President Joe Biden listens as he meets virtually with Chinese leader Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on November 15, 2021.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File
Kellyanne Conway in her new book says the GOP's "Beijing Biden" attacks didn't connect with voters.
Conway described Trump's 2020 presidential reelection effort as "more solipsistic than scrappy."
Biden during his presidency has received pushback from China for his posture regarding Taiwan.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump and his GOP allies tried earnestly to link then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to China, arguing that the former vice president would be beholden to the economic giant.
While campaigning for reelection in Ohio weeks before the November general election, Trump warned that Biden's ascent to the White House would halt gains in the manufacturing sector.
At that year's Republican National Convention, Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., dubbed the Democrat as "Beijing Biden" while charging that his father's political rival had the support of the Chinese government.
However, Kellyanne Conway, who managed Trump's successful 2016 presidential campaign, was not a fan of the Republican strategy regarding China, according to her newly-released memoir.
In the book, "Here's the Deal," the former Trump senior counselor wrote that the push to link to Biden to the Chinese Communist Party didn't connect with voters, most of whom were tackling an array of challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
"'Beijing Biden' was a foolish attack line. It lacked the Trumpy one-two punch and resonance of 'Crooked Hillary,' which was easy to discern, and people felt actually affected them. It also suggested a dearth of seriousness during a national crisis where folks were more concerned about another city in China: Wuhan," Conway wrote.
She added: "The wartime president, in control, commanding private companies, government agencies, and pharmaceutical innovators, surging supplies, providing resources and information daily to a worried nation: Now, that would have made an easy-to-understand and compelling ad!"
The veteran pollster in her book further reiterated that Trump's reelection effort lacked the "outsider candidate" mentality of the 2016 campaign and was reminiscent of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy that year.
"The $1.4 billion reelect, with its often-absent campaign 'manager' was more solipsistic than scrappy," she wrote of Trump's 2020 bid. "As I told him, 'You were the underdog both times even though you were the president of the United States the second time. But what you didn't have this time was the hunger and the swagger.'"
Since entering the White House last year, Biden has had several foreign policy rifts with China, largely as it relates to the United States' stance of "strategic ambiguity" regarding Taiwan, which the Chinese government considers a breakaway province.
Last November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping informed Biden that his administration was "playing with fire," as the White House in the past has had to walk back statements where the president seemingly remarked that the US would aid in defending Taiwan if it was attacked by China.
When asked on Monday if a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would prompt the US to use military force, Biden responded in the affirmative.
"That's the commitment we made," he said while at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo. "The idea that it [Taiwan] can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate."
A Biden White House staffer later said in a statement that the president "reiterated" the country's resolve "to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself," while adding that "our policy has not changed."
Sonia Subbotina, left, and Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Skochilenko, right, pose together in a picture.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
Alexandra Skochilenko was accused and jailed for replacing store price tags with anti-war messages.
She is held in a St Petersburg pre-trial detention center and in poor health, her girlfriend told Insider.
According to letters written by Skochilenko, she is also being bullied by others prisoners.
Awaiting trial in a St Petersburg detention center, the Russian artist Alexandra Skochilenko is experiencing bullying and "unsanitary" conditions contributing to her ill health, according to her girlfriend.
Skochilenko, 31, was arrested on April 11 after switching supermarket price tags with anti-war slogans in a protest against her country's invasion of Ukraine.
Like many Russians called Alexander or Alexandra, she also goes by the nickname Sasha.
She is charged under a new Russian "fake news" law, which penalizes those who publicly spread so-called false information about Russia's military. Skochilenko does not deny switching the stickers in the supermarket, but argues that the charges against her, and her detention, are excessive.
Skochilenko will be held in a pre-trial detention center until at least June and, if found guilty, faces a fine of three million rubles ($44,827) and up to ten years in prison.
An exterior view of a pre-trial detention center outside of St. Petersburg, Russia, on May 25, 2020.
