Beltway Insider: Biden/Putin, NATO, ObamaCare, Israel/Hamas, COVID/Vaccine Totals, China, Border Wall

President Biden wrapped up his first overseas trips, meeting with the Group of Seven leaders, the NATO Alliance, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing the global unified agenda set by the world democracies against Chinese and Russian aggression.

The President's job approval rating, according to the website fivethirtyeight.com, for the period ending June 20, 2021, decreased by 1.6% to 51.8% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness increased by 2.0% percentage points to 42.4%. A slight 3% of the population polled have no opinion. Ratings are calculated weekly.


Beltway Insider: Biden/G7, China/Wuhan, Israel, COVID/Vaccine Totals, Cyber/Ransom, Jeff Bezos


Biden Meets with Putin

President Biden armed with information and a unified agenda from the G7 and The North American Treaty Organization, (NATO) approached the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin prepared to imprint the position of the United States.

With the Group of Seven in alliance with President Biden and the global democratic agendas, the meet with President Putin was high on the agenda considering over the past three years the Russian Federation has been found to be responsible for U.S. election tampering, disinformation campaigns, and more recently the Colonial Fuel Pipeline and JBS Foods ransomware attacks.

Leading up to the meeting these issues and also Human Rights abuses, Putin opposition leader Alexi Navalny, Russia's ongoing relationship with China, arms control, the nuclear agreements, and intelligence from the NATO Alliance nations and the G7 Summit presented to Biden during their respective summits, set the agenda.

When Biden emerged. he presented a positive, although ambiguous position on the tone of the meeting, the U.S. agenda, which many expected would be a unified continuation of the stern cautions presented by NATO and the G7 especially in the wake of Russia's sustained disruption globally.

"What happened was: We, in fact, made it clear that we were not going to continue to allow this to go on.  The end result was we ended up withdrawing — they went withdrawing ambassadors, and we closed down some of their facilities in the United States, et cetera.  And he knows there are consequences," President Biden said in a press conference.

"Moments after spending more than three hours on Wednesday across a table from President Biden at their first summit, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia delivered his usual list of grievances to reporters. He denied Russian culpability for cyberattacks targeting U.S. interests, accusing the United States of carrying out more. He said America's human rights record was worse than his country's. And he accused the Biden government of a military buildup near Ukraine," The New York Times reported.

Putin has also formed alliances with enemies of the United States and supplied defense weapons systems, aircraft, and other weapons to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and remains dedicated to China. Russian, once a member of the G7, remains suspended due to its violation of the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine.

Biden, who was Vice-President, when Russian moved on the Ukraine, violating territorial sovereignty, of the Ukraine, which resulted in a unified global response by the group of seven leaders who suspended Russia until he returns Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, which to date, he has not.

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization

President Biden also met with the thirty nation NATO in Brussels, Belgium. In a lengthy, 79-paragraph released communique, the organization detailed a clear and unified message and agenda. The nations stand united against the antagonistic bullying and continued threats imposed by China and Russia.

"Russia's aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security; terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a persistent threat to us all.  Instability beyond our borders is also contributing to irregular migration and human trafficking.  China's growing influence and international policies can present challenges that we need to address together as an Alliance.  We will engage China with a view to defending the security interests of the Alliance.  We are increasingly confronted by cyber, hybrid, and other asymmetric threats, including disinformation campaigns, and by the malicious use of ever-more sophisticated emerging and disruptive technologies," the NATO Alliance stated.

"But Russia remains a central concern for the NATO countries. It is referred to more than 60 times in the communiqué, which criticizes Moscow's military buildup, cyber and disinformation attacks aimed at the West, and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine," reported The Wall Street Journal.

The NATO Alliance issued clear directives on each of the areas of concern, former, continuing and the threats previously without concern or merit such as the pandemic, which has now become the issue of bio-warfare and ties directly to China's and its pursuit of global dominance.

The distinct, conclusive, and unified reprimands of China, present a global intolerance of President Xi Jinping's policies, and pursuits as it relates to the world.


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Former President Trump Assesses NATO Deal

"So much USA money has been given away to the 'Club,' as President Macron of France likes to call it, and to NATO, despite the fact that those countries have taken economic advantage of the United States for many years — until I came along," Trump wrote. "Not fair to America, or the American taxpayer!"' reported The Washington Post.

Group of Seven Meet

The Group of Seven Nations, (G7), kicked off the week of global policy setting. Moving away from the hardline position of the previous administration, Biden and the members moved ahead finalizing a global democratic agenda.

The Carbis Bay G7 Communique expressed the agreed upon agenda set by the seven, and is expected to be continued at the G20 Summit with the idea that a more unified global plan will result in greater gains within these nations, which in turn trickle down to the people of these nations, creating greater financial stability, an enhanced healthcare system and an enriched way of life.

"One thing we did discuss, as I told you, in the EU and at the G7 and with NATO: What we should be doing and what I'm going to make an effort to do is rally the world to work on what is going to be the physical mechanism available to detect, early on, the next pandemic and have a mechanism by which we can respond to it and respond to it early.  It's going to happen.  It's going to happen.  And we need to do that," President Biden said during a press conference.

