TAG SEARCH RESULTS FOR: ""

Xi-Biden talks raise hope for better ties but strains remain

Posted on by Rick Watts

By KEN MORITSUGU and AAMER MADHANI

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday welcomed a virtual meeting between President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden as raising hopes for better relations, while the U.S. was more muted on the talks as the world’s two biggest powers sought to ratchet down more than a year of tensions.

The leaders appeared to put aside the language of acrimony in their first formal meeting since Biden took office. Xi welcomed the U.S. leader as his “old friend,” and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the exchange was candid and constructive.

“If China-U.S. relations cannot return to the past, they should face the future,” Zhao said, calling the meeting “conducive to increasing positive expectations for U.S.-China relations.”

However, both sides held firm to their positions on the issues that divide Washington and Beijing, with Xi warning that the U.S. and Taiwan are playing with fire over the self-governing island that China claims.

The two nations were aiming to end a sharp deterioration in relations that accelerated under former U.S. President Donald Trump and had festered since Biden became president in January. The video conference, which took place Tuesday morning in Beijing and Monday evening in Washington, lasted more than three hours.

Facing domestic pressures at home, both Biden and Xi seemed determined to lower the temperature in what for both sides is their most significant — and frequently turbulent — relationship on the global stage.

“As I’ve said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended,” Biden told Xi at the start of the meeting. “Just simple, straightforward competition.”

The White House set low expectations for the meeting, and no major announcements or joint statement were delivered. Still, White House officials said the two leaders had a substantive exchange.

Xi greeted the U.S. president as his “old friend” and echoed Biden’s cordial tone in his own opening remarks, saying, “China and the United States need to increase communication and cooperation.”

The positive tone sets an example for both countries to try to identify common ground rather than find fault with each other, whether on trade, climate change, or geopolitical issues such as Afghanistan and North Korea, said Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization think tank in Beijing,

“I see this dialogue as a stabilizer of the bilateral relation,” he said. “I don’t expect this one summit to bring us back to the good old days, but certainly it stops the downward spiral.”

Xi held a tough line on Taiwan, which Chinese officials had signaled would be a top issue for them at the talks. Tensions have heightened as the Chinese military has dispatched an increasing number of fighter jets near the self-ruled island, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

Xi blamed the tensions on Taiwan seeking to attain independence through reliance on the U.S. and some on the American side using Taiwan as a way to interefere in China, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

“This is extremely dangerous, it’s playing with fire, and they that play with fire will burn themselves,” Xi was quoted as saying by the agency.

Chinese military forces held exercises last week near Taiwan in response to a visit by a U.S. congressional delegation to the island.

The White House said Biden reiterated the U.S. will abide by the longstanding U.S. “One China” policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. But Biden also made clear the U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the White House said.

The relationship has had no shortage of tension since Biden strode into the White House in January and quickly criticized Beijing for human rights abuses against Uyghurs in northwest China, suppression of democratic protests in Hong Kong, military aggression against the self-ruled island of Taiwan and more. Xi’s deputies, meanwhile, have lashed out against the Biden White House for interfering in what they see as internal Chinese matters.

The White House in a statement said that Biden again raised concerns about China’s human rights practices, and made clear that he sought to “protect American workers and industries from the PRC’s unfair trade and economic practices.” The two also spoke about key regional challenges, including North Korea, Afghanistan and Iran.

As U.S.-China tensions have mounted, both leaders also have found themselves under the weight of increased challenges in their own backyards.

Biden, who has watched his poll numbers diminish amid concerns about the lingering coronavirus pandemic, inflation and supply chain problems, was looking to find a measure of equilibrium on the most consequential foreign policy matter he faces.

Xi, meanwhile, is facing a COVID-19 resurgence, rampant energy shortages, and a looming housing crisis that Biden officials worry could cause tremors in the global market.

The U.S. president was joined in the Roosevelt Room for the video call by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and a handful of aides. Xi, for his part, was accompanied in the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People by communist party director Ding Xuexiang and a number of advisers.

The high-level diplomacy had a touch of pandemic Zoom meeting informality as the two leaders waved to each other once they saw one another on the screen, with Xi telling Biden, “It’s the first time for us to meet virtually, although it’s not as good as a face-to-face meeting.”

