Trump-Putin Meeting Canceled: US-Russia Peace Talks in Jeopardy

Thousands of Passengers Grounded in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Boston, and Minneapolis...

Thousands of Passengers Grounded in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Boston, and Minneapolis as US Faces New Travel Disruptions with 70 Flights Canceled and 5000 Delays Affecting Delta, Cape Air, United, Breeze, American Airlines and More

Published on October 6, 2025

US faces 70 flight cancellations and 5,000 delays due to operational issues, grounding passengers in Seattle, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Boston, and Minneapolis, with disruptions impacting Delta, Cape Air, United, Breeze, and American Airlines. These widespread travel issues were primarily caused by operational challenges, weather conditions, and other unexpected factors, leading to significant inconvenience for travelers. Passengers were left stranded or forced to rearrange their travel plans as both domestic and international flights faced extensive delays. Major hubs such as Seattle, Boston, and Minneapolis saw a large number of affected travelers, highlighting the ongoing challenges in the air travel sector.

Cancellation By Airline

The United States saw a total of 5,018 flight delays and 70 cancellations, impacting both domestic and international flights. These disruptions caused significant inconvenience for travelers across various airports. Airlines and passengers faced challenges due to operational issues, weather conditions, or other factors. Travelers are advised to stay updated with their airlines for real-time information and alternative arrangements to minimize further disruption.

Final Stage of Vuelta Cancelled After Pro-Palestinian Protesters Clash W...

Cancellation & Rebellion - Repeating the Past with Ron Duffield & Joanna de Bruyn

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Securing a Lasting Peace in Ukraine

Hudson Institute

28
February 2025

In-Person Event
Canceled | Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Securing a Lasting Peace in Ukraine

FRIDAY 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Add to calendar

In-person attendance is by invitation only. The event will also air live on this page.

Media: press@hudson.org

Inquiries: eheller@hudson.org



Caption
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy gives a press conference on February 23, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)

28
February 2025
FRIDAY 4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Add to calendar


In-Person Event
Speakers:



John P. Walters

President and CEO

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

President, Ukraine

This event has been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will take part in a discussion with Hudson President and CEO John Walters to discuss US-Ukrainian relations, the state of the war, and the path forward for Ukraine.

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The GC Takes a Stand Against Barbara O'Neill

February 4, 2025 NewsHound




Adventist Health Ministries of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists sent out an updated statement last year on Barbara O’Neill.

After listing nine reasons, Fred Hardinge concludes “We are not able to recommend her as a speaker for churches or any gatherings.” Here’s the GC Health Ministries statement with various highlights:





Observations

While the General Conference Adventist Health Ministries took a firm stand in support of the Covid vaccine and mandates; Barbara O’Neill was opposed to compulsory vaccination or any coercive policy to encourage vaccination. This helped motivate the GC’s first statement against O’Neill in 2021.

The statement was updated last year, adding to their disapproval of O’Neill.

Hardinge claims that O’Neill is disingenuous and bases her health positions on misinformation and a lack of training in the ‘sciences’ (allopathic medicine). (See points 1, 3, and 9.)

It is worth noting that this same General Conference Health Ministries Department helped write both the 2015 Vaccine Statement, and the 2021 Re-Affirmation Statement, which supported the un-Constitutional 2021 Biden Mandate.


The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Biden vaccine mandate on January 13, 2022.

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Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's (Psalm 103:2-5).

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USAID's Shadow Operations: Exposed

American Airlines flights grounded nationwide on Christmas Eve

CANCELLED: Adventism and Catholicism in a Changing World

CANCELLED: Adventism and Catholicism in a Changing World

October 12, 2024
03:00 PM-05:00 PM
Centennial Complex
Damazo Ampitheater
religion@llu.edu
909-558-7478
School of Religion

This event has been cancelled.

Speakers:
Reinder Bruinsma, PhD
Denis Fortin, PhD
Rev. Romanus Ike

The Seventh-day Adventist and Roman Catholic Churches have had a turbulent relationship through the years. But in today’s world many people see them as having much more in common than what separates them. The panel will explore the intriguing question of what the two churches can learn from each other and what that might imply for the future. Reinder Bruinsma will premier his new book on the topic at the close of the program.

