Should the PM go?
Boris Johnson, a man who “famously regards saying sorry as a sign of weakness”, presented himself in the Commons on
Tuesday as “the very embodiment of contrition”, said The
Times. After becoming the first PM to be found guilty of a criminal offence while in office, for having attended a celebration in Downing Street on his birthday in 2020, he apologised “wholeheartedly”, then “unreservedly”, then
“profusely”. “What exactly he was apologising for, however, was less clear.” He insisted, again, that it had never occurred to him that the gathering could be a breach of the rules. He didn’t apologise for misleading MPs, since he believed no rules had been broken when he gave assurances on the subject. Instead, he declared that the “hurt and anger” caused by the row had given him “an even greater sense of obligation to deliver on the priorities of the British people”, and to respond to “Putin’s barbaric onslaught on Ukraine”. With a working majority of 75, he looks safe for now. But he is under police investigation over five more parties, and if he’s fined again, it will be “harder to explain away”.
Johnson must go, said Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian. His excuses are utterly spurious. Of course he knew he was breaking the rules: his own Government wrote the rules, and he briefed the nation on them “almost daily”, presenting them as a matter of life and death. “We’re used to Johnson insulting our intelligence, but in this move he insults his own.” Even more “manipulative” is the argument that it is wrong to remove a prime minister during wartime: after all, we changed PM in 1940. Johnson, and the MPs who perform “intellectual contortions” to defend him, are normalising “deceit in British public life”, said Matthew Syed in The Sunday Times. “The innate deceitfulness of the Prime Minister has spread like a virus into the Cabinet, the parliamentary party and the mortar of our institutions.” Nearly the entire Conservative party has displayed “spineless passivity” in the face of this scandal, agreed Martin Fletcher in the New Statesman. Last week, the “eminent constitutional historian” Peter Hennessy described our PM as “the greatest debaser in modern times of decency in public and political life”; even the Johnson faithful must now realise he cannot stay.
Let’s have “a bit of perspective” here, said Brendan O’Neill in The Spectator. Like most people, I have “flashes of rage” over the thought of “booze and birthday cakes” in Downing Street while the rest of us “risked arrest” over a cup of tea at our mum’s. But I don’t think it’s a resigning matter, or that a bottle of wine or two after work constitutes what Keir Starmer called “widespread criminality” at the heart of government. The true scandal was surely imposing crazily strict lockdown rules. And if voters think Johnson and Rishi Sunak are hypocrites for breaking them, then they – not the media – should get rid of them. “If you’re really angry about Partygate, you know what to do.”
PM’s phone “hacked”
Boris Johnson’s mobile phone has been targeted “multiple” times by Pegasus spyware, according to researchers at the University of Toronto. Pegasus, which was developed by the Israeli firm NSO Group, enables its operators to turn on the phone’s microphone in order to listen in to conversations, read messages and access other data. Citizen Lab, the group that raised the alarm, says the attempted Downing Street hacks were carried out in 2020 and 2021, and originated in the United Arab Emirates. It also believes attempts were made to infiltrate devices in the Foreign Office, from the UAE, India, Cyprus and Jordan.
Student loan rates hike
Students and graduates in England and Wales will be paying up to 12% interest on their loans from September, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned. The interest on student loans taken out since 2012 is pegged to the retail price index, with up to three percentage points added depending on the graduate’s income level. Owing to rising inflation, the rate applied to those earning £27,295 or under will rise from 1.5% to 9%, while the rate paid by those earning £49,130 or more will rise from 4.5% to 12%. However, it is likely to fall again in 2023.
Paris
Election drama: Despite polls indicating he has a solid lead over Marine Le Pen, his far-right rival in the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron has been urging the electorate to turn out and vote in the second, decisive round this Sunday, warning that France was at risk of an “unthinkable” shock result akin to the Brexit referendum or Donald Trump’s victory in the US. On average, polls suggest Macron is eight or nine points ahead, some putting his lead as high as 12, though even this is a far smaller margin than in 2017, when he won 66% of the vote to Le Pen’s 34%. One crucial, unpredictable variable is the voting intentions of those who voted for the leftist candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, in the first round.
