Month: March 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden’s quick January repeal of his predecessor’s travel ban on Iran has not yet revived Iranian arrivals to the United States, but it has reignited a debate about which Iranians the U.S. should allow to enter and whether existing methods for vetting them are effective. U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order he said would impose tighter vetting to prevent foreign terrorists from entering the United States at the Pentagon in Washington, U.S., January 27, 2017.In the 40 days since Biden revoked the travel bans, there has been no influx of Iranians to the United States, according to the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) advocacy group that supports the president’s move. Iranians had made up the largest pool of visa applicants to the United States for decades, according to a January New York Times report citing Iranian-American advocacy groups and visa lawyers.  “Anecdotally and looking at the U.S. travel restrictions that still remain in place, I don’t think there has been a significant change [in Iranians entering the U.S.] thus far. And I don’t expect that to change immediately,” said NIAC policy director Ryan Costello in a VOA Persian interview.  The latest publicly available State Department data for international visa issuances show the United States granted 46 immigrant visas to Iranians in January, up slightly from 39 in December. The number of nonimmigrants visas issued to Iranians declined to 154 from 188 over the same period.  A variety of U.S. travel restrictions affecting Iranians remain in force. Biden decided to continue Trump’s pandemic-related ban on travelers who were physically present in Iran for 14 days preceding entry or attempted entry into the United States. Biden also has made no changes to Trump’s 2019 entry ban for senior Iranian government officials and their immediate family members and 2019 designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization whose recruits are barred from the United States. A 2012 ban on Iranians seeking to enter the United States for higher education courses that would prepare them for careers in Iran’s energy sector or nuclear program also remains in effect. It was signed into law by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, for whom Biden served as vice president. Washington long has accused Tehran of seeking to weaponize its nuclear program, a charge Tehran denies.  Difficulties obtaining visasIranians not affected by those ongoing restrictions have faced other recent obstacles to obtaining U.S. visas. In a Monday press briefing, U.S. Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services Julie Stufft said the pandemic has “drastically decreased” the number of visa applicants whom the State Department can service at its overseas facilities and has reduced the number of visa processing personnel who can safely work at those facilities.  Costello said NIAC has been in touch with visa applicants in Iran who were not able to get consular appointments at various U.S. embassies in states neighboring the Islamic republic.  Stufft said some immigrant visa applicants from nations like Iran that previously were included in Trump’s travel ban had remained blocked from the U.S. by another Trump measure until just a week ago. That 2020 measure had barred immigrants seen as harming the U.S. labor market’s prospects for pandemic recovery, until Biden repealed it on February 24. Another factor slowing the process of issuing U.S. visas to Iranians is Biden’s January 20 decision to give the State Department 45 days to create a plan for enabling immigrant visa applicants whose requests were denied under the travel ban to have their applications reconsidered. He also gave officials an even longer 120 days to submit recommendations on improving the screening and vetting of visa applicants by using foreign assistance funds to improve information-sharing with other countries “where appropriate.”  No such U.S. funds are likely to be given to Iran, with whom Washington has had no relations since 1979 and whose government remains under severe U.S. sanctions.  But Costello said the U.S. vetting system is strong enough to compensate for the absence of Iranian information-sharing about visa applicants, citing U.S. rejections of many such applicants for lack of verifiable background information before Trump’s travel ban took effect in 2017.  “Iranian visa applicants have to detail a ton of information about who they are, where they worked, whether they were ever drafted into the IRGC, and a bunch of other things. There are ways [for the U.S.] to get the information that it needs [to vet such information],” he said.  Not so, said U.S. attorney Stewart Baker, who served under former President George W. Bush as Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Policy and recently wrote that revoking the travel ban seems to reopen U.S. borders to dangerous individuals. “We don’t know Iranians’ motives for coming here, because it’s very hard to figure that out with the information that we have,” he told VOA Persian in an interview.  Speaking to VOA Persian last month, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead Republican Michael McCaul said Iran’s status as an enemy of Washington makes the vetting process for Iranian visa applicants “very difficult, if not impossible.”  Elliott Abrams, who served as U.S. Special Representative for Iran in the final year of Trump’s term, told VOA Persian he supports Biden’s decision to resume accepting visa applications from some U.S.-vetted Iranians and to maintain prior presidents’ policies of keeping other Iranians out.  “I think it is a good idea to enable Iranian students in general to study in the United States. Our fight is with the vicious regime that governs Iran, not with the people of Iran. We’re on their side,” he said.  But Abrams also cautioned Biden against phasing out a visa applicant vetting technique used during the Trump administration, involving examination of an applicant’s social media accounts. Biden has called for a review of whether the use of social media identifiers has “meaningfully improved screening and vetting.”  “I don’t understand the basis for the skepticism,” Abrams said. “Social media posts are a form of communication by an individual in public. If an Iranian visa applicant’s post applauds attacks on American bases in Iraq, wouldn’t you want to know that?”  NIAC’s Costello said he expects some social media screening to remain after Biden’s review. “But how you ensure that screeners don’t target someone for a post that Americans normally would view as free speech is an important question that needs to be answered,” he said.  This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. VOA State Department Correspondent Nike Ching and VOA Persian Congressional Correspondent Shahla Arasteh contributed.  
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An American father and son were handed over to Japanese officials on Monday, their lawyer said, after losing an extradition battle over accusations they helped former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn to flee Japan. Michael Taylor and his son Peter Taylor were arrested in May after Japan issued a warrant accusing them of helping Ghosn flee Tokyo for Lebanon in December 2019 — reportedly hidden in a large box in a private jet — as he faced financial misconduct charges. Two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Taylors’ emergency appeal and cleared the way for their extradition following similar rulings by lower courts. “This is a sad day for the family, and for all who believe that veterans deserve better treatment from their own country,” Paul Kelly, their lawyer, said in a statement confirming they had been handed over to Japanese custody. FILE – Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn holds a press conference at the Maronite Christian Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, in Kaslik, north of Beirut, Lebanon, Sept. 29, 2020.The U.S. courts rejected the contention by the Taylors’ lawyers that the two men would face torture-like conditions in Japanese prison sufficient to merit breaching the extradition treaty between Tokyo and Washington. Peter Taylor and his father, a former U.S. Special Forces member turned private security contractor, had been imprisoned pending the outcome of the extradition fight. U.S. court documents show the two, and a Lebanese national, allegedly helped smuggle Ghosn out of Japan inside a large musical equipment case. ‘Brazen escape’ Prosecutors in one court filing called it “one of the most brazen and well-orchestrated escape acts in recent history.” Ghosn, who was a global business superstar when his career came crashing to an end, fled Japan while out on bail facing financial misconduct charges. He was arrested in November 2018 and had been expected to face trial on charges including understating his pay and misusing company assets. He spent 130 days in prison before being released on bail and completing his audacious escape act. Ghosn, who has denied any wrongdoing, has said he fled because he could not get a fair trial in Japan. Three others sentencedLast week, a Turkish court sentenced three men to four years and two months in prison over the case. The court convicted two pilots and an employee of a small private airline who flew the tycoon during his escape. The judge convicted them of illegally smuggling a foreign national. The pilots told the court that they were innocent because they never suspected who was on board their plane. Interpol issued a notice last year seeking Ghosn’s extradition from Lebanon to Japan. The two countries have no extradition agreement and Lebanon has failed to comply. The Turkish indictment said the escape plot involved a stopover in Istanbul instead of a direct flight “so as not to arouse suspicions.” 
 
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March 21st will mark a full year that the Canada-U. S. border has been closed to all but essential traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canada-U.S. border is the largest undefended boundary in the world at 8,891 kilometers. There are 117 legal points of entry that have been closed to tourist and personal, or “nonessential” travel, for almost a year, resulting in an 80% drop in border traffic. For generations, travelers from both countries have easily crossed the border for vacations, shopping trips and other excursions. That all stopped last March with the spread of the coronavirus. The only exceptions are for immediate family, those in long-term relationships or for compassionate purposes.  Those crossing for essential work or to transport commercial goods are also exempt. Suzanne Smith is in a unique position. She is the Canadian owner of “Betty Be Good,” two dress shops located just across the border in Washington State. Her stores employ seven Americans full time. She lives on the Canadian side in suburban Vancouver, a mere two blocks from the border. Since the closure, her business has decreased 40%.  
