LONDON (Dispatches) – Taxpayers will be left facing “significant financial risk for decades to come” because of the levels of emergency government spending on the pandemic, totaling more than £370bn, a powerful committee of MPs said on Sunday.
In two separate reports, the all-party public accounts committee (PAC) paints a daunting picture of the lasting financial strain caused by the first 16 months of combating COVID-19, and says the government must not wait until after the official inquiry to learn the lessons of what went wrong, The Guardian reported. The MPs say that by this March the lifetime cost of the government’s rescue measures had reached £372bln, government-backed loans had soared, and taxpayers had been left “on the hook” for an estimated £26bn of credit and fraud losses from the bounce-back loan scheme for small- and medium-sized enterprises alone. Meanwhile, an emergency government plan to prevent the spiraling “pingdemic” from hitting food supplies has descended into chaos, with industry leaders condemning the scheme as an “absolute disaster” that has done more harm than good. As train services were also disrupted on Saturday by the number of workers self-isolating, airports reported long queues at passport controls and the hospitality industry warned of a summer of closures, Downing St defied growing calls to bring forward a full relaxation of quarantine rules from the scheduled date of August 16. In an attempt to prevent more empty supermarket shelves and avert wider economic damage, ministers bowed last Thursday to persistent pressure from the food industry, announcing that around 10,000 workers in the sector would be exempted from the rules if they tested negative on a daily basis. Others in key sectors of the economy and vital public services are also included in the emergency plan.

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WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Senate Armed Services Committee’s surprise decision to endorse a $25 billion increase to President Joe Biden’s already massive budget request for the Pentagon has angered progressive antiwar activists, who have been demanding cuts to U.S. military spending. Narrowly controlled by Democrats, the Senate panel approved a $778 billion defense policy bill in a whopping 25 to 1 vote, adding nearly $25 billion to the Biden administration’s budget request. Only progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, voted against the policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Biden’s defense budget represented a bump from his predecessor Donald Trump’s last defense budget of $740 billion, which Democrats at the time criticized for being too generous.

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BEIJING (Dispatches) – China has hit U.S.-based institutions and individuals, including former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, with retaliatory sanctions following recent American sanctions on Chinese officials in Hong Kong. Beijing’s punitive measure against Washington came just ahead a planned visit to China by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman amid intensifying tensions between the world’s top economic giants. Explaining the tit-for-tat move, China’s Foreign Ministry said, “The U.S. side concocted the so-called Hong Kong business advisory, baselessly smeared Hong Kong’s commercial environment, and illegally sanctioned Chinese officials in Hong Kong.” “These actions seriously violated international law and the basic principles of international relations, and seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs,” the ministry added in a statement. The ministry further declared that in addition to Ross, Beijing would sanction several other individuals. “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs. Any attempt by external forces to interfere in Hong Kong affairs is a mere stumbling block,” the statement emphasized.

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NEW DELHI (Al Jazeera) – More than 135 people have died from flooding and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains in India, with rescuers searching for dozens more missing on Sunday. The country’s western coast has been inundated by torrential rains since Thursday, with the India Meteorological Department warning of further downpours over the next few days. In Maharashtra state, 114 people have been killed, including more than 40 in a landslide that hit the hillside village of Taliye, south of Mumbai, on Thursday. Villager Jayram Mahaske, whose relatives remained trapped, told the AFP news agency that “many people were washed away as they were trying to run away” when the landslide hit. It flattened dozens of homes in a matter of minutes, leaving just two concrete structures standing and cutting off the power supply, local residents told AFP. Rescuers were scouring the mud and debris for at least 99 others still missing.

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BEIJING/MANILA (Dispatches) – Typhoon In-Fa has lashed China’s southeastern coast as the country is trying to eliminate the consequences of mass flooding, the China Meteorological Administration said on Sunday. The typhoon, the sixth to hit the area this year, made landfall on the coast of the city of Zhoushan in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang at 12:30 local time (04:30 GMT), just days after deadly floods devastated central regions of the country. Maximum wind speeds in the area have achieved 38 meters per second (125 feet per second), the national meteorological service said. Last week, China was hit by heavy rains and flooding. Over 160,000 people were evacuated, according to the provincial authorities. Meanwhile, thousands of residents remain in evacuation centers across Luzon island in the Philippines, where days of torrential monsoon rains intensified by typhoon In-fa have caused flooding in many low-lying areas.