Sponsored by Loma Linda University Center for Understanding World Religions and Humanities Program

For more information, call 909-558-7478 or email religion@llu.edu

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Pope Francis cancels trip to climate summit due to illness

The Jesuit Order Banned In Nicaragua

Society Of Jesus Banned In Nicaragua

By David Agren

Published

2 days ago

A Nicaraguan exiled in Costa Rica holds up a sign reading: "Ortega and Murillo Out! #SOSNicaragua" during the "Vigil of Faith and Freedom" outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Jose, Costa Rica, Aug. 19, 2022, to protest against the detention of Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, by Nicaraguan authorities. The Nicaraguan regime extinguished the Jesuits' legal status Aug. 23, 2023, and said it will expropriate its assets, effectively making it illegal for the Society of Jesus to operate in the Central American country. (OSV News photo/Mayela Lopez, Reuters)


MEXICO CITY (OSV News) — The Nicaraguan regime has extinguished the Jesuits’ legal status and ordered the expropriation of its assets, effectively making it illegal for the Society of Jesus to operate in the Central American country.

The legal cancellation of the Jesuits on Aug. 23 follows the confiscation of the Jesuit-run Central American University a week earlier, with authorities accusing the school of hosting a “center of terrorism” and seizing its campus in the capital city of Managua.

The Jesuit province in Central America condemned the cancellation, saying in an Aug. 23 statement that this is part of a government policy of systematic repression that violates human rights and appears “to be aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state.”

“The decision was made without the record that the administrative procedures established by law have been carried out,” the statement continued.

“We hold the president and the vice president of Nicaragua responsible for, at least, endorsing these facts and preventing the existence of conditions of judicial independence and neutrality that would allow measures to stop, reverse and sanction them.”

The Nicaraguan interior ministry accused the Jesuits of lacking the proper oversight for a non-governmental group and failing to file tax information with the government between 2020 and 2022. The status of non-citizen Jesuits remains uncertain as the order would lack the legal standing to sponsor their immigration visas.

The cancellation of the Jesuits’ legal status in Nicaragua culminates a campaign of hostilities against the order and what had been its best-known project in the country, the Central American University.

The university was seized from the Jesuits, but recently reopened with a new name (Universidad Nacional Casimiro Sotelo Montenegro), a leadership team considered close with the regime, and the ruling Sandinista party’s black and red flag flying over the campus.

Six Jesuits affiliated with the Central America University were subsequently evicted from their home Aug. 21, even though they showed a title proving the property did not belong to the university. Other Jesuit projects in Nicaragua include Fe y Alegría educational centers, which serve more than 55,000 students, along with programs for farmers and people with disabilities.

The university came into conflict with the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, after students participated in protests calling for Ortega’s ouster in 2018 and school officials opened the campus to wounded protesters fleeing police and paramilitaries.

School officials and students later participated in a national dialogue facilitated by the Nicaraguan bishops’ conference to find an exit to the national crisis — but the bishops later withdrew, alleging bad faith on the government side.

“The University was the last bastion of freedom” in Nicaragua, Enrique Pumar, a sociology professor at the Jesuit-run University of Santa Clara, told OSV News.

He described the relationship between the Jesuits and the ruling Sandinistas, who first took power in a 1979 revolution, as “love-hate.” Some Jesuits eagerly backed the Sandinistas and even served in government, but many in the order and the Catholic Church “supported more gradual change” than Ortega, according to Pumar.

The Ortega-Murillo regime has cracked down on the Catholic Church over the past five years, harassing, imprisoning and expelling priests for accompanying the families of political prisoners and speaking out against gross violations of human rights.

Bishop Rolando Álvarez remains imprisoned on a 26-year sentence, which was handed down after he refused to join 222 political prisoners sent into exile and stripped of their citizenship in February.

The regime has canceled, banned and expelled other religious orders, including Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in 2022 — raising similar, unproven accusations of internal misgovernance. More than 3,000 non-governmental groups in Nicaragua have lost their legal status.

David Agren writes for OSV News from Mexico City.

