Gamers from around the globe are
heading to Los Angeles for the E3 video games showcase, which lays out
what players can expect in the year ahead.
E3 is traditionally an
industry-only event, but in recent years some studios have held their
own showcases and broadcast them to fans online.
This year, for the first time in its 24-year history, 15,000 video game fans will be allowed to attend too.
One analyst said it was a sign of E3 adapting for modern times.
"E3
originally was a retail conference, about connecting buyers with the
publishers," said Piers Harding-Rolls of the consultancy IHS Markit.
"The industry has changed significantly since then, so E3 has to move with the times.
"It's a process to make it much more publicly available, and it's a good move - it keeps it relevant."
E3 begins on Tuesday 13 July - but many games studios including Microsoft and Sony hold their own events a little earlier.
Microsoft aims ultra-high
Image copyrightGetty Images
Last year, Microsoft announced it was working on "the most powerful console ever", code-named Project Scorpio. The
company has already described the computing power of the device, which
it says will be capable of playing ultra-high definition 4K games - but
this could be the first time we see the device and hear what it will be
called. "This will re-establish their credentials with the gamers who want the highest graphical capability," said Mr Harding-Rolls. "I'm
expecting it to be more expensive than the PS4 Pro, so it's probably
not going to sell as strongly - but will give Microsoft a boost towards
the end of the year."
Nintendo expands its offer
Nintendo says its new Switch console is off to a promising start,
with about three million sold, making it the company's fastest-selling
device.
The launch was buoyed by the highly-anticipated Legend Of
Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, which Nintendo dedicated its entire E3
exhibition to in 2016.
To keep momentum, the Japanese games-maker
will be showing off multiplayer games such as Splatoon 2, Arms and
Pokken Tournament DX.
However, many players are still hopeful that
Nintendo will announce some surprises - such as the first full Pokemon
game for the Switch.
Virtual reality
Sony says sales of its virtual reality kit for the PlayStation 4 have
exceeded expectations, with more than a million people picking up a PS
VR headset.
But the challenge for all headset developers is to
show off compelling games that will encourage more people to invest in
the costly kit.
"It's a key focus for Sony, because it's different from what Microsoft is offering with Xbox," Mr Harding-Rolls told the BBC.
"There have been some good launch titles, such as the VR mode on Resident Evil which was very well received.
"Is spread by word of mouth because it was so impressive and frankly scary - we need more of that, big brands and big titles."
Theresa May's two closest advisers have quit after the Conservatives' failure to win the general election.
The
BBC understands the PM had been warned she faced a leadership challenge
on Monday unless she sacked Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill.
Mr Timothy said he was taking responsibility for his role in the "disappointing" election result.
He said he regretted not including a pledge to cap social care costs in the party's widely criticised manifesto.
The
BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith said the pair's departure
bought the PM some "breathing space" following 24 hours of
recriminations after the Conservatives lost their overall majority.
He
said the two were so close to the PM that critical MPs believed that,
unless they made way, she would not be able to change her leadership
style to adopt a more "outgoing, inclusive, responsive, empathetic
approach".
Mrs May has said she intends to stay as prime minister
and is seeking support for the Democratic Unionists to form a
government. Chief Whip Gavin Williamson is in Belfast to begin formal
talks on a deal.
Mr Timothy and Ms Hill both stepped down amid mounting pressure
on Mrs May to overhaul the way No 10 worked and broaden her circle of
advisers.
Announcing his resignation on the Conservative Home website,
Mr Timothy urged Tory MPs to "get behind" Mrs May but said nothing
should be allowed to get in the way of the process of forming a
government and beginning Brexit talks.
He said the Conservatives'
failure to win was not due to a lack of support for Theresa May and the
Conservatives but due to an "unexpected surge" of support for Labour.
He
conceded his party had failed to communicate a sufficiently "positive"
message to voters and address their concerns over years of austerity and
inter-generational divisions, including over Brexit.
"We were not talking to the people who decided to vote for Labour," he said.
He
defended the party's "honest and strong" manifesto, saying
controversial proposals on social care had been discussed in government
for months and were not his own personal "pet project".
But he
added he took "responsibility for my part in this election campaign,
which was the oversight of our policy programme" and "I regret the
decision not to include in the manifesto a ceiling as well as a floor in
our proposal to help meet the increasing cost of social care".
