WASHINGTON: A group of Democratic governors say they are standing behind President Joe Biden amid increasing calls from some in their party for him to leave the presidential race.
Biden met for more than an hour at the White House in person and virtually with more than 20 governors from his party. The governors told reporters afterward that the conversation was “candid” and said they expressed concerns about Biden’s debate performance last week.
But they did not join other Democrats in urging him to leave the race.
“The president is our nominee. The president is our party leader,” said Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland. He added that, in the meeting, Biden “was very clear that he’s in this to win it.”
A defiant Biden vowed Wednesday to keep running for reelection, rejecting growing pressure from Democrats to withdraw after a disastrous debate performance raised questions about his readiness to keep campaigning, much less win in November.
But increasingly ominous signs were mounting for the president. Two Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to exit the race while a leading ally publicly suggested how the party might choose someone else. And senior aides said they believed he might only have a matter of days to show he was up to the challenge before anxiety in the party boils over.
“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running … no one’s pushing me out,” Biden said on a call with staffers from his reelection campaign. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”
Still, despite his efforts to pull multiple levers — whether it was his impromptu appearance with campaign aides, private conversations with senior lawmakers, a weekend blitz of travel and a network television interview — to salvage his faltering reelection, Biden was confronting serious and mounting indications that support for him was rapidly eroding on Capitol Hill and among other allies.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, told The New York Times that though he backs Biden as long as he is a candidate, this “is an opportunity to look elsewhere” and what Biden “needs to do is shoulder the responsibility for keeping that seat — and part of that responsibility is to get out of this race.”
Senior aides said they believe the 81-year-old Biden has just a matter of days to mount a convincing display of his fitness for office before his party’s panic over his debate performance and anger about his response boils over, according to two people with knowledge who insisted on anonymity to more freely discuss The president accepts the urgency of the task — having reviewed the polling and mountains of media coverage — but he is convinced he can do that in the coming days and insistent that he will not step out of the race, the aides said.
Meanwhile, a major Democratic donor, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, also called on the president to exit the race, saying, “Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous.” The statement was first reported by The New York Times.
And all that followed Rep. Jim Clyburn, a longtime Biden friend and confidant, saying he’d back a “mini-primary” in the run-up to the Democratic National Convention next month if Biden were to leave the race. The South Carolina Democrat floated an idea that appeared to be laying the groundwork for alternative choices by delegates during the Democrats’ planned virtual roll call that is scheduled before the more formal party convention set to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago.
On CNN, Clyburn said Vice President Kamala Harris, governors and others could join the competition: “It would be fair to everybody.”
Clyburn, a senior lawmaker who is a former member of his party’s House leadership team, said he has not personally seen the president act as he did on the debate stage last week and called it “concerning.”
And even as other Democratic allies have remained quiet since Thursday’s debate, there is a growing private frustration about the Biden campaign’s response to his disastrous debate performance at a crucial moment in the campaign — particularly in Biden waiting several days to do direct damage control with senior members of his own party.
One Democratic aide said the lacking response has been worse than the debate performance itself, saying lawmakers who support Biden want to see him directly combatting the concerns about his stamina in front of reporters and voters. The aide was granted anonymity to candidly discuss interparty dynamics.
Most Democratic lawmakers are taking a wait-and-see approach with Biden, though, holding out for a better idea of how the situation plays out through new polling and Biden’s scheduled ABC News interview, according to Democratic lawmakers who requested anonymity to speak bluntly about the president.
When Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who called on Biden to leave the race this week, shopped around his move for support from other Democratic lawmakers, he had no takers and eventually issued a statement on his own, according to a person familiar with the effort granted anonymity to discuss it.
Democratic governors say they are standing behind Biden amid questions about his shaky debate
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Democratic governors say they are standing behind Biden amid questions about his shaky debate
EU envoys near agreement on lower Russian oil price cap
BRUSSELS: European Union envoys are on the verge of agreeing an 18th package of sanctions against Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would include a lower price cap on Russian oil, four EU sources said after a Sunday meeting.
