Illegal immigrants 

Mail
Channel migrants have been secretly picked up in French waters by the UK Border Force and taken to Dover, the Mail can reveal.
The controversial action on the French side of the Channel was orchestrated between senior crew members of HMC Valiant and French patrol ship Athos last Saturday.
On Friday night, a Home Office source said the Government’s own border agency appeared to have helped migrants enter the country illegally, adding: ‘The job of Border Force is to secure the UK’s border, not facilitate illegal entry across it.’
Home Secretary Priti Patel has repeatedly called for stronger action by the French to tackle the crisis, which has seen record numbers of migrants reach Britain.
But her tough stance is being undermined by the antics of her own Border Force. 
Last night Miss Patel ordered an urgent investigation into the incident, and said it ‘should not have happened’.
During a revealing maritime radio conversation, a recording of which was obtained by the Mail, the officers discuss the ‘legality’ of the operation. 
The UK’s 140ft cutter Valiant then heads over to the French side of the Channel and launches a fast inflatable boat to collect the dinghy migrants and take them to Dover.
The extraordinary action came in the middle of a frenzied four-day period during which more than 560 migrants reached Britain. 

A similar story appears in the Telegraph 

Telegraph
French police on Friday dismantled a camp outside Calais housing around 800 migrants seeking to reach Britain in one of the biggest such operations in months.
The move, involving hundreds of officers, followed complaints by local officials of violence and the threat of a permanent settlement.
It was the latest in a string of operations to remove such camps amid a sharp rise in Channel crossings by boat this year – some 568 last weekend and at least 50 on Wednesday alone, taking the total to make the dangerous journey in 2021 to almost 4,000. 
The latest surge, which coincided with fine weather and the reopening of borders within the EU as Covid lockdown measures are eased,  prompted MPs to issue a call on the government to pressure France to take migrants back at sea. 

EU 

Express
BREXIT has dealt a “massive blow” to the EU as London was crucial to its financial appeal, experts have said.
Brexit minister Lord David Frost urged the City of London last month to “get on and do its own thing” as a deal for equivalence with the EU  looks out of reach. UK financial firms lost their wide ranging access to EU markets when the Brexit transition period ended on December 31 and now have to navigate a patchwork of regulations from individual member states. Former chancellor Lord Norman Lamont asked Lord Frost at a Lords committee meeting about progress on equivalence and added that “increasingly in the financial services sector people are not looking with great hope for equivalence”.
Lord Frost said the EU was still mulling over documents of equivalence assessments sent by the UK almost a year ago.
He added: “We’re still waiting for the EU to complete those processes.
“Obviously the City needs to get on and do its own thing pending that and increasingly that is what has happened.” 

Telegraph
The UK could threaten to pull out of the EU’s €100bn flagship research programme after Brussels was accused on Friday of holding up access in the latest act of “political” vengeance, The Telegraph can disclose.
In what looks set to become the next major political dispute between the two sides, senior Government sources have claimed that the EU is “purposely going slow” on formalising the UK’s participation in Horizon Europe.
Ministers are similarly frustrated at the progress of the UK’s association to Euratom Research and Training, the nuclear research programme linked to Horizon, and Copernicus, the earth monitoring satellite project.
The Government argues that the hold up and the decision to exclude the UK from shaping the programmes beyond what it had anticipated will negatively impact participants and has called into question their value for money. 

Express
THE EUROPEAN UNION has been branded “a hostile foreign power”, after reports it plans to target Britain with “tougher retaliatory measures” in a Brexit row.
Brussels is furious at the UK for unilaterally delaying the introduction of some Northern Ireland customs checks. Under the terms of Boris Johnson Brexit deal, checks are being introduced on some trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
This takes place via the Northern Ireland protocol, which keeps the province aligned with the European single market. 

Freedom Day 

Telegraph
The number of people in England with Covid-19 has increased by around three quarters in a week, figures suggest.
The Office for National Statistics estimates that 85,600 people in England had the virus in the week to May 29 – around one in 640 people in private households. 
This is the highest level since the week to April 16 and has increased from 48,500 people – one in 1,120 people in private households – from the week ending May 22.
The north-west continues to have the highest proportion of people testing positive, of around one in 280 people, while south-east England has the lowest rate of positive tests.
Figures are however still lower than they were earlier this year, with the ONS estimating that 1,122,000 people had Covid-19 in the first week of January.
It comes as the Pfizer jab was approved by the UK regulator earlier for 12-to 15-year-olds. People over 30 are currently being invited to receive the jab, with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation yet to announce when the rollout will be extended to the next round of adults and under-16s. 

Similar stories appear in the Evening Standard , Sun , Express , Telegraph 

Mail
The government is planning to cut wait times between Covid-19 vaccination doses for over 40s from twelve weeks to eight weeks as ministers battle to save ‘Freedom Day’ on June 21.
However, officials are also reportedly drawing up secret plans to delay the end of the country’s coronavirus restrictions by two weeks until July after the UK’s daily coronavirus infections rose again, with the number of people in the country with Covid-19 rising by 75 percent.
Social distancing could also be retained, according to The Sun, as could limits on the number of people allowed inside venues, raising concerns over England’s hosting some of the delayed Euro 2020 football tournament.
Industry chiefs also warned that without the total removal of restrictions, pubs remain ‘unviable’ and could lose millions in potential trade during the tournament and Britain’s warmest weeks.   
According to The Daily Telegraph, over-25s will be offered their first doses of the vaccine from next week as the government races against the clock to beat Covid-19 variants. 
On Friday, ministers said they were doing ‘everything we possible can’ to speed up the process of inoculating the public, ahead of a crucial decision over whether ease restrictions on June 21.
The acceleration of second doses for over-50s has already been announced by the government, but the change is now expected to be announced for those over-40 when the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) formally recommends the measure. 

