Category Archives: Biden administration

Trump announces 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum

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Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy

Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.

The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.

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Trump to announce 25% aluminum and steel tariffs in latest trade escalation

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US president accused of ‘shifting goalposts’ by premier of Ontario for adding further tariffs on top of existing metal duties

Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.

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Trump administration suspends $5bn electric vehicle charging program

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Highway agency ordered states to no longer spend funds allocated under Biden’s EV charging station program

The Trump administration has ordered US states to suspend a $5bn electric vehicle charging station program in a further blow to the environmental movement since the president’s return to the White House.

In a memo issued on Thursday to state transportation directors, the transportation department’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) ordered states not to spend any funds allocated to them under the Biden administration as part of the national electric vehicle infrastructure (NEVI) program.

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Trump administration disbands taskforce targeting Russian oligarchs

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US attorney general issues memo to break up effort started after 2022 Ukraine invasion to target those close to Kremlin

The US justice department under Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.

A memo from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.

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US court rules banning gun sales to young adults under 21 unconstitutional

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Conservative New Orleans court ruling for people between 18 and 21 comes amid major shifts in firearm legal landscape

A conservative US appeals court on Thursday ruled that a ban on handgun sales to people between the ages of 18 and 21 violates the second amendment.

The ruling, handed down by a panel of three judges on the fifth US circuit court of appeals in New Orleans, comes amid major shifts in the national firearm legal landscape following a landmark US supreme court decision that expanded gun rights in 2022.

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‘You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class’: Biden’s labor chief on return of Trump

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Julie Su, acting labor secretary, fears many of Biden’s pro-worker policies will be undone by the new administration

Even as Donald Trump says he will battle for America’s workers, the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su, is voicing fears that Trump will undo many of Joe Biden’s pro-worker policies, which include protecting workers from extreme heat and extending overtime pay to millions more workers.

In an interview with the Guardian, Su said that Trump might fall far short on delivering for workers considering the first Trump administration’s many anti-worker policies and in light of his having Elon Musk and other billionaires advising him. “It’s one thing to say you’re pro-worker, and it’s quite another thing to do it,” Su said. “You can’t be pro-billionaire and pro-working class. You can’t be pro-Elon Musk and pro-worker.”

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Joe Biden delays order to end Nippon Steel bid for US Steel

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Suspension of executive order until 18 June gives courts time to review steelmakers’ legal challenge

The Biden administration has delayed until June an order for Nippon Steel to abandon its $14.9bn bid for US Steel, potentially giving the companies some time to revive the politically contentious deal.

Joe Biden blocked the acquisition on national security grounds on 3 January and the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said this week the proposed deal had received a “thorough analysis” by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

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Biden extends temporary protections for more than 800,000 immigrants

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US president moves to shield roughly 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans against Trump administration

The Biden administration on Friday extended temporary humanitarian protections for about 230,000 Salvadorans and 600,000 Venezuelans living in the US, in an effort to shield those groups from an incoming Trump administration that has promised to deport them.

The decision in the dying days of Joe Biden’s presidency came after immigrant advocates and lawmakers urged the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary protected status (TPS), designed to protect immigrants from being deported to countries that are engulfed in disaster or conflict.

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Biden administration bans medical debt from inclusion on credit reports

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Kamala Harris announces removal of billions in medical debt from credit reports of 15 million Americans

Lenders will no longer be able to see whether American borrowers have unpaid medical debt in their credit history, according to a new rule from the outgoing Biden administration.

The vice-president, Kamala Harris, announced early on Tuesday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was removing $49bn of existing unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of 15 million Americans and will ban the inclusion of medical debt on credit reports.

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Joe Biden addresses America’s ‘original sin’ of slavery on Angola visit

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US president remembers ‘stolen men and women and children brought to our shores’ and lauds American investment in country

Joe Biden addressed America’s history of enslavement in a speech on Tuesday at Angola’s National Museum of Slavery, calling it “our nation’s original sin” during a trip in which he also lauded recent US investment in the region.

“We remember the stolen men and women and children who were brought to our shores in chains, subjected to unimaginable cruelty,” Biden said, as the sun set over the water behind him.

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Chip war ramps up with new US semiconductor restrictions on China

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Biden administration broadens limits on Chinese access to advanced microchip technology, with Donald Trump expected to go even further

The US has announced new export restrictions targeting China’s ability to make advanced semiconductors, drawing swift condemnation from Beijing.

