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Nipah virus death puts health officials on alert in southern India

Kochi, India — Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 people in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said on Sunday.

Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals such as pigs, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.

Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.

“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.

Earlier, in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of Nipah control, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.

Dr. Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school boy and people who had been in contact with him were being watched.

“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next seven to 10 days.

There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

Family members of the affected patient were kept at a local hospital for observation, after a case of Nipah virus was confirmed in Malappuram, a town about 350 kilometers (about 220 miles) from Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, local media reports said. Other people who might be at risk were asked to isolate at home.

The state government said it is working to trace any affected people to contain the spread of the virus. Nipah has been linked to the deaths of dozens of people in Kerala since its first appearance in the state in 2018.

The virus was first identified 25 years ago in Malaysia and has led to outbreaks in Bangladesh, India and Singapore.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Navy aviator scores first air-to-air victory by a US female fighter pilot

A US Navy fighter pilot has become the first American woman to score a victory in air-to-air combat, the service has revealed.

The female pilot, who was not named in the Navy release, was flying an F/A-18 Super Hornet off the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower as part of Strike Fighter Squadron 32, nicknamed the “Flying Swordsmen.”

The aerial victory came against a one-way Houthi attack drone, one of dozens the Yemen-based group has deployed against civilian merchant ships in the Red Sea and nearby waters in reaction to the destruction in Gaza during Israel’s war against Hamas, a release from Carrier Strike Group 2 said.

The squadron amassed more than 3,000 combat hours in flying almost 1,500 combat missions as part of operations Inherent Resolve and Prosperity Guardian, the former targeting ISIS and the latter stood up in December 2023 to respond to the Houthi-led attacks on international shipping.

The Swordsmen, one of four strike fighter squadrons that deployed on the Eisenhower, fired more than 20 air-to-air missiles against the Houthi drones during those missions, the Navy said.

“During one mission, VFA-32 became home to the first American female pilot to engage and kill an air-to-air contact,” it said.

The first air-to-air victory by a female pilot comes 30 years after Lt. Kara Hultgreen became the first carrier-based female fighter pilot in the Navy, flying the F-14 Tomcat off the USS Abraham Lincoln that year. Female aviators also joined the Eisenhower in 1994.

The Eisenhower-led carrier strike group returned to US bases on July 14 after a nine-month deployment, an exceptionally lengthy deployment for a carrier. Normal deployments last about six to eight months.

Cmdr. Jason Hoch, commanding officer of VFA-32, praised the squadron’s performance in “incredibly demanding conditions” during the deployment.

Besides the air-to-air encounters, the Swordsmen led two of seven strikes against Houthi ground targets in Yemen, destroying munitions and command and control facilities, the release said.

“We proved over and over again that the flexibility a carrier strike group brings to the fight is unmatched,” Hoch said.

Overall, Carrier Strike Group 2, which besides the Eisenhower included the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the destroyers USS Mason and USS Gravely, hit more than 460 Houthi targets in Yemen, according to the Navy.

The group’s warships fired 155 standard missiles and 135 Tomahawk land-attack missiles during those strikes, while the strike group’s aircraft fired 60 air-to-air missiles and released 420 air-to-surface weapons, the Navy said.

The Houthis are an Iran-backed Shia rebel group that controls swathes of Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the Middle East and a nation that has been ravaged by years of civil war.

Since Hamas’ attacks on October 7 and Israel’s subsequent ground and air offenses in Gaza, the Houthis say they have been seeking revenge against Israel for its military campaign by targeting Red Sea shipping as well as Israel itself with drones and missiles.

Both the United Kingdom and the United States have responded to the attacks on shipping by carrying out strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. Over the weekend, Israel struck inside Yemen for the first time following a deadly drone attack launched by Houthi rebels on Tel Aviv.

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Prince George is 11 – see his birthday photo

Prince George has turned 11, and as per tradition his proud parents have released an official portrait to mark the occasion.

The young prince, who is second in line to the throne, is shown smiling and looking relaxed – though dressed smartly in a suit and shirt, accessorised with a friendship bracelet.

