And then there were two…

So it’s official. Britain’s next Prime Minister will be an Oxford-educated, 50-something white man.

After weeks of campaigning to their fellow Conservative MPs it has been confirmed that Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will go head to head when the 160,000 Conservative party members vote for the new leader of their party at the end of July. Johnson received the backing of 160 MPs, while Hunt received 77 votes – just two more than rival Michael Gove. One paper was spoilt in the final round of MP voting. Suspicions were raised of tactical voting as Johnson’s vote increased by just three MPs between the rounds – despite the fact that Sajid Javid, who had been ousted in the  previous round, had at least four supporters who had openly declared their support for Johnson. It is believed that remain-backing Hunt will be less likely to win against pro-leave-Johnson than would Gove. The result of the contest between the two finalists will be announced on the 22nd of July.

Johnson and Hunt are now hitting the campaign trail after a dramatic week of voting and debating that saw competitors Dominic Raab and Rory Stewart eliminated along with Javid. Raab was eliminated by MPs in the second ballot with 30 votes, and later stated that he was backing Johnson.

After what many people considered a car crash of a leadership debate on BBC, Rory Stewart was eliminated from the contest with 27 votes – 10 fewer than he received in the previous round. The international development secretary described his performance in the debate as “lacklustre”, and stated that he will not publicly declare his support for any candidate. Stewart has been noteworthy throughout the leadership contest for his unconventional campaigning style with #RoryWalks, and has urged his newfound supporters to join him in making the Conservatives the “party of the centre ground”.

Gavin Williamson, the former chief whip, is now acting as Johnson’s parliamentary enforcer. However, it’s likely that Johnson is more in need of an effective PR professional, after The Guardian reported that police were called to his London home to deal with a loud altercation with his partner. Speaking at a Tory party hustings in Birmingham, Johnson refused to answer questions on the incident. This was the first of 16 hustings events, when Hunt and Johnson will make their pitches to audiences of Conservative party members.

and, perhaps predictably…

If you thought things were dramatic for the Tories in Westminster, you should hear about what’s happening in * checks notes * Wales.

This past week over 10,000 people signed a recall petition to remove Tory MP Chris Davies following his conviction over a false expenses claim in March. A by-election will be held in the constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire, with the Labour party and the Liberal Democrats already declaring their candidates.

The strike that never happened

US President Donald Trump said he had cancelled a planned strike on Iran after Tehran shot down a US drone. The unmanned drone is said by the US to have been shot down 21 miles off the Iranian coast in international waters – although Tehran contests this, saying it was just eight miles off the Iranian coast when it was hit, making it in Iranian airspace. The downing of the drone comes after weeks of growing tension between the two countries.

Although President Trump tweeted that the US was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate to this incident, he allegedly called off the strike just 10 minutes before it was supposed to begin after realising how many people could die in such an attack. Questions were inevitably raised about the circumstances in which the President initially signed off on the mission after some US officials offered a conflicting account of events.

Tensions have been rising between the US and Iran since the US withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal last year. In this past week Trump also ordered an additional 1,000 troops to the region.

Rather than attack Iran through airstrikes, Trump stated that he will impose new sanctions, although those have yet to materialize. A sense of unpredictability seems likely to continue. Fearing the possibility of war between the US and Iran, Democrats have heavily criticised Trump, with Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren accusing Trump of instigating ‘another unnecessary conflict’ while current front-runner in the Democratic primary Joe Biden called Trump’s approach a ‘self-inflicted disaster’.

Water crisis in India

The combination of a delay in monsoon rains and record-high temperatures has led to major water shortages in India, with Chennai, one of the country’s biggest cities almost running out of water.

More than 60% of India’s 1.3 billion population currently relies on farming and favourable monsoon rains for their wellbeing. In Chennai, India’s sixth-largest city with nearly 5 million residents, water reservoirs ran dry this past week. The population of the city is now relying on government tankers to provide their water, but delays have led to residents drinking dirty well water, while the price of water has jumped.

It has been reported that over 500 people were arrested after protests and clashes over the increasingly desperate situation. In the city of Coimbatore people protested outside government buildings with empty water canisters, accusing officials of negligence and mismanagement. The government has created a new Ministry of Water Power in an attempt to combat the current crisis. However, India’s heat waves have been growing more intense over the last decade and rising temperatures claimed 36 lives in May alone.

As Indian President Ram Nath Kovind has acknowledged, water shortages will be one of India’s biggest challenges of the 21st century. However, it looks unlikely that political willpower will be able to keep up with the weakening of monsoon season across South Asia.

Morsi passes away

Mohamed Morsi, the first democratically-elected President of Egypt, collapsed and died while on trial in Cairo. He was 67.

No official cause of death has been released, although Egyptian media reports said he died of a possible heart attack. Morsi spent the last six years in prison and was on trial for espionage charges which he, alongside several human rights groups and independent observers, said were politically motivated. The former President was a top figure in the now-banned Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood, with the group staying that his death was a “full-fledged murder”. An outpouring of condolences emerged throughout the Middle East, particularly in Turkey where thousands of supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets of Ankara, chanting slogans that blamed Cairo for Morsi’s death.

Following the Arab Spring in 2012, Morsi won Egypt’s first democratic presidential election. The following year he was overthrown by a coup led by Egypt’s current president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. Morsi’s son has blamed the incumbent President and several high-level Egyptian government officials for his father’s death.

The UN has called for an independent investigation into the former President’s death and his treatment in custody.

Khashoggi the “sacrificial animal”

A UN report outlined an extensive cover up after the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October.

The report highlighted both the active role of Saudi officials and the destruction of evidence, suggesting that the murder of Khashoggi had been authorised by the highest figures in Saudi government. Khashoggi was killed and apparently dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government has admitted he was killed but denies that Muhammed Bin Salman (MBS) knew anything about it. The UN report says there is “credible evidence” that MBS was involved and called for a suspension of Saudi Arabia’s trial of 11 suspects accused of killing Khashoggi.

This UN report poses a particular challenge to Donald Trump’s administration, which has embraced MBS as an ally. The President dismissed a UN request for the FBI to investigate the murder, claiming a probe would jeopardise US arms sales to Saudi Arabia. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump stated that Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner with the US, and while the President frequently claims the  Saudis are spending some “$400 to $450 billion”  with the US, official numbers indicate it is much less. Commenting on a phone call that he recently had with the Saudi crown prince, Trump said the issue of Khashoggi’s murder “really didn’t come up”. The President also rejected any calls for a US investigation, claiming the matter has already been “heavily investigated”.

The Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs has since commented that the UN report is “flawed”, although the Saudi government is now putting in place “mechanisms” to “ensure this does not happen again”.