Joe biden

With the latest projections, Biden, 78, will become the oldest serving US president while Kamala Harris will be the first vice president, the first vice president of color and the first South Asian woman to reach this rank.

Joe Biden, who has become the US’s President-elect as per US media’s projections, has sent a message to those who voted for President Trump, calling for unity and reconciliation.

US President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on November 7. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

Opening his speech to the nation at the Chase Center in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said the American people had made their choice clear. “The people of this nation have spoken they’ve delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory, a victory for we the people.”

He went on to say he was surprised by the celebrating in the streets across the country, calling it an “outpouring of joy, of hope, renewed faith in tomorrow to bring another day.”

“I am humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me,” Biden added.

“The work ahead of us will be hard, but I promise you this: I will be a President for all Americans — whether you voted for me or not. I will keep the faith that you have placed in me,” Biden said on Twitter after media unanimously declared his win.

According to CNN, Biden won 20 electoral votes in Keystone battleground state Pennsylvania, securing 279 voted, more than 270 required to take over the White House in the coming four years.

Biden, who served as vice president under Barack Obama in two terms, said it was time both sides “listen to each other again.”

“It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again, and to make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans,” Biden said.

“This is the time to heal in America,” he noted.

With the latest projections, Biden, 78, will become the oldest serving US president while Kamala Harris will be the first vice president, the first vice president of color and the first South Asian woman to reach this rank.

US President Joe Biden speaks during his first press briefing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2021. Biden said Thursday that the United States will “respond accordingly” if North Korea escalates its missile testing.(Jim WATSON / AFP)

The nuclear-armed North has a long history of using weapons tests to ramp up tensions, in a carefully calibrated process to try to forward its objectives.

Biden’s response demonstrates a change of tone from his predecessor Donald Trump, who engaged in an extraordinary diplomatic bromance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and last year repeatedly played down similar short-range launches.

Pyongyang had been biding its time since the new administration took office, not even officially acknowledging its existence until last week.

But on Thursday it launched two weapons from its east coast into the Sea of Japan, known as the East Sea in Korea.

It was a violation of UN resolutions and the US was “consulting with our partners and allies,” Biden said, warning North Korea that “there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly.”

“I’m also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization,” he told reporters.

– ‘Nuclear capable’ –

Washington and Tokyo said the North had fired ballistic missiles, which it is banned from developing under UN Security Council resolutions that have imposed multiple sanctions on the isolated country.

Pyongyang insisted Friday that the test involved a “tactical guided projectile” with a solid-fuel engine, with its official KCNA news agency saying it was supervised by senior official Ri Pyong Chol, rather than leader Kim Jong Un.

The weapons hit a target 600 kilometres (370 miles) away, KCNA said — further than the 450 kilometres reported by South Korea’s military — and could carry a payload of 2.5 tons.

Pictures in Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed grinning officers applauding after the launch, most of them not wearing masks.

Vipin Narang of MIT said it appeared to be a weapon that the North displayed at a military parade in January.

“A 2.5 ton warhead likely settles the question whether this KN23 variant is nuclear capable. It is,” he tweeted.

The US stations 28,500 troops in South Korea to defend it against its neighbour, which invaded in 1950, while Pyongyang says it needs nuclear weapons to deter a possible US invasion.

– ‘Familiar pattern’ –

Besides Biden’s comments, rebukes poured in from Germany, France and Britain, which each condemned the tests as violations of UN Security Council resolutions.

At Washington’s request, the UN North Korea sanctions committee would meet Friday behind closed doors, according to diplomatic sources, although no public statement is expected.

Pyongyang has made rapid progress in its capabilities under leader Kim, testing missiles capable of reaching the entire continental United States as tensions mounted in 2017.

Trump’s first year in office was marked by a series of escalating launches, accompanied by a war of words between him and Kim before a dramatic turn to personal diplomacy, with the two holding headline-grabbing summits in Singapore and Vietnam.

The United States pulled back on some joint military exercises with South Korea while the North froze nuclear tests and intercontinental ballistic missile launches.

But their February 2019 Hanoi summit broke up over sanctions relief and what North Korea would be willing to give up in return.

