Biden to use meeting with Japan's prime minister to send 'clear signal' to China
CNN
President Joe Biden plans to use his meeting with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday to send a signal to China that the countries are united in their opposition to recent aggression against Taiwan as the US seeks to refocus its foreign policy in East Asia.
In what will be Biden's first in-person meeting with a foreign leader at the White House, the two leaders are expected to discuss the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration's North Korea policy review, regional security issues, the climate crisis, relations with China and technology policy, according to a senior administration official. But it is China that is expected to be one of the biggest focuses. The leaders are expected to speak in-depth about China, the official said, as the US and Japan "seek to play a steady, careful role to underscore our mutual commitment to maintenance of peace and stability, and to take steps to calm tensions and to discourage provocations."
Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.
France condemned the brief detention of two consulate members after it said Israeli police forced their way into a French-owned holy site in Jerusalem, in what is the latest diplomatic spat in a series of events that have sent relations between the two plummeting.
An Israeli airstrike on a multi-story building in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people, relief officials said, as the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the area – where it is mounting a major offensive.
If his first term in the White House is any indication, President-elect Donald Trump is likely to keep the Middle East high on his agenda.
Rights groups say journalist Reza Valizadeh has been detained, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
A female student stripped to her underwear outside her university in Iran in what some student and rights groups say was a protest against the country’s strict Islamic dress code.
Israel is at a “high level of readiness” for a response from Iran, an Israeli military source told CNN, as US officials visited the Middle East for a renewed push to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Follow live updates.