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Biden, 80, makes 2024 presidential run official as Trump fight looms

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President Joe Biden launched his re-election bid on Tuesday with a promise to protect American liberties from “extremists” linked to former President Donald Trump, who he beat in 2020 and might face again in 2024, Reuters reported.

Biden made his announcement in a video released by his new campaign team that opens with imagery from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters.

“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we’re in a battle for the soul of America, and we still are,” Biden said. “This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for re-election.”

“Let’s finish this job. I know we can,” he said.

He described Republican platforms as threats to American freedoms, vowed to fight efforts to limit women’s healthcare, cut Social Security and ban books, and blasted “MAGA extremists.”

MAGA is the acronym for the “Make America Great Again” slogan of Trump, who is the early frontrunner in the Republican primary race. If he wins, he will face off against Biden again in the November 2024 election, Reuters reported.

Biden, 80, must overcome Americans’ concerns about his age in order to win re-election, with 44% of Democrats saying he is too old to run, a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Monday found.

Trump, 76, also faces concerns about his age with 35% of Republicans saying he is too old.

The poll showed that a majority of registered voters don’t want either Biden or Trump to run again, read the report.

While Biden’s approval rating is relatively low, his aides are confident he can beat Trump again. The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed him with a lead of 43% to 38% over his Republican rival among registered voters.

In his campaign video, Biden squarely targeted Trump and his allies.

“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms, cutting Social Security that you paid for your entire life, while cutting taxes for the very wealthy, dictating what healthcare decisions women can make, banning books, and tell people who they can love, all while making it more difficult for you to be able to vote,” Biden said.

In the two years since he took over from Trump, Biden won Congress’ approval for billions of dollars in federal funds to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and for new infrastructure, and oversaw the lowest levels of unemployment since 1969, although a 40-year inflation highs have marred his economic record.

Speaking to a meeting of North America’s Building Trades Unions on Tuesday, Biden said his economic plan was working but there is “more to do.” Biden listed his policy achievements and the crowd chanted “four more years!”

Biden’s age makes his re-election bid a historic and risky gamble for the Democratic Party, especially if he faces a much younger Republican candidate.

Democrats already face a tough election map to hold the Senate in 2024 and is the minority in the House of Representatives now, Reuters reported.

Biden would be 86 by the end of a prospective second term, almost a decade higher than the average U.S. male’s life expectancy.

Doctors declared Biden, who does not drink alcohol and exercises five times a week, “fit for duty” after an examination in February. The White House says his record shows that he is mentally sharp enough for the rigors of the job.

Biden will be joined in his 2024 quest by his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is featured prominently in his campaign video.

In a statement about Biden’s candidacy, Trump criticized the president over his record on immigration, inflation, and the chaotic U.S. pullout from Afghanistan in 2021, read the report.

“American families are being decimated by the worst inflation in half a century. Banks are failing,” Trump said on his social media platform. “We have surrendered our energy independence, just like we surrendered in Afghanistan,” he said.

Marking a sharp contrast to Biden’s campaign announcement, Trump is on trial in a civil lawsuit this week over writer E. Jean Carroll’s accusation that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The former president, who is not required to attend the trial, has denied raping Carroll.

Biden is unlikely to face much competition from inside his party. No senior Democrats have shown signs of challenging him.

Potential and declared Republican presidential candidates have begun framing the 2024 election around cutting back government spending amid still-high inflation, restricting abortion, crime in Democratic-run cities and illegal immigration.

The two leading Republican contenders, Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, want to limit the access of transgender children to sports teams and gender-affirming medical care, and restrict how schools teach LGBTQ+ issues and America’s history of race.

During a briefing with reporters, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre at first declined to answer a question about whether Biden would serve out another four-year term if re-elected.

“I wanted to be sure that I didn’t go into 2024 more than is appropriate under the law,” she wrote later on Twitter. “But I can confirm that if re-elected, (Biden) would serve all 8 years.”

Biden ran a mostly virtual campaign to defeat Trump in the 2020 election as COVID raged, read the report.

With pandemic restrictions mostly over in the United States, the 2024 race is likely to be a much different, more physical affair.

After losing to Biden in 2020, Trump refused to concede defeat, falsely claiming that there had been widespread electoral fraud.

His supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of his claims but they failed to halt certification by Congress of Biden’s win.

Biden’s campaign video suggests he plans to regularly remind voters of those events between now and the next election.

Other Biden themes may include strong U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and what the White House says are Republican plans to unravel federal healthcare.

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US says it struck Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria

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The United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria at the request of Nigeria’s government, President Donald Trump and the U.S. military said on Thursday, claiming the group had been targeting Christians in the region.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The U.S. military’s Africa Command said the strike was carried out in Sokoto state in coordination with the Nigerian authorities and killed multiple ISIS militants. An earlier statement posted by the command on X said the strike had been conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but that statement was later removed.

The strike comes after Trump in late October began warning that Christianity faces an “existential threat” in Nigeria and threatened to militarily intervene in the West African country over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities.

Reuters reported on Monday the U.S. had been conducting intelligence-gathering flights over large parts of Nigeria since late November.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said the strike was carried out as part of ongoing security cooperation with the United States, involving intelligence sharing and strategic coordination to target militant groups.

“This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North West,” the ministry said in a post on X.

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Mosque blast in northeastern Nigeria kills five, injures dozens

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At least five people were killed and more than 30 others injured when a bomb exploded inside a mosque during prayers in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, police said Wednesday night.

Authorities believe the blast was a suicide attack, citing recovered fragments of a suspected explosive vest. Security forces have cordoned off the area and are searching for additional devices.

No group has claimed responsibility, though such attacks have previously been linked to Boko Haram, which has waged a long-running insurgency in the region.

 
 
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Libyan army’s chief dies in plane crash in Turkey

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation into the crash was under way.

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The Libyan army’s chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, died in a plane crash on Tuesday after leaving Turkey’s capital Ankara, the prime minister of Libya’s internationally recognised government said, adding that four others were on the jet as well, Reuters reported.

“This followed a tragic and painful incident while they were returning from an official trip from the Turkish city of Ankara. This grave loss is a great loss for the nation, for the military institution, and for all the people,” Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah said in a statement.

He said the commander of Libya’s ground forces, the director of its military manufacturing authority, an adviser to the chief of staff, and a photographer from the chief of staff’s office were also on the aircraft.

Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the plane had taken off from Ankara’s Esenboga Airport at 1710 GMT en route to Tripoli, and that radio contact was lost at 1752 GMT. He said authorities found the plane’s wreckage near the Kesikkavak village in Ankara’s Haymana district.

He added that the Dassault Falcon 50-type jet had made a request for an emergency landing while over Haymana, but that no contact was established.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said an investigation into the crash was under way.

The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity said in a statement that the prime minister directed the defence minister to send an official delegation to Ankara to follow up on proceedings.

Walid Ellafi, state minister of political affairs and communication for the GNU, told broadcaster Libya Alahrar that it was not clear when a crash report would be ready, but that the jet was a leased Maltese aircraft. He added that officials did not have “sufficient information regarding its ownership or technical history,” but said this would be investigated.

Libya’s U.N.-recognised Government of National Unity announced official mourning across the country for three days, read the report.

Turkey’s defence ministry had announced Haddad’s visit earlier, saying he had met with Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler and Turkish counterpart Selcuk Bayraktaroglu, along with other Turkish military commanders.

The crash occurred a day after Turkey’s parliament passed a decision to extend the mandate of Turkish soldiers’ deployment in Libya by two more years.

NATO member Turkey has militarily and politically supported Libya’s Tripoli-based, internationally recognised government. In 2020, it sent military personnel there to train and support its government and later reached a maritime demarcation accord, which has been disputed by Egypt and Greece.

In 2022, Ankara and Tripoli also signed a preliminary accord on energy exploration, which Egypt and Greece also oppose, Reuters reported.

However, Turkey has recently switched course under its “One Libya” policy, ramping up contacts with Libya’s eastern faction as well.

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