The United States President, Joe Biden, has exchanged views on the situation in Russia with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, according to the White House.
The partners reaffirmed their “unwavering support” for Ukraine, a US government statement said.
Biden was also briefed on Saturday morning by his national security team on developments in Russia, where a mercenary force is challenging the government, NAN reports.
Other attendees included United States Vice President Kamala Harris, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Secretaries of Defence and State Lloyd Austin and Antony Blinken, the statement said.
President Joe Biden took a face-first tumble on Thursday after tripping over an obstacle on stage at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, but he appeared unhurt.
Biden, 80, who had delivered the commencement address to graduates of the military academy, had just shaken hands with a cadet and begun walking back to his seat when he fell.
Air Force personnel helped him back up and he did not appear to require further help.
As he rose, Biden pointed to the object that had apparently caught his foot. It resembled a small black sandbag on the stage.
Biden is the oldest person ever in the presidency and is seeking a second term in the 2024 election. His official doctor’s report this year declared him physically fit and he exercises regularly.
In November 2020, shortly after winning his election against the incumbent Donald Trump, Biden broke his foot while playing with a pet dog.
U.S. President Joe Biden has vowed to support President Bola Tinubu on economic growth and advanced security, among other critical aspects of his government.
Biden made this vow in a statement, while felicitating with President Tinubu on Monday.
Recall that Tinubu and the Vice President, Kashim Shettima were sworn in respctively by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kayode Ariwoola.
The US President reiterated his administration’s readiness to work with Tinubu “to strengthen ties between the United States and Nigeria.”
The statement reads: “On behalf of the people of the United States, I send warm wishes to the government and people of Nigeria as they inaugurate a new President.
“My administration has worked to strengthen ties between the United States and Nigeria, and I look forward to continuing this work with President Tinubu to support economic growth, advance security, and promote respect for human rights.
“The people-to-people connections between our two countries run particularly deep, nurtured by a vibrant Nigerian Diaspora in the United States.
“As we further deepen our partnership with Nigeria, I look forward to drawing even more on the ideas and energy of this dynamic connection between our countries.
“As Africa’s largest democracy and economy, Nigeria’s success is the world’s success.
“Elected leaders owe it to their people to show that democracy can deliver for their needs.
“And the United States will continue to work closely with Nigeria, as a friend and partner, to deliver a more peaceful and prosperous future for our world”.
The United States of America (USA) has announced the names of the presidential delegation to attend the inauguration of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as president of Nigeria, scheduled for May 29, in Abuja.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports US President Joe Biden announced the delegation to attend the inauguration of Tinubu as Nigeria’s next president in a statement on Monday.
According to the statement from the White House, the Honorable Marcia L. Fudge, Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development will lead the delegation.
Included in the delegation are Mr. David Greene, Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., U.S. Embassy Abuja, the Honorable Sydney Kamlager-Dove, United States Representative (D), California and the Honorable Marisa Lago, Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Others are General Michael E. Langley, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, the Honorable Enoh T. Ebong, Director, U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Honorable Mary Catherine Phee, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of African Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
Also in the delegation are the Honorable Judd Devermont, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, National Security Council and the Honorable Monde Muyangwa, Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development.
U.S. President Joe Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday ahead of the Group of Seven (G7) summit of leading democratic industrial nations.
Biden’s plane touched down at a military airport to the south of the host city, Hiroshima, in southern Japan.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also arrived on Thursday, before the official start of talks on Friday.
In addition to the United States and Germany, the G7 includes France, Italy, Britain, Japan and Canada.
Representatives of the European Union will also be at the meeting.
The war in Ukraine, the state of the global economy and the West’s relationship with China are set to top the agenda of the leaders’ discussions.
The talks are being accompanied by extensive security measures.
According to the police, some 24,000 security personnel from all over Japan are on duty during the meeting, which runs until Sunday.
The Peace Memorial Park, which the heads of state and government are visiting for the opening ceremony, has been cordoned off with a two metre-high fence.
Access to the atomic bomb dome is also blocked.
The burnt-out building was damaged when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city in 1945 at the end of World War II, and is now a symbol of peace and a testament to the horror of nuclear weapons.
Boats were patrolling up and down the river around the Peace Park on Thursday.
Around 140 schools were closed in the face of severe traffic restrictions.
