Shownotes
Just 12 hours after the Senate gave its late-night approval, President Joe Biden signed the contentious $95-billion national security package that sends more foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. The legislation also includes a measure that forces TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent company, and authorizes the seizure of Russian assets to further fund Ukraine’s war effort.
The Biden administration is trying to create a federal right to abortion in a case about emergency health care standards that the Supreme Court will take up on April 24, Idaho’s attorney general and legal experts say. Specifically, the case is about whether a state law that restricts abortion conflicts with a federal law that forbids “patient dumping”—the practice of hospitals refusing emergency treatment to people who can’t afford to pay for medical services.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Shanghai with a daunting array of unresolved issues further threatening the stability of relations between the United States and China. Blinken will meet with business leaders before heading to Beijing for talks on Friday with his counterpart, foreign minister Wang Yi, and a likely meeting with Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping.