Japanese PM Faces Tough Balancing Act Between US, China

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday will become the first foreign leader to visit the White House since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.The meeting underscores the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance, especially as the countries’ shared rival, China, grows in strength and aggressiveness.Since taking office last year, Suga’s government has at times taken a slightly more critical stance toward China, calling out Beijing’s human rights abuses and incursions into disputed areas of the East and South China seas.It represents a slight recalibration of Japan’s relationship with China, its longtime rival and largest trading partner. However, many analysts expectmore

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Japan’s Suga Faces Tough Balancing Act Between US, China

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Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday will become the first foreign leader to visit the White House since U.S. President Joe Biden took office.The meeting underscores the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance, especially as the countries’ shared rival, China, grows in strength and aggressiveness.Since taking office last year, Suga’s government has at times taken a slightly more critical stance toward China, calling out Beijing’s human rights abuses and incursions into disputed areas of the East and South China seas.It represents a slight recalibration of Japan’s relationship with China, its longtime rival and largest trading partner. However, many analysts expectmore

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US Senate Panel to Consider Biden Postal Board Nominees April 22

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The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will hold an April 22 hearing on President Joe Biden’s three nominees to serve on the U.S. Postal Board of Governors, the panel announced Wednesday.The announcement comes after the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in March outlined a proposed 10-year strategic plan that would slow current first-class delivery standards and raise some prices to stem $160 billion in forecasted red ink over the next decade.The plan has drawn criticism from many U.S. lawmakers including some calling for the board to fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and others who have urged Biden tomore

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Russia Targets Student Magazine With Raids, Criminal Charges

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Russian authorities on Wednesday charged four editors of an online student magazine with encouraging minors to take part in illegal activity for a report about the nationwide protests supporting jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny.All four were ordered by a court not to leave their residences for the next two months and were banned from using the internet and communicating with anyone other than immediate family, lawyers and law-enforcement agencies.The charges, which carry a potential sentence of three years in prison, come amid heightened pressure on independent news media.Police raided the Moscow apartments of the four DOXA magazine editors as well asmore

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Democrats to Unveil Bill to Expand US Supreme Court by 4 Justices

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Congressional Democrats plan to introduce legislation on Thursday to expand the U.S. Supreme Court by four justices, a proposal aimed at breaking the conservative grip on the court that promises to draw fierce opposition from Republicans.Sen. Ed Markey and House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to announce the introduction of the legislation in both chambers. The measure would expand the number of justices from the current nine to 13, according to a copy of the Senate bill reviewed by Reuters.President Joe Biden announced last Friday the formation ofmore

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US House Panel Studies Slavery Reparations Ahead of Key Vote

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A U.S. congressional panel Wednesday began a much-anticipated debate on federal slavery reparation payments to African Americans, ahead of a historic first vote on an issue gaining momentum during the nation’s racial reckoning.The House Judiciary Committee kicked off hours of late-night discussion about a bill that would create a commission to study and develop reparation proposals for Black people.But it faces major challenges in a closely divided Congress, where no Republicans have joined the more than 150 Democratic sponsors of the measure.The first version of the bill was introduced more than 30 years ago but never advanced. It addresses themore

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Sources: US Set to Slap New Sanctions on Russian Officials as Soon as Thursday

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The United States will announce sanctions on Russia as soon as Thursday for alleged election interference and malicious cyber activity, targeting several individuals and entities, people familiar the matter said.The sanctions, in which 30 entities are expected to be blacklisted, will be tied with orders expelling about 10 Russian officials from the United States, one of the people said.The White House, the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The action will add a new chill to the already frosty relations between Washington and Moscow, which has tested the West’s patience withmore

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Republicans Simmer Over Voting Stand by Some US Corporate Leaders

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New voting laws under consideration by state legislatures across the United States are pitting the traditionally business-friendly Republican Party against some major American corporations that have criticized the proposed legislation. Republicans, who say the measures are necessary to improve the integrity of elections, have faulted CEOs for getting involved, but the business leaders don’t seem to be listening. In recent days, more than 100 CEOs and other senior figures from U.S. companies, including iconic brands like Starbucks, Target, Levi Strauss, and airline firms Delta, American and United, gathered virtually to discuss publicly supporting measures making it easier, not more difficult, for Americans to vote. Themore

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 Biden to Address Congress April 28

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U.S. President Joe Biden is scheduled to give his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 28.The speech will come as Biden hits 100 days in office, an unofficial milestone upon which modern U.S. presidents have been judged for what their administrations have accomplished at the start of their four-year term.The address will take place in the House of Representatives. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi invited Biden to speak in a letter Tuesday, asking him to “share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment.”A White House statement said Biden accepted.It was not immediatelymore

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Biden Invited to Address US Congress on April 28

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U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday invited President Joe Biden to address a joint session of Congress on April 28.”I am writing to invite you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday, April 28, to share your vision for addressing the challenges and opportunities of this historic moment,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Biden that was released by her office.The speech will give Biden an opportunity to give a sales pitch to millions of viewers for his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which is the subject of a partisan debate in Congress.It comes as hemore

