- Nadal defied injury woes in record-breaking career
- Nadal v Djokovic, French Open, 2006: Chapter One in epic rivalry
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- Pakistan at 23-1 after Brook triple hundred takes England to 823-7
- Zelensky meets Starmer, Rutte on whirlwind tour of Europe
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Rafael Nadal calls time on epic tennis career
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines confronts China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Kim Sei-young shoots 62 to take two-stroke lead at LPGA Shanghai
- The haircuts that help traumatised Ukrainian soldiers heal
- Sinner crushes Medvedev to set up potential Alcaraz Shanghai semi
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- England's Harry Brook blasts triple century against Pakistan
- Chinese electric car companies cope with European tariffs
- Zelensky in London for whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Record-breaking Root, Brook both pass 200 as England pile up 658-3
- Football mourns Greek defender George Baldock's shock death at 31
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Home is far away for Madagascar in AFCON qualifying
- Two months on, Donbas soldiers begin to question Kursk offensive
- Rugby Australia to counter-sue in dispute with Melbourne Rebels
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
'Stop the bickering': Sanders voices support for Biden's candidacy
Senator Bernie Sanders, a prominent figure of the US political left, on Saturday threw his support behind Joe Biden's White House campaign, dismissing calls for the president to withdraw from the race over health concerns.
"Enough! Mr. Biden may not be the ideal candidate, but he will be the candidate and should be the candidate," independent senator Sanders wrote in a New York Times column, adding that "it's time for Democrats to stop the bickering and nit-picking."
Sanders' column comes amid steadily growing calls from Democratic officials and donors for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside following a disastrous performance in his June 27 debate with former president Donald Trump. So far, some 20 members of Congress have called for him to leave the race.
Most polls taken since the debate show Trump with a national lead over Biden, though within the margin of error. They also show some key battleground states, including Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, shifting in the Republican's favor.
And a majority of Americans -- including Democrats -- believe Biden is too old to serve again, according to a recent poll.
Nor did the president help his own cause when, at a summit in Washington earlier this week, he mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as his foe Vladimir Putin, before quickly correcting himself.
Biden, however, insisted during an appearance Friday that he is, and will remain, his party's flagbearer.
"I am running and we're going to win," he told an enthusiastic audience in Detroit, amid chants of "Don't you quit."
- 'Circular firing squad' -
Sanders noted in his op-ed that he had some strong disagreements with Biden. Like many of his youthful supporters, Sanders fervently opposes what he called "US support for Israel's horrific war against the Palestinian people" in Gaza.
Sanders, who at 82 is himself seeking reelection to the Senate in November, did acknowledge the signs of the president's aging.
But given Biden's achievements -- and the record of Trump, "who has 34 felony convictions and... has told thousands of documented lies" -- the senator brushed Biden's shortcomings aside.
"Yes, I know," he wrote. "Mr. Biden is old, is prone to gaffes, walks stiffly and had a disastrous debate with Mr. Trump. But this I also know: A presidential election is not an entertainment contest. It does not begin or end with a 90-minute debate."
He blamed the eruption of anti-Biden rhetoric partly on "the corporate media (which) has obsessively focused on the June presidential debate and the cognitive capabilities of a man who has, perhaps, the most difficult and stressful job in the world."
Sanders also blamed those Democrats who he said had "joined that circular firing squad."
He challenged the president to do more -- to "propose and fight for a bold agenda" that would help lift working families "who have been left behind for far too long."
But Biden, he concluded, was "a good and decent Democratic president with a record of real accomplishment," including helping rebuild the US economy and shoring up the country's crumbling infrastructure.
"For the sake of our kids and future generations, he must win."
rle-md/bbk/md
.
O.Johnson--AMWN