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      Nancy Pelosi defends Taiwan trip as ‘more important today than ever’ amid China tensions – live

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      US House speaker Nancy Pelosi has put out a statement explaining her trip to Taiwan, saying “America’s solidarity” with the island “is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”Here’s the full text of the statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Our Congressional delegation’s visit to Taiwan honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant Democracy.
      Our visit is part of our broader trip to the Indo-Pacific – including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan – focused on mutual security, economic partnership and democratic governance. Our discussions with Taiwan leadership will focus on reaffirming our support for our partner and on promoting our shared interests, including advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific region. America’s solidarity with the 23 million people of Taiwan is more important today than ever, as the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.
      Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan – and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, U.S.-China Joint Communiques and the Six Assurances. The United States continues to oppose unilateral efforts to change the status quo.If Joe Biden is less than delighted that Nancy Pelosi is in Taiwan, quite a lot of Republican senators feel quite the opposite. Twenty-five of them – half the caucus in the evenly divided chamber – released a statement earlier, in support of the House speaker, otherwise a much-demonised figure throughout the GOP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We support Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan. For decades, members of the United States Congress, including a previous Speaker of the House, have travelled to Taiwan. This travel is consistent with the United States’ One China policy to which we are committed. We are also committed now, more than ever, to all elements of the Taiwan Relations Act.The supportive senators are: Susan Collins (Maine), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), John Thune (South Dakota), Jim Inhofe (Oklahoma), Jim Risch (Idaho), Roy Blunt (Missouri), John Cornyn (Texas), John Barrasso (Wyoming), Kevin Cramer (North Dakota), Ben Sasse (Nebraska), Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee), Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Tommy Tuberville (Alabama), Steve Daines (Montana), Deb Fischer (Nebraska), Todd Young (Indiana), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Rob Portman (Ohio), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Richard Burr (North Carolina), John Boozman (Arkansas), Tim Scott (South Carolina), Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania).There weren’t many Trumpian fire-eaters among the 25 but one senator who has been known to blow hot in such a fashion, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, had harsher words for Biden, tweeting: “The world overlooked Wuhan’s role in the Covid pandemic. The world overlooked Beijing’s human rights record during the genocide games. Now, Biden is pressuring the world to forget all about Taiwan’s freedom.”At the White House, the spokesman John Kirby said: “We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and seek to maintain communication with Beijing”. He also said the United States “will not engage in sabre-rattling”.China’s opposition to Nancy Pelosi’s trip has been well known and very well signaled by its government. The visit has plunged the Asia-Pacific region into a diplomatic crisis – though how much is just sabre-rattling is hard to tell. One person who will be told for sure is the US ambassador to China. This story is moving on the Chinese news wire Xinhua: CHINESE VICE FOREIGN MINISTER XIE FENG URGENTLY SUMMONED US AMBASSADOR TO CHINA NICHOLAS BURNS LATE TUESDAY NIGHT.
      Washington to China and everywhere in between reacted to House speaker Nancy Pelosi arriving in Taiwan as the first speaker of the house to do so in a quarter of a century.
      The justice department filed a lawsuit against the restrictive abortion law in Idaho, arguing that by prohibiting individuals from receiving abortions even if it may save their lives violated the federal emergency medical treatment and labor act, which requires every hospital that receives Medicare funds to provide necessary stabilizing treatment.
      The senate is purportedly gearing up for a vote on the Honoring our Pact Act, the bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer believes will pass after senators reached an agreement on amendments. There was widespread anger last week after Senate Republicans abruptly halted a procedural vote to advance the legislation. Veterans have been protesting outside the US Capitol since last week, camping outside the building and refusing to leave until lawmakers pass the legislation.
      Joe Biden is on his fourth day of his rebound case of Covid-19 and is still testing positive, and is suffering from a return of a loose cough.
      Senate Democrats remained optimistic on the $740bn reconciliation bill, officially known as Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Senator Joe Manchin was seen speaking to his fellow moderate Democrat, senator Kyrsten Sinema, whose position on the package is still unknown.
      Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan has caused a headache for Joe Biden who most likely would prefer not to be dealing with a foreign policy crisis when he has some – rare – successes to boast about at home and abroad. Here is some Reuters copy on the White House’s mixed feelings about the trip with what sounds like pleading to not “amp this up”. Its a delicate tightrope between not wanting to be seen to be critical of Pelosi, but also kind of wishing this was not happening..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The Biden administration wants to keep tensions between Washington and Beijing inflamed by a high level visit to Taiwan from boiling over into a conflict, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.
      In a briefing with reporters, Kirby noted that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was within her rights to visit Taiwan on Tuesday but also stressed that the trip did not constitute a violation of Chinese sovereignty or America’s longstanding “one-China” policy.
      “What we don’t want to see is this spiral into any kind of a crisis or conflict,” Kirby said. “There’s just no reason to amp this up.”
      Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday on a trip she said shows an unwavering American commitment to the Chinese-claimed self-ruled island, but China condemned the highest-level US visit in 25 years as a threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.White House national security spokesman John Kirby spoke vaguely about the efforts to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan, two high-profile Americans currently detained in Russia. “We are working hard, government to government, to get Paul and Brittney home,” he said. “We made a serious proposal. We made a serious offer,” Kirby said. “We urge the Russians to take that offer because it was done with sincerity and we know we can back it up.”Read more here: US’s proposed swap for Griner and Whelan met with skepticism and furyRead moreWhite House national security spokesman John Kirby acknowledged that the killing of top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri signifies a violation of the Doha agreement – the landmark peace agreement in which the Taliban agreed to sever ties with al-Qaida and other international terror groups. Secretary of state Antony Blinken had previously said the Taliban “grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances to the world that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries”.While Kirby said he could not speak to what steps the US was going to take to hold the Taliban accountable for violating the agreement, “we made it very clear that that was a violation of the Doha agreement”. “We made it clear to the Taliban that we know what they did,” he said. “We know who they harbored. We know some of the steps they tried to take after the strike to cover up the evidence of it. We’re mindful of it. But I’m not going to get ahead – policy decisions haven’t been made. We’re not going to take the Taliban at their word. They claim they want a relationship with the United States and the West. They claim they want to open up and be part of the international community. They claim they want financing. If that’s true and if that’s what they really want, it would behoove them to pay close attention to what we just did over the weekend and meet their agreements under the Doha agreement.”He said he felt that with or without the Taliban’s cooperation, this weekend’s drone strike proved that Afghanistan would not be a safe haven for terrorists. “The strike itself shows how serious we are about accountability,” Kirby said. “It shows how serious we are about defending our interests. We’re going to maintain this over-horizon capability. We’re going to continue to improve that capability going forward.”Later, Kirby said, “Mr Zawahiri’s death is good for everyone in the world. He was a killer. It’s a good thing that he’s no longer walking the face of the earth.” As to House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her trip to Taiwan, White House national security spokesman John Kirby reiterated much of what he said at yesterday’s briefing. He put some distance between her and Joe Biden, saying that Congress was its own separate branch of government that could make its own travel decisions, but that her trip was in line with US policy and China was out of line for reacting with threats. “Let me be clear: the speaker’s visit is totally consistent with our long-standing One China policy. We have been very clear that nothing has changed with our One China policy,” Kirby said. “We have said that we do not support Taiwan independence and we said that we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.”He said China’s reaction – China put its military on high alert and announced a series of targeted military operations – was “right in line with what we anticipated”. “There’s no reason for Beijing to turn this visit, which is consistent with long-standing US policy, into some sort of crisis, or use it as some kind of pretext to increase aggressiveness and military activity in or around now or beyond her travel,” Kirby said. Kirby continued: “The United States will not seek and does not want a crisis. We are prepared to manage what Beijing chooses to do. At the same time, we will not engage in sabre rattling. We will continue to operate in the seas and the skies of the western Pacific as we have for decades. We will continue to support Taiwan, defend a free and open Indo-Pacific and seek to maintain communication with Beijing.” White House national security spokesman John Kirby kicked off today’s press briefing by addressing the US drone strike in Afghanistan that killed the top al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Joe Biden has described Zawahiri as one of the world’s most wanted men who was the deputy and successor to Osama bin Laden.“President Biden has consistently said that we will not allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorists who might bring harm to Americans and the homeland,” Kirby said. “We have met that commitment. This action demonstrates that without American forces on the ground in Afghanistan and in harm’s way, we still remain able to identify and locate even the world’s most wanted terrorists and take actions to remove them from the battlefield.”An update on the reconciliation bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the $740bn legislative package that seeks to enact deficit reduction to fight inflation, lower energy costs, reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030 and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, among other things.This week, Senate Democrats must meet with the Senate parliamentarian, who will parse through the text of the bill to make sure it meets all the rules of what’s allowed within the scope of reconciliation. That’s not the only challenge they face though: Senate Republicans have vowed to thwart the bill, and it’s still unclear whether moderate Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema is on board or not. But two days into the week, Democrats remain optimistic. “On track,” Schumer says of passing their reconciliation bill later this week. “All text and CBO and JCT scores have been submitted for review” to the Senate parliamentarian, he said. Parl has yet to rule— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2022
      Democrats taking a bit of a preemptive victory on the reconciliation package:Schumer it “breathtaking,” noting “it gives Democrats real happiness “”Democrats will pass this bill in the coming days.”— @lindsemcpherson (@lindsemcpherson) August 2, 2022
      Manchin chatting up Sinema in the chair right now— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) August 2, 2022
      Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said senators have reached an agreement on the Honoring our Pact Act, the bipartisan legislation that would make it easier for veterans to access military care related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and toxins from burn pits used to get rid of military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.He said he’s planning to call a vote at 5pm local time. Schumer just announced an agreement with amendments on the PACT Act. Says he’s planning a vote around 5pm today and he expects it will pass.— Jessica Dean (@jessicadean) August 2, 2022
      Several Senate Democrats have introduced a bill seeking to impose term limits on supreme court justices. Several Democratic senators just introduced a bill to impose term limits on Supreme Court justices.Under their bill, a new justice would take the bench every 2 years and spend 18 years in active service.— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      Senators sponsoring this bill:Sheldon WhitehouseCory BookerRichard BlumenthalBrian SchatzMazie Hirono— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      This is the Senate version of the bill introduced last week by Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga).https://t.co/C8YZqmOPEZ— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      Don’t see bill text, but here’s an overview of it. It’s called… the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization Act.Or, the TERM Act. Nailed the acronym. pic.twitter.com/K7AxpmxzQ8— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) August 2, 2022
      “Speaker Pelosi was right.” “Speaker Pelosi was right,” Roy Blunt says, noting he rarely says those words, referring to her decision to go to Taiwan— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 2, 2022 More

