June – July 2019

• June was hottest ever recorded on Earth = Data provided by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the EU, showed that the global average temperature for June 2019 was the highest on record for the month. The data showed European average ​temperatures were more than 2C above normal and temperatures were 6-10C above normal over most of France, Germany and northern Spain during the final days of the month, according to C3S. The global average temperature was about 0.1C higher than during the previous warmest June in 2016. Experts have said climate change made last week’s record-breaking European heatwave at least five times as likely to happen, according to recent analysis.
• The continuing conflict in the Middle East: Senior Israeli officials say they believe that Russia has been disrupting civilian aircraft navigation systems  + Israeli jets ‘hit Iranian targets in Homs and Damascus + Israel opens office in Oman – ties with Gulf states grow +  The first phase of the Trump administration’s long-awaited peace plan for Israel and Palestine has been rolled out to scepticism, anger and outright derision. A conference hall of regional officials – with no Israelis or Palestinians present – was the first to hear details of the US-brokered deal, an economic blueprint that shreds decades of diplomacy and which even its mooted financial backers seemed reluctant to embrace. + Netanyahu warns Iran it’s within range of Israeli strikes + Hamas conducts massive surprise drill
• Jordan is known for being one of the most ‘moderate’ Arabic nations. Jordan has long had basically good relationships with the Europeans and the USA. However, the time will come when it will decide to distance itself from the US. For the first time we may be seeing the shift of Jordan towards the enemies of Israel – Turkey and Iran.
• The Gulf states have in the past been strong supporters of the Palestinian cause but their hostility towards Israel has eased in recent years due to their shared international alliance with the United States, fear of the growing power of Iran, and trade interests.
• Locked & loaded: US & UK military assets in the Gulf > The Gulf fracas is right on the doorstep of American military firepower. The US Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain and US Central Command’s main forward base is in Qatar, covering 16 countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. It is telling that Iran has kept its threats strictly to commercial vessels and not naval assets. Neither Tehran nor Washington wants to provoke war.
• Russia: Vladimir Putin has said liberalism is “obsolete” in an interview before he left for the G20 summit. The Russian president said the ideology that has underpinned Western democracies for decades had “outlived its purpose”. The Russian leader also praised the rise of populism in Europe and America, saying ideas like multiculturalism were “no longer tenable”. But EU President Donald Tusk lashed out at Mr Putin, telling reporters he “strongly [disagreed]” with his sentiments on liberalism. “What I find really obsolete are authoritarianism, personality cults, the rule of oligarchs, even if sometimes they may seem effective,” he added. +  Russia is moving back towards the USSR stance of mass mobilisation. According to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Russian Armed Forces have tested mobilizing reservists for the first time. Also for the first time since the end of the Soviet Union, Russia’s industrial enterprises were checked to see how they would operate in times of military emergency. + Putin signs law suspending INF treaty with US
• Revealed: Russian effort to exert influence in Africa > Russia is seeking to bolster its presence in at least 13 countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers, striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of “leaders” and undercover “agents”, leaked documents reveal.
• Turkey defies Nato as Russia ships first missiles
• Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase.
• Pope Francis has made an impassioned plea for Europe to stick together and revive the ideals of its founders, saying that ideologies and fear-mongering politicians were threatening its very existence as a bloc.
• Last Thursday  at the EESC time was taken to discuss the evolution of populism. The far-right and nationalists in Italy, Britain, France and Poland came out on top in their national votes, shaking up politics at home but failing to dramatically alter the balance of pro-European power in EU assembly. In June the Pope warned: “If Europe does not look carefully to future challenges, Europe will dry up. Europe is ceasing to be ‘Mother Europe’ and is becoming ‘Grandmother Europe’. “It has aged. It has lost the goal of working together,” he said. “Someone could ask under their breath ‘Is this perhaps the end of a 70-year adventure?’”