Taken by the Princess of Wales, the black and white image was published on Kensington Palace’s official social media channels.

It is captioned: “Wishing Prince George a very happy 11th birthday today!”

The latest photo follows the release of a family shot of George, his siblings and his father last month to mark Prince William’s 42nd birthday. Meanwhile, earlier this month, Kensington Palace released an image of George’s brother and sister, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, shot from behind in England soccer kits after the Euros final against Spain.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have made it a tradition to release photos on landmark family occasions, like birthdays, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and wedding anniversaries. Like this one, many of the pictures have been taken by the princess, who’s a keen amateur photographer.

Another recent pic of Charlotte, this time with George and her father, was tweeted by Taylor Swift on June 22. It showed the singer with the royals and her boyfriend, American football star Travis Kelce, backstage in London during her Eras tour. This may explain the significance in the official portrait of George’s friendship bracelet – a must-have accessory for all Swifties.

Kate stepped away from public duties in January, following what Kensington Palace said at the time was surgery for a non-cancerous abdominal condition. In March, amid speculation about her wellbeing, she revealed she had been diagnosed with cancer after the operation, and was undergoing treatment.

She gave an update on her health on June 14, saying she had made “good progress” in her recovery. But she said she expected her treatment to last for a few more months and was “not out of the woods yet.”

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Veteran anti-whaling activist Paul Watson could be extradited to Japan after arrest in Greenland, his foundation says

Veteran environmentalist Paul Watson was arrested in Greenland on Sunday and faces possible extradition to Japan allegedly over anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic years ago, his organization said in a statement.

The 73-year-old Canadian-American dual national was detained by police when his ship docked in the Greenland capital Nuuk to refuel, according to the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) and Greenland police.

The ship John Paul DeJoria and a 25-member crew were en route from Dublin, Ireland to the North Pacific to intercept Japan’s newly launched $48 million factory whaling ship the Kangei Maru, CPWF said.

“We were immediately boarded by a SWAT team and … police who wasted no time in cuffing Paul Watson, our founder, and arresting him on a decades old Red Notice at the request of Japan,” Ship Operations Director Locky MacLean said in a video message onboard the John Paul DeJoria.

Police can be seen boarding the vessel and leading Watson away in handcuffs in the video.

In a statement, Greenland police said they arrested Watson upon his arrival in Nuuk due to a Japanese arrest warrant. He will be brought before a district court with a request to detain him while a decision is made on his possible extradition to Japan, police added.

His foundation believes the arrest “is connected to a previous Red Notice issued for Watson’s anti-whaling activities in the Antarctic.”

“This development comes as a surprise since the Foundation’s lawyers had reported that the Red Notice had been withdrawn. However, it appears that Japan had made the notice confidential to facilitate Paul’s travel for the purpose of making an arrest,” the statement continued.

CPWF said it “believes the reactivation of the Red Notice against Captain Watson is politically motivated, coinciding with the launch of the new factory ship.”

An early member of Greenpeace, Watson went on to found the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an environmental group famous for tracking, exposing and occasionally ramming Japanese whalers. His attempts to disrupt Japanese whalers at sea gained him fame through Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars” TV show.

His activities have also previously landed him in legal trouble. In 2012, he was detained in Germany on an international arrest warrant issued by Costa Rica, which accused him of endangering a fishing vessel off the coast of Guatemala in 2002. He skipped bail but denied wrongdoing in that case.

In 2013, the Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research and the Japanese firm Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha secured a US District Court injunction against Watson and Sea Shepherd, which prohibited him and his group from coming within 500 yards of the plaintiffs on the open sea.

Due to the injunction, Watson resigned as president and executive director of the conservation society in the United States and as president of the society in Australia.

In June, Kyodo Senpaku launched a brand-new whaling “mothership” – the Kangei Maru – a 370-foot, 9,300-ton vessel equipped with state-of-the-art drones able to travel a reported 100 kilometers (62 miles) to allow crews to quickly locate and kill whales.

