Scotland 

Express
THE SNP has been warned not to enter a political agreement with the “extremist” Scottish Greens as a “New Zealand-style” co-operation deal with the party edges ever closer.
The two parties have been locked in negotiations since May after the SNP fell just one seat short of an overall majority at the Holyrood elections. While both parties said there would not be a formal coalition between the two, an agreement is set to be announced today which would see them work together on key issues, and Green MSPs appointed as ministers in Nicola Sturgeon‘s SNP led Scottish Government.
The Express understands co-leaders of the party, Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater, are the favourites of the eight Green MSPs to be appointed ministers.
But Liam Kerr MSP, Scottish Conservative Net Zero, Energy and Transport spokesperson claimed the Scottish Greens manifesto is a “doctrine to start a war on working Scotland.” 

Covid 

Evening Standard
The UK is to roll-out a “first -of-its-kind” Covid treatment after approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
Ronapreve, a monoclonal antibody treatment, is administered either by injection or infusion and acts to stop coronavirus from gaining access to the cells of the respiratory system.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the drug was the first designed specifically for treating Covid. “We are now working at pace with the NHS and expert clinicians to ensure this treatment can be rolled out to NHS patients as soon as possible.”
It comes as just two per cent of companies being investigated by the competition watchdog over the cost of PCR tests for travel have been removed from the government’s website. 

iNews
Britain is increasingly an outlier among Western countries in limiting Covid-19 vaccines to those aged 16 and older – and it looks likely that things will stay that way, at least for the immediate future.
A new study from Oxford University suggests that the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus will seriously limit the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing transmission of Covid-19 through the population, even as protection against serious illness and death remains strong.
While vaccinated people are still less likely to get infected than the unjabbed, those who do contract the disease through infection with Delta are just as likely to pass it on to someone else regardless of vaccination status.
This makes the goal of “herd immunity” even harder to reach – and undermines the strongest argument against offering the jab to younger teenagers. 

Mail
A mass booster jab campaign for the over-50s is now unlikely to begin next month, it emerged yesterday.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said vulnerable adults with suppressed immune systems will still receive third doses.
But officials are dithering over a broader booster programme for all over-50s.
Earlier in the summer, the Government drew up plans for the NHS to re-vaccinate 32million people from September 6.
The Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which advises the Government, met yesterday to review evidence on booster jabs but failed to come to a decision. Sources stressed that ‘nothing is off the table’ and their recommendation could take weeks.
Mr Javid said last night: ‘We are going to have a booster scheme, it will start sometime in September. 

Sun
COVID booster jabs WILL begin as early as next month for the most vulnerable, the health secretary has today revealed.
Sajid Javid said he is “confident” the rollout out will start within weeks as the government waits on final expert advice on dishing out a third coronavirus vaccine dose.
During a visit to open a hospital in Carlisle, he said: “We are going to have a booster scheme, it will start sometime in September.
“I couldn’t tell you exactly when because before we start it, as people would expect, we need to get the final advice from our group of experts, our independent scientific and medical advisers.
“So, we’re waiting for their final opinion and, looking at everything and the timing of that.
“I’m confident that we can start in September when we will start with the most vulnerable cohorts and start offering that third jab.” 

Similar storied can be read in the Independent, Mirror, Times 

Education 

Telegraph
A leading university has become the first in the country to ban students from living on campus if they cannot prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, The Telegraph can disclose. 
Hartpury University has warned it will be a “mandatory requirement” for students living in halls of residence to show they have had at least one dose.
Unvaccinated sixth form students aged 16 and 17 have also been banned from living at Hartpury College, part of the same estate near Gloucester. 
From September, they will also be forbidden from taking part in sports and social activities, as well as keeping horses in Hartpury’s stables.
The move comes after the Department for Education insisted last month that there were “no plans” for proof of vaccine status to be required to attend lectures or stay in halls of residence. 
But in a warning letter sent to students and parents on August 16, Claire Whitworth, vice-principal at Hartpury University and College, wrote: “Our expectation is that all eligible students will engage and take up their vaccinations as soon as they are given the opportunity. 

Guardian
Universities, schools and nurseries in England have been advised to delay seeking help in dealing with Covid-19 outbreaks until a cluster involving as many as 10% of staff, students or children have contracted the virus.
A new ““” issued by the Department for Education (DfE) to all education settings in England – ranging from universities and colleges to after-school tuition and youth clubs – advises that preventive measures such as wearing masks or remote learning should be used only after discussion with public health officers, once a “threshold” of infections has been reached.
School, university and college union leaders said the updated framework was likely to be inadequate. Meanwhile, a commentary in the British Medical Journal said: “If vaccination coverage is below 90%, colleges will have to rely on measures such as regular testing, masking and distancing to keep campuses safe.” 

