White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 12, 2021

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 The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021  is a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus package passed by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on March 11, 2021, to speed up the United States' recovery from the economic and health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing recession.   ​​ Wikipedia



H.R.1319 - American Rescue Plan Act of 2021
This bill provides additional relief to address the continued impact of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses.     quoted from

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On Wings of Eagles: The Inspiring True Story of One Man's Patriotic Spirit--and His Heroic Mission to Save His Countrymen

#1 bestselling author Ken Follett tells the inspiring true story of the Middle East hostage crisis that began in 1978, and of the unconventional means one American used to save his countrymen. . . . 

When two of his employees were held hostage in a heavily guarded prison fortress in Iran, one man took matters into his own hands: businessman H. Ross Perot. His team consisted of a group of volunteers from the executive ranks of his corporation, handpicked and trained by a retired Green Beret officer. To free the imprisoned Americans, they would face incalculable odds on a mission that only true heroes would have dared. . . quoted from

美轰炸机再飞中东 以升级作战计划 伊朗如何反击？20210309 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Mar 11, 2021

An oil tanker off the coast of Tartus, Syria
Israel targeted some 12 tankers headed for Syria, US officials say -WSJ
The report alleged that since 2019, Israel has been using naval weapons, including water mines, to strike vessels which were either Iranian, or carried Iranian cargo, as they made their way to Syria.

Mar. 12 - US and regional officials have accused Israel of targeting "at least a dozen" tankers bound for Syria and mostly carrying Iranian oil due to concerns that petroleum profits were funding extremists, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The report alleged that since 2019, Israel has been using naval weapons, including water mines, to strike vessels which were either Iranian, or carried Iranian cargo, as they made their way to Syria.

The report said that while most of the tankers carried oil, some of the targeted vessels have made efforts to move other cargo, including weaponry.

According to Greenpeace, Iranian oil tankers routinely violate trade embargoes on Iran and Syria to smuggle oil into Syria through the Suez Canal. The organization said that the practice of turning off tracking systems is also commonly done such vessels, to avoid detection for violating the trade embargo.

 
The practice is so common in fact, that between August of 2018 and July of 2019, Syria received around 17 million barrels of crude oil from Iran this way.

The WSJ report added that other ways that these ships avoid international scrutiny is through the declaration of false destinations, transferal of oil from one ship to another at sea, or through the use of old, rusted tankers which are harder to detect.
The report comes after Israel's Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel accused Iran of "eco-terrorism," blaming the country for a recent oil spill which likely came from an Iranian tanker. 

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that the Israeli defense establishment had no evidence to suggest that Iran deliberately caused the oil spill.     source from

四国峰会 美日2+2 美拉帮结伙搅局亚太？20210310 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Mar 11, 2021

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
US secretary of state to invite Taiwan to democracy summit

mar. 15 - ​TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Wednesday (March 10) that he will invite Taiwan to a democracy summit hosted by President Joe Biden.

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday invited Blinken to a hearing to discuss Biden’s foreign policy priorities. Representative Young Kim told the diplomat that the U.S. should invite Taiwan to participate in its planned Summit for Democracy and initiate free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with the East Asian nation, saying, "I hope you can promise to work hard on this issue."

The representative stressed that Taiwan is a valuable security and global health partner of the U.S., has a strong democratic system, and has contributed much to the international community. She said Taiwan should therefore be granted a place at institutions such as the World Health Organization.

​Blinken agreed, praising Taiwan for its democracy and status as an important technology hub. He added: “It is also a country that can contribute to the world, not just to its own people. COVID-19 is a good example of this."     more to read

Quad alliance of US, Japan, India and Australia is part of Biden's plan to contain China. But some experts aren't so sure

Mar. 12 - Hong Kong (CNN)US President Joe Biden's administration entered the White House this year aiming to unite allies in efforts to contain China's territorial claims across the Indo-Pacific.

