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Joe Biden will close out his virtual Summit for Democracy today with remarks about electoral integrity, fighting against foreign interference in elections, and bolstering independent media.
Yesterday, on the first day, Biden announced a plan for the US to spend up to $424mn to support independent media around the world, anti-corruption work, and other initiatives.
Facing video links with 80 world leaders arrayed on two oversize electronic panels, the US president 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.”
Biden cited studies that found that global freedom has now been in retreat for 15 consecutive years and that more than half of all democracies experienced a decline in the past decade.