It’s a bank holiday weekend in the UK, but that certainly doesn’t mean that politics grinds to a halt.
Welcome Greta
Greta Thunberg is due to arrive in the United States in the coming days after spending two weeks crossing the Atlantic in a solar-powered yacht. The 16-year-old climate activist is hoping to arrive in the US in time to appear at the Climate Action Summit in New York on 21-23 September, and then the UN climate conference in December.
Greta refused to travel to the US by plane, citing the impact of air travel on our environment. The Swedish teenager has travelled around European countries in recent months, spreading the messages of the Strike for Climate movement.
Greta’s arrival in the US will be eagerly anticipated by many supporters and also the media, but not everyone is expected to extend such a warm welcome. Fox News contributor and former member of President Trump’s transition team, Steve Milloy recently described Ms Thunberg on social media as “the ignorant teenage climate puppet.”
Brexit
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent Sunday at the G7 summit, at which he discussed Brexit with both US President Donald Trump and EU Council President Donald Tusk. This week we can likely expect proposals being developed on alternative backstop arrangements in order to try and prevent a no-deal Brexit. EU leaders have made it clear in recent weeks that another deal is not an option, so unless a change to the current deal can be agreed, the UK is set to exit the union under a no-deal scenario on October 31.
Fires In The Amazon Rainforest
More protests about the handling of fires in the Amazon rainforest are possible this week. Record numbers of forest fires have been detected this year in the Amazon rainforest, with more than 72,000 fires detected between January and August alone.
Photo: Greta Thunberg in the EU Parliament in April 2019 | Photo Credit: European Parliament on Flickr under licence (CC BY 2.0)
