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Trump says he thinks Biden will stay in White House race

Trump says he thinks Biden will stay in White House race
US President Joe Biden and First lady Jill Biden walk to the White House in Washington, DC, on July 7, 2024, as they return after attending campaign events in Pennsylvania. (AFP)
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Updated 09 July 2024
AFP
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Trump says he thinks Biden will stay in White House race

Trump says he thinks Biden will stay in White House race
  • Trump said he intentionally did not look much at Biden as he spoke
Updated 09 July 2024
AFP
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Washington: Donald Trump said in an interview Monday night that he thinks President Joe Biden will stay in the race for the White House despite calls for him to drop out over concerns about his mental fitness.
“I think he, you know, might very well stay in,” Trump told Sean Hannity on Fox News, in his first interview since Biden’s dismal performance in their presidential debate late last month.
“He’s got an ego and he doesn’t want to quit,” Trump said.
The Republican ex-president also gave his first detailed account of the CNN-hosted debate in Atlanta, during which Biden often lost his train of thought and at times spoke incoherently, looking dazed.
“I will tell you. It was a strange debate, because within a couple of minutes, the answers given by him were, they didn’t, they didn’t make a lot of sense,” Trump said.
Trump said he intentionally did not look much at Biden as he spoke.
“I did take a couple of peeks when he was in the midst of giving some really bad answers,” Trump said.
“They weren’t even answers. They were just words put together that had no meaning or sense.”

Topics: US presidential election 2024 Donald Trump Biden-Trump Debate

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Germany arrests a US citizen over accusations of spying for China

Updated 1 min 2 sec ago
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Germany arrests a US citizen over accusations of spying for China

Germany arrests a US citizen over accusations of spying for China
Updated 1 min 2 sec ago
The suspect, who was only identified as Martin D., was arrested in Frankfurt
His home was being searched

BERLIN: Germany’s federal prosecutor office said it arrested an American citizen on Thursday who allegedly spied for China.
The office said that the suspect, who was only identified as Martin D., was arrested in Frankfurt and that his home was being searched.
The accused, who until recently worked for the US Armed Forces in Germany, is strongly suspected of having agreed to act as an intelligence agent for a foreign secret service.
Earlier this year, he contacted Chinese government agencies and offered to transmit sensitive information from the US military to a Chinese intelligence service, according to an investigation by Germany’s domestic intelligence service.
He had obtained the information in question in the course of his work in the US army, the prosecutor’s statement said, without giving any further information.

Zelensky tells European summit ‘peace through strength’ is needed now

Zelensky tells European summit ‘peace through strength’ is needed now
Updated 9 min 30 sec ago
Reuters
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Zelensky tells European summit ‘peace through strength’ is needed now

Zelensky tells European summit ‘peace through strength’ is needed now
  • Zelensky said that concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin were unacceptable
Updated 9 min 30 sec ago
Reuters

KYIV: An approach of “peace through strength” is needed urgently as Europe confronts the danger posed by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told leaders at the European Political Community summit in Budapest on Thursday.
Zelensky said that concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin were unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for Europe.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky European peace

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US military judge reinstates 9/11 mastermind plea deal: official

US military judge reinstates 9/11 mastermind plea deal: official
Updated 12 min 43 sec ago
AFP
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US military judge reinstates 9/11 mastermind plea deal: official

US military judge reinstates 9/11 mastermind plea deal: official
  • The prosecution has the opportunity to appeal the decision, but it was not immediately clear if they would do so
Updated 12 min 43 sec ago
AFP

WASHINGTON: A US military judge has reinstated plea agreements for 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants, an official said Thursday, three months after the deals were scrapped by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The agreements — which are understood to take the death penalty off the table — had triggered anger among some relatives of victims of the 2001 attacks, and Austin said that both they and the American public deserved to see the defendants stand trial.
“I can confirm that the military judge has ruled that the pretrial agreements for the three accused are valid and enforceable,” the US official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The prosecution has the opportunity to appeal the decision, but it was not immediately clear if they would do so.
The plea deals with Mohammed and two alleged accomplices were announced in late July in a step that appeared to have moved their long-running cases toward resolution after years of being bogged down in pre-trial maneuverings while the defendants remained held at the Guantanamo Bay military base in Cuba.
But Austin withdrew the agreements two days after they were announced, saying the decision should rest with him given its significance.
He subsequently told journalists that “the families of the victims, our service members and the American public deserve the opportunity to see military commission trials carried out in this case.”
Much of the legal jousting surrounding the men’s cases has focused on whether they could be tried fairly after having undergone methodical torture at the hands of the CIA in the years after 9/11 — a thorny issue that the plea agreements would have avoided.