The new ship replaces the Nisshin Maru, the infamous whaling factory vessel dubbed by activists as a “floating slaughterhouse” that was decommissioned in 2020 after more than 30 years of service, during which it frequently clashed with anti-whaling activists.

Japan is one of three countries, along with Norway and Iceland, that continues to hunt whales, and officials argue that the industry is an important part of its culture and history – and also provides food security.

The Kangei Maru boasts a slipway large enough to haul 85-foot whales from the sea that leads to an indoor flensing deck the size of two basketball courts.

There, workers will strip away the blubber before cutting up the whale flesh on enormous cutting boards, before vacuum-packing and storing the meat in 40 industrial freezers, ready for sale.

Commercial whaling was banned under a 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium. But Japan has used a loophole to continue hunting whales legally for what it claims is scientific research.

In 2018, it announced its withdrawal from the IWC and resumed commercial whaling months later in defiance of international criticism.

“We are proud of catching whales and are very proud of this ship which will allow us to begin offshore mothership-style whaling this year,” Tokoro told reporters in June.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

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Global IT outage: Warning over malicious websites offering to fix devices – as experts reveal likely cause of CrowdStrike issue

A faulty software update that caused the global IT outage likely skipped checks before being deployed, experts have said – as a warning was issued about malicious websites offering to fix devices.

An estimated 8.5 million Microsoft Windows PCs devices were affected worldwide by the update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, causing delays for airports, broadcasters, hospitals and businesses.

Problems came to light quickly after the latest version of CrowdStrikes Falcon sensor software was rolled out on Friday.

The update was meant to make systems more secure against hacking, but instead caused devices to display a “blue screen of death” due to faulty code.

“What it looks like is, potentially, the vetting or the sandboxing they do when they look at code, maybe somehow this file was not included in that or slipped through,” said Steve Cobb, chief security officer at Security Scorecard, as he considered the cause of the technical mishap.

Another expert, security researcher Patrick Wardle, put the problem with the update down to “a file that contains either configuration information or signatures [code that detects specific types of malicious code or malware]”.

“It’s very common that security products update their signatures, like once a day… because they’re continually
monitoring for new malware and because they want to make sure that their customers are protected from the latest threats,” Mr Wardle said.

He added that the frequency of updates “is probably the reason why [CrowdStrike] didn’t test it as much”.

‘Look out for possible scams’

Efforts by CrowdStrike to make clients more secure against hacking attempts further backfired as malicious websites have begun to use the incident to publish “unofficial code” claiming to fix any ongoing issues, Australia’s cyber intelligence agency has warned.

On its website, the Australian Signals Directorate said its cybersecurity centre “strongly encourages all consumers to source their technical information and updates from official CrowdStrike sources only”.

The country’s cybersecurity minister Clare O’Neil said on social media platform X that citizens should “be on the look out for possible scams and phishing attempts”.

The fallout from the outage continued to cause disruption to services in the UK into the weekend, despite CrowdStrike rolling out a fix.

NHS England warned of disruption to GP services into next week and pharmacy services were dealing with significant backlogs.

Meanwhile, travellers reported incidents of their baggage being lost at airports and delays of up to nine hours.

CrowdStrike chief executive George Kurtz said on Friday that it would be “some time” before all systems are returned to normal and industry expert Adam Leon Smith of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned it could take “weeks” for a full recovery.

Sky News has approached CrowdStrike for comment.

This post appeared first on sky.com

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‘Not fit to serve’: Speaker Johnson leads GOP demands for Biden to resign from presidency

Republican lawmakers are calling on President Biden to resign from office immediately after he announced he will not seek re-election in November.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement, ‘If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.’

‘If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said minutes after the bombshell news broke. ‘Biden must step down from office immediately.’

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., similarly said, ‘If Joe Biden can’t run for re-election, he is unable and unfit to serve as President of the United States. He must immediately resign. The Democrat Party is in absolute free fall for their blatantly corrupt and desperate attempt to cover up the fact that Joe Biden is unfit for office.’