Northern Ireland 

Times
European leaders are drawing up plans to impose trade sanctions on Britain, accusing Boris Johnson of “taking them for fools” over the Northern Ireland protocol.
Amid growing anger in Brussels, senior EU diplomats claimed that Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, had “completely failed to engage” with the commission on implementing the controversial agreement that came into force in January. The first meeting of the UK/EU partnership council next week will discuss issues relating to the protocol.
One EU diplomatic source accused the UK of attempting to dismantle the agreement and warned that Brussels was prepared to take unilateral action.
“You are starting to hear member states say that the time has come to show Britain that we’re serious,” the source said.  

Telegraph
Brussels will offer to remove barriers to British medicine supplies to Northern Ireland in a bid to break the deadlock in Brexit border negotiations with the UK next week. 
The European Union is expected to set out the plan as an olive branch in tense negotiations over the Northern Ireland Protocol, in London on Wednesday, sources said.
Under the Protocol, which prevents a hard Irish border, Northern Ireland continues to follow EU rules for medicines and medical equipment after Brexit. 
That will mean checks on medical supplies to Northern Ireland from Britain, including for the NHS, once a year-long grace period expires at the end of 2021.
Medicines made in Britain will also have to have separate licenses, testing and inspections before they can be used in Northern Ireland after the grace period. 
About £600m worth of drugs are imported into Northern Ireland each year, with approximately 98 per cent coming from Britain.  

Express
A BREXITEER has dismantled a claim made by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen that there was “no alternative” to the controversial trading terms in Northern Ireland – by highlighting a report published by the bloc in 2017 outlining a number of solutions to the complex border issue.
The UK and European Union remain in a row over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol – a mechanism created to prevent a hard border of the Island of Ireland. The legislation ties Belfast to the EU regulatory framework and effectively places a trade border down the Irish Sea – resulting in increased checks and red tape on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The UK has urged the bloc to move away from the protocol and has unilaterally extended grace periods on some checks until October – triggering legal action from the bloc.
Last week, the European Commission President argued there is “no alternative to the full and correct implementation of the protocol”.
Ms von der Leyen added: “I think it is important to reiterate that the protocol is the only possible solution to ensure peace and stability in Northern Ireland while protecting the integrity of the European Union’s single market.” 

Similar stories appear in the Mail , Express 

Trade 

Express
NORWAY’s trade deal with the UK risks being delayed or blocked after opposition politicians in Oslo said the deal risks throwing Norway “under the bus.”
International Trade Secretary Liz Truss announced the deal was agreed in principle on Friday along with fellow European Economic Area members Iceland and Liechtenstein. However, ahead of a summer recess, politicians in Oslo only have three weeks to debate and pass the legislation for the deal.
Emilie Enger Mehl, leader of the Centre Party in the Storting, Norway’s parliament, said the deal would need to be scrutinised before being voted through.
The party said the deal could severely impact Norwegian farmers and agriculture with fears UK agriculture could be outcompeted by Norway.
She said: “The Centre Party fears that the government will try to rush through the agreement in the Storting and throw Norwegian farmers and industry under the bus to land it.” 

Similar stories appear in the Telegraph , Guardian , Breitbart 

Gas 

Express
RUSSIA’S President Putin has announced the completion of the first line of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline which will pump natural gas into EU countries.
The second line is expected to be completed within the next two months and will start transporting gas to Germany once authorities there grant approval, he told an economic forum. On Friday the strongman president said a Gazprom is “ready to start filling Nord Stream 2 with gas”.
After the project was hit by crippling US sanctions, Russia was left to build it alone.
Critics have argued the pipeline, which will take gas from the Russian Arctic under the Baltic Sea to Germany, represents a huge geopolitical prize for the Kremlin.
Mr Putin told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum: “Today… the pipelaying work of the first Nord Stream 2 line was successfully finished.
“Work on the second line is ongoing.” 

HS2 

Telegraph
The viability of London’s flagship HS2 station is at risk after Boris Johnson refused to give Sadiq Khan a long-term bailout for the capital’s transport authority.
Transport for London, chaired by London mayor, risks being forced to mothball a series of public transport upgrades after TfL was only given a six-month grant to keep it afloat.
Mr Khan said earlier this week the bailout was “not the deal we wanted”.
One project at risk is the West London Orbital railway that connects a £1.7bn HS2 rail interchange at Old Oak Common with the rest of the capital. 
Old Oak Common is expected to be one of London’s largest rail hubs, linking HS2 with the delayed Crossrail line. 
The West London Orbital is crucial to the success of Old Oak Common, senior TfL officials have said. 
A report entitled “Delivering the Mayor’s Transport Strategy 2020/21”, published ahead of the TfL board meeting next week, said the West London Orbital would provide a missing link, “unlocking potential for new homes and jobs, and connecting to town centres, employment hubs and existing and future transport links to London Underground, London Overground, Elizabeth line [Crossrail], National Rail and High Speed 2 interchanges.

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