USA 

Express
BORIS Johnson will agree a new “Atlantic Charter” with Joe Biden that will commit the UK and the US to leading the world recovery from the Covid pandemic.
At a head-to-head meeting in Cornwall, the Prime Minister and the US President are expected to pledge to work closely together on a global vaccination plan and efforts to rebuild the global economy and tackle climate change.
Their historic accord is designed to reprise the first Atlantic Charter signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt as a blueprint for recovery from the Second World War.
The new version is expected to be seen as a major step forward in the Prime Minister’s efforts to carve out a new global diplomatic leadership role for “Global Britain” after last year’s exit from the EU.
And in a further sign that that transatlantic alliance remains as strong as ever, the two leaders will also discuss reopening travel links between the UK and the US as soon as possible.
They are expected to establish a task force to work on resuming holidays and business travel as mass Covid vaccination intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Ahead of his first meeting with Mr Biden, the Prime Minister said last night: “While Churchill and Roosevelt faced the question of how to help the world recover following a devastating war, today we have to reckon with a very different but no less intimidating challenge – how to build back better from the Coronavirus pandemic.
“And as we do so, cooperation between the UK and US, the closest of partners and the greatest of allies, will be crucial for the future of the world’s stability and prosperity.  

A similar story appears in the Guardian. 

Fisheries 

Express
FRANCE is pressing the EU to take “tough action” against the UK over the Withdrawal Agreement following a heated row over post-Brexit fishing rights.
France, the UK and Jersey have been at loggerheads over fishing rights in waters around Jersey and the wider English Channel. French fishermen protested about Jersey introducing new fishing licences after April 30 for vessels whilst the UK has come under fire from Paris for allegedly not giving out 100 fishing licences to eligible boats to access waters.
But Express.co.uk understands Paris has turned up the pressure against London ahead of French President Emanuel Macron visiting Cornwall for the G7 Summit tomorrow.
French ministers including Europe Minister Clément Beaune and Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin have also had discussions with EU chiefs in Brussels including Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius in a bid to reach a practical solution as soon as possible.
Ahead of the summit, the Elysee Palace tonight said President Macron warned Boris Johnson in a phone call the UK needs to urgently issue fishing licenses that have still not been issued to French vessels. 

Express
FISHING boats from Norway and the Faroe Islands are routinely hoovering up massive quantities of fish stocks in UK waters, making a mockery of Boris Johnson’s vow to take back control, a shocking new analysis has revealed.
Simon Collins, the chief executive of the Shetland Fishermen’s Association (SFA) has said the Government needs to address the “outrageous” move “at the highest level” Norway last week announced it was unilaterally increasing its share of the North East Atlantic mackerel quota for 2021 to 191,843 tonnes to 298,29 tonnes in a move which has been replicated by the Faroe Islands. The decision follows the UK’s failure to strike bilateral fishing agreements with Norway and Faroe for this year.
Mr Collins told Fishing News: “Faroe catches a bigger proportion of its mackerel in UK waters than in its own (52 percent to 45 percent last year).
“It has also transferred or swapped around a fifth of its mackerel quota for other fish stocks in the past four years, so can have no need for additional fish.”
Referring to the North Atlantic Pelagic Advocacy Group (NAPA), which is committed to sustainable quota shares, he added: “This is an outrageous move by these countries, and it needs to be addressed urgently by NAPA and by the government at the highest level.
“Since its inception, NAPA has confined its actions to writing letters to coastal states. With this escalation by Norway and Faroe, we are way beyond the point of letters having any impact.
“It is now time for NAPA members to come off the fence and take direct action by ending the sourcing of mackerel from these two countries in their retail supply chains.”
Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association (SPFA) said: “Norway is an advocate of zonal attachment, where fishing quota is associated with where the fish actually are.
“But in recent years Norway has been catching less mackerel in its own waters and more in UK waters, as our members can testify from the increased presence of Norwegian vessels.
“Norway’s own figures show that in 2017, it caught just over 69 percent of its mackerel in its own exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and 21 percent in the UK EEZ.
“In 2020, those figures were 15.7 percent and 84.3 percent respectively – a very large swing. On that basis, it should be reducing its quota share, not increasing it.” 

EU 

Telegraph
Brussels is taking legal action against Germany for defying it over a massive European Central Bank stimulus programme in a challenge to the supremacy of EU law. 
In an unprecedented move, the European Commission retaliated on Wednesday by starting infringement proceedings against its most powerful member state.
Unless the dispute is resolved, the legal action could ultimately lead to huge, daily fines levied by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg. 
It comes after the German constitutional court ruled that the ECJ had overstepped its powers  by backing the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing and bond-buying last May to curtail the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. 
This set “a serious precedent” that other EU member states could use to challenge the supremacy of the ECJ over national courts, the commission said. 

