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  • Biden says during press conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow out


Biden says during press conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow out

US President Joe Biden talks about children dying from gun violence as he speaks at a news conference on July 11, 2024, on the final day of the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
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Biden says during press conference he’s going to ‘complete the job’ despite calls to bow out

  • Biden holds highly anticipated news conference to deliver forceful defense of foreign and domestic policies
  • Insists his support among the electorate was strong and he would stay in the race and would win
Updated 12 July 2024
AFP

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden used his highly anticipated news conference Thursday to deliver a forceful defense of his foreign and domestic policies, and batted away questions about his ability to serve another four years even as he flubbed a reference to Donald Trump in one of his first answers.
“I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to complete the job I started,” Biden said as he insisted his support among the electorate was strong and he would stay in the race and would win.
Fumbles notwithstanding, the president pushed back at every suggestion that was slowing down or showing noticeable signs of decline, or that he was not in command of the job. But he was facing a growing chorus of calls from lawmakers, celebrities and other prominent Democrats to step aside from the 2024 race.
“My schedule has been full bore,” he declared. “So if I slow down and I cant get the job done, that’s a sign that I shouldn’t be doing it. But there’s no indication of that yet — none.”
Democrats are facing an intractable problem. Top donors, supporters and key lawmakers are doubtful of Biden’s abilities to carry on his reelection bid after his disastrous June 27 debate performance, but the hard-fighting 81-year-old president refuses to give up as he prepares to take on Trump in a rematch.
“I’m determined on running but I think it’s important that I allay fears — let them see me out there,” he said.
The first questioner of Biden’s press conference asked about him losing support among many of his fellow Democrats and unionists, and asked about Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden was at first defiant, saying the “UAW endorsed me, but go ahead,” meaning the United Auto Workers. But then he mixed up Harris and Trump, saying, “I wouldn’t have picked Vice President Trump to be Vice President if she wasn’t qualified.”
Trump weighed in live on Biden’s news conference with a post on his social media network of a video clip of the president saying “Vice President Trump.”
Trump added sarcastically, “Great job, Joe!”
Most of the hourlong press conference was vintage Biden: He gave long answers on foreign policy and told well-worn anecdotes. He used teleprompters for his opening remarks on NATO, which ran about eight minutes. Then the teleprompters lowered and he took a wide range of questions from 10 journalists about his mental acuity, foreign and domestic policy and — mostly — the future of his campaign.
“I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. I believe I’m the best qualitied to win,” Biden said, adding that he will stay in the race until his staff says, “There’s no way you can win.”
“No one’s saying that,” he said. “No poll says that.”

Earlier, Biden’s campaign laid out what it sees as its path to keeping the White House in a new memo, saying that winning the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan is the “clearest pathway” to victory. And it declared no other Democrat would do better against Trump.
“There is also no indication that anyone else would outperform the president vs. Trump,” said the memo from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez that was obtained by The Associated Press.
The memo sought to brush back “hypothetical polling of alternative nominees ” as unreliable and it said such surveys “do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter.”
Meanwhile, the campaign has been quietly surveying voters on Harris to determine how she’s viewed among the electorate, according to two people with knowledge of the campaign who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to talk about internal matters.
The people said the polling was not necessarily to show that she could be the nominee in Biden’s place, but rather to better understand how she’s viewed. The research came after Trump stepped up his attacks against Harris following the debate, according to another person familiar with the effort. The survey was first reported by The New York Times.
While Biden has expressed confidence in his chances, his campaign on Thursday acknowledged he is behind, and a growing number of the president’s aides in the White House and the campaign privately harbor doubts that he can turn things around.
But they’re taking their cues from Biden, expressing that he is in 100 percent unless and until he isn’t, and there appears to be no organized internal effort to persuade the president to step aside. His allies were well aware heading into the week there would be more calls for him to step down, and they were prepared for it.
But in announcing a compact that would bring together NATO countries to support Ukraine, Biden referred to the nation’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” to audible gasps in the room. He quickly returned to the microphone: “President Putin — he’s going to beat President Putin ... President Zelensky,” Biden said.
Then he said, “I’m so focused on beating Putin,” in an effort to explain the gaffe.
“I’m better,” Zelensky replied. “You’re a hell of a lot better,” Biden said back.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer invited Biden’s team to meet with senators privately at the lunch hour to discuss concerns and the path forward, but some senators groused they would prefer to hear from the president himself. In the Senate, only Peter Welch of Vermont has so far called for Biden to step out of the race.
The 90-minute conversation with the president’s team, which one person said included no new data, polling or game plan on how Biden would beat Trump, did not appear to change senators’ minds. The person was granted anonymity to discuss the closed door session.
The meeting was frank, angry at times and also somewhat painful, since many in the room know and love Biden, said one senator who requested anonymity to discuss the private briefing. Senators confronted the advisers over Biden’s performance at the debate and the effect on Senate races this year
One Democrat, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said afterward, “My belief is that the president can win, but he’s got to be able to go out and answer voters’ concerns. He’s got to be able to talk to voters directly over the next few day.”
At the same time, influential senators are standing strongly with Biden, leaving the party at an impasse.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, told the AP he thinks Biden “is going to win this election. I think he has a chance to win it big.”
Sanders said he has been publicly critical of the campaign, and said Biden needs to talk more about the future and his plans for the country. “As we come closer to Election Day, the choices are very clear,” he said.

