US president to discuss troop withdrawal with his Afghan counterpart amid a surge in fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban across the country.
Jun 21 - ...The Taliban said the visit would be “useless”.
“They (Ghani and Abdullah) will talk with the US officials for preservation of their power and personal interest,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “It won’t benefit Afghanistan.”
There was no immediate reaction from Ghani’s office but a senior Afghan official said the Afghan president would be seeking assurances from the US over its continued support for Afghan security forces in the aftermath of the withdrawal.
The visit would also come in the face of slow progress in talks between the Taliban and Afghan government representatives in Qatar.
Officials have raised concerns over the stalling negotiations and have said the Taliban has not yet submitted a written peace proposal that could be used as a starting point for substantive talks... quoted from
During his tenure, Ghani has strengthened ties with Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, with which it has made deals to increase mutual trading.[25][26] New trade routes have also been launched within the wider region. The Chabahar Port in Iran allows increased trading with India whilst avoiding Pakistani territory.[27] A railway line from Khaf in Iran to Herat in Afghanistan is set to be opened in late 2018.[28][29] In 2017, a railway line from Turkmenistan was extended to Aqina in Afghanistan, the precursor of the "Lapis Lazuli" transport corridor that was signed by Ghani that same year and would link Afghanistan to the Caucasus and the Black Sea.[30] Other regional projects include the CASA-1000 hydroelectricity transmission from Central Asia, and the TAPI gas pipeline, expected to be completed by 2018 and 2019 respectively.[31] In January 2018 at the inauguration of the Khan Steel iron smelting plant in Kabul, Ghani said that he is aiming for Afghanistan to become a steel exporter. source from
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has replaced two top ministers charged with managing the country's faltering security
Jun. 21 - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sacked his defense and interior ministers. On Saturday, the Taliban seized at least six more districts across Afghanistan.
Jun. 21 - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has opted to replace his defense and interior ministers Saturday amid a rapidly deteriorating security situation across Afghanistan. With foreign forces withdrawing and the Taliban's reach expanding,the deteriorating situation has forced the president to act.
Who are the incoming defense and interior ministers in Afghanistan?Ghani has named General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi as his new defense minister. He will replace Asadullah Khalid, who has served in the role since 2018 but previously suffered severe injuries in a 2012 suicide bombing, forcing repeated treatments abroad.
Bismillah Khan Mohammadi previously fought under the late Ahmad Shah Massoud during the country's civil war in the 1990s. Massoud was murdered by the Taliban just two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the US.
President Ghani also named General Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal, who previously held several regional posts, as the country's new interior minister.
Cabinet changes must be approved by parliament so both men will serve in an acting role until then... more
President Biden looks forward to welcoming Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, to the White House on June 25, 2021. The visit by President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues. The United States is committed to supporting the Afghan people by providing diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian assistance to support the Afghan people, including Afghan women, girls and minorities. The United States will remain deeply engaged with the Government of Afghanistan to ensure the country never again becomes a safe haven for terrorist groups who pose a threat to the U.S. homeland. The United States continues to fully support the ongoing peace process and encourages all Afghan parties to participate meaningfully in negotiations to bring an end to the conflict. source from
Bangi and Khwaja Ghar districts in the northern Takhar province were retaken from the Taliban in an operation by government and public uprising forces on Monday morning, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
Jun. 21 - The operation was launched on Sunday night with Air Force support and “the districts were cleared of Taliban this morning,” the ministry said. “The Taliban escaped from the district after suffering heavy casualties,” the Defense Ministry said.
The statement also mentioned that Abdal and Qara Parcho villages on the outskirts of the Taluqan city, capital of the province, were also cleared of the Taliban.
Taliban has not yet commented on the operation.
The situation has been fragile in the northeastern province of Takhar over the last two weeks. Eight districts of the province, including Chal, Baharak, Ishkamish, Namak Ab, Yangi Qala, Khwaja Ghar and Hazar Samooch, have either fallen to the Taliban or have been evacuated by security forces within a week's time.