Communications then dried up, despite a third encounter in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the Korean peninsula, and no substantive progress was made towards denuclearization.

Pyongyang was now “slowly going up that spectrum, that ladder of the inflammatory nature of provocation,” said Frank Aum, a North Korea expert at the US Institute of Peace and former Pentagon adviser, to see how the Biden administration responded.

Thursday’s launch, and an earlier test of short-range, non-ballistic missiles at the weekend, came after joint exercises by the US and South Korean militaries and a visit to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, when Blinken repeatedly stressed the importance of denuclearizing North Korea.

Biden administration officials say they have sought to reach out to Pyongyang through several channels but have received no response so far.

US President Joe Biden answers a question during his first press briefing in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 25, 2021. Biden said Thursday that the United States will “respond accordingly” if North Korea escalates its missile testing.(Jim WATSON / AFP)

British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca could be among the pharmaceutical companies hit first as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that her bloc would not allow Covid vaccine exports to the UK and other countries until the firms make good on their own promised deliveries.

“I think it is clear that first of all the company (AstraZeneca) has to catch up, has to honour the contract it has with the European member states, before it can engage again in exporting vaccines,” von der Leyen told a news conference.

The focus of the latest row is an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government claims as part of the British vaccine supply chain.

As the EU met via videoconference Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron aligned himself with von der Leyen, despite some countries’ — including the Netherlands and Belgium — hesitancy to impose an embargo.

“The supply chains are so intricate, they’re so intertwined, so it’s not automatically a good thing if this new instrument is to be applied,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said, citing the example of a Belgian plant making BioNTech/Pfizer vaccines that relies on raw materials from Britain.

Von der Leyen released updated figures on how many vaccine doses the bloc has exported — 77 million to 33 countries since December.

By contrast, 88 million doses will have been delivered in the 27-nation bloc by the end of this week, also since December.

But estimates for the second quarter of this year showed that 360 million doses should be delivered from BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

In contrast to Europe’s woes, vaccinations in the United States — the world’s top economy and hardest-hit country in the pandemic — have been storming ahead, with Biden raising his goal for shots in arms during his first 100 days in office from 100 to 200 million.

“I know it’s ambitious, twice our original goal,” he told his first press conference since taking office on January 20.

“But no other country in the world has even come close — not even close — to what we are doing, and I believe we can do it.”

– Covax delays –

The AstraZeneca situation became even more complicated when the company was forced to review its US trials and then slightly revise down the jab’s efficacy at preventing symptomatic Covid from 79 percent to 76 percent, after an American agency raised concerns about what it called outdated information.

It remains 100 percent effective against severe Covid, it added.

The shot was hailed as a breakthrough because it is cheaper and easier to store and transport than other vaccines.

AstraZeneca is also one of the main vaccines used in the Covax project, which supplies poorer countries with jabs, and is facing export delays in India where it is produced by the Serum Institute.

A co-founder of the global scheme to provide vaccines for poor people said Thursday that India was delaying exports of much-needed jabs.

The Gavi alliance, a Covax co-founder, said deliveries of vaccines to lower-income economies will face delays because of a “setback” in obtaining export licences from the Indian government.

A Gavi spokesman said the licence delays “are due to the increased demand of Covid-19 vaccines in India”.

The vast country recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday for the first time since November and is struggling to keep up with its own faltering vaccine drive at home.

– Grim milestones –

The widening gap for vaccine access complicates the world’s eventual exit from the pandemic through a global immunisation drive, as third waves sweep through several countries and force governments to reimpose tough anti-virus restrictions, including Germany, Poland, France, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands.

Central and Eastern Europe have been particularly hard-hit, with Ukraine posting a record number of Covid fatalities for the third straight day and Hungary registering the world’s highest death rate per 100,000 inhabitants over the last week.

Brazil surpassed 100,000 new Covid-19 cases in one day Thursday, the latest grim record the country has marked as the second-hardest hit country in the world behind the United States — and just one day after the country hit 300,000 total recorded deaths since the start of the pandemic.

And third-hardest hit country Mexico surpassed 200,000 coronavirus deaths Thursday.

The bleak milestone comes despite a decline in new cases and deaths in recent weeks, following a surge in January that pushed many hospitals to the breaking point, though health officials worry about the potential of another wave after Easter.

