Biden urges Americans to ‘keep the faith’ as he spends final full day as president in South Carolina

Biden urges Americans to ‘keep the faith’ as he spends final full day as president in South Carolina
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Updated 20 January 2025
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Biden urges Americans to ‘keep the faith’ as he spends final full day as president in South Carolina

Biden urges Americans to ‘keep the faith’ as he spends final full day as president in South Carolina
  • “We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” Biden said. “We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in the better day to come”

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.: Joe Biden spent his final full day as president Sunday in South Carolina, urging Americans to “keep the faith in a better day to come” and reflecting on the impact of the civil rights movement in pushing him into politics.
On the eve of Monday’s inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden delivered a final farewell from a state that holds special meaning after his commanding win in its 2020 Democratic primary set him up to achieve his life’s goal of being elected president of the United States.
Biden spoke to the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church about why he entered public service — Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were political heroes, he said — and he thanked South Carolina for its support: “I owe you big.” Monday is the federal holiday honoring King, the slain civil rights leader.
“We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing,” Biden said. “We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must always keep the faith in the better day to come.”
He added: “I’m not going anywhere” — and the congregation applauded.
Before the service, as hostages started to be released under a Middle East ceasefire that the US helped broker, Biden said “the guns in Gaza have gone silent.” The agreement to halt the fighting between Israel and Hamas was one he had outlined in May.
“Now it falls on the next administration to help implement this deal. I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days,” Biden said.
He noted that the three hostages released Sunday “appear to be in good health” and he offered some advice to Trump on maintaining the hard-won deal.
“Success is going to require persistence, and continuing support for our friends in the region and the belief in diplomacy backed by deterrence,” Biden said.
After Biden spoke on the ceasefire, he and first lady Jill Biden took their seats in the front pew at the church. At least several hundred congregants sang gospel songs, rising to their feet and swaying and clapping. A choir led the musical selections from behind the pulpit before the program later shifted to focus on King.
Biden was introduced by Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., a key ally who referred to the president as his “longtime friend.” Clyburn cited a number of presidents who were underappreciated during their time in office but are now looked on more fondly with the passage of time. He added Biden to that list.
“So I want to say to you, good friend, very little appreciation has been shown recently but faint not. History will be very proud of you,” Clyburn said.
The Bidens also will tour the International African American Museum in South Carolina. It was built on a waterfront site where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were brought to the US from the late 1760s through 1808, according to the museum’s website.
Back in 2020, Biden saw his campaign flounder after he lost the opening contests in New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada. But at the fourth stop, South Carolina — where Black voters make up a majority of the Democratic electorate — he was lifted to victory after Clyburn’s endorsement.
“I know Joe. We know Joe. But most importantly, Joe knows us,” Clyburn said at the time.
After winning election and taking office, Biden pushed for South Carolina to move to the head of the line and be the state that opened the Democratic Party’s nominating process for 2024, instead of New Hampshire. He easily won the state’s primary that year.
“In 2020, it was the voters of South Carolina who proved the pundits wrong, breathed new life into our campaign, and set us on the path to winning the presidency,” Biden said in a statement after winning the primary for the second time. “Now in 2024, the people of South Carolina have spoken again and I have no doubt that you have set us on the path to winning the Presidency again — and making Donald Trump a loser — again.”
It didn’t turn out that way. After faltering in a debate against Trump, Biden dropped out of the race under pressure from many Democrats, though Clyburn notably was not among them.
Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced him as the Democrats’ nominee. She lost to Trump.
Clyburn said Biden told him he wanted to visit the African American history museum, which Clyburn helped start. They were planning to spend some time together there.
“This is his way of saying ‘thank you,’” Clyburn said.


260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
Updated 14 February 2025
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260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated

260 foreigners rescued from virtual slavery in Myanmar’s online scam centers are being repatriated
  • Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts

BANGKOK: Some 260 people believed to have been trafficked and trapped into working in online scam centers are to be repatriated after they were rescued from Myanmar, Thailand’s army announced Thursday.
In a fresh crackdown on scam centers operating from Southeast Asia, the Thai army said it was coordinating an effort to repatriate some 260 people believed to have been victims of human trafficking after they were rescued and sent from Myanmar to Thailand.
Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which share borders with Thailand, have become known as havens for criminal syndicates who are estimated to have forced hundreds of thousands of people in Southeast Asia and elsewhere into helping run online scams including false romantic ploys, bogus investment pitches and illegal gambling schemes.
Such scams have extracted tens of billions of dollars from victims around the world, according to UN experts, while the people recruited to carry them out have often been tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses and trapped in virtual slavery.
An earlier crackdown on scam centers in Myanmar was initiated in late 2023 after China expressed embarrassment and concern over illegal casinos and scam operations in Myanmar’s northern Shan state along its border. Ethnic guerrilla groups with close ties to Beijing shut down many operations, and an estimated 45,000 Chinese nationals suspected of involvement were repatriated.
The army said that those rescued in the most recent operation came from 20 nationalities — with significant numbers from Ethiopia, Kenya, the Philippines, Malaysia, Pakistan and China. There were also nationals of Indonesia, Nepal, Taiwan, Uganda, Laos, Brazil, Burundi, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana and India. They were sent across the border from Myanmar’s Myawaddy district to Thailand’s Tak province on Wednesday.
Reports in Thai media said a Myanmar ethnic militia that controls the area where they were held, the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, was responsible for freeing the workers and taking them to the border. Myanmar’s military government exercises little control over frontier areas where ethnic minorities predominate.
Several ethnic militias are believed to be involved in criminal activities, including drug trafficking and protecting call-center scam operations.
The Thai army statement said the rescued people will undergo questioning, and if determined to be victims of human trafficking, will enter a process of protection while waiting to be sent back to their countries.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who is also defense minister, said Wednesday that there might be many more scam workers waiting to be repatriated from Myanmar through Thailand, but that Thailand would only receive those that are ready to be taken back right away by their country of origin.
“I’ve made it clear that Thailand is not going to set up another shelter,” he told reporters during a visit in Sa Kaeo province, which borders Cambodia. Thailand hosts nine refugee camps along the border holding more than 100,000 people, most from Myanmar’s ethnic Karen minority.
Phumtham added that Thailand would also need to question them before sending them back, first is to make sure that they are victims of human trafficking, and also to get information that would help the police investigate the trafficking and scam problems.
On a visit to China in early February, Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra vowed along with China’s leader Xi Jinping to crack down on the scam networks that plague Southeast Asia.
Many dramatic stories of Chinese people being lured to work in Bangkok only to be trafficked into a scam compound in Myanmar have surfaced. Chinese actor Wang Xing was a high-profile case but was quickly rescued after his tale spread on social media.
Underlining Beijing’s concern, Liu Zhongyi, China’s Vice Minister of Public Security and Commissioner of its Criminal Investigation Bureau, made an official visit to Thailand last month and inspected the border area opposite where many of the Myanmar’s scam centers are located.
Just ahead of Paetongtarn’s visit to China, the Thai government issued an order to cut off electricity, Internet and gas supplies to several areas in Myanmar along the border with northern Thailand, citing national security and severe damage that the country has suffered from scam operations.
Her government is considering expanding this measure to Thailand’s northeastern areas bordering Cambodia, said Thai Defense Ministry spokesperson Thanathip Sawangsang, who explained that officials had already removed Internet cables that were installed illegally in the areas.


Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
Updated 14 February 2025
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Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs

Judge orders US to restore funds for foreign aid programs
  • Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts

WASHINGTON: A federal judge ordered the administration of US President Donald Trump to restore funding for hundreds of foreign aid contractors who say they have been devastated by his 90-day blanket freeze, Politico reported late on Thursday.
The order blocks the Trump administration from canceling foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before Trump took office on January 20.
The stated purpose in suspending of all foreign aid was to provide the opportunity to review programs for their efficiency and consistency with priorities, US District Judge Amir Ali wrote in a filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
He added: “At least to date, defendants have not offered any explanation for why a blanket suspension of all congressionally appropriated foreign aid, which set off a shockwave and upended reliance interests for thousands of agreements with businesses, nonprofits, and organizations around the country, was a rational precursor to reviewing programs.”
Trump has attempted to dismantle government agencies and ordered them to prepare for wide-ranging job cuts, and several have already begun to lay off recent hires who lack full job security.
The Republican has also embarked on a massive government makeover, firing and sidelining hundreds of civil servants and top officials at agencies in his first steps toward downsizing the bureaucracy and installing more loyalists.


Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
Updated 14 February 2025
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Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue

Plane carrying Secretary of State Rubio to Europe turned around because of a mechanical issue
  • Rubio intended to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft

WASHINGTON: An Air Force plane carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jim Risch, to Germany for the Munich Security Conference was forced to return to Washington late Thursday after developing a mechanical issue.
“This evening, en route from Washington to Munich, the plane on which Secretary Rubio is flying experienced a mechanical issue,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said.
“The plane has turned around and is returning to Joint Base Andrews,” she said. “The secretary intends to continue his travel to Germany and the Middle East on a separate aircraft.”
The issue with what one official said had to do with the cockpit windshield on the C-32, a converted Boeing 757, occurred about 90 minutes after the flight took off from Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington.
Although Rubio plans to resume his journey on a new plane, it was not immediately clear if the delay would cause him to miss a scheduled Friday morning meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Munich.


Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks
Updated 14 February 2025
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Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks
  • The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center killed 166 people in November 2008
  • India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan denies being involved

WASHINGTON: The US has approved the extradition of a suspect in the 2008 militant attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai in which over 160 people were killed, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in which 166 people were killed began on November 26, 2008. India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan’s government denies being involved.
“I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and one of the very evil people of the world, having to do with the horrific 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to face justice in India. So he is going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump did not name the individual but media reports identified him as Pakistani-origin Chicago businessman and Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana.
Late last month, the US Supreme Court rejected Rana’s review petition against his extradition.
Rana was previously sentenced to US federal prison for providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Trump was also asked in the press conference about Sikh separatists in the United States, whom India calls security threats. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India.
Trump did not respond directly to the question but said India and the US worked together on crime.
Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer in a foiled US plot. India says it is probing US allegations.


Trump offers top-end jets, trade deal to India in Modi bromance

Trump offers top-end jets, trade deal to India in Modi bromance
Updated 14 February 2025
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Trump offers top-end jets, trade deal to India in Modi bromance

Trump offers top-end jets, trade deal to India in Modi bromance
  • Modi told Trump he’s determined to “Make India Great Again,” a play on the US president’s “Make America Great Again” catch phrase and movement
  • Trump said that he found a “special bond” with Modi, pledges extradition of one of the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday offered to sell state-of-the-art fighter jets to India as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed to ramp up trade, rekindling a bond that defies the new US administration’s punitive approach to much of the world.
Modi, only the fourth world leader to visit the White House since Trump’s return, described the fellow nationalist as a friend and told him he’s determined to “Make India Great Again,” or “MIGA,” a play on Trump’s “MAGA” or “Make America Great Again” catch phrase and movement.

Trump said that he found a “special bond” with Modi and India and, in an uncharacteristic if ironic show of humility, complimented Modi as being a “much tougher negotiator” than he is.
Successive US administrations have seen India as a key partner with like-minded interests in the face of a rising China, and Trump announced that the new administration was ready to sell one of the top US military prizes — F-35s.
“Starting this year, we’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars,” Trump told a joint news conference with Modi.
“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump said.

Trump, who has previously complained about Indian tariffs, agreed with Modi that the two countries would work together on a trade deal.
“In order to ensure India’s energy security, we will focus on trade in oil and gas,” Modi said, expecting a “mutually beneficial trade agreement” would come “very soon.”
Joining Trump’s meeting with Modi was SpaceX and Tesla tycoon Elon Musk, who has launched an aggressive effort as Trump’s right-hand man to overhaul the US bureaucracy.
Musk also held a one-on-one meeting with Modi earlier Thursday, in an encounter that drew questions over whether the world’s richest man was meeting the Indian premier in an official or a business capacity.
The Indian premier posted pictures of himself shaking hands with the beaming Musk, with several children on Musk’s side of the room, and Indian officials on the other.
Modi said later that he has known Musk since before he became prime minister.

US President Donald Trump meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 13, 2025. Also in the meeting were US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, billionaire Elon Musk, and US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, among others. (AFP)

Trump had earlier put the leader of the world’s most populous nation on notice over possible tariffs.
The meeting came hours after the US president announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries, including India — but New Delhi is hoping to avoid further levies that Trump says are needed to counter the US trade deficit.
“India, traditionally, is the highest, just about the highest tariff country. They charge more tariffs than any other country. And I mean, we’ll be talking about that,” Trump earlier told reporters.
“India is a very hard place to do business because of the tariffs.”
US officials said there had been “early body language” from India but there was a “lot more work to do.”
Modi offered quick tariff concessions ahead of his visit, with New Delhi slashing duties on high-end motorcycles — a boost to Harley-Davidson, the iconic US manufacturer whose struggles in India have irked Trump.

Trump also said he’d back extraditing one of the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, appeared to be referencing Tahawwur Hussain Rana who was convicted in 2011 in the US for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.
“He’s going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump said, latter adding that “we’re giving him back to India immediately.”
India has already accepted a US military flight carrying 100 shackled migrants last week as part of Trump’s immigration overhaul, and New Delhi has vowed its own “strong crackdown” on illegal migration.

Trump said more extraditions could be coming.

The Indian prime minister assiduously courted Trump during his first term.
The two share much in common, with both campaigning on promises to promote majority communities over minorities and both doggedly quashing dissent.
In 2020, Modi invited Trump before a cheering crowd of more than 100,000 people to inaugurate the world’s largest cricket stadium in his home state of Gujarat.
For the Trump administration, meanwhile, India is seen as integral to the US strategy of containing China in the Indo-Pacific. Modi’s country is hosting a summit of a group of countries known as the Quad — made up of the US, India, Japan and Australia — later this year.