International

Biden tests positive for COVID, cancels Las Vegas campaign event

Published

2 months ago

July 18, 2024

United States President Joe Biden

Biden tests positive for COVID, cancels Las Vegas campaign event

United States President Joe Biden has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing him to cancel a campaign event in Las Vegas, as pressure builds on him to drop his re-election bid because of his age.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday that Biden, 81, was experiencing “mild symptoms” and will fly to his home in Delaware, where he will “self-isolate and continue to carry out all of his duties fully”.

Jean-Pierre said Biden planned to spend a long weekend at his Delaware beach house. It was unclear how long the sickness would keep him from the campaign trail.

Minutes after the announcement, the president’s motorcade was on the move to the Las Vegas airport, and as he boarded Air Force One, Biden told reporters: “Good, I feel good.”

Dr Kevin O’Connor, the president’s physician, said in a note that Biden “presented this afternoon with upper respiratory symptoms, to include rhinorrhea [runny nose] and non-productive cough, with general malaise”.

After the positive COVID-19 test, Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and has taken his first dose, O’Connor said.

News of Biden’s illness had first been shared by the CEO of Unidos US, a Latin civil rights group, in Las Vegas. Biden had been slated to speak at the group’s convention on Wednesday afternoon as part of an effort to rally Hispanic voters ahead of the November election.

Janet Murguia, the CEO of Unidos, told guests that the president had sent his regrets and could not appear because he tested positive for the virus.

“He said to tell my folks that we’re not going to get rid of him that quickly. We’re going to have a chance to hear from him in the future directly,” she said.

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There were groans in the conference room at the news.

‘Serious concerns’

The president’s diagnosis comes amid intense scrutiny of his health and stamina after a disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump that sparked a flurry of concern among Democrats that Biden is not up to the rigours of winning another presidential term.

The ABC News broadcaster reported on Wednesday that the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, told Biden it would be better for the country and the party if he ended his re-election campaign. ABC News also said the leader of the Democrats in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, has also expressed similar views directly to Biden.

In a statement, Schumer’s office called the report “idle speculation” and said Schumer “conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden on Saturday”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Democratic US Representative Adam Schiff became the 20th congressional Democrat to publicly call for Biden to drop out of the race.

“While the choice to withdraw from the campaign is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” Schiff said in a statement. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

A poll released by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research on Wednesday showed that nearly two-thirds of Democrats believed Biden should drop out of the race and allow the party to choose a new candidate.

Only about three in 10 Democrats also said they were extremely or very confident that Biden has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, down slightly from 40 percent that said the same in a February poll.

Still, The Associated Press news agency and other US media outlets have reported that Democrats are looking to hold a virtual vote to formally make Biden the nominee in the first week of August. That’s ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which is being held in Chicago from August 19 to 22 and is typically where the party’s presidential nominee would be confirmed.

Biden meanwhile has been defiant in the face of the calls to quit the race, telling one interviewer that only the “Lord Almighty” could persuade him to go.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Washington, DC, said the timing of Biden’s illness “could not be worse” for the president and said it was critical that the White House “be crystal clear” about his health.

“That’s because there is a big concern around the country that Biden’s mental and physical condition has been hidden from the public, that he’s been concealed among a small group of aides, and that for a very long time he wasn’t doing major freewheeling network interviews, and that he wasn’t on the road in a major way until recently,” Hendren said.

The US leader last tested positive for COVID-19 twice in the summer of 2022, when he had a primary case and a rebound case of the virus.

Biden has been vaccinated and is currently on his recommended annual booster dose for COVID-19. The vaccines have proven highly effective at limiting serious illness and death from the virus, which killed more than a million people in the US since the pandemic began in 2020.

Paxlovid has been proven to curtail the chances of serious illness and death from COVID-19 when prescribed in the early days of an infection, but has also been associated with rebound infections, where the virus comes back a few days after clearing up.

Health officials have reported recent upticks in emergency room visits and hospitalisations from COVID-19. There has also been a pronounced increase in positive test results in much of the country – particularly the southwestern US.

Biden tests positive for COVID, cancels Las Vegas campaign event

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

International

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

Published

5 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

A month after a trainee doctor was raped and m8rdered in Kolkata, India, sparking anger and protests nationwide, a gang-rape attempt was made on a nurse at a private hospital in Bihar.

Police said one of the assaulters is a doctor who is also the administrator of the institution. However, the nurse managed to escape after inflicting a cut on his private parts with a blade.

The nurse was wrapping up work at the RBS Health Care Centre in Gangapur under the Musrighararari police station limits in Samastipur district on Wednesday night when hospital administrator Dr Sanjay Kumar (pictured) and two of his associates – all of whom were drunk – tried to r@pr her.

Trying to free herself from the clutches of Dr Kumar and the others, the nurse used a blade to slash at the doctor’s genitals.

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She managed to escape and dial the police after hiding in a field outside the hospital

Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Pandey said a team was rushed to the hospital and, after making sure that the nurse was safe, three people were arrested, including the doctor. The other two accused have been identified as Sunil Kumar Gupta and Awadhesh Kumar.

Mr Pandey said the men had locked the hospital from the inside and turned off the CCTV cameras before trying to s3xually ass@ult the nurse.

“The presence of mind and courage shown by the survivor is praiseworthy,” he said.

The police have recovered half a bottle of liquor, the blade used by the nurse, blood-stained clothes and three cellphones.

Officials said the three men had been drinking before trying to assault the nurse and they will also be charged under prohibition laws because Bihar is a dry state.

Doctor Sanjay is also the organization minister of Hindu Samaj Party.

