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In the past week, 20 people have been killed and 26 injured in mass shootings in the United States. The events have again stirred up conversations about racial hate crimes, gun control, and domestic extremism against the backdrop of other contentious issues boiling over in the United States.

While the Biden administration continues its focus on COVID management (hitting the 100 million shots in 100 days target early), Secretary of State Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin have been tasked with relationship repair and global cooperation, with Blinken in Europe discussing Russia and China and Austin travelling to India. The visits occurred before the chilly Anchorage summit between the United States and China, where Blinken made clear that the United States would discuss "economic coercion of our allies” with China.

Despite the Asia trip making headlines for purportedly 'blackmailing' China, US media attention has also been drawn towards another crisis: the immigration crisiswhich has escalated at the US Southern border. As United States Studies Centre CEO Professor Simon Jackman said on 7 News, as much as President Biden doesn’t want to either identify it as a crisis or give it much credence, conservative media outlets in the United States are having a field day claiming their warnings have now come to pass.