Month: August 2022

Seventh Fleet commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas said otherwise such action by China would become the norm, calling it “a gorilla in the room”.

Beijing held military drills around the self-governing island earlier this month but did not confirm if any missiles passed directly over it.

Tensions soared after US politician Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.

Her high-profile visit infuriated Beijing, which claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory.

Tuesday’s comments by Vice Admiral Thomas are significant, Based in Yokosuka, Japan, the Seventh Fleet is the largest forward-­deployed fleet in the US Navy, with some 50 to 70 vessels and submarines – and is a key part of its military presence in the region.

“It’s very important that we contest this type of thing. I know that the gorilla in the room is launching missiles over Taiwan,” Vice Admiral Thomas told reporters in Singapore. “It’s irresponsible to launch missiles over Taiwan into international waters.

“If you don’t challenge it… all of a sudden it can become just like the islands in the South China Sea [that] have now become military outposts. They now are full functioning military outposts that have missiles on them, large runways, hangers, radars, listening posts.”

China’s decision to conduct nearly a week of military drills in the waters around Taiwan disrupted major shipping and aerial routes – a move the island said effectively amounted to a blockade. It also accused Beijing of using the drills as practice for an invasion.

Taiwan said the missiles China fired flew high into the atmosphere and posed no threat. Its defence ministry did not disclose the trajectory of the missiles, citing intelligence concerns.

The Japanese embassy in Washington said it believed four missiles fired by China had passed over Taiwan’s capital Taipei.

The US and other allies have stepped up naval crossings in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, another area of strategic importance to Beijing, to emphasise that these are international waters.

While the US has official diplomatic relations with China and not Taiwan, it maintains a special relationship with the island, which includes selling weapons for defence – an arrangement that has long troubled China.

In recent years it has also become yet another flashpoint between Washington and Beijing as tensions between the two soured.

He defended his decision – which was taken during the pandemic – as “necessary” in “extraordinary times”.

Mr Morrison is currently the member of parliament for Cook.

The revelations caused uproar amongst the public and his colleagues, with one calling his behaviour “dictatorial”.

Mr Morrison became joint minister for the health, finance, treasury, home affairs and resources portfolios from March 2020 and May 2021.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Morrison defended his decision by saying he was “acting in the national interest in a crisis” in the event a minister was incapacitated with Covid-19.

“I believed it was necessary to have authority, to have what were effectively emergency powers, to exercise in extreme situations,” he said.

He added he had never acted as minister despite being secretly sworn into those portfolios.

“I did not instruct any department that I was to have jurisdiction for carriage of any of the issues that the ministers were dealing with on a day-to-day basis,” he said.

When queried about why he had not disclosed the expansion of portfolios to cabinet or to the broader public, he argued there was a risk the powers he took on could have been misconstrued.

“I think there was a great risk that … those powers could be misinterpreted and misunderstood, which would have caused unnecessary angst in the middle of a pandemic,” he said.

The long-time politician has come under intense criticism in recent days from former colleagues – including his own party members – and the broader public after revelations broke about his expanded powers.

Current treasurer Jim Chalmers said Mr Morrison had “dictatorial tendencies”, and called on Coalition leader Peter Dutton to condemn his actions.

Current prime minister Anthony Albanese called it an “unprecedented trashing of our democracy”.

The news came to light after two New Corp journalists wrote that the then-prime minister had assigned himself those roles, in a recently-published book about the Morrison government’s response to the pandemic.

Some ministers – including the then finance minister Mathias Cormann – were reportedly unaware they were sharing portfolios with Mr Morrison.

The act includes measures to make good on decades of congressional promises to curb the price of prescription drugs.

The final version is more modest in scope than the $3.5tn package first envisaged by Democrats.

A flagship of Mr Biden’s agenda, the bill could provide a boost ahead of the mid-term elections.

Voters casting their ballots in November will decide whether Mr Biden’s Democrats retain control of Congress for two more years.

The president hailed the bill as he signed it on Tuesday as the “final piece” of his domestic agenda.

The package invests $375bn to fight climate change – the most significant federal investment in history in the issue.

An analysis by scientists with the Climate Action Tracker says the bill will reduce future global warming by “not a lot, but not insignificantly either”.

