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Biden cancels meeting with Latino civil rights organization after testing positive for coronavirus

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Biden cancels meeting with Latino civil rights organization after testing positive for coronavirus
News

News

Biden cancels meeting with Latino civil rights organization after testing positive for coronavirus

2024-07-18 06:38 Last Updated At:06:41

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday while trying to shore up support among disenchanted voters key to his reelection chances, prompting him to cancel a meeting with members of a Latino civil rights organization in the battleground state of Nevada.

After testing positive, Biden was unable to deliver an address to the UnidosUS annual conference in Las Vegas. His speech was meant to be a vehicle for an announcement that beginning Aug. 19, certain U.S. citizens’ spouses without legal status can begin applying for permanent residency and eventually citizenship without having to first depart the country, according to the White House. The new program, first announced by Biden last month, could affect upwards of half a million immigrants.

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President Joe Biden walks up the steps of Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks up the steps of Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden and Maritza Rodriguez, Biden for President Latina adviser, greets patrons at Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant, during a stop in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden and Maritza Rodriguez, Biden for President Latina adviser, greets patrons at Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant, during a stop in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks to community leaders at the Vote to Live Action Fund's 2024 Prosperity Summit co-hosted by CBC Chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., in North Las Vegas, Nev., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks to community leaders at the Vote to Live Action Fund's 2024 Prosperity Summit co-hosted by CBC Chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., in North Las Vegas, Nev., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks with Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks with Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden greets people as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden greets people as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

The visit with Latino activists was planned as Republicans are hosting their national convention in Milwaukee and as Biden struggles to steady a reelection campaign that's been listing since his dismal June 27 debate performance against Republican nominee Donald Trump. The campaign has been further complicated by the assassination attempt on Trump by a 20-year-old shooter on Saturday in Pennsylvania and, now, by Biden's own health due to the coronavirus test.

Shortly before the White House announced Biden's condition, the president had stopped at the Original Lindo Michoácan Restaurant, mingling with customers, making small talk and taking selfies as he went table to table before participating in an interview with Univision.

Biden is counting on strong support from Black and Latino voters — two groups that were key parts of his winning 2020 coalition but whose support has shown signs of fraying — to help him win four more years in the White House.

Biden, in an interview with BET News on Tuesday, insisted he still has plenty of time to energize voters.

“Whether it's young Blacks, young whites, young Hispanics, or young Asian Americans, they've never focused till after Labor Day,” Biden said in the interview. “The idea that they're intently focused on the election right now is not there.”

But the headwinds for Biden had been building even before his flop on the debate stage led to a wave of Democratic lawmakers and donors calling on him to exit the campaign.

Hispanic Americans have a much less positive view of Biden now than they did when he took office. Only 36% of Hispanic adults have a somewhat or very favorable opinion of Biden, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in July, down from around 6 in 10 in January 2021. About two-thirds of Hispanic adults have an unfavorable view of Biden.

Biden on Tuesday delivered remarks in Las Vegas to the annual NAACP convention in which he made his case that Trump's four years in the White House were “hell” for Black Americans. He lashed at Trump as mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, for rising unemployment early in the pandemic, and for divisive rhetoric that he said needlessly tore at Americans.

He also mocked Trump for saying that migrants who have entered the U.S. under the Democratic administration are stealing “Black jobs.”

“I know what a Black job is. It’s the vice president of the United States,” Biden said of Vice President Kamala Harris. He added that she “could be president.”

Biden also noted his appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to serve on U.S. Supreme Court and his service as vice president under Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president.

That new Biden administration plan on spouses was announced weeks after Biden unveiled a sweeping crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border that effectively halted asylum claims for those arriving between officially designated ports of entry. Immigrant-rights groups have sued the Biden administration over that directive, which administration officials say has led to fewer border encounters between ports.

Biden had also planned to sign an executive order establishing a White House initiative on advancing opportunities at what are known as Hispanic-Serving Institutions, a group of some 500 two-year and four-year colleges around the country that have prominent Hispanic populations.

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Associated Press writer Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden walks up the steps of Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks up the steps of Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks to board Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a speaker at the UnidosUS annual conference broadcast on the White House's YouTube channel. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden and Maritza Rodriguez, Biden for President Latina adviser, greets patrons at Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant, during a stop in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden and Maritza Rodriguez, Biden for President Latina adviser, greets patrons at Linda Michoacan Mexican Restaurant, during a stop in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks to community leaders at the Vote to Live Action Fund's 2024 Prosperity Summit co-hosted by CBC Chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., in North Las Vegas, Nev., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks to community leaders at the Vote to Live Action Fund's 2024 Prosperity Summit co-hosted by CBC Chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., in North Las Vegas, Nev., Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks with Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden walks with Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden greets people as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden greets people as he visits Mario's Westside Market in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

President Joe Biden speaks at a 2024 Prosperity Summit Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in North Las Vegas, Nev. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)

ROME (AP) — Human rights groups voiced outrage Wednesday after Italy released a Libyan warlord on a technicality, after he was arrested on a warrant from the International Criminal Court accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Hague-based court, for its part, issued a more diplomatic response but its anger appeared evident. In a stern statement late Wednesday, the ICC reminded Italy that it is obliged to “cooperate fully” with its prosecutions and said it was still awaiting information about what exactly Rome had done.

