Biden criticised for suggesting bridge ‘across the Indian Ocean’
President Joe Biden is facing criticism for slipping up when outlining a new railroad project, mistakenly saying it would be built across the Indian Ocean. Mr Biden was speaking to the League of Conservation Voters in Washington DC on Wednesday night, saying, “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean”. “We have plans to build in Angola one of the largest solar plants in the world,” Mr Biden added. “I can go on, but I’m not. I’m going off-script. I’m going to get in trouble.” There’s no proposal to build a railroad covering the third largest ocean on the planet, and conservatives were quick to capitalise on the slip-up, with the Twitter account RNC Research sharing the clip on Wednesday night. Last week, during a visit from UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Mr Biden made a similar mistake, before correcting himself, saying that “We’re talking about building — and I had my team putting together with other countries as well — to build a railroad from the Pacific Ocean — from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Indian Ocean”. Africa is surrounded by the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Sea, but not the Pacific. Before fumbling his words, Mr Biden spoke about how the US is planning on helping developing countries combat the climate crisis. “We’ve mobilised the world’s leading emitters to help poorer countries deal with the impacts of climate change. They called it, at the G7, the Build Back Biden — Build Back Better. And we realized that got confusing,” the president said to laughter in the room. “Here’s the bottom line – We’re the ones that caused the problem, the United States. We cleared all our land. We did all the things that make things more easy for us to make money. Not a bad thing at the time. No one really fully understood,” he added. “But we, the major emitters in the world, have an obligation to help those countries.” “Soon, Africa will have one billion people. China has their Belt and Road Initiative. It turned out to be their debt and destruction initiative. No, I’m serious. Not a joke. Well, we’re going to win, and we’re going to help,” Mr Biden said, seemingly arguing that the US will take on China in their soft power push to help poorer nations with infrastructure projects, which critics have claimed are exploitative, with some calling it a “debt trap”. Mr Biden was mocked by Twitter users for his railroad slip, with conservative columnist Ian Haworth tweeting: “Who’s going to run that train, SpongeBob?” Former Utah Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz tweeted: “Bold initiative, Mr. President.” The communications director for Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Abigail Marone, wrote: “Put grandpa to bed.” The DeSantis War Room simply tweeted: “Ambitious.” Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro made a dig about Mr Biden’s age, writing, “He does remember Pangea so.” “I for one am booking a seat on the first ever rail trip to the Indian Ocean. You laugh but the beverage car is gonna be sick,” Philadelphia talk radio host Rich Zeoli wrote. Mr Biden’s reelection effort was endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund, NextGen PAC, and the Sierra Club on Wednesday evening, the New York Post noted. Read More Fox News producer behind chyron calling Biden a ‘wannabe dictator’ parts ways with network How was a 21-year-old gamer able to leak a mountain of major Pentagon secrets? Tucker Carlson asks ‘why the hysteria’ over Fox’s Biden ‘wannabe dictator’ chyron US company signs agreement to enter retail fuel market in crisis-hit Sri Lanka US defense secretary discusses upgrading ties with India to counter China Trump gloats as he scores rare legal win in New York golf club tax probe – live
2023-06-16 22:50
Canada Supreme Court upholds asylum-seeker pact
By Anna Mehler Paperny TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada's Supreme Court on Friday upheld an asylum-seeker pact between Canada and the United
2023-06-16 22:49
‘Suitcase killer’ Heather Mack pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder – facing up to 28 years in US prison
“Suitcase killer” Heather Mack is facing up to 28 years in US prison after she pleaded guilty to conspiring to murder her socialite mother Sheila von Wiese-Mack at a luxury 5-star resort in Bali back in 2014. Mack, now 27, reached a plea deal with prosecutors in federal court in Illinois on Friday morning, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to kill a US national and finally bringing some sort of conclusion to a horror case that has rumbled on for almost eight years. “I plead guilty, your honor,” she told US District Judge Matthew Kelley during the short hearing. Under the terms of the agreement, prosecutors recommend that she faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in prison, with consideration given to the seven years that she’s already served in Indonesian jail. If she is sentenced to 28 years, she could be eligible for release in 2042 – taking into account the time served in Indonesia and behind bars in the US. She would be 46 years old. The daughter – Stella – that she gave birth to in Bali prison would be an adult. However, Judge Kelley warned that he could ignore the sentencing guidelines, with the charge carrying a maximum penalty of life in prison. “I have to make up my own mind,” he said. A sentencing date was set for 18 December. Under the deal, Mack is unable to file any appeals in her case. Earlier in the hearing, Mack told the judge that she had been hospitalised “a few times” with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder while growing up. Mack has spend