Tag: Joe Biden

  • US President Biden nominates first-ever Muslim woman as federal judge

    US President Biden nominates first-ever Muslim woman as federal judge

    Washington announced the nomination of the first Muslim woman as a judge of a federal court on Wednesday.

    Nusrat Jahan Choudhury, a Bangladeshi-American, is a civil rights lawyer who currently serves as the legal director of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

    Last year, Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer recommended Choudhury to serve on the federal bench in New York, calling her an “expert in civil rights and liberties”.

    She was nominated by US President Joe Biden. The nomination is yet to be confirmed by a simple majority in the Senate.

    If confirmed, Choudhry would serve as the first Muslim woman, first Bangladeshi-American and second-ever American Muslim to serve as a federal judge.

    Apart from this, Joe Biden has also nominated 24 Blacks,17 Hispanics and 16 people who are Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

  • Shah Mehmood refuses to directly answer question about Biden not calling Khan, says it’s irrelevant

    Shah Mehmood refuses to directly answer question about Biden not calling Khan, says it’s irrelevant

    Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi, while speaking on Samaa News programme, revealed that talks of Pakistan with the President of United States (US) Joe Biden are now irrelevant.

    Speaking on ‘Nadeem Malik Live’, Qureshi said, “These talks with America have no weight, they are irrelevant.”

    Nadeem interjected and said that Pakistan does not want to talk to America, to which Qureshi said, “We will talk to them, whenever required we will talk to them [America]. When they need to talk to us, they do so.”

    “When we require we engage with them. When I was in New York I met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, we had a great meeting,” said Qureshi.

    Nadeem questioned Qureshi if the relationship between America and Pakistan had scaled down? Qureshi negating the question said, “No, the relationship has scaled up now.”

    “Why can’t you talk to Biden?” questioned Nadeem. “Biden as a personality has many institutions and has many channels of communication. Those channels of communications are open to us and we use them,” responded Qureshi.

    Later when Nadeem reminded him that there was a time when foreign office used to actively work to get a call for the sidelines of the United Nations (UN) assembly, now Qureshi was stating that the Biden call is irrelevant.

    Negating his previous statement, Qureshi said, “There is no harm in meeting Biden. But if he [Biden] thinks that he is busy with things and he might have is own preferences, so we have no hurry as well.”

    “Why has Biden kept us away from him as a policy, and has disengaged with us,” questioned Nadeem?

    “[Biden] can give the answer to this,” said Qureshi.

  • Watch: Joe Biden falls asleep during #COP26 speeches

    Watch: Joe Biden falls asleep during #COP26 speeches

    World leaders have gathered in Glasgow for the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (#COP26) 2021.

    During the conference, United States (US) President Joe Biden can be seen “apparently sleeping” during the #COP26 opening speeches.

    https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1455195062405632007?s=21

    President Biden was not the only one who seemed sleepy. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson while sitting with Secretary-General of the UN, António Guterres, and British natural historian David Attenborough, without wearing a mask seemed pretty sleepy as well.

  • US Senator indirectly urges President Biden to call PM Khan

    United States (US) Senator Bob Menendez said that he has asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to urge President Joe Biden to have a conversation with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in an effort to rebuild the Pak-US relationship, reports Geo News.

    While addressing a fundraising event, Menendez said, “I think it would serve us well to have such a conversation and, you know when we have these conversations, they are honest, and that means they are also transparent.”

    “Where there is an agreement, we build upon it and where there is disagreement, we talk about how do we get through that disagreement,” said Menendez.

     “I hope, I can expand on it — not just about Pakistan in the context of a military or security dimension, but much greater– talking about an incredibly large population that is very young; there is tremendous opportunity to build upon the economic dynamism that we create,” he told the members of the American-Pakistani Political Action Committee (APPAC).

    US President Joe Biden, who assumed office in January this year, has not yet telephoned PM Khan.

    Earlier this month, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R Sherman on her visit to Pakistan said, “I am sure that this contact [between President Biden and PM Khan] will take place soon, so I don’t think it should mean anything else.”

    However, in August, the premier himself commented on the situation and said he was “not waiting for a phone call from the US President”.

  • More Afghans killed from American firing than blast at Kabul airport: Reports

    More Afghans killed from American firing than blast at Kabul airport: Reports

    A recent report by BBC has revealed that a significant number of those killed during the attack on Kabul airport were shot dead by the US forces in the panic after the blast.

    The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan (ISIL/ISIS-K) group’s suicide attack on the Kabul airport on Thursday killed around 175 Afghans and 13 United States (US) troops.

    Journalist Secunder Kermani of BBC, sharing his special report on Twitter, wrote: “Many we spoke to, including eyewitnesses, said significant numbers of those killed were shot dead by US forces in the panic after the blast.”

    https://twitter.com/SecKermani/status/1431517279859224579

    In the video, an eyewitness said, “It was doomsday for us, I saw American soldiers and some Turkish soldiers, the fire came from the bridges, and towers from the soldiers.”

    Another eyewitness holding the identity card of his relative said, “He has served the US army for years, he wasn’t killed by Taliban, he wasn’t killed ISIS. He died from the shelling.”

    “How can you be so sure?” questioned Secunder.

    “Because of the bullet, it went right through his neck, he doesn’t have an injury.”

    American forces launched a drone strike in Kabul on Sunday targeting a suicide bomber in a vehicle who was aiming to attack the airport, US officials said, as the US nears the end of its military presence in the city.

    The strike is the second carried out by US forces in Afghanistan since a militant Islamic State (IS) group’s suicide bomber struck the airport on Thursday.

    US President Joe Biden was briefed on the rocket attack at the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul and was informed that operations at the airport were not interrupted, the statement said.

