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Two bowls of poison: China ponders who is the lesser of two evils between Trump and Biden

As the U.S. presidential campaign moves closer to a Donald Trump-Joe Biden rematch, China is watching uneasily. First, there are concerns about the campaign itself, where candidates are likely to talk tough on China. That could threaten the fragile improvements in U.S.-China relations seen in recent months. Then there is the outcome of the November vote. Neither candidate is particularly appealing to Beijing. While Biden has looked for areas of cooperation with China, Beijing is concerned about his efforts to unite allies in the Indo-Pacific in a coalition against China. It’s also nervous about his approach to Taiwan after...

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Political warfare: Ex-FBI informant charged with lying about Bidens allegedly linked to Russian intelligence

The explosive allegations at the center of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden were false, federal prosecutors said, and came from an ex-FBI informant who said he was in touch with Russian intelligence. The informant, Alexander Smirnov, is “actively peddling new lies that could impact U.S. elections,” federal prosecutors said on February 21, as they appealed to a judge to keep him behind bars ahead of trial on charges alleging he lied to the FBI about a phony multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the Bidens and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. The Republican release of Smirnov’s allegations in July...

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President Biden targets Israeli settlers with financial sanctions for attacking Palestinians in West Bank

President Joe Biden on February 1 issued an executive order that targeted Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory, imposing financial sanctions and visa bans in an initial round against four individuals. Those settlers were involved in acts of violence, as well as threats and attempts to destroy or seize Palestinian property, according to the order. The penalties aim to block the four from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them. U.S. officials said they were evaluating whether to...

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President Biden revisits decaying Wisconsin bridge he vowed to help fix as part of $5B infrastructure plan

The last time President Joe Biden visited Superior, Wisconsin, he warned of the danger posed by the deteriorating John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge. He pointed out the decades-old corrosion that had weakened the overpass connecting the two port cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and vowed to fix it. President Biden is returning to that bridge at the tip of Lake Superior on January 25 to announce nearly $5 billion in federal funding that would upgrade it and dozens of similar infrastructure projects nationwide, as the Democratic president jump-starts an election year push to persuade voters to reward him for...

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Netanyahu snubs President Biden by rejecting talk of Palestinian Statehood while depending on U.S. funding

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on January 18 rejected calls from the United States to scale back Israel’s brutal military offensive in the Gaza Strip, or even consider taking steps toward the establishment of a Palestinian state after the war. After accepting $14.5 billion of dollars of military aid and “bunker busting” bombs from the U.S., Netanyahu’s defiance drew an immediate scolding from the White House. The tense back and forth reflected what has become a wide rift between the two allies over the scope of Israel’s war and its plans for the future of the beleaguered territory....

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The meaning of Valley Forge: An interview by Heather Cox Richardson with President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, ahead of his speech marking the third anniversary of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Historian and professor Heather Cox Richardson sat down with the President on January 5 to ask a few questions. What I wanted to hear from him illustrates the difference between journalists and historians. Journalists are trained to find breaking stories and to explain them clearly so that their audience is better informed about what is happening in the world. What they do is vitally important to a democracy, and...

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