 
As an essential worker, she can cross the border and does so once or twice a week. However, she can only go directly to her two stores and literally nowhere else. Not even to a favorite eatery or to see her extended American family, unless they visit one of her stores. “It’s really difficult when you straddle two sides of a border with your life. You have restaurants that you enjoy. You have small businesses that you have supported over time. Things that become part of your life. And, you know, I have family there, as well. A lot of people are in that boat where they can’t see their family. I’m not unique in that I can’t see my family, either, unless they come to work,” Smith said.  On February 22, the Canadian government increased the requirements for Canadians, or permanent residents, who are nonessential travelers returning home by land. Now, those crossing the border must show a negative COVID-19 test within the previous 72 hours or proof they had the coronavirus in the previous 14 to 90 days, therefore having at least temporary antibody immunity. Travelers will then have to quarantine for 14 days.  Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, is hoping for a phased and safe reopening of the border.  “So, what I would like to see is testing out a pilot project. We’ve done that a lot in our region, and proving that it is possible for, let’s say, me as a traveler to submit my vaccine status to a border officer before I arrived there and in a seamless electronic manner. And that that should be sufficient enough for me to cross the border,” Trautman said.The Canadian government has also halted the 2021 Alaska cruise ship season.  The office of the U.S. Trade Representative estimates that $718.4 billion in all types of trade crossed the U.S.-Canada border before the pandemic in 2019.  
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The Senate voted Monday to confirm Miguel Cardona as education secretary, clearing his way to lead President Joe Biden’s effort to reopen the nation’s schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.Cardona, 45, a former public school teacher who went on to become Connecticut’s education chief, was approved on a 64-33 vote.He takes charge of the Education Department amid mounting tension between Americans who believe students can safely return to the classroom now, and others who say the risks are still too great.Although his position carries limited authority to force schools to reopen, Cardona will be asked to play a central role in achieving Biden’s goal of having a majority of elementary schools open five days a week within his first 100 days. He will be tasked with guiding schools through the reopening process and sharing best practices on how to teach during a pandemic.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month released a road map for getting students back into classrooms safely. The agency said masks, social distancing and other strategies should be used, but vaccination of teachers was not a prerequisite for reopening.Cardona, who gained attention for his efforts to reopen schools in Connecticut, has vowed to make reopening schools his top priority. At his Senate confirmation hearing last month, he said there are “great examples throughout our country of schools that have been able to reopen safely.”The debate has become a political firestorm for Biden, who is caught between competing interests as he aims to get students into the classroom without provoking the powerful teachers unions that helped put him in the White House. He says his goal of returning students to the classroom is possible if Congress approves his relief plan, which includes $130 billion for the nation’s schools.Republicans have rebuked Biden for failing to reopen schools faster, while teachers unions opposed the administration’s decision to continue with federally required standardized tests during the pandemic.The tricky terrain is nothing new for Cardona, however, who faced similar tension navigating the pandemic in Connecticut, and who has won early praise even from Biden’s critics.Republicans in Congress have applauded Cardona’s efforts to reopen schools in Connecticut, and some see him as a potential ally in their support for charter schools. Teachers, meanwhile, see him as a partner who brings years of experience in education and knows the demands of the teaching.The nomination continues a meteoric rise for Cardona, who was appointed to lead Connecticut’s education department in 2019 after spending 20 years working in Meriden, Connecticut, public schools — the same district he attended as a child.He began his career as a fourth-grade teacher before becoming the state’s youngest principal at age 28. In 2012, he was named Connecticut’s principal of the year, and in 2015 he became an assistant superintendent of the district. When he was appointed state education commissioner, he became the first Latino to hold the post.Cardona grew up in a public housing project in Meriden, raised by parents who came to Connecticut from Puerto Rico as children. Through his career, he has focused on closing education gaps and supporting bilingual education. It’s a personal issue for Cardona, who says he spoke only Spanish when he entered kindergarten and struggled to learn English.Cardona was the first in his family to graduate from college, and his three degrees include a doctorate in education from the University of Connecticut. He and his wife, Marissa, have two children in high school.His deep roots in public schooling fit the criteria Biden was looking for in an education secretary. During his campaign, Biden vowed to pick a secretary with experience in public education. It was meant to draw a contrast with then-secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who spent decades advocating for school choice policies.In an increasingly fractionalized world of education, Cardona has vowed to be a unifier. At his confirmation hearing, he promised to engage with “the vast, diverse community of people who have a stake in education.” He added that, “we gain strength from joining together.”As he works to help schools reopen, he will also be tasked with helping them address the damage the pandemic has done to student learning. He has echoed Biden’s call for further education funding, saying schools will need to expand summer academic programs and hire more counselors to help students with mental health issues.He’s also likely to face an early test as he weighs how much flexibility to grant states as they administer standardized tests. Last week, the Education Department ordered states to continue with annual testing but said assessments could be offered online or delayed until fall. The agency also held out the possibility that states could be granted “additional assessment flexibility” in certain cases.Some states are already pushing for that extra flexibility, including Michigan, which is asking to replace state tests with local “benchmark” assessments that were administered this year. It will be up to Cardona to decide how much leniency to provide.Republicans have also set the stage for a fight over transgender athletes. At last month’s hearing, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., raised objections with policies that allow transgender girls to participate in girls’ athletics. It’s the subject of a legal battle in Connecticut, where some cisgender athletes are challenging a state policy that lets transgender students participate as their identified gender.Pressed by Paul to take a stance on the issue, Cardona said he would support the right of “all students, including students who are transgender.” 