Times
Most Europeans believe that the European Union is “broken”, damaged by its poor handling of the pandemic and slow vaccine rollout.
After a series of crises over the past ten years, governments across Europe hoped the EU could prove itself and renew faith in the project by moving quickly to respond to Covid-19. The opposite was the case.
New polling and research by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) found that the majority of those surveyed in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Austria now held the view that the European project was “broken”.
Around 62 per cent French people polled perceived the EU as “broken” rather than “working well” ahead of their own presidential elections in April. 

Freedom day 

Mail
Boris Johnson is set to allow unlimited people at weddings, even if a full ‘Freedom Day’ needs to be delayed past June 21, it was claimed last night.
The Prime Minister said yesterday that ‘everybody can see cases and hospitalisations are going up’ and hinted that the much-anticipated milestone could be pushed back because of the rapid spread of the Indian Covid variant.
But plans are also being drawn up to relax certain curbs from later this month, regardless of the decision ministers will make on a complete unlocking of restrictions.
This includes lifting the current 30-person limit on weddings and receptions, and allowing far greater crowds to attend ceremonies, bringing it in line with the Government’s policy on funerals.
Bar mitzvahs and christenings are also set to be boosted under the proposals, and while socially distanced tables would not be required, guests may be urged to be ‘cautious’ about contact with other households, according to the Times.
Current guidelines suggest those attending bashes only participate in the first dance, and wear masks at all times unless eating or drinking, but under the new rules, people will be advised to assess the risk of hugging others themselves. 
A government source said: ‘It’s been tough on the sector. If you’ve got stadiums full of people, why can’t weddings go ahead with more than 30 people?’
Despite those reports, however, Mr Johnson yesterday appeared to soften his lockdown-ending stance for the first time, having previously insisted there is nothing in the data to suggest a ‘Freedom Day’ of June 21 should be delayed. 

Covid 

Mail
Hospitals in virus hotspots are ‘coping well’ with surging Covid cases because patients are younger and in less need of critical care, a senior NHS boss has said.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospital leaders are confident vaccinations have broken the link between coronavirus cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
The breakthrough means fewer patients need treatment and those who do are generally younger and less sick than during the second wave, he said.
Even in badly affected towns such as Bolton, it was ‘striking’ that hospital admissions had not risen as they did before, Mr Hopson said, adding that deaths remain low nationwide.
After troops were deployed to Greater Manchester and Lancashire to help battle soaring cases of the Delta, or Indian variant, members of Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps opened a vaccine centre outside Bolton Town Hall.
Despite mounting concerns, Mr Hopson, who represents hospital bosses, told Times Radio it was vital to look at the bigger picture. ‘It’s important not to just focus on the raw numbers here … you also do need to look at who’s being admitted into hospital and how clinically vulnerable and what level of acuity they’ve got.
‘What chief executives are consistently telling us is that it is a much younger population that is coming in, they are less clinically vulnerable, they are less in need of critical care and therefore they’re seeing what they believe is a significantly lower mortality rate which is borne out by the figures.’ 

Times
The mass reopening of international travel could “screw up” the UK’s recovery from coronavirus and must be delayed until other countries match Britain’s vaccination programme, according to the transport secretary.
Grant Shapps said that the government had to be “cautious” over foreign holidays because of the risk of importing more cases of the Indian strain of Covid-19.
He denied claims that the government was close to placing more countries on the green list, which allows Britons to travel abroad without quarantining on their return.
He said the government was “having to wait for countries to catch up” with the vaccination programme before the list was expanded.  

Sun
COVID cases in the UK yesterday rose by 7,540 in the highest leap in daily infections since February.
The latest number puts the total number of cases since the pandemic began at 4,535,754.
It is the highest rise since February 26 when 7,710 new cases were recorded.
The figure is also 74 per cent higher than a week ago when 4,330 infections were reported. 

Guardian
New modelling for the government’s Sage committee of experts has highlighted the risk of a “substantial third wave” of infections and hospitalisations, casting doubt on whether the next stage of Boris Johnson’s Covid roadmap can go ahead as planned on 21 June.
Government sources suggested the outlook was now more pessimistic but stressed that a decision would be taken after assessing a few more days’ worth of data on the effect that rising infections are having on hospitalisations.
The prime minister is due to announce on Monday whether the lifting of the remaining restrictions – nicknamed “freedom day” by anti-lockdown Tory MPs – will have to be delayed.
Johnson is understood to be personally frustrated at the prospect of delaying the reopening, but a No 10 source said there were now clearly signs for concern in the data.
Key ministers and officials are expected to discuss a range of options on Sunday, when Johnson will still be hosting the G7, including a two- to four-week delay, as well as the possibility of a watered-down reopening that keeps some rules in place.
A Whitehall source said it was “broadly correct” that the outlook was now more pessimistic. “Cases are obviously higher and they are growing quickly,” the source said.
Prof Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College London, said modelling updated this week suggested there was a risk of a surge in infections and hospitalisations that could rival the second wave in January. 

Mirror 
The number of coronavirus cases in the UK has risen by 74% since this time last week with another 7,540 infections recorded.
Today’s increase was the highest daily jump since the end of February, when 8,523 cases were reported on February 26.
Another six deaths were recorded today, the latest government data shows, a decrease from last Wednesday June 2 when 12 more deaths were reported nationwide.
The UK’s daily case numbers then rose by 4,330 – rising by more than one-third compared to the same day the previous week, when 3,180 cases were reported.
Today’s figures come as Boris Johnson said it was too early to say if England’s lockdown can end on June 21 as data on whether the vaccine rollout offers enough protection from the rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant is still being assessed.
The PM warned the vaccine rollout may not be enough to go ahead with unlocking on June 21.
And Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, whose modelling was instrumental to the UK locking down in March 2020, said that new modelling data submitted to the Government suggests a risk of “a substantial third wave” of coronavirus infections in the UK.
“On Monday… we’ll have a look at where we are. I think what everybody can see very clearly is that cases are going up, and in some cases hospitalisations are going up,” the PM said on Wednesday. 

Guardian
Some of the UK’s biggest care home operators have told the Guardian they repeatedly warned Matt Hancock’s department about the risk of not testing people discharged from hospitals into care homes in March 2020.
Their claims are likely to increase pressure on the health secretary when he appears before MPs on Thursday to defend his handling of the Covid pandemic to a parliamentary inquiry.
Care England, which represents the largest private chains where thousands of people died in the first months of the virus, told the Guardian it raised “the lack of testing in hospitals and in the care sector” several times in correspondence with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) as well as NHS England in late March 2020.
The Care Provider Alliance also called on the government to prioritise testing for care residents to stop the spread of the virus, warning on 26 March 2020 that without it “there is no way of knowing whether they are going to infect others”.
It also emailed Hancock directly saying: “All people discharged from hospital to social care settings … MUST be tested before discharge.”
Yet despite the pressure from frontline care operators, Hancock didn’t make testing for hospital discharges mandatory until mid-April, after the first wave death toll had peaked weeks later. 

Culture wars 

Telegraph
More than 150 Oxford dons are boycotting Oriel College and refusing to teach its students in protest at its decision to keep the Cecil Rhodes statue, The Telegraph can reveal.
It is the latest incident in the culture wars engulfing British universities and comes amid a growing fallout over a decision to remove the Queen’s portrait at neighbouring Magdalen College.
On Wednesday night, the higher education watchdog chief and four former education ministers hit out at the boycott, with one accusing the academics of attempting to “blackmail” Oriel.
The rebel dons say they will refuse to give tutorials to Oriel’s undergraduate students and discontinue any assistance they give the college with its outreach work, including interviewing undergraduates. They have also pledged to withdraw from all talks, seminars and conferences sponsored by Oriel and halt their involvement in recruiting fellows or any other appointments at the college.
It comes three weeks after Oriel’s governing body ruled that the controversial statue of Rhodes will not be taken down from the college’s main facade.
Following the decision, some of the university’s geography academics published a statement saying it was a “source of shame” for Oxford that Rhodes was still “honoured” with a statue. But the initiation of a boycott is the most drastic action that any dons have yet taken over the issue. 

Guido
The long-running drama over the statue of Cecil Rhodes, the benefactor of Oxford University’s Oriel College, takes a new turn. After the college authorities stood their ground against the student led Rhodes Must Fall protest things have moved on to the academics taking protest action. Now 150 Oxford academics have signed up to a genteel “work to rule” industrial action over the college’s refusal to topple Rhodes:
A Statement of a Boycott of Oriel College
The Collegiate University can only effectively and credibly work to eradicate racism and address the ongoing effects of colonialism today if all the Colleges do so. Oriel College’s decision not to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes undermines us all.
Despite votes in favour from its student common rooms and despite an earlier vote of the Governing Body expressing their wish to remove it, Oriel has now decided not to. There have been many letters sent and protests made, most recently in the Rhodes Must Fall movement but, as noted in a letter signed by over 300 Oxford academics, these began in 1899. In 2016, Oriel reneged on a listening exercise and now it has ignored the recommendation of a Commission of Enquiry that included academics, journalists, Oxford city councillors, university administrators, and the College’s own alumni.
Faced with Oriel’s stubborn attachment to a statue that glorifies colonialism and the wealth it produced for the College, we feel we have no choice but to withdraw all discretionary work and goodwill collaborations.