♪ the headlines on al jazeera. russia has been blamed -- russia has blamed ukrainian forces for the suspected car bombing of a woman. ukraine has denied involvement. in kyiv, authorities have a banded state events this weekend volodymyr zelenskyy has warned russia could launch attacks. wednesday is the 31st

anniversary of ukraine independence from the soviet bloc. trump is moving to temporary block an fbi investigation and his lawyers have asked a federal court to stop the examination of documents seized from his home in florida until a neutral official can oversee the review. our reporter has more from washington. reporter: demanding the court has -- demanding the court appoint a special master to supervise the investigation of materials that were taken from mar-a-lago. there are some legal problems to this. this is the first time trump and his lawyers have brought any action involving that search. this is a problem because his lawyers were quiet when the doj went to stop the unsealing of certain documents after the initial event so many legal experts say this is after the

fact. >> a kenyan presidential candidate is challenging the results of the election of the supreme court. he was narrowly beaten by another and he says results are flawed. a federal prosecutor in argentina has requested a 12 year prison sentence for the vice president after prosecutors say she diverted public funds during her term as president between 2007 and 2015. heavy rain has left parts of the desk parts of dallas, texas underwater. this month is the second wettest on record for the area. those are the headlines on al jazeera. inside story is up next. stay with us. ♪

laura: it's being called britain's summer of strikes. tens of thousands of workers across different sectors have walked off the job. they want better pay and conditions to combat record high inflation. will businesses and government leaders meet their demands? this is "inside story." ♪ hello there, and welcome to the program. i'm laura kyle. workers in the uk have launched some of their most disruptive industrial action in years. with living costs hitting a 40-year high, they want more pay and better conditions. tens of thousands of transport staff, postal employees, and

even lawyers have walked off the job. and for the first time in 30 years, dock workers also went on strike at britain's largest container port. trade unions accused business leaders of putting profits ahead of workers, but the government says union bosses are holding the country to ransom. we'll bring in our guests in just a moment. first, harry fawcett has more from felixstowe port in the east of england. reporter: the world's largest container ship at britain's largest container port, the everelotte, arrived on thursday and normally would be long gone by now. but strike action by felixstowe's 1900 dock workers has stopped operations. the unite union says a recently increased offer of a 7% pay rise doesn't keep pace with spiraling inflation. it's seeking a double-digit raise that it says would share surging corporate profits, 71 million dollars at last count, more equitably with the workers. >> unfortunately we've yet to be given an offer which we think we

can take back and which reflects our members' aspirations. and talking to our members today, which we're in a position to do as you can see, we've had that message sent back to us loud and clear. reporter: felixstowe port says it was reminded in recent days by the bank of england of the inflationary effects of big pay rises. the port company accuses the union of using the workers in a national struggle. >> on average for our workers this is an extra 3500 pounds in cash to them each year. the action that they're taking now that united is making them take and have not put this offer to our workers, but the action that united is making them take is actually going to take the best part of 1000 pounds out of their pocket. reporter: the question is how far the effects of this shutdown will ripple through the uk economy. the port says the effects will be manageable, pointing to the lessons learned during the supply chain disruption of the pandemic. certainly the ship isn't going anywhere anytime soon. and some industry analysis suggests other container

shippers are already offloading their cargo in europe instead of the uk. the union accepts there will be major disruption and says that it could carry out further strikes as it seeks what it says is a fair deal. up the road in ipswich, adam scott's printing and embroidery business relies on imported materials, textiles, ink, and vinyl. he supports the right to strike but is worried about further shocks to a supply chain that's already stretched and only getting costlier. >> historically where we'd have maybe two price rises a year, 2%, 3%, something like that, we're now looking at 8%, 10% price rises monthly from our suppliers. so it's a challenging environment for us. reporter: this sunday's cargo at felixstowe was restricted to day trippers. all sides are settling in for a long wait for this dispute to be resolved, and it's just one among many. a long summer of industrial action and economic uncertainty isn't yet over. harry fawcett, al jazeera,

