On March 18, the United States and Chinese officials had the very first meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, during the Biden administration. The relationship between these two biggest economic countries seems very intense during the meeting. Secretary of State Antony Blinken started the meeting by questioning the China inhumane actions in the following cities, Taiwan, Hongkong and Xinjiang. China top diplomat Yang Jiechi, seems to present the Chinese standpoint to the International and national audiences by arguing that “Many people with the United States actually have little confidence and democracy of the United States” and he said that the U.S. government was not in the position to lecture other countries on human right abuses, alluding to the racism in the US as he referenced the Black Lives Matter movement.

Later, the following Monday, the US and European union announced travel and economic sanction against two Chinese officials for “serious human right abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.” These sanctions are the first the EU has imposed since 1989, in protest of China’s treatment of the Tiananmen Square demonstrators in Beijing. In response, China has dealt its own sanctions against 10 European individuals and four entities. Then the EU and U.S., along with Australia, New Zealand, and Canada released a joint statement saying “We will continue to stand together to shine a spotlight on China’s human rights violations. We stand united and call for justice for those suffering in Xinjiang.”

The dynamic between the two countries has become increasingly contentious since the Trump administration. Top experts have warned that the US and China are entering a new Cold War that have devastating consequences for the global economy.

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Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned this week that if more dangerous and contagious variants of the novel Coronavirus continue to spread rapidly, the U.S. and the world could see more challenges down the road with COVID-19 vaccines.

“Not only does uncontrolled spread cause avoidable illness, hospitalization, and death, but it increases the risk that an even more dangerous variant may emerge that could make the vaccine less effective,” said Frieden.

This alarming possibility worries experts as many governors begin easing COVID-19 restrictions and as spring breakers return home following some of the busiest travel weeks of the pandemic so far. It is estimated that over 1.5 million Americans were screened at U.S. airports on Sunday, beating the COVID-era travel record set only two days prior with 1.3 million Americans in the air.

Frieden warns that Americans need to stay patient and continue to follow COVID-19 restrictions as vaccine rollout efforts continue on. “When people travel and mix, you can see a big surge of infections of a couple of weeks later,” said Frieden.

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider the Justice Department’s bid to reinstate a death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev was convicted in 2015 in the deaths of Krystle Campbell, Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu, and MIT police officer Sean Collier. The court said it would review an appeals court ruling from July that stated the death sentence couldn’t stand because a trial judge hadn’t properly screened jurors about their exposure to pretrial publicity about the case, causing biased jurors. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department filed its high-court appeal in the final months of the Trump administration, calling the case, “One of the most important terrorism prosecutions in our nation’s history,” urging the court to put it, “back on track toward its just conclusion.” The justices will hear the case during their next term, which begins in October.

This case will be the first test of President Joe Biden’s opposition to capital punishment, as Biden has pledged to seek the abolishment of the federal death penalty. Biden has not commented on how he planned to do so. The Associate Press reports White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not say how Biden, or his administration, would approach the case at the Supreme Court as Biden has questioned whether capital punishment is consistent with the fundamental values of the justice system, but has also acknowledged the horrific nature of the events caused by Tsarnaev. A further report by CNN stated that despite the appeals court vacating the death penalty, the judge declared Tsarnaev would remain in prison for the rest of his life for carrying out, “unspeakably brutal acts.”

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is working with her counterparts around the world to forge an agreement over a global minimum tax on multinational corporations, as the White House looks for revenue to help pay for President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. This effort could be one of Yellen’s biggest accomplishments if an agreement is reached and could be critical to any push from Biden to raise taxes to offset the cost of future spending proposals. The US was long an outlier, with a corporate tax rate of 35% versus the international average of 24%, until former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cut slashed the corporate rate to 21%. But even that hasn’t stopped other countries from lowering their rates to attract multinationals. The work comes as the Biden administration is looking at including tax increases in its next major legislative package, which could be an infrastructure bill. During Biden’s presidential campaign, he proposed increasing the U.S. corporate tax rate from 21 percent.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, a mentor of Yellen’s, told the Washington Post that if she is successful in these talks, it would be “a little like the Paris climate accord of taxes.” Yellen is holding talks with more than 140 international counterparts via the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), where countries are looking at global tax issues, with a particular focus on tech. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it supports a “multilateral” approach to the problem but is “extremely concerned” that the proposed rules would create additional complexity for multinational firms. Critics, including the Chamber, have expressed concern the agreement would also lead firms to face “double taxation” on some profits, meaning two countries would levy taxes on the same stream of income. If the complex measure is successful, it would be a huge accomplishment for both Yellen and Biden’s presidency — and maybe the world. It could also help pay for a $2 trillion infrastructure package.

Pandemic-related news has been nothing short of dynamic in the past year. However, it is now clear that over a year into the crisis, the news is looking more hopeful.

The U.S. has been undoubtedly hit harder by COVID-19 than many other countries in the past year, but its vaccine program, most will admit, has been impressive. President Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccine doses by his 100th day in office has been met with over 40 days to spare. The rate at which vaccinations are occurring is cause for hope for many Americans, when the past year has been met with so much sickness and death.

The CDC has also released a statement that elementary schools need only 3-feet distance between one another, assuming all students continue to wear masks and all other preventative measures are taken. The rule also applies to middle and high schoolers, as long as transmission in that community is relatively low. Reducing the rule from 6-feet to 3-feet will mean slightly higher risk, although experts agree that this risk is not significant. Additionally, reducing the distancing will make it easier for students to return to much-needed in-person learning.

However, it is worth noting that the experts agree we are not out of the woods yet. There remains barriers such as hesitancy to vaccinate and COVID-19 variants, which could threaten the progress being made. For this reason, health officials continue to push mask wearing, social distancing, and vaccinations, and remain concerned with certain states’ removal of mandates. Even these two barriers have a grey-area. Many Americans do not clearly fall into the “pro-vax”/”anti-vax” category, but are simply unsure or too busy with life to seek a vaccination appointment. Additionally, although several states have seen a recent increase in COVID-19 positive tests, the overall death rate is still decreasing, which is the factor that should hold the most weight. The U.S. needs to celebrate its accomplishments, but also remain diligent in order to maximize these wins.

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The US intelligence community said in a landmark report Tuesday that the Russian government meddled in the 2020 election with an influence campaign “denigrating” President Joe Biden and “supporting” former President Donald Trump, detailing a massive disinformation push that successfully targeted, and was openly embraced, by Trump’s allies. Russia’s objectives were not limited to hurting Biden’s candidacy and aiding Trump’s reelection bid, the report says, as US intelligence found that Moscow also sought to undermine “public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate socio political divisions in the US.” Overall, the report released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provides the most comprehensive assessment of foreign threats to the 2020 elections to date, detailing extensive influence operations by US adversaries, including Russia and Iran, that sought to undermine confidence in the democratic process, in addition to targeting specific presidential candidates.

One technique used by Russia to attack Biden was the creation of false allegations which alleged Biden, while vice president, sought to have a Ukrainian prosecutor fired on the basis he would not investigate his son, Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, when his father was vice president. USA Today details the report specifically naming Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician, as acting on behalf of Putin to actively discredit Biden. It is further reported that during the presidential campaigns, Derkach met with Rudy Giuliani, who was then serving as Trump’s personal attorney as part of the influence campaign. The Trump administration sanctioned Derkach for his interferences.

The Intelligence report also determined that China did not try to chance the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and also reported that there are no indications that foreign actors attempted to alter ballots or vote tabulation. CNBC reports that Biden has been clear that the United States will respond to a number of destabilizing Russian actions, such as the SolarWinds hack, the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, and now the election interference. Moscow has previously denied any involvement in attempting to influence U.S. elections.

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Thousands of migrant children are trying to cross the southwestern board of American. More than 4,000 children have been stuck in Border patrol run facilities. The factors attribute to this movement are the two devastating hurricanes last year, the outcome of pandemic and most importantly, the perception of enforcement is more relaxed under Biden’s administration. The New York Times reported on Sunday that many of the undocumented migrants who brave arduous, dangerous journeys across Mexico have been told by human smugglers that Biden has opened the border for them. The southwestern border typically sees a surge in migration, since Oct 1, 2020, customs and border protection has recorded more than 396,000 migrant crossings. Operators of private shelters along the border are concerning the number will continue grow sharply and no practical plan from the Federal government to address the issue.

In response to the recent surge in arrivals, the Biden administration is directing the Federal emergency management agency to assist in processing the finding shelters for the children and deploying Health and human services officials to border facilities to help quickly to identify their sponsors.

Meanwhile, the house of representatives is due to vote on two immigration bills that would provide a path to citizenship for millions living illegally in the United States. The Bills to help farmworkers and younger immigrants known as “Dreamers”. This is going to be an uphill battle since republicans have focused on attacking the democratic Biden administration for the new spike of arrivals at the border. Republican argue the latest bills would only encourage more illegal border crossings. Hundreds of youths under 18 have been crossing the border with Mexico every day recently.

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Former President Donald Trump is competing with the GOP’s fundraising operation and lashing out at its members, further complicating his status as a Republican Party leader. The former president this week escalated a standoff over the Republican Party’s financial future, blasting party leaders and urging his backers to send donations to his new political action committee — not to the institutional groups that traditionally control the G.O.P.’s coffers. “No more money for RINOS. They do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness,” his tweet-length statement said. “Send your donation to Save America PAC at DonaldJTrump.com. We will bring it all back stronger than ever before!” Trump, without specifying his targets by name, asserted that they “do nothing but hurt the Republican Party and our great voting base — they will never lead us to Greatness.”

Trump’s relationship with GOP standard-bearers has been rocky since he left office in January. In February, he called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell a “dour, sullen, unsmiling political hack” after McConnell upbraided Trump for stoking the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Redirecting the flow of Republican money into his own war chest, if successful, could help Trump tighten his grip on the party as he aims to undermine his perceived enemies within it. But experts say promoting his own PAC could also carry other perks for Trump. PACs such as Save America can raise donations for political expenditures such as supporting candidates, and Trump could use his to lay the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2024. But they “also can be used for just about anything else,” said Brendan Fischer, Federal Reform Program director at the Campaign Legal Center. This leaves one to question whether the supposed Trumpist sect of the Republican party can eventually force rebranding or even greater influence with Trump at the helm.