The top US official’s remarks come as the Taliban have intensified attacks since the official withdrawal of US troops….reports Asian Lite News
Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of the US Central Command, has said that Washington will seek to “keep pressure” on the Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda terror groups in Afghanistan, a media report said on Monday.
“We will still do everything we can to keep pressure on the IS and Al Qaeda, from our over-the-horizon locations,” TOLO News quoted quoted McKenzie as saying in an interview with Military Times.
“That is a task I’ve been given. Those are plans I’m in discussion with now with the Secretary of Defense. How we will do that, I’ve said before, that will be a very difficult thing to do,” he added.
Regarding a recent UN report warning that the Taliban appeared poised to take back control of Afghanistan, McKenzie said: “We still intend to support the Afghan military from just over the horizon. We’re still going to support them with funding.
“We’re going to try very hard to support the Afghan air force over the horizon; some things will come out of the country to be worked on.
“I don’t want to minimise this, because I think they’re going to be tested, but we will continue to support them, just not in the way we are supporting them now.”
Asked if the US would provide any combat support to Afghan forces if major cities such as Kabul were at risk of being overrun, McKenzie said: “Those are actually policy decisions, not military decisions. Right now what we’re planning to do after we withdraw is keep pressure on Al Qaeda and IS, and that would be what we’d be doing, going back into Afghanistan.”
The top US official’s remarks come as the Taliban have intensified attacks on provincial capitals, districts, bases and checkpoints since the official withdrawal of the US and other NATO troops in Afghanistan on May 1.
At least 15 districts have fallen to the Taliban since May 1, leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of Afghans.
According to a UN report, the Taliban were able to capture five districts in the past year, four of which were recaptured by the government within several days.
The withdrawal of international troops is due to be completed by September 11 at the latest.
During their first in-person meeting, Biden and Erdogan discussed a number of issues, including the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccine situation…reports Asian Lite News
US President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan held their first in-person meeting here on the sidelines of the NATO Summit, which the latter described as “fruitful and sincere”.
The meeting on Tuesday was part of Biden’s first foreign trip as President. The first leg of the visit took him to the UK for the G7 Summit last weekend and his next stop will be Geneva where the much-anticipated meeting with Russian leader Vladmir Putin will be held on Wednesday.
During the 90-minute meeting, Biden and Erdogan discussed a number of issues, including the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and the vaccine situation. “There are no outstanding problems between the US and Turkey that cannot be solved. On the contrary, there are many areas where we could focus on prospective and fruitful cooperation,” Erdogan told journalists at a news conference.
“Our history goes back a long time and we managed to exchange views on a vast area of issues. We also focused on the incidents on which we have different opinions and, in a very constructive fashion, talked about areas where we could further explore cooperation.
“We agreed on the necessity to effectively use dialogue channels between our nations in a regular fashion so, at the end of the day, it was a very fruitful and very sincere meeting. We also underlined the fact that bilateral cooperation should be revitalised,” he added.
In response to a query about whether the S-400 defence system was discussed, Erdogan said: “I expressed our previous opinion on the S-400, I also expressed our opinion on the F-35.
“What are the steps we can take, I expressed them. Of course, this process does not end here, our ministers will secure this process as a result of their talks.
“We said that our Defense and Foreign Ministers should discuss these among themselves, and after this meeting they will hold among themselves, we have to take our steps, we have come to such a decision.”
Describing his relationship with Biden as “long-standing”, Erdogan said he invited his American counterpart to visit Turkey.
He added that Biden indicated that he might pay a visit once his intense schedule allows it.
@trpresidency
Addressing a separate press conference, Biden said of the meeting: “We had a positive and productive meeting, much of it one-on-one. We had detailed discussions about how to proceed on a number of issues…
“Our teams are going to continue our discussions and I’m confident we will make real progress with Turkey and the US.”
He also emphasised that it was a”positive and productive meeting”, adding that “our countries have big agendas. Our teams will continue our discussions, I think we will make great progress as the US and Turkey”.
Biden, who has sought to reassert American backing for the 72-year-old alliance, said that NATO was critically important for “US interests” and it had a “sacred obligation” to observe Article 5 of its founding treaty, which commits members to defend each other from attack, the BBC reported.
Asked about his forthcoming summit with Putin, he described the Russian President as a “worthy adversary”.
Instead they will require a negative certificate of their COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to their departure….reports Asian Lite News
A senior US diplomat in India said that the mission is “actively working” to accommodate as many student visa applicants as possible in July and August, in order to facilitate their legitimate travel.
According to reports, Minister Counselor for Consular Affairs at the US embassy, Don Heflin, said that the US-bound students will not require any proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the country.
Instead they will require a negative certificate of their COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to their departure.
