Britain will spend an extra £2bn on drones and “seek to introduce weapons and tactics developed during the war in Ukraine” in a bid to make it “battle-ready” reports The Guardian as laid out in the government’s Strategic Defence Review. Defence Secretary John Healey said that the Army would become “ten times more lethal”. Also on the paper’s front, a large image of tourists in front of “huge plumes of grey ash” as Sicily’s Mount Etna erupts also features.
Mount Etna’s explosion and Britain’s “war footing” also make the front page of The Times. As the isle faces a “new era of threat”, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said the British Army will grow for the first time in a generation. One expert cited by The Times warns the increase in spending will mean “some really quite chunky tax increases”.
According to the Financial Times, it’s submarines that are “at (the) heart” of the Defence Spending Review, with the government unveiling plans for 12 nuclear-powered attack submarines. Elon Musk has launched a “$300m share offer for xAI in bid to refocus on business” the paper writes, after stepping back from his role in the US government last week.
A military “gap year” for over-18s that has been suggested in the Defence Spending Review is The i Paper’s main headline. Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out national service, instead offering a paid year to teach school-leavers about the military, it writes.
The “budget delay ‘won’t cut the mustard’ as Russia threaten” warns former Army chief Lord Dannatt. The ex-military official has said Sir Keir Starmer’s Strategic Defence Review announcements will be too slow. A picture of Madeleine McCann appears atop the paper as it announces a “new search for Maddie where she disappeared.” McCann vanished in Portugal when she was three years old in 2007.
“More than 20 sites to be searched” by German police in the “hunt for Madeleine” echoes The Daily Telegraph. The new effort “is expected to last for three days and signifies the first major search in Algarve for two years”. The Telegraph also touches on the Strategic Defence Review, headlining on Sir Keir Starmer being told “cuts to the Army must be reversed”.
The “new Maddie search” comes 18 years after her disappearance writes the Daily Mirror. It is one of many tabloids to feature the story on its front page.
The search for Madeleine McCann will be “near prime suspect’s old home”, writes the Daily Mail. Also in its top billing, Kemi Banenoch warns of “backdoor blasphemy law” as a man was convicted for setting fire to a copy of the Quran. The Conservative leader told MPs that the case should go to appeal, the Mail writes.
There will be a “radar search” for McCann says The Sun as police plan to dig 15ft (2.5m) down in Praia da Luz to solve the mystery of her vanishing amid a “race to charge suspect”. Brooklyn Beckham, son of David and Victoria Beckham, is pictured lying on the floor with his wife Nicola Peltz Beckham accompanied by the strapline “Brooklyn bites Beck”.
The Daily Star also headlines on “Maddie search shock” saying 30 German police are taking part in the search for the missing girl in “wells, land and a cottage”.
A soldier was “dead three weeks in bed at barracks” reports Metro. Paramedic Paul Spence told the court there was “no evidence of self-harm or suicide” and the post-mortem has “failed to uncover a cause of death”, the paper writes. Family of the “bullied” soldier say they have “so many questions”. The inquest continues.
Several front pages focus on the new searches in Portugal by detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 18 years after she vanished while on holiday there.
The Telegraph says the operation is believed to be a “final push” to secure evidence needed to bring the prime suspect Christian Brueckner to court.
The Daily Mirror says officers will scour rural land close to his former home with “wells, ruins and water storage tanks” among the places set to be examined.
According to The Sun, ground-penetrating radar will be used to search trenches dug for works that were taking place at the time the three-year-old went missing, but have since been filled in.
The Times reports on a call from Sir Tony Blair for Britain to lead the way with AI doctors and nurses or risk being left behind in what he describes as the biggest upheaval since the Industrial Revolution.
The former prime minister made the comments at a festival in London where he urged the government to embrace artificial intelligence in every department, warning the UK couldn’t afford to be squeamish about the technology.
The paper says the technology secretary Peter Kyle told the same event he was willing to take risks on AI because it was a greater risk to resist change.
With the headline “Tory warnings over backdoor blasphemy law”, the Daily Mail highlights concerns expressed by Kemi Badenoch, following the conviction of a protestor who burned a copy of the Koran.
It says the Conservative leader believes the case should go to appeal after she said she would defend freedom of belief and freedom not to believe until her dying day.
When asked about the case last night, the prime minister’s spokesman said there were no blasphemy laws in England and there were no plans to introduce any.
The Guardian claims to have learned that the recent airstrikes on school buildings being used to shelter displaced Palestinians in Gaza are part of a deliberate bombing strategy by the Israelis and more schools have been identified as targets.
It says the Israel Defence Forces insists it operates on the grounds of military necessity and within international law.
