Month: July 2022

But he stopped short of formally declaring a climate emergency, which would grant him further powers.

Mr Biden spoke in Massachusetts as a heatwave brings extreme weather to Europe and North America.

Tens of millions of people in the US, across more than two dozen states, are living under heat warnings this week.

“Climate change is literally an existential threat to our nation and to the world,” the president said in Wednesday’s speech, which was delivered outside a former coal-fired power plant in the town of Somerset. “The health of our citizens and our communities is… at stake. So we have to act.”

He said the funding would go to expanding flood control, shoring up utilities, retrofitting buildings, and helping families pay for heating and cooling costs.

The money comes from an existing Federal Emergency Management Agency budget and will be prioritised for disadvantaged communities, said the White House.

It includes $385m to help states fund air conditioning units in homes and community cooling centres.

The administration also plans to provide additional support for offshore wind and energy development in the Gulf of Mexico, and enforce new workplace standards to help protect workers from extreme weather.

While Mr Biden said that he will treat extreme climate conditions as “an emergency”, he stopped short of formally declaring a federal emergency.

The president has been under mounting pressure from fellow Democrats and environmental groups to do so after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin – a conservative Democrat – last week said that he would not support legislation aimed at addressing climate change, dealing a significant blow to Mr Biden’s agenda. Mr Manchin raised concerns about inflation.

The president said on Wednesday that since Congress “is not acting as it should”, he plans to announce additional executive actions in the coming weeks.

“Our children and grandchildren are counting on us,” he said. “If we don’t keep [climate change] below 1.5C, we lose it all. We don’t get to turn it around.”

President Biden entered office promising to restore US credibility on climate action and overturn the “rollbacks” of President Trump’s environmental policy.

On his first day, he signed an executive order for the US to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords. In April last year he pledged to slash US greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030.

But the path to turn these promises into action has been anything but straightforward for Mr Biden. This latest round of executive orders demonstrates the troubles he has faced in getting climate policy through the normal routes.

Ahead of the Glasgow climate conference, Mr Biden promised the US would provide $11.4bn a year in climate finance by 2024 – to help developing countries tackle and prepare for climate change. But in March he managed to secure just $1bn of that from Congress – only a third more than the Trump-era spending.

Wednesday’s executive orders do demonstrate Mr Biden is determined in his efforts. But he is perhaps also wary of pushing too far in using this type of presidential powers.

Just last month the Environmental Protection Agency lost some of its power to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court – following a case bought by 19 coal-producing states worried about job losses.

It is clear the battle lines have been drawn in the US on climate action – and time will tell how far Biden will get in his presidency in delivering his ambitions.

The Department for Transport cancelled a contract with P&O after it conducted a review of government business with P&O, after the sackings in March.

The Ministry of Defence said it used P&O to support a recent exercise.

It came after the RMT transport union said it saw evidence the MoD had bought slots on P&O’s Dover-Calais service.

In March, P&O replaced its sacked staff with foreign agency workers paid less than the minimum wage.

Its services were suspended after the mass sackings and several of the company’s vessels failed safety inspections before being cleared to resume operating.

The reduced ferry capacity was one factor in long lorry queues building up around Dover before Easter.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused P&O at the time of “acting like pirates of the high sea” and initiated a review of the government’s contracts – which led to the termination of a contract between the Home Office and P&O Ferries.

The Department for Transport said that P&O was not providing any direct services to the government. It later said it could not rule out the possibility government departments would use P&O services on an ad-hoc basis.

It has now emerged that the Ministry of Defence used P&O Ferries while air transport was busy supporting Ukraine.

Responding to the military’s use of P&O, a government spokesperson said: “We do not have any contracts with P&O.

“The Ministry of Defence occasionally require specific logistics operations to support national and international security arrangements.

“P&O Ferries are the provider of last resort in such situations, on an exceptional basis only,” the spokesperson added.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch described the MoD’s use of P&O services as “new low, even by this zombie government’s sinkhole standards”.

He urged the government to issue a statement prohibiting public contracts with P&O Ferries and its parent company DP World.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss topped the final ballot of MPs on Wednesday.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Sunak said he would introduce “a set of reforms as radical as the ones Margaret Thatcher drove through in the 1980s”.

In the Daily Mail, Ms Truss promised “tax-cutting, enterprise-boosting, business-friendly Conservative policy”.

