WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden faced more calls from fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid on Friday, following a news conference in which he delivered nuanced responses but occasionally stumbled over his words.
It was unclear whether Biden’s performance would convince doubters in his party that he is their best bet to defeat Republican Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 election and serve another four-year term in the White House.
At least 17 congressional Democrats so far have called for him to drop out and allow the party to pick another standard-bearer, including some who announced their positions after the news conference on Thursday night.
Democrats are worried that Biden’s low public approval ratings and growing concerns that he is too old for the job could cause them to lose seats in the House and Senate, leaving them with no grip on power in Washington should Trump win the White House.
But Biden made clear that he did not plan to step aside.
“If I show up at the convention and everybody says they want someone else, that’s the democratic process,” Biden said, before shifting to the stage whisper he often uses for emphasis to add, “It’s not gonna happen.”
Biden perhaps did not reassure those who were spooked by his poor presidential debate performance against Trump on June 27.
At one point, he referred to his vice president, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump.” That came just hours after he introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” at the NATO summit, drawing gasps from those in the room.
Biden occasionally garbled his responses at the news conference, yet he also delivered detailed assessments of global issues, including Ukraine’s war with Russia and the Israel-Gaza conflict, that served as a reminder of his decades of experience on the world stage.
Some Democrats were not reassured.
“We must put forward the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism. I no longer believe that is Joe Biden,” said Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, who called on the president to end his campaign after the news conference.
But one influential party figure, Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, reiterated his support on Friday morning.
“I am all in. I’m riding with Biden no matter which direction he goes,” he said on NBC’s “Today” program.
A senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity called the performance the “worst of all worlds. Not good. But not bad enough to make him change his mind ... It’ll give some enough cover to back him publicly, only to say he’s not up for it privately.”
Fundraiser Dmitri Melhorn said other donors told him they saw a strong performance from the president. “This is the person who can beat Trump. The mistakes are baked in and the upside is strong,” he told Reuters.
Biden will hold a rally on Friday in Detroit, where his campaign says he will focus on the “dangers” of Trump’s agenda.
The Michigan city is also headquarters of the United Auto Workers labor union, whose leaders endorsed Biden but now are assessing their options, three sources told Reuters.
With most US voters firmly divided into ideological camps, opinion polls show the race remains close.
An NBC/PBS poll released on Friday found Biden leading Trump 50 percent to 48 percent, a slight increase from his position before the debate. Biden fared slightly worse than Trump when third-party candidates were included in the questioning.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week found Biden and Trump tied at 40 percent each. But some nonpartisan analysts have warned that Biden is losing ground in the handful of competitive states that will determine the outcome of the election.
Biden faces more pressure from Democrats to abandon re-election bid
https://arab.news/bnsf5
Biden faces more pressure from Democrats to abandon re-election bid
- It was unclear whether Biden’s performance would convince doubters in his party that he is their best bet to defeat Republican Donald Trump
- At least 17 congressional Democrats so far have called for him to drop out
Bangladesh imposes indefinite curfew, cuts off internet as fresh protests roil Dhaka
- More than 50 people killed, scores injured in new round of clashes
- Student leaders are calling on peers to gather in Dhaka on Monday
DHAKA: The Bangladesh military was deployed to the streets to impose an indefinite nationwide curfew on Sunday as protesters clashed with authorities amid a new wave of demonstrations demanding the prime minister’s resignation, which comes weeks after a deadly crackdown.
Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters took to the streets of Dhaka on Saturday and Sunday, as student leaders launched a nationwide civil disobedience campaign to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The fresh protests came after earlier demonstrations in July, which began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs, escalated into violence.
Those nationwide campus rallies were attacked by pro-government groups, leading to clashes with security forces, a week-long communications blackout, a curfew, and more than 200 deaths.
After demonstrators returned to the streets in what appeared to be the biggest numbers yet, Bangladesh’s Interior Ministry said an indefinite nationwide curfew would start at 6 p.m. on Sunday, while internet services were again shut down.
More than 50 people were killed and scores were injured in the new round of clashes, according to the country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo newspaper, as police fired tear gas and lobbed stun grenades to disperse the tens of thousands of protesters.
Students Against Discrimination, one of the main groups behind the initial protests, has called on “students from all over the country to travel to Dhaka” on Monday.
“The time has come to make the final signature of this student citizen uprising. Come to Dhaka to be a part of history,” Asif Mahmud, a coordinator of the group, said in a statement issued after the curfew was announced.
“Students will create a new Bangladesh.”
