EU 

Express 
THE EU was accused of trying to “wipe the UK off the map” when a plan to merge parts of England and France into a new region with its own flag was exposed by Tory ministers before Brexit.
National Rally (NR) leader Ms Le Pen, who lost to Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 election, has now backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s idea for a bridge across the English Channel to link Britain and France after Brexit. While he was serving as Foreign Secretary under Theresa May, Mr Johnson suggested building a 22-mile road crossing between the UK and France. The now Prime Minister believed the bridge would have boosted Britain’s tourism industry.
He wrote on Twitter: “Our economic success depends on good infrastructure and good connections.
“Should the Channel Tunnel be just a first step?”
Ms Le Pen, who is gearing up for her third presidential bid in the spring, said about the proposal: “Boris Johnson is a very creative and always surprising person.
“A bridge over the English Channel… why not? 

Vaccine passports 

Mail 
More than 50 Tory MPs are prepared to vote against the government’s ”misguided’ vaccine passport plan and said they are ‘horrified’ by the possible curbs on individual freedoms.
Boris Johnson had announced that certificates proving double vaccinations will be needed to enter nightclubs and potentially other venues and universities from the end of September.
But many Conservatives are prepared to rebel against the ‘completely unnecessary, bureaucratic and unworkable’ proposals, with as many as 50 MPs threatening to vote against them if they go to a vote.
It comes after the government was accused earlier today of introducing passports by stealth after the NHS App was updated with ‘domestic’ and ‘travel’ options for Britons to prove their vaccination status.
It has emerged that the government has signed a 12-month contract with a company to provide Covid passport technology. The contract with Entrust raises concerns about how long Britons will be forced to have the pass on their phones. 
Also today, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today said it was a ‘smart policy’ for companies to insist employees are double-jabbed before they can return to offices. 
One senior Tory MP said there is ‘almost universal objection’ in the party to the plans, with South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay branding the passports a ‘massive change to the relationship between the state and the individual’ that would be a ‘very dangerous step.’
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, told Sky News the move would be a ‘massive step and a misguided one’, saying: ‘The policy would discriminate against the young, against those who have medical or ethical reasons why they can’t be vaccinated and many ethnic minority groups.’
More than 40 Tories have signed a declaration expressing their opposition to the idea with campaign group Big Brother Watch. 

Similar stories can be seen in  Breitbart,Independent,Mirror,EveningStandard,Independent

Travel 

Express 
THE EU is poised to trigger a “travel war” with Britain in retaliation for Downing Street’s hardball approach to the wrangling over Northern Ireland.
Insiders say member states are putting off a decision on whether to permit fully vaccinated Britons to travel to the bloc “out of spit and frustration” with Brexit minister Lord Frost. EU governments have shelved plans to discuss allowing travellers from the UK in without restrictions until September, after their six-week summer break. The move means thousands of families hoping to take advantage of Britain’s relaxed travel rules could be forced to isolate when arriving on the Continent.
MEPs and travel chiefs slammed the delays, warning the hold-up threatens to further hinder the economic recovery of pandemic-stricken tourism businesses and communities.
Details of the setback emerged after the Government announced that double-jabbed European and American travellers will no longer have to quarantine for 10 days after landing in England.
Europeans leaders are not expected to immediately reciprocate, with sources citing the tussles over Brexit as one of the reasons for the delay. 

Similar stories can be read in the Times, Evening Standard 

Trade  

Express 
THE European Union has admitted a “pressure point” is looming over post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland, with the UK becoming increasingly confident Brussels could cave to some of the demands from Lord Frost.
Leaders on both sides expect negotiations over the hotly-disputed Northern Ireland Protocol to once again reach a cliff-edge, due the distance between then in agreeing a way forward before grace periods covering trade across the Irish Sea expire in September. Lord Frost is set to speak to European commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic this week about how the situation can now progress. Last week, the UK’s Brexit minister unveiled a number of proposals which he hopes will ease problems caused by the Protocol.
They include being more lenient in its enforcement of customs checks, scrapping requirements for Northern Ireland goods to meet EU laws if they comply with British legislation, and agreeing to remove the European Court of Justice as the arbitrator of the Protocol.
But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “The EU will continue to be creative and flexible within the Protocol framework. But we will not renegotiate.”
One EU source told PoliticsHome the UK proposals would require at least half of the Protocol and while Brussels may be willing to make changes within the existing framework, the UK wants to scrap the agreed framework altogether.
But despite this latest blow, UK Government are feeling quietly optimistic the EU maty be prepared to lessen its hard line approach on the matter. 

Pingdemic 

Mail
A record 1.5million people were asked to self-isolate to thwart the spread of coronavirus last week, official data revealed today as England’s ‘pingdemic’ chaos continues to rage on.
NHS figures show nearly 690,000 alerts were sent out by the NHS app last week — the most since the voluntary software was introduced. A further 536,000 people were reached by Test and Trace call handlers and ordered to quarantine at home, while 308,000 were told to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid.  
The damning statistics come as Boris Johnson continues to face heavy criticism for refusing to ditch the isolation rules for another three weeks, despite lifting restrictions on ‘Freedom Day’. 
Millions of workers haven’t been able to do their jobs because they’ve been told to isolate, leaving supermarket shelves empty, pubs and restaurants shut, and trains cancelled across the country.
One of the Government’s scientific advisers yesterday said the quarantine rules that have fuelled the pingdemic and caused ‘massive problems’ to the economy, schools and everyday life are unnecessary and should have been scrapped six months ago.
The comments made by Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, sparked renewed calls for ministers to accelerate reforms that will allow those fully vaccinated to avoid self-isolation from August 16. 
Despite mounting pressure to bring forward the date, the Prime Minister has so far refused to budge. Yesterday Mr Johnson said the lifting of self-isolation rules was ‘nailed on’.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick today acknowledged the system is ‘frustrating’ but urged people to keep isolating if they are pinged. 

Telegraph
Rising numbers of people testing positive for Covid-19 are refusing to hand over details of close contacts, as the numbers forced to self-isolate  reached a record high.
Official statistics show almost one quarter of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in the week ending July 21 would not provide details of any recent close contacts.
In total, 76.9 per cent of such cases provided such details – with compliance falling by almost 10 per cent in the past month.
Latest weekly figures for England show almost 1.3 million isolation orders sent out by app or  NHS Test and Trace, the highest on record.
The figures show 678,102 people pinged by the app in the week ending July 21, up 11 per cent from the previous week. It is the third consecutive week that more than half a million people have been told to self-isolate by the app.
Separate figures show 597,260 people were identified as close contacts of a positive case by NHS Test and Trace, a 25 per cent jump in one week.
The statistics show that in total, 307,758 people tested positive for coronavirus, an 18 per cent rise in a week, and the highest number since mid January.
The report also suggests that those contacted by call handlers may be increasingly reluctant to respond to calls, or to hand over details of their contacts.
The proportion of people who tested positive for Covid-19 but who were not reached by the system rose to 14.8 per cent, the highest proportion since October 2020. The category covers those who do not respond to efforts by NHS Test and Trace to contact them. 

Virus 

Express
GERMANY has warned about the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that is rapidly spreading and is “more dangerous than Covid”.
Germany’s largest children’s clinic, the Olgahospital at the Stuttgart Clinic, has reported an increase in respiratory diseases and RSV infections over the past two weeks. The number of children who have attended the hospital because of an infection has now almost doubled, compared to the usual seasonal rate.
Jan Steffen Jurgensen, Chairman of the Board at the Stuttgart Clinic, said: “Seasonally, in the summer, fewer children go to the children’s emergency room in the Olgahospital, typically around 70 a day, of which only about 20 percent normally have to be admitted as an inpatient.”
However, more recently the hospital has seen around 130 children admitted in one day.
On top of that, three children were treated last week, and the week before, for severe RSV infections.
Tobias Tenenbaum, Chairman of the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI), added to Mr Jurgensen’s comments by saying that “RSV is much more dangerous than Covid-19, especially for younger children”.
The easing of lockdown restrictions meant that serious infectious diseases could spread much quicker among the population.
Some of those diseases are triggered by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, RSV is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms.
Most people recover within two weeks, but the virus can be serious, especially for infants and older adults. 

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