The tightened security measures come against the backdrop of a recent attack on Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in which he was unharmed.
His predecessor Shinzo Abe had been shot dead at an election rally a few months earlier.
US President Joe Biden has officially announced his bid for re-election in 2024 in the form of a three-minute video.
In a video released early Tuesday, Biden, 80, framed next year’s contest as a fight against Republican extremism, implicitly arguing he needed more time to fully realize his vow to restore the nation’s character.
“When I ran for president four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America. And we still are, the question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom. More rights or fewer. I know what I want the answer to be and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection,” he said in the video.
The announcement sets a battle to convince the country his record merits another four years in the White House and that his age won’t impede his ability to govern.
The 46th US president argued that abortion rights, the defence of democracy, voting rights and the social safety net will be among the most important issues on the ballot in 2024.
He stated that voters will be faced with the choice of leaving the next generation with “more freedom or less” and “more rights or fewer”.
“Every generation of Americans has faced a moment when they’ve had to defend democracy, stand up for our personal freedoms, and stand up for our right to vote and our civil rights. This is ours.”
The Biden campaign will also ride on promoting the achievements made during the first two years of his presidency, stating that he needs to “finish the job. I know we can,” he said.
Biden’s official declaration ends any lingering doubts about his intentions and begins a contest that could evolve into a rematch with his 2020 rival, former President Donald Trump.
He enters the race with a significant legislative record but low approval ratings, an issue his advisers have so far been unable to solve.
Already the oldest president in history, he also confronts persistent questions about his age.
U.S. former President, Donald Trump, and front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024, has been released after an arrest by the Police hours before his arraignment.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports how Trump was arrested on Tuesday, and how he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records when he was arraigned in court.
Trump appeared at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York for approximately two hours total being processed and arraigned.
Indicted last week, Trump is the first sitting or former president to face criminal charges, over a case involving a 2016 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Meanwhile, the White House Press Secretary on Tuesday refused to comment on the indictment and arraignment of Trump.
Karine Jean-Pierre declined to answer any question on Trump’s arraignment during the media conference.
According to Jean-Pierre, Joe Biden’s focus is on the American people today, not on his predecessor, and that they will not remark on legal proceedings.
“This is playing on many of the networks … so, obviously, he will catch parts of the news … but this is not his focus for the day,” she said.
Kaduna born politician, Shehu Sani, has advised United States President Joe Biden to congratulate Nigeria’s president-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu through WhatsApp or other means.
The former lawmaker stated this in a tweet via his Twitter handle on Tuesday.
Tinubu was recently declared the winner of the Feb. 25 Presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
The APC Presidential candidate defeated PDP’s Abubakar Atiku and Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
Tinubu, who has since received his Certificate of Return from INEC, is expected to be sworn in as the official next President of Nigeria in a few weeks’ time.
“My advice to President Biden is to immediately send a WhatsApp congratulatory message to the President-elect the Jagaban. No matter the issues, he is the President-elect,” Sani tweeted.
“Biden can just (sic) on the WhatsApp disappearing message button just in case.”
U.S. President Joe Biden called on Thursday for Nigeria’s presidential election on Saturday to be peaceful and transparent.
The U.S. president also urged candidates and parties to accept the results as announced by the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Nigerians are set on Saturday to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections that are seen as the most wide-open since Africa’s most populous nation switched from military rule to democracy in 1999.
Of the 18 candidates vying to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, three stand a chance.
Former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu, 70, the ruling party (All Progressives Congress) candidate; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar (Peoples Democratic Party), 76, the main opposition candidate; Peter Obi (Labour Party), 61, a challenger popular among young voters.
More than 93 million people are registered to vote.
There will be about 176,600 polling stations across the country, including in camps for people displaced by the conflict between Islamist insurgents and federal troops in the northeast.
INEC says it has taken measures to ensure this election will be free and fair – a major concern in a country with a long history of electoral discord and violence.
Voters will present their voting cards and be identified by a Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) that uses fingerprints and facial recognition.
This is aimed at reducing the risk of fraudsters voting several times.
On voting day, results from individual polling stations will be pasted outside for citizens to view, and sent through BVAS to an INEC portal.
The results will be displayed on the portal in real-time and accessible by the public, INEC says.