Norman Smith said he understood that senior Conservatives had warned
the PM they would instigate a leadership contest at a meeting of
backbenchers early next week if the pair did not leave, and were
confident they could get the required 48 signatures to trigger a
contest.
One former minister, Anna Soubry, welcomed the clearout,
saying it was the "right thing to do" and saying the PM must "build a
consensus" on Brexit and other issues.
But Labour's deputy leader
Tom Watson said the PM's advisers had "taken the fall" for her but
tweeted the PM was "responsible for her own defeat".
Earlier, Mrs May's director of communications until the election
was announced, Katie Perrior, called the campaign "pretty
dysfunctional", telling the BBC she "needed to broaden her circle of
advisers and have a few grey hairs in there who been around a bit and
could say 'don't do that'".
As the Conservative leadership begins
formal negotiations with the DUP, disquiet is being expressed in some
quarters about the move.
Charles Tannock, a Conservative member
of the European Parliament, said the DUP was a "hardline, populist,
protectionist" party and a "poor fit" as a partner for the
Conservatives.
The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth
Davidson, tweeted a link to a speech she had made about same-sex
marriage - something the DUP opposes.
Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage is not legal.
Ms Davidson, who is gay, plans to marry her partner in the near
future and said she had been "straightforward" with Mrs May about her
concerns.
"I told her that there were a number of things that
count to me more than the party," she told the BBC. "One of them is
country, one of the others is LGBTI rights.
"I asked for a categoric assurance that if any deal or scoping
deal was done with the DUP, there would be absolutely no rescission of
LGBTI rights in the rest of the UK, in Great Britain, and that we would
use any influence that we had to advance LGBTI rights in Northern
Ireland."
By winning 12 additional seats in Scotland, Ruth
Davidson played a significant part in helping Theresa May to stay in
Downing Street, BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith says.
Speaking on
Friday, the prime minister said the parties had a "strong relationship"
and that she intended to form a government which could "provide
certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our
country".
Analysis by political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue
The
clock is ticking for Theresa May. She needs to conclude a deal with the
DUP in the next week or so ahead of the Queen's Speech, which will set
out the new government's agenda.
That takes place on Monday 19 June - the same day Brexit negotiations are due to start.
The
DUP and its 10 MPs are in a very strong position. It's all their
Christmases rolled into one and they will make sure they leverage as
much as they can from their advantage.
Money for Northern Ireland
will undoubtedly be part of their demands, and Mrs May will expect
that. But trickier will be any demands they have about the
implementation of Brexit in Northern Ireland - in particular the DUP's
determination to maintain a soft border with the south.
Another potential problem is the planned restart of negotiations for power-sharing in the province.
Typically
the British government tries to act as an honest broker between
Republicans and Unionists. But if Mrs May is doing a deal with the DUP,
that could make it harder to reach an agreement with Sinn Fein.
DUP leader Arlene Foster confirmed she had spoken to
Mrs May and that they would speak further to "explore how it may be
possible to bring stability to this nation at this time of great
challenge".
Mrs May is expected to continue assembling her top
team later after she decided to keep key figures - including Chancellor
Philip Hammond, Foreign Secretary Boris and Home Secretary Amber Rudd -
in their current roles.
David Davis will also stay on as Brexit secretary and Sir Michael Fallon will keep his role as defence secretary.
There
could be changes elsewhere in the cabinet while nine middle-ranking and
junior ministers, including Ben Gummer and Jane Ellison, lost their
seats at the general election and will need to be replaced.
Jeremy
Corbyn has said Mrs May should "make way" for a government that would
be "truly representative of the people of this country".
The
Labour leader, who is expected to announce his shadow cabinet on Sunday,
said his party was ready to form a minority government of its own, but
stressed he would not enter into any "pacts or deals" with other
parties.
US special forces are helping the
Philippine military retake the southern city of Marawi from IS-linked
militants, the Philippine army says.
The forces are providing technical help and are not fighting, it said.
President Rodrigo Duterte had earlier threatened to throw out US troops amid strained relations since taking office.
Militants
have been under siege since rampaging through the southern city on 23
May. The latest fighting has claimed the lives of 13 Philippine marines.
Hundreds
of militants, who have been flying the black flag of so-called Islamic
State and are led by the self-styled IS emir of the southern
Philippines, Isnilon Hapilon, and the Maute brothers Omar and Abdullah,
are still holed up in the city.
The latest casualties bring the number of Philippine troops killed in the fighting to 58.
At least 138 militants and 20 civilians have also been killed, the government says.