On Friday, Biden takes his biggest step toward that goal so far, bringing together a virtual gathering for leaders of the Quad -- the loose alliance of the United States, Japan, India and Australia that Beijing has called emblematic of a "poisonous" Cold War mentality.

Washington said Covid-19, economic cooperation, and the climate crisis will be topics of discussion on Friday, while New Delhi said its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, would be discussing a "free and open Indo-Pacific" with Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

​Absent from those statements was any mention of China. But it was the rise of the Asian economic and military superpower that led to the Quad's revival in 2017 -- and it's Beijing's power plays that keep the bloc's four leaders up at night heading into the summit.

The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an informal strategic forum, featuring semi-regular summits, information exchanges and military drills. While not a formal military alliance like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it is seen by some as a potential counterweight to growing Chinese influence and alleged aggression in Asia-Pacific.

While members have emphasized the more benign aspects of the relationship, such as recent cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic, the potential for military encirclement by the Quad countries has not gone unnoticed by Beijing.

And it's no wonder.

US Navy Adm. Philip Davidson, the head of the US military's Indo-Pacific Command, on Tuesday called the Quad grouping a "diamond of democracies" in the Indo-Pacific.

Davidson said Tuesday he hoped the organization could "build into something bigger."
​
"Not in terms of security alone, but in terms of how we might approach ... the global economy, critical technologies like telecommunications and 5G, collaboration on the international order. Just much to be done diplomatically and economically," he said.     more details

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White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 11, 2021

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Roberta S. Jacobson (born April 14, 1960) is an American diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Mexico from June 2016 to May 2018.[1] She previously served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs from March 30, 2012, to May 5, 2016. The United States Senate approved her nomination as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico on April 28, 2016. In March 2018, Jacobson announced her resignation effective May 5.[2] Foreign Policy reported on January 18, 2021 that Jacobson would be in charge of Mexico–United States border affairs at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden.      from Wikipedia


Biden to Tap Seasoned Former Diplomat to Oversee Southern Border Policy
Roberta Jacobson, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, will join the NSC and help oversee an anticipated U-turn in U.S. policy on migration and asylum.

Date published on Jan. 18, 2021President-elect Joe Biden is expected to tap a seasoned career diplomat to oversee issues related to the southern U.S. border at the National Security Council, as part of his administration’s plan to chart a drastically different path on migration and asylum issues than President Donald Trump’s.

Roberta Jacobson, an American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018, will be named as coordinator for the southwestern border on the National Security Council, Foreign Policy has learned. In this newly-established NSC position, Jacobson will play a key role in implementing the Biden administration’s proposed reforms to the national asylum system and managing national security challenges stemming from Mexico and Central America.     continue to read

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A group of migrants from Guatemala are seen in Texas on Wednesday, having crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico
Migrant families continue to breach the border and those held in detention centers for up to two years are allowed to enter the U.S. for asylum court dates as officials say they fear the '39,000 not apprehended' after a surge when President Biden took office

Mar. 11 - Migrant families were continuing to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border on Wednesday, as one of Joe Biden's senior officials admitted that his more tolerant approach was likely encouraging many to try and enter, and border patrol officials spoke of their concerns about the large numbers slipping through the net.

New data published on Wednesday showed that the number of migrants detained along the southern border rose in February to levels not seen since 2019, when a dramatic surge in migrant family arrivals overwhelmed border facilities.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said their agents and officers detained or processed 100,441 migrants in February.     continue to read

Best Books of 2018 --The Economist
Fascism: A Warning
A personal and urgent examination of Fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world, written by one of America’s most admired public servants, the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of state

A Fascist, observes Madeleine Albright, “is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.” 

The twentieth century was defined by the clash between democracy and Fascism, a struggle that created uncertainty about the survival of human freedom and left millions dead. Given the horrors of that experience, one might expect the world to reject the spiritual successors to Hitler and Mussolini should they arise in our era. In Fascism: A Warning, Madeleine Albright draws on her experiences as a child in war-torn Europe and her distinguished career as a diplomat to question that assumption.

