At a rally in downtown Philadelphia, Biden, as he has done throughout the beginning stages of his campaign, made Trump his central target, blasting him as "the divider-in-chief." But he also chided other Democratic presidential candidates in the field, suggesting that anger toward Trump within his party was not enough to win next year's presidential election. "Some of the really smart folks say Democrats don't want to hear about unity," he said. With his poll numbers currently swamping the rest of the Democratic field, Biden has often acted as if his current opponent is Trump and not the other 23 Democrats vying for the party's nomination.
Saudi Arabia has said it does not want war but stands ready to respond with “all strength” to defend itself against Iran, as the US stepped up naval exercises in the Persian Gulf.The Saudis, who have accused Tehran of ordering drone strikes five days ago on two of its oil pumping stations, told Iran the kingdom would not stand by while being attacked.Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran are arch-adversaries in the Middle East, backing opposite sides in several regional wars.“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not want war in the region and does not seek that... but at the same time, if the other side chooses war, the kingdom will fight this with all force and determination and it will defend itself, its citizens and its interests,” foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said. “We want peace and stability in the region but we won’t stand with our hands bound as the Iranians continuously attack. Iran has to understand that.“The ball is in Iran’s court and it is up to Iran to determine what its fate will be.”Saudi Arabia would do what it could “to prevent this war”, he said.An Iranian military commander was similarly quoted as saying his country is not looking for war. Fears of armed conflict have run high after the White House ordered warships and bombers to the Arabian Gulf earlier this month to counter an alleged, unexplained threat from Iran. The US also has ordered non-essential staff out of diplomatic posts in Iraq. An aircraft carrier strike group with the US Navy has stepped up security patrols in the international waters after an alleged act of sabotage on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the United Arab Emirates.Days earlier, Iran-allied Yemeni rebels claimed a drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline. Iran has denied involvement in either operation.The tensions are rooted in Donald Trump’s decision last year to withdraw the US from the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, and impose wide-reaching sanctions, including on Iranian oil exports that are crucial to its economy. Iran has said it will resume enriching uranium at higher levels if a new deal is not reached by 7 July. That could potentially bring it closer to being able to develop a nuclear weapon. Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Muslim ally the UAE has not blamed anyone for the tanker sabotage, but two US government sources said US officials believed Iran had encouraged Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group or Iraq-based Shi’ite militias to carry it out.The Houthis have been battling a Saudi-led military coalition Yemen’s war since 2015.An English-language Saudi newspaper close to the palace recently published an editorial calling for surgical US airstrikes in retaliation for Iran’s alleged involvement in the oil attacks. Agencies contributed to this report
CHICAGO (AP) — Police and Illinois' child welfare agency say staff at a Chicago-area hospital didn't alert them after determining that a bloodied woman who arrived with a gravely ill newborn had not just given birth to the baby boy, as she claimed.
Final results showed that voters overwhelmingly supported reforming Swiss gun laws, with a full 63.7 percent casting their ballot in favour. A majority of voters in all but one of Switzerland's 26 cantons backed the reform, with the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland the only outlier. A demand from the neighbouring European Union that the Swiss toughen their gun laws prompted a rare national debate over firearm ownership in the wealthy Alpine nation, which has a deeply-rooted gun culture.
The Tomahawk and its controversies might make headlines, but as the U.S. Navy re-arms for high-tech warfare, the SM-6 is the missile to watch.The U.S. Navy in late January 2019 confirmed the designation of its newest cruise missile, in the process clarifying its long-term plan for arming its growing fleet of warships.The plan heavily leans on one missile, in particular. It's the SM-6, an anti-aircraft weapon that quickly is evolving to perform almost every role the Navy assigns to a missile.(This first appeared earlier in the year.)The Navy dubbed the newest version of the venerable Tomahawk cruise missile the "Block V" model, Jane's reported. There are two separate variants of the Block V missile, one with an anti-ship warhead and another with a warhead the Navy optimized for striking targets on land.Raytheon's Tomahawk has been the subject of controversy in Washington, D.C. In order to save money the Obama administration wanted to pause production of the long-range missile, which since the 1980s has been the Navy's main weapon for striking land targets from the sea.Congress overruled the Obama administration and continued buying Tomahawks for roughly $1 million apiece, adding potentially hundreds of the missiles to the thousands the fleet already possesses.
It was to eventually employ at least 1,500 people and help bring development to a rural area near Hyderabad in southern India. Two sources familiar with J&J's operations in India and one state government official told Reuters production at the plant, at Penjerla in Telangana state, never began because of a slowing in the growth in demand for the products. One of them said that demand didn’t rise as expected because of two shock policy moves by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: a late 2016 ban on then circulating high-value currency notes, and the nationwide introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) in 2017.
An explosion struck a tourist bus on Sunday near Egypt's famed pyramids, injuring 17 people including foreigners, security and medical sources said. South Africans and Egyptians were among those injured when an explosive device went off, hitting the bus in Giza, according to the sources. Sunday's incident comes after three Vietnamese holidaymakers and their Egyptian guide were killed when a roadside bomb hit their bus as it travelled near the pyramids outside Cairo in December.
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RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on an F-16 fighter jet that crashed into a Southern California warehouse (all times local):
Former Vice President Joe Biden held a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Saturday. Many of his comments focused on defeating President Donald Trump.