Brexit

Express
LIZ TRUSS has sent Irish counterpart Simon Coveney reeling in crunch Brexit talks by continuing to demand the EU backs down on the hated deal.
They met over dinner in London on Thursday night and discussed a number of topics, including the much-disputed Northern Ireland Protocol and the wider relationship with the EU. An Irish Government source told The Guardian: “The minister for foreign affairs and the foreign secretary have previously worked together in the agriculture brief, so it was good to have the opportunity early in the new year to meet in person. They had a good and friendly discussion on all matters in their current brief, including Brexit in Northern Ireland, as well as matters of the UN security council.”
But while the meeting between the pair was described as “good”, UK sources said Ms Truss would not be dropping her demands for more compromises from the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The UK wants a significant reduction in trade barriers impacting both consumers and businesses in Northern Ireland, as well as continuing Lord Frost’s call for changes around rules on state aid and governance and dispute resolution.
This includes a demand for the removal of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as the sole arbiter in the event of trade disputes.

EU

Telegraph
The European Union has been accused of damaging the environment by forcing airlines to operate tens of thousands of “ghost flights” just to keep their airport landing slots.
The Lufthansa Group, which includes Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss, will have made a total of 18,000 unnecessary flights from mid-December to mid-March to comply with Brussels’ rules, according to the company.
Some 3,000 will be made by Brussels Airlines alone, prompting the Belgian government to urge the EU to rethink its rules on securing slots.
George Gilkinet, Belgium’s mobility minister, called for Brussels to put an end to this “environmental, economic and social nonsense” after it emerged his country’s national flag carrier was being forced to make so many empty flights.Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, airlines had to fill at least 80 per cent of their scheduled take-off and landing slots, or risk losing them.
The European Commission has since revised that figure down to 50 per cent, but this still remains much higher than the actual number of flights needed to meet current passenger demand. Lufthansa has said it plans to cancel 33,000 scheduled flights by the end of March because of a slump in demand driven by the wave of omicron infections across the continent.

Express
AIRLINE COMPANIES have blamed the European Union for pushing them to run tens of thousands of “ghost flights” in order to maintain their airport landing slots.
The directives that cause massive damage to the environment have been highly criticised by the environmentalists with many of them requesting the EU to alter the new rules. The rules, which normally require airlines to use at least 80 percent of their allocated slots at airports, were waived in early 2020 as the coronavirus hit the continent.
But since then, the bloc has begun reinstating them, and last month the European Commission set the threshold to 50 percent for the winter travel season.
Lufthansa Group, which includes Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss had to take 18,000 unnecessary flights from mid-December to mid-March to comply with Brussel’s guidelines, the company said.

Energy

Telegraph
HM Treasury is in line for a £1 billion “VAT windfall” from the expected rise in domestic energy bills in April, Tory MPs claim.
Conservative MPs are getting increasingly worried about the political impact of an expected increase in bills of around £700 per household in April, combined with higher council tax bills and a new 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance.
The squeeze on household incomes will come just as MPs are due to be awarded a 2.7 per cent pay rise on April 1.
The Treasury normally receives £2.5 billion a year from five per cent VAT on domestic heating bills.
The Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Tory MPs estimated that around £2 billion comes from piped gas and electricity in most homes.
With the cap on bills from April likely to be increased by around 50 per cent when it is reviewed by Ofgem on February 7, this suggests a “VAT windfall” of around £1 billion for the Treasury.

Express
THE TREASURY is set to receive a £1billion “VAT windfall” from the expected rise in energy bills in April according to Tory MPs.
Bills are expected to rise by around £700 per household in April along with higher council tax bills and a 1.25 percent increase in national insurance. The squeeze on household incomes will come just as MPs are due to receive a 2.7 percent pay rise on April 1.
Craig Mackinlay, who chairs the climate change sceptic Net Zero Scrutiny Group said that the Treasury needed to look again at the windfall.
He told The Telegraph: “This windfall should not be accepted by the Treasury or, if received, it should be targeted at hard-pressed families.”

Mail
Pressure mounted last night for VAT on domestic fuel to be scrapped after it emerged that soaring energy bills could land the Treasury a £1billion ‘windfall’.
This is the total the country’s 30million households would pay in extra tax on bills if the energy price cap rises by £700 in April, as analysts have predicted.
The Prime Minister is expected to hold talks with Rishi Sunak next week amid fears that energy bills could spark a cost-of- living crisis.
A Government source said ministers were agreed that ‘doing nothing is not an option’ but had yet to finalise what help would be offered.
Craig Mackinlay, chairman of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative MPs, said it would be ‘disastrous’ for the Government to profit from the crisis, adding: ‘The Chancellor simply cannot be seen to accept a windfall like that – there is no justification for it.’

