US election: For Joe Biden, empathy wins the presidency

US President Joe Biden has unveiled a new plan to tackle his country's COVID-19 emergency. Announcing the measures on his first full day in power, he said drastic action is needed.

Paris hopes to use its six months at the head of the Council of the EU to tackle the bloc's "economic, educational, migration and military challenges." French President Macron will do it while facing an election at home.

When Emmanuel Macron first ran for president five years ago, he touted himself as a disruptor; a leader who could reform France from outside the box of the traditional political parties. It turns out the reformer can sometimes be a loose cannon. We ask our panel about the incumbent's latest shock statement that's got the chattering classes going in Paris.

This week, Joe Biden made a passionate speech on voting rights, comparing that fight to the battle to end racial segregation in the 1960s. For the first time ever, the US president is directly pushing to get rid of a vote-blocking device in the Senate known as the filibuster. That requires close to two thirds of senators to pass a bill, as opposed to a simple majority. Biden, a former senator himself, says the voting rights issue is a "battle for America's soul".

From winning a record number of votes to an unpopular presidency struggling to pass key legislation, how did it go so wrong? With elections around the corner, Biden has little time to turn things around.

"Let's Go Brandon" is the best-loved code insult for Joe Biden these days but would the Russians really go so far as to arrange military vehicles into shapes so that they spell out the insult in satellite photos? A satirical account on Twitter was at the origin of this fake news story. First off though, we take a look at confusion in Quebec over just how far-reaching new Covid-19 vaccine pass measures really are.

France has never had a woman as president. With a number of female candidates in the election race this time, could that finally change? Challenges range from a #MeToo campaign to an "invisible" barrier to the top job.

The US will stop importing oil and natural gas from Russia, US President Joe Biden has said as the West escalates sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine invasion.

US President Joe Biden's speech in Warsaw had strong words for Vladimir Putin, but even stronger words in support of a free world. DW's Bartosz Dudek writes that Biden may just have made history.

President Joe Biden has at last made lynchings in the United States a federal hate crime after more than a hundred years of delays.

This week, we start with some good news. Radiation levels are "quite normal" around Chernobyl. The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog confirms that Russian forces have pulled back from the site of Europe's worst-ever nuclear disaster. The IAEA is working with both sides to avoid Chernobyl again becoming a frontline in the war in Ukraine.

Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Thursday.