Convenience Big Store: Biden needs Bush to help him beat Covid 🦠

28 July, 2021

In the headlines

The government is poised to announce that fully vaccinated travellers from the US and EU will be able to avoid quarantine. "Covid is all over bar the shouting," a senior minister tells the Mail. Hundreds of Afghan interpreters who worked for British forces are at risk of being murdered by the Taliban, says the former head of the army, Lord Dannatt. Unless the UK lets them resettle here, responsibility for their deaths will lie "squarely at our nation's feet". The IMF says Britain's economy is set to grow by 7% this year – faster than in any other leading nation. Gymnast Simone Biles has withdrawn from tomorrow's individual all-round final in Tokyo. The American superstar admitted she is battling mental health "demons".

Comment of the day

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Biden needs Bush to help him beat Covid

If Joe Biden is serious about ending the pandemic, says James Harding in The New York Times, he should "relieve George W Bush of his paintbrush and draft him as America's vaccine envoy". We associate "Dubya" with Iraq, but millions around the world remember him for saving their lives in a previous pandemic: Aids. It was Bush who led the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief to combat HIV/Aids in Africa and elsewhere. It brought the crisis under control in more than 50 countries around the world. Since 2003 it has invested more than $85bn in saving, at a conservative estimate, 20 million lives – the largest commitment to fighting a single disease in history.

We need Bush back. Fighting Covid is a race "between vaccines and variants", and we're losing. We need a representative who "cannot be ignored", who can use the "bully pulpit and back-room pressure" to get world leaders and big pharma to accelerate the delivery and distribution of vaccines, and to sell those vaccines to a doubtful public. "Roll up your sleeve and do your part," said Bush in a public service announcement in March. We're in an arms race against the coronavirus. Biden should continue a great American tradition of bipartisanship during crises and draft Bush for one last "necessary fight".

We can't stop the Uighurs being persecuted

A chilling story in the recent memoir of a Uighur refugee "lingers in the mind", says Andrew Sullivan in The Weekly Dish. A man in his seventies found an old Koran he had forgotten he owned. Possession of religious books is seen as "evidence of terroristic activities", so he was afraid to hand it in and instead threw it into a river. But the authorities in Xinjiang have strung wire mesh under the bridges; they found the book, which had a copy of the old man's ID card inside. He was tracked down and sentenced to seven years in prison. The concentration camps built to house Uighurs like this old man now have a capacity of one million people. We cannot know for sure what happens inside, but survivors report "torture, starvation, force-feeding, solitary confinement, and brainwashing".

How should we react to "the greatest, systematic detention of a religious minority since the Second World War"? The first priority is not to look away. "This is happening. It is evil." But the second is pragmatism. We can't save the Uighurs, just as we couldn't win a war over Taiwan (which is not a "vital US interest", and we shouldn't pretend it is). And we need China: unless Beijing signs off on drastic carbon reduction, "we are all f***ed". We shouldn't forget the Uighurs, but we need to live with the "cruel realities of global politics" rather than wish them away.

Inside politics

While I've been writing this column, Dominic Cummings has tweeted six times, says Marie Le Conte in The Independent. Why is he so desperate for attention? He's not alone – Nick Timothy, Steve Hilton, Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson were all once shadowy powers behind the PM, and now they never seem to shut up. It's the special affliction of special advisers – they can't talk to the press on the record, so others shape their character for them. "If that were you, wouldn't you be gagging to try and set the record straight after the event?"

Zeitgeist

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Boris Johnson's idol is Winston Churchill, but the PM has more in common with Henry VIII, says Paul Waugh in the I newspaper. "A portly, extravagant spender, he's survived several wives and advisers while overseeing an historic break with the rest of Europe." Which leaves Dominic Cummings as Thomas Cromwell – "utterly dispensable".

Noted

A team of 1,700 volunteer drone pilots have reunited more than 2,000 runaway dogs with their owners, says Emma Yeomans in The Times. The group was set up four years ago by Graham Burton, a retired photographer from Pontypridd – he had heard about a woman being quoted £800 for drone pilots to search for her labrador, so got two friends to find it free of charge. Cats are harder to spot from the sky because of their preference for trees over open fields.

Snapshot

On the way out

Chewing gum, which no longer appeals to young people. Global sales fell by 14% last year, says The Economist. For decades it was "a symbol of rebellion" that exuded a sense of "boldness, bravado and sex appeal". But today's earnest Gen Zs care more about saving the planet than undermining authority, which is why they've given up on gum.

Snapshot answer

It's one of Tom Daley's cats lounging on a "couch" made by its owner. The diver, who won an Olympic gold medal with Matty Lee on Monday, is a keen knitter and crocheter: he has an Instagram account dedicated to his creations, which include jumpers, cardigans, swimming trunks and now a Union Jack case for his latest medal.