Jun. 20 - Afghanistan's former president has said the United States came to his country to fight extremism and bring stability to his war-tortured nation and is leaving nearly 20 years later having failed at both.
In an interview with The Associated Press just weeks before the last US and Nato troops leave Afghanistan, ending their "forever war", Hamid Karzai said extremism is at its "highest point" and the departing troops are leaving behind a disaster.
"The international community came here 20 years ago with this clear objective of fighting extremism and bringing stability ... but extremism is at the highest point today. So they have failed," he said. Their legacy is a war-ravaged nation in "total disgrace and disaster".
"We recognise as Afghans all our failures, but what about the bigger forces and powers who came here for exactly that purpose? Where are they leaving us now?" he asked and answered: "In total disgrace and disaster"... more
Jun 19 - Two dozen GOP lawmakers have written a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to replace Vice President Kamala Harris in her role of leading attempts to control illegal immigration at the southern border.
letter states that the Republicans members of the House of Representatives have "serious concerns" about Harris' appointment to resolve the situation, branded a border crisis by her political foes, amid record breaking numbers of encounters there.
Jun 19 - ...Republicans claim it is important for her to actually go to the border for her to truly understand problems with illegal immigration and have blamed Biden administration's rolling back of the Trump administration's policies for recent surges of illegal immigrants at the southern border.
The 56 Republicans claimed that 'the exclusive focus on Central American countries ignores the fact that we see many migrants attempting to illegally cross our southern border from countries all over the world, including Russia, Brazil, Cuba and Haiti.' 'We are also aware of no dramatic changes in Central American countries over the last few months that would result in such a wide gap of encounters at the southern border compared to last year,' the Republicans wrote... more
Equal pay
Speaking in support of Walker's decision to repeal the Wisconsin Equal Pay Act, Grothman said that the alleged pay differential is explainable: "Once you break it down by married and unmarried, the differential disappears."[20] However, a study by the American Association of University Women in 2007 found that life choices and family circumstances explain only a portion of the difference in pay between genders. Grothman rejected that study, further claiming, "You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true"... from Wikipedia
“普拜会”后俄美关系仍冷 美军欲在亚太“可作战”？ 20210618 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际 Jun 19, 2021
Jun. 19 - The White House denied reports President Joe Biden's administration froze military aid to Ukraine following the announcement of a summit this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"The idea that we have held back security assistance to Ukraine is nonsense. Just last week — in the run-up to the U.S.-Russia Summit — we provided a $150 million package of security assistance, including lethal assistance," said press secretary Jen Psaki in a press release Friday.
The response from the White House came hours after Politico reported the Biden administration temporarily halted a military aid package to Ukraine that would have included lethal weapons to address aggressive Russian troop advancements along the Ukraine border earlier this year. The report cited four sources familiar with internal discussions on the matter who claimed the package would be worth up to $100 million.
Psaki said the administration had "now provided the entire amount appropriated by Congress through the Ukraine security assistance initiative."
The press secretary also restated Biden's comments two days before the summit in Geneva, in which he said the administration would maintain putting Ukraine "in the position to be able to continue to resist Russian physical aggression."
Ukraine has been battling Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbass region of its country, which provides vital land access to the Sea of Azov and the Crimean Peninsula. Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and a protracted war in Ukraine still simmers seven years later.
"We have also prepared contingency funds in the event of a further Russian incursion into Ukraine," Psaki said.
