WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will make his long-awaited visit to Africa when he travels to Germany and Angola in mid-October, the White House announced Tuesday.
Biden had promised during a summit of African leaders he hosted in Washington in late 2022 to visit Africa the following year. His visit was to be the capstone of an administration effort to shore up ties with the continent, partly to counter growing influence there from China, a U.S. rival.
Several Cabinet members and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as first lady Jill Biden, visited African nations in 2023, but the year passed without a visit from Biden.
Now, with just a few months left in office after he ended his reelection campaign, Biden plans to travel to Berlin and Luanda, Angola, from Oct. 10-15, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced while Biden was in New York. He delivered his final address as president to the U.N. General Assembly earlier Tuesday.
Biden will be the first U.S. president to visit sub-Saharan Africa since 2015.
During meetings in Berlin with German leaders, Biden will shore up alliances and express appreciation to Germany for supporting Ukraine's defense against Russian aggression, hosting U.S. service members and for its contributions to the NATO alliance, Jean-Pierre said.
The president will visit Luanda, the capital of Angola, in central Africa, from Oct. 13-15 to discuss collaboration on a number of issues with President João Lourenço, economic partnerships and infrastructure, including a rail project that would start in Lobito, Angola, and ultimately connect the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean, among other issues, Jean-Pierre said.
Asked in May about the timing of an Africa trip, Biden said he hoped to visit after the November presidential election.
“I plan on going in February after I am reelected,” Biden said then as he welcomed Kenyan President William Ruto to the White House during his U.S. state visit.
President Joe Biden speaks at the meeting of the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The leader of a nonprofit representing the Haitian community invoked a private-citizen right to file charges Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, over the chaos and threats experienced by Springfield, Ohio, since Trump first spread false claims about legal immigrants there during a presidential debate.
The Haitian Bridge Alliance made the move after inaction by the local prosecutor, said their attorney, Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm.
Charges brought by private citizens are rare, but not unheard of, in Ohio. Examples might be a grocery store charging a customer for a bounced check. State law requires a hearing to take place before the affidavit can move forward. As of Tuesday afternoon, none had been scheduled.
Trump and Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, are charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity. The filing asks the Clark County Municipal Court to affirm that there is probable cause and issue arrest warrants against Trump and Vance.
“Their persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying this is false, that shows intent,” Chandra said. “It's knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.”
Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, said, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that (Vice President) Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country.”
The 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past several years, in many cases after being recruited to local jobs, have been granted Temporary Protected Status to be in the U.S. legally.
More than 30 bomb threats were directed at state and local government buildings and schools, prompting closures, the assignment of additional law enforcement protection and security cameras. Some of the city's Haitian residents have also said they feared for their safety as public vitriol grew, and Mayor Rob Rue has received death threats.
“If it were anyone else other than Trump and Vance who had done what they’ve done — wreak havoc on Springfield, resulting in bomb threats, evacuated and closed government buildings and schools, threats to the mayor and his family — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said. “They are not above the law.”
Chandra said the U.S. Supreme Court's July ruling granting ex-presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution does not apply in this case because Trump is currently a private citizen and Vance did not amplify the rumors that members of Springfield's 15,000-member Haitian community were eating people's pets in his capacity as a senator.
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, attend the 9/11 Memorial ceremony on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
