Sunak and Biden agree ‘Atlantic Declaration’ to boost economic security
Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden have agreed a new partnership to bolster economic security in response to the growing threat of China.
Brushing off his failure to deliver on the Tory manifesto promise to land a full-fat free trade deal with the US, the prime minister and US president announced the Atlantic Declaration during a meeting at the White House.
It was the first time Mr Sunak had visited the home of the American presidency.
As it happened:
Rishi Sunak at the White House
The agreement includes a narrow trade pact covering critical minerals needed for electric car batteries, closer defence industry cooperation, easing trade barriers, and a new data protection deal.
The new accord contains an in-principle agreement for a deal on those minerals – used to make a range of products from solar panels to electric vehicles – to give UK exporters access to the huge $370bn (£294bn) green subsidies programme, the Inflation Reduction Act, introduced by President Biden to turbocharge huge green investment in the US.
Mr Sunak said: “Countries like China and Russia are willing to manipulate and exploit our openness, steal our intellectual property, use technology for authoritarian ends or withdraw crucial resources like energy. They will not succeed.
“Today we have agreed the Atlantic Declaration, a new economic partnership for a new age, of a kind that has never been agreed before.”
He said the partnership “protects our citizens” and includes new US investment for the UK, as he cited £14bn committed this week “creating thousands of jobs”, and highlighted “stronger supply chains” and reduced trade barriers “helping tens of thousands of small businesses”.
‘Indispensable alliance’
The prime minister said he and Mr Biden agreed to work together on artificial intelligence (AI) safety, adding: “We can depend on each other with absolute conviction. When the United States and the United Kingdom stand together, the world is a safer, better and more prosperous place and that’s why ours is the indispensable alliance.”
Mr Biden said the US-UK economic partnership is a “source of enormous strength”.
The US signed a similar deal with Japan earlier this year to prohibit the two countries from enacting bilateral export restrictions on the minerals most critical for electric batteries – lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and manganese.
While the prime minister was quick to talk up the new deal, it is not the post-Brexit free trade deal the Conservative Party promised to deliver by the end of 2022 in its 2019 manifesto – when an agreement with the US was cited as the main trade deal target.
UK officials insisted this new targeted approach was a better response to the economic challenges posed by Beijing and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
However, President Biden has made no secret of his disinterest in negotiating a bilateral trade deal with the UK, with negotiations now in the deep freeze until 2025 at the earliest.
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Sunak says UK-US relationship is in ‘great shape’
Asked to acknowledge this government had failed on this election pledge on Thursday, the prime minister said the “macroeconomic situation had evolved” and insisted that the UK-US economic partnership was still strong and reflected new threats.
“Since [that pledge] we’ve had a pandemic. We’ve had a war in Ukraine and that has changed the macroeconomic situation. And the right response to that is to ensure that we’re focusing our engagement economically on the things that will make the most difference to the British people,” he said.
“The real challenges we face are the threats to our economic security.”
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How lithium batteries are made
As well as the agreement on critical minerals, President Biden has committed to ask Congress to approve the UK as a “domestic source” under US defence procurement laws, allowing for greater American investment in British firms.
The two powers have also focused attention on improving the resilience of critical supply chains to shut Russia out of the global civil nuclear market. Allies are also working on semiconductor supply chains.
A deal on data protection will ease burdens for small firms doing transatlantic trade, potentially saving £92m.
A woman has been arrested after 12 people were reportedly injured in a stabbing at Hamburg’s central train station in Germany.
An attacker armed with a knife targeted people on the platform between tracks 13 and 14, according to police.
They added that the suspect was a 39-year-old woman.
Police at the scene. Pic: AP
Officers said they “believe she acted alone” and investigations into the stabbing are continuing.
There was no immediate information on a possible motive.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
The attack happened shortly after 6pm local time (5pm UK time) on Friday in front of a waiting train, regional public broadcaster NDR reported.
