EU
Express
BRITONS have lashed out at the EU over Spain’s new visa changes that will restrict British tourists from visiting the country for long period at a time.
Spain has introduced new visa rules which mean long-term British tourists who do not hold a visa are limited to stays of 90 days within a given 180 day period. Responding to the news, Brexiteer Joshua Mackenzie-Lawrie said the move is likely to backfire and encourage British holidaymakers to book trips elsewhere. Express.co.uk readers appear to agree with the commentator, with hundreds vowing to boycott European holidays in the future.
Mr Mackenzie Lawrie, senior research executive at Get Britain Out told Express.co.uk: “Whether the actual policing of things and the 90 days that people stay.
“When it comes down to it it is down to the Spanish border police to make those decisions.
“If the consistency is that the people are being turned away, rejected from entering Spain then Brits will look elsewhere to go on holiday.
“Or look elsewhere to buy properties abroad.
Northern Ireland
Mail
Controversial Brexit checks in Northern Ireland will be scrapped this summer, the new leader of the DUP has pledged.
In his first interview since his election on Friday, Edwin Poots yesterday said it was time to go ‘back to the drawing board’ on the Northern Ireland protocol.
Vowing to fix the issue in his first 90 days, Mr Poots told the province’s Sunday Life newspaper: ‘If there are grey areas and opportunities, we will certainly seek to strip away elements of the protocol.’ But, to ‘take things forward’, he added that it needs to be ‘fundamentally changed [or] removed’.
On Saturday the Daily Mail revealed that Boris Johnson is ready to suspend Northern Ireland Brexit checks within weeks over fears they will destabilise the region.
The row centres on the Northern Ireland protocol in the Brexit deal, which prevents checks at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The EU can still make checks on goods crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland which ministers have warned is causing trade disruption.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday yesterday, Cabinet Office minister Lord Frost warned that political stability in Ulster was being put ‘at risk’ by the EU’s hardline approach. He urged Brussels to ‘stop the point-scoring’, adding they could then ‘build a new relationship’.
BBC News
The UK is proposing to phase in new Irish Sea border checks on food products in four stages from October.
The details are contained in a Northern Ireland Protocol roadmap shared with the EU, which has been seen by the BBC.
The protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which creates a trade border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
In March, the UK delayed introducing some new border processes without EU agreement.
That led to the EU starting legal proceedings against the UK.
At the end of March, the UK sent the roadmap to the EU, which sets out how the two sides should work together to implement the protocol.
It has formed a starting point for ongoing technical talks between officials.
On Sunday, the UK’s chief negotiator, Lord Frost, urged the EU to rapidly “find a new approach and new solutions”.
The UK roadmap document covers more than 20 separate issues including medicines, access to databases, pet travel and the VAT treatment of second-hand cars.
Trade
Express
A LANDMARK trade deal with Australia is just weeks away from being finalised as Ministers have a “final sprint” at closing an agreement.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison held a call to discuss progress on a deal that will secure around £20billion of trade annually. Express.co.uk understands the discussions between the two leaders were positive with Mr Johnson expressing “proudness” of the new Brexit freedoms Britain has to sealing “unique trade opportunities.”
A Downing Street spokesman, added: “The leaders welcomed the progress made towards securing a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, which will create jobs and increase prosperity in both countries.”
Mr Morrison will head to Cornwall for the G7 summit in mid-June where he is expected to put the trade deal on paper with Trade Secretary Liz Truss.
Australian authorities say two-way goods and services trade between Australia and the UK was valued at £17 billion in 2018-19, but UK officials say the 2021 deal is worth significantly more.
Under the deal, this publication understands products such as Scottish Whisky can be exported to Australia tariff-free in a boost to producers.
Labour Party
Guardian
Labour would create a slew of new offences concerning violence against women and girls, including prohibiting street harassment, making misogyny a hate crime and banning sex-for-rent.
The proposals also include introducing criminal sanctions for tech executives who do not act fast enough to remove misogynistic abuse on their platforms, building on previous proposals from the party to tackle online hate speech.
The party has published its own version of a government green paper to highlight what it says are inadequacies in the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill and in the Queen’s speech.
Jess Phillips, the shadow domestic violence and safeguarding minister, said: “The violence that women and girls face is endemic, and no matter how much the government want to paint a picture of it being a rare crime, the figures tell a different story.”
The proposals include tougher sentences for rape, stalking and domestic murder as well as introducing whole-life tariffs for those who rape, abduct and murder a stranger. The minimum tariff introduced for rape would be seven years.