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The U.S. said China must raise its ambitions on carbon neutrality as the world’s two largest emitters seek cooperation to reverse what senior officials describe as a “critical standalone issue”: climate change.U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has spoken to his Chinese counterpart Xie Zhenhua, the State Department confirmed, adding that conversations between the two countries will continue. China is the largest emitter of carbon in the world.China’s representative on climate change Xie Zhenhua attends a environment ministers meeting in Montreal, Canada on Sept. 16, 2017.Xie was recently appointed as Beijing’s new special climate envoy. Xie was China’s top negotiator during key climate meetings in Copenhagen and Paris.”The climate challenge does not get successfully addressed without significant action by China. China represents almost 30% of global emissions, in addition to its carbon-intensive investments in dozens of Belt and Road projects,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.“China and all countries must raise their ambitions [in net-zero emissions] on the global stage,” the spokesperson said.Last September, Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced the country would strive to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.FILE – In this Nov. 28, 2019 file photo, smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin in central China’s Shanxi Province.The U.S. contributes about 15% of the world’s emissions. U.S. President Joe Biden has committed to ambitious targets, including the U.S. achieving a 100% clean energy economy and reaching net-zero emissions no later than 2050. Kerry had said he knows Xie very well and the two had worked with each other for about 20 years. Xie had represented China in climate talks during past high-level annual dialogues between the U.S. and China.In July 2013, the U.S. and China started U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks to reporters during a news conference, March 1, 2021, at U.N. headquarters.Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that while the U.S. and China “significantly disagree” on many areas, such as human rights issues, the two nations may cooperate on climate issues.“There are some areas where there will be times we will hope to work with the Chinese in a cooperative way, and I would give as an example, working with them on climate change,” Thomas-Greenfield said.China also views climate cooperation as a window of opportunity to reset its relationship with the U.S., which is at its worst in decades.Yang Jiechi, Politburo member of the Communist Party of China, talks to the media in Tokyo, Japan, Feb. 28, 2020.“Climate change, renewable energy and low carbon sustainable development could be areas of mutually beneficial cooperation,” China’s top foreign policy official, Yang Jiechi, said at a February webinar.”The force for bilateral exchanges and cooperation has never been absent,” Yang said. “Such voices of reason, in stark contrast with the noise and disruption from China hawks, are most valuable for upholding overall stability of China-U.S. relations.”But critics are skeptical that climate change can serve as a stabilizing factor in U.S.-China relations.“China’s 2060 net-zero target will drive their industrial policy, essentially enhancing competition, not cooperation with the U.S.,” said Drew Thompson, a senior research fellow at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. “Climate change, therefore, encourages China to double down on industrial policies that result in unfair competition, justifying protectionist policies in key sectors, such as electric vehicles and new energy.”“The big question is whether John Kerry will recognize these factors and hold out for substantive reforms or whether he will seek an empty political victory with a symbolic agreement that legitimizes China’s anti-competitive policies in the name of climate cooperation,” Thompson told VOA.Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration replaced the S&ED with U.S.-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue (DSD), a format that was later stalled as the bilateral relationship worsened to its lowest point in decades.When asked about a future framework of U.S.-China talks, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said recently that he did not “want to get into formats or any other upcoming engagements.”Margaret Besheer contributed to this report. 
