Category Archives: Politics

Russia is not alone in exploiting Africa | Letters

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Tracey Lindner says the scramble for Africa is largely about securing resources that are crucial for military and civilian digital technology. Terry McGinn shines a spotlight on the US

Foreign involvement in Africa is far from unique to Russia (Leaked documents reveal Russia’s efforts to exert influence in Africa, 12 June). The new scramble for Africa involves more powers than the first round over a century ago. This time it’s in part about securing resources such as oil, gas and rare earth metals crucial for military and civilian digital technology, and denying these resources to rival powers.

The United States Africa Command (Africom) now has 7,500 American troops active in all but one African country, up from 6,000 in 2017. Apart from its huge base in Djibouti, controlling the narrow strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a vital chokepoint through which all shipping using the Suez Canal has to pass – most importantly (for the Americans) Chinese shipping – the US has constructed small “lily pad” bases, whose presence gives the US a strong military capability.

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Tory leadership rivals discuss alliance to stop Boris Johnson

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Decision on ‘consolidation’ imminent after former foreign secretary’s crushing victory

Conservative leadership candidates are in talks about joining forces to provide the strongest challenge to Boris Johnson, who looks all but certain to be Britain’s next prime minister after trouncing rivals in the first MPs’ ballot.

Johnson hoovered up the votes of 114 MPs, more than a third of the parliamentary Tory party, and enough backers to guarantee him a place in the final two, assuming he retains their support in later rounds.

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Tory leadership: Boris Johnson leads with 114 votes as Leadsom, McVey and Harper knocked out – live

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the first round of voting in the Tory leadership contest

Here is my colleague Rafael Behr on Boris Johnson.

Related: Boris Johnson has an unfair advantage in the leadership race … there’s two of him | Rafael Behr

One of the two Johnsons served as mayor of London from 2008-2016. He has liberal, metropolitan instincts – broadly pro-immigration, old-fashioned in his use of idiom, but a moderniser at heart. Then there is 2016-2019 Johnson, figurehead of the Vote Leave campaign, the ultimate Brexit-booster. He is a more aggressive, divisive figure – a partisan of nationalistic culture wars who has consorted with Steve Bannon. Both Johnsons are dispensing wild promises to Tory MPs behind closed doors. The self-styled “One Nation” Conservatives and rightwing ultras each seem to think the other side is being taken for a ride, which suggests they all are.

Matt Hancock surpassed expectations, a spokesman for his campaign said. The spokesman went on:

MPs have responded well to Matt’s energetic and positive campaign. His pro-business message, his focus on taking the fight to Corbyn and the Lib Dems not just the Brexit party, and his argument that the Tory party “need a leader for the future, not just for now” has gone down well with colleagues.

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‘Mini-Trump across the Channel’: EU media on Boris Johnson as British PM

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European newspapers in chorus of disapproval after Tory leadership hopeful’s campaign launch

European newspapers have expressed horror at the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming the UK’s next prime minister, describing him as a scandal-proof serial promise-breaker whose arrival at No 10 would be “a calamity for his country and for Europe”.

Le Monde, in a coruscating editorial, said Johnson had shown himself to be “a stranger to logic and convictions” in a career rich in “deceits, blunders and failures”. In the run-up to the 2016 referendum he “told lies on the side of a bus, promised the UK could have its cake and eat it, and compared the EU to the Third Reich,” it said.

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MPs’ no-deal vote – what does this mean for Brexit?

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An attempt to block the UK leaving without a deal was defeated on Wednesday, so can no deal still be stopped?

Have MPs missed their last chance to block a no-deal Brexit?

Not quite. Labour seized the opportunity for action on Wednesday because they had been allotted an opposition day debate – an opportunity to decide what MPs discuss and vote on.

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‘No deal’ Tory leadership hopefuls boosted by MPs’ Brexit vote

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Labour-led attempt to stop the UK leaving without a deal is defeated, in move that could help Boris Johnson

Conservative leadership candidates including Boris Johnson hoping to force a “deal or no deal” Brexit in October have been handed a boost after MPs defeated a Labour-led attempt to tie the next prime minister’s hands.

