Joe Biden - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Kremlin says Biden calling Putin a ‘crazy SOB’ debases the US

THE Kremlin said that Joe Biden had debased the United States by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a "crazy SOB", casting the U.S. president's remark as part of a failed "Hollywood cowboy" act. The U.S. president made the "crazy SOB" remark as part of a sentence about threats to the world - including "that guy Putin and others", the risk of nuclear conflict and the existential threat to humanity from climate change. "The use of such language against the head of another state by the president of the United States is unlikely to infringe on our president, President Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry…

Feb

2024

By ANDREW GOUDSWARD and JEFF MASON

Biden will not face charges over classified papers, says ‘memory is fine’

WORLD

AN "elderly" President Joe Biden will not face charges for knowingly taking classified documents when he left the vice presidency in 2017, a prosecutor said, drawing a swift rebuke from the president as he seeks reelection. Special Counsel Robert Hur said in a report that he opted against bringing criminal charges following a 15-month investigation because Biden cooperated and would be difficult to convict, describing him as a "well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory." Biden, in an angry rebuttal, said his "memory was fine." Brimming with emotion during remarks at the White House, he lashed out at the attorney's suggestion that he…

Jan

2024

By PHIL STEWART and IDREES ALI

Biden faces pressure to strike Iran after US troops killed

WORLD

THE killing of three U.S. troops and wounding of dozens more by Iran-backed militants is piling political pressure on President Joe Biden to deal a blow directly against Iran, a move he's been reluctant to do out of fear of igniting a broader war. Biden's response options could range anywhere from targeting Iranian forces outside to even inside Iran, or opting for a more cautious retaliatory attack solely against the Iran-backed militants responsible, experts say. American forces in the Middle East have been attacked more than 150 times by Iran-backed forces in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and off the coast of…

Jan

2024

By STEVE HOLLAND, NANDITA BOSE and TREVOR HUNNICUTT

U.S. does not support Taiwan independence, Biden says

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden said that the United States does not support the independence of Taiwan after Taiwanese voters rebuffed China and gave the ruling party a third presidential term. Earlier in the day, the Taiwanese ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te came to power, strongly rejecting Chinese pressure to spurn him, and pledged both to stand up to Beijing and seek talks. "We do not support independence..." Biden said when asked for reaction to Saturday's elections. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 and has long said it does not support a formal…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Putin says Russia has no plan to attack NATO, dismisses Biden remark as ‘nonsense’

WORLD

KREMLIN chief Vladimir Putin dismissed as complete nonsense remarks by U.S. President Joe Biden that Russia would attack a NATO country if it won the war in Ukraine, adding that Russia had no interest in fighting the NATO military alliance. The war in Ukraine has triggered the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Biden warned last year that a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia would trigger World War Three. In a plea to Republicans not to block further military aid earlier this month, Biden warned that if Putin was victorious over Ukraine…

Dec

2023

By TREVOR HUNNICUTT

Biden plots trip to Angola as promise of Africa trip lingers

NEWS

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he will visit Angola in a trip that could mark renewed engagement with Africa at a time of international turmoil. "I have been there and I will be back," Biden said when asked about visiting the country during an Oval Office meeting with his Angolan counterpart, Joao Lourenco. Biden did not specify when the meeting would take place. The White House did not respond to a request for additional details. The U.S. president, seeking re-election next year and facing a range of foreign policy challenges from Ukraine to Israel, has drawn attention for the…

Nov

2023

By NATHAN LAYNE

Trump vows to kill Asia trade deal being pursued by Biden if elected

WORLD

DONALD Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, said that he would kill off a Pacific trade pact being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden if he were to win the 2024 election and return to the White House. Speaking to supporters in Iowa, Trump said he was against the regional trade deal being negotiated by the Biden administration with 13 other countries, arguing that it would hollow out U.S. manufacturing and trigger job losses. Talks on the trade sections of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which is aimed at offering the region an alternative to China's growing trade…

Nov

2023

By MICHAEL MARTINA, TREVOR HUNNICUTT and GREG TORODE

What China’s Xi gained from his Biden meeting

WORLD

WHEN Chinese President Xi Jinping met executives for dinner in San Francisco, he was greeted with not one, but three standing ovations from the U.S. business community. It was one of several public relations wins for the Chinese leader on his first trip in six years to the United States, where he and President Joe Biden reached agreements covering fentanyl, military communications and artificial intelligence on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. All three were outcomes the United States had sought from China rather than the other way around, said two people briefed on the trip. But Xi appeared to…

Nov

2023

By TREVOR HUNNICUTT and JEFF MASON

Biden calls Xi a dictator after carefully planned summit

WORLD

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he had not changed his view that Chinese President Xi Jinping was effectively a dictator, a comment likely to land with a thud in Beijing after the two leaders held straightforward summit talks. Biden held a solo news conference after four hours of talks with Xi on the outskirts of San Francisco. At the end of the news conference, he was asked whether he still held the view that Xi was a dictator, something he said in June. "Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country…

Nov

2023

By TREVOR HUNNICUTT

Biden to meet Xi on Wednesday in San Francisco Bay area, US says

WORLD

PRESIDENT Joe Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping face-to-face for the first time in a year, the White House said, in high-stakes diplomacy aimed at curbing tensions between the world's two superpowers. The closely watched interaction, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the San Francisco Bay area, could last hours and involve teams of officials from Beijing and Washington. It is expected to cover global issues from the Israel-Hamas war to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, North Korea's ties with Russia, Taiwan, the Indo-Pacific, human rights, fentanyl, artificial intelligence, as well as "fair" trade and…