Convenience Big Store: The honeymoon’s over for Biden

9 August, 2021

In the headlines

It's "code red for humanity", says a climate report from the UN. Approved by 195 member states, it outlines how drastically humans are changing the planet. We must act now, says UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres: "There is no time for delay and no room for excuses." Demoting Rishi Sunak would be Boris Johnson's political "death warrant", says an ally of the Chancellor in the Telegraph. The PM has reportedly joked about making Sunak Health Secretary. "To lose one Chancellor may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness," said an unnamed Tory MP in the FT. Despite the endless rain, the Met Office says this has been a warmer summer than usual. It's "having a laugh", says the Daily Star. "Do boffins ever just look out the window?"

Comment of the day

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The honeymoon's over for Biden

A president's first summer is often when the "novelty wears off", and Joe Biden is in good company, says Andrew Sullivan in The Weekly Dish. Bill Clinton crashed to 39% approval around this time in his first term; George W Bush plummeted to 50% before 9/11; and Obama was "sideswiped" by the Tea Party. But the "Biden honeymoon" has hit the skids. In June 89% of Americans thought he was handling Covid well; now 45% think everything's getting worse.

"The plague will recede, and the economy will grow" – but Biden has other problems. "A president who presides over massive illegal immigration and soaring murder rates is especially vulnerable to Republican Trump-style attacks." On immigration Biden is "seriously underwater on the polls". The border crisis is getting worse, with a million illegal migrants arrested since October. And sorry, but his age is also a problem. While he has done amazingly well for a man of his years, it's hard to see him lasting two terms, which weakens his clout. His designated successor, Kamala Harris, is so unpopular "even her cronies are worried". If Biden were to fall ill, or worse, President Harris would be a dream for the GOP to run against. Biden's ability to work with Republicans and soften polarisation is unmatched. "Take him away, and the centre implodes."

We need to talk about trans issues

When conceiving Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, Helen Joyce knew she would have a rough ride, says Lionel Shriver in The Times. She finally sold it to a small British publisher, but no one in America would touch it. (One editor called it "radioactive".) Though reviews were glowing, online detractors denounced Joyce as "an anti-semitic neo-Nazi", while bookshops nervously tucked a few copies away under the counter. The BBC spurned interviews and Intelligence Squared pulled a podcast invitation.

What "grotesque authorial assertions" explain this recoil? That humans are either male or female; that sex is not "assigned", but observable at birth; that we might think twice before allowing people born male "who still have their kit" into female prisons. Joyce has "no beef" with trans people, only with the movement's radical ideology. So why has the issue become "such a hot button"? One reason is that this is a victim group "even men and white people" can join. Another is that young people have been "cast into a hell of obligingness". Their parents probably took drugs, are cool with premarital sex and endorse much of the "woke" agenda. "How's a poor kid to rebel?" Embracing gender-swapping "offers a rare opportunity to separate from their infernally permissive, infuriatingly simpatico parents". Most of the left's shibboleths have gone mainstream and we've entered a "purity spiral", whereby political sanctity is measured by how pure we are. Transgenderism has become "the ultimate purity test". But claiming maleness and femaleness is all in our heads is a departure from reality so extreme that it almost meets the textbook definition of insanity.

Noted

Thousands have fled their homes as "apocalyptic" wildfires rage through Greece. It's like a "horror movie", says The Mirror. The island of Evia, north of Athens, has been burning for six days, with fires engulfing five villages and thousands of acres of forest. More than 2,000 people have been evacuated on ferries since Tuesday. Greece is suffering its most severe heatwave in 30 years, with temperatures reaching 45C.

Tomorrow's world

Apple's plan to scan US iPhones for pictures of child abuse from next month could be "the thin end of a much larger wedge", says the FT. As "abhorrent" as this material is, the move sets a "weighty precedent": the tech giant has twice resisted letting the FBI unlock the iPhones of mass shooters. This new "back door" could be abused by "hackers, cyber criminals or unscrupulous governments".

Snapshot

Zeitgeist

Mills & Boon is having a woke rebrand, says Rosie Kinchen in The Sunday Times. Previously, the romance publisher's books boasted titles such as Taming the Big Bad Billionaire. Now their leading men are softer and the names tamer. "Recent pulse-quickening titles include A Single Dad to Rescue Her and Second Chance with Her Guarded GP."

Snapshot answer

It's George King-Thompson climbing the Stratosphere Tower in Stratford, east London. The 21-year-old free climber ascended the 36-storey apartment building without ropes. In 2019 he spent 12 weeks in prison after illegally climbing the UK's tallest building – the 1,016ft Shard. Time behind bars might "deter" some people, he says, but "I had everything under control. It's all about adapting to the environment."