What a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad week.  

Joe Biden’s embarrassing gaffes came thick and fast this week – after the president managed to fumble a series of high-profile domestic events on the world stage.

His litany of errors – including walking into flag poles, addressing people with the wrong names and rudely forgetting to shake foreign official’s hands – is coupled with the devastating blow that the 80-year-old president’s approval rating stands at 37 percent.

This is five percentage points lower than it was in February, and crucially, it is 10 points lower than his fierce 2020 Republican competitor, Donald Trump, in the latest embarrassing poll from the Washington Post. 

Meanwhile, there is a percussive thunder of calls for him to drop out of the running for the next election, from both the left and the right of the political landscape. 

Many are seriously questioning how Biden will be able to face a long presidential campaign for the Democrats if he struggles like he did the past week – and how he’ll handle the prospect of another four years in office. 

Biden’s gaffes with the Brazilian president: Walking off stage, running into a flag, no hand shake, and failed translator earpiece

On September 20, ailing Joe Biden seemed to produce gaffe after gaffe while on the UN stage alongside Brazil‘s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Lula da Silva, 77, looked visibly irritated after the two leaders shared a stage to speak about their initiative to improve workers’ rights in each country – because Biden walked off without shaking his hand. 

Their diplomatic meeting got off to a labored start when Biden, 80, shuffled into a seven-foot Brazilian flag, leaving it teetering as he approached the podium. 

The president made a rambling speech about his ‘economic vision to rebuild our economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down’ while Lula watched on from his right flank. 

Meanwhile, during Lula’s speech, Biden fumbled with his headset, which he was using to hear a translated version. 

‘Can you hear me President Biden? This is an historical moment for Brazil, and for the US,’ Lula said at the start of his speech.

Biden continued to look confused as he grappled with the headset while Lula went on with his speech. At one point, Biden dropped his earpiece and raised his eyebrows in frustration.

International Labor Organization Director General Gilbert Houngbo took to the podium after the two world leaders, and Biden stooped to slowly grab a folder from the ground.

Houngbo shook hands with Biden and Lula in turn at the close of his speech – but Biden appeared to leave Lula hanging, awkwardly saluting the audience before shuffling off stage.

He appeared to be torn between giving a thumbs-up or a salute, and made a sloppy gesture combining the two.

As Biden turned his back on the Brazilian president, Lula looked annoyed and made a swiping gesture with his arm. They departed awkwardly from opposite sides. 

The series of mistakes and ill gestures were watched on the world stage – as the high-level meeting brought world leaders together at U.N. headquarters in New York.

President calls the Congressional Hispanic Caucus the ‘Black Caucus’ 

On September 22, the president made yet another public gaffe when all eyes were on him during a keynote speech in Washington, DC. 

Joe Biden mistakenly praised the ‘Congressional Black Caucus’ during a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. 

The 80-year-old made the blunder during a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 46th Annual Gala. 

He had celebrated Sister Norma Pimental, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, for her gala award win moments before the mistake. 

Biden praised her for living the lessons based on the Gospel of Matthew before adding: ‘The Congressional Black Caucus embodies all those values.’

‘I know Sister Norma lives the lessons nuns taught me growing up,’ Biden said during the speech addressing the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

‘Lessons based on the Gospel of Matthew: feed the hungry, care for the sick, welcome strangers.’

‘They echo what my dad taught me, and I mean this sincerely, my dad used to say, ‘Everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect.’

The president added: ‘The Congressional Black Caucus embodies all those values,’ without correcting his mistake. 

Biden repeats the same story about a white supremacist rally twice at the same event 

As well as making in-the-moment mistakes, Biden was also berated this week for repeating the same story twice at the same event in New York City.  

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was then forced to answer for Biden’s concerning, ailing behavior in front of journalists.

She said that President Joe Biden was ‘speaking from his heart’ when he repeated the same story twice at a Wednesday night fundraiser in New York City. 

Jean-Pierre was twice asked Friday about Biden’s flub – said in a room without cameras rolling but with several journalists present due to rules about covering 2024 finance events. 

A pool report from the event, held at food security expert Amy Goldman Fowler’s home, noted that Biden talked about how the white supremacist rally – and former President Donald Trump‘s reaction to it – in Charlottesville in August 2017 inspired him to run for the White House in the 2020 cycle. 

