PM buoyed by relaxation of COVID travel rules ahead of White House meeting
US President Joe Biden will welcome Boris Johnson to the White House later.
The prime minister will travel from the UN General Assembly in New York to Washington for the Oval Office meeting which would, in all likelihood, have happened well before now had it not been for the pandemic.
It has been just three months since the Prime Minister and the President last met at the G7 in Cornwall. But what a long tricky summer it has been since then.
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Kerry ‘confident’ of $100bn climate target
Trans-Atlantic relationships have been strained. The worth of NATO has been questioned by the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The pandemic endures, with global vaccination efforts faltering. And November’s high stakes Climate Change summit in Glasgow is ever closer with the risk of it falling short of the pledges made.
The prime minister will arrive in the West Wing of the White House with two unexpected boosts.
The news on Monday that the US will, in November, scrap the COVID-related travel ban for EU and UK travellers was as surprising as it was welcome.
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PM: Rich countries must ‘step-up’
And the hints by President Biden’s climate envoy to Sky News that America will commit to funds for developing countries, as called for by Mr Johnson, is a positive move.
“It will make a huge difference and I think it will send a massively powerful signal to the world that we in the industrialised west really do take it seriously,” Mr Johnson said.
With Mr Johnson and Mr Biden both in New York, their meeting could easily have been there too.
But holding it at the White House, in the Oval Office, carries much more weight.
The so-called special relationship looks that much more convincingly special with the Oval Office backdrop.
The last time a UK Prime Minister was hosted at the White House was in 2017
The optics of these monuments through the years are of course important, but it is the results that matter.
On climate, Mr Johnson may get something to take with him to the Glasgow conference he is hosting.
But on that all-important post Brexit US/UK trade deal, do not hold your breath.
Before the Oval Office meeting, there will be other key diplomatic moments to watch through the day too.
President Biden has numerous strained relationships to mend following the Afghanistan withdrawal and he is expected to hold talks with France’s President Macron amid the most extraordinary spat over the supply of nuclear powered submarines to Australia.
Hester Peirce, a commissioner of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and head of the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, reaffirmed the right to crypto self-custody and privacy in financial transactions.
“I’m a freedom maximalist,” Peirce told The Rollup podcast on Friday, while saying that self-custody of assets is a fundamental human right. She added:
“Why should I have to be forced to go through someone else to hold my assets? It baffles me that in this country, which is so premised on freedom, that would even be an issue — of course, people can hold their own assets.”
Peirce added that online financial privacy should be the standard. “It has become the presumption that if you want to keep your transactions private, you’re doing something wrong, but it should be exactly the opposite presumption,” she said.
The comments came as the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act, a crypto market structure bill that includes provisions for self-custody, anti-money laundering(AML) regulations, and asset taxonomy, is delayed until 2026, according to Senator Tim Scott.
Related: SEC to hold privacy and financial surveillance roundtable in December
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) challenge Bitcoin’s self-custody ethos
Many large Bitcoin (BTC) whales and long-term holders are pivoting from self-custody to ETFs to reap the tax benefits and hassle-free management of owning crypto in an investment vehicle.
“We are witnessing the first decline in self-custodied Bitcoin in 15 years,” Dr. Martin Hiesboeck, the head of research at crypto exchange Uphold, said.
Hiesboeck attributed the shift to the SEC approving in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs in July, which allowed authorized holders to exchange crypto for ETF shares and vice versa without triggering a taxable event, unlike cash-settled ETFs.
“A move away from the self-custody mantra of ‘not your keys, not your coins’ is another nail in the coffin of the original crypto spirit,” Hiesboeck added.
In February, notable Bitcoin analyst and investor PlanB, the developer of the BTC stock-to-flow model, announced that he transferred his Bitcoin to ETFs to alleviate the “hassle” of private key management.
PlanB’s announcement caused an outcry in the Bitcoin community, as many voiced concerns that handing over custody to a third party clashed with Bitcoin’s core values.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
Jeremy Corbyn has declined to say his Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana is a friend as supporters of the new grouping gather in Liverpool.
Speaking to Sky News on the eve of the conference, Mr Corbyn acknowledged “stresses and strains” in the set-up of the party but said it had become “a lot better in the last few days and weeks and we’re going to get through this weekend”.
The former Labour leader has publicly clashed with Ms Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, over the launch and structure of the new party.
Asked if they were friends, Mr Corbyn said they were “colleagues in parliament, and we obviously communicate and so on”.
The pair appeared at separate events on the eve of the party’s inaugural gathering.
Ms Sultana had previously claimed she was being “sidelined” by a “sexist boys’ club” within the fledgling party.
Mr Corbyn said her comments were an “unfortunate choice of words” but added that he had been more involved in the organisation of the conference than she had.
The co-founders have had a strained relationship since setting up the party. Pic: Your Party
The Islington North MP also said that Your Party was still waiting for Ms Sultana to transfer all of the funds she had raised from supporters.
“Obviously having money up front for a conference is a big help,” he said.
Ms Sultana has insisted she is transferring the donations in stages.
The weekend gathering in Liverpool will see supporters choose between four options for a permanent party name: Your Party, Our Party, Popular Alliance, For the Many.
The preferred choice of Ms Sultana – The Left – did not make the ballot.
Similarly, the Coventry MP had said she favoured a co-leader approach, but members will only be able to pick between single leadership or collective leadership models.
Speaking at her own pre-conference rally, Ms Sultana blamed a “nameless, faceless bureaucrat” for restricting the choices.
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The meeting also risked being disrupted by a series of member expulsions. One of those ejected, Lewis Nielsen, accused a “clique” of trying to “take over”.
Your Party sources said expulsions related to members of the Socialist Workers Party and that holding another national party membership was not allowed.
Ms Sultana blamed a “culture of paranoia at the top” and said she believed the same people who had been briefing against her were now also expelling members.
Mr Corbyn will open the conference on Saturday, while the results of the main decision-making votes will be announced on Sunday.
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