Tuesday newspaper round-up: Covid passports, HS2, Facebook, BrewDog

Hopes have been raised of summer holidays in Europe for fully vaccinated Britons as a deal with Brussels on Covid passports neared completion and Germany failed to convince popular destinations to pull an “emergency brake” on UK visitors. Restrictions on travel are tightening across the continent for tourists coming from the UK who have not had two jabs, owing to concerns over the highly transmissible Delta variant now dominant in Britain. - Guardian

The UK government has held emergency talks with retailers, logistics groups and wholesalers as a shortage of lorry drivers threatens to leave gaps on supermarket shelves. Officials from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are understood to have discussed potential solutions, including relaxing restrictions on drivers’ working hours and increasing capacity for HGV driving tests and training to help bring in new local drivers. - Guardian

Ministers are refusing to disclose how much a row over a HS2 contract has cost taxpayers after striking an out of court settlement with a spurned Spanish train manufacturer. Madrid-listed Talgo agreed a “mutual resolution” with the Government following a lawsuit against the state-funded line when it failed to win a £2.8bn contract to build 54 trains. The Department for Transport is refusing to reveal the terms of the deal or to say how much the dispute cost it in legal fees. - Telegraph

The stock market value of Facebook rose above $1 trillion last night after the social media company won a significant legal battle against an American regulator. A federal judge yesterday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook that sought to force the social media company to sell Instagram and WhatsApp, saying that the Federal Trade Commission’s action was “legally insufficient”.- The Times

The co-founder of BrewDog is selling off personal property assets linked to the craft brewer ahead of a planned flotation amid concerns over potential conflicts of interest. James Watt told The Times that his remaining property holdings rented to the Scottish brewer were “in the process of being divested” and that three sites he owned and leased to BrewDog had been sold in the past two years. - The Times