Britain heads further down the Brexit rabbit-hole – by Paul Mason

At my local petrol station a cadre of young men have suddenly appeared, in high-visibility jackets, to instruct car drivers in the fine art of the jammed-nose-to-tail refill. Each pump has three nozzles, for diesel and petrol—with some careful driving, and shouted instructions, two cars can use one at the same time.

That doesn’t stop the queue backing up 30 metres into the roadway, hazard lights flashing. After a while the jacketed men flip the makeshift sign, from ‘no petrol cans’ to ‘no petrol’, and the commotion ends. This is what happens when a country runs short of 100,000 truck and tanker drivers and the government says ‘don’t panic’.

In the supermarket next door there are rows of empty shelves. Fresh vegetables are a problem, fruit is a bigger problem and the remaining flowers look sad and wilted. The primary cause of the food shortage is said to be the absence of carbon dioxide for processing—itself a side-effect of the soaring price of natural gas.

Read more at: Britain heads further down the Brexit rabbit-hole – Paul Mason

America faces supply-chain disruption and shortages. Here’s why - by Matt Stoller

There’s a quiet panic happening in the US economy. Medical labs are running out of supplies like pipettes and petri dishes, summer camps and restaurants are having trouble getting food, and automobile, paint and electronics firms are curtailing production because they can’t get semiconductors. One man told me he couldn’t get a Whopper meal at a Burger King in Florida, as there was a sign saying “Sorry, no french fries with any order. We have no potatoes.”

Read more at: America faces supply-chain disruption and shortages. Here’s why | Matt Stoller | The Guardian

Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Fiasco’ Damages Europe’s Credibility - by Steven Erlanger

Alain Walravens, 63, is waiting to be invited for a first coronavirus vaccination. So are Marion Pochet, 71, a retired translator, and her husband, Jean-Marc. At least, Ms. Pochet said, they both have had Covid-19, “so we have some immunity, at least for the moment.”

All three are sharply critical of the European Union, which took control of vaccine procurement and distribution and is widely considered to have done worse than its main partners, the United States and Britain, let alone Israel, which have all gotten vaccines into a much larger percentage of their populations than Europe.

So far, only about 11 percent of the bloc’s population has received at least one vaccine shot, compared with 46 percent in Britain and 29 percent in the United States.

Read more at: Coronavirus Vaccine ‘Fiasco’ Damages Europe’s Credibility - The New York Times

Global Food Shortages: Food security experts warn of supply shortages, higher prices due to global pandemic

Food security experts are warning the global pandemic could lead to supply shortages, higher prices and a growing nutrition gap between rich and poor.

Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/food-security-covid19-trudeau-1.5520492

Britain - Brexit: No deal shows food and medicine shortages and unstable situation

Brexit: No-deal dossier shows worst-case scenario - Gove

Read more at: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49388402

The Digest  Group
Almere-Digest
EU-Digest
Insure-Digest 
Turkish-Digest 

For additional information, including advertising rates - e-mail:Freeplanet@protonmail.com

Puerto Rico: The Trump Administration Is Making the Puerto Rico Tragedy Exponentially Worse

Seven days. That’s how long it’s been since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, yet many communities are still stranded and waiting to receive any aid from the outside world.

Fuel has become a valuable as gold in many areas of island, home to as many U.S. citizens as Alaska, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Vermont combined. Residents have been waiting hours in line to get gasoline for their generators after Maria knocked out most of the island’s power grid and crippled the region’s transportation network.

As residents scramble to gain access to fuel trickling into their communities, some have questioned why the Trump administration has decided not to temporarily waive a rule that prohibits foreign vessels from domestic trade routes. The federal government implemented the waiver in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Harvey that ravaged Texas and Florida, which raises the question: Why the double standard?

David Lapan, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Associated Press his agency won’t waive the rule because there are plenty of U.S. flagged vessels to handle the operations. Lapan says most of the humanitarian shipments will be carried by barges. Barges however, move significantly slower than cargo ships.

Rep. Nydia Velázquez, a New York Democrat, and seven other representatives had asked for the shipping waiver in order to speed up deliveries of fuel, food, water, medicine and other necessities to the storm-ravaged island.

Note EU-Digest: As a result of considerable pressure from political and public sources US President Trump today has authorized a waiver to loosen shipping rules regarding Puerto Rico that island officials say would be a significant help for recovery efforts from Hurricane Maria. Many local residents are saying, however, "too little, too late".

Read more: The Trump Administration Is Making the Puerto Rico Tragedy Exponentially Worse | Alternet