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The Pentagon appears to be making good on Washington’s pledge to help Ukraine stand up to what the United States has described as “Russian aggression.” The Defense Department announced Monday a $125 million aid package for Kyiv as part of its ongoing Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. A Pentagon statement said the package includes two armed Mark VI patrol boats to help Ukraine “patrol and defend its territorial waters.”It also includes additional training, counter-artillery radars, medical support, and satellite imagery and analysis, and improvements that will allow Ukraine to improve interoperability with NATO. FILE – Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a media briefing, Feb. 17, 2021.”This action reaffirms the U.S. commitment to providing defensive lethal weapons to enable Ukraine to more effectively defend itself,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday. The two patrol boats will give Kyiv a total of eight such vessels to operate in Ukrainian waters. According to the boat’s manufacturer, the vessels are designed to patrol in shallow waters, as well as around harbors and bays.  Last June, the State Department approved the sale of up to 16 of the patrol boats to Ukraine, along with gun systems and infrared radar, for an estimated cost of $600 million. The aid announced Monday is just the first part of a larger $275 million package approved by Congress for fiscal year 2021. The Defense Department said the final $150 million would be released once the State Department “certifies that Ukraine has made sufficient progress on key defense reforms.” “We obviously continue to encourage Ukraine to continue to enact reforms, to modernize the defense sector in line with NATO principles and standards,” Kirby said. Those reforms include an increased focus on civilian control of the military and continued modernization of Ukraine’s defense sector. During an address at the virtual Munich Security Conference last month, U.S. President Joe Biden called standing up for Ukraine’s territorial integrity a “vital concern.” 
 
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The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will consider the constitutionality of excluding those living in Puerto Rico from a federal retirement benefit known as Supplemental Social Security Income.  If the highest court rules in favor of the U.S. territory, elderly Puerto Ricans, as well as those who have a disability, will join the country’s 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands in benefiting from the program.  The Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court ruling that established that Puerto Ricans on the island should have the same access to SSI as Americans in the mainland. The appeal was filed by the former Trump administration. The decision to exclude Puerto Rico was made by Congress when it enacted SSI in 1972. Despite being eligible for a different program called Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, Puerto Ricans do not have access to as much federal funding as SSI allows. In August, a federal judge ruled that it was “discriminatory” to deny Puerto Ricans on the island access to federal welfare programs. “The federal safety net is flimsier and more porous in Puerto Rico than in the rest of the nation,” Judge William G. Young wrote. “To be blunt, the federal government discriminates against Americans who live in Puerto Rico.” Other U.S. territories, such as Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, are also seeking to be included in the program. 
 
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More than 86,000 people died from drug overdoses last year in the U.S. – a massive increase of just over 24 percent. It is an epidemic that as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports, has been shoved in the shadows by the pandemic – but is no less serious a public health issue.Camera: Veronica Balderas Iglesias  Produced by: Veronica Balderas Iglesias  
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President Joe Biden is planning a virtual meeting Monday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — a chance for the pair to talk more fully about migration, confronting the coronavirus and cooperating on economic and national security issues.Mexico’s president has said he intends during the meeting to propose to Biden a new Bracero-style immigrant labor program that could bring 600,000 to 800,000 Mexican and Central American immigrants a year to work legally in the United States.  A senior Biden administration official declined to say whether the U.S. president would back or oppose the proposal, saying only that both countries agree on the need to expand legal pathways for migration. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.The original Bracero program allowed Mexicans to work temporarily in the United States to fill labor shortages during World War II and for a couple of decades after the war. López Obrador said the U.S. economy needs Mexican workers because of “their strength, their youth.”The Biden official said the meeting will enable Biden begin to institutionalize the relationship with Mexico, rather than let it be determined by tweets — a preferred form of diplomacy by his predecessor, Donald Trump.  The United States shares a trade agreement — most recently updated in 2018 and 2019 — with Mexico and Canada, which are its second- and third-biggest trade partners after China. The trade agreement could complicate López Obrador’s efforts to possibly defund and eliminate independent regulatory, watchdog and transparency agencies in Mexico.There are also questions of whether López Obrador will warm to Biden’s efforts to address climate change and move to cleaner energy sources. The Mexican president supports a measure to make that country’s national grids prioritize power from government plants, many of which burn coal or fuel oil.The Trump era was defined by the threat of tariffs, crackdowns on migration and his desire to construct a wall on the U.S. southern border, yet Trump appeared to enjoy an amicable relationship with his Mexican counterpart.
 
Mexico paid nothing for Trump’s cherished border wall, despite the U.S. leader’s repeated claims that it would. But López Obrador’s government did send troops to Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala to deal with an unprecedented wave of asylum-seekers bound for the U.S. Mexico hosted about 70,000 people seeking U.S. asylum while they waited for dates in immigration courts, a policy known as Remain in Mexico and officially as Migrant Protection Protocols.The Biden administration immediately began to unwind Remain in Mexico, suspending it for new arrivals on the president’s first day in office and soon after announcing that an estimated 26,000 people with still-active cases could be released in the United States while their cases played out.But Biden, through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has kept extraordinary pandemic-related powers in place to immediately expel anyone arriving at the U.S. border from Mexico without an opportunity to seek asylum.Mexicans and many Central Americans are typically returned to Mexico in less than two hours under Title 42 authority — so named for a section of a 1944 public health law. Biden aides have signaled they have no immediate plans to lift it.Yet Biden has also shown an openness to immigrants who previously came to the country illegally. He is backing a bill to give legal status and a path to citizenship to all of the estimated 11 million people in the country who don’t have it. Biden also broke with Trump by supporting efforts to allow hundreds of thousands of people who came to the U.S. illegally as young children to remain in the country.  López Obrador said Saturday that an aging United States will also need temporary immigrant workers from Mexico to sustain economic growth.”It is better that we start putting order on migratory flows,” he said he plans to tell Biden.
But pressures are building at the U.S. southern border with an increase in children crossing into the country without visas. This has created a challenge for the Biden administration. Border Patrol agents are apprehending an average of more than 200 children crossing the border without a parent per day, but nearly all 7,100 beds for immigrant children maintained by the Department of Health and Human Services are full.The Biden administration has also preserved a policy, imposed at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, of quickly expelling people captured along the border and has tried to dissuade people from attempting the journey.”This is not the time to come to the United States,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a February briefing. “We need the time to put in place an immigration process so people can be treated humanely.”
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President Joe Biden defended workers’ rights to form unions and warned against intimidation of workers in a video posted on Twitter on Sunday night, as Amazon.com Inc employees in Alabama vote on whether to unionize. Biden didn’t mention Amazon, but specifically referenced “workers in Alabama” in the video and a tweet introducing it. He said every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union, and no employer could take that away. “It’s your right…So make your voice heard,” he said. “Unions lift up workers, both union and non-union, but especially Black and Brown workers,” Biden said in the video. “There should be no intimidation, no coercion, no threats, no anti-union propaganda. No supervisor should confront employees about their union preferences.” Amazon, America’s second-biggest private employer, has no unionized labor in the United States, and workers at its fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama, would be the first if they vote in favor. Such a decision could encourage workers attempting to organize at other Amazon facilities. A spokeswoman from the Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union (RWDSU) said there had been many reports of “various intimidation tactics used by Amazon on this campaign and during the voting period.” Amazon, which has long avoided unionization, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.FILE – In this Oct. 1, 2020, photo an Amazon worker wears a mask and gloves as he delivers boxes downtown Los Angeles.The company has trained managers to spot organizing activity. A website advocating Amazon workers shun unions, doitwithout dues.com, warned the Bessemer employees, “why pay almost $500 in dues? We’ve got you covered* with high wages, health care, vision, and dental benefits.” The last attempt by Amazon workers to unionize was in 2014. A top adviser to Biden and officials from the RWDSU discussed the union’s drive to organize Amazon workers at the Bessemer site after the inauguration, Reuters reported earlier this month. On Sunday, RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum welcomed what he called Biden’s “clear message of support” for the Amazon workers seeking to bring the first union to an Amazon warehouse. “As President Biden points out, the best way for working people to protect themselves and their families is by organizing into unions. And that is why so many working women and men are fighting for a union at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama,” he said in a statement. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO federation of unions also hailed Biden’s tweet: “@POTUS  is right: Every worker should have the free and fair choice to join a union.” Biden has vowed to increase union membership in the United States after years of steady declines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the union membership rate in the private sector was around 6.2% in 2019, compared to around 20% in 1983. 
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The fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi said Monday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “should be punished without delay” for ordering the killing. In a statement posted on Twitter, Hatice Cengiz said if the crown prince faces no punishment, “it will forever signal that the main culprit can get away with murder which will endanger us all and be a stain on our humanity.” Last week, the United States released a declassified intelligence report assessing the crown prince approved the murder of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and killed by operatives linked to the crown prince. His body was dismembered, and his remains have never been found.  Saudi Arabia eventually admitted that Khashoggi was mistakenly killed in what it called a rogue operation but denied the crown prince’s involvement.  It rejected the U.S. report on Friday, saying it contained “inaccurate information and conclusions.”Friends of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi hold posters bearing his picture as they attend an event marking the second-year anniversary of his assassination in front of Saudi Arabia Istanbul Consulate, on Oct. 2, 2020.The U.S. intelligence report said it is “highly unlikely” Khashoggi would have been killed without the prince’s approval. “While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President (Joe) Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Friday. The Biden administration announced visa restrictions against 76 Saudi citizens, with Blinken saying they are “believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing.”  The Treasury Department announced its own set of sanctions as well. In her message Monday, Cengiz said the U.S. measures will only be meaningful if the crown prince faces punishment. “Starting with the Biden Administration, it is vital for all world leaders to ask themselves if they are prepared to shake hands with a person whose culpability as a murderer has been proven, but not yet punished,” Cengiz wrote.  “Ignoring this fact and remaining in limbo without any punishment will cause us to lose our universal values of humanity.” 