Social care

Mail
Crippling isolation rules which made it impossible for hospitals to discharge thousands of patients into social care were eased last night.
Ministers bowed to pressure to relax ‘outdated’ rules stating that care homes should not admit any new residents for 28 days after a single Covid case.
Homes will now have to close for only 14 days after an outbreak – defined as two or more cases.
It comes as staffing shortages mean hundreds of care homes have closed their doors to new residents because they are unable to provide safe levels of care.
Around 10,000 patients a day who were medically fit to be discharged were stuck in hospitals last week, figures show.
Many need a place in a care home or a support package from local social care systems to allow them to return home.
But only four in ten patients medically fit to leave hospital are being discharged each day, NHS England data shows.

Times
At cabinet on Wednesday Boris Johnson made an impassioned defence of his decision to increase national insurance to fund health and social care.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the Commons, questioned the timing of the tax rise given inflation and soaring energy bills.
The prime minister, one ally said, appeared to be “uncharacteristically angry” in response. He told Rees-Mogg that his views were out of step with public opinion and that the NHS backlog needed to be addressed. He said that he personally knew two people who have had cancer treatment repeatedly delayed during the pandemic. The tax rise, he said, was here to stay. “Jacob clearly touched a nerve,” one ally said.

Russia

Times
The head of the armed forces has warned Russia that any attempt by Moscow to sever crucial underwater communication cables could be considered an act of war.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, 56, the new chief of the defence staff, has raised concerns about the increase in Russia’s underwater activity.
“There’s been a phenomenal increase in Russian submarine and underwater activity over the last 20 years,” Radakin told The Times in his first interview since being appointed.
He said the underwater programme was “more than about submarines”. It was about being able to “put at risk and potentially exploit the world’s real information system, which is undersea cables that go all around the world.

Covid

Mail
Nearly four in ten Covid patients in hospitals in England are not primarily being treated for the virus, according to official data that highlights the mildness of Omicron.
NHS figures released today show there were around 13,000 beds occupied by coronavirus sufferers on January 4, of which nearly 4,850 were not mainly sick with the disease. It means close to 40 per cent of patients included in the Government’s daily Covid statistics may have been admitted for something else, such as a broken leg.
The share of so-called ‘incidental’ cases was even bigger in Omicron hotspot London, where 45 per cent of ‘Covid patients’ were not primarily in hospital for the virus.
Experts say there is reason to believe that incidentals will continue to rise as the variant pushes England’s infection rates to record highs, with one in 15 people estimated to have had Covid on New Year’s Eve.
In South Africa — ground zero of the Omicron outbreak — up to 60 per cent of Covid patients were not admitted primarily for the virus at the height of the crisis there.
There are growing calls among experts and politicians for the Government to differentiate between people who’re admitted ‘with’ and ‘from’ Covid to assess the real pressure of the virus on the NHS.
The rise in incidental admissions and lack of any real uptick in ICU cases has given Boris Johnson the confidence to ‘ride out’ the Omicron wave without any further restrictions.

Sun
OMICRON is up to 90 PER CENT milder for boosted Brits, Sajid Javid revealed today in a huge breakthrough for our pandemic fightback.
The Health Secretary said the NHS faces a “rocky” few weeks but remained encouraged by the latest data emerging about the variant.
A killer combination of boosters and groundbreaking antiviral drugs have put the country on a much better footing to fight Covid, he said.
Fears of any more crippling restrictions are fading fast and were today resisted by ministers.

Guardian
Government lawyers have said any legal challenge against making low-paid people take confirmatory PCR tests to get financial support during isolation would stand a high chance of success, the Guardian has learned.
Legal advice circulated within the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) is understood to warn that there is a risk of a challenge under equalities law.
The advice puts the chance of any challenge being successful at 50% to 70%. It says it could be argued that lower socioeconomic groups would be disadvantaged by the move to scrap confirmatory PCR Covid tests for everyone, if low-paid people were still required to get them in order to access £500 payments for support during isolation.
“There is at least a medium-high 50-70% risk of successful challenge in the basis of equality and rationality grounds if we require individuals to have a confirmatory PCR to access TTSP [test-and-trace support] payments,” the advice says.

Telegraph
Fourth Covid vaccines are not currently needed, government scientific advisers have said, amid increasing evidence that the omicron strain is much milder than previous variants.
On Friday night, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) announced that booster jabs continue to provide high levels of protection against severe disease from omicron in older adults, including the most vulnerable.
The committee’s analysis found that, three months after receiving a third jab, protection against hospitalisation among those aged 65 and over remains at around 90 per cent.
Ministers have been exploring the possibility of a fourth jab for several weeks after Israel, considered a global pioneer in Covid vaccination, launched such a programme last month.
But Prof Wei Shen Lim, the JCVI’s chairman of Covid immunisation, said: “The current data show the booster dose is continuing to provide high levels of protection against severe disease, even for the most vulnerable older age groups.
“For this reason, the committee has concluded there is no immediate need to introduce a second booster dose, though this will continue to be reviewed.”

Express
BRITONS will not need a 4th jab of the Covid vaccine, UK health experts have said despite Sajid Javid warning another lockdown is possible.
UK experts have advised that there is no need of introducing a fourth jab yet as booster doses continue to provide high protection against the Omicron variant among older adults. The news comes as the country continues to suffer through a fresh wave of COVID–19 infections dominated by the Omicron variant.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises on vaccine policy, says the priority remains to get first, second and third doses to those who have not already had them.

Mail
A fourth Covid jab is not yet needed, according to British health officials, because booster jabs are continuing to provide high levels of protection against severe disease from the Omicron coronavirus variant among older adults.
Around three months after receiving a third jab, protection against hospitalisation among those aged 65 and over remained at about 90%, the UK Health Security Agency said.
Protection against mild symptomatic infection of the variant, however, is down to about 30% after three months, according to the latest data.
Figures also show the importance of the booster jab as, with just two vaccines doses, protection drops to 70% after three months and down to 50% after six months.
Taking this data into account, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has advised the Government against giving a second booster dose, or fourth jab, to care home residents and those aged over 80.
It added that priority should continue to be given to rolling out the first booster dose, and that unvaccinated people should come forward for their first two doses as soon as possible.

NHS

Morning Star
THE NHS faces a “catastrophic staffing crisis,” unions warned today as surging Covid-19 infection rates saw worker absences jump by 59 per cent in just a week.
Health union GMB said more than a decade of Tory austerity cuts are being exposed by the crisis, as the omicron wave adds to the pressure on a health service that was already massively short of staff before the pandemic hit.
A total of 39,142 NHS workers at hospital trusts across England were absent for reasons related to coronavirus on January 2, more than tripling the previous month’s total, NHS England figures show.
The north-west has been particularly badly hit, with 7,338 staff absent last weekend, up 85 per cent week-on-week, while the north-east and Yorkshire were missing 8,788, more than double the previous seven days’ total.
NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said rising caseloads are “piling even more pressure” on workers, who are “stepping up as they always do.”
But Royal College of Nursing director for England Patricia Marquis slammed the “unsafe” situation.
She said: “Outside of healthcare, staffing shortages are closing shops and cancelling trains but nurses can’t stop helping their patients.
“Instead, they find themselves spread thinner and thinner, but they can’t keep spinning plates indefinitely either.”

iNews
NHS medics have been quitting in record numbers as staff warned of burnout among an overwhelmed workforce.
One worker revealed he battled PTSD and had to quit as an intensive care nurse last year after the trauma of working on Covid wards, with others left in tears due to the strains of the job.
Meanwhile, NHS Million, a campaigning website that supports NHS staff said it is receiving a “constant flood” of “disturbing” messages from workers who have spent almost two years working during the pandemic.
More than 27,000 medics left the NHS in the third quarter of last year, the highest number on record and approximately 2 per cent of the entire workforce, according to NHS England figures.
Almost 7,000 left due to concerns about their work-life balance between July and September last year, the single biggest reason for leaving apart from contracts ending.

BBC News
The headlines were terrifying. Hospitals facing intolerable pressures as patients left dying in corridors, the BBC reported.
It got so bad that 68 leading A&E doctors wrote to the prime minister to spell out their concerns.
This is not now though. It was the winter of 2017-18 – the last bad flu season when more than 300 people a day were dying from that virus at one point.
And that was not even a one-off. In January 2016 hospitals were cancelling routine operations, telling patients to stay away from A&E if they could, and emergency treatment areas were being set up outside some units – just as they are now.
The truth is the past decade has been a story of lengthening waits and declining performance.

ITV News
New figures have revealed the strain the NHS was under in the period between Christmas and New Year as the health service battled with tens of thousands of staff Covid-related absences recorded amid rising patient numbers.
NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said rising Covid-19 cases were “piling even more pressure” on hospital trust workers as figures revealed the number of hospital workers in England absent for Covid-related reasons had risen by almost 60% week-on-week.
Hospital staff absences due to Covid more than doubled in a week across the North East and Yorkshire with a total of 8,788 NHS staff at hospital trusts in the region were ill with coronavirus or having to self-isolate on January 2, up 110% on the 4,179 reported on Boxing Day.
The new NHS England figures, published on Friday, also show Covid hospital staff absences in the North West rose by 85% week-on-week from 3,966 to 7,338, while in the Midlands it was up 65% to 7,931, from 4,812.
Covid staff absences at acute trusts rose by 58% week-on-week in the South West, 42% in the South East and 40% in eastern England.

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