By Jarrett Renshaw

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – In Joe Biden’s childhood hometown of Scranton, signs of affection for the U.S. president are hard to miss.

Two streets and an expressway into the city bear his name, and personal letters from Biden that invoke the “Scranton values” of hard work and common decency that he frequently flags are proudly displayed in living rooms and offices of some supporters.

Two residents told stories about Biden making surprise calls to their moms during one of his visits. Business owners credit Biden’s programs for their financial survival through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite those strong ties, interviews with about two dozen Scranton voters show many harbor deep concerns about Biden running again. Biden, 80, is already the oldest sitting U.S. president and would be 86 at the end of his second term, if re-elected.

“I worry about his age and his health,” said Jenn Saunders, 57, who owns a downtown coffee shop, and voted for Biden in 2020.

The interviews provide a window into voters’ attitudes toward Biden’s re-election bid, set to be formally announced in coming weeks. National polls show Democrats want a younger candidate, and the lack of fervor in Scranton may be an early warning sign for the party. Biden’s approval rating remains quite low but it edged up to 42% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this month.

Many Scranton residents say they might back Biden again in 2024, albeit without much enthusiasm. They expressed frustration at the Rust Belt town’s long economic slump and the apparent lack of options in 2024.

“I think it’s kind of what he’s supposed to do, run again, right? That’s really what he’s supposed to do. Is there a president that didn’t go for a second run at all? But who else is there?” Kimberly Smith, 45, a manager at the city’s Glider Diner, said. “We just need someone fresh.”

With lower voting rates than many other democracies, enthusiasm plays an important role in deciding U.S. elections. An average of 57% of voting age eligible voters cast ballots in the last four presidential elections.

Biden aides say they welcome a possible rematch against Donald Trump, arguing it will help energize a base angered by the former president. However, polls show the American public doesn’t feel the same way.

“The idea of a Biden-Trump rematch makes me cringe,” said Donald Banks, 83, a retired teacher and Scranton native. Saunders said choosing Biden over Trump might end up being “the lesser of two evils once again.”

ORIGIN STORY

Scranton, where European immigrants once flocked to local coal mines, has long been the foundation of Biden’s origin story, even though he left around the age 10. The region was for years dominated by Democrats, but Trump upended that dynamic with his support among white, working-class voters.

Biden won the Democratic stronghold of Lackawanna County, due in large part to Scranton, by nine points in 2020, outperforming Hillary Clinton in 2016 who won the county by under four points.

Biden often peppers speeches with references to the lessons learned in his town in northeastern Pennsylvania, now a swing state in presidential elections. Biden has visited Scranton twice as president and several times on the campaign trail.

“I am proud to fight for the Scranton values that we were raised on,” Biden wrote in a 2021 letter to former mayor Jim Connors. The letter hangs in Connors’ living room, along with other Biden photos and a newspaper clipping showing a 13-year-old Biden at a Scranton parade for former president Harry Truman.

Connors, 76, says the president embodies the underdog mentality embraced by working-class cities like Scranton. He says he is proud of Biden for leading the global fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which he visited recently.

“He went over there to help. He’s from Scranton. That’s what we do. They call this place the friendly city. That’s not just hype,” Connors said. “That’s how Joe was raised.”

He added: if Biden wants to run again, “let somebody step up and beat him.”

Few residents, though, said life has improved under Biden.

Glyn Johns, 29, is a local Black activist who had hoped having a Scranton native in the White House would illuminate the problems facing Rust Belt cities. Roughly one-in five people in Scranton are in poverty, twice the national rate, and the school district sits near the bottom of national and state rankings.

Johns says she is disappointed so far.

“I still think there should be more than street names that are changed and highways that are renamed for you. Because those highways still have potholes. People that are on Biden Street are still struggling with their businesses,” said Johns.

Black voters were credited for helping deliver the White House to Biden, but Democrats fear some Black people are growing disillusioned and souring on the idea that politics offer solutions to their problems.

Paige Cognetti, the current mayor of Scranton, says the city has flourished under Biden, even if that has sometimes gone unnoticed. She said the city and region benefited from millions of COVID-19 stimulus dollars, including paying for a new fleet of electric vehicles.

