There’s something of a protest-based theme this week…

Trump comes to Europe

US President Donald Trump made his first official state visit to the UK and Ireland, on a five-day tour that included a state banquet with the Queen, a meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May, and a quick visit to France to attend commemorations of the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.

Ever since the state visit was announced year members of the British public have been planning mass protests, with nearly 33,000 social media users registering their interest in taking to the streets against the President’s arrival. Even before Air Force One had landed at Stansted, Donald Trump had already reignited existing tensions with the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. Ahead of the President’s arrival in the UK the Mayor compared the language used by Trump to rally his supporters to that of “the fascists of the 20th century”. President Trump responded with a series of tweets criticising the mayor of London, calling him a “stone cold loser”, comparing him to the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio. De Blasio is currently running in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race.

Khan’s office accused Trump of “childish insults”.

And thus, the tone of the visit was set, from Trump claiming that he had “automatic chemistry” with the Queen to questions around just why the entire Trump family were tagging along on this trip. Despite saying in a news conference with Theresa May that protests against his visit were “fake news”, organisers estimated a turnout of 75,000 this past Tuesday.

Speaking of Theresa May, the Presidential state visit marked her last days as Prime Minister, with the Tory leadership contest formally beginning as she resigned almost as soon as Trump departed. May will remain Prime Minister until her successor is elected. At the time of writing, Boris Johnson currently has the highest number of endorsements from MPs, followed by Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt. James Cleverly and Kit Malthouse withdrew from the race as the candidates clashed over Brexit strategies – including Dominic Raab’s controversial suggestion that he would shut down Parliament to ensure that the UK leaves the EU on 31 October – and frontrunners begin making the headlines over their past drug use.

The current chaos of the Tory leadership contest almost makes the Trump visit look like business as usual. Almost.

Business as usual would not involve the President of the United States talking to Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and Brexiters Iain Duncan Smith and Owen Paterson about Brexit while on a state visit. Trump’s visit renewed debate over whether a post-Brexit trade deal between the UK and the US would involve opening up the NHS to US companies. In a press conference the US President stated “When you’re dealing with trade, everything’s on the table – so the NHS or anything else” before apparently walking the remark back. A number of MPs from across the political spectrum came out to say that the UK’s health service is “not for sale” in trade negotiations.

Trump faced a slightly warmer reception from the locals when he landed in Ireland on his way to a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France. The people of Doonbeg, County Clare, lined the streets to embrace not just the US President, but as their investor – Trump owns a golf resort in the small town of around 300 people, which was adorned with red, white and blue bunting for his arrival. Anti-Trump protests took place in Dublin and at Shannon Airport. The Trump family sparked criticism for allegedly treating his first presidential visit to Ireland as both a holiday and a marketing trip for their golf resort, with Eric and Donald Trump Jnr being spotted on a pub crawl around the town, and the President trying to meet Taoisech Leo Varadkar at Doonbeg, rather than where they eventually met, at Shannon Airport. 

During the meeting between Trump and Varadkar the US President echoed the confidence of UK Brexiters regarding the border regarding the whole border-between-the-UK-and-EU-on-the-island-of-Ireland-after-Brexit situation, comparing this one particularly unique situation with the other particularly unique situation of the US border with Mexico. The Taoisech interjected, reminding the US President that Ireland wished to avoid a hard border or ‘wall’ on the island of Ireland.  

From Ireland Trump continued on to France, where he attended D-Day commemorations along with other European leaders. The solemn occasion was somehow soured by the fact that the President of the United States spent the night before in a Twitter spat with Bette Midler. Because this isn’t business as normal, but it is the new normal for politics in 2019.

For a full round up of all of the weird and wonderful events that took place during Trump’s visit to Europe, including a lot of details you may have missed, check out Northern Slant’s liveblog:

Blog: Trump’s Visit

Change-ing UK politics

Trump aside, this past week was another strange one in domestic politics.

It began with the Change UK losing six of its 11 MPs following the party’s disappointing performance in last month’s EU elections. The UK’s newest political party failed to get a single MEP elected to European parliament. The departing MPs – Heidi Allen, Chuka Umunna, Sarah Wollaston, Angela Smith, Luciana Berger and Gavin Shuker – have now become independents, leaving five MPs who will be led by former Conservative MP and anti-Brexit campaigner Anna Soubry.

Soubry has expressed her sadness about the split, stating that those who left the party have “made a very serious mistake”. Change UK was formed when Tory MPs followed a breakaway group of Tory and Labour backbenchers to create a new party in the midst of internal disagreements within the two established parties. One of the main internal disagreements within the Labour party has been around racism and antisemitism, which hit the headlines again this past week with the results of the Peterborough by-election. A by-election was called in Peterborough following the removal of the former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya via a recall petition. The Labour Party won the by-election with just 700 votes ahead of the Brexit party. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage stated that the “big, big showing” from his party reflected the changing political landscape in the UK.

Despite what Farage might view to be change, old fears and arguments were reignited with Labour’s candidate Lisa Frobes being elected, with the Jewish Labour Movement calling on the party to suspend her just hours after being elected for liking antisemitic posts on Facebook. The newly-elected MP has subsequently apologised for “not calling out these posts”, and has promised to challenge antisemitism in the future. In addition to this, the Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that Forbes is “not a racist in any way”.

It fell to The Guardian‘s Rafael Behr to perfectly sum up the chaos of the past couple of years in a minute and a half…

Sudan strike ends a bloody week

Sudan’s pro-democracy uprising took a violent turn, as civilians clashed with the military.

The military took charge of the country following a coup against ex-President Omar al-Bashir that removed him from 30 years in power back in April. Talks between the military and civilian government recently fell apart after agreeing on a three-year transition that would culminate in elections. This past Monday things turned violent when Sudan’s ruling military moved to crush the protest movement opposing its powerful position, unleashing gunfire and violence that allegedly killed at least 35 people while hundreds were left wounded. This crackdown has confirmed the protest movement’s fears that Sudan’s military – backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE – was never serious about supporting civilian rule. The death toll from this attack increased to 100 after 40 bodies were retrieved from the River Nile, according to the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors (CCSD). The head of Sudan’s ruling military council, Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has ordered an investigation into the deaths. The United States Embassy has blamed the deaths on General al-Burhans’ ruling Transitional Military Council. Opposition activists claim that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), formerly known as the Janjaweed militias that carried out atrocities in Darfur in the 2000s, are responsible for the killings. RSF commander Mohammed “Hemeti” Hamadan is likely to be the most powerful man in Sudan at present.

In response to these killings Sudan’s main protest group has vowed to begin a nationwide ‘civil disobedience’ campaign to run until the country’s ruling generals transfer power to a civilian government. On the first day of this campaign Sudanese security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse protestors, with the opposition claiming that at least one person has been killed. Barricades have been set up across Khartoum as part of the civil disobedience campaign, with opposition and protest groups calling for workrs to stay at home.

Hong Kong targets Chinese extradition bill

Thousands of Hong Kong protesters (seen in our top image) have taken to the streets against a law that critics fear could let China target political opponents in the territory. The controversial extradition bill would allow suspected criminals to be sent to mainland China for trial.

Hong Kong has traditionally been a safe haven from the Communist party, however this new bill creates a system for case-by-case fugitive transfers between the semi-autonomous region and regions with which it does not already have agreements – most significantly, mainland China. Officials in Hong Kong are expected to bring the proposed law to parliament this coming Wednesday with Carrie Lam, the city’s Chief Executive, defending the bill by stating that it will close a long-standing legal loophole. Lam is pushing for the proposal’s passage before summer break in mid-July despite criticism from human rights and business groups.

Organisers estimated that over 1 million people took part in the protests, making it the largest rally in three decades, although an official police spokesman has stated that they were around 240,000 “at its peak”. Those taking part in the demonstrations carried yellow umbrellas, the symbol of passive resistance during Hong Kong’s 2014 protests when residents demanded more transparent elections.

The government responded to the protests by issuing a statement saying that the bill will prevent Hong Kong from becoming a haven for fugitives, pledging to “continue to engage, listen and allay concerns through calm and rational discussion.” However, this statement has done little to calm the anxiety that many Hong Kong residents feel regarding Beijing’s control over the territory.

Czechs call for resignations

The Czech Republic witnessed its biggest political protests since the fall of communism.

An estimated 120,000 Czechs took to the streets of Prague to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babis and his justice secretary Marie Benesova. Babis has been accused of fraud relating to EU subsidies for his former agricultural business empire, while separately the European Commission is investigating whether he was in a conflict of interest due to his role as both Prime Minister and owner of a business receiving EU funding. Protesters also suspect that Benesova, an old ally of the Prime Minister, would suppress or delay any case against him.

Babis is the second-richest man in the Czech Republic, and after becoming Prime Minister in 2017 has repeatedly stated that he will never resign. Marie Benesova became the country’s Justice Minister after police recommended that Babis face fraud charges back in April. Benesova also just so happens to be among a small groups of lawmakers who did not support lifting Babis’ immunity in the subsidy case in 2017. 

The Prime Minister has dismissed accusations against him as an “organised plot” and an example of “Brussels interfering in our [Czech] laws”. Despite the protests against him both Babis and his populist ANO party did not suffer a significant drop in support ahead of the European Parliament elections that took place in May, coming first with 21.1% of the vote.