an extremist pro-Trump Republican, won his party’s nomination for governor in Maryland last week thanks to “collusion between Trump and the national Democrats”, the current Republican governor said.

“I don’t think there’s any chance that [Cox] can win,” Larry Hogan added, speaking to CNN’s State of the Union.

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Biden ‘doing just fine’ after testing positive for Covid, White House says

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Ashish Jha, coronavirus response coordinator, and physician Kevin O’Connor say president contracted BA.5 variant

Joe Biden is “feeling well” and “doing just fine” after testing positive for Covid, the White House coronavirus response coordinator said.

Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Ashish Jha said: “So it is the BA.5 variant, which is about 80% of infections. But thank goodness, our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president’s doing well.

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Joe Biden’s mild Covid symptoms are improving, doctor says

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White House seeks to create ‘teachable moment’ after president’s diagnosis on Thursday

The White House physician has said Joe Biden’s mild Covid-19 symptoms are improving and that he is responding well to treatment, as the administration worked to portray the image of a president on the job despite his illness.

Biden had an elevated temperature of 99.4F on Thursday, but that went down with Tylenol, according to a new note from Dr Kevin O’Connor.

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Biden’s $37bn crime prevention plan delayed by Covid diagnosis

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President had hoped to announce plans for 100,000 extra US police officers but speech in Pennsylvania cancelled

Joe Biden had been poised Thursday to unveil a $37bn proposal for fighting crime including funding to help US police departments hire and train an additional 100,000 officers over a five-year period, according to reports, though after contracting Covid he cancelled the speech where he planned to announce it.

The US president’s Safer America Plan would form part of his proposed 2023 budget and would require a green light from Congress, CNN reports. As well as the additional officers, it would reportedly include the launch of a $15bn grant initiative for states and localities to assist them in preventing violent offenses, and to “ease the burden on police officers by identifying non-violent situations that may merit a public health response or other response.”

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Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip ‘not a good idea right now’, says Biden

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US military advises against House speaker’s reported trip as president is due to talk to Xi Jinping for first time in four months

Joe Biden has cautioned against the reported trip to Taiwan next month by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, saying the US military had assessed “it is not a good idea right now”.

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Pelosi would lead a delegation to Taiwan in August to show support for the democratically ruled island, which Beijing claims is a breakaway province. The trip was initially scheduled for April but was postponed due to Pelosi testing positive for Covid at the time.

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‘The world is counting on us’: Biden vows to tackle climate ‘emergency’ – as it happened

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Zelenska concluded her remarks by describing the Russian invasion as terrorism, and linking it to America’s experiences with such attacks.

“America unfortunately knows from its own experience what terrorist attacks are and has always sought to defeat terrorism. Help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians, and this will be our joint great victory in the name of life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness of every person, every family,” Zelenska said.

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Biden unveils extreme heat plan – but doesn’t declare climate emergency

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Initiatives are aimed at helping salvage the president’s tattered climate agenda after Joe Manchin delivered a major blow last week

Facing the disintegration of his climate agenda as ferocious heatwaves hit large parts of the world, Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to push billions of dollars to US cities and states to help them cope better with extreme heat.

The president stopped short, however, of declaring a climate emergency.

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