Fascism, as she shows, not only endured through the twentieth century but now presents a more virulent threat to peace and justice than at any time since the end of World War II.  The momentum toward democracy that swept the world when the Berlin Wall fell has gone into reverse.  The United States, which historically championed the free world, is led by a president who exacerbates division and heaps scorn on democratic institutions.  In many countries, economic, technological, and cultural factors are weakening the political center and empowering the extremes of right and left.  Contemporary leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are employing many of the tactics used by Fascists in the 1920s and 30s.

Fascism: A Warning is a book for our times that is relevant to all times.  Written  by someone who has not only studied history but helped to shape it, this call to arms teaches us the lessons we must understand and the questions we must answer if we are to save ourselves from repeating the tragic errors of the past.     source

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., walks through Statuary Hall, during the vote on the Democrat's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Washington.
What’s inside the $1.9T COVID-19 bill passed by Congress

Mar. 11, WASHINGTON (AP) — The sweeping pandemic relief package awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature aims to help the U.S. defeat the virus and nurse the economy back to health. Highlights of the legislation:

AID TO THE UNEMPLOYED
Expanded unemployment benefits from the federal government would be extended through Sept. 6 at $300 a week. That’s on top of what beneficiaries are getting through their state unemployment insurance program. The first $10,200 of jobless benefits accrued in 2020 would be non-taxable for households with incomes under $150,000.

Additionally, the measure provides a 100% subsidy of COBRA health insurance premiums to ensure that laid-off workers can remain on their employer health plans at no cost through the end of September.

MORE CHECKS
The legislation provides a direct payment of $1,400 for a single taxpayer, or $2,800 for a married couple that files jointly, plus $1,400 per dependent. Individuals earning up to $75,000 would get the full amount, as would married couples with incomes up to $150,000.

The size of the check would shrink for those making slightly more, with a hard cut-off at $80,000 for individuals and $160,000 for married couples.

Most Americans will be getting the full amount. The median household income was $68,703 in 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Biden said payments would start going out this month.

MONEY FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
The legislation would send $350 billion to state and local governments and tribal governments for costs incurred up until the end of 2024. The bill also requires that small states get at least the amount they received under virus legislation that Congress passed last March.

Many communities have taken hits to their tax base during the pandemic, but the impact varies from state to state and from town to town. Critics say the funding is not appropriately targeted and is far more than necessary with billions of dollars allocated last spring to states and communities still unspent.

AID TO SCHOOLS
The bill calls for about $130 billion in additional help to schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The money would be used to reduce class sizes and modify classrooms to enhance social distancing, install ventilation systems and purchase personal protective equipment. The money could also be used to hire more nurses, counselors and janitors, and to provide summer school.

Spending for colleges and universities would be boosted by about $40 billion, with the money used to defray an institution’s pandemic-related expenses and to provide emergency aid to students to cover expenses such as food and housing and computer equipment.

There’s also about $39 billion for child care through an emergency fund to help child care providers pay for staffing, rent and supplies, and through a block grant program that subsidizes the cost of child care for low-income families.

AID TO BUSINESSES
A new program for restaurants and bars hurt by the pandemic would receive $28.6 billion. The grants provide up to $10 million per company with a limit of $5 million per physical location. The grants can be used to cover payroll, rent, utilities and other operational expenses.

The bill also provides $7.25 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, a tiny fraction of what was allocated in previous legislation. The bill also allows more nonprofits to apply for loans that are designed to help borrowers meet their payroll and operating costs and can potentially be forgiven.

TESTING AND VACCINES
The bill provides about $50 billion to expand testing for COVID-19 and to enhance contract tracing capabilities with new investments to expand laboratory capacity and set up mobile testing units. It also contains more than $15 billion to speed up the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the country. Another $1 billion would go to boost vaccine confidence. And $10 billion would be used to boost the supply of medical devices and equipment to combat the virus under the Defense Production Act.

