White House News (白宮消息) | Jan. 22, 2021

 1 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Yemen's Houthi movement denounced the Trump administration's decision to designate it a global terrorist group
tests for Joe Biden in 'new' Middle East

"Folks, it's a time of testing." So said America's new president in Wednesday's inauguration speech before listing the tests the country faces and concluding with "America's role in the world".

Jan. 22 - Some of the toughest questions on that exam are in the Middle East.

Joe Biden's team is dominated by old hands from the Obama administration returning to a region with new orders to revisit old issues.

Their biggest challenges involve policies they personally helped to shape - in places in far worse shape now. But some see openings and opportunities in that.

"They've learned from what went wrong with the Obama administration's approach to the Middle East," observes Kim Ghattas, a non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of the book, Black Wave, on Saudi-Iranian rivalry in the region. "They may take things in a different direction because they've learned from the mistakes, and because the region today is a very different place."

In the top tray of the new administration's foreign files is policy towards Iran. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal by world powers is now dangling by a thread after Donald Trump discarded it and despatched waves of crushing sanctions. There is also the devastating war in Yemen, which Mr Obama initially supported, partly to assuage Saudi anger over the accord with its arch-enemy Iran.     continue to read

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JANUARY 19, 2021
Secretary of State Confirmation Hearing
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a confirmation hearing for Antony Blinken to serve as secretary of state. Mr. Blinken was questioned about a range of foreign policy issues that included the Iran nuclear agreement, U.S. strategy toward China, the conflict in Yemen, the coronavirus pandemic, the New START arms reduction treaty with Russia, the State Department workforce, immigration policy, strategy toward Russia, U.S. military intervention, and the Keystone XL pipeline.. Mr. Blinken previously served as the deputy secretary of State during the Obama administration. The nominee was introduced by Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL).

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Jan 21, 2021

Antony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be secretary of state, salutes US senators as he arrives for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state nominee, says Trump’s tough approach to China was right but tactics were wrong

a Senate confirmation hearing, Blinken says US should have acted sooner as ‘democracy was being trampled’ in Hong Kong

‘I’d like to see us be able to take in some of those fleeing Hong Kong, fleeing the repression, for standing up for their democratic rights’

Jan 20 - US President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee to be the secretary of state told Congress on Tuesday that China seeks to become the dominant world power and undermine American interests, the latest sign that the Trump administration’s hardline stance toward an increasingly authoritarian Beijing appears set to continue once the new administration begins on Wednesday.

“I think what we’ve seen in recent years, particularly since the rise of Xi Jinping as leader, has been that the hiding and biding has gone away,” Antony Blinken told lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing.

“I also believe that President Trump was right in taking a tougher approach to China,” he added. “I disagree very much with the way that he went about it in a number of areas, but the basic principle was the right one, and I think that’s actually helpful to our foreign policy.”

Blinken’s comments came just hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration’s new determination that China was committing crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uygurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic minority groups in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region.     continue to read

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White House News (白宮消息) | Jan. 21, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

JANUARY 20, 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Holds First Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held the first press briefing of the Biden-Harris administration. She highlighted some of the executive orders that President Biden signed on his first day, which include rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, rejoining the World Health Organization, a mask mandate to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, and ceasing the funding and construction of the southern border wall. When asked about her role as press secretary, Ms. Psaki said she understands the “power of the podium, and the power of truth,” and that even though she and the press may not agree all the time, they have a common goal of “sharing accurate information with the American people.”

Jennifer Rene Psaki (/sɑːkiː/; born December 1, 1978)[1][2][3] is an American political advisor who currently serves as the 34th White House Press Secretary in the Biden administration.[4] Previously, she served as the Spokesperson for the United States Department of State and held various senior press and communications roles in the Obama White House.[5] She has also been a CNN contributor.

Biden administrationIn November 2020, Psaki left CNN and joined the Biden-Harris transition team.[19] Later that month, Psaki was named as the White House press secretary for the Biden administration.[20][21][22] She held her first press briefing in the evening of January 20, after the inauguration.[23]

from Wikipedia


Who is Jen Psaki, Joe Biden’s White House press secretary?
Date Published on Jan. 20, 2020

Press experience: Psaki served in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2017, according to The New York Times. She moved to the State Department in 2013, where she served as a spokesperson for Secretary of State John Kerry, the newspaper reported. She previously worked for Kerry as deputy press secretary when he ran for president in 2004.
Back to tradition: For the first question, Psaki called on Zeke Miller, a reporter for The Associated Press. The move returned to the briefing room tradition that allowed the wire service reporter to ask the first question, the Times reported.

