Democratic officials, donors back Harris after Biden exits US presidential race

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WASHINGTON — Momentum appeared to be on the side of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, as a groundswell of Democratic lawmakers, governors and financial donors expressed their support for her to be the party’s presidential nominee in the November election after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Biden followed his surprise announcement Sunday by issuing his own endorsement of Harris to face former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s nominee. Harris, who is 59, quickly announced that she would seek the nomination. She was a senator from the country’s most populous state, California, when Biden picked hermore

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India ed-tech firm Byju’s founder faces reckoning as startup implodes

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NEW DELHI — Byju Raveendran, an Indian mathematics whiz who soared from teacher to startup billionaire before his education-technology company imploded this year, now faces his biggest test. The future of Raveendran’s eponymous Byju’s online coaching firm rests with India’s courts after the country’s biggest startup, once loved by global investors who valued it at $22 billion, crashed below $2 billion in valuation. The 44-year-old founder last week lost control of the company as a tribunal kick-started an insolvency process. Accused of “financial mismanagement and compliance issues,” the son of a family of teachers from a small village in south Indiamore

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Biden’s decision to drop out crystalized Sunday; his staff knew one minute before the public did

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WASHINGTON — At 1:45 p.m. Sunday, President Joe Biden’s senior staff was notified that he was stepping away from the 2024 race. At 1:46 p.m., that message was made public. It was never Biden’s intention to leave the race: Up until he decided to step aside Sunday, he was all in. His campaign was planning fundraisers and events and setting up travel over the next few weeks. But even as Biden was publicly dug in and insisting he was staying in the race, he was quietly reflecting on the disaster of the past few weeks, on the past three years ofmore

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Vance brings conservatism, youth to Trump ticket

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Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance was named the vice presidential candidate to presidential candidate Donald Trump. His policies mesh with the former president’s, but his background couldn’t be different. VOA’s Senior Washington Correspondent Carolyn Presutti shows us what Vance brings to the ticket. VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. VOA footage by Mary Cieslak. …

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India’s battery storage industry grows

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BENGALURU, India — At a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of Chennai in southern India, a giant battery powers machinery day and night, replacing a diesel-spewing generator. It’s one of just a handful of sites in India powered by electricity stored in batteries, a key component to fast-tracking India’s energy transition away from dirty fuels.    The country’s lithium ion battery storage industry — which can store electricity generated by wind turbines or solar panels for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing — makes up just 0.1% of global battery storage systems. But battery storage is growing fast,more

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Australia warns of ‘malicious websites’ after cyber outage

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sydney — Australia’s cyber intelligence agency said on Saturday that “malicious websites and unofficial code” were being released online claiming to aid recovery from Friday’s global digital outage, which hit media, retailers, banks and airlines.  Australia was one of many countries affected by the outage that caused havoc worldwide after a botched software update from CrowdStrike.  On Saturday, the Australian Signals Directorate — the country’s cyber intelligence agency — said “a number of malicious websites and unofficial code are being released claiming to help entities recover from the widespread outages caused by the CrowdStrike technical incident.”  On its website, the agency said its cyber security center “strongly encourages all consumers tomore

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Trump campaign releases letter on shooting injury, treatment

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NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health on Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The memo, from Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details about the Republican GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Jackson said Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high-powered rifle that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head and struck the top of his right ear.”more

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Republicans united on Trump, divided on abortion

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During the Republican National Convention, which ended Thursday, delegates approved a political platform that barely mentions abortion — a stark contrast to previous party positions. VOA’s chief national correspondent Steve Herman reports from the convention that this softer official stance on reproductive rights is aimed at making its candidate, Donald Trump, more appealing to undecided voters. VOA footage by Mary Cieslak. …

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Airlines resume services after global IT crash wreaks havoc

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Paris — Airlines were gradually coming back online Saturday after global carriers, banks and financial institutions were thrown into turmoil by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program. Passenger crowds had swelled at airports Friday to wait for news as dozens of flights were canceled and operators struggled to keep services on track, after an update to a program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed systems worldwide. Multiple U.S. airlines and airports across Asia said they were now resuming operations, with check-in services restored in Hong Kong, South Korea and Thailand, andmore

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Some older working Americans bristle at calls for Biden to step aside

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NEW YORK — A swath of Americans watching U.S. President Joe Biden is seeing something beyond debate-stage stumbles and prime-time miscues: themselves. Debate about the 81-year-old Democrat’s fitness for another term is especially resonating with other older Americans who, like him, want to stay on the job. “People were telling me I should retire, too,” says 89-year-old D’yan Forest, a New York comedian. “But you’ve got to keep working, no matter what.” Forest has stumbled on an occasional joke and finds it more difficult to memorize her lines. But she’s busier than ever, drawing audiences and getting big laughs with bawdymore

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What happens if Biden drops out of presidential race?

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Washington — With major donors reluctant to keep campaign funds flowing and more Democrats publicly saying that his chances of winning the November election are dwindling, U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly coming closer to bowing out of the race. As of Friday, there was no indication from the campaign nor the White House that Biden would drop out. But if he does, Democrats must make a swift decision on who would replace him on the top of their ticket, and how. The most orderly scenario would be for Biden to endorse an alternative candidate and ask the delegates to transfermore

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