Trade
Express
LIZ TRUSS is expected to announce a bumper trade deal with New Zealand within days.
The Secretary of State for International Trade and her colleagues are expected to announce that an agreement in principle has been reached within 14 days by the end of August. The landmark deal is expected to slash tariffs on wine imports alongside gin, meaning wine from the Commonwealth nation will likely be cheaper on the supermarket shelves.
Under the deal, tariffs are also expected to be slashed on UK car exports to New Zealand, worth £200m per annum.
The agreement is also expected to cover mutual recognition for professional qualifications and the movement of working professionals between both countries.
But Wellington has also been pushing for a deal that progressively removes all tariffs and quotas, including sheep and beef tariffs over 15 years and dairy within five.
A similar story can be read in the Telegraph
EU
Express
MARK Francois explained the pandemic has highlighted key fractures in the European Union with regards to how it handles big political crises and said many members saw Brexit as “an act of heresy” where the UK walked away from the religious-like fanaticism of the bloc.
Chairman of the European Research Group Mark Francois spoke to Express.co.uk about how the European Union will fare after the coronavirus pandemic. He explained many of the internal “fractures” have now been thrust into the spotlight as disagreements over vaccine procurement, travel and internal politicking have shown the bloc to be much more divided than they may make out. He added many supporters of the European Union “project” have a “religious” attachment to the organisation – stating the UK’s decision to leave it was akin to “heresy”.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Francois was asked how the European Union will come out of the pandemic as members have disagreed and undermined each other throughout.
He explained: “Well, I think there are internal tensions within the European Union and in some ways, the pandemic has brought these to bear.
“You’ve already mentioned a number of other nations, as it were, going their own way rather than using the collective EU vaccination that the Prime Minister and Keir Starmer famously had a bust-up about at PMQs.
“I mean the German Constitutional Court rejected the authority of the European Court of Justice in one economic area – I mean that’s virtually unheard of.”
Illegal immigrants
Times
Priti Patel has accused France of failing to do enough to stop migrants from crossing the Channel and warned that numbers will increase as Afghanistan falls to the Taliban.
The home secretary told Tory MPs that she would write to Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, calling for an increase in beach patrols by French police.
More than 11,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year, including a record daily high of 592 last Thursday.
Last month the UK announced that it would give France a further £54 million towards French border controls.
The home secretary wants France to invest more of its own money and go “over and above” funding provided by the UK.
Similar stories can be read in the Express, Mail, Sun,
Covid
Mail
Sajid Javid called for a ‘cautious’ return to normality last night as the self-isolation rules that sparked the ‘pingdemic’ were finally relaxed.
From today, those who have been double-jabbed and under-18s will no longer be required to isolate for ten days if they are ‘pinged’ by the NHS app or contacted by the Test and Trace service.
It is one of the biggest steps the country has taken on the road back to normality. The Health Secretary said the successful vaccine rollout has allowed the Government to ease rules that have forced millions to quarantine at home, devastating businesses and schools.
However, Mr Javid and other health experts continued to urge caution last night.
He said: ‘The British public have played a vital role following self-isolation rules throughout the pandemic and sacrificing so much to help bring the virus under control.
‘The requirement for double-jabbed and under-18s who are contacts of people with Covid-19 has been removed as we cautiously take another step back towards normality, thanks to the success of our vaccine rollout.’
A similar story can be read in ITV News, BBC News
HS2
Mail
The HS2 rail link is a ‘huge white elephant’ that should be ‘put out of its misery’, senior Tories will urge ministers.
The line’s future is due to be discussed in the Commons on September 13 after more than 155,000 people signed a petition calling for it to be axed.
Ex-Cabinet ministers will warn it could cost up to £150billion. Esther McVey said: ‘HS2 is a huge white elephant. The Government should put it out of its misery.’
But a Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘It is a key part of our promise to build back better from Covid.’
It comes after the Mail revealed that the Eastern leg of the rail line, to Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds, is likely to be shelved.
Former business secretary Andrea Leadsom is among those due to speak in the debate, triggered because more than 100,000 people signed a petition on the Government website.
She told the Sunday Telegraph: ‘Its budget has overrun time and time again and it is inconceivable that it offers value for the taxpayer in any form.
‘The entire project is bad for our economy and our environment and I will be sharing my concerns in September’s debate.’
Education
Mail
GCSE exams should be abolished and pupils should not be assessed by’do or die’ tests which are ‘unfair’ and ‘stressful’, education experts have said.
In their report, which is due for publication later this year, the commission of experts called for GCSE exams to be scrapped and argued they ‘did not measure what is important for young people’s future’.
The panel, who will recommend a radical overhaul of the exam system, also said A Levels should instead be based on a mixture of marks given by teachers for classwork along with exams.
It comes after the former prime minister Sir John Major called for reform of the exam system and said he disliked GCSEs due to the ‘stress and strain they impose on students’.
Professor of education at the University of Glasgow, Louise Hayward, told The Times: ‘Do or die exams are stressful, unfair and they don’t measure what is important for young people’s future.
‘We ask youngsters to sit too many exams, and they switch them off learning.
‘The case for radical change is overwhelming if we want to give young people a better future.’
Vaccine
Telegraph
Britain’s vaccine mega-factory will seek to combine flu and Covid jabs into a single shot, in an attempt to speed up booster programmes, its boss has said, adding that the UK’s vaccine stockpile is so big that its services will not be needed until 2022.
Matthew Duchars, the chief executive of the £215m Vaccine Manufacturing & Innovation Centre (VMIC), said that the facility will be evaluating whether a single-jab model would work in a bid to cut down on manufacturing time and make roll-outs easier.
Vulnerable people are expected to be given regular Covid boosters in a bid to combat waning immunity and better combat new variants more able to escape the immune system.
Dr Duchars said: “It will save a lot of time and it would be a lot more convenient to just give one shot, so it is something that we and vaccine developers and producers will be looking at.
“Let’s say we do need to give a seasonal vaccine, and people need one shot for flu, and one shot for Covid and another for something else. If you can put them all into one, then that’s obviously preferable.”
The centre, which has been under construction over the past year and which has received more than £200m in government funding, is expected to start a phased opening over the coming months. The aim is for the VMIC to be able to produce 70m doses of a vaccine in the space of four or five months, dramatically increasing the UK’s jab manufacturing capacity.
Green energy
Sun
ENERGY suppliers pushing green tariffs that actually use fossil fuels are facing a crackdown.
Nine million households are on tariffs branded “100 per cent renewable” or “green energy”.
But there are fears the claims are misleading and there are calls for changes to rules.
Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has ordered a review.
She said: “I want people to know that when they sign up to a green tariff, they are investing in companies that make a conscious choice to invest in renewable energy.
“Part of that is ensuring companies are being as transparent as possible on where their power comes from.”
Energy companies can market tariffs as green even if some of the energy they supply is from fossil fuels, which have been linked to climate change.
They do this by buying Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin certificates, which promise a similar amount of green energy will be produced for every unit of fossil fuel burned.
China
Mail
The Chinese government used an ‘aggressive’ influence campaign on the World Health Organisation‘s response to the initial Covid outbreak which led to it missing its chance to stop the pandemic, it has been claimed.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has revealed efforts by Beijing to control the agency’s decision making, sabotage investigations and even install officials.
Its report claims that the health body’s independence had been eroded prior to the global spread of the deadly virus in early 2020.
The publication claims the WHO failed to publicly challenge Chinese misinformation, delayed declaring an international emergency, and discouraged governments from placing travel bans on China to protect its economy.
It has also been suggested officials agreed a ‘backroom deal’ with the Chinese to water down the inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.
This meant steering scientists away from the theory coronavirus actually escaped from a Wuhan laboratory, rather than coming from wild animals in a wet market in the city in December 2019.
The theory was initially dismissed as ‘extremely unlikely’ by the WHO but now experts say there might have been ‘human error’ at the lab. Pressure is coming from the US to look into the potential cause.
