#Russia 🇷🇺 Ukraine 🇺🇦

[xtruss]

World: The West Isn't Buying Into China's Year of Diplomacy

Chinese President Xi Jinping at a press conference in Shaanxi, on May 19, 2023. A new poll indicates that the West does not believe that China is contributing to Global Security. Florence Lo/Pool/AFP Via Getty Images

Western nations increasingly see China as an interventionist power that is not improving global security, according to recent polling, as Beijing struggles to square its desired peacemaker image with the political realities of its expanding global influence.

The Pew Research Center conducted a 30,000-person survey across 24 nations between February and May and found that people living in European, North American and Indo-Pacific democracies are particularly wary of China's influence. The sentiment was less strong, though still present, among African and South American respondents.

A median of 71 percent of the 30,000 people polled felt that China does not contribute either much or at all to international peace and stability, versus 23 percent who felt China does. Americans (80 percent), Dutch (86 percent), British (80 percent), Germans (80 percent), and French (75 percent) were among those who felt most strongly that Beijing is a negative influence on global affairs.

Democratic Indo-Pacific nations emphatically agreed, with 87 percent of South Koreans, 85 percent of Australians, and 85 percent of Japanese feeling the same.

The list of nations—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland and South Africa, and Australia—is dominated by Western liberal democracies, with inherent ideological tensions likely somewhat explaining the negative views of Chinese foreign influence.

But only in Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria did a majority of respondents say Beijing contributes either a fair amount or a great deal to international peace and stability.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

China—already considered by many an economic and technological superpower—is still shaping its military and diplomatic clout abroad. Major decades-long investment in the former is openly intended to eventually challenge American hegemony, but on the diplomatic battlefield, Beijing is following a less publicly combative path.

Among the salient diplomatic issues that have helped shape global opinions of China this year are one striking success and one ongoing failure.

The former was the landmark Iran-Saudi Arabia normalization deal signed in April, in which China unexpectedly brokered a détente few thought likely given the deep and historic animosity between the Middle East's power players.

But China's unconvincing neutrality regarding Russia's war on Ukraine has somewhat eroded global trust in Beijing, particularly among the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific nations rallying to Kyiv's cause. China's de facto backing for Russia has undermined its continued calls for peace and the anemic peace plan it proposed in March.

North vs. South

Larger issues involving China—among them the fate of Taiwan, the situation in the South China Sea, lingering frustrations about the pandemic, the brewing showdown with the U.S., human rights, and concerns about political interference—have "completely dwarfed" Beijing's diplomatic efforts, Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told Newsweek.

"Publics have evidently not seen either the Saudi-Iranian deal as particularly significant or the Chinese efforts on Ukraine as particularly credible," Small said.

Small noted Beijing will not necessarily be too concerned with continued Western skepticism.

"In one sense, the argument for what China has been trying to do on Ukraine and in some of these other efforts was positioning in the 'Global South,'" he said. "The view on their side had been that no one in Europe is going to take this seriously, but they are able to position themselves through this in the Global South as an actor that approaches these issues in a neutral way."

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and China's President Xi Jinping deliver a joint statement in Moscow, on March 21, 2023. China's de facto support of Russia's war on Ukraine has angered Western nations. Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik/AFP Via Getty Images

But the poll's findings also suggest that Beijing's self-framing might not be playing out as it hoped. A median of 57 percent of those surveyed said they felt China interferes in other countries affairs either a fair amount or a great deal.

The sentiment was most notable in Europe, where a majority of national respondents excluding Hungarians agreed, as well as in North America. A majority of all those in Indo-Pacific nations apart from Indonesia saw Beijing as interventionist.

Even in the four of the six African and South American nations surveyed a majority said China intervened at least somewhat in other countries' affairs. Fifty percent of South Africans and 46 percent of Argentinians also agreed.

"It's such a mantra in Chinese foreign policy, so foundational in the way that they frame things that this is not what they do, and it is the antithesis of the Western approach," Small said.

Against this backdrop, Small added, it is "striking" to see so many nations feeling that China is indeed intervening abroad. The data suggests, he said, that the perception of Chinese anti-interventionism is being "shredded."

Recent months have seen a renewed China-U.S. effort to thaw chilly bilateral relations. In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And earlier this week, Blinken told CNN the U.S. wants to "put some stability into the relationship."

But the long-term disputes show no signs of easing. While visiting Tonga this week, Blinken hit out at what he called China's "increasingly problematic behavior" in the Indo-Pacific.

In Europe too, major nations are increasingly concerned about Chinese espionage and influence, even if leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are still courting investment.

Worsening Euro-Atlantic ties with Beijing, Small said, might accelerate a brewing confrontation.