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Biden, Lawmakers Honor US Capitol Police Officer Slain in Car Attack

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President Joe Biden and U.S. lawmakers Tuesday paid tribute at a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda to the U.S. Capitol Police officer killed when a motorist rammed a car into two police officers and brandished a knife earlier this month.William Evans, an 18-year veteran of the Capitol Police force and father of two young children, died in a hospital after he was struck by the vehicle on April 2.His flag-draped casket sat in the middle of the rotunda surrounded by appropriately spaced rings of attendees, including members of Evans’ family.Biden told them: “You are going to make it by holdingmore

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Some Universities Mandate Vaccines for Fall Students

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More U.S. colleges and universities are announcing a return to in-person classes this fall, and some say they will mandate that students be vaccinated against the coronavirus before arriving on campus.Cornell University in New York, Northeastern University in Massachusetts, Fort Lewis College in Colorado, St. Edward’s University in Texas, and Brown and Roger Williams Universities in Rhode Island are some of the schools that have announced they will mandate vaccinations for the new semester.Rutgers University in New Jersey, with 71,000 students, said inoculating the student community will “accelerate the return to a pre-pandemic normal on the university’s campuses, including increasedmore

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US State Department Names Former Ambassador as First Chief Diversity Officer

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday named Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley as the State Department’s first chief diversity officer, a position created to make the U.S. diplomatic corps more representative. The appointment is part of the Biden administration’s efforts to put diversity, equity and racial justice at the top of the national agenda after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial bias last year. Introducing Abercrombie-Winstanley, Blinken said the department and the country were at a “moment of reckoning” on racial equality, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement and attacks against Asian Americans. Abercrombie-Winstanley, a career diplomat since 1985 who served asmore

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Biden Seeks Billions While the Chips Are Down

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U.S. President Joe Biden is linking his $2 trillion infrastructure spending plan to alleviating a critical shortage of semiconductors.  “Chips, like the one I have here — these chips, these wafers are batteries, broadband —it’s all infrastructure,” Biden said in the White House Roosevelt Room on Monday during a virtual meeting with leaders of some of the country’s biggest companies hurt by a global shortage of semiconductors.   The goal of the meeting, according to the president, was to figure out how to “strengthen our domestic semiconductor industry and secure the American supply chain.”  Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki,more

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Biden Lobbying Bipartisan Lawmakers for Infrastructure Spending

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U.S. President Joe Biden is meeting Monday with a bipartisan group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers to push for adoption of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan to repair the country’s aging and deteriorating roads and bridges, add to its broadband internet system and revitalize several sectors of the American economy.There appears to be wide support for Biden’s plan for traditional infrastructure spending, fixing the country’s crumbling roads and bridges. But Republican lawmakers are balking at his description of infrastructure to include spending for in-home care for older people, child care, health care facilities for veterans and other programs throughout themore

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US Defense Secretary to Visit Israel, Germany, NATO Headquarters, UK

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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel to Israel, Germany, NATO headquarters in Belgium and Britain starting on Saturday, the Pentagon said in a statement.“Secretary Austin will meet with his counterparts and other senior officials to discuss the importance of international defense relationships and reinforce the United States’ commitment to deterrence and defense, burden sharing, and enduring trans-Atlantic security,” said the statement released on Thursday. …

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Iran Launches Advanced Centrifuges Marking Its National Nuclear Day

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani oversaw on live television Saturday the launch of advanced centrifuges to enrich uranium, a key component for nuclear weapons, while reiterating his country’s commitment to nuclear non-proliferation.Rouhani’s conflicting messages came as the country observed National Nuclear Technology Day, during which he was seen on state television ordering the injection of uranium gas into nearly 200 centrifuges and tests on other devices at the underground Natanz nuclear plant.“Once again, I stress that all our nuclear activities are peaceful and for non-military purposes,” Rouhani said during the ceremony at which more than 130 advances in its nuclear industrymore

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US: Indirect Talks with Iran to Resume in Vienna But Demand to Lift All Sanctions May Cause ‘Impasse’

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The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a second round of indirect talks in Vienna next week to try to bring each other back into compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal, but Iran has insisted that all U.S. sanctions against it be lifted and the U.S. warned that such a demand may lead to an impasse.A senior U.S. State Department official who spoke to reporters on Friday said the indirect talks would resume in the middle of next week in the Austrian capital. U.S. and Iranian diplomats concluded an initial round of meetings earlier in the day, with mediators frommore

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2 Former College Students Face Identity Theft Charges Over COVID-19 Aid

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Two former Louisiana college students were charged with conspiring to fraudulently obtain CARES Act funds that had been earmarked for college students.Late last month, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said the two conspired to defraud students from Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana, by hacking the college portal to apply for financial aid grants using the names of other students.Hayden Philip Breaux, 21, and D’Quincy Marquis Jones, 23, both of Louisiana, allegedly used student identification numbers and passwords to apply for emergency financial aid grants, according to a March 25 press release. They were charged with one count of conspiracy tomore

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