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      Pelosi defends Taiwan visit amid China tensions: ‘Never give in to autocrats’

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      Pelosi defends Taiwan visit amid China tensions: ‘Never give in to autocrats’‘We cannot stand by as China proceeds to threaten Taiwan,’ says speaker in op-ed, but trip poses diplomatic headache for Biden 01:00Having landed in Taiwan amid soaring tensions with China’s military, the US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, defended her controversial trip to the self-ruling island, saying she was making clear that American leaders “never give in to autocrats” in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post.“We cannot stand by as [China] proceeds to threaten Taiwan – and democracy itself,” said Pelosi’s piece, published just as the veteran California congresswoman’s plane touched down on Tuesday. “Indeed, we take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy.”Given that Pelosi’s trip presents a serious diplomatic headache for the Joe Biden White House, there had been much speculation about the motivations behind the controversial visit. In her op-ed Pelosi struck a hard line against China’s position that her trip was a provocation and placed it in the context of a broader global struggle over political freedom.In the article Pelosi said: “We take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy. As Russia wages its premeditated, illegal war against Ukraine, killing thousands of innocents – even children – it is essential that America and our allies make clear that we never give in to autocrats.”Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is unfolding during a tour of Asian nations this week. Her diplomatic mission aims to punctuate a foreign policy career that has seen her defend human rights and democratic values abroad. But it has infuriated China, which claims Taiwan as a province of its own and has threatened retaliation over the visit. The US officially supports a “one-China” policy but in practice treats Taiwan as an economic and democratic partner.She is the highest-ranking US official to visit Taiwan since the Republican Newt Gingrich went there as the House speaker in 1997, going there even after Biden recently said the American military did not think it was a good idea for her to travel there.Chinese state media reported that fighter jets were flying across the Taiwan strait just as Pelosi’s plane landed in the island’s capital, Taipei.Analysts do not expect China to follow through with a hostile military act, at least not while Pelosi is there. But already on Tuesday authorities in China had announced a ban on imports from more than 100 Taiwanese food companies, which many had interpreted as retribution over Pelosi’s trip.If her piece in the Washington Post is any indication, none of it fazed Pelosi, who in 1991 unfurled a banner in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square hailing the pro-democracy student activists killed there two years earlier.Pelosi’s op-ed said it was 43 years ago that the US Congress passed an act recognizing Taiwanese democracy that thenpresident Jimmy Carter signed into law.“It made a solemn vow by the United States to support the defense of Taiwan [and] to consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means … [a] grave concern to the United States,” Pelosi’s piece added, noting that her trip sent an important message nearly six months after Russia invaded Ukraine and unbalanced global peace.“Today,” Pelosi continued, “America must remember that vow. We must stand by Taiwan, which is an island of resistance.”TopicsNancy PelosiTaiwanChinaBiden administrationJoe BidenUS foreign policyAsia PacificnewsReuse this content More

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      in US Politics

      How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader

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      How Ayman al-Zawahiri’s ‘pattern of life’ allowed the US to kill al-Qaida leader After a decades-long hunt the simple habit of sitting out on the balcony gave the CIA an opportunity to launch ‘tailored strike’ In the end it was one of the oldest mistakes in the fugitive’s handbook that apparently did for Ayman al-Zawahiri, the top al-Qaida leader killed, according to US intelligence, by a drone strike on Sunday morning: he developed a habit.The co-planner of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 had acquired a taste for sitting out on the balcony of his safe house in Sherpur, a well-to-do diplomatic enclave of Kabul. He grew especially fond of stepping out on to the balcony after morning prayers, so that he could watch the sun rise over the Afghan capital.According to a US official who briefed reporters on Monday, it was such regular behavior that allowed intelligence agents, presumably CIA, to piece together what they called “a pattern of life” of the target. That in turn allowed them to launch what the White House called a “tailored airstrike” involving two Hellfire missiles fired from a Reaper drone that are claimed to have struck the balcony, with Zawahiri on it, at 6.18am on Sunday.It was the culmination of a decades-long hunt for the Egyptian surgeon who by the time he was killed had a $25m bounty on his head. Zawahiri, 71, was held accountable not only for his part as Bin Laden’s second in command for 9/11, with its death toll of almost 3,000 people, but also for several other of al-Qaida’s most deadly attacks, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, which killed 17 US sailors.The mission to go after the al-Qaida leader was triggered, US officials said, in early April when intelligence sources picked up signals that Zawahiri and his family had moved off their mountainside hideaways and relocated to Kabul. Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last August, and with the support of the Haqqani Taliban network, Zawahiri and his wife, together with their daughter and grandchildren, had moved into the Sherpur house.MapIn their telling of events, US officials were at pains to stress that under Joe Biden’s instructions the mission was carried out carefully and with precision to avoid civilian casualties and US officials said no one else was killed or wounded in the attack.Social media images of the strike suggested the use of a modified Hellfire called the R9X with six blades to damage targets, sources familiar with the weapon told Reuters. They caused surprisingly little damage beyond the target, suggesting they may be a version of the missile shrouded in secrecy and used by the US to avoid non-combatant casualties.The US president was first apprised of Zawahiri’s whereabouts in April, and for the next two months a tightly knit group of officials delved into the intelligence and devised a plan. A scale model of the Sherpur house was built, showing the balcony where the al-Qaida leader liked to sit. As discussions about a possible strike grew more intense, the model was brought into the situation room of the White House on 1 July so that Biden could see it for himself.The president “examined closely the model of al-Zawahiri’s house that the intelligence community had built and brought into the White House situation room for briefings on this issue”, a senior administration official told reporters.The White House made further claims to bolster its argument that the attack was lawful, flawless and with a loss of life limited to Zawahiri alone. Officials said that engineers were brought in to analyse the safe house and assess what would happen to it structurally in the wake of a drone strike.Lawyers were similarly consulted on whether the attack was legal. They advised that it was, given the target’s prominent role as leader of a terrorist group.Biden, by now quarantined with Covid, received a final briefing on 25 July and gave the go-ahead. It was a decision in stark contrast to the advice he gave Barack Obama in May 2011 not to proceed with the special forces mission that killed Bin Laden in a raid on his safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan.On Monday evening, Biden stood on his own balcony – this one in the White House with the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial as his backdrop – to address the nation.“I authorized the precision strike that would remove him from the battlefield once and for all,” Biden said. “This measure was carefully planned, rigorously, to minimize the risk of harm to other civilians.”Biden’s insistence that no one other than the al-Qaida leader was killed in the attack was amplified repeatedly by US officials. The narrative given by the White House was that Zawahiri was taken out cleanly through the application of modern technological warfare.Skepticism remains, despite the protestations. Over the years drone strikes have frequently proved to be anything but precise.In August last year one such US drone strike in Kabul was initially hailed by the Pentagon as a successful mission to take out a would-be terrorist bomber planning an attack on the city’s airport. It was only after the New York Times had published an exhaustive investigation showing that the strike had in fact killed 10 civilians, including an aid worker and seven children, that the US military admitted the mission had gone tragically wrong.Perhaps mindful of the doubts that are certain to swirl around the Zawahiri killing for days to come, the White House said that the Sherpur safe house where the drone strike happened had been kept under observation for 36 hours after the attack and before Biden spoke to the nation. Officials said that Zawahiri’s relatives were seen leaving the house under Haqqani Taliban escort, establishing that they had survived the strike.TopicsAyman al-ZawahiriAfghanistanTalibanSouth and central AsiaJoe BidenBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      in Elections

      China warns its military will 'not sit idly by' if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan – video

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      China has stepped up its warning against Nancy Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan, saying its military will ‘not sit idly by’ if it goes ahead this week. The explicit message came amid reports that the US House speaker, who began her tour of Asia at the weekend, may be arriving in Taipei on Tuesday and as China’s People’s Liberation Army was celebrating the 95th anniversary of its founding. China’s spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said that because of Pelosi’s status, a visit to Taiwan, which China claims as its own province, would ‘lead to egregious political impact’

      China’s military ‘will not sit idly by’ if Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan More

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      in World Politics

      Biden’s Saudi Visit Shows Waning US Power in the Region and the World

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      in US Politics

      ‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

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      ‘Nancy, I’ll go with you’: Trump allies back Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visitMike Pompeo and Mark Esper support visit to ‘freedom-loving Taiwan’ but Biden concerned any trip would antagonise Beijing Plans for Nancy Pelosi, the US House speaker, to visit Taiwan have prompted opposition from China and the American military but support from Republicans in Washington, including former members of the Trump administration.Trump’s second secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN: “I think if the speaker wants to go, she should go.”Japan sees increasing threat to Taiwan amid Russia’s invasion of UkraineRead moreMike Pompeo, Trump’s second secretary of state, tweeted: “Nancy, I’ll go with you. I’m banned in China, but not freedom-loving Taiwan. See you there!”No date has been set for a Pelosi visit to Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that Beijing claims is a breakaway province. Many observers expect some form of military action by China some time soon, particularly in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.China has said a Pelosi visit would “severely undermine” its “sovereignty and territorial integrity, gravely impact the foundation of China-US relations, and send a seriously wrong signal to Taiwan independence forces”.Joe Biden said last week: “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now. But I don’t know what the status of it is.”The White House has not weighed in officially. On Monday, Biden’s press secretary, Karin Jean-Pierre, said: “The administration routinely provides members of Congress with information and context for potential travel, including geopolitical and security considerations.“Members of Congress will make their own decisions.”The state department spokesperson, Ned Price, said: “I will just restate our policy, and that is that we remain committed to maintaining cross-strait peace and stability and our ‘One China’ policy” – a reference to the US position that recognises Beijing as the government of China but allows for informal relations and defense ties with Taiwan.That was a policy Trump initially seemed to jeopardise, telling Fox News in December 2016, after he won the election: “I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘One China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade.”In office, Trump agreed to follow the policy. But his administration was vociferous in its support of Taiwan and antagonism toward Beijing, with some observers suggesting officials wanted to force the Biden administration, which followed Trump’s, into confrontation with China.Pelosi has said it is “important for us to show support for Taiwan”. She also said she believed that when Biden referred to US military concerns, he meant “maybe the military was afraid our plane would get shot down or something like that by the Chinese”.Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, said: “Speaker Pelosi should go to Taiwan, and President Biden should make it abundantly clear to Chairman Xi [Jinping] that there’s not a damn thing the Chinese Communist party can do about it.“No more feebleness and self-deterrence. This is very simple: Taiwan is an ally and the speaker of the House of Representatives should meet with the Taiwanese men and women who stare down the threat of Communist China.”Also on Monday, the New York Times reported that the Biden administration “has grown increasingly anxious … about China’s statements and actions regarding Taiwan, with some officials fearing that Chinese leaders might try to move against [it] … over the next year and a half – perhaps by trying to cut off access to all or part of the Taiwan Strait, through which US naval ships regularly pass”.The Democratic senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who is close to Biden, told the Times: “One school of thought is that the lesson is ‘go early and go strong’ before there is time to strengthen Taiwan’s defenses. And we may be heading to an earlier confrontation – more a squeeze than an invasion – than we thought.”The Times also said the White House was “quietly work[ing] to try to dissuade” Pelosi staging the first visit by a speaker to Taiwan since 1997.The Republican speaker who made that trip, Newt Gingrich, said: “What is the Pentagon thinking when it publicly warns against Speaker Pelosi going to Taiwan?“Timidity is dangerous.”TopicsUS foreign policyUS politicsNancy PelosiChinaTaiwanAsia PacificJoe BidennewsReuse this content More