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Davos no-shows reflect the world in a state of crisis

By Charles Riley, CNN Business


Updated 5:18 AM ET, Mon January 21, 2019





London (CNN Business)President Donald Trump and other world leaders have canceled their trips to Davos to deal with more pressing matters back home. Still, the show must go on.
Some 3,000 of the world's richest and most powerful people are crowding into the small Swiss mountain town for this week's World Economic Forum.

The American president, who was the star guest at last year's forum, canceled his return trip earlier this month but wished organizers well.

"I am respectfully canceling my very important trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. My warmest regards and apologies to the @WEF!" he wrote on Twitter.

The annual summit produces the year's best opportunity to rub shoulders with chief executives, central bankers, Wall Street money men, influential regulators and powerful politicians. The media shows up too.



Armed security personnel stand guard on a rooftop in Davos.


Yet Trump's decision to remain at home with the rest of the US delegation reflects the world in a state of crisis.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called off her visit after suffering a stinging defeat on Brexit. French President Emmanuel Macron, who is struggling to stop street protests, is also skipping the forum. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is grappling with a slowing economy, nor Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is fighting for a second term, will be making an appearance.

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa canceled his visit to Davos on Sunday after violent protests erupted at home. Mnangagwa said his finance minister would represent Zimbabwe.

Cold weather cripples NYC, leads to mass delays at airports

By Clayton Guse
| New York Daily News |
Jan 21, 2019 | 12:45 PM

Birds play in a frozen fountain in Midtown's Bryant Park. (DON EMMERT / AFP/Getty Images)

Single-digit temperatures and blustery winds brought New York and the surrounding area to a freeze on Monday.

With subzero wind chills and gusts of up to 45 mph across New York City, flights into local airports reported extensive delays.

As of noon Monday, more than 2,000 flights were delayed across the country, according to FlightAware. Flights into or out of LaGuardia had reported 277 delays; Newark International reported 177, with another 133 flights left in a tizzy at JFK.


NYC Ferry service on the Rockaway route was suspended Monday morning due to high winds.


In Connecticut, more than 12,000 homes and businesses remained without power Monday morning following the weekend snowstorm. The effort to restore power there resulted in a fatality on Sunday when an Eversource subcontractor was struck by a falling tree in Middletown while working on a power line.


Temperatures are expected to rebound Tuesday with a high near 30, according to the National Weather Service, and continue to rise into the 40s Wednesday.

Source

Major cities are canceling New Year's Eve celebrations in the wake of recent terrorist attacks

Amanda Macias

Reuters/Francois LenoirA worker dismantles equipment that would have been used to celebrate New Year in central Brussels, December 31, 2015. Authorities in the Belgian capital Brussels on Wednesday called off the city's traditional New Year's Eve fireworks display, citing fears of a militant attack.

In the shadow of horrific terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, several major cities have canceled their New Year's Eve celebrations.



Brussels and Paris have scrapped their fireworks displays entirely, while much of Europe will welcome 2016 in a subdued fashion.

Belgium canceled official festivities on Wednesday in its capital due to significant risk of a terrorist act, Bloomberg reported.

The termination of Brussels' fireworks came as police detained eight suspects and members of a motorcycle club called the Kamikaze Riders in connection with a New Year’s Eve plot, IBTimes UK reported.

Belgium remains at the core of the investigation surrounding the November 13 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead after two of the suicide bombers, Brahim Abdeslam and Bilal Hadfi, were tied to Brussels.

Grief-stricken Paris has also canceled its main fireworks display. A smaller celebration, however, involving a five-minute video performance shown on screens along Champs-Élysées will still take place, Sky News reported.

Approximately 600,000 people typically gather around the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Champs-Élysées to ring in the new year, according to Sky News.

REUTERS/Charles PlatiauArmed French soldiers patrol in front of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, December 30, 2015,

While Turkey has yet to cancel festivities, the nation remains on high alert after authorities found suicide vests and bombs during a raid on two suspected ISIS militants believed to have crossed into Turkey from Syria.



Despite threats, however, some cities kept celebrations as planned.

On Thursday, Emanuel Lutchman, a 25-year-old man who planned to attack a restaurant in New York, on New Year's Eve was detained and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

According to the Justice Department, Lutchman purchased two black ski masks, zip-ties, two knives, a machete, duct tape, ammonia, and latex gloves for the planned attack.

US Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. of the Western District of New York had a message for others who may be planning to provide support to ISIS: "You will be caught, you will be prosecuted, and you will be punished."

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Baptist Pastors Won’t Hear Ben Carson after Young Pastors Object

PEOPLE; THEOLOGY

Concerns over theology and politics lead likely presidential candidate to back out of major Southern Baptist conference.

Bob Smietana 

[ POSTED 4/24/2015 02:13PM ]

GAGE SKIDMORE / FLICKR


Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon turned pundit, has backed out of plans to speak at a major gathering of evangelical pastors this summer.

Carson, who will likely run for president, had been scheduled to appear in June at the annual Southern Baptist Pastors Conference in Columbus, Ohio.

But a group of young ministers, known as Baptist21, raised concerns this week about his appearance.

The mostly Calvinist preachers objected to the beliefs of Carson’s booming Seventh-day Adventist Church—including the claim that worshiping on Sunday is sin and the idea that sinners who are barred from heaven will be annihilated rather than sent to hell.

They also objected to a statement made on Easter by Carson that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all God’s children.

“Certainly, we do not all worship the same God—we worship the Trinity whom Muslims and Jews would deny,” leaders of Baptist21 wrote on their blog. “And, the idea that we are all God’s children is at best the type of liberalism the Conservative Resurgence sought to address, and at worst, it is universalism.”

Politics also played a role in Carson’s withdrawal.

Jonathan Akin, a leader of Baptist21 and pastor of Fairview Church near Nashville, said he was concerned about Southern Baptists being too closely tied to the Republican Party.

“I’d suggest that we not invite any politicians to speak in the future,” he said in a phone interview.

That concerned was echoed on the Baptist21 blog.

“We are concerned because in our evangelical climate it is often easy to confuse what it means to be a follower of Christ with what it means to be a patriotic American,” the blog read.

Several Southern Baptist professor weighed in as well on Twitter.

“Stop inviting politicians and wanna-bees!” tweeted Kevin Smith, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) in Louisville. Denny Burk, a blogger and professor at Boyce College, the undergraduate arm of SBTS, also tweeted his support.

Willy Rice, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater and president of the pastor’s conference, said Carson’s appearance had become problematic. The decision to withdraw was mutual.

“It had become a distraction,” Rice said in a phone interview. “He didn’t need that and we didn’t need that.”

Rice posted a blog on Friday, explain his rationale for inviting Carson.

“He has spoken at the National Prayer Breakfast twice (the only other person to do so was Billy Graham); he was a frequent guest of James Dobson; he has spoken at several Southern Baptist churches for major events,” he wrote. “He loves Southern Baptists and considers them friends. I believe most Southern Baptists equally respect and appreciate him.”

Rice said that Carson was not a candidate for president when he was first invited to the conference and that he still is not a candidate.

“It now appears likely that he will announce his candidacy and, though he has never held political office nor to my knowledge engaged in a political campaign, many have voiced their objections at having a declared candidate speak at our conference,” he said.

Politicians have spoken at the Southern Baptist pastors conference and the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in the past.

Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and former Southern Baptist pastor, spoke at the conference in 2009 and in 2013.

CT recently explored how Adventists, growing at a rate of 1 million members each year, have been wrestling with their identity, trying to keep their distinctive beliefs while also moving closer to other evangelicals.

A Seventh-day Adventist church in Alabama recently even started a Sunday service as an outreach event.

“There has been a continuing tension about whether [Adventists] see themselves as distinct, or as one among many evangelical denominations with a few special emphases,” said David Neff, former CT editor and a former Adventist minister, told CT. “There’s a dynamic that moves back and forth between those poles.”


RELATED TOPICS:Adventists; Politics; Southern Baptists
POSTED:April 24, 2015 at 2:13PM
Gleanings aggregates what others are reporting. Learn more.

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‘Black Mass’ on Harvard Campus Canceled

Maya Rhodan @m_rhodan May 12, 2014



Critics of the re-enactment that was planned as an educational demonstration of a historical "black mass," a ritual that mocks the Roman Catholic Church, included the university's president and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, who called the idea "repugnant"





Updated 8:45 p.m. ET

A Harvard University student club’s planned re-enactment of a satanic ritual was canceled at the last minute, amid backlash from students, alumni and the Archdiocese of Boston.