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Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden’s policies and reaffirmed leadership of the Republican Party at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida on Sunday, his first major speech after leaving office. He hinted but did not confirm whether he will run again in 2024. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.  
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Less than six weeks after leaving office, former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday unleashed a torrent of attacks on his successor, contending President Joe Biden has had the “most disastrous first month in modern history” in the White House and strongly hinting he may try to reclaim the presidency in the 2024 election.“In one short month, we’ve gone from America first to America last,” Trump told a cheering crowd of hundreds of conservative supporters crammed into a hotel ballroom in Orlando, Florida.“I may even decide to run again,” Trump told the gathering at the Conservative Political Action Conference but ruled out forming a third party. He vowed to campaign for “strong, tough Republican leaders” to try to retake control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the 2022 congressional elections halfway through Biden’s four-year term and then the White House two years later.Trump Rejoins US Political Fray at Conservative ConclaveOut of office, Trump set to claim his dominance of Republican Party“I wonder who that will be,” Trump said of the party’s 2024 presidential nominee in his first major address since leaving office. “Who, who, who will that be?”  In a 90-minute speech, he left no doubt that it could be him, citing a poll taken at the highly partisan conference showing a 97% approval rating for his four years in the White House even as national polls of voters show Biden with a wide approval rating and Trump’s stock diminished since his White House tenure ended.Trump’s loss to Biden was fresh on his mind as he continued to voice months of unfounded allegations that he was cheated out of reelection.He voiced particular disdain for the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court, three of whose justices he appointed. He said the country’s highest court “didn’t have the guts or the courage” to hold a hearing on his election fraud claims. Trump and his supporters lost about 60 court challenges of the November vote.His supporters at the conference shouted, “You won! You won!” even though Biden won the national popular vote by 7 million votes and the Electoral College vote that decides U.S. presidential elections by a 306-232 margin.Trump did not directly mention the storming of the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of his supporters on January 6, mayhem that led to five deaths and his impeachment on a charge that he incited the insurrection by urging his supporters to go to the Capitol to confront lawmakers as they were certifying Biden’s victory.Republicans Hold Annual Conference With Trump Still at Center Stage Prominent annual gathering for conservatives will feature speech by former president on SundayTrump was acquitted in a Senate trial in early February, with the chamber voting 57-43 to convict him, short of the two-thirds vote necessary for a conviction.In his speech Sunday, Trump named all 10 Republicans in the House who voted to impeach him a week before he left office January 20 and all seven U.S. senators who voted to convict him in the five-day Senate trial.“Get rid of them all,” Trump demanded.He said lawmakers who have attacked him are “a handful of Washington political hacks.” He credited Democrats as being “smart” and “vicious,” but said they “have bad policies.”Trump assailed Biden’s dozens of executive orders, new directives that have overturned Trump’s tough immigration policies to thwart migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border and called for the U.S. to rejoin the World Health Organization and the international Paris climate change agreement.Trump’s supporters booed at the mention of Biden rejoining the Paris accord.He demanded that Biden reopen schools across the country, accusing him of fealty to teachers’ unions, some of which oppose classroom instruction amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Trump attacked Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, saying a chunk of it would go to “bail out badly run Democrat cities.”With millions of Americans now being vaccinated, Trump said, “Never let them forget this was our plan.”The Biden White House dismissed Trump’s speech.”While the GOP casts about for a path forward, President Biden is going to remain laser-focused on crushing the virus, re-opening schools, and getting Americans back to work,” White House spokesman Michael Gwin said after the speech.Despite the cheers at the conservative gathering, Trump’s political role in Republican circles in the coming months remains uncertain. A base of Trump voters remains loyal for sure, but some Washington lawmakers are skeptical of his staying power and some appear to be planning their own 2024 presidential campaigns.    U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and others are eyeing a run for the presidency. Haley has specifically said it is time for the party to move past the Trump era.Trump is the only president in U.S. history to be twice impeached and twice acquitted and the first president in 90 years to lose political control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in a single term in office.Conservatives at the three-day conference repeatedly cheered mention of his name, with many of them posing for pictures with a large golden caricature of his face that was sculpted in Mexico and was wheeled around the convention hall.Asked whether Trump still controls the Republican Party, Senator Rick Scott of Florida told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “It’s the voters’ party.” But he said he believes Trump is “going to be helpful” in the immediate future.“We’re on the right side of the issues,” Scott said of Republicans. “The Democrats are on the wrong side.”But one Republican lawmaker who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told CNN that if Republicans reclaim the White House in four years, “it will be because we speak to the issues, not by putting one person (Trump) on a pedestal. CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party.”“You’ve got to speak to voters who didn’t vote for us last time,” Cassidy said. “If we idolize one person, we will lose.”“I don’t think he’ll be our nominee,” Cassidy said. “We need a person who lifts all boats.”