Labour vowed it would not end efforts to stop no deal but the defeat bolstered Johnson’s claim at his leadership launch that MPs would not be prepared “reap the whirlwind” of halting Brexit entirely as Tory MPs prepared for the first round on votingto choose the next prime minister on Thursday.

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Theresa May commits to net zero UK carbon emissions by 2050

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UK to put down legislation but Greenpeace warns of impact on developing nations

Theresa May has sought to cement some legacy in the weeks before she steps down as prime minister by enshrining in law a commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, making Britain the first major economy to do so.

The commitment, to be made in an amendment to the Climate Change Act laid in parliament on Wednesday, would make the UK the first member of the G7 group of industrialised nations to legislate for net zero emissions, Downing Street said.

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Boris Johnson accused of cowardice as he dodges public scrutiny

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Tory leadership frontrunner avoids interviews and refuses to commit to TV hustings

Boris Johnson has been accused of “not having the guts to face the people” in the Conservative leadership race, coming under fire for dodging interviews and refusing to confirm his participation in a BBC debate with other candidates.

Johnson, the clear frontrunner with MPs and the Tory membership, was implicitly criticised by several of his rivals who said the race must put all the candidates under proper scrutiny.

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Jeremy Corbyn lambasted by Labour MPs in ‘worst meeting as leader’

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MPs criticise Labour’s handling of Brexit and complaints of harassment and antisemitism

Labour MPs tore into Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit strategy at a party meeting on Monday night, with several MPs loyal to the leadership saying they felt ashamed to vote for the party at the European elections and urging a change of direction.

MPs inside the private gathering said there were surprise interventions from colleagues who had never before spoken out against Corbyn, including Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Marie Rimmer.

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Gove reboots Tory leadership bid with attack on Johnson

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Environment secretary insists he is ‘in it to win it’ and vows to focus on overlooked families

Michael Gove has tried to claw his way back into the race to be Britain’s next prime minister with a pledge to govern for “overlooked families and undervalued communities” – and a series of personal attacks on frontrunner Boris Johnson.

The environment secretary’s campaign was blown off course at the weekend after revelations about cocaine use. But on the day the Tory leadership contest launched in earnest, Gove insisted he was still “in it to win it”.

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Political violence against women tracked for first time as attacks soar

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Analysts to compile database to track spike in cases, with female politicians and campaigners increasingly targeted

Violence targeted against female politicians and activists will be tracked for the first time by a global database, amid indications of a recent rise in attacks.

Researchers reviewed thousands of events dating back to 1997, where political violence was targeted at women – ranging from wartime sexual violence to attacks on female civilians and crackdowns on female-led protests.

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Michael Gove’s No 10 hopes falter after cocaine admission

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Environment secretary is facing calls to withdraw from Tory leadership campaign

Michael Gove’s campaign to be Conservative leader is hanging in the balance with calls for him to quit the race, as he was forced to insist that he never misled officials about his use of class A drugs.

The environment secretary gave an interview admitting he was “fortunate” to have avoided jail for possession of cocaine, after a new book revealed he had taken the drug on several occasions while a journalist around 20 years ago.

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Boris Johnson threatens to hold back Brexit ‘divorce’ payment to force a deal

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Pledge comes as James Brokenshire backs former foreign secretary, while Ruth Davidson endorses Sajid Javid

Boris Johnson has vowed to withhold Britain’s £39bn Brexit “divorce” payment until the EU agrees better terms for the UK to leave.

Withholding the cash, scrapping the Northern Ireland backstop, guaranteeing the rights of all EU citizens in Britain while stepping up preparations for a No Deal “disruption” in the wake of no deal are among measures the government would carry out if he was elected leader of the Conservative party, he said.

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Cold, alone and scared: teenage refugee tells of Channel crossing

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A teenager from Afghanistan who survived the ‘dark, cold and dangerous’ journey talks about her ordeal – and hopes for the future

Most people were still asleep on Christmas Day when Ameena landed in England. She remembers stumbling onto the Kent beach in total darkness, retching with sea sickness.

“When I arrived I was vomiting everywhere,” the teenager told the Observer during the first media interview with an unaccompanied child refugee who has entered the UK by boat.