‘A few minutes later, he told the story again, nearly word for word,’ the pool report said. 

NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell asked Friday, ‘Is it any concern that he would fully retell a story in the same space at the same event?’ as polls show that a super-majority of Americans are worried that Biden  wouldn’t be effective through a second term.

‘Sometimes I re-speak as well from here and retell a story,’ Jean-Pierre said with a laugh.  

‘But look, I think it’s important to note that the president was speaking, as you said at a fundraiser and he was speaking from his heart,’ she continued. ‘He was speaking about why he’s decided to do this.’

‘And you hear the president talk about this, it’s always incredibly emotional for him. Cause he didn’t have to. He went through an incredibly difficult time when he was deciding to jump into the race,’ she added. 

Biden refers to rapper LL Cool J as ‘LL Jay Cool J’    

Adding to the long list of problematic things the President did this week, Joe Biden referred to legendary rapper LL Cool J as a ‘boy’ after mispronouncing his name at the Congressional Black Caucus.

On Saturday night, LL Cool J and MC Lyte received Phoenix Awards for their musical contributions at the annual ceremony.

While on stage, Biden said: ‘Two of the great artists of our time representing ground-breaking legacy of hip hop in America, LL Jay Cool J, uhhh…’ – as the audience laughed at his latest gaffe over the rapper’s name.

Biden then added: ‘By the way that boy – that man’s got biceps bigger than my thighs.’

The footage of his speech was quickly re-posted by right-wing RNC Research on social media, where commentators swiftly pointed out that referring to African Americans as ‘boy’ is widely considered a derogative term. 

It was yet another butchered speech for the most powerful man in the world.  

Biden claims he’s been to ‘every mass shooting’ – which he has not  

Joe Biden also – erroneously – claimed to have been to ‘every mass shooting’ this week. 

The bizarre remark came days after he falsely claimed to have visited Ground Zero the day after 9/11, and have left many demanding to know whether he is lying or forgetting.

Speaking alongside vice-president Kamala Harris in the White House Rose Garden, he said his administration had been ‘working relentlessly to do something’.

‘After every mass shooting, we hear a simple message, the same message heard all over the country, and I’ve been to every mass shooting,’ he told his audience.

There have more than 500 mass shootings in the US this year and critics on social media were scathing in their response to the latest tall story.

‘Suspicious, if true,’ tweeted former US diplomat Alberto Fernandez.

‘Every weekend should be therefore spent in Chicago instead of Delaware,’ added Fox News contributor Joe Concha.

The news comes as a new poll from the Washington Post has Biden trailing former president Trump in a theoretical 2024 match. The two men are the frontrunners for their party’s nomination for president.  

But questions are growing louder on whether Biden should run as Democrats such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom appear to be positioning themselves to take the mantle. 

According to the WaPo polling this weekend, Biden’s approval rating stands at about 37 percent, similar to where it was in May, but five percentage points lower than it was in February.

Biden’s disapproval figure is 56 percent. The poll also asked whether, in retrospect, voters approve or disapprove of the job Trump did while in office.

Forty-eight percent say they approve and 49 percent say they disapprove. When he left office in January of 2021, Trump’s approval was closer to 38 percent.

The poll’s matchup of the two likely candidates showed Trump polling ahead of Biden by 10 percentage points – 52 to 42 – among registered voters.

The current resident of the Oval Office is also ailing in his policy record. Biden has spent many of the last several weeks touting his signature economic plan, ‘Bidenomics.’ But his earned approval rating on his handling of the economy has plummeted to 30 percent – the lowest of his presidency.

Some 75 percent of Americans believe the economy is ‘not so good,’ or ‘poor,’ according to the poll. A whopping 87 percent of Americans say that gas and energy prices are ‘not so good’ or ‘poor.’ And 91 percent of people say the same about food prices.

A plurality of respondents (44 percent) said they are not as well of financially as before Biden took office, while 39 percent said they are in about the same position, and 15 percent said they are better off.

A young Australian woman has revealed a long list of holiday fails which threatened to derail her recent girls’ trip to Europe.

The list includes luggage, broken ankles, and pizza so bad the eight women still can’t talk about the revolting cheese topping without gagging.

Izzy Fraser, 24, spent months planning the dream four-week holiday – but says everything that could go wrong did. 

She finds it funny to look back on but also wants others to learn from her mistakes.

