Newspaper headlines: Extra time in Brexit talks for a 'final push'
By BBC News
Staff
- Published
The Guardian and Financial Times say hopes are rising of a deal between Britain and the EU, after the talks went into "Extra extra time", as the i headline calls it. The Times has been told that after a week of hostility between the two sides there have been positive discussions on the sticking point of ensuring a level playing field.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the talks could go on until New Year's Eve because neither side has set a new deadline. The Daily Express thinks EU leaders are "buckling" under the prime minister's demands that they respect British sovereignty. Its headline wonders if they have "finally got the message".
In the view of the Spectator's political editor, James Forsyth, the geo-political consequences of no deal are beginning to sink in for both sides.
The Daily Telegraph highlights a call from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, for all schools in the city to shut from tomorrow because of rising coronavirus infection rates. The paper says Mr Khan is on a "collision course" with the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who believes it is a national priority to keep children in schools.
The Telegraph reports that the rate of infection in London is doubling every four days and quotes a "health source" who says it appears inevitable that the city will be moved into tougher tier three restrictions this week.
According to the Sun, Princess Beatrice has been accused of breaking Covid rules by dining inside a restaurant with five other people from different households. There's no official comment from Buckingham Palace but the Sun says a Royal source has described the event as an "introductory work meeting" - which is permitted by the tier two restrictions currently in force in London. Under the headline "Beahave!" The Sun quotes an unnamed witness who says "if royals can't get the rules right, what hope the rest of us?"
Beatrice's father, the Duke of York, features on the front page of the Daily Mail, under the headline "New Andrew Bombshell". It claims to have evidence that the Prince stayed overnight at the New York home of the convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, in April 2001, when it is alleged he slept with a trafficked teenager. In his Newsnight interview last year, Andrew denied staying at Epstein's mansion, though he said he may have visited it. The Duke has emphatically denied any form of sexual contact or relationship with the woman who has made the allegations against him.
The Guardian, which helped to expose the Windrush scandal, reports that the compensation scheme for victims is to be made swifter and more generous. It says there'll be a basic minimum award of £10,000 for everyone affected by the scandal, which saw British citizens, many with Caribbean backgrounds, deported or threatened with deportation, despite having the right to live in the UK.
A portrait of the author, John Le Carré, is the main photograph on the front of the Times, though news of his death came too late for some of the first editions. The New York Times says his exquisitely plotted Cold War thrillers elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet agents as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system.