Meanwhile, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb said that Covid-19 Delta variant is likely to become the dominant source of new infections in the US and could lead to new outbreaks by September.
US STUDENTS
“Right now, in the United States, it’s about 10 per cent of infections. It’s doubling every two weeks,” Gottlieb was quoted as saying on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday.
“That doesn’t mean that we’re going to see a sharp uptick in infections, but it does mean that this is going to take over. And I think the risk is really to the fall that this could spike a new epidemic heading into the fall,” he added, saying that the unvaccinated Americans could be most at risk.
According to new data, Delta variant could become the dominant strain in the US in just one week, the Daily Mail reported.
“When will B.1.617.2 (Delta) be the dominant variant in the US? Could be next week (or next 2 weeks) based on trends in our testing data & sequences available,” researcher Alexandre Bolze tweeted last week. Delta now makes up about 10 per cent of US cases, up from just one per cent less than a month ago, he noted.
More than 6 per cent of the sequenced Covid-19 infections in the US trace to the highly transmissible Delta variant, US top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has warned last week.
The Delta variant (B16172) was first discovered in India and is one of three related strains. It was declared as variant of global concern last month by the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is 60 per cent more transmissible than the Alpha strain identified in the UK and also reduces the effectiveness of vaccines to some extent, according to Public Health England (PHE).
However, Gottlieb said the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the US appear to be effective at containing the Delta variant, highlighting the importance of the public vaccination campaign.
“The mRNA vaccine seems to be highly effective, two doses of that vaccine against this variant. The viral vector vaccines from J&J and AstraZeneca also appear to be effective, about 60 per cent effective. The mRNA vaccines are about 88 per cent effective,” he said, referring to the vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
Citing data from the Labour Department, the report said that the share of US workers leaving jobs was 2.7 per cent in April, a jump from 1.6 per cent a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000…reports Asian Lite News
More Americans are quitting their jobs than at any other time in at least two decades, which added challenges to companies trying to keep up with the economic recovery, a media report said.
“The wave of resignations marks a sharp turn from the darkest days of the pandemic, when many workers craved job security while weathering a national health and economic crisis,” Xinhua news agency quoted The Wall Street Journal report as saying on Sunday.
Citing data from the Labour Department, the report said that the share of US workers leaving jobs was 2.7 per cent in April, a jump from 1.6 per cent a year earlier to the highest level since at least 2000.
While a high quit rate stings employers with greater turnover costs, and in some cases, business disruptions, labor economists said churn typically signals a healthy labour market as individuals gravitate to jobs more suited to their skills, interests and personal lives, according to the report.
Several factors are driving the job turnover. Many people are spurning a return to business as usual, preferring the flexibility of remote work or reluctant to be in an office before the virus is vanquished, it said.
“Others are burned out from extra pandemic workloads and stress, while some are looking for higher pay to make up for a spouse’s job loss or used the past year to reconsider their career path and shift gears,” the report added.
European diplomats insist that confronting an emboldened Russia remains the priority for an alliance set up to counter the Soviet threat in the wake of World War II, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden will seek to restore bonds of trust at NATO’s first post-Trump summit on Monday, as leaders push to revitalize the alliance despite differences over dangers ahead.
The allies will agree a statement stressing common ground on securing their withdrawal from Afghanistan, joint responses to cyberattacks and relations with a rising China.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump undermined faith in the West’s security architecture by questioning Washington’s commitment to defend European partners. And he clashed publicly with counterparts the last time leaders met in 2019, before abruptly heading home early.
In contrast, Biden has firmly reasserted American backing for the 72-year-old military alliance — and his administration has been making a show of consulting more with partners.
But there remain divisions among the allies on some key issues — including how to deal with China’s rise and how to increase common funding.
Partners are concerned about the rush to leave Afghanistan and some question the strategy of an alliance that French President Emmanuel Macron warns is undergoing “brain death.”
“We do not view NATO as a sort of a protection racket,” Biden said Sunday after a conciliatory G7 gathering in Britain.
“We believe that NATO is vital to our ability to maintain American security.”
He stressed the United States had a “sacred obligation” to the alliance and the principle of collective defense, promising he would “make the case: ‘We are back’, as well.”
The summit at NATO’s cavernous Brussels headquarters is set to greenlight a 2030 reform program.
The leaders will agree to rewrite the core “strategic concept” to face a world where cyberattacks, climate change, and new technologies pose new threats.
Looming large in the background is the scramble to complete NATO’s hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan after Biden surprised partners by ordering US troops home by September 11.
“I’m very confident that this summit will demonstrate the strong commitment by all NATO allies to our transatlantic bond. We have a unique opportunity to strengthen our alliance,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
G7 leaders along with leaders of guest nations pose for photograph during the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. Picture by Andrew Parsons No 10 Downing Street
European diplomats insist that confronting an emboldened Russia remains the “number one” priority for an alliance set up to counter the Soviet threat in the wake of World War II.
Moscow’s 2014 seizure of Crimea gave renewed purpose to NATO and fellow leaders will be keen to sound Biden out ahead of his Wednesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On China, Biden is picking up from where Trump left off by getting NATO to start paying attention to Beijing and is pushing for the alliance to take a tougher line.
But National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, briefing reporters from Air Force One, played down how big a part this would play in the statement. “The language is not going to be inflammatory,” he said.
Many allies are wary of shifting too much attention away from NATO’s main Euro-Atlantic sphere.
“This is not about moving NATO into Asia, but it’s about taking into account the fact that China is coming closer to us,” said Stoltenberg.
He pointed to attempts by Beijing to control critical infrastructure in Europe, its moves in cyberspace and heavy spending on modern weapons systems.
“NATO has to be ready to respond to any threats from any direction,” he said.
As NATO looks to the future, it is putting one of its most significant chapters behind it by ending two-decades of military involvement in Afghanistan.
Allies are patching together plans to try to avert a collapse of Afghan forces when they leave and figuring out how to provide enough security for Western embassies to keep working.
Biden will discuss a Turkish offer to keep troops at Kabul airport, in a meeting with leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ankara has offered to secure the essential transport hub, but insists it would need American support.
Sullivan said the leaders would discuss how “our embassies can stay in a safe and secure way in Afghanistan, to be able to do all the things they definitely want to do, providing for the Afghan government and security forces, the people.”
But the US president is also set to push Erdogan on Turkey’s purchase of Russian missile defenses and human rights.
As part of a reform agenda over the next decade, Stoltenberg is pressing for allies to improve political cooperation.
But there have been disagreements over proposals for increased common funding for NATO, with France especially arguing it would distract from efforts by individual nations.
On that front Biden is expected to tone down Trump’s rhetoric, bashing allies for not spending enough.
But he will still push European allies and Canada to further boost defense budgets to reach a target of two percent of GDP.
Stoltenberg said allies are expected to sign off on a new cyber defense policy and to create a fund to help start-ups developing groundbreaking technology.
They could also rule for the first time that an attack on infrastructure in space — such as satellites — could trigger the bloc’s collective self-defense clause.
The bills, which mainly target the four giants, would require dominant platforms to prove their acquisitions are lawful….reports Asian Lite News
A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the US House of Representatives on Friday introduced a package of bills aimed at curbing the power of tech giants.
The move comes amid growing criticism that tech firms such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, known collectively as GAFA, are undermining competition by taking advantage of their market dominance, reported NHK World.
In October last year, a House subcommittee released a report calling for stricter regulations on these firms, including the possibility of breaking them up.
The bills, which mainly target the four giants, would require dominant platforms to prove their acquisitions are lawful. They would also prohibit them from giving preference to their own products.
One lawmaker said the four firms have become too big to care, and that the bipartisan bills would rein in monopolistic practices and restore fairness and competition.
US media outlets are reporting the legislation could force the tech giants to overhaul their business models.
Yang said China was “gravely concerned” over what he called “absurd” stories that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab….reports Asian Lite News
Top US and Chinese diplomats appear to have had another sharply worded exchange, with Beijing saying it told the US to cease interfering in its internal affairs and accusing Washington of politicising the search for the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Senior Chinese foreign policy advisor Yang Jiechi and Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call on Friday that revealed wide divisions in a number of contentious areas, including the curtailing of freedoms in Hong Kong and the mass detention of Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
Calls for a more thorough investigation into the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 are particularly sensitive for China because of suggestions that it might have have escaped from a laboratory in the central city of Wuhan, where cases were first discovered.
Yang said China was “gravely concerned” over what he called “absurd” stories that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab.
China “firmly opposes any despicable acts that use the epidemic as an excuse to slander China and to shift blames,” Yang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
“Some people in the United States have fabricated and peddled absurd stories claiming Wuhan lab leak, which China is gravely concerned about,” Yang said.
“China urges the United States to respect facts and science, refrain from politicising Covid-19 origin tracing and concentrate on international anti-pandemic cooperation.” The State Department said Blinken “stressed the importance of cooperation and transparency regarding the origin of the virus, including the need for (World Health Organization) Phase 2 expert-led studies in China.”
The US and others have accused China of failing to provide the raw data and access to sites that would allow a more thorough investigation into where the virus sprung from and how it initially spread.
Equally contentious were the issues of Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Taiwan and accusations that China has arbitrarily detained two Canadian citizens in retaliation for Canada’s arrest of an executive of Chinese communications technology giant Huawei, who is wanted by the U.S. law enforcement.
