Brexit trade talks have plunged into crisis following warnings from the UK that it could effectively override the divorce deal it signed unless the European Union agrees to a free trade deal by October 15. 

In one of the most dramatic turns in the four-year Brexit saga, the UK is reportedly planning new legislation that will supplant key parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement. Such a move would jeopardise a treaty signed in January and could stoke tensions in Northern Ireland. 

Sections of the internal market bill, due to be published on Wednesday, are expected to “eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement” in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs, according to a report in the Financial Times.  

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Britain has set a deadline of October 15 to strike a free trade deal with the EU, and if none is forthcoming both sides should “accept that and move on”, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to say today.  

The UK left the European Union on January 31. Talks to secure a new trade deal before the end of the current transition period at the end of December have so far snagged on state aid rules and fishing. 

Without a deal, more than £750 billion of trade between the UK and the EU could be thrown into uncertainty, including rules over everything from car parts and medicines to fruit and data. 

Scottish rocket company Skyrora has picked up an environmental award during a visit to one of the “greenest countries in the world”, where it also launched a rocket to 26.86km and met with the country’s president. 

The Edinburgh-headquartered firm received Iceland’s Leif Erikson Lunar Prize award for its environmental efforts, in particular its “Ecosense” project that turns unrecyclable plastic waste into usable high-grade aviation fuel. 

Skyrora plans to use Ecosense to replace kerosene on its larger launch vehicles, Skylark L and Skyrora XL. The first Skylark L sub-orbital launch is expected in the second quarter of 2021. 

The company claims that when Ecosense becomes commercially available, it could reduce the amount of unrecycled plastic waste by 400,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to 53 lorries. It will also cut down on the use of limited kerosene resources and minimise the aviation industry’s carbon footprint. 

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Volodymyr Levykin, chief executive of Skyrora, said: “This came as a great surprise during our short visit to Iceland and I’m delighted that in addition to our successful rocket launch, Skyrora also received the prestigious Leif Erikson Lunar Prize award in Iceland, the world’s second-most highly performing country in environmental issues. 

“Global climate change is extremely important for everybody at Skyrora and we see it as our mission and duty to be as environmentally conscious as possible. Receiving the Leif Erikson award during our seven-day trip to Iceland goes to show how much potential Ecosense has, not only for the company but for the future of the global space industry.” 

During preparations for the launch of the company’s Skylark Micro, Mr Levykin and Skyrora managers Derek Harris and Katie Miller also met with the president of Iceland, Guoni Th. Johannesson. 

The UK Rapid Test Consortium (UK-RTC) that includes Scottish medical diagnostics company Omega has announced the successful conclusion of a usability study for a home self-testing kit for Covid-19. 

In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange, AIM-listed Omega said a study of the AbC-19 Rapid test by Ulster University involving approximately 2,000 volunteers concluded over the weekend.  Already CE-Marked for use by medical professionals, the AbC-19 is now moving towards approval for self-testing. 

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Alva-based Omega said it remains on track to have capacity in place this month to produce an initial 100,000 AbC-19 Rapid tests per week, scaling up to 200,000 per week in October. If demand through the UK-RTC were to go above that level, either from the UK Government or other third parties, Omega said it will allocate additional capacity to meet that demand. 

“We’re very pleased that the self-test usability study has completed and that we are progressing towards our goal of MHRA approval for self-test home use,” chief executive Colin King said. “We cannot give a timescale for when this might be achieved but we look forward to updating shareholders on further developments.”