Not involved: Psaki was not involved with Biden’s campaign during 2020. Instead, she worked for CNN as a commentator and also worked for private-public relations clients, the Times reported. She was also vice president for communications and strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Connecticut Yankee: Jennifer Rene Psaki was born Dec. 1, 1978, in Stamford, Connecticut, and graduated from Greenwich High School in 1996, according to the Connecticut Post. Her father, Jim Psaki, is a retired real estate developer who owned Groton Community and Groton Multifamily in Connecticut, the Times reported. He now lives in Colorado. Psaki’s mother, Eileen D. Medvey, is a psychotherapist in private practice, according to the newspaper.    source from KIRO7

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Jen Psaki conducted the first news briefing of President Biden’s administration on Wednesday just hours after the inauguration, vowing to bring “truth and transparency back to the briefing room.”
Jen Psaki, Biden’s new press secretary, pledges to bring ‘truth and transparency back.’

Jan. 21 - Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, conducted the first news briefing of President Biden’s administration on Wednesday and vowed to bring “truth and transparency back to the briefing room.”

Ms. Psaki’s appearance at the White House lectern just hours after Mr. Biden’s inauguration was designed to draw a stark contrast with the previous administration, which had engaged in verbal combat with reporters and had all-but abandoned briefings.

Unlike Sean Spicer, Mr. Trump’s first press secretary, who lashed out at the news media and lied about Mr. Trump’s inaugural crowd size during his first appearance in the briefing room, Ms. Psaki engaged in a largely civil exchange of information with reporters.

“There will be moments when we disagree, and there will certainly be days where we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even, perhaps,” she said to about a dozen journalists in the room. “But we have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people.”     continue to read

White House News (白宮消息) | Jan. 20, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Trump tells people he's decided to pardon Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office

Jan. 20 - ​(CNN)President Donald Trump has decided to pardon his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, in a last-minute decision made only hours before he is scheduled to depart the White House for a final time.

Officials cautioned CNN that Trump's decision was not final until he signed the paperwork. Trump told people that after much deliberation, he had decided to pardon Bannon as one of his final acts in office.

Bannon faces a federal case that began in August when New York federal prosecutors charged him and three others with defrauding donors of more than a million dollars as part of a fundraising campaign purportedly aimed at supporting Trump's border wall.

Bannon's pardon would follow a frantic scramble during the President's final hours in office as attorneys and top aides debated his inclusion on Trump's outgoing clemency list. Despite their falling out in recent years, Trump was eager to pardon his former aide after recently reconnecting with him as he helped fan Trump's conspiracy theories about the election.

It was a far cry from when Trump exiled Bannon from his inner circle after he was quoted in a book trashing the President's children, claiming that Donald Trump Jr. had been "treasonous" by meeting with a Russian attorney and labeling Ivanka Trump "dumb as a brick." Those statements from Bannon drove Trump to issue a lengthy statement saying he had "lost his mind."
​
"Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency," Trump said at the time.     continue to read

Stephen Kevin Bannon (born November 27, 1953) is an American media executive, political strategist, former investment banker, and the former executive chairman of Breitbart News. He served as the White House's chief strategist in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump during the first seven months of Trump's term.[2][3] He previously served on the board of the now-defunct data-analytics firm Cambridge Analytica.[4]
Bannon was an officer in the United States Navy for seven years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. After his military service, he worked for two years at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. In 1993, he became acting director of the research project Biosphere 2. He became an executive producer in Hollywood, and produced 18 films between 1991 and 2016. In 2007, he co-founded Breitbart News, a far-right[i] website which he described in 2016 as "the platform for the alt-right".[I]
In 2016, Bannon became the chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign[31][32] and was appointed Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor to the President following Trump's election. He left the position eight months later, and rejoined Breitbart. In January 2018, Bannon was disavowed by Trump for critical comments reported in the book Fire and Fury,[33] and left Breitbart.
After leaving the White House, Bannon opposed the Republican Party establishment and supported insurgent candidates in Republican primary elections. Bannon's reputation as a political strategist was questioned when Roy Moore, with Bannon's support, lost the 2017 United States Senate election in Alabama.[34][35] Bannon has declared his intention to become "the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement."[36] Accordingly, he has supported many national populist conservative political movements around the world, including creating a network of far-right groups in Europe.
In August 2020, Bannon was arrested and he and three others were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in connection to the We Build the Wall campaign. He has pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in May 2021.[37][38] In November 2020, Bannon's Twitter account was permanently suspended after he suggested that Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.     from Wikipedia

Trump to pardon Steve Bannon, reversing course hours before presidency ends: reports

Jan. 20 - U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to pardon his former strategist and far-right figurehead Steve Bannon, according to multiple reports.

