Joe Biden to address US as clock ticks on presidency

Joe Biden to address US as clock ticks on presidency
US president Joe Biden had promised in his withdrawal announcement that he would give Americans more details on his stunning decision. (AFP)
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Updated 24 July 2024
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Joe Biden to address US as clock ticks on presidency

Joe Biden to address US as clock ticks on presidency
  • US president to insist in his address to the nation that he still has work to do despite his historic decision to bow out
  • The speech, expected to last eight to ten minutes, will be Biden’s first since stepping aside from the race on Sunday

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will give what could be his final Oval Office speech Wednesday to explain why he dropped out of November’s election and deny that he will spend six months as a lame duck.
With the world’s eyes already on a looming clash between Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Biden will insist in his address to the nation that he still has work to do despite his historic decision to bow out.
The 81-year-old Democrat said on X he would discuss “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people” in the primetime televised event at 8:00 p.m. (0000 GMT Thursday).
The speech, expected to last eight to ten minutes, will be Biden’s first since stepping aside from the race on Sunday after weeks of pressure following a disastrous debate performance against Trump.
He had promised in his withdrawal announcement — made while he was isolating with Covid at his Delaware beach home — that he would give Americans more details on his stunning decision.
It comes just over a week since his last Oval Office address following an assassination attempt against Trump on July 13, but is only the fourth of his presidency overall — and could well be his last.
With Harris, who has effectively clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, and Trump both back on the campaign trail, Biden will be fighting an uphill battle to show Americans he is not yesterday’s man.
Republicans have called for Biden to step down altogether, saying that if he is not fit to stand for reelection then he is not fit to serve as president.
The veteran Democrat insists he still has much to offer, with a particular focus on the economy and on achieving an elusive ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
“I’m not going anywhere,” a hoarse Biden said as he called Harris at a campaign meeting in Delaware on Monday, adding that he was going to be “working like hell” both as president and to campaign.
Biden, who meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, added that “we’re on the verge” of agreeing a ceasefire.
He would not be the first US president to chase a legacy-defining Middle East peace deal, after Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and even Donald Trump before him.
But in a sign of the way things are already moving on, Netanyahu will sit down separately with Harris, while Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media platform that he will meet with the Israeli leader Friday at the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
With the clock ticking on his presidency, Biden said on X late Tuesday that it was “great to be back at the White House” after returning from Delaware and that he had met his national security team for a briefing.
Biden’s decision to drop out has however injected a huge dose of enthusiasm into a Democratic Party that had been plunged into chaos by the debate over his age.
An exuberant Harris was cheered to the rafters on Tuesday as she held a campaign rally in the battleground state of Wisconsin, her first since saying she had secured the delegates necessary for the nomination.
She could be nominated as soon as early August in a virtual vote by Democratic delegates ahead of the party’s convention in Chicago just over two weeks later.
For Harris the challenge will now be to maintain the initial burst of enthusiasm in her party — and then to translate it into success at the ballot box in November.
Harris led Trump slightly in a poll conducted this week after Biden dropped out, but she remains vulnerable in particular to attacks on her lackluster first two years in the White House.


Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says
Updated 14 sec ago
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Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

Ukraine’s air defense units trying to repel Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s military says

KYIV: Ukraine’s air defense systems were engaged on the outskirts of Kyiv in trying to repel a Russian drone attack, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said on Wednesday on the Telegram messaging app.
Reuters witnesses said they heard several blasts in what sounded like air defense units in operation.


Trump says will meet India’s Modi during US visit

Trump says will meet India’s Modi during US visit
Updated 3 min 8 sec ago
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Trump says will meet India’s Modi during US visit

Trump says will meet India’s Modi during US visit

Flint, US: Former US president Donald Trump said Tuesday he plans to meet next week with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be visiting the United States for several official events.
During a campaign event in Michigan, Trump slammed India as a “very big abuser” on trade, but said Modi was “fantastic.”
“He happens to be coming to meet me next week,” Trump told the crowd without providing further details.
Modi will be traveling this weekend to Wilmington, Delaware — President Joe Biden’s hometown — as part of the “Quad Leaders” summit alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio.
The four-way Quad grouping dates back to 2007, but Biden has strongly pushed the alliance as part of an emphasis on international alliances to rein in adversaries — especially China.
The upcoming summit marks Biden’s last with the group as US president, having abandoned his bid for another White House term, with Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him at the top of the Democratic ticket.
After the summit, Modi will attend the United nations General Assembly in New York, as well as a meeting with Indian community members.
Despite no longer being president, Trump met in Florida in July with Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally who is hoping the Republican reclaims the White House in November.