Sergey Nikolaev/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Sonia Subbotina, who has been in a relationship with Skochilenko for five years, told Insider that she has been communicating with her girlfriend by sending and receiving short letters via a lawyer. Insider has seen sections of some of these letters.
"I feel joy whenever I get a letter from Sasha, and I keep them, and they always read them very often," Subbotina said. "But, really, she often writes very sad things, and it's difficult to read, and I miss her very much."
Sonia Subbotina, left, and Alexandra ‘Sasha’ Skochilenko, right, pose at an art gallery.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
An open wound was left untreated, it's alleged
Subbotina said Skochilenko has struggled to get medical treatment for a catalog of illnesses.
Skochilenko has celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder where eating gluten causes damage to the small intestine.
The artist spent 12 days in a temporary detention center after her arrest, where she was not given gluten-free food. Consequently, Subbotina said, "Sasha was eating very, very little."
Desperately hungry, Skochilenko once ate food containing gluten, Subbotina said. "This made her very sick, and she was throwing up a lot and feeling a lot of pain," she added.
Alexandra Skochilenko poses outside for a photograph.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
Skochilenko was transferred to her current cell in a pre-trial detention center — a more permanent holding place. Initially, Subbotina said, the Russian artist was also being denied appropriate food.
On April 25, the local division of Russia's Federal Prison Service (FSIN) told Interfax that their rules don't require the "provision of separate or individual meals for people who need gluten-free food," per the independent Russian news outlet Meduza.
This position was only reversed in the past couple of weeks after intense media pressure and an intervention by a human rights ombudsman, Subbotina said, ensuring that Skochilenko has since been able to secure strictly gluten-free meals.
But Skochilenko suffers from other health problems that jail officials overlook, Subbotina told Insider.
Alexandra Skochilenko lies on a painted canvas.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
"For about a month and a half, Sasha has been experiencing severe pains in the lower part of her abdomen," she said.
Doctors initially dismissed this as a minor ailment, Subbotina said, but recently identified it as an ovarian cyst. "Sasha continues to experience severe pain, and a gynecologist confirmed that the cyst is growing," she told Insider.
Skochilenko also had an impacted wisdom tooth that was due to be operated on. But because of her arrest, the surgery was canceled. Her pain worsened in jail, Subbotina claimed, prompting jail officials to arrange emergency surgery reluctantly.
"They didn't have stitching material," she said. "So they left it as an open wound, quite a large open wound, and because of this, Sasha is in a lot of pain, and her gums are inflamed, infected, and she is now having to be treated with antibiotics."
Russia's embassy in London did not respond to a request for comment on Skochilenko's case or her detention.
But it's not just poor health harming the Russian artist, Subbotina said.
The conditions are "unsanitary," she claimed. According to Public Verdict, a Russian human rights group, pre-trial detention centers are often overcrowded, lack adequate medical care and cleaning, and are poorly ventilated.
Skochilenko is also struggling with her mental health, her girlfriend said.
Worn down by bullying and harassment in jail
Alexandra Skochilenko is pictured standing outside in a hat and scarf.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
Skochilenko has bipolar affective disorder, a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings, making her particularly vulnerable to stressful or traumatic events.
According to the letters she has sent to her girlfriend, reviewed and translated by Insider, she is being worn down by bullying and harassment in jail.
A fellow detainee in the pre-trial detention center, Skochilenko wrote, "talks to me with an authoritarian tone and constantly gives me orders." She added: "She controls my every move and complains about every single one of my actions."
She claims others have harassed her, telling her that she stinks, that she talks too much, and that she "gets to everyone," according to the letters.
According to a 2020 report by the US State Department, there are reports of prison authorities recruiting inmates to abuse other detainees. Political detainees are often subject to particularly harsh and punitive conditions, the report said.
Skochilenko wrote in a letter that a television broadcasting Russian state TV "shouts all day," only being turned off at night and for cell checks. War propaganda has become the soundtrack to her detainment.
