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Biden decision to continue re-election campaign may come within days, Hawaii governor says

Biden decision to continue re-election campaign may come within days, Hawaii governor says

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said Saturday that President Biden could make a decision within days on whether he stays in the presidential election race to seek a second term. This comes after Green participated in a recent meeting with Biden and nearly two dozen fellow Democrat governors amid concerns about the president’s re-election campaign, following the president’s shaky debate performance last month against former President Donald Trump. “I think the president stays in this race unless he feels that it is not winnable, or he feels that he has to hear other voices in his inner circle that he shouldn’t run,” Green, whose family has known the president for years, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “If the president felt that he wasn’t up to it and truly not up to it, he would step down.” “We’ll probably know in the next couple of days how the president feels about all this,” he added. TOP DEMS PLANNING MEETING ABOUT BIDEN’S FUTURE DESPITE PRESIDENT’S VOWS TO CONTINUE CAMPAIGN Green said he believes Biden should be allowed to pick who should replace him on the ticket if he were to exit the race and that the president would likely designate Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement. “I think it’s very clear that the Democratic Party would be ecstatic overall to have the president designate his vice president if it came to that,” Green said. Harris “is a powerful person, she is also a thought-leading woman, she’s an African American who was [California’s] attorney general,” Green said. “There are no credentials that are better than what the current vice president has.” Biden, 81, has repeatedly insisted over the past week and a half that he will remain in the race, including in an interview with ABC News that aired Friday night. But concerns about the president’s mental acuity have been raised, including by members of his party, since his debate performance. Some Democrats have called on Biden to leave the presidential race, while others in the party, particularly governors, have said they continue to support his re-election. Green said his prediction for the president to make a decision within a few days takes into account expected pressure that could be placed on the president when congressional lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this week. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is working to gather support from Democrat senators, aiming for a meeting on Monday, to discuss pressuring Biden to drop out of the presidential race. Additionally, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is leading a virtual meeting with top Democrats on Sunday, with leaders expected to discuss the path forward for Biden’s campaign. “I really, honestly think that he has to make the decision,” Green said. “And it should not come from another governor. It should not come from anyone but the closest, closest advisers to him and his own heart.” Green also highlighted that Trump, who is 78-years-old and the biggest threat to Biden’s re-election, is only three years younger than Biden and that both will experience cognitive lapses going forward. But, Green argued, temperament is more important than age in the presidential race. “For God’s sake, these two guys have to hold the nuclear codes. I don’t want someone who tweets in the middle of the night and rages at other countries,” Green said, referring to Trump. “That is not good. That’s not the problem we have with President Biden.” Green, who was a physician before moving to the governor’s mansion, said everyone has elderly parents or grandparents who experience pauses in their ability to express themselves clearly or other mental lapses, but that they are not pushed aside since they still possess great experience and wisdom and have a role in the family. “That’s why I’m standing by the president until he tells me otherwise,” Green said. Green also offered some insight into the meeting with Biden and other Democrat governors. Green said he asked Biden about his health, to which the president responded by saying everything was fine except for his brain. FORMER OBAMA ADVISER LAMENTS BIDEN’S ABC INTERVIEW: ‘DENIAL, DELUSION, DEFIANCE.’ The comment from Biden, which was previously made public, was made in jest, according to Green, who said that context was lost when leaked by other people. “It was absolutely a joke, and in order to make a self-deprecating joke, you have to have intact cognitive function, period,” Green said. Green also pushed back on claims that advisers set up the meeting to have governors supportive of Biden speak first to quell any critics. The Hawaii governor said the reality was that the meeting featured a very candid, unscripted conversation with governors of differing perspectives. “That call had just like you’d expect in a coffee shop, a few people mouthed off, a few people, you know, probably excessively praised the president, but almost everybody was just trying to see, ‘Are we OK?’” Green said. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tennis: Iga Swiatek defeated by Putintseva in the third round at Wimbledon

Tennis: Iga Swiatek defeated by Putintseva in the third round at Wimbledon

The world’s top-ranked female player continued her grasscourt nightmare at Wimbledon, losing in three sets to Yulia Putintseva. Iga Swiatek has never had much affection for grass and any hope that this year’s Wimbledon would kindle a blossoming love affair for the surface went up in flames as the world number one was sent tumbling out in a 3-6 6-1 6-2 defeat by Yulia Putintseva. On paper, the fiery 35th-ranked Kazakh should have been easy pickings for the top-seeded Swiatek on Saturday, who had not dropped a set in their previous four meetings and came into the encounter on a 21-match winning streak that included banking a fifth grand slam title at the French Open. Yet slick grass courts just do not suit Swiatek and in a cauldron atmosphere on Court One, Swiatek disintegrated under huge pressure from Putintseva, who dusted herself down after losing the first set to launch an attacking barrage that the Pole could not contain. The huge Swiatek groundstrokes that had inflicted so much punishment in the opener were now being returned with interest, while the Pole’s movement seemed suddenly sluggish, her feet a fraction of a second slower to adjust to the ball. Putintseva broke twice in the second set and twice more in the third before sealing a three-set victory to set up a fourth-round clash against Jelena Ostapenko. For Swiatek, it was yet another disappointment at Wimbledon, where last year’s run to the quarterfinals remains her best effort. It was not, therefore, as big a shock as it may have seemed. None of her 22 singles titles has come on grass, a surface on which she has never even reached a final. Another year of disappointment at Wimbledon for Iga Swiatek. Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan shakes hands after defeating Swiatek, right, in their third-round match on day six of The Championships at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club [Susan Mullane/USA TODAY Sports] Adblock test (Why?)

