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EU

Express
Tensions between Germany and Poland have hit new levels as a row over Second World War reparations has seen Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government likened to “Putin’s Russia“.
The row threatens to destabilise the EU adding to an increasing rivalry between Germany, currently the most powerful country in the bloc, and Poland which is emerging as a rival.
A decision by Chancellor Scholz to forbid any diplomatic contact with Poland over Second World War compensation has infuriated the Polish government with support growing for their demands.
Last month Greece added its backing for compensation for the havoc and mass killings inflicted on countries by Adolf Hitler and the German Nazi regime.
Polish Secretary of State for Europe Arkadiusz Mularczyk warned that Germany would be setting the blueprint for how Russia will act when Ukraine seeks compensation for the current invasion.
He said: “Germany is blocking diplomacy about the core issue of human rights & the rule of law. Germany is setting Russia an example.”
The minister went on: “Germany, as a leading EU country and one of the world’s strongest economies, has an unavoidable obligation to set an example of how a modern, democratic country should help to resolve conflict; but this latest act sets a perfect example to Russia on how to behave as regards Ukraine.

Illegal migrants

Mail
Lawyers who submit false asylum and human rights claims for illegal immigrants should face jail, Suella Braverman has said.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, the Home Secretary insists there needs to be a ‘hostile environment’ for ‘criminals and conmen’ who try to cheat the system, while also pointing to existing laws that allow life sentences for those who assist unlawful immigration.
Her statement comes after a major undercover investigation by our sister paper, the Daily Mail, unmasked lawyers charging thousands of pounds to make false asylum claims.
Announcing a crackdown on the practice ahead of a series of Government initiatives dubbed ‘Stop the Boats’ week, Mrs Braverman said: ‘It’s very simple. They really need to be jailed.
‘We have the laws in place already which can be used whereby if you are facilitating a migrant illegally, you can be potentially jailed for life.
‘And if the offence is warranted, then these people must be jailed for as long as possible. They need to know that they can’t get away with it. They need to know that this is totally unacceptable

ITV News
Social media firms will team up with the National Crime Agency to crack down on people smugglers’ posts encouraging asylum seekers to cross the Channel, ministers have said.  Rishi Sunak said the new partnership between law enforcement and tech giants including Facebook, TikTok and Twitter will tackle attempts to “lure” migrants into paying to make the perilous journey. Group discounts, free spaces for children and offers of false documents are among the posts the Prime Minister wants removed to help achieve his promise to “stop the boats”.  Labour said the action was “too little, too late” and the Liberal Democrats said it amounted to “tinkering around the edges”.
The voluntary partnership will seek to redirect people away from such content in the same way as is used to tackle content promoting extremism or eating disorders.

Mail
Social media companies are to work in partnership with the Government to crack down on posts by people-smugglers touting for Channel migrants.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the agreement with tech firms including TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) would tackle attempts to ‘lure’ asylum seekers on small boats.
He added that the voluntary partnership with the National Crime Agency (NCA) would help to combat the ‘vile trade’.
It comes after the Mail on Sunday revealed that people traffickers were using ship and flag emojis to bypass filters aimed at blocking online advertising for illegal crossings.
The arrangement will seek to direct users away from such content in the way already used to tackle content promoting extremism or eating disorders.

Sun
SUELLA Braverman has accused Sir Keir Starmer of trying to “sabotage” efforts to stop small boats crossing the Channel.
The Home Secretary’s attack comes amid new revelations over Labour’s ties with lawyers and campaigners out to thwart the Rwanda deportation plan.
Ms Braverman fumed: “Sir Keir Starmer is secretly delighted at his web of cronies’ schemes to block our plans to stop the boats.
“He’s in this for political point-scoring and doesn’t care about what’s good for the country or the British people.”
She added: “While we are doing everything we can to stop the boats, Starmer and his activist friends are doing their best to sabotage our efforts so they can use it for cynical political gain.”
It has emerged that a senior lawyer leading efforts to block the Rwanda move also served as a race adviser to Labour.

Independent
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “cooking the books” as thousands of asylum claims are removed from the system following his vow to clear a historic backlog by the end of this year.
More than 6,000 people have been wiped off the list without being fully assessed in just three months, for reasons such as failing to attend interviews or appointments, and not filling in new “fast-track” questionnaires.
The figures have quadrupled since the prime minister pledged in December to clear the pre-June 2022 asylum backlog. The government is now withdrawing more claims than it decides, sparking accusations the backlog is being cut “by the back door”.
Official guidance seen by The Independent states that applications can be withdrawn by the Home Office without the asylum seeker’s consent – even if it has been unable to contact them and does not know where they are, with a notification letter “served to file only”.

Scouts

Mail
MailOnline can reveal today how volunteers have been left ‘incandescent at the lack of leadership’ amid the chaos at the World Scout Jamboree which has seen hundreds treated for heat-related illnesses and forced the US and UK to pull children out.
Organisers – who have been heavily criticised for poor preparation – are now facing demands to cancel the event as South Korea battles with a blistering heatwave, where temperatures have soared to 100F.
The 4,500-strong UK contingent, the largest at the jamboree, announced yesterday that they would evacuate children to hotels in Seoul for the rest of their stay, to alleviate pressure on the site which has been blasted over food shortages, a lack of shade and complaints being censored.
The US is now pulling out 1,500 children in a fresh blow to the organisers and the South Korean government, which on Friday promised more water trucks, air-conditioned spaces and medics in a desperate attempt to save the event which runs until August 12.
The World Organisation of the Scout Movement today called for the 25th World Scout Jamboree to be shelved in its entirety and asked South Korean organisers to ‘consider alternative options to end the event earlier than scheduled and support the participants until they depart for their home countries.’

BBC News
UK Scouts are being moved to hotels in Seoul after an international event in South Korea was hit by extreme heat.
Hundreds have fallen ill at the outdoor World Scout Jamboree, which is attended by more than 40,000 young people from around the world, amid 35C (95F) heat.
The British group of 4,500, the largest in attendance, is moving from a camp site at Saemangeum to Seoul, the Scout Association confirmed.
The US and Singaporean teams are also pulling their members out of the event.
South Korea’s government said it was sending 60 more medics and 700 service workers to maintain the toilets and showers, with many countries staying at the site for the next week.

TV licence

Mail
The BBC is facing a revolt from millions of television viewers who are no longer willing to pay the television licence fee.
A record 2.84 million people now insist they are no longer obliged to fork out £159 for the annual charge because they don’t watch BBC channels or any kind of live TV.
This figure is an increase of more than 360,000 on the previous twelve months.
This abandonment of the BBC will exacerbate the debate about the future of both the broadcaster and the licence fee.
Toby Young, the Founder and Director of the Free Speech Union said: ‘These figures show that the TV licence fee is not a viable funding model for the BBC going forward.’
He added: ‘The obvious alternative is to become a subscription-based service like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Given the BBC’s global brand recognition and its reputation for producing premium content, it could become the largest and most profitable streaming service in the world.’
The increase in the number of people claiming they are not liable to pay the charge is one of the factors driving a fall in the number of licences sold.

Bank accounts

Mail
More than a million bank accounts have been shut since 2019 – and the rate of closures is accelerating, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Figures obtained under a Freedom of Information request show that banks are on track to smash the previous record of 343,500 accounts closed last year.
The alarming news comes amid the continuing fall-out from the Nigel Farage affair.
NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose was forced to quit her job last month over the closure of the former Ukip leader’s account at Coutts – the lender’s private banking arm – partly because of his political views.
Banks can shut accounts with as little as 14 days’ notice if they suspect it is being used to launder money, which would leave innocent customers financially stranded.
The Government plans to introduce new rules to give customers up to 90 days to challenge closures.

Telegraph
Coutts has been accused of breaching client confidentiality and data protection rules in a row over a family’s finances, raising further questions about controls at the embattled private lender.
The bank is alleged to have shared details of a customer’s finances with a relative who was not authorised to obtain the information, The Telegraph understands.
The case centres around a family dispute in which the Coutts customer’s daughter, who had ultimate power of attorney over her father’s financial affairs, did not consent for her estranged brother to receive information from Coutts about the account.
The row started when the woman attempted to close her father’s account at his request but the bank refused.
As the row escalated, the lender increasingly dealt with the woman’s brother, who was allegedly not authorised to access or control his father’s financial affairs without his sister’s prior consent, according to the terms of the power of attorney.
Coutts then attempted to hold meetings with the man without the woman’s knowledge, it is claimed.

Express
Two directors of a campaign group the pressures advertisers on diversity issues made light of Nigel Farage being “de-banked”. One even implied the former UKIP leader is a “fascist”.
The directors are part of the Conscious Advertising Network (Can), which says it wants to break the “economic link” between advertising and “harmful content”. Five of the UK’s largest ad firms are part of Can.
A number of Tory MPs criticised Coutt’s decision to close Farage’s bank account because of his political reviews. They said advertising risked being “overrun by council culture”.
According to The Telegraph, two CAN directors criticised Farage on social media. Jerry Daykin, a volunteer director of Can, responded last month to a tweet about Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, pledging action over the Farage row.
Daykin tweeted: “Wait… I thought everyone was campaigning so that the bakeries didn’t have to make gay cakes? Surely banks don’t have to serve fascist accounts as well?”

Eco protests

Mail
Just Stop Oil is plotting to bring chaos to Premier League football matches every weekend of the coming season by invading pitches and glueing themselves to goal posts.
The environmental protesters are reportedly planning to slow march ahead of traffic from fans around football stadiums before they storm pitches for ‘maximum impact’.
JSO have disrupted many other sporting events, but one JSO leader told followers ‘The Prem’s our Holy Grail, we’re going for it’, the Sun reports.
Three Just Stop Oil activists ran onto the pitch at Lord’s while throwing orange powder into the air during the second Ashes test last week.
Daniel Knorr, 21, a biochemistry student from Oxford, was tackled by England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow when the pitch invaders ran on to the famous cricket ground on June 28.
Bairstow carried Knorr across the outfield to cheers from the crowd and was praised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his actions.

Migraine

Mail
Migraine sufferers could receive a daily pill on the NHS which can slash in half the frequency of their crippling headaches.
NHS spending watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), will decide later this month whether to offer the drug, named atogepant, to patients who have failed to respond to other treatments.
Experts expect the pill, which costs about £8,000 a year per patient, to be approved after studies revealed that it is significantly more effective than another anti-migraine drug rolled out on the NHS earlier this year.
The new treatment is a type of medication called a CGRP inhibitor, which blocks the effect of calcitonin gene-related peptide – a protein known to trigger the debilitating headaches and nausea of migraine.
In recent years, numerous CGRP injections have been approved for use on the NHS. However, a shortage of migraine specialists, who have to be consulted before the jabs are prescribed, has led to long waiting lists. Many patients have instead paid for the injections privately, but experts believe if atogepant is approved it could be prescribed by GPs, vastly improving access to it.

Compensation

Mail
The innocent man who was wrongly jailed 17 years for a rape he did not commit will not have to pay living costs covering his time in prison following a dramatic intervention b Rishi Sunak‘s Government.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC made the change covering wrongly convicted people with immediate effect on Sunday after the miscarriage of justice case of Andrew Malkinson sparked outrage.
Mr Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, and appeal judges quashed his conviction last week after DNA linking another man to the crime was produced.
The 57-year-old expressed concern that the rules meant expenses could be deducted from any compensation payment he may be awarded to cover the costs of his jail term.
Downing Street indicated that the Prime Minister believed the deductions were unfair amid demands to drop the charges.
Mr Chalk has now updated the guidance dating back to 2006 to remove them from future payments made under the miscarriage of justice compensation scheme. The reform to eligible cases was broadly welcomed, but there were calls to pay back the money already deducted from wrongly convicted individuals.

ITV News
Wrongly convicted people will no longer face having living costs covering their time in prison docked from compensation payments after ministers issued fresh guidance.
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk KC made the reform with immediate effect on Sunday after the outrage sparked by the miscarriage of justice case centring on Andrew Malkinson.
Mr Malkinson, who spent 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, welcomed the scrapping of the “unjust rule”.
But he said it is the “first of many changes we need in our justice system to protect the innocent”.
Last week, appeal judges quashed his conviction after DNA linking another man to the crime was produced.

Telegraph
Wrongly convicted prisoners will no longer have to pay for their bed and board, in a victory for an innocent man who served 17 years for a rape he did not commit.
Andrew Malkinson had his conviction overturned by the Court of Appeal last month. But once he was declared a free man, he was told that he would need to repay costs incurred during his prison stay.
Now Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, is to scrap the requirement for prisoners who have been victims of miscarriages of justice to pay for “saved living expenses” out of any compensation they receive from the state.
Mr Malkinson had his conviction overturned after DNA and other evidence proved he could not have been responsible for the rape he was accused of committing in 2003.

Mirror
The man who spent 17 years locked up for a rape he did not commit will not have to pay for his “board and lodgings” in jail after all.
Andrew Malkinson won a historic legal victory yesterday as the government scrapped the controversial policy for all cases with immediate effect. There was public outrage that Mr Malkinson, 57, faced deductions of tens of thousands from his future compensation to pay the state for his living costs while wrongly incarcerated.
The swift about-turn follows a review by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, who said on announcing the move yesterday: “This common sense change will ensure victims do not face paying twice for crimes they did not commit.” On hearing the news, Mr Malkinson said: “The scrapping of this unjust rule is the first of many changes we need in our justice system to protect the innocent. No one should have to suffer what I’ve been through, so I hope Alex Chalk won’t stop here.”
The change of policy is not believed to be retrospective, and last night there were calls for the state to pay back thousands previously deducted from payments to wrongly jailed people.

Guardian
People who have been wrongly convicted will no longer have to pay living expenses for the time they spent in prison, the government will announce on Sunday after widespread outrage over the case of Andrew Malkinson.
One of Britain’s longest-serving victims of a miscarriage of justice, Malkinson, 57, had his conviction overturned last month by the court of appeal after spending 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit.
Yet his return as a free man quickly soured when Malkinson was told to pay back living costs for his time in jail and that there would be a deduction from any compensation for his board and lodging while behind bars.
The Ministry of Justice has now scrapped the controversial guidance to its miscarriage of justice compensation scheme with immediate effect.

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