Let’s take a walk around the world and see what is happening.
Israel has started to attack Rafah, initially from the air. Jordan is putting pressure, via the UN and the US, to stop Israel from starting a ground offensive but Benjamin Notonmywatch is determined to start the ground attack as soon as he can persuade his fellow war cabinet members to give the IDF a green light. Despite extensive calls for a cease-fire and hostage return, the two sides seem now locked into the destruction of Gaza. Those who protest Israel’s position are quickly named antisemites when, in fact, they are against the abuse of citizens through war. Students at Columbia and NYU are protesting the war.
Joe Biden now leads Trump by 3% in polling in the US Presidential election, according to some polls. Most have them neck and neck. In the UK, Sir Keir Starmer is streets ahead of “Dishi” Rishi Sunak. In both cases, most of the electorate say, “neither of the above!” They find them just not up to the challenge. In the case of Biden, he sometimes falls down.
Another Boeing aircraft – a 737 – was in trouble this week. It made an emergency landing shortly after take-off from Johannesburg when ground staff spotted one of the tires had “blown up” on take-off. A similar incident had happened a few days before - a United Airlines flight lost a wheel as it was departing San Francisco. The next shareholder meeting is on May 17th. It should be wild (I have already voted by proxy).
The US Congress has agreed to a ban on TikTok because of its ties to China. It is owned by a Chinese company called Byte-Dance. The demand is that ByteDance sell its US operations—information and access for 170 million US users—to an American-owned company. The app is already banned in India, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Somalia—notice a pattern here? TikTok will fight this all the way to the Supreme Court, so the ban will not happen for some time.
In NY, Donald J Trump (the j is for “juke”) rants and raves as his criminal trial over his payments to Stormy Daniels continues. His lawyers keep being rebuked by the judge for their incompetence and incoherence – Trump only hires people with his own skill set. Given his frequent violations of the “gag” order, the judge is considering whether to fine him for these offences. Meanwhile, another judge has accepted the $175 million bond, enabling to appeal the findings in another trial that looked systematically at the fraudulent practices in his real estate business. Trump continues to use his social media platform (shares currently trading at $32.57 better than the $22.55 of last week – market capitalization now estimated at $4.45 billion) to share his nonsensical conspiracy theories so as to raise funds.
Liz Truss, who was outlived as Prime Minister of the UK by a head of lettuce, has released her book Ten Years to Save the West. She suggests that the “deep state” – the civil service and the quasi-autonomous government agencies (QUANGOs) – inhibit true conservative policies because they are left-leaning and analytical. She suggests that governments have been “captured” by these forces and only radical conservatives, like Donald J. Trump who will defy the deep state, can really save the West. She decries British PM Rishi Sunak and his fin-de-siècle government as weak and not driven by conservative ideology. She wants a major change in how governments govern. She would be right at home in Alberta (Canada), where the UCP government ignores evidence, fires public servants with ethical judgment and rides roughshod over stakeholders.
The Vatican is having trouble with nuns. It is upset by a French court ruling that it had wrongfully dismissed Mother Marie Ferréol from her position as head of an order in Brittany. She was accused of having an “evil spirit.” The court fined Cardinal Ouellet and several others and ordered her immediate restoration. Meanwhile, in Texas, a monastery of cloistered nuns is asking a judge to grant a restraining order against the parties the Vatican has tasked with overseeing the monastery - Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson. The monastery asserts that both the bishop and the association are “trying to utilize a religious back door to usurp the laws of the State of Texas to take over the management and assets of the monastery. The dispute began when Reverend Mother Superior Teresa Agnes Gerlach was accused and later admitted to engaging in phone sex with a priest. She also said that some video calls were involved. She later recanted her confession. Fun and games.
The London Marathon – when 50,000 people, for no apparent reason, run around in a circle for 26.2 miles (42.16 km) – attracted Tim Gilbey (52), a professional wine taster and wine event organizer (what a great job), this year. Each mile, he had a sip or two from a glass of wine and attempted to identify it. He got four wrong and twenty-one right. He only took small sips of the “good” wine and spat “the not-so-good” out. He was raising funds for a hospice - £14,000 so far. During the event, he was overtaken by another marathon runner dressed as a refrigerator.
This year likely marks the end of the careers of two great tennis players: Rafael Nadal (36) and Sir Andy Murray (36). Both have had remarkable careers, but both know that the end is near. To make things interesting, Novak Djokovic (36) is also finding play tough this year – he keeps losing. There are some wonderful young players coming along, but it will be sad to see these players end their professional playing careers – they have been with us for so long.