London
CNN
 — 

US President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will travel to the United Kingdom in September for an “unprecedented” second state visit at the invitation of King Charles, which is unlikely to have any public-facing events.

The visit is scheduled for September 17-19, the palace announced Sunday, coinciding with a recess in the House of Commons. That removes the possibility of Trump addressing a joint session of parliament – a prospect that some MPs had urged the Speaker of the House to refuse.

King Charles will host Trump at Windsor Castle, about an hour from central London, the palace said in a statement. The usual venue for state visits, Buckingham Palace, is undergoing significant renovations this year.

Windsor was also the site of French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit last week, before Macron traveled to London to attend a summit at Downing Street and deliver a speech to parliament.

Typically, second-term US presidents are not invited for a second state visit. In keeping with tradition, former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were offered lunch or tea with the monarch during their second administrations.

But the “unprecedented” offer was extended on the king’s behalf by Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his trip to the White House earlier this year, which Trump enthusiastically accepted. A formal invitation was then sent in June, but the two leaders were unable to meet during the summer due to scheduling conflicts.

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

“His Majesty has known President Trump for many years and looks forward to hosting him and the First Lady later this year,” a palace aide told CNN in June.

More specifics about the state visit will be released in the future, the palace statement said. As with every state visit, it will include a full ceremonial welcome and state banquet. All senior members of the Royal Family are expected to take part.

During his first formal state visit in 2019, Trump was hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. But due to security concerns, there was no public procession along The Mall in London, and the president arrived by helicopter.

CNN’s Mitchell McCluskey contributed to this report.

London
CNN
 — 

The European Union has warned that its trade with the United States could be effectively wiped out if Washington makes good on its threat to slap a 30% tariff on goods imported from the bloc.

A tariff of “30%, or anything above 30%… has more or less the same effect. So, practically it prohibits the trade,” Maroš Šefčovič, the EU’s trade commissioner, said as he arrived ahead of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Šefčovič said it will “be almost impossible” for the bloc to continue its current level of trade with America if that new tariff rate is implemented on August 1 – the date stipulated by US President Donald Trump in his letter to the EU on Saturday.

“If (the tariff) stays 30 (percent) plus, simply trading as we know it will not continue, with huge negative effects on both sides of the Atlantic,” he added. “I will definitely do everything I can to prevent this super-negative scenario.”

The EU-US trade relationship is mighty. According to the European Council, EU-US bilateral trade in goods and services was worth €1.68 trillion ($1.96 trillion) last year. Together, the partners represent nearly 30% of global goods and services trade, per the Council.

But Trump has repeatedly rebuked the EU for what he sees as unfair trading practices, saying in April that the 27-nation bloc was “formed to screw” America. He has pointed to EU tariffs on US goods as well as several “non-tariff barriers” such as taxes on digital services to support that view.

Since re-taking office in January, Trump has hiked – and threatened to hike – tariffs on countries around the world to help eliminate the US’ trade deficit, bring manufacturing jobs back to America and bring foreign nations to heel on key disputes.

For months, EU trade officials have been negotiating with their US counterparts to avoid Trump’s tariffs, or to limit their damage. But after the US president threatened in May to jack up the rate of his so-called “reciprocal” levy on EU goods from 20% to 50%, the bloc accelerated talks.

Šefčovič reiterated on Monday that the EU seeks a negotiated solution as well as his belief that one had been within touching distance before Trump’s latest tariff salvo. “The feeling on our side was that we are very close to an agreement,” he said, noting that the bloc is demonstrating “enormous” levels of patience and creativity to secure a deal.

On Sunday, the EU said it will delay the implementation of planned countermeasures on €21 billion ($25 billion) worth of US exports from Monday until early August to allow more time to negotiate an agreement. Those countermeasures are in retaliation for the 25% tariff Washington has slapped on all steel and aluminium imports.

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister, said the bloc wants a fair deal and that it should prepare to retaliate.

“If you want peace, you have to prepare for war, and I think that’s where we are. So, of course, we shouldn’t impose countermeasures (at) this stage, but we should prepare to be ready to use all the tool in the toolbox,” Rasmussen said before the meeting of EU trade ministers on Monday.

European stocks were falling Monday morning in the first day of trade since Trump issued his new tariff threat over the weekend. The Stoxx Europe 600, the region’s benchmark index, was trading 0.27% lower by early afternoon CET.

Pannonhalma, Hungary
AP
 — 

Tens of thousands of centuries-old books are being pulled from the shelves of a medieval abbey in Hungary in an effort to save them from a beetle infestation that could wipe out centuries of history.

The 1,000-year-old Pannonhalma Archabbey is a sprawling Benedictine monastery that is one of Hungary’s oldest centers of learning and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Restoration workers are removing about 100,000 handbound books from their shelves and carefully placing them in crates, the start of a disinfection process that aims to kill the tiny beetles burrowed into them.

The drugstore beetle, also known as the bread beetle, is often found among dried foodstuffs like grains, flour and spices. But they also are attracted to the gelatin and starch-based adhesives found in books.

They have been found in a section of the library housing around a quarter of the abbey’s 400,000 volumes.

“This is an advanced insect infestation which has been detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection is classified as infected and must be treated all at the same time,” said Zsófia Edit Hajdu, the chief restorer on the project. “We’ve never encountered such a degree of infection before.”

The beetle invasion was first detected during a routine library cleaning. Employees noticed unusual layers of dust on the shelves and then saw that holes had been burrowed into some of the book spines. Upon opening the volumes, burrow holes could be seen in the paper where the beetles chewed through.

The abbey at Pannonhalma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Sitting upon a tall hill in northwestern Hungary, the abbey houses the country’s oldest collection of books, as well as many of its earliest and most important written records.

For over 1,000 years, the abbey has been among the most prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe, surviving centuries of wars and foreign incursions such as the Ottoman invasion and occupation of Hungary in the 16th century.

Ilona Ásványi, director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey library, said she is “humbled” by the historical and cultural treasures the collection holds whenever she enters.

“It is dizzying to think that there was a library here a thousand years ago, and that we are the keepers of the first book catalogue in Hungary,” she said.

Among the library’s most outstanding works are 19 codices, including a complete Bible from the 13th century. It also houses several hundred manuscripts predating the invention of the printing press in the mid-15th century and tens of thousands of books from the 16th century.

While the oldest and rarest prints and books are stored separately and have not been infected, Ásványi said any damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural, historical and religious heritage.

“When I see a book chewed up by a beetle or infected in any other way, I feel that no matter how many copies are published and how replaceable the book is, a piece of culture has been lost,” she said.

To kill the beetles, the crates of books are being placed into tall, hermetically sealed plastic sacks from which all oxygen is removed. After six weeks in the pure nitrogen environment, the abbey hopes all the beetles will be destroyed.

Before being reshelved, each book will be individually inspected and vacuumed. Any book damaged by the pests will be set aside for later restoration work.

The abbey, which hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year, believes the effects of climate change played a role in spurring the beetle infestation as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary.

Hajdu, the chief restorer, said higher temperatures have allowed the beetles to undergo several more development cycles annually than they could in cooler weather.

“Higher temperatures are favorable for the life of insects,” she said. “So far we’ve mostly dealt with mold damage in both depositories and in open collections. But now I think more and more insect infestations will appear due to global warming.”

The library’s director said life in a Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules in use for nearly 15 centuries, a code that obliges them to do everything possible to save its vast collection.

“It says in the Rule of Saint Benedict that all the property of the monastery should be considered as of the same value as the sacred vessel of the altar,” Ásványi said. “I feel the responsibility of what this preservation and conservation really means.”