White House News (白宮消息) | May 15, 2021

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

Cecilia Rouse, Biden's top economic adviser, says jobs plan "meets the needs of a 21st century economy."
Date published on Apr 4, 2021

Cecilia Elena Rouse (/ˈraʊs/ ROWSS; born December 18, 1963) is an American economist currently serving as the 30th Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. She is the first African American to hold this position.[2] Prior to this, she served as the dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.[3] Joe Biden nominated Rouse to be Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in November 2020.[4] On March 2, 2021, Rouse was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate, 95–4.    from Wikipedia

Katherine Tai testifies before Senate Finance Committee in Washington
U.S., Mexico, Canada to hold 'robust' talks on trade deal - statement

May 15 - The United States, Mexico and Canada will next week hold their first formal talks on their continental trade deal, with particular focus on labor and environmental obligations, the U.S. government said on Friday.

Trade ministers from the three nations are set to meet virtually on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) deal, which took effect in July 2020.

"The ministers will receive updates about work already underway to advance cooperation ... and will hold robust discussions about USMCA's landmark labor and environmental obligations," the office of U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.

The United States is also reviewing tariffs which may be leading to inflation in the country, economic adviser Cecilia Rouse told reporters at the White House on Friday, a move that could affect hundreds of billions of dollars in trade.

The United States, testing provisions in the new deal aimed at strengthening Mexican unions, this week asked Mexico to investigate alleged abuses at a General Motors Co factory.     source from

Neera Tanden. 
Neera Tanden appointed White House senior adviser

May 15 -The Indian-American policy expert is currently the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP)Indian-American policy expert Neera Tanden has been appointed as a senior adviser to United States (US) President Joe Biden. This comes two months after she withdrew her nomination as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget due to stiff opposition from Republican senators.

Tanden has been entrusted with two tasks – launch a review of the US Digital Service, and plan contingencies that could result from the Supreme Court's consideration of Republican lawsuits seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act...     more

---

Good news and bad news for Gaetz as associate takes plea deal (and the good news is bad)

May 15 - Rachel Maddow looks at the new details in the enduringly gross case of Joel Greenberg, associate of Donald Trump acolyte Rep. Matt Gaetz, and explains why Greenberg's new plea deal is bad news for Gaetz for what it contains, but also for how it treats Greenberg as a witness.    watch video

以军加沙地带边境集结 巴以或走向全面战争？20210514 | 《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
May 15, 2021

White House News (白宮消息) | May 14, 2021

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

May 13, 2021
White House COVID-19 Response Team Briefing
The White House COVID-19 Response Team gave an update on the Biden administration’s pandemic response efforts, announcing that fully-vaccinated people can forgo wearing a mask in most indoor and outdoor settings. The exceptions include public transportation and in medical facilities such as at hospitals or doctors' offices

Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials
MAY 13, 2021

ACTING ADMINISTRATOR SLAVITT:  Good afternoon.  Thank you for joining us.  Today, Dr. Fauci will discuss the latest developments in science and Dr. Walensky will provide an important update on public health guidelines.

Before we get to that, I want to talk about how we got to today.  The reason we are winning the war against COVID-19 is because scientists, over the years, have found a solution to beat this virus — very safe and effective vaccines; and because Americans have chosen to get vaccinated.

Overall, we’ve administered 250 million shots since President Biden took office.  And we are approaching 60 percent of adult Americans who have taken at least one shot.

Our progress has been steady, and it’s beginning to take hold.  Case counts, hospitalizations, deaths — every — virtually every metric is now improving consistently and in most of the country...     more

Vaccinated Americans Say Good-bye to Masks as Health Authorities Ease Restrictions

May 14 - In a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people on Thursday, allowing them to stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings, AP reported. “Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said during a Rose Garden address heralding the new guidance, an event where he and his staff went without masks.

Hours earlier in the Oval Office, where Biden was meeting with vaccinated Republican lawmakers, he led the group in removing their masks when the guidance was announced.

“If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask,” he said, summarizing the new guidance and encouraging more Americans to roll up their sleeves. “Get vaccinated — or wear a mask until you do.”

The guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but it will help clear the way for reopening workplaces, schools and other venues — even removing the need for social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated.

The Biden administration faced pressure to ease restrictions on fully vaccinated people — those who are two weeks past their last required Covid-19 vaccine dose — in part to highlight the benefits of getting the shot. The country’s aggressive vaccination campaign has paid off: US virus cases are at their lowest rate since September, deaths are at their lowest point since last April and the test positivity rate is at the lowest point since the pandemic began.