Nurse escapes gang-rape attempt in Indian hospital, cuts doctor’s private parts with blade

International

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

Published

11 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Lebanon's Hezbollah has traded near-daily fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip. (File/AFP)

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

BEIRUT: Israel dropped leaflets over a Lebanon border village Sunday urging residents to leave, state-run media said, but Israel’s military told AFP a brigade had taken the initiative without approval.

It was the first time Israelis had told residents of south Lebanon to evacuate in 11 months of cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel over the Gaza war, triggered by Hezbollah ally Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

“The Israeli enemy dropped leaflets over Wazzani calling on those in the area and its surroundings to evacuate,” the official National News Agency said, referring to a southern border village.

Wazzani mayor Ahmed Al-Mohammed shared with AFP a picture of the leaflets that showed a map of the region with the areas marked for evacuation marked in red.

The leaflet read in Arabic: “To all residents and refugees living in the area of the camps, Hezbollah is firing from your region. You must immediately leave your homes and head north of the Khiam region before 04:00 p.m. (1300 GMT). Do not return to this area until the end of the war.”

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It added: “Anyone present in this area after this time will be considered a terrorist.”

Wazzani is an agricultural region where Syrians are often hired to work the land.

Asked about the incident, an Israeli military spokeswoman said the leaflets had been dropped by drone in an area from which rockets had been fired into northern Israel.

“This was an initiative of the 769 Brigade, it was not approved by the Northern Command. An investigation has been opened,” she added.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli aircraft regularly drop leaflets urging residents to evacuate before an attack.

On Saturday, Hezbollah’s second-in-command Naim Qassem warned that an all-out war by Israel aimed at returning 100,000 displaced people to their homes in areas near the Lebanon border would displace “hundreds of thousands” more Israelis.

The cross-border violence since early October has killed 623 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including at least 141 civilians, according to an AFP tally.

On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.

Israeli leaflets tell south Lebanon residents to evacuate

ARAB NEWS

International

Deadly floods hit Central, Eastern Europe

Published

12 hours ago

September 16, 2024

Trends Admin

Deadly floods hit Central, Eastern Europe

A firefighter died during a flood rescue in Austria and one person drowned in Poland, as torrential rain caused by Storm Boris continued to wreak havoc across Central and Eastern Europe.

In Romania, five people have died, while several remain unaccounted for in the Czech Republic.

The Austrian province surrounding Vienna has been declared a disaster area, with its leaders speaking of “an unprecedented extreme situation”.

Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk declared a state of natural disaster.

Some of the worst rainfall has been in the Czech Republic, where some areas have seen around three months’ rainfall in just three days.

Evacuations are under way and four people remain missing – three in a car which disappeared into a river in North Moravia, and one man who was swept into a flooded stream in South Moravia.

Marek Joch, a resident of Lipov in the southeast, said the town was “closed from all sides” and the “next wave” of the flood is still to come.

“Now everyone is trying to clean up as quickly as possible to prevent further large spills from the river. Unfortunately, no one knows when the water will recede.

“We still have to survive until Tuesday, this is not the end.”

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Jesenik, a town located in the Jeseniky mountains, is described as completely cut off, with roads and rail lines underwater.

Around 17,000 people in the Kłodzko area alone are without power, and internet and mobile telephone connections are down.

Several dozen police and firefighters in Prague were called to rescue a man who went swimming in the flooded Vltava at 7am on Sunday.

On Saturday, police in North Moravia were called after three men were spotted wading into the flooded River Odra on paddleboards.

The mayor of Slobozia Conachi, a village in Romania’s south-eastern Galati region, said 700 homes had been flooded.

“This is a catastrophe of epic proportions,” Emil Dragomir said.

Four people were killed in Galati on Saturday, with a fifth death confirmed on Sunday.

In Austria, governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner said a firefighter had died while pumping out a flooded cellar.

She said the whole of the Lower Austria province has been declared a catastrophe zone.

Multiple trains have been cancelled, parts of the Vienna underground have been closed, and at least one motorway has flooded.

In a post on X, Austria‘s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said the storm situation had “worsened” and was “very serious.”

In the Polish town of Stronie Slaskie, a dam has been breached, releasing a torrent of water that has destroyed at least one house, the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management said.

In the same town a bridge collapsed, funnelling water through the streets.

“Soldiers supporting the local population are cut off from their land route back,” the Polish Ministry of Defence said.

“Many residents have to be evacuated from the roofs of their homes.”

In Glucholazy, in the southwest, the mayor of the town said the local river had overflowed its banks and was flooding the town.

A resident of the town, Zofia Owsiaka, said everyone was “scared” and there seemed to be “no hope of the rain stopping”.

In Krakow, Poland’s second largest city, residents have been offered sandbags for flood protection.

Speaking from the town of Klodzko, one of the worst-affected areas, Tusk said 1600 people in the district had been evacuated.

A total of 17,000 people in the area are without power, he said, and in parts Starlink satellites links are being used to maintain mobile phone signal and internet connections.

He added that a helicopter had been sent to help with rescue efforts in regional capital Wroclaw.

On Sunday, the mayor of Klodzko announced that his town had “lost the battle” against the floods, and that the situation had become “critical”.

Why has Storm Boris been so devastating?

Storm Boris has already brought extreme amounts of rain across central and eastern Europe, with more downpours forecast until at least the end of Monday.

The storm has been so devastating for two reasons.

Firstly, cold air from the north has mixed with moisture drawn up from the unusually warm waters of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

Secondly, an area of low pressure has been stuck in a blocked weather pattern, meaning it is trapped between high pressure to both the west and east.

Following extreme flooding in 2021, the World Weather Attribution Network concluded that the warming climate meant the likelihood and intensity of such events in Europe was increasing.