Topics: 9/11

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution
Updated 23 min 17 sec ago
AFP
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India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution

India’s Hindus bathe in holy river defiled by pollution
  • Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking Yamuna waters to pray
  • A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna ‘more of a toxic waterway than a river’
Updated 23 min 17 sec ago
AFP

NEW DELHI: Sweeping aside thick toxic scum, thousands of Hindu devotees ignored court warnings Thursday against bathing in the sacred but sewage-filled Yamuna river, a grim display of environmental degradation in India’s capital.
Thousands celebrated the festival of Chhath Puja for the Hindu sun god Surya, entering the stinking waters to pray as the evening rays set in the sky.
A parliamentary report in February called the Yamuna “more of a toxic waterway than a river,” saying the foam clouds were formed from a potent chemical soup including laundry detergent and phosphates from fertilizers.
“Please understand you will fall sick,” a high court order said Wednesday, Indian media reported, restricting ritual bathing on health grounds. “We can’t allow you to go into the water.”
But housewife Krishnawati Devi, 45, said she was not worried.
“I believe the waters of the river are pure and blessed by the sun god himself,” she said. “Nothing will happen to me — god will take care of everything.”
Hindu faithful ignored the order, with women wrapped in fine saris and heavy jewelry wading into the grey waters.
White foam swirled around their feet. In places, it was so thick it looked like the river had frozen.
“Chhath is a festival of unflinching faith,” said Avinash Kumar, 58, a government office worker. “We can also offer prayers at home but it doesn’t feel the same as praying in the river.”
Others thumped drums and sang.
New Delhi’s authorities have poured in anti-foaming agents to disperse the froth, and used nets to sweep the scum away — but it has done nothing to clean the fetid water itself.
“It stinks, but it’s ok,” said 14-year-old schoolgirl Deepa Kumari. “What is important is that we get to celebrate in the river with our people.”
Rituals in the days-long festival culminate at dawn on Friday.
“I don’t bother about the pollution,” said Pooja Prasad, 20, a student. “The mother goddess will take care of all our troubles,” she added.
The sprawling megacity of some 30 million people is also smothered in poisonous smog — fueled by burning crop fields and vehicle exhaust fumes.
Levels of fine particulate matter — dangerous microparticles known as PM2.5 pollutants that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — have this week surged beyond 50 times the World Health Organization recommended daily maximum.
“Toxi-city,” broadcasters dubbed the capital.
City authorities have declared repeated efforts to clean the river.
From an icy source of a Himalayan glacier, the Yamuna feeds into the mighty Ganges, flowing more than 3,100 kilometers (1,925 miles) to the sea in the Bay of Bengal.
But barely 400 kilometers into that journey, the water passing New Delhi is already effectively dead.
The parliamentary report warned of an “excessive presence of heavy metals” and cancer-causing pollutants ranging from arsenic to zinc, from everything from batteries to pesticides.
“Contamination... transform it into a carrier of untreated industrial waste, garbage, agricultural run-off and municipal waste,” the report read.
“This has a profound effect on the well-being of the people.”
Government statistics say 80 percent of the pollution load is raw sewage, far exceeding permissible levels for bathing.
Some of the faithful have traditionally drunk the water.
Levels fluctuate, but in one spot in 2021 in south Delhi, fecal bacteria levels exceeded maximum health regulations by 8,800 times.
But many say they are frustrated at the situation.
“The river is sacred to us, but all the filth from the industrial belt nearby is being pumped into it,” added Kumar.
“Every year they say they are going to clean it, but nothing ever happens.”

Topics: India

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Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients
Updated 49 min 16 sec ago
MOHAMMED RASOLDEEN
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Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients

Saudi doctors provide free eye surgery to hundreds of Sri Lankan patients
  • Doctors conduct 500 cataract removal procedures in Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka
  • Campaign will then move to the eastern city of Kattankudy, where another 500 patients will be treated
Updated 49 min 16 sec ago
MOHAMMED RASOLDEEN

COLOMBO: Hundreds of Sri Lankan patients are set to receive eye surgery and specialist care this week under a blindness prevention program launched by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

The Saudi Noor Volunteer Program, running between Nov. 4 and 9, is organized by KSrelief in the town of Walasmulla on the southeastern coast of Sri Lanka, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital Colombo. On Nov. 10-17, the campaign will move to the city of Kattakundy, further east.

Cataracts are the most common cause of blindness in Sri Lanka. Patients often have to wait for years to have them removed under government programs. At private clinics, the cheapest lens replacement procedure is too expensive for many patients in poorer parts of the country.

“There is big demand since poor people can’t afford surgery privately, which costs 100,000 rupees ($340) per person. There are many cataract patients in Sri Lanka but the facilities are few. There are long waiting lists for surgery,” M.S.M. Thassim, chairman of the Association of Muslim Youths — KSrelief’s local partner — told Arab News.

Patients wait for KSrelief-funded eye surgery in Kattankudy, Sri Lanka, on Nov. 5, 2024. (Association of Muslim Youths)

“We are doing it in two places; the first part is Walasmulla, which is finishing on Nov. 9, and we have already completed 400 surgeries and 100 more to go. Then at Kattankudy, which begins on Nov. 10, where another 500 will be performed.”

Some of the patients were already blind before the intervention of the KSrelief medical team, whose members have been praised for being “people friendly” and “committed” to their mission.

“The patients are full of gratitude to the Saudi government and the King Salman center for the noble intervention that restored their eyesight,” Thassim said.

The two-week eye care campaign in Walasmulla and Kattakundy is part of the Saudi government’s long-standing efforts to combat blindness in developing countries.

In Sri Lanka alone, 31,000 patients have undergone Saudi-sponsored surgery since 2001.

Topics: Sri Lanka KSRelief

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