International
Biden vows to fight on after debate with Trump
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Biden vows to fight on after debate with Trump
US President Joe Biden has hit back at criticism over his age, telling supporters in a fiery speech that he will win re-election in November after a poor debate performance fuelled concern about his candidacy.
“I know I’m not a young man, to state the obvious,” he told a rally in the battleground state of North Carolina on Friday, one day after he struggled in the televised showdown with his Republican rival Donald Trump.
“I don’t walk as easy as I used to… I don’t debate as well as I used to,” he acknowledged. “But I know what I do know, I know how to tell the truth [and] I know how to do this job.”
Mr Biden, 81, said he believed with his “heart and soul” that he could serve another term, as the cheering crowd in Raleigh chanted “four more years”.
Trump, meanwhile, held a rally of his own in Virginia just hours later, where he hailed a “big victory” in the debate, which CNN said was viewed by 48 million people on television and millions more online. “Joe Biden’s problem is not his age,” the 78-year-old Trump said. “It’s his competence. He’s grossly incompetent.”
The former president said he did not believe speculation that Mr Biden would drop out of the race, saying he “does better in polls” than other Democrats, including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Vice-President Kamala Harris.
While questions over Mr Biden’s age are not new, his shaky performance on the debate stage – which was marked by verbal blanks, a hoarse voice and some difficult-to-follow answers – triggered panic among some Democrats who raised fresh questions about his candidacy.
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Democratic officials, political operatives, and people close to the president who spoke to the BBC’s Katty Kay painted a picture of an anxious party concerned about the strength of their candidate.
Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House speaker, said that “from a performance standpoint it wasn’t great”. Other Democrats, such as Biden’s former communications director Kate Bedingfield, called it “a really disappointing debate performance”.
Democratic donors who spoke anonymously to various media outlets were more forthright, with one calling the performance “disqualifying”. “The only way it could have been more disastrous was if he had fallen off the stage. Big donors are saying… he has to go,” one Democratic operative told the Financial Times.
And on Friday, the New York Times editorial board called on Mr Biden to drop out. It said Democrats should “acknowledge that Mr Biden can’t continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place”.
Despite concern from some media pundits, early indications suggest there has been “no change” in the polls in the aftermath of the debate, the Washington Post columnist Philip Bump told BBC R4’s Today programme.
However, Mr Bump pointed out no “high-quality” polls have been conducted since the debate aired.
Speaking later on the programme, pollster Frank Luntz said most Americans have already made up their minds about who they will vote for later this year.
But publicly, many senior Democrats and Biden allies defended his performance as they sought to calm liberal jitters on Friday. Among those to rally behind Mr Biden were former President Barack Obama, who tweeted that “bad debate nights happen”.
“This election is still a choice between someone who fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Mr Obama wrote, adding that Mr Trump is “someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit”.
Mr Biden and his campaign were quick to dismiss calls for him to step down as the candidate.
“President Biden is the only person who has ever beaten Donald Trump. He will do it again,” a campaign adviser said. “This election was never going to be won or lost in one rally, one conversation, or one debate. “
The Biden campaign also said the president had raised $14m from fundraisers in recent days, in an apparent effort to show it was maintaining momentum.
Mr Biden is expected to meet donors on Friday and Saturday, including at events in Manhattan and the wealthy Hamptons.
Biden vows to fight on after debate with Trump
BBC
International
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
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Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
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The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
At the centre of the claim is the allegation the UK government and BA received a series of warnings during the night but did not act on them.
It is alleged that one reason for this was the desire of the government to insert a special forces team who could carry out reconnaissance within the country.
Stephen Davis wrote a book about the incident and says he has interviewed members of the team anonymously.
He believes the authorities did not expect the airport to fall to invading Iraqi forces so quickly and the intention was for the men to disembark before the plane went on to its next destination.
The BA cabin services director on the flight previously told the BBC that a British man in military uniform greeted him at the plane’s door on arrival in Kuwait.
The man said he had come to meet 10 men on the flight who had boarded at Heathrow. They were brought to the front, disembarked and were never seen again. But by then, it was too late for the plane to leave.
A UK official serving in the Kuwait embassy at the time previously said he believed there had been a “deniable” operation to hastily put boots on the ground without the full knowledge of the embassy.
Anthony Paice was responsible for political intelligence, a role widely assumed to be cover for MI6.
“I am convinced that the military intelligence exploitation of British Airways Flight 149 did take place, despite repeated official denials,” he told the BBC in his first interview in 2021.
In November 2021, the Foreign Office admitted that Parliament and the public were misled for decades about Flight 149.
Newly released files revealed the British ambassador in Kuwait did warn the Foreign Office about the invasion, but BA was not told.
However, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated earlier denials that the flight was being used for a secret intelligence mission.
“There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience,” said Matthew Jury, from the law firm behind the claim, McCue Jury and Partners.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government did not comment on ongoing legal matters. BA did not respond to a request for comment.
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
BBC
International
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
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Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.
For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.
She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.
“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.
International
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
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One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
One person was killed and five others sustained gunshot wounds in northeastern France when several masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony, police sources said on Sunday.
According to sources, the incident in the northeastern city of Thionville was the result of a drug trafficking dispute.
According to an AFP report, the shooting took place overnight, from Saturday to Sunday, in a reception hall with approximately 100 individuals present.
Two people were gravely injured, and one was in critical condition.
The perpetrators of the shooting, however, fled the scene.
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“It was during a wedding,” a police source said.
“At a quarter past one in the morning, a group of people went outside to smoke in front of the hall, and then three heavily armed men arrived and opened fire in their direction.”
According to the informant, the intruders arrived in a 4×4 vehicle, “probably a BMW.” It was unclear where the vehicle had come from.
Thionville is located near the borders of Luxembourg and Germany. Law enforcement officials suspect that the violence was motivated by a desire to settle scores related to narcotics trafficking.
“The wedding was not targeted as such; it was people who were at the wedding,” a source told me.
On Sunday morning, a bullet-pierced glass door was seen at the scene. In the nearby village of Villerupt, five individuals were injured in May 2023 during shootings between rival gangs at a drug distribution site.
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
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