Dear John,

In a week that has seen terrible wildfires spread across California and the flames of hatred and misinformation being fanned across Europe, here is your Weekend Wire…

Fires bring destruction to California

Fires have spread misery across the state of California this week, with at least ten people losing their lives at time of writing . The wildfires have been worsened by high winds across the state and has led to the destruction of thousands of homes and businesses, and led to almost 200,000 people being told to evacuate. 

Initial analysis suggests that damage could have already reached around $10 billion, however with emergency services struggling to control the blaze the cost is expected to rise. The prevalence of wildfires across the West Coast of America in recent years is an important reminder of the reality of man-made climate change, with fire-season now seen as an all year round concern rather than a uniquely summer issue.

The fires highlight the cost of incoming President Donald Trump’s anti-environmental policies, characterised by inaction on climate change and deregulation during his previous term in the White House. As Trump II promises to “Drill baby drill” there seems to be no sign of the his administration will heed the warnings of this week's disaster.

True-go

Embattled Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, announced his resignation on Monday leaving behind a divided party, a stagnant economy and a country anxious about its future relationship with the United States. 

Elected to office in 2015, Trudeau had long been seen as one of the vibrant and charismatic faces of a new liberal order encapsulated by contemporary Emmanual Macron. However, just like Macron, Trudeau has seen his popularity collapse over the last couple of years and losing the faith of his own party in the process. 

The collapse of support for Trudeau and Macron illustrates the new political world we inhabit a decade after his inauguration into Canada’s highest office. Today, Canada faces the threat of tariffs from its closest partner and neighbour (as well as expansionist rhetoric - more on that later). Trudeau's Liberal Party will elect a new leader on the 9th of March who will then contest fresh parliamentary elections no later than October.

Former Bank of England Governor and advocate for the UK remaining in the EU, Mark Carney is the early favourite to replace Trudeau, but the Liberal Party have an electoral mountain to climb if they are to defeat the heavily favoured Conservative Party headed by Pierre Poilievre.

Land of the free (or not?)

It has been quite a mad week over the other side of the pond, I think this is the first time that the three top stories of the week have originated from North America, soon to be the United States of North America perhaps…

The week began with Trump calling for Canada to become the 51st state and Greenland (the autonomous protectorate of Denmark) to join the Union as well. As predicted, this kind offer from the Donald went down like a cup of warm sick in Toronto, with outgoing Prime Minister Trudeau (understandably) lashing out at the incoming President. It is easier to have your gloves off when you have your retirement booked in I guess. 

Matters were altogether more serious with Greenland however, Donald Jr made a visit to the region this week which coincidentally is home to an abundance of natural resources, I can hear the call for liberation already! The Donald proceeded to suggest he would buy the land, to which Denmark replied “Sod off” (in a slightly more professional tone). The President-elect retorted with trademark petulance, refusing to rule out military action to annex Greenland.

At this stage, Germany and France felt it necessary to officially warn Trump against military action against the sovereign borders of a European Union territory (and NATO ally), it truly does feel like a fever dream.

In other bouts of madness, Trump also laid claim to the Panama Canal, despite it being owned by… you guessed it Panama, the clue is in the name Donald! Although perhaps inspired by the slight inconvenience, Trump also promised to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, leading to quite an amusing response from Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, that you can watch here.

An apt reminder this week that when moving into a new (White) house best to not start by stealing from your neighbours.

Truth? You can’t handle the truth!

Mark Zuckerberg announced this week that Meta would follow X in removing fact-checkers due to their ‘bias’. Now, I do not know Mr Zuckerberg personally, but I have to praise him for his ability to perform such a fast U-turn following his dinner at Mar-A-Lago with the incoming President, a feat made even more impressive by Zuckerberg's clear absence of any backbone. Read about how the EU’s Digital Services Act might combat X and Meta and why it matters here.

Truth has been a constant theme this week as Elon Musk slipped further into his sleepless nights which he used to launch abhorrent attacks on Jess Phillips MP in particular. If you were fortunate enough to avoid this horrid saga, you can read our summary here.

I must say it is slightly rich of Musk to claim he cares about the safety of women and girls when he propelled a sexual abuser to America’s highest office.

You're not my friend any more!

The big splash of the week comes from The Independent's big story on the cost of Brexit, inspired by our very own Cost of Brexit Tracker. 

Call to action!

Have you or someone you know been recently affected by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) which came into force on the 13th December? If you have Best for Britain wants to hear from you, please send me an email at [email protected] and you could help us in one of our latest projects.

Call to action 2!

Next week MPs will vote on a Youth Mobility Scheme. As regular readers you’ll know we’ve been shouting about this for years now. We’ve made it incredibly easy to write to your MP and encourage them to back it.

On this day in 1569, the first ever lottery was held in England, the prize? A remarkable £5000, which when I checked on the Bank of England inflation calculator (yes, I am a lot of fun at parties) comes to a very handsome £2,050,000, that is a lot of pigeon pie!

In a week that has felt a little surreal. I wish you all the best of luck for the next one.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, catch you next time!

Joshua Edwicker
Best for Britain