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US Supreme Court ends constitutional right to abortion

People participate in a protest against abortion ban at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago, the United States, on May 23, 2019. (Xinhua/Wang Ping/IANS)

The 5-4 order of the overwhelmingly conservative nine-justice bench is expected to change American social life as it exists now, reports Yashwant Raj

The US Supreme Court on Friday overturned the fundamental right to abortion granted by an earlier order in the Roe v. Wade case nearly 50 years ago. The 5-4 order of the overwhelmingly conservative nine-justice bench is expected to change American social life as it exists now.

The court has left abortion rights to be determined individually by the 50 states. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have state laws protecting abortion and will remain unaffected by the Supreme Court order.

About 17 states do not have any explicit laws either upholding abortion rights or prohibiting abortion, according to one study and nearly half of all 50 states are expected to make abortion difficult or impossible. Women from states with a ban or restrictions will be free, however, to travel to other states for the procedure.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey (a 1992 case in which the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling was upheld) have enflamed debate and deepened division,” Justice Samuel A. Alito wrote for the majority opinion. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The order as delivered was very similar to a leaked copy of Justice Alito’s opinion in May and was widely anticipated of the overwhelmingly conservative non-justice bench with the addition of three conservative justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Justices Alito and Clarence Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts are the other three conservatives. The three liberal justices are Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

“This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” President Joe Biden said in remarks from the White House, declaring the restoration of abortion rights as an election issue for Democrats, starting with the mid-term elections in November.

U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C. (Xinhua/Liu Jie/IANS)

Codifying the abortion rights through a legislation by congress, he added, is the only option now and that is only possible with more Democrats in both chambers. For the moment, he vowed that women travelling from states that don’t allow abortion to states that do will get the full protection of his administration.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, slammed the court order. “Today, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has achieved the GOP’s dark and extreme goal of ripping away women’s right to make their own reproductive health decisions. Because of Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell (top Republican senator), the Republican Party and their supermajority on the Supreme Court, American women today have less freedom than their mothers,” she said, adding: “This cruel ruling is outrageous and heart-wrenching. But make no mistake: the rights of women and all Americans are on the ballot this November.”

The court issued the order in connection with a Mississippi law that prohibits abortion after 15 weeks of conception. The law had not been implemented because it was ruled violative of the Supreme Court’s order in the Roe v. Wade in 1973, that made abortion a constitutional right. Chief Justice joined his other conservative colleagues to uphold the Mississippi law — Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health — 6-3; but he joined the liberal to oppose his conservative colleagues’ decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade order in a 5-4 order.

Abortion has been a politically emotive issues, specially with Republican who have had it as a key election plank for decades. The American public, however, stands largely supportive of abortion rights — 61 per cent favour abortion in all or most cases while 37 per cent want it be made illegal in all or most cases, according to Pew Research Center.

During rally for pro-abortion rights in LA.(photo: https://twitter.com/wmnsmarchla)

About three-quarters of White evangelical Protestants (74 per cent) think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, the center found, while 84 per cent of religiously unaffiliated Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 66 per cent of Black Protestants, 60 per cent of White Protestants who are not evangelical, and 56 per cent of Catholics.

Abortion rights supporters are girding up for a long battle to restore these constitutional rights. But with the judicial route now blocked for a time with the brutal conservative majority on the Supreme Court bench, they are looking at legislating a law to codify it.

Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer has scheduled a vote on a prospective law but he does not have the support of 60 members — essentially, 10 Republicans — and is unlikely to get anywhere.

Democrats, who overwhelmingly favor abortion rights, cannot enact a protective law unless they expanded control of both chambers, which they don’t have now. But restoration of these rights could become a key election plank and a rallying point for liberals, starting with the mid-term polls due in November.

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Trump fumes over McCarthy’s handling of Jan. 6 panel


Trump, in an apparent knee-jerk reaction, has made it clear that he has not yet endorsed McCarthy to be the next Speaker….reports Asian Lite News

House (of Representatives) Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s move to pull out all Republicans from the select committee probing the January 6 Capitol Hill hearings, to protest Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to unseat party members Jim Banks and Jim Jordan, still rankles former President Donald Trump.

An angry Trump, who has privately and publicly targeted the Californian lawmaker in recent times, let out his frustrations that his congressional allies are not able to defend him during the televised hearings in the ongoing probe into the Capitol Hill riots that endangered the life of his VP Mike Pence.

Trump, in an apparent knee-jerk reaction, has made it clear that he has not yet endorsed McCarthy to be the next Speaker.

“I think in retrospect, (McCarthy should’ve put Republicans on) to just have a voice. The Republicans don’t have a voice. They don’t even have anything to say,” Trump told Punchbowl News.

“I think it would’ve been far better to have Republicans (on the panel). (Banks and Jordan) were great,” Trump said in reports streaming from Washington from various media sources. “They were great and would’ve been great to have them. But when Pelosi wrongfully didn’t allow them, we should’ve picked other people. We have a lot of good people in the Republican Party,” he was quoted as saying by Washington Examiner which is closely following the hearings probing the January 6 incident.

McCarthy still stands his ground to pull all of his selections for the January 6 select committee after Pelosi blocked Banks (Indiana) and Jordan (Ohio) from sitting on the panel.

Justifying his stand for the pull out, McCarthy argued that finding replacements for Banks and Jordan, two of Trump’s most vocal allies in the House, and allowing the three GOP (Republicans) members Pelosi greenlighted to serve on the panel wouldn’t have had an impact on the messaging coming out of the committee.

“Why would you do it ? Pelosi is going to pick and choose. So, the only Republicans that would be on it would be the ones that Pelosi would allow on ? it would be no different outcome in this thing,” McCarthy told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s showing us it’s a purely political process.”

Trump’s working relationship with the minority leader is expected to play a role in the level of support McCarthy garners from Trump-allied lawmakers as he looks to secure backing to obtain the Speaker’s gavel if Republicans take back the majority next fall, the Examiner said.

One GOP lawmaker close to the former President said Trump has “made known to his allies” that McCarthy “begged for” Trump to include language backing him for Speaker in his recent statement endorsing him in his re-election bid.

While Trump has never endorsed McCarthy for the position, he has praised the California Republican in the past. “Kevin and I work very well together,” Trump told a group of reporters in January when asked if he planned to back McCarthy or would consider endorsing another member for the position.



Despite the recent turbulence between the leader and the former President, others have asserted that McCarthy remains the front-runner to become the next Speaker, should the republicans take back the house from the Democrats. “McCarthy is still the overwhelming favourite to be Speaker. With an overwhelming midterm landslide favouring Republicans, McCarthy gets Trump’s endorsement and the gavel,” one senior GOP operative said.

ALSO READ: Trump faces heat in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings

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Great Salt Lake on verge of drying, contaminating air

The lake’s surface area, which covered about 8,546.9 sq.km in the late 1980s, has since shrunk to less than 2,589.9 sq.km…reports Asian Lite News

The most iconic landmark of the US state of Utah, the Great Salt Lake is rapidly disappearing and on the verge of becoming an environmental disaster zone, according to experts.

“Utah residents threatened by toxic dust from Great Salt Lake,” and “windy conditions have led to dust advisories.”

It is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world, and “lies in the northern part of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, particularly through lake-effect snow”, according to Brittanica.

The expansive lake borders Utah’s largest city and capital, Salt Lake City, home to some 1.2 million residents, according to the US Census Bureau.

Last summer, the water level in the Great Salt Lake reached its lowest point on record with average daily elevation of 4,190.2 feet.

As of Thursday, the southern portion of the lake still sits at the record low, which is about 1.2 feet below the previous record set in October 1963, according to US Geological Survey (USGS) information collected at the SaltAir gage.

The lake’s surface area, which covered about 8,546.9 sq.km in the late 1980s, has since shrunk to less than 2,589.9 sq.km, according to the USGS.

“Toxic dust warnings might be our future as the Great Salt Lake shrivels up,” The University of Utah’s KUER public radio reported on Monday.

Researchers have found that for over a century, the lake bed has been slowly accumulating byproducts of human activities like mining, smelting, and agricultural runoff, the KUER report added.

“As the lake disappears, the exposed bed turns into dust that contains elevated levels of potentially toxic heavy metals and chemicals like arsenic,” it added.

Utah’s Department of Natural Resources said the Great Salt Lake may be weeks from dropping to a new historic low, KUER reported, and that “lawmakers had recently suggested looking into building a Pacific Ocean pipeline to bring water to the lake”.

