White House News in Chinese - About (weebly.com)
Looming over Donald Trump and Trump Organization
WASHINGTON — The stakes of investigations into former President Donald Trump and his close orbit increased on Tuesday, when New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she's joining forces with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization.
"We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature," James spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement first reported late Tuesday by CNN. "We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan (district attorney)."
While the New York attorney has been conducting a civil investigation examining the finances of the Trump Organization for over a year, the latest revelation ups the pressure on the former president and his family, who have been dogged by investigators over the past several years... more
WASHINGTON — The stakes of investigations into former President Donald Trump and his close orbit increased on Tuesday, when New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she's joining forces with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance in a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization.
"We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature," James spokesman Fabien Levy said in a statement first reported late Tuesday by CNN. "We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan (district attorney)."
While the New York attorney has been conducting a civil investigation examining the finances of the Trump Organization for over a year, the latest revelation ups the pressure on the former president and his family, who have been dogged by investigators over the past several years... more
Home in Ashdod hit by rocket, May 17th 2021
Poll: Democrats blame Israel, not Hamas, for Gaza conflict
Americans evenly divided over who is to blame for fighting between Israel and Hamas - but poll shows wide partisan divide.
May 21 - Americans are nearly evenly divided in assigning blame for the 11 days of fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization, a new poll shows, a with a clear partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
The poll was conducted by the Trafalgar Group, polling 1,101 likely voters across the US, with a margin of error of 2.95%.
Among likely general election voters, there was just a one-point difference in the percentage of respondents who said Hamas was primarily to blame for the fighting compared to those who blamed Israel... more
Poll: Democrats blame Israel, not Hamas, for Gaza conflict
Americans evenly divided over who is to blame for fighting between Israel and Hamas - but poll shows wide partisan divide.
May 21 - Americans are nearly evenly divided in assigning blame for the 11 days of fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization, a new poll shows, a with a clear partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
The poll was conducted by the Trafalgar Group, polling 1,101 likely voters across the US, with a margin of error of 2.95%.
Among likely general election voters, there was just a one-point difference in the percentage of respondents who said Hamas was primarily to blame for the fighting compared to those who blamed Israel... more
May 20, 2021
President Biden Delivers Statement on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
President Biden delivered a statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ceasefire agreement. Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire to end 11 days of conflict. President Biden said the United States is committed to working with the United Nations to provide humanitarian assistance. Also, the president thanked his team as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for assisting with the agreement. He took no questions from reporters. The remarks were delivered in Cross Hall at the White House.
President Biden Delivers Statement on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
President Biden delivered a statement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ceasefire agreement. Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire to end 11 days of conflict. President Biden said the United States is committed to working with the United Nations to provide humanitarian assistance. Also, the president thanked his team as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi for assisting with the agreement. He took no questions from reporters. The remarks were delivered in Cross Hall at the White House.
Remarks by President Biden on the Middle East
MAY 20, 2021
THE PRESIDENT: Folks, I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Earlier today, I spoke with President Al Sisi of Egypt.
And Minister — Prime Minister Netanyahu informed me that Israel has agreed to a mutual, unconditional ceasefire to begin in less than two hours. The Egyptians have now informed us that Hamas and the other groups in Gaza have also agreed.
In my conversation with President [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, I commended him for the decision to bring the current hostilities to a close within less than 11 days. I also emphasized what I have said throughout this conflict: The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel.
The Prime Minister also shared with me his appreciation for the Iron Dome system, which our nations developed together and which has saved the lives of countless Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jew. I assured him of my full support to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome system to ensure its defenses and security in the future.
Over the last 11 days, I spoke with the Prime Minister six times. I’ve also spoken with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority more than once in part of our intense diplomatic engagement. more
MAY 20, 2021
THE PRESIDENT: Folks, I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Earlier today, I spoke with President Al Sisi of Egypt.
And Minister — Prime Minister Netanyahu informed me that Israel has agreed to a mutual, unconditional ceasefire to begin in less than two hours. The Egyptians have now informed us that Hamas and the other groups in Gaza have also agreed.
In my conversation with President [Prime Minister] Netanyahu, I commended him for the decision to bring the current hostilities to a close within less than 11 days. I also emphasized what I have said throughout this conflict: The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks from Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel.
The Prime Minister also shared with me his appreciation for the Iron Dome system, which our nations developed together and which has saved the lives of countless Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jew. I assured him of my full support to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome system to ensure its defenses and security in the future.
Over the last 11 days, I spoke with the Prime Minister six times. I’ve also spoken with President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority more than once in part of our intense diplomatic engagement. more
Hour-by-hour: Joe Biden's behind-the-scenes manoeuvring for Israel-Hamas cease-fire
White House officials have pointed to some grim evidence to argue that Biden's attempts at behind-the-scenes diplomacy worked: The latest Israel-Hamas war was shorter and less blood was spilled than in some of the other recent major outbreaks of violence in the region.
May 21 - The diplomatic flurry was over and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was on the phone telling President Joe Biden that it appeared the furious fighting between Israel and Hamas was about to end.
But Biden remained wary even after the afternoon phone call. Things still could go crosswise with hours to go before the cease-fire took effect, his team reasoned.
