Germany closing small-boat loophole in new treaty with UK
Britain and Germany signed a wide-ranging friendship treaty, marking German chancellor Friedrich Merz 's first visit to London and aiming to deepen bilateral ties.
The treaty builds on recent efforts to reset UK- EU relations, following French president Emmanuel Macron 's visit, and signals increased cooperation among Europe's leading powers.
Key areas of cooperation include defence, with pledges for joint export campaigns of military equipment and a new German defence tech factory in Britain.
The agreement also covers transport, including a new direct rail link, and joint efforts to combat irregular migration, with Germany committing to outlaw facilitation of illegal crossings.
Germany pledged to outlaw the facilitation of illegal migration to Britain, with a law change that would give law enforcement the ability to investigate warehouses where small boats are stored.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
27 minutes ago
- Times
Scottish council staff off sick at record rate
The level of absence among council staff is at its highest level on record as local authorities are urged to improve their workforce planning. Figures released by the Accounts Commission on Thursday showed the absence rate among non-teacher staff rose to an average of 13.9 days in 2023-24 compared with 10.8 in 2010-11. During the same time, the teacher absence rate increased from 6.6 days to 7.6 days. • We are in a new era of health in the workplace — things must change In a report the commission urged councils to plan their workforce into the future, especially given the age of staff. While 35 per cent of staff — the highest level — are between 25 and 44, a total of 27 per cent of workers are between 45 and 54. There are 29 per cent of workers aged 55 to 64. The commission said: 'Addressing rising sickness absence, embracing innovation and digital technology, and increased collaborative working will all be necessary to attract and retain staff and ensure we all continue to benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce.' Local authorities should align their workforce plans with their own priorities, the report said. The commission added that councils were dealing with 'clear and continuing financial pressures' and had to 'transform how they deliver services' to cut costs. 'Auditors report that councils have responded positively to these challenges but that further progress with workforce planning is still needed in light of continuing financial and demand pressures,' the report said. • Scots out of work for sickness and disability at highest level for 20 years Jennifer Henderson, a member of the Accounts Commission, said: 'We all benefit from a skilled and motivated local government workforce; staff are the most important resource that councils have. 'Councils must fundamentally reform how they deliver services, and Scotland's 260,000 council workers are crucial to this. 'Councils need to align their existing workforce plans with their priorities so they can ensure their workforces are the right size and shape, and their staff have the skills they will need. In particular, they need to ensure workers have the digital skills necessary for the scale of changes ahead. 'We have seen many councils already responding to this challenge, and there are valuable opportunities for local bodies to learn from each other.'
The Independent
38 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch says Josef Fritzl case made her ‘reject God'
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has revealed the case of Austrian sex offender Josef Fritzl caused her to lose faith in God. Mrs Badenoch said she was 'never that religious' while growing up but 'believed there was a God' and 'would have defined myself as a Christian apologist'. But this changed in 2008 when she read reports that Fritzl had imprisoned and repeatedly raped his daughter, Elisabeth, in his basement over 24 years. Mrs Badenoch, whose maternal grandfather was a Methodist minister, told the BBC: 'I couldn't stop reading this story. And I read her account, how she prayed every day to be rescued. 'And I thought, I was praying for all sorts of stupid things and I was getting my prayers answered. I was praying to have good grades, my hair should grow longer, and I would pray for the bus to come on time so I wouldn't miss something. 'It's like, why were those prayers answered and not this woman's prayers? And it just, it was like someone blew out a candle.' But she insisted that while she had 'rejected God', she had not rejected Christianity and remained a 'cultural Christian', saying she wanted to 'protect certain things because I think the world that we have in the UK is very much built on many Christian values'. During her interview, which is due to be broadcast on Thursday evening, Mrs Badenoch also said her tenure as Conservative leader was going 'well', adding her job was to 'make sure that people can see that we are the only party on the centre-right'. In an apparent dig at Nigel Farage's Reform UK, she said: 'There are pretenders. We're the only party on the centre-right, and we're the only ones who still believe in values like living within our means, personal responsibility, making sure that the government is not getting involved in everything so it can focus on the things it needs to look at, like securing our borders.' She went on to defend previous comments saying the fact she had worked at McDonald's made her working class, saying: 'I had to work to live. 'That, for me, is what being working class is. It's the lifestyle that you have. You have to work, to survive.' And she argued that parents who were 'worried about their children getting stolen or snatched' had created a younger generation that lacked the 'resilience' to deal with problems in life. Responding to figures suggesting a quarter of people aged 16-24 said they had a mental disorder, Mrs Badenoch said: 'I think they think they have a mental disorder, I don't think they all have a mental disorder.' She added: 'I'm not a medical expert so it is not my expertise on exactly what we need to do to get them into work, but we should be trying to get them into work.'
Reuters
39 minutes ago
- Reuters
Bank of England, facing jobs-inflation dilemma, poised to cut rates
LONDON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Bank of England looks poised to cut interest rates for the fifth time in 12 months on Thursday but nagging worries about inflation are likely to split its policymakers and cloud the outlook for its next moves. Governor Andrew Bailey and most of the Monetary Policy Committee are expected to favour taking Bank Rate to 4% from 4.25% as they react to a jobs slowdown made worse by a tax hike on employers and U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war. But two MPC members might push for a bigger cut to prop up the economy while another two might prefer no cut at all due to their inflation concerns, a voting pattern last seen in May and reflecting the conflicting pressures on Britain's central bank. Investors will be watching to see if the BoE sticks to its "gradual and careful" language about the pace of lowering borrowing costs, a message that economists have taken to mean one rate cut every three months. That slow and steady path no longer looks so clear, with inflation running above the BoE's projections and forecast by some economists to reach 4% in coming months, double the central bank's target. Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics have predicted Thursday's rate cut will be the BoE's last for a while due to the persistence of inflation. That would be a blow for finance minister Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who have promised to speed up Britain's slow economic growth. By contrast, analysts at investment bank Evercore think the BoE might accelerate the pace of cuts later this year as hiring weakens further. Investors are mostly pricing in another cut in November after Thursday's expected move but only one or two more reductions in 2026, which would leave Bank Rate at 3.5% or 3.25%, higher than the euro zone's benchmark rate of 2%. High inflation expectations in surveys of the British public mean Bailey and the rest of the MPC cannot focus squarely on giving the economy a boost by cutting borrowing costs. Inflation has been above the Bank of England's 2% target almost constantly since May 2021. "If I'm a worker and I'm bargaining for a wage, am I really going to believe that inflation is going to come back to 2%?" Stephen Millard, deputy director at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research think tank, said. "I would, personally. But I could imagine there's still quite a bit of wage pressure just coming from that." In contrast to the BoE, which has forecast that inflation will only return to 2% in early 2027, the European Central Bank expects inflation in the euro zone to hold below 2%. It has cut borrowing costs eight times since June of last year. Growth in wages in Britain has proven slower to ease after surging during the COVID-19 pandemic. At about 5% in the most recent data it remains above the 3% level that the BoE thinks is roughly consistent with its inflation target. The BoE will announce the MPC's latest decision and forecasts for the economy at 1100 GMT, half an hour before Bailey and other top officials hold a press conference. The central bank is also expected to assess the impact of its programme of running down its stockpile of government debt ahead of a decision in September on the pace of sales over the following 12 months, a key decision for bond investors.