Alexandra Skochilenko wears "Love" sunglasses.
Sonia Subbotina/Insider
Skochilenko is one of more than 2,000 people charged with "discrediting" the Russian army since Putin's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.
Her arrest is unsurprising, her girlfriend said, but the conditions of her detainment and the potential sentence of 10 years in prison have shocked her.
Authorities have rejected her legal team's request to transfer her to house arrest, which, under these circumstances, would be expected, according to Vice. Subbotina has been refused the right to visit her girlfriend. Authorities said they denied the request because she is due to be a character witness in her trial.
All of this shows just how oppressive the Russian regime has become since the start of the war, Subbotina said.
"This is definitely to do with the hardening of the authoritarian regime," she said. "There is no way that a person can speak out safely. Any attempt to show an opinion that differs from the government opinion is punished very, very harshly."
Maxwell Alejandro Frost is seeking the Democratic nomination for Florida's 10th congressional district.
Courtesy/Frost for Congress
25-year-old Maxwell Alejandro Frost could become the first Gen Z member of Congress.
A gun violence prevention advocate, he's running for Congress in Orlando with the backing of top progressives.
Insider spoke with Frost about why he's running for office and what he hopes to accomplish.
Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old gun violence prevention advocate, first became involved in politics after 20 children and six adults were fatally shot at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
A decade later, Frost is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination in Florida's Orlando-area 10th congressional district, and he's grappling once again with the implications of the country's most recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.
"Just last week, I was at a vigil for the Buffalo shooting," Frost told Insider in a phone interview on Friday. "I've actually been to over 60 vigils for shootings in the past decade. 60 vigils that I can remember."
—Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) May 24, 2022
"It is, in a weird way, bringing things full circle," he added, remarking on the similarities of the school shootings in Sandy Hook and Uvalde and the lack of legislative action in the nearly ten years since then. "I don't know if there's a starker condemnation of the government and the inaction than that."
Frost, a member of Generation Z and what he dubs the "mass shooting generation," is running to replace Democratic Rep. Val Demings, who's making a bid for the US Senate. In 2016, he survived a close brush with gun violence himself at a Halloween event in downtown Orlando when two men nearby got into a shooting match with one another. "We all started running," he says. "I remember I had to pick up my friend who froze on the ground."
Now, he stands a very good chance of becoming Congress's newest, most prominent gun violence prevention advocate.
Running on a platform of gun violence prevention, tackling the climate crisis, reforming the criminal justice system, and preventing future pandemics, Frost has already garnered significant support from national groups, including two major Congressional caucuses, several progressive advocacy groups, and six members of Congress. He also has the backing of Sam and Gabe Bankman-Fried, a crypto industry billionaire pouring millions into boosting candidates focused on stopping future pandemics as part of an effective altruist campaign.
"He really is an intersectional candidate," Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and one of Frost's biggest progressive backers, told Insider at the Capitol. "I don't know what I was doing at 25, but I definitely was not thinking about running for office."
Insider caught up with Frost as he swung through Washington, DC earlier this month for a series of campaign-related events, including a fundraiser at a rooftop bar in the city's Adams Morgan neighborhood hosted by Data for Progress founder Sean McElwee, former NexGen America Executive Director Ben Wessel, and a smattering of other progressive activists.
"This is my first ever candidate fundraiser that I've ever been involved in," Wessel told the crowd at the May 10 fundraiser. "Because I really believe in Maxwell."
'You get in for one reason'
Speaking over the hum of live music and car traffic on the street below, Frost recounted the moment he first learned of the school shooting that served as his "call to action." Then a student at a performing arts school in Orlando, he learned of the Sandy Hook massacre while "loading up on junk food" at a TGI Fridays shortly before he and his friends were set to perform at a concert.
"There was just kind of a silence that fell across the entire restaurant," he said. "We all simultaneously looked up at the television screens and saw that somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered a bunch of students and their teachers."
