Eurotopics.net

The protests in Poland against the tightening of abortion legislation took a new turn on Wednesday, with the women's movement calling for a nationwide strike and paralysing traffic in Warsaw. The protests come after the Constitutional Court declared abortion illegal even in the case of severe foetal defects, further tightening one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Will the PiS government soften its stance?

Much has been done to avoid it, and there have been urgent warnings against it, but in the face of a surge in infection rates lockdowns have been reimposed in many European countries. Unlike six months ago, however, daycare centres and schools are remaining open in most cases - which is why the talk is now of "partial lockdowns". Nevertheless, just like in the spring, opinions differ about the measures and whether they are necessary.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has accused European politicians of Islamophobia and described them as "links in the chain of the Nazis". He said that Muslims in Europe were subject to a lynching campaign comparable to the persecution of Jews before the Second World War. Just a few days before, he had attacked Macron in response to the latter's statement after the murder of teacher Samuel Paty that Islam was in crisis. Observers reflect on the motives, victims and beneficiaries in this dispute.

On 3 November US citizens will elect a new president, the members of the House of Representatives and part of the Senate. In the race for the presidency, former Democratic vice-president Joe Biden is leading in the polls against Republican incumbent Donald Trump. European observers discuss the election's international implications.

Trump's candidate, the conservative lawyer Amy Coney Barrett, has been sworn in as justice of the US Supreme Court after being confirmed by the majority Republican Senate. At the swearing in, Barrett asserted that her work on the Court would not be swayed by her political beliefs. Commentators, however, take a different view.