By Jeff Mason

SCRANTON, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Barack Obama once said if there were no Scranton, Pennsylvania, there would be no Joe Biden.

The sitting president, whose term ends in January, returned to his childhood hometown on Saturday for a final campaign stop in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking to use his sway in a critical part of an important swing state to help her beat his onetime rival, Republican Donald Trump.

Scranton has a storied history for Biden, and if he were still at the top of the Democratic ticket, a stop here would likely be seen as a full-circle moment for his final campaign.

Instead it was Biden’s swan song of sorts for his No. 2, and a muted one at that.

The president rallied union workers, a constituency with whom he is popular, in the town where he grew up before his family moved to Delaware, where he would launch his more than fifty-year political career.

“I’m so proud to be back,” Biden said, launching into familiar remarks about his and Harris’ support for unions, his pride in having been the first president to walk a picket line, and their efforts to restore pensions.

“Don’t forget where you came from,” he said to applause, warning of the ramifications if Trump were elected and did away with the Affordable Care Act healthcare program.

Biden, who stepped aside as the Democratic Party’s standard bearer in July following a disastrous debate performance against Trump, has not been a regular feature on the campaign trail for Harris since she ascended to the top of the ticket.

They held a handful of early events, both official and campaign-related, as she took the baton and energized demoralized Democrats in the summer. But his former campaign largely left him in the shadows since, amid concerns about his age, his penchant for gaffes, and his low approval ratings with the American public.

The wisdom of that strategy was highlighted earlier this week when Biden’s call with a Latino group in which he referred to a Trump supporter or supporters as garbage partially overshadowed Harris’ well-received closing argument speech to tens of thousands of supporters in Washington. He later clarified his remarks, but the episode was an unwelcome one for Harris and her team in the closing stretch of the race.

It was not enough, however, for them to ask Biden to eschew his stop in Pennsylvania, where he spoke at a union get-out-the-vote meeting with Carpenters Local 445, standing in front of a wall of signs that said “Harris for President” and “Thank you, Joe.”

NOVI SAD, Serbia (Reuters) -Serbia wound up a rescue operation and opened an investigation on Saturday into a roof collapse at a railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad that killed 14 people and injured three others.

The disaster happened on Friday when a length of roofing along the entrance to the station collapsed.

Rescuers using heavy construction machinery worked through the night to free the dead and wounded from under the rubble.

Authorities declared Saturday a national day of mourning.

Thousands of people attended a vigil and protest in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second-largest city.

The crowds, including children, blocked the intersection near the train station as people silently lit candles and placed flowers, wreaths and toys on the ground.

A group of mourners stood motionless holding white papers with names of the 14 dead.

“It must be demonstrated that not everything is as (good as) portrayed, that … many things must be changed.”

“In the countries with real democracy, the first who resigns is the minister. There was no talks here about any minister, any oversight official who should resign,” said Dragomir Panic, 78, from Novi Sad.

The station in the city about 70 km (40 miles) northwest of Belgrade was renovated in 2021 and 2022. Other minor works continued until July this year when the Transport Ministry said a total of 16 million euros ($17.33 million) had been invested in the renovation.

Transport Minister Goran Vesic, state Serbian Railways company, the state Traffic Institute and a Chinese consortium – comprising China Railway International Co. Ltd and China Communications Construction Company (CRIC-CCCC) – that renovated the building, all said on Friday that the part of the building that collapsed was not a part of the works.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said 20 people would be interviewed by authorities on Saturday in connection with the disaster, including people from the ministry in charge and the state railways operator.

“The documentation about the building will (also) be obtained … about who made the decisions,” Dacic added.

The state prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad said Vesic would also be among those to be interviewed.

The University Clinical Center in Novi Sad said in a statement that the three injured people remained in intensive care.

Serbia’s opposition politicians and activists, who accuse authorities loyal to President Aleksandar Vucic of rampant corruption, nepotism and excessive red tape, staged a protest in front of the government building in Belgrade, leaving red paint marks of their hands at the tarmac to commemorate victims.

“People are being hurt and die for your profits, scams and frauds,” the Green-Left Front party said in a statement.

Vucic, a populist, and his allies deny such allegations. In a televised address late on Friday the president promised justice and demanded harsh punishment for those responsible. 

By Susana Vera and Guillermo Martinez

VALENCIA, Spain (Reuters) -The deadliest flash floods in Spain’s modern history have killed at least 211 people and dozens were still unaccounted for, four days after torrential rains swept the eastern region of Valencia, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday.

In a televised statement, Sanchez said the government was sending 5,000 more army troops to help with the searches and clean-up in addition to 2,500 soldiers already deployed.

“It is the biggest operation by the Armed Forces in Spain in peacetime,” Sanchez said. “The government is going to mobilize all the resources necessary as long as they are needed.”

The tragedy is already Europe’s worst flood-related disaster since 1967 when at least 500 people died in Portugal.

Hopes of finding survivors were boosted when rescuers found a woman alive after three days trapped in a car park in Montcada, Valencia. Residents burst into applause when civil protection chief Martin Perez announced the news.

Meanwhile, volunteers flocked to Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences centre for the first coordinated clean-up organised by regional authorities. The venue has been turned into the nerve centre for the operation.

In Valencia’s Picanya suburb, shop-owner Emilia, 74, told Reuters on Saturday: “We feel abandoned, there are many people who need help. It is not only my house, is all the houses and we are throwing away furniture, we are throwing away everything.

“When is the help going to come to have fridges and washing machines? Because we can’t even wash our clothes and we can’t even have a shower.”

Nurse Maria Jose Gilabert, 52, who also lives in Picanya, said: “We are devastated because there is not much light to be seen here at the moment, not because they are not coming to help, they are coming from all over Spain, but because it will be a long time before this becomes a habitable area again.”

The storm triggered a new weather alert in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia, where rains are expected to continue during the weekend.

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent in Europe, and elsewhere, due to climate change. Meteorologists think the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe.