What happened
Former prime minister David Cameron has advised Andy Burnham not to pursue plans that could eventually lead Britain back into the EU, arguing that any such move would just reopen the divisive argument over Brexit.

Burnham is preparing to set out proposals for Britain’s future relationship with Brussels, while the government is expected to sign a new agreement with the EU covering food standards and reducing some border checks. Cameron – who called the 2016 referendum and resigned after losing the battle to persuade voters to stay in the EU – said Britain should instead concentrate on making its existing relationship with Europe work.

Who said what
Cameron told Bloomberg that rejoining the EU would trigger another “long and painful” dispute and potentially leave Britain with a weaker deal.

“In his enthusiasm for a rapprochement, Mr Burnham must not get too far ahead of public ­sentiment,” said The Times’s editorial board. “Evolution not revolution on Europe should be his strategy.”

What next?
Burnham is expected to outline his proposals in the coming weeks. Cameron said he still believed that Brexit could work and he remains opposed to any move towards further reintegration, including rejoining the customs union.

What happened
Poultry and captive birds must be kept indoors from Friday due to the risk of spreading bird flu, according to a declaration issued by the government for the second straight year.

The “England-wide Avian Influenza Prevention Zone” means that individuals with 50 or more birds must shut them away following a similar order in Scotland this week.

Who said what
Bird flu has been “spreading rapidly” since 2014, said The Guardian. It causes high death rates in birds and “flu-like” symptoms in humans. Eleven people died from the disease worldwide between 1 January and 4 August last year, although the government believes that the current risk to human life is “very low”.

For farmers, having bird flu in a flock is “devastating”, said UK Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss. Anyone in contact with live birds should regularly disinfect clothing and minimise contamination from manure and slurry.

What next?
The government does not anticipate that the situation will impact the availability of Christmas turkeys or other goods. Properly cooked poultry products, including eggs, are safe to eat, according to the Food Safety Authority.

When lab-grown meat “first captured investors’ attention, the promise was simple: steak without cattle, chicken without poultry – a carnivorous diet stripped of its moral baggage”, said the Financial Times.

A decade later a combination of “high costs, slow regulation, consumer scepticism and the difficulty of scaling laboratory processes into industrial production” has skewered a sector that once threatened to upend the very way the world produces its food.

The technology “remains compelling”, according to AgFunderNews. Unlike plant-based options, it has the appeal of “real” meat and “promises a consistent, local supply of meat made to order”, but “without the disease risks, supply chain vulnerabilities, environmental damage, and ethical baggage” that come with the farming of animals. “In practice, however, there’s no playbook for biomanufacturing meat at scale, funding has almost dried up and the political environment has become increasingly hostile in key markets.”

Perhaps the only solution is to consolidate. “I don’t think as standalone companies they will survive,” Jeff Tripician, the former CEO of now defunct Dutch company Meatable, told industry news site Food Ingredients First. “They need to become part of – as in sell to – meat companies so that it’s almost like an R&D investment they can manage over time. I don’t think there’s external funds that are going to come in to prop up the small companies the way they’re constituted today.”