felixstowe. laura: nationwide strikes have brought parts of britain's rail network to a standstill and caused days of disruptions. only one in five trains were running on thursday and saturday. london's underground transport has been hit by four 24-hour walkouts this year. that's had a knock-on effect on other services where there weren't any strikes, including the eurostar. criminal lawyers and rubbish collectors also stopped working. it's not just the public sector. private companies are also being affected. staff at telecoms giant bt stopped work for four days at the end of july for the first time in 35 years. amazon warehouse staff have also staged walkouts. and some proposed strikes have been halted after pay deals were agreed. these include some by british airways ground staff and plane refuellers at london's heathrow airport. but other workers are holding firm. postal staff plan action later this month, and teachers and health workers have hinted at possible walkouts if they don't get pay deals they consider

acceptable. ♪ let's bring in our guests at this point. all of them are joining us from london. we have stephen cotton. he's the general secretary of the international transport workers federation. pushpin singh is an economist at the center for economic and business research. and giles cunningham is the founder of the public relations agency trafalgar strategy and former head of press at the uk prime minister's office from 2015 to 2016. a very warm welcome to all of you. stephen, let's start by just discussing why all these strikes are happening right now. stephen: thanks, laura. i think when we've got an extraordinary situation. i think you mentioned in the presentation that transport workers, rail, dock workers, truck drivers all did their part through the covid period and now we're hit with enormous levels of inflation not seen for 40 years. and frankly people are extremely

worried about meeting their bills and their commitments at a time where there's clearly a void of leadership in the politics in the uk and no ready solution. so all of the cases you mentioned are actually strikes voted on by the workers themselves. so i think the message to a global audience is workers have had enough. they did their part through covid and now they recognize some extreme increasing costs off the scale and they're asking for a just and fair equitable solution. laura: pushpin, do you do you agree with that, that workers, that people, the society at large is facing extreme rising costs and that this is an unworkable situation if it continues as it is? pushpin: for sure. like i mentioned before, inflation is almost definitely at a 40-year high and is spiraling out of control. the most recent data on earnings as well shows real pay

decreasing by 3% compared to the last year's quarter two. and that gap between inflation and earnings have never been higher since records started two decades ago. so definitely a lot of it is firing up, spiraling out of control, and a lot must be done to help households actually manage the bills and actually survive this cost of living crisis. laura: giles, where is the government in all of this? there is a gap, workers are feeling that they use strikes as last resorts, they've tried to negotiate, they don't feel they're getting anywhere. why not? giles: i think it's very difficult. we are living through unprecedented times. you just had the government offer unprecedented package of intervention during covid. we've got to pay that money back. they're just trying to get the economy back on on its feet now. and we have been hit by these sort of 40-year high of inflation partly fueled by the war in ukraine. so to some extent they are between a rock and a hard place. we're gonna have to pay for this at some point.

it is affecting everybody across the board. but if they do give in to these demands, then you're gonna have more pain down the line across the board. it is not just the public sector. workers, people in the private sector are facing these challenges as well. and there isn't a magic money tree. they can't just keep bailing everyone out. they've already put out, they're going to put out a i think it's a 400 pound package for households hit by the rising cost of energy in october. they've got also a number of one-off payments for different groups hit by the surge in prices. so it's very difficult. but i mean the politics of this are i think at the moment public sentiment is probably with the government. a lot of people can see that we've been going through these very difficult, difficult times so there is pain coming down the track. of course if this does spread and we have this almost unprecedented situation where the criminal barristers could it

-- get hit, the teachers, the public sectors walking out, then it is a political, a huge political danger spot for the government. because at some point i suspect the public's patience will run out. laura: you raised a number of different points there that i want to pick up on. one of them, stephen, giles saying public sentiment is with the government at the moment. do you agree with that, or do you believe that you've got the support of the general public? stephen: well i think we probably move in different circles, if i am frank. the reality is most people are very, very concerned about meeting their bills. so the public sentiment certainly from our experience with our affiliates unite rmt as left so those are rail and and the felixstowe strike is that there's a lot of solidarity and felixstowe has been one of the most successful ports. the first strike in 30 years probably says it all. there's been very responsible approach to industrial action. and the reality is the

ideological comment of as you said, give into this, the reality is, people see so much wealth accumulated in the top elements of our society and we've heard all of these companies taking share dividends. these are extreme sets of circumstances. the cost of living is a 40-year high. we need to look at this in a different way. workers collaborated throughout the pandemic to keep those that are in the global supply chain, to keep the world moving. we think and we believe that the transport workers and today's workers should be shown the same level of respect in a moment of crisis. we should be looking at how do we come up with economic fiscal approach to help distribute the wealth. you cannot take so much money out of people's pockets per month and not expect a reaction. so for us, all the feedback we have, all the chat rooms that we're party to, have a look on twitter, there is a very strong sense of injustice for people

who feel that their money's being taken out of their pocket and they don't have any control over the situation. laura: pushpin, what do you think of that? do you agree that there is enough money to go around, that there is enough money to combat this situation in the uk right now, but it's just concentrated in the wrong places? pushpin: i think definitely it's going to tax a lot on the government finances and the treasury. a lot of spending was done during the covert to help a lot of workers, a lot of key workers , a lot of workers were distressed workers during covid to get through those times properly. this will tax the treasury a lot. there will be either handouts or tax cuts.

there's not a lot of money going around. smart ways have to be thought of by the next government in terms of how this is going to be properly promulgated and implemented to help households i -- help households. laura: reason perhaps is that vast public spending is simply not in the tory dna and therefore the conservatives find it very difficult to propose more money to be offered to people. giles: you're right. they are low tax and they like less intervention. having said that you've had one , of the most interventious governments in recent history what's happening in relation to covert as i said they've intervened in terms of the energy price, surging energy prices but why it's logically and fundamentally what we'll see is if we do get a liz trust premiership is they are against

a winful tax, against the big oil companies. they think in the in the long term it just damages the investment environment, puts businesses off coming here. what we need is a low tax environment which will attract businesses but also we have to be smarter about our energy sources, about developing alternative energy sources and the energy companies have to think about how they can deliver lower cost energy as well but i think there has been a lot of public spending. this is the problem. there isn't unprecedented taps of cash in the reserves in the government hugely servicing huge levels of debt which have high rates of interest so we're just storing up more pain in the long term. unfortunately there is no easy solution. this is not just unique to the u.k.. the surging energy crisis is hitting countries across europe. it underlies that there has been

too much reliance on russia for our energy and now we're paying the price for that. laura: energy prices are still set to rise this winter. from 1200 on average last year to 3400 pounds, that's a huge rise for most people. why can't it happen that the energy companies themselves are forced to charge less to put on caps on prices? pushpin: the problem is putting a cap on prices to protect households, it would help lower income households and protect them from paying extra

[indiscernible] but it also distorts price signals because by doing so households and consumers won't , be kind of wary about how much the energy bills are increasing and with the same regular use as of now, it distorts a lot of signals and adds a lot of fluctuation and knock on effects to the economy so it has a dangerous effect so putting a cap is not feasible. laura: stephen, some would say that the strikes have knock-on effects to the economy as well . the critics would say that they cause a wage price spiral of course where rising wages would feed into this cycle of inflation. stephen: i think i think as we've seen in the past industrial relations before

covid on many occasions have found a solution that's been satisfactory for private companies and the government. the situation we have at the moment is a feeling that people are actually losing their purchasing power at the same time of mass cost. i think human nature is such that there is a sense of what is fair and at the moment that there are still large dividends coming out of what work for state-owned assets including some of the energy companies are making enormous amounts of money for people that are not able to put it back and therefore the majority i think citibank perceives we could be as high as 14% and 18.6% by january 2023. with these numbers coming out on workers feeling that they have no choice but to stop, and the

u.k. has very strong labor laws that require a big process of getting a majority to win the right to strike what we're , seeing is immense support for these strikes from the workers and i would argue from the society as a large. because i think if we look at the situation, p and a ferries where so many workers were sacked and caused such outrage there's a feeling that big business can do what it likes and the government is kind of colluding with the process. so for working people the , opportunity to withdraw their labour is frankly the last stand . now we would actively through this process not discourage business from coming to the uk but also be in a position to encourage people back to the table. everybody wants security in their jobs, fought to pay the bills, and then be in a position to go to work and give a performance. the rail strike seems heavily