She told FEMAIL while there were way more curveballs than she could have ever expected she still had the best holiday of her life.

The novice traveler has only been overseas three times and said the trip hasn’t spoiled her will to explore – she will just do carry-on only to avoid half the hassle next time.

The girls hadn’t even left Australia before their problems began, something she now looks back and laughs about.

Two members of the group had forgotten to book luggage on the flight over and had to fork out an extra $250 to check in, she said on TikTok.

Then at the first stop Izzy, who had never been to Europe before, either had an allergic reaction or was bitten by bed bugs.

‘I am still not sure which one it was, but I blamed the lady at the accommodation for bed bugs, obviously,’ she added.

‘That lasted like five days, it was so uncomfortable,’ she added.

The girls also ‘lost’ their luggage for ten days during the trip – and because some of them didn’t keep boarding passes proving the inconvenience to their insurance companies was more difficult.

‘I haven’t even tried to do that (insurance) yet because I literally couldn’t comprehend that overseas,’ she said.

Then the group had ‘really dodgy’ accommodation in Zagreb, Croatia. The area felt unsafe, the staff were unhelpful and to make matters worse when they ordered in some pizza it was inedible.

‘The cheese was, I can’t even talk about it,’ she said gagging, adding that she doesn’t think she will be able to eat Margherita pizza again.

Everyone got some kind of virus on the trip too, she explained, saying she was unwell first before everyone else followed suit.

A near-miss moments after getting a hire car rounded out the first of four videos where she runs through the bad things which happened on the trip.

The group also delayed the rest of their trip by a day, staying in Zagreb for an extra night after the airport said their luggage would probably arrive then.

‘Obviously it didn’t so that was a waste of money,’ she said.

She added they did move places for the extra night because they didn’t want to stay in the ‘hood’ any longer.

The delayed luggage meant the girls had 45 minutes to go shopping for a five day festival on day three of their trip.

‘This is eight girls running around, like I was sweating, I was sprinting around this shopping centre buying the most silly things,’ she said.

They also got a parking ticket and said it took them three weeks to work out how to pay it.

On the trip there were plenty of delayed buses and planes.

‘Most of my flights were delayed, the buses were just super inconsistent,’ she said.

Especially in Greece where she added they just come along whenever they want.

In the Croatian city of Dubrovnik the friends had more accommodation woes.

She described the man who worked at their lodgings as super creepy, and said she felt unsafe in the car as he sped through the streets while on his mobile phone.

‘Nearly hit a car then leaned across [and said] “I keep you safe” – well I don’t feel safe love,’ she said.

The accommodation wasn’t what was pictured so the friends ran away and found something else.

‘This was at midnight,’ she said, explaining they were also ripped off 100 Euros and were being laughed at on the street as they figured out what to do.

In part three the young woman said a day after a ‘really chaotic day’ the group was on a boat trip when another passenger broke an ankle.

She said the woman had to be carried off the boat and people had to look after her kids, with the whole episode pushing the tour 30 minutes behind schedule.

‘I was just like OMG that could have easily been one of us, because of the track record.’

The group weren’t even meant to be on that boat but the one they had initially booked cancelled five minutes before it was due to depart.

They also had a terrifying jet boat ride: ‘Didn’t expect to nearly lose my life’.

The group also picked a 2am bus by mistake.

At the end of the trip they then lost their luggage again – just for two days.

Her friend also got a massive electric shock which made her shake and bounce onto the bed. Her hand was then hurting for days.

In the final video Izzy said she lost her AirPods, immediately after losing her luggage.

‘I just wanted to listen to some music, could have cried,’ she said.

The friend who almost got electrocuted had another injury after trying to open a drink without a bottle opener.

The lid came off with force and smacked her in the eye.

Izzy hurt herself twice in two days, the first time she was in the ocean when boats sped past her, making waves which beat her against the rocks.

Then she fell over in the middle of the street with he backpack on, hurting her knee. 

To her embarrassment there was a very busy restaurant opposite and cars had to stop for her – meaning far too many eyes were trained in her direction.

She was also hungry a lot of the trip because she is lactose intolerant and gluten free, making a lot of the food off limits.

Izzy said she had the time of her life and wouldn’t change a thing.

The mother of the teenager who died in the Titan sub disaster with his multi-millionaire father has revealed she had originally intended to go on the doomed voyage – but gave her spot to her son because he ‘really wanted to go’.