Supreme Court Issues Two Controversial Rulings

The conservative leaning Supreme Court has ruled again on the Affordable Care Act, the signature healthcare policy crated under the Obama Administration, and once again left the legislation intact by a 7-2 vote.

While many expected the court to follow party dictates, this current sitting supreme court, with three recent Trump appointees, have ruled on policy without party or personal beliefs overshadowing their decisions.

"Texas and other Republican-leaning states, backed by the Trump administration, had sought to strike down the law on technical arguments after Congress reduced to zero the tax penalty for failing to carry health insurance. Thursday's decision, written by Justice Stephen Breyer, concluded that none of the plaintiffs suffered any injury from zeroing out the penalty and thus lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit at all. It was the third time the court has preserved the 2010 healthcare law," reported The Wall Street Journal.

Philadelphia Catholic Foster Care Wins Unanimous Decision from Court

Catholic Social Services (CSS) refused to register same-sex couples as foster parents citing that violated their religious beliefs. The City of Philadelphia refused to continue use of the CSS stating the position violated the First Amendment.

The 9-0 decision from the United States Supreme Court read, "CSS seeks only an accommodation that will allow it to continue serving the children of Philadelphia in a manner consistent with its religious beliefs; it does not seek to impose those beliefs on anyone else," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in a majority opinion. "The refusal of Philadelphia to contract with CSS for the provision of foster care services unless it agrees to certify same-sex couples as foster parents cannot survive strict scrutiny, and violates the First Amendment," Foxnews.com reported.

The decision is a major victory for religious advocates.

Israel Hamas Cease Fire Ends

The fragile cease fire between Israel and Hamas ended this week, as the Israel government launched a retaliatory attack after Hamas launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel, breaking the cease-fire.

White House Announces Visit

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will be visiting the White House on June 28, 2021.  President Rivlin's visit will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Israel and the deep ties between our governments and our people.

Vaccine Totals

Bloomberg.com has built a vaccine tracker which can be seen here. "The biggest vaccination campaign in history is underway. More than 2.59 billion doses have been administered across 180 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 38.5 million doses a day," Bloomberg.com reported.

"In the U.S., the latest vaccination rate is 1,286,438 doses per day, on average. At this pace, it will take another 4 months to cover 75% of the population," reported Bloomberg.com.

Coronavirus Totals

While the infection rates of the coronavirus have continued to decline around the world. A new strain, a mutation, has created global concern for leaders around the world are determining the best direction for the protection of the population. The importance of maintaining personal protective practices is imperative to controlling the spread.

For the week ending June 20, 2021, coronavirus cases globally increased by 2,540,104 new confirmed cases, bringing the total of confirmed cases worldwide to 178,180,208 people with a total worldwide death toll of 3,859,722 deaths, a weekly death rate increase of 319,618. (Data from The New York Times).

COVID US Totals

Infections rates in the United States are also on the rise. For the week ending June 20, 2021, the total confirmed cases rose to 33,504,936 people with new confirmed cases increasing by 80,777 with an average of 11,539 cases daily over a seven-day period. The coronavirus has claimed 601,352 total deaths, adding 1,672 more deaths to the total of lives lost due to the coronavirus. (Data from The New York Times).

Moscow Reports New Strain

A new strain of the coronavirus has resulted in the postponement of the Russian TV Pilot Film Festival, according to the promoters. The third Russian festival of TV series "Pilot," which was supposed to take place in the city of Ivanovo on June 25-27, is postponed due to the spread of a new strain in the city of Moscow. It is a clear indication the coronavirus is still a major threat across the European Continent.

Europe Opens For Travel

European nations, many which are heavily dependent on tourism and have been in lockdown for at least seventeen months, have announced they are loosening their border restrictions and will be allowing some level of tourism and unrestrictive access.

"In addition, tourists from the United States may be allowed back into European Union countries as early as Friday — a move crucial to lifting Europe's battered economies. On Wednesday, ambassadors of the European Union indicated their support for adding the United States to a list of countries considered safe from an epidemiological point of view, a bloc official confirmed, though no official announcement is expected until Friday," reported The New York Times.

The United States has continued to impose a travel restriction on foreign countries and has not yet made any announcements or indication this policy will be lifted anytime soon.


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China Shuts Down Hong Kong Free Press

"Hundreds of police officers swarmed the offices of Apple Daily on Thursday and arrested top executives under the controversial national security law. The raid was seen by pro-democracy advocates as the latest example of Beijing's crackdown on freedoms in the city," Foxnews.com reported.

Border Wall Gets Boost From Texas

The Border Wall build, which has essentially been abandoned by the Biden administration, has been revived by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

Marking the occasion with a $250million down payment, which the governor allocated from the state budget, along with donated lands from landowners along the border, the state will move ahead with hiring a project manager to initiate the build.


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"More than 450 miles of border wall, including in Texas, was built during the Trump administration. That construction was suddenly halted by the Biden administration shortly after President Biden took office. Opponents of wall construction said it was cruel and ineffective, while proponents said it was a vital part of a border strategy to stop the flow of illegal immigration," Foxnews.com reported.

The Wall, which has been the cause of heated debates on immigration, and the value of deterrents, has proven to be instrumental is slowing the tide of illegal immigration, which has increased exponentially since the change of administration in January, 2021.

 

For more information on President Joe Biden www.whitehouse.gov.

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