Photo: Science Photo Library RF
1 Biden On Putin Summit: I Did What I Came To Do
President Biden returned to Washington overnight and as he sees things, his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a job well done. “I did what I came to do,” he told reporters immediately after the summit. “Number one, identify areas of practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests...Two, communicate directly... And three, to clearly lay out our country’s priorities and our values.” He went on to say that the U.S.-Russian relationship must be stable and predictable. He stressed that he was candid with Putin about human rights, cyberattacks and meddling in U.S. elections. Biden said the summit was "good and positive.”
2 Biden Calls Biden Summit Constructive; No Hostility
While President Biden is calling his summit successful – Russian President Vladimir Putin isn’t arguing the point. In fact, holding a separate press conference after the Geneva meeting, he said there was no hostility and called the talks very constructive. Putin told reporters he and Biden agreed to return U.S. and Russian ambassadors to their posts in Moscow and Washington, DC. Putin was pressed about cyber-attacks and insisted most come from the U.S. He said he and Biden agreed to talk more about cyber security. Putin said the two sides also agreed to continue talks on nuclear security. Something Putin sidestepped? The issue of human rights abuses in Russia and he also questioned America's human rights record, along with violent crime in the U.S. Putin responded to a question from ABC’s Rachel Scott about Russia's crackdown on dissidents and said many have called for "mass disorder" in his country. Putin compared it to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and the hundreds of arrests that have been made since then.
3 Abbott Announces Framework Of Border Wall Plan
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is providing the framework for how the state will build its own border wall. The governor says they'll hire a program manager and contractors to estimate the cost and oversee construction. Abbott also says the wall will be built on land already owned by state and local government. Private land owners will also be allowed to donate land and Abbott is hoping the feds will return land to private property owners. That land was seized by the Trump administration for construction of the previously-planned wall. The governor has allocated 250-million dollars from the budget toward the wall's construction. He’s also crowd-funding the effort – he’s launched borderwall.texas.gov where people can donate. He promised transparency on the wall, saying two government agencies will oversee the funds.