EU 

Express
BREXIT tensions between the UK and EU have escalated once more as a bloc insider tells Express.co.uk the European Commission is “infuriated” by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The Scottish Government has intervened in the Brexit row this week as Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP colleagues call for clarity in the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol. External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson said tensions between the UK Government and the EU were of “great concern”. Brexit minister Lord Frost has called for significant changes to be made to the protocol, saying “we cannot go on as we are”.
But this has left figures in Brussels angry, as they feel the British Government is failing to abide by the withdrawal agreement it signed back in 2019.
The bloc published two plans recently to try and put an end to the post-Brexit deadlock, focusing on food imports and medicine.
It comes after the grace period – which enabled imports of food to continue flowing into Northern Ireland without checks – was extended a further three months. 

Order-Order
Guy Verhofstadt has tried putting a brave face on EU member states’ underwhelming performances at the 2020 Olympics, claiming if the EU were a nation-state in of itself its record would be more impressive:
Given this is the first Olympics since Brexit, Guido points out that were Britain still members the EU’s medal total would be a whopping 25% higher. We were always propping them up…
We’re also currently totaling the same number of gold medals as our nearest two EU medal table neighbours, France and Germany, combined. Guido will leave it up to Guy to tot up the Commonwealth… 

Trade 

Express
THE UK is being signed up to a 10-nation trade superclub in a major boost for Brexit Britain as the country becomes the first new partner of the Southeast Asian bloc with a combined GDP of £2.3trillion in 25 years.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is attending a virtual signing ceremony with the nations that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), with the UK joining its “dialogue partner” club in a major post-Brexit boost. Stronger ties to these nations, which are Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brunei, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam, include underscoring new British jobs. It will see the UK invited to attend annual meetings of foreign and economic ministers, discussing in great depth issues around trade, investment, climate change, the environment, science and technology, and education.
Other formal partners of the bloc include the US, European Union, China, India, Japan and Russia.
This is a major boost, as it is part of Britain’s wider push towards the Indo-Pacific in pursuit of a post-Brexit vision of “Global Britain” which will also include ramping up security and trade partnerships.
Mr Raab said joining the exclusive club will offer Brexit Britain a raft of opportunities, while also mitigating threats as the global “matrix of risk” evolves in the coming decades. 

Express
TRADE minister Greg Hands last night tore into Labour for clinging to Brussels instead of embracing the benefits of Brexit.
The party refuses to “believe in Britain’s potential” to strike out as an independent trading nation and is shunning the new opportunities voting to leave has opened up around the world. Mr Hands spoke out after Emily Thornberry questioned whether it makes “any sense” to put “all this energy” into securing international deals. Five years after the British people instructed the government to quit the EU, the shadow international trade secretary said the bloc would still be Labour’s biggest trade priority in Government.
Mr Hands said despite Sir Keir Starmer’s claim that Labour has accepted Brexit and moved on, its “top team continues to focus on old divides”.
He added: “It beggars belief that Labour’s trade chief says we shouldn’t waste energy on trade deals with the rest of the world and instead focus on the EU – who we already have a trade deal with.
“It shows that even now, Starmer’s Labour refuse to believe in Britain’s potential to forge new trade and jobs with our allies across the world and instead continue to focus only on trade with the EU.” 

Immigrants 

Mail
This is the moment an ‘overloaded’ dinghy rammed with migrants landed in Kent before the group of men, women and children posed for selfies on the beach on a day where a record 482 people crossed the Channel illegally.
More than 10,000 migrants have officially crossed the Channel by small boat so far this year after almost 500 made the dangerous journey yesterday.
Then as many as a further 300 are thought to have set sail for Britain today, after a stream of fresh arrivals off the Kent coast. 
More than 50 migrants were seen disembarking Border Force catamaran Hurricane around 10.30am. Cutter Speedwell then brought in around 50 more – this time including women and sleeping babies – about half an hour later.
The busy day continued for UK search and rescue authorities when four migrants managed to land on the beach at Kingsdown near Deal, Kent.
Their tiny black dinghy filled with oars was hauled back out to sea by a Border Force officer riding a jet ski.
Dozens more migrants have been brought in for processing throughout the day on smaller black Border Force RHIBS.  