While the Supreme Court eventually scrapped most of the quota to open civil service positions to candidates based on merit, the government’s response to the demonstrations last month and the arrest of thousands of people have turned the student-led protests into a public movement, with more groups joining in the last few days, including teachers and TV stars.
“The current situation is best described as a massive popular uprising. It enjoys support from the whole nation, except a few beneficiaries of the regime,” Salimullah Khan, political analyst and professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, told Arab News.
“Repressive measures are solely responsible for these mass murders and crimes against humanity. The true conclusion is in the immediate exit of the regime. Dithering will only cost more lives.”
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election boycotted by her main opponents, including the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
“The BNP resolutely supports the students’ demands and pledges and stands by them unwaveringly,” Mohammed Nawshad Zamir, BNP international secretary, told Arab News.
“Therefore, we must persist in our street demonstrations until the illegitimate regime of Sheikh Hasina is ousted and a national government of consensus is established.”
Hasina’s party, the ruling Awami League, said the student-led movement has been “politicized.”
Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, an Awami League parliamentarian, told Arab News: “It’s a conspiracy to destroy the country. With the current situation, it has been proved now.
“Our law enforcers are still showing maximum tolerance to the protesters. But they have to understand, it doesn’t mean we are weak.”
Yet efforts to suppress the civil movement in Bangladesh, which included “random and disproportionate use of force by the law-enforcing agencies,” were at a scale “never seen before,” said Dr. Iftekharuzzaman, executive director at Transparency International Bangladesh.
“It’s quite ominous. Unfortunately, we see there is no way out of this situation or light at the end of the tunnel because the use of force to manage the crisis continues,” he told Arab News.
“Authorities ignored the power of the students’ movement, and on the other hand, authorities considered themselves invincible … They failed to realize that the students’ movement is invincible here in the history of Bangladesh.”
Philippines, Germany commit to finalizing defense deal amid tensions in South China Sea
- Boris Pistorius’ visit to the Philippines was the first by a German defense minister
- Manila, Berlin are deepening ties days after US announced defense aid boost
MANILA: The Philippines and Germany committed on Sunday to finalizing a defense cooperation agreement this year, saying they strongly opposed expansive claims in the South China Sea amid continued tensions with Beijing in the disputed waters.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was in Manila to meet with his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro Jr. to enhance ties between their countries, which are celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations.
They agreed to establish long-term relations between their armed forces to expand training and bilateral exchanges, explore opportunities to expand armaments partnerships and engage in joint projects.
In a joint statement, the ministers said they “strongly opposed any unilateral attempt to advance expansive claims, especially through force or coercion,” alluding to recent incidents in the South China Sea.
The Philippines and China have overlapping claims in the strategic waters along with a few other countries, but maritime confrontations between China Coast Guard ships and Philippine vessels have increased in recent months.
In June, Manila said the China Coast Guard rammed and boarded Philippine naval vessels during their resupply mission on the Second Thomas Shoal, part of the contested waters that has become a central flashpoint between the two countries.
“There is only one cause of conflict in the South China Sea … It is China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most, if not all, of the South China Sea as their internal waters,” Teodoro said during a press conference.
“The Philippines is not provoking China. We do not seek war, yet we are mandated not only by our constitution but as an obligation to our countrymen to protect whatever areas, whether be jurisdiction or rights, that rightfully belong to the exclusive benefit of Filipinos.”
Manila and Berlin took measures to deepen their military ties just days after the US announced $500 million in military funding to modernize the Philippine army, an ongoing effort that will also see Manila “looking to engage Germany as a possible supplier,” Teodoro said.
“These are in the command and control, anti-access aerial denial, maritime domain, aerial domain and in higher technologically capable equipment,” he added.
Pistorius, whose visit on Sunday was the first such trip by a German defense minister, underscored his country’s support for the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which said that Beijing’s claims had no legal basis.
The decision, which was based on the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, was rejected by China.
“This ruling remains valid without any exceptions. It is our obligation to strengthen the maritime order, and we are living up to it,” Pistorius said, adding that countries must contribute to de-escalation efforts by keeping “all channels of communication open,” including with China.
“It is important that we support and protect the rules-based international order in what we’re doing here. Our commitments and engagements here are not directed against anybody but instead, we’re focusing on maintaining the rules-based international order, securing freedom of navigation and protecting trade routes.”
For Manila, stronger defense ties with Germany are “important as a symbol of the Philippines’ growing security network” at the global level, said retired US Air Force Col. Raymond Powell, a director at Sealight, a project based in Stanford University that focuses on maritime transparency.