Washington is expanding efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China that can be used in advanced weapons systems and in artificial intelligence.

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With his pardon of son Hunter, Joe Biden delivers a heartfelt hypocrisy

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The president and supporters argue Hunter Biden would never have been charged were it not for his name – and any father might have done the same. But this exercise of power also looks like a validation of Donald Trump

A loving act of mercy by a father who has already known much sorrow? Or a hypocritical political manoeuvre reminiscent of his great foe? Maybe both can be true.

Joe Biden’s announcement on Sunday that he had pardoned his son Hunter, who is facing sentencing in two criminal cases, is likely to have been the product of a Shakespearean struggle between head and heart.

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Biden administration claims win with Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire – but will it hold?

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Peace is shaky at best, as Israel will still strike targets in Lebanon and a power transition looms in the US

The Biden administration has claimed the long-awaited ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel as a diplomatic triumph achieved under tremendous pressure during a lame-duck period with a hostile Donald Trump administration waiting in the wings.

Speaking from a lectern in the Rose Garden of the White House, Joe Biden called the result “historic” and said that it “reminds us that peace is possible”. It would return civilians to their homes, he said, and had “determined this conflict will not be just another cycle of violence”.

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China releases three US citizens held for years in prisoner swap

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Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung freed after Biden administration forges rare agreement with Beijing

Three American citizens imprisoned for years by China have been released in a prisoner swap, the White House has said, announcing a rare diplomatic agreement with Beijing in the final months of the Biden administration.

The three are Mark Swidan, Kai Li and John Leung, all of whom had been designated by the US government as wrongfully detained. Swidan had been facing a death sentence on drug charges while Li and Leung were imprisoned on espionage charges.

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Biden proposes Medicare and Medicaid cover weight-loss drugs for 7.4m people

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Move aims to tackle US’s chronic obesity problem, but poses a challenge to Trump’s incoming administration

The Biden administration is proposing to make “miracle” weight loss drugs free for low-income people and retirees, in a move aimed at tackling America’s chronic obesity problem but which throws down a gauntlet to the incoming president, Donald Trump.

The proposal, unveiled on Tuesday, would see expensive drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Zepbound covered by Medicaid and Medicare, the federal government programs for the poor and the elderly.

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Biden will attend Trump’s inauguration in January, says White House

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US president and Jill Biden to attend swearing-in of Trump, who did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, a White House spokesperson said on Monday.

“The president promised that he would attend the inauguration of whomever won the election,” said Andrew Bates, senior deputy press secretary at the White House, Reuters reported.

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Ice could add 600 beds to New Jersey detention center, documents show

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ACLU obtains documents showing agency’s effort to expand state’s detention capacity for undocumented immigrants

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials could add 600 beds to detain unauthorized immigrants in New Jersey, according to new documents obtained by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday.

An additional 600 detainees could mark a significant increase in the number of people held in New Jersey. The Elizabeth detention center – the only facility in the state that holds detainees – can currently accommodate up to 300 detainees, the Bergen Record reported in April. There were 285 detainees in the facility as of the end of October, according to data analyzed by the Guardian from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

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Biden heads for last meeting with Xi Jinping before Trump takes office

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Leaders at Apec summit in Peru, with Biden intending to urge ‘stability, clarity and predictability’ through transition

Joe Biden will meet with Xi Jinping Saturday afternoon in what is expected to be the last time the two leaders meet before Donald Trump assumes the US presidency in January.

The two leaders are attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Peru and are expected to have a meeting on the sidelines of the summit.

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FBI investigates intelligence leak of potential Israel plans to attack Iran

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John Kirby says Biden administration unsure if leak or hack led to secret documents appearing online on Telegram

The FBI has launched an investigation into the unauthorized release of classified documents describing Israel’s preparation for a potential retaliatory attack on Iran.

The White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Monday that the Biden administration was still not certain if the classified information was leaked or hacked but that officials did not have any indication at this point of “additional documents like this finding their way into the public domain”.

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US warns Israel of potential halt to arms transfers if Gaza aid is not distributed

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A private letter from Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin to Benjamin Netanyahu gives Israel 30 days to act

The Biden administration has warned Israel that it faces possible punishment, including the potential stopping of US weapons transfers, if it does not take immediate action to let more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

A letter written jointly by Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, and Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, exhorts Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to ease humanitarian suffering in the territory by lifting restrictions on the entry of assistance within 30 days or face unspecified policy “implications”.

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