Biden says ‘staying in the race’ as he scrambles to save candidacy, braces for ABC interview

President Joe Biden, right, greets supporters at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP)
President Joe Biden, right, greets supporters at a campaign rally at Sherman Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 06 July 2024
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Biden says ‘staying in the race’ as he scrambles to save candidacy, braces for ABC interview

Biden says ‘staying in the race’ as he scrambles to save candidacy, braces for ABC interview
  • In front of roughly 300 supporters at a Wisconsin middle school, Biden again acknowledged his subpar debate last week
  • Interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos expected to be intensive and probing

MADISON, Wisconsin: President Joe Biden, fighting to save his endangered reelection effort, used a highly anticipated TV interview Friday to repeatedly reject taking an independent medical evaluation that would show voters he is up for serving another term in office while blaming his disastrous debate performance on a “bad episode” and saying there were “no indications of any serious condition.”
“Look, I have a cognitive test every single day,” Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, referring to the tasks he faces daily in a rigorous job. “Every day, I’ve had tests. Everything I do.”
Biden made it through the 22-minute interview without any major blunders that would inflict further damage to his imperiled candidacy, but it appeared unlikely to fully tamp down concerns about his age and fitness for another four years and his ability to defeat Donald Trump in November.
It left Biden in a standoff against a not-insignificant faction of his party with four months to go until Election Day, and with just weeks until the Democratic National Convention. The drawn-out spectacle could benefit Biden’s efforts to remain in the race by limiting the party’s options to replace him. But it also could be a distraction from vital efforts to frame the 2024 race as a referendum on Trump.
During the interview, Biden insisted he was not more frail than he was in 2020. He said he undergoes “ongoing assessment” by his personal doctors and they “don’t hesitate to tell me” if something is wrong.
“Can I run the 100 in 10 flat? No. But I’m still in good shape,” Biden said.
As for the debate, “I didn’t listen to my instincts in terms of preparing,” Biden said.
Biden suggested that Trump’s disruptions — while standing just a few feet from him — had flustered him: “I realized that, even when I was answering a question and they turned his mic off, he was still shouting and I let it distract me. I’m not blaming it on that. But I realized that I just wasn’t in control.”
Asked how he might turn the race around, Biden argued that one key would be large and energetic rallies like the one he held Friday in Wisconsin. When pressed that Trump routinely draws larger crowds, the president laid into his opponent.
“Trump is a pathological lair,” Biden said, accusing Trump of bungling the federal response to the COVID pandemic and failing to create jobs. “You ever see something that Trump did that benefited someone else and not him?”
Biden also insisted he was the “most qualified” to lead Democrats against Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
The interview, paired with a weekend campaign in battleground Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, was part of Biden’s rigorous effort to course correct from his debate performance last week. But internal party frustrations continued to fester, with one influential Democratic senator working on a nascent push that would encourage the president to exit the race and Democrats quietly chatting about where they would go next if the president drops out — or what it would mean if he stays in.
“It’s President Biden’s decision whether or not he remains in the race. Voters select our nominee and they chose him,” said California Rep. Ro Khanna, a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board that works as a gathering of his top surrogates. “Now, he needs to prove to those voters that he is up to the job and that will require more than just this one interview.”
Still, in Wisconsin, Biden was focused on proving his capacity to remain as president. When asked whether he would halt his campaign, he told reporters he was “completely ruling that out” and said he is “positive” he could serve for another four years. At a rally in front of hundreds of supporters he acknowledged his subpar debate performance but insisted, “I am running, and I’m going to win again.”
“I beat Donald Trump,” a forceful Biden said, as the crowd gathered in a local middle school cheered and waved campaign signs. “I will beat him again.”
Biden, relying on a teleprompter for his remarks, attacked his presumptive Republican challenger almost immediately, laying into Trump by pointing out that the former president once said that “George Washington’s army won the revolution by taking control of the airports from the British.”
Amid laughter, Biden continued, “Talk about me misspeaking.”
In his speech, Biden tried to flip the questions swirling about his age, asking the crowd whether he was “too old” to have passed gun legislation, created jobs and helped ease student loan debt — while suggesting he’d do more in a second presidential term.
