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3.50pm BST

In evidence to the Commons European scrutiny committee, Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, restated his call for fundamental changes to the way the Northern Ireland protocol operates. He told the committee:

At the moment, I think the only way it can be made sustainable is if we could find a way to hugely reduce or eliminate the barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, goods moving in that direction, and we need to – as we go forward – try and find a way of achieving that.

It remains the core of the problem that the boundary between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is too dissuasive, too complicated, too chilling of identity in various ways. And that’s what’s got to be solved, I think, in terms of direction of travel. So we’re keeping, obviously, all options on the table.

3.43pm BST

The daily Covid-19 case number in Northern Ireland has topped 1,700 for the first time since January, PA Media reports. PA says:

Case numbers have been rapidly increasing in recent weeks with the Delta variant of the virus now dominant in the region.

On Monday a further 1,776 cases of Covid-19 were reported by the Department of Health.

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Source: The Guardian