WASHINGTON: Former US Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday he is entering the 2020 White House race, joining an already crowded list of candidates running on the Democratic Party platform.
In a tweet accompanied by a three-and-a-half minute video, Biden said he couldn’t stand idly by while US President Donald Trump “fundamentally altered the character of this nation.”
“The core values of this nation... our standing in the world... our very democracy... everything that has made America — America — is at stake,” he wrote in the post.
“That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.”
Even before his official announcement, Biden, who served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president, led most surveys of Democratic voters.
The RealClearPolitics poll aggregate puts him as favorite with 29.3 percent support, followed by independent Senator Bernie Sanders at 23 percent.
Former US VP Biden announces 2020 run for White House
Former US VP Biden announces 2020 run for White House
- Biden joins an already crowded list of presidential candidates running from the Democratic party
- He served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president
American soldier arrested in Russia over an alleged theft will remain in custody, state media report
American soldier arrested in Russia over an alleged theft will remain in custody, state media report
Officials said that Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend
MOSOCW: An American soldier arrested in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on charges of stealing lost an appeal against his detention and will remain in custody, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported Friday, citing court officials.
The soldier, identified by court officials as Gordon Black, will remain in custody at least until July 2, the report said, after the Primorsky Regional Court upheld the lower court’s ruling to place Black in custody pending investigation and trial.
Several US officials said earlier this month that Black, a 34-year-old staff sergeant, was stationed in South Korea and was in the process of returning home to Fort Cavazos in Texas. Instead, officials said that Black, who is married, traveled to Russia to see a longtime girlfriend. He was detained in Vladivostok, a major military and commercial Pacific port in Russia’s Far East, and accused of stealing from her.
RIA Novosti said, citing local police, that Black has admitted guilt and is cooperating with investigators.
Black’s arrest further complicates US relations with Russia, which have grown increasingly tense as the war in Ukraine drags on.
Russia is known to be holding a number of Americans in its jails, including corporate security executive Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The US government has designated both as wrongfully detained and has been trying to negotiate for their release.
Others detained include Travis Leake, a musician who had been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges; Marc Fogel, a teacher in Moscow, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.
American soldier Gordon Black arrested in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok on charges of stealing lost an appeal against his detention and will remain in custody. (Gordon Black via Facebook/via Reuters)
Zelensky visits Kharkiv in show of support for city pounded by Russian strikes
- The Ukrainian leader met senior military leaders in the city and traveled to the site of a major printing house a day after it was destroyed
- “I also received updates on defense operations, particularly in the Vovchansk area, as well as the recovery of damaged energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said on X
KHARKIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv on Friday as it faces intensified Russian air attacks amid an offensive push by Moscow’s forces into the north of the surrounding region.
The Ukrainian leader met senior military leaders in the city and traveled to the site of a major printing house a day after it was destroyed in a Russian missile attack that killed at least seven people.
“Today I am in Kharkiv... I also received updates on defense operations, particularly in the Vovchansk area, as well as the recovery of damaged energy infrastructure,” Zelensky said on X.
Russian forces launched a cross-border assault on May 10, driving toward the border town of Vovchansk on one line of attack and pushing toward the village of Lyptsi on the other.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top commander, said on Thursday that Russian forces were locked in street fighting in Vovchansk and that they had moved onto a defensive footing near Lyptsi.
Russia says it wants to set up a “buffer” zone in the region in what it calls a response to Kyiv’s shelling of Russian border regions such as Belgorod. Russia frequently launches air strikes on Ukraine from the region of Belgorod.
The assault opened a new front in the war in what Kyiv said was an effort to divert its outnumbered troops from the east where the fiercest fighting is taking place.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city which lies some 30 km from the border with Russia, and the surrounding region have faced daily missile, drone and guided bomb strikes for months.
Most of the energy infrastructure has been severely damaged in the city, which is still home to around 1.3 million people.
“The entire city and region of Kharkiv deserve our support, gratitude, and respect,” Zelensky said.
Sunak urged to ‘safeguard’ UK vote against foreign interference
- Letter highlighted findings from security officials that it was “almost certain” Russian actors sought to interfere in the UK’s 2019 vote
- That interference could include cyberattacks, blackmailing of lawmakers, spreading of disinformation online — including AI “deep fakes”
LONDON: UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “must be prepared for the possibility of foreign interference” in the election campaign ahead of the July 4 vote, parliament’s security committee warned on Friday.
Margaret Beckett, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS), wrote in a letter to Sunak that there had been a “pattern of attempted foreign interference from countries such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea” in recent years.
