Starmer signals pain and ‘unpopular decisions’ to fix Britain

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August 27, 2024
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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he would have to take unpopular decisions, raising the possibility of “painful” taxes on the wealthy and spending cuts to try to fix Britain‘s myriad of problems he blamed on Conservative misrule.

In a speech in the rose garden of his Downing Street office, the scene of COVID parties under a former Conservative government, Starmer promised to end politics as usual, telling voters he was levelling with them that Britain’s problems would only get worse before getting better.

Elected in a landslide victory in July, Starmer has vowed to rebuild British society, saying this month’s anti-migrant riots reflected divisions that have taken hold, stoked by what he described as the Conservatives’ preference for populism.

He also blamed the last government for leaving him with a 22 billion pound ($29 billion) black hole, something he said was unexpected and which had forced him to take some difficult decisions such as limiting fuel payments to the elderly.

The opposition Conservative Party accuses Starmer’s Labour Party of portraying the fiscal situation as much worse than it is so it can hike taxes after campaigning before the election on an agenda not to raise certain taxes on working people.

Starmer said he planned to stick to that pledge, but there would be short term pain in what he said would be “unpopular decisions” for the long term good.

“There is a budget coming in October, and it’s going to be painful. We have no other choice … Those with the broader shoulders should bear the heavier burden,” he said in a speech to voters he met during the election campaign, referring to a fiscal statement due on Oct. 30.

“We have inherited not just an economic black hole but a societal black hole and that is why we have to take action and do things differently. Part of that is being honest with people about the choices we face and how tough this will be,” he said.

“Frankly, things will get worse before we get better,” he told the audience of apprentices, teachers, nurses, small business owners and firefighters.

The rose garden last made headlines after it was used by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff to hold parties during the COVID lockdowns, events that Starmer said had shattered the trust between the public and its politicians.

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August 27, 2024
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Aid struggles to reach survivors as Sudan dam collapse, floods wreak havoc

Emergency responders were scrambling on Tuesday to find out how many people remain missing after waters burst through a dam in eastern Sudan, resulting in the worst in a series of floods that have devastated a country already torn by 500 days of war.

The collapse of the Arbaat Dam on Sunday killed 30 people and likely dozens more, in the latest in a series of inundations around the country as this year’s rainy season hits heavier, and in places earlier, than in past years.

War-shattered Sudan is already suffering from the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, and the flooding has impeded aid delivery already disrupted by the conflict between the army and its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

“Even before the dam burst people were trapped by the flooding and couldn’t get anything from Port Sudan. The aid coming in now can’t get to the people,” said Mohamed Othman, a leader from one of the flooded villages.

“Children are hungry and the roads are closed.”

A single excavator carried people and food across the water in Arbaat.

Some 118,000 people have been displaced nationwide and more than 300,000 affected across the country, as the floods destroy homes and spread diseases including cholera.

“We don’t know how many are unaccounted for (in Arbaat). It’s very difficult to get information out from there,” said U.N. OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.

In the Darfur region, the flooding has blocked food deliveries, including the first shipment of supplies from the World Food Programme to famine-threatened Kreinik since the re-opening of the Adre border crossing to humanitarians.

The bridge leading to the town, where thousands of displaced people are sheltering with little food, was destroyed in the rains, said one local volunteer.

WFP on Sunday said that the first shipments since mid-July had made it through the al-Tina border crossing into North Darfur, having been blocked by flooding there.

In Tokar, also in Red Sea state, at least 500 households were displaced as of Sunday, as people wade through rivers in between damaged homes.

Overnight, heavy rains hit several parts of Northern Sudan, with images on social media showing collapsed roofs and flooded neighbourhoods, though little official information was immediately available on losses there.

Source: reuters.com

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August 27, 2024
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UN agencies concerned by Mpox spread in Congo’s refugee camps

U.N. agencies on Tuesday raised the alarm about the spread of mpox in Democratic Republic of Congo’s refugee camps where people are more susceptible to infection because of depleted immune systems and cramped living conditions.

More than 7 million people are uprooted across Congo which has one of the highest displacement levels in the world, including those fleeing internal conflicts and disasters and those arriving from Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan.

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said that some 42 suspected mpox cases have so far been reported in refugee camps and transit centres in South Kivu, eastern Congo where there are nearly 2 million internally displaced people and refugees.

“For those fleeing violence, implementing many of the mpox measures is a tremendous challenge,” said Dr. Allen Maina, Public Health Chief for UNHCR. “They have no space to isolate when they develop symptoms of the disease,” he added, saying that infected individuals were opting to distance themselves from crowded shelters to sleep in the open to protect others.

Congo has had more than 18,000 suspected mpox cases and 615 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which declared an mpox health emergency this month after a new variant called clade Ib emerged.

Mpox, which causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, is sexually transmitted but can also spread through close contact with an infected person.

While it is not clear yet if they are the new, seemingly more contagious clade Ib strain, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said South Kivu is an area where this variant was mostly circulating.

“(People) are already very stressed, hungry, terrified, displaced. So there’s an immunological deficit, an immunological weakness which makes them more likely to become ill with anything they get, including mpox,” she said at the same press briefing. An unknown number of mpox cases, including among children, have also emerged in North Kivu displacement camps.

Asked whether Congo’s camps could become incubators for a broader spread of the disease, Maina said the focus should be on disease prevention and improving camp conditions.