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After passage in the U.S. House of Representatives with Democratic support only, President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package heads to the Senate where it will test his call for unity. Michelle Quinn reports.Producer: Mary Cieslak   
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Hair loss is one of the unfortunate side effects of some cancer treatments, but one survivor decided that losing her hair didn’t mean she couldn’t look and feel great. Maxim Moskalkov has the story.amera: Andrey Degtyarev 
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump is set Sunday to stake his claim as the dominant Republican in the country, trying to win back party control of Congress next year and possibly run again for the presidency in 2024.Trump is speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, a gathering in Orlando, Florida, of hundreds of the most ardent Republicans. While he has made some public comments since leaving Washington January 20, when his victorious Democratic reelection opponent, Joe Biden, took power, Trump’s speech is his first significant post-presidency address.”I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we began together four years ago is far from over,” Trump plans to say, according to excerpts released by aides.”We are gathered this afternoon to talk about the future — the future of our movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country,” he says.Republicans Hold Annual Conference With Trump Still at Center Stage Prominent annual gathering for conservatives will feature speech by former president on SundayBut Trump also is likely to mount his claim to dominance of the party, to leave his options open to run again in three years for another four-year term in the White House, at least to stall any momentum for other possible 2024 Republican candidates, including U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and others eyeing the presidency.Early national polls show voters giving wide approval to Biden’s first month-plus as president, including from some Republicans. But Trump, even if widely rejected by Democrats and a majority of independents, remains particularly popular among many Republican voters.Trump’s future as the dominant Republican figure in the U.S. remains an open question, however. He is the only president in U.S. history to be twice impeached and acquitted and the first president in 90 years to lose political control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in a single term in office.Conservatives at the three-day conference have cheered mention of his name, with many of them posing for pictures with a large golden caricature of his face that was sculpted in Mexico and now is being wheeled around the convention hall.The Senate earlier in February voted 57-43, with seven Republicans joining all 50 Democrats in the chamber, to convict Trump of inciting a mob of hundreds of his supporters that rampaged into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as lawmakers were certifying that he had lost his November re-election to Biden. The Senate vote count fell short of the two-thirds majority needed for a conviction.  The mayhem left five dead, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer. More than 200 rioters have been arrested as the investigation continues.     The CPAC conference is one of the most prominent annual gatherings for conservatives and comes at a time of growing debate within the Republican Party over whether to distance themselves from the former president or continue to tie their future with his.  Trump has signaled he wants to try to defeat or diminish the political standing of the 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who voted to impeach him in January, a week ahead of him leaving office, and the seven who voted to convict him at his Senate trial.Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, voted to acquit Trump at the impeachment trial, but then assailed Trump’s role in fomenting the storming of the Capitol, in which rioters smashed windows, ransacked congressional offices and scuffled with police.  McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking the events” that led to the Capitol siege.Trump, in response, described McConnell as “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack,” and said if Republican senators are going to stay with him, “they will not win again.”Even so, McConnell said last week he would support Trump for the presidency if Republican voters nominate him again in 2024.Asked whether Trump still controls the Republican Party, Senator Rick Scott of Florida told the “Fox News Sunday” show, “It’s the voters’ party.” But he said he believes Trump is “going to be helpful” in the immediate future.“We’re on the right side of the issues,” Scott said of Republicans. “The Democrats are on the wrong side.”One Republican lawmaker who voted to convict Trump on the impeachment charge, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, told CNN that if Republicans reclaim the White House in four years, “it will be because we speak to the issues, not by putting one person (Trump) on a pedestal. CPAC is not the entirety of the Republican Party.”“You’ve got to speak to voters who didn’t vote for us last time,” Cassidy said. “If we idolize one person, we will lose.”“I don’t think he’ll be our nominee,” Cassidy said. “We need a person who lifts all boats.”
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