Tag: administration

The Biden Administration Is Finally Making Moves To Free WNBA Star Brittney Griner From Russian Detention – After Initial Silence
IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS, SPORTS

The Biden Administration Is Finally Making Moves To Free WNBA Star Brittney Griner From Russian Detention – After Initial Silence

A week before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian authorities arrested American basketball star Brittney Griner at the Moscow airport. She was charged with drug smuggling after Russian officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in her luggage. Since her arrest on Feb. 17, Griner has been locked up in a Russian prison. It’s a stark contrast to her life as a millionaire athlete playing in professional basketball leagues in both the United States and, for the last seven years, Russia, where she earns nearly four times as much as her nearly US$282,000 annual WNBA salary. Speculation on the reason for Griner’s arrest centers on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged desire to use the American star as a geopolitical pawn at a time when U.S.-...
In The Uphill Battle Against Russian Hackers The Biden Administration Is Making Gains
CYBERCRIME, VIDEO REELS

In The Uphill Battle Against Russian Hackers The Biden Administration Is Making Gains

On Jan. 14, 2022, the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence service, announced that it had broken up the notorious Russia-based REvil ransomware criminal organization. The FSB said the actions were taken in response to a request from U.S. authorities. The move marks a dramatic shift in Russia’s response to criminal cyberattacks launched against U.S. targets from within Russia, and comes at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries. U.S. policy and actions in response to cyberattacks connected to Russia have changed distinctly since the Biden administration took office. President Joe Biden has openly confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin on his responsibility regarding international cyberattacks, and the Biden administration has taken unprecedented steps to impose costs o...
How The Biden Administration May Help Stem The Loss Of International Students
EDUCATION

How The Biden Administration May Help Stem The Loss Of International Students

Over the past four years, the Trump administration made it increasingly difficult for students from other countries to study in the United States. In 2017, the number of new international students enrolled at American colleges and universities – that is, those just coming to the U.S. for the first time – declined for the first year on record. Restrictive immigration policies, frayed relations with foreign nations and travel bans all contributed to further drops in new enrollment over each of the following years of Trump’s presidency. President Joe Biden’s election signals a new day for international education. This is evident based on a slew of Biden’s executive orders, many of which revoked immigration and travel restrictions imposed by the Trump administration. Additionally, Biden sent...
While the US is reeling from COVID-19, the Trump administration is trying to take away health care
HEALTH & WELLNESS

While the US is reeling from COVID-19, the Trump administration is trying to take away health care

The death toll from COVID-19 keeps rising, creating grief, fear, loss and confusion. Unfortunately for us all, the pain only begins there. Other important health policy news that would ordinarily make headlines is buried under the crushing weight of the coronavirus. Many have not had time to notice or understand the Trump administration’s efforts to wreck health care coverage. We are both professors at Boston University School of Public Health who study health insurance, one using economics and statistics and the other focusing on law and policy. We have researched the big picture of COVID-19’s impact on the safety net and the details of how our federalist system, with states having considerable control over policy, has made a coordinated response to the pandemic more difficult. Here, w...
The Trump administration has made the U.S. less ready for infectious disease outbreaks like coronavirus
COVID-19, HEALTH & WELLNESS

The Trump administration has made the U.S. less ready for infectious disease outbreaks like coronavirus

As coronavirus continues to spread, the Trump administration has declared a public health emergency and imposed quarantines and travel restrictions. However, over the past three years the administration has weakened the offices in charge of preparing for and preventing this kind of outbreak. Two years ago, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates warned that the world should be “preparing for a pandemic in the same serious way it prepares for war”. Gates, whose foundation has invested heavily in global health, suggested staging simulations, war games and preparedness exercises to simulate how diseases could spread and to identify the best response. Colorized scanning electron micrograph of filamentous Ebola virus particles (blue) budding from an infected cell (yellow-green). NIAID,...