The Papers: ‘Good weather’ small boat surge and ‘tax bombshells’
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There is no standout lead story across the fronts of Wednesday’s papers. But a handful touch on small boat crossings. “Now it’s good weather to blame for boat surge!” is the headline in the Daily Express. A photo of the “major new search for missing Maddie” appears on the front, as police resume their hunt for Madeleine McCann in Portugal almost two decades after her disappearance.
The Daily Mail also goes with small boats, saying there is evidence that the “Rwanda plan did deter” them following the release of government report on the number of migrants trying to reach the UK across the English Channel. At the top of the page, the face of Rachel Reeves is superimposed inside a cartoon explosive, as the Mail offers advice on how to “armour-plate your finances” against her next “tax bombshells”.
Thames Water is “on the brink of renationalisation” reports the Financial Times in its top story as US private equity firm KKR “walked away from a £4bn rescue”. Elsewhere on the FT’s front, the “Big Four accountants”, Deloitte, EY, PwC and KPMG, are in a race to create audits for new AI products – a potential new revenue stream.
The UK will “stockpile military medical supplies for nuclear attacks” reports The i Paper. The Ministry of Defence has been urged to “work closely with the NHS and military healthcare” for “the most extreme circumstances”. A special report from “inside secret Kharkiv” is also promised in the paper, showing life in Ukraine “as Putin’s bombs continue to rain down”.
Love island “hunk” Kyle Ashman was “sensationally axed” from the show “after The Sun alerted bosses that he was arrested on suspicion of a machete attack”. ITV “sent him home from Majorca” after they learned he had been “quizzed but released” over a machete attack in Stafford in February.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is in a “£15bn spending pledge” so as to “placate fractious Labour MPs” writes The Guardian. It is an effort to convince them her review “will not be a return to austerity”. Labour’s planning bill is a “threat to English nature” the Guardian reports in an exclusive, saying “more than 5,000 of England’s most sensitive, rare and protected natural habitats are at high risk” of destruction under the new bill.
The Daily Telegraph’s headline reads “Trump attacks BBC over Hamas coverage” after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the BBC corrected and took down a story about an incident near an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Sunday. The BBC said the claim was “completely wrong”, saying it “did not remove any story and we stand by our journalism”.
The chief suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann said he was “looking forward to a nice steak and a beer” when released from jail according, reports the Daily Star. The story is based on comments Christian Brückner made in an interview with German broadcast RTL. He currently serving a sentence for rape in 2005, and could be released within a year.
“Police cuts ‘mean some crimes must be ignored'” headlines The Times. Sir Keir Starmer has been warned by police chiefs that they will face “stark choices” over what to investigate should Treasury trimming be implemented. The water sector needs a “full overhaul” according to the chairman of the Independent Water Commission in a new report. Meanwhile, singer and environmental activist Feargal Sharkey says the report doesn’t go far enough: “We were promised champagne but today we’ve been offered sour milk”.
One “mum’s message to Labour” headlines the Daily Mirror. Joy Dove warns the government to reconsider cutting benefits after a coroner ruled that her daughter took her life because her payments were “wrongly axed” under the Conservatives.