Biden would have preferred to meet Xi in person, but the Chinese leader has not left his country since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The White House floated the idea of a virtual meeting as the next best thing to allow for the two leaders to have a candid conversation about a wide range of strains in the relationship.

With Beijing set to host the Winter Olympics in February and Xi expected to be approved by Communist Party leaders to serve as party leader next year and then a third term as president in 2023 — unprecedented in recent Chinese history — the Chinese leader may be looking to stabilize the relationship in the near term.

Both leaders gave nods to their history with the other. Biden noted that the two have spent an “awful … lot of time” speaking to each other over the years, and have never walked away “wondering what the other man is thinking.”

But the public warmth — Xi referred to Biden as his “old friend” when the then-vice president visited China in 2013, while Biden spoke of their “friendship” — has cooled now that both men are heads of state. Biden bristled in June when asked by a reporter if he would press his old friend to cooperate with a World Health Organization investigation into the coronavirus origins.

Xi, however, seemed interested in publicly reviving the warmth of the earlier days of their relationship, saying, “I am very happy to see my old friend.”

Despite the tensions, there have been moments of progress in the U.S.-China relationship over the past months.

Last week, the two countries pledged at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.

The White House has said it views cooperation on climate change as something in China’s interest, something the two nations should cooperate on despite differences on other aspects of the relationship.

“None of this is a favor to either of our countries — what we do for one another — but it’s just responsible world leadership,” Biden told Xi. “You’re a major world leader, and so is the United States.”

___

Madhani reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press writer Colleen Long in Washington, D.C., contributed.

Audit: Governor improperly used COVID funds for salaries

Posted on by Rick Watts

By DAVID PITT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state audit report on government spending released Monday accused Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds of using nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay salaries for 21 staff members for three months last year and concealing the spending by passing it through the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

State Auditor Rob Sand said a review of the state’s payroll system shows the money was used to pay the Republican governor’s office staff, but it’s unclear why she had to take federal money to pay the salaries.

“What is not clear, is why these salaries were not included in the governor’s budget set prior to the fiscal year and prior to the pandemic,” he said in the audit report. “Based on this information, we conclude that the budget shortfall was not a result of the pandemic.”

Sand said he had asked Reynolds’ office twice for documentation to support the spending and was told the governor’s staff members during March, April, May and June of 2020 were fully focused on responding to COVID-19 and protecting Iowa but never provided proof of the expenditure on the COVID response.

He wrote Reynolds’ office in October, telling her that paying staff salaries without proper documentation likely wouldn’t get federal approval but said they ignored his suggestion.

Sand said he requested information from the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and was initially provided a spreadsheet listing the governor’s employees with a section labeled FY 2020 Shortfall and the amount of $448,448.86. A subsequent version was sent to him in which the section title was amended to COVID-19 Personnel Costs with the same amount of money.

“That spreadsheet that shows they changed the headers to basically instead of say shortfall to say COVID 19 is a pretty big deal,” he told The Associated Press, suggesting that the attempt by Reynolds’ administration to conceal the use of the federal money was to fill a salary gap.

Alex Murphy, a spokesman for Reynolds, said in a statement that the U.S. Treasury Department had allowed the use of coronavirus relief money to reimburse salaries for governors.

“During this time, the Governor’s staff spent a vast majority of their time responding to the pandemic. In fact, many members of Gov. Reynolds’ staff worked seven days a week out of the State Emergency Operation Center to provide direct support to Iowans,” the statement said. “This has always been our justification for the expense. We are now working with Treasury to provide them documentation, per their request.”

Reynolds earlier addressed the issue in September at a news conference after Laura Belin, publisher of the liberal-leaning online blog Bleeding Heartland, reported on the issue after seeking documents through Iowa’s public records law.

Reynolds said then that the federal coronavirus relief law allowed salaries to be paid for workers whose job requirements were significantly changed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“CARES funding can be used for salaries. That’s very clear in what allowable allocations are,” she said.

Sand said his office looked further into the spending because the Office of Inspector General requested an inquiry. He said the federal agency has reviewed his office’s findings and agreed with them. It could be a problem that Reynolds’ office is trying to come up with documentation after telling the auditor’s office twice that they had no such documentation, Sand said.

“If you’re coming up with documentation after the fact after you’ve said twice you don’t have it, that should be concerning too,” he said.

Sand said the state may be required to repay the money to the federal government.

The audit isn’t the first time Reynolds has been found to have spent federal funds for nonapproved use.

In December 2020, Reynolds had to return $21 million in COVID-19 relief money after using it to upgrade an outdated state information technology system.

The funds were initially allocated for payments related to the state’s contract with Workday, a cloud-based human resources, finance and planning system being implemented to modernize the state’s IT infrastructure. Of the allocation, $4.45 million had already been spent.

Reynolds said U.S. Treasury officials initially assured the state the Workday project was an allowable expense but has now determined the payments were not allowed expenditures under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

New boundaries approved for Oskaloosa’s four wards

Posted on by Rick Watts

The Oskaloosa City Council voted to approve new boundaries for the city’s four wards at Monday’s (11/15) council meeting.  Oskaloosa Development Services Director Shawn Christ says the changes aren’t drastic.

“When we received and reviewed the new census information, we found out that what was once a less than two percent deviation in population is now over a four percent deviation.  Which here is, I think, a few hundred people, when it comes down to it .  But what state law requires is that we get those to be as equal as possible.  And by making a couple of minor changes, we found that we could get that down to almost half a percent of deviation.  So there are some wards, I think two of them, that just deviate by one person now with this change.  And also, the benefit of the change is they’re easier to describe.”

In other business, parking tickets will cost more in Oskaloosa.  Monday night, the City Council approved a proposal that raises the fine from $10 to $20 if a ticket is paid within 30 days.  Beyond 30 days, the fine goes up from $15 to $25.

The new Oskaloosa ward map: https://www.oskaloosaiowa.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/9533?fileID=25509

Closing arguments in Steven Vogel murder trial

Posted on by Rick Watts

Closing arguments are expected Tuesday (11/16) in Sigourney in the murder trial of Steven Vogel.  He’s accused of first degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the September 2020 death of Michael Williams in Grinnell.  Williams’ remains were found set on fire in a ditch near Kellogg.  According to the coroner’s report, Williams had been strangled four days earlier.

A complicated relationship: Biden and Xi prepare for meeting

Posted on by Rick Watts

By AAMER MADHANI

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping have slurped noodles together in Beijing. They’ve shared deep thoughts about the meaning of America during an exchange on the Tibetan plateau. They’ve gushed to U.S. business leaders about developing a sincere respect for each other.

The American president has held up his relationship with Xi as evidence of his heartfelt belief that good foreign policy starts with building strong personal relationships.

But as the two leaders prepare to hold their first presidential meeting on Monday, the troubled U.S.-China relationship is demonstrating that the power of one of Biden’s greatest professed strengths as a politician — the ability to connect — has its limits.

“When it comes to U.S.-China relations, the gaps are so big and the trend lines are so problematic that the personal touch can only go so far,” said Matthew Goodman, who served as an Asia adviser on the National Security Council in the Barack Obama and George W. Bush administrations.

White House officials have set low expectations for Monday’s virtual meeting: No major announcements are expected and there’s no plan for the customary joint statement by the two countries at the end, according to administration officials.

The public warmth — Xi referred to Biden as his “old friend” when Biden visited China in 2013 while the then-U.S. vice president spoke of their “friendship” — has cooled now that both men are heads of state. Biden bristled in June when asked by a reporter if he would press his old friend to cooperate with a World Health Organization investigation into the coronavirus origins.

“Let’s get something straight: We know each other well; we’re not old friends,” Biden said. “It’s just pure business.”

Biden nonetheless believes a face-to-face meeting — even a virtual one like the two leaders will hold Monday evening — has its value.

“He feels that the history of their relationship, having spent time with him, allows him to be quite candid as he has been in the past and he will continue to be,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in previewing the encounter.

Biden and Xi, ages 78 and 68 respectively, first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both leaders say left a lasting impression.

Of late, there have been signs that there could be at least a partial thawing after the first nine months of the Biden administration were marked by the two sides trading recriminations and by unproductive exchanges between the presidents’ top advisers.

Last week, for example, the U.S. and China pledged at U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions.

Monday’s meeting — the two leaders’ third engagement since Biden became president — comes amid mounting tensions in the U.S.-China relationship. The two held long phone calls in February and September where they discussed human rights, trade, the pandemic and other issues.

