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09th June 2021
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES
Worldwide cases of COVID-19 are at 174,399,994 with deaths totalling at 3,752,900 globally as of 8th June according to Worldometer. So far, 157,669,802 people have recovered from the virus. Online platforms for media outlets; The Financial Times, Le Monde, BBC, Euronews and Reddit amongst others reported an internet blackout with no access to their sites on Tuesday 8th June. Users received messages of "Error 503 Service Unavailable" or "Connection Failure" when attempting to view some online sites. The outage originated in a failure in a content delivery network (CDN) run by ‘Fastly’. Amazon and the UK GOVT website gov.uk also reported problems. Fastly have confirmed they have identified the source of the problem and “a fix is being implemented”. On Tuesday 8th June, Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, pled guilty to the kidnap and rape of Sarah Everard, the 33-year-old abducted and killed in London in March. Couzens has not yet entered a plea to the murder charge, and is awaiting medical reports to be completed. Underworld criminals around the globe were deceived into using a fake encrypted messaging app called “ANOM” as part of joint operation by the FBI and Australian Federal Police. ‘Operation Trojan Shield’ resulted in police raids on criminal gangs globally contributing to 800 people being arrested, eight tonnes of cocaine and twenty-two tonnes of cannabis seized together with £41m worth of currency and crypto- currency. Caches of weapons, luxury cars and goods were also seized during some 700 raids worldwide. The Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm or Aducanumab from biotech company Biogen, received approval this week from US regulators and has become the first drug able to treat the disease itself rather than its symptoms, slowing down the progressiveness of Alzheimer’s. The announcement saw an increase in the share prices of Biogen and its partner on Aducanumab, Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai. The US government has announced it has retrieved over half of the ransom paid to Dark Side, the ransomware group responsible for the hacking of Colonial Pipeline last month, causing massive disruption to fuel services across the East Coast of the US. The newly formed US Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force recovered the funds. Israel’s Parliament intends to debate and vote on Sunday on the decision to form a new government, potentially ending the 12 year reign of current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A coalition of opposition parties to Netanyahu formed earlier this month after the inconclusive election in March. Netanyahu has referred to the coalition as “the fraud of the century”. Four members of a family of five died when they were targeted in a suspected hate crime in Toronto, Canada on Monday 7th June. The Muslim family of 5 were participating a family walk when a vehicle is believed to have deliberately driven into the family killing three generations of the family immediately and leaving their young son critically injured in hospital. 20 year-old Nathaniel Veltman was arrested shortly after the attack and has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder.
BREXIT A further extension to part of The Internal Markets bill is under review in Northern Ireland as the EU and UK continue to struggle to come to an agreement over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The import of chilled meats from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is currently experiencing an extended grace period (until June) after which it will be subjected to strict EU restrictions on the import of food products causing further delays and shortages in the province. The internal markets bill controversy comes as US President Joe Biden arrives in the UK for the G7 summit and has already made his feelings regarding the Northern Ireland protocol known suggesting UK Prime minister Boris Johnson is ‘inflaming tensions’ in the area.
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ACTIVISM This weekend the G7 summit convenes in St Ives, Cornwall. Mass disruptions in the Devon and Cornwall area are likely and protests are expected nationwide. For further details please see our Insight on the G7 summit below. For details on XR’s G7 plan of action visit here.
UPCOMING PROTESTS
Tuesday 1st -13th June, ‘G7 Rebellion’ series of actions in towns and cities across the UK o The G7 Summit of leading economies – held from the 11th to 13th June – is seen as a key staging post before the UN conference on climate change (COP26) in Glasgow this November o https://leftfootforward.org/2021/06/climate-emergency-extinction-rebellion-reveals-protest-plans- for-cornwalls-g7-summit/ o Devon and Cornwall protest schedule: . 7-10 June – ‘Make the Wave’ march, Nationwide . 11th June – G7 Summit protest, St Ives . 11th June – G7 Climate Strike, Gyllyngvase beach, Falmouth . 12th June – ‘G is for Greenwash’ protest, Kimberley Park to Event Square, Falmouth . 13th June – G7 Summit protest, St Ives
Saturday 12th June – International Day of Action against the G7 o Multiple locations across country o Location Hale, Greater Manchester
Saturday 12th June – Anti-vax/Anti-mask Freedom Rally – Milton Keynes o Location: Milton Keynes Civic offices @13:00
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Monday 14th June – The Big Weekday Event – we are the resistance o Protest outside No10 Downing Street @12midday against lockdown restrictions o https://twitter.com/AJ91027833/status/1402051111201263620
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COVID – 19
The total confirmed UK COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday 9th June is 4,535,754 with 127,860 deaths according to GOV.UK.
As of Wednesday 9th June, over 40,710,319 people have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccination in the UK and 28,540,844 have received their second dose according to GOV.UK.
Monday 21st June will see the UK Prime Minister deliver a scheduled update on the easing of lockdown restrictions. In the much anticipated address, the expectation is for the UK to be in a position to return to normal life (with a few social distancing measures/mask requirements still in place). The reality appears to be the announcement of a delay to ‘freedom day’ to mitigate the risk from the spread of the highly contagious Delta (Indian) variant of the virus.
