"Biden has faced increased calls to withdraw from the 2024 presidential elections over concerns relating to his advanced age - which he may abide by after he speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The New York Times claimed on Friday citing advisors.
Netanyahu is scheduled to visit Washington on Wednesday to address Congress and meet with Biden.
Biden is working towards a decision on whether to stay in the presidential race that is good for the country, Senator John Hickenlooper told Reuters.
Asked about Biden potentially stepping aside, Hickenlooper said: "That's his decision to make, but certainly there's more and more indications that that would be in the country's best interests, I think." JerusalemPost
"Weeks-long protests in Bangladesh led by students have descended into increasing violence amid severe economic woes and a new controversial law widely seen as unfairly rewarding supporters of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party with lucrative government jobs.
Since early June, campus-based protests have called for a complete shutdown of the country until the new policy is repealed. A High Court ruling at the start of the summer came down in favor of a quota system which secures 30% of government jobs for family members of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. The student protesters have demanded a system based on merit. A series of initially peaceful university protests resulted in increasingly chaotic scenes and clashes with police, resulting in casualties. From there protests have grown nation-wide." ZeroHedge
"Since the beginning of the day, 85 combat clashes have taken place at the front, the Russian military is most active in the Pokrovsk direction. From the direction of Belgorod (Russian Federation), the enemy launched airstrikes near Lyptsi, Kozacha Lopan, and Borshchova.
In the Kharkiv direction, two attacks were repelled near Hlyboke, and the battle continues in the Vovchansk area.In the Kupiansk direction, the enemy unsuccessfully tried to advance to our positions in the areas of Hlushkivka and Petropavlivka during the day. Three enemy attacks are still ongoing near Stelmakhivka, Makiivka, and Pishchane. Near Pishchane, as well as in the Kolisnykivka area, the occupiers dropped aerial bombs, a total of four KABs.
The Russian military increased the number of attacks to six in the Lyman direction. Fighting continues near Nevske, Makiivka, and in the direction of Lozova.
In the Siverskyi direction, the enemy tried eight times to break through our defenses in the areas of Vyimka, Spirne, Pereizne and Verkhnokamianske. Two clashes are still ongoing. The situation is under control.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the Ukrainian military continues to repel two enemy attacks in the areas of Klishchiivka and Kalynivka. Today, the total number of enemy assault attempts in the direction has increased to six.
In the Toretsk direction, four enemy assaults took place in the area of Zalizne, where the enemy is still attacking, and New York. The occupiers also bombed Pivnichne, Diliivka and Toretsk.
The greatest activity of the enemy is currently maintained in the Pokrovsk direction. Clashes of varying intensity took place here 32 times today. Currently, fighting continues in the areas of Novooleksandrivka, Novoselivka Persha, Vozdvyzhenka and Progress.
During the day, the occupiers' aircraft hit Vovche and Tymofiivka with KABs. In addition, terrorists carried out three airstrikes in the area of Oleksandropol.
Fighting continues in the Kurakhove direction, in two locations near Krasnohorivka. Our soldiers successfully repelled six more assaults - the enemy suffered losses near Heorhiivka, Paraskoviivka, and Kostyantynivka.
In the Vremivka direction, the aggressor carried out four assaults on our positions near Kostyantynivka and Staromayorske. Enemy attack aircraft struck near Urozhayne.
In the Orikhiv direction, three combat clashes took place in the areas of Mala Tokmachka and Novodanylivka. The enemy fired more than fifty unguided air missiles in the direction of Kamianske and Lobkove.
In the Prydniprovska direction, our defenders repelled four enemy attacks in the Krynky area. Ukrainian troops control the situation and exhaust the enemy along the entire line of contact. " Ukrin
"While Joe Biden is decidedly 'dug in' and isn't going anywhere, Democrats, the party of 'democracy is on the ballot,' are plotting a 'loophole' if Biden refuses to step aside or drop out of the race. During a Friday morning Zoom call with 50 delegates, DNC delegate Elaine Kamarck said the apparent "loophole" allowing for such rebellion if convention-goers say they can no longer vote for their pledged candidate in "good conscience" despite picking them in primaries and caucuses. According to the DNC's rules, "Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."
Kamarack said that the rules previously mandated that delegates have to vote for whoever they're pledged to, however that changed after the 1980 convention in which Ted Kennedy and then-President Jimmy Carter were battling for the iron throne. Unlike the Republican party, Democrats can revolt at any time. Given that Biden won nearly all the pledged delegates in the primary, those delegates can say that Biden no longer "reflect[s] the sentiments of those who elected them," and can dump him at will." ZH
"For the first time since the Israel–Hamas war erupted last October, the Israeli military has
deployed fighter jets to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. This action follows an incident where the rebels penetrated Tel Aviv airspace with a kamikaze drone (also for the first time) on Friday....12 Israeli warplanes, including advanced F35 jets, participated in aerial strikes on the port of #Hudaydah in Yemen." ZH
"Former President Donald Trump said Friday he had spoken by telephone with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and vowed to end the war with Russia.
In a statement posted on Truth Social on Friday, Mr Trump said that he had a “very good phone call” with President Zelensky, in which the Ukrainian leader congratulated the former president for once again becoming the Republican nominee for President of the United States and condemned the “heinous assassination attempt” on his life last Saturday." Breitbart
"The number of people injured in Mykolaiv as a result of a Russian missile strike has increased to 24." Ukrin
"A well-timed distraction? Or is it real this time? The White House says Iran is on the verge of being nuclear weapons capable.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Friday that the Islamic Republic will have enough enriched uranium for producing fissile material to achieve a nuclear weapon within just "one or two weeks." ZH
"China sent troops to Belarus for a training exercise for the first time conducting an exercise called “Eagle Assault” near the Polish border that simulated capturing an airport. Belarus, already firmly in Russia’s orbit, is cultivating closer ties with China after joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a security association that Beijing and Moscow touted as an Eastern-led alternative to NATO. Belarus became the first nominally European member of the SCO on July 4." Breitbart
"The Chinese state newspaper Global Times described Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) on Thursday as possessing a “clear inward or insular tendency” that concerns Chinese “experts,” as well as an “aversion of economic globalization” that runs afoul of Chinese Communist Party orthodoxy." Breitbart
