HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: President Joe Biden urged his supporters to stay unified during a series of Sunday stops in critical Pennsylvania on Sunday, even as some leading congressional Democrats privately suggested it was time for him to abandon his reelection bid because of intensifying questions about whether he’s fit for another term.
Addressing a rousing church service in front of stained glass windows bathed in sunshine at Philadelphia’s Mount Airy Church of God in Christ, the 81-year-old Biden joked, “I know I look 40” but “I’ve been doing this a long time.”
“I, honest to God, have never been more optimistic about America’s future if we stick together,” he said.
There and during a subsequent rally with union members in Harrisburg, Biden offered short speeches that touched on familiar topics. But he also left plenty of room for key backers to discuss standing by him. In that way, the Pennsylvania swing seemed meant to showcase support for the president from key political quarters more than proving he’s up to four more years.
His party, though, remains deeply divided.
As Congress prepares to resume this week, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries convened top committee lawmakers Sunday afternoon to assess their views. Several Democratic committee leaders, including Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut and Rep. Mark Takano of California, said privately that Biden should step aside, according to two people familiar with the meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.
But other top Democrats, including members of the influential Congressional Black Caucus, argued just as forcefully that Biden remain the party’s choice. The conversation was wide ranging, with the committee leaders sharing various views on the situation, but there was no unanimity on what should be done, the people said.
Biden was personally calling lawmakers through the weekend. He also joined a call with campaign surrogates and reiterated that he has no plans to leave the race. Instead, the president pledged to campaign harder going forward and to step up his political travel, according to two people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
One Democrat the president spoke to, Sen. Alex Padilla of California, said he and others are pushing the Biden campaign to “let Joe be Joe, get him out there.”
“I absolutely believe we can turn it around,” Padilla told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, a person familiar with Sen. Mark Warner’s thinking said there will be no meeting on Monday to talk about Biden’s future, as had been previously discussed, and that those discussions will take place in Tuesday’s regular caucus luncheon with all Democratic senators. The person said a private meeting was no longer possible after it was made public that the Virginia Democrat was reaching out to senators about Biden, and that a variety of conversations among senators continue.
Five other, different Democratic lawmakers have already publicly called on Biden to abandon his reelection campaign ahead of November. Meeting this coming week in person means more chances for lawmakers to discuss concerns about Biden’s ability to withstand the remaining four months of the campaign — not to mention four more years in the White House — and true prospects of beating Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump.
Biden’s campaign team was also calling and texting lawmakers to try to head off more potential defections, while increasingly asking high-profile Biden supporters to speak out on his behalf..
Calls to bow out nonetheless popped up from different directions.
Alan Clendenin, a Tampa city councilman and member of the Democratic National Committee, on Sunday called for Biden to “step aside and allow Vice President Kamala Harris to carry forward his agenda as our Democratic nominee.” Director Rob Reiner, who has helped organize glitzy Hollywood fundraisers for Biden in the past, posted on X, “It’s time for Joe Biden to step down.”
The Democratic convention is fast approaching and Biden’s Friday interview with ABC has not convinced some who remain skeptical.
Democratic fundraising bundler Barry Goodman, a Michigan attorney, said he’s backing Biden but, should he step aside, he’d throw his support to Harris. That’s notable since Goodman was also a finance co-chairman for both of the statewide campaigns of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has also been mentioned as a top-of-the-ticket alternative.
“We don’t have much time,” Goodman said. “I don’t think the president gets out. But if he does, I think it would be Kamala.”
There was no such suggestion at Mount Airy, where Pastor Louis Felton likened the president to Joseph and the biblical story of his “coat of many colors.” In it, Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, only eventually to obtain a high place in the kingdom of the pharaoh and have his brothers beg him for assistance without initially recognizing him.
“Never count Joseph out,” Felton implored. Then, referring to Democrats who have called on Biden to step aside, he added, “That’s what’s going on, Mr. President. People are jealous of you. Jealous of your stick-to-itiveness, jealous of your favor. Jealous of God’s hand upon your life.”
Felton also led a prayer where he said, “Our president gets discouraged. But today, through your holy spirit, renew his mind, renew his spirt, renew his body.”
