Month: September 2022

They will hold their first bilateral meeting on Wednesday, after Ms Truss travelled to New York for a UN summit.

Tensions between the two leaders have emerged over controversial UK plans to override the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Ms Truss has said she will not allow problems with the deal to “drift”.

Speaking to reporters in New York, she said the UK must fix issues preventing the formation of a new government in Northern Ireland and ensure “free-flowing trade east to west as well as north to south”.

Both Mr Biden and Ms Truss have said a negotiated resolution to the row over the protocol – which was signed when Boris Johnson was prime minister – between London and Brussels is preferable.

Ms Truss said: “I’ve always been clear my preference is for a negotiated settlement to deal with those issues and I will continue to seek that. But what I will not allow is for this situation to drift.”

US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters on Tuesday the president would encourage the UK and EU to reach a deal to protect the Northern Ireland peace deal – the Good Friday Agreement.

Ms Truss declined to discuss the protocol with France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday, and No 10 did not say whether she would raise it with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

But Mr Sullivan made clear Mr Biden would discuss it “in some detail” with Ms Truss, when they meet as part of her trip to address the UN General Assembly.

Mr Biden would “communicate his strong view that the Good Friday Agreement – which is the touchstone of peace and stability in Northern Ireland – must be protected”, his adviser added.

The Northern Ireland Protocol is the post-Brexit agreement which allows for special trading arrangements between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

It keeps Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, avoiding the need for a hard border between the UK and Ireland after Brexit.

But it has been a source of tension since it came into force at the start of 2021.

Currently there is no functioning devolved administration in Northern Ireland because the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) – the second-largest party in the recent Stormont elections – oppose the protocol and refused to take part in a power-sharing government until its concerns are resolved.

Earlier this week, the UK government told the EU it would continue delaying customs checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, despite ongoing legal action from Brussels over this stance.

The government is pushing ahead with its controversial Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which the EU and other critics claim would breach international law by suspending parts of the deal on which the UK left the bloc.

The prime minister’s acknowledgement that a UK-US trade deal was a long way off has been interpreted as an attempt to neutralise suggestions from the White House that her stance on the protocol could scupper any deal, says the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason.

Other differences between the two leaders were highlighted on Tuesday when Mr Biden tweeted that he was “sick and tired of trickle-down economics” – the theory that cutting taxes for businesses and wealthy people will benefit poorer workers as money makes its way through the economy.

Although apparently not intended as a criticism of Ms Truss, the comment underlines the political differences between the two leaders ahead of their meeting. The prime minister’s official spokesman called it “ludicrous” to suggest Mr Biden was referring to Ms Truss in his tweet.

The PM has expressed a determination to cut taxes in recent weeks, arguing that doing so will boost economic growth and prosperity overall.

Mr Biden and Ms Truss were originally scheduled to meet in London on Sunday, after the president travelled to the UK for the Queen’s funeral, but that meeting was postponed.

Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg is expected to reveal a cap on wholesale energy costs for business customers.

It is thought the limit will be 21.1p per kWh for electricity and 7.5p per KWh for gas – a discount of a quarter to a third on current market prices.

It means businesses facing an energy bill of £40,000 could see a reduction of £10,000 depending on usage patterns.

It is understood the changes will apply to contracts from 1 October and fixed contracts taken out since April, although show on bills from next month.

The government is likely to pass new laws to force the price cut to be passed on. Current market prices are about 28p per unit of electricity and 11p for gas.

Prime Minister Liz Truss has previously said support for business would be limited to six months.

There will be an option to extend it for “vulnerable businesses”, however details of which sectors this applies to are not known.

Mr Rees-Mogg is expected to confirm details of a scheme to help firms, after the government announced a multi-billion pound support package to limit bills for households.

Typical household energy bills have been limited to £2,500 annually until 2024.

Both businesses and households have been hit by soaring electricity and gas bills due to the rising cost of global wholesale gas, largely caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But unlike households, businesses are not covered by an energy price cap, which is the maximum amount a supplier can charge per unit of energy, measured in kilowatt hours (KWh).

It means non-domestic bills have soared even higher in recent months.

Angie Monroe, who runs a salon in Stourport, Worcestershire, told the BBC her energy bills had tripled in the past year to around £280 a month.

She expects them to rise further in October, but as a result of previous rises, she has had to increase her prices to customers by 20%.

“It’s literally dancing on ice,” she said. “It’s detrimental – it’s worrying times for a lot of businesses.”

Ms Monroe said she would like to see energy bills for businesses capped to give her and others certainty for the coming months.

“The government needs to do something, otherwise no one will be left in business,” she said.

It is understood the government’s support to help businesses will also apply to other non-domestic settings such as hospitals, schools and community halls.

Any support is likely to be backdated because the precise mechanism and amount of support may not be finalised until November, a government source previously told the BBC.

Firms have a huge variety of different contracts based on the intensity of their usage and the mix between gas and electricity.

Many big businesses also have their own energy buying departments and systems to insure themselves, or “hedge”, against extreme price movements.