Biden has made clear that he sees China as the United States’ greatest national security and economic competitor and has tried to reframe American foreign policy to reflect that belief.

His administration has taken Beijing to task over committing human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in northwest China, squelching pro-democracy efforts in Hong Kong and resisting global pressure to cooperate fully with investigations into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tensions have also risen as the Chinese military has flown increasing numbers of sorties near the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

Chinese officials have signaled that Taiwan will be a top issue for the talks. Biden has made clear that his administration will abide by the long-standing U.S. “One China” policy, which recognizes Beijing but allows informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. Chinese military forces held exercises last week near Taiwan in response to a visit by a U.S. congressional delegation to the island.

The president intends, in part, to use the conversation to underscore the need to establish “guardrails” in the relationship to ensure that the two sides in the midst of their stiff competition avoid “unintended conflict,” according to a senior administration official who briefed reporters on White House planning for the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said the video call is expected to last “several hours,” adding that the White House was hopeful that the two leaders’ seeing each other would allow for greater depth to their conversation than their two earlier calls this year.

Other U.S. presidents have held that bonding with a geopolitical adversary can be a good foreign policy strategy. George W. Bush faced ridicule after his first meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin when he claimed that he had “looked the man in the eye” and “was able to get a sense of his soul.” Bush would go on to host the Russian leader at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, and bring him to his father’s estate in Kennebunkport, Maine, where the 43rd and 41st presidents took the Russian president fishing.

Putin ultimately frustrated Bush and the relationship was broken after Russia’s 2008 invasion of its neighbor Georgia.

Donald Trump went from disparaging North Korea’s Kim Jong Un as “rocket man” to declaring the two “fell in love” in an exchange of letters as the U.S. president unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Kim to give up the regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Biden’s personal approach to foreign policy is in part informed by the fact that he’s been on the international scene for much of the last half-century, author Evan Osnos noted in the biography “Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now.”

“You can drop him into Kazakhstan or Bahrain, it doesn’t matter — he’s gonna find some Joe Blow that he met 30 years ago who’s now running the place,” Julianne Smith, a Biden adviser, told Osnos.

With Beijing set to host the Winter Olympics in February and Xi expected to be approved by Communist Party leaders to serve a third five-year term as president next year — unprecedented in recent Chinese history — the Chinese leader may be looking to stabilize the relationship in the near term.

Slowing economic growth and a brewing housing crisis also loom large for Beijing. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a CBS’ “Face the Nation” interview aired Sunday warned the deepening of Beijing’s problems could “have global consequences.”

At the same time, Biden, who has seen his polling numbers diminish at home amid concerns about the lingering coronavirus pandemic, inflation and supply chain problems, is looking to find a measure of equilibrium on the most consequential foreign policy matter he faces.

Biden would have preferred to hold an in-person meeting with Xi, but Xi has not left China since before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The virtual meeting was proposed after Biden mentioned during a September phone call with the Chinese leader that he would like to be able to see Xi again.

Oskaloosa City Council meets Monday

Posted on by Rick Watts

Parking tickets will cost you more in Oskaloosa if the City Council approves a proposal at Monday night’s (11/15) regular meeting.  The proposed change to the city’s fee schedule would raise the fine from $10 to $20 if the ticket is paid within 30 days.  Beyond 30 days, the fine would go up from $15 to $25.  The Oskaloosa City Council will also hold a public hearing and vote on changing the boundaries for the City’s four wards.  Monday’s Oskaloosa City Council meeting starts at 6pm at Oskaloosa City Hall.

Axne is seeking reelection in Iowa’s new third congressional district

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

RADIO IOWA – Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, will seek re-election for a third term in the U.S House in Iowa;s new third congressional district.

Axne, who had been considering a run for governor, said she took some time to make the decision because she wanted to assess where she could “make the most impact” for Iowa.

“What does redistricting look like and how are we going to make sure that Iowa has the best support for what we need? And it took a minute and really look at all these things in conjunction and make sure I made the right decision,”Axne said as she announced her decision during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight on Iowa PBS.

Axne defeated incumbent Republican Congressman David Young in 2018 and she won a 2020 rematch against Young. Four other Republicans have announced they intend to run in the new third congressional district.