Frost speaks at the fundraiser as Guarding Against Pandemics Director Gabe Bankman-Fried and Progressive Change Campaign Committee founders Stephanie Taylor and Adam Green look on in Washington, DC on May 10, 2022.
Bryan Metzger/Insider
Frost begged his parents to let him travel to DC for the victims' memorial, where he met Matthew Soto, the brother of one of the shooting victims. "I mean, seeing a 16-year-old with the demeanor of a 60-year-old, crying over his sister who was murdered for just going to class that morning," Frost said. "I made a commitment: for the rest of my life, I'm gonna fight for a world where no one has to feel that way, the way I saw Matthew feel."
He later became a volunteer lobbyist with the Newtown Action Alliance, jump-starting what has now amounted to a full decade of heavy involvement in political campaigns and causes. He's since worked on three presidential campaigns, several state-level Florida campaigns including the 2018 "Amendment Four" campaign that restored felons' right to vote in the state, the American Civil Liberties Union, and as the National Organization Director for March for Our Lives, the gun violence prevention group created in the wake of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Biden has since sought to repeal the provision as President, though efforts have been unsuccessful so far due to continued Republican opposition in Congress.
"You get in for one reason, and then you find out there's a lot of things that are messed up," said Frost.
Frost says he's worked as an advocate full-time since graduating high school because he couldn't afford to attend a typical 4-year university. He's currently enrolled at Valencia College in Orlando and says he plans on finishing his degree while serving in Congress, pointing to Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who left college at Boston University after two years to take care of her ailing mother.
Frost was adopted as an infant; his adopted mother is a special education teacher who originally came from Cuba as part of the "Freedom Flights" in the late 1960s, while his father is a musician. "Growing up, there's always been a lot of music in the house," he says.
But last year, while being urged by fellow activists to run for Congress, he reconnected with his biological mother in June. He found out then that he was one of eight biological siblings and that his biological mother struggled with addiction when he was born; she told him that he was trembling, as an infant, in the weeks after his birth due to withdrawals from crack cocaine.
"I wasn't mad. I was just incredibly sad," he told the fundraiser attendees. "Because my biological mother, a woman of color, was born into a ZIP code where she had gotten in this cycle of drugs, poverty, crime. And I knew it wasn't her fault."
It was after receiving the approval of his biological mother that he made his final decision to run for office.
The path to victory
Despite his youth, Frost comes to his first run for office with a formidable degree of institutional backing — far more than other upstart progressives that came before him.
His backers in Congress include Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — "he's the kind of leader we need in troubled times," she told Insider at the Capitol — and Reps. Jayapal, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Ro Khanna of California, and Ritchie Torres and Mondaire Jones of New York.
The political arms of both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus announced their support for him earlier this month, adding to an existing well of support from gun control prevention advocates and groups including the Brady Campaign and Fred Guttenberg, who lost his daughter in the Parkland shooting.
But he's also competing with a crowded field that includes state Sen. Randolph Bracy, who's represented portions of Orlando for the last decade, and Rev. Terence Gray, who's served as the senior pastor at a local church for the past 15 years. Both are likely to have higher name recognition than Frost, and Wes Hodge, chair of the local Orange County Democratic Party, pointed out that money isn't everything.
"The fundraising is impressive," Hodge told Insider. "The question is, will he be able to utilize that war chest effectively to get himself introduced to the district?"
But Hodge also said that the recent redrawing of the 10th district — which shifted the boundaries more towards East Orange County and away from Bracy's traditional base in the Western part of the county — could make the race more competitive for Frost and the other candidates.
"You're getting a younger demographic, you're incorporating [the University of Central Florida]," said Hodge. "Not that I would discount any of the other candidates, because many do have a lot of connections in the community."
And the ongoing back and forth between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state legislature over the final shape of the state's political maps has led to something of a freeze in traditional campaigning, at least until the contours of the district were finalized last month.
"Nobody's really been doing anything aggressive because nobody really knew where the lines were," said Hodge.
