WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country’s democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Insisting that “the defense of democracy is more important than any title,” Biden used his first public address since his announcement Sunday that he was stepping aside to deliver an implicit repudiation of former President Donald Trump. He did not directly call out Trump, whom he has called an existential threat to democracy. The 10-minute address also gave Biden a chance to try to shape how history will remember his one and only term in office.
“Nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” Biden said. “And that includes personal ambition.”
It was a moment for the history books — a US president reflecting before the nation on why he was taking the rare step of voluntarily handing off power. It hasn’t been done since 1968, when Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek reelection in the heat of the Vietnam War.
“I revere this office,” Biden said. “But I love my country more.”
Trump, just an hour earlier at a campaign rally, revived his baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Biden. His refusal to concede inspired the Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, which Biden called “the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
Biden skirted the political reality that brought him to that point: His abysmal performance in a debate against Trump nearly a month ago, where he spoke haltingly, appeared ashen and failed to rebut his predecessor’s attacks, sparked a crisis of confidence from Democrats. Lawmakers and ordinary voters questioned not just whether he was capable of beating Trump in November, but also whether, at 81, he was still fit for the high-pressure job.
Biden tried to outlast the skepticism and quell the concerns with interviews and tepid rallies, but the pressure to step aside only mounted from the party’s political elites and from ordinary voters.
“I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation,” Biden said, saying he wanted to make room for “fresh voices, yes, younger voices.”
He added, “That is the best way to unite our nation.”
It was a belated fulfillment of his 2020 pledge to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders — and a bow to the drumbeat of calls from within his party to step aside.
Biden’s address was carried live by the major broadcast and cable news networks. He spooled out an weighty to-do list for his last six months in office, pledging to remain focused on being president until his term expires at noon on Jan. 20, 2025. He said he would work to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, fight to boost government support to cure cancer and push for Supreme Court reform, among other things.
The president sought to use the address to outline the stakes in the election, which both Biden and Harris have framed as a choice between freedom and chaos, but he tried to steer clear of overt campaigning from his official office.
“The great thing about America is here, kings and dictators do not rule,” Biden said. “The people do. History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America — lies in your hands.”
Biden was also making the case for his legacy of sweeping domestic legislation and the renewal of alliances abroad. But the way history will remember his time in office and his historic decision to step aside is intertwined with Harris’ electoral result in November, particularly as the vice president runs tightly on the achievements of the Biden administration.
His advisers say he intends to hold campaign events and fundraisers benefiting Harris, whom Biden praised as “tough” and “capable,” albeit at a far slower pace than if he had remained on the ballot himself.
Harris advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity sagged as voters in both parties questioned his fitness for office.
Biden, aides say, knows that if Harris loses, he’ll be criticized for staying in the race too long and not giving her or another Democrat time to effectively mount a campaign against Trump. If she wins, she’ll ensure his policy victories are secured and expanded, and he’ll be remembered for a Washingtonian decision to step aside for the next generation of leadership.
Biden said he’s grateful to have served as president — nowhere else would a kid with a stutter grow up to sit in the Oval Office.
“I’ve given my heart and my soul to our nation,” he said. “I’ve been blessed a million times in return.”
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that any question of Biden resigning his office before the election — which would allow Harris to run as an incumbent — was “ridiculous.”
Jean-Pierre said Biden has “no regrets” about his decision to stay in the race as long as he did, or his decision to quit it over the weekend. She said Biden’s decision had nothing to do with his health.
Biden delivers solemn call to defend democracy, promises to work to end Gaza war
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Biden delivers solemn call to defend democracy, promises to work to end Gaza war
- President tells Americans the idea of the USA ‘lies in your hands’
- Promises to work to bring peace and security to Middle East
Kenya police probe school blaze that killed 17 boys
ENDARASHA: Kenyan police stepped up their investigations Saturday into a prime school dormitory blaze that killed 17 boys, as families faced an agonizing wait for news of their missing loved ones.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua had said on Friday that 70 youngsters were still unaccounted for after the fire broke out at Hillside Endarasha Academy in the central Nyeri county around midnight Thursday.
The flames engulfed a dormitory at the primary school where more than 150 boys aged between nine and 13 were sleeping.
The cause of the inferno is not yet known but homicide investigators and forensic experts were at the school on Saturday, while media were barred from the site.
