Northern Ireland 

Express
URSULA VON DER LEYEN has been urged to greenlight a referendum on the Northern Ireland Protocol to solve the current crisis in the province.
Conservative peer Lord Moylan called on the EU Commission’s President to fix the ongoing spat surrounding the so-called “border in the Irish Sea”. It was created as a direct result of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in which both the EU and UK agreed to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
This has in effect kept the province in the Single Market – leading to customs checks on some goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The 11-hour fix avoided a hard Brexit, but outraged Northern Ireland’s fiercely patriotic Unionist community.
They are vehemently opposed to a united Ireland and see any divide between them and the rest of the UK as an assault on their British identity.
Protests over the protocol have already turned violent, with rioting in Northern Ireland over recent months. 

A similar story appears in the Express.  

Sausage wars 

Mail
Boris Johnson was locked in a war of words with Emmanuel Macron last night as he pledged to do ‘whatever it takes’ to stop the EU driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
At a G7 summit overshadowed by the so-called ‘sausage war’, the Prime Minister said he had repeatedly warned EU leaders that the UK was ‘indivisible’ after the French president suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the country.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab yesterday described Mr Macron’s comments as ‘offensive’ and said it was time for the president and other EU leaders to show ‘a bit of respect’ to the territorial integrity of the UK.
Mr Macron hit back last night accusing the PM of launching ‘polemics’. At his own press conference at the summit, he urged Mr Johnson to ‘stay very calm’.
And he claimed it was the Brexit deal signed by Mr Johnson that led to the current impasse. The row centres on new EU rules that would ban the sale of British sausages and other chilled meats in Northern Ireland from the end of this month.
Under the terms of the Brexit deal, Northern Ireland remains part of the EU’s single market to prevent the need of a border with Ireland.
But ministers say a ‘purist’ approach by the EU to checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland has made the situation intolerable. The PM is poised to unilaterally extend a ‘grace period’ for chilled meats which is due to expire at the end of this month, despite warnings from the EU that it could spark a trade war. 

Freedom day 

Express
BORIS JOHNSON will delay the June 21 Freedom Day by up to four weeks, according to a Government source.
The source told Sky News the final stage of lockdown easing will be postponed until July 19. The Prime Minister is expected to plead the nation for “one last heave”, according to the source.
They added: “It is a straight race between the vaccine and the virus.”
The four week delay is believed to be caused by increasing coronavirus case numbers and fears over the Delta variant, which first emerged in India.
The added delay will allow millions of people to receive life-saving doses of the vaccine.
In addition to the extended time for vaccinations, the delay will also give scientists more time to monitor, examine and test the new Delta variant. 

Similar stories appear in the Mail, Independent, Telegraph, Times, Evening Standard, ITV News 

Weddings 

Sun
BORIS Johnson will today extend lockdown for a month — but throw a lifeline to couples by increasing the wedding guests cap.
The PM, who tied the knot with Carrie 16 days ago, is desperate not to ruin couples’ happy day.
Ministers were last night thrashing out plans to let more than 30 guests attend so long as they stick to social distancing. One said: “There is hope a deal can be done.”
Mr Johnson will offer up the deal as a glimmer of good news on a gloomy day for freedom-yearning Brits. He will confirm England’s lockdown is extended to July 19, with an option of lifting it two weeks earlier.
It comes as the number of Indian/Delta strain cases continues to shoot up. However, the PM would not promise the month-long delay would be the last. 

Mail
A G7 beach barbecue has led to accusations of hypocrisy after it emerged that lifting restrictions on weddings will probably be delayed.
Images of world leaders gathered together on the sands of Carbis Bay in Cornwall drew anger from the wedding industry who have been left in limbo about whether large gatherings will be allowed to take place again. No 10 denied the feast on Saturday breached current Covid rules – which allow 30 people to gather together outside.
Weddings are also limited to just 30 guests, although there had been plans to lift those restrictions on numbers next week.
But concerns over the Indian variant of the virus have prompted ministers to reassess the roadmap, with Boris Johnson suggesting he will delay the initial plan.
The UK Weddings Taskforce, an industry group, estimates 50,000 nuptials planned in the four weeks from June 21 could be cancelled if restrictions remain in place.
They calculated the industry would lose £325million for every week that weddings without restrictions fail to go ahead. Mark Dawson, of the Wedding Venue Support Group, said the 30-capacity figure was based on a hunch from scientists last year and had not been backed up with any hard data since.
He said: ‘Eighty people can sit inside a pub, but if you put a bride and groom in there, you can only have 30 in there, it doesn’t make sense and there’s no scientific evidence to back it up.’ 

A similar story appears in the Evening Standard. 