The interview with ABC could be a watershed moment for Biden, who is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his rocky debate performance against Trump ignited concern that the 81-year-old Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.
While private angst among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists is running deep, most in the party have held public fire as they wait to see if the president can restore confidence with his weekend travel and his handling of the interview.
To that end, Sen. Mark Warner reached out to fellow senators throughout this week to discuss whether to ask Biden to exit the race, according to three people familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to talk about private conversations. The Virginia Democrat’s moves are notable given his chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee and his reputation as a lawmaker supportive of Biden who has working relationships with colleagues in both parties. Warner’s effort was first reported by The Washington Post.
The strategy remains fluid. One of the people with knowledge of Warner’s effort said there are enough Senate Democrats concerned enough about Biden’s capacity to run for reelection to take some sort of action, although there was yet no consensus on what that plan would be. Some of the Democratic senators could meet as soon as Monday on how to move forward.
The top Democrats on House committees are planning to meet virtually Sunday to discuss the situation, according to a person familiar with the gathering granted anonymity to talk about it.
Meanwhile, at least four House Democrats have called for Biden to step down as the nominee, with Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois joining Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett and Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva in pushing for an alternative. While not going that far, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a carefully worded statement Friday that Biden now has a decision to make on “the best way forward.”
“Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” Healey said.
There were also a few signs of discontent at Biden’s campaign rally Friday, with one supporter onstage waving a sign that read “Pass the torch Joe” as the president came out. His motorcade was also greeted at the middle school by a few people urging him to move on.
But others were pleased. Rebecca Green, a 52-year-old environmental scientist from Madison, said she found Biden’s energy reassuring. “We were just waiting for him to come out strong and fighting again, the way we know he is,” she said.
Many Democratic lawmakers, who are hearing from constituents at home during the holiday week, are deeply frustrated yet split on whether Biden should stay or go. Privately, discussions among the House Democrats flared this week as word spread that some of them were drafting public letters suggesting the president should quit the race.
Yet pushback from other House Democrats was fierce.
“Any ‘leader’ signing a letter calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Biden appears to have pulled his family closer while attempting to prove that he’s still the Democrats’ best option for competing in November’s election.
The ubiquitous presence of Hunter Biden in the West Wing since the debate has become an uncomfortable dynamic for many staffers, according to two Democrats close to the White House who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
For many staffers, the sight of Hunter Biden, just weeks after his conviction on felony gun charges, taking a larger role in advising his father has been unsettling and a questionable choice, they said.
Biden’s reelection campaign is pushing ahead with aggressive plans despite the uncertainty. It plans to pair his in-person events with a fresh $50 million ad campaign this month meant to capitalize on high viewership moments like the Summer Olympics that begin in Paris on July 26.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to travel to every battleground state this month, with Biden in Pennsylvania on Sunday. In a memo released Friday, the campaign also emphasized that Biden would participate in “frequent off-the-cuff moments” –- once a hallmark of the gregarious, glad-handling politician’s career that have dwindled throughout his presidency.
For Biden, every moment now is critical to restoring the lost confidence stemming from his shaky performance in Atlanta last week. Yet the president continued to make slipups that did not help that effort.
In a hastily organized gathering with more than 20 Democratic governors Wednesday evening, Biden acknowledged he needs to sleep more and limit evening events so he can be rested for the job, according to three people granted anonymity to speak about the private meeting.
In trying to explain away those comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden “works around the clock” but that he “also recognizes the importance of striking a balance and taking care of himself.”
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who attended the meeting, said Biden “certainly engaged with us on complicated matters.”
“But then again, this is something that he needs to not just reassure Democratic governors on, but he needs to reassure the American people,” Beshear said.


Tech firms warn ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks are targeting aviation sector

Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 8 sec ago
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Tech firms warn ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks are targeting aviation sector

Aircraft line up on the runway at Sydney International Airport on a windy day in Sydney on June 25, 2025. (AFP)
  • Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider

WASHINGTON: Tech companies Google and Palo Alto Networks are sounding the alarm over the “Scattered Spider” hacking group’s interest in the aviation sector.
In a statement posted on LinkedIn on Friday, Sam Rubin, an executive at Palo Alto’s cybersecurity-focused Unit 42, said his company had “observed Muddled Libra (also known as Scattered Spider) targeting the aviation industry.”
In a similar statement, Charles Carmakal, an executive with Alphabet-owned Google’s cybersecurity-focused Mandiant unit, said his company was “aware of multiple incidents in the airline and transportation sector which resemble the operations of UNC3944 or Scattered Spider.”
Neither executive identified which specific companies had been targeted, but Alaska Air Group-owned Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet have both recently reported being struck by unspecified cyber incidents.
Neither company has gone into detail about the intrusions or commented on any potential links between the incidents and Scattered Spider.
The loose-knit but aggressive hacking group, alleged to at least in part comprise youngsters operating in Western countries, has been blamed for some of the most disruptive hacks to hit the United States and Europe in recent memory.
In 2023, hackers tied to the group broke into gaming companies MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, partially paralyzing casinos and knocking slot machines out of commission.
Earlier this year, the group wreaked havoc at British retailers. More recent targets include the US insurance industry.

 


Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
Updated 28 June 2025
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Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment

Rwanda, Congo sign peace deal in US to end fighting, attract investment
  • Deal calls on DRC and Rwanda to aunch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days
  • Trump aims to end years of fighting, warns of ‘severe penalties’ if deal is violated

WASHINGTON/PARIS/KINSHASA: Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a US-brokered peace agreement on Friday, raising hopes for an end to fighting that has killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year.
The agreement marks a breakthrough in talks held by US President Donald Trump’s administration and aims to attract billions of dollars of Western investment to a region rich in tantalum, gold, cobalt, copper, lithium and other minerals.
At a ceremony with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, the two African countries’ foreign ministers signed the agreement pledging to implement a 2024 deal that would see Rwandan troops withdraw from eastern Congo within 90 days, according to a copy seen by Reuters.
Kinshasa and Kigali will also launch a regional economic integration framework within 90 days, the agreement said.
“They were going at it for many years, and with machetes — it is one of the worst, one of the worst wars that anyone has ever seen. And I just happened to have somebody that was able to get it settled,” Trump said on Friday, ahead of the signing of the deal in Washington.
“We’re getting, for the United States, a lot of the mineral rights from the Congo as part of it. They’re so honored to be here. They never thought they’d be coming.”
Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe called the agreement a turning point. Congo Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner said it must be followed by disengagement.
Trump later met both officials in the Oval Office, where he presented them with letters inviting Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame to Washington to sign a package of agreements that Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, dubbed the “Washington Accord.”
Nduhungirehe told Trump that past deals had not been implemented and urged Trump to stay engaged.
Trump warned of “very severe penalties, financial and otherwise,” if the agreement is violated.
Rwanda has sent at least 7,000 soldiers over the border, according to analysts and diplomats, in support of the M23 rebels, who seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities and lucrative mining areas in a lightning advance earlier this year.
The gains by M23, the latest cycle in a decades-old conflict with roots in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, sparked fears that a wider war could draw in Congo’s neighbors.

