EU 

Express
BRUSSELS’ intransigence is at fault for a breakdown in trust over the Northern Ireland Protocol, a parliamentary committee has found.
Peers in the House of Lords warned Northern Ireland risked becoming a “permanent casualty” of  Brexit unless the UK and EU can find a compromise. The Protocol, introduced as part of the 2019 withdrawal agreement, caused repeated clashes between the UK and EU since January.
Ministers argue the “purist” implementation of customs checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea is having a detrimental impact on trade within the United Kingdom.
In their report, the House of Lords Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland Committee agreed, arguing the EU’s “lack of balance, understanding and flexibility” was having a devastating impact.
The UK claims Brussels enforces more customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain than it does on goods entering the whole of the rest of the single market.
The peers also blamed the UK Government for the heightened Brexit tensions.
They said ministers had shown a “lack of clarity, transparency and readiness” on the Protocol.
Slamming both sides for a “fundamentally flawed approach” to the issue, the committee urged both sides to compromise to find an urgent solution.
They said a lack of trust on both sides has “contributed to a serious deterioration in relations between London, Belfast, Dublin and Brussels”.
Last week Brexit minister Lord Frost unveiled a series of proposals which the UK hopes will ease problems caused by the Protocol.
They include being more lenient in its enforcement of customs checks, scrapping requirements for Northern Ireland goods to meet EU laws if they comply with British legislation, and agreeing to remove the European Court of Justice as the arbitrator of the Protocol. 

A similar story can be read in ITV News. 

Trade 

Express
BORIS JOHNSON is facing a new Brexit headache with the European Union blocking the UK from rejoining an international treaty that is worth a massive £5billion to the country’s economy.
The Lugano Convention is an international treaty negotiated by the  European Union on behalf of its member states and attempts to clarify which national courts have jurisdiction in cross-border civil and commercial disputes and ensure that judgments taken in such disputes can be enforced across borders. Brexit has seen the UK drop out of the treaty and although it reapplied to join in April 2020, the European Commission has recommended the EU deny the request, stating the bloc is “not in a position” to give its consent to UK accession. This is proving to be a major headache for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as failure to rejoin the Lugano Convention could deal a hammer blow to the UK’s world-beating legal services sector.
According to the law society, legal services contributed nearly £60billion to the UK in 2018, while a year earlier exports of legal services amounted to £5billion.
The legal services sector employs over 350,000 people, with two-thirds of those jobs outside of London, according to Scott Devine from The City UK, a body representing UK-based financial and professional services.
But there are now growing fears failure to rejoin the international treaty and the continued diminishing relations between the UK and EU following Brexit could make a major dent in this crucial sector.
Former Attorney General Dominic Grieve said his concern is the long-term “viability of London as a centre for dispute resolution.” 

Covid 

Mail
Britain is close to achieving herd immunity with 87 per cent of the population showing resistance to Covid, with cases now falling across all age groups across the country.
The data is boosting hopes that the end of the third wave may now be in sight, despite top scientists previously warning that it was ‘almost inevitable’ that daily infections would spiral to 100,000 by next month, with one even warning they could reach double this figure.
But in an unexpected twist which has puzzled scientists, cases have actually fallen every day for the past week — with yesterday’s count being just half of what it was a week ago. 
Department of Health data today revealed that infection rates are now ticking downwards in every age group in England, dipping fastest among twenty-somethings.
Scientists at University College London estimate the total population’s immunity is at 87 per cent, with the current threshold for herd immunity at 93 per cent due to the contagious delta variant.
Being so close to the threshold should make it harder for the virus to transmit.
Dr David Matthews, a virologist and coronaviruses expert from the University of Bristol, told The Telegraph: ‘In terms of herd immunity – by which we mean the virus has managed to reach everybody and therefore most people will have a level of immune memory – I suspect we’re very close to it.
‘Assuming nothing truly spectacularly leftfield happens then this pandemic is pretty much over for the UK. I suspect we will not see a major surge this winter, or any serious levels of fatalities.
‘The more we close the gap on the last 10 per cent who haven’t had the vaccine the better we will be. Everyone will eventually meet the virus and it is far better to do so vaccinated.’  

