A quick tour through the Covid data as of the latest number. Slightly more bad news than good, but that doesn’t mean there’s no good. Let’s start with the overall UK picture. That 106k number a new daily record. And possibly not the last.
The good news is that for the time being the divergence between cases and admissions remains evident for the UK as a whole. Look at the red line vs the black line and look how different that relationship was last winter (eg before vaccines). Amazing really…
But you get a better sense of what’s going on by looking not at UK but at London, where most case growth is. This chart (hat-tip to @PaulMainwood for the concept) shows where we are vs the winter wave. On bright side, the blue/red lines aren’t going up in lockstep with cases.
That being said, hospitalisations in London are rising fast. By about 9% a day on average this past week. What we don’t know is a) how serious those hospitalisations are. ICU numbers still low and b) how long they’ll stay in. In SA hospital stays are much shorter this wave
Another way of looking at the London figs.
Black lines show you trajectory of the Alpha/Kent variant wave last winter.
Red lines show you case growth in this wave.
Cases rising far faster than last winter.
Hospitalisations broadly similar.
Still v early to jump to conclusions tho
Incidentally, it looks as if case growth may now have plateaued in the hottest of London’s Covid hotspots. This is 7 day cases in Lambeth by publication date. Look: is that line turning at the top right? Might be. @AlastairGrant4 keeping a close eye on this stuff.
Finally, for those wondering whether the reason we’re seeing such high case numbers is that we’re testing so much (we are testing a lot), here’s something that adjusts for that: test positivity %.
These lines are also basically vertical. Albeit not yet as high as last winter.
Today’s data was frankly a bit worse than I’d hoped.
That said, it’s still consistent with lower hospitalisation numbers per case, which is something.
Upon which note, good to see Imperial research on Omicron hospitalisations.
Last week: “no evidence”. This week: “some evidence”.
How big a deal is the new trade agreement unveiled between the US and the UK? Here are some initial thoughts.
Start with this: this is total UK exports to the US over the past 5yrs: £273bn. Right now most of this will face a 10% tariff. Some things (eg cars) face 25% extra
Let's break down that total. The biggest chunk is cars. Just under £30bn. That's covered under the agreement. So too are steel/aluminium exports. Much smaller at £2.7bn...
These sectors will benefit from special deals (though much of the detail still remains vague).
Rolls Royce will apparently get tariff free access for its jet engines. That mostly helps Boeing, but also Rolls Royce. Jet engines comprise a surprisingly large chunk of UK exports to the US, about £17.3bn. So let's shade that red too...
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The Chinese owners of British Steel say they are now considering shutting their blast furnaces and end steelmaking at Scunthorpe in early June - only a few months away.
It would mean an end of virgin steelmaking in the country that invented it during the industrial revolution
British Steel say the main question now is timing: whether the operations will close in June, in September or later.
It says tariffs are one of the reasons the blast furnaces are "no longer financially sustainable".
Press release 👇
The news means @jreynoldsMP faces two interlocking crises in the coming months: 1. The imposition of US tariffs on an ever growing segment of British exports 2. The end of virgin steelmaking (the UK would be the first G7 country to face this watershed moment).
This is big stuff
Donald Trump just announced 25% tariffs on anyone importing oil from Venezuela.
This is odd.
Because the country importing the most crude from Venezuela is... the US.
Capital Economics chart of Ven oil exports by Capital Economics via @rbrtrmstrng
But it raises a bigger point
🧵
Why does the US import so much oil from Venezuela?
Mainly for the same reason it imports so much oil from Canada.
And no it's not just because they're close.
It's because most US refineries are set up to refine the kind of oil they have in Venezuela and Canada.
To understand this it helps to recall that crude oil is actually a broad term. There are LOTS of different varieties of crude - a function of the geology of where the oil formed and the organic ingredients that went into it millions of years ago.
It's called "crude" for a reason
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Here's a thread about ALUMINIUM.
Why this commonplace metal is actually pretty extraordinary.
How the process of making it is a modern miracle...
... which also teaches you some profound lessons about the trade war being waged by Donald Trump. And why it might be doomed.
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Aluminium is totally amazing.
It's strong but also very light, as metals go.
Essentially rust proof, highly electrically conductive. It is one of the foundations of modern civilisation.
No aluminium: no planes, no electricity grids.
A very different world.
Yet, commonplace as it is today, up until the 19th century no one had even set eyes on aluminium. Unlike most other major metals we didn't work out how to refine it until surprisingly recently.
The upshot is it used to be VERY precious. More than gold!
🚨TARIFFS🚨
Here's a story that tells you lots about the reality of tariffs both for those paying them & those hoping to benefit from them.
A story of ships, storms, bad luck and bad policy.
It begins a week and a bit ago, with a man frantically refreshing his web browser...
🧵
That man is Liam Bates.
He runs the UK unit of a steel company called Marcegaglia. They make stainless steel - one of the most important varieties of this important alloy. The method of making it was invented in Sheffield. And this company traces its DNA back to that invention.
Watching the process is TOTALLY amazing.
They tip a massive amount of scrap: old car parts, sinks etc, into a kind of cauldron and then lower big glowing electrodes into it.
Then flip the switch.
⚡️Cue a massive thunder sound as a controlled lightning storm erupts inside it.
🧵Three years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, EU, UK and other nations vowed to wage economic war, via the toughest sanctions in history.
So... how's that going?
We've spent months documenting what ACTUALLY happened. Here's a thread of threads on the REAL story on sanctions...
1. Flows of dual use items, including radar parts, drone components and other parts used by Russia to kill Ukrainians, carried on from the UK and Europe to Russia, via the backdoor (eg the Caucasus & Central Asia)
2. Of all the goods sent by the UK to Russian neighbours, few were as significant as luxury cars.
Having sanctioned Russia (the idea being to starve Putin's cronies of luxuries) Britain (and Europe more widely) began sending those sanctioned cars in via the backdoor instead