“It carries fewer material benefits than its relationships with established Indo-Pacific powers like the US, Japan and France, but it is important (in) showing the Philippines as an integral member of a strong global community with significant economic resources and military capabilities,” Powell told Arab News.
Aaron Jed Rabena, a senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, said strengthening relations with Germany was a strategic move for Manila.
“This is part of the Philippines’ strategy to broaden its web of security partners and get as much defense and political support from them as possible,” he told Arab News.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany will soon take part in military exercises and even talk of a VFA (visiting forces agreement) with the Philippines.”
Violence in Bangladesh leaves many people dead, hundreds injured as protests continue
- Demonstrators demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over July protests that killed over 200
- At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks across the country in student-led protests
DHAKA: A new round of violence in Bangladesh has left more than 20 people dead and hundreds injured as student protesters clashed with police and ruling party activists on Sunday, officials and media reports said.
The demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead.
Authorities in response closed schools and universities across the country, blocked Internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Protesters called for “non-cooperation,” urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.
The protesters attacked Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, a major public hospital in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area, torching several vehicles.
In Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who blocked a major highway. Protesters attacked homes and vandalized a community welfare office in the area, where hundreds of ruling party activists took up positions. Some crude bombs were detonated and gunshots were heard, witnesses said.
Abu Hena, a hospital official in Munshiganj district near Dhaka, said two people were declared dead after being rushed to a hospital with injuries.
Jamuna TV station reported another 21 deaths in 11 districts including in Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
The country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily said at least 18 people died in Sunday’s violence, but more reports of violence were coming. Channel 24 TV station reported at least 21 deaths.
Users complained of disruptions in mobile Internet service on Sunday afternoon and many others faced problems accessing Facebook.
The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. As violence crested, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to 5 percent of jobs, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans, but protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
The quota system also includes quotas members of ethnic minorities, and disabled and transgender people, which were cut from 26 percent to 2 percent in the ruling.
Hasina’s administration has blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and now-banned right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and their student wings for instigating violence, in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalized.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to step down to stop the chaos.
Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation.
Hasina repeated her pledges to thoroughly investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said that her doors were open for talks and she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for over 15 years, returning to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by her main opponents.
UK police warn far-right fueled street violence affects resources needed to investigate other crimes
UK police warn far-right fueled street violence affects resources needed to investigate other crimes
LONDON: Police warned Sunday that efforts to deal with the violence that has erupted across towns and cities in recent days in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and several wounded means that other crimes may not be investigated fully.
The warning comes a day after dozens of people were arrested as far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the UK, with violent scenes played out in many locations across the UK, from the Northern Ireland capital, Belfast, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Further arrests are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage.
In just one incident on Saturday, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder in Liverpool, which saw a community facility being set on fire. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage to the ground floor. Police said rioters tried to prevent firefighters from accessing the fire, throwing a missile at the fire engine and breaking the rear window of the cab.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said the attack was not just on the building but “on our very community” and “an insult to those families still grieving and survivors still struggling to make sense of Monday’s attack.”
Further gatherings are scheduled Sunday and police will continue to mount a significant security operation, deploying thousands more officers onto the streets, many in riot gear. Police have also made more prison cells available and are using surveillance and facial recognition technology.
“We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing,” Tiffany Lynch from the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.”
The violence erupted earlier this week, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested.
False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the UK, but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation.
Police said many of the actions are being organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilizing support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.” Counter-protests are also anticipated with the organization Stand Up To Racism.
Calls for protests have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence.
The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the UK last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.
Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform UK, has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.”
Far-right demonstrators have held several violent gatherings since the stabbing attack, clashing with police Tuesday outside a mosque in Southport — near the scene of the horrific stabbing — and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day. Many in Southport have expressed their anger at the organized acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy.
The attack Monday on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem, though mass stabbings are rare.
Rudakubana has been charged with murder over the attack that killed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He has also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were wounded.
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the mayhem. He said police across the UK would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.”
Policing minister Diana Johnson told the BBC that there is “no need” to bring in the army to help police in their efforts to confront the violence.
“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment,” she said.
Two migrants dead after rescue at sea: Italian coast guard
ROME: Italy’s coast guard said Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily.
The coast guard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants.
Search and rescue operations began after the coast guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement.
Although 34 people were recovered from the water, put onto the patrol boat and transferred to Syracuse’s port, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.
“The search at sea for a missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently under way,” it said.
The coast guard said it was investigating how the migrants ended in the water as the boat approached.
At least 384 migrants died in the first quarter of this year crossing by sea via the central Mediterranean route toward Italy and Malta, according to the International Organization for Migration.