‘If Joe Biden is unfit to be the Democrat nominee for president, he’s unfit to be president for the rest of his term. For the good of the country, Joe Biden should resign immediately,’ said Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern, R-Okla.

The 81-year-old president has been under mounting pressure to drop out of the 2024 presidential race in the wake of his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump last month. 

His weak showing spurred concerns over whether he had the mental and physical stability to run a campaign and serve another four-year term. 

Biden finally bowed to that pressure on Sunday, writing in a public letter, ‘It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.’

Democratic lawmakers who have called on Biden to drop out have insisted they are confident he can finish the roughly five months left in his term. 

Some of their arguments against his candidacy include that questions about his fitness for office are a distraction from the campaign, while others have said their concerns lie with where he will be four years down the road, rather than the immediate future.

But Republicans who have long claimed Biden is not mentally fit for office have seized on his announcement as vindication of their doubts.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, said in a statement, ‘If Joe Biden is no longer capable of running for re-election, he is no longer capable of serving as President. Being President is the hardest job in the world, and I no longer have confidence that Joe Biden can effectively execute his duties as Commander-in-Chief. It is out of concern for our country’s national security that I am formally calling on President Biden to resign from office.’

‘If this man CAN’T run for President with an election in just 4 months then who’s running our country?’ Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, wrote on X.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., wrote on the platform, ‘Doesn’t have the mental acuity or cognitive ability to run a political campaign but can serve for 6 more months as president? He should resign.’ 

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Obama allies, advisers helped lead the charge among Dems looking to sink Biden ahead of official announcement

A list of former President Obama’s allies and former advisers helped lead the charge in calling on President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race before he officially ended his campaign on Sunday afternoon.

Biden officially dropped out of the 2024 race after weeks of increasing pressure from traditional Democrat allies to bow out after his disastrous debate performance against former President Trump last month, which put concerns surrounding his mental acuity and 81 years of age under increasing scrutiny. 

‘My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term,’ Biden posted on X after he dropped out of the race on Sunday afternoon.

‘My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this,’ he said in a separate social media post.

Among some of the most noteworthy voices calling on Biden to bow out were allies of Obama’s, including his former adviser, David Axelrod, who said this month that Biden is ‘not winning this race.’ Biden served as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. 

‘There are certain immutable facts of life,’ Axelrod said in an interview with CNN while discussing Biden’s age and leadership. ‘Those were painfully obvious on that debate stage. The president just … hasn’t come to grips with it. He’s not winning this race.’

Axelrod formerly served as Obama’s chief campaign strategist, and he said Biden is used to fighting ‘his way back from political defeats and against the odds.’

‘So, his psyche is that he can beat anybody and any long odds,’ he said this month. ‘What he can’t beat is Father Time.’ 

‘And that’s really the concern here. It’s not about his record,’ Axelrod continued.

Axelrod was soon followed by actor George Clooney calling on Biden to drop out of the race in a bombshell op-ed that was published just weeks after the Hollywood star co-hosted Biden, alongside Obama, for a ritzy campaign event in Los Angeles. Clooney has long had a personal friendship with Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama, including vacationing with the first couple in previous years.

‘It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,’ Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed. ‘He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.’

Another ally in Obama’s orbit, Jon Favreau, who served as former director of speech writing for Obama, also called on Biden to drop out of the race this month, saying he attended the fundraiser in L.A. with Clooney and Obama and saw Biden’s state of mental acuity.

‘It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,’ Jon Favreau said during an appearance on CNN this month. 

‘I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are.’

Favreau, alongside former Obama advisers Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor – known collectively as the ‘Obama Bros’ when they worked in the White House – dedicated the majority of a podcast episode of ‘Pod Save America’ this month to trashing Biden. 

‘I thought it was bad, and at times very hard to watch,’ Vietor said, referring to Biden’s sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos after Biden’s debate performance. 

Vietor said it ‘seems like a clear-cut choice that we’d have a better chance with someone else,’ while Lovett added that Biden wasn’t ‘delivering the message effectively.’