The “black mass,” to be hosted by the Harvard Extension School’s Cultural Studies Club, would have taken place at a pub on the school’s Cambridge campus Monday night. The club called it a “re-enactment” that was intended solely for educational purposes. The ritual was historically performed to mock the Roman Catholic Church.

About an hour before the ritual would have been held, the dean of student affairs at Harvard’s Extension School said in a statement that the black mass had been moved to an off-campus location. Fox Boston later reported that the group then canceled the event because it was unable to secure a new location.

Dean Robert Neugeboren said he was glad that the students finally decided to cancel, given religious leaders’ and other students’ firmly expressed reservations about the event.

Earlier on Monday, the Cultural Studies Club had faced strong criticism of its plans. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston, called the event “repugnant” in an interview with the Boston Globe. He added, “There’s a great fascination with evil in the world, but you know, it doesn’t lead to anything good.”

University president Drew Faust denounced the event in a statement, saying that “the decision by a student club to sponsor an enactment of this ritual is abhorrent.” She then said that students still have a right to free expression: “Vigorous and open discussion and debate are essential to the pursuit of knowledge, and we must uphold these values even in the face of controversy.”

A petition started by a member of the school’s Catholic Students group had hundreds of signatures, the Harvard Crimson reports, and a prayer vigil would have coincided with the black mass.


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Pope Francis cancels audiences due to illness

Friday, November 15, 2013

 Photo (Courtesy)

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1304798.htm

Pope Francis leaves after meeting the Italian president at the Quirinale presidential palace in Rome



Pope Francis canceled several audiences today due to flu, the first time his health has affected his role as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics.

The 76-year-old's wellbeing is under close scrutiny because of the shock February resignation of his predecessor Benedict, who said his health was declining and a stronger man could do the job better.A Vatican spokesman said Francis had canceled several meetings with cardinals and bishops on Friday morning, but would still take part in the ordination of a bishop in the afternoon.

"There is no reason for worry," Father Federico Lombardi said.


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Florida Blue, other health plans cancelling contracts to prepare for new health law rules

By Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby
Kaiser Health News

Published: October 23, 2013

Health plans in Florida and across the country are sending hundreds of thousands of cancellation letters to people who buy their own coverage, frustrating some consumers who want to keep what they have and forcing others to buy more costly policies.

The main reason insurers offer is that the policies fall short of what the Affordable Care Act requires starting Jan. 1. Most are ending policies sold after the law passed in March 2010. At least a few are cancelling plans sold to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

Florida Blue is terminating about 300,000 policies, about 80 percent of its individual policies in the state. Kaiser Permanente in California has sent notices to 160,000 people – about half of its individual business in the state. Insurer Highmark in Pittsburgh is dropping about 20 percent of its individual market customers, while Independence Blue Cross, the major insurer in Philadelphia, is dropping about 45 percent.

An estimated 14 million people purchase their own coverage because they don’t get it through their jobs.

By all accounts, the new policies will offer consumers better coverage, in some cases, for comparable cost, especially after the inclusion of federal subsidies for those who qualify. The law requires policies sold in the individual market to cover 10 “essential” benefits, such as prescription drugs, mental health treatment and maternity care.

In addition, insurers cannot reject people with medical problems or charge them higher prices. The policies must also cap consumers’ annual expenses at levels lower than many plans sold before the new rules.

But the cancellation notices, which began arriving in August, have shocked many consumers in light of President Barack Obama’s promise that people could keep their plans if they liked them.

“I don’t feel like I need to change, but I have to,” said Jeff Learned, a television editor in Los Angeles, who must find a new plan for his teenage daughter, who has a health condition that has required multiple surgeries.

Both Independence and Highmark are cancelling so-called “guaranteed issue” policies, which had been sold to customers who had pre-existing medical conditions when they signed up. Policyholders with regular policies because they did not have health problems will be given an option to extend their coverage through next year.

Consumer advocates say such cancellations raise concerns that companies may be targeting their most costly enrollees.

