NEWS WRAP

More evidence mounts against Trump

• State election officials pressured to overturn results | The House January 6 committee showed new evidence that former president Donald Trump pressured state election officials to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election in the weeks leading up to the Capitol attack. Other evidence revealed Trump and his allies in Arizona planned to replace the bona fide Biden electors with fake ones. READ MORE HERE
   
• Uncertainty over Juneteenth holiday | A year after President Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth, celebrating the end of slavery in the United States, a federal holiday, 32 states have not passed legislation to recognise it as an official holiday. Although about 30 per cent of companies offered a paid day off this year, some corporations struggled to recognise the holiday. READ MORE HERE
   

• Midterm interference fear from Russia | Fears are growing about Russian interference in the November midterm elections in reaction to the US response to the Ukraine invasion. Homeland security officials are worried Russia could stage smaller hacks of local election authorities triggering more conspiracies about US election integrity.  READ MORE HERE
   

• COVID-19 vaccines approved for young children | Children under five can now receive versions of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the United States. The Biden Administration vowed to start shipping up to 10 million doses to states, pharmacies and community health centres immediately after the Food and Drug Administration authorisation.  READ MORE HERE
   

• Full-blown recession not inevitable | US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she expects “the economy to slow” but continued insisting a full-blown recession is “not at all inevitable”. Her comments follow the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 0.75 per cent - the largest rate hike since 1994 – causing shockwaves across the global economy. READ MORE HERE

ANALYSIS

Resetting middle power ambitions

Dr Peter Lee 
Research Fellow at the United States Studies Centre

In recent years, scholars have debated the apparent lack of diplomatic leadership by “middle powers” like Australia and South Korea on the international stage. Such pessimism should be reconsidered, however, in light of new administrations in both Canberra and Seoul. It is worth assessing if and how two of the Indo-Pacific’s most prominent middle powers might once again pursue creative and ambitious statecraft.

Early indications hint at opportunities that the governments of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol could capitalise on to rethink their respective countries’ alignment toward the great powers, strengthen their roles in regional arrangements and institutions, and renew their global activism.

Like several of their regional counterparts, Australia and South Korea have faced difficulties in trying to navigate their security alliances with the United States and economic interdependence with China. Both countries could leverage the opening afforded by their new leaderships to reset or reinforce their relations with the great powers.

This is an excerpt from an article published by The Diplomat

BY THE NUMBERS

Paid Juneteenth holiday slowly spreads

All 50 US states either commemorate or observe Juneteenth on 19 June but only 18 observe it as a permanent paid state holiday.

These states include Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia and Washington, according to Congressional Research Service.

Last year, President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which establishes a holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.

VIDEO

Race relations | Rutgers University President Dr John Holloway

The new Juneteenth federal holiday celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. But if being “American” means living in a land of freedom and opportunity, what are we to make of those Americans who were enslaved and who have suffered from the limitations of second-class citizenship throughout their lives?

To understand how America arrived at this particularly fraught moment in its history, USSC hosted a webinar event featuring Dr Jonathan Holloway, President of Rutgers University and author of African American History, 1619-Black Lives Matter (forthcoming) in conversation with former United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman and former Senior Fellow Dr Charles Edel.

Catch more analysis on the United States on the USSC YouTube channel.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

#Juneteenth