Biden pushes China threat at G7 and NATO, but European leaders tread carefully
CNN
US presidents don't normally go to Europe and keep talking about China. But Joe Biden thinks he's convinced his new European friends of the need to stand up to Chinese autocracy, human rights abuses and economic rule-breaking.
China is nothing short of a foreign policy fixation in Washington. So it doesn't take a genius to know what Biden may want in return for patching up the trans-Atlantic wounds of the Trump era. He said he "walked away" from the G7 summit in the UK convinced that the group recognizes that Beijing is part of a growing threat to global democracy. The summit agreed to set up an alternative to China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative. Reflecting US goals, it called on China to respect human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang province, and to permit a full probe into the origins of Covid-19. It also called for calm in the South and East China seas.Venezuelan authorities are investigating opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for alleged treason after she expressed support for a US bipartisan bill that seeks to block Washington from doing business with any entity that has commercial ties with the government of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro.
Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the intelligence community, was briefly placed on a Transportation Security Administration list that prompts additional security screening before flights after her overseas travel patterns and foreign connections triggered a government algorithm earlier this year, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN.