‘Firebreak’ lockdown 

Mail
Boris Johnson has authorised contingency plans for ‘firebreak lockdowns’ should the NHS be overwhelmed with Covid cases during the winter months.
Sources within Whitehall today confirmed the government is prepared for ‘local, regional or national’ lockdowns in order to protect the health service from being swamped and reaching breaking point with cases.
The i reports the Prime Minister has given the green light to plans for ‘firebreak lockdowns’ should Covid cases cripple the NHS later this year. 
Although scientists remain confident of the efficacy of Britain’s vaccines, Whitehall sources say fears persist over surging flu infections, a potential NHS staffing crisis and a rise in positive infections.
The senior Downing Street source told i: ‘The Government believes it has got to grips with the pandemic following the vaccine rollout
‘Barring a new vaccine-beating strain, fears over a rise in infections similar to that seen last autumn are actually outweighed by other issues like an NHS staffing crisis and the likely resurgence in flu infections, and other respiratory diseases.
‘On top of Covid infections, these factors could tip the NHS back to the brink and force more lockdowns.’ 

A similar story can be read in the Express 

Times
Lockdowns are unlikely to be needed again, government scientific advisers have said, as official figures showed a clear fall in coronavirus cases.
Data from the Office for National Statistics, considered the gold standard for infection rates, confirmed the first clear drop outside of lockdown. Even normally cautious scientists said that the time of draconian restrictions had probably passed.
An increase in cases in September is widely expected as workers return to offices and school and university terms begin, but there is growing confidence that this can be managed without a return to compulsory social distancing. 

Immigration 

Telegraph
France is coming under pressure to set up a joint maritime brigade to turn back migrants as 1,500 more mass on the northern French coast to cross to the UK.
In a record week for migrant crossings, Border Force, Tory MPs and a leading French Republican politician who is standing for president are calling for new tactics to halt the surge in migrants using small boats to reach British shores.
The demands pile pressure on Emmanuel Macron’s government, which has so far refused British offers of joint sea forces to stop and return migrant boats to France.
French officials have claimed maritime law dictates that their vessels can only stop the migrants’ boats if they ask for help or are in dire need of rescue – a position challenged by Britain, which believes the rules of sea allow interception of “illegal” attempts to enter UK waters.
It comes after two days of record crossings saw nearly 1,000 migrants reach Britain in small boats, taking the total past 10,500. In the whole of last year, 8,417 migrants arrived. 

Breitbart
Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite has ordered border guards to repel, with force if needed, illegal migrants as the European Union border agency has claimed Belarus is helping illegals cross the EU border.
Head of Lithuania’s border guard Rustamas Liubajevas said on Tuesday: “Anyone who attempts to enter the territory of the Republic of Lithuania illegally shall be refused entry and shall be directed to the nearest operational international border control point.”
According to a report from the EU-funded website InfoMigrants, the Lithuanian interior minister granted border guards the power to use force to repel migrants and divert them to official border crossings, where they are then able to claim asylum.
NGOs have criticised the policy, arguing it is a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees and stated that Belarus was not a safe country to return migrants to.
Frontex, the European Union border agency, released alleged drone footage from the EU’s common external border along the frontier between Lithuania and Belarus this week, claiming it had evidence that Belarusian authorities were directly helping migrants cross over illegally.
Since June, the Belarusian government led by Alexander Lukashenko has also been accused of flying in around 4,000 migrants directly from Iraq to the Belarusian capital of Minsk before allowing them to head to the EU border. 

GB News
More than 10,000 people have now made the life-threatening journey across the English Channel in small boats this year.
At least 482 people succeeded in crossing the Dover Strait on Wednesday on board 21 boats – a new record for a single day.
Crossings in 2021 – which already eclipsed last year’s annual total last month – have resumed in recent days following a period of bad weather.
Data shows that the tally for this year now stands at more than 10,200 people, despite the dangers involved in the journey.
Wednesday’s 482 arrivals – confirmed by the Home Office on Thursday morning – surpass the previous daily high of 430 set on July 19 2021.
Despite this, the UK continues to see far fewer boat arrivals and asylum claims than many of its European counterparts.
At least 50,989 people have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean by land and sea so far this year, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
At least 1,016 people are estimated to be dead or missing, according to the same data. 

EU 

Express
THE EUROPEAN UNION was warned it could be on the brink of collapse if it didn’t resolve the “gridlock” between its fundamental ideas and what member states want.
Divisions inside Brussels continue to worsen, with ongoing rows over policy and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, key arguments behind a rise in euroscepticism. Nations are beginning to grow frustrated with the bloc, and the likes of Poland have this week argued that it shouldn’t remain an EU member state at any cost. Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro condemned the bloc for what he argued was “blackmail” from EU lawmakers over planned judicial reforms in Poland.
Speaking to Rzeczpospolita Daily, the minister said he was a “staunch opponent of succumbing to the illegal blackmail of the EU carried out by the Court of Justice of the European Union”. 

Telegraph
Guy Verhofstadt, the former European parliament Brexit chief, has suggested the EU should be top of the Olympic medal table.
The highest EU nation in the official table is seventh-placed Germany, eight golds behind Team GB and 25 behind leaders China.
However, according to Verhofstadt’s maths, organisers should be counting the total contribution of every EU nation together.
The Belgian MEP, who was the parliament’s “point man” for Brexit talks between 2016 and 2020, called for nations to consider wearing the EU flag next to their national badges.
“Fun fact,” he had posted online. “EU combined has more gold medals than US or China… I’d love to see the EU flag next to the national on athletes’ clothes.” Verhofstadt added that “our identity is layered – we’re proud Italians, Latvians, Germans, Slovenians… and Europeans”. “Our sports should reflect that,” he wrote. 

Breitbart
Brexit leader Nigel Farage has mocked Guy Verhofstadt for suggesting the European Union should be at the top of the Olympics table after adding together the medals of the 27 individual countries that make up the bloc.
Mr Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium and a leading Member of the European Parliament (MEP), declared Olympic victory on Thursday, saying: “Fun fact: EU combined has more gold medals than U.S. or China. I’d love to see the EU flag next to the national [flag] on athletes’ clothes.
“Our identity is layered we’re proud Italians, Latvians, Germans, Slovenians… and Europeans. Our sports should reflect that!”
According to the official Olympic medal table, as at time of reporting, China topped the board for golds, followed by the United States. Despite claims from Verhofstadt that the EU is “at the top”, in reality the highest-scoring EU member state in the Olympics is Germany — in seventh place.
The highest achiever in the continent of Europe is, of course, Brexit Britain, in fourth place
“Poor old Verhofstadt. He still thinks that a United States of Europe can happen. He’s deluded,” Mr Farage remarked. 

Northern Ireland 

Express
BRITONS have lashed out after Ireland complained it is caught in the middle of the UK-EU row over the red tape around post-Brexit trade rules.
Both the UK and EU have struggled to move forward with the Northern Ireland Protocol, despite both agreeing to the Northern Ireland Protocol in 2019 as part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The protocol prevents a hard border in Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods. Brexit minister Lord Frost recently called for significant changes to be made to the protocol, saying “we cannot go on as we are”.
Now Ireland has complained that it is caught between the two sides over the row about the Irish border.
But Express.co.uk readers showed little sympathy as they ripped into Brussels for “throwing Ireland under the bus” by making the process difficult.
One reader said: “Why would Ireland think it is trapped between the UK and EU in discussions about Northern Ireland? It is EU.”
Another added: “Ireland thrown under the bus again by the EU in their back up plan.” 

Poland 

Express
POLAND should not stay in the European Union at “any price”, the country’s justice minister has warned.
In the midst of a bitter legal stand-off between Brussels and Warsaw, Zbigniew Ziobro accused the bloc of attempted “blackmail”. His rant comes after the European Commission gave Poland until August 16 to comply with a ruling by the European Court of Justice against the country’s judicial reforms. Brussels has threatened to slap Warsaw with hefty fines unless it complies with the Luxembourg-based court’s ruling.
Mr Ziobro has declared that Poland will not back down in the row, accusing the ECJ of having a “colonial mentality”.
He said making concessions to Brussels in the row over its judicial system will see Warsaw forced to make concessions in other areas in the future.
Mr Ziobro fumed: “I am completely against giving in to the illegal blackmail by the EU, which is being carried out via the ECJ.
“If we agree today to the illegal diktats of the ECJ in matters in which it does not have the right to interfere, then tomorrow the ECJ will issue a verdict obliging Poland, for example, to introduce gay marriage and the adoption of children by such couples.” 

Mail
Belarus has been accused of using migrants as ‘living weapons’ by sending them to Poland as revenge for it giving refuge to an Olympic sprinter.
Poland said a growing number of migrants had come over the border since its decision to grant refuge to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya. Miss Tsimanouskaya, 24, refused to return to her native Belarus from Tokyo as she feared for her safety.
Maciej Wasik, Poland’s deputy interior minister, said Belarus was ‘waging a hybrid war with the European Union with the help of illegal immigrants’.
Referring to the migrants, he added: ‘There are both young men and women with children. Belarus is using these immigrants as a living weapon.’
Miss Tsimanouskaya’s Cold War-style defection has ratcheted up Western tensions with Belarus. The EU has also accused Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko of using migrants to hit back against its sanctions. 
In recent weeks, neighbour and fellow EU member state Lithuania has reported a surge in illegal border crossings from Belarus, saying the Belarusian government was flying in people from abroad and dispatching them into the EU. 
It is believed to be a retaliation for EU sanctions meted out after Belarus forced a Ryanair flight to land on its soil and arrested a dissident blogger on board. 