They may be “doing this as an opportunity to push their populations into the exchange and purge their systems” of policyholders they no longer want, said Jerry Flanagan, an attorney with the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog in California.

Insurers deny that, saying they are encouraging existing customers to re-enroll in their new plans.

“We continue to cover people with all types of health conditions,” said Highmark spokeswoman Kristin Ash.

Some receiving cancellations say it looks like their costs will go up, despite studies projecting that about half of all enrollees will get income-based subsidies.

Kris Malean, 56, lives outside Seattle, and has a health policy that costs $390 a month with a $2,500 deductible and a $10,000 in potential out-of-pocket costs for such things as doctor visits, drug costs or hospital care.

As a replacement, Regence BlueShield is offering her a plan for $79 more a month with a deductible twice as large as what she pays now, but which limits her potential out-of-pocket costs to $6,250 a year, including the deductible.

“My impression was …there would be a lot more choice, driving some of the rates down,” said Malean, who does not believe she is eligible for a subsidy.

Regence spokeswoman Rachelle Cunningham said the new plans offer consumers broader benefits, which “in many cases translate into higher costs.”

“The arithmetic is inescapable,” said Patrick Johnston, chief executive officer of the California Association of Health Plans. Costs must be spread, so while some consumers will see their premiums drop, others will pay more “no matter what people in Washington say.”

Health insurance experts say new prices will vary and much depends on where a person lives, their age and the type of policy they decide to buy. Some, including young people and those with skimpy or high-deductible plans, may see an increase.

Others, including those with health problems or who buy coverage with higher deductibles than they have now, may see lower premiums.

Kaiser Health News (www.kaiserhealthnews.org) is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communication organization not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


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Obama Canceled Russia Meeting In Part Over Putin’s War On Gays

by David Badash on August 7, 2013





President Barack Obama, as reported earlier today, has canceled his long-scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing tensions stemming from the imbroglio over granting asylum to whistleblower Edward Snowden, and “human rights” issues. But to the chagrin of some in the LGBT community, and despite the President’s chastising of Russia’s anti-gay laws last night on Leno, LGBT civil rights were not specified in the official statement, which the New Civil Rights Movement received via an email from the White House (below).

Now, blogger John Aravosis has determined that indeed LGBT civil rights played a part in Obama’s decision to cancel his meeting with his Russian counterpart.

“An Obama administration official just confirmed to me that today’s sudden cancellation of President Obama’s anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during next month’s G20 meeting in Russia was in part due to the President’s concerns about the deteriorating gay rights situation in Russia,” Aravosis writes:

The official told me that among the concerns leading to the cancellation of the bilateral meeting with Putin was the worsening human rights situation in Russia, which specifically included the Russian government’s recent crackdown on the gay and trans community.
Aravosis acknowledges that “no one is claiming that gay rights is the sole, or even lead, reason that the President canceled the Putin meeting,” but notes, “it is hugely significant that the administration is acknowledging that Russia’s draconian crackdown on gay and trans people figured into the President’s calculus at all.”
Elections matter.



Via the White House:

 

 

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 7, 2013

 

Statement by the Press Secretary on the President’s Travel to Russia


Following a careful review begun in July, we have reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda withRussia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September. We value the achievements made with Russia in the President’s first term, including the New START Treaty, and cooperation on Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea. However, given our lack of progress on issues such as missile defense and arms control, trade and commercial relations, global security issues, and human rights and civil society in the last twelve months, we have informed the Russian Government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda. Russia’s disappointing decision to grant Edward Snowden temporary asylum was also a factor that we considered in assessing the current state of our bilateral relationship. Our cooperation on these issues remains a priority for the United States, so on Friday, August 9, Secretaries Hagel and Kerry will meet with their Russian counterparts in a 2+2 format in Washington to discuss how we can best make progress moving forward on the full range of issues in our bilateral relationship.


The President still looks forward to traveling to St. Petersburg on September 5-6 to attend the G-20 Summit.

 

 

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Image: President Barack Obama and members of the American delegation, including National Security Advisor General Jim Jones, Under Secretary for Political Affairs Bill Burns, and NSC Senior Director for Russian Affairs Mike McFaul, meet with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at his dacha outside Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, via Flickr

 

 

 

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