  US President Joe Biden

One year after taking office, US President Joe Biden is facing serious problems: on the home front he has failed to push through social and environmental reforms, while in foreign policy the US's inglorious withdrawal from Afghanistan remains fresh in people's minds. And now the acute threat of an invasion of Ukraine must be dealt with. Taking stock, the European press is highly critical.

US President Joe Biden has invited 110 governments to an online Summit for Democracy starting today to discuss ways to strengthen democracy. Three topics are to form the core of the debates: combating authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and strengthening human rights. Hungary, Russia and China, among others, will be absent, but Poland and Brazil are taking part.

Republican Glenn Youngkin has been elected the next governor of the US state of Virginia according to preliminary results. The vote is widely seen as an important test of the mood ahead of the midterm elections in the US next year. If the Democrats lose their wafer-thin majority in the Senate, Joe Biden will have little chance of implementing his governmental plans. Europe's press is following the developments with great interest.

Joe Biden arrived at the American airbase in Mildenhall, England, yesterday, the first stop on his week-long Europe tour. The G7 summit in Cornwall, the Nato summit on Monday, and meetings with Johnson, Erdoğan and Putin are other main events on the schedule. Europe's press takes a look at Biden's agenda for his first foreign trip as president.

Joe Biden has completed 100 days in office as US President. At the start of his term the focus was on getting the Covid crisis under control, but now he is making waves with government investment schemes, tax hikes, climate policy and foreign policy statements. Europe's media discuss the credibility and wisdom of his initiatives.

"We remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide," US President Joe Biden said on the 106th anniversary of the genocide, officially recognising it as such, as previously announced. The Turkish foreign ministry promptly summoned the US ambassador in Ankara to convey its reaction: Biden's remarks had "opened a wound" in the countries' relations. Most commentators agree that Biden's act was worth it.

According to media reports, Joe Biden is set to be the first US president to officially recognise the Armenian genocide, the 106th anniversary of which is on 24 April. According to estimates, between 1.2 and 1.5 million Armenians were killed by soldiers of the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China's leading diplomat Yang Jiechi exchanged blows before rolling cameras at their first meeting last Thursday. Blinken accused Beijing of endangering global stability, while Yang blamed Washington for interfering in China's internal affairs. Europe's press says the new US administration has made its future course clear. Commentators speculate on how Europe will respond.

US President Joe Biden has outlined his foreign policy priorities in a keynote address at the State Department. Unlike his predecessor, he talked of closer cooperation with US allies and addressed words of warning to Russia and other countries. Commentators praise his rhetoric but note a lack of concrete plans.