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‘Prejudiced’ Home Office refusing visas to African researchers

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Academics invited to the UK are refused entry on arbitrary and ‘insulting’ grounds

The Home Office is being accused of institutional racism and damaging British research projects through increasingly arbitrary and “insulting” visa refusals for academics.

In April, a team of six Ebola researchers from Sierra Leone were unable to attend vital training in the UK, funded by the Wellcome Trust as part of a £1.5m flagship pandemic preparedness programme. At the LSE Africa summit, also in April, 24 out of 25 researchers were missing from a single workshop. Shortly afterwards, the Save the Children centenary events were marred by multiple visa refusals of key guests.

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Jeremy Corbyn shrugs off referendum calls after byelection win

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Labour leader says ‘not yet’ to calls for people’s vote, urging Tories to call general election

Jeremy Corbyn has indicated he will not bow to party pressure and move immediately towards demanding a second referendum, after Labour narrowly beat the fledgling Brexit party in the Peterborough byelection.

Corbyn – arriving in the Cambridgeshire city after the party’s candidate Lisa Forbes won by 683 votes, leaving the Tories trailing in third position – called for the “squabbling contenders” within the Conservative party to give the public a general election.

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Selective memory and the D-day anniversary | Letters

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Readers respond to Simon Jenkins’ plea for an end to endless war remembrance. Plus thoughts on the roles of Donald Trump and Theresa May in the commemorations in Normandy

Simon Jenkins (It’s past time to move on from endless war remembrance, 7 June) writes that “too much remembering is a dangerous business”; to which the only answer is: “Try the alternative.” All will agree that the sacrifice of those who fought to defeat the Nazis should be properly commemorated. Many will also agree that, within that context, the terrible price paid by the Russians in defeating Hitler has not been properly acknowledged.

But that is where the “remembering” comes in, and the “butcher’s bill”, as Churchill put it, should not be the only mark by which a nation’s contribution is judged.

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Trump’s family holiday to UK Disneyland makes for painful viewing | John Crace

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With sketch writers banned from his press conference with Theresa May, I was forced to endure it on TV

Sometimes I worry I am more psychically connected to Tottenham Hotspur than is healthy. Having done my two events at the Hay festival, I went back to the friends I was staying with to watch the Champions League final. Only to find they didn’t have BT Sport and their internet connection was patchy at best. So I ended up viewing the game on my iPad with a screen that kept buffering and then freezing. Which of course was entirely appropriate, because buffering and freezing appeared to be Spurs’ main game plan. The biggest match in the club’s history, against a team playing well below its best, and Spurs also chose to have a complete off day. Even down to giving away a dodgy penalty inside the first minute. You can’t get more Spursy than that. It almost made me proud. Still, there was one upside. The two friends, Matthew and Terry, who ended up using my tickets kept me updated with photos throughout their trip, from their arrival in Toulouse to their eight-hour car journey to Madrid to their picnic on the beach on the way back. What struck me most was that they were both smiling in every shot. Something I would never have managed. I would have been sick with anxiety before the game and acutely depressed after it. There was no avoiding it. The right two people went to the game. Though it was a little upsetting to realise all my friends almost certainly have a better time without me.

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Peterborough byelection result: Labour scrapes past Brexit party to hold seat

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Labour’s Lisa Forbes says result shows ‘the politics of division will never win’

Labour has held on to the marginal seat of Peterborough, overturning predictions that the contest could deliver a first byelection victory for Nigel Farage’s Brexit party.

The victorious Labour candidate, Lisa Forbes, told her supporters after the count early on Friday: “Tonight’s result is significant because it shows that the politics of division will never win.”

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Next Tory leader could face immediate confidence vote

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Downing Street says it expects parliament to be sitting when new prime minister is announced

No 10 has made it clear that a new Conservative prime minister will be in place before MPs break up for the summer, meaning Boris Johnson is likely to face an immediate confidence vote in his premiership if he becomes leader.

Downing Street said it expects parliament to be sitting when the new prime minister is announced in late July, after Labour and some Tories raised concerns that the government was trying to avoid a test of its new leader’s ability to command a majority.

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