Fever dream
by Mehak Dugal

Truss risks igniting another row with the EU which could lead to tariffs on British exports if she tries to dilute workers’ rights too much, legal experts and union leaders have said. The new prime minister is reportedly considering a review of workers’ rights as part of a wider “bonfire” of 1,500 EU laws she wants to take off the UK’s statute books before the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, free marketeer and Truss’s ideological soulmate Kwasi Kwarteng has been appointed chancellor. Kwarteng was also recently under fire for lifting the ban to allow businesses to hire agency workers to plug staffing gaps caused by strike action.

 

Back here, the Times reports on an expanding cost-of-living package in the Budget, as surging energy bills and large exchequer surplus raise expectations for a larger suite of once-off measures.

The Cabinet will meet at Dublin Castle this morning to consider approving an energy reduction plan for the public sector here. It will also discuss EU proposals for a windfall tax to reduce electricity prices. 

Trade Unions representing workers in Local Employment Services (LES) and Jobs Clubs have hit out at Social Protection Minister Heather Humphries after 60 workers were left jobless. The redundancies occurred as a result of a tendering process initiated by the Department for Social Protection that decimated funding for the service in Dublin. Fórsa Assistant General Secretary, Lynn Coffey is quoted is this piece on the same.

 

And finally, a rare moment captured in under-fire Ukrainian city of Kharkiv shows an escaped chimpanzee being coaxed back to the zoo in a scene straight out of a fever dream, featuring - a raincoat, a hug and a bicycle. 

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