ANONYMOUS - OUR VOICE

Biden is pushing to end “Remain in Mexico.” But he may still have to enforce it.

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zhwr7pDd6EGULC6VpHuSLNwlpjI=/0x266:3876x2295/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22972796/1307758889.jpg" /></div>
On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/10/29/dhs-issues-new-memo-terminate-mpp">issued a new memo</a> terminating the Migrant Protection Protocol, a Trump-era directive requiring migrants to wait in Mexico for US immigration court hearings. It’s President Joe Biden’s second attempt to end the policy after a previous effort was <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/24/22640424/supreme-court-remain-in-mexico-trump-biden-samuel-alito-immigration">blocked in federal court</a>.
The memo argues that the policy, also known as “Remain in Mexico,” caused more harm than good, particularly in terms of its humanitarian impact.
“I recognize that MPP likely contributed to reduced migratory flows,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_1029_mpp-termination-memo.pdf">wrote in the four-page memo</a> announcing the policy shift. “But it did so by imposing substantial and unjustifiable human costs on the individuals who were exposed to harm while waiting in Mexico.”
That determination is in line with Biden’s campaign promises on immigration, which included reversing policies like <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/27/22252294/biden-zero-tolerance-family-separation-trump">Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy</a> that resulted in family separations. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22709353/biden-border-immigration-trump-haiti-title-42">It’s at odds</a>, however, with the administration’s continuing reluctance to completely do away with other Trump-era legacies like <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/577002-loosened-travel-restrictions-put-new-pressure-on-trump-era-policy">Title 42</a>, the immigration order that has allowed for the deportation of migrants as a public health measure during the pandemic.
And even though Biden <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22241651/biden-remain-mexico-mpp-migrant-protection-protocols">began rolling back the MPP</a> soon after taking office in January, his administration has had to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-prepared-to-restart-remain-in-mexico-border-policy-in-november/">prepare to re-implement the program</a> in recent weeks in order to comply with a previous court order — even as it’s actively fighting to end the policy for good.
That means Friday’s memo won’t change anything right away: <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/10/29/dhs-issues-new-memo-terminate-mpp">According to DHS</a>, “the termination of MPP will not take effect until the current injunction is lifted.”
The <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/01/29/689819928/trump-administration-begins-remain-in-mexico-policy-sending-asylum-seekers-back">MPP was first implemented in 2019</a> by the Trump administration, ostensibly as a deterrent to people attempting to cross the southern border and as a way to speed up decisions on asylum cases. But as Mayorkas’s Friday memo argues and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel for the American Immigration Council, <a href="https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1454169279511896071?s=20">highlighted on Twitter</a>, “the fact that MPP may have resolved cases more quickly does not mean that the cases were resolved fairly or accurately.”
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The Trump administration claimed that one main goal of MPP was completing cases more quickly. But as the explanation memo says, "the fact that MPP may have resolved cases more quickly does not mean that the cases were resolved fairly or accurately."
Exactly! <a href="https://t.co/55x8vVS2W3">pic.twitter.com/55x8vVS2W3</a>
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) <a href="https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1454169279511896071?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 29, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
A <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_1029_mpp-termination-justification-memo.pdf">39-page justification</a> published along with the memo outlines in further detail the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/politics/immigration-remain-mexico.html">conditions</a> migrants faced in detention in Mexico, including the risk of sexual assault and kidnapping in the encampments where they stayed, as well as unsanitary and unstable housing conditions, limited access to health care and legal counsel, and insufficient food while they waited for the US to make a decision about their asylum hearings.
The <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants/">right to seek asylum</a> is protected under international law, and has been since the UN’s <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> was adopted in 1948.
Ultimately, the Biden administration argues the policy has far too many issues for it to be salvaged: Not only does it require significant resources that could be directed elsewhere, according to the DHS memo, but MPP also failed to achieve reduction in crimes like human trafficking and drug smuggling, put people in serious danger, and doesn’t address the root causes that lead to people seeking asylum.
Additionally, the memo says, any program fixes would require the cooperation of Mexico and further diplomatic negotiations — time and energy that could be better spent on other issues. And <a href="https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1454171914495275017">other strict immigration policies</a> were enacted at the same time as MPP, making it difficult to assess any deterrent effect the policy may have achieved.
In addition to laying out policy issues with MPP, Mayorkas’s <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_1029_mpp-termination-memo.pdf">memo</a> responds to an <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/17/22627107/trump-judge-remain-in-mexico-matthew-kacsmaryk-immigration-asylum-joe-biden-donald-trump">August decision</a> by a federal district court in Texas to block the DHS’s original <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/21_0601_termination_of_mpp_program.pdf">June 1 memo</a> ending the policy. That memo follows a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/02/02/executive-order-creating-a-comprehensive-regional-framework-to-address-the-causes-of-migration-to-manage-migration-throughout-north-and-central-america-and-to-provide-safe-and-orderly-processing/">February executive order</a> from Biden, which asked DHS to complete a thorough review of the program’s costs and benefits and recommend whether it should stay in place as is, continue with modifications, or end altogether.
The new directive tries to address the shortcomings of the administration’s June 1 effort to end the MPP program, which was blocked by <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/17/22627107/trump-judge-remain-in-mexico-matthew-kacsmaryk-immigration-asylum-joe-biden-donald-trump">District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk</a>, a Trump appointee, on the grounds that DHS didn’t follow proper administrative procedure when issuing the memo.
Kacsmaryk also argued — incorrectly — that the US has only two options to deal with migrants: either deport them to “a contiguous territory,” in this case Mexico, or detain them in the US. Since there’s insufficient detention space in the US to house all of these migrants “subject to mandatory detention,” Kacsmaryk reasoned, the only option for DHS would be to return migrants coming from other Central and South American countries — and some from even further away — to Mexico.
However, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/17/22627107/trump-judge-remain-in-mexico-matthew-kacsmaryk-immigration-asylum-joe-biden-donald-trump">Vox’s Ian Millhiser</a> explained at the time, the US does indeed have a third option when processing asylum seekers: <a href="https://www.congress.gov/104/plaws/publ208/PLAW-104publ208.pdf">It can offer them parole</a>, the ability to stay in the US while their asylum claims or other efforts to gain legal status move through the immigration system. This system has been used, for example, to reunite Cubans and Haitians with family in the US, and for Afghan nationals fleeing the country after the Taliban’s takeover.
Despite that, the Supreme Court <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/24/22640424/supreme-court-remain-in-mexico-trump-biden-samuel-alito-immigration">allowed Kacsmaryk’s decision to stand</a> — for now — in an <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/082421zr_2d9g.pdf">August order</a> denying the Biden administration’s request for a stay during the appeal process.
As of this month, litigation in the case is still ongoing: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear arguments on Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by the states of Texas and Missouri against the federal government, asking for MPP to be reinstated. According to the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-mexico-alejandro-mayorkas-c172ca86400295353d52203040e0db1a">Associated Press</a>, the US is expected to request that the case be sent back down to Kacsmaryk.
“As long as the injunction is in place, we are bound to comply with it. But as we’ve said, we are vigorously fighting it, vigorously appealing it, and so with this new memo we will seek to either have a Fifth Circuit vacate the district court ruling or for the district court to do so itself,” a <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/department-of-homeland-security/579053-biden-again-rescinds-remain-in">DHS official told reporters on a call Thursday</a>.
While the decision to terminate MPP is undoubtedly a step toward implementing the more humane immigration policy Biden campaigned on, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22709353/biden-border-immigration-trump-haiti-title-42">other elements of Biden’s policy</a> at the southern border still look more like those of the Trump administration.
Specifically, Title 42 — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention directive that allows the deportation of migrants due to public health concerns — remains in place, even as the US prepares to <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/10/29/fact-sheet-guidance-travelers-enter-us-land-ports-entry-and-ferry-terminals#:~:text=Fully%20vaccinated%2C%20non-citizen%20travelers,consistent%20with%20public%20health%20guidance.">welcome back foreign tourists</a> starting November 8.