A report in The New York Times earlier this month warned of “an environmental nuclear bomb” regarding the shrinking Great Salt Lake, saying “the lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population”.

Large particulate matter from the Great Salt Lake can get stuck in respiratory systems, Maura Hahnenberger, an associate professor of geosciences who studies dust storms at Salt Lake Community College, told the media.

“They might get caught in your nose and your sinuses in your mouth and in the upper part of your breathing airway. And so that can cause symptoms like coughing, a sore throat, stuffy nose, but not as many kinds of long-term health impacts,” she said.

“But the really small particles that we call PM 2.5, those are able to go a lot deeper into people’s lungs that can cause inflammation in the lungs and can cause respiratory issues, definitely, but also cardiovascular issues.”

ALSO READ: US Supreme Court strikes down NY state gun laws 

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US Supreme Court strikes down NY state gun laws 

The immediate fall out of the court’s ruling is that the opinion changes the framework that lower courts will use going forward as they analyse other gun restrictions…reports Asian Lite News

In a stunning reversal of fortunes for the Democrats in the New York state assembly and President Joe Biden himself, the Supreme Court struck down the century-old NY legislation on gun laws stating that the states licensing regimes violate the constitution (an apparent reference to the 2nd amendment of 1791 that allows citizens to possess firearms and carry them outside their homes for safety).

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down by a 6-3 majority vote a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago that places restrictions on carrying a concealed handgun outside the home — an opinion marking the widest expansion of gun rights in a decade.

“Because the State of New York issues public-carry licences only when an applicant demonstrates a special need for self-defence, we conclude that the State’s licensing regime violates the Constitution,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court’s 6-3 majority ruling, CNN reported.

The immediate fall out of the court’s ruling is that the opinion changes the framework that lower courts will use going forward as they analyse other gun restrictions, which could include the proposals currently before the Congress if they eventually become law.

The ruling could also swing voters in the margins on the bipartisan gun law set for passage in the Congress before the two-week recess. The uncertainty would be most unnerving for the 20 Senators that have worked hard on the framework legislation agreed upon and Democrats and American citizens looking for something on the table in the aftermath of the Buffalo and Texas shootings that claimed innocent lives, for meaningless violence to stop.

The Senate will take critical vote to advance the bipartisan gun bill towards final passage.

“The majority’s expansion of what the 2nd Amendment protects will have monumental ramifications far beyond carrying firearms in public — on everything from age restrictions to assault weapon bans to limits on high-capacity magazines,” says Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.

“We’re in for a whole new slew of litigation challenging any and every gun-control measure in light of the analysis in today’s ruling,” Vladeck said.

Critics say the ruling will impair sensible solutions they think can curb gun violence.

Only about a half-dozen states have similar laws to New York’s — California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey — with similar regulations, but those states comprise some of the most densely-populated cities in the country.

Twenty-five states generally allow people to carry concealed weapons in most public spaces without any permit, background check or safety training, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

ALSO READ: US Senate passes historic bipartisan gun control bill

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US announces $450 million security aid to Ukraine

The US has now committed approximately $6.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden has authorised a drawdown of up to $450 million to meet Ukraine’s critical arms requirement in the face of the ongoing Russian invasion, the Department of Defense (DOD) announced on Friday.

In a statement, the Department said this is the 13th presidential drawdown of DOD stocks.

“The US has now committed approximately $6.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including approximately $6.1 billion since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked invasion on February 24,” Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Todd Breasseale was quoted as saying in the statement.

The package includes four high-mobility artillery rocket systems, 36,000 rounds of 105 mm ammunition, 18 tactical vehicles to tow 155 mm artillery, 1,200 grenade launchers, 2,000 machine guns, 18 coastal and riverine patrol boats, spare parts and other equipment, the Department confirmed.

The US has now committed approximately $6.8 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including approximately $6.1 billion since Russia launched its war on February 24.

The US has committed more than $8.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since 2014, the DOD added.

“As President Biden told (Ukrainian) President Zelensky when they spoke last week, the US will continue to bolster Ukraine’s defenses and support its sovereignty, its territorial integrity,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said at the White House on Thursday.

“The bravery and determination of the Ukrainian armed forces, let alone their fellow citizens, continues to inspire the world and we are committed to standing with them as they fight for their freedom.”

ALSO READ: Ukraine, Moldova granted EU candidate status

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US Senate passes historic bipartisan gun control bill

College student Jennifer Estrada takes part in a rally for gun control and anti-racism, in El Paso of Texas, the United States. (Xinhua_Wang Ying_IANS)

Thursday’s development is also of significance as Democrats and Republicans have both equally supported proposed gun control for the first time in decades…reports Asian Lite News

Amid raging incidents of gun violence in the US, the Senate has passed a gun control bill for the first time in 28 years, the media reported on Friday.

Late Thursday night, 15 Republicans joined Democrats in the upper chamber of Congress to approve the measure by 65 votes to 33, the BBC reported.

The bill will next have to clear the House of Representatives before President Joe Biden can sign it into law.

The new legislation includes a series of measures, such as tougher background checks for customers younger than 21 years; $15 billion in federal funding for mental health programmes and school security upgrades; calls for funding to encourage states to implement “red flag” laws to remove firearms from people considered a threat; and closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by blocking gun sales to those convicted of abusing unmarried intimate partners.

Thursday’s development is also of significance as Democrats and Republicans have both equally supported proposed gun control for the first time in decades, said the BBC report.

The last significant federal gun control legislation was passed in 1994, banning the manufacture for civilian use of assault rifles and large capacity magazines. But it expired a decade later.

Addressing the chamber late Thursday, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said the bill would “make Americans feel safer”, adding that “doing nothing is an abdication of our responsibility as representatives of the American people here in the US Senate”.

In his address to the floor, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said: “This is not a cure-all for the ways gun violence affects our nation, but it is a long overdue step in the right direction.”

However, the National Rifle Association (NRA , the country’s most powerful gun lobby group, has opposed the bill.

The passing of the bill came hours after the Supreme Court struck down a New York state law that limits gun-carrying in public.

The 6-3 ruling found that New York’s requirement for residents to prove “proper cause”, or a good reason, to carry concealed firearms in public violates the US Constitution.

An individual who wants to carry a firearm outside his home may obtain an unrestricted license to “have and carry” a concealed “pistol or revolver” if he can prove that “proper cause exists” for doing so, says the ruling.

According to the latest data from Gun Violence Archive, the US has witnessed 267 mass shootings since the start of the year, with more than 20,000 lives lost to gun violence.

Uvalde, Texas, witnessed the country’s third-deadliest school shooting on May 24 when an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers during a rampage at the Robb Elementary School.

ALSO READ: US Fed chair admits recession ‘certainly a possibility’

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US Fed chair admits recession ‘certainly a possibility’


With inflation well above the Fed’s longer-run goal of 2 per cent and an extremely tight labour market, the Fed raised the target range for the federal funds rate at each of the past three meetings….reports Asian Lite News

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the central bank is trying to bring inflation down without inflicting too much damage, but the Fed’s aggressive rate hikes could tip the American economy into recession.

“We are strongly committed to bringing inflation back down, and we are moving expeditiously to do so,” Powell told lawmakers at a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

“My colleagues and I are acutely aware that high inflation imposes significant hardship, especially on those least able to meet the higher costs of essentials like food, housing, and transportation,” said the Fed chair, noting that the central bank is highly attentive to the risks of high inflation.

Over the 12 months ending in April, total personal consumption expenditures (PCE) prices rose 6.3 per cent; excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core PCE prices rose 4.9 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency.

The consumer price index (CPI) skyrocketed 8.6 per cent in May from a year earlier.

With inflation well above the Fed’s longer-run goal of 2 per cent and an extremely tight labour market, the Fed raised the target range for the federal funds rate at each of the past three meetings.

Last week, it raised rates by 75 basis points, marking the sharpest rate hike since 1994.



Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren argued that aggressive rate hikes would do little to ease the supply shocks that have driven up the price of gas and food, but could lead to significant rise in layoffs.

“You know what’s worse than high inflation and low unemployment? It’s high inflation and a recession with millions of people out of work,” Warren said when questioning Powell.

“And I hope you’ll reconsider that as you drive this economy off a cliff.”

Powell, however, said that “we do think it’s absolutely essential that we restore price stability, really for the benefit of the labor market as much as anything else.”

When asked whether raising interest rates too much and too fast could tip the economy into a recession, the Fed chair said it’s a possibility. “It’s not our intended outcome at all, but it’s certainly a possibility. We’re not trying to provoke, and don’t think that we will need to provoke a recession.”