After the church service, Biden visited a campaign office in Philadelphia, where Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who won a tough 2022 race while recovering from a stroke, offered a forceful endorsement.
“There is only one guy that has ever beaten Trump,” Fetterman said. “And he is going to do it twice and put him down for good.”
Later stepping off Air Force One in Harrisburg, the president was asked if the Democratic Party was behind him and emphatically responded, “Yes.”
Joining him at the union event, Rep. Madeleine Dean, also a Pennsylvania Democrat, said that “democracy is on the line. There’s one man who understands it it’s Joe Biden.”
Isabel Afonso, who saw Biden speak in Harrisburg, said she was worried when she saw the president’s debate performance, but doesn’t think he should drop out of the race and that he can still win. “I know he is old, but I know if something happens to him, a reasonable person will replace him,” said Afonso, 63.
At the same event, 73-year-old James Johnson said he knew what it was like to forget things as he’s gotten older but called Biden “a fighter.” He said replacing the president at the top of the Democratic ticket would only cause confusion.
“I’m talking about lifelong Democrats and people that have been in the Democratic Party for a long time,” Johnson said. “They may just decide to jump ship, because of that.”
Still, others aren’t fully convinced.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told CNN that Biden “needs to answer those questions that voters have” while adding, “If he does that this week, I think he will be in a very good position.”
Biden has rejected undergoing independent cognitive testing, arguing that the everyday rigors of the presidency were proof enough of his mental acuity. Yet California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff told NBC on Sunday that he’d be “happy if both the president and Donald Trump took a cognitive test.”
As some Democrats have done, Schiff also seized on Biden suggesting during the ABC interview that losing to Trump would be acceptable “as long as I give it my all.”
“This is not just about whether he gave it the best college try,” Schiff said “but rather whether he made the right decision to run or to pass the torch.”
While Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania, some Democratic leaders in the House say he should step aside
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While Biden campaigns in Pennsylvania, some Democratic leaders in the House say he should step aside
- As Congress prepares to resume this week, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries convened top committee lawmakers Sunday afternoon to assess their views
Daesh claims responsibility for killing Chinese national in Afghanistan
- Daesh said it had targeted a vehicle carrying the Chinese citizen, which led to his death and damage to his vehicle
- China said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack and demanded the Afghan side thoroughly investigate the incident
KABUL: Daesh (Islamic State) has claimed responsibility for the killing of a Chinese national in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar province, it said in a post on its Telegram channel late on Wednesday.
Afghan police in the province had said on Wednesday that a Chinese citizen was murdered and a preliminary investigation had been launched, but it was not clear who was behind the attack.
Daesh said it had targeted a vehicle carrying the Chinese citizen, which led to his death and damage to his vehicle.
China’s foreign ministry said on Thursday it was “deeply shocked” by the attack and had demanded that the Afghan side thoroughly investigate the incident and severely punish the perpetrators.
“We urge the Afghan interim government to take resolute and effective measures to ensure the security of Chinese civil institutions and projects in Afghanistan,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a regular press briefing.
China was the first country to appoint an ambassador to Afghanistan under the Taliban and has said it wants to boost trade and investment ties.
The Taliban took over in 2021, vowing to restore security to the war-torn nation.
Attacks have continued, including an assault in 2022 on a Kabul hotel popular with Chinese investors. Daesh has claimed responsibility for many of them.
NATO allies must pay ‘fair share’ before adding members: US envoy
- NATO allies must pay their “fair share” on defense before considering enlarging the alliance, a US presidential envoy said Thursday, as NATO’s chief said members will need to ramp up defense spending
DAVOS: NATO allies must pay their “fair share” on defense before considering enlarging the alliance, a US presidential envoy said Thursday, as NATO’s chief said members will need to ramp up defense spending.
“You cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren’t paying their fair share, and that includes the Dutch who need to step up,” US envoy Richard Grenell said by video link at an event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in response to NATO chief Mark Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister.
“We have collectively to move up and we will decide on the exact number later this year, but it will be considerably more than two (percent),” Rutte said, referring to the alliance’s target of defense spending of two percent of GDP.
