EU
Express
DONALD TUSK has warned the European Union could be destroyed from within amid an internal standoff with Poland and Hungary.
The former European Council President said various quarrels brewing in Eastern Europe could start a process resulting in the destruction of the bloc. Warsaw and Budapest are at odds with Brussels over issues such as the independence of the judiciary and press freedoms.
Speaking to TVN24, Mr Tusk theorised that, should more countries follow the example of Poland and Hungary, the EU could fall apart.
He said: “If more of these kinds of countries are found who insist on damaging… the European Union it may simply mean the end of this organisation.”
Although he did not mention a timeline of events, he suggested an eventual end to the EU did exist.
“We will not leave the EU tomorrow, and the EU will not fall apart the day after tomorrow,” he said.
“These are processes that can take years.”
The European Commission launched legal action against Hungary in relation to a new law which bans schools from using materials deemed as promoting homosexuality.
On Thursday, it also opened a case against Poland following the introduction of “LGBT-ideology free zones” in some regions.
The Commission condemned the nations over their actions which fly in the face of the EU’s core values.
In a statement, the EU said: “Equality and the respect for dignity and human rights are core values of the EU. The Commission will use all the instruments at its disposal to defend these values.”
Telegraph
New environmental rules imposed by Brussels are set to make air travel more expensive, analysts have warned.
Tickets may rise by between 5pc to 8pc under carbon pricing rules proposed as part of the European Union’s “Fit for 55” scheme, UBS warned.
Jarrod Castle, an analyst at the bank, said airlines would face the highest bills across the transport sector if they were forced to offset their own emissions.
He warned that a new minimum tax on aviation fuel for flights within the EU would also push up costs for operators and “is likely to result in the industry trying to increase ticket prices”.
EU policymakers unveiled the scheme this week. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, set out detailed plans for how member nations can cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half before 2030 as part of a wider “net zero” drive by 2050.
The plan, which runs to hundreds of pages, includes a restricted energy taxation system, new targets for renewable energy and efficiency, as well as a carbon border adjustment mechanism – effectively a tax on imports from less environmentally-conscious countries.
Quarantine
Express
THE UK GOVERNMENT has confirmed it will be putting quarantine measures back in place for French arrivals. What does this mean for those hoping to visit in the coming weeks?
The UK Government is to put in place tightened quarantine measures for all travellers entering the UK from France. This means current quarantine measures will remain in place from July 19 when the self-isolation rules relax for amber list country arrivals.
The quarantine rules are in place regardless of vaccination status.
Boris Johnson’s Government has made the decision following a surge in cases of the Beta variant in France.
The Beta variant was originally detected in South Africa.
According to the Government: “While current cases of the Beta variant in France are not high enough to require arrivals to enter managed quarantine, it is important to consider the potential detection and transmission risk in light of the current situation in England.
Similar stories can be read in the Mail, Telegraph, Mirror, Guardian, Sun, Independent. Times, ITV News,
Covid
Mail
One of England’s biggest hospitals has been forced to cancel all scheduled operations for 48 hours because it has run out of beds, in another sign that the third wave of Covid is beginning to pile pressure on the NHS.
All spaces in Birmingham‘s Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s intensive care unit were taken up, forcing it to call off dozens of routine operations such as liver transplants and cancer surgery yesterday and today.
One of the trust’s bosses blamed the move on a ‘flood’ of patients with the coronavirus, with hospitalisations now starting to spiral across the country following a ferocious surge in cases.
Analysts tracking the health service’s battle with the virus say the current figures are already outpacing some of SAGE‘s worst-case scenarios, which warned of more than 2,000 infected patients being admitted for treatment every day later this summer.
It comes as South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust – which is dealing with one of the highest infection rates in the country – begged staff to cancel holidays so they could cope with demand.
The trust offered staff a £250 bonus if they could cram a week’s worth of overtime over the next six weeks.
Similar stories can be read in the Mail, Sun, Breitbart
‘Pingdemic’
Mail
It has been a long time coming but so-called ‘Freedom Day’ – July 19 – when Britain emerges from the shackles of life under Covid restrictions is almost upon us.
And yet, as I write, hundreds of thousands of people around the country are placing themselves back in lockdown.
By that I mean they are victims of the ‘pingdemic’ and have, in recent weeks, been ‘pinged’ by the NHS Covid-19 app.
As a result they must isolate for ten days because they are deemed at risk of infection having come in to contact with a known infected individual. But what is isolation but lockdown by any other name?
The irony is that the many of those now stuck at home are healthy.
They will have had at least one Covid vaccination and are likely to be symptom-free and at reduced risk of transmitting the virus, yet they are effectively prisoners in their homes.