'Different allies in different work'
Frost advocates for standard progressive priorities including Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and working to "build toward a future without prison."
"Oh, one hundred percent," he told Insider when asked whether he supports expanding the size of the Supreme Court.
But he conspicuously avoids aligning himself with any particular faction within the Democratic Party, offering praise for Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut on matters of gun violence and for President Biden on ensuring the rapid distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
"I wouldn't necessarily put myself in a specific box," he said, pointing to his work on coalition-building at both March for Our Lives and the ACLU. "We'll sometimes have different allies in different work."
He would also be the first — and potentially the only — Gen Z member of Congress. Currently, the youngest member of Congress is embattled Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who's now on his way out after losing to a primary challenger earlier this month. That came after a series of scandals that concluded with the leak of several compromising videos of the 26-year old congressman.
"I do think he's giving young people and Gen Z a bad name," Frost said of Cawthorn. "Not because of the things that have come out recently, but because he is a fascist, racist person."
—Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) May 18, 2022
But while embracing the Gen Z label, Frost also rejects the idea that the problems has generation faces are dissimilar from those faced by other generations.
"The way we describe the issues might be in a different light because of the experiences that we've had," said Frost, before insisting that "there's a connection between our generations, and our shared humanity and struggle, throughout the systems that our country has in place."
Frost has also placed an unusually strong emphasis on pandemic prevention, working with Gabe Bankman-Fried's Guarding Against Pandemics to develop a plan calling for investments in research, vaccine development, early detection technology, and other measures to minimize the economic harm and loss of human life that could come with a potential future pandemic.
"As an organizer, something I'm always thinking about is how do we win hearts and minds," said Frost. "Now's the time to court public opinion and get people excited about research and retrofitting buildings. I think as time passes, it's gonna be harder to get people excited about that."
"I've been banging this drum in Congress for over a year now," Gabe Bankman-Fried told Insider. "And the thing that we found was that this issue has a million supporters, but very few champions like Maxwell."
Cruise companies have been struggling to hire back crew members.
Carnival has temporarily closed two restaurants on all of its ships.
Norwegian and Cunard have capped cruise ship capacities and canceled sailings.
The cruise industry could be in rocky waters again: Difficulties with hiring crew members has hindered several cruise lines' operations, leaving some would-be cruise-goers with fewer onboard dining options or canceled trips.
Like on-land hospitality companies, cruise lines haven't been immune to worker shortages" amid the Great Resignation. And now, a lack of available cruise workers has begun affecting itineraries and onboard amenities.
This staffing problem is one of the reasons Holland America has decided to "pace its restart over the year," a spokesperson told Insider in a statement. While Royal Caribbean's spokesperson acknowledged similar difficulties in hiring up, the cruise line doesn't expect it'll be canceling any future itineraries.
Not all cruise companies have been as fortunate as Holland America or Royal Caribbean.
Guests sailing with Carnival will also be spared from itinerary changes. But this doesn't mean it'll be smooth sailing for the cruise line. Carnival will temporarily close two restaurants across all of its ships, Fran Golden reported for Bloomberg.
"Our rapid restart has required us to bring back thousands of crew members in a very short time, which has increased the number of resources needed for government officials to process the large number of visa applications and slowed down our ability to fully staff some of our functions, including our culinary team," a Carnival spokesperson told Insider in a statement.
Similarly, Norwegian Cruise Line's Pride of America, which typically operates with over 900 crew members, is now accommodating under 550 workers, Claudette Covey reported for Travel Pulse. As a result, the cruise line has cut the ship's guest capacity as it sails in Hawaii. And some unluckier guests traveling on overbooked ships will have to be rebooked on different itineraries, a spokesperson for Norwegian Cruise Line told Insider.
Like Norwegian, Cunard has limited the number of guests and canceled sailings aboard its Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria ships, blaming the "wider impact of COVID-19" on its difficulties with hiring. There may not be an immediate relief in sight, but a Cunard spokesperson has told Insider that these "necessary" cancellations and capacity issues will be "short term."