The decision, reported by CNN, Bloomberg and Reuters Tuesday night, came after earlier reports that Trump had been talked out of pardoning Bannon by his aides. Yet even those reports admitted the question was still open throughout the day, with Trump continuing to bring up the possibility.
The new reports warned no decisions were final until Trump signed the paperwork for over 100 pardons expected to be issued in the final hours of his presidency. The list had still not been officially released as Tuesday ended.

Bannon — who founded the right-wing news website Breitbart and was the chief architect of Trump’s Muslim travel ban in 2017 — was charged in August 2020 with duping thousands of investors who believed their money would be used to fulfil Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border.

Instead, Bannon is charged with diverting over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.     continue to read

Related Articles:

•  U.S. Capitol rioters hoping for last-minute Trump pardons ahead of Biden’s inauguration
• Donald Trump has decided to pardon Steve Bannon, reports said Tuesday. The former White House Chief Strategist, center, exits the Manhattan Federal Court on August 20 last year​

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White House News (白宮消息) | Jan. 19, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Biden plans to roll out dozens of executive orders in his first 10 days as president.
President-elect Joe Biden’s team has developed a raft of decrees that he can issue after the inauguration to begin reversing some of President Trump’s policies.

Jan. 19 - President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. plans to start his administration with dozens of executive directives on top of expansive legislative proposals in a 10-day blitz meant to signal a turning point for a nation reeling from disease, economic turmoil, racial strife and now the aftermath of the assault on the Capitol.

Mr. Biden’s team has developed a raft of decrees that he can issue on his own authority after the inauguration on Wednesday to begin reversing some of President Trump’s most hotly disputed policies. Advisers hope the flurry of action, without waiting for Congress, will establish a sense of momentum for the new president even as the Senate puts his predecessor on trial.

On his first day in office alone, Mr. Biden intends a flurry of executive orders that will be partly substantive and partly symbolic. They include rescinding the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries; rejoining the Paris climate change accord; extending pandemic-related limits on evictions and student loan payments; issuing a mask mandate for federal property and interstate travel; and ordering agencies to figure out how to reunite children separated from their families after crossing the border, according to a memo circulated on Saturday by Ron Klain, his incoming White House chief of staff, and obtained by The New York Times.     continue to read

Giuliani says he’s a ‘witness,’ can’t defend Trump at impeachment trial

Jan. 18 - Rudy Giuliani, who called for a “trial by combat” before U.S. President Donald Trump incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, says he can’t defend the president at his second impeachment trial because he was a “witness.”

Giuliani made the remark in a statement to ABC News Sunday, after the House of Representatives impeached Trump for “incitement of insurrection” last Wednesday in connection with the riot. Trump now faces a trial in the Senate at a later date, and could be barred from ever holding public office if he is convicted.

“Because I gave an earlier speech … I am a witness and therefore unable to participate in court or Senate chamber,” Giuliani told ABC News.

Giuliani had claimed on Saturday that he was “involved” in the case. A Trump campaign spokesperson later said that no lawyer or law team had yet been chosen.

Giuliani was one of several speakers who appeared at the rally before the riot. He helped drum up outrage over the election result with baseless claims of voter fraud — the same claims that he failed to prove in court after two months and dozens of legal challenges.

“If we’re wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we’re right a lot of them will go to jail,” Giuliani said during his speech, while touting a false claim of ballot tampering. “Let’s have trial by combat.”     continue to read


Related Article:
Records show Trump allies were behind pre-riot rallies at Capitol

Mr Trump has considered moving permanently to his private members club, Mar-a-Lago.

Where will Donald Trump be during Joe Biden's inauguration?

Here's what we know about the soon-to-be former president's plans

Jan. 18 - Donald Trump has mere hours left in his presidency.

But a cloud remains around his final days and schedule, with the President rarely seen at official engagements following the deadly riots at the US Capitol.

