Joe Biden will meet with Northern Ireland political party leaders tomorrow, but is not expected to hold a news conference in Ireland.
Here’s a recap of today’s news:
House speaker Kevin McCarthy will speak at the New York Stock Exchange next week regarding the debt ceiling. He will probably reiterate the GOP’s demand that the Biden administration accept spending cuts in exchange for their votes to raise it.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, will next week introduce a resolution to condemn Trump’s calls to defund the FBI and justice department.
Democrats are planning their counterattack to House Republicans’ plans next week to hold a hearing on crime in New York City – where Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg recently filed criminal charges against Trump.
Speaking of Bragg, he filed a lawsuit against House judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan to get him to stop messing with his prosecution of the former president.
Montana might be about to outlaw abortion after the second trimester of pregnancy.
Updated
Biden arrives in Belfast
Joe Biden was accompanied by his sister Valerie Biden Owen, his son Hunter Biden, and recently appointed economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Joseph Kennedy II. The president was greeted by Rishi Sunak.
Biden greeted on windy, chilly Belfast night by UK’s prime minister @RishiSunak, UK’s ambassador to US @KarenPierceUK @USAmbUK Jane Hartley, Northern Ireland’s @chhcalling.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 11, 2023
POTUS’s sister Valerie and son Hunter joined the tarmac receiving line. pic.twitter.com/eUvaoiyTUD
Some background, from The Guardian’s Rory Carroll and Lisa O’Carroll:
The US president was due to be met at Belfast international airport by Rishi Sunak on Tuesday night for the start of a visit expected to mix delicate political choreography with economic announcements and events linked to Biden’s Irish and Catholic heritage.
Speaking to reporters before taking off in Air Force One, Biden said he wanted to safeguard the Good Friday agreement, which was signed 25 years ago this week, and support Sunak’s post-Brexit deal for the region. Asked what his priorities for the trip were, he said: “Make sure the Irish accords and Windsor agreements stay in place. Keep the peace and that’s the main thing. It looks like we’re going to keep our fingers crossed.”
Heavy security on both sides of the border preceded the US entourage, which will include the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and a recently appointed economic envoy to Northern Ireland, Joseph Kennedy III.
Dozens of police and US secret service vehicles sealed off rain-drenched streets around central Belfast on Tuesday. Manhole covers were lifted and checked and sniffer dogs inspected hotel rooms as part of a £7m security operation – bolstered by 300 extra police from the British mainland.
In Derry, police recovered four suspected pipe bombs from a cemetery where republicans had staged an Easter Monday commemoration that led to petrol bomb attacks on police. The discovery was a “sinister and worrying development”, said the Police Service of Northern Ireland assistant chief constable, Bobby Singleton, with the Police Federation for Northern Ireland saying it was a clear statement of intent to cause harm to police officers.
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