The Irish premier has warned it would be a "very serious situation" if the UK Government enacted legislation to scrap the bulk of Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol. Micheal Martin said the legislation will cause "economic vandalism" on Northern Ireland. Mr Martin also said the European Union wants to avoid a trade war, saying the issues around the protocol can be resolved through negotiation. Last week, the bloc launched fresh legal action against the UK in retaliation over the Prime Minister's Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which will effectively rip up key parts of the deal signed by Mr Johnson and the EU in 2019. "If this Bill is enacted, I think we're into a very serious situation.
US President Joe Biden on Saturday called the announcement of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend the first COVID 19 vaccines for kids under the age of five, a monumental step forward in the nation's fight against the virus. "For parents all over the country, this is a day of relief and celebration. As the first country to protect our youngest children with COVID 19 vaccines, my Administration has been planning and preparing for this moment for months, effectively securing doses and offering safe and highly effective mRNA vaccines for all children as young as six months old," he said. He said that with this, every American now is eligible for the protections that COVID 19 vaccines provide.
The biggest oil and gas producer in the North Sea has labelled the windfall tax on energy firms "seriously flawed" as it lobbied the chancellor for last-minute changes to the levy. Rishi Sunak last month announced a windfall tax on oil and gas firms making outsized profits during the energy crisis, which he hopes will raise £5bn to fund efforts to cut household bills. In a letter to Sunak, seen by the Guardian, the Harbour Energy chief executive, Linda Cook, called on the chancellor to urgently revise the proposals for the energy profits levy (EPL).
Cook said: "While I appreciate the scale of the cost of living crisis in the UK, the EPL as currently proposed is, in effect, retrospective and disproportionately impacts the independent oil and gas companies which have recently invested the most to help ensure UK domestic energy supply."
Grant Shapps has dismissed growing calls for the government to get involved in talks over rail strikes as a "stunt", amid growing tensions over the biggest industrial action on the network in decades. Condemning the industrial action set to take place this week, the transport secretary warned the country's biggest rail union it would be a "huge act of self-harm", and claimed they had been "gunning" for action. He also suggested freight services could be reduced to 50 per cent of normal levels due to the disruption expected by the strikes at Network Rail and 13 other train operators on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The transport secretary's remarks came after the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) confirmed over the weekend the strikes would go ahead after the failure to resolve a bitter dispute over workers' conditions.
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