Good Monday morning,
(As usual I attach source articles at the end of the newsletter)
ROYALS
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced the birth of their second child in Santa Barbara where they live. The Royal family tweeted congrats including the Queen who is said to be “delighted” with her 11th grandchild, Lilibet. No photo yet.
Prince Harry has publicly reflected on his approach to parenthood recently, saying he wanted to “break the cycle” of the “pain and suffering of his upbringing with his own children being a royal. Thus the move to America. And tensions between Meaghan and Harry and the rest of the Royal family have been high after interviews the couple gave, to Oprah. The warm congratulations show some sign to normal relations in the Royal yet dysfunctional family.
Biden to Europe and then…Putin
President Biden will join other European leaders in Europe this week for a G7 Summit and then a NATO meeting on June 14th. And then 2 days later he will meet Russian President Putin.
Biden has said his trip to Europe is a part of a larger defense of democracy.
President Putin, who mocks Liberal Democracies has laid out in very clear terms when we can expect from the upcoming Russia USA Summit on June 16th in Geneva - probably a diplomatic fail of epic proportion, thus the increased calls for Biden to call it off now.
Speaking at the St. Petersburg economic forum, Putin gave his take on everything from America’s future to claims of Russian hacking.
“I heard something about the meat plant. It’s sheer nonsense. We all understand it’s just ridiculous. A pipeline? It’s equally absurd.”
He defended Belarus’ brutal crackdown on peaceful demonstrators to America’s arrests of Capitol rioters saying of the Capitol attackers “they weren’t just a crowd of robbers and rioters. Those people had come with political demands,” Mr Putin said.
Putin then suggested America was on the verge of a collapse, comparing it to the end days of the Soviet Union “But the number of problems is growing. There comes a time when they can no longer be dealt with. And the United States, with a confident gait, a firm step, is going straight along the path of the Soviet Union.”
Be clear on Putin and Russia in analyzing what he says - Russia’s dictator is growing weaker and more isolated in the Kremlin and as he does so, he is striking out at democracy and liberal views in the West. He has used every opportunity to work with rogue regimes from Syria to Belarus to undermine American interests, including election interference in the U.S. (which he denies), and all of this since Europe and the U.S. imposed sanctions after Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimea and the war in Eastern Ukraine.
Biden’s talks with Russia will possibly produce arms control negotiations on strategic nuclear weapons, and discussions on reopening consulates and embassy functions, but more than likely the summit will highlight just how bad relations have sunk, and those are extremely low indeed. Brace for failure.
Trump
The ex President Donald Trump appeared at a Saturday night rally in North Carolina to begin his re-entry to the Political scene flirting with a Presidential run in 2024.
He is the man of grievances, complaining of the election fraud that wasn’t , he wants trillions in compensation from China for the pandemic, he has accused President Biden of destroying the Country, and even attacked Anthony Fauci.
His inability to echo his views on Facebook and Twitter make his appearances seem small and irrelevant for now, but he will attempt to influence Republican mid term runs in 2022, possibly making endorsements that can help or also prove to be political baggage for candidates.
On the same weekend it emerged Trumps Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, desperately lobbied the Justice Department to find some way to nullify the election in the last days of his Presidency. Several emails were made public from Meadows to Justice, pushing election fraud conspiracy theories.
That included a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Jeffrey A. Rosen, then the acting attorney general didn’t reopen investigations and fortunately stayed independent from the White House as is his obligation to do so.
“This new evidence underscores the depths of the White House’s efforts to co-opt the department and influence the electoral vote certification,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and the chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “I will demand all evidence of Trump’s efforts to weaponize the Justice Department in his election subversion scheme.”
Variants and Vaccines
In Britain our kids are heading back to school today after a week long break, and it’s become clear children are one of the main spreaders of the new India variant.
On our Back Story podcast we speak to influential and extremely well respected epidemiologists, Eric Feigl-Ding and Deepti Gurdasani.
Why was the British Government hiding data on schools and Covid? Because likely it showed that kids are the main vector for the new India variant which has been exploding in the parental age groups of 30 to 40 year olds.
The India variant is now the dominant variant in the UK and will spread more rapidly than other variants. In President Biden’s “summer of freedom” the variant will thrive and what are the consequences?
Have a listen to Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast and please subscribe for free;
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/8638721
Vaccines and dating?
Now in Britain the Department of Health has teamed up with popular dating apps to encourage take-up of vaccines to get a date.
Users of Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch will enjoy a series of benefits if they add their vaccination status to their profile, including virtual badges and stickers.
The vaccine push includes electronic passports for travel across the European Union. All 450 million EU residents would be entitled to an e-wallet, but they won't be mandatory, according to the EU Commission.
Have a good day everyone!
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/07/cupid-needle-uk-under-30s-courted-dating-app-vaccine-bonus
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57380133
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/putin-sets-tough-tone-ahead-of-summit-with-biden-40504647.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/03/how-we-should-measure-success-bidens-summit-with-putin/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/05/us/politics/mark-meadows-justice-department-election.html