Climate change 

Telegraph
Greta Thunberg has accused Britain of lying about its climate credentials in a series of scathing comments.
At a Unicef press briefing, Ms Thunberg said the country is guilty of “creative carbon accounting” and suggested it is a “lie that the UK is a climate leader”.
Speaking three years after she launched the Fridays for Future campaign, which has seen millions of young people protest against the lack of action to protect the environment, the 18-year-old said global leaders still treat the climate crisis as a “faraway, distant problem”.
“It feels like… they’re trying to create loopholes, instead of actually trying to find solutions that would actually turn things around,” Ms Thunberg said, adding she was not optimistic that the COP 26 climate summit in November would trigger enough change.
The event in Glasgow has been described as the world’s “last chance” to tackle the climate emergency, but Ms Thunberg this week delivered a withering assessment of the hosts. 

A similar story can be read in the Independent 

Afghanistan 

Express
JOE BIDEN is reportedly considering using airstrikes against US equipment abandoned in Afghanistan left during the hasty retreat from the country.
Taliban militants now have access to US war equipment including planes, Humvees and firearms, it is reported. Footage showed Taliban fighters searching military vehicle crates for weaponry and military equipment, Reuters reported.
About a month ago, Afghanistan’s ministry of defense shared on its social media pictures of new helicopters arriving in Kabul from the US.
Days after the delivery, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters: “They’ll continue to see a steady drumbeat of that kind of support, going forward.”
But now, following the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan’s capital city and the evacuation of American troops, the war chest has been left behind. 

Telegraph
Joe Biden has hit back at the UK and Nato allies, claiming they “had a choice” to stay in Afghanistan and could have done so despite the United States pulling out.
The US president has faced a torrent of criticism from ministers and MPs over the botched withdrawal, which has left US and British officials scrambling to get their citizens out of the country after the Taliban seized power.
His suggestion appeared to contradict the British position that it could not carry on the mission without America. Boris Johnson told Parliament on Wednesday that the West could not continue in Afghanistan without US support and air power.
But on Thursday Mr Biden said it had been a joint decision to leave, and that Britain and other Nato nations had had the option of staying.
The president said: “Look, before I made this decision I met with all our allies, our Nato allies in Europe. They agreed. We should be getting out.” Asked whether those allies had a choice, he said: “Sure, they had a choice. Look, the one thing I promise you – in private Nato allies are not quiet.” 

Guardian
An Afghan man who worked in the kitchen at the British embassy in Kabul for seven years has appealed to Boris Johnson to save him and his family from the Taliban, who he says are hunting him down.
“I am really scared, frightened. We have not been outside our house for four days. Every sound at the door makes us fear for our lives,” said Ahmad, who lives not far from the airport but is scared to travel there with his wife and three children, aged 22, 17 and 11.
“I was very proud to work with foreigners, we never expected this situation to happen,” he said. “We know the Taliban are so brutal. They will never forgive us for working with foreign governments. As a former employee of the British embassy for seven years, I want Boris Johnson to feel the pressure we are feeling because we worked for a foreign government. We request him to help as much as he can. Please help us get out.”
His wife said that if she knew working for the British and Americans “would have put our family in danger, we would never have worked with them.
“My 11-year-old daughter is crying all the time. There is the sound of shooting all the time because we are near the airport. We are very frightened and scared about our future. I haven’t slept for four days,” she said. 

Mail
Heroic Afghan translators last night told how they feared for their lives – as a UN report warned the Taliban are secretly plotting revenge against those who worked with the West.
The interpreters blasted Dominic Raab‘s failure to make a critical phone call before the fall of Kabul as a ‘betrayal’. They said the danger they faced was ‘critical’.
The Mail can reveal that at least six translators, who have already been granted sanctuary in the UK but had recently returned to bring their families to join them, are now stranded in Kabul in a red tape nightmare.
Mr Raab rejected advice from his senior officials to call the Afghan foreign minister Haneef Atmar last Friday. He was in Greece on holiday, and within two days Kabul fell to the Taliban.
One former translator, Rafi Hottak, 35, who is now in the UK, said: ‘I’m shocked. How could somebody do something like that in this chaotic situation?
‘The interpreters and their families could be killed at any time. I’m a British citizen. Was he too busy to look after the families of British citizens in Afghanistan? If he was too busy during his holidays to help, shame on him.’ 

