Breaking: The Queens husband Prince Phillip dies at 99yrs.
A statement issued by the palace just after midday spoke of the Queen's "deep sorrow" following his death at Windsor Castle on Friday morning.
The Duke of Edinburgh, who was the longest-serving consort in British history, had returned to Windsor on 16 March after a month in hospital.
Boris Johnson said he "inspired the lives of countless young people".
"It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband," the palace said.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk
Northern Ireland Violence
Violence rocked Belfast last night, with some of the worst clashes between police and people in years. Wednesday was worse, but over night police had to use water cannons to put down the unrest. It’s now 7 days of street violence and leaders are calling for calm.
Why now? Most of the trouble has been in loyalist areas over The British Gov’s Brexit arrangements which create border friction in an area there isn’t supposed to be a border with the rest of The UK. In other words, the British Gov which left the EU, was to keep N. Ireland, which is part of the UK completely united, but in reality Loyalists in Northern Ireland are angry that the UK's post-Brexit trading agreements with the EU have created barriers between the region and the rest of Britain.
The arrangement with Brussels – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – is controversial.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/09/northern-ireland-violence-belfast/
Gun Laws
The U.S. President Joe Biden has taken new steps to control gun violence but in many ways it falls extremely short of what America really needs to do to stop an estimated 100 shootings a day.
As a Canadian we have had difficulty with guns North of the U.S. border but no where on the scale of what is seen in the worst gun violence in the world to the south. America needs to ban assault weapons, do back ground checks, and make it much harder to purchase over the counter weapons with cool down periods. The recent shootings in Georgia and Colorado that left 18 people dead, has put Government under pressure to take action.
So Biden will take action against “ghost guns” which allow purchase of weapons with no background checks and guns that are assembled with no traceable serial numbers. He will also ban stabilizing devices which transform short barrel weapons into a rifle and make them more accurate.
But the actions Biden is announcing still fail to tackle the real issues of gun manufacture immunity from civil action, and these ridiculous assault rifles that fire on automatic killing scores of people. Weapons designed for war are still legal to buy in the U.S. and the gun lobby is still too strong to change the law in any meaningful way by a nation which sees guns as a constitutional freedom issue, rather than the way most of us view them - deadly and dangerous in the wrong hands, which as it happens to be, anyone who feels like owning one in America.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/politics/biden-gun-control.html
Turkey’s Dictator
President Erdogen of Turkey is under fire again, this time for snubbing the female President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen who during her visit to Ankara, called for Erdoğan to reverse his decision to lift protections for women and withdraw from the Istanbul convention.
Erdogen left von der Leyen standing and without a chair during a meeting with the EU council President and has since been accused of humiliating her, with Italy’s President calling Erdogen a dictator guilty of inappropriate behaviour.
The incident came only weeks after Erdoğan pulled Turkey out of a key European convention aimed at combatting violence against women. The move was a blow to Turkey’s women’s rights movement, which says domestic violence and murders of women are on the rise.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/08/italian-pm-calls-erdogan-a-dictator-after-ursula-von-der-leyen-chair-snub
Ukraine-Russia
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy travelled to the front line where 25 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the year, and as Russia masses substantial military forces threatening what appears to be an invasion of Eastern Ukraine.
German Chancellor Merkel spoke to President Putin Thursday urging both sides step back from the brink. Putin for his part "drew attention to the provocative actions of Kiev, which has recently been purposefully exacerbating the situation on the frontline," the Kremlin said. Ukraine has called for early membership in NATO infuriating Russian which seems its independent neighbour as territory that should be subjected to Russian influence.
If you want to understand more, this is the podcast to listen to! Back Story with Dana Lewis interviews the former Commander of U.S. forces in Europe Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges;
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ukraines-war-with-russia/id1512445640?i=1000516071624
Canada Covid
The Brazil variant P.1 which is more easily spread, and critically able to resist vaccines is spreading quickly now in Canada which has three times the number of cases than the U.S. The Government is struggling to bring the variant under control, and without success, in a country slow to rollout vaccines.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/what-we-know-about-p-1-the-covid-variant-devastating-brazil-and-spreading-in-canada
Israel and the ICC
Israel has now formally announced it will not cooperate with the Int. Criminal Court’s decision to investigate war crimes in the West bank. The announcement was no big surprise considering Israel will be a target of the investigation, into its treatment of Palestinians in territories Israel occupies with its army.
“While IDF soldiers fight with supreme morality against terrorists that commit war crimes daily, the court in The Hague decided to denounce Israel,” P.M. Netanyahu said in the discussion. “There is no other word for this than hypocrisy. A body established to fight for human rights turned into a hostile body that defends those who trample human rights.”
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israeli-response-to-icc-you-have-no-jurisdiction-over-us-664533
Have a good weekend everyone!
Please share this news letter and subscribe.
Dana