A conversation with Dr Common Sense. I think this will go down very well with the people of the world, less so with the foreign policy wonks (e.g. Bolton, Haas) or the activists (e.g. Kasparov or progressives).
Thread....
What has come clear to me after the last 15 odd minutes here is that Biden is trying to actually resetting the global foreign policy order itself.
The chorus will not get this in all likelihood, but this is a lot bigger than it looks.
The best way to explain this is with two examples.
Talking about cold wars. Biden said Putin doesn't want a new cold war. As if there isn't one.
Asked about election interference he said the U.S. does not interfere in other countries elections. As if it doesn't, hasn't.
Maybe its possible to defend these two statements. But that is not what this is about. What Biden is doing is actually making commitments, setting out his intentions for America to the nations of the world as a whole.
He is saying Biden's America will be different.
Biden has managed to avoid getting into the weeds in this press conference. Which is clever. Except with CNN @kaitlancollins at the end.
This is going to get complicated. But as far as the people of the world are concerned. Biden just won big time, he has our back.
P.S. As he boarded his plane @JoeBiden gave a very candid explanation of his approach. This is definitely worth a watch. Will post a clip here as soon as its posted by @CNN and @MSNBC, definitely worth watching. Biden's America is going to be different.
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As forecast a low has formed north east of Newfoundland and is now heading east towards the UK, where recent forecasts have indicated it may remain for several days bringing rain to Western Europe.
Here in Brittany underneath the cloud mass running up Europe's Western flank it has now been raining since 4pm yesterday. A break is forecast this afternoon before it resumes in the evening.
In the image here you see the cause, clouds travelling north over the Western Sahara.
Here you see a close up of the source of the storms heading northwards up Europe's West Coast.
The image below shows a large storm headed directly towards me here in Brittany, France which will arrive shortly. And it’s part of a bigger picture. #EuropeBigWet update.
NOTE: Today the Euro @ECMWF model is unavailable due to a data feed issue.
And appropriately given my two and half months monitoring this phenomena the storm that is approaching has also come 6000kms due north across the Western Sahara. I.E. its a #WestAfricaWaterPlume.
The wind is now coming up. The cows are sitting down and it’s eerily quiet. Earlier there was rumbling sounds of thunder in the distance.
It's all set for another big day over the #HornofAfrica today. This big picture view contains some measurements of the monsoon wind plumes which are from Myanmar and India to the Horn.
And while its still early, 2.30pm local time, we already have #ArbaianStorms lighting up in Saudi Arabia.
Here's a view of the storms after sunset last night from 7pm to 10pm. At present the storms over Ethiopia appear to die down by midnight. But those further West continue through the night.
Here we can see Tropical Storm Bill, which looks very cyclonic now, storming north with an outrider running a parallel line to the west over the US seaboard this morning.
Cyclone Bill, soon to become extra-tropical low Bill seems determined to join the #EuropeBigWet.
What is now TS Bill was previously shown in models storming across to Ireland and removing the Leviathan Storm from the picture over the weekend. But that didn't happen and the Leviathan storm over the Black Sea is now heading south.
Nothing went quite like the models had predicted.
In the interim we have had a nice break from #EuropeBigWet in Western Europe lately. But it's now due to come to an end. Here in Brittany I currently have rain forecast for the next eight days,
There was a second day of big rains over the horn today. In this image on the right hand side you can see the incoming water baring winds from across the Arabian Sea from the Indian Monsoon.
Here's a wider angle view. The water bearing mid-altitude jets provide much of the moisture that fuels the West African Monsoon, and its East African extension.
Three 10-day (+ one 12-day) accumulated rainfall forecasts for North Africa for June 15th from the GFS, CMC and KMA weather models.