USA
It’s been 100 days since Joe Biden was inaugurated as president. Since January, he reversed many changes of his predecessor for example by raising the financial aid for elderly people, in child care and for the unemployed, and also by delaying forced evictions resulting from absent rental payments to relief citizens who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
He also kept his election promise to vaccine 100million US in 100 days, since that number was already hit over 40 days ago. He targeted structural racism, the loose weapon laws, and the global climate crisis, while making it clear that he is eager to push further in these areas. But when it comes to immigration the new Government seems to have a significant weakness in its policies. The illegal immigration has rapidly increased in the last few months and Biden doesn’t seem to have a proper solution for the problems that come with that so far.
RUSSIA
The Putin government has branded the Navalny- organization as well as an oppositional, satire magazine and individual journalists to be “foreign agents”, accusing them of “extremism” and “agitation”. Government agents performed unauthorized apartment searches, confiscating work materials and sealing editorial premises. Insiders report that now it’s impossible for a large percentage of the oppositional press to work properly. The Russian government defends the procedures as required since the media continuously “destabilized the social-political situation in the country” and invoked “mass rebellion”.
GERMANY
This September, the German parliament will elect a new federal counsellor and until recently it was pretty sure that the ruling party CDU and its sister party, the CSU, would remain the dominant force in German politics. But last week a poll placed the social-liberal Green party ahead of the CDU by a margin of 7%. A Green victory in Germany could have massive effects on the European union since the country carries enormous influence in joint decisions of the EU. Additionally, not retaining a center-right conservative German government could be the strongest indicator yet that Europe’s traditional parties, and with that the whole EU itself, are facing an uncertain future. The growing support for the right-wing party candidate Marie le pen in France could also contribute to an increasing fragility, since the accordance of the two strong countries France and Germany was always seen as crucial in big decisions. If those will face huge differences in their views it could lead to a very poorly functioning EU.
EU
In its policy on removal and return, the EU aims to increase “voluntary returns” of refugees without a staying permission back to their as “safe“ labelled home countries by offering more financial help for the way and also for the „reintegration“ in the origin state.
According to the EU Commission, only around 30% of those who are obliged to leave the EU are actually leaving, and only about 10% do it voluntarily. Human rights activists criticize the plan since many “safe” countries are often economically and socially very destructed and don’t hold any prospects for those who left.
AUSTRALIA
There has always been extreme weather in Australia but over the last decade storms, fires and monsoon like rainfalls have massively increased in both intensity and quantity, really showing the world the consequences of the climatic changes. Right now, the continent is facing the heaviest rainfalls in the last 50 years and an end is not in sight. Around 10 mio. of the 25 mio. Australian were affected and thousands had to leave their houses to escape the water masses. Only a few weeks after preparing them for the raging bushfires and heat.