The U.S. has “fabricated various lies about Xinjiang in an attempt to sabotage the stability and unity in Xinjiang, which confuse right and wrong and are extremely absurd. China is firmly opposed to such actions,” Yang said.
Wuhan Institute of Virology
“Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs,” and those found in violation of a sweeping national security law imposed on the former British colony “must be punished,” Yang said.
Blinken, on the other hand, underscored the U.S. concern over the deterioration of democratic norms in Hong Kong and the ongoing “genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” the State Department said.
He also urged Beijing to ease pressure against Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary.
According to Xinhua, Yang said Taiwan involves China’s “core interests” and that Beijing “firmly defends its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The tone of the phone call seemed to echo contentious talks in March in Alaska, when the sides traded sharp and unusually public barbs over vastly different views of each other and the world in their first face-to-face meeting since President Joe Biden took office.
At that meeting, the US accused the Chinese delegation of “grandstanding,” while Beijing fired back, saying there was a “strong smell of gunpowder and drama” that was entirely the fault of the Americans.
Macron’s remark echoes that of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who hailed Biden on Thursday as “a big breath of fresh air”….reports Asian Lite News
The US is back as a cooperative leader of the free world under President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday, illustrating the relief felt by many key US allies that the tumult of Donald Trump’s presidency is over.
Macron’s remark echoes that of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who hailed Biden on Thursday as “a big breath of fresh air”.
Neither Macron nor Johnson drew an explicit parallel between Biden and Trump, though both praised Biden’s distinctly cooperative tone and officials said there was relief after Trump at times shocked and bewildered many European allies.
Biden, asked by a reporter if America was back, turned to Macron and gestured with his Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses towards the French president that he should answer that question.
US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron (Credit twitter @POTUS)
“Yes definitely,” Macron said. “It’s great to have a US President who’s part of the club and very willing to cooperate.”
“What you demonstrate is that leadership is partnership,” Macron told Biden as they sat on an outdoor terrace with a sweeping view of the turquoise sea behind them. Biden agreed. “The United States, I’ve said before, we’re back,” Biden said. “Things are going, I think, well, and we’re, as we say back in the States, we’re on the same page.”
Biden added that the United States felt very strongly about the cohesion of the NATO military alliance and expressed support for the European Union – the target of much criticism from Trump during his 2017-2021 presidency.
“I for one think that the European Union is an incredibly strong and vibrant entity, that has a lot to do with the ability of Western Europe not only to handle its economic issues but provide the backbone and support for NATO,” Biden said.
The joint efforts by the US, UK, Canada and Germany will include a new collective commitment to provide up to $2 bn to support the work of the Climate Investments Funds, reports Asian Lite News
The Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed to a set of concrete actions to accelerate the global transition away from coal generation as part of efforts to combat the climate crisis.
In a fact sheet, the White House stressed that confronting the climate crisis presents a historic opportunity to drive economic recovery, create millions of good-paying union jobs and build back better while investing in a more resilient, prosperous, equitable, and secure future.
“Recognizing that unabated coal power generation is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and consistent with President Biden’s domestic leadership, G7 leaders will commit to an end to new direct government support for unabated international thermal coal power generation by the end of this year,” it said.
The joint efforts by the US, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany will include a new collective commitment to provide up to $2 billion to support the work of the Climate Investments Funds focused on accelerating the transition from coal for key developing countries while investing in technology, job training, and infrastructure to enable the transition to a more reliable and prosperous clean energy economy.
The world leaders are also launching the G7 Industrial Decarbonization Agenda, a first-of-its-kind platform to accelerate innovation, deploy decarbonisation technology and harmonise standards. They will also emphasise sectoral decarbonisation in power, transport, agriculture, and buildings.
The White House also informed that all G7 leaders, for the first time, will align their long-term and short-term climate goals in a manner consistent with keeping the 1.5 degrees celsius global warming threshold within reach.
The leaders will also resolve to strengthen adaptation and resilience to protect people from the impacts of climate change and to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, as well as to mobilise finance and leverage innovation to reach these goals. According to the White House, Biden is also advancing policies domestically that will achieve carbon-pollution free energy in electricity generation by 2035.
“These policies will support scale up of technology that captures carbon and then permanently sequesters or utilizes that captured carbon, which includes lowering the cost of carbon capture retrofits for existing power plants — all while ensuring that overburdened communities are protected from increases in cumulative pollution,” it said.
Earlier, G7 leaders also launched the ‘Build Back Better World’ (B3W) partnership for meeting the infrastructure needs of low and middle-income countries as parts of efforts to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
The scope of the initiative ranges from Latin America and the Caribbean to Africa to the Indo-Pacific.