It is projected to lower US emissions by up to 44% by 2030, compared with the current US trajectory, which would lower emissions by up to 35%, according to an analysis by the Rhodium Group, a consultancy.

The bill does not require companies to reduce their emissions, but includes tax incentives for firms to invest in renewable energy and rebates for people who buy electric cars or invest in energy-efficient home improvements.

In a major breakthrough, the package also allows the government to negotiate lower prices for some prescription medicines provided under its Medicare health insurance programme for those aged over 65.

That is expected to save hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

On Tuesday, Mr Biden said the measure was a “historic moment”, adding: “Every single Republican in Congress voted against this bill.”

But Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said the legislation “means higher taxes, higher energy bills, and aggressive IRS [tax] audits”.

Key economic claims about the legislation have been under scrutiny.

Despite being called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the package will have zero measurable impact on inflation, according to an analysis by the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a group of economists and data scientists at University of Pennsylvania.

The bill sets a minimum 15% tax for corporations, and Democrats have pledged it will entail no tax hikes for those with incomes below $400,000 a year.

But an analysis of the legislation by the Congressional Budget Office said Americans earning less than $400,000 a year would end up paying an additional $20bn in taxes.

The bill includes about $46bn for the Internal Revenue Service to hire tens of thousands more tax agents.

Brett Reinford, 36, a dairy farmer from Pennsylvania, told the BBC he welcomed the climate funding and hoped it would help his family’s cow farm reduce its methane emissions.

“If we can get some support from the government, it makes a lot of these projects make more sense economically,” he said.

While the climate spending is unprecedented, many of its changes will not go into effect for at least two more years, leaving questions about how the new programmes will work.

The tax credit for electric vehicles, for example, comes with price caps that disqualify nearly every option currently on the market, according to the car industry.

Several ambitious proposals were scrapped from the bill in the final weeks, including closing a tax loophole for private equity firms and capping the price of the diabetes medicine insulin.

The outcome disappointed some such as 21-year-old Trevor Milton.

The construction worker in Washington, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 12, pays about $210 a month for insulin, which he needs to help regulate his blood sugar levels.

“I always find it dumbfounding that I have to pay so much for this medicine just to keep me alive

In the audio, published by the Guardian newspaper, Ms Truss suggested British citizens lacked the “skill and application” of foreign nationals.

Labour said her comments were “offensive” and “effectively brand British workers as lazy”.

Asked about the remarks, the foreign secretary did not deny making them.

“I don’t know what you’re quoting there,” Ms Truss said under questioning at a Tory leadership event on Tuesday evening.

“But the point that I’ve always made is what we need in this country is more productivity across the country and we need more economic growth.”

The leak emerged ahead of a hustings event in Perth where Ms Truss and her leadership rival former Chancellor Rishi Sunak were grilled by Scottish Conservative members.

The party’s roughly 200,000-strong membership are voting for their next leader, who will succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister in September.

The Guardian report said Ms Truss made the comments in the audio when she was chief secretary to the Treasury, a role she held between 2017 and 2019.

The report did not reveal the source of the audio recording, parts of which were redacted.

In the two-minute clip, Ms Truss said British workers’ “mindset and attitude” were partly to blame for them producing less per hour than their foreign counterparts, suggesting they needed “more graft”.

Ms Truss said in the recording: “Essentially it’s partly a mindset and attitude thing I think. Yeah, its working culture basically. If you go to China it’s quite different, I can assure you…

“There’s a fundamental issue of British working culture. Essentially if we’re going to be a richer country and a more prosperous country, that needs to change.

“But I don’t think people are that keen to change that.”

Speaking on difference in productivity in the UK, she said: “If you look at productivity, it’s very, very different in London from the rest of the country.”

A Truss campaign source said the comments were “half a decade old” and lacked “context”, while acknowledging the UK does “need to boost productivity”.

“As prime minister, Liz will deliver an economy that is high wage, high growth and low tax,” the source said.

The Office for National Statistics says every country has seen slower growth in output per worker since 2009 when compared with the pre-financial crisis period.

OECD figures show that in 2019, the UK came fourth highest in the rankings of GDP per hour worked among G7 countries.

Ms Truss, who has consistently led Mr Sunak in polls, has put her tax-cutting plan for boosting economic growth at the centre of her pitch to Conservative members.

