
US enemies are lining up to test Joe Biden
CNN
President Joe Biden is confronting a series of distinct but interlocking global crises and hotspots with US foes lining up to test the mettle of an under-pressure leader and their own sense that the United States is a retreating global power.
Biden made the kind of fateful decision on Monday that might be more at home in the tense 1970s, putting up to 8,500 troops on alert to rush to Eastern Europe to counter the Kremlin's move to force the US away from its Western flank. But his trial of nerves with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is holding Ukraine hostage in a bid to reverse the West's expansion after the Cold War, is far from his only global headache.
On the other side of the globe, a strategic ballet of military might is playing out as the US and China maneuver armadas and warplanes amid tensions over Taiwan, and other disputed territories, in a long-term duel for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. While the prospect of a Russian invasion of Ukraine is fixating the world right now, a future Chinese strike against the self-governing democratic island is the more likely trigger for a disastrous superpower conflict.

Janet Mills and her allies are counting on a gender gap to narrow Platner’s wide lead ahead of the June 9 primary to decide who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. They are betting that the unfiltered style that has brought Platner widespread attention as someone who could help Democrats reach young men will backfire with women.

As a shrinking number of Transportation Security Administration agents work to keep hourslong security lines moving despite not being paid, President Donald Trump stepped into the fray Saturday, announcing he will send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports by Monday if Congress doesn’t agree to a plan to end the partial government shutdown.