They also typically have one or two-year fixed contracts, but a significant number – the CBI estimates a third – traditionally come up for renewal before winter.

Typhoon Nanmadol has killed at least two people and injured 90 others since it made landfall on the southernmost island of Kyushu on Sunday morning.

Nine million people have been told to evacuate, and more than 350,000 homes are without power.

Forecasts predict up to 400mm (16 inches) of rain over the next 24 hours.

State broadcaster NHK said one man was killed when his car was submerged in flooding, and another died after being buried in a landslide. One more person remains missing, and reports say 87 others have been injured.

The super typhoon brought gusts of up to 234km/h (145mph), destroying homes, and disrupting transport and businesses. It’s equivalent to a category four or five hurricane.

The capital, Tokyo, experienced heavy rain, with the Tozai underground line suspended because of flooding. Bullet train services, ferries, and hundreds of flights have been cancelled; shops and businesses have shut. Local video footage showed roofs ripped off of buildings and billboards toppled over.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delayed a visit to New York, where he is due to give speech at the UN General Assembly, until Tuesday, to monitor the storm’s impact.

The storm is forecast to turn east and pass over Japan’s main island of Honshu before moving out to sea by Wednesday.

Scientists have predicted an active hurricane season this year, influenced by a natural phenomenon known as La Niña.

Warmer sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean as a result of climate change may also impact the frequency and intensity of hurricanes.

Alexei Kulemzin blamed “punitive” Ukrainian shellfire for the deaths. There is no comment from Ukrainian officials.

Donetsk has been controlled by Russia’s proxy authorities since 2014.

They have repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the city.

Independent confirmation is hard to come by on the ground in separatist-held areas of the east. However, local authorities said nine 150mm shells were fired at the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk, from a village to the west of the city.

Local leader Denis Pushilin accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians at a bus-stop, a shop and a bank.

Although Russian forces have seized areas of the Donetsk region further south since the invasion began in February, they have struggled to push the Ukrainian army back from the outskirts of the city itself.

Ukrainian forces have launched counter-offensives in the south as well as the north-east, and their most dramatic progress has come this month in the northern Kharkiv region.

The head of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, shared video of a Ukrainian tank crossing a pontoon bridge, and said Ukraine now controlled the left bank of the Oskil river, seen as the front line in north-east Ukraine.

If Ukrainian forces are able to maintain a foothold on the eastern side of the Oskil, it will represent a breakthrough. Mr Haidai said the next target would be liberating the city of Lyman, which was seized by Russian forces in May.

“Luhansk region is right next door. De-occupation is not far away,” he claimed.

In his nightly address late on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that recent days may have looked like a lull of sorts: “But there will be no lull. There is preparation for the next series… For Ukraine must be free. All of it.”

Russia was accused on Monday of targeting a nuclear plant in the south.

Ukrainian nuclear operator Enerhoatom said a rocket landed 300m (1,000ft) from nuclear reactors at the country’s second-largest plant in Mykolaiv region, called the South Ukraine plant.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was told by Enerhoatom that the impact temporarily disrupted three power lines, but the plant remained connected to the grid, with all three reactors functioning normally.

Ukraine’s – and Europe’s – biggest nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia has come under repeated fire since it was occupied by Russian forces at the start of the war and the IAEA has called for a safety zone to protect it. The IAEA said the situation there “remains fragile and precarious”. Its six reactors are in a shutdown state, but are getting essential power to remain safe.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin has denied allegations of war crimes after some 450 bodies were uncovered in burial sites in the liberated city of Izyum.

The discovery has prompted the European Union’s presidency, currently held by the Czech Republic, to call for an international tribunal into Russia’s invasion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the revelations were “a lie, and of course we will defend the truth in this story”. He said the “scenario” was the same as in the town of Bucha near Kyiv, where local authorities say at least 458 civilians were murdered during Russia’s occupation.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian counter-offensives would not change Russia’s military plans in the east of Ukraine.

The ministry of defence in Moscow posted video on Monday that it said showed attack helicopters destroying Ukrainian manpower and equipment.

However, according to the UK’s defence intelligence update, it was “highly likely” that Russia had lost four combat jets in Ukraine in the past 10 days as its air force took greater risks to support ground forces under pressure from the Ukrainian advances.

The Institute for the Study of War says Russia is relying increasingly on “irregular volunteer and proxy forces” instead of its conventional military units.

Russia says it is fighting neo-Nazis in Ukraine – a claim widely dismissed – and that it is threatened by the Nato alliance’s strong relations with Ukraine.

Since the invasion on 24 February, the UN has recorded at least 5,718 civilian deaths, with 8,199 injured, and more than seven million Ukrainians have been recorded as refugees across Europe.

The actual civilian death toll is believed to be thousands higher. Tens of thousands of combatants have been killed or injured.

Russia, a global energy supplier, is locked in an economic struggle with the West which imposed sweeping sanctions in response to the invasion.