"To a certain extent, this will validate an analysis on the Chinese side that starts to write off the West," he said, and instead focus on a "winnable" public opinion battle in the developing world.

— Newsweek Magazine | By David Brennan | July 27th, 2023

[x-heesy]

𝙻 𝚘 𝚅 𝚎 (𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝙳𝚊𝚗𝙲𝚎)

𝙰𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝙼𝚎𝚕𝚗𝚒𝚔𝚘𝚟𝚊 (Анна Мельникова) 🇷🇺

#fashion #fashiongram #fashionable #fashionphotography #fashionlover #fashionart #fashionaddict #fashionphotographer #fashionpost #fashionshoot #fashionlove #fashionlovers @atomic-apricot @wetwicksdry @jadeseadragon @bixlasagna @esotericsnob #fashioneditoral #editoral #catwalk #iminluv #this #passion #leidenschaft #intimité #aesthetic #fashioncore #fashionaddicted #storytellers #soulcatchers #soulphotography #softcore #artposts #photographer #motions #emotions

𝙳𝚞 𝙻𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚒 𝚊𝚞 𝚅𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚍𝚒 𝚋𝚢 𝙶𝚠𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 🎧

[natsuki-bakery]

⁎˚ ఎ Hetalia Moodboard ໒ ˚⁎

•Sfw interactions only | dont tag as ship ! •Don't repost and claim as yours ! Reblogs are okay but not reposts

[eaarths-blog]

Ironic points of light.

In “September 1, 1939,” W. H. Auden reflects on the political and social turmoil at the onset of World War II. The line “ ironic points of light” appears in the penultimate stanza: “Defenceless under the night Our world in stupor lies; Yet, dotted everywhere, Ironic points of light Flash out wherever the Just Exchange their messages:” In this context, the “ ironic points of light” symbolize…

[eltristanexplicitcontent]

Kursk, Pokrovsk, and the Current State of the War

[cuoreacciaiojeeg]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cxk_tsVN7fa/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

[green2stayecomarketing]

#Sustainability ♻️ #IndependentMedia🗞️🎙️🖥️ #PEACEAGREEMENT🏳️ #SWD 🕸️ #G2S 🌿 Thankyou (Under 25 Min Video) #BountyNews*Update #Putin Reveals Secret Peace Agreement Between #Russia 🇷🇺 And #Ukraine 🇺🇦 #RichardMedhurst #THENEWECONOMY 💲 https://youtu.be/LInuWrU5N2U

[odinsblog]

"just because you are not conservative doesn't mean you are immune to propaganda"

Deadass, everything OP said!

I don't want detract from this post, so I put some of my thoughts here, under the cut

Bear with me here ...

You know how in the mind of Elon Musk stans, he is a genius who can do no wrong?

What about Kanye stans who, even after his antisemitism and support of Trump, won't ever say that he has done sO much wrong?

Or how Trumpers will never ever ever have a real problem with anything Trump does or says?

Or how centrists will fly into an absolute rage if you are critical of literally anything Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden have ever done?

Or if you barely mention that someone’s problematic fave (actors, musicians, athletes, etc) once did something wrong, their stans will immediately launch a venomous defense, because how dare you say their problematic fave is anything less than 100% perfect!!!!

Idk if zealotry or sycophancy is the word I’m looking for, but they’re both pretty close

It’s exactly the same thing with a lot of American “leftists” (aka tankies)

In their misguided defense of “communism” they will ignore every war crime that the Russian army is committing, hand wave away every rape victim of the Russian army, and victim blame every noncombatant civilian murdered and disposed of in mass graves by the Red army and the Wagner Group

There is literally no crime Putin could do that is so evil that tankies won't rationalize it away

And they throw up a whatsboutism, or a yeah but

“YEAH BUT look at what American did!”

“WHAT ABOUT American war crimes?”

My answer: That shit is also indefensible and wrong, AND??

As if two bad things cannot simultaneously be wrong

As if Russia’s imperialism should somehow be negated --or worse, excused away-- because of America’s imperialism

Talk about looking at the world through jaundiced eyes

These are deeply unserious people, and their level of sycophancy is absolutely no different than a Christian evangelical (or any other religious zealot) trying to explain why their defense of their religion is okay, but all of the other religions are the “wrong” ones

Absolutely no different

In what world do you look at any person, government or institution and fix your mouth to say they are not and have not ever been gravely wrong about anything important? "America is a shit hole (I'm not arguing it isn't), but Russia is an innocent superpower that is only acting to defend itself." Please GTFOHWTBS. That's childlike thinking and it very easily lends itself to authoritarianism

Every time Russia fires another missile into Ukraine, tankies go, "Did you see that? See what America is doing?"

