Home
Thousands of farmers protested in Westminster against inheritance tax on farms. Tesco, Amazon, Greggs and 76 other chains belonging to the British Retail Consortium said that costs introduced by October’s Budget ‘will make job losses inevitable and higher prices a certainty’. The annual rate of inflation rose to 2.3 per cent from 1.7 a month earlier. The British economy grew by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, but shrank during September; in the second quarter it had grown by 0.5 per cent. Beth, the Queen’s Jack Russell, died.
An additional 50,000 pensioners will live in relative poverty next year as a result of cuts to the winter fuel allowance, the government estimated. A home using a typical amount of gas and electricity will pay £1,736 annually from the new year, according to the normally reliable consultancy Cornwall Insight. Louise Haigh, the Transport Secretary, insisted that the mandate which stipulates that electric vehicles must make up 22 per cent of a company’s car sales ‘will not be weakened’; the current proportion was put at 18 per cent by manufacturers. A quarter of Britain’s large mortgage providers will not lend against homes with spray foam in the roof, BBC research suggested; perhaps 250,000 homes have the insulation. More than 200 schools closed because it snowed.
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, met President Xi Jinping of China at the G20 summit in Rio, and emphasised the importance of a ‘strong UK-China relationship’; it was the first such meeting since 2018. In the seven days to 18 November, 662 migrants arrived in small boats. Britain has the lowest life expectancy in western Europe, according to the OECD, at 80.9, compared with Switzerland at 84.2, Spain at 84 and Italy at 83.8. The Revd Donald Reeves, Rector of St James’s, Piccadilly, 1980-98, died aged 90. Timothy West, the actor, died aged 90.
Abroad
President Joe Biden gave approval for Ukraine to strike targets within Russia with the US-supplied medium-range Army Tactical Missile System, ATACMS. America also agreed to give Ukraine antipersonnel landmines. President Vladimir Putin of Russia signed a law allowing a nuclear strike in response to an attack with missiles. Ukraine launched six of the missiles into Russia. Thousands of North Korean troops had been deployed in Russia. Russia attacked the power infrastructure of Ukraine with about 120 missiles and 90 drones, of which 140 were intercepted, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. After speaking to Donald Trump on the telephone he said: ‘It is certain that the war will end sooner with the policies of the team that will now lead the White House.’ Denmark detained a Chinese vessel while investigating the severing of a 730-mile telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany and a 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden. Denmark also imposed on farmers a levy of 300 kroner (£34) per ton of methane emitted from either end of their livestock. Charles Dumont, who wrote the tune of Edith Piaf’s ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’, died aged 95.
A convoy of 109 UN food-aid lorries was looted in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said; 97 lorries were lost and their drivers forced at gunpoint to unload their aid after passing through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing. Israel’s strike on Iran in October was reported to have destroyed an active secret nuclear weapons research facility at Parchin, 20 miles from Tehran. An Israeli strike destroyed a multistorey residential building in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza.
Italy took to the European Court of Justice a ruling from its own courts that migrants intercepted in international waters could not be sent to Albania for processing. Berlin’s police chief, Barbara Slowik, said: ‘There are areas of the city, we need to be perfectly honest here, where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay to be more careful.’ Chris Wright, an oil and gas executive and a climate change sceptic, was named by Donald Trump as his energy secretary. President Xi inaugurated the Chancay port in Peru, built and controlled by the Chinese state-owned Cosco Shipping. In a meeting in Lima with the outgoing President Joe Biden, President Xi said: ‘Containing China is unwise, unacceptable and bound to fail.’ A Hong Kong court sentenced 45 pro-democracy leaders to years in jail for subversion. Thousands of Maoris demonstrated in Wellington against a bill seeking to change the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840. CSH
Comments