U.S. sanctions Ukrainians involved in Russia-linked campaign promoted by Giuliani to smear Biden Ellen Nakashima, David L. Stern The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday sanctioned a group of Russia-linked Ukrainians for trying to influence the 2020 election by attempting to smear President Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Several of the people were involved with a campaign by Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani to damage Biden, U.S. officials have said, by peddling unfounded allegations of corruption linked to Russia’s disinformation efforts. The campaign served not only to discredit Biden but also to advance Russia’s interests by driving a wedge between the United States and Ukraine.
CIA pick William Burns signals a turn to diplomacy for the nation s spy agency Jenna McLaughlin
WASHINGTON In the summer of 2010, the Obama administration had a thorny problem to solve.
The FBI was on the verge of finally arresting 10 members of an undercover network of “illegals,” Russian sleeper agents who had spent decades embedding themselves in American society, but senior officials wanted to salvage the administration’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to reset relations with Moscow. The White House was concerned the arrests would undermine Moscow’s help in pushing Tehran to the negotiating table, and its cooperation on other major international issues.
The cost of the tariffs on China has far exceeded any benefits derived from them, so the incoming US administration should roll them back, a major American business group said Monday as the US trade chief advised President-elect Joe Biden to retain the punitive measures on China.
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William Burns, shown here during a 2019 event, is President-elect Joe Biden s pick to lead the CIA. // Getty Images for National Committee on American Foreign Policy , Noam Galai
Updated at 9:20 a.m. ET
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate veteran diplomat William Burns to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Burns, 64, is a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and Jordan. As a career foreign service office, he worked under Democratic and Republican presidents. He was deputy secretary of state during the Obama years, but he left the State Department in 2014 to run the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.