Telegraph
Channel migrants will keep coming, a French police chief warned on Thursday, as numbers for the year surged past 10,000 with a record 482 arriving on Thursday alone.
Chris Philp, the immigration minister, and Dan O’Mahoney , the Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, visited France on Thursday for a summit meeting with their French counterparts to find out “what has gone wrong over the past few days”.
Since Britain gave France £54 million to stem the surge of Channel crossings last month, 2,000 more migrants have reached UK shores – a fifth of the year’s total to date. On Wednesday, the 482 arriving surpassed the previous daily record of 430, set in July.
“Chris and Dan have gone over there to ensure that the taxpayers’ money that Britain has given to the French is delivering results,” said a source. “They reiterated the message that this is something we need to get a grip of, and get a grip of it together.”
However, Mathilde Potel, the deputy police chief for Calais, warned that, with nearly 100 miles of coastline to patrol, a cat and mouse contest with the people-smugglers could only reduce rather than stop the flow of migrants.
“We adapt all the time and the migrants adapt to us,” she said. “The border is still porous. As long as there is a way through, there will be migrants coming to cross to England.” 

A similar story appears in Order-Order 

Vaccine passports 

ITV News
Vaccine passports will remain a “permanent” fixture of international travel for the “foreseeable future”, the transport secretary has warned.
Under the current system, the vast majority of travellers out of the UK need to prove they’ve been fully vaccinated for coronavirus if they want to return without having to quarantine.
And dozens of countries around the world also require foreign tourists to have received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine in order to cross their borders quarantine-free.
“I do see this becoming a permanent, for the foreseeable future, fixture of international travel,” Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told ITV News.
“I’ve chaired meetings with my transport equivalents [in other countries], when I speak to them it’s quite clear that double vaccination will be a requirement, we’re already seeing it in virtually every country in the world.” 

A similar story appears in iNews. 

Pingdemic 

ITV News
Alerts sent by the NHS Covid app to self-isolate have almost halved in a week, signalling that the ‘pingdemic’ could be easing.
A total of 395,971 alerts were sent to users of the NHS Covid-19 app in England and Wales in the week to July 28 telling them they had been in close contact with someone who had tested positive for  coronavirus.
It’s a drop of 43%, with figures for the previous week showing 690,129 alerts were sent on the app, according to government statistics.
A total of 189,232 people tested positive for Covid-19 in England at least once in the week to July 28, down 39% on the previous week, according to the latest Test and Trace figures.
It is the first week-on-week fall since the week to May 5.
The government recently tweaked the way the app works so that fewer alerts would be sent, after a lifting of restrictions in England saw huge numbers told to self-isolate – with a so-called “pingdemic” depleting staff numbers across various industries. 

Education 

Telegraph
Universities are turning to entrance exams because they can no longer rely on A-levels to find the brightest students amid a “tsunami” of top grades.
Exams in secondary schools have been cancelled for a second year in a row because of the Covid pandemic, with predicted grades given out by teachers. 
The Government has admitted the disruption to exams will continue next year, leading to fears that the “pass all” culture that has arisen will become the norm. 
A major report warns on Friday that exam grade inflation could be even higher this year than last – when, for the first time in the 70-year history of A-levels, the pass rate reached 100 per cent. Thousands of teenagers will receive their results on Tuesday.
Vice-chancellors have told The Telegraph of their growing frustration at the lack of an objective measure by which to judge the academic ability of school-leavers. 

A similar story appears in the Times. 

Guardian
The government has been forced to fund hundreds of extra places on medical and dental courses at universities in England, as rampant grade inflation unleashed by cancelling exams has meant unexpectedly high numbers of students qualified.
The Department for Education (DfE) announced that the extra places at medical and dental schools would be added because of the huge increase in applications and universities reporting applicants with historically high levels of A-level grades.
The government’s abrupt move comes after the Guardian learned the DfE had approached medical schools in England, asking them to take applicants from heavily oversubscribed courses elsewhere in the country when it became clear that hundreds more students had reached their qualifying grades than anticipated.
Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said in January that formal exams for A-levels and GCSEs would be scrapped this year, and instead asked teachers to assess individual marks despite fears it could lead to widespread grade inflation. 

