US pushes for gay rights abroad, ends asylum pacts

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden has launched a campaign to back gay people abroad, putting their rights high on the US foreign policy agenda. He elevated a 2011 drive launched by his former boss Barack Obama. Also, Biden is pulling the US out of agreements with three Central American countries that restricted the ability of people to seek asylum at the border. Secretary of state Antony Blinken said the US notified El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras that it has started the process of terminating agreements that were part of Trump’s effort to restrict asylum.