US sends aircraft carrier group to Mediterranean

The United States military has sent the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier strike group to take part in a NATO naval exercise in the Mediterranean amid tensions between the West and Russia, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson announced on Friday. 

Neptune Strike 22 exercises, which are set to begin Monday and run through February 04, 2022 will “demonstrate NATO’s ability to integrate the high-end maritime strike capabilities of an aircraft carrier strike group to support the deterrence and defense of the alliance,” press secretary John Kirby told reporters.  

He added that the strike group, along with several other NATO allies he did not name, “will participate in coordinated maritime maneuvers, anti-submarine warfare training, and long-range strike training.” 

Kirby insisted the war games had been “long-planned,” since 2020, and were not in response to the recent Russian military buildup near the Ukrainian border. The drills are not listed on NATO’s website among exercises slated for this year. 

Shortly after the DOD announcement, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg added to speculation as to the timing of the maneuver when he tweeted that “NATO will always do what is necessary to protect and defend all Allies.”  

He added that the participation of the US vessel in Neptune Strike 22 displays “a strong sign of transatlantic unity.” 

NATO forces and weapons in recent days have moved to areas near Ukraine as Russia has refused move back the roughly 100,000 troops amassed near its border with Ukraine. The movements also come amid warnings from the west that Moscow may soon invade the former Soviet nation.   

Spain has sent warships to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and is mulling sending fighter jets to Bulgaria, while Denmark is sending a frigate to the Baltic Sea and France has offered to send troops to Romania.   

Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday in Geneva in a high-stakes meeting to quell tensions— said he wants to use diplomacy to de-escalate the situation. If that proves impossible, however, and Russia decides to pursue aggression against Ukraine, it will be met with “a united, swift and severe response.” 

Asked whether the scope or location of the Neptune Strike 22 exercises had been altered in any way due to the tension around Ukraine, Kirby directed questions to NATO. 

“If this scenario has changed over time, I don't have that level of detail, but I would tell you ... the exercise itself is not designed against the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine,” Kirby said. 

Iran and India establish shipping links

Deputy Head of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Jalil Eslami has said direct container shipping lines have been established between Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar and two Western Indian ports of Nhava Sheva and Kandla.

According to Eslami, regular container service with a traffic schedule of 10 to 15 days is performed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) through these lines.

The official noted that PMO is going to offer the necessary tariff incentives and facilities on tolls and transportation costs to support the traders that use the lines.

He pointed out that according to the schedule, the first container service through the mentioned route will enter Iran’s Shahid Beheshti port on February 16, 2022.

Iran and India had previously launched shipping lines between Chabahar and the Indian ports of Mumbai, and Mundra.

The first shipping route between the two countries was put into operation in 2017 between Iran’s Chabahar port and Mumbai.

In January 2019, Iran and India inaugurated the second direct shipping route which passes through Mumbai, Mundra, Kandla, Chabahar, and finally Bandar Abbas in southern Iran.

India is using the mentioned shipping routes to transit goods to Afghanistan and Persian Gulf nations as well as the countries in Central Asia.

Through Chabahar port India aims at bypassing Pakistan and transport goods to Afghanistan and Central Asia, while Afghanistan can get linked to India via sea.

Iran has awarded India the project for installing and operating modern loading and unloading equipment including mobile harbor cranes in Shahid Beheshti Port in Chabahar.

The strategic Chabahar port in southeastern Iran is the only ocean port on the Makran coast and it has a special place in the country's economic affairs.

Back in September 2021, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on Central Asian countries to benefit from Chabahar Port capacities for expanding their trade in the region.

US allows NATO allies to send American-made weapons to Ukraine

The United States has allowed three NATO allies to send American-made weapons to Ukraine amid growing fears of an imminent Russian invasion.  A State Department spokesperson confirmed to The Hill that the agency has authorized third-party transfers for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to send “US origin equipment from their inventories for use by Ukraine.”

“The United States and its allies and partners are standing together to expedite security assistance to Ukraine,” the spokesperson said. “We are in close touch with our Ukrainian partners and our NATO Allies on this and are utilizing all available security cooperation tools to help Ukraine bolster its defenses in the face of growing Russian aggression.” 

News of the transfer comes as the Biden administration warns of the immediacy of the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine amid Moscow’s amassing an estimated 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine.  

Third-party transfers are only authorized if recipients of weapons of US origin obtain written consent from the State Department before transfer, according to the agency’s website.

According to Politico, which cited an administration official, the requests from the countries were received in recent weeks, with the last of them being approved Wednesday, a day after being received.

The State Department spokesperson didn’t elaborate on what specific weapons were approved for transfer. But The Wall Street Journal reported that the countries will be allowed to send Javelin antitank weapons and Stinger air-defense systems.

The US has invested more than US$2.7 billion in military assistance to Ukraine under the authority of the State Department and Department of Defense since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

In the last year alone, Washington has committed US$650 million in defense equipment and related services to Ukraine, the spokesperson said, more than at any other point since 2014.

On top of this funding, the US has expedited up to US$60 million in lethal and nonlethal equipment from existing Pentagon stocks since August and in December authorized up to US$200 million in additional security assistance to Ukraine. 

US unhappy on growing Iran-Russia ties

Ebrahim Rezaei, Chairman of the Iran-Russia parliamentary friendship group, said that the West, particularly the United States, is unhappy with the growing relationship between Iran and Russia. 

The current visit of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to Moscow, according to Rezaei, marks a milestone in the government's foreign policy agenda.

Rezaei said the two countries enjoy great potential for cooperation in areas of energy, agriculture, commerce, transportation, security, and tourism. 

The parliamentary friendship group chief said both the countries are eager in negotiating on oil and gas swaps, pointing to the presence of Oil Minister Javad Oji in the president's accompanying entourage to Russia as evidence.

Meanwhile, Iran's First Vice President, Mohammad Mokhber, praised Raisi's visit to Russia. Talking at the cabinet meeting, Mokhber said Iran's relations with its neighbors are growing well, and the visit to Moscow reflects Iran’s fundamental progress in cementing ties neighboring and regional countries. 

Iranian President Ayatollah Seyed Ebrahim Raisi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday morning at the invitation of his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The visit is intended to deepen economic, political and cultural interactions between Iran and Russia, according to the official website of the Iranian presidency.

The ministers of foreign affairs, petroleum and economy are accompanying Raisi on the trip.

The president’s agenda in Russia includes meeting with the Russian President, addressing the Duma, and meeting Iranian expatriates in Russia.

Speaking before leaving for Russia at Mehrabad Airport, Raisi said, "This trip is done at the invitation of the President of Russia and in order to promote neighborhood and regional diplomacy."

The pPresident also said, "We seek to establish and strengthen relations with all neighbors, especially Russia in various political, economic and trade fields, and this trip can be a turning point to improve and strengthen relations with Russia."

Calling the Islamic Republic and Russia as two independent, important, powerful and influential countries in the region, the President said, "Cooperation and talks between the two important, powerful and influential countries can be effective in improving regional security and economic and trade relations.”

Political ties between Iran and Russia have been strengthened in recent years. The two countries backed the government of Bashar al-Assad in the fight against terrorists and are now mediating between the Damascus government and the opposition groups.

Iran also joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in September 2021 which was first established by China, Russia and some former Soviet republics in 2001. 

President Raisi said, "In the Shanghai Summit, we will establish good cooperation with all countries, especially Russia. Russia also plays a key role in the Eurasian Union, and cooperation between the two countries in this regard can lead to effective steps to promote trade and economic issues."

Stating that Iran and Russia share common interests, Ayatollah Raisi said, "The existence of common and interactive interests between Tehran and Moscow in the region provides security and will prevent unilateralism in the world. Also, interaction and mutual cooperation between the two countries can affect the regional and international situation."

Referring to the vast potential for cooperation between Tehran and Moscow in various political, economic and energy sectors, the president said, "The current level of trade and economic cooperation is not satisfactory for either country and needs to be upgraded to a much higher level. We hope that this trip will be an effective step towards securing the common interests of the two countries, which are influential at regional and global scenes."

 

Hong Kong to Kill 2000 Pets

Hong Kong officials are killing hamsters by the thousands after declaring the rodents responsible for spreading COVID-19. Meanwhile, in China’s mainland, the blame has been put on international mail packaging.

As one of the world’s last major holdouts of a zero-tolerance approach to the virus, China is fanning unusual theories about the source of emerging COVID-19 clusters despite doubts from overseas experts over the likelihood of such claims.

On January 18, 2021 Hong Kong ordered 2,000 hamsters, chinchillas, rabbits, and other small animals to be “humanely” put down after a health check on the rodents found 11 to carry the Delta variant of COVID-19. All of them are hamsters imported from the Netherlands, from a local pet shop where a 23-year-old worker had tested positive to COVID-19.

While the officials acknowledged there’s no clear evidence hamsters could transmit the virus to humans, they are telling pet owners who bought hamsters from any store in the city beginning December 22, 2021 to hand over their animals for culling. Those who visited the pet store after January 07, 2022 are subject to quarantine. All 34 pet stores in the city that sell hamsters are now shuttered, and imports of all small mammals have come to a halt.

Hong Kong’s pet killing follows heightened virus containment measures in Beijing, where authorities suggested that mail from Canada might have been the culprit for the city’s first Omicron case.

The city’s health officials noted how the first Omicron patient, a 26-year-old woman, who has not traveled outside Beijing recently, handled a parcel sent from Canada via the United States and Hong Kong, before developing a sore throat two days later. They have detected the Omicron variant on both the outside of the package and in its contents, as well as on other mail samples delivered from the same origin, the officials said.

 “This is something not only new but intriguing and certainly not in accordance with what we have done both internationally and domestically given what we know about the transmissibility of Omicron,” he told reporters at a January 17, 2022 press conference.

Health experts have assessed the risks of virus transmitting through contaminated surfaces to be extremely low. The World Health Organization (WHO) said that coronavirus in general “need a live animal or human host to multiply and survive and cannot multiply on the surface of food packages.”

Touting the theory that the virus might have come from somewhere other than China is hardly new for the Chinese authorities. In October 2020, Beijing said an outbreak in the port city of Qingdao originated from a shipment of imported cod. In a June outbreak linked to a Beijing wholesale market, officials pointed to frozen salmon from Norway as the cause, citing a sample on a cutting board used for processing the fish that tested positive for COVID-19.

July last year, amid tensions between India and China, Beijing withheld over 1,000 containers of Indian shrimp on the grounds that the packaging allegedly contained virus residues.

In a bid to deflect growing scrutiny on Beijing’s coverup of the pandemic origins, authorities and state media have consistently put forward claims, without credible evidence, that the virus originated outside of the country. Following a WHO-China joint virus probe in China’s Wuhan last year, authorities have also repeatedly called for origin tracing efforts to begin outside of China.

The regime’s pandemic-control actions, though, have also come at a particularly sensitive time for Beijing. Less than three weeks before the country’s capital opens the Winter Olympic Games, Beijing and cities across China have struggled to stamp out waves of COVID-19 infections.

Hundreds of Omicron infections have surfaced in multiple parts of China even as Delta cases continue to spike. After the Omicron variant extended its reach to Beijing, Olympic organizers called off ticket sales to the general public, saying the entry will be reserved for a targeted group of spectators only.

Five takeaways from Biden news conference

US President Biden held a rare formal news conference Wednesday, one day before the first anniversary of his inauguration. The event came with the president's poll ratings at a low ebb and as he is enduring one of his most difficult stretches to date. 

His legislative agenda has stalled and he faces challenges ranging from inflation to Russian aggression. 

But the president, speaking amid the grandeur of the East Room of the White House, had a chance to reset the agenda with the midterm elections just 10 months away. Here are the five biggest takeaways:

A big misstep on Russia

Biden’s loquaciousness has a history of getting him in trouble. So it proved again on Wednesday. A predictable question on a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine produced an odd and damaging response. 

Biden suggested that a “minor incursion” by the Kremlin forces might not receive much aggressive push back from the United States.

The comment lit up social media, and a second reporter asked Biden about it later in the news conference. 

Offered a second bite at the cherry, Biden missed yet again, this time implying that a limited Russian action would make it difficult for him to drive a unified response from NATO.

White House aides immediately scrambled to try to clear up the confusion. They had little success.

They core of the problem is that Biden’s remarks sounded weak and timid — liabilities that Putin will try to maximally exploit. 

The Russian leader has form. He annexed Crimea in 2014 and, for all its noble-sounding words of protest; the international community has not been able to reverse the move.

The entire thrust of Washington’s approach in its negotiations with the Kremlin has been to show seriousness this time around.

But Biden put a hole in his own strategy on Wednesday, for no obvious reason.

In terms of domestic politics, the remark will also feed into the conservative tendency to portray Democrats as puny on the world stage.

The news conference was long — very long

Biden spent almost two hours in the East Room, and even joked about the longevity of the event in its closing stages.