Balkan air pollution crisis threatens public health, EU membership goals
- Old coal plants, cars keep Balkan pollution high
- Economic hardship hinders progress toward reducing emissions
OBILIC: For 30 years, Shemsi Gara operated a giant digger in a Kosovo coal mine, churning up toxic dust that covered his face and got into his airways. Home life wasn’t much better: the power plants that the mine supplies constantly spew fumes over his village.
Gara died on Sunday aged 55 after three years of treatment failed to contain his lung cancer. In his final days, unable to walk, he lay on a couch at home, gaunt and in pain, as a machine pumped oxygen into his dying body.
“I kept telling him I wanted to help, but I couldn’t,” said his wife Xhejlane, who mourned in her living room with friends on Wednesday. “He would say ‘Only God knows the pain I have’.”
As much of the world moves to reduce the use of fossil fuels, pollution in Western Balkan countries remains stubbornly high due to household heating, outdated coal plants, old cars, and a lack of money to tackle the problem.
Relatively small cities such as Serbia’s capital Belgrade and Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo have frequently topped daily global pollution charts, according to websites that track air quality worldwide.
This has costly health impacts, and could also jeopardize such countries’ prospects of joining the European Union, which has stricter emissions standards.
“There are no resources in the region for the reduction of air pollution,” said Mirko Popovic, a director with the Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute think-tank in Belgrade.
In the EU, net greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by about 40 percent since 1990, driven by the embrace of renewable energy, a European Commission report said in November.
Western Balkan nations have pledged to reduce carbon emissions but economic hardship has slowed progress.
Kosovo, one of Europe’s poorest countries, generates more than 90 percent of its power from coal. The World Bank estimates that a transition to a coal-free economy will cost 4.5 billion euros.
SMOG
The impact of pollution is clear across the region, especially in winter.
Smog has cloaked Belgrade this week, while Sarajevo sits in a valley that acts as a pollution trap. The Bosnian capital’s air quality was classed as “hazardous” on Tuesday, the worst in the world, according to IQAir, which tracks pollution levels.
In North Macedonia’s capital Skopje, mask-wearing locals often lose sight of nearby snow-capped mountains for days.
The rate of deaths attributable to ambient pollution is relatively high — 114 per 100,000 people in Bosnia and around 100 in Serbia and Montenegro, World Health Organization data show, compared with just 45 in Germany and 29 in France.
Gara was buried on Monday in a cemetery in Obilic, outside Kosovo’s capital Pristina. From the graveside, mourners could hear the chug of a nearby conveyor belt transporting coal from the mine to the power plants.
Gara’s doctor, Haki Jashari, blamed Gara’s cancer on his years at the coal mine, and on the polluting power plants.
Cancer rates more than doubled in Obilic over the last two years, Jashari said — the result, he added, of a generation of exposure to pollutants. He expects it will get worse.
Kosovo’s energy ministry told Reuters it was committed to reducing emissions and was investing in renewable energy projects and upgrading existing plants.
Jashari only wishes more could have been done sooner.
“They would have shut the plants down if we were part of the EU. It is unacceptable.”
India says 'open' to return of undocumented immigrants in US
- India was working with the Trump administration on the deportation of around 18,000 Indians
Washington: India is prepared to take back its citizens residing illegally in the United States, foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has said after meeting the top diplomat of President Donald Trump’s new administration.
Jaishankar’s remarks came after a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Tuesday a day after Trump’s inauguration.
Trump issued a raft of executive orders this week that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration and expedite his goal of deporting millions of immigrants.
Jaishankar said New Delhi was open to taking back undocumented Indians and was in the process of verifying those in the United States who could be deported to India.
“We want Indian talent and Indian skills to have the maximum opportunity at the global level. At the same time, we are also very firmly opposed to illegal mobility and illegal migration,” Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters in Washington on Wednesday.
“So, with every country, and the US is no exception, we have always taken the view that if any of our citizens are here illegally, and if we are sure that they are our citizens, we have always been open to their legitimate return to India.”
