(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve instituted a dramatic interest rate hike on Wednesday, the latest in a series of borrowing cost increases, as the central bank tries to dial back near-historic inflation while avoiding an economic downturn.
The Fed raised the benchmark interest rate by 0.75%, repeating the same hike it imposed at each of the last two meetings. Prior to this year, the Fed last matched a hike of this magnitude in 1994.
The move arrives a little more than a week after a higher-than-expected inflation report revealed that prices rose slightly in August, worsening the cost woes for U.S. households and sending the S&P 500 tumbling for its worst day of 2022.
The Fed has put forward a string of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday reasserted the central bank’s commitment to bring inflation down to a target rate of 2%, saying the Fed expects to put forward “ongoing increases” to its benchmark interest rate.
“We have both the tools we need and the resolve it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses,” Powell said.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve depicted the U.S. economy as one struggling with high prices.
“Inflation remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher food and energy prices, and broader price pressures,” the Federal Reserve said.
“Recent indicators point to modest growth in spending and production. Job gains have been robust in recent months, and the unemployment rate has remained low,” the statement added.
Hours before the rate hike announcement, chief executives at some of the largest U.S. banks sounded the alarm over sky-high inflation in testimony before Congress, warning that price hikes would require further borrowing cost increases from the Federal Reserve that will slow the economy and impose widespread financial pain.
Speaking at a conference held by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute, Powell said earlier this month that the central bank must act “forthrightly, strongly” to dial back inflation.
The rate hikes have yielded mixed results, however. On an annual basis, consumer prices have moderated slightly but remain highly elevated.
The consumer price index rose 8.3% over the past year as of August, a slight slowdown from 8.5% in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some prices have already fallen significantly, though. Gas prices dropped 10.6% in August, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, rate increases appear to have slowed key sectors of the economy, sending mortgage rates higher and slowing the construction of new homes, for instance.
Still, other indicators suggest the U.S. economy continues to hum.
U.S. hiring fell from its breakneck pace but remained robust in August, with the economy adding 315,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rising to 3.7% as more people sought work, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in early September.
On Wednesday afternoon, immediately after the rate hike announcement, each of the major stock indexes had fallen slightly.
(HOUSTON) — A toddler was found dead inside a car that was stolen after the child’s father was shot and killed in Houston on Tuesday, police said.
A 38-year-old man now faces charges of murder and tampering with evidence in connection with the case, police said Wednesday. The name of the suspect, who initially had been detained for questioning, will be released once charges are filed, police said.
Police had appealed to the public for information in the hours after the grim discovery amid their search for a suspect.
“We are asking for a lot of things from the public right now,” Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite told reporters during a press conference Tuesday night. “First and foremost, to pray for this family. A mother lost her husband and she lost her 2-year-old child today. We are also asking the public’s help in identifying the suspect. He is still at large.”
The Houston Police Department received a 911 call about a shooting in the area of El Camino Rey Del Rey Street and Chimney Rock Road at around 1:46 p.m. local time on Tuesday. Upon arrival, officers found a 38-year-old man who had been shot to death, according to Satterwhite.
Investigators believe the victim was meeting with another man at the location when possibly an argument ensued. The other man took out a gun and shot the victim multiple times before stealing his black SUV and fleeing the scene, Satterwhite said.
That evening, at approximately 6:36 p.m. local time, a woman called 911 to report her husband and 2-year-old son missing. The information she provided was specific enough that police soon realized the shooting victim was her husband, according to Satterwhite.
“We never knew about the child until she called,” he told reporters.
The stolen SUV with the little boy inside was found on Elm Street, more than 10 miles away from the shooting scene. Officers shattered the windows of the locked vehicle to get to the child, then immediately tried to render aid and called for an ambulance, according to Satterwhite.
“Sadly, it was too late. The child had passed in the car,” he said. “At this time, we don’t know why or how or what the cause of death will be. It could be something like heat exhaustion, we just don’t know. That will be determined later through autopsy.”
