Brexit 

Express
LONDON has regained its first place in European equities trading since being briefly overtaken by Amsterdam, quashing “dreadful prophecies” about Brexit.
The news was met with a headline in France’s BFMTV news channel stating, “London regains first place in European equity trading”. In reaction to this the president of French union UPR, Francois Asselineau, tweeted: “Not only is the post-Brexit apocalypse still not in sight, but it is in France and in the Eurozone where things are going from bad to worse.” He also tweeted: “This is yet another proof that the dreadful prophecies of the Europeanists about Brexit were nothing but bogus stories to scare children.
The City of London has returned to become the leading financial centre in Europe for stock trading.
The City has now regained its equity trading position is ahead of Amsterdam, which briefly had succeeded it at the beginning of the year.
Now, a total of £7.6billion in shares were traded on average each day in June on stock exchanges based in London.
One of the main reasons for London to regain its dominant position is because it reinstated the trade in shares of Swiss companies. 

Fisheries 

Express
THE Netherlands has been accused of misleading the EU and using a now banned fishing practice, an investigation has found.
Despite the EU’s claims of protecting environmental standards, the Dutch fishing fleet has been found to have manipulated data in order to obtain more licences for its fleet to ravage the North Sea. An investigation found the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had withheld vital fleet information in order to fish the North Sea between 2015 to 2017. Due to this, up to 84 Dutch vessels were allowed to use electrified fishing nets in order to stun and catch fish – a practice banned from July 1 this year.
Such is the misuse of information, Dutch politicians have criticised the government of misleading the EU Commission.
According to Dutch TV channel NOS, the national government was “creative” with key data in order to keep the EU Commission in the dark.
This allowed vessels to continue a fishing technique which Greenpeace reports turns the seabed into a “graveyard”.
Fishing with electricity had been banned in 1998 but since 2007, fishing with electrode nets is allowed on a scientific basis. 

Covid 

Mail
Ministers hope an ‘element of herd immunity’ will help slow the spread of Covid infections among the young, sources have told the Daily Mail.
The controversial policy of trying to build up immunity by allowing the virus to rip through part of society has never been acknowledged by ministers.
The concept became so toxic last year that Downing Street banned its use in internal government discussions.
Sources told the Mail that Department of Health officials now refer to a strategy of ‘hybrid immunity’, involving vaccinating older, more vulnerable people, combined with a mixture of vaccinations and infections for the young.
A Whitehall source said: ‘There is an element of herd immunity in what we are doing. Obviously, the most vulnerable people, including all over-40s, will have been offered both doses by the time we open up. Younger people are less at risk from serious problems with Covid.
‘All adults will have been offered a jab by July 19, but with cases running so high, it is inevitable that some people are going to acquire immunity through infection. It is not so much a policy aim as a consequence of the fact that we are having a third wave.’ 

Guardian
Two million people could contract Covid this summer, potentially meaning up to 10 million must isolate in just six weeks, Guardian analysis shows, prompting warnings over risks to health and disruption to the economy.
The figures come as Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said England was entering “uncharted territory” in its wholesale scrapping of lockdown rules from 19 July. New infections could easily rise above 100,000 a day over the summer, he said, more than at any point in the pandemic.
Javid announced that anyone who has been double-vaccinated will not have to isolate after coming into contact with a confirmed Covid case from 16 August, with under-18s also exempt. The rule for adults applies at least 10 days after their second dose. Anyone who has caught Covid must still isolate by law.
The Guardian understands ministers were warned that waiving the requirement for contacts to isolate immediately on 19 July would result in cases being up to 25% higher than if waiting another four weeks to do so.
But the decision to wait before dropping the self-isolation rule, combined with soaring cases amid further unlocking, has triggered growing concerns over the toll of long Covid and potential chaos for businesses forced to close because of staff absences.
A decision on travel rules is set to be made on Thursday, with ministers reportedly favouring a policy that would take effect before August to waive quarantine rules for double-vaccinated passengers from amber-list countries to England. 

Similar stories can be found in the Sun, Independent, ITV News 

Face masks 

Breitbart
Strong majorities of Britons support masks being “mandatory” on public transport and in shops, while seven in ten admit they would not feel “safe” in a crowded or enclosed space if others were not covering their faces.
A series of questions posed by YouGov on the day that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce the end of coronavirus restrictions shows Britons back by a large proportion the government continuing to legally force people to wear masks in certain settings.
Seventy-one per cent of people think that “face masks should continue to be mandatory on public transport for a further period of time”, with just one in five (21 per cent) disagreeing.
Two-thirds (66 per cent) also believe that wearing masks should be mandatory in shops and other enclosed spaces for the time being.
While a combined 70 per cent said that they would feel “less safe” being in a “crowded or un-ventilated place” with people not wearing masks.
When the responses were broken down by political affiliation and Leave/Remain, Leave was less enthusiastic than Remain over continued mandatory masks. However, the proportion of those who backed Brexit was still in the majority for backing continued laws on mask-wearing. 

