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BREAKING NEWS Trump threatens crippling attack on the EU that'll leave key industry on its knees

BREAKING NEWS Trump threatens crippling attack on the EU that'll leave key industry on its knees

Daily Mail​17 hours ago
President Donald Trump has threatened the European Union with a 17% tariff on food exports, according to a new report.
The threat came ahead of a July 9 deadline to strike a trade deal or else the EU faces a 50% tax on all its goods going into the United States.
EU officials told the Financial Times the move is an escalation between the two trading partners.
It was unclear if the 17% hit on food and farm exports would be in addition to the other tariffs announced by Trump or instead of them.
Should the U.S. and EU fail to cut a deal by next week's deadline, then EU goods imported to the U.S. could be hit by duties of up to 50%.
That could be swiftly followed by retaliatory measures from the EU that would target a wide range of American goods.
The U.S.-EU trade relationship is one of the biggest in the world, accounting for around 30% of global goods.
Among the products exchanged are medicinal and pharma products, road vehicles, and food stuffs.
In 2024, trade between the two was valued at around 1.68 trillion euros – or $1.98 trillion.
The EU has a surplus of 198 billion euros when it comes to goods, but a deficit of around 148 billion euro in services given the Europeans an overall trade surplus of around 50 billion euros.
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Ban on Palestine Action to take effect after legal challenge fails
Ban on Palestine Action to take effect after legal challenge fails

The Guardian

time41 minutes ago

  • The Guardian

Ban on Palestine Action to take effect after legal challenge fails

Being a member of, or showing support for, Palestine Action will be a criminal offence from Saturday after a last-minute legal challenge to suspend the group's proscription under anti-terrorism laws failed. A ban on Palestine Action, which uses direct action to mainly target Israeli weapons factories in the UK and their supply chain, was voted through by parliament this week but lawyers acting for its co-founder Huda Ammori had sought to prevent it taking effect. After a hearing at the high court on Friday, however, Mr Justice Chamberlain declined to grant her application for interim relief. Ammori said: 'The home secretary is rushing through the implementation of the proscription at midnight tonight despite the fact that our legal challenge is ongoing and that she has been completely unclear about how it will be enforced, leaving the public in the dark about their rights to free speech and expression after midnight tonight when this proscription comes into effect.' Chamberlain said: 'I have concluded that the harm which would ensue if interim relief is refused but the claim later succeeds is insufficient to outweigh the strong public interest in maintaining the order in force.' Ammori sought permission to appeal against Chamberlain's decision in an 8pm hearing that lasted approximately one hour at the court of appeal on Friday night, in an attempt to prevent the ban coming into force. But at about 10.25pm – less than two hours before it was due to take effect – the three judges, led by the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, refused permission. It means Palestine Action will become the first direct action protest group to be banned under the Terrorism Act, placing it in the same category as Islamic State, al-Qaida and the far-right group National Action. Raza Husain KC, representing Ammori, described the proscription decision in the hearing before Chamberlain, as 'an ill-considered, discriminatory and authoritarian abuse of statutory power'. He said it was 'absurd' to label a civil disobedience direct action protest group that does not advocate violence as a terrorist organisation. 'The main target has been stopping Elbit Systems … which markets itself as the backbone of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],' said Husain. 'As my client says: 'The aim of terrorism is to take lives and hurt people, that's the opposite of what we do.'' He said before making the decision the government had engaged with the Israeli government, Elbit Systems and pro-Israeli lobby groups, while Palestine Action and other pro-Palestine groups were not consulted. Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh KC, also representing Ammori, said what was going on in Gaza was 'an annihilation, it is a genocide' and Palestine Action was 'seeking to disrupt and prevent' UK complicity in it. Ben Watson KC, representing the home secretary, focused on the proscription procedure in his submissions. 'All of these issues, all of that evidence is supposed to go to the secretaries of state… it's only after that process, after the secretary of state has had a chance to consider … then the matter goes before Poac [the Proscribed Organisations Appeal Commission].' He said only then could the case go to the court of appeal and then, potentially, the supreme court. Watson said Palestine Action's activities met the statutory test for proscription and that if the ban took effect but the group subsequently won a judicial review against proscription it would not cause 'irreparable harm' to it. He told the court that if a temporary block was granted, it would be a 'serious disfigurement of the statutory regime'. The protest group Defend Our Juries wrote to the Met police commissioner, Mark Rowley, on Friday to tell him that it 'may be committing offences under the Terrorism Act' in Parliament Square from 1pm on Saturday. It said non-violent protesters would hold signs saying: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.' The letter said that they 'refuse to be bystanders to what's happening to the people of Palestine, who are bombed, starved and gunned down as they queue for food'. Several hundred protesters gathered, waving Palestinian flags and carrying signs saying 'Free Palestine' and 'We are all Palestine Action' outside the Royal Courts of Justice. UN experts, civil liberties groups, cultural figures and hundreds of lawyers have condemned the ban as draconian and said it sets a dangerous precedent by conflating protest with terrorism. Another hearing is scheduled for 21 July when Palestine Action will apply for permission for a judicial review to quash the order. In the meantime, and unless the judicial review is successful, membership of, or inviting support for, the group will carry a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Home Office orders ‘nationwide blitz' on asylum seekers working for delivery apps
Home Office orders ‘nationwide blitz' on asylum seekers working for delivery apps

