WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden was back out on the campaign trail Sunday, desperate to salvage his reelection bid as senior Democrats meet to discuss growing calls that he quit the White House race.
The 81-year-old Democrat kicks off a grueling week with two campaign events in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, before hosting the NATO leaders’ summit in Washington.
He will do so under an increasingly unforgiving spotlight, as pressure mounts for him to drop out after his disastrous debate against Donald Trump last month ignited panic over his age and fitness to serve another four years.
Biden has remained defiant, unequivocally declaring — at a rally, to reporters and on social media — that he is fit to serve, the only one who can defeat Trump, and staying in the race.
“I beat Trump in 2020. I’m going to beat him again in 2024,” his campaign social media account posted Saturday.
But a televised interview with ABC News on Friday has failed to quell concerns. His next major test in the public eye after Sunday’s forays will be a press conference scheduled for Thursday, during the NATO summit.
So far, five Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to drop out, with the drumbeat of dissent slowly rising.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a close Biden ally, stressed he believes Biden can still recover and win. But he said “the president needs to do more,” including unscripted events like town hall gatherings, to reassure voters he has the mental acuity and physical fitness for a second term.
“I think this week is going to be absolutely critical,” Murphy told CNN’s Sunday talk show “State of the Union,” adding he believes there are many voters who need to be convinced of Biden’s capabilities.
“If he can’t do that, then of course he’s going to have to make a decision about what’s best for the country.”
Those comments came as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has scheduled a virtual meeting of senior Democratic representatives for Sunday to discuss the best way forward, and Democratic Senator Mark Warner is reportedly working to convene a similar forum in the upper chamber.
First Lady Jill Biden, who — according to some US media reports — is urging her husband to stay in the race, is scheduled to campaign for him Monday in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina.
But after Sunday’s stops in Philadelphia and Harrisburg, the president will have to step away from the trail for the NATO summit beginning Tuesday.
Here, too, he will find himself having to reassure allies at a time when many European countries fear a Trump victory in November.
The 78-year-old Republican has long criticized the transatlantic defense alliance as an unfair burden on the United States, voiced admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, and insisted he could bring about a quick end to the fighting in Ukraine, where Moscow’s invasion is in its third year.
For now, Democratic heavyweights are largely keeping a lid on any simmering discontent with their leader — at least in public.
But with election day just four months away, any move to replace Biden as the nominee would need to be made sooner rather than later, and the party will be scrutinized for any signs of more open rebellion.
Meanwhile, for Biden and his team, the strategy seems to be to ride it out.
The campaign has unveiled an intense battle plan for July, including an avalanche of TV spots and trips to all the key states.
That includes a visit to the US Southwest during the Republican convention July 15-18, at which Trump is set to be anointed the party’s official presidential nominee.
In what had been billed as a make-or-break Friday interview with ABC News, Biden flatly dismissed his falling poll numbers and concerns over his fitness triggered by his dismal June 27 performance against Trump.
But some of his answers were tentative or meandering, even as he deflected questions about his mental acuity and dismissed the notion his party would consider replacing him.
“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race,” he said.
“But the Lord Almighty is not coming down.”
Biden back on campaign trail as pressure mounts
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Biden back on campaign trail as pressure mounts
- “I beat Trump in 2020. I’m going to beat him again in 2024,” his campaign social media account posted Saturday
- So far, five Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to drop out, with the drumbeat of dissent slowly rising
’Seventh heaven’: Tears and laughter as Ukrainian POWs return
“Hello mum, how are you?,” the 31-year-old soldier said, moments after stepping back onto Ukrainian soil on Friday.
“I love you. Don’t be sad. It wasn’t my fault. I promised I would come back safe and sound,” he said, smiling but with watery eyes.
Steblev, who was captured at the start of Russia’s invasion, was one of 390 military and civilian prisoners released in exchange for 390 sent back to Russia.
More swaps are expected on Saturday and Sunday to bring the total to 1,000 for 1,000 as agreed in talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week.
Steblev arrived with the other former captives by coach at a local hospital where hundreds of relatives were waiting, shouting, crying and singing “Congratulations!“
During the journey back to Ukraine, Steblev told AFP he experienced “indescribable” emotions.
“It’s simply crazy. Crazy feelings,” he said.
During his years of captivity, Steblev said he managed to keep going thanks to his wife.
“She knows I am strong and that I am not going to give up just like that,” he said, adding that now he just wants to be with his family.
“It’s my absolute priority,” he said.
After that, he said it would be up to his wife to decide on the next steps.
“She will tell me and will show me how to act in future,” he said.
Thin, tired and looking slightly lost, the freshly released prisoners filed into a local hospital for medical checks.
But Olena and Oleksandr stayed outside, locked in a tight embrace despite the cameras pointed at them.
They said they had not seen each other in 22 months since Oleksandr was captured by Russia.
“I am in seventh heaven,” the 45-year-old said in his wife’s arms.
