US President Joe Biden is set to form an inter-agency group that will make coordinated efforts to counter antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias and discrimination. The group’s formation comes at a time when antisemitism has increased across the country.
The White House announced Monday that Biden had formed an inter-agency group to counter discrimination and bias such as antisemitism and Islamophobia. The White House said that Biden has already tasked the group to develop a national strategy to counter antisemitism, having previously addressed the issue during a roundtable event with Jewish leaders last week.
The group’s formation comes at a time when antisemitism and hate crimes have increased across the country. 2021 had a record number of antisemitic incidents such as murder, physical assault, harassment, and vandalism, according to the Anti-Defamation League, since it began collecting data 40 years ago.
FBI data that was also released on Monday found that 7,200 hate crimes were reported in the US in 2021. Over 60 percent of the reported incidents were based on race, ancestry, or ethnicity. One in six hate crimes was identified as sexual orientation-bias crimes and one in seven as religious-bias crimes.
On Tuesday, Biden said that inflation in the country was going down and that he hoped prices would return to normal by the end of 2023.
“I want to be clear, it’s going to take time to get inflation back to normal levels. As we make the transition to a more stable growth, we could see setbacks along the way as well. We shouldn’t take anything for granted,” said the US leader.
Biden said he is aiming to get price increases under control without hurting economic growth and to lower inflation while maintaining a resilient labor market. The US leader noted that prices on items remain high, but gas prices were now lower than they were before. Food inflation slowed down last month, and prices of items such as televisions, used cars, and toys were going down.
Biden also said he hopes prices will be back to normal by the end of 2023 but expressed confidence that the prices will not increase further.