I look at all of these groups with the same degree of incredulity and more than a little contempt

I just block a long term mutual who spout nonsense about how Ukraine is waging the war against their own people and they are the bad guys etc etc Russia good. This mutual is a leftist too like me and a proof that just because you are not conservative doesn't mean you are immune to propaganda

I don't care if you are a fellow leftist if you are repeating tankie bs about how Ukraine which is a country that is fucking invaded is also the bad guy just because you don't like USA you will be blocked on sight. Stop spreading nonsense

"Oh WAr in UkrAinE is A ProxY bY uSA—" it's Putin ransacking his own neighbors. I'm very critical of USA as well, but people like this guy is drinking Kool-Aid and ironically agreeing with conservative

[kevlo75]

Faced with the horror of #war, the artist of #vannes origin finds in art a soothing refuge. It was then that the whole world discovered “Asse blue”. A unique #blue that no one really knows where it comes from. #genevieveasse #rennes #ukraine🇺🇦 #yemen🇾🇪 #russia🇷🇺 #france🇫🇷 #europe (à Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes) https://www.instagram.com/p/CoeM461IuYG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[xtruss]

Foreign Policy Priorities: Kamala Devi Harris’s Positions

— By Council on Foreign Relations

AI and Technology

Harris has played a leading role in developing U.S. policy toward artificial intelligence (AI). The Biden-Harris administration has framed supporting the U.S. technology sector as a matter of national security, even as it has sought to confront large tech companies for alleged unfair market practices.

Harris led the formulation of an executive order requiring companies to share with the government risks they are facing and outlining a framework for the safe use of AI that federal agencies can follow.

She reportedly suggested that leading AI firms agree to voluntary safety commitments, including a pledge to submit their most powerful models for government review; fifteen of them did so in 2023. She also led efforts to develop rules surrounding military use of AI that have been agreed to by more than fifty countries.

The Biden-Harris administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August 2022, directing more than $280 billion in funding toward domestic production of advanced technologies and the hardware that underpins their development, such as semiconductors.

The same year, the administration published an “AI Bill of Rights” identifying five principles for the responsible deployment of the technology. Harris says U.S. policy toward AI should both stimulate innovation and protect against “profound harm.”

Harris represented the United States at the first international AI governance summit in London in 2023. The summit produced a joint declaration that seeks to ensure the technology is “human-centric, trustworthy, and responsible.” China has also signed the statement.

The Biden-Harris administration unveiled a new National Cybersecurity Strategy in 2023 that urges U.S. companies to take responsibility for ensuring that their systems cannot be hacked and suggests that they could be held legally liable for not protecting “digital infrastructure.” The strategy also called for expanding U.S. military authorization to preempt foreign cyberattacks.

The administration has asked Congress to create legislation strengthening antitrust enforcement that can be used against large technology firms. The Department of Justice has pursued antitrust cases against Apple, Amazon, Google, and other big tech firms.

The administration has cracked down on cryptocurrencies due to concerns over their utility in evading sanctions, laundering money, and financing terrorism. It has directed the Federal Reserve to explore developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Harris is reportedly seeking a “reset” with the crypto sector.

China

Harris says China is responsible for stealing intellectual property and distorting the global economy with unfairly subsidized exports. The Biden-Harris administration has argued that China’s growing influence and aggression in some areas are the leading national security threat to the United States.

Harris says she will ensure that “America, not China, wins the competition for the twenty-first century.” The Biden-Harris administration has placed stringent restrictions on exports of high-tech products to China that it deems critical to national security. It has pressed U.S. partners in the European Union and elsewhere to impose similar measures on Chinese tech.

She argues that the United States should “de-risk,” not decouple, from China, arguing that Washington lost the trade war that began under Trump. The administration has retained $360 billion worth of tariffs on China imposed by Trump and introduced a raft of its own.

These restrictions followed major legislation that subsidized domestic manufacturing of computer chips, electric vehicle parts, and other new technologies. Firms that produce such goods in China are not eligible for U.S. subsidies.

Harris says the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok poses national security concerns. In April 2024, Biden signed a bill that will ban TikTok from the United States if it is not sold by 2025; Harris has said a ban is not the administration’s intention.

In 2022, she said the United States would “continue to support Taiwan’s self-defense” in line with long-standing U.S. policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward the island that China claims as its own.

Her campaign says she helped lead administration efforts to ensure freedom of navigation through the South China Sea and sought closer ties with American allies in the Indo-Pacific, including Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea. In April 2024, Harris hosted the first-ever trilateral summit between the United States, Japan, and the Philippines.

