While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, June 29
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US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arriving for a post-debate rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on June 28.
PHOTO: AFP
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Biden seeks to repair debate damage with fiery speech
A fired-up Joe Biden came out swinging on June 28 as he tried to make up for a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, insisting he was the right man to win November’s presidential election.
Mr Biden’s appearance at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina came amid rumblings in his alarmed Democratic party about replacing the 81-year-old as their nominee.
“I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to,” Mr Biden admitted to supporters in unusually confessional remarks. “But I know how to tell the truth. I know how to do this job,” he said to huge cheers, vowing “when you get knocked down, you get back up.”
Mr Biden’s team was in damage-control mode after the June 27 debate when he often hesitated, tripped over words and lost his train of thought – exacerbating fears about his ability to serve another term.
British PM Rishi Sunak denounces racist slur
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on June 28 denounced the use of a racist slur against him by a now-suspended member of the anti-immigration Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage.
Mr Sunak said he was hurt and “angry” after broadcaster Channel 4 filmed a Reform canvasser using a racist slur to describe him, adding that Mr Farage had “some questions to answer”.
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing p***,” said Mr Sunak, the UK’s first prime minister of colour.
US has sent Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs
EPA-EFE
The Biden administration has sent to Israel large numbers of munitions, including more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles, since the start of the war in Gaza, said two US officials briefed on an updated list of weapons shipments.
Between the war’s start last October and recent days, the US has transferred at least 14,000 of the MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 6,500 500-pound bombs, 3,000 Hellfire precision-guided air-to-ground missiles, 1,000 bunker-buster bombs, 2,600 air-dropped small-diameter bombs, and other munitions, according to the officials, who were not authorised to speak publicly.
While the officials did not give a timeline for the shipments, the totals suggest there has been no significant drop-off in US military support for its ally, despite international calls to limit weapons supplies and a recent administration decision to pause a shipment of powerful bombs.
Ukraine sees sharp increase in Western ammo supplies
REUTERS
After months of acute shortages, sources in Ukraine’s armed forces on June 28 told AFP that supplies of Western ammunition are increasing sharply.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces and members of three brigades serving in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said they had noticed a recent change compared with the start of 2024.
“It’s become better over the past month, and it keeps getting better, at least for 155mm calibre artillery shells,” a Ukrainian sergeant using the call sign “Luntik” – a type of military nickname – told AFP.
Novak Djokovic ‘pain free’ ahead of Wimbledon
Novak Djokovic proclaimed himself “pain free” after defeating Daniil Medvedev in an exhibition match on June 28 ahead of Wimbledon.
Former world number one Djokovic, the seven-time Wimbledon champion, needed surgery earlier in June, following a serious knee injury at the French Open.
But on June 28 the 37-year-old took his place in the draw for Wimbledon, which starts on July 1, with Djokovic, seeded two, taking on 123rd-ranked Vit Kopriv of the Czech Republic at the grass-court Grand Slam.