Investigators believe the suspect had left the car there, locked up and turned off, with the child in the backseat, according to Satterwhite.
“It’s the hardest thing we do,” he told reporters. “Children are innocent.”
The unidentified suspect, who remains on the loose, is described as a Black man wearing a white T-shirt, black shorts and a black Oakland Raiders cap.
When asked if he had a message for the suspect, Satterwhite said: “Turn yourself in. Turn yourself in now.”
(MADISON, Wisc.) — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers announced Wednesday that he is calling a special session of the state legislature in his latest attempt to repeal a criminal abortion ban dating back to 1849 which suspended some abortion services in the state after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade in June.
“In Wisconsin, we still have an 1800s-era criminal abortion ban on the books that originated before the Civil War and when Wisconsin women did not have the right to vote, which could ban nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, if it goes back into effect,” Evers said in a statement on social media.
The Democratic governor had called a special session earlier this year, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, to repeal the then-dormant law. The Republican-controlled state legislature gaveled in and out of the special session without holding any discussion. Days later, the Supreme Court released its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, effectively overturning Roe. Abortion providers in Wisconsin have since suspended services amid the threat of prosecution.
Evers said he is now calling a special session to “create a pathway for Wisconsin voters” to repeal the abortion ban, which makes it a felony to provide an abortion except when the mother’s life is at risk.
The governor’s actions come a week after Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin suggested voters could challenge the abortion ban through a statewide referendum.
Voters in Wisconsin currently can not change state laws by referendum or introduce ballot initiatives, according to the governor’s office. Instead, a constitutional amendment must pass two consecutive state legislatures before heading to voters.
Evers proposes creating a process that would enable voters to “bypass” the state legislature and allow referendum ballot questions brought by the public.
“Wisconsinites were not only stripped of their reproductive freedom, but they currently can’t enact change to protect that freedom without having to get permission from the Legislature first. That’s just wrong, and it’s time for us to change that,” he said.
Evers has ordered the state legislature to act on his proposals on Oct. 4.
In response, the Republican leaders of the state legislature called Evers’ actions a “desperate political stunt.”
“Governor Evers would rather push his agenda to have abortion available until birth than talk about his failure to address rising crime and runaway inflation caused by his liberal DC allies,” state Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu and state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a joint statement.
Evers is further challenging the pre-Civil War abortion ban in a lawsuit filed in June by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul that names three Republican state legislative leaders among the defendants. Last week, Kaul named three district attorneys as new defendants in the ongoing case. The lawsuit argues that newer legislation, including a 1985 law that bans abortion only after fetal viability, should take precedence.
The governor, who is up for reelection this November, has vetoed more restrictive abortion laws passed by the state legislature in the past three years.
(NEW YORK) — Cancer deaths in the United States are continuing to decline, according to a new report from the American Association for Cancer Research.
The report, published Wednesday, found that deaths from cancer have decreased by 2.3% every year between 2016 and 2019.
Overall, there has been a 32% reduction in the U.S. cancer death rate since 1991, which translates into approximately 3.5 million lives being saved, the report said.
Additionally, in 2022, there are more than 18 million cancer survivors living in the U.S., equivalent to 5.4% of the population, the report found. Fifty years earlier, there were just 3 million cancer survivors.
According to the report, the decreasing number of deaths is due to “unprecedented progress” made against cancer within the last decade.
This includes eight new anticancer medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration between August 2021 and July 2022 as well as 10 previously approved medications that have been expanded to treat other types of cancer.
Another reason is due to the decline in smoking, the report says. Rates of smoking among U.S. adults have also decreased from 42% in 1965 to 12.5% in 2020.
The report also highlights the importance of cancer screenings, which can determine if a person has precancerous lesions or cancer in its early stages.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Colorectal Cancer Control Program — which aims to rise cancer screening rates among people between 45 and 75 years of age — saw an average increase of 8.2 percentage points and 12.3 percentage points among clinics that participated in the program for two and four years, respectively, according to the report.