Scranton has tapped into federal funding to help boost local wages and support small businesses. Biden is also supporting a plan to build a new rail line from Scranton to New York City.

“So, when I think about President Biden, I don’t just think about President Biden being our hometown son,” Cognetti said. “I think about him ushering through an era of funding for the things that cities like Scranton need.”

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Alistair Bell)

By David Ljunggren and Andrea Shalal

OTTAWA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden will make a long-delayed visit to close ally Canada this week to express unity on Ukraine and the environment, but is unlikely to make much progress on tougher trade disputes, sources said on Tuesday.

Biden will be in the capital Ottawa on Thursday and Friday to address Parliament and meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

U.S. presidents traditionally make their first international trip to Canada but delays – in part caused by COVID-19 – mean Biden has already visited almost 20 other nations first. He held his first bilateral meeting as president with Trudeau, albeit virtually.

U.S. and Canadian sources said no significant announcements were likely, with both leaders expected to agree to continue working on areas where they differ – such as defense spending, the crisis in Haiti and a dairy trade dispute.

Top of mind in Ottawa is Biden’s push to boost manufacturing in the U.S., an economy 10 times the size of Canada’s.

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last year includes massive incentives to invest in green industries in the U.S., forcing Canada to try to make up the difference with investments of its own.

Goldy Hyder, chief executive of the Business Council of Canada, said he wanted more of a recognition from the U.S. that the two nations’ economies were highly integrated and that Canadian firms could benefit from the IRA.

“It is not in America’s interest to consolidate the capital to consolidate the innovation, to consolidate the talent, because you weaken your allies,” he told reporters.

Despite the unity over Ukraine, the U.S. is less happy with Canada over its defense spending, which has long failed to meet the 2% target of GDP set by NATO members.

The recent incursion of a Chinese balloon put the focus on

NORAD, the joint U.S.-Canadian North American defense organization that experts say is in dire need of upgrades.

Last June, Canada promised to invest C$4.9 billion ($3.6 billion) over six years to modernize NORAD. But Canada’s defense spending is around 1.3% of GDP, well below the NATO target of 2%.

David Cohen, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told CTV that defense spending would be “a topic of ongoing conversation … because we do need more dollars for defense.”

The U.S. also wants Canada to address the chaos in Haiti, possibly by leading a security mission there, but Canada’s top general this month said he not have the capacity.

“The Americans, I think, are reaching a point where they are getting fed up,” said Colin Robertson, vice president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a former Canadian diplomat with several U.S. postings.

Trudeau is likely make a commitment of sorts on Haiti but less than Washington is pressing for, said a source briefed on the summit.

($1 = 1.3727 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Josie Kao)

By Brendan O’Brien and Brad Brooks

(Reuters) -Virginia sheriff deputies and medical staffers wrestled with a handcuffed Irvo Otieno, a 28-year-old Black man, for several minutes at a state mental hospital before he died, video surveillance shows.

The altercation took place on March 6 as Otieno was being admitted to Central State Hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, according to Dinwiddie County Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill.

Otieno’s death, which has captured national attention, is the latest example of a Black man dying during a violent encounter with law enforcement.

Police have arrested and charged three former employees of the mental health hospital and seven sheriffs deputies of Henrico County, Virginia, with second-degree murder in Otieno’s death. Most of the deputies and hospital employees involved in the case are also Black. A grand jury on Tuesday formally indicted the ten people charged.

The video, a download link of which was made available in court documents, shows about six officers carrying Otieno into a room. He appeared to struggle as he was put on the ground. At times as many as 10 deputies and hospital workers held him down while his legs were shackled and his arms were held behind his back. Another six deputies and medical staffers were in the room watching the encounter.

Later the video shows Otieno slumped over and motionless. Officers turned him over and began chest compressions. They brought in a defibrillator machine and attempted to revive him. When it is clear Otieno was dead, a lone healthcare worker draped a white sheet over his lifeless body.

The family, who viewed the surveillance video last week, said during a Tuesday evening press conference with their attorney, the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, that a mental health crisis should not be a “death penalty.”

