Joe Biden’s on-off, will-he-won’t-he flirtation with a Presidential run continues, but looks like it might finally – possibly – be coming to a head. As the AP’s Josh Lederman writes, impatience about the VP’s decision has “taken a chaotic turn.”
No shortage of people made assertive declarations Monday about whether Joe Biden is going to run for president.
The flood of purported revelations reverberated throughout the political world, but there was just one problem: None of it came from Biden’s lips.
Months in to his painfully drawn-out deliberations, the vice president continued his public silence. Yet several individuals familiar with his decision-making disputed claims that an announcement was imminent. No surprise: the individuals weren’t authorized to comment publicly and demanded anonymity.
https://twitter.com/TheFix/status/656293694769725440
As the VP goes on Biden his time (sorry), Michael Tomasky at the Daily Beast writes: “Everyone seems to think he’s running. No-one has any idea why he should.”
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WORLD
One political job that has been decided is Prime Minister of Canada.
Richard Branson thinks the UN is about to urge the decriminalization of certain drugs. The UN says “whoa, dude. Chill…”
https://twitter.com/ABCNews24/status/656332202364416000
Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s 4-day state visit to Britain is under way. There was a heavy police presence as his procession along The Mall to Buckingham Palace was met by both supporters and protesters.
And the steel dumping issue comes at a sensitive moment…
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BUSINESS
Tata Steel on Tuesday announced the loss of 1,200 jobs in an end to UK steel plate production.
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MEDIA
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CULTURE
A new trailer for the new Star Wars movie dropped overnight, while ticket releases for the Dec 17 launch crashed box office websites the world over.
And here’s another trailer worth watching, but with fewer Wookies.
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SPORTS
Rugby authorities admitted that World Cup referee Craig Joubert “got it wrong” in Sunday’s quarter-final between Scotland and Australia. The reaction in both hemispheres was as you’d probably expect.
https://twitter.com/tehTrunk/status/656011103860826113
and, whatever the rights and wrongs, this probably didn’t help…
In South Africa, Oscar Pistorius was released from detention after serving a year for his involvement in the death of his girlfriend Reeve Steenkamp. The Paralympic athlete will move to a house arrest phase of his five-year sentence.
Finally, Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland was announced on Tuesday as the host course for the 2019 British Open. The event – which could bring up to £70m to the province – was last held at Portrush in 1951.
The Overnight Note 