“Basic research discoveries have driven the remarkable advances that we’ve seen in cancer medicine in recent years,” Dr. Lisa Coussens, the president of AACR, said in a statement.
“Targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and other new therapeutic approaches being applied clinically all stem from fundamental discoveries in basic science,” the statement added. “Investment in cancer science, as well as support for science education at all levels, is absolutely essential to drive the next wave of discoveries and accelerate progress.”
However, because cancer continues to be the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. — with an estimated 600,000 lives expected to be lost this year — the AACR is calling on Congress to increase funding for the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health and for the FDA, which oversees the regulation of anticancer medication.
The group also called for more support for programs such as President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, which was relaunched in February 2022, with a goal of slashing the national cancer death rate by 50% over the next 25 years.
The good news comes despite a recent report that cancers among adults younger than age 50 have “dramatically increased” globally over the last several decades.
Researchers from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital said the sharp rise of several cancers including breast, colon, esophagus, kidney, liver and pancreas began in the early 1990s.
The Brigham study found the rise is partially attributable to early screenings for some of these cancers. Early life exposures such as people’s diet, weight, lifestyle, environmental exposure, and microbiome may factor into what’s contributing to early-onset cancer, but more information on individual exposures is needed, the study said.
ABC News’ Dr. Evelyn Huang contributed to this report.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A panel of judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted a request from the Justice Department to stay portions of a ruling by district Judge Aileen Cannon that had effectively paused the government’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s potential mishandling of classified records after leaving office.
The three-judge panel, comprised of two Trump appointees and an Obama-era appointee, ruled unanimously that the Justice Department is no longer enjoined from using the documents with classifications recovered from Mar-a-Lago in its investigation and will no longer have to submit them to special master Ray Dearie for his review.
“[Trump] has not even attempted to show that he has a need to know the information contained in the classified documents,” the panel said in its ruling. “Nor has he established that the current administration has waived that requirement for these documents.”
They also agree with the Justice Department that Trump has submitted no record or claim that he ever declassified the documents at issue, and that his team resisted stating as much when pressed by Dearie.
“In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal,” the judges said. “So even if we assumed that Plaintiff did declassify some or all of the documents, that would not explain why he has a personal interest in them.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Wednesday approved a post-Jan. 6 election reform bill intended to blunt future challenges to presidential elections.
The Presidential Election Reform Act, crafted largely by Reps. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., passed by a 229-203 vote, with nine Republicans joining the Democratic majority in favor of it.
The legislation would alter the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act, which — as the House committee investigating Jan. 6 showed through a series of hearings — former President Donald Trump and his allies focused on in their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 race Trump lost to Joe Biden.
Among other things, the new bill would confirm that the vice president’s role in overseeing the Electoral College count after each election is purely ministerial. The legislation would also raise the threshold needed for electoral objections by lawmakers to receive a vote in Congress and it would mandate that governors transmit state results to Congress.
As the Jan. 6 committee detailed, Trump and his allies pressed then-Vice President Mike Pence to not green-light the electors submitted from certain swing states and pushed governors to send to Congress alternate slates of electors who backed Trump over Biden.
Objections to some states’ electors on Jan. 6, 2021, also easily earned votes under the current standards, which only require one member each in the House and the Senate to back an objection. The new legislation raises that floor to one-third of each chamber.
Prior to Wednesday’s vote on the Presidential Election Reform Act, supporters emphasized the need for the legislation as numerous election deniers, including those running for office this year, still say the 2020 race shouldn’t have been certified, citing groundless claims of voter fraud.
“Let me be clear. This is a kitchen table issue for families, and we must make sure this anti-democratic plot cannot succeed,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on the House floor. “It’s a kitchen table issue because denying the American people their fundamental freedom to choose their own leaders denies them their voice in the policies we pursue, and those policies can make tremendous difference in their everyday lives.”
