American President Joe Biden on Wednesday canceled his last planned foreign trip in office – just hours before he was due to fly to Rome and the Vatican. He did so so that he could oversee the situation in Californiawhere destructive fires are still raging, writes TASR according to the report of the AP agency.
Biden was scheduled to depart for a three-day trip Thursday afternoon after former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington. He planned to meet with Pope Francis, Italian President Sergio Mattarello and Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni. The aim of the visit was to show the strength of American alliances before leaving office, where he will be replaced by the newly elected President Donald Trump on January 20.
The announcement of the trip’s cancellation came just hours after Biden left a Los Angeles hospital where his first great-grandchild was born. Before returning to Washington, however, he received word of the fires from the authorities there.
“After arriving in the evening from Los Angeles, where he met with police, firefighters and first responders battling massive fires and declared a state of major disaster for California, President Biden has decided to cancel his upcoming trip to Italy so he can focus on managing the federal response in the coming days,” she said in a statement White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierreová.
Fires in California were caused by a combination of drought and strong winds, reaching a speed of 120 kilometers per hour. The latter contributes to the spread of fire in city streets. Wind gusts will peak Thursday night local time, according to Governor Gavin Newsom.
Meteorological services have been predicting the risk of forest fires in California for several days. It’s a situation that’s surprising in the middle of winter, and made worse by seasonal Santa Ana winds. It is a hot and dry wind that usually appears in autumn and winter.
