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      Biden administration seeks to expand health coverage to Dreamers

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      The Biden administration is seeking to allow immigrants known as Dreamers, who were brought to the US as children by undocumented parents, greater access to health insurance through federal programs, the White House said on Thursday.The proposal would allow participants in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or Daca, to access to health insurance under Medicaid and Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchanges, it said.“Healthcare should be a right. I’ve worked hard to get more Americans health insurance than ever before,” Joe Biden said on Twitter, adding the move would give “Dreamers the same opportunities.”The proposed rule comes as efforts to further protect Dreamers stalls in Congress and faces legal challenges. About 580,000 people were enrolled as of last year in the Obama-era 2012 Daca program, which grants protection from deportation and work permits.An expansion would allow Daca recipients to enroll in coverage under the joint federal-state Medicaid program or through private insurers participating in the exchanges established by the 2010 ACA law also passed under Democratic then President Barack Obama and Biden, his vice-president.Eight US states have already expanded state insurance access to health coverage regardless of immigration status, according to data from the healthcare policy organization Kaiser Family Foundation.Biden promised during his 2020 presidential campaign to protect “Dreamers” and their families after Republican then President Donald Trump tried to end Daca. Biden this week said he plans to seek a second four-year term but has not formally announced his re-election bid.The president, in a video, reiterated his call for Congress to establish a pathway to citizenship for Daca recipients, adding: “While we work toward that goal … we need to give Dreamers the opportunities and the support they deserve.”One source familiar with the plan said it could take months or longer to finalize through the federal regulatory process.Democratic representative Pramila Jayapal, chair of the congressional progressive caucus, which last month urged the administration to expand access, called the move “a long overdue step toward immigrant justice”.Republicans, however, have cast doubt on Daca and other immigration reforms.Texas and other US states with Republican attorneys general are challenging the program in court. More

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      Pentagon leaks not of great consequence, says Biden – video

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      The US president, Joe Biden, has said that though he is concerned about the leaking of a tranche of confidential documents from the Pentagon, there was nothing of consequence contained in them. Biden told reporters during a visit to Ireland: ‘There’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence.’

      He said an investigation was under way by the intelligence services and the justice department to ascertain the source of the leaks, adding that ‘they’re getting close’. More

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      Biden team to propose strict vehicle pollution limits to boost EV sales

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      The Biden administration will propose strict new automobile pollution limits requiring that all-electric vehicles account for as many as two of every three new vehicles sold in the US by 2032 in a plan that would transform the US auto industry.Under the proposed regulation, expected to be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday, greenhouse gas emissions for the 2027 through 2032 model years for passenger vehicles would be limited to even stricter levels than the auto industry agreed to in 2021.“This is a massive undertaking,” said John Bozzella, the president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, told the New York Times, which first reported on the proposed limits. “It is nothing short of a complete transformation of the automotive industrial base and the automotive market.”The auto industry is expected to push back against the plan, which comes nearly two years after carmakers pledged to make electric vehicles comprise half of US new car sales by 2030 as part of a history-making transition from gasoline-powered engines to battery-powered vehicles. Environmental groups have applauded the ambitious limits proposed by the Biden administration.The proposal would require at least 54% of new vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2030, four percentage points higher than the 2021 goal that the industry previously agreed to, and up to 67% of new vehicles by 2032. The 2021 agreement came after strong pressure from President Biden, who signed an executive order setting a target for half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 to be zero-emissions vehicles.The president also wants automakers to raise gas mileage and cut tailpipe pollution between now and model year 2026, which would be a significant step toward his pledge to cut US planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.Electric vehicles accounted for only 7.2% of US vehicle sales in the first quarter of the year, but the share of EV sales is on the rise – last year it was 5.8% of new vehicle sales.The EPA declined to offer details ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, but confirmed in a statement that, as directed by Biden’s order, it is “developing new standards that will … accelerate the transition to a zero-emissions transportation future, protecting people and the planet”.The proposed regulation isn’t expected to become final until next year. More

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      Biden calls family of reporter detained in Russia and charged with espionage

