One more time, maybe the last, Joe Biden stared through sunglasses and angrily delivered a speech written to be uplifting. “The Amazon is the lungs of the world!” he barked at the G-20 summit in Brazil, before loping off with an unsmiling half-wave, like a man leaving a restaurant with lousy service. The President of the United States disappeared into trees.
Aides said the jungle exeunt was planned, but who knew? In an all-time awkward moment Monday, G-20 leaders waited and finally took a group photo without Biden, absent for “logistical reasons.” It was like taking a holiday portrait at the mall without Santa. When Biden reappeared the next day, a reporter shouted, “Mr. President, why did you change your mind on Ukraine shooting long-range missiles?” Biden said nothing, so other heads of state had to speak for him. “I had an excellent conversation with President Biden, he’s a friend and ally,” said Canada’s Justin Trudeau, through a nervous smile. “We talked about a lot of different things.”
Who’s calling the shots for NATO? On the heels of Tuesday’s news that U.S.-built ATACMS missiles were fired into Russia, up to 12 British-made “Storm Shadow” missiles were shot into the town of Marino yesterday in Russia’s Kursk region. Reportedly, French SCALP missiles may be the next Western long-range weapons deployed. But that’s just the beginning:
