Tag: Biden administration

  • USAID contractor resigns, alleging work on Palestine was censored

    Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), resigned from his private sector position, saying he could no longer perform contract work for the Biden administration after a presentation he was preparing on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis was cancelled.

    Smith claimed that USAID gave him a choice between resigning or dismissal after he attempted to give a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, says a report published by The Guardian.

    “I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human, or where gender and human rights principles apply to some, but not to others, depending on their race,” Smith wrote in his resignation letter quoted by The Guardian.

    Smith’s resignation adds to a small but growing list of officials working inside or for the US government who have resigned in protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

    On Tuesday, Stacy Gilbert, a career official in the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), told staff she was resigning because she felt the State Department had wrongly concluded that Israel was not preventing the entry of aid into Gaza.

    Earlier this month, Lilly Greenberg Call became the first Jewish-American political official to resign. Call worked in the Department of Interior, but there have been a number of high-profile resignations from officials working on the Middle East and defence.

    Major Harrison Mann tendered his resignation from the Department of Defence Intelligence Agency in May, citing Washington’s support for the war on Gaza.

  • US plans to raise fuel economy standards to 24.6 km per litre by 2032

    US plans to raise fuel economy standards to 24.6 km per litre by 2032

    The Biden administration has presented a proposal to increase fuel economy standards by 2032, aiming for a fleet-wide average of 58 miles per gallon (25 kilometres per litre). The primary goal of this proposal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease fuel consumption.

    The proposal, put forth by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is focused on the model years from 2027 to 2032. It calls for a yearly increase of 2 per cent in Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements for passenger cars and 4 per cent for light trucks. Additionally, the agency is suggesting new fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty pickup trucks and vans for the years 2030 to 2035, with a yearly rise of 10 per cent.

    Previously, in 2022, NHTSA had finalised rules for the years 2024 to 2026, which mandated a fleet average of 49 mpg by 2026. These rules gradually increased efficiency requirements by 8 per cent in 2024 and 2025 and by 10 per cent in 2026.

    NHTSA’s latest proposal is estimated to save vehicle owners in 2032 approximately $1,043 per vehicle in lifetime fuel costs. However, it will also result in an average increase of $932 in vehicle costs.

    According to NHTSA, this rule will incentivize manufacturers to produce internal combustion engine vehicles during the specified timeframe to achieve significant fuel economy improvements, enhance energy security, and substantially reduce harmful pollution.

    It’s important to note that CAFE requirements are not as stringent as the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal in April to reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions. The NHTSA is legally prohibited from considering electric vehicles’ fuel economy when setting standards.

    The EPA’s proposed standards for the years 2027–2032 are expected to lead to a 56 per cent reduction in emissions, with an average annual pollution cut of 13 per cent. Furthermore, it could result in 67 per cent of new vehicles in 2032 being electric.

    According to Reuters, NHTSA anticipates that its proposal would contribute to an 88 billion-gallon reduction in gasoline consumption by 2050.

    The agency is currently seeking feedback on five alternatives, which include not increasing requirements at all as well as raising them annually by 6 per cent for cars and 8 per cent for light trucks. NHTSA believes its preferred alternative strikes a balance between necessary improvements and ensuring the market can handle the changes without causing consumer acceptance or sales issues.

    In response to the EPA’s emissions proposal, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, representing companies like General Motors, Toyota Motor, and Volkswagen, requested a more lenient approach, deeming the EPA’s proposal “neither reasonable nor achievable.” On the other hand, Tesla expressed the view that the EPA should make its proposal more rigorous. The alliance is currently reviewing NHTSA’s proposal.

  • Montana becomes first US state to ban TikTok

    Montana becomes first US state to ban TikTok

    Montana has become the first state in the United States to impose a ban on the popular social media app TikTok. The state’s governor signed a legislation that forbids mobile application stores from providing access to the app within Montana starting from next year.

    This action is part of a series of measures taken by the US against TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese technology company ByteDance. Concerns have been raised about TikTok’s connections to China, amid fears that these ties could pose a threat to national security.

    The federal government, along with over half of US states, has already prohibited the use of the app on government devices. Furthermore, the Biden administration has issued a warning of a potential nationwide ban unless TikTok’s parent company divests its shares.

    TikTok has previously denied allegations of sharing user data with the Chinese government, asserting that it would refuse such requests. In response to the Montana bill, the company released a statement claiming that it infringes upon the First Amendment rights of Montana residents by unlawfully banning TikTok. They also expressed their intention to protect the rights of their users both within and outside the state.

    During a congressional hearing in March, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, was compelled to defend the company’s relationship with China. Lawmakers raised concerns about the app’s impact on the mental health of young people.

    TikTok boasts a user base of over 100 million in the United States, making it one of the most popular social networks globally. There are lingering questions regarding the enforcement and repercussions of such bans, particularly for creators who rely on the platform.

    Effective from January 1, Montana’s new law prohibits the downloading of TikTok within the state. It imposes a daily fine of $10,000 on any entity, whether it be an app store or TikTok itself, for every instance in which someone is provided the opportunity to access the app or download it. The penalties, however, do not apply to users.

  • US First Lady makes unannounced visit to Ukraine

    US First Lady makes unannounced visit to Ukraine

    US First Lady Jill Biden paid a surprise visit to Ukraine on Sunday to demonstrate solidarity for the war-torn country in its struggle against Russia. Olena Zelenska, her Ukrainian counterpart, was also present.

    Before meeting in private, the two first ladies met in a tiny classroom, sitting across a table from one another and greeting each other in front of the media. Zelenska and her children have been kept safe in an undisclosed location.

    The school where they met has been turned into transitional housing for Ukrainian migrants from elsewhere in the country.

    “Because we understand what it takes for the US First Lady to come here during a war when the military actions are taking place every day, where the air sirens are happening every day, even today,” Olena Zelenska told Jill Biden.

    “I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” she said while talking to reporters.

    According to UN estimates, at least 1,964 people have been killed and 2,613 injured in Ukraine since the conflict began on February 24, with the true figure expected to be far higher.

  • US President Biden invites Pakistan for virtual summit on democracy, leaves China and Turkey out

    United States (US) President Joe Biden has invited 110 countries, including Pakistan, for a virtual summit on democracy. The summit is expected to take place on December 9 and 10.

    According to a list posted on the US State Department website, America’s top rival China and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) ally Turkey are missing from the list.

    Surprisingly, US traditional Arab allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are also not invited. From the Middle East region, only Israel and Iraq are excepted to join other countries for the meeting.

    The conference was a campaign pledge by Biden, who has placed the struggle between democracies and “autocratic governments” at the heart of his foreign policy, reports Dawn. However, the second edition of this meeting will take place in person next year.

    While announcing the summit in August, the White House said the meeting would “galvanise commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights”.

  • Fatima Bhutto expresses anger over Biden administration

    Fatima Bhutto has expressed her anger over Joe Biden’s administration for approving the potential sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel.

    Sharing the news report of the approval on Twitter, Fatima Bhutto wrote: “The Biden administration has blood on its hands already and they are intent on getting them dirtier and dirtier.”

    As per congressional sources US lawmakers were not expected to object to the deal despite violence between Israel and Palestinian militants Reuters has reported.

    Other people are also expressing their anger over the deal :

    https://twitter.com/sunshine_leb/status/1394290306086998026

    Israeli bombardment of Gaza, a Palestinian terrority, is the worst the world has seen in years. Israeli fighter jets continue to pound central Gaza with bombs, as the death toll of the Palestinians killed in the fighting has reached to 212, 61 among them are children.

  • Biden returns billions Trump approved for US-Mexico border wall

    Biden returns billions Trump approved for US-Mexico border wall

    President of the United States (US) Joe Biden has decided to hold back funds of Pentagon that were directed by former President Donald Trump to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

    The funds will be now used to fix the damages that were caused while the wall was under construction.

    According to reports, an official from the US government said that the Pentagon will begin cancelling all wall projects using the diverted funds, and the administration will take steps to return remaining unobligated military construction forms their appropriated purpose.

    The decision came when Joe Biden took over the office and signed a “proclamation” that directed the Pentagon to halt the flow of money to build the border wall, which was already ruled illegal by the federal court of US in June 2020.

    The Department of Homeland Security also announced plans to repair holes in flood levees at the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and fix soil erosion in San Diego created by border wall construction, neither of which will involve creating more barriers.

    The amount of money that the Trump administration allocated to build the wall was as high as $14 billion, says the official.

    According to the background details, the lawmakers of bipartisan put pressure on the government to make repairments against the damage caused due to the holes that drilled for wall construction.

    On this occasion, an influential American politician and attorney Ted Cruz commented that “I am pleased President Biden and the Department of Homeland Security are listening and now moving to shore up the levee wall system that had been unthoughtful. The repairs are necessary, crucial, and urgently needed.”

    In response, the chief critic senator Rick Scott uttered that “How can Biden possibly justify stopping wall construction?”, calling on Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to “immediately explain President Biden’s ridiculous order, how it is compliant with federal law and the awful consequences it will have on the current crisis.”