Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry brushed off a question about human rights and China’s treatment of Uyghurs during an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg’s David Westin on the Biden administration’s climate agenda.
“Clearly a priority of the Biden administration is really addressing climate, but it’s not the only priority,” Westin noted in the interview. “There are other things as well, such as the Uyghur situation in the west. What is the process by which one trades off climate against human rights?”
“Well, life is always full of tough choices in the relationship between nations,” Kerry responded.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian athletes that they must continue to refrain from playing competitive sports against Israelis, even if they are disciplined by international bodies for it.
“Any Iranian athlete worthy of the name cannot shake hands with a representative of the criminal regime in order to win a medal,” Khamenei told a reception for Iran’s medalists from the Tokyo Games on September 18.
“The genocidal, illegal Zionist regime attempts to gain some legitimacy by appearing in international athletic competitions. The world’s arrogant powers and their cohorts [the West] assist and support them in this,” he added.
In Tokyo, Iran won seven Olympic medals, three of them gold, as well as 24 Paralympic medals.
Iran does not recognize the state of Israel and its athletes often forfeit matches or don’t participate when they could face an Israeli opponent.
WASHINGTON — Republicans say a new non-partisan report indicates President Joe Biden improperly avoided paying Medicare taxes before he took office — raising eyebrows and the possibility that he owes the IRS as much as $500,000 in back taxes.
Biden is leading a Democratic push for a $3.5 trillion bill to subsidize childcare, education and health care by targeting tax avoidance and raising tax rates on higher incomes so the rich “pay their fair share.”
A House Ways and Means Committee draft of the bill would end the accounting trick apparently exploited by Biden and boost IRS funding for audits — but the new report, drafted by the Congressional Research Service and provided to The Post, suggests Biden owes taxes under current rules, according to the congressman who requested it.
“Joe Biden wants to raise taxes by $2.1 trillion while claiming the rich need to pay their ‘fair share.’ But in 2017, multi-millionaire Joe Biden skirted his payroll taxes — the very taxes that fund Medicare and Obamacare,” said Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.
I love Facebook. Woman takes photo and sees her own face reflected in her eyes from her phone screen and thinks it’s a ghost. Fucking brilliant. pic.twitter.com/yaErw8HAWC
SCOOP: Playbook has learned that during an intense meeting at the White House on Wednesday, Rep. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.) broke into tears while arguing her case to President JOE BIDEN that the reconciliation bill should include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, essential workers and farm workers.
During the Oval Office meeting, several prominent Hill progressives argued forcefully for a robust reconciliation package. Jayapal, who leads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, advocated for the inclusion of major immigration provisions, and toward that end, used her own story as a selling point.
“She said, ‘I’m the first South Asian woman ever elected to the House … and one of only two dozen immigrants in Congress … as an immigrant woman of color, I just want to share my perspective,” Jayapal spokesperson CHRIS EVANS confirmed. “She has a unique story as an immigrant — but also coming at 16, and to be sitting at the White House delivering what would be a transformational investment in social programs, it will be a moment she will remember forever.”
Hunter Biden’s business contacts touted his access to his father, “State, Treasury,” his relationship with then-Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson, as well as his ties to the “highest level” in China, as they weighed whether to work with him on a potential Libya deal in 2015, newly uncovered emails show.
The two emails — published by Insider on Thursday — date back to 2015, when Joe Biden was vice president, and reference getting Hunter’s help on a deal regarding billions in Libyan assets frozen by the Obama administration.
The emails are unrelated to Hunter’s infamous laptop.
In the first email, dated Jan. 28, 2015, Democratic donor Sam Jauhari repeatedly referred to Hunter as “#2 son” — an apparent reference to Joe Biden’s VP role at the time — and noted that Hunter had requested a $2 million retainer.
ZURICH, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Moderna Inc Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel thinks the coronavirus pandemic could be over in a year as increased vaccine production ensures global supplies, he told the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung.
“If you look at the industry-wide expansion of production capacities over the past six months, enough doses should be available by the middle of next year so that everyone on this earth can be vaccinated. Boosters should also be possible to the extent required,” he told the newspaper in an interview.
Vaccinations would soon be available even for infants, he said.
“Those who do not get vaccinated will immunize themselves naturally, because the Delta variant is so contagious. In this way we will end up in a situation similar to that of the flu. You can either get vaccinated and have a good winter. Or you don’t do it and risk getting sick and possibly even ending up in hospital.”
Asked if that meant a return to normal in the second half of next year, he said: “As of today, in a year, I assume.”
Absolutely fascinating look at Kyrsten Sinema’s efforts to position herself as an independent in Arizona, possibly formally but definitely in effect. It makes pretty clear she’s not done with politics or angling for a high dollar lobbying gig, as some speculate. She thinks she can be a latter-day McCain and build her political brand on that basis, likely looking for a promotion above the Senate. TPM Reader GT, a registered independent in Arizona, walks us through the view from in-state as well as the mailers he’s been getting on Sinema’s behalf from something called the “Center Forward” PAC run out of New Jersey and chaired by former Alabama Rep. Bud Cramer (D).
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.
After Gov. Doug Ducey (R), along with 25 other governors, sent a letter to the Biden administration urgently requesting a meeting with President Joe Biden regarding the border crisis, the White House appears to be ignoring the governors’ plea.
“As chief executives of our states, we request a meeting with you at The White House to bring an end to the national security crisis created by eight months of unenforced borders,” that letter said. “The months-long surge in illegal crossings has instigated an international humanitarian crisis, spurred a spike in international criminal activity, and opened the floodgates to human traffickers and drug smugglers endangering public health and safety in our states. A crisis that began at our southern border now extends beyond to every state and requires immediate action before the situation worsens.”
Even governors in states that are not located near the southern border, where the vast majority of illegal aliens cross into the United States, signed onto the letter.
The signees included Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-IN), Gov. Charlie Baker (R-MA), Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD), Gov. Mike Dunleavey (R-AK), and several others in non-border states.
DEL RIO, Texas — Days after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced migrants from the mostly Haitian bridge encampment faced imminent removal, hundreds are actually released into the United States on a daily basis. Haitian nationals could be seen at several locations waiting to board transportation to other parts of the country.
Democrats appear to have the inside track in the upcoming special election for the Cheshire County District 14 House seat, but they’re not taking any chances. That means plenty of door knocking, lots of fundraising and — erasing Joe Biden?
A campaign push by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee on behalf of its nominee, Harrisville’s Andrew Maneval, describes him as “a community leader, small business owner, and former chair of the Harrisville Broadband Committee.” It features a photo of him looking ruggedly handsome in a sweatshirt and jacket.
But the original of that photo, taken in October of last year and obtained by NHJournal, shows someone photo-shopped a Biden-Harris logo off the shirt and out of the image.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) claimed Wednesday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents apprehending Haitian migrants illegally entering the United States through the southern border is “worse than what we witnessed in slavery
“What we witnessed takes us back hundreds of years. What we witnessed was worse than what we witnessed in slavery,” Waters, who serves as the Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, stated during a rainy press conference steps away from the U.S. Capitol.
“Cowboys with their reins in hand whipping black people, Haitians, into the water where they’re scrambling and falling down and all they’re trying to do is escape the violence in their country,” the longtime California Democrat added.
Democrats have seized on the images, accusing horse-mounted CBP agents of using whips to prevent migrants from attempting to cross from Mexico into Texas — a claim that agents say is patently ludicrous.
“With basic knowledge and two brain cells, anyone knows those agents use split reins. They do use them as a whip, on their horses,” one agent told Fox News.
