Tag: Biden

Whispers, hints, and non-denials ahead of supposed Biden 2024 launch

No one at the White House will openly tell you Joe Biden is announcing his 2024 re-election campaign next Tuesday. And no one will tell you he isn’t. Including Joe Biden. Asked by AFP as he crossed a sun-drenched Rose Garden on Friday whether he was announcing, the president playfully answered: “I don’t know.” Welcome to the Biden mystery reveal party. Here’s what we know. Major US media, led by The Washington Post, quoted multiple […]

Facing criminal charges, Trump vows to ‘never’ drop presidential bid

Washington, United States | AFP | Wednesday 4/12/2023 Former US president Donald Trump, having been criminally charged in New York, pledged Tuesday to “never drop out” of the 2024 race for the White House, and insisted Joe Biden is not fit to run again. The Republican real estate magnate, who is facing 34 felony counts in New York over alleged hush money paid to an adult film actress, told Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that […]

Biden ends US Covid emergency status

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Monday officially ended the Covid national health emergency that for more than three years underpinned extraordinary efforts to provide care for a country where more than a million people died from the disease. The White House said Biden signed a law passed earlier by Congress “which terminates the national emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic.” This closes lavish funding streams for Covid tests, free vaccines and […]

Biden calls Putin’s nuclear deployment talk ‘dangerous’

    Washington, United States | AFP | US President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated plan to deploy nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, branding it “dangerous” talk. “This is dangerous kind of talk and it’s worrisome,” Biden told reporters at the White House. The Kremlin leader announced on Saturday that he was ordering the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, run by fellow authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko as […]

Biden kicks off campaign touting US economy

DURHAM, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden launched a new drive Tuesday to promote a major theme of his expected reelection campaign, touting what he said was a resurgence of US manufacturing — and warning Republicans could tank the economy. “I’ve been determined to make things in this country again, to build American manufacturing capacity,” Biden said at Wolfspeed, a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Durham, North Carolina, that recently announced a $5 billion expansion. […]

Biden arrives in Canada to discuss trade, migration challenges

by Aurélia END Agence France-Presse OTTAWA, Canada (AFP) — US President Joe Biden arrived Thursday in Canada where he will meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address parliament, with reports that a deal has been struck on managing undocumented migration across the neighbors’ long border. Trade, Canada’s anemic defense spending, and a potential international force to stabilize troubled Haiti are expected to be on the agenda in the events set largely for Friday. As Biden […]

Biden signs law declassifying US intel on Covid origin

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden on Monday signed into law a bill requiring the release of intelligence materials on potential links between the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. “We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins…, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share […]

Biden says US ‘not looking for conflict’ with China

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the United States is “not looking for conflict” with China despite tensions over the shooting down of what US officials say was a Chinese spy balloon. “We’re going to compete fully with China, but… we’re not looking for conflict — and that’s been the case so far,” he said in an interview with the PBS network. Biden’s comments apparently sought to defuse tensions over […]

As Biden calls for ceasefire, Republicans do battle

by Frankie TAGGART  Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Joe Biden may have preached unity but new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s frosty expression and the Republican jeers throughout the State of the Union speech told the story of a partisan night. In a potent reminder of how the balance of power has shifted, Biden delivered his annual address — and perhaps his pitch for another term in the White House — in the shadow […]

Pres. Biden urges US unity and vows to restore blue-collar pride

Washington, United States | AFP | Wednesday 2/8/2023 by Sebastian Smith and Shaun Tandon President Joe Biden touted America’s “unbroken” democracy and resurgent economy in an optimistic State of the Union speech Tuesday — as he sought to persuade skeptical voters that at 80 he still has what it takes to takes to run for reelection. Biden’s address before Congress and tens of millions of television viewers was a chance for the Democrat, who is […]

Developing story: US economy better positioned to grow than any ‘on Earth:’ Biden

Washington, United States | AFP | President Joe Biden said in an address to Congress Tuesday that the US economy is better positioned to grow “than any country on Earth,” despite disruptions from Covid-19 and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “The pandemic disrupted our supply chains and Putin’s unfair and brutal war in Ukraine disrupted energy supplies as well as food supplies,” Biden said during his State of the Union address. “But we’re better positioned than […]

Biden to urge US unity and ‘blue collar’ economic revival

by Sebastian Smith Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden will tell Americans Tuesday that US democracy is “bruised” but “unbroken” in a State of the Union speech appealing to Republican opponents to unite in building a blue-collar economy, according to excerpts from the White House. Biden, who is expected soon to announce a bid for a second term, despite being already 80 years old, will use the address before the full […]