The reaction came after the Italian government on Tuesday released and sent back home Ossama Anjiem, also known as Ossama al-Masri, who heads the Tripoli branch of the Reform and Rehabilitation Institution, a notorious network of detention centers run by the government-backed Special Defense Force.

Al-Masri had been arrested Sunday in Turin, where he reportedly had attended the Juventus-Milan soccer match the night before. The ICC warrant, dated the day before, accused al-Masri of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Mitiga prison in Libya starting in 2015 that are punishable with life in prison.

The ICC said he was accused of murder, torture, rape and sexual violence. It said the warrant was transmitted to member states on Saturday, including Italy, and that the court had also provided real-time information that he had entered Europe.

The court said it had reminded Italy at the time to contact it “without delay” if it ran into any problems cooperating with the warrant.

But Rome’s court of appeals ordered al-Masri freed Tuesday, and he was sent back to Libya aboard an aircraft of the Italian secret services, because of what the appeals court said was a procedural error in his arrest. The ruling said Justice Minister Carlo Nordio should have been informed ahead of time, since the justice ministry handles all relations with the ICC.

The ICC said it had not been given prior notice of the Rome court's decision, as required, and “is seeking, and is yet to obtain, verification from the authorities on the steps reportedly taken.”

Al-Masri returned to Tripoli late Tuesday, received at the Mitiga airport by supporters who celebrated his release, according to local media. Footage circulated online showed dozens of young men chanting and carrying what appeared to be al-Masri on their shoulders.

“This is a stunning blow to victims, survivors and international justice and a missed opportunity to break the cycle of impunity in Libya,” said Amnesty International’s Esther Major, deputy director of research for Europe.

Nordio appeared in the Senate on Wednesday for a previously-scheduled briefing, and was grilled by outraged opposition lawmakers who demanded clarity about what happened. Former Premier Matteo Renzi accused the right-wing government of hypocrisy given its stated crackdown on human traffickers.

“But when a trafficker whom the International Criminal Court tells us is a dangerous criminal lands on your table, it’s not like you chase him down, you brought him home to Libya with a plane of the Italian secret services,” said Renzi of the Italia Viva party. “Either you’ve gone crazy or this is the image of a hypocritical, indecent government.”

The Democratic Party demanded Premier Giorgia Meloni respond specifically to parliament about the case, saying it raised “grave questions” given the known abuses in Libyan prisons for which al-Masri is accused. Nordio didn't respond.

Italy has close ties to the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, on whom it relies to patrol its coasts and prevent waves of migrants from leaving. Any trial in The Hague of al-Masri could bring unwanted attention to Italy’s migration policies and its support of the Libyan coast guard, which it has financed to prevent migrants from leaving.

Human rights groups have documented gross abuses in the Libyan detention facilities where migrants are kept, and have accused Italy of being complicit in their mistreatment.

Two humanitarian groups, Mediterranea Saving Humans and Refugees in Libya, which have documented abuses committed against migrants in Libyan detention facilities, said they were incredulous that Italy let al-Masri go.

David Yambio, a 27-year-old from South Sudan who said he was abused by al-Masri while he was detained at the Mitiga prison in 2019-2020, said he felt betrayed by Italy. Yambio, who eventually escaped from the prison and arrived in Italy on a smuggler’s boat in 2022, said he had a “fleeting feeling of justice” when he heard that al-Masri had been arrested in Turin.

“Those who waited long before me, the Libyans who are victims of his criminal network, his war crimes, have been wanting for this day to come,” said Yambio, who received asylum and now lives in Modena and runs his Refugees in Libya advocacy group. “But when it came, it was immediately extinguished hours before it could even truly be felt in our hearts.”

But Tarik Lamloum, a Libyan activist working with the Belaady Organization for Human Rights which focuses on migrants in Libya, said Italy’s release of al-Masri was expected. He said his release shows the power of militias who control the flow of migrants to Europe through Libya’s shores.

“Tripoli militias are able to pressure (Italy) because they control the migrants file,” he told The Associated Press.

Militias in western Libya are part of the official state forces tasked with intercepting migrants at sea, including in the EU-trained coast guard. They also run state detention centers, where abuses of migrants are common.

As a result, militias — some of them led by warlords the U.N. has sanctioned for abuses — benefit from millions in funds the European Union gives to Libya to stop the migrant flow to Europe.

The European Commission spokesman reaffirmed all EU members had pledged to cooperate with the court.

“We respect the court’s impartiality and we are fully attached to international criminal justice to combat impunity," said EU commission spokesman Anouar El Anouni. In a 2023 summit, the EU leaders committed “to cooperate fully with the court, including rapid execution of any pending arrests,” he added.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Paolo Santalucia in Rome and Molly Quell in The Hague contributed.

FILE - View of the ICC, the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

FILE - View of the ICC, the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi makes his remarks during Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's appearance at the Senate for the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi makes his remarks during Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's appearance at the Senate for the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi makes his remarks during Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's appearance at the Senate for the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi makes his remarks during Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's appearance at the Senate for the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio addresses the Senate during the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio addresses the Senate during the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio puts his hand to his head during the presentation of the report on the justice administration, at the Senate, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio puts his hand to his head during the presentation of the report on the justice administration, at the Senate, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio addresses the Senate during the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

Justice Minister Carlo Nordio addresses the Senate during the report on the justice administration, in Rome, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Roberto Monaldo//LaPresse via AP)

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