News Roundup (Week Beginning 13th July)

Life moves pretty fast - if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. Here's what happened in the news this week.

At home, PM Boris Johnson had a typically busy week, announcing that face coverings or masks will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets from next week. This, naturally, sparked outrage amongst the UK branch of the Karen cult, with one (who also happens to be a Times columnist) describing it as "mask Nazism". Catchy.

The Government also made two significant announcements regarding foreign affairs, both of which have significant implications for our relations with China and Russia respectively. The first of these was the announcement that Huawei, the Chinese tech company, must remove it's equipment from the UK's new 5G network by 2027. Though the decision was apparently "based on technical, security analysis from the world-leading National Cyber Security Centre", evidence has emerged that in fact geopolitics were the major factor, with the US pushing hard on it's current anti-China diplomacy war.

The Government also said this week that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2019 General Election by sharing leaked documents regarding the privatisation of the NHS to the Labour Party. This news comes shortly before the full Russia report, which was blocked from public release by Boris Johnson before the election, is due to be published next week. There are rumours that it could shed light on Russian interference in both the 2017 General Election and the 2016 Brexit Referendum. So yes, chances are, the Brexit debate will be back in the headlines. Just what we all need right now.

Elsewhere, the UK Court of Appeal said that Shamima Begum, who left the UK in 2015 to travel to Syria and join ISIL, can return to appeal the revoking of her citizenship by the UK Government. It remains unclear as to how and when she will return to fight her case, but she is sure to be met with fierce hatred from much of the UK, led no doubt by Home Secretary Priti Patel and the rest of the Government.

In lighter news, Manchester United's Marcus Rashford has been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Manchester for his campaign against child poverty, in which he forced a U-turn from the Government on providing free food vouchers over the summer holidays for around 1.3 million kids. The 22-year old will become the youngest ever recipient of the award, joining the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton.

In Europe, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) controversially overturned UEFA's decision to ban Manchester City from the Champion's League for 2 years for breaking Financial Fair Play rules. The fine involved was also reduced to just €10 million. City reportedly offered John Stones as payment, which UEFA rejected, saying "He's not worth that much". The decision totally undermines the FFP rules, put in place to ensure clubs with rich owners could not pump endless capital into their clubs. Evidently UEFA did not consider the endless capital said owners could pump into the bank accounts of CAS officials.

Poland held a General Election this week, with incumbent Andrzej Duda narrowly defeating Rafał Trzaskowski to secure another 5 year term in office. Duda's right-wing Law and Justice Party is based round Catholic and Conservative values, with homophobic rhetoric at it's core. In one campaign speech, for example, Duda pledged to “defend children from LGBT ideology”, and other members of his party regularly refer to LGBT rights undermining marriage and the family, with some even comparing it to Nazism and the plague. Sadly, the majority of Polish people seem to believe them.

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