HEALTH CARE
Parts of the legislation advance longstanding Democratic priorities like increasing coverage under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act. Financial assistance for ACA premiums would become considerably more generous and a greater number of solid middle-class households would qualify. Though the sweetened subsidies last only through the end of 2022, they will lower the cost of coverage and are expected to boost the number of people enrolled.

The measure also dangles more money in front of a dozen states, mainly in the South, that have not yet taken up the Medicaid expansion that is available under the ACA to cover more low-income adults. Whether such a sweetener would be enough to start wearing down longstanding Republican opposition to Medicaid expansion is uncertain.

The bill would also provide abut $3 billion for states to help address mental health and substance use disorders, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. More than $14 billion is directed toward increased support for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

BIGGER TAX BREAKS FOR HOUSEHOLDS WITH AND WITHOUT KIDS
Under current law, most taxpayers can reduce their federal income tax bill by up to $2,000 per child. In a significant change, the bill would increase the tax break to $3,000 for every child age 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under the age of 6.
The legislation also calls for the payments to be delivered monthly instead of in a lump sum. If the secretary of the Treasury determines that isn’t feasible, then the payments are to be made as frequently as possible.

Families would get the full credit regardless of how little they make in a year, leading to criticism that the changes would serve as a disincentive to work. Add in the $1,400 checks and other items in the proposal, and the legislation would reduce the number of children living in poverty by more than half, according to the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University.

The bill also significantly expands the Earned Income Tax Credit for 2021 by making it available to people without children. The credit for low and moderate-income adults would be worth $543 to $1,502, depending on income and filing status.

RENTAL AND HOMEOWNER ASSISTANCE
The bill provides more than $30 billion to help low-income households pay their rent and to assist the homeless. States and tribes would receive an additional $10 billion for homeowners who are struggling with mortgage payments and other housing costs because of the pandemic.     source from

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  

White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 10, 2021

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Bharat Ramamurti is an American attorney and political advisor who is serving as a member of the COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission, a congressional oversight body tasked with overseeing the Department of the Treasury's and the Federal Reserve Board's management of stimulus and loan programs mandated by the CARES Act.[1] In 2020, he was chosen to serve as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council.     from Wikipedia


Bharat Ramamurti is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School

Explained: Who is Bharat Ramamurti, on Biden’s National Economic Council?
US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Indian-American Bharat Ramamurti as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC). Who is he?

Date published on Dec. 23, 2020
On Monday, US president-elect Joe Biden named Indian-American Bharat Ramamurti as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council (NEC) for financial reform and consumer protection. NEC is the White House advisory agency to the president on domestic and global economic policymaking.

Other additional members of the NEC include Joelle Gamble, and David Kamin, who was former president Barack Obama’s economic adviser. Biden’s choice of appointees are being seen as positive by progressives who are pushing the president-elect to hire more left-leaning individuals with diverse backgrounds, ideas and experiences, a report in The Wall Street Journal said.

“I’m honored to be joining the Biden-Harris administration as Deputy Director of the National Economic Council. We have much to do to get through this crisis and create a stronger and fairer economy — and I’m excited to get to work alongside this great team,” Ramamurti said on Twitter.     more details

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“We need to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the recovery”