The focus of the campaign this week has centred on Le Pen’s “national preference” scheme (to give French citizens priority over foreigners for jobs and housing), and on her plan to ban the wearing of the hijab in public. Both policies, say her opponents, show her claim to have become a more moderate figure is bogus. The two candidates were due to take part in a TV debate on Wednesday. Le Pen’s poor performance at the equivalent event five years ago was held to be a major factor in the scale of her defeat.
Koblenz, Germany
Kidnap plot: Police in Germany have arrested four far-right activists on suspicion of plotting to kidnap the health minister Karl Lauterbach and other public figures. Prosecutors also accuse the group of planning to destroy energy facilities with the aim of causing prolonged national blackouts and fostering an anti-democratic insurrection. Lauterbach, an epidemiologist and public health expert who became a high-profile and widely trusted figure during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, was appointed as health minister by the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, in December. The four suspects are from Vereinte Patrioten (“United Patriots”), a group bitterly opposed to Covid-19 restrictions, with ambitions to subvert Germany’s democracy. Police found them in possession of around two dozen guns. “The whole thing shows that coronavirus protests have not just become more radical, but that it is now about more than coronavirus; there is an attempt here to destabilise the state,” said Lauterbach. “This will not influence my own work.”
Koroszczyn, Poland
Fifty-mile traffic jams: Mammoth queues of Russian and Belarusian lorries built up at Poland’s border with Belarus last weekend, as their drivers sought to leave EU territory before a sanctions deadline on Saturday exposed them to the threat of their trucks being seized. Jan Buczek, the head of a Polish transport trade body, said that at the Koroszczyn border crossing into Belarus – on the main road route from Berlin to Moscow – the queue had reached 80km, with lorries having to wait 33 hours to cross. At the more northerly Bobrowniki checkpoint, the waiting time was 56 hours. Long queues are also reported in Lithuania and Latvia. Brussels has banned lorries operated by Russian and Belarusian firms from all EU countries, as part of a package of sanctions imposed in response to the Ukraine invasion. But despite the threat of seizure, trucks were still being processed this week and allowed to leave.
Roccaraso, Italy
Homing instinct: A two-year-old brown bear has found its way back to the small ski resort town of Roccaraso, in Abruzzo, three weeks after being released into the wild 150km away. Juan Carrito, as he is affectionately known, is a Marsican bear, a rare, endangered species that inhabits the Apennine mountains. Juan had turned up in the resort on several occasions to forage, and this December attracted media attention after being spotted drinking from the public fountain, playing with local dogs and breaking into a bakery to feast on freshly baked biscuits. Last month, the Majella National Park authorities, who felt he might be a risk to the townsfolk, tried to encourage him to return to the wild – airlifting him to a remote area. But within days the bear had made his way “home” again. Juan Carrito is now being monitored around the clock pending a decision on what to do with him.
Norrköping, Sweden
Police attacked: Serious rioting broke out in several Swedish cities last weekend in response to an announcement by the farright, anti-Islam party Stram Kurs (“Hard Line”) that it planned to hold rallies across the country and burn copies of the Koran. In the event, Stram Kurs’s leader – DanishSwedish politician Rasmus Paludan – cancelled the rallies, claiming the authorities were “completely incapable” of offering him the necessary protection; but rioters launched attacks on police even so. The worst violence occurred in Norrköping, about 100 miles from Stockholm, and in nearby Linköping, but there were riots too in Stockholm, Malmö and other towns. At least 26 police officers and 14 rioters were injured; 40 people have been arrested.
Mariupol
Britons held: Two British citizens captured by Russian forces while fighting in Ukraine have been shown on Russian state TV appealing to Boris Johnson to agree a prisoner swap. Shaun Pinner, 48, and Aiden Aslin, 28, both long-term residents of Ukraine with Ukrainian partners, were serving as marines in Ukraine’s army. Captured in Mariupol, they are thought to be imprisoned in occupied eastern Ukraine. In their videos, apparently made under duress, they appeal for the release of the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, now under arrest in Kyiv on charges of treason and financing terrorism.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Refugee killed: The fatal shooting of a black man by a white police officer has led to days of protests in the city of Grand Rapids. Patrick Lyoya, 26, who came to the US in 2014 as a refugee from the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot dead on 4 April; the protests began last week after police released video footage of the incident. Lyoya had been stopped on suspicion of driving with false licence plates. After a short chase on foot, the footage shows the two men struggling over the officer’s Taser; the officer then appears to shoot Lyoya in the head while kneeling on his back.
San Francisco
Non-sellable token: A cryptocurrency entrepreneur who paid $2.9m a year ago for a “non-fungible token” of Twitter boss Jack Dorsey’s first-ever tweet tried to sell it last week – only to receive a top bid of just
$6,800. Sina Estavi had asked for $48m for the NFT, which he touted as “the Mona Lisa of the digital world”. When the bidding didn’t even get into five figures, he withdrew it from sale. “My offer to sell was high, and not everyone could afford it,” he told Reuters. NFTs are a highly speculative form of crypto asset which can record the ownership of a digital file – such as an image, video or text – but have no intrinsic value. The Dorsey tweet, posted in March 2006, reads “just setting up my twttr”.
Oklahoma City
Strict abortion law: The Republican governor of Oklahoma has signed into law a near-total ban on abortion, in the biggest challenge yet to America’s constitutionally protected abortion rights. The legislation makes performing a termination, or dispensing medication that effects a termination, a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison. The only exception is in cases where the procedure is necessary to save the life of the woman. “We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma,” said Kevin Stitt. “I promised Oklahomans that I would sign every pro-life bill that hits my desk.” The law is scheduled to take effect this summer, but is certain to face legal challenges.
Fairfax, Virginia
Actor testifies: Johnny Depp took the stand in a packed courtroom in Virginia this week, as his defamation case continued. The film star is suing his ex-wife Amber Heard for $50m, for implying that he’d abused her during their marriage. In his testimony, he claimed that he had never hit any woman. He described his dysfunctional childhood, and said that he only drank and took drugs to “dull the pain”. In an apparent attempt to pre-empt damaging claims from Heard’s side, he also said that he was “ashamed” of the horrible things he had said about his ex-wife in text messages to friends and associates.
Washington DC
Trump defence fails: A jury in Washington has rejected a Capitol rioter’s defence that in storming the building, he was only carrying out Donald Trump’s “presidential orders”. Dustin Thompson, who was the first person to try this defence, was found guilty of all six charges against him, which included illegally entering the Capitol, and theft: he’d swiped a coat rack and a bottle of bourbon from a parliamentarian’s office. The jury took less than three hours to reach its verdict. An exterminator who drove from his home in Columbus, Ohio, to take part in the ill-fated protest, Thompson now faces up to 20 years in prison. More than 770 rioters have been charged, but most have agreed a plea deal with prosecutors. Only three cases have gone to a jury trial, and all of these have resulted in convictions.
Alexandria, Virginia
“Beatle” convicted: The Sudanese-born Londoner El Shafee Elsheikh was found guilty last week of conspiracy to murder four US citizens in Syria. Although he could not be conclusively identified, prosecutors successfully argued that he was a member of the notorious Islamic State cell known as “The Beatles”. They are believed to have been responsible for 27 killings in total, and numerous other atrocities. During Elsheikh’s trial in Alexandria, ex-hostages testified to having been tortured by the cell. Jurors also heard emotional testimony from the father of the aid worker Peter Kassig, who was beheaded by the militants in 2014. He took to the stand to read out a letter written to him by his son, and delivered by a released hostage. In it, Kassig confessed that he thought he was going to die, and sought to reassure his parents that he knew that they loved him “more than the moon”.
Cali, Colombia
Kingpin caught: A Mexican drug lord, who is wanted in 196 countries, was arrested in Colombia earlier this month. Brian Donaciano Olguin Verdugo, known as El Pitt, entered Colombia in February, allegedly to negotiate a cocaine deal with ex-Farc guerrillas. Tipped off by US intelligence, Colombian agents then tracked him as he moved around the country. He went everywhere with an armed entourage, and yet he broke his strict security protocols when he was with his girlfriend, who is believed to be a Colombian model. On one occasion, she took a selfie of them kissing at a tourist site, which she then posted on Facebook. Undercover agents were eventually able to arrest him at his condominium in the city of Cali.