“Our bill will preserve the rule of law for all future presidential elections by ensuring that self-interested politicians cannot steal from the people the guarantee that our government derives its power from the consent of the governed,” Cheney added in her own remarks.
The bill was not anticipated to garner significant Republican support in the House, though, outside of anti-Trump lawmakers.
The nine Republican votes came from Cheney and Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Peter Meijer Michigan, Tom Rice of South Carolina, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, John Katko of New York, Fred Upton Michigan and New York’s Chris Jacobs. None of them are returning next Congress, either because they are retiring or lost their primaries this year.
House GOP leadership had actively whipped against the bill, with Minority Whip Steve Scalise’s, R-La., saying in a memo Tuesday that “In their continued fixation to inject the Federal government into elections, this legislation runs counter to reforms necessary to strengthen the integrity of our elections.”
The House bill is also competing with Senate legislation crafted after bipartisan talks that included Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va, and Susan Collins, R-Maine.
The two bills are similar, though the Senate legislation sets a lower threshold to introduce objections to the electoral count.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Two Americans who were being held captive by Russian-backed forces after volunteering to fight with Ukrainian forces have been released, their families said.
Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both military veterans from Alabama, were reported missing by their families following a fight in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine in June.
They are currently in the custody of the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, their families announced in a joint statement on Wednesday.
“We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free,” the families said. “They are safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the States.”
“We deeply appreciate everyone’s prayers and especially the close communication and support of our elected officials, Ukrainian Ambassador Markarova, and our members of the US embassies in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia and the US Department of State,” the statement continued.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Puerto Rico is facing yet another devastating hurricane that has knocked out electricity across the island, just as the five-year anniversary of the deadly, destructive Hurricane Maria passes.
President Joe Biden has authorized FEMA to supply federal emergency aid to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in response to Hurricane Fiona, which touched down on Sept. 17 after strengthening from a tropical storm.
More than 1.5 million people are without electricity as torrential rain, 85-mph winds, and what the National Hurricane Service calls “catastrophic” flooding, pummels the U.S. territory.
Here are organizations helping deliver relief efforts in the wake of this latest hurricane:
United Nations World Food Programme: international disaster relief
The United Nations group is on the ground providing relief assessment emergency equipment to support recovery efforts in the Dominican Republic following severe flooding and power outages.
The U.N. is one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations, working with victims of climate change, conflict and other disasters.
GoFundMe: hosting personal fundraisers
GoFundMe has dedicated a page to verified fundraisers for people affected by the hurricane in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
“We are working around the clock to ensure the families, businesses and communities affected receive the quick and trusted support they need,” GoFundMe said in a statement.
Verified fundraisers are vetted by GoFundMe, and funds are held until the recipients can be added to the fundraiser to withdraw the money themselves.
Hispanic Federation: a coalition of organizations rebuilding Puerto Rico
The Hispanic Federation has helped rebuild homes, health centers and farms, supply solar panels, and more through community-based projects following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. The federation responded then by supplying 25 relief planes that carried 7.4 million pounds of food, water, medicine, solar panels and resources to the island and coordinated with mayors on the ground to organize donation delivery.
In the wake of Hurricane Fiona, Hispanic Federation is already on the ground providing emergency relief services.
Their efforts have been combined with hyperlocal organizations such as La Maraña and ViequesLove that focus on different aspect of recovery, many of which were born out of the needs highlighted by Hurricane Maria.
PRxPR: disaster relief fund donating 100% of funds
The PRxPR Relief and Rebuild Fund, run by the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, has delivered humanitarian aid to the island in the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastation. Maria killed roughly 3,000 people and left the infrastructure of the country devastated.
The fund works with local organizations to address basic, economic, agricultural and energy needs in an effort to provide immediate and long-lasting relief to communities.
Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico (The Puerto Rico Community Foundation)
The Puerto Rico Community Foundation has been working for more than 35 years to increase access to renewable energy, drinking water, housing, education and economic development for the people it serves.
The foundation has reactivated the Community Recovery Fund for Puerto Rico to help recovery efforts following Hurricane Fiona.
Foundation for Puerto Rico
The Foundation for Puerto Rico was created to “unleash Puerto Rico’s potential in the global economy.” Now, the organization plans to prioritize relief in the wake Hurricane Fiona, calling for donations and volunteers.
“Our priority is to focus on the emergency that the country is facing and achieve the recovery of Puerto Rico together,” said the organization in a tweet.
SBP: disaster management headed to Puerto Rico
SBP is a nonprofit based in New Orleans, Louisiana, that was created after two volunteers saw what they called “the inefficiency and unbearably slow progress” of institutional or traditional rebuilding processes in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. The group aims to reduce the time between when a disaster hits and when recovery reaches those affected.
SBP says as soon as weather conditions are safe, it will touch down in Puerto Rico to help recovery efforts.
The group will “partner with local and regional organizations to establish contact lists and distribute recovery supplies to impacted communities,” according to the SBP website.
It said it will “connect with state, parish, and municipal leaders in affected areas to ensure survivors and communities secure access to vital recovery resources, protect survivors from fraud, and set clear and aggressive recovery goals to build back quickly and more robust than before.”
(NEW YORK) — Regions along the Atlantic basin likely won’t see relief once Hurricane Fiona passes, as four more systems follow in the Category 4 hurricane’s wake.
Tropical Storm Gaston is the newest named system to form in the Atlantic. The storm currently carries winds of 65 mph and is located off the Azores, the archipelago in the mid-Atlantic.
The storm will strengthen as it drifts to the east but is forecast to perform a loop-de-loop and head west-northwest, eventually transitioning into a post-storm system.
Meteorologists expect Gaston to remain a “fish storm” because it will only affect marine life, other than some ships that will redirect their routes to avoid the storm.
It is unclear whether the same will apply to three more systems that have formed off the west coast of Africa.
At least one of the systems is likely to strengthen into a named storm as it heads toward the Caribbean in the coming days.
The next named storm will be Hermine, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The succession of storms threatening the Caribbean comes after Hurricane Fiona wreaked havoc on islands such as Guadalupe, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico — where the majority of utility customers lost power as a result of the storm. At least two fatalities have been reported.
Fiona is now heading north toward Bermuda as a strong Category 4 storm with winds at 130 mph — prompting a tropical storm warning and hurricane watch there and an increase in rip current threats along beaches on the East Coast of the U.S. Fiona is not forecast to hit Bermuda directly but is expected to pass just west of the island.
The recent uptick in activity comes after a record quiet stretch in July and August.
(NEW YORK) — Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, President Joe Biden on Wednesday cast the defining conflict facing global leaders as a duel between democracy and autocracy, directly responding to new threats from Russian President Vladimir Putin to escalate the war in Ukraine.
The speech is Biden’s first at the forum since Russia’s invasion, offering him the opportunity to condemn the Kremlin in front of an audience of fellow heads of state.
Biden opened his remarks with a strong rebuke of Putin after he earlier Wednesday ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia and raised the specter of using nuclear weapons after a retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
“Let us speak plainly, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council invaded its neighbor, attempted to erase the sovereign state from the map,” Biden said. “Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenants of the United Nations Charter.”
“Just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe and reckless disregard of the responsibilities of a nonproliferation regime,” Biden continued. “Now, Russia is calling, calling up more soldiers to join the fight and the Kremlin is organizing a sham referendum to try to annex parts of Ukraine, an extremely significant violation of the U.N. Charter.”
Biden called the conflict “a war chosen by one man” and slammed Putin for his attacks on Ukraine’s schools, railway stations, hospitals.
“Even more horrifying evidence of Russia’s atrocity and war crimes: Mass graves uncovered in Izium, bodies, according to those that excavated those bodies, showing signs of torture. This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state, plain and simple. And Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should not–that should make your blood run cold,” he said.