politically motivated and this hire and fire strategy that's been advocated by the transport minister is aggravating the situation. if we were dealing with just cost issues and a recognition that we've got an unprecedented post-covid situation, a 40-year high in costs, let's get back to negotiating and let's find a solution, of course when the bank of england comes out and says workers should not ask for pay rises, i do not think that reflects the reality of the men and women in the u.k.. we are in a moment where people are very scared. let's look and criminal barristers. they are not the worst paid workers in the world and even they are on strike. so we need to find a

constructive way to negotiate. we would encourage employers, government to sit down, recognize that this is an unprecedented moment, that solutions and confidence in workers and the businesses they work for is vital. laura: stephen's saying people are scared and this is an unprecedented moment. where is the government? boris johnson is on his second holiday of the summer. he seems to have signed off and just passed on all of this to whoever takes over and that is not until september 5. there's a lot of damage potentially between now and then. we are not seeing any policies announced by the prospective candidates. do you feel that there is a lack of leadership? giles: you are right, there is a vacuum. and it is a dangerous spot for a conservative party to some extent.

there is a sense of trying to do the right thing and defer things on but we have a situation that could start moving at breakneck speed and is danger now. if the poles are right we're going to have a liz trust premiership it's something that she's going to need to get to grips to very quickly because if this does start spreading out a lot more, we are used to the standard underground rail strikes but if this starts spreading out, you might see the public lose their patience and then the government will be in a dangerous spot because politically, if it happens, people will start blaming the government. they need to find and come with some solution or way to break the dead like -- the deadlock.

when strikes were confined to the rail network, it didn't really damage the government stature and standing but this has the potential to be very different. a lot of people say this will accelerate the movement toward driverless trains. people were working from home during covid and people can say, i can take a strike. but if it spreads it will become incredibly problematic. the uk looking like it's heading into recession, cost living crisis, it could be the perfect storm for the new prime minister and be a gift to labour party . laura: absolutely.

pushpin, what sort of solution do you think england britain needs? pushpin: definitely a lot more targeted solutions in terms of what can be done and what can be known to at least alleviate the cost of living crisis. what was said about the perfect storm, it's a perfect description for what is happening in the u.k. right now in terms of external factors concerning supply side shocks including the war in ukraine . you've got rising energy prices . it is likely the u.k. will go into recession and i think a priority will be to -- should be to help households and lower income households. a lot of things are coming into play right now.

[inaudible] [background noise] a lot of handouts would be required and timely measures are required but that is not the case right now and we have yet to see who will be in the hot seat in two weeks. laura: stephen, just lastly, what happens if these strikes don't bring about the pay rises that workers are demanding? stephen: there is a feeling across all sectors in the uk labor movement that cooperation and collaboration about what the message is and what the challenges are. so i think we're going to see more challenges when it comes to workers voting for strike action until we start to see some constructive settlements.

and of course the rail strike gets the biggest profile, but there is a lot in the package. it's not just money, it's about changing the way the rail industry works. i think we need to get people back into moving and transport is critical for that. the situation is in the private sector, lots of really big returns and container markets and supply chain but don't forget, supply chain is driven by demand and if you do not give people money to spend and they are worried about their jobs and paying their bills, how will we drive the economies? we perceive it will be a recession and we need to drive out of that. so unions, workers, and the rail strike is far from over but i feel there is a solidarity across different categories of workers that is unprecedented. laura: we have to leave it

there. many thanks for joining us to all of our guests today, stephen cotton, pushpin singh, and giles cunningham. and thank you too for watching. you can see the program again anytime by visiting our website, aljazeera.com. and for further discussion, do go to our facebook page. that's facebook.com/ajinsidestory. and you can also join the conversation on twitter. we are @ajinsidestory. from me laura kyle and the whole team here, it's bye for now. ♪

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donald trump: i'm establishing new vetting measures to keep radical islamic terroris out of the united states of america. we don't want 'em here. lara kiswani: there's a stigma of arab people, muslim people in this country designed to perpetuate and justify the war on terror, and that's what a lot of arabs and muslims are facing today, sort of a really undignified struggle to just live. dr. ramzi salti: it takes courage to be able to stand up to racism, turn it into a positive moment a moment of learning where you actually use that moment to educate, to let people know about the rich diversity of your culture. l