AS PRESIDENT Biden flew to the UK for the G7 summit, Downing Street revealed that Boris Johnson is less than a fan of the term “special relationship” to describe US-UK relations – reportedly seeing the term as “needy.”
Whenever a US President and a UK Prime Minister meet, the health of this friendship is always a hot topic of discussion – yet Mr Biden seemed more positive about it than his counterpart in England’s Green and Pleasant Land, tweeting on Jun 10, 2021: “The special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is stronger than ever. Thank you for hosting me today, Prime Minister Johnson.”
Meanwhile, a YouGov poll covering both sides of the Atlantic showed a similar reflection, with 40 per cent of Americans saying that the two nations have a special relationship as opposed to just 19 per cent of Brits.
As for Redaction Report‘s special relationship with our readers, we would like to apologise for the lack of a newsletter last week. Our editors were all tied up with various personal matters – and so were unable to produce a letter for last week.
So to compensate, here are some highlights from our past two weeks of content.
PERU
The Peruvian presidential election, which saw leftist candidate Pedro Castillo face off against Keiko Fujimori – the hard right wing daughter of Peru’s 90s dictator – resulted in a nail biting close contest. At time of writing, Castillo looks poised for victory by a razor thin margin.
In the run up to this election, Redaction Report took a look at the issues surrounding the vote. One former congressional candidate described Fujimorismo as the “antithesis to democracy.”
UNITED KINGDOM
Universal Basic Income has gained traction at lightning speed in recent years – and one of the UK’s four Home Nations is set to launch a pilot of the policy.
Following his victory in the Welsh Senedd election this year, First Minister Mark Drakeford announced that the trial would be going ahead.
UBI Lab Cymru – a group advocating the policy – welcomed the move, telling Redaction Report: “The NHS was born in Wales, UBI could be our generation’s NHS.”
ERITREA
Frequently described as one of the world’s most repressive regimes, Eritrea has a poor record when it comes to press freedom.
Two decades after shutting down free media, Eritrea remains a ‘locked door’
EUROPEAN UNION
Yanis Varoufakis was thrust into the public spotlight as the finance minister of Greece’s Syriza government in 2015.
Since his resignation just a few months later following a referendum on Greece’s bailout conditions, he has maintained a high profile – including campaigning to keep Britain in the EU in 2016.
However, in an interview with UnHerd, Varoufakis reflected on this stance, saying: “I’ve changed my mind. I think that Brexit, in the end, when you weigh things up, was probably the right way for Britain.”
Yanis Varoufakis: Why Brexit was the right decision for the UK in the end
Subscribe to stay updated, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Redaction cannot survive without your help. Support us for as little as $1 a month on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RedactionPolitics.
Redaction Report 