"As President Biden told President Putin directly, we will stand unwavering in support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," the press secretary added. source from
The most common definition in use today refers to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, whilst the historical coal mining region excluded parts of these oblasts, and included areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Southern Russia.[6] A Euroregion of the same name is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast in Russia.[9] Donbas formed the historical border between the Zaporizhian Sich and the Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.[10]
In March 2014, following the Euromaidan and 2014 Ukrainian revolution, large swaths of the Donbas became gripped by unrest. This unrest later grew into a war between pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (neither of which are recognized as legitimate by any of the UN member states[11]), and the post-revolutionary Ukrainian government. Until the ongoing war, the Donbas was the most densely populated of all the regions of Ukraine apart from the capital city of Kyiv.[citation needed]
The judges pay a lot of attention to phone talks between militants involved in that disaster
Jun 18 - The Hague district court that looks into the case of MH17 downing over Donbas in 2014 has all pieces of evidence demonstrated.
According to NOS, the judges pay a lot of attention to phone conversations between Russian mercenaries, as well as to the cell network data, which allows investigators to figure out the location ofthose who participated in trasnportation of Buk missile launcher and deployed it. On June 17, during the process, the jury discussed the role of Igor Girkin, who is considered an important figure, taking into account the intercedpted conversations. He is supposed to be the one who ordered to bring the Buk to occupied Donbas from Russia on July 17, 2014.
Suspect Oleg Pulatov, the only onsuspect who cooperates with the investigation claimed that the militants knew about wiretapping, so they allegedly exchanged fake information in their conversations. Another suspect, Sergei Dubinsky stated that the records of conversations were fake.
The proseuction denied the allegations that the evidence in this case contains misinformation.
The review of this case on the merits began on June 7. The witnesses of the launch of Buk missile already spoke before the jury. They were questioned by both representatives of the JIT and the investigating judge. source from
Jun. 18 - ..."The previous president had ceded that mantle and this president has now emphatically reclaimed it," Sullivan said, referring to Donald Trump, who frequently clashed with US allies.
The summits have "laid the groundwork for proving out the case that democracies can deliver for their own people and for people around the world," Sullivan said. His remarks came after expected criticism from Trump's Republican Party, which accused Biden of not being forceful enough.
The Biden administration, keeping the substance if not the tone of Trump's hawkish approach, has identified China as the pre-eminent global challenge due to its increasingly assertive policies both at home and abroad. But Sullivan said that Biden would welcome a chance to speak further to Xi.
Xi Jinping. He will look for opportunities to engage with President Xi going forward," Sullivan said. He said there were no plans scheduled to meet Xi but noted that both presidents were likely to take part in a summit in October in Italy of the Group of 20 major economies.
"Soon enough we will sit down to work out the right modality for the two presidents to engage," Sullivan said. source from
Jun 18 - The White House will consider arranging talks between President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as the two countries spar over issues including human rights, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.
Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the two leaders are due to "take stock of where we are in the relationship."
Beijing fumed over a communique issued at Biden's urging by the Group of Seven leaders on Sunday. It scolded the country over human rights in its Xinjiang region and Hong Kong while also demanding a full and thorough investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China. read more
"Soon enough we will sit down to work out the right modality for the two presidents to engage," Sullivan told reporters on a conference call.
"It could be a phone call, it could be a meeting on the margins of another international summit, it could be something else." Biden and Xi are both expected to attend the G20 meeting in October hosted by Italy, one possible venue for such talks. Sullivan said no final decisions have been made.
Asked if he would call on Xi to push for an investigation in COVID-19 origins, Biden on Wednesday told reporters: "We know each other well; we're not old friends. It's just pure business." source from
首脑会晤前导弹竞赛白热化 美俄握手难消对峙 20210616 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际 Jun 17, 2021
Jun. 17 - Conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba have rapidly worsened under the Biden administration, prisoners and their advocates told VICE News.
According to the Wednesday report, detainees said they've been denied access to medical care, like aspirin and band-aids, had services restricted, and said guards refuse to speak to them.
Some of the detainees have engaged in a hunger strike to protest their treatment, according to the report. "How can it be that we are waiting for Biden to come, and it has become so much worse than when Trump was president?" Abdul Latif Nasser, who has been detained at the facility for 19 years, told VICE News through his lawyer.
