The US Senate has voted resoundingly by 79 to 18 to approve $95bn in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as a bipartisan super-majority united to send the long-stalled package to Joe Biden’s desk for signature. The bill was approved after proceedings that were hailed by the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, as ‘one of…
Richard Grenell’s shadow foreign policy campaign is unsettling diplomats and threatens to collapse US interests For Donald Trump, he is “my envoy”, the man apparently anointed as the former US president’s roving ambassador while he plots a return to the White House. To critics, he is seen as “an online pest” and “a national disgrace” –…
Washington says no despite ‘frantic’ talks between diplomats, as bodies lie in street and army battles gun-toting gang members What led to the Haiti jailbreak – and can democracy be restored? The United States has said it will not send troops to Haiti after a stunning eruption of gang violence seemingly designed to bring down…
Biden deserves credit for pushing for the meeting despite an often heatedly anti-China political environment in the US Wednesday’s meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping was a lot harder to pull off than the photographs of the two leaders ambling around the gardens of the Filoli mansion outside San Francisco may have made it appear.…
Former president praises Biden for standing with Israel and says Netanyahu has ‘got to do what he’s got to do’ after Hamas attacks The US must support Israel “no ands, ifs or buts”, the former US president George W Bush said as he advocated for tough action in response to violence by Hamas which many…
We just returned from a delegation to Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Each country is still seeking answers about the history of US intervention On the morning of 11 September 1973, the Central Intelligence Agency briefed President Richard Nixon about the Chilean military’s imminent plan to “trigger military action against the Allende government”. By noon, bombs…
The US president’s remarks came after after meeting in Vietnam with Communist party official to secure global supply chain Joe Biden’s national security tour of south-east Asia reached Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, where the president called for stability in the US-China relationship against an increasingly complex diplomatic picture in the region for his country. “I don’t…
Antony Blinken says he’s looking to ‘promote accountability’ for Ugandan officials who have violated rights of LGBTQ+ people The US may restrict visas issued to Ugandan officials in its latest condemnation to the African country’s enactment of stringent – and highly controversial – anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said that Joe…
Senior White House official says president hears region’s concerns and ‘does not want conflict’ with China Joe Biden’s senior advisers have acknowledged countries in the Indo-Pacific don’t want to be “trampled by a headlong clash” between the US and China. In a webinar with an Australian audience on Friday, senior White House national security council (NSC) officials…
US president’s ‘homecoming’ visit has alchemised politics, diplomacy and the personal into a feelgood glow for visitor and hosts John F Kennedy set the template for US presidential forays to Ireland with a rapturous visit in 1963 that he called the best four days of his life. Joe Biden’s visit this week did not quite match that…