Americans swat away high fuel prices and gear up for record July 4 travels
Record 71 million people are expected to travel on upcoming long weekend, a growth trajectory similar to pre-pandemic. High fuel costs and the threat of a hurricane are not expected to dampen Americans’ desire to hit the road, with vacationers preparing for record travel to kick off Fourth of July holiday festivities. Motorist group AAA expects a record of almost 71 million people to travel around the United States Independence Day holiday, growth similar to a pre-pandemic trajectory. Some 60 million people will drive with nearly 6 million flying to their destinations, while approximately 4.6 million people will take buses, trains or cruises during the holiday period, according to AAA’s forecast. “We’ve never seen numbers like this,” AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross said, “2024’s travel seems to be what 2020 would have been, had it not been for the pandemic.” Travel during the summer months in the US will be closely watched from multiple fronts this year, as it could offer central bank officials and policymakers an important measure of consumer sentiment in an election year. Inflation was unchanged in May even as consumer spending rose, boosting hopes that the US Federal Reserve might be able to control inflation while avoiding a recession. Petrol prices have eased over the past few months, with the national average price for a gallon of motor fuel at $3.50 ($0.92 a litre) on Tuesday, a three-cent decline from last year. Domestic airfare is 2 percent cheaper than last year, with an average domestic round trip costing $800, according to AAA booking data. ‘Wanting to travel’ Despite recent declines, fuel prices remain well above historical levels. The average price for a gallon of petrol was $2.74 ($0.72 a litre) during the July Fourth week in 2019, and the weekly average price from 2015 through 2019 was less than $2.50 a gallon (0.66 a litre), according to US Energy Information Administration data. Still, vacationers’ travel plans are largely unaffected by higher prices this year, according to a survey of more than 1,000 people by auto retail group American Trucks. Four-week average US petrol demand hit a one-year high of 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last week as retailers stockpiled before the holiday, EIA data showed on Wednesday. Four-week average jet fuel demand was at 1.7 million bpd, identical to a seven-month high hit earlier in June. “What we have noticed is that it’s more about the rate of change than the price itself that affects the psyche of consumers,” said John LaForge, head of real asset strategy at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. Since the price of petrol has not moved dramatically higher or lower in the past six months, consumer psyche is largely unaffected by it, LaForge said. For now, US vacation travel is unlikely to be affected by Hurricane Beryl, which has brought devastation to some Caribbean Islands since Monday, but is expected to weaken considerably as it reaches Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by Thursday night. US fuel inventories are also better stocked than they have been in recent years, providing motorists a buffer from sudden price shocks in case the hurricane disrupts refining operations. “Americans are optimistic and wanting to travel, there’s no denying it,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan said. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 860
As the war enters its 860th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Fighting At least five people were killed and dozens injured in a Russian missile and drone attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro. At least one person was killed and 14 injured in a series of Russian attacks that struck Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, including the regional capital of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city. At least one person was killed and three injured in a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Poltava region. Regional governor Filip Pronin said one person was in critical condition. The United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) said Russia’s use of air-dropped bombs led to more civilian casualties in Ukraine between March and May. OHCHR found that the Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region from May 10 to 31 killed 78 civilians and injured 305 more. Between March and May, at least 436 civilians were killed and 1,760 injured in Ukraine, according to the agency. Moscow-appointed officials at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine said a Ukrainian drone attack on a nearby electricity substation injured eight workers and left the plant’s dormitory town of Enerhodar without power and water. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces destroyed two Ukrainian sea drones targeting the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a key naval base and hub for oil shipments. No casualties or damage were reported. Politics and diplomacy A military court in Moscow jailed three brothers for treason for trying to cross into Ukraine to join a unit of Russians fighting on Kyiv’s side. Ioann Ashcheulov, 24, was sentenced to 17-and-a-half years while his brothers – Alexei, 20, and Timofey, 19 – were handed 17 years, Russian state media reported. A court in Rostov-on-Don found a 19-year-old man guilty of treason for allegedly donating money to Kyiv’s military and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. A court in Saint Petersburg more than doubled the sentence for activist and documentary filmmaker Vsevolod Korolev to seven years after he and the prosecutors appealed his original jail term of three years for criticising the Russian offensive against Ukraine on social media. Korolev has been in pre-trial detention since July 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Ukraine when they met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Astana, and agreed that peace talks on Ukraine without Russia’s presence were pointless. Also meeting on the SCO sidelines, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Putin that Ankara could help end the conflict, but Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Erdogan could not play the role of an intermediary. He did not say why. The Netherlands’ new Prime Minister Dick Schoof assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a phone call that his country’s support for Ukraine would remain “rock solid”. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he discussed bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on “a number of regional and global threats posed by Russia, Iran and North Korea” with Israeli counterpart Israel Katz. Weapons The United States announced $150m in new military assistance for Ukraine. The package includes missiles for HAWK air defence systems, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, 81mm mortar rounds, TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) missiles, Javelin and AT-4 antiarmour systems, as well as a range of other small arms ammunition and equipment. NATO allies agreed to fund military aid for Ukraine with 40 billion euros ($43bn) next year, two Western European diplomats told the Reuters news agency, a week before the alliance’s leaders are set to meet in Washington. The Czech Ministry of Defence said that the country had donated equipment from its army storage, including aircraft and ammunition, worth 6.75 billion crowns ($288.42m) to Ukraine as of the end of May. Adblock test (Why?)
Labour ‘99 percent certain’ to beat Blair’s 1997 election landslide: Poll
Barring a major upset in the coming hours, the Keir Starmer-led Labour Party is on course to win Thursday’s general election by a record landslide, a poll suggests. Late on Tuesday, the poll by Survation predicted that the centre-left party is “99 percent certain to win more seats than in 1997” when Tony Blair ended 18 years of Conservative rule. The United Kingdom’s new prime minister is set to inherit a country beset by economic and social woes and a deeply divided political system. The fight among those vying to dominate the opposition is less predictable, with the right-wing Conservatives, in power for the past 14 years, trying to fend off a hard-right threat led by Nigel Farage, the telegenic populist and key architect of Brexit who is hoping his Reform UK party gains traction. “The incoming government will face many serious challenges,” said Toby James, professor of politics and public policy at the University of East Anglia. “Should Labour win a predicted landslide, then parallels to [Tony] Blair’s victory [in] 1997 will be drawn. “However, the situation is much more difficult than that inherited by Blair … The economy was booming in 1997, whereas it has seen sluggish growth at best recently. Prices remain high following record inflation,” James told Al Jazeera. “There is large government debt, which will make spending on cash-strapped public services difficult.” From left, top row: Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, Labour’s Keir Starmer and Scottish National Party leader John Swinney. From left bottom row: Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey, Conservative premier Rishi Sunak and Reform’s hard-right leader Nigel Farage [File: AP Photo] But as six weeks of campaigning draws to a close, Labour is taking nothing for granted and urging Britons to vote. Turnout was 67.3 percent at the last election in 2019, down from 68.8 percent in 2017. In 1997, turnout was relatively high at 71.4 percent, although lower than the previous poll – 77.7 percent in 1992 – which was won by Conservative leader John Major. Survation expects Labour will secure 42 percent of the vote, leading to 484 of a total 650 seats, and the Conservatives are “virtually certain to win a lower share of the vote than at any past general election” with 23 percent, it added, citing heavy losses in former Conservative heartlands. Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in office since October 2022, called the election in May as economic data pointed to a recovery, with inflation at a lower level than in previous months. “Labour could be heading for a large majority, with the Conservatives becoming the main opposition. Eyes will be on how many seats the Reform party can win, given the threat that Nigel Farage poses to the Conservative Party, but also developments in France,” said James, referring to recent electoral successes of Marine Le Pen’s far-right movement. He characterised Sunak’s tenure as “short and extremely difficult”. “He has faced significant challenges with the aftermath of the pandemic, the effects of the Ukraine war on inflation and [the] challenge of holding the Conservative Party together. Few prime ministers have faced so many significant challenges within such a short period. The aim was to stabilise the ship, but there are few significant policy achievements to point to.” ‘Politicians often weaponise migration to score votes’ As well as the economy, party campaigns have focused on immigration. The Conservatives, who led Britain’s exit from the European Union on a promise to lower migration, have failed to achieve that goal. Net migration to the UK dropped 10 percent to 685,000 in 2023, compared with a year earlier, but remained above average historical levels. The majority of people travelled for work or study, with far fewer – 29,437 undocumented migrants and refugees – arriving last year via the perilous journey across the English Channel from France. Former Conservative premiers, such as David Cameron and Theresa May, had pledged to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands. “Politicians often weaponise migration to score votes ahead of an election and too often we see a race to the bottom between parties over who will impose the toughest policies toward asylum seekers,” warned Emilie McDonnell, UK advocacy and communications officer at Human Rights Watch. “The next UK government needs to reset the narrative on migration and push back against the fear-mongering and dehumanising rhetoric that is inevitable post-election,” she told Al Jazeera. Labour has promised to scrap the controversial Rwanda scheme cultivated by the Conservatives, which aims to deport undocumented refugees and migrants to process asylum claims in the African nation. To date, no such flights have taken off due to legal opposition and humanitarian concerns. “Abandoning the Rwanda scheme and resuming asylum processing for people arriving irregularly are essential to restoring refugee protection in the UK,” said McDonnell. “However, much more is needed to create a fair and humane asylum system and to show that the UK will do its fair share to protect the world’s refugees, including by greatly expanding safe pathways, repealing the Illegal Migration Act that bans seeking asylum, and introducing a strict time-limit on detention.” Hundreds of thousands of protesters, including scores at British university campuses, have called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza over the past nine months [Anealla Safdar/Al Jazeera] Observers are also keeping a close eye on British towns and cities that are home to large Muslim communities where Labour is expected to shed some support given its stance on Israel’s war on Gaza. Starmer, like Sunak, supports Israel and regularly talks of its “right to defence” even as almost 38,000 Palestinians have been killed. Pro-Palestine protesters are planning another big march on Saturday in London. According to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and its partners, police have not offered march organisers any central London start or end point for the demonstration “in contrast to every other occasion”. PSC leader Ben Jamal said: “Keir Starmer is facing his first test on the willingness of his government to support the right to peaceful protest, including for protest to take place near Westminster.
French researcher admits military secrets charges, claims Russia
Laurent Vinatier, a researcher for a conflict mediation organisation, was arrested for breaching Russia’s ‘foreign agents’ law. A French researcher has admitted to criminal charges related to collecting sensitive military information, Russian investigators have claimed. Laurent Vinatier pleaded guilty during questioning to failing to register as a foreign agent while illegally collecting sensitive military information, the Investigative Committee of Russia said on Wednesday. The French researcher joined a list of Western citizens detained by Moscow when he was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last month. “The French citizen has pleaded guilty in a criminal case on illegal collection of information in the field of Russian military activities,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement. “During the interrogation, he admitted his guilt in full.” Potentially increasing Western concerns, the FSB then declared in a statement that Vinatier, who had worked long-term in Russia for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD) NGO, had “collected information of a military and military-technical nature that could be used to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation”. The accusations against him could result in a sentence of five years in prison, according to reports. ‘Propaganda’ The 47-year-old researcher’s arrest came as tension rose between Moscow and Paris, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling for a hard line regarding the war in Ukraine. Following the arrest, Macron insisted that the employee of the Swiss-based conflict mediation group HD had never worked for the French state and demanded his immediate release, calling the “propaganda” against him “does not match reality”. However, a court last month placed him in pre-trial custody until August 5. Russia has not charged or publicly accused Vinatier of working with any foreign intelligence agency or directly engaging in espionage. However, authorities have previously arrested people for breaching the “foreign agents” law before charging them with more serious offences. Laurent Vinatier, an adviser to the Swiss nonprofit Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, French national Laurent Vinatier, allegedly collected information of a ‘military-technical nature’, Moscow, June 7, 2024 [Maxim Shemetov/Reuters] The Investigative Committee said seven witnesses from whom Vinatier had tried to collect military information had been questioned. “A linguistic forensic examination has been scheduled based on audio recordings of these meetings,” the committee said in its statement. In a statement following Vinatier’s arrest, HD said: “In the course of HD’s activities as an impartial and independent mediation organisation, our people work around the world and routinely meet with a wide range of officials, experts and other parties with the aim of advancing efforts to prevent, mitigate and resolve armed conflict.” ‘Hostage diplomacy’ Under Russian law, people who collect, report, or share information about Russia’s military or security services must register as “foreign agents”. Critics say the legislation has been used to clamp down on dissent. Its use has also risen since the Kremlin launched its war on neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022. US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent”. More serious allegations of spreading false information about the armed forces have since been levelled against her. Several other Western citizens have been arrested in Russia since the Ukraine war began, which has put relations at their lowest ebb since the midst of the Cold War. US reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges, went on trial behind closed doors last month. Several other US citizens have been arrested recently. Among the higher profile detainments is that of US security executive Paul Whelan, who was arrested in Moscow for espionage in 2018. US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was put on trial for high treason last month after donating $50 to a Ukrainian charity. Russia has indicated that it is open to the idea of a prisoner exchange involving Gershkovich and others, claiming that contacts with the US have taken place. The US has in turn accused Russia of conducting “hostage diplomacy”. Adblock test (Why?)
