What's happening in Myanmar and what the Biden administration is trying to do about it
CNN
The US policy on the Myanmar military's crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators has been bipartisan -- but that hasn't helped stop the conflict in the Southeast Asian nation. At a time of rare bipartisan action, the Biden administration's position on Myanmar's violence won praise from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
"Their instincts are good," the Kentucky Republican told Politico on Monday, after Biden reportedly consulted with the minority leader on the situation in Myanmar, which CNN has covered on the ground. The Biden administration has called for the country's military to end its crackdown on peaceful protests and has levied at least two rounds of sanctions. "Our ability to influence this from halfway around the world is limited," McConnell said. Policy on Myanmar has long been an area of bipartisan agreement between Republicans and Democrats, who were united in condemning the military regime that brutally repressed the country until 2011, united in praise for its gradual opening to democracy and united again in denouncing the coup launched February 1.Senate Democrats have confirmed some of President Joe Biden’s picks for the federal bench this week in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for a total GOP blockade of judicial nominations – in part because several Republicans involved with the Trump transition process have been missing votes.
Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality and people who have served on his US Secret Service detail to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking tell CNN.