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Trade

Express
Britain clinched a huge Brexit breakthrough early today with the signing of a historic treaty to join a £12trillion international trade bloc.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch said it placed us at the “top table” of the Indo-Pacific group and hailed the step as the “clearest demonstration” yet of our new-found freedom outside the EU.
The deal will open major new markets for UK goods from cars and textiles to whisky, cheese, beef and lamb – and could mean lower prices for everything from coffee and kiwi fruit to clothing and electronics.
And unlike the EU, there is no requirement to surrender British sovereignty or be governed by judges sitting in a foreign land.
Economists have described membership of the 11-country bloc as a “massive global event”.

BBC News
The UK has signed a deal to join a trade pact with several countries in Asia and the Pacific, including Japan and Australia.
The name of this pact – CPTPP – is an unwieldy mouthful, but it’s also a new club of 500 million people the UK will be able to access.
So what does it mean for the fortunes of businesses and households?
What is the CPTPP?
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is a trade agreement between 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

Independent
The UK has formally agreed to become the first European country to join a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc, in what marks Britain’s biggest trade deal since Brexit – despite forecasts placing its value at just £1.8bn a year.
The government’s business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch signed the accession protocol to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in New Zealand on Sunday, bringing the bloc’s combined GDP to £12 trillion – 15 per cent of the global share.
Her signature gives formal confirmation of the agreement reached in March following two years of negotiations, and officials from Britain and the bloc’s 11 other members will now begin work to ratify the deal, which will require parliamentary scrutiny and legislation in the UK to bring it into force.

ITV News
Kemi Badenoch has signed off UK membership to a major Indo-Pacific trade bloc, bringing British businesses a step closer to being able to sell to a market of 500 million people with fewer barriers.
The Business and Trade Secretary signed the accession protocol to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in New Zealand on Sunday.
Britain is the first new member and first European nation to join the bloc – comprising Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – since its formation in 2018.

EU

Express
European countries are facing economic and political downfalls, prompting Brexiteers to rejoice over Britain’s decision to leave the EU.
Remainers have been quick to blame Brexit for the cost of living crisis crippling the UK and soaring inflation rates.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starker branded Britain “the sick man of Europe” in March, as Chancellor Jeremy Hunt unveiled the Government’s latest Budget.
But with Germany on the verge or a recession, France in flames over anti-Macron riots, and the Netherlands seeing its government collapse last week, Brexiteers have hailed the UK’s performance outside the bloc.
Staunch Brexiteer Richard Tice wrote on Twitter: “REMOANERS WRONG AGAIN:

Migrants

Mail
Thousands of British families are being left homeless because the Home Office is paying over the odds for rental properties to accommodate boat migrants, it can be revealed.
The Mail on Sunday has learned that councils are being outbid as vast sums of taxpayers’ money are paid to private landlords to put up new arrivals from Calais in flats and houses.
Meanwhile, homeless Britons are forced to languish in hotel rooms for months on end.
An estate agency owned by ten London council boroughs claims a Home Office contractor called Clearsprings has been paying ‘introduction fees’ of up to £2,000 to entice private landlords to sign contracts with them.
It is also believed that Clearsprings is paying up to £300 more in rent each month for properties than competing local authorities.

Guardian
The government’s plan to fund a public sector pay rise by hiking the fees charged to migrants for visa applications and NHS access has been described as “deeply unfair” and “deliberately divisive” by charities, unions and politicians.
Unison, which represents 1.3 million public service workers, warned that the increases would “push more people into poverty”, while the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants accused the government of a “blatant attempt to pit worker against worker and divide our communities”.
A trade body for the meat industry also said it feared the hike in fees would fuel inflation due to the increased cost to employers of hiring “much needed” factory workers from overseas.

Sun
FAILURE to tackle the small boats crisis “is not an option”, immigration minister Robert Jenrick warns – as he faces a mad dash to get the law passed this week.
But Labour is plotting to torpedo the plan with a wrecking amendment to keep Britain under the yolk of foreign judges for its borders policy.
Tabled by Corbynista peer Shami Chakrabarti, Tories said the “meddlers charter” would let international courts block deportations to Rwanda forever.
No10’s flagship Illegal Migration Bill is in Parliament this week where it faces a fierce battle of “ping pong” between the Commons and the Lords.
Mr Jenrick told The Sun on Sunday that leftie lords and MPs should cease their war on the borders plan.
He said: ‘’We must take the tough action necessary to stop the illegal, dangerous and unnecessary crossings, and restore fairness and order to our immigration system.
“Inaction is not an option. And those that oppose our plan to Stop the Boats have put forward no alternative.

ITV News
UK migrant workers will soon have to pay more than quadruple what they did five years ago to use the NHS, as the government says it needs the cash to pay for public sector wage rises of up to 7%.
Despite a raft of well-documented worker shortages across a range of UK industries from engineering to hospitality, the NHS fee for international workers is set to go up to £1,035 a year – a 418% increase over five years.
That means a worker moving to the UK on a five-year visa, for example, would have to pay an Immigration Health Surcharge lump sum of £5,175 up-front, along with visa application fees, which will also go up.
Health and care staff, and their dependents, are exempt from paying the IHS, which was first introduced by the Conservative government in 2015 at £200 a year.

Telegraph
Suella Braverman is seeking an Albania-style agreement to speed up deportations to Turkey following a “huge uptick” in the arrival of migrants from the country on boats, The Telegraph can reveal.
More than 1,000 migrants from Turkey are believed to have arrived in the UK via the Channel since the beginning of the year, representing a significant increase on previous years. Turkey has now become one of the most common countries of origin for those landing illegally in Britain.
The Home Secretary and Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, are urgently examining the possibility of striking a deal with Turkey akin to an agreement to speed up the deportation of Channel migrants from Albania.

NHS

Observer
NHS consultants in England will call off two days of hugely disruptive strike action in hospitals if they are offered the same inflation plus pay deal made to junior doctors in Scotland, the Observer can reveal.
In a significant move that puts further pressure on ministers before strikes by junior doctors and consultants south of the border in the coming days, a senior British Medical Association figure said that a 12.4% offer – and commitment to reform the annual pay review process – would be enough to halt the consultant strikes, which are set to take place on 20 and 21 July.
Dr Mike Henley, deputy chair of the BMA’s consultants’ committee, told the Observer: “If the Westminster government offers the same to consultants in England as the junior doctors have been offered in Scotland as well as reforms to the pay review body, we would call off the strikes and put the offer to our members.”

Sun
GLOATING junior doctors taunted Rishi Sunak that they are putting their new bumper pay deal straight into strike funds.
The PM announced this week that he is beefing up junior doctor wages by 6 per cent and £1,250 – adding thousands to pay cheques.
While teachers called off their strikes hailing the generous offers, militant doctors are digging in to continue their industrial war.
Within minutes of the pay announcement, the BMA union – which represents doctors – sent an email asking medics to donate the rise to their strike coffers.
The BMA said the pay hike will “cover the cost of the entire strikes to date”.
Campaign group Doctors Vote tweeted: “We’d like to thank Rishi Sunak for his generous donation to our personal strike funds.

i newspaper
Rishi Sunak will face a wave of new NHS strikes in the run-up to the next election if he does not offer nurses and other healthcare staff pay rises that keep pace with inflation.
The Prime Minister attempted to end months of industrial action on Thursday when he said a deal of 6 per cent for doctors and 6.5 per cent for teachers for 2023-24 was “final” and that “no amount of strikes” would change the Government’s decision.
But health unions are preparing to put pressure on Mr Sunak to begin talks on pay for the 2024-25 financial year – which will coincide with the next general election, i understands.
If inflation remains high in 2024 – above the 5 per cent that NHS staff have accepted for the current financial year – then unions are expected to demand more money for the following year so they are not short-changed by high prices.

Observer
Nearly half of all NHS hospital maternity services covered so far by a national inspection programme have been rated as substandard, the Observer can reveal.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which regulates health and care providers in England, began its maternity inspection programme last August after the Ockenden review into the Shropshire maternity scandal, which saw 300 babies left dead or brain damaged by inadequate NHS care.
An Observer analysis of the CQC inspection shows that 45 maternity services have so far been given a rating under the new inspection programme, with six declared inadequate and another 15 rated as “requires improvement”.

Mirror
There are growing calls to fix and repair the NHS’ crumbling hospitals as shocking new cases emerge.
Health chiefs and the government are accused of losing grip on the state of the nation’s hospitals.
This was recently highlighted as shocking new information emerged on the damage leaks, power cuts and maintenance issues are doing to the buildings.
First revealed by the Mirror, a number of major hospitals are built using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) – a building material with a set life span, one long passed.
This was followed by a recent ITV report that showed the dire state of NHS hospitals.
It found that almost half of hospitals were forced to close wards due to floods, power cuts and maintenance issues.
This included A&E departments, maternity wards and paediatric units.

Climate activists

Mail
The Labour leader today stands accused of having double standards on climate protests after one of his closest advisers arranged a secret meeting with Just Stop Oil eco-zealots.
Sir Keir Starmer has publicly responded to anger over the group’s disruption to motorways and sports events by describing them as ‘arrogant’ and ‘wrong’.
But, according to internal correspondence between members of JSO and Extinction Rebellion, Jess Morden – Sir Keir’s parliamentary private secretary – offered them an opportunity to ‘come in and chat’.
The activists said Ms Morden was ‘trying to sell us on how Labour is still driven by’ environmental issues ‘despite Starmer backtracking’.
Labour has accepted £1.5million over several years from JSO funder Dale Vince but denies he has any influence on policy.