A possible recession would cause people to buy more ice cream to indulge in small luxuries, experts predict.
cagkansayin / Getty Images
Analysts think a recession is increasingly likely, as food inflation exceeds 9%.
Trend experts said comfort food like ice cream and meatloaf was likely to shoot up in response.
One expert called the trend "flavor fatigue," as comfort food takes less mental energy to process.
As wallets begin to get pinched by rising costs, which have been instigated by supply shortages and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the increased stress and worry might make some want to reach for the nearest ice cream tub.
Experts say there's a reason for this — and it might cause big changes to the way we eat amid a growing feeling that a recession, and perhaps stagflation, are only a few months away.
In their latest earnings calls, Walmart and Target planned to pass some costs onto consumers, who were already beginning to change their eating habits and buying more essentials like dairy, tuna, and other animal proteins.
'Flavor fatigue' will drive meatloaf and ice cream sales
But as people cut back on restaurant meals and increasingly scrimp, some experts predict a surge in simple luxuries to offset new, austere habits. Leith Steel of San Francisco-based Carbonate, a brand communications industry specializing in hospitality, told Insider that people search for comfort in times of economic hardship.
"We saw a huge surge in comfort foods [during the recession of 2008/09]. Ice cream sales went way up, because it's indulgent but relatively inexpensive," Steel said. "Meatloaf went up because it's comforting and made from scraps." Indeed, a TIME article from 2010 reported that some ice cream vendors saw sales shoot up by 25% between 2009 and 2010.
Steel said that with inflation rising, people would go out to restaurants less and opt instead for comfort at home.
Alex Hayes, co-founder of UK-based food and drink consultancy Harris and Hayes, agreed that comfort food purchases would rise. The psychological reason, she said, came from something called "flavor fatigue."
"Flavor fatigue is a theory suggesting that when times are trickier, people look to simpler flavors which take less energy to process," Hayes said. "It helps explain why comfort foods sales rise in a recession, before switching back to more adventurous foods and flavors when economies return to growth."
"We also see a 'to hell with it attitude,' where people look for comfort, experience, and escape through their choices," Hayes added. Her final point perhaps explained why Walmart said they were experiencing increased sales of luggage as pandemic-era restrictions unwind.
Fewer vegetables but more 'flexitarians'
A surge in comfort eating may come at the price of healthier eating habits, particularly as fresh food prices rise and impact the demand for vegetables.
"Fresh vegetables are considerably more expensive than they were last year, resulting in a slump in fresh sales," Hayes said.
Emilie Vanpoperinghe, founder Oddbox, a UK-based food company that delivers oddly-shaped vegetables to customers, told Insider that in times of high inflation vegetables were typically the first item to be left behind.
"When there's pressure on the cost of living people move away from fruit and veg, to more calorific food, Vanpoperinghe said. "Fresh produce is going to suffer with inflation because a lot of people can't afford this healthy diet when they're struggling with the cost of living."
"This is not only part of a sustainable lifestyle. It's also to navigate the rising costs of animal proteins," Hayes said. "Those that do eat meat or fish are seeking out cheaper cuts, and experimenting with ways of making it go further."
Boris Johnson at a partygate press conference in Downing Street on May 25, 2022.
Leon Neal - WPA Pool /Getty Images
Boris Johnson is said to be mulling a Cabinet reshuffle in July as he looks to regain control.
The prime minister is facing a brewing leadership crisis, after more Tory MPs demand he resign.
Backbenchers were sceptical, with one saying it was "being held out as a carrot for the gullible."
Boris Johnson is considering a reshuffle in mid-July, as he looks to shore up his leadership following yet another torrid week for the prime minister.
Multiple sources said they were expecting a round of changes to the Cabinet in the "last week or two" before recess begins, which is currently expected in the third week of July.
Reshuffles are often carried out close to a recess to allow those who have been sacked to lick their wounds in private.
One Conservative MP said he had been personally sounded out about a job, although expressed scepticism about whether he would take it in the current climate.
Another backbencher – who is not expecting to be tapped up for a job – said the reshuffle was "being held out as a carrot for the gullible," while others expressed a similar tone.
On Friday, Home Office PPS Paul Holmes resigned and a fifth MP – chair of the justice committee Bob Neill – submitted a letter of no confidence.
The veteran backbencher said in a statement: "Trust is the most important commodity in politics, but these events have undermined trust in not just the office of the Prime Minister, but in the political process itself. To rebuild that trust and move on, a change in leadership is required."
But while questions remain as to whether Johnson will face a vote in his leadership, Number 10 is planning to promote "loyalists," sources said.
Number 10 did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Names in the frame include former justice secretary Robert Buckland, who "is being tipped for a come-back," according to one of his colleagues.
Matt Warman, a former digital minister, is also in with a good chance of returning to government, sources said.
Possible leadership rival Jeremy Hunt may be offered something in the hope of diminishing his threat, although one MP noted he was "not exactly winning many friends at the minute" after he claimed he would not have imposed lockdowns, despite numerous previous comments to the contrary.
However, reshuffles risk making enemies as well as friends, which is one reason why Johnson's changes in February were something of a damp squib.
However, more heads would need to roll in order to fulfill the more comprehensive reshuffle that is widely expected, following the more limited spring "he-shuffle".
Another Tory said: "Ministers were definitely a bit twitchy at the end of last week… they were nervy about former ministers returning for various reasons."
Some workers have been quitting their jobs to win pay rises and more flexibility.
Masafumi Nakanishi/Getty Images
Workers have been using the Great Resignation to demand higher wages and better working conditions.
A recession could change things, say senior executives who spoke to Insider at the Davos summit.
Inflation in the US rose to 8.3% in April, prompting the Fed to raise interest rates.
The Great Resignation that's swept through the American workforce over the past two years has been an expression of worker power.
The pandemic lockdowns liberated them from their daily routines, desks and overbearing bosses, with workers exerting a new level of control.
They're resigning in their droves, no longer willing to put up with companies that don't give them what they want. In March, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, notching up the 10th consecutive month that resignations surpassed 4 million.
But a looming recession could change things, according to senior executives Insider spoke to at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.
Coram Williams, finance chief of the Adecco Group, told Insider: "If some of the things that people are talking about come to fruition – if the levels of inflation are sustained, if interest rates continue to rise, if energy prices don't come down – I think it by definition shifts some of the balance."
Supply chain woes, exacerbated by COVID-19 lockdowns in China, the Ukraine War and rising energy prices, coupled with a tight labor market pushed consumer price inflation up to 8.3% in the 12 months to April.
"I don't know whether it will be a soft or a hard landing," Williams added. "But it's clearly going to take some of the froth out of the world economy. And that means that you have some aspect of rebalancing within labor markets, which probably shifts the pendulum slightly for slightly more back towards the employer."
However, that doesn't mean workers will suddenly be left completely powerless.
Ravin Jesuthasan, global transformation leader at Mercer, told Insider: "These concepts of flexibility are here to stay, it's just not going to go. I know many hope we'll just go back to where we were in January of 2020, but that's just not going to happen."
Is the great resignation simply the great reshuffle?
While Americans are quitting their jobs, they're not giving up work. They are seeking to take advantage of the labor shortage to move into roles that pay more and offer greater satisfaction and flexibility. Some are also setting up their own businesses.
"You can call it what you like – we call it the 'Great Re-evaluation'. What's really happening is that people are reconsidering the jobs that they do, not reconsidering their participation in the labor market," Williams said.
Stephanie Trautman, chief growth officer at tech giant Wipro, told Insider: "People are still evaluating, you know, what do I do? Do I enjoy what I do? Do I have the kind of opportunities?"
As long as the labor shortage persists, many workers will continue to hold the upper hand.