It is hoped this will reduce the risk of the figures being manipulated along the way.
INEC says that citizens wishing to witness the sorting and counting of ballot papers at polling stations should do so from a distance of 300 metres.
In the past, one of the forms of vote-rigging seen in Nigeria was the intimidation of electoral officials by thugs paid by politicians.
A presidential candidate must receive the largest number of votes cast nationwide and at least a quarter of the vote in no fewer than 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
If no one clears both hurdles, the top two candidates will compete in a run-off. The constitution says the run-off must take place within 21 days of the announcement of the result.
No run-off has been necessary since the transition to democracy in 1999.
For the parliamentary poll, candidates for a seat in the House of Representatives or the Senate must win a simple majority of votes in the constituency or senatorial district they are contesting in order to win.
The counting and collating process is expected to take several days.
While INEC has not said exactly when it would declare official results, this is expected to take place in the first half of next week.
Bob Bauer, a personal lawyer to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, has said that no classified documents were found during the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) search of his client’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Wednesday.
The FBI searched the house of US 46th President (Biden) after documents with classified markings from the Obama administration were found in his Wilmington residence and a Washington think tank office.
In a statement, Bauer said: “The DOJ’s planned search of the president’s Rehoboth residence, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the president’s attorneys, has concluded,” Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, said, adding that the search was conducted from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
“Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as vice president.”
President Joe Biden
The FBI’s search of Biden’s Rehoboth beach house came amid ongoing classified documents investigations. A source familiar with the matter said no warrant was involved and the search was consensual.
Earlier Wednesday, Bauer said in a statement that the Department of Justice was conducting the search with Biden’s full support and cooperation.
“Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate. The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today’s search,” Bauer asserted.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the National Archives, which is responsible for retaining presidential records, declined to comment on the search of the president’s Rehoboth home.
The FBI previously searched the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in mid-November after classified documents were discovered there, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, in taking questions from reporters outside the White House repeatedly, said that the president and his team have been fully cooperative with the Justice Department.
Sams, in leaving several questions unanswered, said the White House wants to “be careful” about sharing information that is part of an ongoing investigation.
“We’re gonna continue to try to provide information as this investigation goes on and ensure that you guys have the ability to share with the American people sort of the information that is important for them to see as the president’s cooperating with this investigation,” Sams explained.
News of the FBI’s search of Biden’s beach house comes as former President Donald Trump has been under investigation after classified documents were found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
FBI agents executed a search at Trump’s Florida estate last year and found more than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret.
Last December, two more documents with classified markings were found at a Florida storage facility not far from Mar-a-Lago and were turned over to the FBI.
A “small number” of classified documents were also discovered last month at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, the former vice president’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said in a letter sent to the National Archives.
It was gathered that Pence had asked “outside counsel” to look for records bearing classified markings.
Reacting to news of the FBI’s search of Biden’s beach home, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it’s good that the president is cooperating with the inquiry.
“I’m sure that he says, ‘Hey, everything I have is fair game.’ I think that’s very open, very honest. And that’s great,” Manchin said. “I don’t think there’s any resistance, is there? I would think, if anything, he’d probably encourage it to be done.”
Asked about the search of Biden’s home for classified documents, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said the first priority must be to “make sure that they don’t put this country at risk.”
“The Intel Committee at a minimum should know what’s in those documents — not just Biden’s documents but Pence’s documents, Trump’s documents,” Tester said.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., pointed out that he is working with ranking member, Jamie Raskin, D-Md., about a bipartisan bill to overhaul the system involving classified documents for former White House officeholders.
Comer said he wants “a set pattern for how documents” leave the president’s and vice president’s offices as they enter private life and a way to tackle over-classification, in part by revamping the governmental process for those decisions.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that last month, he asked the White House for the release of visitors logs from Biden’s home in Delaware.
The White House Counsel’s Office said it is reviewing Comer’s request related to Biden’s handling of classified documents and signaled it plans to cooperate to an extent.
Raskin on Tuesday demanded the Secret Service provide information about visitors to Trump’s and Pence’s personal residences since they left office in light of the “mishandling of sensitive, highly classified documents.”
In a news release, Raskin described the request as “similar” to the requests by Comer last month focusing on classified documents discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington.