Times 
The Taliban are hunting for people who worked for or collaborated with American or other Nato forces and are threatening to kill or harm their relatives if they do not surrender, according to a confidential UN threat assessment.
A family member of a reporter for Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster, was shot dead by militants searching for the journalist yesterday, illustrating the dangers highlighted by the report. Another family member was wounded.
A video purporting to show a second incident, the gruesome execution of an Afghan police commander, was published on Twitter last night, but could not be immediately verified. 

A similar story can be read in ITV News 

Independent
Towns and cities across the UK are calling for the government to take in more refugees in response to the humanitarian crisis developing in Afghanistan.
Dozens of local councils, including major cities like Birmingham, Southampton and Liverpool, have pledged to welcome Afghans under the Home Office’s new resettlement programme or existing relocation schemes following the Taliban takeover.
The government has committed to giving 5,000 people refuge under the  Afghanistan  citizens’ resettlement scheme in the coming year – with a vague ambition to provide sanctuary to a total of 20,000 Afghans over the “long term”.
The Independent has backed calls for ministers to be more ambitious in its plan to resettle Afghans. Our Refugees Welcome campaign is calling for the government to offer sanctuary to as many people as possible, and for local authorities and charities devoted to their welfare to be given the strongest of support.
Councils from across the UK have come forward to say they will welcome these refugees into their local communities – with some urging ministers to go further – disputing claims from the home secretary that it would not be possible to resettle larger numbers. 

Express
SAS-trained Afghans opposing the Taliban rule said “thousands” of fighters are going to fight back in a movement led by Afghanistan’s vice president Amrullah Saleh.
Mr Saleh has called on fellow Afghans who oppose the Taliban takeover to join other fighters in Panjshir – where he has proclaimed himself as the country’s rightful ruler. He tweeted: “Join the resistance. I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to Taliban terrorists.”
Mr Saleh stayed in Afghanistan after president Ashraf Ghani fled as chaos ensued in Kabul, the country’s capital.
Those set to counter the Taliban include Afghan special forces and commandos.
They received training from American and British forces, purportedly including the Special Air Service (SAS).
A source told Sun Online: “We are thousands and many more are coming. We have local people as well. 

Extinction Rebellion 

Mail
Extinction Rebellion is planning to disrupt the City of London, the Bank of England and high street banks next week to demonstrate against global warming.
In 2019, the radical climate protest group paralysed central London at a cost of £37million to taxpayers.
Since the pandemic, the group has been unable to carry out large scale action.
But yesterday it said it would relaunch its mass street protests – although it claimed it would not target public transport this time. 
In a news conference, Extinction Rebellion ignored the concerns of the ordinary public and said it would not be giving away too many details about the two weeks of disruption planned to start next Monday because it did not want to alert the police to their plans.
The group said the City of London was its target and it would carry out ‘site occupations’. It also threatened digital action against branches of HSBC and Barclays.  
Asked to specify their targets in the City, a member of XR Anneka Sutcliffe said: ‘We will be focusing a lot on the City of London, that particular square mile. 

A similar story can be read in the Independent 

Tube strike 

Sun
LONDON Tube strikes have been threatened again with passengers facing mass travel disruption by the major walkout planned next week.
There will be a significantly reduced service on all Tube lines if the proposed action goes ahead, warned Transport for London (TfL).
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are due to walk out for 24 hours from noon on Tuesday August 24 and Thursday August 26.
TfL drivers are protesting against plans to abolish separate pay grades for those who work nights.
But their bosses said that if the action does go ahead, passengers would be faced with a heavily reduced service across all Tube lines for most of the week.
Passengers have been advised to complete their journeys by 1pm on the two strike dates.
The RMT claims the decision to scrap the separate pay grade for Night Tube drivers will destroy the work/life balance of 3,000 London Underground drivers. 

A similar story can be read in the Evening Standard 

Amazon 

Telegraph
Amazon is plotting to open physical department stores as it steps up its assault on bricks-and-mortar rivals.
The e-commerce giant is expected to launch branches selling its own-label merchandise including fashion and gadgets, as well as branded goods from other suppliers. 
The first stores to open could be located in California and Ohio, spanning 30,000 square feet – smaller than most department stores but larger than most of its existing grocery shops, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Analysts speculated that the company would eventually bring the project to the UK if it proves successful. The proposals come after a string of department chains went bust on both sides of the Atlantic owing to changing shopping habits driven in large part by Amazon itself.
The move sent a shudder through US retail stocks as Amazon seeks to cement further its leading position in the industry.
Target slumped more than 2pc, Best Buy fell 1.8pc and Walmart dipped about 1pc before making up some ground. 

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