A high-speed ICE train with its doors open could be seen at the platform after the incident.
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by what had happened.
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Mum of emaciated Gazan baby: ‘I don’t want to lose her’
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Four tracks at the station were closed in the evening, and some long-distance trains were delayed or diverted.
Hamburg is Germany‘s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
In mid-May, the World Health Organisation assessed that there were “nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death”.
“This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time,” its report concluded.
Warning: This article contains images of an emaciated child which some readers may find distressing
Israel‘s decision this week to reverse the siege and allow “a basic level of aid” into Gaza should help ease the immediate crisis.
But the number of aid trucks getting in, so far fewer than 100 per day, is considered dramatically too few by aid organisations working in Gaza, and the United Nations accuses Israel of continuing to block vital items.
Israel-Gaza latest: Gaza enduring ‘atrocious death and destruction’, UN boss warns
“Strict quotas are being imposed on the goods we distribute, along with unnecessary delay procedures,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres in New York on Friday.
“Essentials, including fuel, shelter, cooking gas and water purification supplies, are prohibited. Nothing has reached the besieged north.”
Nineteen of Gaza’s hospitals remain operational, all of them are overwhelmed with the number of patients and a lack of supplies.
Baby Aya at Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza is dangerously thin
“Today, we receive between 300 to 500 cases daily, with approximately 10% requiring admission. This volume of inpatient cases far exceeds the capacity of Rantisi hospital, as the facility is not equipped to accommodate such large numbers,” Jall al Barawi, a doctor at the hospital, told us.
At least 94% of the hospitals have sustained some damage, some considerable, according to the UN.
Jall al Barawi, a doctor at Rantisi hospital
Paramedic crews are close to running out of fuel to drive ambulances.
The lack of food, after an 11-week blockade, has left thousands malnourished and increasingly vulnerable to surviving injuries or recovering from other conditions.
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Children are the worst affected.
Our team in Gaza filmed with baby Aya at the Rantisi hospital in northern Gaza. She is now three months old and dangerously thin.
Her skin stretches over her cheekbones and eye sockets on her gaunt, pale face. Her nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Aya’s nappy is too big for her emaciated little body.
Lethal spiral
Her mother Sundush, who is only 19 herself, cannot get enough food to produce breastmilk. Baby formula is scarce.
Aya, like so many other young children, cannot get the vital nutrition she needs to grow and develop.
It’s a lethal spiral.
This is what Aya looked like shortly after she was born
“My daughter was born at a normal weight, 3.5kg,” Sundush tells us.
“But as the war went on, her weight dropped significantly. I would breastfeed her, she’d get diarrhoea. I tried formula – same result. With the borders closed and no food coming in, I can’t eat enough to give her the nutrients she needs.”
“I brought her to the hospital for treatment, but the care she needs isn’t available.
“The doctor said her condition is very serious. I really don’t want to lose her, because I lost my husband and she’s all I have left of him. I don’t want to lose her.”
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Aya and her mother Sundush
Some of the aid entering Gaza now is being looted. It is hard to know whether that is by Hamas or desperate civilians. Maybe a combination of the two.
The lack of aid creates an atmosphere of desperation, which eventually leads to a breakdown in security as everyone fights to secure food for themselves and their families.
Only by alleviating the desperation can the security situation improve, and the risk of famine abate.
World
Police launch ‘major operation’ after 12 people injured in knife attack at Hamburg train station
Twelve people are reported to have been injured after a knife attack at Hamburg’s central train station.
A “major operation” has been launched and a suspect was arrested, police said in a post on X.
The identity of the suspect has not been revealed.
Reports in Germany said the suspected attacker was a woman.
The fire service said six of the injured were in a life-threatening condition, three others were seriously hurt, and another three sustained minor injuries, news agency dpa reported.
Bild newspaper said the motive for the attack was so far unknown.
Hamburg is Germany’s second biggest city, with the train station being a hub for local, regional and long-distance trains.
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