Despite the optimism, a growing number of economists and analysts are concerned that the Fed’s more hawkish stance could plunge the US economy into a recession.

Economists recently surveyed by The Wall Street Journal have dramatically raised the probability of recession, now putting it at 44 per cent in the next 12 months, up from 28 per cent in April.

The latest figure shows a level “usually seen only on the brink of or during actual recessions”.

ALSO READ: Pro Khalistan group WSO cements grip over Canada govt

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Possibility of Biden raising human rights issues with Modi?

Repeatedly pressed by the reporter, spokesperson said that “I’m just saying the President a is a straight shooter a and speaks very frankly, and when it comes to humanitarian rights, has no problem having those direct conversations.”reports Arul Louis

President Joe Biden’s spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre has left open the possibility that as a “straight-shooter”, he may raise human rights issues concerning Muslims with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they speak during the launch of the Middle East Quad in Israel next month.

“He’s a straight-shooter, he has no problem talking to leaders about humanitarian rights, about freedoms, about the importance of democracy,” she said on Wednesday when a reporter asked at her daily briefing if Biden would take up with Modi the demolition of the houses of some Muslims linked to protests.

“This is something that the President has done in the past,” she added.

However, Jean-Pierre qualified the assertion by saying: “I can’t speak too clearly to what is on the agenda and what is their conversation going to be.”

Repeatedly pressed by the reporter, she said: “I’m just saying the President a is a straight shooter a and speaks very frankly, and when it comes to humanitarian rights, has no problem having those direct conversations.”

Protests have broken out in several places in India over statements made by former BJP officials.

As some of the protests turned into riots, houses connected to some Muslims who participated in the demonstrations have been demolished in several places in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh by officials who claimed that they were constructed illegally.

The BJP has suspended one of its spokespersons, Nupur Sharma, and expelled the party’s Delhi unit media head Naveen Jindal, who made the statements against the Prophet.

While condemning their statements last week, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price had said: “We were glad to see that the party publicly condemns those offensive comments.”

He said that the US engaged regularly at senior levels with the Indian government regarding “human rights concerns including freedom of religion or belief and we encourage India to promote respect for human rights”.

The new Quad with India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the US to be known as I2U2 for the initials of the countries is scheduled to be inaugurated during Biden’s visit to Israel in the second week of July.

Modi and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan were to participate virtually, according to the White House.

There’s a cloud over Israel’s representation as Prime Minister Naftali Bennet has lost parliamentary majority and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is to take over as the interim Prime Minister pending elections to the Knesset.

ALSO READ: Indian business community confirms Modi’s UAE visit on June 28th

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Pro-Pak lawmaker moves anti-India resolution in Congress

Omar has been a strident critic of the Narendra Modi-led government and has targeted its decisions earlier to revoke the special constitutional status of Kashmir….writes Yashwant Raj

A pro-Pakistan US lawmaker has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for the State Department to declare India an egregious violator of religious freedom.

Ilhan Omar, the Democratic member of the House of Representatives known to be a sympathizer of Pakistan, is the lead on the resolution that has been co-sponsored by Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Jim McGovern and Juan Vargas, all Democrats.

Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim American women in Congress and they have both tended to focus on, among other things, Muslims around the world and threats and challenges confronting them.

Wednesday’s resolution, which is non-binding unlike a legislation, calls upon Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate India a “country of particular concern”, a categorisation used by the US under its International Religious Freedom Act for countries it considers are the most egregious violations of religious freedom.

“The Indian government must be held responsible for human rights violations against religious and cultural minorities,” Omar said.

“In recent years, the Indian government has been escalating repressive policies against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and Dalits. It is past time for the State Department to acknowledge the reality of the situation in India and formally designate India as a Country of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act,” she added.

Omar has been a strident critic of the Narendra Modi-led government and has targeted its decisions earlier to revoke the special constitutional status of Kashmir.

The Congresswoman has also been an unabashed supporter of Pakistan and visited the country in April as a guest of its government, as first reported by this correspondent for IANS. There is nothing wrong with it. US lawmakers are allowed such sponsored visits.

But Omar had gone on to use the visit to tour the disputed region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and, while there, spoke about “human rights violations and to talk about the bigger issue with the Modi administration’s anti-Muslim rhetoric and how that’s leading to human rights violations as well”.