The result, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22709353/biden-border-immigration-trump-haiti-title-42">according to Vox’s Nicole Narea</a>, is “a growing gulf between the progressive immigration values President Joe Biden professes and the enforcement policies he’s implementing at the border,” one which has led to “confusion among immigration officials, uncertainty for migrants, and questions about whether the president has a coherent strategy on immigration at all.”
Under Title 42, which the Trump administration put in place in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-pandemics-public-health-new-york-health-4ef0c6c5263815a26f8aa17f6ea490ae">March 2020</a>, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the Biden administration has justified deporting <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/haiti-migrants-us-expels-nearly-4000-in-nine-days/">thousands of Haitian immigrants</a>, even as <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22630728/haiti-earthquake-immigration-biden-tps">Haiti has been consumed</a> by political crisis, violence, natural disasters, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
In September, Biden’s special envoy to Haiti, Daniel Foote, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/23/1040055089/us-special-envoy-haiti-quits-deportations-refugees">resigned in protest</a> over the deportations, and another official — State Department legal adviser Harold Koh — <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/04/top-state-adviser-leaves-post-title-42-515029">did likewise</a> earlier this month.
“I believe this Administration’s current implementation of the Title 42 authority continues to violate our legal obligation not to expel or return (“refouler”) individuals who fear persecution, death, or torture, especially migrants fleeing from Haiti,” Koh wrote in an October <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017c-4c4a-dddc-a77e-4ddbf3ae0000">memo</a> obtained by Politico. “Lawful, more humane alternatives plainly exist, and there are approaching opportunities in the near future to substitute those alternatives in place of the current, badly flawed policy.”
<a href="https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/cbp-enforcement-statistics/title-8-and-title-42-statistics">According to US Customs and Border Protection</a>, Title 42 was used to expel more than a million migrants between October 2020 and September this year, denying them a hearing with an immigration judge.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22709353/biden-border-immigration-trump-haiti-title-42">As Narea points out</a>, the Biden administration is caught in a bind trying to please critics from both the left and the right — to the detriment of migrants.
She writes:
<blockquote>
[Biden] has pursued policies designed to uplift immigrants who have put down roots in the US, many of whom have been able to attract public sympathy. But the migrants most Americans will never see are now the subject of his harshest enforcement initiatives. This approach has left Biden with a border policy not so different from the one he once decried.
</blockquote>
Even when it comes to MPP, it’s unclear to what extent Biden will succeed in reversing Trump-era policies. Despite the administration’s latest effort, it may be forced to reinstate MPP at least temporarily, as it’s unclear how the courts will respond to DHS’s Friday memo.
The administration has been negotiating with the Mexican government to restore the policy per the district court’s August order, according to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hamedaleaziz/biden-remain-in-mexico">BuzzFeed</a>, and it has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/29/us/politics/immigration-remain-mexico.html">issued contracts</a> to build new encampments to hold migrants at the border.
In October, dozens of legal groups working with asylum seekers <a href="https://welcomewithdignity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WelcomeWithDignity-Legal-Services-Providers-Joint-Letter-on-MPP_10.19.2021.pdf">signed a letter</a> refusing to work with the administration to enact the policy, saying that to do so would be to be “complicit in a program that facilitates the rape, torture, death, and family separations of people seeking protection by committing to provide legal services.”
In <a href="https://welcomewithdignity.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/WelcomeWithDignity-Legal-Services-Providers-Joint-Letter-on-MPP_10.19.2021.pdf">their letter to the administration</a>, the 73 “legal services providers, law school clinics, and law firms” asked the government to “take immediate steps” to end Title 42 and resume shutting down the MPP program while processing the cases still covered under that directive.
“We stand ready to offer legal services to asylum seekers, were your administration to follow US and international law,” the letter concludes. “But there is no protection in the Migrant Protection Protocols.”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/31/22755615/biden-border-immigration-remain-in-mexico-asylum">https://www.vox.com/2021/10/31/22755615/biden-border-immigration-remain-in-mexico-asylum</a>

vox Biden is pushing to end “Remain in Mexico.” But he may still have to enforce it.

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new memo terminating the Migrant Protection Protocol, a Trump-era directive requir...

US In Talks With Allies To Get Iran Back In Nuclear Deal: Antony Blinken

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US In Talks With Allies To Get Iran Back In Nuclear Deal: Antony Blinken" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-09/vn7c368g_antony-blinken-afp_625x300_24_September_21.jpg" title="US In Talks With Allies To Get Iran Back In Nuclear Deal: Antony Blinken" /></div>
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is in talks with Britain, Germany and France. (File)
</div>
Washington:
The United States was "absolutely in lock step" with Britain, Germany and France on getting Iran back into a nuclear deal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday, but he added it was unclear if Tehran was willing to rejoin the talks in a "meaningful way."
Blinken's remarks in an interview with CNN on Sunday come a day after the United States, Germany, France and Britain urged Iran to resume compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal in order to "avoid a dangerous escalation."
The accord, under which Iran curtailed nuclear work seen as a risk of developing nuclear weapons in exchange for a lifting of global sanctions, unraveled in 2018 after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States, prompting Tehran to breach limits on uranium enrichment set by the pact."
It really depends on whether Iran is serious about doing that," Blinken said on Iran rejoining the nuclear talks. "All of our countries, working by the way with Russia and China, believe strongly that that would be the best path forward," he added.
The nuclear deal is not the only point of contention between Iran and the United States.
On Friday, the United States issued a fresh round of Iran-related sanctions tied to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps drone program that it said threatened regional stability.
President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the United States will "respond" to actions Iran has taken against Washington's interests, including drone strikes.
Leaders of the United States, Britain, France and Germany, hoping to persuade Tehran to stop enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels, said on Saturday they wanted a negotiated solution.
"But we do not yet know whether Iran is willing to come back to engage in a meaningful way," Blinken said on Sunday. "But if it isn't, if it won't, then we are looking together at all of the options necessary to deal with this problem."
Iran's foreign minister said separately on Sunday that if the United States was serious about rejoining Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Biden could just issue an "executive order," the state-owned Iran newspaper reported.
"It is enough for Biden to issue an executive order tomorrow and they (US) announce they are rejoining the pact from the point where his predecessor left the deal," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said. "If there is a serious will in Washington to return to the deal, there is no need for all these negotiations at all."
Talks between Iran and world powers aimed at salvaging the deal, which started in April, are slated to resume at the end of November, the Islamic Republic's top nuclear negotiator said on Wednesday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-in-talks-with-allies-to-get-iran-back-in-nuclear-deal-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-2595209">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-in-talks-with-allies-to-get-iran-back-in-nuclear-deal-secretary-of-state-antony-blinken-2595209</a>

news world US In Talks With Allies To Get Iran Back In Nuclear Deal: Antony Blinken

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is in talks with Britain, Germany and France. (File) Washington: The United States was ...