Telegraph
Five people were arrested after environmental activists staged a day of resistance at a generator station supplying the Ineos oil refinery at Grangemouth, near Falkirk.
The activists said they had occupied the Ineos gas power station that powers the Grangemouth oil refinery as part of a day of resistance at the site.
Four people climbed onto the roof of the gas power station and held up a banner which read “Climate Justice for Grangemouth” on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier, about 200 people marched to the fence of the Ineos plant from a climate camp approximately a mile away.

Fisheries

Telegraph
Fishermen would be required to install automatic cameras and sensors on their boats, under government proposals to prevent overfishing and ensure that vessels stick to their quotas.
On Monday, ministers are expected to unveil a package of measures that will form part of the post-Brexit regime for fishing in British waters, following 18 months of talks with industry bodies.
It will include proposals for both EU and UK vessels to be required to place monitoring equipment on their boats to enable officials to conduct audits of their catches.
Currently, cameras are installed on a handful of boats involved in pilot and scientific schemes in British waters. Officials have also been examining sensors that detect or measure fishing operations such as the movement of nets.

Education

Telegraph
Officials at the Department for Education (DfE) have attacked the civil service’s draft transgender policy as it prepares to publish its own trans guidance for schools, The Telegraph can reveal.
Staff in the DfE’s LGBT+ Network have published an open letter on the department’s intranet claiming that trans guidance being developed for Whitehall is “transphobic”.
The letter also claims that restricting trans civil servants’ access to single-sex toilets would be “completely unacceptable as well as unlawful”.
It comes just days before the DfE is due to publish its own guidance for schools in England which is expected to permit pupils to “socially transition” to a different gender – by, for example, using new pronouns – so long as this is done with parental consent.

i News
All four major teaching unions have said they are ready to call off strike action after the Government confirmed it would offer a 6.5 per cent pay rise for teachers.
Rishi Sunak announced on Thursday he had accepted the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), marking an end to seven-month battle over teachers’ pay.
In a joint statement, the National Education Union (NEU), Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and NASUWT said it was the “largest ever recommendation” from the independent pay review body.
The unions said they would urge members to accept the 6.5 per cent rise for next year, which would “allow teachers and school leaders to call off strike action and resume normal relations with Government”.

Army

Express
Britain must be ready for conflict with Russia but is let down by a “broken” system for arming the military that puts personnel in harm’s way, a damning report claims today.
Westminster’s defence committee warns the UK could find itself fighting Russia with little warning or opportunity to build up military and industrial capabilities.
It is concerned the country has an “extremely limited” reserve of “fighting equipment” including:
– Warships;
– Modern armoured vehicles;
– Combat aircraft.
The MPs warn: “With a war in Europe now raging on the eastern border of Europe, we can no longer afford, strategically, militarily, or financially to continue the broken procurement system which we have been operating for decades. If we are to keep our nation safe, our adversaries deterred and our allies reassured we now urgently require full-scale reform of the way we be buy and support our fighting equipment.
“In short, it is broke–and it’s time to fix it.”

Telegraph
Former soldiers will be called on to join a “surge” force in future crises as part of a major overhaul of the military that will shrink the Army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars.
A paper expected to be laid in Parliament on Tuesday will outline plans for former regular soldiers, including those no longer serving as reservists, to help “revitalise” a strategic reserve of troops.
The long-awaited defence command paper will also announce plans for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to expand its use of technology such as robotics, laser weapons and human augmentation such as implants and powered prosthetics.

Express
Further cuts are reportedly being planned to the number of serving Armed Forces personnel. Veterans will be asked to join as reservists to make up any shortfall during times of crisis, say reports.
Armed Forces veterans could be called on to join a reserve force in future crises as part of an planned overhaul of the military which would cut the number of UK troops, according to a report.
Reports claim that the long-awaited defence command paper will reduce the British Army to its smallest size since the Napoleonic wars. Ministers are expected to defend the proposals, insisting the war in Ukraine shows how UK forces can become “fleeter of foot,” according to the paper.

China

Express
Chinese spies are “prolifically and aggressively” targeting the UK as part of Beijing’s bid to influence and buy up control in Britain, a scathing report revealed yesterday. A senior group of MPs warned our businesses, universities and government departments are under attack.
They said Chinese intelligence services under leader Xi Jinping “indiscriminately” collect information on their UK targets, many of whom are first identified by its army of hackers on social media.
The long-awaited Intelligence and Security Committee report blamed the failings of successive governments for China’s march on Britain, which MI5 warned could threaten the UK for “the next decade”.

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