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      Aipac hails Democrat’s defeat for not being sufficiently pro-Israel

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      Aipac hails Democrat’s defeat for not being sufficiently pro-IsraelDonna Edwards, leading contender in Maryland primary for safe seat, lost after pro-Israeli groups poured millions to block her Pro-Israel groups have heralded the defeat of a leading Democratic contender for Congress after pouring millions of dollars into blocking her election, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Israeli government policies.Donna Edwards, who was for months the favourite to win the primary for a safe seat in Maryland, lost to Glenn Ivey on Tuesday after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and allied groups waded into the race.Aipac proclaimed Ivey’s victory, by 51% to 35%, as evidence that “being pro-Israel is both good policy and good politics”.Edwards’s defeat will be taken as a warning by other Democratic contenders not to criticise Israeli policies, or risk a well-funded campaign against them.Aipac and its allies spent nearly $7m through political action committees to block Edwards, who served eight years as the first Black woman elected to Congress from Maryland before losing a bid for the Senate in 2016.Edwards was endorsed by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other leading Democrats.But she angered some pro-Israel groups during her earlier stint in Congress by failing to back Israeli attacks on Gaza and for her support of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran when it was strongly opposed by the Israeli government.Following Ivey’s victory, Aipac declared it had helped nine “pro-Israel Democrats defeat their anti-Israel opponents in 2022!”.Another group, Pro-Israel America, also heralded Edwards defeat.It said: “Ivey’s victory once again demonstrates that strong pro-Israel stances are both good policy and politics, as his commitment to advancing the US-Israel relationship starkly contrasted with the positions of the candidate he defeated.”However, the campaign against Edwards rarely focused on her positions on Israel and much of the spending that went to saturate the airwaves with hostile advertising questioning her work ethic came from Republican billionaires.Aipac’s political action committee, the United Democracy Project, has received substantial donations from Trump campaign funders Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, as well as the billionaire Israeli-American Democratic donor, Haim Saban.A more liberal pro-Israel group, J Street, which backed Edwards, said it was “extremely alarmed” by the part played by Aipac’s money in deciding Democratic races.“They targeted [Edwards] for defeat simply for holding principled, mainstream Democratic views about US diplomatic leadership in the Middle East, while their spokespeople baselessly smeared her as ‘anti-Israel’. It’s a deeply harmful trend we’ve seen again and again in this cycle.”J Street has warned that Aipac and its Republican funders are trying to drive the Democrats “into more rightward direction on Israel and foreign policy” by intimidating candidates into “feeling that they cannot offer good faith criticism of Israeli policy, that they cannot vocally support Palestinian rights”.TopicsMarylandDemocratsUS politicsIsraelUS foreign policyMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More

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      Pro-Israel hardliners spend millions to transform Democratic primaries