The announcement came as many states and communities have already been lifting mask mandates amid improving virus numbers and as more Americans have been shedding face coverings after getting shots.

To date more than 154 million Americans, nearly 47% of the population, have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and nearly 119 million are fully vaccinated. The rate of new vaccinations has slowed in recent weeks, but with the authorization Wednesday of the Pfizer shot for children ages 12 to 15, a new burst of doses is expected in the coming days.     source from

---

May 13, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki talked about the president’s agenda with reporters. She discussed the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians and the state of the pandemic.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, May 13, 2021

MS. PSAKI:  Hi, everyone.  Okay.  I know we’re waiting for a gather time, too.  So not to scare you — if there is a note passed, nothing bad is happening.  We’ll just keep you all abreast of when it’s time to do that. 

 
So just a couple of items for you all at the top.  Obviously, the President just spoke to the Colonial Pipeline and progress that’s been made.  And he was sending the clear message: There’s an end in sight for the supply disruptions that have — affects strates — states across the Southeast.  
 
As you all know, Colonial reported that product delivery had commenced in a majority of the markets they serve and that they expect the pipeline to have full operational restoration in every market by noon today.  Obviously, there is still going to be some time until things go back to normal...     more

Biden: Israel has no ‘significant overreaction’ to growing Gaza conflict

May 14 - President Joe Biden said there has been no “significant overreaction” by Israel in the escalating conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

“I have my intelligence community, the Defense Department as well as the State Department,” Biden said at a briefing Thursday. “I’ve been in contact with their counterparts, not only in Israel but in the region.”

“One of the things that I have seen thus far is that there has not been a significant overreaction,” he said. “The question is how we get to a point, how they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers.”

“I expect I’ll be having some more discussions,” the president added. “And we haven’t just spoken with the Israelis. The Egyptians, the Saudis and others. So, it’s a work in progress right now.”

Biden spoke as hostilities between Israel and Hamas entered its fourth day, with the militant group launching hundreds of missiles into the Jewish State and Israeli forces continuing to bombard Gaza with deadly airstrikes.     source from

White House News (白宮消息) | May 13, 2021

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

HomeUSA News

Rockets are launched by Palestinian militants into Israel from Gaza, May 12, 2021.
‘Israel has a right to defend itself,’ Biden tells Netanyahu, as Blinken calls Palestinian leader Abbas to condemn rocket attacks​

May 13 - US President Joe Biden voiced staunch support for Tel Aviv in a call with the Israeli PM, while Secretary of State Tony Blinken scolded a Palestinian leader for Hamas rocket fire as IDF warplanes hammer Gaza.

Biden reiterated Washington’s “unwavering” commitment to Israel’s security and its “legitimate right to defend itself” during a Wednesday phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid a new bout of fighting in the blockaded Palestinian enclave. 

The president “condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” also briefly mentioning the importance of “protecting civilians,” according to a White House readout of the call. 

[Biden] shared his conviction that Jerusalem, a city of such importance to people of faith from around the world, must be a place of peace.

Netanyahu also acknowledged the conversation in a tweet, cheering Biden’s “backing of Israel’s right to self-defense.”

The call came after three consecutive days of violence in Gaza, which have seen a barrage of Hamas rocket fire into Israeli cities and hundreds of IDF strikes on Palestinian territory. Though at least 67 Palestinians have perished in bombing raids on crowded residential areas, including 16 children, Biden made little effort to urge restraint by Israeli forces during the call. 

Israeli officials, meanwhile, say seven citizens have died in rocket blasts, among them one child.

Later on Wednesday, Secretary of State Blinken held a call with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose administration oversees the occupied West Bank. During the sit-down, the American diplomat condemned the rocket attacks and “emphasized the need to de-escalate tensions,” also expressing condolences for those killed in the violence. 

Like Biden, Blinken declined to make any mention of deadly Israeli airstrikes – which have targeted several high-rise structures across Gaza, including apartment blocs and offices housing media organizations – instead placing all focus on Palestinian rockets.

I spoke with President Abbas about the ongoing situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. I expressed condolences for the loss of life. I emphasized the need to end rocket attacks and deescalate tensions.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 13, 2021

The renewed violence erupted after days of heated protests over the planned eviction of Palestinian residents in occupied East Jerusalem. The demonstrations were met with harsh police crackdowns – including near Al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam – with hundreds injured in the resulting clashes. Anger over the evictions, as well as the police response to the protests, prompted rocket fire from Gaza on Monday night, kicking off a deadly cycle of escalation between the two sides.