The pair emerged as the final candidates after Ms Truss overturned a narrow lead held by Trade minister Penny Mordaunt, at one point the favourite, to secure the backing of 113 Tory MPs to Ms Mordaunt’s 105.

Former Chancellor Mr Sunak, who consistently led among MPs, topped the ballot with 137 votes. Polls suggest he is less popular among the Conservative Party membership who will vote for their preferred candidate next month.

The two finalists will now set out their stalls at 12 hustings to be held around the UK. The first will take place in Leeds on 28 July, while the last will be in London on 31 August.

There will also be two televised debates, one hosted by the BBC on 25 July, the other hosted by Sky News on 4 August.

The party’s roughly 160,000 members will vote online or by post and are expected to receive their ballots by 5 August, with a final result to be announced on 5 September.

Polls currently suggest Foreign Secretary Ms Truss, who has criticised Mr Sunak for raising taxes during his time as chancellor, is the favoured candidate of the membership.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Ms Truss said “the central issue at the next election is going to be the economy” and “we have been going in the wrong direction on tax”.

“The central battleground will be about whether we go for growth and cut taxes, or carry on with business as usual and tax rises,” she said.

“I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April’s national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills.”

She also pledged to bring in an emergency budget to get the changes through quickly and to announce a spending review to “find more efficiencies in government spending”.

In the Daily Telegraph, Mr Sunak wrote that he believed in “hard work, family and integrity”, adding: “I am running as a Thatcherite, and I will govern as a Thatcherite.”

“The best way to achieve economic growth is cutting taxes and bureaucracy, and boosting private sector investment and innovation,” he said.

Mr Sunak has previously said the tax burden needed to be reduced but not immediately, saying it was a matter of “when not if”.

He also wrote that he believed he is the candidate best placed to beat Labour at the next general election.

Speaking on BBC Newsnight, Tory MP Simon Hart, who is backing Mr Sunak, said: “Some people have just a little bit of value added, a little bit of something extra.

“And I think, with Rishi, as soon as he [entered Parliament], it was quite obvious that he was a class act.”

Former Scottish Conservative Party leader Baroness Davidson, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said Mr Sunak was “the person best placed to steer us through those choppy economic waters”.

Truss supporter Vicky Ford told Newsnight that the foreign secretary was “extremely thoughtful, sets very clear priorities, and gets things done”.

Chloe Smith, another MP backing Ms Truss, said she was experienced across different departments and “absolutely fierce and determined when she sets her mind on what needs to be done”.

Wednesday also saw the final appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions by Boris Johnson, who said of his time in office: “Mission largely accomplished, for now”.

He also advised the next prime minister to “focus on the road ahead, but always remember to check the rear-view mirror and remember above all it’s not Twitter that counts, it’s the people who sent us here.”

Mr Johnson thanked House of Commons staff, friends, and colleagues before concluding with the phrase “Hasta la vista, baby”, a quote from the sci-fi film The Terminator.

Some commentators have said that raises questions about his future ambitions, given the character’s other famous line: “I’ll be back”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer focused his attack at PMQs on the candidates vying to replace Mr Johnson as leader, saying that they “got us into this mess and have no idea how to get us out of it”.

Mr Draghi, who has led a unity government for 17 months, will tell the Senate in the morning whether or not he is prepared to stay in office.

Hours later there will be a vote of confidence in the government.

Elections were already due to take place early next year.

The unelected ex-head of the European Central Bank was due to stand down at that point anyway. But a key member of his broad unity coalition, the populist Five Star movement, prompted his decision by pulling out of a confidence vote last Thursday over policy disagreements.

Amidst the war in Ukraine, the recovery from the Covid pandemic, and concerns about global energy prices, it is not the most opportune moment for a political crisis.

But Mr Draghi, 74, has indicated he won’t govern without Five Star, and now a country that has seen almost 70 governments since World War Two will find out if its latest administration will fall too.

If he does resign, the EU’s third-biggest economy could be plunged into early elections, delaying much-needed reforms as well as Italy’s 2023 budget. Italy is the biggest recipient of grants and loans from the EU’s enormous Covid recovery fund, but its next instalment is dependent on a list of changes.

Mr Draghi has made no comment since President Sergio Mattarella rejected his resignation and saw him again on Tuesday for a scheduled meeting.

However, 1,600 mayors as well as 250 business leaders and unions have called on him to stay, and ratings agency Fitch has warned that reforms would probably become more challenging without him.