The sources said all the elements of the package had been agreed, although one member state still has a technical reservation on the new cap.
The sources — speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential talks — said they expect to reach a full agreement on Monday, ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels the following day that could formally approve the package.
The sources said they had also agreed to a dynamic price mechanism for the price cap. On Friday, the European Commission proposed a floating price cap on Russian oil of 15 percent below the average market price of crude in the previous three months.
One of the sources said the initial price would be around $47 a barrel based on the average price of Russian crude for the last 22 weeks minus 15 percent. Further, the price would be revised based on the average oil price every six months instead of the proposed three months.
Slovakia — which has held up the proposed package — is still seeking reassurances from the European Commission on its concerns about plans to phase out Russian gas supply but it has agreed to the new measures, the sources said.
Sanctions require unanimity among the EU’s member countries to be adopted.
The Group of Seven (G7) price cap, aimed at curbing Russia’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine, was originally agreed in December 2022. The European Union and Britain have been pushing the G7 to lower the cap for the last two months after a fall in oil futures made the current $60 a barrel level largely irrelevant.
The cap bans trade in Russian crude oil transported by tankers if the price paid was above $60 per barrel and prohibits shipping, insurance and re-insurance companies from handling cargoes of Russian crude around the globe, unless it is sold for less than the price cap.
The Commission proposed the package in early June, aimed at further cutting Moscow’s energy revenues, including a ban on transactions with Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines, and financial network that helps it circumvent sanctions.
Another one of the sources said the new package will list a Russian-owned refinery in India, two Chinese banks, and a flag registry. Russia has used flags of convenience for its shadow fleet of ships and oil tankers.
Emergency crews suspend search for flooding victims in central Texas
KERRVILLE: Emergency crews suspended their search for victims of catastrophic flooding in central Texas on Sunday morning amid new warnings that additional rain would again cause waterways to surge.
It was the first time a new round of severe weather has paused the search since the flooding earlier this month.
Ingram Fire Department officials ordered search crews to immediately evacuate the Guadalupe River corridor in Kerr County until further notice, warning the potential for a flash flood is high.
Search-and-rescue teams have been searching for missing victims of the July 4 weekend flooding that killed at least 129 people and left more than 170 missing.
As heavy rain fell Sunday, National Weather Service forecasters warned that the Guadalupe River could rise to nearly 15 feet by Sunday afternoon, about five feet above flood stage and enough to put the Highway 39 bridge near Hunt under water.
“Numerous secondary roads and bridges are flooded and very dangerous,” a weather service warning said.
The destructive, fast-moving waters rose 26 feet on the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before daybreak on July 4, washing away homes and vehicles. Ever since, searchers have used helicopters, boats and drones to look for victims and to rescue people stranded in trees and from camps isolated by washed-out roads.
More than 160 people still are believed to be missing, and at least 118 have died in the floods that laid waste to the Hill Country region of Texas. The riverbanks and hills of Kerr County are filled with vacation cabins, youth camps and campgrounds, including Camp Mystic, the century-old all-girls Christian summer camp.
French deal on New Caledonia ‘state’ hits early criticism
NOUMEA: An accord between France and New Caledonia, creating a state within a state and hailed by President Emmanuel Macron as “historic,” hit immediate fierce criticism in the Pacific territory on Sunday.
Following deadly protests that rocked New Caledonia last year, Macron called for talks to break a deadlock between forces loyal to France and those seeking independence.
After 10 days of negotiations near Paris, French officials and a delegation of 18 New Caledonian pro-independence and anti-independence representatives reached agreement on Saturday to create a “State of New Caledonia” within the French Republic.
The text, which still requires French parliamentary approval and to pass a referendum in the territory, provides for the creation of a Caledonian nationality and the sharing of powers. But it won few supporters in the archipelago.
The signatories of the draft agreement admitted during a meeting with Macron on Saturday evening that they were struggling to win over opponents of the deal that will be submitted to a referendum in February 2026.
Joel Kasarerhou, president of civil society group Construire Autrement, called the agreement “stillborn,” describing it as a “poor” replica of previous agreements and “lacking ambition and vision.”
Kasarerhou said the youth at the heart of the May 2024 uprising had been “forgotten or barely mentioned.” He feared another “May 13” — the date the 2024 riots began.
Home to around 270,000 people and located nearly 17,000 kilometers from Paris, New Caledonia is one of several overseas territories that remain an integral part of France.
It has been ruled from Paris since the 1800s, but many indigenous Kanaks resent France’s power over the islands and want more autonomy or independence.
France’s Macron announces plan to accelerate military spending
- The French president pledged to double the military budget by 2027 in response to a complex geopolitical moment
PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced a plan to push forward France’s defense spending, pledging to double the military budget by 2027 — three years earlier than originally planned — in response to a complex geopolitical moment.
France had aimed to double its defense budget from 2017 levels by 2030. However, Macron pledged to reach the target by 2027. A military budget that stood at 32 billion euros ($37.40 billion) in 2017 will rise to 64 billion euros by 2027, with an additional 3.5 billion euros allocated for next year and another 3 billion euros in 2027.
He said the accelerated spending, which comes as France is struggling to make 40 billion euros in savings in its 2026 budget, would be paid for by increased economic activity.
“Our military independence is inseparable from our financial independence,” he said. “This will be financed through more activity and more production.”
He said Prime Minister Francois Bayrou would provide more details in an address on his plans for the 2026 budget on Tuesday. Bayrou is facing an uphill battle to steer billions of euros worth of savings through a bitterly divided parliament, as France strives to lower its budget deficit to keep EU bean-counters and foreign investors at bay.
Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari dies in London
- Buhari, 82, who first led the country as a military ruler after a coup in the 1980s, earned a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics
LAGOS: Nigeria’s former President Muhammadu Buhari, who led Africa’s most populous country from 2015-23 and was the first Nigerian president to oust an incumbent through the ballot box, died in London on Sunday, a presidential spokesperson said.
“President Buhari died today in London at about 4:30 p.m. (1530 GMT), following a prolonged illness,” President Bola Tinubu’s spokesperson said in a post on X.
Buhari, 82, who first led the country as a military ruler after a coup in the 1980s, earned a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics.
He referred to himself as a “converted democrat” and swapped his military uniform for kaftans and prayer caps.
“I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody,” was a constant refrain Buhari told supporters and critics alike.
Buhari defeated Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 in what was judged to be Nigeria’s fairest election to date. Many hoped the retired major general would crack down on armed groups, just as he had as the country’s military head of state.
Instead, violence that had mostly been confined to the northeast spread. That left swathes of Nigeria outside the control of its stretched security forces as gunmen in the northwest, armed separatists and gangs in the southeast roamed unchecked.
Much of his appeal lay in the anti-corruption ethos that was a central plank of his agenda both as a military and civilian ruler. He said endemic corruption in Nigeria’s political culture was holding people back.
“Baba Go Slow”
But Buhari quickly disappointed after his 2015 win.
He took six months to name his cabinet. During that time, the oil-dependent economy was hobbled by low crude prices, prompting people to call him “Baba Go Slow.”
His second victory in 2019 came despite his first term being blighted by Nigeria’s first recession in a generation, militant attacks on oilfields, and repeated hospital stays.
Born on December 17, 1942, in Daura in the northwestern state of Katsina state, Buhari enrolled in the army at 19. He would eventually rise to the rank of major-general.
He seized power in 1983 as a military ruler, promising to revitalize a mismanaged country. Buhari took a tough line on everything from the conditions sought by the International Monetary Fund to unruliness in bus queues.
In 1984, his administration attempted to kidnap a former minister and vocal critic living in Britain. The plot failed when London airport officials opened the crate containing the abducted politician.
His first stint in power was short-lived. He was removed after only 18 months by another military officer, Ibrahim Babangida.
Buhari spent much of the following 30 years in fringe political parties and trying to run for president until his eventual victory over Jonathan in 2015.