Freedom Day 

Telegraph
The Government has been accused of delaying “Freedom Day” after revealing that fully vaccinated people will still have to follow self-isolation rules until August 16.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, announced on Tuesday that plans to allow Britons who had received both vaccine doses to take an optional PCR test if they came into close contact with a confirmed Covid case, rather than isolating for 10 days, would not be introduced for five and a half weeks.
The delay comes despite Boris Johnson confirming on Monday that all legal Covid regulations are set to end on July 19.
It has dealt a blow to the hospitality and arts sectors, with warnings that venues and performances face being shut down when a single member of staff or crew tests positive for the virus.
There are also concerns about staff shortages in the NHS as a hospital was forced to cancel all non-urgent care after a large number of staff had to self-isolate.
Mr Javid warned on Tuesday that Covid cases could hit 100,000 a day, and analysis by the Adam Smith Institute showed rising infection rates could force up to 4.6 million people a week into self-isolation by the start of August. 

Working from home 

Mail
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has admitted that the government is not in a rush to stop people working from home because empty offices will help it meet its ‘housing objectives’. 
The admission comes amid mounting fury from business leaders who called for ‘urgent’ clarity on the Prime Minister’s vague and half-baked guidance to get millions of Britons back into the office from July 19, as lawyers told MailOnline that workers who refuse to return could be sacked. 
Now, in a startling admission, the Housing Secretary has said that it is unlikely that office working would return to exactly how it was prior to the pandemic, but claimed that the change could be beneficial in other areas.
He said today: ‘It will help us to do office-to-residential conversion, and meet our housing objectives on brownfield sites. It will also help us with levelling up, because people being able to work remotely will make it more viable for people to live in more rural communities in smaller towns and commute less regularly than they used to do.’
Mr Johnson announced last night that people in England will no longer have to work from home as of July 19 but the lack of detail on workplace safety, test and trace and international travel was slammed by industry bosses who warned it will cause a ‘huge headache’ for firms and could ‘undermine the confidence’ of many workers heading into the office for the first time in 18 months. 

A similar story appears in the Telegraph 

Russian spies 

Guido
Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has just emailed all MPs’ offices to warn them against falling for attempts by Russia to subtly advance their interests in the Ukraine. The email, passed to Guido, reveals that in recent months Janusz Niedzwiecki – a Polish national and President of Democracy and Human Rights – and Oleg Voloshyn – a Ukrainian national, and elected politician there – have been “actively seeking to gain the support of a range of politicians in the UK and Europe” to push Russian state objectives. Who might have admitted to Sir Lindsay they fell for the lobbying?
Sir Lindsay informs MPs and their staff that Niedzwiecki was recently arrested by Polish police on suspicion of espionage on behalf of Russia, and wanted:
“To ensure that anyone contacted by either individual was aware of their affiliation with the Russian state, and their exploitation of a narrative to advance Russian interests in the Ukraine”
Any members who have been approached by either spook have been encouraged to contact Parliament’s Director of Security… 

Illegal immigrants 

Express
PRITI PATEL is set to receive new powers allowing her to withhold visas from countries that refuse to take back illegal migrants, according to reports.
The Home Secretary will be able to “suspend, delay or declare invalid” visas from countries who do not take back citizens. The powers are included in the Nationality and Borders Bill, brought to Parliament on Tuesday.
Other powers included in the bill see the Home Secretary increase the charges for visa applications to work, study or longer-term stays in the UK.
The measures are punishments for a country failing to accept asylum applicants or illegal migrants from the UK.
Any country that does not “cooperate with the UK Government in relation to the removal of [their] nationals” who do not have leave to enter or remain in the UK is targeted by the bill.
Government sources told The Telegraph Ms Patel’s new powers would be used to “incentivise” an uncooperative foreign state. 

Similar stories appear in the Telegraph, Independent, Sun, Times 

Education 

Telegraph
Pupils have missed out on more than half of classroom time during the pandemic, a major study has found, amid calls to allow them the option to repeat the entire school year. 
Between March last year and this April, children in England lost an “unprecedented” 110 days of learning in school, according to a new report by Exeter University and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The academic year consists of 190 classroom days, meaning youngsters have missed 58 per cent of the time they would normally spend at school. 
Researchers analysed pupil attendance data in primary and secondary schools in all four of the UK nations over the past year and also conducted a survey of 10,000 adults.
Sixty-eight per cent of those polled in England were in favour of giving pupils the option to repeat the entire year of school and over half said they supported extending the school day. 

A similar story can be found in the Guardian 

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