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US president cancelled visit to Australia and Papua New Guinea is sign of how seriously administration is taking 1 June deadlineA hint of Joe Biden’s newfound seriousness over the debt limit negotiations emerged yesterday, shortly before his meeting with Republican Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders. The giveaway was an unnamed administration official telling reporters that Biden would cut short his trip to Asia and return to Washington work on a deal – which the White House later confirmed would indeed happen, shortly after the president reversed his policy of not negotiating over the debt ceiling and appointed deputies to sit down with Republicans.While Biden will still travel to Japan to meet with G7 leaders and the country’s prime minister, he’s cut out visits to two other countries that were intended to shore up the influence of Washington and its allies against China. Biden will no longer visit Australia and attend a meeting of nations in the Quad, a group formed to stand against Beijing’s influence. Nor will he make the first ever visit by an American president to Papua New Guinea, a stop seen as intended to bring the country under the US’s wing.The Chinese government is probably the biggest winner from Joe Biden’s decision to pull out of his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea, forcing the cancellation of the Quad summit in Sydney.Chinese state media outlets won’t need to muster much creative energy to weave together some of Beijing’s preferred narratives: that the US is racked by increasingly severe domestic upheaval and is an unreliable partner, quick to leave allies high and dry.Biden is departing Washington DC for Japan, where he’ll meet with prime minister Fumio Kishida and attend a summit of G7 leaders.McCarthy and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell will brief reporters in the Capitol at 11:15am ET.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will take questions from reporters as Air Force One heads to Japan. She’ll be joined by national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Continue reading...