Whilst in the UK, all Britons have used their red marker to circle round the 21^st of June on their calendars and are impatiently counting down the days, Americans have the 4^th of July to look forward to...

Buoyed by the passing of the COVID-19 Relief Bill, Biden remarked that the 4^th of July can simultaneously act as America’s Independence Day from the British and from the more modern threat to American liberty, Coronavirus.

In his first Primetime address as US President on the One Year Anniversary of America’s Coronavirus Shutdown on March 11, Biden gave the directive to states that all Americans should have access to a Coronavirus vaccine by the 1st of May.

This would then make it possible to have a relatively normal Independence Day.

As of the 17^{th of} March 2021, the US has vaccinated 22.2% of its population with at least one dose of the vaccine, whilst 12% of people have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

This is good news for the American people, who have been hard hit by the pandemic. The US has the worst death toll in the world, 534,099 deaths, and nearly 30 million recorded cases of the disease.

Biden compared this huge death toll in his address to the devastation and US lives lost during World Wars One and Two, the Vietnam War and 9/11.

Comparing Coronavirus deaths with events that are so emotionally significant to huge swathes of the American public was most likely aimed to emphasise the destructiveness of this virus when it is not controlled.

The target of July the 4^th may seem like an ambitious one, but it is definitely achievable. Under the Biden administration, the framework has been developed in order to supply, distribute and vaccinate in an efficient manner.

To paraphrase Katy Perry, will the colours burst on the 4^th of July? Or will it be the one that got away?

In other news…

Russian-American relations have taken a decidedly frosty turn in the last week.

In an ABC News interview, Biden not only called on the New York Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, to resign, but also called Russian President Vladimir Putin a 'killer' and told him that he was going to 'pay the price' for his election meddling.

Putin has responded in kind to these remarks, expressing that it 'takes one to know one'. The Kremlin has now recalled its US ambassador for consultations.

Could this be the beginning of a new era of frosty relations between the two great powers? Is another Cold War brewing? Only time will tell...