Author: DW

Former president Barack Obama has stopped short of endorsing Kamala Harris to replace Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.Instead of backing the vice president, he said in a statement: “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.” Follow live: Reaction as Biden pulls out of raceSo who is supporting Kamala Harris?After he stepped aside, Joe Biden backed Ms Harris to replace him, saying: “I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year.…

When Kamala Harris agreed to be vice presidential running mate to Joe Biden and clasped his hand on stage in August 2020, the duo’s future seemed so bright. Biden was on track to ousting Donald Trump and returning a sense of normalcy to the United States, thanks in large part to his decadeslong political experience. Harris was a charismatic, energetic leader for the new age — a woman of color and child of immigrant parents — who came into politics after fighting her way up to become the top public prosecutor in California. Harris might now be called on to save the…

The first 2024 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden proved disastrous for the current US president. Biden, who is now 81, often appeared confused, slurring and stumbling over his words, making 78-year-old Trump, famous for his emotionally fueled, hard-to-follow rants, look collected and lucid by comparison. Both voters and the Democratic Party have taken notice. Under intense pressure from his own party, Biden has backed out of the presidential race. But even before Biden’s withdrawal, speculation was rife about other potential candidates to stand against Trump this November. So, who could take over Biden’s campaign this late in the game? Kamala Harris…

A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon has carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honour killed and injured journalists.Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse (AFP), was one of six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on 13 October while reporting on an exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and Hezbollah. She was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah.AFP videographer Dylan Collins, who was also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Ms Assi’s wheelchair as she carried the torch across the…

Barcelona plans to increase the tourist tax for cruise passengers staying in the city for less than 12 hours, the mayor revealed in a Sunday interview. “We are going to propose.. substantially increasing the tax for stopover cruise passengers,” Jaume Collboni told El Pais newspaper. It is the latest in a series of measures that he has announced to reduce the impact of mass tourism. It comes just weeks after protesters in Barcelona, chanting: “Tourists go home,” sprayed visitors with water as part of a demonstration against mass tourism. Fewer, higher paying tourists wanted According to Statista, Barcelona reported the highest…

Pakistan on Sunday lodged a complaint with the German government after a group of protesters broke into the Pakistani consulate in Frankfurt and took down the national flag that was there. On Saturday, a crowd of about 400 people carrying Afghanistan flags took part in a demonstration outside the consulate, police said. What did Pakistan say? Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in a social media post: “Yesterday a gang of extremists breached the premises of Pakistan’s consulate in Frankfurt, Germany endangering the lives of its consular staff. “Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the German Government,” Dar said on X, formerly Twitter. A separate…

A “brave and heroic” father has died after being struck by a train while trying to rescue his twin daughters whose pram had rolled on to the tracks in Australia.One of the two-year-old girls was also killed while the other sister was not injured in the tragedy at Carlton railway station in Sydney on Sunday, Australia’s 9News reported.New South Wales (NSW) Police Superintendent Paul Dunstan said the girls’ mother, who was uninjured, witnessed the tragedy and has been left “incredibly traumatised”.Supt Dunstan told reporters the parents had taken a lift down to the station platform where they took their hands…

Police rescued a 90-year-old man on Sunday morning from a protestant church in Apolda, in the central German state of Thuringia, after the man rang church bells around 3 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) as a call for help. The man is a resident of a local nursing home. He was scheduled to visit an event at the local Lutheran church on Saturday evening. After he failed to check in at the home at 8:30 p.m., however, the nursing home employees reported him as missing. They described him as “extremely [mentally] reliable and focused,” according to a police statement. Police launched…

Just a few days after his 74th birthday, the election of communist André Chassaigne as National Assembly president would have been considered among the crowning achievements of his career. The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP) — comprised of socialists, communists, greens and the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) — had unexpectedly nominated the provincial politician as their joint candidate for the country’s fourth highest state office. But after Thursday’s vote, the New Popular Front, the surprise winner of the snap parliamentary elections called by President Emmanuel Macron at the beginning of July, remains empty-handed. In the decisive third round…

China and the Philippines have reached a deal they hope will end confrontations over a disputed territory in the South China Sea.The Philippines occupies the Second Thomas Shoal, which is also claimed by Beijing. The years-long territorial stand-off has flared repeatedly since last year – with increasingly hostile confrontations sparking fears of a larger conflict that could involve the US.Chinese coastguard and other forces have used powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking manoeuvres to prevent the Philippines from delivering food and other supplies to navy personnel in its outpost in the shallows of the shoal.A deal to end confrontations was…