Month: September 2022

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that President Joe Biden will meet with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan on Friday, as the White House continues to push for their release from detention in Russia.  Jean-Pierre said that Biden will “discuss his continuing commitment to bringing their family members home safely. As we have said before, we believe that Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittany and Paul under intolerable circumstances.” The meetings with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth, will take place separately. They will be the first in-person meeting between Biden and the family members, after speaking to them by phone in July.

The White House has been in talks with Russian officials over the release of the two Americans, and Biden said last month that he was hopeful a deal could be made to release Griner. But since then, there have been few signs of progress from the administration. In August, after Griner’s sentencing, Russia said it was ready to discuss the possibility of a swap. The Russians are demanding that a Russian spy in U.S. custody be turned over in exchange for Whelan or Griner. The U.S. and Germany have categorically rejected suggestions in Russian state media that Vadim Krasikov, a Russian convicted of a political assassination in Berlin, would be be turned over by German authorities as part of a deal.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in jail by a Moscow court last month, after being arrested at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17 when Russian authorities found cannabis-infused vape cartridges in her luggage. Whelan has been detained since 2018 and is serving a 16-year sentence. The U.S. government has said both have been wrongfully detained.

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After days of negotiations, President Biden announced Thursday that a deal was reached to avert a national rail strike.  In a statement, Mr. Biden said the entative agreement between the railroads and rail workers’ unions was “an important win for our economy and the American people… and a win for tens of thousands of rail workers who worked tirelessly through the pandemic to ensure that America’s families and communities got deliveries of what have kept us going during these difficult years.”

Mr. Biden said that thanks to the agreement, U.S. rail workers would “get better pay, improved working conditions, and peace of mind around their health care costs: all hard-earned.”  Biden added that the deal was “also a victory for railway companies who will be able to retain and recruit more workers for an industry that will continue to be part of the backbone of the American economy for decades to come.”

The president met with negotiators in the Oval Office later Thursday before delivering formal remarks on the agreement. During his speech at the White House Rose Garden, Biden said “this agreement is a big win for America and for both, in my view, validation of what I’ve always believed: Union and management can work together.  To the American people, this agreement can avert the significant damage that any shutdown would have brought. Our nation’s rail system is the backbone of our supply chain, everything you rely on.”

According to the agreement, rail workers will get an immediate 14% raise, with a total raise of 24% over the course of the five-year deal, the unions said. They will also get annual bonuses of $5,000 and keep their health care copays and deductibles unchanged. All workers will get an extra paid day off and have the ability to take time off for medical reasons, one of the key demands the unions made over the course of negotiations. The deal will now go to the unions for a vote to finalize the agreement.

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During an appearance at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit on Wednesday, President Biden announced that the White House is expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure, by announcing funding for 35 states to build their own charging stations. The White House said in a statement: “The future of transportation is electric. The president’s economic plan has generated an American electric vehicle boom that is creating new economic opportunity and tens of thousands of good-paying and union jobs across the country.”

Biden detailed his administration’s efforts to promote electric vehicle manufacturing and reduce the need for fossil fuels: “Y’all are going to be part of a network of 500,000 charging stations … throughout the country installed by the [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers].” Biden detailed plans for approval of about $900 million in federal funding to build the first EV chargers across the 35 states. The money will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was passed last year. which provides $7.5 billion to build the national network of 500,000 EV charging stations and another $17 billion for EV battery production and clean transit and school buses.

Biden said his plan will make electric vehicles accessible for everyone, and pledged that charging stations would be available on major roadways such as I-10 and I-75.  Companies including Toyota, Honda, Ford, General Motors and Panasonic have announced tens of billions of dollars in investments in electric vehicles.

Biden’s speech at the Detroit Auto Show is part of the White House’s agenda to accelerate EV production and wean off fossil fuels, for the benefit of the environment and to become less reliant on oil imports.

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A somber procession through central London was held on Wednesday in which the coffin carrying Queen Elizabeth II was moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where the late monarch will lie in state for four days until her funeral is held on Monday. The coffin was topped with the Imperial State Crown — encrusted with almost 3,000 diamonds — and a bouquet of flowers and plants, including pine from the Balmoral Estate, where Elizabeth died on Sept. 8 at the age of 96.

Massive crowds gathered early Wednesday morning to view the procession, and a line had begun to form of people waiting to file past the queen’s coffin. The most senior members of the Royal Family taking part in the 40-minute walk from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, including the new monarch King Charles III, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Prince Andrew. William, Prince of Wales and Harry, Duke of Sussex, also walked in a row behind the queen’s children.

The procession included the tolling of the bells of Big Ben, and a gun salute at Hyde Park nearby. After the coffin reached Westminster Hall, a short service began – conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury – in which the royal family, including the Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, were in attendance.

Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin rests on a raised platform that will be guarded around the clock for the full four-day lying in state period. Four officers from the Household Cavalry -– two from the Life Guards and two from the Blues Royals -– began the vigil, taking their places at each corner and bowing their heads.

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