Trade 

Express
BREXIT Britain will cut red tape and reduce costs in a move which will significantly enhance digital trade already worth almost £330billion annually.
Newly installed International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan is targeting unfair or discriminatory digital trade barriers in a bid to put the rocket-boosters on a British economy now liberated from EU rules and regulations. Ms Trevelyan, who took over the role from Liz Truss after the Tory MP for South-West Norfolk was promoted to Foreign Secretary last week, will today outline the challenges facing the sector in a keynote speech to industry leaders which will kick off London Tech Week.
At the same time, the Department for International Trade (DIT) will today publish a five-point plan for establishing a free and fair digital trade landscape to help UK businesses and consumers thrive.
Speaking prior to her speech, she said: “All of us depend on digital trade, yet British businesses face digital barriers in countries who take a protectionist approach.
“I want the UK to break down these barriers and open up new, exciting opportunities for businesses and consumers so we can see improved productivity, jobs and growth.” 

Fisheries 

Express
IRATE French fishermen have protested against post-Brexit licencing rules which they claim will destroy their livelihoods.
Over the weekend scores of fishermen gathered in Normandy to publicly voice their dismay at Jersey’s permit system – due to be introduced at the end of this month. When the withdrawal agreement was enacted in January – French boats were supposed to show they have a history of fishing in its waters.
Access has been granted based on how much fishing they did there between February 2017 and January 2020.
While some skippers have provided comprehensive information, others haven’t and say they have been given much less access to the waters than they had been expecting.
In May around 60 French fishing boats blockaded Jersey’s main port of St Helier – prompting the Crown Dependency to delay implementing the system until the end of this month.
With the end date looming, French fishermen have again begun voicing their displeasure at the rules. 

Illegal immigrants 

Times
Evidence that Priti Patel’s overhaul of asylum laws will reduce Channel migrant crossings is limited, according to the home secretary’s own department.
An impact assessment of the Nationality and Borders Bill by the Home Office says the plans could encourage migrants to take more dangerous journeys.
The document concludes that measures outlined in the bill will help to encourage migrants to claim asylum in the first country they reach in order to avoid making the dangerous 21-mile journey across the Channel. But it adds: “Evidence supporting the effectiveness of this approach is limited.”
The document raises questions over the capacity for the bill to achieve its main aim of reducing the number of people crossing in small boats. 

Breitbart has a similar story. 

Breitbart
United Nations representative Rossella Pagliuchi-Lor has urged British politicians to “consider keeping your borders open” and criticised pending government legislation against illegal immigration.
Pagliuchi-Lor, who represents the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) — the UN Refugee Agency — in the United Kingdom, made the comments at a Home Affairs Select Committee evidence session titled ‘Afghanistan: safe routes and resettlement’, examining the situation in the South Asian country and related migration issues in the wake of the Taliban takeover there.
The select committee was warned of an “impending humanitarian catastrophe” in the newy-declared Islamic emirate by another contributor to the session — with Afghanistan having been “on life support” under the former Western regime, and the “extreme fragility of the economy” likely to be dealt a devastating blow by factors including drought and city-dwellers with no land losing their former salaries — and Pagliuchi-Lor did say the UNHCR had already noted an “uptick” in people leaving the country, if no “dramatic outflows” as yet. 

Gas 

Telegraph
Ministers are preparing emergency support measures to tackle the mounting gas crisis as up to a million families face an energy bill price hike. 
Energy companies are asking for a financial crisis-style government bailout, as four UK suppliers teeter on the brink of collapse following a surge in the wholesale price of natural gas across Europe.
Boris Johnson on Sunday night did not rule out the current gas shortage lasting for months as he blamed the problem on the demand boost from global economies coming out of lockdowns. 
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, on Sunday night acknowledged it was a “worrying time” for businesses and consumers. “We are working hard to manage the impact of global gas price rises,” he said.
He will host a round table on Monday with the energy industry and consumer groups, followed by meetings across Whitehall.
On Sunday, he held crunch talks with the chief executive of energy regulator Ofgem to discuss plans to protect the market and consumers. The pair discussed steps that could be taken to help ease pressures on smaller energy providers at risk of going bust. 

Several media also cover the story.  See Guardian, Sun, Independent, Times, Evening Standard, ITV News, BBC News 

Climate change 

Mail
The chances of a global deal this year to save the planet are just ‘six out of ten’, Boris Johnson warned world leaders last night, adding that they will judged by history if they fail to tackle climate change.
Speaking as he prepared for crunch talks with Joe Biden and other leaders, the Prime Minister said wealthy countries had to do ‘much more’ if they were to persuade developing countries to sign up to a deal at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
Mr Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss arrived in New York last night ahead of talks with world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Tomorrow, the PM will travel to Washington for his first White House summit, where he will press President Biden on his pledge to pour billions more into helping developing countries tackle climate change. 
His top priority is to persuade leaders to make good on their promises to create a $100 billion (£70 billion) fund to help the developing world go green. 
Speaking to reporters en route to New York, Mr Johnson admitted he faced an uphill struggle, with several countries, including the US, dragging their feet.
Asked whether he would hit the $100 billion target this week, he said: ‘I think getting it all this week is going to be a stretch. But I think getting it all done by Cop26? Six out of ten. 
‘It’s going to be tough. But people need to understand that this is crucial for the world.’ 

Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Times 

AUKUS 

Mail
Boris Johnson moved to calm the diplomatic war of words with France over the new security pact with Australia and the US, saying Britain’s ‘love of France is ineradicable’.
Speaking as he flew to New York, the Prime Minister insisted Britain and France have a ‘very friendly relationship’, which he described as being of ‘huge importance’.
Mr Johnson was asked whether he was indeed a ‘lap dog’ to US President Joe Biden on the plane to the United Nations New York.
He replied: “We are very, very proud of our relationship with France and it is of huge importance to this country.   
‘It is a very friendly relationship – and entente cordial – that goes back a century or more and it absolutely vital for us.
‘Our love of France is ineradicable and what I would say is this AUKUS is not in any way meant to be zero sum.
“It is not meant to be exclusionary, it is not something I don’t think anyone needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends.”
The Prime Minister’s comments came hours after France’s armed forces minister cancelled a meeting with defence secretary Ben Wallace following the announcement of the UK’s new nuclear submarine deal with the US and Australia.  
Florence Parly took the decision to drop the bilateral meeting with Mr Wallace after the UK, US and Australia agreed to co-operate on the development of the first nuclear-powered fleet for the Australian navy, sources said.   

Almost all the media cover the story.  Read all about it in  Telegraph, Guardian, Sun,  Independent, Times, Mirror, BBC News, Breitbart 

Cancer 

Mail
Thousands of men could live longer with prostate cancer after taking a new drug combination.
Around 10,000 men a year in the UK are estimated to have an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which is normally treated with hormone therapy and radiotherapy.
A study found also giving them a drug called abiraterone halves their risk of dying from the cancer over six years.
Abiraterone was denied to men with more advanced prostate cancer in January, after the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which approves drugs, ruled it was not cost-effective and should not be offered routinely.
The expensive daily tablets cost £35,500 a year privately, although how much the NHS pays is not known.
However the new British-led trial in a different group of men, whose prostate cancer had not spread, found abiraterone, taken for just two years, greatly improved their chances of survival.
Experts hope the drug could be made available on the NHS ‘soon’ following the results. 

The Times also has the story. 

Education 

Times
Only three out of 27 top UK universities are to return to full in-person teaching this term, despite increasing demand from students for face-to-face learning.
The universities of Sheffield, Sussex and Southampton expect to return to in-person studies, with students expected to be on campus from the beginning of the academic year.
The other 24 universities surveyed by The Times plan to adopt a “blended” approach, combining face-to-face and online learning.
The University of Sheffield has told students that they are “expected to attend in person, on campus, from the start date of your studies”, while Southampton said it would conduct all teaching “in-person and on campus”. 

Working From Home 

Telegraph
One in three workers would not take a job that required them to be in the office full time, research has found.
The Government’s official work-from-home guidance was removed on July 19, and in recent weeks a growing number of employees have returned to their offices full time.
The London Underground recorded its busiest morning since March 2020 two weeks ago.
But a poll of 1,000 workers carried out last month for IWG, which provides serviced offices, found that 33 per cent of those surveyed said they would not consider applying for a new job that did not offer flexible or hybrid working.
When asked how many days workers expected to be in the office, just 18.5 per cent said five days a week. More than half said that splitting their time across two workspaces was good for their mental health.
Ministers and officials are concerned that city centre economies will never recover unless workers return to their desks. 

Hydrogen 

Express
The UK can overtake its EU rivals to take a lead in the hydrogen power race following its departure from the EU, the boss of Italian energy giant Snam has said.
Marco Alverà said the flexibility of Brexit gives the UK “first mover” advantage. He added: “Here [in the EU] we need to agree on incentives with a lot of people.
“We need to make carbon border adjustments with a lot of people.”
He added to The Sunday Telegraph: “Here you need consensus on a lot of the big transitional adjustments.
“My hope is that the UK continues to adhere to a lot of the same kind of approaches [as the EU], so that it doesn’t become completely isolated.
“But I think the speed with which the UK can move is very strong, even [faster] than the US.”
His remarks come at the end of a turbulent week for energy markets as prices hike across Europe amid natural gas shortages. 

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