Category Archives: Joe Biden

Biden attacks Trump as grave threat to democracy in rousing 2024 speech

Posted on by

On eve of January 6 anniversary, US president condemns likely rival and warns voters ‘democracy is on the ballot’ in November

A day before the third anniversary of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Joe Biden delivered a pointed speech to warn voters against re-electing Donald Trump, criticizing the likely Republican presidential nominee as a fundamental threat to democracy in an attempt to shape the dynamics of the 2024 election.

“Today we’re here to answer the most important of questions: is democracy still America’s sacred cause?” Biden said. “Today, I make this sacred pledge to you: the defense, protection and preservation of American democracy will remain, as it has been, the central cause of my presidency.

Continue reading...

Biden to jump-start 2024 campaign with focus on fight for democracy

Posted on by

Biden-Harris campaign, in a conference call with reporters, said they aim to draw sharp contrast between US president and Trump

Ailing in opinion polls, Joe Biden will aim to jump-start his re-election campaign in the coming week with events designed to symbolise the fight for democracy and racial justice against Donald Trump.

The Biden-Harris campaign announced the plans in a conference call with reporters that mentioned Trump by name 28 times in just 24 minutes, a sign of its determination to draw a sharp contrast between the US president and his likely Republican challenger.

Continue reading...

Biden offers optimistic new year’s message as Trump lashes out

Posted on by

President touts US job gains and says his resolution is ‘to come back’ while ex-president repeats unproven election rigging claims

The likely candidates in the 2024 presidential match-up issued two starkly different new year messages to voters, with Joe Biden striking a note of cheerful optimism as his almost certain challenger Donald Trump, and Trump lashing out in a social media post laden with lies and conspiracy theories.

The president and first lady Jill Biden, vacationing in St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, offered a New Year’s message touting US job gains and the performance of the US economy during his administration – a message that voters have so far refused to accept.

Continue reading...

Trump gaining ground among Latino voters, poll shows

Posted on by

Ex-president ahead with 39% support among Latino voters surveyed, wiping out Biden’s lead among crucial voting bloc

A new poll indicates former US president Donald Trump is gaining ground among Latino voters, wiping out incumbent Joe Biden’s lead among the crucial, but diverse, voting bloc.

A USA Today and Suffolk University survey showed Trump was ahead with 39% support among Latino voters surveyed, compared to Biden’s 34%, signaling a slump since 2020, when Biden garnered 65% of the approval from Latino voters.

Continue reading...

How 2023 became the year Congress forgot to ban TikTok

Posted on by

Momentum seemed to be on their side of US lawmakers this year to stop 150 million Americans from using TikTok. What happened?

Banning TikTok in the US seemed almost inevitable at the start of 2023. The previous year saw a trickle of legislative actions against the short-form video app, after dozens of individual states barred TikTok from government devices in late 2022 over security concerns. At the top of the new year, the US House followed suit, and four universities blocked TikTok from campus wifi.

The movement to prohibit TikTok grew into a flash flood by spring. CEO Shou Zi Chew was called before Congress for brutal questioning in March. By April – with support from the White House (and Joe Biden’s predecessor) – it seemed a federal ban of the app was not just possible, but imminent.

Continue reading...

Biden mulls border crackdown in face of Trump’s migrant-bashing rhetoric

Posted on by

President faces pressure from Republican critics and Democratic allies as he struggles to address what both sides agree is a crisis

Heading into the heat of the 2024 election season, Joe Biden is weighing major changes to US immigration policy that would toughen border enforcement and address an issue that has emerged as one of the president’s biggest political vulnerabilities ahead of a likely rematch against his anti-immigration rival Donald Trump.

But it is also a risk for Biden, who entered the White House in 2021 promising to “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” after Trump’s four-year crackdown on immigration.

Continue reading...

‘Sitting on a powder keg’: US braces for a year, and an election, like no other

Posted on by

Amid fears of authoritarianism, oldest US president likely to face off against first president to be criminally charged

The 60th US presidential election, which will unfold in 2024, will be quite unlike any that has gone before as the US, and the rest of the world, braces for a contest amid fears of eroding democracy and the looming threat of authoritarianism.

It will be a fight marked by numerous unwanted firsts as the oldest president in the country’s history is likely to face the first former US president to stand trial on criminal charges. A once aspirational nation will continue its plunge into anxiety and divisions about crime, immigration, race, foreign wars and the cost of living.

Continue reading...

Biden orders airstrikes against Iran-backed militias after US troops wounded in Iraq

Posted on by

Three US soldiers were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq, which Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah group claimed credit for

Joe Biden ordered the US military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three US service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq.

A national security council spokesperson, Adrienne Watson, said one of the troops suffered critical injuries in the attack that occurred earlier on Monday. The Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups, under an umbrella of Iranian-backed militants, claimed credit for the attack that utilized a one-way attack drone.

Continue reading...

A split among Democrats may threaten ‘the Squad’ – and help Trump – in 2024

Posted on by

Centrists are taking on progressives in upcoming House races, as some say they’re losing sight of the big picture

A looming clash between the centre and left of the Democratic party could unseat members of the “the Squad” of progressives and hand a gift to Donald Trump’s Republicans in the 2024 elections.

The war in Gaza has divided Democrats like no other issue and is likely to play a key role in party primaries that decide which candidates run for the House of Representatives.

Continue reading...

Deadly 24 hours of fighting across Gaza Strip kills scores of Palestinians

Posted on by

Worries mount for desperate civilians as Israel expands its operations in the southern half of territory

Fierce fighting across the besieged Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours has killed 166 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers, in one of the single deadliest days of the new conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas to date.

Heavy bombing and shelling of Jabaliya, in the north of the Palestinian territory, overnight continued into Sunday morning, residents of the area said, while in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have begun a ground operation in the central neighbourhood of Tufah. In the southern half of the strip, aerial and ground attacks continue in the territory’s second city, Khan Younis.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden’s reluctance to call for ceasefire may leave him at odds with his party

Posted on by

Many young voters disapprove of how the US president is handling the conflict in Gaza, a new poll suggests

It was a messy compromise. On Friday, after a week of wrangling, the United Nations security council (UNSC) staggered across the finish line, approving a watered-down bid to boost aid to Gaza and calling for urgent steps “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities”.

The US, a staunch ally of Israel, abstained to allow the 15-member council to adopt the resolution. Joe Biden’s allies will claim that it represents progress of sorts. But it will have little impact on the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe as Israel’s bombardment continues.

Continue reading...

Biden pardons thousands of people convicted of marijuana possessions

Posted on by

Move is latest in round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system

Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia, the White House said Friday – his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.

The US president is also granting clemency to 11 people serving what the White House called “disproportionately long” sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Continue reading...

Russia warns US and Europe over reports Ukraine may get its seized assets

Posted on by

Kremlin threatens ‘serious consequences’ if there is an unprecedented seizure of Russian assets held abroad

The Kremlin has threatened Europe and the US with “serious consequences”, including tit-for-tat financial seizures or even a break in diplomatic relations, if Russian assets held abroad are given to aid the Ukrainian budget and war effort.

A spokesperson for Vladimir Putin told reporters on Friday that if the Biden administration and European leaders planned to seize Russian central bank assets believed to be in excess of $300bn (£236bn) that were frozen after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they should “realise that Russia will never leave those who do it alone”.

Continue reading...

US-Venezuela prisoner swap includes notorious key ally of Nicolás Maduro

Posted on by

Ten Americans were released in the deal, but critics say release of Alex Saab shows that corrupt Venezuelan officials enjoy impunity

Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, has managed to free a key collaborator from US custody after agreeing to release 10 Americans and 20 Venezuelan citizens from jail.

The Colombian-born businessman Alex Saab – a close Maduro ally whom US prosecutors accused of pilfering hundreds of millions of dollars from Venezuelan social programs as part of a vast money-laundering scheme – was extradited to the US in 2021 after being detained while transiting through Cape Verde.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden plans to ban logging in US old-growth forests in 2025

Posted on by

Move aims to protect millions of old-growth trees, which are better at storing carbon, but its outcome depends on 2024 election

Joe Biden’s administration on Tuesday announced a new proposal aimed at banning logging in old-growth forests, a move meant to protect millions of trees that play a key role in fighting the climate crisis.

The proposal comes from an executive order signed by the president on Earth Day in 2022 that directed the US Forest Service and the land management bureau to conduct an inventory of old-growth and mature forest groves as well as to develop policies that protect them.

Continue reading...

US defence secretary reasserts support but urges Israel to change tactics in Gaza

Posted on by

Lloyd Austin discusses focus on precise targeting of Hamas leaders; however, UN delays vote calling for cessation of hostilities

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has held talks with Israeli officials about shifting away from large-scale aerial and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phrase in the war focused on the precise targeting of Hamas leaders.

“Hamas should never again be able to project terror from Gaza into Israel. This is Israel’s operation; I’m not here to dictate timelines or terms,” Austin told reporters after meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence counterpart, Yoav Gallant, in Tel Aviv on Monday. He added that protecting Palestinian civilians in Gaza was “both a moral duty and a strategic imperative”.

Continue reading...

Joe Biden unharmed as vehicle collides with presidential motorcade

Posted on by

Secret Service indicate collision was accident in rainy conditions as president left campaign HQ in Delaware

A sedan hit a sport-utility vehicle in Joe Biden’s motorcade on Sunday night in Delaware, causing no injuries in what officials said appeared to be a car accident rather than an intentional act.

The president’s motorcade was preparing to take Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, to their residence in Wilmington after a campaign dinner with staffers and volunteers. Biden had stepped out on to the street when a crash could be heard down the street from Biden and his protective Secret Service detail.

Continue reading...

MP Layla Moran fears family trapped in Gaza church ‘will not survive until Christmas’

Posted on by

Oxford and Abingdon MP’s extended family among those sheltering in besieged Holy Family church in Gaza City

“I fear my family under siege by Israeli forces in a church in Gaza will not survive until Christmas, between the snipers and the lack of water.”

Those were the stark words of Layla Moran, the MP for Oxford and Abingdon whose extended Christian Palestinian family members are among those who have been trapped inside the Holy Family church complex in Gaza City for 60 days.

Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders demands answers on Israel’s ‘indiscriminate’ Gaza bombing

Posted on by

Senator introduces resolution to investigate ‘humanitarian cataclysm … being done with American bombs and money’

The US’s support for Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza is facing new scrutiny in Washington following a resolution by the independent senator Bernie Sanders that could ultimately be used to curtail military assistance.

It is far from clear whether Sanders has the support to pass the resolution, but its introduction in the Senate this week – by an important progressive ally of the US president Joe Biden – highlights mounting human rights and political concerns by Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Continue reading...

Israel says it will open new aid crossing into Gaza Strip

Posted on by

Announcement follows pressure from allies in US to alleviate humanitarian crisis in besieged territory

Israel has said it will open a new aid crossing into the Gaza Strip in the face of pressure from allies in Washington to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory and wind down its wide-scale bombings and armoured ground operations against Hamas.

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel, previously used for goods and aid deliveries, would reopen to process humanitarian supplies, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Friday.

Continue reading...