The charred bodies of victims, which police had said were burnt beyond recognition, were still in the dormitory, now a blackened shell with its corrugated iron roof completely collapsed.
“Today we want to begin the process of DNA testing,” Kenya’s chief homicide detective Martin Nyuguto told AFP at the scene.
President William Ruto declared three days of national mourning starting from Monday after what he described as an “unfathomable tragedy.”
He said on Friday that 17 children had lost their lives, while 14 had sustained injuries and were being treated in hospital.
“I pledge that the difficult questions that have been asked such as how this tragedy occurred and why the response was not timely will be answered; fully, frankly, and without fear or favor,” Ruto said in a statement.
“All relevant persons and bodies will be held to account.”
Kenya’s National Gender and Equality Commission said initial reports indicated the dorm was “overcrowded, in violation of safety standards.”
The blaze has highlighted the issue of safety at schools in Kenya, after numerous similar disasters over the years.
In a statement from the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” at the loss of young life and expressed his “spiritual closeness to all who are suffering the effects of this calamity, especially the injured and the families who grieve.”
On Friday, tensions were running high among families gathered at the school, anxious for news of their missing children.
Many broke down after officials took them to see the bodies in the destroyed dorm.
“Please look for my kid. He can’t be dead. I want my child,” one woman cried in distress.
The Kenya Red Cross said it was on the ground assisting a multi-agency response team and providing psychosocial support to traumatized pupils and families.
Muchai Kihara, 56, said he was lucky to find his 12-year-old son Stephen Gachingi alive after rushing to the school around 1 am on Friday.
“I cannot begin to imagine what he went through. I am happy he is alive but he had some injuries at the back of his head and the smoke had affected his eyes,” he told AFP.
“I just want him to be counselled now to see if his life will return to normal,” Kihara said as he sat with his son on a bench beside a white Red Cross tent where families are being counselled.
There have been many school fires both in Kenya and across East Africa.
In 2016, nine students were killed by a fire at a girls’ high school in the sprawling slum neighborhood of Kibera in Nairobi.
In 2001, 67 pupils were killed in an arson attack on their dormitory at a secondary school in Machakos south of Nairobi.
Two pupils were charged with murder, and the headmaster and deputy of the school were convicted of negligence.
In 1994, 40 school children were burned alive and 47 injured in a fire that tore through a girls’ school in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region.
In 2022, a blaze ravaged a school for the blind in eastern Uganda. Eleven pupils died after they were trapped inside their shared bedroom because the building had been burglar-proofed, government ministers said at the time.
Thousands protest in France after Macron picks Barnier as prime minister
- Left-wing parties accuse Macron of stealing elections
- Demonstrations in 130 locations across France
- New PM Barnier faces tricky government formation
PARIS: Thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint center-right Michel Barnier as prime minister with left-wing parties accusing him of stealing legislative elections.
Macron named 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-month-long search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered a hung parliament divided in three blocs.
In his first interview as government chief, Barnier said on Friday night that his government, which lacks a clear majority, will include conservatives, members of Macron’s camp and he hoped some from the left.
Barnier faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and the 2025 budget, as France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.
The left, led by the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, has accused Macron of a denial of democracy and stealing the election after Macron refused to pick the candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that came top in the July vote.
Pollster Elabe published a survey on Friday showing that 74 percent of French people considered Macron had disregarded the results of the elections with 55 percent believing he had stolen them.
In response to the appointment of Barnier, whose center-right Les Republicains party is only the fifth bloc in parliament with less than 50 lawmakers, left-wing party leaders, unions and student bodies called for mass protests on Saturday ahead of new action, including possible strikes on Oct. 1.
The LFI party said 130 protests would take place across the country.
Barnier was continuing consultations on Saturday as he looks to form a government, a tricky job given he faces a potential no-confidence vote especially with an urgent draft budget for 2025 due to be discussed in parliament at the start of October.
NFP and the far-right National Rally (RN) together have a majority and could oust the prime minister through a no-confidence vote should they decide to collaborate.
The RN gave its tacit approval for Barnier citing a number of conditions for it to not back a no-confidence vote, making it the de facto kingmaker for the new government.
“He is a prime minister under surveillance,” RN party leader Jordan Bardella told BFM on Saturday. “Nothing can be done without us.”
