NEWS WRAP

Mask up or mask off?

• Mask mandate mayhem | The CDC is facing backlash after it announced new guidelines suggesting fully vaccinated people can go without masks in most situations. The update caused widespread confusion, which was compounded as health experts responded in shock, arguing the move would risk the country's pandemic recovery. In light of the news, some states have dropped mask mandates, while others have chosen to delay easing mask-wearing restrictions. READ MORE HERE
   

• Conflicted over Israel-Palestine | Violence between Israel and Palestine continues to intensify, sparking tensions within the Democratic Party over a response to the conflict. While President Biden expressed support for a ceasefire during phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a growing number of congressional Democrats are calling for a more sceptical stance towards Israel, one of the US' closest allies. READ MORE HERE
   

• Roe v Wade v Supreme Court | The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to review Mississippi's bid to revive a Republican-backed state law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. By hearing the case, women's rights advocates argue the now conservative-majority Supreme Court has a clear path to diminish the 1973 precedent set in Roe v Wade, guaranteeing women's right to choose to have an abortion. READ MORE HERE
   

• (Tax) Return to tradition | President Biden and Vice President Harris released their tax returns in a return to what the White House referred to as an "almost uninterrupted tradition". In 2020 the Bidens, who filed a joint federal tax return, saw a 38 per cent drop in income compared to 2019, as then-candidate Joe Biden was on the campaign trail. Together they owed US$157,414 in federal income tax. The release marks a return to normalcy after Donald Trump infamously flouted the custom, refusing to disclose his financial records during his presidency. READ MORE HERE

ANALYSIS

Gaza unrest gets in way of Biden’s foreign policy goal

Victoria Cooper
Research Associate

Jared Mondschein
Senior Fellow

As Israel conducts the largest offensive operation in Gaza since at least 2014, the words of Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton creep into mind like an uncomfortable oracle: “It’s clear that Biden’s focus – and I don’t disagree with it politically – is domestic ... [but] that will change. Because it always does.”

After speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden expressed his “expectation and hope that this will be closing down sooner than later”. The lack of American activity in this comment reflects his administration’s eagerness to fight the propulsive draw of crises in the Middle East. Instead, he is trying to maintain a level of stability in the region that will not distract him from his other priorities both at home and in the Indo-Pacific.

Unlike past administrations, Biden’s foreign policy team is weighted towards the Indo-Pacific. His National Security Council is now filled with considerably more experts on this region than on the Middle East. And Australian foreign policy watchers have been reassured by Biden’s emphasis on the Indo-Pacific, given an increasingly assertive China.

But the escalation of conflict overnight between Israel and Palestine reflects just how difficult it will be for Biden to treat the Middle East like any other region outside of Asia: that is, to not prioritise it. Biden is not the first President to come to the White House with plans to do less overseas. In 1992, Bill Clinton said, “foreign policy is not what I came here to do” until his presidency was earmarked by an unfulfilled peace agreement at Camp David and humiliation in Somalia.

In 2000, George W. Bush triumphantly declared that the US foreign policy agenda was freed and “no longer fighting a great enemy” until the September 11 attacks the next year, which would eventually result in the US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2008, Barack Obama campaigned on a platform that was critical of US foreign policy overreach and pledged to return US troops home, until he came to the Oval Office and increased the total number of US troops in the region.

In 2016, Trump declared that US interventions meant “the legacy of the Obama-Clinton interventions will be weakness, confusion and disarray, a mess”, yet as president he never fully withdrew US forces from Afghanistan.

Biden has spent the first 100 days of his presidency carefully trying to enact a “foreign policy for the middle class”, one that determines foreign policies from the interests of the average American. For Biden, this includes ending “the forever wars” and peeling back from the Middle East. No single foreign policy accomplishment of the administration’s first 100 days makes this clearer than the announcement on April 14 that the US would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.

Now, the escalation in conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians presents an all too familiar knee-jerk test. Will Biden’s “foreign policy for the middle class” resist the reflex kick of unilateral overreach as the hammer hits his knee?

This is an excerpt from an article by Victoria Cooper and Jared Mondschein 
published by The Sydney Morning Herald. Click below to read the full publication.

BY THE NUMBERS

Low correlation between minimum wage and unemployment

Sarah Hamilton
Research Associate for Data Insights

Despite efforts from Democrats to raise the minimum wage to US$15 an hour, the US federal minimum wage of US$7.25 an hour has not increased since 2009. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia (DC) have taken the lead and raised their minimum wage. Currently the highest amounts are in DC at US$15 an hour and Washington at US$13.50. For states with no set minimum wage or a wage below the federal minimum, like Georgia and Alabama, the federal minimum wage applies.

While many critics argue raising a minimum wage increases unemployment, there is no strong correlation between states' current unemployment rate and their minimum wage. In March 2021, the total US unemployment rate stood at 6.1 per cent. Hawaii had the highest unemployment rate at nine per cent and a minimum wage of US$10.10 an hour. Florida and Washington on the other hand, have higher minimum wages than the federal average but currently, lower unemployment rates at just 4.7 and 5.4 per cent each.

VIDEO | SOTUS 2021

Keynote address by
Ambassador Atul Keshap

Were you unable to make it to our State of the United States Conference in Canberra? Together with the PerthUSAsia Centre, we hosted an in-person half-day event to mark the launch of our State of the United States: An evolving alliance agenda joint report.

We were honoured to have Ambassador Atul Keshap, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, join us from the United States via videolink to deliver the keynote address. Ambassador Keshap's full address is available now for replay on our YouTube channel. Watch the full event HERE.

Download your own copy of our State of the United States report.

Catch this and other recent webinars on the USSC YouTube channel!

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#WageRage