“Ivor was my baby. He was special, he was caring, he was loving,” said Caroline Ouko, Ivor’s mother. “Those ten monsters, those ten criminals, I was happy to hear they were indicted. But that is just the beginning step. We will achieve justice for Ivor.”

A preliminary report by medical examiners said Otieno, who immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya when he was four years old, died of asphyxiation. Prosecutors say they were told he was restrained during the intake process because he was “combative.”

But Crump said the video clearly showed Otieno in handcuffs and leg shackles, and questioned why it was necessary for multiple officers to smother him as he was already restrained.

Officials have not ruled out making more charges or arrests.

Authorities have not said why Otieno was taken into custody or why he was being transferred to the mental health facility, which is located about 25 miles (40 km) south of Richmond.

The deputies were placed on administrative leave and the Henrico County sheriff’s office is conducting an independent investigation into the incident. The department did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Otieno’s death comes after the high-profile police brutality case in January involving some Memphis police officers, who beat Tyre Nichols after a traffic stop. Nichols died after enduring punches and kicks.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Josie Kao and Chris Reese)

(Reuters) – Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday signed a law targeting the trans community, prohibiting transgender people from using the restroom that matches their gender identity at public schools.

The bill signed by the Republican governor, who describes herself as a conservative reformer, applies to multi-person restrooms and locker rooms at public schools and charter schools serving prekindergarten through grade 12.

The law requires schools to provide reasonable accommodations, that include single-person restrooms and changing areas. School authorities that violate the law can face fines of at least $1,000, and parents can also file lawsuits to enforce the measure.

“The governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda,” Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Sanders, told Reuters in a statement.

“Arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.”

Similar laws directed at transgender youth have been enacted in Alabama and Oklahoma.

Republican legislators across the United States have escalated a campaign to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth, in some cases seeking to charge parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide treatment.

(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh)

By John O’Donnell and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich

VIENNA (Reuters) – Russia will always remain important for Europe, Austria’s foreign minister said, saying that to think otherwise was delusional.

Alexander Schallenberg also defended the country’s second-biggest bank, Raiffeisen Bank International, saying it was unreasonable to single out the lender for doing business in Russia while so many other Western firms did the same.

“To think that there won’t be Russia anymore and we can decouple in all areas is delusional,” Schallenberg told Reuters, adding that while Austria would loosen ties this “can’t happen overnight”.

“Dostoyevsky and Tchaikovsky remain a part of European culture, whether we like it or not. It will continue to be our biggest neighbour. It will stay the second largest nuclear power in the world.”

Austria, which has modelled itself as a bridge between east and west, turning its capital of Vienna into a magnet for Russian money, is also part of a wider Western alliance that has sanctioned Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Austria still imports Russian gas although it is seeking to reduce it over the coming years.

Some Austrian officials, however, harbour hopes for a quick conclusion to the war and a return to more normal relations with Russia, people familiar with the matter said.

Schallenberg made his comments after the U.S. sanctions authority launched an inquiry earlier this year into Raiffeisen over its business related to Russia, increasing scrutiny of the Austrian lender.

Raiffeisen is deeply embedded in Russia and is one of the only two foreign banks on the Russian central bank’s list of 13 systemic institutions, underscoring its importance to Russia’s economy, which is grappling with sweeping Western sanctions.

A Russian scheme to grant loan payment holidays to troops fighting in Ukraine, which Raiffeisen participated in, also triggered sharp criticism by investors.

Schallenberg said it was for Austria to enforce sanctions and pointed the finger at other Western banks doing business in Russia. “Austrian companies have to stick to Austrian rules, part of which are the European Union sanctions.”

“Let’s get real,” he said. “91% of Western companies are still in Russia and doing what is sensible: waiting, containment, ring fencing.”

“There are enough American banks, one with the name Bank of America, present in Russia,” said Schallenberg. “The list is a ‘who’s who’ of the Western banking world.”

A spokesperson for Bank of America said: “Our activities are focused on compliance with all sanctions.”

Schallenberg said he favoured enforcement of existing European sanctions over introducing further measures.

“It is a very blunt weapon,” he said. “We’ve had massive sanctions packages. Give them time to work.”

(Writing by John O’Donnell; Editing by Alison Williams)