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
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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

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.


New Delhi’s high-tech suburb drowns in trash as sanitation workers flee

Updated 4 sec ago
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New Delhi’s high-tech suburb drowns in trash as sanitation workers flee

  • Local residents took to social media to show extent of garbage problem in Gurugram
  • Photos and videos show garbage piling up in residential areas, sideroads covered in junk

NEW DELHI: One of India’s most modern, high-tech, and upscale urban centers, Gurugram, is sinking in municipal waste that has not been collected for months, residents say, as sanitation workers have fled fearing a police crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Formerly known as Gurgaon, the city of skyscrapers and luxury apartments is located about 30 km south of New Delhi and was transformed over the last two decades from farming fields into a major hub for technology and outsourcing companies.

While its poor waste management system has made local headlines over the years, the problem worsened recently with garbage piling up in residential areas, sideroads covered in junk and trash burning becoming increasingly commonplace, prompting mass complaints from residents who posted visuals across social media platforms.

“There is a serious crisis in Gurgaon on waste management. Wastes are lying everywhere and the administration does not have a clue how to handle that. This is the crisis created by the administration and its policies,” Saurabh Bardhan, owner of Gurugram-based waste management company Green Bandhu, told Arab News.

Indian authorities have detained hundreds of alleged illegal immigrants in recent months, with a Human Rights Watch report published on Wednesday saying that at least 1,500 ethnic Bengali Muslims were expelled to Bangladesh “without due process” between May and June, as expulsions continue.

As many of them are employed as informal garbage collectors in Gurugram, the crackdown has affected waste management in the city.

“The migrant workers have been collecting waste for years in this so-called millennium city and they have never bothered to regularize their jobs. These workers were carrying the load of managing the city waste to a great extent,” Bardhan said.

“I heard they are being detained and this has created panic among them. But if we think that only these migrant workers are affected we are wrong. It is the whole society that is suffering because of the government’s hasty and unmindful act.”

S.S. Rohilla, public relations officer at the Municipal Corp. of Gurugram, told Arab News on Saturday that the local government is “trying to resolve the problem,” adding that the situation was “not as bad” as reported by media outlets.

But for Kalyan Singh, the waste problem in his residential area in Gurugram was a crisis.

“For the last two to three days we have been facing an acute crisis of waste lying everywhere in my (area). Never before have we faced something like this,” Singh told Arab News.

“This problem has cropped up, we learnt, after the migrant Bengali-speaking laborers have left en masse after the government’s drive to detain suspected Bangladeshis and foreigners. I hope the situation is addressed soon.”

Meanwhile, other Gurugram residents took to social media to raise concerns over public health risks and express their frustrations with the government.

“Bad roads. Poor waste management. No drainage system. Yet what does the Gurugram gov’t. choose to act on? Not infrastructure. Not public welfare. (But) targeting the people who keep this city running — the migrant workers who clean our homes and city,” Aanchal Jauhari wrote on X.

“Health Danger! Sector 70 (of) Gurugram drowning in garbage. Breeding ground for diseases,” another X user, Gautam Dhar, said. “Please help. Citizen’s health (is) at severe risk.”


Hungary’s Orban to block EU budget unless funds released

Updated 22 min 54 sec ago
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Hungary’s Orban to block EU budget unless funds released

  • Nationalist leader has for years clashed with Brussels over migration, LGBTQ rights and what critics see as eroding democracy in Hungary
  • The EU has suspended billions of euros earmarked for Hungary while a rule-of-law dispute drags on

BUDAPEST: Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened on Saturday to torpedo the European Union’s new seven-year budget unless Brussels unlocks all suspended EU funds.

The nationalist leader has for years clashed with Brussels over migration, LGBTQ rights and what critics see as eroding democracy in Hungary. The EU has suspended billions of euros earmarked for Hungary while a rule-of-law dispute drags on.

“The approval of the new seven-year budget requires unanimity and until we get the remaining (frozen) funds, there won’t be a new EU budget either,” Orban said in a speech at a summer university in the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad.

The European Commission has proposed a €2 trillion ($2.35 trillion) EU budget for 2028 to 2034 with emphasis on economic competitiveness and defense.

Orban also criticized the EU for supporting Ukraine and accused Brussels of planning to install a “pro-Ukraine and pro-Brussels government” in Hungary at next year’s vote.

He also accused EU leaders of risking a trade war with US President Donald Trump’s administration that Europe “cannot win.”

“The current leadership of the EU will always be the last to sign deals with the United States and always the worst deals,” Orban added, urging a change in the bloc’s leadership.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet Trump on Sunday in Scotland in search of a trade deal.

Orban, who swept the last four elections, faces a tough new opposition challenger Peter Maygar, whose center-right Tisza party has a firm lead over the ruling Fidesz in most polls at a time of economic stagnation.