Labour Party 

Morning Star
JEWISH Labour members on the party’s left are being disproportionately targeted by investigations into anti-semitism, a shocking new report has claimed.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) published its study today, having submitted it to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for investigation.
The dossier – also sent to the Institute of Race Relations, the Runnymede Trust and the Forde Inquiry into Labour’s handling of anti-semitism complaints – catalogues what it says is a clampdown on Jews who disagree politically with the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Labour Movement.
JVL warned that the Labour leadership has limited its engagement “to groups who claim to represent ‘the Jewish community’ but who in fact represent only one position within it.” It said that disregarding wider perspectives in this way has led to the “administrative persecution” of hundreds of its members, which it branded a form of discrimination.
It urged the EHRC to investigate “the climate of hostility being built up and directed against us,” adding that “no action has been taken against those who have repeatedly disputed, maligned or mocked the Jewishness of JVL” within the Labour Party.
JVL co-chair Jenny Manson said the group believes there is now a pattern of left-wing Jews being targeted as a result of the party’s actions, and that there has been an attempt to purge those with dissenting views. 

Education 

Times
Teenagers getting their A-level results next week face a battle for places at selective universities that fear more grade inflation after last year’s exams fiasco.
Analysis by The Times shows that the number of courses in clearing at Russell Group universities has fallen by a third, from roughly 4,500 last year to 3,000 yesterday.
Experts say the pendulum is swinging back to favour institutions that will be far more picky this year than previously. Times have changed. Some universities over-recruited last year, the number of 18-year-olds has increased and applications by school-leavers this year have increased by 10 per cent.
Clare Marchant, the head of Ucas, which operates the university application process, said clearing would be more competitive than last year. 

Covid test 

Express
SCIENTISTS have unveiled a new COVID-19 test which can provide a result in just one hour – and can also distinguish between the numerous strains so far identified.
The test, which costs as little as £1.50, has been hailed as an “essential” addition to the armoury of healthcare professionals battling the disease, especially in remote settings without ready access to conventional PCR testing methods. It can be 3D-printed and is being tipped to drastically improve coronavirus treatment and monitoring.
Dr Xiao Tan of Massachusetts General Hospital in the US is the lead scientist behind the development of the testing device, known as the Minimally Instrumented SHERLOCK, or miSHERLOCK.
He said: “Our goal was to create an entirely self contained diagnostic that requires no other equipment.
“Essentially the patient spits into this device, and then you push down a plunger and you get an answer an hour later.” 

Vaccine 

Independent 
Vaccinated people infected with the Delta coronavirus variant may be able to spread it as easily as those who have yet to be immunised, early analysis suggests.
Although the Covid jabs appears to reduce an individual’s overall risk of catching Delta in the first place, if infected there appears to be “limited difference” in the viral load between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, according to new research from Public Health England (PHE).
“This may have implications for people’s infectiousness, whether they have been vaccinated or not,” said PHE.
The vaccines have been shown to provide good protection against severe disease and death from Delta, especially after two doses, but there is less data on whether vaccinated people can still transmit it to others.
“Some initial findings … indicate that levels of virus in those who become infected with Delta having already been vaccinated may be similar to levels found in unvaccinated people,” PHE said in a statement.
However, PHE said this was “early exploratory analysis” and insisted that “further targeted studies” are needed to determine the extent to which vaccinated people can spread the Delta variant to others. 

GB News 

Evening Standard
For six tempestuous weeks GB News has been haunted by internal feuding, senior resignations, relentless technical problems, the evaporation of its television audience and pitiless mockery from those who wish it to fail. “We are less than two months old and we are being written off already,” complains one staff member. Now, after one of the most highly anticipated and calamity-strewn media launches of modern times, the anti-woke news channel has ordered a sweeping overhaul of its operations to salvage the beleaguered project.
With an exhausted GB News chairman Andrew Neil taking an R&R break in France, and senior executives John McAndrew and Gill Penlington having walked out, Angelos Frangopoulos, its bullish Australian chief executive, has seized the editorial reins and is overseeing plans for a widespread refresh of the output in September. Having brought his family to England, he is living out of a hotel to maximise his working hours. “He’s had enough of where it was going and put his foot on the accelerator,” says one source. “He really needs this to work.”
Frangopoulos seems to be drawing on the playbook of Right-wing channel Sky News Australia, which he built by hiring firebrand politicians. Nigel Farage has been parachuted into a peak schedule which Neil, the channel’s figurehead, has temporarily abandoned.
Making Farage the star host was not the original GB News plan. “It’s an editorial change of direction that has left a lot of people uncomfortable,” said one insider. Mainstream presenters say they were promised a politically balanced schedule.  

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