– ‘Together again’ –

The pandemic has claimed more than 2.7 million lives worldwide, hammered the global economy and left much of humanity under punishing restrictions.

But in some parts of the world, vaccinations have brought joy back after a tough year.

“We were just waiting to be all together again because we were really sad to be divided like that, floor by floor,” said Lydie, a 91-year-old retirement home resident in France’s Val-de-Marne, where vaccinations have allowed an easing of curbs.

“There was no joy. Now it’s very good. We are happy.”

US President Joe Biden speaks in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on March 31, 2021. President Biden unveiled a USD 2 trillion infrastructure plan aimed at modernizing the United States’ crumbling transport network, creating millions of jobs and enabling the country to “out-compete” China.(JIM WATSON / AFP)

Biden compared his “transformational” plan to the ambitious US space program of the 1960s, saying it would boost the livelihoods of poor and middle-class Americans, take aim at global warming, and be funded by increased taxes on large companies and the rich.

“Today I’m proposing a plan for the nation that rewards work, not just rewards wealth. It builds a fair economy that gives everybody a chance to succeed. It’s going to create the strongest, most resilient, innovative economy in the world,” Biden said.

“It’s a once-in-a-generation investment in America, unlike anything we’ve seen or done since we built the interstate highway system and the space race decades ago.”

The plan called for sweeping upgrades to transportation, telecommunications and energy infrastructure, which the US leader said was both about revitalizing an economy weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic and restoring its global competitiveness.

“We can’t delay another minute. It’s long past due,” he said in Pittsburgh.

“The rest of the world is closing in and closing in fast — we can’t allow this to continue.”

– Trillions in spending –

Biden’s infrastructure plan — the second massive spending initiative of his 10-week old administration, after the $1.9 trillion short-term Covid rescue bill passed earlier this month — faces tough tests in a Congress worried about soaring deficits.

But it also seeks to address crumbling bridges, roads and other public works around the country that successive administrations have failed to take on.

In doing so, it would expand the role of the government in the US economy to levels not seen in decades.

“In fact, it’s the largest American jobs investment since World War II. It will create millions of jobs, good-paying jobs,” Biden said.

Biden also stressed that it would reward “hard-working” Americans instead of the wealthy of Wall Street, countering an economy that had become “distorted and unfair,” particularly under his predecessor Donald Trump.

“When Trump’s tax bill passed, 83 percent of the money went to the top one percent,” he said.

“This is not to seek retribution. This is about opening opportunities for everybody else. Here’s the truth: We all do better when we all do well.”

– Taxing the rich –

He proposed to fund it by raising taxes on companies and rich Americans whom he said don’t pay their fair share.

Taxes will rise on Americans earning more than $400,000 a year, and the corporate tax ceiling will rise to 28 percent from 21 percent.

“I have nothing against millionaires and billionaires. I believe in American capitalism,” he said.

However, he said, “the biggest companies in the world, including Amazon… pay not a single solitary penny in federal income tax” because of corporate-friendly loopholes.

“That’s just wrong.”

Biden’s speech fired the starting gun on what is expected to be a bitter battle in Congress, where the Democrats hold only a narrow majority and will face strong opposition from Republicans, who have denounced the plan as excessive government spending.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called the plan a “Trojan horse” for the extreme left, with higher taxes and support for unions.

“Our nation could use a serious, targeted infrastructure plan,” he said in a statement.

Biden’s plan, he said, is just “the latest liberal wish-list” and a “major missed opportunity.”

Business groups blasted Biden’s intention to have them fund it.

“We need a big and bold program to modernize our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and we applaud the Biden administration for making infrastructure a top priority,” the powerful US Chamber of Commerce said in a statement.

“However, we believe the proposal is dangerously misguided when it comes to how to pay for infrastructure.”

Trump, who spoke of revitalizing US infrastructure but made no headway in Congress, said Biden’s tax hike would hurt the economy and “decimate US manufacturing.”

– Need to woo Republicans –

The coming months will test the negotiating skills of Biden, a veteran Washington dealmaker, to the limit, and the chances of his infrastructure plan becoming law remain uncertain.