Magyar told a rally on Saturday that Hungary must be firmly anchored in the EU and NATO military alliance, and Tisza would bring home all suspended EU funds if it wins in 2026.

“Hungary is an EU member and our relations as allies cannot be built on a political style of putting a spoke in the wheel,” Magyar said. He added that Tisza could not support the EU budget in current form but would be ready for talks on that.

“We need to make a clear and firm decision that our place has been and will be in Europe,” Magyar said, criticizing Orban’s close relations with Russia.


Russia seizes second village in central Ukraine

Updated 26 July 2025
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Russia seizes second village in central Ukraine

  • Russian army said its forces ‘liberated the locality of Maliyevka’ in Dnipropetrovsk
  • Deeper Russian advances could mean more attacks on one of Ukraine’s largest cities

MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday said it had wrested a second village in Ukraine’s central Dnipro region in a fresh advance in the industrial mining hub.

Overnight strikes between Ukraine and Russia meanwhile claimed five lives – three in central Ukraine and two in western Russia, according to officials.

The army said its forces “liberated the locality of Maliyevka” in Dnipro, a part of Ukraine’s mining heartland, particularly for coal that powers the electricity grid.

Further Russian advances could harm Ukraine’s economy and energy supplies.

Authorities have already been ordering civilians with children to flee a front line that is creeping closer.

Deeper Russian advances could mean more attacks on one of Ukraine’s largest cities, Dnipro – though Russian troops are around 200 kilometers (120 miles) away.

Dnipropetrovsk is not one of the five Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea – that Moscow has publicly claimed as Russian territory.


Trump hits Scottish golf course as protesters set to rally

Updated 26 July 2025
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Trump hits Scottish golf course as protesters set to rally

  • His presence has turned the picturesque and normally quiet area of southwest Scotland into a virtual fortress
  • US president professes a love of Scotland, where his mother was born, but has an uneasy relationship with the nation

TURNBERRY, United Kingdom: US President Donald Trump played golf on the first full day of his visit to Scotland Saturday, as protesters prepared to take to the streets across the country.

Trump emerged from his Turnberry resort with son Eric and waved to photographers following his arrival in Scotland on Friday evening.

His presence has turned the picturesque and normally quiet area of southwest Scotland into a virtual fortress, with roads closed and police checkpoints in place.

Officers on quad bikes or horses, others on foot with sniffer dogs, patrolled the famous course – which has hosted four men’s British Opens – and the sandy beaches and grass dunes that hug the course.

The 79-year-old touched down Friday at nearby Prestwick Airport, as hundreds of onlookers came out to see Air Force One and try to catch a glimpse of its famous passenger.

The president has professed a love of Scotland, where his mother was born, but his controversial politics and business investments in the country have made for an uneasy relationship.

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac, Trump immediately waded into the debate surrounding high levels of irregular migration.

“You better get your act together or you’re not going to have Europe anymore,” he said, adding that it was “killing” the continent.

Trump’s five-day visit has divided the local community.

“A lot of people don’t trust Trump and I’m one of them. I think the man is a megalomaniac,” retiree Graham Hodgson said.

“He’s so full of himself. I think he’s doing a lot of damage worldwide with his tariffs. And I think it’s all for the sake of America, but at the moment I think America is paying the price as well for his policies.”

But at Prestwick Airport a boy held a sign that read “Welcome Trump” while a man waved a flag emblazoned with Trump’s most famous slogan – “Make America Great Again.”

“I think the best thing about Trump is he’s not actually a politician yet he’s the most powerful man in the world and I think he’s looking at the best interests of his own country,” said 46-year-old Lee McLean, who had traveled from nearby Kilmarnock.

“Most politicians should really be looking at the best interests of their own country first before looking overseas,” he said.

As the police rolled out a massive security operation, the Stop Trump Coalition announced demonstrations on Saturday near the US consulate in Edinburgh and another in Aberdeen, where Trump owns another golf resort.

Police are also monitoring any other protests that might spring up near Turnberry.

Trump has no public meetings in the diary for Saturday, but he is due to discuss trade with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.


Italy’s Meloni: Recognizing Palestinian state before it is established may be ‘counterproductive’

Updated 26 July 2025
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Italy’s Meloni: Recognizing Palestinian state before it is established may be ‘counterproductive’

  • ‘I am very much in favor of the State of Palestine but I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it’
  • France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September draws condemnation from Israel and the US

MILAN: Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognizing the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive.

“I am very much in favor of the State of Palestine but I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it,” Meloni told Italian daily La Repubblica.

“If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t,” Meloni added.

France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September drew condemnation from Israel and the United States, amid the war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. On Friday, Italy’s foreign minister said recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with recognition of Israel by the new Palestinian entity. A German government spokesperson said on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” toward a two-state solution.