The inquest into the death of soldier Jaysley Beck makes the front of the Daily Express, after a coroner ruled she had been failed by Army chiefs who did not properly deal with harassment by her colleagues. The paper quotes the mother of 19-year-old Royal Artillery Gunner Beck, saying “no apology will ever bring our daughter back” and that “things need to change”.
“Hounded to her death,” says the Metro, which reports Gunner Beck died by suicide after being sexually assaulted by a senior officer and also relentlessly harassed by her boss. It says the Army is “under the spotlight” for failing to take proper action against either of the men. The Metro adds that the inquest has also led to hundreds of women coming forward to tell of being harassed, abused and raped while in the military.
Gunner Beck is also pictured on the front of the Guardian. But its top story focuses on comments by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who says the West should not be “fooled” by Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of any peace talks about Ukraine. Lammy said the UK was “ready to listen” to Russia but “we expect to hear more than the Russian gentleman’s fabrications”. Lammy’s warning comes as the UK tries to tread a “fine diplomatic line” between supporting Ukraine and not offending Donald Trump, the Guardian adds.
The i newspaper reports that there are calls for the UK to raise its defence spending to 3% of GDP ahead of his talks with Trump next week. Nato’s former second-in-command in Europe, Gen Sir Richard Shirreff, tells the paper Sir Keir “will be laughed out of court” when he meets Trump unless there’s a new spending pledge. Defence spending is currently at 2.3% of national income but the Treasury wants to raise it to 2.5%, although it has not said when. But according to the i, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has signalled that it could rise “sooner rather than later”.
The Financial Times reports that the US is opposing wording that describes Russia as the aggressor in the Ukraine war, in a statement by the G7 group of countries. The G7 traditionally issues a message of support to Ukraine on the anniversary of the invasion – but the FT has spoken to Western officials who say this year “the Americans are blocking” some of the language.
The Sun’s front page story is on disgraced former News broadcaster Huw Edwards who, it says, has broken “cover for the first time” since receiving a suspended sentence. It quotes a passer-by who spotted Edwards as saying: “He was coughing and spluttering a bit. He looked a shadow of his former, super-confident self.” The Sun says Edwards is still refusing to return to the the £200,000 he earned after he was arrested.
Daniel Craig’s James Bond is the main picture for the Times, after the franchise’s long-serving producers gave control to Amazon. But the paper’s top story is on a government plan to offer European countries an “Australian-style youth mobility scheme”. According to the Times, the plan would see tens of thousands of young EU workers able to come to the UK to live and work for two years, and a reciprocal scheme for Britons going to the EU.
The main photograph on the front of the Daily Telegraph is of Israeli soldiers repatriating the bodies of hostages Oded Lifschitz and Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, after they were released by Hamas on Thursday. But the main story is on the paper’s own investigation which reports that doctors who change their gender are given a new registration number, meaning any past complaints against them are erased from their public record.
The UK’s current spell of “bonkers weather” makes the front of the Daily Star. It says the country is split down the middle with “lucky gits living in the South parading around in their budgie smugglers while poor sods up North face a bit of snow”. “How very, very British,” it adds.
The Daily Mail’s front page is dedicated to its own campaign, which it says is to “protect Britain’s creative industries from the threat of AI”. It says senior figures from music, media and film have now backed the campaign and issued a stark warning over the “potentially devastating” impact of a plan to allow big tech firms to ignore copyright rules when training AI systems.
The Daily Mirror also mentions its own campaign on its front page – this time focused on dentistry. The government is announcing the rollout of 700,000 extra emergency dentist appointments from April, it reports. The paper calls it a “victory” for its campaign called Dentists for All.
