North America

Trump accepts Republican nomination as Biden teeters

By Michael Mathes MILWAUKEE, July 19, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump predicted an “incredible victory” Thursday in accepting the Republican presidential nomination from a party euphoric over his escape from assassination and buoyed by the apparent implosion of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. “We will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country,” Trump, 78, said at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. It was his […]

Trump VP pick J.D. Vance pledges ‘new path’ at Republican convention

By Frankie TAGGART MILWAUKEE, July 18, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick J.D. Vance lit up the Republican National Convention Wednesday with a speech leaning heavily on his personal story as he sought to connect his turbulent upbringing with the hardships faced by millions of Americans. In his first speech since being tapped as Trump’s vice presidential nominee on Monday, Vance offered a powerful account of growing up poor in Ohio, with no […]

Biden considers withdrawing from presidential race if diagnosed with medical condition

By Paula Ramon with Danny Kemp in Washington LAS VEGAS, July 17, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden said he could drop his reelection bid if doctors found he had a medical condition, as a top Democrat on Wednesday urged the 81-year-old to step aside. Biden’s comments were the first time he has even slightly opened the door to abandoning the White House race, and came as Representative Adam Schiff, a key ally from […]

Biden isolates with Covid: implications for 2024 campaign

By Paula Ramon with Danny Kemp in Washington LAS VEGAS, July 18, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid with mild symptoms Wednesday, shortly after conceding he would consider dropping his reelection bid if doctors diagnosed him with a serious medical condition. The 81-year-old Democrat gave reporters the thumbs up and said “I feel good” as he cut short a campaign trip to Las Vegas and flew to his beach home […]

Biden defends ‘mental acuity’ in feisty new interview

By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden defended both his “mental acuity” and his rhetoric about Donald Trump Monday, in a second TV interview aimed at ending calls for him to quit his reelection bid following a disastrous debate. The 81-year-old delivered an often combative defense of his mental and physical fitness for office during the one-on-one with broadcaster NBC, which nevertheless featured some of the word salads that […]

Blazes intensify in Russia, N. America in fierce start to wildfire season

PARIS, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Extreme wildfires are spreading across Russia and North America and shrouding swathes of the region in smoke, the EU’s climate monitor said Tuesday as it warned of worse to come. Copernicus said unusually hot and dry conditions were causing blazes in Siberia, Canada and Alaska and a “remarkable intensification” of planet-heating gases as swathes of forest burn. A column of smoke containing ash and harmful particles from wildfires in […]

Trump appears at convention with bandaged ear after shooting

By Frankie TAGGART and Michael MATHES MILWAUKEE, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump received a hero’s welcome Monday as he entered the Republican National Convention arena with a bandaged right ear in his first public appearance since being wounded in a weekend assassination attempt. Hours after winning the formal nomination to be the Republican presidential candidate and announcing right-wing Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate, Trump marched into Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum flanked by […]

J.D. Vance is Trump’s bold choice for VP, but can he win?

By Michael Mathes MILWAUKEE, July 16, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump has put a youthful, loyal gladiator for his Make America Great Again movement on the Republican ticket, hoping J.D. Vance’s transformation from blue-collar Rust Belter to senator can help him secure victory. A White House candidate often chooses a vice presidential running mate who can appeal to new categories of voters or compensate for acknowledged weaknesses in terms of image or policy. Trump, though, […]

Melania Trump says rally shooter a ‘monster’

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2024 (AFP) – Former first lady Melania Trump said Sunday that a gunman who opened fire at a Donald Trump rally was a “monster,” as she condemned the assassination attempt in which the Republican presidential candidate was injured. “A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion — his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” Melania Trump said in a statement shared on […]

UN says world population to peak at 10.3 billion in the 2080s

NEW YORK (AFP) – Earth’s population will peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion people, then drop slightly to a level much lower than anticipated a decade ago, the United Nations said. The current population of 8.2 billion people will rise to that maximum over the next 60 years, then dip to 10.2 billion by the end of the century, says a report released Thursday entitled “World Population Prospects 2024.” It said the size […]

‘Cool it down,’ Biden tells nation after Trump assassination bid

By Danny Kemp with Frankie Taggart in Milwaukee WASHINGTON, July 15, 2024 (AFP) – President Joe Biden sought to calm a divided nation after his rival Donald Trump survived an assassination bid, saying in a rare Oval Office address Sunday it was time to lower the temperature of America’s hostile politics. “You know, the political record in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down,” Biden said in the televised speech, […]

Republicans blame Biden for Trump shooting amid escalating rhetoric

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2024 (AFP) – Within hours of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, his Republican supporters in Congress claimed they knew exactly who was responsible: Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. Biden’s campaign “rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” Senator J.D. Vance, on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, alleged shortly after Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania, in which the former US leader was wounded and one bystander killed. Vance’s […]