Date published on Feb. 9, 2021
...Bharat Ramamurti: I think the president’s pitch today was to make sure that business leaders were lined up behind his American Rescue Plan, which is his plan to make sure that we beat COVID, that we get people vaccinated, that we’re able to reopen our schools as quickly and as safely as we can and that we deliver relief to the families that really need it out there. And so he’s been making his case to folks on Capitol Hill, he’s been making his case to the American people. And today he’s making his case directly to some of America’s business leaders so that they can join the fight as well.
Ryssdal: Is there a specific thing he wants from the likes of Jamie Dimon and the head of the Chamber of Commerce and the head of Walmart?
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Ramamurti: Well, I think that he is looking for their support for the bill and for their acknowledgment that we need to go big in this moment. I think what the president is hearing from his top economic advisers is that we are at a precarious moment. Just last week, the jobs report came out and showed that job growth is really stalling in America, even though we’re about 10 million jobs short of where we were pre-pandemic. And so, from Secretary Yellen down to his other economic advisers, there is a uniform belief that we need to go big. And we need to deliver relief to folks who need it. We need to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the recovery. And we need to make sure that we’re putting money behind putting vaccines in people’s arms because the fastest way to get the economy moving again is to make sure that we beat COVID...     quoted from

美日澳印峰会在即 “四国机制”扎堆易联手难？20210308 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Mar 9, 2021

Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

​Most of what we know about how ideas spread comes from bestselling authors who give us a compelling picture of a world, in which "influencers" are king, "sticky" ideas "go viral," and good behavior is "nudged" forward. The problem is that the world they describe is a world where information spreads, but beliefs and behaviors stay the same.
 
When it comes to lasting change in what we think or the way we live, the dynamics are different: beliefs and behaviors are not transmitted from person to person in the simple way that a virus is. The real story of social change is more complex. When we are exposed to a new idea, our social networks guide our responses in striking and surprising ways.
 
Drawing on deep-yet-accessible research and fascinating examples from the spread of coronavirus to the success of the Black Lives Matter movement, the failure of Google+, and the rise of political polarization, Change presents groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting new science for understanding what drives change, and how we can change the world around us.     source

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White House News (白宮消息) | Mar. 9, 2021

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

Champ and Major are pet German Shepherd dogs that belong to President of the United States Joe Biden, and his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.[3][4]

Major is the first shelter dog living in the White House.[5][6] There were no pets living in the White House during the four years of the Trump administration; this, and the Polk administration were the only extended periods without presidential pets in the White House.
​President John F. Kennedy, and wife Jackie, also owned two German Shepherd dogs, named Shannon and Clipper.[7]

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Major Underdog: From the Shelter to the White House

Following closely on the heels of the Sunday drone and missile attack fired from Yemeni Houthi territory targeting the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, specifically on the Saudi Aramco facility at Ras Tanura, the Saudi-led coalition is reporting Monday a new ballistic missile attack on Saudi soil.
Saudi Arabia: Houthi Rebels Launched New Ballistic Missile Strike

Mar. 9 - ..."The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has strongly condemned and denounced sabotage attacks that attempted to target one of the petroleum tank farms at Ras Tanura Port in the Eastern Region and Saudi Aramco facilities in Dhahra," SPA wrote.
​
It further condemned what it called the "cowardly attack" that "targets energy supplies and security"....     quoted from

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开启中国外交新征程 构建人类命运共同体 20210307 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Mar 8, 2021

Biden is not ‘getting tougher’ on China, will remain positive in China-US tie: AmCham China chairman

Mar. 9 - The Biden administration is not getting tougher on the bilateral relationship, while to the contrary, people can expect some more “normalized and more traditional measures of diplomacy,” chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) told the Global Times during an online press conference on Tuesday.

“I don’t think the new administration is increasing its pressure on the bilateral relationship, I think that to the contrary, we can expect some more normalized and more traditional measures of diplomacy,” AmCham China Chairman Greg Gilligan, said in response to questions from the Global Times addressing concerns about a worsening bilateral relationship.

Last week, US President Joe Biden singled out a “growing rivalry with China” as a key challenge facing the US, with his top diplomat describing the Asian country as “the biggest geopolitical test” of this century, according to a Reuters report.

The fact that Biden administration has not removed some of the measures or restrictions put in place by the previous administration doesn’t mean they’re getting tougher, said the chairman, adding that he will “remain optimistic，and has the reason to do so.”     continue to read