The green paper also proposes removing barriers to legal aid – including to refugees and migrants who may have no recourse to public funds – in cases of domestic violence.
Other proposals include custodial sentences for those who name victims of rape and sexual assault; teacher training to identify and support child victims of domestic abuse; repealing the rape clause for social security claims; and ending the five-week wait for universal credit.
Project fear
Mail
Travel bosses have accused the Government of needlessly ‘instilling fear’ by warning against holidays abroad.
Ahead of the ban on international travel finally being lifted today, ministers yesterday caused confusion by saying most trips should be avoided.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said families should ‘certainly not’ go on holiday to anywhere not on the official green list.
The order infuriated the travel industry, which said that people are ‘voting with their feet’ and going ahead with long-awaited trips to see relatives abroad. One industry executive suggested the Government’s real concern was the shortage of border staff.
Ministers have urged people to travel only to the 12 territories on its green list of safe destinations.
Portugal and Gibraltar are the only popular holiday hotspots on the list, while others are remote or have blanket bans on entry from the UK.
Holidaymakers are allowed to go to places on the ‘amber list’, which includes most European countries, as long as they quarantine on return to the UK.
But as popular destinations such as Greece urged Britons to return, Mr Hancock said travel there should only be for essential reasons such as work or a family emergency.
He said: ‘We have a green list where it’s okay to go and that’s why we’ve brought the green list in.
‘But what I would say is that people should not travel to amber or red list countries unless it’s absolutely necessary.
‘And certainly not for holiday purposes.’
Covid passport
Mail
A change to the NHS app brought in today allows people to prove whether they have had the Covid jab – effectively making it a vaccine passport.
The update for users in England has been brought in with little fanfare but MPs and privacy campaigners have voiced fears that any such system could be discriminatory and a breach of human rights.
The app, which is separate to the NHS Covid-19 app for contact tracing, can already be used to request repeat prescriptions, book doctor appointments and view medical records.
The update coincides with Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap, which lifts the ban on foreign travel. The NHS Digital website reads: ‘From 17 May, people in England who have had a full course of the Covid-19 vaccine can demonstrate their Covid-19 vaccination status for international travel.
‘People can prove their vaccination status in the NHS app or by ringing 119 to get a letter.’ A No 10 source last night said the updated app was designed to allow people to meet foreign countries’ requirements for visitors. But they said ‘no decisions’ had been taken on the scope or use of any domestic scheme.
Boris Johnson has shelved the idea of requiring people to prove their Covid status to access pubs and restaurants.
Fraud
Guardian
A hidden pandemic market advertising fake vaccine and test certificates for as little as £25 has grown exponentially, with more than 1,200 vendors in the UK and worldwide, researchers have found.
After UK ministers announced the return of overseas holidays – with travellers required to show proof of negative tests, and vaccine passports on the horizon – the Guardian has also learned that anti-vaxxers and people arriving in Britain from poorer nations make up a significant number of those buying forged pandemic paraphernalia.
Last month MPs were told that more than 100 people a day are trying to enter the UK using fake Covid test certificates as individuals attempt to get around current entry requirements, which include tests before and after travel and can cost individuals hundreds of pounds.
Israel-based researchers found evidence of forgeries of vaccine cards by the NHS and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) alongside fake test certificates, all available for sale on the dark web and through easy-to-access platforms including the messaging apps WhatsApp, Telegram and Jabber.
Products purported to be Covid vaccines and treatments are also offered, according to Oded Vanunu and Liad Mizrachi of the cybersecurity firm Check Point.
Vaccine
Sun
THE AstraZeneca vaccine is 97 per cent effective at dealing with the Indian variant of the Covid, a new study has found.
The UK has now recorded 1,313 cases of the strain and Health Secretary Matt Hancock has repeated his plea for people who have not yet been vaccinated to get the jab.
He said “vast majority” of people diagnosed with the super-infectious Indian mutation in hotspots Bolton and Blackburn haven’t had the vaccine – despite being eligible.
The Health Secretary says he has a “high degree of confidence” that the jab does work against the new variant, which could be up to 50 per cent more transmissible than the Kent strain.
A study 3,235 vaccinated healthcare workers in India given the AstraZeneca found that only 85 reported symptoms of Covid and just two required hospital treatment.
The study by the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Delhi there had been no deaths or admissions to intensive care of those who have been vaccinated, India Today reports.