Jaishankar was responding to a query on news reports that India was working with the Trump administration on the deportation of around 18,000 Indians who are either undocumented, or have overstayed their visas.
Rubio had “emphasized the Trump administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a readout after Tuesday’s meeting.
India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and enjoys world-beating GDP growth, but hundreds of thousands of its citizens still leave the country each year seeking better opportunities abroad.
While its diaspora spans the globe, the United States remains the destination of choice.
The most recent US census showed its Indian-origin population had grown by 50 percent to 4.8 million in the decade to 2020, while more than a third of the nearly 1.3 million Indian students studying abroad in 2022 were in the United States.
As Trump declares ‘Gulf of America,’ US enters name wars
- “In claiming the right to force others to use the name of his choosing, Trump is asserting a sort of sovereignty over an international body of water,” Gerry Kearns, a professor of geography at Maynooth University in Ireland
WASHINGTON: For years, as disputes over names on the map riled up nationalist passions in several parts of the world, US policymakers have watched warily, trying to stay out or to quietly encourage peace.
Suddenly, the United States has gone from a reluctant arbiter to a nomenclature belligerent, as President Donald Trump declared that the Gulf of Mexico will henceforth be called the “Gulf of America.”
In an executive order signed hours after he returned to the White House, Trump called the water body an “indelible part of America” critical to US oil production and fishing and “a favorite destination for American tourism and recreation activities.”
The term Gulf of America was soon used by the US Coast Guard in a press release on enforcing Trump’s new crackdown on migrants, as well as Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, when discussing a winter storm.
Deep-sea ecologist Andrew Thaler said Trump’s declaration was “very silly” and would likely be ignored by maritime professionals.
A president has the authority to rename sites within the United States — as Trump also did.
“The Gulf of Mexico, however, is a body of water that borders several countries and includes pockets of high seas,” said Thaler, founder of Blackbeard Biologic Science and Environmental Advisers.
“There really isn’t any precedent for a US president renaming international geologic and oceanographic features. Any attempt to rename the entire Gulf of Mexico would be entirely symbolic,” he said.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has cheekily suggested calling the United States “Mexican America,” pointing to a map from well before Washington seized one-third of her country in 1848.
“For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico,” she said Tuesday.
The International Hydrographic Organization, set up a century ago, works to survey the world’s seas and oceans and is the closest to an authority on harmonizing names for international waters.
The United Nations also has an expert group on geographical names, which opens its next meeting on April 28.
Martin H. Levinson, president emeritus of the Institute of General Semantics, said it was unknown how much political capital Trump would invest in seeking name recognition by other countries.
“Does he really want to strong-arm them for something as minor as this?” Levinson asked.
“I think the political benefit is to the domestic audience that he’s playing to — saying we’re patriotic, this is our country, we’re not going to let the name be subsumed by other countries,” he said.
He doubted that other countries would change the name but said it was possible Google Earth — a more ready reference to laypeople — could list an alternative name, as it has in other disputes.
Among the most heated disputes, South Korea has long resented calling the body of water to its east the Sea of Japan and has advocated for it to be called the East Sea.
The United States, an ally of both countries, has kept Sea of Japan but Korean-Americans have pushed at the local level for school textbooks to say East Sea.
In the Middle East, Trump in his last term angered Iranians by publicly using the term Arabian Gulf for the oil-rich water body historically known as the Arabian Gulf but which Arab nationalists have sought to rename.
The United States has also advocated maintaining a 2018 deal where Greece agreed for its northern neighbor to change its name to North Macedonia from Macedonia, but Athens ulitmately rejected due to historical associations with Alexander the Great.
Gerry Kearns, a professor of geography at Maynooth University in Ireland, said that Trump’s move was part of the “geopolitics of spectacle” but also showed his ideological bent.
With Trump also threatening to take the Panama Canal and Greenland, Trump is seeking to project a new type of Monroe Doctrine, the 1823 declaration by the United States that it would dominate the Western Hemisphere, Kearns said.
“Names work because they are shared; we know we are talking about the same thing,” he wrote in an essay.
“In claiming the right to force others to use the name of his choosing, Trump is asserting a sort of sovereignty over an international body of water.”