Democrats in the US Congress have called on the Biden administration to address the looming evictions, with 25 lawmakers signing a letter this week expressing “deep concern about Israel's imminent plan to forcibly displace nearly 2,000 Palestinians” in two Jerusalem neighborhoods. 

Israel’s plans to demolish Palestinian homes in Al-Bustan and to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah are in clear violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The forced displacement of Palestinian families in #SheikhJarrah is a blatant human rights violation. I was proud to lead an effort with @repmarkpocan to call on @SecBlinken to exert diplomatic pressure on Israel to halt these evictions.We must defend human rights everywhere. pic.twitter.com/ZIHtv5Sto6
— Congresswoman Marie Newman (@RepMarieNewman) May 12, 2021

Addressed to Blinken, the letter goes on to note that some 5,000 homes in East Jerusalem were demolished by Israeli authorities between 1967 and 2017 – citing a report by the Land Research Center – while also calling attention to Tel Aviv’s ongoing military occupation of the greater West Bank, of which East Jerusalem is a part.

Biden himself has also come under pressure from House Democrats over his pronouncements on the fighting in Gaza, with New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez blasting an earlier statement backing Israel’s right to self-defense. 

“Blanket statements like these w/ little context or acknowledgement of what precipitated this cycle of violence – namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al-Aqsa – dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations. It’s wrong,” she said.

By only stepping in to name Hamas’ actions - which are condemnable - & refusing to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians, Biden reinforces the false idea that Palestinians instigated this cycle of violence.This is not neutral language. It takes a side - the side of occupation.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 12, 2021

Related Articles:
IDF will fight until there’s ‘complete silence’ before any truce is possible, says Israeli defense minister

Hamas (Arabic: حماس Ḥamās, an acronym of حركة المقاومة الاسلامية Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamah al-ʾIslāmiyyah [Islamic Resistance Movement]) is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist[c] but pragmatic,[d] militant,[16] and nationalist organization.[e] It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[f][g] It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election[20] and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza.[21][22] Israel and Hamas have since engaged in several wars of varying intensity.[23] Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan and the United States classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. Australia, New Zealand, Paraguay and the United Kingdom classify only its military wing as a terrorist organization. It is not considered a terrorist organization by Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Syria and Turkey. In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly rejected a U.S. resolution condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization.[h]

Hamas was founded in 1987,[i] soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood[26] which in its Gaza branch had previously been nonconfrontational toward Israel and hostile to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).[27] Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin said in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[28] Since 1994,[29] the group has frequently stated that it would accept a truce[j] if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders paid reparations, allowed free elections in the territories,[31] and the right of return of Palestinian refugees.[k]

Hamas's military wing has launched attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, often describing them as retaliatory, in particular for assassinations of the upper echelon of their leadership.[33] Tactics have included suicide bombings and, since 2001, rocket attacks[34] [35] Hamas's rocket arsenal, though mainly consisting of short-range homemade Qassam rockets with a range of 16 km,[36][l] also includes Grad-type rockets (21 km by 2009) and longer-range (40 km) if unreliably aimed rockets that have reached major Israeli towns such as Beer Sheva and Ashdod,[36] and some that have struck cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa.[38] Human Rights Watch has condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity both Hamas and Israel for attacks on civilians during the conflict, stating that the rationale of reprisals is never valid when civilians are targeted.[m]

​In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Parliament,[39] defeating the PLO-affiliated Fatah party. After the elections, the Quartet (the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States) made future foreign assistance to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) conditional upon the PNA's commitment to nonviolence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected those conditions, which led the Quartet to suspend its foreign assistance program and Israel to impose economic sanctions on the Hamas-led administration.[40][41] In March 2007, a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was briefly formed, but this failed to restart international financial assistance.[42] Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted in the 2007 Battle of Gaza,[42] after which Hamas took control of Gaza, while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank.[42] Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade of the Gaza Strip on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there.      from Wikipedia

---

海陆同时多国演习 日美想扩大遏华“小圈子”？20210512 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
​May 13, 2021

Taiwanese empty supermarket shelves as local COVID cases rise
Nation sees runs on toilet paper, instant noodles, masks as level 3 warning looms

May 13 - TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Panic buying set in across Taiwan after 16 local COVID-19 cases were reported in one day, which sparked fears that the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) would declare a Level 3 epidemic warning.
At a press conference on Wednesday (May 13), Health Minister and CECC head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) announced 21 new cases, including 16 local cases in four different parts of the country. Earlier that day, Chen told the Legislative Yuan that the epidemic warning could be raised to level 3 that day, but he later backtracked and said this would be issued in "the coming days."     more