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Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev (L) and Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto address a joint press conference following their meeting in the latter's office in Budapest, Hungary, 12 March 2024.  Rosatom is the general contractor for the Paks II project launched in early 2014 by an intergovernmental agreement for the construction of two additional reactors to be supplied by Rosatom in Hungary's sole nuclear plant at Paks.   EPA / Lakatos Peter HUNGARY OUT
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Hello from The National.

Here are this week’s most compelling and exclusive stories from the UK and Europe.

BIG PICTURE

 

Gaza access

David Cameron has called on Israel to shoulder its responsibility to ensure enough aid flows reach Gaza, including allowing access to Ashdod, the nearest coastal port to the occupied territory, from the maritime corridor opening in Cyprus.

The Foreign Secretary said Israel could make the difference between starvation and survival in Gaza because aid blocks and screening problems "are their responsibility".

Lord Cameron told of a convoy of 18 lorries that was held at the King Hussein crossing from Jordan for 18 days.

“If Israel really wanted to help, they could open Ashdod port, which is in Israel, which is a fully functioning port that could really maximise the delivery of aid from Cyprus straight into Israel and therefore into Gaza," he told the UK Parliament.

“We are doing all we can to increase aid into Gaza. We have been collaborating with Jordan on humanitarian aid drops and are now working with partners to operationalise a maritime aid corridor from Cyprus.

"However, this cannot substitute delivery by land, which remains the best way to get aid in at the scale that is needed.”

Also speaking for the government, Andrew Mitchell “very strongly” urged Israel to keep Al Aqsa Mosque open to all Muslim worshippers during Ramadan.

Mr Mitchell, a Foreign Office minister, also called for Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank who are suspected to have killed Palestiniansto be promptly arrested and prosecuted by the Israeli authorities.

During foreign affairs questions in Parliament he was quizzed by Catherine West, the shadow foreign minister, over concerns that Israel would impose religious worship restrictions on the mosque in Jerusalem, which is Islam’s third holiest site.

Mr Mitchell responded that Ms West was “entirely right about the importance of religious freedom, particularly in the circumstances which she so clearly set out”.

With more than 400 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank by settlers and Israeli forces since October 7, Mr Mitchell was asked what steps were being taken against those who had committed crimes.

“We want to see them arrested, tried and punished for those activities."

Damien McElroy
London bureau chief

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Did it again!

The video has to be seen to believed. Adrenalin pumping, the driver accelerates through a locked gate, smashing into a tree and scraping along the fence.

The result was that a resident of England's leafy Surrey lost their Bentley in a daring overnight raid at their family home.

Also the result was four men now in prison. They stole 53 cars, worth a total of £3.7 million ($4.7 million), using technology that copies and transmits the signal from a key inside an owner's home to their vehicle outside.

Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Land Rover and Range Rover models were among the cars stolen in the year-long spree from addresses across the south-east of England.

Police said they had built a picture of how the gang gained entry to the cars using the so-called relay attack.

The tactic is so successful that statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency suggested about one in every 100 Land Rovers in circulation was stolen in the year ending March 2023.

The average price of insurance for Range Rovers is from £1,126 for a Sport HSE TD6 to more than £2,547 for a Sport HSE Dynamic SDV6 306.

Car thefts have actually fallen off the proverbial cliff in the past 20 years to 400,000 in 2023 from a high of more than 4.3 million in 1993. High-end heists are where the problem now lies.

Sales tax redux

Conservative MP Nickie Aiken has said she is “at a loss over why the Treasury does not accept the arguments to reintroduce tax-free shopping” for overseas visitors or indeed extend it to EU citizens.

“I believe introducing tax-free shopping would boost the economy for the retail, hospitality, hotels and corporate sectors but also manufacturing of luxury goods," she told MPs during a budget debate.

"It is a no-brainer.”

In 2019, travellers from GCC states spent about £2 billion ($2.56 billion) on tax-free shopping in Europe, with two thirds of it in Britain, but the scheme was stopped by then-chancellor Rishi Sunak three years ago.

Delivering this month's spring budget, Jeremy Hunt dashed hopes that it could be cut before the election, leading to dismay in the totemic luxury sector.

Hopes of reintroducing the measure that allows international tourists to claim back VAT on their purchases in the UK had led to a wave of optimism among retailers, restaurateurs and hoteliers, who once benefited from greater trade.

The British Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and chief executives of luxury brands also pushed for the scheme’s reintroduction.

 

Green future

One of the favourite Westminster sports in 2024 is spotting government dividing lines as the Conservatives try to close the 20-odd point polling gap with Labour.

Claire Coutinho, the UK's Energy Security Secretary, established an election battle line on Tuesday by attacking the opposition's plans to phase out North Sea oil and gas production.

Rules are being drafted that would mean new gas power plants can be built but must be "net-zero ready", meaning they could one day be retrofitted to use hydrogen or capture the carbon dioxide they emit by burning gas.

Otherwise Ms Coutinho warned of a "genuine prospect of blackouts" if the country cannot turn to gas when the weather shuts down wind and solar power.

Critics say this is vague and warn Britain is heading backwards in the race for net zero, and that using gas leaves it vulnerable to global markets.

However, Ms Coutinho said backing investment in new gas plants does not conflict with Britain's international commitments to go green.

Nicholas Stern joined the battle, too, as he said a vast green investment push worth at least $4 trillion a year is needed to put the world on a path of sustainable growth.

The original intellectual thinker on investment to meet the climate change challenge, Lord Stern wrote a landmark 2006 report making the economic case for green policies.

The Stern Review helped to shape the then-Labour government policy under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which passed the UK's first climate change act in 2008.

 

OTHER STORIES THIS WEEK

Ukraine is in for the long haul, even as calls grow to wave the 'white flag'
Scrimping doesn't pay: UK loses talent to draw of US dollar
A shake-up in how football is governed in the UK is up in the air