Obama visits survivors in devastated Joplin

PRESIDENT Barack Obama is pivoting from diplomacy on the world stage to the intimate and delicate domestic task of acting as healer-in-chief to a devastated community.

The president travelled to tornado-wrecked Joplin, Missouri, yesterday a day after returning from a six-day European tour of Ireland, England, France and Poland. After days of focusing on the US relationship with the rest of the world, he’ll turn to an even more critical connection: his own, with the American people.

The president was due to visit with survivors and family members of the worst tornado in decades, a storm that tore through Joplin a week ago leaving more than 130 dead and hundreds more injured. About 100 others are unaccounted for.