The BBC's Jonathan Head says there are several reports that the Maute brothers, who lead the Maute group, are among the dead, with intercepted communications from jihadist groups suggesting this.
In a press briefing, Lt Col Jo-ar Herrera said the army was checking
the reports. He cited "strong indications" but gave no further details.
The brothers' parents, who are believed to have helped fund their armed group, have been captured.
Marawi
is on the southern island of Mindanao, which has a significant Muslim
population in the majority Catholic country and has seen a decades-long
Muslim separatist insurgency.
Col Herrera confirmed for the first time that US special forces were helping the army.
"They are not fighting. They are just providing technical support," he said.
Reuters
news agency earlier quoted the US embassy in Manila as verifying the
presence of US forces. It would not go into operational details but said
the US forces were helping at the request of the Philippine government.
The US has had a small logistical military presence in the
Philippines, although a programme to advise the Philippine army on
fighting the Abu Sayyaf militant group was discontinued in 2015.
Mr
Duterte, a strongman who has supported the extrajudicial killing of
drug users and other criminals, has been highly critical of the US since
taking power last June, straining a long-time alliance.
But he
had what the White House described as a "very friendly" phone call with
President Donald Trump in April, and has since said his differences with
the US were with President Barack Obama's administration.
Philippine army spokesman Brig Gen Restituto Padilla Jr has vowed
that the national flag will be flying once again over all of Marawi by
Monday - the Philippine national day. The army has missed past deadlines to rid the city of militants amid two weeks of air and ground assaults. Col Herrera said the militants were now restricted to three districts within the city. "The world of terrorism inside the city is growing smaller by the day," he said. Officials say that foreign nationals are among the militants in Marawi, with the list of countries and territories including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, India and Chechnya.
Angela Merkel has said she sees no
obstacles in the way of beginning Brexit talks as scheduled after
Theresa May failed to win a majority in Thursday's UK election.
The German chancellor said she believed Britain would stick to the timetable, adding the European Union was "ready".
Mrs Merkel added she hoped Britain would remain a good partner following the talks, due to begin on 19 June.
It is her first comment since Mrs May's Conservative party lost 13 seats.
The
loss left the Conservatives eight MPs short of a majority in
parliament, plunging negotiations into uncertainty. Mrs May called the
snap election in order to secure a clear mandate for her vision of
Brexit.
A spokesman for Mrs Merkel had previously refused to be
drawn on the issue out of "politeness and respect" while the process of
forming a new UK government was under way.
Mrs May says she will form a government with the Democratic Unionist Party from Northern Ireland, which won 10 seats.
Mrs Merkel, who is meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto
to discuss trade, told reporters gathered in Mexico City on Friday: "I
assume that Britain, from what I heard from the prime minister today,
wants to stick to its negotiating plan.
"We want to negotiate
quickly, we want to stick to the time plan, and so at this point I don't
think there is anything to suggest these negotiations cannot start as
was agreed."
Mrs Merkel, the EU's most powerful politician, went on to say she hoped the UK would remain a good partner.
"Britain is part of Europe, even if it will no longer be part of the European Union."
However,
she added the EU countries would be "asserting the interests of the 27
member states that will make up the European Union in future" during
negotiations.
Meanwhile, Michael Fuchs, senior economic adviser to the German
chancellor, told the BBC the result meant it was time for Mrs May "to
face realities" and soften her approach.
"Her wish and will was
not really too much accepted by the British people," he said. "I have
the feeling, because otherwise they would have given her a better vote.
"Maybe,
this is a chance that we can come up to a more reasonable Brexit
negotiations because in the last time (recently) I really had the
feeling that everything was just being very tough and it doesn't make
sense to be tough.
"We want to have a fair deal with Britain and we want to have a fair final Brexit negotiations."
Other EU leaders have expressed concerns the failure to win a majority may make negotiations even more difficult.
Brexit
negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, who is president of the Alliance of
Liberals & Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament, had
caustic words for Mrs May.
Image copyrightAFP
"Yet another own goal, after Cameron now May, will make already complex negotiations even more complicated," he tweeted. Jean-Claude
Juncker, head of the European Commission, said he wanted discussions to
proceed without delay, while Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator
for Brexit, said "negotiations should start when UK is ready". European Council President Donald Tusk alluded to the March 2019 deadline for Brexit talks. "We
don't know when Brexit talks start. We know when they must end. Do your
best to avoid a 'no deal' as result of 'no negotiations'," he wrote.
At Lisa Maurer's Ford dealership in
Somerset County, Pennsylvania, trucks are her bread and butter. When a
young person lands his first well-paying job, one of the first things
they do is buy a pick-up. The trucks are useful for navigating the
rugged Allegheny Mountain terrain and the intense snowy winters.
"It's kind of part of the culture here," says Maurer.
So
it was clear to her how bad things had gotten two years ago, when young
coal miners she'd sold brand new trucks to just a day or two earlier
started bringing them back. At the time, it seemed like a new coal
company was declaring bankruptcy every week and the laid-off miners
weren't able to make the payments.
But now, for the first time in
roughly seven years, a brand new coal mine is opening in Somerset County
- the Acosta deep mine, just three miles from Maurer's dealership.
"We're hopeful - it means we're going to have things happening again," she says. "Everybody's excited."
Maurer
has deep roots in coal. Her great-great grandfather emigrated from
Slovakia to work in the mines, her grandfather and father opened their
own mines, and now her 29-year-old son operates machinery in a mine. In
2002, her brother-in-law was one of nine men who were trapped for three
days in a flooded mine shaft 240 feet under the ground. Miraculously,
they all survived - some even went back to work.
Mining in Somerset County goes back a century and a half. Some of the
tiny towns that dot the rolling, lush hillsides have identical houses,
built decades earlier by coal companies for their workers. Though the
towns are spread out with expanses of farmland separating them, it's a
tight-knit community where everyone can feel when times are good for
their neighbours or when they are very, very bad.
"Small things
impact the economy here … it all swims around," says Tina Buckham, owner
of the Flyin' Lion Pub & Eatery in Jennerstown, about five miles
from the mine. "Everybody has family that works in coal, honey."
Thanks
to a combination of factors, particularly fracking and the low price of
natural gas, the coal industry hit a 30-year production low in 2015.
Some believe that in addition, the Obama-era climate regulations caused a
crisis of confidence in investors. Coal companies started going
bankrupt. Mines shut their doors. And the effects rippled through the
community - trucking companies laid off their drivers. Two restaurants -
local institutions - shuttered. The Maurer dealership changed its
inventory from new to more used vehicles.
"It was like a switch was flipped," says Maurer. "The last few years
have been really tough and sad. There's a little glimmer of hope now."
The
brand new Acosta Coal Mine is a 120-foot-deep rectangle gouged out of a
south-facing hillside looking down on the valley below. Near the base
is a stripe of jet black coal that the mine's parent company, Corsa
Coal, will sell for metallurgical purposes - producing steel - rather
than for energy production.
"We're putting a lot of people to
work here," says Ben Gardner, the mine engineer, who says at its peak
the mine could employ as many as 150 people. "That's 150 families all
with a very good job to support them - myself included … It definitely
helps for places that were hit by the hard times."
Two days before
it's set to open, federal and state inspectors in hard hats take a
final look at the operations at the bottom of the pit. A centipede-like
piece of equipment called the continuous miner sits silent and still
beside them, ready to chew through the coal seam that runs from the
mouth of the mine and underground for nearly eight miles. When it's
fully operational, Corsa projects the mine will produce 400,000 tonnes
of coal a year.
At the lip of the mine is a wooden platform that
looks down into the pit, built especially for a cookout and a
ribbon-cutting ceremony set to take place on 8 June. There's an American
flag nailed to the front, and tucked away underneath, a handwritten
poster that reads, "TRUMP TOWER" - someone's idea of a joke, Gardner
says.
On 1 June, in an address to the nation from the Rose Garden,
President Donald Trump formally announced the US withdrawal from the
Paris Climate Accord. Sandwiched between his criticisms of the deal and
other member countries for supposedly cheering the US' "economic
disadvantage", Trump made an off-hand comment about Acosta.
"The
mines are starting to open up. We're having a big opening in two
weeks," he said. "For many, many years, that hasn't happened. They asked
me if I'd go. I'm going to try."
Although it's unlikely that the president will make an appearance on
that wooden platform, Maurer was surprised and elated when she heard his
remark.
"That was huge, everyone was caught off-guard," she says.
"We feel like we've been thrown away. Our children don't matter, our
grandchildren don't matter. And when Trump mentioned us, that was
awesome."
Although the mine has been in the works for years -
Corsa Coal obtained its permits in 2013 - the company says investors
feel more comfortable putting their money into coal because of new
administration.