Asbestos: The toxic mineral endangering millions in India
Asbestos is deadly, but India continues to be the world’s largest importer of the toxic mineral. 101 East investigates. Once used as an insulating material in buildings around the world, asbestos as been banned in more than 60 countries following the discovery that it causes deadly diseases. But in India, the world’s largest importer of the toxic mineral, millions of citizens continue to be exposed to asbestos. Research estimates more than six million Indians could contract asbestos-related diseases in the coming decades. Activists are demanding the government act now to protect citizens. 101 East investigates India’s Silent Killer. Adblock test (Why?)
‘This is a horrific hurricane’: Beryl becomes Category 5 storm
NewsFeed Hurricane Beryl has become the earliest ever Category 5 storm to hit the Atlantic. It made landfall near the island of Grenada and is currently on track to hit Jamaica. Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, told Al Jazeera the damage it caused is “horrendous.” Published On 2 Jul 20242 Jul 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Google blames AI as its emissions grow instead of heading to net zero
Three years ago, Google set an ambitious plan to address climate change by going “net zero”, meaning it would release no more climate-changing gases into the air than it removes, by 2030. But a report from the company on Tuesday showed it is nowhere near meeting that goal. Rather than declining, its emissions grew 13 percent in 2023 over the year before. Compared with its baseline year of 2019, emissions have soared 48 percent. Google cited artificial intelligence and the demand it puts on data centres, which require massive amounts of electricity, for last year’s growth. Making that electricity by burning coal or natural gas emits greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane, which warm the planet, bringing more extreme weather. The company has made one of industry’s most significant climate commitments and has been seen as a leader. Lisa Sachs, director of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, said Google should be doing more to partner with cleaner companies and invest in the electrical grid. “The reality is that we are far behind what we could already be doing now with the technology that we have, with the resources that we have, in terms of advancing the transition,” she said. Google Chief Sustainability Officer Kate Brandt told The Associated Press news agency, “Reaching this net zero goal by 2030, this is an extremely ambitious goal. “We know this is not going to be easy and that our approach will need to continue to evolve,” Brandt added, “and it will require us to navigate a lot of uncertainty, including this uncertainty around the future of AI’s environmental impacts.” AI electricity demand Some experts said the rapidly expanding data centres needed to power AI threaten the entire transition to clean electricity, an important part of addressing climate change. That’s because a new data centre can delay the closure of a power plant that burns fossil fuels or prompt a new one to be built. Data centres are not only energy-intensive, but they also require high-voltage transmission lines and need significant amounts of water to stay cool. They are also noisy. They often are built where electricity is cheapest, not where renewables, such as wind and solar, are a key source of energy. Global data centre and AI electricity demand could double by 2026, according to the International Energy Agency. Other major tech company sustainability plans are also challenged by the proliferation of data centres. They caused Microsoft’s emissions to grow 29 percent above its 2020 baseline, the company said in an environmental sustainability report in May. Tech companies make the case that while AI is contributing to climate change, it’s also helping to address it. In the case of Google, that could mean using data to predict future flooding or making traffic flow more efficiently to save petrol. Amanda Smith, senior scientist at the climate nonprofit Project Drawdown, said those who use AI – both large companies and individuals just making memes – need to do so responsibly, meaning using the energy only when it benefits society. “It’s up to us as humans to watch what we’re doing with it and to question why we’re doing that,” Smith added. “When it’s worth it, we can make sure that those demands are going to be met by clean sources of power.” Google’s emissions grew last year in part because the company used more energy; 25,910 gigawatt hours more, an increase from the year before and more than double the hours of energy consumed just four years earlier. A gigawatt hour is roughly the energy that a power plant serving several hundred thousand households puts out in one hour. On the positive side, as Google’s consumption grows, so has its use of renewable power. The company said in 2020 it would meet its enormous need for electricity using only clean energy every hour of every day by 2030 all over the world. Last year, Google said, it saw an average of 64 percent carbon-free energy for its data centres and offices around the globe. The company said its data centres are on average 1.8 times as energy efficient as others in the industry. Sachs credited Google for its ambition and honesty but said she hopes “that Google would join us in a more rigorous conversation about how to accelerate” clean energy amid the climate crisis, “so that it doesn’t get much worse before it starts getting better”. Adblock test (Why?)
