Once again, events in the Middle East have dominated the news, both at home and abroad. Iran and Israel have traded missiles in the first attacks on each other’s countries, stoking fears that the ongoing events in Gaza could lead to a wider conflict. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears tantalisingly close though Israel is still committed to further attacks in Gaza and Hamas is still holding many Israeli hostages.
Most western governments support Israel wholeheartedly while their electorates are upset at the huge loss of Palestinian life and the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza. This directly affects the upcoming national elections, with protests in many cities in Europe and on student campuses in the US, and more polarised views amongst voters. This could yet affect both the UK general election and the US presidential contest later this year.
At the same time, there’s growing alarm, mainly in the US but to some extent also in Europe, at the risk posed by Chinese companies. Royal Mail is investigating an allegation that fake British postage stamps have been produced en masse in factories in China. The sheer number of counterfeit stamps has prompted fears that this has been sanctioned by the Chinese state as a form of economic warfare. It follows last month’s reports of increasing number of cyber attacks in the UK linked to Chinese intelligence agencies. The US revealed in February that it had found evidence of a Chinese hacking network known as Volt Typhoon lying dormant in critical US infrastructure, apparently pre-positioned for future attacks.
There are also fears that a slowdown in the Chinese economy might lead to Chinese manufacturers dumping products at low prices that destabilise international markets. There’s also a concern that China might be more technologically advanced than some western companies, particularly in terms of electric vehicles. And of course there is the worry that the Chinese government and its ideology might pose an existential or military threat.
That said, European nations are also concerned about the risk of Donald Trump being elected. Trump himself has once again made history in his own inimitable way, this time by becoming the first former US President to appear on the wrong end of a criminal trial. He’s already lost two civil cases, one that he sexually assaulted and then defamed the US writer E. Jean Carroll, and another that he committed fraud in inflating the value of his business assets.
But Trump also plays an outsize role in international geopolitics, with the Republicans having delayed funding for Ukraine’s war efforts, which has allowed Russian forces to capture several small towns in the Luhansk region. European leaders are worried that as President, Trump may not honour NATO’s defence commitments. To counter this, there is an increasingly strident drumbeat towards war in Europe, with many prominent politicians across the EU warning of the risk of future Russian attacks and calling for the introduction of national service.
The EU’s Copernicus program, which tracks climate data, announced that March was the tenth consecutive month where temperatures across the planet surface rose. Consequently, we have now breached the 1.5ºC benchmark set at the Paris climate change summit, with the planet now 1.68ºC higher than the pre-industrial average. Scientists generally agree that climate change is caused by us burning fossil fuels – gas, oil, coal and trees – which we have so far failed to curb. The irony here is that this website exists on a cloud server, and the huge amounts of energy required to keep data farms running is a major contributor to our energy use.
The KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of 2,400 older Swiss women won a ruling from the European court of human rights that Switzerland had failed in its duty to stop the planet heating by the 1.5ºC benchmark. This verdict will also apply to all 46 member countries of the Council of Europe, including the UK, and should force governments to take more notice of the environment.
And yet there’s plenty of evidence that right wing politicians are now adopting an anti-climate change stance, campaigning against measures meant to limit the damage we are doing to our planet. In London, this has meant a deeply racist campaign against the muslim mayor Sadiq Khan’s ultra low emission zones because, you know, who wants to breathe clean air?
Many of these are the same people that brought us Brexit, the gift that keeps on giving. The UK has finally introduced checks on animal and plant products from the EU. There is still some confusion as to the charges for this with both hauliers and food importers highly critical amidst worries it could push their costs up significantly and lead to further inflation in food prices.
Britain’s economic recovery is stagnating, with house prices having fallen again in April. The UK’s manufacturing output has fallen, with a drop in new orders amidst rising costs in raw materials and logistics. The expected cuts to the interest base rates have been pushed back to later in the year, while the cost of living crisis is still causing consumers to hold back on spending, which is slowing down the economy. A disturbing number of local councils, from Birmingham to Woking, have effectively declared themselves bankrupt.
Given that there are local council and mayoral elections in many parts of the UK on 2nd May, we might have seen more in the way of political campaigning in April. But instead there is a paralysis as everyone waits for the general election. At this stage, the Conservative party’s chances are so bad that anything less than a total wipeout in these local elections will allow the government to claim some sort of victory.
Rishi Sunak, who is inexplicably still prime minister, was forced to apologise after he was pictured wearing a pair of Adidas trainers, causing many fans (of the shoes, not Sunak) to say they would now sell their shoes. The British GQ magazine wrote: “Rishi Sunak took an eternally cool sneaker and ruined it for everyone”.
Luckily for those of us that prefer our politics laced with light humour, the Trussmeister is back. Again. This time with a new book claiming that there is just ten years to save the West, which is roughly the time it will take to undo the longterm economic damage she caused by her failure to grasp basic economics.
Meanwhile, several horses from the Household cavalry regiment threw off their riders and bolted through central London, covered in blood – prompting much speculation about the coming apocalypse…
Nessan Cleary 
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