OnPolitics: It’s almost time for the G7 summit
Biden heads to Europe for first foreign trip as president and meetings with G-7, Putin and the queen (Photo: Photo Illustration: Colin Smith/USA TODAY Network, and AP)
Halfway through the week, what’s going on in Washington?
President Joe Biden is on his first foreign trip in office to Europe. (Unfortunately for the White House press accompanying Biden, there was a plane delay due to cicadas. Those nasty little buggers.)
Meanwhile, Biden’s infrastructure negotiations are still going on — just not with a group of six Senate Republicans.
It’s Mabinty, with the news of the day.
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Biden meets the crown 👑
Joe Biden embarked Wednesday on his first foreign trip as president, an eight-day swing across Europe that will give him a chance to shore up frayed alliances with U.S. allies and meet face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid rising tensions with Moscow.
He’ll also get to enjoy one of the perks of the presidency: a visit with Queen Elizabeth II.
Why Europe? The focal point of Biden’s visit will be the Group of Seven summit, or G-7, which opens Friday in Carbis Bay, a seaside resort in Cornwall in southwest England. The summit is the first gathering of leaders of the world’s largest economies in nearly two years and the first of the post-Donald Trump era.
Who’s going: Besides the United States, the G-7 includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K.
What their discussing: Climate change, defense and security and getting the global economy back on track in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic are all on the agenda for the leaders’ 47th gathering.
From the U.K., Biden will head to Brussels, where he will join leaders of other NATO countries Monday to discuss tense ties with Russia and China, the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the future of the 30-nation military alliance. The meeting will give Biden a chance to rebuild relations with leaders from Europe and Canada that became strained under Trump.
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Trump feeling vindicated
A government report concludes that federal police did not clear protesters from Lafayette Park near the White House last summer so then-President Donald Trump could walk to a nearby church for a photo op.
The report, released Wednesday by Interior Department Inspector General Mark Lee Greenblatt, says U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Secret Service determined it was necessary to remove protesters from the area in and around the park last June 1, so contractors could install security fencing.
In case you forgot: Federal and military police clashed with protesters and drove them out of the park and nearby streets on the evening of June 1 shortly before Trump walked through the park and stood in front of St. John’s to hold up a Bible.
How’s Trump reacting?: Shortly after the report was released, Trump issued a statement thanking the inspector general “for completely and totally exonerating me in the clearing of Lafayette Park!”
Happy Loki Day 😈! —Mabinty
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