The City billionaire Michael Spencer is engineering a bid for the fine wine merchant being sold as part of its owner’s transformation into an online-only business. BI Wines & Spirits, which is chaired and part-owned by Mr Spencer, is among the bidders circling‎ Lay & Wheeler (L&W), a division of Naked Wines, previously known as Majestic. (Sky News)

The UK must accept US food standards as part of any future trade deal with Washington, the head of America’s farming lobby has said. Zippy Duvall, head of the American Farm Bureau, said fears over practices such as washing chicken in chlorine and using genetically modified (GM) crops were not “science-based”. (The BBC)

However, a US-UK trade deal will not get through Congress if Brexit undermines the Good Friday Agreement, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has said. (The BBC)

One in four savoury picnic foods contain dangerously high levels of salt and almost half are worryingly high in saturated fat, a health group has warned. (The Guardian)

A No Deal Brexit would create ‘mild disruption’ at best because of the preparations being made by Boris Johnson’s Government, The boss of High Street giant Next claimed today (The Daily Mail). Next boss Lord Simon Wolfson has said that no-deal contingency planning by Boris Johnson’s government means the UK will not suffer disorder and chaos if it fails to secure a Brexit deal with the EU (The Telegraph).

Shares in Sports Direct have tumbled to their lowest level since 2011 after its auditors quit, leaving the retailer with less than a month to find a replacement (The Guardian). Bean-counters at Grant Thornton have quit their role as Sports Direct’s auditors, a day after the delayed publication of the retailer’s annual results (The Daily Mail)

The cost of one of Britain’s biggest stock market flotations so far this year has hit profits at Network International. Maiden results for the Dubai-based payments company showed that profit from continuing operations had more than halved to $15.8 million from $35.3 million in the six months to the end of June. (The Times £)

Lawmakers from two of the three major German political parties, the centre-left SPD and the Greens, are now calling for the removal of a low tax rate on meat products. (The Financial Times £)

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