Newspaper headlines: Johnson's 'no-deal budget' and royal tour

  • Published
Boris JohnsonImage source, Christopher Furlong/PA Wire

Boris Johnson is said by the Times to be preparing an emergency Budget - likely in September - in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The paper says the package of measures will include an overhaul of stamp duty and a moratorium on new regulations.

The Daily Mail leads with the suggestion that a documentary about the Foreign Office was censored, to remove Boris Johnson's use of the word "turds" to describe the French in their approach to Brexit.

It said the BBC had agreed to the edit following an official request. A "leaked Whitehall memo" is said to have warned that the undiplomatic language "would make Anglo-French relations awkward".

The BBC said the production team had made judgements about the programme and were satisfied with the content.

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
Vladimir Putin has told the Financial Times that "Russia is back at the top table"

The Financial Times devotes two whole pages to its exclusive interview with Vladimir Putin - a man whom the paper says is "very much at centre stage" as the G20 gets under way in Japan.

Mr Putin, it says, believes that "history is on his side" - following the annexation of Crimea and his intervention in Syria - and that "Russia is back at the top table".

Mr Putin is said to have "cast himself as a cheerleader of globalisation" and warns that American unilateralism and its trade war with China are among the biggest threats to global stability.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that at least four police forces have allowed people caught with Class A drugs for personal use to escape prosecution.

Thames Valley and Avon and Somerset are said to be among those offering the option of treatment and an education programme.

Police and Crime Commissioners are said to believe the policy can be more effective than prison or fines. But the independent think tank, Civitas, warns that the scheme should not be seen as a precursor to decriminalising the drugs.

Milkshake tax

The Sun reports that the government is proposing a tax on milkshakes, unless manufacturers use healthier ingredients.

It says the "extension to last year's sugar tax is buried in a Green Paper" in response to a demand by the chef Jamie Oliver for further action to cut childhood obesity.

The paper argues that a levy on fizzy drinks has failed to "make people less fat" and says "spreading this folly to milkshakes compounds the stupidity".

Image source, Getty Images

"Alexa, Read My Child a Bedtime Story" is the Daily Mail headline, as it reveals that the head of Ofsted fears reading to children is becoming a dying art, with parents resorting to home assistants and apps to "do the job for them".

Amanda Spielman will tell the National Day Nurseries Association that the trend is "depressing" and means too many children lack the interaction they need to develop proper language skills.

The Times is bemused by a new phone app designed to help people sleep - which has recruited John McEnroe as one of the celebrity voices that aim to "lull listeners into a feeling of deep relaxation".

A 25-minute recording features the tennis star reading out the rules of the sport "in the calmest way" he can.

A sleep scientist suggests there are effective strategies for inducing sleep through sound - for example, the BBC World Service at a low volume, stories read by the actor Stephen Fry - but McEnroe's "rasping, nasal tones" are "unlikely to be one of them".