Jerusalem
Tensions flare: Israeli police will bar non-Muslim visitors from the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque compound until the end of Ramadan, it was reported this week. The site, which is considered holy by both Muslims and Jews, has seen days of clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians. Right-wingers accused the government of “caving into terrorists”; however, it has been policy for years to ban non-Muslims for a period over Ramadan, to ease tensions. As thousands of worshippers head to the al-Aqsa during Ramadan, tensions often spike; this year, Ramadan converged with Passover and Easter, leading to more visitors to Jerusalem and inflaming tensions further. Last Friday, dozens of people were injured when Israeli police stormed the compound in response to Palestinians throwing rocks.
Colombo
Bailout looms:
Sri Lanka’s government requested emergency assistance from the IMF this week, as the country’s economic crisis continued. Sri Lanka was hard hit by the pandemic, which shuttered its tourism industry. However, critics of President Rajapaksa say a disaster has been turned into a catastrophe by his government’s incompetence. This week, as angry protests calling for his resignation continued, he finally admitted to having made “some mistakes”, including his decision last year to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser. This has led to a sharp drop in crop yields, at a time when Sri Lanka’s currency reserves are so depleted that it is struggling to pay for vital imports, including food and fuel. This has led to power blackouts and acute food shortages.
Kabul
School bombing: At least six people were killed this week in a bomb attack on a boys’ school in Kabul, Afghanistan. It was not clear how many of the dead were students, but aid groups said at least seven children had been wounded. A nearby English-language centre was also rocked by an explosion. Both are in the Dasht-eBarchi area, which is home predominantly to members of the Hazara community. In the past, the Taliban and Islamic State have both been accused of targeting Hazaras, who are mainly Shia Muslims. Earlier in the week, it was reported that 47 people, mainly women and children, had been killed by air strikes in the border regions of Khost and Kunar. The Kabul government blamed Pakistan’s air force; Pakistan has complained that militants are carrying out attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan.
Sialkot, Pakistan
Death sentences: Six men have been sentenced to death in Pakistan for their role in the mob killing of a Sri Lankan factory manager last December. Dozens more have received jail terms. Priyantha Diyawadanage, 48, was set upon by about 100 people in the city of Sialkot after rumours spread that he had torn down a religious poster and thrown it in the bin. He was beaten to death and his body was burnt. News of the lynching caused outrage; the then PM, Imran Khan, called it “a day of shame for Pakistan”.
Baybay, Philippines
Killer floods: The number of people now known to have been killed in the landslides and floods caused by Tropical Storm Megi, which devastated large parts of the Philippines last week, has risen to 167, with 110 people still missing. In one particularly hard hit village, near the city of Baybay in the central province of Leyte, about 80% of the houses were washed out to sea. Deaths were also reported in the southern Davao region, Mindanao and the central province of Negros Oriental.
Durban, South Africa
Hundreds killed: President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster in South
Africa, in response to the catastrophic floods and landslides that struck KwaZulu-Natal last week.
At least 443 people have been killed by the floods, making it the country’s worst natural disaster since 1987 – with scores more people missing, presumed dead. Some 40,000 people have been made homeless. The floods also brought businesses to a standstill, disrupted operations at the port of Durban, one of the busiest on the African continent, and washed away bridges and roads, hampering relief efforts. On a visit to the disaster zone, President Ramaphosa referred to it as a “catastrophe of enormous proportions”, and warned that restoring water supplies and power to all parts of KwaZulu-Natal would take some time. Thousands of troops have been deployed to the area to help with search and rescue operations.
South Africa is rarely affected by the large storms commonly seen in other parts of the Indian Ocean. Ramaphosa linked last week’s event to global climate change, while opposition politicians alleged that poor government planning and creaking infrastructure had left communities more vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters. More heavy rain was forecast for this weekend.