On Wednesday 9th June In the port of Greenock, Scotland the cruise ship MSC Virtuosa was informed they would not be permitted to dock in Scotland. The ship is currently on an UK coastline 7-day cruise sailing with 900 passengers instead of 6,000 at full capacity, all passengers received both vaccinations and tested negative for the virus before departing. The Scottish government announced COVID-19 restrictions still apply until all of Scotland moves into level 1 of the lockdown lifting roadmap.
The UK’s Department of Health announced on Tuesday 8th June the highest rise in COVID-19 cases – week on week- since Christmas. The UK saw a 90% rise in cases as the Delta Variant takes a grip in the North of the country. Health Minister Matt Hancock has urged residents in Lancashire and Greater Manchester not to leave their area and if possible to meet outdoors only (unless in a support bubble).
People over the age of 25 in England have been encouraged to get vaccinated as the UK’s vaccine program progresses ahead of schedule. In Scotland those over the age of 30 and in Northern Ireland those over the age of 18 are all now eligible.
UEFA Euro 2020 (delayed from last year due to the pandemic) will commence this month with some matches played in the UK. Matches at Wembley start this Sunday 13th June when England will play Croatia, spectators will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test and be fully vaccinated. The event at Wembley will see a crowd of 22,500 people (25% capacity).
Useful Information Sources UK wide – Public Health England Scotland – Scottish Government Northern Ireland – NISRA COVID-19 deaths in England & Wales – ONS COVID-19 Statistics – Worldometer – Johns Hopkins University
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INSIGHTS
Our Risk Advisory Service regularly publish articles and advisories covering a myriad of subjects. These publications can be found within the Risk Advisory Services section on the Wilson James website.
This report does not represent any political stance towards any of the activism groups mentioned below from Wilson James or its Client Partners. All Wilson James policies can be viewed on our internal IMS platform. https://internal.wilsonjames.co.uk/
G7 Summit 2021 (11 – 13 June 2021)
The 47th G7 summit is due to take place in Caris Bay, St Ives, Cornwall this weekend, June 11th – 13th and will comprise of attendees from the seven member states and representatives from the European Union. This year’s agenda includes:
1. The Global response to the covid-19 pandemic; 2. Climate change; 3. The Global approach to pandemics in general; 4. The equal, global distribution of vaccines; 5. The design of a global early warning system; 6. Global policies for future health emergencies and the reduction of trade barriers.
Leaders from India, South Korea, South Africa and Australia have also been invited to attend by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who has extended the invitations in hope of expanding the seven members to ten, creating the D10 (the World’s leading ten democracies).1.
(Wikipedia 2021) Previous Summits This year’s summit is the first for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the 2020 summit to cancel. The 45th summit held in Biarritz, France in 2019 covered topics including:
Modernisation of international taxation; The joint desire to ensure Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons; Russian military intervention in the Ukraine; The 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. 2.
Previous Protests In 2019 Biarritz and surrounding areas saw thousands of protestors from movements such as, Yellow Vest 6 WORLD NEWS/RAS/03rd June 2021
(Gilets Jaunes), Basque separatists (ETA) and environmental activists descend on its streets. 3. On the Saturday of the 2019 weekend police had resorted to using water cannons and tear gas to disperse some of the crowds gathering on the outskirts of Biarritz and made sixty-eight arrests. Elsewhere in South West France non-violent group ANV-Cop21 removed portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron from town halls and marched with them upside down in protest of his conflicting domestic and international climate policies.4.
The last UK based meeting, the G8 (G8 and not G7 as Russia was in attendance) held in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland in 2013 saw a number of peaceful protests against, fracking, tax evasion and world hunger.5. Russia attended as a member between 1998 and 2013 bringing the total number of member states to eight. Russia’s participation was suspended in 2014, predominately due to their annexation of Crimea. This year they remain uninvited.6.
This years’ location This years’ location presents issues on two fronts with protests possible from both land and sea (Extinction Rebellion have previously held anti-pollution protests in Falmouth harbour).7. Having drafted in five thousand extra police officers from across the country for this year’s summit, Devon and Cornwall police are preparing for both peaceful and disruptive protests with four sites nominated as designated protest zones:
1. Plymouth Hoe, Plymouth, Devon; 2. Flowerpot playing field, Exeter, Devon; 3. Church Street carpark, Falmouth, Cornwall; 4. Lemon Quay, Truro, Devon.
Devon and Cornwall police will utilise these zones, together with exclusion zones around the events by air, land and sea; two-step identification to access restricted areas and continuous mobile security patrols to help mitigate security concerns around the G7.8. More information is available regarding the local security measures here.
Map of St Ives, Caris Bay and restcted areas.
(Police 2021)
For further information on Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Cornwall Rebellion’ weekend of action please click here
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Devon and Cornwall protest schedule: 7-10 June – ‘Make the Wave’ march, Nationwide 11th June – G7 Summit protest St Ives 11th June – G7 Climate Strike, Gyllyngvase beach, Falmouth 12th June – ‘G is for Greenwash’ protest, Kimberley Park to Event Square, Falmouth 13th June – G7 Summit protest St Ives
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