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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday spoke with his counterparts in China and Russia about the security situation in Afghanistan. The calls come as both Beijing and Moscow have signaled an openness to recognizing and working with the Taliban, which over the weekend swiftly ousted the Western-backed government in Kabul. Blinken spoke separately with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi about developments in Afghanistan, including the security situation and both countries' respective efforts to bring U.S. and Chinese citizens to safety, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement.

The era of cheap natural gas might be gone for good. U.S. natural gas futures climbed to a 31-month high of 4.16/MMBtu on Thursday thanks to forecasts for hotter weather over the next two weeks and soaring global gas prices ensuring that U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports will remain at record highs.… (Snip) The United States has a long-running love affair with natural gas, with fossil fuels acting as the lynchpin in the country's power generation mix, while nearly half of American homes use the fuel for heating. With the transition from fossil fuels to renewables in full swing...

Black progressive lawmakers on Sunday questioned the inclusivity of the freedoms celebrated on Independence Day as the White House prepared for an evening of traditional festivities. As Biden’s White House readied fireworks and burgers for America’s annual celebration of nationhood, progressives expressed their views on what the Fourth of July means from the (b)lack American perspective. “When they say that the 4th of July is about American freedom, remember this: the freedom they’re referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and (b)lack people still aren’t free,” tweeted Missouri Rep. Cori Bush. […] In a searing op-ed...

Critics slammed The New York Times on Sunday for an article that suggested the American flag has become a symbol of divisiveness. The New York Times published an article on Saturday titled: 'A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity That May No Longer Unite.' In the article, Pulitzer Prize finalist Sarah Maslin Nir examined how the American flag 'once a unifying symbol' has become a divisive symbol in the United States along political party lines.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki Monday defended U.S. track and field star Gwen Berry's decision to turn her back on the nation's flag, saying Berry was seeking to "peacefully protest" the moments that Americans "haven’t lived up to our highest ideals." Berry, 31, placed third over the weekend in the hammer throw during the U.S. Olympic trials, earning her a spot on the team. As the National Anthem was played, she turned from the flag. "This weekend, Gwen Barry, who hopes to represent the United States as an Olympian on the hammer throwing events, won a bronze medal at...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday defended the “peaceful protest” of Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry, who on Saturday turned away from the US flag while the national anthem played and covered her head with her T-shirt that read, “Activist Athlete.” Berry said she was “pissed” to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” after winning a bronze medal at the US Olympic Track & Field Team Trials. “I haven’t spoken to the president specifically about this, but I know he’s incredibly proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem and all that it represents, especially for...

Speaking from the East Room of the White House Wednesday afternoon, President Joe Biden re-introduced his extreme gun control agenda, advocating for a ban on modern sporting rifles and reminding lawful gun owners that the federal government has nuclear weapons. "Those who say the blood of Patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government," Biden said. "If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons."

Former President Obama said Monday that Congress needs to pass voting rights legislation before the 2022 midterm elections, or American democracy could be at risk. "We can't wait until the next election because if we have the same kinds of shenanigans that brought about Jan. 6, if we have that for a couple more election cycles, we're going to have real problems in terms of our democracy long-term," said Obama. Speaking on a call with grassroots supporters alongside former Attorney General Eric Holder, Obama said debate over the voting rights bill, known as the For the People Act, was worth...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised the outcome of his summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and called him an astute and shrewd negotiator. The two leaders concluded three hours of talks Wednesday at an opulent villa facing Lake Geneva by exchanging expressions of mutual respect but firmly restating their starkly different views on cyberattacks, the conflict in Ukraine, political dissent and other issues. At the same time, they announced an agreement to return each other’s ambassadors and mapped more talks on arms control and cybersecurity. Putin, who hailed Biden as a highly experienced and constructive...

