| | | | |  | | By Ryan Heath | Follow Ryan on Twitter.
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Members of the Household Cavalry participate in preparations. | Hollie Adams/Getty Images | Global Insider comes to you today from London, where a collective nervous breakdown is bearing down upon a once great empire. Officially, the country is beginning to celebrate the first-ever Platinum Jubilee of a monarch: 70 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth II. There is a kind of reverence for the queen now. She is — if not exactly a global grandmother and carer-in-chief — at least the most celebrated person on the planet. Celebrated, without being anything so tacky as a celebrity. A rare example of duty, in a world beset by anger and greed.
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Pictured is portrait of Queen Elizabeth with her eyes closed, by Chris Levine. | Ryan Heath/POLITICO | You don't have to poke far below the surface here to find the rot and the fear. It starts with the 96-year-old queen's health. Yes, she will wave to the crowd in the official celebrations this weekend, but she is virtually immobile now, and there will be nothing like the 10-hour performance in 2012 when she welcomed a flotilla up the Thames for her Diamond Jubilee. Instead, there is a widespread assumption that these celebrations will soon be followed by a wake and a coronation. Is the talk distasteful? Perhaps, but it's real. Your host spoke to Britons on Tuesday who've already bookmarked the hotel on the funeral procession route that they plan to book when the queen passes; otherwise rational people openly speculated that she may already be dead: a bizarre QueenAnon conspiracy. The point is not that any of us know the queen's real state of health, but that the country-at-large is fragile, too, in both existential and practical ways. On the day-to-day level, there is airport chaos : a country that is neither united around celebrating the Jubilee, nor prepared to deal with the complications of its new border arrangements, while also being caught up in the global Great Resignation upheaval. Even the new Elizabeth line on the London underground system cannot find the staff to operate on Sundays.
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A new train line named after Queen Elizabeth can't find the staff to run seven days a week. | Ryan Heath/POLITICO | On the identity level, there are active movements to split Scotland and Northern Ireland from the Union, and virtually no opinions have changed on Brexit six years after the vote to leave the EU. The Johnson government is deeply distrusted — even its ethics adviser is threatening to quit. Dozens of Conservatives members of parliament now openly question Johnson's leadership. In parallel, YouGov modeling published on Friday suggests that if an election were held now the Conservatives would hold just three of 88 battleground seats — and the prime minister would be among those to lose his own seat. The British newspapers today are full of news about Australia's new government appointing a "Minister for the Republic ." It's the manifestation of a three-decade old policy of the new government in Canberra to replace the queen with an Australian-born president, but for Britons it's really just a nasty reminder that things will be different when Charles is king. It is hard to imagine the nations of the Commonwealth recasting their coins and reprinting their banknotes with Charles' head on them. VISUALIZED Dress rehearsal of the queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022 Elizabeth: The Unseen Queen, a rare look at the young royal
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A red London bus travels down Regent Street, London, May 31, under Union Jack flags celebrating Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee. | Ryan Heath/POLITICO | OSLO FREEDOM FORUM Watch the talks here by leading democracy advocates living under or exiled from some of the world's most repressive regimes. INTERVIEW — LARS STENQVIST, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, VOLVO GROUP Today in Stockholm, the world's first vehicle made from fossil-free steel was delivered, with Special Presidential Climate Envoy John Kerry and Swedish ministers in attendance. The vehicle was made by the Volvo Group (which includes Mack and Renault trucks), using a new production system developed during the course of just eight months. Global Insider sat down with Lars Stenqvist, who made it all happen. 2040 is the new 2050: "We believe, seriously, that we need to decarbonize both road transport and infrastructure solutions. We cannot wait until 2049 (to act). Our vehicles are in operation roughly 10 years, so we set an internal 2040 target. Yes, that means electric vehicles, but it's not only electric vehicles, we are also investing heavily into fuel cell electric vehicles (rather than battery-powered ones). Through the fuel cell you're converting hydrogen into electricity." Partnerships are the way forward : "If we don't solve it together (climate change), we will not solve it." "We are investing a lot into partnerships. Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB are pioneers now in fossil-free steel. We are investing into our joint venture together with Daimler, our main competitor when it comes to fuel cells." Then once the planned fuel cells are ready for production, the competition across the auto value chain will resume, and Stenqvist says he plans to "beat the shit out of Daimler." Electricity worries: "I'm not that worried when it comes to us providing the right vehicles, I'm more worried about whether societies really manage to increase green electricity capacity, and green hydrogen." There's also a lot of grid adaptation required: "One thousand trucks charging at the same time, it's massive. It corresponds to, at least from a Swedish perspective, the power output of a nuclear plant." How does Volvo deal with the fact that not everyone can afford to go green: Green vehicles "are more expensive to produce," Stenqvist admits, "but there's no reason to believe that in the long run, when it's a volume game, that there will not be cost parity from a total cost of ownership perspective. Maybe you will have more expensive vehicles, but you have lower running costs." What's next? "Volvo Trucks will start production of better electric trucks up to 44 tonnes, that's the normal truck-trailer combinations that you see on the highway."
| | | | INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED: Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today. | | | | | CHINA FRONTS SECURITY — PACIFIC ISLAND NATIONS DEFER CHINESE SECURITY FRAMEWORK DECISION: A region-wide proposal — the China-Pacific Island Countries Common Development Vision — that would have extended Beijing's influence to areas, including law enforcement, education and cybersecurity, has been rebuffed, for now, after a pushback led by Daniel Panuelo, president of the Federated States of Micronesia. More here. HUMAN RIGHTS — BACHELET MOSTLY TOES BEIJING'S HUMAN RIGHTS LINE: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, wrapped her six-day trip to China since the last edition of Global Insider. Bachelet seems to think that being allowed to visit (the first visit by someone in her role since 2005) is somehow an achievement. In a post-visit statement she praised China's poverty alleviation record before going on to say "I share the concerns" of civil society organizations who complain of human rights violations against China's Uyghur minority. Josh Rogin critiques the visit here. COVID — SHANGHAI BEGINS TO REOPEN: After two months under lockdown, most of the city's 25 million people may now move freely on streets and metros. RUSSIA FRONTS
- Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the EU's decision Tuesday to restrict Russian oil imports, saying it means the Kremlin will be denied tens of billions of dollars in "terror finance." Overall, the ban will turn off around 90 percent of all Russian imports, and ban insurance of tankers carrying Russian oil anywhere in the world. This will "significantly undercut" Russia's ability to offset its losses by selling more oil to Asia, per Eurasia Group.
- ICYMI: President Joe Biden writes on what America "will and will not do in Ukraine." In a sentence: ongoing help for Ukraine without seeking Putin's removal from office, nor supplying the heavy weapons or air cover that could lead to direct conflict with Moscow.
BUT … ELSEWHERE … CANADA — GUN CONTROL PROGRESS: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced new legislation that would freeze the ownership of handguns , in addition to existing bans on assault weapons. "What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada," the prime minister said. AUSTRALIA — LABOR TO FORM MAJORITY GOVERNMENT: The country's new ruling party will not control the Senate — it will be forced to negotiate with 12 Green senators to pass legislation, but it will control the lower house of Parliament. CLIMATE — HOW FEMA HELPS RICH AND WHITE AMERICANS ESCAPE CLIMATE IMPACTS: POLITICO and E&E News have published an investigation led by Thomas Frank into how the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency strongly favors white and wealthy areas in its home-elevation grants, whose homeowners often use federal funding to achieve massive property value increases, while poor communities — often communities of color — are left to face intensifying floods without federal funding. Among 18 states that have received at least $5 million from FEMA to elevate homes, in 12 of them, more than half the money has gone to communities that are overwhelmingly white or wealthy — defined as more than 90 percent of the population being non-Hispanic white, or having a median household income of more than $100,000.
| | | | DON'T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO's new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE. | | | | | | | | TWILIGHT OF THE TECH GOD: Tech founders have promoted themselves as geniuses for decades, but they're often just very naughty boys, to paraphrase Monty Python. When the current tech bubble bursts (and bubbles always do), this one will take down a bigger proportion of the economy than in 2001. That's a problem for every pension account, and probably the global economy. It's also definitely a problem for the founders themselves. BRAIN FOOD A "deliberate foreclosure of the future." Elizabeth Bruenig on the strangeness of an American society that insists on the right to life, while enabling it to be violently taken away. "These are the morbid symptoms of a society coming undone, and they arise largely from policy choices … there are some who say that every terrible thing … this demonic murder lottery of schoolchildren — simply must go on, and somehow, they are winning … Here is America after there was no more hope." Belgium says sorry for coup and murder of Patrice Lumumba, with return of his gold tooth. The Congo leader's disappearance and death was one of the great mysteries of the African independence and global national liberation era. Thanks to editor John Yearwood and producer Hannah Farrow. SUBSCRIBE to the POLITICO newsletter family: D.C. Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook | Paris Playbook| EU Confidential | D.C. Influence | EU Influence | London Influence | Digital Bridge | China Direct | Berlin Bulletin | Living Cities | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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