“How many more hours am I doing this? I’m happy to stick around,” he said.

There were pluses and minuses to the marathon approach.

On one hand, the briefing’s duration was proof of Biden’s stamina and mental acuity — a retort to conservative critics who suggest that, at 79, he is not up to the job. 

In fact, that issue was explicitly — and somewhat pompously — brought up at the news conference by a reporter for Newsmax, and Biden swatted it aside.

But the length of the news conference also played to two Biden-related weaknesses — an eagerness to talk at considerable length and a propensity for inexact language. Those aren’t functions of his age. They are traits that have marked his entire political career. 

In the later stages of the event, for example, Biden suggested he might not consider the midterm elections legitimate under certain circumstances— but the wording of his answer was rather unclear.

Some commentators complained the event grew dull because of its length. 

But that critique is not likely to matter much with the general public, relatively few of whom are likely to have watched the presser in its entirety.

Biden kicked off his midterm campaign

Next to the Russia gaffe, the most politically significant aspect of the briefing was Biden’s shift to a midterm election strategy.

He is not — yet — going full, scorched-earth negative. But he clearly wants to put a contrast between his party and the GOP in the front of voters’ minds

He claimed several times that Republicans were happy to position themselves against him but unwilling to state in plain terms what they favor.

“What would be the Republican platform right now?” he asked rhetorically, citing issues including taxation, the cost of prescription drugs and human rights. “I honestly don’t know what they’re for.”

An old political dictum holds that elections are either a referendum on the incumbent or a choice between two options. 

Biden is doing what he can to make the 2022 midterms a choice — surely seeing this approach as his party’s most realistic chance to cling onto its razor-thin congressional majorities.

Relatedly, Biden also promised to hit the road more, talking wistfully about how he has not been able do more of the old-school politicking he relishes because of the pandemic.

“I don’t get a chance to look people in the eye, to go out and do the things I’ve always been able to do,” he said at one point. “Connect with people; let them take the measure of my sincerity.”

A bite-sized approach to his goals

Biden bowed to the inevitable on his legislative agenda — sort of.

In effect, he accepted that his Build Back Better plan, which he had hoped would be the capstone of his legislative agenda, would not pass in its current form. He acknowledged the same of voting rights legislation, more or less.

But he emphasized the fight for those goals was not over. Instead, he said he would move on to trying to achieve the same big objectives in bite-sized chunks over time.

“It’s clear to me that we are going to have to probably break it up,” he said of Build Back Better, noting as one example that even Sen. Joe Manchin was in favor of some of the big bill's provisions on early childhood education. 

He made essentially the same argument on voting rights and asserted that change happens incrementally.

“I don’t know many things that have been done in one fell swoop,” he said.

Whether that approach is enough to satisfy a restive Democratic base remains to be seen.

Did it move the needle?

It’s tough for any single event these days to shift the political realities of a deeply polarized nation, Biden’s press conference was no exception.

The extent of the damage done by the Russia-related gaffe will only become clear after several days. 

Right now, it’s impossible to tell whether it will fade from relevance or instead come to be seen like other infamous verbal miscues — President Ford’s “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe” debacle during a 1976 debate comes to mind.

On the flip side, Biden supporters can take heart from the vigor with which the president pressed the case against the GOP. They have wanted more of that from Biden for a while and he delivered in spades on Wednesday.

His remarks hitting Republicans were a reminder that the presidential bully pulpit still holds power. 

Whether that power will be enough to reverse Biden’s current low fortunes remains to be seen.

Biden hits one year mark in dire straits

Joe Biden, President of United States faces reporters for his first news conference of the year 2022 with serious questions about his agenda and the health of his presidency as he nears the first anniversary of taking office.

Biden has been unable to move members of his own party to back his most ambitious goals, with Senators. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin were stiff-arming the president in ways that left the White House looking ineffectual.

Biden’s climate and social policy package, the top priority of the White House and Democrats in Congress, appears doomed — unless parts of it can be broken up and salvaged.

The president’s push for voting rights bills has similarly fizzled at the hands of Manchin and Sinema, who rejected Biden’s calls to make an exception to the filibuster.

“It started off really strong, but at some point they started hitting a brick wall, the problems started piling up, and they’re now looking for their footing as we start the second year,” said Jim Manley, a former aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Biden’s first year.

