Brexit 

Telegraph
Britain’s final bill for leaving the EU is £40.8 billion, according to accounts filed in Brussels, a greater sum than previously forecast. 
Officials had estimated the final cost would be £39 billion – £1.8 billion less than the EU amount contained in the EU’s consolidated budget report for 2020.
The final bill would have been higher, almost £43 billion, but Brussels owes the UK £1.8 billion for its share of fines imposed by the bloc before the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of last year. 
Ministers believed the final Brexit bill would be less than £39 billion because the numerous Brexit extensions meant that the total was decreased thanks to the UK’s contributions to the EU Budget.  
The Office for Budget Responsibility said in November there was about £25 billion left to pay by 2057. About £18 billion will be paid in the first five years, the BBC has reported. 
News of the final withdrawal settlement comes amid tension between Brussels and London over the Northern Ireland Protocol which was created to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland. 
It ties Northern Ireland to a variety of EU customs checks, which has resulted in trade disruption since its implementation in January. 

Similar stories can be seen in the Guardian, Sun, Independent 

Mail
Britain and the European Union were locked in a dispute over the size of London’s final Brexit divorce bill last night as official accounts filed in Brussels show that UK taxpayers must pay nearly £41billion to leave the bloc – nearly £2billion more than previously forecast.The British Office for Budget Responsibility had previously estimated that the final cost of withdrawal would be £39billion – some £1.8billion less than the EU amount contained in Brussels’ consolidated budget report for 2020.
The final bill would have been higher at £43billion, but the EU owes Britain £1.8billion for its share of fines imposed by the bloc on companies and other entities before the end of the transition period. 
Ministers believed that the sum would be less than £39billion as a result of Britain’s contributions to the EU Budget while the Brexit transition period was repeatedly extended.
The news is likely to spark fury among both Eurosceptics and Europhiles, and exacerbate tensions between Brussels and London over the Northern Ireland Protocol which has been causing trade disruption since its implementation in January. 

Express
BREXIT Britain is set to pay a staggering £40billion to the European Union as part of the divorce settlement, it has been revealed.
The figures have been devised under the EU’s consolidated budget report for 2020, it has been reported. In a blow to Boris Johnson the divorce settlement is higher than what was predicted by the UK in 2017. In December 2017, the UK predicted it would pay between £35-39billion to the EU. 
As reported by RTE’s Tony Connelly, the payment will broken down into two amounts. 
Under article 140 of the withdrawal agreement, the UK is legally obliged to pay its share of the EU’s outstanding payments as of December 31 – before the end of the transition. 
This concerns programmes, projects and contracts already agreed before the December 31 deadline, he reports. 
A second amount concerns the EU’s liabilities such as pensions under article 143. 
Mr Connelly said: “Officials say the UK committed to pay its share of these liabilities as of the end of 2020, with the exception of specific liabilities noted in the treaty.
“The overall amount of these liabilities is €116 billion, and the UK’s share – at 12.6pc – is €14.3 billion.”
The UK is set to receive £1.8billion in fines imposed by the EU to companies now it has left the bloc. 
The European Court of Auditors is expected to sign off on the final amount in November this year. 

EU 

Express
THE EU started showing “pure hatred” towards Britain after the referendum, a Swedish MEP has recalled in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk.
The majority of people in the EU‘s four largest countries think that since Brexit, relations between British and European politicians have become less cordial. Many also think the EU is still determined to punish the UK for leaving. The findings in an exclusive survey for Euronews by Redfield and Wilton Strategies published at the end of last month reflect the strained relations between the two sides – despite Comprehensive Trade Agreements struck in December last year.
People in France, Germany, Italy and Spain were asked whether they thought the behaviour of British politicians towards the EU and its members had become more or less cordial, or had not changed after Brexit.
Across the four nations, more people replied “less cordial” than those who gave another answer: 51 percent in Spain, 43 percent in Italy, 39 percent in Germany and 37 percent in France.
The Euronews survey also finds that many people in the four EU countries agreed with the statement: “The European Union wants to punish the United Kingdom for leaving.”
In three nations, more people (Italy 35 percent, Spain 34 percent, France 33 percent) thought this was the case than those who disagreed.
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Mr Lundgren recalled the “pure hatred” europhiles were showing towards Britain after the referendum.
He said: “[The Leave result] was a shock for the EU – they never expected it would happen because they put in so much effort in convincing the British people to stay.
“And after that initial shock, it turned into pure hatred pretty much. 

Covid 

Mail
The controversial self- isolation system will be watered down within days, amid fears it will cripple the economy and public services this summer.
Ministers have ordered an urgent review of the NHS app following concerns it is bringing the system into disrepute by ordering too many people to self-isolate.
Sources told the Mail the app’s ‘sensitivity’ will be reduced to cut the numbers being asked to isolate unnecessarily.
Figures yesterday revealed a record 50,000 a day were ordered to isolate by the app last week – more than half of the 85,000 told by the NHS to stay away from others. 
At present, those using the NHS app are ‘pinged’ to self-isolate for ten days if they are found to have spent more than 15 minutes within two metres of someone who tests positive for the virus.
A computer algorithm identifies the ‘risk’ posed to everyone who came into contact with the infected person at any time from two days before they first displayed symptoms.
It is understood Health Secretary Sajid Javid is looking at reducing the sensitivity of the system. One option is that fully vaccinated people could be allowed to spend longer in close proximity with an infected person before being ‘pinged’, to reflect the extra protection vaccines provide. 

