THURSDAY 24th

Merry Brexmas
-Johnson is expected to make the Brexit deal announcement today at around 08:00GMT
-Johnson will first talk to EU Chief at 07:00GMT to sign and seal after "late night wrangles over individual fish species" (not a joke)

-There were four secret calls between PM and EU chief VDL yesterday to get the deal over the line, VDL asked Johnson: “Do we have a deal?” to which the PM replied, “Yes.” 🍾
-Johnson is said to have made "huge concessions", likely to anger Brexiteers in Britain
-Senior European source says Johnson is willing to accept that the EU hands back just 25 percent of the value of fish it catches in British waters, over a 5.5-year transition period. The UK was previously insisting on 35 percent, over three years
-Sources say Boris showered Michael Gove with praise last night on the Cabinet call, Said his former rival and been "indispensable" in getting a deal, with planning and No Deal readiness🤗
South Africa travel ban
-Passengers travelling from South Africa to England today will be denied entry, after government scientists and ministers became increasingly alarmed about a new strain of the coronavirus that has emerged in the country.
-Hancock yesterday signalled that the South African COVID strain was significantly more transmissible even than the newly identified British strain
-"Government sources warned that the South African strain had the potential to be the next big COVID story" Great
Trump pardons
-Trump has pardoned Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner
-He granted full pardons to 26 more people on last night
-More waves of pardons expected in the coming week
Vaccine news
-Moderna expects its vaccine to protect against UK coronavirus variant
-"We have tested against a number of previous variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that have emerged since the first outbreak of the pandemic and found our vaccine to remain equally effective"
Iran
-Trump to hold Iran responsible for the recent attacks on American embassies in Iraq
-"Embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday by several rockets. Guess where they were from: IRAN. Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible."
Stimulus
-House to move forward with $2000 stimulus payment vote today
-House Dems plan to try to pass $2,000 stimulus payment via unanimous consent. If that does not work, they will push a bill on Monday to increase the $600 payment in the existing relief package to $2,000
Alibaba
-Chinese financial regulators summon Ant Group for a meeting 🧐
-"China has launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba Group and will summon the tech giant’s Ant Group affiliate to meet in coming days"
No-one has been assigned to the usual morning broadcast round due to Christmas
Some notable appearances however
-Nigel Farage on LBC @ 7.05
-Dominic Raab on LBC @ 7.50
-Raab on Times radio @ 9.05
Shocker
-Reports floating around that timings this morning "may slip a bit"
-PM public appearance not expected for minimum couple of hours plus plus

Just in: China will suspend flights with the UK due to the new strain

More from Brexit

This very short article by Jeremy Cliffe is the best thing I have ever read on Brexit and the EU. It pivots on the contrast between Delors’ and Thatcher’s authentically provincial Christian visions and suggests the battle in Britain between the two is not over.


Thatcher: Protestant believer in the totally free market and absolutely sovereign centralised nation state. Delors: Catholic believer in third way personalism, corporatism and federalism. Individualism versus relational love. Heterodoxy versus Orthodoxy.

The article useful gives the lie to the idea that the Catholic vision of the EU has altogether vanished even though it is weakened. Delors wanted a social dimension to the free market and single currency and yet lexiteers laughably insist the EU is more neoliberal than the U.K.!

Subsidiary federalism is a doctrine of democracy and human fraternity. State sovereignty is a doctrine of naked power. It is a face of Antichrist. Leviathan.

Those combined that democracy can only be inside a single state fail to power just how much of private law and evermore so is necessarily international. Thus if political institutions don’t extend over borders there can be no democracy.
Brexit also brings UK pork sector to standstill. Surprise eh? @RichardAENorth 🙄
UK pork processors are experiencing significant issues in exporting products to the EU, which has already brought part of the industry to a complete standstill, risking knock-on impacts on farm.


The widely seen footage of overzealous Dutch (*my edit: "no they were not"*) inspection officials confiscating ham sandwiches transported by British hauliers is just the tip of the iceberg as far as the UK pig sector is concerned.
The NPA’s processor members have reported that

excessive (*my edit: only for non-EU members*) bureaucracy associated with paperwork requirements are causing delays at Dover, Calais and other ports. With pork being a perishable product, these delays are making UK shipments unattractive to buyers in the EU, forcing processors

to reject shipments and cancel future orders.
Despite the trade deal agreed between the EU & UK just before Christmas, the UK’s formal departure from the EU Customs Union and Single Market was always going to mean additional checks, new labelling and certification requirements

and delays at ports. While the full overall impact of the new rules is yet to be felt, as UK export volumes remain lower than normal for the time of year, the UK pig sector is already feeling the effect. Processors have reported a number of issues, including:

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Fake chats claiming to be from the Irish African community are being disseminated by the far right in order to suggest that violence is imminent from #BLM supporters. This is straight out of the QAnon and Proud Boys playbook. Spread the word. Protest safely. #georgenkencho


There is co-ordination across the far right in Ireland now to stir both left and right in the hopes of creating a race war. Think critically! Fascists see the tragic killing of #georgenkencho, the grief of his community and pending investigation as a flashpoint for action.


Across Telegram, Twitter and Facebook disinformation is being peddled on the back of these tragic events. From false photographs to the tactics ofwhite supremacy, the far right is clumsily trying to drive hate against minority groups and figureheads.


Declan Ganley’s Burkean group and the incel wing of National Party (Gearóid Murphy, Mick O’Keeffe & Co.) as well as all the usuals are concerted in their efforts to demonstrate their white supremacist cred. The quiet parts are today being said out loud.


The best thing you can do is challenge disinformation and report posts where engagement isn’t appropriate. Many of these are blatantly racist posts designed to drive recruitment to NP and other Nationalist groups. By all means protest but stay safe.