radiofree.asia

Category: joe biden

  • Biden’s Pernicious Presidential Legacies

    Trump’s proposals to radically transform much of US economic and social policy are being rapidly rolled out during the first week of his administration. How much he succeeds or fails in that transformation will depend on a number of factors. High on the list of such factors is the residue of conditions and policies leftover by the Biden administration—i.e. the legacies of the Biden years. Those legacies will play an important role influencing, and perhaps even determining, how Trump may fare in implementing his plans.  So what are the legacy policies and conditions?

    The post Biden’s Pernicious Presidential Legacies appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A Fragile Ceasefire in Gaza

    The chances for durable peace may depend on Trump’s whims.

    This post was originally published on Dissent MagazineDissent Magazine.

  • President Trump’s First 24 Hours

    On Monday, January 20, as thousands were taking to the streets to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration, Trump himself signed a barrage of executive orders with broad implications. These orders were largely an attempt to reverse many of the moves of the Biden administration, in particular Biden’s most progressive policies on immigration, racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and efforts to combat climate change.

    The US government is the largest employer in the country. Some of Trump’s executive orders followed through on the right-wing promise to attack the federal work force, as mentioned in both the 2024 Republican Party platform, which pledges to “fire corrupt employees” and the infamous Project 2025.

    The post President Trump’s First 24 Hours appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Serving The Oligarchs: A Look Back At Biden And Forward At Trump

    As the Biden presidency ends, Clearing the FOG takes another look at Biden’s legacy. This time the focus is on his economic and foreign policies. Margaret Kimberley, the senior editor of Black Agenda Report and author of “Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents,” describes Biden in the context of a country founded upon settler colonialism and chattel slavery. She discusses Biden’s responsibility for the war in Ukraine, the genocide in Palestine and brutal interference in Latin America and the Caribbean. Kimberley also speaks about what can be expected from the new Trump administration given some of his cabinet choices.

    The post Serving The Oligarchs: A Look Back At Biden And Forward At Trump appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier Sentence Commuted

    Washington DC — Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier on January 20, just minutes before his term was set to expire. It was one of his last official acts as President.

    Leonard Peltier was convicted 47 1/2 years ago for the killing two FBI agents in June 1975 during a raid on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. But many questions remain unanswered about the legality of the evidence submitted against him during his trial. Indigenous groups and supporters have maintained and championed his innocence since his trial conviction in 1977.

    The post Indigenous Activist Leonard Peltier Sentence Commuted appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Trump Issues Executive Order Restoring Federal Death Penalty

    On Monday, President Donald Trump issued a multitude of executive orders, including a proclamation “restoring the death penalty” by ending the moratorium on federal executions under former President Joe Biden. Within his order, Trump called for the use of capital punishment across the U.S. to be expanded, citing the false right-wing talking point that the death penalty is “an essential tool…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • TikTok Shouldn’t Be Banned, But It Still Values Profit Over Privacy

    The shutdown only lasted a few hours, but it generated no shortage of content. “Fascist countries ban apps. Fascist countries ban websites,” one TikTok user said in a video with more than 12 million views. “TikTok was never just an app. It was a battleground and a sanctuary,” another creator wrote in a viral Instagram post. Similar sentiments proliferated across social media in the days…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Reportedly Resuming Shipments of 2,000-Pound Bombs to Israel

    President Donald Trump is slated to resume shipments of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, reports say, despite the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal having been implemented the day before his inauguration on Monday and Israel’s extensive use of the bombs on civilian areas. Trump is expected to lift the hold on the bombs within his first few days in office, according to outgoing Israeli ambassador to the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Rescinds Biden’s Order Aimed At Lowering Costs of Prescription Drugs

    As part of a flurry of executive actions on the first day of his second White House term, President Donald Trump on Monday rescinded an order signed by his predecessor that aimed to develop programs to lower prescription drug prices in the United States — where residents pay far more for medications than people in peer countries. News of Trump’s rollback of Executive Order 14087 — titled…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Biden’s Legacy: The World Is More Unsafe For Journalists

    President Joe Biden’s administration proclaimed numerous times that “journalism is not a crime” and that the United States government supports “free and independent media around the world.” Biden said the “free press is crumbling” in his farewell address. But the reality is that Biden and his administration helped make the state of the free press more fragile.

    Over 200 journalists in Gaza were killed by Israeli military forces armed by the Biden administration. Other client states, like India and Saudi Arabia, trampled on the human rights of reporters without fearing much criticism.

    The post Biden’s Legacy: The World Is More Unsafe For Journalists appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Biden’s Legacy: Genocide Abroad, Economic Despair At Home

    46th US President Joe Biden officially leaves office Monday, January 20, to be succeeded by former President Donald Trump. Trump’s promises in the name of “saving American workers” have raised alarm for people across sectors of society, including migrant workers who are gearing up for mass deportations, and unionized workers who are preparing for Trump’s attacks on labor rights. Trump’s loyalty to multi-billionaires has also given the working class of the US great cause for concern. Meanwhile, in contrast, the Democrats have attempted to position themselves as the real defenders of working people.

    The post Biden’s Legacy: Genocide Abroad, Economic Despair At Home appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Joe Biden Grants Clemency To Leonard Peltier

    With literally minutes left in his presidency, Joe Biden on Monday granted clemency to Leonard Peltier, the ailing Native American rights activist whom the U.S. government put in prison nearly 50 years ago after a trial riddled with misconduct and lies.

    In a statement as President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration was underway, Biden announced he is “commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.”

    Shortly afterward, Peltier said he’s ready to get back to his family.

    “It’s finally over – I’m going home.” he said in a statement. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.”

    The post Joe Biden Grants Clemency To Leonard Peltier appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Trump Just Inherited Sole Authority to Launch Nuclear Weapons on a Whim

    The global security landscape has changed dramatically since Donald Trump’s first term, but one thing that remains constant is U.S. presidential authority to use nuclear weapons. From the moment he takes the oath of office until the moment his successor assumes the presidency, Trump has the authority and the means to order a nuclear attack at any moment and for any reason if he chooses to do so.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Biden Commutes Sentence of Indigenous Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier

    Moments before he left office and as one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, an 80-year-old Native American activist and political prisoner who has been incarcerated for nearly half a century for a crime he maintains he did not commit. Biden’s commutation is not a full pardon — Peltier, who was charged under dubious circumstances for the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Joe Biden’s Terrible Legacy

    On January 20, 2025, Joseph R. Biden will no longer be president of the United States. Unlike other one term presidents he was not defeated in a re-election effort. He was undone by the same wealthy donors who rigged the process to make him the Democratic Party’s nominee in 2020. Biden was already not up to the task of running in 2020 but his obvious state of debility had noticeably worsened by 2024. He could no longer rely on claims that he only had a stutter when there were so many strange outbursts, verbal miscues, handshakes with invisible people, and wandering off as a toddler would do.

    The post Joe Biden’s Terrible Legacy appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The Ceasefire Charade

    Israel, going back decades, has played a duplicitous game. It signs a deal with the Palestinians that is to be implemented in phases. The first phase gives Israel what it wants — in this case the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza — but Israel habitually fails to implement subsequent phases that would lead to a just and equitable peace. It eventually provokes the Palestinians with indiscriminate armed assaults to retaliate, defines a Palestinian response as a provocation and abrogates the ceasefire deal to reignite the slaughter.

    If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause.

    The post The Ceasefire Charade appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Biden Brags Ceasefire Deal Is the One He Wrote — 7 Months and 10,000 Deaths Ago

    In an address announcing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza that was reached on Wednesday, President Joe Biden boasted that he had actually introduced the framework for the deal seven months ago, last May. Israel has killed at least 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza since then, and likely far more. “The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Biden’s Legacy: Fundamentally Changing Nothing For Whistleblowers

    When Joe Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, he was part of an administration that waged an unprecedented war on leaks.

    President Biden may not have been as zealous as Obama, however, he periodically harnessed the very machinery that Obama and President Donald Trump wielded to enforce secrecy and silence whistleblowers.

    With the Espionage Act, the Obama Justice Department prosecuted more United States government employees and contractors who disclosed information to the press than all previous presidents combined.

    The post Biden’s Legacy: Fundamentally Changing Nothing For Whistleblowers appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Biden Removes Cuba From List Of State Sponsors Of Terrorism

    United States President Biden has announced that he will remove Cuba from the US’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in his final days as President, reversing Donald Trump’s addition of Cuba to the list in 2021. The Biden administration said on Tuesday, January 14, that this move is meant to facilitate the release of individuals detained in Cuba. “I transmit herewith a report to the Congress with respect to the proposed recission of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism,” Biden announced.

    Countries are added to the US’s State Sponsors of Terrorism list by the State Department that have allegedly “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism”.

