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Biden: ‘Better angels’ will prevail in divisive US election

Biden is visiting Australia during a tour of the Pacific.

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In his speech in Sydney’s Paddington Town Hall this week, Vice President Biden directly intervened on LGBT rights, praising local laws passed in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales aimed at expunging historic gay sex convictions.

United States Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday assured key ally Australia there would be no retreat from Washington’s pivot to the Asia-Pacific region regardless of who wins November’s presidential election.

A survey published recently by the Lowy Institute revealed Australian support for the ANZUS alliance, which has been at the centre of Australia’s security policy for decades, would slump under a Trump presidency.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, addresses Australian Defense Force personnel on board the HMAS Adelaide, in Sydney, Tuesday, July 19, 2016.

US Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday, July 17, unveiled a series of agreements between the US and Australia to create an “unprecedented” global research database of cancer patients as he kicked off a 3-day visit in Melbourne.

But he added: “It’s a despicable act and it’s an attack on our very way of life at home”.

Two days after the Sterling shooting, a gunman ambushed police officers, killing five, during a demonstration in Dallas triggered by Sterling’s death and that of another African-American man in Minnesota whose dying moments were captured in shocking video footage that went viral.

Mr Biden will then attend a flag presentation and meet World War II veterans. “They have a right to do that”.

He’s come here after a fleeting trip to Australia and will be in New Zealand for just 21 hours.

This morning he toured a Boeing factory in Melbourne earlier today to inspects its 787 Dreamliner project.

His first official Sydney engagement was with business leaders at the Opera House. “When he asked me why we were so engaged, I pointed out we are a Pacific nation”.

“Because of the commitment of our citizens to our most fundamental value, because of you we move inexorably forward”, he said. “Some of the changes – the growth of xenophobia in my country, the nature of the debate of the campaign that is preying on fear and not on hopes, who knows what it’s going to take?”

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“One of the most important objectives now in Iraq is to ensure that the Iraqi police forces… are able to maintain the peace in areas that have been liberated from Daesh, or ISIL, as the Iraqi security forces and counterterrorism forces progress”, Turnbull said, referring to other names used to describe the Islamic State group.

US Vice President Joe Biden has landed in Auckland after wrapping up four days in Australia