Biden uses trip abroad to confront China on climate, more

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Over five days abroad at two global summits, President Joe Biden showed a new willingness to openly confront China over climate change and its lack of leadership on the global stage.

Biden ended his time at the U.N. climate summit in Scotland on Tuesday by chastising Chinese President Xi Jinping for physically skipping the event and failing to make the level of commitments that roughly 100 other nations did to curb greenhouse gasses. Xi also avoided the earlier Group of 20 summit in Rome, allowing Biden to dominate the conversation as he met with his French, Italian, British and German counterparts.

"We showed up, and by showing up we’ve had a profound impact on the way I think the rest of the world is looking at the United States in its leadership role," Biden said at a Tuesday news conference wrapping up his trip abroad. Biden added that China had made a “big mistake” in bypassing the events because “they’ve lost an ability to influence people around the world.”

But Biden's global progress and willingness to challenge China — a stance that also was critical to the rise of his predecessor Donald Trump — may be lost in the fog of domestic politics.

Biden jetted back to Washington to confront his deepest challenge yet as he struggles to pass $3 trillion in new government spending, including $555 billion to combat climate change. His poll numbers are flagging. The headwinds could worsen in Congress, where a wave of retirements bodes poorly for holding on to Democratic majorities in next year’s elections.

And another blow greeted his arrival: Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the race for Virginia governor, an outcome widely thought to cast another shadow on the 2022 elections and reflect poorly on Biden's own agenda...