Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Japan Assassin
Japan’s former PM Shinzo Abe was shot twice by a gunman as he delivered a campaign speech over night. He is now dead.
While initially reported to be conscience at the scene of the shooting, he was in cardiac arrest on arrival to the hospital.
Abe was the longest serving Liberal Democrat PM of Japan from 2006-2007, and from 2012-2020.
The gunman appeared to be armed with a sawed off shotgun, and was arrested at the scene. This in a country which has virtually no gun crime, and guns are basically banned. Latest reports say the gunman was home made.
Gun laws in Japan are some of the strictest in the entire world. There are laws against owning a gun, owning bullets, and discharging a firearm. Basically, any sort of interaction with guns is illegal , unless you’re licensed, or with the police or military.
Britain’s Political Crisis
Living here in London, I can tell you that there hasn’t been a moment in recent memory there wasn’t a scandal coming out of the official PM’s residence Number 10 Downing St.
Every week it seemed Boris Johnson was being grilled over his intention to break int laws on the N Ireland protocol, or shipping refugees from Britain to Rwanda, or drinking parties during Covid lockdowns which he first denied and was later investigated and fined for participating in.
Did he lie to Parliament? It would seem so and that was another investigation.
Most recently an MP Chris Pincher, who was also the Conservative party’s Deputy Whip, was accused of sexually groping men in a private club. And when it came to light Johnson denied any knowledge of the matter.
But as in other scandals, Johnson was lying and it would become known Johnson misled the public and his own Cabinet.
A bombshell letter from the former head of the Foreign Office, Simon McDonald, revealed Mr Johnson had been told of allegations that Chris Pincher was a sexual predator before appointing him to the position of deputy chief whip.
Johnsons spokesman suggested he had forgotten he was briefed on the incident.
It was too much for his own party to stomach this time and as more than 50 MP’s resigned including Cabinet Ministers, Johnson at first clung to power and tried to appoint a new cabinet.
But in the end a cascade of resignations showed he would not be able to survive a non confidence vote if one took place and Johnson who has been compared to former U.S. President Trump understood the game was up.
He suggested bitterly in a speech to step down, that his party had followed some kind of herd mentality. But he would go after the summer as his party chooses a new leader.
Thing is, no one wants Johnson to even stay that long. Science minister George Freeman said “Boris Johnson needs to hand in the seals of office, apologize to Her Majesty and advise her to call for a caretaker prime minister. To take over today so that ministers can get back to work and we can choose a new Conservative leader to try and repair the damage and rebuild trust.”
And when Johnson will actually resign as PM is a looming debate.
Johnson has some achievements of course, including his support of Ukraine, but the war has cross party support, and that won’t turn on Britain’s change in leadership.
On this weeks Back Story podcast with Dana Lewis, Liberal Democrat Candidate and writer Edward Lucas on Johnson's turmoil and what went wrong.
And from Kyiv, commentator Paul Niland on Ukraine's future and the war with Russia.
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Other News…
-President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia has barely gotten started in Ukraine and dared the West to try to defeat it on the battlefield. Putin said “We have heard many times that the West wants to fight us to the last Ukrainian. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but it seems that everything is heading towards this”
-The war in Ukraine is at the top of the agenda of the G20 meeting in Bali Indonesia. Bali, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi directly addressed the war saying "It is our responsibility to end the war sooner than later and settle our differences at the negotiating table, not the battlefield"
-Canada sleeze alert; a longtime party volunteer came forward Thursday evening and said she is the whistleblower who brought forward accusations of improper campaign financing leading to the disqualification of Patrick Brown as the Conservative party candidate. She was listed as a campaign volunteer but then paid by a corporation in apparent violation of Canadian election law