Joe Biden | Business Post

The Big Picture

Vincent Boland: Reading between the lines, the US-China ‘new cold war’ is very real

At the first ever presidential face-to-face meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping at the G20 in Bali, it was clear that the gulf which divides them is far wider than the Taiwan Strait

Lucinda Creighton: Biden confounds his critics while Trump’s comeback plan suffers a blow

With a number of Donald Trump’s picks coming unstuck in the US midterm elections, there are many in the Republican Party who will be hoping that the second coming of Trump has been irreparably damaged

Marion McKeone: Midterm success may give Biden what has most eluded him – respect

Following a tumultuous two years, the veteran Democratic president has pulled off a number of legislative wins and upset all the odds with the best midterm results for a first-term Democratic president since John F Kennedy

Marion McKeone: Republicans hold the upper hand as parties spend a record $10bn on campaigns

All of the seats in the US House of Representatives and about a third of the Senate seats are up for grabs in the elections, but it remains to be seen if the huge spend by Republicans and Democrats will have any effect on voters

Bargaining chips: How the semiconductor industry has emerged as an industrial battleground

Despite US manufacturers recently securing the $280 billion Chips Act, Intel is preparing to slash spending and cut tens of thousands of jobs. Why is the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer making such a dramatic U-turn, and what could it mean for Ireland?

Marion McKeone: ‘Trump in a dress’ could lead charge of Maga Republicans back to the White House

Polished, telegenic and unflappable, former news anchor Kari Lake is running for governor in Arizona in the US midterms and may even find herself on a Trump 2024 ticket as his running mate

Marion McKeone: American democracy on the brink, Biden reminds voters ahead of mid-terms

With hundreds of Republican candidates still believing the election was stolen, and the fear that the 2024 election results could be reversed by Republicans in swing states, the cliché that the ‘stakes have never been higher’ rings true this time

Lucinda Creighton: US midterm elections could signal a bloody rematch of Biden and Trump

Republicans may well win Congress and the Senate, weakening Joe Biden and emboldening Donald Trump to engage in a contest that will be more vicious and rancorous than the last

Marion McKeone: Saudi oil move has Biden over a barrel

Opec+’s decision to slash output guarantees a surge in US petrol prices in the run-up to the midterm elections; it could be a major setback to Biden’s presidency half way through its first term

Stormy relations: DeSantis and Biden put mutual loathing aside to deal with hurricane response

Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis, who likes to be known as ‘Trump with a brain’, and the US president know that competence in dealing with natural disasters can win swing voters in the contest to be next US president

Marion McKeone: Ravenous Republicans eyeing House majority with slew of extremist candidates

The primaries have ended with hardliners winning out over moderates, setting the scene for bitterly contested midterms in November

Marion McKeone: Biden finally springs for Trump’s throat in an invigorating offensive

The US president’s speech in Philadelphia last Thursday carried the fight to his predecessor, hammering home the theme that American democracy is under attack from far-right elements

Lucinda Creighton: Terror chief’s killing does not eliminate the threat of al-Qaeda

The strike on al-Zawahiri may have brought some relief to US president Joe Biden, but after his army’s shambolic exit, Afghanistan is now a haven for the rapidly regrouping terrorist organisation

Biden’s Build Back Better plans receive a boost as Manchin drops veto

After a summer of losses, humiliations and setbacks, the US president may be facing a slightly easier autumn as petrol prices drop, inflation slows and parts of his ambitious spending package are passed into legislation

Dispatch from Donbas: The Russian shelling stops ‘only when it rains’

Sean Stark, a former US Marine, spent three weeks on the frontline in the Donbas region with a unit of other foreign fighters, under what he called ‘constant’ artillery attacks

Marion McKeone: Biden makes a bad fist of a Saudi Arabian showdown

The US President’s fist-bump with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah during the week was met with derision by both his domestic allies and foes

Marion McKeone: Beleaguered Biden’s lack of stomach for a battle is laid bare

With inflation rampant and his green energy agenda being nullified by one intransigent senator, these are dark days for the increasingly impotent US president

Kerrygold sales surge in the US after ‘punitive’ 25% tariff on EU butter is suspended

Ornua, the Irish dairy co-op behind the Kerrygold brand, saw its sales volumes soar 12 per cent in the US market last year

How Biden’s jettisoned green agenda left him in the worst of all worlds

Most Americans are blaming the US President’s green energy policies for the soaring energy prices, while progressives are furious that he has not used the soaring cost of fossil fuels to phase out oil and gas production

Marion McKeone: Biden facing a tougher battle on the home front

For the president, the re-emergence of the US as the undisputed leader of a united liberal world order has paid little or no dividend at home