Central London site revealed for Queen Elizabeth II memorial
- The site is close to the ceremonial route of The Mall and to the Buckingham Palace home of her son King Charles III
- It is also near statues of her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
LONDON: A national memorial to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will be located in London’s St. James’s Park, which holds “historical and constitutional significance and personal connection” to the late monarch, the UK government said Saturday.
The site is close to the ceremonial route of The Mall and to the Buckingham Palace home of her son King Charles III.
It is also near statues of her parents King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
“The memorial is intended to provide not only a fitting monument but also a space for contemplation and community, and will be of an appropriate scale and ambition to match the impact of Queen Elizabeth II on national life, The Commonwealth and indeed the rest of the world,” said the government.
There will be other memorial projects in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the queen’s “enduring legacy of service and devotion to our country will never be forgotten.
“The national memorial will be located in St. James’s Park, right in the heart of the capital, providing everyone with a place to honor the Late Queen and connect with the shared history we cherish,” he added.
Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the death of Elizabeth, who spent a record 70 years and 214 days on the throne.
Mexico arrests alleged drug boss linked to 43 missing students
- Gildardo Lopez Astudillo is an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel
- He is accused of being behind the disappearance and suspected murders of the students from Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in 2014
Gildardo Lopez Astudillo, alias “El Gil,” is an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos cartel, accused of being behind the disappearance and suspected murders of the students from Ayotzinapa teachers’ college in 2014.
Lopez Astudillo had been arrested in September 2015 in the southern city of Taxco, Guerrero state, about 35 kilometers (21 miles) north of the town of Iguala from where the students vanished.
“Gildardo Lopez Astudillo was detained,” a federal security source with knowledge of the case told reporters Friday, asking for his name not to be used because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Lopez Astudillo had been transferred to the Altiplano maximum security prison in Mexico state, the source said.
He was arrested on charges of “organized crime,” although the investigation could be expanded, the source said.
In September 2014, the 43 students had been traveling to a political demonstration in Mexico City when investigators believe they were kidnapped by the drug cartel in collusion with corrupt police.
The exact circumstances of their disappearance are still unknown, but a truth commission set up by the government has branded the case a “state crime,” saying the military shared responsibility, either directly or through negligence.
Arrests have been made or ordered for dozens of suspects, including military personnel and a former attorney general who led a controversial investigation into the mass disappearance.
The remains of only a few of the victims have been identified.
Lopez Astudillo was released in 2019 — a move condemned by family members of the missing students — after a judge found the evidence against him was obtained illegally.
His arrest comes as relatives are preparing demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the students’ disappearance.
Ukraine says Russia launched 67 drones in overnight attack
- Air defense units were scrambled into action in 11 regions across Ukraine
- Drone debris was found next to the parliament building in the capital Kyiv
KYIV: Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday Russia launched a total of 67 long-range Shahed drones in a mass overnight attack, 58 of which it was able to shoot down.
The air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that air defense units were scrambled into action in 11 regions across Ukraine.
Drone debris was found next to the parliament building in the capital Kyiv, the legislature said in a separate statement it posted on its official Telegram page along with several photographs.
It is rare for a Russian missile or drone to get so far into central Kyiv, as the city is protected by a network of Soviet-era and Western-donated air defense systems.
The hilltop government quarter in the city center is perhaps the best-defended site in Ukraine, as it also houses the offices of the president, cabinet and the central bank.
The pictures on Telegram showed at least four pieces of debris scattered on the ground near the parliament building. One piece lay at the foot of the steps to the building’s main entrance, while another hunk of metal looked riddled with shrapnel.
Reuters correspondents in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, heard a series of explosions shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, some of which resounded loudly around the city center, waking up its residents.
Since the start of its invasion in February 2022, Moscow has launched thousands of missiles and Shahed drones into Ukraine.
The Iranian-designed drone has been used by Russia since September 2022 as a cheap, more expendable alternative to missiles, which are expensive and harder to manufacture.
The propeller-powered Shahed flies at less than 200km per hour (125 miles per hour) but can be tricky for conventional air defense systems to track because it flies low and emits far less heat than a missile.
Kyiv’s air force said the drones were launched from two border regions in Russia as well as from the Russian-occupied peninsula of Crimea.
