Connect with us

Politics

Joe Biden opens overseas tour in UK with ‘US is back’ vow

Published

4 years ago

on

President Joe Biden began a whirlwind European tour in the UK, vowing that the US was back to help “tackle the toughest challenges.” While visiting, he was expected to voice concerns over peace in Northern Ireland.

US President Joe Biden opened the first overseas trip of his term Wednesday, arriving in Britain with a declaration that the “United States is back.”

Biden, keen to repair relations with European allies that were shaken by his predecessor Donald Trump, is beginning his tour in the UK, where he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday.

Biden, who arrived at the Royal Air Force’s Mildenhall air base in eastern England, addressed the first remarks of his maiden tour abroad to US troops stationed in the UK.

“This is my first overseas trip as president of the United States. I’m heading to the G7, then the NATO ministerial and then to meet with Mr. Putin to let him know what I want him to know,” Biden said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

“At every point along the way, we’re going to make it clear that the United States is back, and democracies are standing together to tackle the toughest challenges and issues that matter the most to our future,” he said.

“That we’re committed to leading with strength, defending our values, and delivering for our people.”

Most pressing among the challenges facing the US and its allies is the coronavirus pandemic, with Biden promising that the US would also lead on this matter. “We have to end COVID-19 not just at home — which we’re doing — but everywhere,” Biden said. According to US media reports, the Biden administration is set to buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for international distribution.

On Thursday, Biden was expected to underline the US insistence on safeguarding the 1998 Belfast Agreement (also known as the Good Friday Agreement) in his meeting with the UK prime minister.

Biden’s staff said the president had been clear, ahead of their first official meeting, that Brexit-related issues should not be allowed to derail the US-brokered agreement.

“President Biden has been crystal clear about his rock-solid belief in the Good Friday Agreement as the foundation for peaceful co-existence in Northern Ireland,” Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One.

“Any steps that imperil it or undermine it would not be welcomed by the United States,” said Sullivan, who declined to elaborate on issues surrounding Brexit.

Sullivan stressed that Biden, who is known to be proud of his Irish heritage, would make a statement of principle about the importance of that peace deal

“He’s not issuing threats or ultimatums, he’s going to simply convey his deep-seated belief that we need to stand behind and protect this protocol,” Sullivan said.

The issue of border customs checks — and particularly where they should take place — has stoked sectarian divisions, and rekindled fears of a return to violence.

While the 1998 deal ended decades of violence between mainly Protestant pro-UK unionists and largely Catholic Irish nationalists, the province remains deeply divided.

Ahead of Brexit, the EU and Britain had tried to solve the border riddle presented by the need for a customs border. However, London has since said that the protocol it signed with Brussels is unsustainable.

The EU has already launched legal proceedings after the UK delayed promised custom controls on some goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales

Texas Guardian News
Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

News

Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress

Published

6 days ago

on

November 14, 2025

By

The latest tranche of emails from the estate of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein includes one that contains what appear to be references to President Donald Trump allegedly performing oral sex, raising questions the committee cannot answer until the Department of Justice turns over records it has withheld, says U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Garcia insists the Trump White House is helping block them.

In a Friday afternoon interview with The Advocate, the out California lawmaker responded to a 2018 exchange, which was included in the emails released, between Jeffrey Epstein and his brother, Mark Epstein. In that message, Mark wrote that because Jeffrey Epstein had said he was with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, he should “ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”

“Bubba” is a nickname former President Bill Clinton has been known by; however, the email does not clarify who Mark Epstein meant, and the context remains unclear.

Texas Guardian News
Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)
Continue Reading

News

USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply

Published

6 days ago

on

November 14, 2025

By

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud.

The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”

“Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” she asked during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”

“It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it,” she added.

Every state has a periodic recertification process that requires SNAP or food stamp recipients to update their whereabouts and earnings, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most municipalities require updated data every six to 12 months.

“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States. “

Earlier this month, food stamps were threatened amid the government shutdown as the Trump administration argued against using contingency funds to fuel the welfare program.

Texas Guardian News
Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)
Continue Reading

News

Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes

Published

6 days ago

on

November 14, 2025

By

NEW YORK (AP) — Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.

Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.

Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.

Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”

In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.

It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.

None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimes

Texas Guardian News
Latest posts by Texas Guardian News (see all)
Continue Reading

Trending