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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
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Iranian President Raisi Begins Africa Trip with Visit to Kenya

05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
05 July 2023, Iran, Tehran: President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi speaks during a cabinet meeting. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi received a red carpet welcome from Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa that Tehran has touted as a "new beginning" in relations with the continent.
Raisi's trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade, and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions, Reuters said.
Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-US President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with US sanctions.
Iran's trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.
Raisi was welcomed by an honor guard at Kenya's presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya's presidency showed.
His trip to Kenya, East Africa's economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an "opportunity to review and re-energise their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries," Kenya's foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.
The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

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Biden Makes Appeals to Donors as Concerns Persist over His Presidential Debate Performance

US President Joe Biden looks back before boarding Air Force One at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, New York, US, June 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden looks back before boarding Air Force One at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, New York, US, June 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Biden Makes Appeals to Donors as Concerns Persist over His Presidential Debate Performance

US President Joe Biden looks back before boarding Air Force One at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, New York, US, June 29, 2024. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden looks back before boarding Air Force One at Francis S. Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach, New York, US, June 29, 2024. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden looked to recapture his mojo and reassured donors at a Saturday fundraiser that he is fully up to the challenge of beating Donald Trump.

"I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder," Biden told attendees at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. "Donald Trump is a genuine threat to the nation," he emphasized, saying that his predecessor would undermine democracy if returned to the White House and his economic ideas would worsen inflation.

The 81-year-old's troubling performance at the first presidential debate Thursday rattled many Democrats, who see Trump as a continuing danger after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Biden's meandering answers and struggles to respond to Trump prompted The New York Times editorial board to declare Friday that he should exit the race and that staying in would be a "reckless gamble."

A White House official said Saturday that Biden had preplanned time at Camp David on Sunday and Monday for a family photo, disputing the premise of an NBC News report suggesting that Biden would be discussing the future of his reelection campaign with his family. The official insisted on anonymity to discuss Biden family matters.

Biden was seen talking by phone with Jon Meacham, the historian, on his way Saturday night to Camp David.

Biden and his wife, Jill, earlier attended an afternoon campaign event in East Hampton, New York, the Long Island beach town where the real estate firm Zillow prices the median home at $1.9 million. Based on public records, the event that was closed to the news media was at the home of Avram Glazer, an owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team.

The couple then went to a second event in East Hampton at the home of investor Barry Rosenstein, whose wife, Lizanne, said the president was "a role model for what it is to get knocked down over and over and over again and get up."

"We can waste time comparing debate nights," she continued. "But you know what? It’s more meaningful to compare presidencies."

Addressing the gathering, Biden tore into Trump over his presidential record including his treatment of veterans and pointed to Trump's own poor performance on Thursday night.

Biden contended that the polling he’s seen shows that Democrats moved up after the debate, saying of Trump: "The big takeaway was his lies."

In the aftermath of that debate, Biden flashed more vigor in speeches in North Carolina and New York on Friday, saying he believes with "all my heart and soul" that he can do the job of the presidency.

The Biden campaign said it has raised more than $27 million on Thursday and Friday.

Jill Biden told supporters Friday that he said to her after the debate, "You know, Jill, I don’t know what happened. I didn’t feel that great." The first lady then said she responded to him, "Look, Joe, we are not going to let 90 minutes define the four years that you’ve been president."

The Democratic president still needs to allay the fears stirred by the debate as it seeped into the public conscience with clips and memes spreading on the internet and public pressure for him to bow out of the race.

Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley privately expressed deep concerns about the viability of Biden’s campaign in the wake of his debate performance.

In a series of text message chains and private conversations, they discussed the short list of possible replacements, a group that included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But on Friday, there was no formal push to pressure Biden to step aside and some suspected there never would be given the logistical challenges associated with replacing the presumptive nominee just four months before Election Day.

Some donors noted they were going to pause their personal giving. They said receipts from Biden’s weekend fundraiser would almost certainly be strong because the tickets were sold and paid for before the debate.