Up until Sunday afternoon, Biden and his campaign remained adamant that the president would not bow out of the race. 

Obama has remained relatively silent while Biden weighed his options for the election, coming to Biden’s defense after his recent debate performance but not responding to media reports that he was working behind the scenes to promote Biden’s exit.

‘Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself. Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight — and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November,’ he posted on X at the time. 

As media reports circulated that Obama was working ‘behind the scenes’ to oust Biden from the race, the 44th president remained mum, not denying the reports. Politico reported that Clooney even gave Obama a ‘heads-up’ that his op-ed calling on Biden to bow out of the race was set to publish, with Obama reportedly not objecting to the opinion piece.

Obama released a statement on Sunday commending Biden for his work in the Oval Office, but he did not tip his hand as to who he believes should pick up the mantle now that the president is no longer running for re-election. Biden, as well as the Clintons and other powerful Democrats, announced their endorsement of Vice President Harris shortly after Biden’s announcement.

‘We will be navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead. But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August. And I expect that every single one of us are prepared to carry that message of hope and progress forward into November and beyond,’ Obama wrote on Sunday in a lengthy statement. 

‘Joe Biden has been one of America’s most consequential presidents, as well as a dear friend and partner to me. Today, we’ve also been reminded — again — that he’s a patriot of the highest order,’ Obama added. 

Amid the speculation that Biden would drop out, the Associated Press reported that Obama, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were reportedly working in the background to encourage Biden to drop out due to concerns he could not defeat Trump. 

Pelosi notably suggested this month that Biden’s previously adamant resolve to remain in the race was not his final decision.

‘It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,’ she said this month on MSNBC. ‘We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.’

Obama had joined Biden for a handful of campaign events since last year, but long before joining Biden on the campaign trail – or even endorsing his former running mate – Obama cautioned Biden against seeking the White House, citing fears that the campaign could ‘damage his legacy,’ according to a 2019 New York Times report.

‘You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,’ Obama reportedly told Biden in 2019.

‘Win or lose, they needed to make sure Mr. Biden did not ‘embarrass himself’ or ‘damage his legacy’ during the campaign,’ the New York Times reported, citing two people with knowledge of the conversation.

Biden had made a series of gaffes before becoming Obama’s running mate in 2008, including in 2007 when Biden was about to declare his own run for the White House. On the eve of his announcement, Biden described Obama to a reporter as ‘the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.’

Obama had remained coy about who he would endorse in the 2020 election, saying he would not back anyone during the primary. As Democrat contenders such as Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders dropped out of the primary race and cleared a path for Biden, Obama endorsed his former veep in August 2020.

As Democrats suss out who they will officially nominate for the 2024 election, some in the president’s orbit have pinned blame on his failed 2024 race on donors and ‘electeds.’

‘Now that the donors and electeds have pushed out the only candidate who has ever beaten Trump, it’s time to end the political fantasy games and unite behind the only veteran of a national campaign — our outstanding @vp @KamalaHarris!! Let’s get real and win in November!,’ former White House chief of staff Ron Klain posted on X. 

After Biden’s announcement, Republicans have demanded the president resign from office, arguing that if he is unable to run for another term, he’s unable to fulfill his duties as president for the rest of his term.

‘If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough,’ House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a statement on Sunday.

‘If the Democrat party has deemed Joe Biden unfit to run for re-election, he’s certainly unfit to control our nuclear codes,’ House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., added. ‘Biden must step down from office immediately.’

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also called on Biden to resign hours before he officially announced he was dropping out.

‘If Joe Biden ends his reelection campaign, how can he justify remaining President? Not running for reelection would be a clear admission that President Trump was right all along about Biden not being mentally fit enough to serve as Commander-in-Chief. There is no middle ground,’ Vance tweeted Sunday morning.

Fox News Digital’s Brandon Gillespie and Liz Elkind contributed to this report.