almost every day of her life behind bars since she was arrested in August 2014 in Bali. On 12 August 2014, Mack, then 18, and her then-boyfriend Tommy Schaefer, 21, bludgeoned von Wiese-Mack to death with the metal handle of a fruit stand at the luxury 5-star St. Regis resort in Bali. They then stuffed her body into a suitcase, hailed down a taxi and loaded it into the trunk of the car. When they were unable to check out of the luxury resort – using her mother’s credit card – the couple fled the scene, leaving the bloodstained suitcase behind. They were soon tracked down to a budget motel and arrested on suspicion of murder. At the time of the murder, Mack – the daughter of socialite von Wiese-Mack and famed musician James L Mack – was pregnant with Schaefer’s child. Prosecutors revealed that she had flown her lover out on a $12,000 business-class ticket just hours earlier charged to her mother’s credit card. Surveillance footage later captured the trio arguing in the hotel lobby after he arrived. Less than 12 hours after Schaefer flew in, Mack was dead. Chilling text messages later surfaced showing how the couple likened themselves to the notorious duo Bonnie & Clyde and plotted methods of murder. They were both convicted of premeditated murder in Indonesia and narrowly avoided facing the firing squad. Mack was released from prison in Bali in October 2021 after serving seven years – three years early due to good behaviour – and was briefly reunited with her daughter Stella, then six, who she planned to begin a new life with. But her newfound freedom was short-lived. Five days later, the then 26-year-old was deported from the Indonesian island back to the US and was arrested by FBI agents as soon as she touched down on American soil at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. She was indicted on two counts of conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and one count of obstruction of justice. The indictment, which was filed in 2017 but remained sealed while she remained in Indonesian prison, also charged Schaefer with the same counts. Since then, she has been behind bars in Illinois awaiting trial and had been fighting against the charges, insisting that she had served her time for her crime in Indonesia. The case was set to go to trial on 1 August in Chicago before Mack revealed her intentions to change her plea earlier this month. Speaking to The New York Post last week, Mack said: “I have served nearly 10 years in prison. I felt that I had done my time, so I was gung-ho for trial,” she said. “Now, after sitting for so long, I know what I have to do. I’m going to be a felon in America, and that is fine. I understand from [the US government’s] perspective that, if I don’t plead guilty and they didn’t indict me, I wouldn’t be a felon.” She added: “I could become a police officer and work for the government… I could carry a firearm on the street.” Schaefer is still serving his 18-year sentence in Indonesia before he too will face charges on US soil. Read More Heather Mack plea hearing – live: ‘Suitcase killer’ to plead guilty in US over Bali murder of socialite mom A body in a suitcase, Bonnie and Clyde fantasy and baby born in Bali prison: The chilling case of Heather Mack Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mother, set to plead guilty in US
2023-06-16 22:47
Millions of Americans' personal data exposed in global hack
Millions of people in Louisiana and Oregon have had their data compromised in the sprawling cyberattack that has also hit the US federal government, state agencies said late Thursday.
2023-06-16 22:23
US South blanketed with oppressive heat going into holiday weekend
A dangerous heat wave threatened to bring record-breaking temperatures to parts of the U.S. South on Friday, with
2023-06-16 22:23
Heather Mack, convicted in Bali of killing mom and stuffing body in suitcase, pleads guilty in US
The daughter of an American woman whose body was found stuffed inside a suitcase at an Indonesian resort island has changed her plea to guilty on charges of helping to kill her mother in Bali nine years ago
2023-06-16 22:22
NATO moves to protect undersea pipelines, cables as concern mounts over Russian sabotage threat
NATO has launched a new center to help protect vulnerable undersea pipelines and cables
2023-06-16 22:21
Biden to mark one year since signing gun safety law at gun violence summit
President Joe Biden on Friday is marking one year since the passage of the first major gun safety legislation in a generation during a summit in Connecticut, as gun violence reaches record levels in the United States and additional congressional action remains stalled.
2023-06-16 22:20
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle part ways with Spotify after less than a year of 'Archetypes' podcast
The production company founded by Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, is splitting ways with Spotify less than a year after the debut of their podcast “Archetypes.”
2023-06-16 22:19
Emotional reunion amid despair as Greece searches for shipwreck survivors
By Lefteris Papadimas, Karolina Tagaris KALAMATA, Greece (Reuters) -A Syrian teenager who survived a shipwreck that killed at least 78
2023-06-16 22:17
U.S. Supreme Court allows Justice Department to toss whistleblower cases
By Nate Raymond The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday preserved the Justice Department's power to unilaterally dismiss lawsuits
2023-06-16 22:16
Hungarian govt, media train sights on Soros son
After years of demonising billionaire investor George Soros as a sinister liberal bogeyman, the Hungarian government and its allied media are taking aim at a...
2023-06-16 21:56
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