The consequences are far reaching as the Mail reported yesterday. In the first week of July, 900,000 alerts were issued in England and Wales – more than 500,000 pings and the remainder issued by NHS contact tracers.
Businesses throughout the country are being hit by escalating staff shortages – with factories cutting shifts or on the verge of closing, and hospitality venues having to shutter up barely months after they had reopened.
Meanwhile, hospitals that were just starting to deal with the backlog caused by Covid are cancelling operations and closing beds because clinical staff are unable to come into work.
Food shortages – as manufacturers are forced to limit production – and suppliers crippled by lack of drivers for delivery to supermarkets are forecast.
Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Mail
Social care
Guardian
Downing Street is considering plans for a manifesto-breaking tax rise that would be earmarked to pay for fixing the social care system, according to Whitehall sources.
One option being weighed up by ministers is an increase in either income tax or employee national insurance, which could be branded as a social care levy or precept.
The Conservative manifesto promised no increase in national insurance or income tax, but these are deemed the only taxes with a broad enough revenue base to raise the sums required.
The concept of a social care precept already exists for council tax, with local authorities permitted by the Treasury to use it to raise money to fund the creaking system.
Boris Johnson, the prime minister, claimed in 2019 that he had a plan to “fix the crisis in social care once and for all”. No such plan has since emerged, but negotiations have been ongoing in recent weeks between Johnson, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, and meetings are expected to continue over the weekend.
Several government sources insisted no final decision had yet been made and it was unclear whether an outcome would emerge before MPs leave Westminster for the summer recess next week.
The current system, widely viewed as unfair, results in some families facing crippling costs of hundreds of thousands of pounds for a loved one to be cared for.
Any deal between Johnson, Sunak and Javid is expected to be modelled on the decade-old Dilnot report, which proposed a lifetime cap on care costs of £25,000 -£50,000, with the balance met by the state.
A similar story can be read in the Morning Star.
Olympics
Guardian
A person has tested positive for Covid-19 at the Tokyo Olympics athletes’ village, organisers said, adding to concerns about infections at the Games which begin next week.
Tokyo 2020 chief Toshiro Muto confirmed on Saturday that a visitor from abroad who is involved in organising the Games had tested positive. He would not reveal the person’s nationality, citing privacy concerns.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, postponed for a year due to the global pandemic, is being held mostly without spectators and under tight quarantine rules.
Athletes are just starting to arrive for the Games which runs 23 July through 8 August.
Japan’s public has been lukewarm about the Games amid a resurgence in new coronavirus infections and worries that an influx of foreign visitors may help turn it into a super-spreader event, which in turn could put further strain on Japan’s already stretched medical system.
Three days ago, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said a “safe and secure” Tokyo Olympics will be a show of global solidarity during the pandemic – on the same day as infections in the host city reached their highest level for almost six months.
German floods
Express
EXTREME FLOODS in Germany and western Europe have killed at least 120 people with more than 1,300 still missing.
Record rainfall in western Europe has caused major rivers to burst their banks in west Germany resulting in the worst flooding in decades. Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands have also been affected by the freak weather. A total of 20 deaths have been officially confirmed in Belgium, with that figure expected to rise.
“There wasn’t anything left that could be broken – it was so terrible, we couldn’t help anyone.
“People were waving out of their windows,” said Frank Thel, a resident of one of the worst affected areas.
An estimated 114,000 homes are now without power in the region and the village of Schuld is reported to be almost entirely destroyed as water levels continue to rise.
Several more people died in a landslide when the ground collapsed into a nearby gravel pit in the town of Blessem, near Cologne.
Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Mail, Guardian, ITV News, Sun, Independent, Mirror
https://www.sdp.org.uk
Donald Tusk foresees the break up of the EU !! I wonder whether his worries are similar to Mikhail Gorbachev’s ‘prophesy’ that E.U. was making the same mistakes as the U.S.S.R. made.
Have you any more information on that Viv? What was it Gorbi was referring to? It could have been economic policies and state control but maybe it was suppression of the Nation States’ Cultural Heritage. For example, Poland’s loyalty to Catholicism was part of that country’s quarrels with Moscow.
Well I’m blowed. Who would have thought that? Us humans can change the Global Climate by imposing taxes!
Perhaps there would have been less flooding in the EU if they had allowed dredging of their rivers.
The Moon is Wobbling! I’ve just read it in the Telegraph. Nasa reports that due to a wobble in the moon’s orbit there will be devastating coastal flooding in the 2030s.
PB exactly what I thought when I saw the pix on tv.