Florence’s centre-left mayor, Dario Nardella, said the big number of signatures by city leaders was unprecedented and indicated “very strong feeling” across the political spectrum for Mr Draghi not to resign.

As the technocrat prime minister has said nothing yet in public, it is not clear what will happen next. He met centre-left leader Enrico Letta ahead of the vote and later figures from the centre right too.

Regional affairs minister Mariastella Gelmini, of the Forza Italia party, said the centre right was backing Mr Draghi to stay in office “no ifs, no buts”. However, her party and the far-right League said they were not prepared to continue in government with Five Star, casting further doubt on a revived unity coalition.

If the man dubbed “Super Mario” does follow through with his decision, President Mattarella could ask him to remain in office for weeks or even months, or he could appoint a caretaker leader such as Finance Minister Daniele Franco until next year.

Opinion polls suggest Italy’s next prime minister would come from the far right. Giorgia Meloni, leader of Brothers of Italy, has already called for an autumn election, highlighting a recent poll that gave her party 23.8% of the vote. “This explains why the left is so scared of elections,” she said.

Unlike the rest of the right, Ms Meloni is not part of the Draghi government, but the League and Forza Italia would be natural partners with her in any future coalition.

In the last election in 2018, Five Star was the biggest party, but it has been beset by internal rows and defections and is performing poorly in the polls.

Its leader, former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, triggered the crisis last week, opposing a €23bn (£19.5bn) package of economic aid for families and businesses, arguing Mr Draghi was not doing enough to tackle the cost of living crisis. It also cited opposition to a planned waste incinerator in Rome.

But many observers believe Five Star was simply trying to regain popularity and that by jockeying for relevance it was risking Italy’s political future.

Unblocking Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea was high on the agenda – Mr Putin said progress had been made.

The civil war in Syria was also discussed, with Turkey and Russia historically backing opposing sides.

The summit was a chance for Mr Putin to show he still has international allies.

Speaking after his meeting with the Russian president, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran and Moscow should strengthen their ties, and suggested that the West was to blame for the war in Ukraine.

“If you did not take the initiative, the other side would have caused the war with its own initiative,” Mr Khamenei told Mr Putin.

The US said the Russian leader’s visit to Iran showed how isolated Russia has become in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

Invading your neighbour, a sovereign independent country, tends to lose you friends.

And Russia’s lost plenty after invading Ukraine. In the West Moscow has achieved pariah status.

But the Kremlin is keen to show that international sanctions have failed to isolate Russia, the world’s largest country, and that some of its friends are sticking around. Like Turkey and Iran.

Russia will use the three-way summit on Syria to try to demonstrate it retains powerful allies and geo-political influence.

But we’re not talking BFF (best friends forever). Turkey and Iran are also Russia’s rivals. Turkey and Russia are on opposing sides in Syria and in Libya; they are competing for influence in the South Caucasus; Turkish combat drones have been supporting the Ukrainian military. As for Iran, it’s competing with Russia in global energy markets.

True, Russia, Turkey and Iran do have some common interests. But that is no guarantee of long-lasting friendship.

In Tehran, Mr Putin also held his first face-to-face meeting since the start of the war with the leader of a Nato country, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Despite being a key member of the Western military alliance, Turkey has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow, with Mr Erdogan’s government seeking to play the role of mediator.

Most recently, Ankara has been trying to negotiate an end to the grain blockade in the Black Sea, which is stopping millions of tonnes of desperately needed grain from leaving Ukraine and being delivered to countries around the world.

Russia’s Black Sea fleet is said to be stopping any shipments getting in or out, and the BBC has documented mounting evidence that Moscow’s forces have stolen and exported Ukrainian grain. Other routes have been heavily mined.

On Tuesday, Mr Putin said progress had been made on the issue, and thanked Mr Erdogan for mediating the talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Later the Russian president told journalists that Moscow would facilitate the export of Ukrainian grain, if “all restrictions related to air deliveries for the export of Russian grain” were lifted.

The three countries’ leaders also discussed the long-running war in Syria, with Iran and Russia supporting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey backing rebel forces.

Turkey has threatened to launch a fresh offensive in northern Syria against US-backed Kurdish militants, a move which both Iran and Russia oppose. The operation is part of Mr Erdogan’s plans to create a 30km (20 mile) safe zone along Turkey’s border with Syria.