The White House’s effort to quell the coronavirus pandemic has also been snarled, most recently by a ruling of the conservative Supreme Court that struck down Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large businesses.

Inside the White House, there is a strong sentiment that a shift in strategy is needed. Sources close to the White House say Biden will find ways to speak directly to the people to more effectively communicate the work that is being done. Democrats also expect Biden to draw a sharper contrast with Republicans, which he has started to do in the New Year.

“I think there is a recognition that some things have to change and change quickly,” said one Democratic source who speaks directly with White House officials. “Some of the things they have done haven’t worked.”

A Democratic strategist who is also in contact with the White House said that much needs to change in terms of winning back public confidence and building a cohesive message to Americans.

“The problem is rooted in the fact that we’ve gone from one extreme to another,” the strategist said. “We went from Trump’s unique brand of style and communicating to Biden’s, and both leave something to be desired from the general public.”

“With Biden, it’s a sense of prioritization,” the strategist added. “Is it the pandemic? Is it Build Back Better? Is it the economy? And oh yeah, is it voting rights? ... No one knows what we’re supposed to be worked up about. What? Which?”

To be sure, Biden has had some wins, and some Democrats don’t believe he’s getting enough credit. On the legislative front, he ushered through a US$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in his first two months in office and beat expectations by signing into law a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“Compared to where we were a year ago, I think it’s an A,” Navin Nayak, president and executive director of the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund, said of Biden’s first year, citing the job creation, wage gains and COVID-19 vaccinations that occurred under the president’s watch.

“There’s a lot of work left to do,” Nayak said. “I don’t think anyone came into this thinking that the agenda he laid out on Jan. 20 would be completed within a year.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in a nod to the looming one-year mark since Biden’s inauguration, opened Tuesday’s briefing with statistics she argued underscored the strength of the president’s first year in office.

She cited the “dramatic” improvement of the US economy, driven by strong job growth and declining unemployment. And she noted 74 percent of adults in the US are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 after the shots were just being rolled out a year ago.

“The job is not done yet, but we have a plan to address the challenges we are facing,” Psaki said.

But those accomplishments have done little to lift Biden’s deflated poll numbers, which show the president increasingly unpopular, including among those in his own party. Many have blamed Biden’s dip in the polls on the public’s fatigue with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as well as frustrations about higher costs of goods.

Nayak said there is a path for Biden to rebound in the polls once the pandemic begins to recede, given the positive news on the economic recovery and Biden’s likeability compared to former President Trump.

“People really disliked [Trump], and I don’t think there was really any path for him to win over those people he had lost,” Nayak said. “People still like Joe Biden. This is not a personal thing.”

Democrats are bracing for losses in the midterm elections unless Biden can turn things around. There is a sense among some Democrats that the party has thus far failed to deliver on key promises from the 2020 campaign on health care, climate change and getting the pandemic under control.

Some have also questioned Democrats’ strategy on pushing forward on voting rights bills, even as it was guaranteed to fail in the Senate because of the filibuster.

“I guess I don’t blame him for trying, but the reality is unless you have Sinema and Manchin — and you don’t — it’s not going to happen,” said Manley, who argued Democrats should have focused on negotiating a bipartisan compromise on voting rights legislation early on.

There is chatter among lawmakers that Democrats should pass whatever pieces of Biden’s Build Back Better package can get enough support in the Senate in order to have some kind of legislative win to point to in the New Year. But in the absence of a breakthrough, strategists believe Biden must tailor his message around what his administration has managed to get done.

“Inflation is a serious problem, and no Democrat should ever minimize it. But it’s also true that many other economic indicators are extraordinarily good,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of the centrist think tank Third Way.

“If Trump had this economy, he’d be calling it the greatest ever. There’s high inflation, but low unemployment and a booming stock market,” Bennett said. “So I think they need to be a little more aggressive about addressing the things people really care about and making sure people know what Biden has achieved.”

While Biden’s poll numbers remain low and even some Democrats worry that his legislative agenda is all but dead, others say it’s too early to make any judgments.

David Litt, a bestselling author who served as a speechwriter in the Obama White House, said he knows what it feels like to be counted out.

“In the Obama administration, there were a lot of moments when people counted us out before all the innings had been played,” Litt said. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. A lot can change in a couple of months.

“There’s not a huge indication that it’s the bottom of the ninth with any of these things,” he said. “If the last two years have taught us anything it’s that the future is hard to predict.”