Newspaper headlines: 'Tory divisions' over 'leaked crisis plans for Brexit' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 19 August 2019

As Boris Johnson prepares for talks on Brexit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron this week, the question for the Telegraph is: "Who will blink first?"

If we are to avoid the no-deal exit that everyone says they don't want, the paper says, then something has to give.

For the Times , we are in a stand-off and the prime minister might be hoping that Europe will blink first, but that is far from assured.

Why would the leaders of France and Germany extend an olive branch to the prime minister, knowing that members of his own party are trying to undermine him, it asks.

So what has changed?

image copyright Reuters

It thinks the growing momentum for a confidence vote in the government and the increasing risk of defeat has led to a mood change in Downing Street.

In the view of the Financial Times, rather than setting undeliverable preconditions, Mr Johnson should seek modifications to the withdrawal agreement that would make it acceptable to parliament.

Venables has been sent back to jail twice since being freed after James's murder.

He's currently serving a 40-month term for possession of indecent images of children. Venables and Robert Thompson, both aged 10, kidnapped, tortured and murdered two-year-old James in Merseyside in 1993.

The Mail says it can reveal that the NHS is to withhold some funding from GP surgeries in England that close for half-days during the week without permission.

According to the paper, officials have identified more than 700 practices - a tenth of the total - that regularly close for at least four hours at a time.

It says officials estimate that if these surgeries remained open, an extra 287,000 appointments would be available every year.

Finally, research suggests that Britain is in the midst of a meetings epidemic, with the average worker now spending 26 working days stuck in them, that's up from 23 working days last year.

According to the Times , the survey of a thousand workers showed at least a third of that time is entirely wasted, with the biggest time-waster being waiting for others to arrive.