His only public appearance since the chaos was to tout his controversial border wall in Texas last week.

So what do we know about Mr Trump's next moves?

How will Trump depart?

At this stage it's likely the President will leave for Florida before Joe Biden is sworn in at noon, Washington DC time, on January 20.

Mr Trump's official schedule hasn't been released, but the ABC's Washington correspondent Greg Jennett says the President and first lady Melania Trump won't leave the White House until about 8:00am (midnight Thursday AEDT).

"That's just three hours before Joe Biden swears his oath and I suppose four or five hours before he makes his way down Pennsylvania Avenue to move in himself," Jennett says.

US media is reporting Mr Trump will touch down in Florida by 11:00am aboard Air Force One, before the plane's call sign is switched to reflect the change of administration.     continue to read

PBS NewsHour full episode, Jan. 18, 2020
Jan 19, 2021
Monday on the NewsHour, tensions remain high nationwide ahead of the presidential transfer of power amid threats of violence and consequences for the insurrection in Washington, the U.S. nears 400,000 deaths as the vaccination campaign continues to struggle, and the poet tapped to speak at the inauguration discusses her message during this fraught moment in America.  

White House News (白宮消息) | Jan. 18, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., left, walks with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, as the House of Representatives pursues an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump for his role in inciting an angry mob to storm the Capitol last week.
Democrats build impeachment case, alleging 'dangerous crime'

Jan. 18, WASHINGTON – The lead prosecutor for President Donald Trump's historic second impeachment began building his case for conviction at trial, asserting on Sunday that Trump's incitement of the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol was “the most dangerous crime" ever committed by a president against the United States. A Senate trial could begin as soon as this week, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., did not say when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will send the single article of impeachment against Trump — for “incitement of insurrection” — to the Senate, which will trigger the beginning of the trial. But Raskin said “it should be coming up soon” as Pelosi organizes the formal transfer.

The House voted to impeach Trump last Wednesday, one week after the violent insurrection that interrupted the official count of electoral votes, ransacked the Capitol and left Congress deeply shaken. Before the mob overpowered police and entered the building, Trump told them to “fight like hell” against the certification of Biden's election win.

“We're going to be able to tell the story of this attack on America and all of the events that led up to it,” Raskin said. “This president set out to dismantle and overturn the election results from the 2020 presidential election. He was perfectly clear about that.”     continue to read

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John Hogan Gidley is an American political aide who served as White House Deputy Press Secretary from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as a Junior Deputy Press Secretary from 2017 to 2019. In July 2020, Gidley became the press secretary of President Donald Trump's reelection campaign.
from Wikipedia

Trump DENIES Rudy's claim that he is on the impeachment defense team after he said the President didn't incite Capitol riot because voter fraud allegations are 'true'

Jan. 18 - ..."Giuliani, who is Trump's personal attorney, was spotted visiting the White House on Saturday, after the ABC interview. His status in Trump's eyes remains unclear after the president reportedly refused to pay Giuliani's $20,000-a-day legal fees in displeasure at his failed efforts to challenge the election results.

It comes as confusion surrounds who will represent Trump at impeachment, with many of the lawyers who defended him in his first Senate trial declining to participate in the second"...

..."In the interview on Saturday,  Giuliani had claimed of the impeachment defense: 'I'm involved right now… that's what I'm working on.'

Giuliani said there are 'different opinions' regarding how the president should approach his second impeachment, but said he planned to show that Trump's claims of election fraud were not incitement by proving in the Senate trial that the fraud claims themselves are true.

'They basically claimed that anytime [Trump] says voter fraud, voter fraud - or I do, or anybody else - we're inciting to violence; that those words are fighting words because it's totally untrue,' he said.
 
'Well, if you can prove that it's true, or at least true enough so it's a legitimate viewpoint, then they are no longer fighting words,' he added"...     more details

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Jan 17, 2021

First country where Biden will visit as US President is known

Jan. 17 - he first country that Joe Biden will visit as US President will be the UK, writes The Mirror.

Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet at the Carbis Bay resort in Cornwall as part of the G7 summit in June.

According to Cornwall county’s calculations, the summit will be a stimulus for the country's economy in the amount of 50 million pounds.

Johnson has described Carbis Bay as the ideal place to hold such an important summit.
Also, he is going to appeal to the leaders of the most prosperous countries—Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States—as well as to the EU with a request to expand international cooperation in the fight against coronavirus.     source