Portugal battles ferocious wildfires as toll rises to seven

Portugal battles ferocious wildfires as toll rises to seven
Updated 50 min 45 sec ago
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Portugal battles ferocious wildfires as toll rises to seven

Portugal battles ferocious wildfires as toll rises to seven

AGUEDA, Portugal: Thousands of firefighters on Tuesday battled wildfires in Portugal that have killed seven people and burnt more land in a matter of days than the rest of the summer combined.
Fanned by bellowing winds in the stifling heat, the three largest fires concentrated in the northern Aveiro region scorched some 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) by Monday evening, according to a civil protection report.
Three firefighters died on Tuesday when their vehicle was trapped by the flames, civil protection authorities said, bringing the fire-related toll up to seven, with some 50 injured.
The two women and a man were killed while fighting flames in the central region of Coimbra, the interior ministry said. The trio was previously reported to have been killed in the north.
Across the Iberian nation, more than 4,500 firefighters, more than 1,000 vehicles and around 20 aircraft on Tuesday were battling some 50 fires in all, with an alert warning in force since Saturday afternoon extended until Thursday evening.
“We’re in for some very difficult times over the next few days,” Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro — who canceled all his Tuesday engagements in response to the blaze — warned on Monday evening.
“Nobody is sleeping here, we’ve been up since two o’clock in the morning,” Maria Ludivina Castanheira, 63, said in the village of Arrancada, south of the coastal city of Porto, where villagers hurried to a small warehouse to fight a fire there.
“We opened the cages so that the pigeons could escape” and “we moved the chickens to a neighbor’s,” Antonia Estima, 39, said as she took a break from helping to fight the flames.
Portuguese authorities have invoked the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to obtain eight additional firefighting aircraft.
Following the two Canadair water bombers sent from Spain on Monday, aircraft made available by France, Italy and Greece were also expected to arrive.
In the municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha, a 28-year-old Brazilian employed by a forestry company died after he became trapped by the flames as he tried to collect some tools.
Another person suffered a heart attack on Monday, while on Sunday a volunteer firefighter died suddenly while taking a lunch break from battling a blaze near Oliveira de Azemeis in hard-hit Aveiro.
Raging since the weekend before worsening on Monday, the blazes have also left around 50 people injured, including 33 firefighters, according to the latest figures from the authorities.
Several roads are still cut off in the northern Portuguese districts of Aveiro, Viseu, Vila Real, Braga and Porto as well as in the central Coimbra region.
Monday saw the highest fire-risk weather conditions in the northern half of the country since 2001, according to experts interviewed by the weekly Expresso.
Scientists say that fossil fuel emissions are worsening the length, frequency and intensity of heatwaves across the world.
The rising temperatures are leading to longer wildfire seasons and increasing the area burnt in the flames, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.


Air France suspends services to Beirut and Tel Aviv

Air France suspends services to Beirut and Tel Aviv
Updated 18 September 2024
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Air France suspends services to Beirut and Tel Aviv

Air France suspends services to Beirut and Tel Aviv

Air France is suspending services from the French capital’s Charles de Gaulle airport to Beirut and Tel Aviv up to and including Sept. 19 due to escalating security concerns in the Middle East, the airline said on Tuesday.
The operations will resume following an assessment of the situation, Air France added.
Earlier in the day, Lufthansa Group said it is suspending all connections to and from Tel Aviv and Tehran and will bypass Israeli and Iranian airspace up to and including Sept. 19.


US senator accuses Muslim advocate of supporting extremism in hearing on hate

Republican US Senator John Kennedy. (REUTERS file photo)
Republican US Senator John Kennedy. (REUTERS file photo)
Updated 18 September 2024
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US senator accuses Muslim advocate of supporting extremism in hearing on hate

Republican US Senator John Kennedy. (REUTERS file photo)
  • “This harassment is alarming,” Muslim American advocacy group Engage Action said

WASHINGTON: Republican US Senator John Kennedy accused a leading Muslim civil rights advocate of supporting extremism during a Senate hearing on hate incidents in the US, drawing criticism from many rights groups.
“You support Hamas, do you not?” Kennedy told Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry, who replied by saying: “You asking the executive director of the Arab American Institute that question very much puts the focus on the issue of hate in our country.”
In a follow-up question, the senator asked, “You support Hezbollah, too, don’t you?” He later told her, “You should hide your head in a bag.”
Berry repeatedly said in her responses that she did not support those groups, and added that she found the line of questioning “extraordinarily disappointing.”
Islamist militant groups Hamas, which carried out a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel, and Hezbollah are both designated as “foreign terrorist organizations” by the US government.
Multiple rights advocates denounced Senator Kennedy.
“It is absolutely reprehensible that a US senator would weaponize the racial identity of a witness and accuse her of supporting terrorism by using an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim trope in a hearing meant to tackle precisely that kind of bigotry,” Council on American Islamic Relations Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw told Reuters.
“This harassment is alarming,” Muslim American advocacy group Engage Action said.
The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee, which organized Tuesday’s hearing, also condemned the senator and called Berry’s response to him “powerful.”
Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against American Muslims, Arabs and Jews since the eruption of Israel’s war in Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
US incidents in recent months include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Muslim girl in Texas, the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Muslim boy in Illinois, the stabbing of a Muslim man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, threats of violence against Jews at Cornell University that led to a conviction and sentencing, and an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York City Jewish center.