Mr Erdogan said he expects support from Russia and Iran “in its fight against terrorism”.

Last week, the UN Security Council agreed to re-authorise cross-border deliveries of aid to rebel-held Syria for six months after Russia had initially blocked a proposal for a one-year extension.

In Wennington, east London, around 100 firefighters tackled a blaze which began in grassland before spreading to nearby homes.

Several brigades declared major incidents due to the number of 999 calls they were receiving.

Tuesday saw a record temperature of 40.3C in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

Thirty-three other locations saw highs that surpassed the previous record of 38.7C.

Residents who had to be evacuated from homes near the Wennington fire told the BBC that around eight houses and possibly a local church had been destroyed, while one firefighter at the scene described it as “absolute hell”.

Dramatic images from the scene showed smoke billowing from a number of buildings, some with their roofs collapsed, and extensive damage to the surrounding land.

Tim Stark, who alerted the fire brigade and whose own house was destroyed in the blaze, told BBC Radio 5 Live he and his son had spotted the fire in his neighbour’s garden but, despite their best efforts with a hose and watering can, had been unable to stop it spreading.

“I reckon about 15-20 houses might be gone or uninhabitable,” he said.

“My house is completely gone, as is the next door neighbour’s and three or four other houses along that bit.”

The London Fire Brigade, which declared a major incident after being called to fires in all corners of the capital, said the Wennington blaze was under control by 21:47 BST on Tuesday night.

Major incidents were also declared by fire services in Leicestershire, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight, Paul Hedley, wildfire lead at the National Fire Chiefs’ Council, described them as a “wicked problem to solve” and warned they are becoming more common.

“We’re seeing [the wildfire] season extending right through the year,” he said.

“We’re getting warmer, wetter winters, which are great for vegetation growth. The dead growth… is getting dried out much more easily and quickly because we’ve got warmer weather starting a lot earlier in the year.

“If what we’re seeing, and have seen for the last two days, is going to become the norm, I think we really are in for a very difficult time.”

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change, and that hot, dry weather is likely to fuel wildfires.

The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

The high temperatures brought disruption to a number of public services on Tuesday.

Miriam Deakin, interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said the heatwave had forced hospitals to scale back planned surgeries, while a spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said the service had seen above-average calls and was expecting to see the impact of heat-related illness into the weekend.

On the rail network, there was no service on the East Coast Main Line or into and out of London King’s Cross, while numerous operators ran only a limited service.

Network Rail said that temperatures in some areas were higher than the design limits for track and overhead line equipment – with the infrastructure owner tweeting that it expected the heat to expand each kilometre of rail by 30cm.

Rail disruption is expected to continue into Wednesday, with a number of operators including Avanti West Coast, South Western Railway, Great Northern, and Southeastern, cancelling some services or telling customers to expect delays.

Around 8,000 properties in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and north-east England were left without power after the extreme temperatures caused equipment to overheat.

At least nine people are also known to have died since Saturday while swimming in lakes and rivers.

There will be almost 700 additional services running each day as the train operator reinstates its May timetable.

However, it has warned that passengers could still face disruption as a result of extreme heat over recent days.

It said that the high temperatures could have damaged infrastructure and trains may be out of position.

A temporary timetable has been in place since 23 May after drivers refused to work overtime or on rest days during the dispute.

It was introduced just weeks after ScotRail was brought into public ownership in a bid to reduce the number of trains that were cancelled at short notice.

Services on routes across Scotland have been heavily disrupted as a result.

Members in the Aslef union have now voted to accept an improved pay offer, which includes a 5% wage increase, more money for rest day and Sunday working and a policy of no compulsory redundancies for the next five years.

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, described the last few months as “challenging” and thanked passengers for their patience.

“I’d encourage customers to check their journey before they travel as our timetable returns to May 2022 levels, particularly given the disruption to services over recent days due to the extreme heat,” he said.

“We know how much people right across the country rely on rail travel, so we’re pleased to increase the number of services.”

The train operator also warned it was having to manage some increases in Covid-related absences among staff following the recent surge in infections across the country.

While ScotRail is restoring services, train travellers in Scotland still face further disruption as other rail workers plan industrial action.

Network Rail workers are set to walk out for 24 hours on July 27. During similar action last month, ScotRail could only run reduced services on five lines in the central belt.

Meanwhile, LNER, which runs cross-border services between Scotland and London, is one of eight rail companies where workers are taking action on July 30.