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Obama offers statement of support after Biden drops out of 2024 race: ‘Patriot of the highest order’

Former President Barack Obama released a statement Sunday afternoon, praising President Biden after he dropped out of the 2024 race.

Obama referred to Biden as a ‘dear friend and partner’ as well as a ‘patriot of the highest order.’

‘Sixteen years ago, when I began my search for a vice president, I knew about Joe’s remarkable career in public service. But what I came to admire even more was his character — his deep empathy and hard-earned resilience; his fundamental decency and belief that everyone counts,’ Obama said.

The former president also cited Biden’s track record in the 3½ years he has served as commander-in-chief, saying ‘he helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits.’

Obama also referenced former President Donald Trump in his statement, referring to the 45th president’s administration as ‘four years of chaos, falsehood, and division.’
 
While Obama referred to President Biden’s track record as ‘outstanding,’ he said ‘Joe understands better than anyone the stakes in this election.’

Obama stressed that ‘everything that the Democratic Party stands for, will be at risk if we allow Donald Trump back in the White House and give Republicans control of Congress.’

‘I also know Joe has never backed down from a fight. For him to look at the political landscape and decide that he should pass the torch to a new nominee is surely one of the toughest in his life. But I know he wouldn’t make this decision unless he believed it was right for America.’

Obama shared, ‘I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges. I believe that Joe Biden’s vision of a generous, prosperous, and united America that provides opportunity for everyone will be on full display at the Democratic Convention in August.’

The Democratic National Convention will happen in Chicago beginning August 19 through August 22.
 
The former president finished his statement with a note of thanks to both President Biden and Jill Biden.

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RNC delegates in Milwaukee revealed what should happen with Biden out of the race: ‘It doesn’t matter’

Days before President Biden announced his exit from the 2024 presidential race on Sunday, Fox News Digital spoke to delegates and attendees in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention last week about who they think would take his place. 

Mike Stieben, a delegate from Kansas, predicted the Democrats would put forward Vice President Harris if Biden dropped out, but he added that it doesn’t matter at all because I think she’s a very weak candidate.’

Stieben added that it would be ‘really problematic for them’ if Democrats decided to push Harris to the side in favor of an alternate candidate.

Patti O’Brien, a delegate at the convention, said she didn’t believe Biden would actually drop out because no quality candidate was ‘waiting in the wings’ to take his place.

But probably it should go to Kamala,’ she told Fox News Digital.

‘I think [former President] Trump’s going to mop the floor with anybody they put up,’ one attendee said, adding that it seemed Biden was ‘on the way out the door.’

One attendee said it would be ‘totally fine’ if Harris became the nominee or even California Gov. Gavin Newsom or former first lady Michelle Obama: ‘The people, I think, are waking up to know that that’s just not the party of the people anymore. So, it doesn’t matter.’

‘I think he understands, and his compatriots understand, he needs to drop out. So, I think he will. I have no idea who they’re going to put up, you know, to replace him. I would hope it wouldn’t be Kamala, but I have no idea,’ another attendee said. 

Another attendee told Fox News Digital that she has ‘mixed thoughts’ on who would replace Biden, given that Harris is believed to be the only candidate who can immediately access funds in the Biden war chest: ‘It’s a really unusual situation.’

Biden announced Sunday that he will suspend his 2024 re-election campaign amid mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party for the president to drop out after a disastrous debate performance against Trump last month.

The unprecedented announcement also came as an increasing number of Democrat lawmakers publicly called for Biden to step aside and the party’s leadership reportedly engaged in efforts to convince the president, 81, he could not win in November’s general election against former Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee who Biden defeated four years ago to win the White House.

‘It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your president,’ Biden, who endorsed Harris, wrote in a public letter. ‘While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interests of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.’

Biden said he will formally address the nation about his decision this week.

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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World leaders react to Biden’s decision to not seek re-election: ‘deserves respect’

World leaders have quickly responded to the long-awaited news that President Biden has decided not to run for a second term, which took many by surprise despite the reports over the past two weeks.