Judge delays Trump’s New York sentencing until closer to US election
Trump became the first former US president convicted of felony charges and was originally set to be sentenced next week. The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money case has granted a request to delay the former United States president’s sentencing until at least September. The decision on Tuesday follows a ruling by the US Supreme Court that ordered broad criminal immunity for presidents in their official acts. Trump’s legal team had cited the top court’s decision in a letter to Judge Juan Merchan requesting the delay in the sentencing, which was originally scheduled on July 11. The lawyers representing Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, told Merchan they needed time to build their case that Trump’s conviction on 34 felony charges of falsifying business documents to cover up hush money payments made to an adult actress should be overturned in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Before Merchan’s decision, prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Trump’s argument was “without merit” but agreed to delay the sentencing. Merchan said the sentencing would be delayed until at least September 18, less than two months before the November 8 elections. Prosecutors had argued that Trump falsified business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. They directly connected the payments to a wider scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election. In their letter to Merchan, Trump’s lawyers argued that during the trial, prosecutors had presented evidence involving Trump’s official acts as president, including social media posts he made and conversations he had while in the White House. That evidence should have been protected under presidential immunity, the lawyers said, per the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling. The ruling from the majority of six justices on the nine-member bench said presidents have “absolute immunity” from criminal liability for any acts within their “core constitutional powers”. Evidence related to those official acts also may not be presented at a trial, the majority opinion said. However, the ruling, which was assailed by the court’s three liberal justices, said presidents could still be prosecuted for acts outside those powers. The exact delineations remain unclear. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned the decision opened the door to “nightmare scenarios”, including possible immunity for assassinating a political rival. “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law,” she wrote. Political implications The Supreme Court ruling bodes well for Trump, who faces three additional criminal trials. It is expected to be the most bedeviling to the legal argument at the heart of a federal case related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after his loss to President Joe Biden. It could also have implications for a state trial in Georgia related to efforts to pressure officials to change the 2020 vote count as well as a second federal trial related to Trump allegedly hiding and hoarding classified White House documents at his Florida estate. The New York trial, however, was the only trial expected to finish before the election. While the initial guilty verdict did not show a major shift in support for Trump, analysts have argued that a severe sentence could turn off some would-be Trump voters. Merchan’s decision comes five days after Biden delivered a dismal performance in the first presidential debate against Trump, which has sent the Democrat’s campaign into damage control while bringing concerns over the 81-year-old’s age to the fore. On Tuesday, a Reuters/Ipsos poll was released showing one in three Democrats think Biden should end his re-election bid after the debate performance. Still, the poll found no prominent elected Democrat would perform any better than Biden in a hypothetical matchup against Trump. On Wednesday, Biden was reportedly set to meet with Democratic governors in an effort to allay their concerns. White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre also said Biden would give his first post-debate interview to ABC News on Friday and would hold a news conference during a NATO conference next week. She reiterated that Biden has no intention of dropping out of the race. Adblock test (Why?)
Why has the UK’s economy grown so slowly under the Tories?
