Your morning briefing: What you should know for Friday, June 4

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Britons scramble to cancel holidays after Portugal moved to amber list

Britons have been scrambling to cancel holidays to Portugal after it was removed from the travel green list, as hopes of a summer getaway for many began to fade.

Tourists who had made it abroad are rushing to make plans to travel home before 4am next Tuesday to avoid having to quarantine for ten days. Airlines and tour operators began to lay on extra flights.

Travel bosses are facing “another lost summer” after Portugal was added to the amber travel list just weeks after the holiday hotspot reopened for British tourists.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps blamed the move on “a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant” having been detected, and an increased test positivity rate in the country.

Pfizer vaccine recipients ‘have lower antibodies targeting Indian variant’

People who have had the Pfizer vaccine have lower antibody levels targeting the Indian variant, also known as Delta, than those against previously circulating variants in the UK.

That’s according to research that also suggests the levels of these antibodies are lower with increasing age and that levels decline over time.

Experts say this provides additional evidence in support of plans to deliver a vaccination boost to vulnerable people in the autumn.

Sunak targets tax agreement for digital firms at G7 finance summit

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is aiming to secure a “fair deal” on digital taxation as he welcome overseas ministers in London for the first in-person G7 finance meeting since the start of the pandemic.

Ministers from the US, Japan, France, Canada, Germany and Italy will attend the two-day meeting at Lancaster House in London, ahead of the leaders’ summit in Cornwall next weekend.

They will discuss measures to tackle climate change as well as efforts to secure an international agreement on how digital companies are taxed.

Second man and boy, 14, charged with murder of Dea-John Reid

Police have charged a second man and a teenager with murdering a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in Birmingham.

Dea-John Reid was fatally stabbed in College Road in the Kingstanding area at about 7.30pm on Monday.

George Khan, 38, and a 14-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons were charged with the schoolboy’s murder by West Midlands police last night.

Both are due to appear in court on June 4.

It comes after a 35-year-old man appeared at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, also charged with murder.

Mission: Impossible production shuts down following positive Covid tests

Production on the latest Mission: Impossible film in the UK has been halted for two weeks following positive Covid-19 tests, studio Paramount said.

The blockbuster action sequel, starring Tom Cruise, will resume shooting on June 14, according to the studio.

It was unclear how many people tested positive.

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