Former U.S. President Barack Obama in an interview for CNN's Anderson Cooper shared his thoughts, among other things, on the global crisis of democracy. "All of us as citizens have to recognize that the path towards an undemocratic America is not gonna happen in just one bang. It happens in a series of steps" - said the former president. "And when you look what's happened in places like Hungary and Poland, that obviously did not have the same democratic traditions as we did, they weren't as deeply rooted, and yet as recently as 10 years ago were functioning democracies, now...

Move over, Woodrow Wilson. Take a seat, Barack Obama. Let him through, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Based on last week’s $6 trillion budget proposal, Joe Biden has surpassed all of those liberal icons to take a position at the head of the pack as the most extreme radical ever to inhabit the White House. Were Biden to succeed in turning his budget proposal into reality, he would more radically transform the nation than those previous presidents combined. The Biden budget will not be enacted as is. And, because the document itself reveals that not only will it not fix...

Netflix has elected Barack and Michelle Obama to a new position of power at the head of their upcoming animated series. The Obamas announced Wednesday they have produced We the People, a 10-episode television series aimed at educating

....Obama on Tuesday surprised a youth football team on Chicago’s South Side... Following Obama's visit with the kids, [he] also took part in a meeting among South Side small business owners to discuss ways to leverage the expected boost in tourism that his [propaganda center] will bring....

President Barack Obama said in an interview published Tuesday his former Vice President Joe Biden was finishing the work he began to redistribute wealth through programs like Obamacare. “I think that what we’re seeing now, is Joe and the administration are essentially finishing the job,” he said in an interview with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein. “And I think it’ll be an interesting test. Ninety percent of the folks who were there in my administration, they are continuing and building on the policies we talked about…”

President Joe Biden’s administration will reportedly cancel several oil and gas leases granted in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the last weeks of the Trump administration — days after defending similar leases on Alaska’s North Slope. The decision was reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, and would mark an attempt to reverse one of President Donald Trump’s historic achievements: the opening of ANWR’s coastal plain in his tax cut legislation in December 2017.

Classical architecture is not a partisan issue. President Thomas Jefferson, founder of the Democratic Party, was an enthusiastic champion of the Greek Revivalism thankfully still visible in both the capital and his Monticello home. When he designed the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, he took great care in the landscaping and architecture, knowing their likely effects on generations of young minds. Fifty years later, President Abraham Lincoln insisted that construction of the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol continue despite the bloody and costly war taking place sometimes just 50 miles from the seat of government. Public beauty in civic buildings,...

White House issues an "executive order" requiring financial regulators and government budget managers to weigh "climate risk" in issuing regulations and making investment decisions.

nlike Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia, Russia, Russia, Biden’s is not imaginary but very real and in your face. Democrats could never say what exactly Trump did, what precise decision was made or what policy was changed. He “colluded”, don’t ya know,. With Biden, we can start with the Colonial pipeline hack by Russian conspirators and Biden’s non-reaction to it, Biden;s approval of a pipeline designed make our NATO allies dependent on energy from Moscow, and, of course, his day one cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline. Trump promised Europe a share in our energy independence, to the oint of...

White House press secretary Jen Psaki argued Tuesday that former President Donald Trump did not help bring peace to the Middle East, even as historic violence has erupted between Israel and Palestine under President Joe Biden’s administration. “Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don’t think they did anything constructive really to bring an end to the long-term conflict in the Middle East,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday during a trip to Michigan. AD Psaki reacted to a reporter’s mention of the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords that worked to normalize...

"It's a shame that in 2021, the City Hall press corps is overwhelmingly White in a city where more than half of the city identifies as Black, Latino, AAPI or Native American." Lightfoot called the racial make-up of the City Hall press corps "an imbalance that needs to change," adding that Chicago's local media "should reflect the multiple cultures that comprise it." Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt was among those disagreeing with the policy. "I am a Latino reporter @chicagotribune whose interview request was granted for today," Pratt tweeted. "However, I asked the mayor’s office to lift its condition on...