The mine is projected to hire between 70 to 150
workers - sceptics say that's just a drop in the bucket when you
consider the hundreds of lay-offs which took place over the last several
years. However, it's also the first bit of good news in the industry
that Somerset County residents have received in a long time.
Doug
Miller, a controller at James F Barron Trucking which primarily
transports coal, says for the first time in years, they're hiring
instead of laying drivers off.
"We know we're going to have a future here," he says.
Electrical
contractors, cement layers, excavators and lumberyards have already
been put to work thanks to the new mine. Proponents are fond of saying
that a single mining job creates four others throughout the community -
waitresses and gas station attendants, housekeeping staff at the hotels
in Somerset and ski instructors at the area's three ski resorts.
But
mixed in amongst the optimism are people who've been battered and
bruised by layoffs and industry uncertainty, who don't want to rely on
the mercurial global markets, or the whims of a presidential
administration to dictate whether or not they'll have food on the table.
One
coal miner who asked to BBC to omit his name says he was laid off after
more than 20 years in the industry and that he would not take a job at
the new mine even if they offered it to him.
"I'll move away from here and go do something, I'm not afraid," he says.
He worries for a friend he knows who got one of the new jobs at Acosta.
"I'm
really glad he has a job there, he has three, four kids," he says. "But
you know, you look him in the eye and he knows he's two pay checks away
from everything being gone."
People like restaurant owner Tina
Buckham are also sceptical of the idea that there is a great resurgence
of the coal industry on the horizon, and nervous about her own
razor-thin margins. Although she would love to see all the old mines
open up their doors, she's more concerned about the lack of
infrastructure in the area - the sole internet provider and the
sometimes spotty mobile service.
We have great, hardworking guys and women - they just want good jobs.
So we need to have the infrastructure in place to attract the jobs,"
she says. "I don't think that the whole community is thinking this is
the only thing that we can do here. We can do a lot of stuff because we
have a lot of really great people."
And unlike some of the younger
people and out-of-work miners who've decided to pick up their roots and
seek a better life elsewhere, Somerset County is Buckham's home. She's
lived in the area her whole life. Her neighbours as a kid are still her
neighbours today.
"I'm here on purpose, in this little town. I like it," she says. "I'm hoping I survive it, but I like it."
Back at the car lot, Maurer is hoping Acosta means good things for her bottom line.
"There's
a feeling that things are going to get moving again there are signs
that the interest is coming back," she says. She feels "cautiously
optimistic" but hasn't made any plans to bring in new inventory or hire
more staff.
"To get to where we feel comfortable, we've got to get more than one mine opening," she says.
The London Bridge attackers tried to hire a seven-and-a-half tonne lorry to carry out their attack, police say.
But
the three men failed to provide payment details and the vehicle was not
picked up, prompting them to use a smaller van from a DIY store
instead.
The men drove into pedestrians on the bridge before stabbing people in Borough Market seven days ago.
Police said the men tied 12in (30cm) pink ceramic knives to their wrists and had petrol bombs in the van.
Eight people were killed and dozens more were injured in the attack, which began shortly before 22:00 BST on 3 June.
Khuram Shazad Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba have been named as the attackers, who were all shot dead.
Scotland
Yard wants more witnesses to come forward and is also appealing to
companies who hire out vans to report any suspicious activity.
Early
on Saturday, police said they had arrested a man, 27, on suspicion of
preparing terrorists acts, after carrying out a raid in Ilford, east
London, linked to the attack.
In its most detailed description of
the attack yet, the Metropolitan Police said the men had also rented a
flat in Barking, east London, to use as a safe house.
Inside, they found a copy of the Koran opened at a page describing martyrdom.
They
also discovered equipment for making petrol bombs, plastic bottles and
duct tape for constructing fake suicide bomb belts, and an ID card for
Redouane.
Forensic work at this flat has determined that they acted alone.
Image copyrightMet Police
The investigation has concluded that 27-year-old Butt was the
ringleader. He hired the van used in the attack from a B&Q store in
Romford on the morning of the attack. He is thought to have driven the van, with Redouane and Zaghba in the back, into central London. At
two minutes before 22:00 BST, the van crossed London Bridge heading
south. Six minutes later it returned, crossing over the bridge again
and making a U-turn at the northern end. The attack began with the
van driving back along the pavements of the bridge, running down three
pedestrians before crashing outside the Barrowboy and Banker pub
opposite London Bridge station. The men jumped out clutching the
ceramic kitchen knives. Police say the weapons were possibly chosen to
prevent them being picked up by metal detectors. They stabbed five people who had been enjoying the area's pubs and restaurants.
Police were called within two minutes and arrived eight minutes
later, killing the attackers in what officers said was an
"unprecedented" volley of 46 bullets. When briefing reporters,
Commander Dean Haydon said the police - from the Met and City of London
forces - had shown "incredible bravery". He added: "We have
stories of people armed with chairs, bottles, anything they could get
their hands on with a view to trying to prevent the attackers coming to
pubs and bars but also scaring them off to prevent other people being
attacked." He detailed the actions of four people who put their lives at risk to fight back and help the injured:
A doctor at a restaurant heard
screaming and "with no regard for his own safety" ran outside to pick up
an injured man and carry him across the bridge
A public relations consultant heard the van crashing and gave first aid to a man who'd been stabbed - despite the danger
A restaurant worker tried to fight off an attacker who came in and stabbed a young woman in the back
An off-duty police officer was stabbed in the stomach as he tried to disarm one of the attackers
The massive police investigation into the attack continues and
by Saturday there had been 19 arrests and 13 buildings had been
searched. So far, 282 witnesses from 19 countries have been
questioned but police still want more people who saw what happened to
come forward. In the back of the white Renault van used in the
attack officers found wine bottles filled with a flammable liquid with
rags tied to their necks. There were blow torches for lighting these
"Molotov cocktails".
Image copyrightMet Police
The three men had added bags of building gravel and several chairs - possibly to suggest a reason for having hired the van. Scotland Yard said it wanted to hear from anyone renting vans who might have suspicions about a customer. Police are also appealing for information about the "distinctive" pink "Ernesto" brand knives the men were carrying. They said they had not found evidence of anyone else being involved in the plot - or inspiring the attackers to carry it out. The
Met revealed Butt had been arrested for bank fraud in October 2016 but
was not charged. He had been opening accounts and closing them again,
possibly to launder money. Police also confirmed there had been a
call about him to an anti-terrorism hotline, but no evidence was gi However when he appeared in a Channel 4 documentary, The Jihadis Next
Door, last year, officers did view the programme. They decided it was "deeply abhorrent" but not evidence of criminality. Mr
Haydon described the current terror alert as "unprecedented times".
Since March, there have been five planned attacks of which two were
prevented and three carried out - in Westminster, Manchester and London
Bridge.
"The tempo has increased," he said, adding that officers at Britain's intelligence services were "working flat out". "Hostile Vehicle Mitigation Barriers" have been added to central London bridges to prevent vehicles being driven onto the pavement. Meanwhile, police are working with "iconic venues" and music festivals to improve their security over the summer. ven
that he was planning an attack.
T bhere has always been a shared
conceit at the heart of the special relationship between the United
States and United Kingdom that global leadership isest expressed and
exerted in English.
More boastful than the Brits, successive US presidents have trumpeted the notion of American exceptionalism.
Prime
ministers, in a more understated manner, have also come to believe in
British exceptionalism, the idea that Westminster is the mother
parliament, and that the UK has a governing model and liberal values
that set the global standard for others to follow, not least its former
colonies.
In the post-war Anglo-American order those ideas came
together. In many ways, it was the product of Anglo-American
exceptionalist thinking: the "city upon a hill" meets "this sceptred
isle".
Nato, the IMF, the World Bank and the Five Eyes
intelligence community all stemmed from the Atlantic Charter signed by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in August 1941.
The
liberalised free trade system that flourished after the war is often
called the Anglo-Saxon model. The post-world global architecture,
diplomatic, mercantile and financial, was largely an English-speaking
construct.