He said his dream now was to “eat... eat and spend time with my family.”
As the buses arrived at the hospital, relatives of soldiers who are still in prison ran toward the freed men to show them images of their loved ones and ask if they had seen them during their captivity.
Some women walked away crying when they failed to get any news.
Some know that their relatives are jailed but others have no news at all and desperately hope for any scrap of information.
Moments after being reunited with her husband Andriy after three years apart, Elia, 33, embraced the tearful mother of a soldier who had no news about her son.
When she saw her husband, Elia said her “heart was beating out of my chest” and she cried with joy.
“I have been waiting so long for this,” she said.
Several former prisoners of war interviewed by AFP in the past have spoken of harsh conditions and torture in Russian prisons.
Elia is now thinking about the future and about having a child with her husband.
But she said she knew that the path to rehabilitation would be a long one for him.
“He has an empty stare but I know they did not break him. The guys with him told me he was very strong,” she said.
Pope takes message of dialogue, unity to the Curia
- Pope Leo XIV promotes dialogue and building bridges to the Roman Curia in his first meeting with the Church's governing body.
- Pope Leo XIV urges people to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
VATICAN: Pope Leo XIV took his message of building bridges and promoting dialogue to the Roman Curia on Saturday, in his first audience with members of the Catholic Church’s governing body.
The late Pope Francis had sometimes difficult relations with the Curia and Vatican officials, accusing them early in his papacy of “spiritual Alzheimer’s” and a lust for power.
The new pontiff, the first from the United States, said Saturday that his inaugural meeting was an opportunity to say thanks for all their work.
“Popes come and go, the Curia remains,” Leo told the audience of officials, staff and their families in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI hall.
He repeated his first words from St. Peter’s Basilica when he became pope on May 8, where he urged people to “build bridges” and to welcome “with open arms, everyone who needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
“If we must all cooperate in the great cause of unity and love, let us try to do so first of all with our behavior in everyday situations, starting from the work environment,” the pope said.
“Everyone can be a builder of unity with their attitudes toward colleagues, overcoming inevitable misunderstandings with patience and humility, putting themselves in the shoes of others, avoiding prejudices, and also with a good dose of humor, as Pope Francis taught us.”
From decentralising power and increasing transparency to providing greater roles for lay people and women, Francis implemented several reforms of the Roman Curia.
But his criticism left a lasting impression among many officials, and he also drew accusations of being too authoritarian in his governance, regularly bypassing the administrative bodies of the Holy See.
In 2024, the Vatican — where trade unions are not recognized — also saw an unprecedented strike by around 50 employees of the Vatican Museums over their working conditions.
The pope spent two decades working in Peru but for the past two years was head of the Vatican department responsible for appointing bishops worldwide.
US ‘deeply concerned’ over activists’ treatment in Tanzania
- Prominent East African activists are facing detention and torture following government crackdown on dissent in Uganda and Tanzania.
- The United States voiced its concern over the mistreatment of several activists and called for an investigation into human rights abuses.
NAIROBI: The United States expressed concern Saturday over the “mistreatment” of two east African activists in Tanzania, days after they were detained and reportedly tortured.
Prominent campaigners Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda traveled to Tanzania this week in solidarity with detained opposition leader Tundu Lissu ahead of his court hearing on charges of treason, which carries a potential death penalty.
But they themselves were detained before being deported and then found abandoned near the Tanzanian border.
Mwangi and rights groups allege that both were tortured while held “incommunicado” for days.
The US Bureau of African Affairs said on X it was “deeply concerned by reports of the mistreatment” of Atuhaire and Mwangi while in Tanzania.
“We call for an immediate and full investigation into the allegations of human rights abuses,” it said, urging “all countries in the region to hold to account those responsible for violating human rights, including torture.”
Atuhaire received in 2023 the EU Human Rights Defender Award for her work in Uganda and was honored last year with the International Women of Courage Award by former US First Lady Jill Biden.
Mwangi is a longtime critic of the Kenyan government, frequently denouncing instances of alleged injustice and rights abuses.
Human rights groups say Tanzania and neighboring Uganda have accelerated crackdowns on opponents and dissidents as they prepare for presidential elections in the next seven months.
But Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan has slammed what she called interference in the country’s affairs and had urged security services “not to allow ill-mannered individuals from other countries to cross the line here.”
India’s monsoon rains arrive eight days early, says weather bureau
- Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1
MUMBAI: Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, the weather office said, offering respite from a grueling heat wave while boosting prospects for bumper harvests.
Summer rains, critical for economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy, usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane.
Ukraine says downed 6 missiles, 245 drones overnight
KYIV: Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that it had downed six ballistic missiles and 245 drones from a massive Russian barrage overnight that was mainly targeted at the capital Kyiv.
“Air defense shot down 6 Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles (Kyiv) and neutralized 245 enemy Shahed-type UAVs,” the air force said in a statement.