    The post Biden Removes Cuba From List Of State Sponsors Of Terrorism appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Pam Bondi, Trump’s Pick for AG, Refuses to Acknowledge Results of 2020 Election

    Pam Bondi, president-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department as attorney general of the United States, refused to acknowledge Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election while being questioned by senators during her confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Bondi — a former attorney general for Florida who previously worked as a defense counsel for Trump during one of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • In Gaza, Ceasefire Will Be a Chance to Finally Breathe

    Ever since Israel began its war on Gaza in October 2023, I felt as if time had stopped. Every day was the same, stripped of meaning or hope. My family and I witnessed atrocities beyond description. From the siege of tanks surrounding us to the terrifying evacuations under constant bombardment, every moment was a struggle for survival. I will never forget the sight of my mother bleeding before…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Life in Cuba Has Grown Harder. Biden’s Modest Reversal Was Too Little Too Late.

    On January 14, the Biden administration decided to remove Cuba from the U.S. State Department’s list of alleged “state sponsors of terrorism,” to suspend Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, and to ease a few other financial sanctions on Cuba. These reversed measures were imposed by Donald Trump during his first presidential term as layers added on to the existing blockade, and the Biden government…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Blinken Says Israel’s Assault Has Created as Many Hamas Members as It’s Killed

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Hamas has gained as many members as it lost amid Israel’s invasion of Gaza — despite Israeli forces claiming that their relentless slaughter of countless Palestinian civilians over the past 15 months was necessary in order to defeat Hamas. “We assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost,” Blinken said on Tuesday…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • “Secretary of Genocide”: Blinken Speech Interrupted by Pro-Palestine Protesters

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken was giving a speech on the Middle East on Tuesday when he was interrupted by protesters condemning the outgoing official’s role in enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza. In an address at the Atlantic Council, a NATO military think tank, Blinken was offering a view of U.S.’s plans for the future of the Middle East, including Gaza, when a protester began yelling.

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • After 23 Years, Prisoners Remain In Guantanamo Without Charges

    January 11 marked the twenty-third anniversary of the opening of the US military prison on occupied land in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Clearing the FOG speaks with Andy Worthington, an investigative journalist and author of The Guantanamo Files. Worthington explains that the United States opened the prison in Guantanamo to avoid legal restrictions. He describes the connections between Guantanamo and the CIA ‘black sites’ where prisoners were tortured and who the men are that were recently released as well as who remains. There are calls for Joe Biden to release all of the men and end the scandal of the prison at Guantanamo Bay before he leaves office.

    The post After 23 Years, Prisoners Remain In Guantanamo Without Charges appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • 16 Groups Urge Biden to Pardon Lawyer Steven Donziger, Who Took on Chevron

    A group of civil society organizations is urging President Joe Biden to issue a pardon for environmental and human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, saying that the “scorched-earth” campaign against him pursued by Chevron is a “stain” on the U.S. legal system. The groups said that Donziger has been the subject of a series of abuses of the U.S. court system, pointing out that a UN working group…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • US chip curbs put Australia in AI inner circle

    Australia is one of a select few countries exempt from sweeping new controls to limit the export of US-developed advanced computing chips and sharing of closed-weight AI models as the AI arms race heats up. The outgoing Biden Administration announced the rules on Monday in an 11th-hour bid to bolster AI hegemony, leading to immediate…

    The post US chip curbs put Australia in AI inner circle appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • “America’s Stamp Is Everywhere” on Bomb Shells in Gaza, Report Finds

    Former U.S. officials have spoken out about the Biden administration’s deep complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, highlighting that the assault would not be possible without U.S. assistance and that the State Department is censoring those within the agency who speak out against it. In a new interview with “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday, Josh Paul, who formerly oversaw arms shipment…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • The Public We Need

    It is hard to call people into a political project that is deeply incompatible with their sense of what it means to act morally in the world.

    This post was originally published on Dissent Magazine.

  • Biden To Keep Terrorist Designation On ‘Rebels’ Controlling Syria

    Outgoing US President Joe Biden will not lift the terrorist designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) US officials revealed on 8 January, leaving the decision to the government of President-elect Donald Trump.

    Senior officials who spoke with the Washington Post said HTS “must demonstrate they have made a clean break with extremist groups, in particular Al-Qaeda before the label can be lifted.” “Actions will speak louder than words,” an unnamed official told the US daily.

    According to the reports, Washington has “lingering concerns” after Syria’s de facto new ruler Ahmad al-Sharaa – the former deputy commander of ISIS and founder of Al-Qaeda in Syria – green-lighted the promotion of foreign extremists to the ranks of officers in the newly formed armed forces.

    The post Biden To Keep Terrorist Designation On ‘Rebels’ Controlling Syria appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.