Christine Dawood and her husband Shahzada Dawood had initially booked a trip to the Titanic wreck for themselves but had to cancel due to the pandemic.

She said that when their family reserved spots on this year’s OceanGate Expeditions mission, she ‘stepped back’ because her son Suleman, 19, was so keen to go.

The family boarded the Polar Prince, the sub’s support vessel, on Father’s Day hoping for the trip of a lifetime. Mrs Dawood and her daughter Alina, 17, were still on board when word came through on June 18 that communications with Titan had been lost.

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after they did not initially return – but admitted she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, which indicated they had run out of oxygen.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until a call with the US Coast Guard last Thursday when they were informed debris had been found – something they did not know about until that point. It then became clear that an implosion had taken place.

The US Navy had detected sounds ‘consistent with an implosion’ soon after Titan lost contact on Sunday, but it was deemed ‘not definitive’ and the detail was not released publicly – with the search and rescue mission continuing until debris was found. 

Speaking about initially holding out hope, Mrs Dawood told the BBC: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed, the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings, started.

‘We had loads of hope, I think that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping and… there were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.

‘There was so many things we would go through where we would think ‘it’s just slow right now, it’s slow right now’. But there was a lot of hope.’

She said she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible.

She revealed that is when she sent a message to her family saying she was ‘preparing for the worst’.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until the call with the US Coast Guard when they were informed debris had been found.

UK-based businessman Shahzada and Suleman were two of the five victims killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

Mrs Dawood revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

‘Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,’ she said.

‘I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time.’

Mrs Dawood shared how she and Alina hugged and joked with Shahzada and Suleman before the pair entered the submersible.

Suleman, a student at Strathclyde University, had taken his Rubik’s Cube on the trip as he hoped to break the world record for solving the puzzle at the greatest depth, she revealed.

‘He said: ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic’,’ Mrs Dawood recalled.

Her son, she said, was practical and intellectual, and wouldn’t go anywhere without his Rubik’s Cube – which he taught himself to solve it in just 12 seconds.

‘Suleman did a 10,000-piece lego Titanic. He applied for a world record because he wanted to solve a Rubik’s Cube at the deepest point.

While his application was rejected, they were still planning to film the attempt.

Mrs Dawood said she and her daughter have vowed to try to learn to finish the Rubik’s Cube in Suleman’s honour, and she intends to continue her husband’s work.

She said: ‘He was involved in so many things, he helped so many people and I think Alina and I really want to continue that legacy and give him that platform when his work has continued and it’s quite important for my daughter as well.

‘Alina and I said we are going learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. That’s going to be a challenge for us because we are really bad at it but we are going to learn it.’

And the heartbroken mother said through tears: ‘I miss them. I really, really miss them.’

As well as her husband and son, three others died on board Titan: OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and experienced Titanic diver. 

Mrs Dawood said those above water tried to remain hopeful, telling themselves: ‘There were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.’

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after being they did not initially return.

She said: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings started.’

Despite the bleak outlook as the hunt dragged on, she said her teenage daughter never lost hope of her father and older brother’s rescue.

Alina’s mother said of her daughter: ‘She is such an incredible young woman, she is so self-aware.

‘She believes in science, and she really believe, just like if you board a plane, that the science, the mechanics, the engineering will work.’

Mrs Dawood said at 96 hours she tried ‘really hard’ not to show her daughter that she had lost hope.

After news emerged on Thursday that debris from the sub had been found, the family returned to St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada on Saturday.

Yesterday, they held a funeral prayer for Shahzada and Suleman, which Christine said had ‘helped’.

Paying tribute to her son, she admitted he had been a ‘mother’s boy’ but that he also ‘loved his father’.

When asked what the family’s last words to each other were, she told the BBC: ‘We just hugged and joked actually, because Shahzada was so excited to go down, he was like a little child.

‘He had this ability of childhood excitement, they were both so excited.’

Mrs Dawood and her husband met at university, she said, when she didn’t speak any English.

She recalled how the history buff knew more about her native Germany’s history than she did, and that he was obsessed with documentaries.

‘He would make us all watch David Attenborough, and the children loved it.

‘His enthusiasm brought the best out of me, and so I really learned to love history as well. He was really able to, through his knowledge, inspire and motivate others.’