Biden reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to help Ukraine and called on other U.N. members to do the same.
“Each of us in this body who determined to uphold the principles and beliefs we pledged to defend as members of the United Nations, must be clear, firm and unwavering in our resolve,” he said.
Biden also announced a commitment of $2.9 billion in global food aid, an effort to address growing famine in the Horn of Africa, and rising food prices worldwide due to the war in Ukraine, and inflation.
As Biden grapples with a series of complicated global issues, the high-stakes summit presents a range of challenges for the administration.
The no-shows
Although U.N. General Assembly meetings offer an abundance of opportunity for face-to-face diplomacy — something the president prides himself on — two key players weren’t in attendance: the leaders of Russia and China.
“Our competitors are facing increasingly strong headwinds, and neither President Xi nor President Putin are even showing up for this global gathering,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday.
In Putin’s case, the most pressing of those headwinds are losses on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to administration officials.
Ahead of an engagement with his counterpart from the U.K., Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced reports that Moscow plans to hold sham referenda in occupied territories in Ukraine to pave the way to annex territory.
“I think this is also not a surprise this is happening now. We have seen in the last weeks significant gains by Ukraine,” Blinken said. “It’s a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of Russian failure.”
But as a number of other heads of state push for negotiations for peace, the gathering won’t offer a robust opportunity for Biden to pursue that path with the leaders of the countries involved in the conflict. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in New York, but there are no plans for a meeting with U.S. officials on the books.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will also give a speech on Wednesday, but he will do so remotely as the only leader allowed to appear virtually this year.
China’s Xi Jinping’s absence means there’s no chance an in-person meeting with the president, something that hasn’t happened since Biden took office. And the two have an ever-growing list of differences to discuss.
The past months have seen multiple escalations, with China responding to any step perceived as the U.S. moving towards recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state with shows of force, a strategy a senior State Department official described as an attempt to normalize military pressure.
While the administration says Washington’s long-standing “One China” policy remains in effect, Biden also said U.S. troops would defend Taiwan if it were attacked.
The impermanent 5?
Russia’s exalted position as one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council has thrown a significant wrench in the body’s efforts to check its aggression, prompting calls that it should be removed altogether.
U.S. officials appeared to be aligning behind a plan that, instead of subtracting Russia as a permanent member, would seek to make additions to the Security Council.
A senior State Department official said that Biden would attempt to “reenergize” the push for reform by arguing the arm needs to be “more representative of the world’s population, and filled with countries that are ready to work together.”
The odds of expanding the council appear slim. Reforming its makeup would require amending the U.N. charter, a step that Russia or any other permanent member could veto.
The rest of the agenda
While the war in Ukraine is shaping up to dominate the General Assembly, administration officials have stressed they want to take on other global issues as well.
Biden in his speech discussed the need to tackle food insecurity, the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis and climate change.
“Let this be the moment, we find within ourselves, the will to turn back the tide of climate devastation and unlock a resilient, sustainable clean energy economy to preserve our plant,” Biden said.
One pressing matter facing the White House is its push to return to an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. Indirect negotiations appear to have stalled again, and officials from both countries appear increasing pessimistic that the pact can be renewed.
Sullivan said Biden plans to reiterate that the U.S. is open to returning to an agreement, but that he isn’t anticipating any major breakthroughs.
Even a meeting with one of America’s closest allies has its thorns. Biden will hold his first meeting with the U.K.’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, as the differences between the two’s economic policies become ever apparent.
Recently, Truss said completing a long-awaited trade deal with the U.S. was not a key priority and unlikely to happen anytime soon. But Sullivan said it would be on the president’s list.
“I do think that they will talk about the economic relationship between the U.S. and the U.K.,” Sullivan said, adding they would also hit other areas where Truss and Biden have more in common, such as support for Ukraine and addressing Europe’s energy crisis.
