Top political donors including the heir to the Disney fortune have said they will suspend donations until the US President steps down

US President Joe Biden has made another embarrassing gaffe by referring to himself as a “black woman” as donors call for him to step aside ahead of a crucial television interview on Friday.

The 81-year-old presumptive Democratic nominee in the presidential election race is facing mounting pressure to step down over doubts about his mental fitness for the role.

Criticism from Republicans had already been widespread, but his poor performance in last week’s television debate with rival Donald Trump, in which he appeared confused and faltering, has alarmed Democrats and led to mounting calls for him to consider his position, with some touting Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative candidate. 

Mr Biden is due to hold a rally in battleground state Wisconsin on Friday, before sitting down for a TV interview with the ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which will air in the US in the evening. On Sunday, he will appear at a campaign event in Philadelphia. His appearances will be closely scrutinised.

It comes after he made a fresh gaffe on Thursday, mixing up his words as he tried to demonstrate his pride in working with Ms Harris and former President Barack Obama while speaking to WURD radio in Philadelphia.

“By the way, I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first black woman… to serve with a black president,” he said.

“Proud to be involved with the first black woman on the Supreme Court,” he added, in reference to Ketanji Brown-Jackson, who became the first female black justice when he appointed her. There’s so much that we can do because, look… we’re the United States of America.” 

Campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa insisted: “It was clear what President Biden meant when he was talking about his historic record including a record number of appointments to the federal bench. This is not news and the media has passed the point of absurdity here.”

On Thursday, Mr Biden appeared at a White House to host military families at a 4th July event and said he was “not going anywhere”. He also began to tell a story, referring to Trump as “one of our colleagues, the former president” before adding, “probably shouldn’t say, at any rate” and abruptly ending the story.

He also tripped up earlier in the interview when he claimed he had been the first president elected statewide in Delaware. He appeared to mean that he was the first Catholic in Delaware to be elected statewide.

Elected Democrats, including Ms Harris, have largely rallied behind the President yet an increasing number of donors are voicing doubts.

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On Thursday, Abigail Disney – granddaughter of Roy Disney, heir to the Disney fortune and a major party donor – said she would suspend donations and suggested Ms Harris as an alternative.

“I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect,” she told CNBC. “If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.

“We have an excellent Vice President. If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot,” Ms Disney said. 

Gideon Stein, a donor and president of the Moriah fund private foundation, said he would pause $3.5m (£2.74m) in planned donations to nonprofits and political organisations active in the presidential race unless Mr Biden stepped aside.

“Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump,” he said.

Damon Lindelof, a Hollywood producer who has donated more than $115,000 to Democrats, called for donors to put away their chequebooks until Mr Biden steps down.

“When they text you asking for cash, text back that you’re not giving them a penny and you won’t change your mind until there’s change at the top of the ticket. And when Joe finally leaves the mound, I will stand and applaud. Because he truly pitched a great game,” he said.

Reed Hastings, Netflix co-founder and one of the biggest donors to the Democrats, called on Wednesday for Mr Biden to “step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous”.

The New York Times reports that a group of donors and strategists are working to raise $100m for a “Next Generation PAC” (political action committee) to support a replacement candidate, and that supporters are calling on elected officials at all levels to pressure the President to quit the race.

If re-elected, Mr Biden would be 86 at the end of the second term. So far he has vowed to fight on and the White House has blamed jet lag and a cold for his shaky performance. 

Several public opinion polls have shown Trump widening his narrow lead over the Democratic President since the debate, while a Reuters/Ipsos poll found one in three Democrats want Mr Biden to quit the race.  By Victoria Craw, I News

Chief Justice Martha Koome on Tuesday, July 2, dismissed allegations of imposing a Ksh10 million bond on a suspect over the alleged theft of 181kg of meat.

In a statement, CJ Koome clarified that the suspect who appeared before an Eldoret court was charged with breaking into a building and committing a felony and not theft of meat as alleged. 

According to the Chief Justice, the suspect while in the company of his accomplices, reportedly broke into a club and allegedly stole goods worth Ksh37 million.

Among the stolen goods included screens, electronics, sound systems, kitchen equipment, computers, printers, restaurant furniture, freezer, microwave, utensils and assorted food items.

Koome further reiterated that during the incident, the suspect dishonestly retained some sound system-related electronics which are spelt out in the charge sheet.

“The magistrate exercised discretion and granted a bond of Ksh. 10 million given the total sum of Ksh37 million,” the Chief Justice clarified. 

"The Alternative Charge is “Handling of Stolen property contrary to section 322(1)(2) of the Penal Code," she added.

According to CJ Koome, investigations into the matter were still ongoing with more suspects set to be arraigned in the course of the investigations.

She further noted that the court had not yet determined anything relating to the case and that what took place was the reading of the charges.

"The court process begins with the charge being read out to the accused person. Then he agrees or denies it." 

The clarification came barely an hour after former Law Society of Kenya President Nelson Havi criticized the Judiciary for imposing hefty bond terms on a petty offender.

According to Havi, while the Judiciary was imposing outrageous bond terms on petty offenders, those involved in multi-billion graft allegations were awarded peanut bonds.  

"CJ Martha Koome, theft of 181kg of goat meat valued at about 200K attracts bond of Ksh10 million with no option of cash bail?" questioned Havi.

"You do not see anything fundamental wrong with that?" he questioned further. by TIMOTHY CERULLO, Kenyans.co.ke

 The United Nations reported that at least nine out of ten people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced at least once since October 7.

"We are again at the crossroads where the UN and its partners have to reset their operations," said Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian Territory, at a virtual news conference.

De Domenico noted that Israel's recent evacuation order in Khan Younis has impacted a third of the enclave, further exacerbating the crisis. "At the moment, we estimate that nine out of every ten people in the Gaza Strip have been internally displaced at least once, if not up to ten times, unfortunately, since October," he said.

De Domenico stated, "People in the last nine months have been moved around like pawns in a board game, forced from one location to the next."

He highlighted the severe living conditions that residents must rebuild each time, leading to increased suffering and a greater need for humanitarian aid. Stressing that the UN will continue its efforts in the region, he underscored the daily challenges in aid distribution.

Citing the Palestinian Authority's Bureau of Statistics, De Domenico said Gaza's population is 2.3 million, estimating that 110,000 have left Gaza and 37,000 have been killed. He emphasized that behind these numbers are people with grievances, fears, and hopes.

The UN official reported that Israeli officials claimed they did not intend to evacuate hospitals in the recent "evacuation" call, adding that Israel did not provide timely information on the evacuation order. "People have memories of what happened at Al-Shifa, Nasser, and other hospitals, where doctors, patients, and nurses were arrested and interrogated. Some were found days later in mass graves. So, fear is dominant," he said.

De Domenico noted that the European Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the last essential service-providing hospitals in the region, was also evacuated and is now "gone."

He reported that OCHA has seen Israel's attacks continue in so-called "safe zones" and that 247 of his colleagues have been killed. Many of these colleagues were killed while on duty, and some were killed at home with their families.

"Nowhere and no one is safe in Gaza", which has become a place "where people cannot find a safe refuge, and can't leave the front line". Shafaq News

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank or “the Bank”) (www.Afreximbank.com) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to amplify the impact of their strategically aligned joint efforts of promoting global trade leveraging Africa’s unique resource endowment.

The MoU will allow the two organizations to pursue a collaborative framework for harmonizing and coordinating their efforts towards deepening key trade development activities on the continent.

Afreximbank and the WTO are part of an inter-agency partnership that is championing transformative change in the cotton industry in Africa’s Cotton-4 plus (C4+) countries, which include Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali as well as Côte d’Ivoire as an observer. The MOU will afford the Bank and the WTO Secretariat the opportunity to expand and deepen their collaboration to support the cotton sector beyond the C4+ countries.

Their support will entail development of local and regional value chains of cotton in Africa as well as their integration into the global value chain.
Another area of collaboration under the understanding will be on Trade Finance matters, addressing non-tariff barriers to trade, the digital economy, capacity building, the oceans’ economic and fisheries subsidies, the sports and creative economies and trading in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

While speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, Prof. Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank said: “The WTO Secretariat is a natural partner to Afreximbank given our shared mandate of promoting trade and trade-related activities. We are already working with the Secretariat on FIFA’s C4+ Cotton Initiative, for which we have committed financing for project preparation for cotton transformation projects in Africa. Formalizing our relationship today signifies that we can go beyond our present collaboration to include other equally impactful interventions across key economic sectors in Africa.”

“The Bank recently signed a Charter with Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) and the Rebranding Africa Forum (RAF) to build a robust sports’ economy, which will include commercializing and monetizing African made sports apparel and athleisure wear. This is yet another undertaking that will benefit from this MOU with the WTO Secretariat.” He added.

H.E. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the WTO Secretariat said: "The signing of this MOU is timely as it reflects some of the key priorities of many of our Members. I am particularly pleased to see that it will support Members' efforts in Agriculture and Food Security, advance efforts to address harmful fisheries subsidies, and promote cooperation on Trade Finance.

I am especially pleased that Afreximbank has committed to explore the opening of a finance window that would assist the C-4 plus countries on their journey to scale value addition on the continent. I look forward to seeing real, on-the-ground results from this partnership.¨

The C4+ countries have historically exported raw cotton for processing outside of the continent. Developing local industries to process and transform cotton into textile, could potentially create 500,000 jobs in the West African region. If harnessed well, it is expected that within the next 10 years, the C4+ countries could process up to 25% of their cotton crops.

This undertaking requires circa US$ 5 billion in investment in production facilities and training for workers. Which in turn calls for capacity building, access to finance for businesses, and improved infrastructure. By BOB KOIGI, African Business Communities