Topics: US President Joe Biden

Bangladesh students call for nationwide civil disobedience

Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
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Bangladesh students call for nationwide civil disobedience

  • Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem last month that killed over 200 in some of the worst unrest of PM Hasina’s tenure
  • Troop deployments briefly restored order but crowds hit the streets in huge numbers after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority nation
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP

DHAKA: Student leaders rallied Bangladeshis on Saturday for a nationwide civil disobedience campaign as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government weathered a worsening backlash over a deadly police crackdown on protesters.
Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem last month that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Troop deployments briefly restored order but crowds hit the streets in huge numbers after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority nation, heeding a call by student leaders to press the government for more concessions.
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the initial protests, urged their compatriots to launch an all-out non-cooperation movement from Sunday.
“This includes non-payment of taxes and utility bills, strikes by government workers and a halt to overseas remittance payments through banks,” the group’s Asif Mahmud told AFP.
Mahmud’s fellow student leaders also said another round of nationwide rallies would be staged on Saturday.
“Please don’t stay at home. Join your nearest protest march,” Mahmud wrote on Facebook.
Students are demanding a public apology from Hasina for last month’s violence and the dismissal of several of her ministers.
They have also insisted that the government reopens schools and universities around the country, all of which were shuttered at the height of the unrest.
Crowds on the street have gone further, chanting demands for Hasina to leave office.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota scheme — since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court — that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.
The protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile Internet network for 11 days to restore order.
Foreign governments condemned the clampdown, with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week calling for an international probe into the “excessive and lethal force against protesters.”
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters last weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings.
At least 32 children were among those killed last month, the UN said Friday.

Topics: Bangladesh students protest Bangladesh Protests

Eight killed in Somalia beach attack, ambulance service says

Updated 52 min 27 sec ago
Reuters
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Eight killed in Somalia beach attack, ambulance service says

  • Videos posted on social media platform X showed bodies lying on the beach in the dark
Updated 52 min 27 sec ago
Reuters

MOGADISHU: At least eight people were killed and 28 others injured in an explosion on popular beach in the Somali capital Mogadishu late on Friday evening, an ambulance service said, an attack blamed by Somali state media on the militant Islamist group al Shabab.
Dr. Abdikadir Abdirahmman, director of Aamin ambulance, gave the casualty numbers, adding that the toll could rise.
State news agency SONNA said that in addition five attackers from Al-Shabab had been killed by security forces while a sixth had blown himself up during the assault.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility by the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab, which has claimed similar attacks in the past.
The explosion occurred while residents were swimming on Lido beach, former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said on his X account.
“The fact that the terrorist attack coincides with this night when the beach is the most congested shows the hostility of the terrorists to the Somali people,” he said.
Videos posted on X showed bodies lying on the beach in the dark, and people running to safety.
Al Shabab controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back in government counteroffensives since 2022. However, the militants remain capable of launching significant attacks on government, commercial, and military targets.

Topics: Somalia

US scraps plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
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US scraps plea deal with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

  • Deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices announced Wednesday had appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward resolution
  • But they sparked anger among some relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001, as well as criticism from leading Republican politicians
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP

WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday scrapped a plea agreement with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, just two days after the announcement of a deal that reportedly would have taken the death penalty off the table.
Deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices announced Wednesday had appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward resolution — but sparked anger among some relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001, as well as criticism from leading Republican politicians.
“I have determined that, in light of the significance of the decision to enter into pre-trial agreements with the accused... responsibility for such a decision should rest with me,” Austin said in a memorandum addressed to Susan Escallier, who oversaw the case.
“I hereby withdraw from the three pre-trial agreements that you signed on July 31, 2024 in the above-referenced case,” the memo said.
The cases against the 9/11 defendants have been bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings for years, while the accused remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.
The New York Times reported this week that Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Al-Hawsawi had agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence, instead of facing a trial that could lead to their executions.
Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men’s cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone methodical torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11.
The plea agreements would have avoided that thorny issue, but they also sparked sharp criticism from political opponents of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Republican lawmaker Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Austin that said the deals were “unconscionable,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson said they were a “slap in the face” to the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the September 11 attacks.
And Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, described the agreements as a “sweetheart deal with 9/11 terrorists,” saying during a campaign rally: “We need a president who kills terrorists, not negotiates with them.”
Mohammed was regarded as one of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden’s most trusted and intelligent lieutenants before his March 2003 capture in Pakistan. He then spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving at Guantanamo in 2006.
The trained engineer — who has said he masterminded the 9/11 attacks “from A to Z” — was involved in a string of major plots against the United States, where he had attended university.
Bin Attash, a Saudi of Yemeni origin, allegedly trained two of the hijackers who carried out the September 11 attacks, and his US interrogators also said he confessed to buying the explosives and recruiting members of the team that killed 17 sailors in an attack on the USS Cole.
After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, he took refuge in neighboring Pakistan and was captured there in 2003. He was then held in a network of secret CIA prisons.
Hawsawi is suspected of managing the financing for the 9/11 attacks. He was arrested in Pakistan on March 1, 2003, and was also held in secret prisons before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006.
The United States used Guantanamo, an isolated naval base, to hold militants captured during the “War on Terror” that followed the September 11 attacks in a bid to keep the defendants from claiming rights under US law.
The facility held roughly 800 prisoners at its peak, but they have since slowly been repatriated to other countries. Biden pledged before his election to try to shut down Guantanamo, but it remains open.

Topics: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 9/11 mastermind

Venezuela set for new protests after Maduro win ratified

Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
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Venezuela set for new protests after Maduro win ratified

  • Venezuela's election authority, which is loyal to Maduro, on Friday proclaimed him the winner with 52 percent of the vote
  • The opposition has accused the election authority of hiding the true results showing Gonzalez Urrutia as the true winner
  • Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay and the US recognized opposition Urrutia as the true president-elect
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP

CARACAS: Venezuela braced for fresh protests Saturday, after President Nicolas Maduro’s disputed election victory was ratified — and a growing number of nations recognized his opposition rival as the true winner.
Both Maduro and the opposition, led by Maria Corina Machado and her presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, have called on their supporters to demonstrate this weekend, in the wake of Sunday’s controversial vote.
The South American country’s CNE election authority, which is loyal to Maduro, on Friday proclaimed him the winner with 52 percent of the vote and said Gonzalez Urrutia had garnered 43 percent of ballots.
But Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay recognized opposition Gonzalez Urrutia as the true president-elect, joining the United States and Peru in rejecting the official results.
For his part, the 61-year-old Maduro — who has reacted fiercely to criticism of his victory — described allegations of vote fraud as a “trap” orchestrated by Washington to justify “a coup.”
He also has threatened Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia, saying they “should be behind bars.”
Maduro has led the oil-rich, cash-poor country since 2013, presiding over a GDP drop of 80 percent that pushed more than seven million of once-wealthy Venezuela’s 30 million citizens to emigrate.
Experts blame economic mismanagement and US sanctions for the collapse.
Gonzalez Urrutia did not show up to a hearing at the Supreme Court after Maduro requested the tribunal investigate and certify the election result.
However, other opposition candidates summoned to the hearing called for a detailed vote count to be made public after Sunday’s vote, which was held amid widespread fear the vote would be rigged.
Voting records “are fundamental for transparency, they are fundamental for peace,” said Enrique Marquez, who also ran against Maduro as part of a smaller opposition group.
The opposition this week launched a website with copies of 84 percent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for Gonzalez Urrutia. The government claims these are forged.

Machado, who was barred from running herself, wrote in The Wall Street Journal that she was in hiding and “fearing for my life,” along with other opposition leaders.
She called on supporters to rally Saturday in cities across the country to “assert the truth” about the opposition’s victory.
“We have the evidence and the world already recognizes it,” Machado wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Maduro has called for daily mobilization, with “the mother of all marches to celebrate the victory of peace” on Saturday.
He accused the opposition of plotting attacks against security forces during their rallies.
The NGO Foro Penal reported 11 dead in protests Monday and Tuesday as angry Venezuelans took to the streets, saying their votes had been stolen. Machado said at least 20 people had been killed.
Authorities said more than 1,000 people were arrested in post-election protests.
That crackdown has sparked fear among opposition supporters.
“We have dead, wounded, detainees, missing people... People know it. They are afraid. They know they are going to find themselves facing armed people,” said Katiusca Camargo, an activist in the Petare slum in eastern Caracas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday there was “overwhelming evidence” that Gonzalez Urrutia had won the election.
Blinken spoke with Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia on Friday, expressing “his concern for their safety and well-being” and congratulating Gonzalez Urrutia “for receiving the most votes,” the State Department said.
In a joint statement, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico urged an “impartial verification” of the result, also calling for Caracas to publish voting data broken down by polling stations.
Maduro’s previous reelection, in 2018, was rejected by dozens of Latin American countries as well as the United States and European Union member states.
He enjoys loyalty from the military leadership, electoral bodies, courts and other state institutions, as well as the backing of Russia, China and Cuba.
 