Furlough 

Mail
Demands from businesses to extend the furlough scheme were rejected by Rishi Sunak last night – despite the expected delay to ending lockdown.
The hugely expensive wage support fund is due to start being wound down at the end of this month.
As part of the Budget earlier this year, the Chancellor announced he would stop covering 80 per cent of the salaries of those not at work.
From July 1, the Government’s share will fall to 70 per cent with employers contributing 10 per cent, as part of a staged withdrawal of the scheme due to finish completely at the end of September.
He yesterday urged the Chancellor to delay the wind down if lockdown is extended, while hospitality chiefs claimed as many as 200,000 jobs were at risk.
But sources close to Mr Sunak insisted the timetable for gradually withdrawing furlough would remain the same.
They said that by extending support to the end of September the Treasury had already ‘gone long’ in case there was any delay to reopening. Mr Sunak is also resisting calls to extend the business rates holiday that is also due to start being withdrawn at the end of the month.
Retail, hospitality and leisure premises have been helped with a 100 per cent relief since last March when the lockdowns first began. The Government is due to reduce the relief to 66 per cent from July 1 and it will remain in place until the end of March next year.
Trade body UKHospitality has called for Mr Sunak to keep the full relief in place for a further three months until the start of October. 

Similar stories appear in the Express, Sun, Mirror 

G7 

Guardian
Boris Johnson has repeated his threat to unilaterally suspend the Northern Ireland protocol, as a war of words with EU leaders over Brexit risked overshadowing the G7 summit in Cornwall.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, told the UK prime minister on Saturday morning that the British government must honour its word over Brexit or risk jeopardising the country’s relationship with France.
Speaking to Sky News after Macron and other EU leaders used meetings on the sidelines of the summit to urge him to compromise, Johnson hit back, claiming the EU was constructing “all kinds of impediments” instead of applying the protocol “sensibly”.
“I think we can sort it out, but it is up to our EU friends and partners to understand that we will do whatever it takes,” he said. “If the protocol continues to be applied in this way, then we will obviously not hesitate to invoke article 16, as I have said before”.
He also said that some EU leaders he had spoken to “do seem to misunderstand that the UK is a single country, a single territory. I just need to get that into their heads”.
Macron and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had used their bilateral meetings with Johnson to press home the need to implement the protocol in full. 

Similar stories appear in the Mail, Telegraph, Times 

Guardian
Concerns are growing that St Ives may face a spike in Covid cases as the G7 summit winds up with hospitality venues, police officers and a protest camp all reporting cases of the virus.
At least five venues in St Ives, the town closest to the main venue summit, Carbis Bay, have closed or are limiting their operations because of cases.
Two police officers have had positive tests and one protester at an Extinction Rebellion camp is also isolating.
Andrew George, who speaks for the Liberal Democrats in Cornwall on health, said he was concerned about the cases.
He said he did not believe the leaders were “vectors” for Covid. “But other people associated with G7 – security staff, police, media have been intermixing.”
Ahead of the event, George had called for the UK government to publish advice on the possibility of the summit leading to a Covid spike but said it had refused on security grounds. “We won’t know the full consequences of what has been going on possibly for a fortnight.”
Among the venues that have shut or restricted their business are the Pedn Olva hotel and the Lifeboat Inn. The Porthgwidden Beach Cafe said it had decided to close its doors “due to the uncertainty over local Covid-19 cases”.
The bar at the Western Hotel was closed and another harbourside hotel had a note pinned to its window saying: “Closed until further notice.” Staff at nearby venues said it too was closed because of Covid. 

EU 

Times
EU leaders blocked efforts to name and shame Beijing for using slave labour in Xinjiang, highlighting divisions over China among leading democracies.
The G7 summit had been hailed as a coming together of like-minded allies to address what Washington has called the greatest geopolitical challenge to the West, with guests from India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa invited in a show of solidarity.
Amid agreement on subjects from climate action to coronavirus recovery, however, China emerged as the most divisive issue, with European leaders baulking at President Biden’s efforts to embarrass Beijing over forced labour.
China was not mentioned in the summary of the final G7 communiqué despite the challenge from Beijing having emerged as the dominant theme in leaders’ discussions. 

Heart attacks 

Mail
A risk calculator that helps predict heart attacks and circulatory diseases years before they strike is ready for use across Britain, researchers say.
The risk calculator, SCORE2, enables doctors to predict who is at risk of having a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years with greater accuracy.
Researchers say the tool represents a ‘major advance’ in the field, and will help to save people from having a potentially deadly heart attack or stroke.
Those who are flagged as having an increased risk can be put on personalised preventative treatment. This can include statins, or lifestyle advice to lower the risk. 
Around 200 investigators and researchers across Europe analysed data from nearly 700,000 participants – mostly middle-aged – from 45 different studies.
When recruited to the studies, participants had no prior history of heart and circulatory disease, and in the 10 years they were followed up, 30,000 had a cardiovascular event – including fatal or non-fatal heart attack or stroke.
The risk tool was statistically recalibrated, by using regional-specific cardiovascular and risk factor data from 10.8 million people, to more accurately estimate cardiovascular risk for populations split into four European risk regions.
It uses known risk factors for heart and circulatory diseases such as age, sex, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and smoking.
The calculator accounts for current trends in heart and circulatory diseases, can predict both fatal and non-fatal conditions and is adaptable to countries with different levels of risk.
Researchers say it can better estimate the cardiovascular risk amongst younger people, and will improve how treatment is tailored for older people and those in high-risk regions across Europe. 

A similar story appears in the Times. 

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