Glasgow, Scotland – Donald Trump visited Scotland this weekend as part of his four-day trip to Britain. Trumps visit comes at a politically uncertain time, with Britain still in the process of negotiating exit terms with the European Union. With Brexit in mind, British Prime Minister Theresa May is keen to strengthen the U.S.-UK alliance, which the ruling class in Britain commonly refers to as the ‘special relationship.’ However, May’s Tory government is increasingly divided, with several of her cabinet resigning over the past week. The ‘Brexiteers’ who have resigned, including the Secretary of State Boris Johnson and David Davis, citing what they see as a ‘soft’ Brexit. In this backdrop, May will be keen to secure a trade agreement with the U.S. and cement Britain’s position as a junior partner to U.S. imperialism.

Glasgow, Scotland – A group of major military weapons producers organized an international arms fair in Glasgow that included over 50 companies and over 1000 delegates. One of the major sponsors of the Underseas Defense Technology conference is BAE Systems, which produces fighter jets in factories on the Clyde that are sold to the Israeli government to continue their war against the Palestinians. Other sponsors of the event include Leonardo, an Italian weapons corporation that sells weapons to the Turkish government, which are used in their war against the Kurdish people. Some referred to this arms fair as a 'supermarket of death.'

Glasgow, Scotland – The British government led by Teresa May and the Tories (the Conservative Party) has been engaged in a diplomatic war with Russia for the last few weeks. On March 4, Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a chemical nerve agent, resulting in their hospitalization. Skirpal was formerly an intelligence officer for the Russian government, but had betrayed his country when he joined the British intelligence service. Since the incident, the British government has claimed that Russia was behind the poisoning even though no evidence has been found to support this claim.

Glasgow, Scotland – As of March 17, for the last month, lecturers across the United Kingdom have been on strike in response to changes in their pension plans. The employers’ organization, Universities UK (UUK) are attempting to abolish the lecturers’ existing pension plans, which guarantees retirement based on their salary. They want to replace this pension scheme with one that would be determined by the stock market, which is highly unstable and does not guarantee retirement. The University and College Union (UCU) has argued that this new scheme would make lecturers lose over £10,000 a year, and £200,000 by the time of retirement – equivalent to about $280,000.