Eurotopics.net

The US president-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the first ten members of his cabinet. Six of them are former colleagues from the Obama era, including Tony Blinken, who will be Secretary of State, and Avril Haines, appointed as Director of National Intelligence. Commentators are full of praise for the team's competence and diversity, but also question whether it will be able to make good on Biden's campaign promises.

Buying gifts, booking trips to visit family, reserving tables in restaurants: this would normally be the time for doing all this, but a coronavirus Christmas is no ordinary Christmas. In most European countries, restrictions of various degrees are still in place and governments are weighing up whether to cut their citizens a little more slack. The media evaluate the plans and make their own suggestions.

French police cleared a refugee camp in Paris on Monday evening. Videos circulating on social networks show the police using violence against refugees and journalists and blocking access for local politicians who had come to see what was happening. French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described the images as shocking. What action should he take now?

Members of the European Parliament have tabled a possibility for circumventing Poland and Hungary's veto of the rule of law mechanism and quickly disbursing the coronavirus aid. The "enhanced cooperation" provided for in the EU treaties could take effect with regard to coronavirus funding if a small group of EU members joins forces to push it through. Will the veto be a flop for Budapest and Warsaw?

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women has been celebrated every year on November 25 since a UN resolution was passed in 1999. It serves as a reminder that the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women all over the world are being restricted through violence - often by men in their immediate environment. This fact has again become painfully evident in the coronavirus pandemic.