Saturday 3 August 2019 The Guardian •
In brief^51
Boris Johnson’s fi rst week in power
was dominated by the prime
minister’s high-stakes approach to a
no-deal Brexit.
Johnson’s no ifs, no buts
approach to the 31 October deadline
led to him being admonished by
the Scottish fi rst minister, Nicola
Sturgeon; the Irish taoiseach, Leo
Varadkar, warning that a hard exit
could bring the break up of the UK;
the pound sinking to a two-and-
a-half-year low; and the Treasury
announcing an additional £2.1bn in
no-deal planning costs.Issue of
the weekThe threat of a
no-deal BrexitSimon Jenkins,
the GuardianSonia Sodha,
the GuardianGuy
Verhofstadt,
the GuardianNo-deal Brexit has suddenly gone
serious. It is no longer an exercise
in bombast and biceps-fl exing.
Boris Johnson is about to impose a
massive economic sanction on his
own country. He is playing with fi re:
it is a political stunt that has gone
horribly wrong.
It is clearly reckless to assume
a sensible Brexit deal before the
due date of 31 October. Politicians
can twiddle their thumbs, others
cannot. Since March, the Tories have
decided collectively to stop working
in the nation’s interest and play a
game of chicken with Brussels. It has
not worked. The government is now
planning for crisis.It beggars belief that the government
is spending billions – £6.3bn so far
this year – on contingency planning
in case it decides to take us into a
self-imposed economic disaster that
is entirely avoidable.
On the other hand, if Boris
Johnson is deluded enough to
proceed with crashing Britain out
of the EU without a deal – and many
of his actions as prime minister
suggest that he is – the couple of
billion announced this week will
feel like small change compared
with what the government and
businesses will have to spend to
mitigate the long-term economic
pain of no deal.No matter what Boris Johnson or his
new Vote Leave cabinet threaten –
and the expectation in Brussels is
that no-deal planning will be ramped
up in an attempt to intimidate other
EU countries – be in no doubt: there
isn’t time to limit the damage of a
sudden severance from the world’s
largest trading bloc. Unless a further
extension is requested, or article 50
is revoked by 31 October, when
the current extension expires, a
dramatic shock awaits the global
economy, and we all stand to lose.United States
Four killed at California
garlic festival shootingProperty
Home ownership dream is
dead, say young peopleDemographics
Birthrate in England and
Wales hits record lowTransport
Loos send service station
to bottom of the leagueReality TVLove Island romps home
- as Ofcom tightens rules
After weeks locked away in the Love Island
villa in Mallorca, Greg O’Shea and Amber
Gill were named the ITV2 show’s winners in
Monday’s live fi nal. The pair beat the favourites,
Tommy Fury and Molly-Mae Hague.
Meanwhile, with concern about the
treatment of reality stars rising after the
suicides of two former Love Islanders, Ofcom
announced on Monday that it planned to add
new rules to the broadcasting code.
The regulator’s aim is to ensure reality show
contestants are off ered more protection from
the turbulence that can follow their sudden
celebrity, with new requirements to protect
the dignity of members of the public, and avoid
“unjustifi ed distress or anxiety”.
A gunman killed three people,
including a six-year-old boy, and
injured at least 11 people after
opening fi re on Sunday evening at a
food festival in northern California.
He was shot dead by police.
The man used a rifl e and gained
entry to the Gilroy garlic festival
by cutting through a fence to
avoid tight security, including
metal detectors, police said. Law
enforcement offi cials in Gilroy said
on Tuesday that they were not yet
ready to comment on their early
investigation into the shooter’s
ideology or motivation.
Investigators searching the
home of the 19-year-old suspect- identifi ed by police as Santino
William Legan – in Nevada found
empty boxes of ammunition, a gas
mask and a bulletproof vest, the San
Francisco Chronicle reported.
One of Britain’s biggest mortgage
lenders has found that 70% of young
people now believe that the home
ownership dream is over for their
generation. Having carried out the
largest ever survey of potential fi rst-
time buyers, Santander said its own
fi gures suggested less than 25% of
those aged 18 to 34 would be in a
position to buy a home by 2026.
The bank said that while 91%
of young people interviewed still
aspired to own a home, more than
two-thirds said it was unlikely to
happen unless they received the
deposit from their parents. Back
in 2006, about half of those under
34 were able to get on the property
ladder, the bank said.
The study found that the sharpest
fall in ownership among fi rst-time
buyers has been among those on
middle incomes.The birth rate in England and Wales
has hit the lowest level since records
began in 1938, the Offi ce for National
Statistics revealed on Thursday.
There were 657,076 live births in
England and Wales last year – a fall of
3.2% from 2017 and 10% from 2012.
The number of live births fell from
11.6 per 1,000 people to 11.1.
The fi gures also showed the
percentage of babies born to
mothers not born in the UK also fell
for the fi rst time since 1990, from
28.4% to 28.2%. The birthrate has
dropped 45.9% from its peak in 1947.
Although women aged 40 and
over were the only demographic for
whom the fertility rate did not fall, in
2018 the rate stalled for the fi rst time
since the 1970s, at 16.1 per 1,000.A motorway service station
overlooking the Severn Bridge
was been named the worst in
England after visitors criticised its
unwelcoming 1960s exterior and
“grim and dismal” toilets.
Severn View services on the
M48 in Gloucestershire – near
the village of Aust to the north
of Bristol – attracted a customer
satisfaction rating of just 72% in a
survey of facilities off ered by the 111
service stations across the English
motorway network.
Norton Canes (Roadchef ) services
between junctions 6 and 7 of the M6
toll road in Staff ordshire was rated
the best for the second year running
in the survey by the independent
watchdog Transport Focus.▼ Love Island 2019 winners
Greg O’Shea and Amber Gill
MATT FROST/ITV/SHUTTERSTOCKThe amount BlackRock, the world’s
biggest investor, has lost in 10 years by
investing in fossil fuel, according to the Institute
for Energy Economics and Financial AnalysisThe diff erence in average temperatures
in the UK between 2009-2018 and 1961–1990,
according to the Met Offi ce. The 10 hottest
years on record have all occurred since 2002.$90bn+0.9C
РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS