Author: INDEPENDENT

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington email“Sleepy” Joe Biden just gave the Democratic Party a wake-up call. The concerns about the incumbent president’s age and mental fitness are not going away.So what can his party do about it, if anything?Thursday’s debate in Altanta, Georgia, was the president’s shot to bat away concerns about whether he can effectively serve a second term, one that would end well into his 80s. Instead, battling a cold, Biden appeared raspy and hoarse onstage while appearing to forget words…

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for freeSign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter England take on Slovakia in the round of 16 at Euro 2024 with Gareth Southgate’s side now facing a more favourable route to the final. A opening game win over Serbia and consecutive draws with Denmark and Slovenia were enough for the Three Lions to finish top of Group C and set up a clash with Group E’s third place finishers. Slovakia shocked the tournament by defeating Belgium in their first group game but a 2-1 loss…

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekdayYour briefing on the latest headlines from across the USA California Tesla driver found themselves in the middle of an active train track after the EV’s autopilot mode allegedly mistook it for a road, leading to police issuing a “serious” safety alert.Local police noted the apparent mishap occurred in Woodland, just northwest of Sacramento. Authorities shared a picture of the Tesla positioned in the middle of the tracks on Facebook – which would be directly in the path of an oncoming train.The photo has received…

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for freeSign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter When Gareth Southgate talks about being “very careful” not to go back to the old England “environment”, there are specific moments he is thinking of. One memory that stands out was when Southgate himself was picked to play midfield rather than centre-half for the infamous 1-0 defeat to Germany in 2000, which was the last match at the old Wembley. He and Kevin Keegan — the manager about to resign due to how unenjoyable the job was…

Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inboxGet our free View from Westminster emailPresident Joe Biden has faced calls to stand down by the former UK ambassador to the US after a “historically bad performance” in his TV debate with Donald Trump.Mr Biden and former US president Trump went head to head for the first debate of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday night.However, Mr Biden’s performance continued to raise concerns about his age and mental fitness as he struggled with his lines, mumbled and at times appeared confused.Lord Kim Darroch, who served…

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for freeSign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter Phil Foden is rejoining the England squad in Germany after the birth of his third child. The Manchester City winger returned to the United Kingdom for a flying visit but will return to Germany and should be in contention for the round of 16 tie against Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen on Friday. Foden, who also has a daughter, was present at the birth of his second son. The 24-year-old has started all three of England’s matches in Euro…

Philip Belamant is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zilch, Europe’s fastest-ever company to achieve unicorn status in just 14 months.The UK FinTech is the world’s first direct-to-consumer, ad-subsidised payments network (ASPN) with a mission to revolutionise the global payments industry by eliminating the high cost of consumer credit. For good.Can you provide a brief overview of your business, its core activities, and how it was founded?All my professional life, I’ve created technology-based businesses that create a positive change in society. With a background in payments, I came to understand traditional credit and payments haven’t been designed to meet the needs…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailSocial media users went into meltdown over the first presidential debate of 2024.Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off for the first time since 2020 on Thursday night. Trump made several false claims throughout the debate, including that Nancy Pelosi “turned down” his offer to send thousands of soldiers and the National Guard to the US Capitol during the January 6 2021 insurrection.Meanwhile, Biden’s debate performance was marred by his raspy voice, jumbled words and repeatedly interrupting his…

Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for freeSign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter Euro 2024 has reached the knockout stage with 16 of the 24 teams that began the tournament making it out of the groups and eight sides heading home to enjoy the rest of their summer break.While none of the heavy pre-tournament favourites fell at the first hurdle, World Cup 2022 semi-finalists Croatia did exit after Mattia Zaccagni’s 98th-minute equaliser broke their hearts, while the likes of Ukraine, Poland, Albania and Hungary all showed flashes of potential but…

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailIt took less than 10 minutes for President Joe Biden to nearly completely freeze for four seconds before mistakenly blurting out that he “beat Medicare.”The president has spent the last several years underscoring Donald Trump’s antidemocratic threat and the nation’s slide into autocracy under his administration.But within minutes into their debate rematch ahead of the 2024 presidential election on Thursday, it appeared that the only thing standing in the way of that dark vision of America’s future was…