Facing video links with 80 world leaders via two electronic panels, Biden said: “This is an urgent matter on all our parts, in my view, because the data we're seeing is largely pointing in the wrong direction.
The US president cited studies finding that global freedom had been in retreat for 15 consecutive years and that more than half of all democracies declined in the past decade.
He acknowledged that one of those countries in democratic decline was his own. Since the November 2020 elections voting rights have been under assault from Republicans at state level, where gerrymandering is still rife, carried out by Republicans, and to a lesser extent, Democrats.
Biden has been accused by American progressives of hosting a global summit while not doing enough to combat democratic backsliding at home. In New York, activists staged a funeral for democracy” outside the UN, in protest at US voter suppression laws.
This story is from the December 10, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the December 10, 2021 edition of The Guardian.
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