The remarks by Ms Truss echo controversial arguments made in a 2012 book she co-authored, “Britannia Unchained”, in which British workers were described as among the “worst idlers in the world”.

Asked about it at a leadership debate last month, Ms Truss distanced herself from the contentious assessment, claiming co-author and Sunak supporter Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, had written it.

Mr Raab has subsequently said the authors of the book, which also included several other senior Conservative ministers, had agreed “collective responsibility” over its contents.

Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth said the “Britannia Unchained fiasco” seemed to be “the blueprint” for Ms Truss’s prospective government.

“Workers across the country are working all hours to keep a roof over their heads, put food on the table and provide for their families,” he said.

“Liz Truss should be helping working people to cope with this cost of living crises, as Labour this week outlined we would do, not peddling this offensive nonsense.”

The BBC approached Mr Sunak’s team for comment on the matter but received no response.

Mr Sunak said it’s “quite frankly barmy” that any government would focus on an independence referendum during the cost of living crisis.

And Ms Truss said she would not allow another independence referendum if she was elected.

The SNP said it was “depressing watching for Scots”.

For nearly two hours, the final two candidates pitched for the votes of Scottish Conservative members.

The UK will find out its next prime minister in less than three weeks on 5 September.

Activists, supporters and members of the public gathered outside the hustings at Perth Concert Hall before the event.

Some broke through the barriers and chanted “Tory scum” outside the front doors.

The two contenders to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister are taking part in a series of events around the UK.

The event in Perth gave local Tory members the chance to question the candidates on Scottish issues as well as other topics such as the cost of living and taxation.

Both candidates gave a speech then answered questions separately one after the other.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said the Tory leadership debate was packed with “superficial platitudes that only play to their narrow Tory party member electorate”.

Meanwhile, the SNP called Sunak and Truss “two out-of-touch Tory ministers trying to out-Thatcher one another” who were “denying Scots their democracy”.

The SNP’s deputy Westminster spokeswoman Kirsten Oswald MP added: “The options for the next UK prime minister are truly grim.

“The pair repeatedly attempted to tell us tonight what Scotland wants.

“Scotland has made it clear what it does and doesn’t want by repeatedly rejecting the Tories at the polls and repeatedly voting for independence supporting parties.”

Having previously said she would ignore First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Ms Truss clarified that she wanted a “constructive relationship” with the Holyrood administration but would ignore calls for another independence referendum.

Mr Sunak said: “I don’t just want to ignore Nicola Sturgeon; I want to take her on and beat her.”

As he promised to end the “devolve and forget mentality”, Mr Sunak told party members: “I will not be shy about calling out the SNP’s record on things like drug and alcohol abuse, because it is not good enough and the Scottish people deserve better.”

Both candidates discussed freeports – areas where imports are exempt from tariffs – and the benefits of Brexit.

Mr Sunak vowed to tackle “woke” culture and Liz Truss declared “a woman is a woman” to cheers from the audience.

On the cost of living crisis, Mr Sunak said he would cut VAT off energy bills.

He also said he would bypass the Scottish government to deliver funding directly to councils in Scotland.

Ms Truss said the number of defence contracts being given to Scottish firms would increase if she became prime minister.

She also said she would appoint Rishi Sunak as a Cabinet minister if she won the Tory leadership race.

Ms Truss also defended the outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson saying he did not mislead parliament and did a “great job as prime minister”.

However, Mr Sunak said the government “hasn’t been run with integrity” which was why he said he had resigned.

It is little surprise that both candidates took a hard-line position on indyref2.

They know that this is the ultimate red meat to throw to Conservative members north of the border.

The fact they agree on it also means there was an incentive for them to take an ever stronger position to one-up the other.

There was a warm reception for Mr Sunak overall, and he pushed particularly hard on the issue of independence – dismissing a fresh referendum as a “barmy” idea.

But it was Ms Truss who won by far the bigger cheers for her pitch about the UK as a “family” – a family she will “never, ever” allow to split up.

When the campaign was first narrowed down to the final two, it was initially hard to find Scottish Tories who would publicly back Ms Truss.

Those days are firmly forgotten now. She looked every inch the favourite as she rallied a group of MSPs for a photocall before the hustings had even begun.

After the reception she received, the foreign secretary will be hopeful that a good number of members who attended will be heading home to send in their ballots for her.