G20 Climate Agreements Prove "Power Of America Showing Up": Joe Biden

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="G20 Climate Agreements Prove 'Power Of America Showing Up': Joe Biden" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-09/1l3kh3d8_joe-biden-afp-650_625x300_14_September_21.jpg" title="G20 Climate Agreements Prove 'Power Of America Showing Up': Joe Biden" /></div>
President Joe Biden said the successes at the G20 talks were largely down to US diplomacy. (File)
</div>
Rome:
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that the agreements made at the G20 summit including pledging to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above Celsius, proved "the power of America showing up".
The world's major economies committed to taking "effective actions" against global warming, and promised action on coal, though Britain and the UN said the Rome talks had not gone nearly far enough.
Biden nonetheless said the leaders made progress with an agreement to end funding for new unabated coal plants abroad, as well as the approval of a global minimum tax on the world's largest companies.
The leaders had made "tangible progress" on key issues, from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, ahead of the COP26 climate talks that opened on Sunday in Glasgow.
And he said the successes at the talks were largely down to US diplomacy.
"We got significant support here, significant support. The US of A is the most critical part of this entire agenda, and we did it," he said.
The talks went ahead without the leader of China, the world's largest emitter. President Xi Jinping instead appeared via video link, as did Vladimir Putin of Russia, another major polluting country.
Biden said he was disappointed that Russia and China "basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change".
"There's a reason why people should be disappointed in that. I found it disappointing myself," he said.
But the US would "continue to focus on what China is not doing, what Russia is not doing, and what Saudi Arabia is not doing", he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/g20-climate-agreements-prove-power-of-america-showing-up-us-president-joe-biden-2595193">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/g20-climate-agreements-prove-power-of-america-showing-up-us-president-joe-biden-2595193</a>

news world G20 Climate Agreements Prove "Power Of America Showing Up": Joe Biden

President Joe Biden said the successes at the G20 talks were largely down to US diplomacy. (File) Rome: US President Joe Biden said on ...

Joe Biden Lauds Pope Francis As "Fine, Decent, Honourable Man"

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Joe Biden Lauds Pope Francis As 'Fine, Decent, Honourable Man'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/1b09uc4o_joe-biden-pope-francisafp650_625x300_14_October_21.jpg" title="Joe Biden Lauds Pope Francis As 'Fine, Decent, Honourable Man'" /></div>
On Friday, US President Joe Biden met Pope Francis for over an hour at the Vatican. (File)
</div>
Rome:
US President Joe Biden praised Pope Francis on Sunday for his empathy and humanity, calling the pontiff "a fine, decent, honourable man".
"This is a man who is someone who is looking to establish peace and decency and honour, not just in the Catholic Church but just generically," Biden said during a press conference at the culmination of the two-day G20 summit in Rome.
Biden, a devout Catholic who regularly attends church, choked up while describing how the pope comforted his family following the 2015 death from cancer of his son, Beau, when Biden was vice president.
During a visit by the pope to the United States later that year, Francis asked if he could meet with Biden's family, the president recalled.
"And we met in a hangar at the Philadelphia airport and he came in and met with my family for a considerable amount of time... and he talked about my son Beau," said Biden.
"And he didn't just generically talk about him, he knew about him... he knew what a man he was," he said. "It had such a cathartic impact on his children, on my wife and our family. It meant a great deal."
On Friday ahead of the G20 talks, Biden met Francis for more than an hour at the Vatican, where he presented the pontiff with a presidential coin recalling the regiment in which Beau served.
The pope, Biden said later, had told him he was "happy I was a good Catholic and I should keep receiving Communion".
Biden said on Sunday that the pope was "everything I learned about Catholicism from the time I was a kid going from grade school through high school".
"I have great respect for people who have other religious views but he's just a fine, decent, honourable man, and we keep in touch."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-lauds-pope-francis-as-fine-decent-honourable-man-2595185">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-lauds-pope-francis-as-fine-decent-honourable-man-2595185</a>

news world Joe Biden Lauds Pope Francis As "Fine, Decent, Honourable Man"

On Friday, US President Joe Biden met Pope Francis for over an hour at the Vatican. (File) Rome: US President Joe Biden praised Pope Fr...