Will Iran’s new president fulfil his promises?

Will Iran’s new president fulfil his promises?

Massoud Pezeskhian has promised to bring changes at home and engage leaders abroad. Iran has elected a new president. Masoud Pezeshkian has been described by many as a moderate candidate – who’s been promising social reforms and engagement with the West. But in the Iranian system, it is the supreme leader – not the president – who has the final say. So, will Pezeshkian’s election bring any shift in policy? And how will he deal with the many economic and political challenges facing Iran? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Foad Izadi – Head of the American Studies Department at the University of Tehran and a specialist in US-Iran-related issues Roxane Farmanfarmaian – Lecturer in modern Middle East politics at the University of Cambridge and specialist in Middle East security Mehran Kamrava – Professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar Adblock test (Why?)

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso military leaders sign new pact, rebuff ECOWAS

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso military leaders sign new pact, rebuff ECOWAS

The military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have hailed a newly signed treaty as a step “towards greater integration” between the three countries, in the latest showing of their shift away from traditional regional and Western allies. During a summit in the Nigerien capital of Niamey on Saturday, the three leaders signed a confederation treaty that aims to strengthen a mutual defence pact announced last year, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The signing capped the first joint summit of the leaders – Niger’s General Abdourahmane Tchiani, Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore, and Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goita – since they came to power in successive coups in their bordering West African nations. It also came just months after the three countries withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc in January. Speaking at the summit on Saturday, Tchiani called the 50-year-old ECOWAS “a threat to our states”. The West African economic bloc had suspended the three countries after their respective military takeovers, which occurred in July 2023 in Niger, September 2022 in Burkina Faso and August 2021 in Mali. ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on Niger and Mali, but the bloc’s leaders have held out hope for the trio’s eventual return. “We are going to create an AES of the peoples, instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa,” Tchiani said. Burkina Faso’s Traore also accused foreign powers of seeking to exploit the countries. The three nations have regularly accused former colonial ruler France of meddling in ECOWAS. “Westerners consider that we belong to them and our wealth also belongs to them. They think that they are the ones who must continue to tell us what is good for our states,” he said. “This era is gone forever. Our resources will remain for us and our population’s.” For his part, Mali’s Goita said the strengthened relationship means an “attack on one of us will be an attack on all the other members”. Shifting influence Reporting from Abuja on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris noted that the three military leaders met just a day before ECOWAS was set to have a meeting in the capital of Nigeria. Efforts to mediate the countries’ return to the bloc were expected to be discussed, Idris said. “Many people believe that the meeting in Niger was to counter whatever is coming [from] ECOWAS and to also outline their position: That they are not returning to the Economic Community of the West African States,” he explained. Idris added the newly elected president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, recently visited the three countries in an informal capacity in an effort to mend the ties. “However, it’s not clear whether or not he’s got a positive response,” he said. Adama Gaye, a political commentator and former ECOWAS communications director, said the creation of the three-member Alliance of Sahel States has “weakened” the economic bloc. Still, Gaye told Al Jazeera that “despite its real-name recognition, ECOWAS has not performed well when it comes to achieving regional integration, promoting intra-African trade in West Africa and also in ensuring security” in the region. “So this justifies the feeling of many in West Africa – [the] ordinary citizenry and even intellectuals – [who are] asking questions about the standing of ECOWAS, whether it should be revised, reinvented,” he said, urging the bloc to engage in diplomacy to try to bridge the rift. Violence and instability The Niamey summit also came a day before the United States is set to complete its withdrawal from a key base in Niger, underscoring how the new military leaders have redrawn security relations that had defined the region in recent years. Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have jockeyed for control of territory in all three countries, unleashing waves of violence and spurring concern in Western capitals. But following the recent coups, the countries’ ties to Western governments have frayed. French troops completed their withdrawal from Mali in 2022, and they left Niger and Burkina Faso last year. Meanwhile, US Air Force Major General Kenneth Ekman said earlier this week that about 1,000 military personnel would complete their withdrawal from Niger’s Air Base 101 by Sunday. The US is also in the process of leaving a separate, $100m drone base near Agadez in central Niger, which officials have described as essential to gathering intelligence about armed groups in the region. While pushing out former Western allies, the military leaders in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have increasingly pursued security and economic ties with Russia. However, it remains unclear if the new approach has helped to stem the violence that has plagued the countries, which are home to about 72 million people. In 2023, Burkina Faso saw a massive escalation in violence, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) tracker. In Niger, slight gains against armed groups largely backslid following the coup, according to ACLED. Meanwhile, an offensive by Malian forces and Wagner mercenaries saw “elements” of the Russian-government-linked group “involved in the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of civilians, destruction of infrastructure, and looting of property, as well as triggering mass displacement”, ACLED said. About three million people have been displaced by fighting across the countries. Adblock test (Why?)