The letter highlighted findings from security officials that it was “almost certain” Russian actors sought to interfere in the UK’s 2019 vote, and that China was seeking to influence democratic processes overseas.
“It is our view that the UK must be prepared for the possibility of foreign interference” during the July 4 general election, it added.
That interference could include cyberattacks, blackmailing of lawmakers, spreading of disinformation online — including AI “deep fakes” — and sowing of division on controversial topics.
The government should help educate the public to identify disinformation and ensure the safety of elected politicians, advised the committee.
Beckett, a former foreign secretary in Tony Blair’s Labour government, urged Sunak “to identify any last actions that can be taken collectively in the national interest” before the current parliament is dissolved next week.
Advancements in AI and the deepening of hostilities between the West and nations such as Russia have led experts to warn of an unprecedented threat ahead of the key elections in the UK and the United States this year.
Home Office urged to be flexible on visa laws after baby born in UK is ordered to leave
- Massah, 13 months old, does not have settled status despite her Jordanian parents living legally in Britain
- ‘The need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children,’ Home Office tells parents
LONDON: The UK Home Office has been urged to look again at how it enforces visa rules after it threatened a 13-month-old with removal from the country to ensure the “integrity” of immigration law, Sky News reported on Friday.
Massah was born to Jordanian parents in the UK who have been living legally in the country since 2021.
However, the family went on holiday in January this year, before Massah’s status in the UK was confirmed, meaning the child technically reentered the country as a tourist.
Despite applying for a child-dependent visa for the baby girl, her parents were told this month that Massah “will be required to immediately leave the UK.” She will then need to have her visa reapplied for from overseas.
In a letter to Massah’s parents, the Home Office said: “In the particular circumstances of your case, it has been concluded that the need to maintain the integrity of the immigration laws outweighs the possible effect on you/your children.”
Massah’s father Mohammed said the family fear that if they return with Massah to Jordan to reapply, the application will still be dismissed.
He added that he and Massah’s mother are worried about regional instability, and that the situation is giving them sleepless nights.
“I can’t imagine how I can tell (Massah) the story in the future that the country you (were) born (in) asked you to leave while you (were) a year old,” Mohammed told Sky News.
“I’m trying to fix everything. I don’t need to consider a one-year-old infant as an overstayer here.”
A Home Office spokesperson told Sky News: “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules.
“We are working closely with the parents of this child to ensure they receive the support and direction they require regarding the application.”
The issue of immigration law is set to become a central point of the UK’s general election, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced this week that the country will go to the polls on July 4.
The announcement came the day before figures were released showing that net immigration to the UK had dropped slightly over the previous 12 months.
Letter signed by EU staffers states ‘growing concern’ at bloc’s response to Gaza war
- Over 200 employees sign letter calling for ceasefire, release of hostages, ban on arms sales to Israel
- ‘What’s happening is jeopardising principles of international law that we deem important and that we take for granted’
LONDON: More than 200 EU staff have signed a letter to top officials criticizing the union’s humanitarian response to the war in Gaza.
The 211 signatories condemned the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel “in the strongest terms,” but voiced “growing concern” at the “continued apathy to the plight of Palestinians” following the International Court of Justice’s January ruling suggesting a credible risk of genocide in Gaza.
They added that Israel abandoning a rules-based global order in favor of one determined by use of force is contrary to the EU’s core values.
“It was precisely to avert such a grim world order that our grandparents, witnesses of the horrors of World War II, created Europe,” the signatories declared.
“To stand idly by in the face of such an erosion of the international rule of law would mean failing the European project as envisaged by them. This cannot happen in our name.”
The letter, which will be delivered to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and European Council chief Charles Michel, urges EU leaders to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and a halt to arms exports by EU members to Israel.
It added: “The EU’s inability to respond to these increasingly desperate calls is in clear contradiction with the values that the EU stands for and that we stand for.”
The move comes a few weeks after around 100 EU staff members protested against the war in Brussels.
One of the marchers, Manus Carlisle, told Reuters: “We’re coming together in a peaceful assembly, to stand up for those rights, principles and values that the European institutions are built on.”
Zeno Benetti, one of the organizers of the letter, told The Guardian: “We couldn’t believe that our leaders who were so vocal about human rights and who described Europe as the beacon of human rights were suddenly so silent about the crisis unfolding in Gaza.
“It’s like suddenly we were asked to turn a blind eye on our values and on the values that we were allegedly working for. And for us, this was not acceptable.”
Benetti added: “We signed because we think that what’s happening is jeopardising principles of international law that we deem important and that we take for granted.”