Image copyrightGetty Images
In recent weeks, however, the Anglo-American order has looked
increasingly weak and wobbly. The unexpectedly messy result of the
British election makes it look still more fragile, like a historic
edifice left tottering in the wake of a major quake. There is
uncertainty in Westminster, and something nearing chaos in Washington
because of Russian probe at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Neither Britain nor America can boast strong and stable governments. Neither have the look of global exemplars. In
the six weeks since Theresa May called her snap election, the global
tectonic plates have shifted fast, leaving Britain and America
increasingly adrift. Donald Trump, during his first international
trip, refused to publicly endorse Article V of the Nato treaty and
publicly scolded his allies over financial burden sharing. He
found himself isolated at the G7 summit in Sicily. Then, on his return
to Washington, came the announcement that the United States would
withdraw from the Paris agreement, a decision of massive planetary and
geopolitical import. Hung Parliament: What happens now? A simple guide to the UK election result How the world reacted Here,
America First meant America alone, and Trump seemed to revel in his
neo-isolationism - as he did when he withdrew from the Trans-Pacific
Partnership early in his presidency. For Britain, the diplomatic
impact of Brexit has also become clearer in recent weeks. EU leaders
have bluntly outlined how they will set the terms of the divorce
settlement, in what looks more and more like a diktat than an amicable
separation. The 26 remaining members of the EU have also made it clear they intend to penalise the UK. When
Jean-Claude Juncker met Theresa May at Downing Street shortly after she
called the election, he was evidently dismayed by her approach. "I'm
leaving Downing Street 10 times more sceptical than I was before," the
EU Commission president reportedly informed his host. As one senior EU diplomat put it to me: "Britain has shot itself in one foot. We intend to shoot you in the other." The
British prime minister, by failing to win an election she didn't have
to call, has weakened her bargaining position still further. Brexit
negotiator Guy Verhofstadt has already called the UK election: "Yet
another own goal." Image copyrightReuters
n recent weeks it is not only the UK's relations with the EU that
have become more strained. Its cherished trans-Atlantic alliance has
also been subject to some unforeseen stress tests. I never
expected to report that Britain would stop sharing sensitive
intelligence with the United States, but that was the story we broke in
the aftermath of the Manchester bombing. Then, following the
London attack, came Donald Trump's Twitter assault on the London Mayor
Sadiq Khan. Again, in the pre-Trump world it would have been unthinkable
for a US President to mount such a vicious attack on a British mayor in
the wake of a UK terror attack. Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's
former ambassador in Washington, seemed to capture the public mood when
he noted: "Trump makes me puke." The prime minister steered clear
of delivering a stiff public rebuke to the President over his attack on
Mayor Khan, presumably out of fear of angering Donald Trump and
jeopardising a post-Brexit trade deal with the US. Perhaps this
also explained why she didn't join with Germany, France and Italy in
signing a joint declaration slamming Trump's Paris decision.
But
again that emphasises Britain's weakness. The special relationship has
always been an asymmetrical relationship but now it seems even more
lop-sided. It speaks of the UK's post-Brexit diplomacy of desperation. The
trans-Atlantic alliance will eventually have to deal with a longer-term
problem that will outlast the Trump administration. One of Britain's
great uses to Washington in recent decades has been as a bridge to the
European Union. It's why Barack Obama lobbied so hard for a
'remain' vote ahead of last year's referendum. Under future US
presidents, it is easy to imagine a German-American alliance supplanting
the special relationship. Voids in global leadership are
immediately filled, and we've seen that happen at warp speed over the
past few weeks. Brexit has galvanised the European Union. The election
of Emmanuel Macron has revitalised the Franco-German alliance, giving it
a more youthful and dynamic look.
Post-Paris, a green alliance has emerged between Beijing and
Brussels. More broadly, China sees the chance to extend its sphere of
influence, positioning itself on environmental issues as the
international pace-setter. Even before Mr Trump took the oath of office,
this looked more likely to be the Asian Century rather than a repeat of
the American Century. Europe eyes an enhanced role for itself,
too. "We Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands,"
declared Angela Merkel during a speech in a Bavarian beer hall after the
disastrous G7 summit. In a pointed dig at America and Britain,
she also warned that the days when Germany could completely rely on
others are "over to a certain extent". More and more, the German
chancellor looks like the leader of the free world, something that would
have required a massive leap of imagination in the years immediately
after World War II, when the English-speaking liberal global order was
taking shape.
Winston Churchill, during the 1946 speech in Fulton, Missouri, in
which he coined the phrase "special relationship" (and also the "iron
curtain"), noted: "It is necessary that constancy of mind, persistency
of purpose, and the grand simplicity of decision shall guide and rule
the conduct of the English-speaking peoples in peace as they did in war.
We must, and I believe we shall, prove ourselves equal to this severe
requirement." Right now, both the United States and the United Kingdom seem to be failing that Churchillian test. These English-speaking nations no longer speak with such a clarion voice, and the rest of the world no longer takes such heed. A new world order seems to be emerging that is being articulated in other tongues.
