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By Léon BRUNEAU WASHINGTON, Jan 25, 2024 (AFP) – Long gone is the Joe Biden of February 2023, strolling confidently through the streets of Kyiv, basking in the role as champion of the Ukrainian cause in the fight against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Nearly one year after that triumphant appearance, the US president is instead facing the harsh realities of running for re-election while bogged down in one stagnant war and navigating the volatility of another, […]
WASHINGTON, Jan 21, 2024 (AFP) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who was once the leading Republican rival to Donald Trump, ended his election campaign on Sunday and threw his support behind the former president. DeSantis’s withdrawal, after months of weakening support, leaves only low-polling Nikki Haley standing between Trump and nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate for the US presidential election in November. In a video message, DeSantis said that following his second place last […]
WASHINGTON, Jan 13, 2024 (AFP) – The United States on Saturday congratulated Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te, but maintained that Washington does not support independence for the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing. Asked by reporters for Washington’s position on Taiwan, where independence-leaning Lai has pitched himself as a defender of the island’s democratic way of life, US President Joe Biden said: “We do not support independence.” In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken saluted Lai […]
By Amber WANG and Xinqi SU TAIPEI, Jan 13, 2024 (AFP) – Taiwan’s president-elect Lai Ching-te vowed Saturday to defend the self-ruled island from “intimidation” by China, after voters defied warnings from Beijing and swept him to election victory. Lai — branded by Beijing as a threat to peace in the flashpoint region — secured an unprecedented third consecutive term for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Saturday’s poll after a raucous campaign in which […]
By Romain FONSEGRIVES LOS ANGELES, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to tax evasion charges when he appeared in federal court Thursday, in a case that adds further pressure on US President Joe Biden as he readies for a bare-knuckle election rematch with scandal-plagued Republican Donald Trump. Hunter Biden is a lightning rod for Republicans, who have hammered the recovering drug addict, alleging — without evidence — that he and his […]
By Frankie Taggart and Caitlin Wilson WASHINGTON, Jan 11, 2024 (AFP) – Republicans recommended Wednesday that Hunter Biden be held in criminal contempt of the US Congress for snubbing a summons — after scenes of chaos erupted on Capitol Hill when the president’s son turned up in person to defend himself. Two Republican-led House of Representatives committees — oversight and judiciary — had gathered separately to debate contempt resolutions after the younger Biden defied their […]
By Anita Chang BEATTIE WASHINGTON, Dec 29, 2023 (AFP) – The US state of Maine on Thursday blocked former president Donald Trump from its Republican presidential primary ballot, becoming the second state to disqualify him over his role in the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol. Maine’s top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said in her ruling that the events of January 6, 2021 “occurred at the behest of, and with the […]
By Huw GRIFFITH LOS ANGELES, Dec 20, 2023 (AFP) – Donald Trump is ineligible for the US presidency because of his involvement in the January 2021 assault on the Capitol, Colorado’s supreme court ruled Tuesday, setting off a political earthquake that could upend next year’s election. The stunning legal decision — which Trump’s campaign said it would appeal — drew immediate condemnation from Republicans across the spectrum, and looked set to light a fire under […]
By Xinqi SU HONG KONG, Dec 10, 2023 (AFP) – Polls opened in Hong Kong’s first “patriots only” district council election on Sunday, with officials dismissing concerns of potentially low turnout in a race that has shut out all opposition candidates after a national security crackdown. The previous election was held at the peak of the huge, sometimes violent, democracy protests in 2019, and recorded a historic-high 71 percent turnout — delivering a landslide victory […]
WARSAW, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, who announced Friday he is running for a fifth term, has over the past two decades built a system of domestic repression and confrontation with the West that is almost certain to guarantee his re-election. Ever since the former little-known KGB agent first became president on New Year’s Eve 1999, he has consolidated power by bringing oligarchs to heel, banning any real opposition, and turning […]
MOSCOW, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Friday that he would run for re-election in 2024, allowing the Kremlin leader to extend his decades-long grip on power into the 2030s. The 71-year-old has led Russia since the turn of the century, winning four presidential ballots and briefly serving as prime minister in a system where opposition has become virtually non-existent. The announcement came at a set-piece Kremlin event for army personnel, […]
By Amber WANG TAIPEI, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – Hsiao Bi-khim, Taiwan’s former envoy to the United States and self-described “cat warrior”, was named Monday as the running mate to presidential frontrunner Lai Ching-te for the island’s January elections. The January 13 vote comes at a time when Beijing has intensified military and diplomatic pressure on the administration of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and China has blasted the pairing of Vice President Lai and Hsiao […]
