Thanks to the G7, there is a wind of change in the Cornish air – and Joe Biden is the man for this moment

Unlike his predecessor, the US president has a sense of decorum, and of perspective – the climate emergency is, after all, the transcendent issue facing the planet

(Dave Brown)

Time was when the president of the United States would find it necessary to fly in to a summit somewhere in the Middle East to knock heads together and coax squabbling neighbours towards some lasting political settlement. This time, President Biden is in the bizarre position of having to do the same with the British and their neighbours in the European Union. All should wish him luck in that enterprise, and not to allow these continuing tensions to distract from giving a firm lead on climate change. After the Trump interregnum, America is indeed back to work – and not a moment too soon.

If there is a “special relationship” between Boris Johnson and Joe Biden, then it doesn’t seem to be a specially close one, though undeniably US-UK relations are growing especially complicated. It will be difficult – though not impossible – for these two very different personalities to make the best of the very difficult challenges ahead of them, notably the situation on Northern Ireland and climate change.

President Biden has made little attempt to disguise his contempt for Brexit as a project, and the threat it poses to peace in Ireland. He once remarked that Mr Johnson is a kind of English “clone” of Donald Trump, which says it all. The US has served a “demarche” on the UK because of its reckless disregard for the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and the Good Friday Agreement.