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      Pro-Israel hardliners spend millions to transform Democratic primariesCritics say Aipac and its allies are seeking to influence Democratic politics with money from Republican billionaires Pro-Israel lobby groups have poured millions of dollars into a Democratic primary for a Maryland congressional seat on Tuesday, in the latest attempt to block an establishment candidate who expressed support for the Palestinians.A surge in political spending by organisations funded by hardline supporters of Israel, led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), has reshaped Democratic primaries over recent months even though debate about the country rarely figures as a major issue in the elections.Critics accuse Aipac and its allies of distorting Democratic politics in part because much of the money used to influence primary races comes from billionaire Republicans.Aipac has spent $6m on Tuesday’s contest in Maryland, more than any other organisation, to oppose Donna Edwards, who served eight years as the first Black woman elected to Congress from Maryland before losing a bid for the Senate in 2016.Edwards is endorsed by the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, among other leading Democrats.The other Joe: how Manchin destroys Biden’s plans, angering DemocratsRead moreBut she angered some pro-Israel groups during her stint as a representative by failing to back resolutions in support of Israel over its 2011 war in Gaza and other positions. She also backed the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran when it was strongly opposed by the Israeli government and therefore Aipac.Aipac launched a super political action committee, or super Pac, the United Democracy Project (UDP), in December as a legal mechanism to spend unlimited amounts to directly influence elections and counter growing criticism within the Democratic party of Israel’s continued domination of the Palestinians.The lobby group kickstarted the UDP with $8.5m and donations from wealthy donors with close ties to Israel. They include two Republican billionaire businessmen and Trump campaign funders, Paul Singer and Bernie Marcus, as well as the billionaire Israeli American Democratic donor Haim Saban.UDP-funded television ads criticising Edwards make no mention of Israel and instead attack her as an ineffective politician who got nothing done during her stint in Congress. Over the past two months, Edwards has lost a significant lead in opinion polls over her rival, Glenn Ivey, who is now marginally ahead.A more liberal pro-Israel group, J Street, which calls for the US government to take a harder line with the Israeli government to end to the occupation, has backed Edwards through its Super Pac with about $700,000 in ads.A J Street spokesperson, Logan Bayroff, accused Aipac of being a Republican front organisation in part because of its endorsement of members of Congress who voted to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory following the 6 January 2021 storming of the Capitol.“It’s alarming that a group that has endorsed some of the most rightwing extremist Republicans, with a super Pac funded in part by Republican billionaire megadonors, could go into a Democratic primary and spend and spend with the single-minded purpose of crushing a fairly popular mainstream candidate who they’ve labelled anti-Israel with no evidence, no real justification at all, for such a claim,” Bayroff said.“This is all about trying to drive the party back into more rightward direction on Israel and foreign policy. It’s really alarming and it’s fundamentally anti-democratic when a group can influence this process in such a way because most voters wouldn’t know where this money is coming from. I think that’s dangerous.”Bayroff said Aipac and UDP were attempting to intimidate candidates into “feeling that they cannot offer good faith criticism of Israeli policy, that they cannot vocally support Palestinian rights”.“They recognise that the political space on these issues in the Democratic party has opened up and they want to try to arrest and reverse that trend, and push us back to a place in which there’s really very little public debate or discussion about the correct American role in the region,” he said.The most visible sign of that shift has come from members of “the Squad” of congressional progressives – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib – who are unusually vocal in their support of the Palestinian cause. Opinion polls also show that younger Democrats, including American Jews, are more openly critical of Israel.A UDP spokesman, Patrick Dorton, dismissed J Street’s accusations including the charge of being a Republican front group by pointing to Saban’s financial support.“We’re exercising our democratic first amendment rights in participating in these elections. If you want to look at politicians who’ve intimidated people and chilled discussion on the US Israel relationship, look at the Squad,” he said.“In part UDP was formed because there were an increasing number of candidates with radical anti-Israel views running for Congress. Our view is that is dangerous for American democracy and could negatively impact the the bipartisan support for the US-Israel relationship.”UDP and other pro-Israel groups, such as the Democratic Majority for Israel and Pro-Israel America, have spent heavily to oppose candidates regarded as anti-Israel in Democratic primaries from Texas to Ohio and California.The UDP helped defeat six of seven contenders it opposed, including the co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ most recent presidential campaign, Nina Turner, in a solid Democratic seat in Ohio. Turner, who has argued that substantial US aid to Israel should not be used to perpetuate the occupation of Palestinian land, at one point held a lead of 30 percentage points – but lost.TopicsUS politicsIsraelDemocratsUS foreign policyMiddle East and north AfricanewsReuse this content More