Enjoy your meal! Biden breaks bread with Xi and other Asian leaders after protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza close a bridge across San Francisco Bay
- “We had a great day,” Biden said. “Tonight is about breaking bread together.”
- Biden hosted world leaders for dinner at the Legion on Honor Museum
- The president returns to the East Coast on Friday
President Joe Biden toasted Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Asian leaders at a dinner in San Francisco on Thursday evening after protesters closed the city’s Bay Bridge.
“We had a great day,” Biden said. “Tonight is about breaking bread together. And we know each other a little better.
On a rainy evening in San Francisco, the president hosted a dinner at the Legion of Honor Museum in Golden Gate Park.
For the event, a tent was set up in the courtyard, and other presidential leaders crowded around one long table.
President Joe Biden raises a toast during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit dinner
Demonstrators shout slogans after the closure of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge for the APEC summit
Biden was wrapping up a day of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings during which he discussed the economy with CEOs, discussed trade with other world leaders and met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on the sidelines of the summit.
After spending Wednesday on the outskirts of San Francisco, where he had a private meeting with President Xi, the president spent the day at the summit site.
But earlier on Thursday, at least 50 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for blocking the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge and calling for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
World leaders are staying in a fenced-off area and are escorted by police in convoys throughout the city, limiting their contact with the hundreds of protesters who have descended on the city.
Many of the protesters who lined major convoy routes to shout at the leaders’ passing cars were either for or against China.
But there have also been several protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
In one of them on Thursday, protesters blocked all lanes of the major westbound I-80 freeway at the Bay Bridge, the California Highway Patrol said.
The far right westbound lane reopened this afternoon, and the second lane is expected to reopen soon, he said. KRON.
Highway patrol officials said 50 people were arrested and at least 15 cars were removed from the bridge.
Officials said at least another 50 protesters could be arrested after reviewing videos of active participants.
About 21 countries attended the APEC summit in San Francisco
A protester is seen crying while being arrested after blocking the Bay Bridge, demanding the US stop sending military aid to Israel
Pro-Palestinian protesters closed the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge on Thursday
Authorities said 50 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested while blocking the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.
The group is demanding a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on Oct. 7, when the terrorist organization carried out an attack on Israel that killed 1,400 Israelis and took about 240 hostages in the worst attack in the country’s history.
Photos show demonstrators unfurling signs reading “ban US military aid to Israel” and “Biden ceasefire.”
Some protesters chained themselves to block the road and chanted “ceasefire now.” Others lay on the ground with sheets over their bodies that read “Stop the Genocide.”
The Arab Resource and Organization Center posted on Twitter that protesters had come to call on the president.
“Genocide is happening in Gaza and @POTUS is hosting cocktail parties in #SanFrancisco. The Bay Area closed the Bay Bridge, demanding #CeasefireNOW. No more $ for genocide,” the group said.
Biden will leave San Francisco on Friday for the East Coast, where he will spend the weekend at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