‘I respect President Biden’s decision and I look forward to us working together during the remainder of his presidency,’ British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, elected and appointed to office less than three weeks ago, wrote on social media platform X. 

‘I know that, as he has done throughout his remarkable career, he will have made his decision based on what he believes is best for the American people,’ he added. 

Biden issued a statement at around 2 p.m. EST on Sunday, by all accounts keeping his decision very private up until the moment he published his statement online. Reports indicate that his campaign staff were still geared up to continue this coming week when they heard the news. 

But reports had indicated that Biden was increasingly likely to decide to stand down, as major donors threatened to pull support and over three dozen elected Democrats in Congress urged Biden to stand aside and let the party put forward a new candidate. 

Former British prime minister and current member of parliament Rishi Sunak wrote that ‘working with Joe Biden, I saw firsthand his love for America and dedication to service.’

‘Our partnership has led to significant achievements, including AUKUS, steadfast support for Israel and joint efforts in defending our people from Houthi threats,’ Sunak wrote. ‘I wish him all the best.’ 

And another former Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, wrote that he would ‘salute Joe Biden for the bravery of his decision and also for all he has done as president.’ 

‘He has been a staunch Atlanticist and friend to Britain throughout his career and it was a privilege to work with him,’ Johnson added. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on X his thanks to Biden, writing in part, ‘We will always be thankful for President Biden’s leadership. He supported our country during the most dramatic moment in history, assisted us in preventing Putin from occupying our country, and has continued to support us throughout this terrible war.’

Aside from Zelenskyy, a centrist, and Sunak and Johnson, mainly left-leaning European and world leaders have issued statements of thanks to Biden, praising his brave decision to step back from the election at his party’s insistence. 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid respects to Biden, thanking him for his ‘leadership and ongoing service’ and touting the U.S.-Australia alliance as stronger than ever ‘with our shared commitment to democratic values, international security, economic prosperity and climate action for this and future generations.’ 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Biden a ‘great man,’ adding that ‘everything he does is guided by his love for his country.’

‘As president, he is a partner to Canadians – and a true friend,’ Trudeau wrote on X. ‘To President Biden and the First Lady: Thank you.’ 

Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this week, but Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued some immediate thoughts on X, writing to ‘extend my heartfelt thanks to POTUS Joe Biden for his friendship and steadfast support for the Israeli people over his decades long career.’

‘As the first US President to visit Israel in wartime, as a recipient of the Israeli Presidential Medal of Honor, and as a true ally of the Jewish people, he is a symbol of the unbreakable bond between our two peoples,’ Herzog wrote. ‘I send him, FLOTUS Jill Biden, and all his family, my warmest wishes from Jerusalem.’ 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X that his ‘friend’ Biden ‘has achieved a lot: For his country, for Europe, for the world.’ 

‘Thanks to him, transatlantic cooperation is close, NATO is strong and the USA is a good and reliable partner for us,’ Scholz wrote. ‘His decision not to run again deserves respect.’

Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris issued a statement ‘on behalf of the people and government of Ireland,’ a country that Biden has strong familial ties to and great admiration for, saying that ‘I wish you, Mrs. Biden and your family every success and I look forward to working with you for the remainder of your presidency.’ 

‘I … would like to thank you Mr. President for your global leadership and your friendship as you make your announcement that you will not stand in the 2024 US presidential election,’ Harris wrote. 

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote of all his ‘admiration and recognition for the brave and dignified decision of the President Joe Biden.’ 

‘Thanks to its determination and leadership, the US overcame the economic crisis after the pandemic and the serious assault on the Capitol and has been exemplary in its support for Ukraine in the face of Putin’s Russian aggression,’ Sanchez wrote on X, according to a translation. 

‘A great gesture from a great president who has always fought for democracy and freedom,’ Sanchez added. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised Biden for making ‘many difficult decisions’ that have made ‘the world … safer, and democracy stronger.’

‘I know you were driven by the same motivations when announcing your final decision,’ Tusk wrote on X. ‘Probably the most difficult one in your life.’ 

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