“My goal, when I started in my first primary, was to to make sure that I represented Iowans in the best way I thought I could, to make sure that we do three things: put money in their pockets, give our families opportunity and ensure that states like Iowa got to operate on a level playing field with other states,” Axne said. “…I still feel that the best way to address those issues is within the United States Congress.”

Commercials critical of Axne have already begun airing in Axne’s current district. Axne said that shows she’s in “the number one targeted race” for Republicans in 2022.

“This job, for me, is about standing up for Iowans,” Axne said. “That means making sure that we have what they need, but it also means protecting our democracy and I play a pivotal role in both of those areas and I intend to make sure that Iowans have the best voice out there.”

Axne’s decision follows this week’s announcement from Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who — like Axne — lives in the new third congressional district, but will seek reelection in the new first district. In a written statement, Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann called Axne is “a big government” Democrat who has spent the past two years “cozying up to Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.” Axne endorsed Biden before the 2020 Iowa Caucuses and said during the “Iowa Press” taping that she’d be happy to have Biden campaign for her in Iowa in 2022.

“Once we get the infrastructure bill signed into law, the Build Back Better bill signed into law, next year folks are seeing expansion of those child care centers, they’re seeing more money in their pocket because of the earned income tax credit or the child tax credit…when those pieces are put in place and we start moving those agendas forward, we’re going to overcome some of the false narratives that we’re hearing right now,” Axne said.

Axne is the only Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation. She’s also among the few House Democrats who won last year in a district that President Trump carried. Her margin of victory in 2022 was about 1.5%.

Striking Deere workers to vote this week on contract offer

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

RADIO IOWA – As the strike at a dozen Midwest John Deere plants enters its second month, union workers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on a modified contract offer from the company.

The UAW issued a statement late Friday, saying the company had made some “modest modifications” in its second contract offer and the union described the tentative agreement as Deere’s “last, best and final offer.” Neither side has disclosed details about the changes.

On November 2, the second tentative agreement between Deere and the UAW was rejected on a 55% to 45% vote by union members. More than 10,000 John Deere employees have been on strike since October 14.

The second tentative agreement would have provided an immediate 10% pay increase, with 5% pay hikes in the third and fifth years of the six-year-long contract, as well as Deere’s promise to provide pensions to future Deere factory workers. Deere executives had indicated that was the maximum the company would offer in terms of new costs.

Ottumwa fatal stabbing. Suspect in custody

Posted on by Rick Watts

An Ottumwa man is in custody in connection with a fatal stabbing.  Around 2:40pm Thursday (11/11), Ottumwa Police received a 911 call about someone who had been stabbed in the alley behind 105 North Hancock.  55-year-old Gerald William Sapp of Ottumwa was found in the alley with multiple stab wounds.  Sapp was staying at the Hancock address and had been working on a vehicle near the alley when he was fatally attacked.  Witnesses at the scene identified a suspect and where the suspect could have gone.  Police got a search warrant for a residence in the 100 block of North Weller…and found the suspect hiding in a closet, along with potential evidence of a crime.  42-year-old Douglas Raymond Spurgeon of Ottumwa has been charged with first degree murder.  Spurgeon is being held without bond in the Wapello County Jail.

Reynolds cites ‘tainted’ process, orders search for new judge to restart

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

Governor Kim Reynolds has taken the “extraordinary” step of rejecting the candidates a commission had nominated to be a district court judge in northern Iowa.

Reynolds sent a letter to the commission making nominations for the district court vacancy created when Judge Gina Badding of Carroll was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. Reynolds said in the letter that she heard from several commission members that the judge who led the interview process had coached one candidate and made unprofessional and disturbing comments about others.

Reynolds said her staff discovered Judge Kurt Stoebe of Humboldt also misled commission members by saying one applicant had withdrawn after being interviewed. That person adamantly denied that when contacted by the governor’s office. The commission is to reconvene November 18 and redo the entire process.

According the letter from Reynolds, the only other time nominees for an opening in district court have been rejected happened during Governor Robert Ray’s tenure. In 2011, Governor Terry Branstad rejected a slate of candidates for Iowa Supreme Court openings. The nominating commission reconvened and submitted a second set of names to Branstad.

In Iowa’s process of filling openings in the judicial system, governors make appointments from the list of names submitted by judicial nominating commissions.

NEWSLETTER

Stay updated, sign up for our newsletter.