Harris met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2022, urging him to “maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries.” Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States and China agreed to pursue policies aimed at tripling global renewable energy capacity.

The Biden-Harris administration unveiled two programs aimed at building infrastructure in lower-income countries to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

As a senator, Harris cosponsored legislation calling on several U.S. agencies to investigate China’s crackdown on the Uyghur ethnic group and the autonomy of Hong Kong.

Climate Change

Harris describes the climate crisis as an “existential threat.” She has supported many of Biden’s climate policies, including his decision to rejoin the Paris Agreement, and cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to pass the largest clean energy and climate investment bill in U.S. history.

Harris backed Biden’s decision to return the United States to the 2015 Paris Agreement, under which nearly two hundred countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to limit global temperature rise.

She cast the tiebreaking vote on the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in climate-related policies in U.S. history. The bill budgets roughly $370 billion for emissions-reduction efforts, including tax credits and subsidies for clean energy projects. The IRA builds on the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), a $1.2 trillion law to upgrade U.S. infrastructure and spur the adoption of electric vehicles, among other measures.

As part of the IIJA, the Biden-Harris administration created the Civil Nuclear Credit Program to invest $6 billion in existing nuclear energy facilities. In March 2024, the administration announced it will lend $1.5 billion to Michigan to restart a shuttered nuclear plant, the nation’s first such recommissioning.

Harris launched a new partnership between the United States and Caribbean countries that seeks to strengthen energy security, critical infrastructure, and local economies in the region.

At the 2023 UN climate conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Harris announced a $3 billion pledge from the United States to the UN Green Climate Fund, the world’s largest fund dedicated to helping developing countries address climate change.

The Biden-Harris administration created the American Climate Corps, a jobs program that aims to train tens of thousands of young people in high-demand skills for careers in climate action and clean energy. The program is modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Biden-Harris administration has approved a range of new fossil fuel projects, including an $8 billion oil drilling project in northern Alaska. However, it also announced restrictions on new oil and gas leasing on 13 million acres (5.3 million hectares) of an Alaskan federal petroleum reserve. Under the administration, oil and gas production has continued to grow to historic highs, with the United States becoming the world’s largest crude oil producer.

As a 2020 presidential candidate, Harris put forth a $10 trillion plan that called for net-zero emissions by 2045 and a carbon-neutral electricity sector by 2030. She also pledged to end federal support for the fossil fuel industry and called for a carbon tax and a ban on fracking. Her 2024 campaign said she will not ban fracking.

As a senator in 2019, Harris was an early co-sponsor of the Green New Deal, a nonbinding congressional resolution that aimed to help the United States transition to 100 percent clean energy within a decade, and said she would eliminate the Senate filibuster to pass the deal if needed.

Defense and North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO)

Harris has positioned herself as a strong supporter of multilateral cooperation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She has emphasized the U.S. commitment to Ukraine and furthered U.S. space policy as chair of the White House National Space Council.

The Biden-Harris administration’s 2022 National Security Strategy [PDF] broadly maintained the Trump administration’s focus on great-power competition with China and Russia. Harris has pledged to ensure the United States “always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”

At the Munich Security Conference in 2024, Harris reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO, calling it the “greatest military alliance the world has ever known.” Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Biden-Harris administration supported NATO enlargement by pushing for approval of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession bids. (The countries joined NATO in 2023 and 2024, respectively.)

The Biden-Harris administration also formulated an updated Indo-Pacific Strategy [PDF], which pledges to support “a free and open Indo-Pacific.” To that end, the United States has inked a new defense pact with Papua New Guinea and advanced an existing defense agreement with the Philippines. The Biden-Harris administration has also deepened security cooperation with Japan and South Korea, and it held the inaugural in-person summit of the so-called Quad—an alliance comprising the United States, Australia, India, and Japan—which aims to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.

The administration announced a new trilateral pact with Australia and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, that seeks to bolster the countries’ allied deterrence and defense capabilities against China, including by supplying Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

Harris has called for greater involvement with Africa, and in 2023, led a weeklong trip to the continent. In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration published a new Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa [PDF] that emphasizes democracy protection, economic development, and the clean energy transition; that same year, a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit produced commitments to increase U.S. military aid and training for African governments.

Harris chairs the White House’s National Space Council, which advises the president on space policy and strategy. In 2022, she announced the U.S. commitment to halt anti-satellite weapons tests, which create dangerous atmospheric debris. She has also overseen a large increase in the number of signatories to the Artemis Accords, a global agreement governing space-related activity.

In 2019, she told CFR that the war in Afghanistan “must come to an end.” The Biden-Harris administration withdrew all remaining U.S. troops from the country in August 2021 as part of an earlier deal struck by Trump.