    “National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chief of Staff Ron Klain have briefed the President on the rocket attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport,” it added.

    As many as five rockets were fired at Kabul’s international airport but were intercepted by a missile defense system, a US official told Reuters earlier.

    US and allied forces are hurrying to evacuate their remaining citizens and at-risk Afghans before completing their own withdrawal by Tuesday to meet a deadline agreed between the Taliban and Washington.

  • US launches drone attack, killing ‘ISIS-K planner’ in Afghanistan

    US launches drone attack, killing ‘ISIS-K planner’ in Afghanistan

    The United States announced it carried out a drone attack in eastern Afghanistan against a “planner” of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant- Khorasan (ISIL/ISIS-K) group, after the attack outside Kabul’s airport that killed at least 175 Afghans and 13 US troops.

    “US military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner,” Captain Bill Urban, spokesperson for the US Central Command, said in a statement.

    “The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties,” read the statement.

    The announcement did not identify the targeted individual but indicated that this could be the first of many counter-attack at the ISIS-K targets for Thursday’s terrorist attacks at the Kabul airport.

    The ISIS group had claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.

    US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against Thursday’s attack in Kabul, saying that he will hunt down those responsible and make them pay.

    Biden confirmed in a speech from the White House that the bombings were carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

    “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive; we will not forget,” Biden said.

    “We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests in our people with every measure at my command.”

  • ‘We will hunt you down and make you pay’: Biden reacts to 85 killed in Kabul blasts

    ‘We will hunt you down and make you pay’: Biden reacts to 85 killed in Kabul blasts

    Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans at Kabul’s airport, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror for those fleeing the Taliban takeover.

    At least 85 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in the blasts on Thursday.

    Among the dead were 72 civilians and 13 United States (US) service members.

    One of the bombers struck Afghans standing knee-deep in a wastewater canal, throwing bodies into the fetid water.

    The second blast was at or near Baron Hotel, where many people, including Afghans, Britons, and Americans, were told to gather in recent days before heading to the airport for evacuation.

    The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL /ISIS) group, has claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel.

    US President Joe Biden vowed to retaliate against Thursday’s attack in Kabul, saying that he will hunt down those responsible and make them pay.

    Biden confirmed in a speech from the White House that the bombings were carried out by the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K), ISIL’s affiliate in Afghanistan.

    “To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive; we will not forget,” Biden said.

    “We will hunt you down and make you pay. I will defend our interests in our people with every measure at my command.”

    Biden added that the US will continue the evacuations of American citizens and US allies despite the attack. “We will not be deterred by terrorists; we will not let them stop our mission. We will continue the evacuations,” he said.

  • CIA director secretly meets the head of Taliban in Kabul, reports WaPo

    CIA director secretly meets the head of Taliban in Kabul, reports WaPo

    United States (US) President Joe Biden sent off America’s top spy to meet the head of the Taliban on Monday, reported The Washington Post.

    This high-level diplomatic encounter comes prior to the deadline of August 31 set to airlift Americans and their allies out of Afghanistan.

    Biden warned that the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and much could still go wrong. US troops might stay beyond an August 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.

    Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns met Taliban Leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday as the Biden administration continues efforts to evacuate US citizens and other allies amid chaos at the airport in Kabul.

    “Biden’s spymaster is also his most seasoned diplomat. For Baradar, playing counterpart to a CIA director comes with a tinge of irony 11 years after the spy agency arrested him in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation that put him in prison for eight years,” writes journalist John Hudson.

    However, the CIA declined to comment on the secret meeting.

  • ‘Mr Bean called PM Khan’, viral memes make fun of PM office phone calls

    ‘Mr Bean called PM Khan’, viral memes make fun of PM office phone calls

    Prime Minister Imran Khan received telephone calls from world leaders this past week and PTI Official tweeted about the phone calls he received. World leaders called him to discuss the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.

    Pakistani Twitter started making memes of the official PTI tweets, some making jibes that it was to lessen the blow that US President Biden had not called PM Khan yet.

    We have collected some memes. Here are a few:

    https://twitter.com/zahum1982/status/1428166763833962498?s=19

    https://twitter.com/FahadRafiq345/status/1428114306609057798?s=19

    People are sharing several memes and the netizens also shared that Prime Minister did not receive any call from US President Joe Biden.

    One of them shared that Imran Khan is requesting Joe Biden to call him but in response, he says “absolutely not”.

    Earlier on the night of August 13, PM Khan, in a wide-ranging talk with foreign journalists at his residence, said he was not really “waiting” for a phone call from US President Joe Biden.

    “I keep hearing that President Biden hasn’t called me. It’s his business. It’s not like I am waiting for any phone call,” he said in response to a question from a Reuters journalist.

  • ‘Don’t want women to be victims, they should be in govt’: Taliban

    ‘Don’t want women to be victims, they should be in govt’: Taliban

    The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, reported Al-Jazeera.

    “A general amnesty has been declared for all, so you should start your routine life with full confidence,” said a statement from the Taliban. 

    Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said, “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims, they should be in government structure according to Shariah law.”

    Enamullah’s statement represents the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country.

    Enamullah further added, “The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

    Samangani remained vague on other details, however, implying people already knew the rules of the Islamic law the Taliban expected them to follow.

    “Our people are Muslims and we are not here to force them to Islam,” he said.

    Meanwhile, United States (US) President Joe Biden blamed the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan on Afghan political leaders who fled the country and the unwillingness of the US-trained Afghan army to fight the militant group.

    In his speech, Biden said that the US troops could not defend a nation whose leaders “gave up and fled”, as did Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

    “I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I have learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House.