BBC News
A-level results next week in England, Wales and Northern Ireland could see high levels of top grades, according to an annual analysis of exam trends.Prof Alan Smithers, at the University of Buckingham, is predicting a “bumper crop” of A* and A grades, in results for exams cancelled by the pandemic.
But he warns against allowing “grade inflation” to become the norm.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is also reporting early signs that it could be a “record year for grades”.
There have been suggestions that if more pupils receive high grades – which are being submitted by teachers for a second year in a row – there will be a crush for places at the most sought-after universities and courses, in a year with record numbers of applications.
Prof Smithers said some universities could consider introducing their own exams to help them choose between students. 

Fisheries 

Independent
Boris Johnson has come under fire during his visit to Scotland from fishing leaders, who told him that his Brexit deal had “fallen short of expectations”.
Fisheries leaders warned of a “haemorrhage” of foreign workers in the industry in the wake of the UK’s departure from the EU’s single market and customs union on 1 January.
And he heard complaints about new red tape and delays resulting from Brexit which have hit the industry north of the border.
The prime minister was joined by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Scotland Office minister David Duguid and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross for a meeting with heads of a number of fishing organisations in Fraserburgh on Thursday.
Scottish Seafood Association chief executive Jimmy Buchan challenged Mr Johnson over the number of staff lost to the industry as a result of Brexit, which has dramatically reduced the number of seasonal workers in Scotland and had an impact on the seafood sector.
Following the meeting, Mr Buchan said: “I sought an assurance that the government would work closely with us to resolve the critical shortage of labour.“He agreed that a campaign was required to encourage young people into the industry and on the need for direct action to stem the haemorrhage of overseas workers that has occurred since 1 January.” 

A similar story appears in Express 

Climate change 

Guardian
Cutting carbon dioxide is not enough to solve the climate crisis – the world must act swiftly on another powerful greenhouse gas, methane, to halt the rise in global temperatures, experts have warned.
Leading climate scientists will give their starkest warning yet – that we are rushing to the brink of climate catastrophe – in a landmark report on Monday. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish its sixth assessment report, a comprehensive review of the world’s knowledge of the climate crisis and how human actions are altering the planet. It will show in detail how close the world is to irreversible change.
One of the key action points for policymakers is likely to be a warning that methane is playing an ever greater role in overheating the planet. The carbon-rich gas, produced from animal farming, shale gas wells and poorly managed conventional oil and gas extraction, heats the world far more effectively than carbon dioxide – it has a “warming potential” more than 80 times that of CO2 – but has a shorter life in the atmosphere, persisting for about a decade before it degrades into CO2.
Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and a lead reviewer for the IPCC, said methane reductions were probably the only way of staving off temperature rises of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which extreme weather will increase and “tipping points” could be reached. “Cutting methane is the biggest opportunity to slow warming between now and 2040,” he said. “We need to face this emergency.” 

Independent
A major Atlantic Ocean current may have been losing stability over the past century, and could be “nearing a critical threshold”, with profound global impacts on weather and climate patterns.
Scientists studying the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc), which contains the Gulf Stream, said “the finding is worrying as well as a surprise”, as the current is responsible for the relatively mild temperatures in Europe and influences weather systems worldwide.
A potential collapse of the system could have “severe consequences”, according to the team, which is made up of researchers from 18 institutions in 10 different countries.c
The Amoc carries heat from the tropics up to the northern hemisphere by transporting warm water masses northward at the ocean surface, and returning as a cool current southward at the bottom of the ocean.
If this powerful current collapsed, the scientists hypothesise it would still exist, to some degree, but would function in a much-reduced “weak mode”, as opposed to its existing “strong mode”. 

‘Allo, ‘Allo 

Mail
Woke censors have slapped an offensiveness warning on classic ‘Allo ‘Allo episodes in case viewers are upset by characters taking the mickey out of French and German accents.
The BBC comedy, which ran from 1982 to 1992, coined a multitude of catchphrases that proved popular for decades.
‘Good Moaning’, uttered completely straight by French policeman Officer Crabtree, is still widely offered as a greeting nearly 30 years after Cafe René closed its doors for the last time.  
But now an online streaming service has included warnings over the show’s content, which includes panto-style sexual innuendo as well as the foreign accents across its nine series, according to the Sun.
A message appears on the screen before each episode on Britbox, which reads: ‘This classic comedy contains language and attitudes of the time that may offend some viewers.’
‘Allo ‘Allo starred Gordon Kaye as cafe owner René, who had to deal with a host of problems in German-occupied France during the Second World War.
These included a dishonest German officer, a local French Resistance leader, a stolen painting, and a pair of trapped British airmen. 

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