India had reacted sharply to the visit predictably.

“We have noted that US Representative Ilhan Omar has visited a part of the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir that is currently illegally occupied by Pakistan,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs had said.

“If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that may be her business. But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty in its pursuit makes it ours. This visit is condemnable.”

Omar’s resolution relies heavily on a recent report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a government agency set up by Congress, to make her case for designating India. The resolution cites the report repeatedly.

This report had also recommended to the State Department that it should designate India a country of particular concern. But the recommendation was not accepted.

In fact, the commission had made the same recommendation in 2021 also and it had met the same fate then.

Religious freedom and human rights have assumed new significance in the bilateral relationship after the Modi government began to aggressively push back against routine American unilateralism on these issues, which had been ignored by previous dispensations and governments of other countries.

ALSO READ: Biden nominates Indian-American as top science advisor

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Biden faces historic leadership task in Europe

Biden arrives Saturday in Germany for the G7 summit of major Western powers, followed next week by the NATO military alliance summit in Madrid…reports Asian Lite News

Leader of the free world sounds like a superhero character, but the Joe Biden heading this week to twin European summits is in reality a politically fragile president tasked, somehow, with resolving an unenviable string of diplomatic problems.

Biden arrives Saturday in Germany for the G7 summit of major Western powers, followed next week by the NATO military alliance summit in Madrid.

Both sessions will take place in the shadow of Russia’s Ukraine invasion, but also a global surge in inflation, fears of recession, and the ever-growing challenge of containing China while avoiding open conflict.

For sure, Biden will tout the success of a monumental effort to rally the West and breathe new life into NATO — a “high water mark in transatlantic solidarity in the post-Cold War period,” according to a senior US official.

But the less flattering picture is one of a 79-year-old politician whose approval rating at home has plummeted below 40 percent and whose Democratic party seems likely to lose control of Congress this November, giving way to vengeful Republican opponents.

As Donald Trump — who spent four years in the White House shredding American alliances — prepares his own possible revenge match in the 2024 presidential election, Biden is the first to admit that not all view the United States with confidence.

“I travel the world trying to put things back together,” Biden told an audience of trade union members this month, and “no matter where I go… they look at me and I say — I say, ‘America is back,’ and they look and me and they say: ‘For how long?’“

Inflection point

Biden refers to his presidency as an inflection point in a battle for the survival of Western democracy against the likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as against internal attacks, like Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

A big part of that campaign is rebuilding alliances and restoring the traditional US role as a first among equals — in contrast to Trump’s policy of treating all countries as bitter rivals.

Both in Germany and Spain, Biden will be able to showcase considerable success, especially concerning the response to Russia’s onslaught in Ukraine.

“He came into office with the express purpose of revitalizing and reinforcing our allies, our alliances and our partnerships around the world and that’s exactly what he’s done,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, said.

“He has been unafraid to use the convening power of the United States which is still ample, still relevant, still viable. The free world has demonstrated incredible unity.”

Multilateral leadership needed

But for all the self-congratulations likely to emanate from Bavaria and Madrid, the Western partners face increasingly tricky blowback from their own sanctions on Russia.

Their coordinated attempt to shut down Russia’s economy and cripple the ruble has clearly not worked so far, while spiraling energy costs are instead exacting a political price on leaders like Biden at home.

A US official said the G7 will “roll out” yet more measures to “increase pressure” on Moscow. But there will also be a parallel question for leaders to ponder.

“How do we maximize pain on Putin’s regime? How do we minimize spill-backs back to the rest of the world? And I think that’s exactly how the discussion around energy markets and energy market challenges will get framed,” the official told AFP.

Amid warnings of Ukraine fatigue setting in across Western capitals, Biden says the transatlantic coalition has to tough it out.

“At some point, this is going to be a bit of a waiting game: what the Russians can sustain and what Europe is going to be prepared to sustain. That’s one of the things we’re going to be speaking in Spain about,” he said.

If that’s going to happen — and if the West is going to stick together through the growing threat of global recession — then much may depend on Biden.

“Leadership matters a lot here,” Kirby said.

“Multilateral leadership matters a lot — because this isn’t just affecting the United States, it’s affecting the whole world.”

ALSO READ: Top diplomats of US, Israel discuss Biden’s ME trip