Month: June 2021

President Joe Biden took part in an Inspection of the Guard Honor before he and first lady Jill Biden met with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in England on Sunday.  President and Mrs. Biden joined the queen to watch a military march and traveled to her apartment for tea.

Biden said the Queen was “extremely gracious” as the two met, adding, “she was very generous. I don’t think she’d be insulted but she reminded me of my mother. In terms of the look of her and just the generosity.”  Biden said the Queen also asked him about Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he is set to meet in Switzerland following a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Brussels, and asked him what the White House was like.  Biden told reporters: I said, this is … we could fit the White House in the courtyard,” before confirming he had invited the queen to the White House.

The White House said Biden will also meet King Philippe of Belgium and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo while in Brussels this week.  He will also hold a summit with Putin on Wednesday. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the two will discuss a range of “pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability in the U.S.-Russia relationship.”

//cdn.iframe.ly/embed.js

On Sunday, Israel’s parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of 71-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Naftali Bennett, who was a former ally of Netanyahu but turned his rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Bennett, who promised to try to heal a divided nation, will preside over a diverse coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences.

Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. “If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country,” he said.   Netanyahu has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents.

President Joe Biden congratulated the new government, saying:“I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations.”  Biden said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government “to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region.”

//cdn.iframe.ly/embed.js

On Sunday, Israel’s parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of 71-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  Naftali Bennett, who was a former ally of Netanyahu but turned his rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Bennett, who promised to try to heal a divided nation, will preside over a diverse coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences.

Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. “If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country,” he said.   Netanyahu has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents.

President Joe Biden congratulated the new government, saying:“I look forward to working with Prime Minister Bennett to strengthen all aspects of the close and enduring relationship between our two nations.”  Biden said his administration is fully committed to working with the new government “to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region.”

//cdn.iframe.ly/embed.js

Three people are dead, including a child, after a shooting at a South Florida grocery store on Thursday. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (“PBSO”) said the shooting took place inside a Publix supermarket in Royal Palm Beach, just west of West Palm Beach.

Police and emergency officials responded to the shopping center just before noon. Police kept most customers and employees inside the store for multiple hours for interviews before allowing some to leave around 2:30 p.m.  The PBSO said in a tweet, “Upon arrival, deputies located three individuals deceased from gunshot wounds, one adult male, one adult female and one child.  The shooter is one of the deceased. This was NOT an active shooter situation.”  

Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said the child was a toddler: “This one is hard,” she said. “You don’t like to hear about these things in your district. You don’t like to hear about them anywhere in the country.” Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous issued a statement saying the company couldn’t confirm any details from the incident since it involved an active police investigation: “Our thoughts are with those who are impacted by this tragedy,” she said. “We are cooperating with the local law enforcement.”

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced his plan to buy an additional 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to distribute to lower-income countries, increasing the U.S. commitment to fighting the pandemic across the globe. Biden made the announcement in the Cornwall village of St. Ives, the United Kingdom seaside resort village where world leaders are gathering for the G-7 summit.

Said Biden: “That’s a historic step. The largest single purchase and donation COVID-19 vaccines by any single country ever. Importantly, this is the mRNA vaccine, which is proven to be extremely effective against COVID-19 and every known variant of that virus thus far. These half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line. 200 million of these doses will be delivered this year, 2021. And 300 million more will be delivered in the first half of 2022.”

Biden also stressed getting vaccines distributed around the world was also in American’s best interest to keep variants in check, and improve the global economy following the impacts of the pandemic. Biden had previously criticized other countries, including Russia and China, for seeking to curry favor with their vaccine programs, and argued the new surge of doses from the U.S. were being offered with “no strings attached.”  The President said, “Let me be clear, just as with the 80 million doses we previously announced, the United States is providing these half-million doses with no strings attached. Let me say it again, with no strings attached. Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions. We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic, that’s it. Period.”

President Biden arrived in the UK on his first overseas trip as U.S. president, and will plan to meet Boris Johnson in Cornwall ahead of the G7 summit.   Biden is expected to deliver a warning not to let the Brexit trade dispute “imperil” the Northern Ireland peace process. The president is also hoping to show that the United States is back as a major international diplomatic force following the presidency of Donald Trump, and hopes to use the visit to Europe to shore up transatlantic alliances.

Biden flew in to the UK on Air Force One, landing at the U.S. airbase at RAF Mildenhall before heading on to Cornwall for talks with Johnson and the G7 summit in Carbis Bay. He told an audience of US military personnel and service families: “We are going to make it clear that the United States is back and democracies of the world are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and the issues that matter most to our future.”

Biden also called for international action to end the Covid-19 pandemic, saying: “This diplomacy is essential because no single nation acting alone can meet all the challenges we face today because the world is changing.”  The United States is expected to buy 500 million more doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to share through the global Covax alliance for donation to 92 lower income countries and the African Union over the next year.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-arrives-in-uk-on-1st-foreign-trip-as-president-including-summit-with-putin/ar-AAKRg96