She also told CFR that she would consider some sanctions relief to improve life for North Koreans in exchange for Pyongyang taking “serious, verifiable steps” to denuclearize.

As a senator, Harris voted against reauthorizing parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act because it did not require warrants for the government to access U.S. citizens’ information.

Fiscal Policy and Debt

The Biden-Harris administration has focused on making public investments in infrastructure and green energy, expanding the middle class, and challenging monopolistic consolidation. To pay for a surge in spending, it has sought to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthiest Americans.

Harris supported legislation signed by Biden that authorized trillions of dollars in new public spending. In 2021, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest infrastructure spending bill in decades, authorized $1.2 trillion in spending toward U.S. roads, railways, airports, and other infrastructure. Additional subsidies for semiconductor and climate investments have surpassed $800 billion.

Nonpartisan watchdogs expect that the administration’s spending programs will increase the growing federal deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The deficit is now $1.7 trillion, and the national debt has climbed past $30 trillion, or more than 100 percent of U.S. economic output.

She has backed Biden’s proposals to institute $5 trillion worth of tax increases. She supports raising the top income tax rate, taxing capital gains like income for Americans making more than $1 million, and implementing a wealth tax that would impose a 25 percent levy on individuals with more than $100 million worth of total assets, including unrealized gains. She also favors raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent.

Harris says that building the middle class will be a “defining goal” of her presidency. Her proposed policies include raising the minimum wage, eliminating taxes on tips, and creating a newborn child tax credit of up to $6,000 per year. The economic proposals in a fact sheet released by the Harris campaign would add $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to some estimates.

In 2018, she proposed legislation that called for reversing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Many of these cuts are set to expire in 2025; Biden has proposed maintaining cuts for Americans making less than $400,000, a plan Harris now supports.

In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration brokered a global agreement to tax corporations at a minimum of 15 percent, though it is yet to be implemented. A year later, the administration introduced a 15 percent corporate minimum tax on U.S. companies with annual income over $1 billion. Harris supports raising that rate to 21 percent.

The administration has made antitrust policy a priority, challenging alleged monopolies in the aviation, energy, and technology sectors. In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recorded the most challenges to proposed mergers since the United States began requiring premerger reviews in 1976.

Global Health and Pandemic Prevention

Harris has prioritized national and international health-care issues. She has long been an outspoken supporter of reproductive rights, advocating for new legislation to restore abortion rights overturned by the Supreme Court. She has also played a role in the administration’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic.

The Biden-Harris administration pursued an aggressive COVID-19 vaccination policy that included free vaccine access and a nationwide vaccine mandate that would have affected most large employers. (The Supreme Court later struck down the mandate.) In 2021, the administration released a national pandemic strategy [PDF] that focused on quickly ramping up vaccine production, protecting essential workers, and expanding access to testing and treatment.

The administration issued an executive order retracting Trump’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization, to which the United States is one of the largest donors.

In 2023, Harris convened state attorneys general from across the country to discuss state and federal efforts to address the U.S. opioid epidemic. The Biden-Harris administration has declared synthetic opioid trafficking a national emergency; sanctioned firms and individuals in China, a critical node in the drug’s supply chain; and pushed China and Mexico to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

In 2022, the Biden-Harris administration unveiled a new national biodefense strategy [PDF] that aims to help the United States better prepare for large-scale biological or viral threats that could emerge in the future. The strategy led to the creation of the White House’s Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, tasked with coordinating, leading, and implementing pandemic preparedness efforts.

Harris has been a leading voice on reproductive rights. She criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision which recognized a constitutional right to abortion, and supports new legislation to enshrine Roe into federal law. In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration rescinded the so-called Mexico City policy blocking abortion-related programs from receiving U.S. foreign aid, saying that it undermined U.S. efforts to support women’s health.

As a senator, Harris cosponsored legislation that sought to ban states from imposing restrictions on abortion rights, and she voted against a bill that aimed to ban abortions after twenty weeks.

Immigration

Harris advocates for comprehensive immigration reform. She was tasked with leading the federal effort to address the root causes of migration from Central America, though her comments dissuading would-be migrants from traveling to the United States have created controversy.

Harris has promised to reform the “broken” immigration system, including by bringing back and signing into law the bipartisan border security bill that failed twice in Congress.

Biden tapped Harris to lead the administration’s diplomatic efforts to address the root causes of migration from Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Since 2021, Harris has helped secure some $5 billion in private sector investment to promote economic opportunities and curb violence in Central America.

During her first international trip to Guatemala and Mexico in 2021, she told would-be migrants thinking about making the dangerous trek to the southern U.S. border “do not come” given the likelihood they would be turned away by border authorities.

The Biden-Harris administration reinstated the Central American Minors program, which has allowed thousands of children from the Northern Triangle to gain refugee status or temporary legal residence before traveling to the southern U.S. border.

The Biden-Harris administration has sought to rebuild the U.S. refugee resettlement program after Trump made large cuts. In fiscal year 2023, the United States welcomed more than sixty thousand refugees, over double the previous year. The administration also created new parole programs that have welcomed tens of thousands of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to the United States.

The administration has sought to restore asylum access, including by ending daily limits on asylum applications and restoring protections to victims of domestic and gang violence. However, it unveiled a new policy in 2023 that allows the government to deny asylum to migrants who did not previously apply for it in a third country and to those who cross the border illegally. This approach includes new screening centers in several Latin American countries.

In 2024, the administration also issued an order temporarily blocking people who illegally cross the border from seeking asylum once the number of daily crossings exceeds a certain threshold—which it has for much of Biden’s presidency. A separate order also expanded green card access for certain undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.

The administration has expanded and renewed temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of eligible nationals of several countries, including Afghanistan, Cameroon, and Ukraine.

The Biden-Harris team has expanded the capacity of some guest worker visa programs in response to the increasing demand for temporary workers.

As a presidential candidate in 2019, she put forth an immigration plan that called for the creation of a path to citizenship for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, a program launched by former President Barack Obama that provides deportation relief and work permits to undocumented migrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

In 2020, she reintroduced the Access to Counsel Act, which would ensure that people held or detained while entering the United States have access to legal counsel. She originally introduced the bill—her first as a senator—in 2017. She also supported legislation that would have expedited the reunification of immigrant families.

Middle East

Harris backs Israel’s right to self-defense but has also been outspoken about the toll on Palestinian civilians amid the war between Israel and Hamas. She supports an immediate cease-fire and hostage release as well as a two-state solution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Harris reiterated her support for Israel in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2024. She has welcomed U.S. military aid to Israel, which has topped $12 billion since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, and her campaign says she does not support an arms embargo on the country.

Harris called for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in March 2024, one month before Biden did. She said she supports “Israel’s legitimate military objectives to eliminate the threat of Hamas” but decried the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip. She has pressed Israeli leaders to do more to protect civilians and has pushed the Israeli government to allow more aid into Gaza.

She says a two-state solution is the best way to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has called for a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority to govern a unified Gaza and West Bank. She also says Israel needs to hold “extremist settlers” in the West Bank accountable for violence against Palestinians. In February 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four Israeli settlers accused of violence in the West Bank.

In 2021, she affirmed U.S. support for the Abraham Accords, a series of normalization deals between Israel and Arab countries negotiated by the Trump administration.

Before Hamas attacked Israel, the Biden-Harris administration was seeking a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In exchange, Riyadh had asked for formalized U.S. security guarantees, cooperation on a civilian nuclear program, and Israeli concessions toward Palestinians.

As a senator, she supported a 2018 resolution calling on the president to end all military actions in Yemen and voted to block weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. The Biden-Harris administration froze certain offensive arms sales to Saudi Arabia in 2021 before resuming them in August 2024 with a $750 million weapons sale.

She says she will take “whatever action is necessary” to defend U.S. troops against Iran and its proxies. After Iran-aligned forces killed three U.S. service members in Jordan in January 2024, U.S. military forces struck more than eighty-five Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria.

In 2019, she told CFR that she would rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if Iran returned to compliance. The Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to rejoin the deal were hindered by Iran’s support of Hamas, the Houthis, and other groups antagonistic to the United States. After Iran-aligned forces killed three U.S. service members in Jordan in January 2024, U.S. military forces struck more than eighty-five Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria.

Russia–Ukraine

Harris says the United States will back Ukraine’s defensive efforts against Russia for “as long as it takes” to counter the threat that a Russian victory would pose to the rest of Europe. She has represented the United States at peace talks on Ukraine and encouraged Congress to give Kyiv tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance.

Harris has condemned Russia’s invasion, saying the United States is “committed to helping Ukraine rebuild” and achieve “a just and lasting peace.” Since 2022, the United States has provided Ukraine with some $175 billion in assistance, including financial, humanitarian, and military support.

In June 2024, Harris represented the United States at a peace summit organized by Ukraine in Switzerland, where she sought to rally global support to pressure Russia to end its war. At the summit, she pledged close to $2 billion in additional aid for Ukraine.

Harris argues that a failure to respond to Russian aggression in Ukraine would embolden other countries considering invasions. She has helped coordinate with Western allies to impose sweeping sanctions, export controls, and other penalties on Russian entities and individuals, including the Russian private military company Wagner Group. The measures have focused on isolating Russia from the global financial system, limiting its energy exports, and hampering its military capabilities.