Similar stories appear in the Sun, Evening Standard, BBC News 

Mail
More than 85,000 people a day are getting told to isolate by the NHS, latest figures show.
The number of ‘pings’ sent out by the NHS Covid-19 app has soared by 62 per cent in a week.
Some 356,036 app alerts instructing people to isolate were sent out in the week ending June 30, according to NHS data – the highest weekly figure since the data was first published in January.
On top of this, another 241,499 were contacted via phone by official ‘contact tracers’ working for NHS Test and Trace.
Since June 30, weekly cases have soared by 43 per cent, meaning the number isolating in the past week is likely to have been significantly higher.
The increasing figures suggest half a million people a day could be getting told to isolate by Freedom Day on July 19, when daily infections are likely to top 100,000. 
Hospital chiefs have warned that the strict isolation rules are causing carnage as thousands of doctors and nurses are getting pinged and ordered to stay at home.
They are calling for exemptions to be made for NHS staff who are double-jabbed and test negative before August 16, when the isolation rule is due to be lifted. 

NHS 

Independent
Hospitals across the country are already in crisis mode with more than a week to go before the end of lockdown restrictions exacerbates the surge in Covid cases.
The care regulator on Thursday said the summer crisis was causing “very real” challenges as demand increased significantly in emergency departments and hospital wards.
Data seen by The Independent shows thousands of patients are being kept on hold for at least two minutes before 999 calls are answered, while new figures show record numbers of trips to A&E last month.
But despite the concerns of NHS leaders, health secretary Sajid Javid said on Thursday that the timetable for ending lockdown would not be changed.
Meanwhile, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has urged remote workers to return to the office. His call came as coronavirus cases exceeded 30,000 for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Mr Sunak said he wants as many people as possible to begin working in person when work-from-home guidance ends on 19 July. 

Morning Star
RECORD hospital waiting lists will not fall without significant new investment in staff – including a proper pay rise, unions warned today.
As NHS England revealed that the queue for in-patient treatment reached a new high of 5.3 million in May, health unions said their members were exhausted, overstretched, underpaid and increasingly demoralised.
Hospitals across the UK were reported to be at breaking point even before minsters in England rescind remaining Covid restrictions on July 19.
Unions and opposition leaders ripped into the hypocrisy of ministers whose warm words for NHS staff were accompanied by determination to deny them a decent pay rise and the investment needed to fill an estimated 100,000 vacancies, including for 40,000 nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that the figures showed “the immense task ahead” for staff “who are suffering from unprecedented levels of exhaustion and stress.”
RCN acting general secretary Pat Cullen said: “Safe and effective patient care must be at the centre of the plan to recover from Covid-19, but it can’t come at the expense of nursing staff and their wellbeing. 

WFH 

Telegraph
The Chancellor is rallying Britons to return to the office as soon as the Government’s “work from home” guidance lifts, declaring it “really important” for younger staff.
Rishi Sunak conceded that operating remotely via Zoom during the pandemic had been “not great” for workers at the beginning of their careers, who find face-to-face interaction particularly “valuable”.
Signalling his strong support for workers to return to the office at step four of the Prime Minister’s roadmap out of restrictions, scheduled for July 19, he said: “I think for young people, especially, that ability to be in your office, be in your workplace and learn from others more directly, is something that’s really important and I look forward to us slowly getting back to that.”
The Telegraph spent an afternoon with the Chancellor in Wolverhampton to make a short film, released on Friday, examining government support for businesses and jobs during the pandemic.
He revealed that more than a third of the working population had received state support during the Covid crisis, including through the furlough and self-employment support schemes. 

A similar story appears in the Sun. 

Falklands 

Express
ARGENTINA has issued sanctions to three companies, two of which are British, for the alleged illegal exploitation of hydrocarbons in waters north of Falklands.
The Argentine secretaries of Energy, Dario Matinez, and of the Malvinas, Antarctica and South Atlantic, Daniel Filmus, said they will notify the three companies of the sanctions issued towards them for commercial activities in the disputed waters.
Argentina claims they did not have the authorisation of the its government, who claim the British Overseas Territory as theirs.
Mr Filmus said: “These companies are not authorised to operate nor have they requested any type of authorisation.”
The secretaries said they “were committing a crime in Argentina” and the three companies continued to participate in exploratory and exploitation works.
The oil companies are Chrysaor Holdings Limited and Harbor Energy Plc, which are based in Britain, and the Israeli company Navitas Petroleum LP. 

Green energy 

Times
Families in Britain would be sent annual payments to offset the cost of higher gas bills and encourage a switch to green energy as part of plans under consideration in Whitehall.
Proposals being discussed by senior government advisers would compensate households for increases in gas bills that will result from the drive to cut carbon emissions.
The scheme would mean low and middle-income families being paid a set amount each year. It would be determined by how much the government raised from new carbon taxes.
The money would be paid regardless of an individual’s emissions. This means those who continued to use gas would have any increase to their bill covered by the payment.  

Education 

Mail
Teenagers who score one grade higher than their classmates across nine GCSE subjects are likely to earn up to £200,000 more in later life, research has found.
They can expect to gain ‘significantly’ higher wages across their careers.
The findings have established, for the first time, a link between attainment and lifetime earnings, said the Department for Education.
Statisticians and economists at the DfE tracked more than two million young people in England over a 12-year period.
They studied their GCSE grades between 2001/2 and 2004/5 as well as records from the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset, which provides data on earnings.
Information from the UK Labour Force survey was used to predict salaries up to retirement age.
Researchers estimated that the average GCSE pupil would go on to earn £1.3million in their life. 
Those who achieved just a grade higher than their counterparts in one GCSE subject saw an increase in lifetime earnings by an average of £23,000.
Across nine subjects, the figure rose to £207,000.
In maths, double science, English, geography, history and English literature – for both sexes – the biggest impact involved moving from a grade D to C, or a C to B.
For boys, rising from a C to B in maths was equivalent to a boost in lifetime earnings of over £30,000. 

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