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Biden administration planning for potential presidential transition
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration Friday formally began planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November’s general election.
Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for transition planning by May 3.
It’s the routine first step in congressionally mandated preparedness for presidential transitions.
Next week, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients — who also chaired Biden’s 2020 transition effort — will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which consists of senior White House policy, national security and management officials, as required by the Presidential Transition Act.
The act provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so that they can have personnel in place to take policy actions on their first day in office. Making sure presidential candidates are ready to take charge of the federal government became a heightened priority after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the act has been updated several times since to provide additional resources to candidates and to require incumbents to plan for a handoff with even greater intensity.
Young’s letter is nearly identical to one sent four years ago by Trump administration acting director Russell Vought for a transition process that started orderly, but derailed when then-President Donald
Trump refused to concede his defeat to Biden. It took until Nov. 23, two weeks after the election was called, for Trump’s General Services Administration to name Biden as the “apparent winner” of the 2020 race — a required step for the transition to begin.
The law requires presidential candidates and the General Services Administration to reach a memorandum of understanding that governs everything from the provision of federal office space to access to sensitive documents by Sept. 1, though often it is reached sooner. Candidates must first secure their party’s nomination at their conventions before the memorandum can be signed.
The U.S. will provide Ukraine additional Patriot missiles for its air defense systems as part of a massive $6 billion additional aid package, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday.
The missiles will replenish previously supplied Patriot systems. The package also includes more munitions for the National Advanced Surface-toAir Missile Systems, or NASAMS, and additional gear to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars into Ukraine’s existing weaponry, much of which still dates from the Soviet era.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the need for Patriots early Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of about 50 countries gathering virtually in a Pentagon-led meeting.
Zelenskyy said at least seven Patriot systems are needed to protect Ukrainian cities. “We urgently need Patriot systems and missiles for them,” Zelenskyy said. “This is what can and should
Missiles for Ukraine:
save lives right now.”
Menthol cigarette ban: President Joe Biden’s administration will indefinitely delay a long-awaited menthol cigarette ban, a decision that infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avoid a political backlash from Black voters in November.
In a statement Friday, Biden’s top health official gave no timeline for issuing the rule, saying only that the administration would take more time to consider feedback, including from civil rights groups.
“It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.
The announcement is another setback for Food and Drug Administration officials, who drafted the ban and predicted it would prevent hundreds of thousands of smoking-related deaths over 40 years. The agency has worked toward banning menthol across multiple administrations without ever finalizing a rule.
A court in Romania’s capital Friday ruled that a trial can start in the case of influencer Andrew Tate, who is charged with human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.
The Bucharest Tribunal ruled that prosecutors’ case file against Tate met the legal criteria but did not set a date for the trial to begin. Tate’s spokesperson, Mateea Petrescu, said the ruling has been appealed.
Tate, 37, was arrested in December 2022 near Bucharest along with his brother, Tristan, and two Romanian women. Romanian prosecutors formally indicted all four last June. They have denied the allegations.
Andrew Tate, who has 9.1 million followers on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, claims prosecutors in Romania have no
Romania Tate trial:
evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.
Tate was previously banned from various prominent social media platforms for expressing misogynistic views and for hate speech. Both Tates are dual British-U.S. citizens.
US flu season ends: The U.S. flu season appears to be over. It was long, but federal health officials and doctors say it was a moderate one.
Last week, for the third straight week, medical visits for flu-like illnesses dipped below the threshold for what’s counted as an active flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
Other indicators, like hospitalizations and patient testing, also show low and declining activity. No state is reporting a high amount of flu activity. Only New England is now seeing the kind of patient traffic associated with an active flu season, but even there flu impact is considered modest.
Since the beginning of October, there have been at least 34 million illnesses, 380,000 hospitalizations and 24,000 deaths from flu, according to CDC estimates.
CDC officials called that a “moderate” flu season, an assessment shared by other doctors.
King Charles back on job:
King Charles III will resume his public duties next week following treatment for cancer, Buckingham Palace said Friday. The announcement comes almost three months after the 75-year-old monarch took a break from public appearances to focus on his treatment.
The palace said Charles would make a public visit to a cancer treatment center Tuesday, the first of several appearances in coming weeks. One of his first major engagements will be hosting a state visit by the emperor and empress of Japan, who will visit the U.K. in June. The palace didn’t provide an update on the king’s health or his treatment.