There is a mixed bag across today’s national newspaper front pages, with every one picking a different story to splash.
Germany has scrapped plans to discuss Brexit at a high-level diplomatic meeting next week because there has not been “any tangible progress” in talks, the Guardian has learned, as Brussels laments a “completely wasted” summer.
EU officials now believe the UK government is prepared to risk a no-deal exit when the transition period comes to an end on 31 December, and will try to pin the blame on Brussels if talks fail.
According to the Times, the NHS has a “hidden waiting list” of 15.3 million patients who need followup appointments for health problems, according to what the paper describes as “the first analysis of its kind”.
The official waiting list, which stands at 3.9 million, shows how many patients are yet to have their first hospital appointment after a GP referral.
However, the total number who are on hospital books in England and need appointments is not collated centrally. A new calculation, based on freedom of information requests to NHS trusts and seen by The Times, puts the figure at 15.3 million.
Coronavirus sufferers and their contacts will be paid to quarantine themselves, says the Telegraph, “amid signs that increasing numbers are refusing to self-isolate because of financial worries.”
You can find out more about that story from the Guardian’s coverage.
The Daily Mail splashes on a senior business leader telling the prime minister, Boris Johnson, that he “must do more to get office workers back at their desks.”
Carolyn Fairbairn warns commercial centres risk being permanent ‘ghost towns’.
Writing in the Mail, the director general of the CBI says getting staff back into offices and workplaces is as important as the return of pupils to school.
Well, she would say that.
Following in its long tradition of placing unusual health-related stories on its front page, the Express reports on a “natural ingredient in a £10 insect repellent” that scientists have found can kill coronavirus.
The discovery, made by experts at the Government’s military research facility Porton Down, Wiltshire, could provide millions of people with another layer of protection against the deadly disease.
Defence minister Jeremy Quin said that Citriodiol killed the virus and acted as a barrier for four hours.
According to the Metro, “wags on Twitter” have dubbed Ofqual’s unfair marking process the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Algorithm”, after Boris Johnson blamed the A-level grading debacle on a “mutant algorithm” – hence the otherwise incomprehensible headline.
The Morning Star leads on the news that British armed forces have provided military training for 17 countries listed by the Foreign Office as having abused human rights.
Anti-arms campaigners called for the government to review its military collaboration and training with nations on the Foreign Office list of 30 “human-rights priority countries,” which has been ongoing since 2018.
According to the i, senior Tories have condemned the Government’s handling of Covid-19 guidance after it was forced into another major U-turn on pupils wearing face masks.
Boris Johnson was last night accused of “throwing civil service leaders under a bus” to protect himself and his ministers, reports the Independent, after he sacked the Department for Education’s top mandarin in the wake of the A-level exam grading fiasco.
Sarah Harding, the Girls Aloud singer, kept her breast cancer battle a secret from her Girls Aloud bandmates for months, according to the Mirror.
The 38-year-old only told them this week and revealed it has spread.
She said: “I’m doing my best to stay positive.”
Finally, from the dependable Daily Star comes this:
Kebab-lovers face bank holiday chaos after experts warned we could run out of doner meat. A surge in demand from boozy staycationers could leave millions of hungry holidaymakers with empty stomachs.
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