As the United Kingdom gears up for a general election on Thursday, one issue has emerged at the forefront of voters’ minds – the state of the economy. Since the ruling Conservative Party entered office 14 years ago, the UK’s economy has slowed dramatically. The slowdown is particularly stark when immigration-driven population growth is accounted for and the period before the start of the global financial crisis is included. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita grew just 4.3 percent from 2007 to 2023, compared with 46 percent growth over the previous 16 years, according to research released earlier this month by the Resolution Foundation think tank. That is the lowest growth rate since 1826, according to it. While UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has insisted the economy has “turned a corner” amid a return to growth and falling inflation, Britons are projected to dump the Conservatives in favour of the Labour Party, led by human rights lawyer-turned-politician Keir Starmer. Why has the UK economy performed so poorly? Above all, the UK’s economic troubles can be traced to its dismal record on productivity growth. A rise in productivity – the ability of workers to produce more with less – is the key driver of economic growth and improving living standards. The UK’s productivity growth has badly lagged its peers under the stewardship of the Conservatives. GDP per hour worked increased by an average of 0.6 percent annually in the 2010s, compared with 2.2 percent in the decade before the financial crisis – the worst performance among the Group of Seven economies except for Italy, according to the Resolution Foundation. According to OECD data, GDP per hour worked in the UK grew roughly 6 percent from 2007 to 2022, compared with 17 percent in the United States, 12 percent in Japan and 11 percent in Germany. What does this mean for common people? The upshot is that Britons’ incomes have stagnated. Britons had on average 10,200 pounds ($12,950) less to spend or save in total during 2010-22 compared with 1998-2010 growth rates, according to an analysis of disposable incomes by the nonpartisan research institute Centre for Cities. What has caused the UK’s productivity gap? The UK’s productivity gap has been widely attributed to years of chronically low investment relative to other developed nations. The UK’s investment spending from 2017 to 2021 amounted to the equivalent of 18 percent of GDP compared with 25 percent of GDP in Japan, 23 percent in France and 21 percent in the US, according to a PwC analysis of World Bank figures. “These problems are a symptom of a core issue, namely low investment by the state and by business,” David Spencer, the head of Leeds University Business School, told Al Jazeera. “Years of austerity have created barriers to growth – indeed, by reducing the extent and effectiveness of social and economic infrastructure, they have actively suppressed growth. Private businesses have remained too reliant on making profit at the expense of investing in capital and people. The result is that the UK finds itself in a low growth, low productivity and low wage economy.” Will there be economic growth in the UK? While the UK’s economy has struggled to one extent or another for more than a decade, there have been positive signs to point to more recently. The economy exited recession earlier this year, with GDP growing a better-than-expected 0.7 percent in the first quarter and inflation on target at about 2 percent. Some forecasts envision the UK outperforming many of its peers in the coming years. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that the UK will see GDP per capita grow 6.2 percent between 2024 and 2029, which would be faster than every other G7 economy apart from the US and Japan. How will the UK achieve economic growth? The UK’s long-term prospects will ultimately depend on its ability to close the productivity gap. The Resolution Foundation in its report described the UK’s potential to boost productivity as “a silver lining, if not a silver bullet”. “Productivity, as measured by GDP per hour, is 13-19 percent higher in the US, Germany, and France, indicating significant productivity gains that the UK can aim for,” the think tank said. “Indeed, if the UK moved to the average productivity of these countries, this would result in a boost in productivity of 17 percent.” “It will take a major change in policy to transform the UK economy,” Spencer said. “As ever, it is easier to talk about change than achieve it, but with the right commitment and policy mix from government, change can be achieved.” Adblock test (Why?)
Kazakh dissident dies following Kyiv shooting
Wife of journalist Aydos Sadykov blames Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for attack last month. A Kazakh dissident has died in Ukraine, two weeks after being shot outside his home last month. Kyiv-based journalist Aydos Sadykov was shot in the head while seated in a car with his wife on June 18. Ukrainian prosecutors suspect that the “carefully planned” attack was carried out by a pair of suspected assassins from Kazakhstan. Sadykov’s wife, Natalya Sadykova, blamed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for the death of her husband, who was an outspoken critic of the Central Asian country’s leadership. “My beloved husband, father of our three children, great son of the Kazakh people. Aydos dedicated his life to Kazakhstan and suffered martyrdom at the hands of killers,” Sadykova said in a Facebook post. “His death is on Tokayev’s conscience,” she declared. Who are the suspects? According to the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general, two Kazakh citizens, one of them a former policeman, are suspected of shooting Sadykov. Both left the country on the same day, they say, escaping to Moldova. While Kazakhstan has since detained one of the suspects, named as Altai Zhakanbayev, it has said it would not hand him over to Ukraine. The second suspect remains at large. President Tokayev instructed Kazakh law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Ukraine to locate the suspects, his spokesperson said last month, according to Russian news agencies. “Astana is ready to cooperate with Ukraine, including through Interpol,” the spokesperson was cited as saying. ‘Bring them to justice’ Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation into the shooting of Sadykov, who ran a YouTube channel often critical of Kazakhstan’s former president Nursultan Nazarbayev and then his successor Tokayev. “The news of the attack on Sadykov during broad daylight in the Kyiv city centre is deeply disturbing,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch last month. “Ukrainian authorities should ensure Sydykov’s safety, identify the attacker, bring them to justice, and determine who ordered the attack. Kazakhstan should show it is committed to the rule of law during this process.” Adblock test (Why?)