Joe Biden cancels trip to Italy, meant as final foreign visit of presidency, as fires rage in California

President Joe Biden on Wednesday cancelled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to devastating fires raging in California.

Biden was scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon, after eulogising former President Jimmy Carter at a memorial service in Washington, for the three-day trip to meet with Pope Francis and Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as well as a final face-to-face meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The trip was meant as a coda to the second Catholic US president’s time in the White House and a final opportunity to showcase the strength of American alliances before he leaves office on January 20.