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U.S. NEWS Friday 24 February 2023
Putin, Afghans among top gift givers to Bidens in 2021

BY MATTHEW LEE stan in April, Ghani and his
AP Diplomatic Writer wife, Rula, gave Joe and
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rus- Jill Biden two silk carpets:
sia’s president and the de- one valued $9,600 and the
posed leader of Afghani- other $19,200, according to
stan were among the top the list.
gift givers to President Joe At the time, U.S. officials
Biden and his family in 2021, believed that Ghani’s gov-
according to federal docu- ernment and security forc-
ments published on Thurs- es could survive the with-
day. drawal of American troops.
In happier times between A White House statement
all three countries, Vladimir from Biden’s meeting with
Putin gave Biden a $12,000 Ghani on June 25th said
lacquer writing box and that “the U.S. and Afghan
pen when they met at a leaders firmly agreed that
highly anticipated summit although U.S. troops are
in Geneva, Switzerland in leaving Afghanistan, the
June 2021. strong bilateral partnership
And, then-Afghan Presi- will continue.”
dent Mohammed Ashraf In another relationship
Ghani and his wife gave turned sour, Secretary of
the U.S. president and first State Antony Blinken re-
lady Jill Biden silk rugs worth President Joe Biden, right, meets with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, left, in the Oval Office of the ported receiving a porce-
an estimated $28,800 later White House in Washington, June 25, 2021. Associated Press lain vase worth $2,000 from
that month. the former foreign policy
Relations between the ber 2 in the Afghan govern- the National Archives, a re- to be worth $2,200. chief of the Chinese Com-
U.S. and Russia turned sour ment. And Defense Secre- quirement for any gift to a According to the records, munist Party, Yang Jiechi.
shortly after the Geneva tary Lloyd Austin was given U.S. official valued at more Putin gave Biden a “Kholuy The exchange took place
meeting and have plum- a carpet valued at $2,650 than $415. The recipient Lacquer Miniature Work- in March, 2021, just two
meted since Russia’s inva- in March from Ghani. has the option of paying shop Desk Writing Set and months after the Biden ad-
sion of Ukraine last Febru- The details were contained the estimated value and Pen” on the occasion of ministration took office and
ary. Ghani, meanwhile, fled in the State Department’s keeping the gift. their meeting in Geneva on the vase is now with the
Afghanistan shortly after annual accounting of gifts However, Biden decided June 16, 2021. General Services Adminis-
the U.S. withdrew from the to U.S. officials from world to retain, at least for offi- There are no other gifts tration.
country on Biden’s orders in leaders posted on the web- cial display, a photograph from Putin or other Russian Two years later, the U.S.
August, 2021. site of the Federal Register of the late British monarch officials to Biden or U.S. of- and China are now at odds
Biden also in June received on Thursday. The formal Queen Elizabeth II. The pho- ficials documented in the on numerous issues ranging
a brass and lapis lazuli jew- publication of the list, cov- to, in a silver frame was pre- filing. from Russia’s war in Ukraine
elry box, worth an estimat- ering 2021, will come on sented to the president on Later that month, well af- to Chinese policies regard-
ed $1,150 from Abdullah Friday. the occasion of a Group of ter Biden had given the ing Taiwan, Tibet, the South
Abdullah, who was then All of the Putin and Ghani Seven summit in southeast order for American forces China Sea, Hong Hong and
considered to be the num- gifts were transferred to England and is estimated to withdraw from Afghani- human rights.q

U.S. mass killings linked to extremism

spiked over last decade

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST ing at a supermarket in extremist mass killings in
Associated Press Buffalo, New York, that left 2021 and 2022, as many
WASHINGTON (AP) — The 10 Black shoppers dead as there were during the
number of U.S. mass kill- and a mass shooting that first decade of the new
ings linked to extremism killed five people at an millennium. The number of
over the past decade was LGBT nightclub in Colorado victims has risen as well. Be-
at least three times higher Springs, Colorado. tween 2010 and 2020, 164
than the total from any “It is not an exaggeration to people died in ideologi-
other 10-year period since say that we live in an age cal extremist-related mass
the 1970s, according to a of extremist mass killings,” killings, according to the
report by the Anti-Defama- the report from the group’s report. That’s much more A group prays at the site of a memorial for the victims of the
tion League. Center on Extremism says. than in any other decade Buffalo supermarket shooting outside the Tops Friendly Market
The report, provided to The Between two and seven except the 1990s, when on May 21, 2022, in Buffalo, N.Y.
Associated Press ahead of domestic extremism-relat- the bombing of a federal Associated Press
its public release Thursday, ed mass killings occurred building in Oklahoma City ful targeting police officers The center tracks slayings
also found that all extrem- every decade from the killed 168 people. Several after civilian shootings and linked to various forms of ex-
ist killings identified in 2022 1970s to the 2000s, but in factors combined to drive others linked to the increas- tremism in the United States
were linked to right-wing the 2010s that number sky- the numbers up between ing promotion of violence and compiles them in an
extremism, with an espe- rocketed to 21, the report 2010 and 2020. There were by white supremacists, annual report. It tracked 25
cially high number linked found. shootings inspired by the said Mark Pitcavage, a se- extremism-related killings
to white supremacy. They The trend has since con- rise of the Islamic State nior research fellow at the last year, a decrease from
include a racist mass shoot- tinued with five domestic group as well as a hand- ADL’s Center on Extremism. the 33 the year before.q