Nervous White House aides dialed contacts in Tel Aviv and Cairo to suss out whether the truce would hold. Officials in both the
US and Israel worried that another barrage of Hamas rockets still could sink the Egyptian-brokered agreement, according to an official familiar with the conversations.
Then came another call from Netanyahu — his second to Biden in a matter of hours — with reassurances for the American president that the 11-day war really was halting.
Biden's first extended foreign policy crisis — one he handled largely by avoiding the cameras and manoeuvring instead behind the scenes — had abated.
The president went before cameras in the Cross Hall of the White House to describe “intensive high-level discussions, hour by hour, literally” by the US that involved Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and other Middle Eastern countries.
All of it, he said, came "with an aim of avoiding the sort of prolonged conflict we’ve seen in previous years when the hostilities have broken out.”
Biden and Netanyahu’s talks were just a small sample of the furious diplomacy that the White House conducted. The president and senior aides had over 80 engagements -- by phone or in person -- as it looked for an endgame to the fighting, according to the White House. more
White House officials have pointed to some grim evidence to argue that Biden's attempts at behind-the-scenes diplomacy worked: The latest Israel-Hamas war was shorter and less blood was spilled than in some of the other recent major outbreaks of violence in the region.
May 21 - The diplomatic flurry was over and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu was on the phone telling President Joe Biden that it appeared the furious fighting between Israel and Hamas was about to end.
But Biden remained wary even after the afternoon phone call. Things still could go crosswise with hours to go before the cease-fire took effect, his team reasoned.
Nervous White House aides dialed contacts in Tel Aviv and Cairo to suss out whether the truce would hold. Officials in both the
US and Israel worried that another barrage of Hamas rockets still could sink the Egyptian-brokered agreement, according to an official familiar with the conversations.
Then came another call from Netanyahu — his second to Biden in a matter of hours — with reassurances for the American president that the 11-day war really was halting.
Biden's first extended foreign policy crisis — one he handled largely by avoiding the cameras and manoeuvring instead behind the scenes — had abated.
The president went before cameras in the Cross Hall of the White House to describe “intensive high-level discussions, hour by hour, literally” by the US that involved Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and other Middle Eastern countries.
All of it, he said, came "with an aim of avoiding the sort of prolonged conflict we’ve seen in previous years when the hostilities have broken out.”
Biden and Netanyahu’s talks were just a small sample of the furious diplomacy that the White House conducted. The president and senior aides had over 80 engagements -- by phone or in person -- as it looked for an endgame to the fighting, according to the White House. more
May 20, 2021
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held a briefing on the Biden administration’s policy agenda. She answered questions on several topics, including the president’s infrastructure plan, COVID-19 vaccine distribution to other countries, creating a January 6th Capitol attack commission, and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Europe. On the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the press secretary said they “believe the Israelis have achieved significant military objectives that they laid out to achieve,” and that the administration’s “objective is to work toward a ceasefire.”
White House Daily Briefing
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki held a briefing on the Biden administration’s policy agenda. She answered questions on several topics, including the president’s infrastructure plan, COVID-19 vaccine distribution to other countries, creating a January 6th Capitol attack commission, and the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Europe. On the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the press secretary said they “believe the Israelis have achieved significant military objectives that they laid out to achieve,” and that the administration’s “objective is to work toward a ceasefire.”
Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jen Psaki, May 20, 2021
MAY 20, 2021
MS. PSAKI: Hi, everyone. I think I got a little ahead of the two minutes, but seems okay. Seems okay.
Okay, one item for all of you at the top. The unemployment data released this morning show us reaching the lowest level of new claims since the beginning of the pandemic, and the moving average has been cut by more than a third since President Biden took office just four months ago.
We know the policies the President has enacted are making a difference. Today’s four-week average of 505,000 new claims is down from 752,000 the week the American Rescue Plan was signed and badly needed economic relief started getting out of the door to families and communities around the country.
Who doesn’t love a chart? So here’s a little chart of the weekly unemployment claims, just to show you all the trend.
These numbers can be volatile, so we caution against reading too much into any single report — and, obviously, we’re looking at trendlines over time — but the trend is clear. In addition to declining unemployment insurance claims over the President’s first three months in office, the economy has created an average of 500,000 new jobs a month — eight times more than the average of the three months prior.
And this is a direct result of President Biden’s vision to build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out... more
MAY 20, 2021
MS. PSAKI: Hi, everyone. I think I got a little ahead of the two minutes, but seems okay. Seems okay.
Okay, one item for all of you at the top. The unemployment data released this morning show us reaching the lowest level of new claims since the beginning of the pandemic, and the moving average has been cut by more than a third since President Biden took office just four months ago.
We know the policies the President has enacted are making a difference. Today’s four-week average of 505,000 new claims is down from 752,000 the week the American Rescue Plan was signed and badly needed economic relief started getting out of the door to families and communities around the country.
Who doesn’t love a chart? So here’s a little chart of the weekly unemployment claims, just to show you all the trend.
These numbers can be volatile, so we caution against reading too much into any single report — and, obviously, we’re looking at trendlines over time — but the trend is clear. In addition to declining unemployment insurance claims over the President’s first three months in office, the economy has created an average of 500,000 new jobs a month — eight times more than the average of the three months prior.
And this is a direct result of President Biden’s vision to build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out... more