The change in treatment was "abrupt," Nasser told VICE. The conditions at the facility have also deteriorated, according to the report, with detainees experiencing broken toilets and burned-out lightbulbs.
President Biden has quietly taken action to begin closing the facility, NBC News reported earlier in June. The facility was created by former President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. source from
Biden said the meeting was an important opportunity to lay out the US position face to face
Jun. 17 - ...But concrete accomplishments were hard to define, and both leaders were in vintage form. Shrugging off questions about human rights in Russia, Putin spent much of his post-summit news conference on Wednesday criticising the US over issues ranging from CIA black sites in the early 2000s to the January attack on the US Capitol.
“What about Guantanamo -- it’s still working,” Putin said. “And it doesn’t come under any kind of law, international, American, nothing. CIA prisons which were opened in lots of states and exercised torture, was that human rights?”...
There was never any expectation that the meeting in Geneva would solve the many problems between the US and Russia. The US wants Russia out of Crimea, to end interference in elections abroad, allow democratic debate at home and stop backing strongmen from Belarus to Venezuela. Putin -- whose popularity has fallen amid the Covid-19 crisis and quickening inflation -- wants an end to U.S. sanctions and, less tangibly, to reconfirm the sense that Russia is respected abroad.
On that last point, he got some of what he wanted from Biden, who called Russia a “great power” and a “proud” nation, an improvement from former President Barack Obama’s dismissive reference to Russia being a “regional power.”
The summit was seen as a success in Moscow, said Andrey Kortunov, head of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council. “Putin got the recognition he wanted from Biden.”
But Biden also said he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to pressure Putin over human rights and cases such as that of imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
“How could I be the president of the United States of America and not speak about the violation of human rights,” Biden said. “That’s why we’re going to raise our concerns about cases like Alexey Navalny.”
Biden said he made clear to Putin that if Navalny dies in prison, “the consequences of that would be devastating for Russia.”
Putin shrugged that off. He faulted the opposition leader for seeking medical treatment abroad -- after he was poisoned, allegedly by state security services -- and compared democracy protests led by Navalny to violence at some anti-racism demonstrations in the US last year, saying he didn’t want Black Lives Matter-type disturbances brought to his country. He also gently warned Biden that new sanctions would lead to “another missed opportunity” for the US... quoted from
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Spanish: Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as an acronym, by the U.S. military[1]) is a United States military base located on 45 square miles (117 km2) of land and water[2] on the shore of Guantánamo Bay at the southeastern end of Cuba. It was first leased by the United States for use as a coaling station and naval base in 1903 and is the oldest overseas U.S. naval base.[3] The lease was $2,000 in gold per year until 1934, when the payment was set to match the value in gold in dollars;[4] in 1974, the yearly lease was set to $4,085.[5]
Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Cuban communist government has consistently protested against the U.S. presence on Cuban soil and called it "illegal" under international law, alleging that the base "was imposed on Cuba by force." Since 2002, the naval base has contained a military prison, for alleged unlawful combatants captured in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other places during the War on terror.[6] Cases of torture of prisoners[7] by the U.S. military, and their denial of protection under the Geneva Conventions, have been criticized. from Wikipedia
俄美峰會提前落幕，老手PK好對手，“普拜會”為俄美關係定調？ Jun 17, 2021 俄羅斯總統普京與美國總統拜登在瑞士日內瓦舉行的俄美峰會已經落幕。首場的普拜會，哪個人的表現更勝一籌？持續3個多小時會談，為何比原定的5小時少了一個多小時結束？俄美為何不召開聯合記者會？普京和拜登獨自召開的記者會又對首次“普拜會”有怎樣的表述？這次峰會對未來俄美兩國關係定下怎樣的基調？今天的節目中，我們將請何亮亮先生為我們深入分析與點評。
Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai gives an interview to the Associated Press at his house, in Kabul, Afghanistan.
