The World After The Jubilee

THE first five months of 2022 and the first 100 days of the Ukraine War ended last week with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee holiday weekend that also ended with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson facing a no-confidence vote in parliament and President Joe Biden reeling off-the-ropes in a ring of national discontent over an unprecedented level of mass shootings — and in the midst of it all, NATO’s war against Russia in Ukraine continues with both sides claiming victories and none declaring fatalities.

Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne was marked with a lavish four-day holiday celebrated across the UK and the Commonwealth as both a mark of acknowledgment of her long service as head of the royal household and the start of the end of her reign.

From age 95 last year, the queen lessened her public activities, stopped travelling abroad and remained largely indoors, but she was affected by COVID-19 recently and lost mobility as her jubilee approached.

No one expected that within hours of the jubilee party UK PM Johnson would have had to face a parliamentary no-confidence vote related to ‘Partygate’ at Downing Street, winning with 211 votes to 148 votes (60 per cent), but his critics concentrated on the opposite fact that 40 per cent of his party’s MPs voted against him in the secret ballot.

Despite all the deserved political body-blows Johnson suffered after becoming the first British PM to be fined by police for breaking the strict ‘Stay at Home’ laws his government set, the maverick UK PM lives to fight another day — walking wounded but still limping on.

But no such luck across the Atlantic for President Joe Biden, who’s calling for actions against gun-related crimes that he can make into law with the stroke of a pen on an executive presidential order, but simply won’t for fear of annoying voters ready to kill or die for their constitutional right to bear arms, especially with his popularity at the lowest and more Republican candidates endorsed by Donald Trump winning run-offs than the democrats expected as the country races into the November mid-term elections.

US inflation is at a 40-year high, with gas prices now at US $10 per gallon in some states, but the increasing number of almost-daily recent mass shootings (240 for the first half of the year up to May 31) are taking lives by the hundreds in schools and churches, bars and supermarkets, on streets in cities and states across America, while the Democrats and Republicans continue their tug-of-war over how far to go to address gun crime without annoying the National Rifle Association and the national gun lobby.

But if all is as clear as red, white, and blue on both sides of the Atlantic, not so in Europe where, after 100 Days of the Ukraine War, both and all sides are being selective with the truth about troops losses and territorial gains.

Meanwhile, Ukraine admits Russia controls 20 per cent of its territory and Russia is threatening to hit more new areas if the US and NATO troops send long-range rocket or missile systems to Kyiv.

The pro-Ukraine international press has since the 100th Day been more cautious about parroting claims by Ukrainian officials about alleged sex crimes carried out by Russian soldiers after the Ukraine’s parliament on May 31 fired the country’s human rights ombudsman, Lyudmila Denisova, with MPs claiming her work focusing on alleged “rapes” of Ukrainians by Russian troops “couldn’t be confirmed with evidence” and “only harmed Ukraine and distracted the global media from Ukraine’s real needs.”

The European Union (EU) has also had to backpedal on its earlier decision to stop member-states importing Russian oil after Hungary, Germany and others found it impossible to shut the tap from Moscow, Brussels instead encouraging them to wean themselves off Russian energy supplies by the end of 2022.

In the meantime, Russia continues to shut the tap and pull the plugs on hostile EU and NATO member-states, citing payment issues while continuing to sell more oil to China and India.

The EU and NATO suffered another setback last week when Turkey said it will not support Sweden and Finland joining the military alliance while they kept sanctions against Ankara and gave asylum to opponents of the Turkish government.

Thanks to the war and the continuing evidence that no side is about to give up or stand-down, rising food prices have resulted in political crises driven by social unrest in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, while India is forced to reduce wheat exports.

The World Bank, however predicts wheat shortages will continue to cause social unrest among millions affected in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, the cost of bread doubling and size shrinking in places like Egypt and Lebanon, where wheat is a staple food.

African nations on June 3 turned to Moscow for help to overcome wheat shortages after being affected by the sanctions against Russia and the blockage of ports exporting Ukrainian wheat, while the World Food Program has lost access to ongoing emergency supplies to the world’s poorest nations in Africa and Asia.

With no time set for Queen Elizabeth’s expected abdication, no agreement in sight between America’s two major parties on gun control and nothing looking like a near end to Europe’s multinational proxy war while NATO forces continue to commit more powerful weapons to Ukraine, the second half of 2022 has started what most hope will be the final countdown to peace in Europe, with high hopes for progress in US gun control before November — and expectations that Britain and the Commonwealth will end 2022 with King Charles succeeding the only queen most Britons have known.

But politics is predictably unpredictable, wars normally continue until one side wins, and the world has long learned to expect the unexpected at all times. There’s no telling what tomorrow and next month will bring or how 2022 will end.
As always, time alone will tell! (End)

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