The Independent

time43 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Home Office orders ‘nationwide blitz' on asylum seekers working for delivery apps

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a nationwide immigration "enforcement crackdown" aimed at tackling illegal working in the gig economy. Officers will conduct checks in hotspots across the country, specifically targeting asylum seekers suspected of working as delivery riders without permission. This initiative follows discussions with ministers, leading Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat to announce they will ramp up facial verification and fraud checks in the coming months. Last week the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, claimed in a post on X to have found evidence of people working illegally for the food delivery firms during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers. On Saturday, the Home Office said anyone caught 'flagrantly abusing the system in this way' will face having state support discontinued, whether entitlement to accommodation or payments. 'Strategic, intel-driven activity will bring together officers across the UK and place an increased focus on migrants suspected of working illegally whilst in taxpayer-funded accommodation or receiving financial support,' the Home Office said. 'The law is clear that asylum seekers are only entitled to this support if they would otherwise be destitute.' Businesses who illegally employ people will also face fines of up to £60,000 per worker, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years. Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, though permission can be applied for after a year of waiting. It comes as the Government struggles with its pledge to 'smash the gangs' of people-smugglers facilitating small boat crossings in the English Channel, which have reached record levels this year. Some 20,600 people have made the journey so far in 2025, up 52 per cent on the same period in 2024. Ms Cooper said: 'Illegal working undermines honest business and undercuts local wages, the British public will not stand for it and neither will this Government. 'Often those travelling to the UK illegally are sold a lie by the people-smuggling gangs that they will be able to live and work freely in this country, when in reality they end up facing squalid living conditions, minimal pay and inhumane working hours. 'We are surging enforcement action against this pull factor, on top of returning 30,000 people with no right to be here and tightening the law through our Plan for Change.' Home Office director of enforcement, compliance and crime, Eddy Montgomery, said: 'This next step of co-ordinated activity will target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK. 'That means if you are found to be working with no legal right to do so, we will use the full force of powers available to us to disrupt and stop this abuse. There will be no place to hide.' Deliveroo has said the firm takes a 'zero tolerance approach' to abuse on the platform and that despite measures put in place over the last year, 'criminals continue to seek new ways to abuse the system'. An Uber Eats spokesperson has said they will continue to invest in tools to detect illegal work and remove fraudulent accounts, while Just Eat says it is committed to strengthening safeguards 'in response to these complex and evolving challenges.' Responding to the announcement, Mr Philp said: 'It shouldn't take a visit to an asylum hotel by me as shadow home secretary to shame the Government into action.' He added: 'The Government should investigate if there is wrongdoing by the delivery platforms and if there is a case to answer, they should be prosecuted. 'This is a very serious issue because illegal working is a pull factor for illegal immigration into the UK – people smugglers actually advertise it.' Mr Philp also said women and girls were being put at risk because deliveries were being made to their homes by people 'from nationalities we know have very high rates of sex offending', without specifying which nationalities he was referring to.

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