Economic deals
Boulos told Reuters in May that Washington wanted the peace agreement and accompanying minerals deals to be signed simultaneously this summer.
Rubio said on Friday that heads of state would be “here in Washington in a few weeks to finalize the complete protocol and agreement.”
However, the agreement signed on Friday gives Congo and Rwanda three months to launch a framework “to expand foreign trade and investment derived from regional critical mineral supply chains.”
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that another agreement on the framework would be signed by the heads of state at a separate White House event at an unspecified time.
There is an understanding that progress in ongoing talks in Doha — a separate but parallel mediation effort with delegations from the Congolese government and M23 — is essential before the signing of the economic framework, the source said.
The agreement signed on Friday voiced “full support” for the Qatar-hosted talks.
It also says Congo and Rwanda will form a joint security coordination mechanism within 30 days and implement a plan agreed last year to monitor and verify the withdrawal of Rwandan soldiers within three months.
Congolese military operations targeting the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a Congo-based armed group that includes remnants of Rwanda’s former army and militias that carried out the 1994 genocide, are meant to conclude over the same timeframe. Reuters reported on Thursday that Congolese negotiators had dropped an earlier demand that Rwandan troops immediately leave eastern Congo, paving the way for the signing ceremony on Friday.
Congo, the United Nations and Western powers say Rwanda is supporting M23 by sending troops and arms.
Rwanda has long denied helping M23, saying its forces are acting in self-defense against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, including the FDLR.
“This is the best chance we have at a peace process for the moment despite all the challenges and flaws,” said Jason Stearns, a political scientist at Simon Fraser University in Canada who specializes in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Similar formulas have been attempted before, Stearns added, and “it will be up to the US, as they are the godfather of this deal, to make sure both sides abide by the terms.”
The agreement signed on Friday says Rwanda and Congo will de-risk mineral supply chains and establish value chains “that link both countries, in partnership, as appropriate, with the US and US investors.”
The terms carry “a strategic message: securing the east also means securing investments,” said Tresor Kibangula, a political analyst at Congo’s Ebuteli research institute.
“It remains to be seen whether this economic logic will suffice” to end the fighting, he added.


War-torn nations face growing poverty and hunger crisis

War-torn nations face growing poverty and hunger crisis
Updated 27 June 2025
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War-torn nations face growing poverty and hunger crisis

War-torn nations face growing poverty and hunger crisis
  • World Bank warns that 39 fragile states are falling further behind as conflicts get deadlier

WASHINGTON: The world’s most desperate countries are falling further and further behind, their plight worsened by conflicts that are growing deadlier and more frequent.

That is the sobering conclusion of the World Bank’s first comprehensive study of how 39 countries contending with “fragile and conflict-affected situations’’ have fared since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020.
“Economic stagnation — rather than growth — has been the norm in economies hit by conflict and instability,” said Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s deputy chief economist.
Since 2020, the 39 countries, which range from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific to Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen their economic output per person fall by an average 1.8 percent a year. In other developing countries, by contrast, it grew by an average of 2.9 percent a year over the same period.

FASTFACT

The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which result in more than 150 deaths per million people — experience a cumulative drop of 20% in their gross domestic product, or the output of goods and services, after five years.

More than 420 million people in the fragile economies are living on less than $3 a day — the bank’s definition of extreme poverty. That is more than the combined total of everywhere else, even though the 39 countries account for less than 15 percent of the world’s population.
Many of these countries have long-standing problems with crumbling infrastructure, weak governance, and low educational standards.
People in the 39 countries get an average of just six years of schooling, three years fewer than those in other low- and middle-income countries. Life expectancy is five years shorter, and infant mortality is twice as high.
Increasing conflicts have made things worse.
In the 2000s, the world saw an annual average of just over 6,000 conflicts — in which organized groups used armed force against other groups or civilians and caused at least one death. Now the yearly average exceeds 20,000.
The conflicts are more lethal, too: In the 2000s, they took an average of fewer than 42,000 lives a year. From 2000 through 2024, the number averaged almost 194,000.
Of the 39 countries, 21 are involved in active conflicts, including Ukraine, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Gaza.
The World Bank finds that countries involved in high-intensity conflict — which result in more than 150 deaths per million people — experience a cumulative drop of 20 percent in their gross domestic product, or the output of goods and services, after five years.
More conflict also means more hunger: The World Bank estimated that 18 percent — around 200 million — of the people in the 39 countries are “experiencing acute food insecurity’’ compared with just 1 percent in other low and middle-income countries.
Some countries have managed to escape the cycle of conflict and economic fragility. Kose cites Nepal; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Rwanda; and Sri Lanka as relative success stories.
And the World Bank report notes that the 39 countries do enjoy strengths, including natural resources such as oil and natural gas, and a lot of young, working-age people at a time when many economies are aging.
“Some of them are very rich when it comes to their tourism potential,’’ Kose said.
“But you need to have security established. You and I are not going to go and visit these places unless they are safe, even though they might be the most beautiful places in the world.’’

 


Man pleads not guilty to hate crimes in attack on Colorado demonstration for Israeli hostages

Man pleads not guilty to hate crimes in attack on Colorado demonstration for Israeli hostages
Updated 27 June 2025
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Man pleads not guilty to hate crimes in attack on Colorado demonstration for Israeli hostages

Man pleads not guilty to hate crimes in attack on Colorado demonstration for Israeli hostages
  • Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted earlier this week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack
  • Soliman’s attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman’s behalf during a quick hearing

DENVER: A man accused of hurling Molotov cocktails at a group of people who were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages pleaded not guilty Friday to federal hate crime charges.

Mohamed Sabry Soliman was indicted earlier this week on 12 hate crime counts in the June 1 attack. He is accused of trying to kill eight people who were hurt by the Molotov cocktails and others who were nearby.

Soliman’s attorney, David Kraut, entered the not guilty plea on Soliman’s behalf during a quick hearing.

Magistrate Judge Kathryn Starnella noted that lawyers had acknowledged that a plea agreement in the case was possible later.

Soliman, wearing a khaki jail uniform, entered the courtroom smiling and holding an envelope in his handcuffed hands. His right hand and arm were wrapped in a thick bandage as they were when he appeared in court last week, when an investigators testified that Soliman had burned himself as he threw the second of two Molotov cocktails at the group.

He listened to a translation of the hearing provided by an Arabic interpreter through headphones. He did not speak during the hearing.

Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration on Boulder’s Pearl Street pedestrian mall. But he threw just two of his over two dozen Molotov cocktails while yelling “Free Palestine.”

Soliman, who is also being prosecuted in state court for attempted murder and other charges, told investigators he tried to buy a gun but was not able to because he was not a “legal citizen.”

He posed as a gardener, wearing a construction vest, to get close to the group before launching the attack, according to court documents. He was also indicted for using fire and an explosive to attack the group and for carrying an explosive, which were included in the hate crime counts.

Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, has been living in the US illegally with his family.

Soliman is being represented in state and federal court by public defenders who do not comment on their cases to the media.

Prosecutors say the victims were targeted because of their perceived or actual national origin.

At a hearing last week, Kraut, Soliman’s defense attorney, urged Starnella not to allow the case to move forward. Kraut said the alleged attack was not a hate crime. He said it was motivated by opposition to Zionism, the movement to establish and sustain a Jewish state in Israel.

An attack motivated by someone’s political views is not considered a hate crime under federal law.


Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants

Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants
Updated 27 June 2025
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Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants

Two sentenced in Texas for role in deaths of 53 migrants
  • Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the US
  • District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison

HOUSTON: The leader of a human smuggling ring convicted of involvement in the deaths of 53 migrants in a sweltering truck in Texas in 2022 was sentenced to life in prison on Friday.

Felipe Orduna-Torres, 30, headed a network that brought adults and children from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico into the United States between December 2021 and June 2022, according to prosecutors.

He was convicted in March of transporting aliens within the United States resulting in death, causing serious bodily injury, and placing lives in jeopardy.

District Judge Orlando Garcia of the Western District of Texas sentenced Orduna-Torres to life in prison on Friday and a $250,000 fine, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Another convicted member of the smuggling ring, Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 55, was sentenced to 83 years in prison for his involvement in the deaths of the 53 migrants.

“These criminals will spend the rest of their lives in prison because of their cruel choice to profit off of human suffering,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “Today’s sentences are a powerful message to human smugglers everywhere: we will not rest until you are behind bars.”

Five other defendants have pleaded guilty to their roles in the fatal smuggling operation and are to be sentenced later this year.

Another alleged member of the smuggling ring, Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, 48, was extradited to the United States from Guatemala and is scheduled to go on trial in September.

According to the US authorities, the smugglers charged $12,000 to $15,000 per person to bring the migrants, who mostly hailed from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, into the United States.

At least 64 migrants including eight children and a pregnant woman were loaded into a 53-foot (16-meter) tractor-trailer on or around June 27, 2022 to be moved across the US-Mexico border.

The trailer’s air conditioning was not working properly and the temperature inside the truck soared as it drove north to San Antonio.

Forty-eight people were dead when the trailer reached San Antonio and five more died later in hospital. Six children and the pregnant woman were among the dead.