US Delays Approval For Moderna Covid Vaccine In Teenagers

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Delays Approval For Moderna Covid Vaccine In Teenagers" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/d8o4bnc_moderna-inc-650_625x300_30_June_21.jpeg" title="US Delays Approval For Moderna Covid Vaccine In Teenagers" /></div>
The evaluation for recommending Moderna for teenagers could last until January 2022. (File)
</div>
Washington:
US biotech firm Moderna said Sunday that American officials have delayed approving its COVID-19 vaccine for teenagers to allow more time to better assess the potential risk of developing myocarditis, or heart inflammation.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday "informed Moderna that the agency requires additional time to evaluate recent international analyses of the risk of myocarditis after vaccination," the biotech company said Sunday in a statement.
The evaluation on whether to recommend Moderna's vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds could last until January 2022, the company said.
Myocarditis and an associated risk, pericarditis (inflammation around the heart) have previously been linked to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines themselves, particularly among adolescent boys and young men.
But the risk is far higher after infection with COVID-19, according to a study published in August by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC found that "myocarditis following vaccination with mRNA vaccines has been rare and generally mild," Moderna said.
Another mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, by Pfizer-BioNTech, on Friday received US authorization for children aged five to 11, in smaller doses than for adults.
Moderna had previously said it was waiting for the FDA to decide on whether to approve its vaccine for adolescents under age 18 before seeking regulator approval for younger age groups.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-delays-approval-for-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-in-teenagers-2595182">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-delays-approval-for-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-in-teenagers-2595182</a>

news world US Delays Approval For Moderna Covid Vaccine In Teenagers

The evaluation for recommending Moderna for teenagers could last until January 2022. (File) Washington: US biotech firm Moderna said Su...

French President Accuses Australia's Leader Of Lying In Submarine Deal

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="French President Accuses Australia's Leader Of Lying In Submarine Deal" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/m552t04_french-president-emmanuel-macron-australian-prime-minister-scott-morrison-650_625x300_28_October_21.jpg" title="French President Accuses Australia's Leader Of Lying In Submarine Deal" /></div>
"I don't think. I know," Emmanuel Macron said when asked if Scott Morrison was untruthful. (File)
</div>
Rome:
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said Australia's Prime Minister outright lied to him over a cancelled submarine deal, deepening an already fraught diplomatic crisis.
"I don't think. I know," Macron said when asked by Australian media if Scott Morrison was untruthful in their private dealings.
Both leaders are attending the G20 in Rome and a major UN-backed climate summit in Glasgow, but the weeks-long spat continues to trail them.
In September, Australia's leader without warning tore up a decade-old multi-billion-dollar contract with France to build a new fleet of submarines.
At the same time, Morrison revealed he had been in secret talks to acquire US or British nuclear subs.
Furious, Paris denounced the decision as a "stab in the back" and recalled its ambassador, who is only now getting back to work Down Under.
Australian media asked Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit whether he thought the Australian leader had been untruthful to him in private meetings.
The French president left little doubt about his view, stressing the need for mutual "respect".
"You have to behave in line and consistently with this value," he said.
Macron crossed paths with Morrison at the G20, and spoke on the phone earlier this week, telling him that a "relationship of trust" had been broken between France and Australia.
The pair are yet to sit down for formal talks, although the French ambassador is set to meet Australia's foreign minister in Sydney on Monday.
In Rome, the French leader seemed to have made more progress in clearing the air with US President Joe Biden.
On Friday, Biden admitted to his French counterpart that Washington had been "clumsy" in the way it handled the deal, and said, "We have no better ally than France."
Morrison on Sunday defended his behaviour, refuting Macron's view and denying that he lied to the French leader at a private meeting in June.
"I don't agree with that," he said. "It's not true."
"We had dinner together. As I've said on numerous occasions, I explained very clearly that the conventional submarine option was not going to meet Australia's interests," Morrison said.
"I'm quite conscious of the disappointment that's there. And I'm not surprised -- it was a significant contract. And so I'm not surprised about the level of disappointment."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/french-president-emmanuel-macron-accuses-australian-prime-minister-scott-morrison-of-lying-in-submarine-deal-2595178">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/french-president-emmanuel-macron-accuses-australian-prime-minister-scott-morrison-of-lying-in-submarine-deal-2595178</a>

news world French President Accuses Australia's Leader Of Lying In Submarine Deal

"I don't think. I know," Emmanuel Macron said when asked if Scott Morrison was untruthful. (File) Rome: French President ...