Dr Anupam Sibal, group medical director, said: “Our study demonstrated that 97.38 per cent of those vaccinated were protected from an infection and hospitalisation rate was only 0.06 per cent.
“The results of the study show that break-through infections occur only in a small percentage and these are primarily minor infections that do not lead to severe disease.
“There were no ICU admissions or death. Our study makes the case for vaccination stronger.”
Early analysis shows that Brits who have received the Covid jab are protected against the Indian variant.
The vaccinations offer positive signs of resistance to the spreading mutant strain, it has emerged.
Officials in Whitehall who have seen the limited data available are said to be optimistic about combating the variant, an insider revealed.
The source said: “There’s confidence with the early data”, adding they were “optimistic” about the initial findings.
Evening Standard
GlaxoSmithKline today published some much-needed good news as the embattled drugs giant said its Covid vaccine with France’s Sanofi was showing strong immune responses in its Phase II trials.
The company said it hoped to get the vaccine approved by regulators and available to patients by the end of the year.
GSK, which is facing extreme pressure in the financial markets over its perceived underperformance, has had major setbacks with its tie-up with the French drugs group as its previous attempt at a vaccine failed to work.
However, today it said all adult age groups had showed a high immune response after a single dose of its new attempt.
A global phase 3 study is expected to be started in the coming weeks.
Phase 2 included 722 volunteers and showed 95% to 100% development of antibodies following a second injection in all age groups with no safety concerns.
Social care
Guardian
Tens of thousands of people with dementia are taken to hospital each year for emergency admission because inadequate social care has left them unprotected from infections, falls and dehydration, an investigation has found.
There has been a 27% increase over a four-year period in avoidable illnesses and injuries caused by failures in care for those living with dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Society, which sent Freedom of Information Act requests to all NHS trusts.
“This news comes just under a week after the Queen’s speech frustratingly made only a brief mention of the prime minister’s promise nearly two years ago to deliver a clear plan for social care reform, a devastating blow for the 850,000 people living with dementia, worst hit by coronavirus,” said Kate Lee, chief executive officer at Alzheimer’s Society.
The charity found that nearly two-thirds of dementia emergency admissions could have been avoided. It blames cuts in social care budgets and warned that worse is to come.
Launched to mark Dementia Action Week, the charity’s investigation also found that nearly three-quarters of family carers said loved ones with dementia had experienced preventable medical issues because of lack of support. One in nine had been taken to hospital.
A supporting survey found that lack of support meant many family carers felt themselves to be at breaking point, with 95% saying it affected their physical or mental health, 69% reporting feeling constantly exhausted, 64% feeling anxious and 49% feeling depressed.
While an increase in the number of people with dementia has contributed in part to the rise in avoidable admissions, much of the increase is thought to be due to cuts in spending on adult social care piling pressure on A&E and ambulance services.
Project Fear Covid.
If Covid is such a deadly threat, then why did Public Health England delete Covid-19 from its list of HCIDs (High Consequence Infectious Diseases) on 19th March 2020 ?
Lord Frost has asked the European Union to come up with solutions to the Northern Ireland situation, I have never heard so much rubbish. It is high time that Johnson learnt how to govern this country properly, but wont as he seems to be too afraid of his own shadow, and what his ‘friends and partners’ (pass the sick bag) might think of him. Now that Britain is a sovereign state it should be carrying out what the majority of British citizens want, and that is a unified Great Britain where every single part of it is treated the same and not treated as if it a separate entity. So how is that we cannot make a decision unilaterally and tear up this ruddy awful withdrawal agreement, and go our own way in the world, and to hell with the consequences, the European Union and Ursula von De Leyen in particular. We voted for full independence from the EU, not partial independence. What part of it does Johnson and his cohorts not understand. To think we have another 3 to 4 years of constant indecision from Johnson and his sort fills me with dread. However when it comes to eradicating our civil liberties and freedoms he is the exact opposite……
Has Starmer found a vote catcher?
Somehow I can’t see it.
Northern Ireland:
Clearly Boris has joined a too long list of traitorous PMs. He can only redeem himself by binning his WA immediately.
Well yes Jack Thomas. Binning the WA would be a start. There’s rather a lot needs binning though, like Green Blobbery, ties to World Government Institutions etc.
The only good thing that can be said about Boris is that Corbyn’s Labour would have been worse.
How could anything be worse? Plus, don’t assume the Tories wouldn’t ditch “Brexit” (such as it is) .