Quarantine 

Guardian
Opening England’s borders to let millions of people arriving from the US and Europe avoid quarantine could risk importations of new Covid variants that might wreak havoc with unlocking domestic restrictions, ministers have been warned.
After the government announced plans to recognise vaccination status if people were fully jabbed in the US and most of Europe, Labour said it could make the country more susceptible to being overwhelmed by another Delta-like variant.
The change, which will come into force from next Monday, was signed off by members of the cabinet on Wednesday in a move to let Britons who moved abroad be reunited with family back home, and to unlock more business travel to boost the economy.
Many millions of people are set to benefit across all of the US, in all 27 EU member states (apart from France, which is being kept on the “amber plus” list for another week) and in Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and the microstates of Lichtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and Vatican City.
All arrivals will still have to test negative before their trip and again within two days of landing in the UK. Children who mainly reside in the US and Europe will also be able to avoid quarantine.
Europeans will need to produce their digital Covid certificate, while Americans who do not have an app should show the Centers for Disease Control card they were given when vaccinated. 

A similar story can be read in the Independent 

Illegal migrants 

Telegraph
The RNLI has defended lifeboat crews who helped to rescue migrants and bring them ashore after crews faced abuse.
Mark Dowie, the RNLI chief executive, said he felt compelled to comment after volunteers reported being heckled for bringing migrants to safety.
It comes as record numbers of migrants try to cross the potentially treacherous English Channel to get to the UK, despite vows from the Home Office to make the route from mainland Europe “unviable”.
Mr Dowie said the sea charity was “doing the right thing” by going to people’s aid, regardless of their reason for being in the water.
“The people of these islands (the UK) fundamentally are decent people, and all decent people will see this as humanitarian work of the highest order,” he said.
“Our crews should not have to put up with some of the abuse they received.”
A London RNLI crew hit out on social media at the weekend after volunteers were verbally abused. 

Similar stories can be read in the Independent, Morning Star,  Times,  Breitbart 

Climate change 

Mail
The Earth’s ‘vital signs’ have taken a turn for the worse, with climate change driving the health of the planet past ‘tipping points’ which cannot be reversed, scientists say. 
Researchers have published a new study – itself an update from findings first published in 2019 – that shows 16 of the 31 Earth’s vital signs that researchers look at, including greenhouse gas concentration, ocean acidification and ruminant livestock, have recently set new records.
This comes despite the downturn seen in 2020 as a result of the pandemic.
‘There is growing evidence we are getting close to or have already gone beyond tipping points associated with important parts of the Earth system, including warm-water coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets,’ said the study’s lead author,  Oregon  State University researcher William Ripple in a statement.
Ripple and his co-author, Christopher Wolf, say the continued downturn in the indicators ‘largely reflect the consequences of unrelenting business as usual,’ citing the surge in climate-related disasters since 2019, including floods, heat waves and ‘extraordinary storms and wildfires.’  
The 2019 paper has now been signed by 14,000 scientists from 158 countries, up from 11,000 and 153 countries when it was first published. 
Last month, NASA said global air pollution rates fell by 15 percent due to the global COVID-19 lockdowns, as consumers reduced their carbon footprints and people around the world reduced their use of fossil fuels. 

Telegraph
Developers are to be blocked from building on land at risk of flooding, with the Environment Secretary warning that climate change is heightening the threat of deluges destroying homes.
On Thursday, the Government will set out plans to channel £860 million into 1,000 flood defence schemes this year as part of a package of measures to better protect households, business premises and infrastructure.
Improvements to flood insurance will also be announced in an effort to encourage the installation of flood doors, air brick covers and flood-resistant paint in homes previously hit by water damage.
The move comes amid growing fears in Whitehall about climate change and the need for the nation to adapt urgently to the challenges it poses.
Writing for The Telegraph on Thursday, George Eustice warned: “Climate changes means more extreme weather, a higher risk of flooding events and coastal erosion. All too often, we are seeing households suffering repeated flooding.” 

Similar stories can be read in the Guardian, BBC News 

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