A federal court has said that Trump didn’t have the authority to implement his tariffs, and has ordered him to reverse them, though he has appealed the decision.
Starmer may soon sign a £1.6 billion trade deal with Gulf states, despite concerns over the countries’ human rights record and high carbon emissions.
The government wants to increase housebuilding by reducing some obligations of developers, including the biodiversity net gain rules for medium-sized developments.
Thames Water has been fined £123 million due to breaching wastewater regulations and breaches of dividend payment rules.
Farage sets many policies for Reform UK, including removing the two-child cap on benefits, scrapping net-zero, and ending DEI efforts.
A federal court in Manhattan ruled that Trump did not have the authority to implement his tariffs, and has ordered him to reverse them.
This does not apply to all of his tariffs, though most are covered, including all from ‘liberation day’.
This means that the universal 10% tariffs on all countries, including Britain, would be removed. However, it would not impact the additional 25% tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium.
Remember, though, the 25% on UK steel and aluminium were already removed, and the 25% on cars was reduced.
This may all sound great so far, I imagine your pensions are happy with the news, but Trump has already appealed the decision, so tariffs may not be disappearing just yet, as the appeals court has paused the injunction on tariffs, allowing them time to make a ruling.
In more bad news, the case could end up in the Supreme Court, which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority - and was mostly appointed by Trump.
See the issue?
It’s not a foregone conclusion though - the Supreme Court might decide to uphold the block on Trump’s tariffs, or they may side with the President. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Trump doesn’t seem to be too worried, though, and has now doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium, from 25% to 50%.
Due to the UK’s earlier trade deal with Trump, British steel and aluminium exports should not be affected, though you never quite know with Trump.
I doubt this will be the last we hear of Trump and his tariffs. Why not subscribe for free to Westminster Weekly to keep up with all the chaos?
The UK may soon sign a trade deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
The deal is believed to be in the final stages, so could be signed quite soon.
The government hopes that the deal will add £8.6 billion per year to trade between the UK and Gulf states by 2035.
However, it is estimated that the deal will be worth less than 0.1% of GDP over the next decade, so essentially nothing.
Some concerns have been raised due to the human rights records of these countries, alongside their high carbon emissions.
It is believed, though, that there would be some language in the deal regarding human rights, though there are no legal obligations expected to be included, which isn’t ideal.
Additionally, all six of the countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council are also in the top ten carbon emissions per capita.
The government wants to cut red tape, take planning decisions away from councillors, and reduce the biodiversity requirements for some developments, with the goal of increasing housebuilding.
Developments of between 10 and 49 houses would be classed as medium-sized developments, and would have lower costs, simplified biodiversity net gain rules, and an exemption from the building safety levy.
This would mean that a lot of housing projects wouldn’t need to compensate for nature loss, which isn’t great.
However, the government has said it’s plans are a “win-win for nature and development”. Not quite sure why they think that though.
But in some good news for the planet, a planning change is being made that will make it easier to install heat pumps - a low-carbon heating solution.
The change means that more heat pumps can be installed without needing planning permission.
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Thames Water has been given the largest fine that has ever been issued by regulator Ofwat.
Of the £123 million fine, the majority - £104.5 million - is due to Thames Water breaching wastewater regulations, while the remaining £18.2 million is due to rule breaches regarding dividend payments.
Ofwat said that Thames Water’s handling of wastewater has had an “unacceptable” impact on the environment.
The regulator’s investigation found failings which “amounted to a significant breach of the company's legal obligations”.
The chief executive of Ofwat, David Black, said that the fine was so large as Thames Water “failed to come up with an acceptable redress package that would have benefited the environment”.
He also said that “This is a clear-cut case where Thames Water has let down its customers and failed to protect the environment”.
This week, Farage (finally) announced some policies for Reform UK, and has promised a “genuine political revolution”.
Firstly, he has promised that he would “Undo everything Sir Keir Starmer has done in the last fortnight”.
This would include Starmer’s agreement to give Mauritius sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, though I’m not sure how he intends to get the Chagos Islands back, or why.
Farage also wants to reverse cuts to winter fuel payments for pensioners, which is actually not a bad idea - and fortunately, Starmer has already decided to do it.
His next policy is not so great for pensioners - he has not ruled out removing the triple lock, which ensures that pension payments increase annually.
In another good move, he wants to remove the two-child cap on benefits, though his method of funding this isn’t great.
He wants to scrap net zero - that’s his funding method. He says it “is costing the Exchequer an extraordinary £40 billion plus every year”.
To get some more cash, he wants the public sector to stop promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Farage says this is currently costing £7 billion, though this figure is actually around 250 times smaller.
Farage has also announced that Reform now accepts crypto donations, despite the fact that cryptocurrencies are hard to trace, so could allow people to bypass campaign finance law.
Trump’s back on the front page with his tariffs - want to have a little refresher about what he’s done so far? Here are a few posts you may be interested in.
Cover photo sourced from The White House.
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