Fisheries 

Express
FISHING chiefs have urged Boris Johnson to keep his promises of making UK fishermen very wealthy after Brexit, over fears EU vessels are still plundering UK waters.
Bosses also pleaded with Ministers to help them rebuild UK fishing fleets as EU vessels continued to have “full access to UK waters”. Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: “The Prime Minister has spoken previously of an El Dorado of fish from 2026 onwards but we are seeking a commitment from him to deliver much better opportunities for the Scottish fleet in the meantime as well as in the longer term.
“In the short term it will be a case of survival for the industry, but we want to thrive, and to ensure that we can build back this industry we need to start planning now.”
Fishing leaders have also called for reforms to “flawed science” put forward by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea which is causing British fishermen to lose out on fishing for key species including cod. 

A similar story can be read in the Mirror 

Immigration 

Mail 
Hundreds of migrants who arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel on small boats have gone missing after absconding from their hotels, The Mail on Sunday has been told.
As the total number of boat migrants passed 10,500 this year – 2,000 more than the 8,417 who arrived in the whole of 2020 – sources said that Ministers had held urgent discussions between departments over the ‘tracking’ systems in place to monitor their movements after they arrive
A further 1,500 migrants are massing around Calais and Dunkirk waiting for an improvement in the weather before they try to reach Britain.
A Government source said: ‘There is growing consternation across Government about how many are coming here – and where they all are going. Nerves are fraying on this.’
After they arrive here, the migrants are put into hotels, where they are supposed to quarantine for ten days before being processed. Up to 10,000 hotel beds around the country are now taken up by the arrivals, with hotels block-booked by the Home Office until January to house them. 

Telegraph
The European Union has been accused of playing politics with the migrant crisis by deliberately impeding progress on a potential deal with France.
UK sources claim the European Commission is “turning a blind eye to people dying” by refusing to enter talks to allow Britain to send migrants who have crossed the Channel back to France – blaming “post-Brexit shenanigans”.
EU officials are understood to have insisted that the right to negotiate asylum and readmission agreement rests entirely with the bloc, and not individual member states. A Commission spokesperson told The Telegraph that the post-Brexit trade agreement with the UK “does not include provisions on asylum and return”, and “for the moment, our focus is on its implementation and we are not considering pursuing further negotiations to complement the agreement”. 

Mail
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove is being tipped to replace Priti Patel as Home Secretary if the migrant boat crisis continues to escalate, sources have said.
The Prime Minister has grown increasingly frustrated with what he regards as the Home Office’s failure to stem the wave of boats crossing the Channel, telling one Minister: ‘What the f*** is the Home Office doing? When is she [Priti] going to sort this out?’
Boris Johnson and Mr Gove, who have spent much of the past decade engaged in a private political psychodrama, are once again close allies. 
This has been helped by the elevation of Mr Gove’s former aides Henry Newman and Henry Cook – who are close friends with Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie – to key positions in Downing Street.
Mr Gove has also severed relations with Dominic Cummings, his former adviser, who has been waging a public briefing war against Mr and Mrs Johnson.
He has told friends that he is concerned about Mr Cummings’s mental state after he gave an interview in which he claimed Mr Johnson had told him that his partner was driving him ‘crackers’ and suggested finding her ‘a job with lots of foreign travel’. 

Sun
MIGRANTS who cross the Channel in small boats should be sent straight back to France, says an exclusive Sun on Sunday poll.
Two out of three people would support Home Secretary Priti Patel if she started turning them back before — or after — they landed on our shores.
There is huge backing for her tough measures aimed at stopping gangs who facilitate the illegal crossings.
But most have little confidence in her efforts halting the growing number of arrivals, our poll found.
The overwhelming majority blame the French government for failing to take the matter seriously or disrupt people traffickers — and would fully support the UK taking a harder line. 

EU 

Express
AUSTRIA is hunting for allies as it seeks to take on Italy, Spain and France in the latest EU deficit battle.
Austria is seeking alliances to fight back against the EU’s loosening deficit rules, with Austrian finance minister Gernot Blümel calling on countries to “act together”. Talks on the controversial reform on public spending are due to launch in just a few months, and Austria is bracing for a battle.
Mr Blümel wrote to neighbouring Northern European countries in June to a private meeting that would discuss a potential alliance.
In the letter, which was sent to countries including the Netherlands and the Baltics he wrote: “We should act together and form an alliance which ensures a Europe which is based on sound fiscal policies and fiscal sustainability.”
“I am convinced, that we should strive for a tight exchange and close cooperation both internally in the relevant Council sessions and externally in communicating our common vision on the future of EU fiscal policy.”
Now two months on, Mr Blümel is bolstering his plans, dubbing the EU’s push for more flexibility around public spending “a high-risk gamble”. 

Express
EUROPEAN citizens will now be protected following a U-turn from the Home Office over the post-Brexit residency scheme.
Announcing the decision on Friday, the Home Office announced late applicants to the  EU Settlement Scheme will now be given temporary protection for themselves and their families. Temporary protection will now be provided for three months in order to assess late applications and appeals. Citizens from the EU, Norway, Lichtenstein, Iceland, Switzerland and their families living in the UK had until June 30 to apply for the scheme which guarantees their right to live, work and access public services in Britain.
Kevin Foster minister for future border and immigration claimed the Government had worked hard to ensure the majority had been approved.
He said: “Every day thousands of people are being given status through the hugely successful EU Settlement Scheme.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure the vast majority applied before the 30 June deadline and are now supporting those making late applications.
“Granting temporary protection to those who apply late to the scheme, and to joining family members, demonstrates our continued support to ensure everybody eligible is granted the status they deserve.” 

Independent
Thousands of EU citizens living in Britain face losing benefits next month if they have not applied for settled status to stay in the UK.
Campaigners warn the government decision to cut off European nationals – many of whom remain unaware of the need to apply for settled status after Brexit – could push the vulnerable into destitution.
The Independent understands that around 70,000 European citizens in receipt of benefits had not yet applied to the settlement scheme shortly before the deadline at the end of June.
An internal Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) letter, seen by The Independent, reveals that final warning letters will be sent out in September to European benefit claimants who have not yet applied to the EU settlement scheme (EUSS).
The group will then be given one month to sign up late to the scheme before their benefit payments are cut.
Despite the government’s decision to allow late applications to the scheme to be considered, campaigners fear many European citizens – including vulnerable people who struggle with paperwork and IT literacy – will have remained out of reach since the deadline passed. 

European Movement 

Express
A civil war has broken out in the organisation set up to try to force Britain to rejoin the EU because its chairman Lord Adonis has refused to accept the majority view over its future.
The Labour peer and pro-EU campaigner who chairs the European Movement (EM) has been accused of being “undemocratic” and “undermining any chance EM can lead a rejoin referendum in the future.”
The row has come over a review of EM’s structures aimed at trying to make it more streamlined and end a situation where non-members could have voting rights in the organisation.
An insider told the Sunday Express that supporters of the reforms were concerned that EM is in danger of ending up with its own version of Labour’s Momentum because “a fanatical fringe” of non-member groups could have a disproportionate influence or control on the organisation.
An email from National Executive member Nick Hopkinson has also raised concerns that EM members are worried about governance of data and money in the organisation.
Despite 72 percent of branches backing the changes, Lord Adonis, who narrowly beat former Tory MP Dominic Grieve to the chairmanship, has decided to ignore the result and reconsider the reforms in six months time. 

Food distribution 

Sun
ARMY HGV drivers have been put on standby to relieve Britain’s chronic shortage of truckers and resulting food shortages.
A formal request from the Government for military help is expected imminently.
Around 2,000 HGV drivers from the Royal Logistics Corps and other regiments are being put on a five-day notice to assist with distribution of food and essential supplies.
The emergency measure is being taken as the shortage of qualified truckers in the UK reaches crisis point.
A source told The Sun on Sunday: “Messages are being sent out to all Army personnel with HGV qualifications. They are being put on five-day standby notice for driving jobs at major distribution centres around the country.
“Soldiers will be put up in hotels where necessary and will be working extended hours to assist with the crisis.
“They will be involved with food distribution as well as the transportation of other essential goods and medical supplies.”
It is understood the action plan will be carried out under the banner of Operation Rescript, the British military’s ongoing response to Covid. 

Education 

Independent
Boris Johnson’s government has been warned of a second consecutive year of “chaos” over  exam results in England, as experts warned of the desperate scramble ahead for university places.
Students awaiting A-level results next week face a highly-competitive battle to win spots at the country’s top universities, with some institutions expecting more grade inflation after last year’s exams fiasco.
Analysis carried out by The Times has revealed that the number of courses in clearing among Russell Group universities has fallen by one third, from 4,500 last year to only 3,000 this year.
Former universities minister Lord Willetts said top universities are “less likely” to offer a place to A level students who have underperformed by a grade – predicting “less flexibility in the system” this summer.
Lord Willets told Times Radio on Saturday: “I think there is a specific pressure point for applicants who don’t get their predicted grades. I think universities, especially the selective ones, are less likely this year to offer you a place if frustratingly you’ve underperformed, you’re one grade down or something.” 

Independent
As almost 800,000 pupils prepare to receive exam results in the coming week, Labour has renewed its call for Boris Johnson to sack education secretary Gavin Williamson.
Writing in The Independent, shadow education secretary Kate Green accused Mr Williamson of “letting down students time and time again” in a year of “chaos and disruption” which saw exams cancelled in January and schools, pupils and parents left waiting three months to know how grades would be awarded.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Students issued an appeal for young people to be judged on their achievements during the two years of sixth-form dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, and not judged harshly in comparison with those who took exams in earlier years. 

Times 
Top universities have refused to bring back full face-to-face teaching in the autumn, despite government advice that they can lift all Covid restrictions.
They will continue to hold many classes and lectures online, and some will require students to wear masks on campuses. Some are also instructing students to socially distance. Students may also need to be double jabbed to attend concerts, discos or other social events.
The universities’ decision coincides with a clear fall in coronavirus cases. Even normally cautious scientists, such as Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, said that lockdowns and other restrictive measures were unlikely to be needed again.
Of the leading 24 Russell Group universities, 20 said that a proportion of undergraduate teaching will continue to be held online. 

Dognapping 

Mail
Dognappers and other pet thieves could be jailed for up to five years under plans to create a new criminal offence.
The Government’s pet theft taskforce is finalising its report which will be published in the coming weeks.
The taskforce’s recommendations will include the creation of a new offence of pet abduction, which sources indicated could carry a maximum sentence of around five years.
The new offence comes in response to a rise in pet theft and pressure from MPs across the Commons to impose tougher penalties.
It recognises that the Theft Act, which currently covers the offence of stealing pets, does not properly reflect the emotional trauma of losing a cherished animal.
A Government source said: ‘Instead of making a tokenistic change to the law, we have been listening to charities, breeders and the police to get a better understanding of what we need to do to tackle this awful crime.
‘Part of the package will be a new offence to better reflect the fact that for most people, pets are not just property and having one stolen is traumatic for both the owner and the pet.
‘A purpose-made new offence will do this and mean those who steal pets will face tougher sentences than they do at the moment.’
Although offences under the Theft Act carry a maximum term of seven years, ministers have acknowledged there is scant evidence of that being used.
This is because the severity of the sentence for offence under the Theft Act is partly determined by the monetary value of the property taken.
The new offence could allow acknowledgment of the sentience of animals, combining the loss to the owner and the welfare of the animal, leading to tougher sentences. 

Similar stories can be read in the Telegraph, Mirror, Evening Standard, ITV News 

Climate change 

Times
The planet is odds-on to hit 1.5C of global warming within 20 years, the world’s leading climate scientists will warn in a milestone report tomorrow.
The paper, produced by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is the starkest warning yet about the speed and scale of warming.
Experts said the report would paint a “devastating” picture. The document is predicted to trigger a “turning point” in the run-up to the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in November.
A 1.5C rise in average global temperatures on pre-industrial levels is widely considered to be the point beyond which climate change will become increasingly dangerous. The 2015 Paris Agreement committed countries to limiting warming to 1.5C. So far average temperatures have increased 1.2C. 

Similar stories can be read in ITV News, BBC News 

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