Why is Biden one of the most unpopular US presidents?

 The Guardian 

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First Thing: Why is Biden one of the most unpopular US presidents?

Nicola Slawson  19 mins ago

After winning more votes than any presidential candidate in US history, Joe Biden is now – just 12 months later – one of the country’s most unpopular presidents.

Much of his domestic agenda is stalled on Capitol Hill, impeded by members of his own party. The virus is once again raging out of control: daily infections of Covid-19 have soared to record levels, hospitalizing more Americans than at any previous point during the pandemic.

The administration’s vaccine-or-testing mandate for large employers was blocked by the supreme court’s conservative super-majority. Inflation is at a nearly 40-year high. Diplomatic talks have so far failed to pull Russia back from the brink of war with Ukraine.

The puzzle of Biden’s unpopularity has many pieces, pollsters and political analysts say. “There’s an element of it that has nothing to do with Joe Biden,” Sarah Longwell, a prominent anti-Trump Republican strategist said. “It’s just a tough time.”

How unpopular is he? For months, Biden’s approval ratings have languished in the mid to low 40s, with an average approval rating of 42%. ​​A Quinnipiac poll released last week found him at a dire 33%.

Leaked photos show scale of damage caused by Tonga volcano eruption

Aerial images prepared by the New Zealand defence force for the Tongan government have been leaked online and show some areas have had “catastrophic” devastation inflicted by the tsunami and volcanic eruption while others were relatively unscathed.

The 40 aerial pictures show some areas blanketed with ash, with damaged buildings, while others show parts of the country that appear unscathed.

They were taken by the New Zealand defence force during a reconnaissance flight on Monday and put together in a report for the Tongan government. The photos were then leaked online. The Guardian has confirmed the provenance of the photos.

After the reconnaissance flight, the New Zealand defence force shared a handful of photos with the media, most of them showing defence personnel at work, rather than shots of the islands. The 40 leaked images paint a much fuller picture of the damage to the country, and include annotations about the severity of damage.

Little has been heard from Tonga since the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano and subsequent tsunami on Saturday, after the Pacific nation’s main communication cable was broken.

Capitol attack panel grapples with moving inquiry forward

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is weighing whether to subpoena some of Donald Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill as it considers its options on how aggressively it should pursue testimony to move forward its inquiry into the January 6 insurrection.

The Republican House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, and Republican members of Congress Jim Jordan and Scott Perry may have inside knowledge about Trump’s plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election and whether it was coordinated with the Capitol attack.

But the outright refusal of McCarthy and the other Republican lawmakers to testify voluntarily with the investigation has intensified discussions among the panel’s members and investigators about whether to force their cooperation.

The select committee is undecided on whether to take that near-unprecedented step.

Why are they hesitating? In part because of one major concern that has emerged in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the matter: Republican retaliation against Biden and Democrats in future inquiries.

The Guardian