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      Joe Biden spoke to the parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the Moscow-based journalist was detained in Russia and charged with espionage.The president made the call as he flew to Belfast to start a four-day trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland. The call happened one day after the Biden administration formally declared the reporter had been “wrongfully detained”.The designation elevates Gershkovich’s case for the US government and means that a particular state department office will take the lead on seeking his release.Before departing Washington on Tuesday, Biden again condemned the journalist’s detention. Both the US government and Wall Street Journal have vehemently denied the Russian accusation that Gershkovich is a spy.“We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening, and we declared it so,” Biden said. “It changes the dynamic.”The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters after the call that Biden “felt it was really important to connect with Evan’s family, his parents”. She said that Gershkovich, 31, has been “top of mind” for the president.The White House’s national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said that the Russian government has yet to grant US consular access to Gershkovich.“It’s not for lack of trying,” Kirby said, adding that the state department has been seeking access “ever since the moment we found out that he was detained”.Russian authorities arrested Gershkovich in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, on 29 March. He is the first US correspondent since the cold war to be detained in Russia for alleged spying.In their own statement Tuesday, Gershkovich’s family members issued a statement thanking Biden for the call and saying they had “a hole in [their] hearts … that won’t be filled” until the journalist’s return.“We are encouraged that the state department has officially designated Evan as wrongfully detained,” the Gershkovich family’s statement said. “We appreciate President Biden’s call to us today, assuring us that the US government is doing everything in its power to bring him home as quickly as possible.“In addition to being a distinguished journalist, Evan is a beloved son and brother. There is a hole in our hearts and in our family that won’t be filled until we are reunited. We are grateful for the outpouring of support from his colleagues, friends and everyone standing with Evan and advocating for his immediate release.” More

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      The Guardian view on Joe Biden in Belfast: securing the Good Friday legacy | Editorial

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      In The Green and White House, an account of the ancestral ties that have linked so many American leaders to Ireland since the 19th century, Joe Biden is described as the most deeply “connected” president of all. Throughout his career, Mr Biden has placed his Irish roots at the heart of his political identity, and played an influential role in promoting the Northern Ireland peace process.Cometh the hour, cometh the Potus? As he visits Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, there is widespread hope that Mr Biden can put his backstory to profitable use at a delicate moment, along with the unique clout that goes with his office. As a kind of restless, ominous gridlock grips Northern Ireland’s body politic, that would constitute a notable success.In recent months, the Democratic Unionist party’s ongoing boycott of the Stormont parliament has created a corrosive power vacuum at the heart of Northern Irish politics. Democratic stasis has been accompanied by a rise in politically motivated violence by dissident groups. On the eve of Mr Biden’s visit, petrol bomb attacks on police in Derry underlined the sulphurous mood on the dissident fringes.Mr Biden’s personal sense of commitment is unlikely to mean he can single-handedly broker a solution to the impasse. Its root cause is structural, residing in the hard Brexit irresponsibly pursued by successive Conservative governments, which resulted in a border in the Irish Sea. Despite improvements to the Northern Ireland protocol negotiated by Rishi Sunak in the Windsor framework, Brexit has undermined the meticulous balancing of unionist and nationalist interests that lay at the core of the Good Friday agreement. Trust has been eroded; rebuilding it will be a slow process.The immediate priority is persuading the DUP to rejoin power-sharing arrangements at Stormont. Mr Biden will doubtless do his best to cajole. But given the party’s fears of being outflanked to its right by the still more hardline Traditional Unionist Voice, any return seems highly unlikely until after the mid-May elections. Nevertheless, Mr Biden can usefully focus minds on the merits of being on good terms with the world’s largest economy.Writing in a unionist newspaper prior to the trip, the US trade envoy to Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy, who is accompanying Mr Biden, emphasised that over the past decade, political stability had attracted almost £1.5bn of US investment to Northern Ireland. Rather than refighting old conflicts, Mr Kennedy wrote, families and communities are interested in the opportunities that a spirit of pragmatism and compromise can bring. Overwhelming public support for the Windsor framework, which the DUP continues flatly to reject, testifies to the truth of Mr Kennedy’s claim. That is a platform to work from.Before flying to Belfast, Mr Biden told reporters that the main aim of his visit was to safeguard the legacy of the Good Friday agreement. Acknowledged as a peacemaking model around the world, the power-sharing logic of the 1998 accords saved hundreds of lives that could otherwise have been lost. Northern Ireland today is a transformed place as a result of the peace dividend, and a rising proportion of the population eschews old sectarian identities. But as Mr Biden is well aware, in the wake of Brexit’s disastrous impact, there is more work to be done. More