Covid-19 has since spread around the globe, and to date has killed over 4.3million people, 130,894 of them in the UK.
Afghanistan
Times
Afghanistan was braced for a full-scale return to Taliban rule last night as the government in Kabul collapsed, the western-backed president fled and fighters entered his palace claiming victory for their “Islamic Emirate”.
Senior Taliban leaders told The Times they would accept nothing less than “absolute power”, dismissing calls to accept a transitional government to oversee a peaceful transfer of control. “We did not fight to share power with anyone,” one said.
Boris Johnson conceded that the Taliban would be Afghanistan’s next rulers, saying they must be persuaded not to allow the country to become once again “a breeding ground for terrorists”. He also called on allies not to recognise the Taliban.
Johnson suggested the regime’s collapse had been inevitable for several years.
A similar story can be read in the Express, Mail, Telegraph, Guardian, Sun, Evening Standard, Independent, , Morning Star, ITV News, Mail, BBC News, Breitbart
HS2. Well petitions do get some debate at least.
RE trade Deal
I never understood why grass in Wales was so expensive compared to grass in Kiwi. But then I am a townie.
There is global market for meat, and the farmer gets pretty much the same wherever.
So who gets the premium on Welsh meat ?
To be fair eugene power. The grass in Wales tends to be all up steep mountains. There is probably quite a lot on flat land in Kiwi country.
“…deal that progressively removes all tariffs and quotas, including sheep and beef tariffs over 15 years and dairy within five…”
Anyone remember when NZ devalued their Dollar by 50%?
I do,and so do many other farmers. Overnight it became more economical to import wool from a country 12,000 miles away,than to buy it from a producer 12 miles down the road. We are still suffering from that one.
The same will apply to meat products. NZ idoes NOT keep livestock to the same welfare standards as the UK. ( that means cheaper production costs) Without some form of tariffs we will not be able to survive.
The old refrain “The Great British Public must have cheap food…” is wearing a bit thin, but there are still enough fools in Westminster who are singing it.
!2,000 miles is a long way to bring food. A little “accident” in the Suez Canal, a strike by Air Traffic Controllers or some other mishap and we are going to be hungry for no good reason.
I think our so-called government should let us know the details in the smallprint of all these “Wonderful Deals” signed up by Miz Truss.
RM –
Anyone remember when GB raised inerest rates to 15%?
More economical to import than to buy it from a grossly inefficient producer 12 miles down the road.
Not same welfare standards as free range NZ sheep.
(Non food reported) “accident” in the Suez Canal, a strike by *French* Air Traffic Controllers
Not uncompetitive Welch are you?
And I CAN remember when NZ lamb was the cheapest meat you could buy. Today it is one of, if not the most expensive. Remember?
I used to eat butter. I hate marge. Anchor butter, as I remember, was New Zealand butter. Well it was originally anyway. Arla took it over and said how wonderful they were for keeping their cows indoors 24/7.
I call that an example of factory farming that I am so much opposed to.
Isn’t it obvious that keeping live animals cooped up in a relatively small area is done purely to reduce cost, so increase profit.
They don’t care about the detriments to animal and human health.
The increase in use of antibiotics in the feedstuffs was a big contributor to MRSA. Which of course the consumers were blamed for.
Priti Patel – France not doing enough.
I don’t blame France one bit for their lack of action in allowing the illegals to cross the Channel when they have consistently told Britain they must remove the ‘pull factors’ such as welfare, healthcare, housing, schooling, scholarships and the big daddy of them all – little chance of removal, citizenship, free everything and extended family re-union once here.
The enemy is within and the British people keep voting them into power.
Boris: “they must be persuaded not to allow the country to become once again “ How many more times will it take for him to confirm that he is a worse then useless idiot. Sadly he is also very dangerous too. We need rid.
Taliban ( Read Islam )
It is beyond me how public figures can actually express hope for that country. There is none. The drug supply will continue as western leaders will refuse to accept any dilution of their income.
Taliban! Read as Pakistans SS division, we need to cleans our country that the politicians have contaminated. Far to many foreigners!