Topics: Venezuela election Nicolas Maduro Edmundo González

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UAW leader says Trump would send the labor movement into reverse if he’s elected again

Updated 03 August 2024
AP
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UAW leader says Trump would send the labor movement into reverse if he’s elected again

  • In an interview, UAW president Shawn Fain said Trump is beholden to billionaires and knows nothing about the auto industry
  • The UAW on Wednesday announced its support for Kamala Harris, saying she “understands the issues" and "is a very strong person"
Updated 03 August 2024
AP

DETROIT: Putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket increases the Democrats’ chance of winning Michigan and keeping the White House in November, the head of the United Auto Workers union says.
In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Shawn Fain said former President Donald Trump is beholden to billionaires, knows nothing about the auto industry and would send the labor movement into reverse if he’s elected again.
“Trump has never supported working class people. He has never supported unions,” Fain said. “But he sure as hell was trying to pander for our votes now.”
Fain has become a top nemesis of the Republican presidential nominee, who frequently rails against him at rallies and in speeches. Trump has called him an idiot, courting autoworkers’ votes by saying Fain is putting their jobs at risk by embracing a move to electric vehicles.
Although the UAW has members across the nation, many auto-making jobs are concentrated in the Great Lakers region and Michigan, a key swing state that could decide the presidential race in November. This week, the UAW endorsed Harris.
Trump and Harris realize that increasing their share of union votes gives them a much better chance of taking Michigan, where the last two presidential elections have been close, said Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University who follows labor issues.
Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton, and then lost the state four years later by nearly 154,000 votes to President Joe Biden.

 

Appealing to autoworkers helps to get votes from other union members, and union membership is high in the state at about 556,000, Masters said. That doesn’t include thousands of family members and union retirees, he said. Any swing in those votes would be consequential in the race.
During his acceptance speech at the Republican convention last month, Trump called on union workers to fire Fain, using false statements that Chinese auto companies are building factories in Mexico to ship vehicles to the US without tariffs. Industry analysts say they aren’t aware of any such plants under construction, at least not yet.
“You probably have to get rid of this fool, this stupid idiot representing the United Auto Workers,” Trump said at a July 20 rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Trump claimed that he’ll get 95 percent of the UAW vote because Fain is pushing electric vehicles. “They’re going to be made in China,” he said.
He also pledged to bring the auto industry back from obliteration if he’s elected.
But the industry is far from obliteration. Since Biden took office in January 2021, employment making cars and parts has grown 13.8 percent to just over 1 million people, according to the Labor Department. Detroit automakers General Motors, Ford and Stellantis have made billions in annual profits.
Fain dismissed the insults as typical Trump behavior. “All the man does his name call, label people. He never has solutions,” Fain said. “That’s the problem in leadership. You need to find solutions.”
The move from internal combustion vehicles to those powered by electricity is inevitable, Fain said, and union members need to be ready for it. During the transition, auto companies are still making gasoline vehicles and keeping factory workers employed, he said.
Trump, he said, did nothing for autoworkers when General Motors closed its small-car assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in 2019. Biden, who last month announced he would drop out of the race and support Harris, helped to get GM to build an electric vehicle battery plant in the Lordstown area, replacing some of the lost jobs, Fain said.
On Friday, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee said Harris has secured enough votes from delegates to become her party’s nominee.
Fain said he’s confident that Harris will remain an advocate for working people, citing her trip to walk picket lines with striking GM workers in 2019. “She was there with the president through a lot of things we’ve been through,” he said. “She’s been there for labor.”
Of candidates to become Harris’ vice presidential choice, the union prefers Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Fain said.
The union isn’t backing Arizona Senator Mark Kelly because he has opposed a bill that would boost union organizing, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro favors school vouchers, which would take send tax dollars to private schools and hurt public schools, Fain said.
But even if Harris doesn’t pick one of the union’s favorites, the 370,000-member UAW would still put its political might behind her, Fain said.
“I think she’s a brilliant woman. A very strong person,” Fain said. “She understands the issues. I think Trump’s just all talk. That’s all he’s ever been. He’s a showman.”
In a statement, Trump’s campaign called Fain “a puppet for the Democrat party” who isn’t serving union laborers who are supporting Trump.
“Shawn Fain’s empty words don’t matter — President Trump will take action to fight for the American auto worker,” the statement said.
 

Topics: 2024 US Elections United Auto Workers Donald Trump Kamala Harris

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