She says Russia has committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. In 2019, she told CFR that Russia’s occupation of Crimea is a “severe violation of international norms.”

In 2018, Harris was among more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers who objected to Trump’s decision to withdraw from a 1987 treaty that required the United States and Russia to eliminate their stockpiles of midrange, ground-launched nuclear missiles.

Trade

Harris says trade is important for economic growth but argues that trade deals should shield American workers from unfair practices abroad. The Biden-Harris administration has applied new guardrails on trade aimed at promoting U.S. manufacturing, countering China’s economic rise, and addressing worsening climate change.

Before becoming vice president, Harris said she is “not a protectionist Democrat” and opposed widespread tariffs, which she has argued contribute to inflation. However, the Biden-Harris administration has maintained some $360 billion in tariffs on China that were implemented by Trump and introduced tens of billions of dollars in additional duties.

The Biden-Harris administration has argued that previous trade deals focused too much on boosting corporate profits while exposing U.S. workers to unfair competition. It has sought to strengthen investment in U.S. manufacturing and infrastructure to increase the country’s economic competitiveness.

As a senator, Harris opposed the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement negotiated by President Barack Obama and from which Trump withdrew, arguing the deal would harm American workers and the climate. The Biden-Harris administration has instead sought to negotiate a successor deal that includes cooperation on supply chains but does not eliminate tariffs or increase access to the U.S. market.

She was one of ten senators to oppose the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that was negotiated by Trump and supported by Biden. In 2019, she said that she would not sign a trade deal “unless it protected American workers and it protected our environment.”

The Biden-Harris Administration has mobilized the federal government to support strategic domestic industries, an effort known as industrial policy. Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in favor of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which contained roughly $370 billion in federal grants, loans, and tax incentives for clean energy. To obtain access to IRA funding, companies must agree to limit operations in China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.

In 2022, the administration passed the CHIPS and Science Act directing hundreds of billions of dollars toward U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. It has also imposed a slew of new restrictions aimed at curtailing Beijing’s access to advanced technologies and pushed U.S. allies, including major semiconductor suppliers Japan and the Netherlands, to implement similar restrictions.

Harris has said that she wants to reform the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Biden-Harris administration has pushed for changes to the WTO’s dispute-settlement mechanism even as it has continued Trump’s and Obama’s practice of blocking nominees to its appeals court, saying that China is gaming the system.

[x-heesy]

Artist Mikhail Khokhlachev, known throughout the world as Michael Cheval 🇷🇺

Michael Cheval (Mikhail Khokhlachev) was born in Kotelnikovo, a small town in southern Russia. Growing up in an artistic family, his love of drawing was encouraged from early childhood by his father, Mikhail Khokhlachev, a self-taught artist and by his grandfather, Yuri Lipov, a professional artist and sculptor. His ability developed quickly and by three years old, he could already draw complex compositions.

#surreal #surrealart #surrealism #surrealismartcommunity #popsurrealism #popsurrealist #popsurreal #surrealist #surrealista #surrealistic #lowbrowart #weirdart #lowbrowartist #surrealisme #surreal_art #surrealismo #surrealpainting #newcontemporary #lowbrowpopsurrealists #contemporaryart #art #artist #painting #artwork #abstractart #modernart #artgallery #arte #fineart #artoftheday #artcollector #instaart #artistsoninstagram #drawing #contemporarypainting #abstract #contemporaryartist #gallery #photography #sculpture #kunst #abstractpainting #design #interiordesign #oilpainting #illustration #acrylicpainting #digitalart #artlovers

𝙵𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎𝚜 & 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚜 - 𝙳𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚣 𝙺𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚕 𝚁𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚡 𝚋𝚢 𝙽/𝚊, 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚊 🎧

[eltristanexplicitcontent]

28 September 2014 – 21 January 2015

The last stand of the Ukrainian "Cyborgs", singing the Ukrainian national anthem at the end of Second Battle of Donetsk Airport. 2014

[girlactionfigure]

HERE is the list of the 134 countries that are NOT supporting South Africa's 🇿🇦 claims of genocide against Israel 🇮🇱:

🇦🇩 Andorra 

🇦🇴 Angola 

🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda 

🇦🇷 Argentina 

🇦🇲 Armenia 

🇦🇺 Australia 

🇦🇹 Austria 

🇧🇸 Bahamas 

🇧🇧 Barbados 

🇧🇾 Belarus 

🇧🇿 Belize 

🇧🇹 Bhutan 

🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 

🇧🇼 Botswana 

🇧🇬 Bulgaria 

🇧🇮 Burundi 

🇨🇻 Cabo Verde 

🇰🇭 Cambodia 

🇨🇦 Canada 

🇨🇫 Central African Republic 

🇨🇱 Chile 

🇨🇳 China 

🇰🇲 Comoros 

🇨🇬 Congo 

🇨🇷 Costa Rica 

🇭🇷 Croatia 

🇨🇺 Cuba 

🇨🇾 Cyprus 

🇨🇿 Czech Republic 

🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo 

🇩🇰 Denmark 

🇩🇲 Dominica 

🇩🇴 Dominican Republic 

🇹🇱 East Timor (Timor-Leste) 

🇪🇨 Ecuador 

🇸🇻 El Salvador 

🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea 

🇪🇷 Eritrea 

🇪🇪 Estonia 

🇸🇿 Eswatini 

🇪🇹 Ethiopia 

🇫🇯 Fiji 

🇫🇮 Finland 

🇫🇷 France 

🇬🇪 Georgia 

🇩🇪 Germany 

🇬🇭 Ghana 

🇬🇷 Greece 

🇬🇩 Grenada 

🇬🇹 Guatemala 

🇭🇹 Haiti 

🇭🇳 Honduras 

🇭🇺 Hungary 

🇮🇸 Iceland 

🇮🇳 India 

🇮🇪 Ireland 

🇮🇹 Italy 

🇯🇲 Jamaica 

🇯🇵 Japan 

🇰🇪 Kenya 

🇰🇮 Kiribati 

🇰🇵 Korea, North (North Korea) 

🇰🇷 Korea, South (South Korea) 

🇽🇰 Kosovo 

🇱🇦 Laos 

🇱🇻 Latvia 

🇱🇸 Lesotho 

🇱🇷 Liberia 

🇱🇮 Liechtenstein 

🇱🇹 Lithuania 

🇱🇺 Luxembourg 

🇲🇬 Madagascar 

🇲🇼 Malawi

🇲🇹 Malta 

🇲🇭 Marshall Islands 

🇲🇺 Mauritius 

🇲🇽 Mexico 

🇫🇲 Micronesia 

🇲🇩 Moldova 

🇲🇨 Monaco 

🇲🇳 Mongolia 

🇲🇪 Montenegro 

🇲🇲 Myanmar (Burma) 

🇳🇷 Nauru 

🇳🇵 Nepal 

🇳🇱 Netherlands 

🇳🇿 New Zealand 

🇳🇮 Nicaragua 

🇲🇰 North Macedonia (Macedonia) 

🇳🇴 Norway 

🇵🇼 Palau 

🇵🇦 Panama 

🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea 

🇵🇾 Paraguay 

🇵🇪 Peru 

🇵🇭 Philippines 

🇵🇱 Poland 

🇵🇹 Portugal 

🇷🇴 Romania 

🇷🇺 Russia 

🇷🇼 Rwanda 

🇰🇳 Saint Kitts and Nevis 

🇱🇨 Saint Lucia 

🇻🇨 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 

🇼🇸 Samoa 

🇸🇲 San Marino 

🇸🇹 Sao Tome and Principe 

🇷🇸 Serbia 

🇸🇨 Seychelles 

🇸🇱 Sierra Leone 

🇸🇬 Singapore 

🇸🇰 Slovakia 

🇸🇮 Slovenia 

🇸🇧 Solomon Islands 

🇪🇸 Spain 

🇱🇰 Sri Lanka 

🇸🇪 Sweden

🇨🇭 Switzerland 

🇹🇼 Taiwan 

🇹🇿 Tanzania 

🇹🇭 Thailand 

🇹🇴 Tonga 

🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago 

🇹🇳 Tunisia 

🇹🇲 Turkmenistan 

🇹🇻 Tuvalu 

🇺🇦 Ukraine 

🇬🇧 United Kingdom (UK) 

🇺🇸 United States of America (USA) 

🇺🇾 Uruguay 

🇻🇺 Vanuatu 

🇻🇦 Vatican City 

🇻🇳 Vietnam 

🇿🇲 Zambia 

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe

[eaarths-blog]

The rand report on how US rules the world.

This is a link to a pdf from the Rand organisation on the proposed plans to subsume Russia. It is detailed and explosive, it perfectly exposes the recommendations to the Pentagon on the way forward for the US to bring about the downfall of the Russian state, with the express purpose of breaking Russia up into smaller units easily controlled by Washington corporate elites to secure vast oil &…

[rosesofchaosmeow]

Baby Russia 🇷🇺!!!

I drew him crying bcz I remembered when he was crying to his sister Ukraine 🇺🇦 after being targeted

Such a silly little guy :3

I hope he explodes 😔