Even though Republicans refused to vote for his Covid-19 rescue plan, Biden said he was confident some would support the infrastructure program, and that he was ready to negotiate with them.

“I don’t think you’ll find a Republican today in the House or Senate … who doesn’t think we have to improve our infrastructure. You know, China and other countries are eating our lunch,” he said.

“We will have a good-faith negotiation,” he said. “But we have to get it done.”

President Joe Biden has designated Marc Evans Knapper as the next ambassador to Vietnam, the White House said on April 15.

A medical worker fills a syringe from a vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 24, 2021 at a vaccination hub outside Rome’s Termini railway station, as the vaccination campaing continues despite delays across the country . (ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

The new US president will address the 27 EU leaders by video link in the evening as Washington and Brussels put on a show of mending ties after the dramatic diplomatic battles of the Donald Trump years.

But his intervention will only be a brief respite from the main matter at hand: How to outpace the resurgent epidemic when drug deliveries came up short and vaccination campaigns started slowly?

Host Charles Michel, the president of the leaders’ European Council, had hoped to hold a substantive face-to-face summit, but was forced to accept a stripped down video conference as EU members reinstated lockdown measures.

The Europeans are angry that UK-based pharma giant AstraZeneca has failed to meet its vaccine delivery promises to the EU while ensuring smoother supplies to former member Britain.

But they are also squabbling among themselves over how to share the vaccines they have received, and not all are happy with the European Commission’s threat to block some vaccine exports.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s executive updated its month-old control mechanism on Wednesday, giving the bloc more power to block vaccine shipments to countries like Britain that produce jabs but do not export them.

The leaders will not be asked to vote on the measure, already provisionally applied, at Thursday’s summit, and most would back it if it helps pressure AstraZeneca to boost its deliveries.

But some — like UK neighbour Ireland, and vaccine producers Belgium and the Netherlands — are wary of any move to block exports from operations like Pfizer/BioNTech, which supplies both the EU and UK.

If the pharmaceutical industry’s global supply chains are disrupted, many countries could lose out, as both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government and von der Leyen’s commission accepted.

– ‘Win-win situation’ –

“We are all facing the same pandemic and the third wave makes cooperation between the EU and UK even more important,” they said, in a joint statement released to calm nerves after the EU tightened its rules.

The cross-Channel rivals are in discussions about how “to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all our citizens” but have yet to come to agreement on how to share AstraZeneca doses.

The firm has delivered the EU only 19 million of the 30 million it had promised in the first quarter — and that pledge was itself a dramatic reduction from the 120 million it contracted for.

With some EU countries more reliant on the cheaper UK-designed vaccine than others, Brussels’ focus has turned to a plant in the Netherlands which the UK had planned to use for its own supplies.

Johnson is holding out, insisting that the UK contract with AstraZeneca must be honoured, but he is worried that Brussels could use the toughened export mechanism to cut Britain off from other EU-made vaccines.

A European diplomat told reporters that the UK and the Commission are negotiating how to better share AstraZeneca doses, and that the EU must not shoulder the shortfall alone.

Another sensitive issue is sharing out the vaccines Europe has received under the Commission’s joint buying strategy.

A group of smaller states, led by Austria, is demanding a revision in the distribution method after they came up short in the first quarter.

There is little sympathy in other capitals for their plight, however, as decisions were made on a joint steering committee where Austria and others failed to make use of opportunities to secure more batches.

Discussions are underway on a compromise, but some countries relied more heavily on AstraZeneca compared to more expensive — but in the end more successful — suppliers.

And, as one diplomat said: “Some countries just decided to buy fewer vaccines, it’s a tactic that can’t be blamed on the EU or other member states.”

– Top envoy –

Against this backdrop, Biden’s appearance, albeit by video from Washington, may prove a respite. European officials have been delighted with the new US administration’s warmer tone.

On the eve of the summit, Biden’s top diplomat Antony Blinken wrapped up a two-day visit to Brussels after talks with NATO ministers and top EU officials, promising close coordination.

But fearing leaks from a less than secure videoconference, the leaders do not expect to be able to make decisions on many sensitive topics, and talks initially planned for two days will instead end late Thursday.