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Newspaper headlines: 'Third wave alert' and jab donations call

By BBC News
Staff

Published
image captionThe Daily Telegraph leads with calls for richer countries to give more coronavirus vaccines to poorer nations - or risk new variants emerging that could bring about future lockdowns. In an article for the paper, the heads of the World Health Organization, International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group and World Trade Organization warn the current situation risks creating a "two-track" pandemic.
image caption"Third wave alert" is the headline for the Metro, which says there are fears the final stage of easing lockdown in England due on 21 June may be delayed. The paper says scientists are warning a rise in cases of the variant first identified in India could become a surge and overwhelm hospitals. A less gloomy warning features on the other half of the front page, with the headline "heat wave alert", alongside a picture of two children enjoying a lido near Bristol on Monday - the hottest day of the year so far.
image captionMeanwhile, the Guardian says scientists are urging the government to speed up administering second doses of Covid vaccines and to delay the decision on easing lockdown on 21 June amid concern about the spread of the Indian variant. The variant is believed to be more transmissible than the one previously dominant in the UK and somewhat more resistant to vaccines, particularly after only one dose, the paper reports.
image captionThe Sun is urging its readers "to join a race against time to maximise Covid jabs" and sign up as vaccine stewards to help beat the Indian variant. Like other papers, it also warns the variant could threaten plans to ease restrictions on 21 June.
image captionThe Daily Mail uses its front page to launch a campaign to end what it describes as "rip off" tests for holidaymakers. MPs, travel chiefs and consumer groups have accused the government of reneging on its promise to significantly drive down the price of travel testing, the paper reports.
image captionThe Daily Express hails a "sunny outlook" for the economy, with vaccines boosting the UK's recovery. Economists have upgraded their forecast and now expect the UK to beat all major rich nations this year, with 7.2% growth, the paper reports. Alongside its lead story, the Express has a picture of a woman sunbathing on an inflatable on what it describes as a "record baker" of a day, with temperatures reaching 25C.
image captionThe Daily Star also focuses on the warm weather, urging readers to slap on the suncream after the UK recorded its hottest day of they year so far. The paper has a picture of a packed beach in Bournemouth, where sunseekers flocked to enjoy the bank holiday.
image captionThe school day in England will be extended by half an hour under a £15bn Covid rescue plan to help children catch up after the disruption of the pandemic, the Times reports. The paper has seen a leaked presentation of a report by Sir Kevan Collins, the government's education recovery commission, which it says calls for children to receive an extra 100 hours of schooling each year from 2022, with a minimum 35-hour week.
image captionThe i reports that police are failing to tackle racism by officers - citing data revealing that out of 7,837 complaints to forces across the UK about racist behaviour only 181 resulted in formal action. Just 30 officers were sacked or resigned over a five-year period, according to figures from a Freedom of Information request.
image captionThe Daily Mirror leads with a story about a five-month-old baby who has been given "a chance of life" by a £1.8m drug on the NHS. Arthur has received gene therapy Zolgensma for a spinal disorder which had reduced his life expectancy to just two years, the paper reports.
image captionThe Financial Times leads with a story about accountancy group EY, which the paper reports is to centralise power in a new European executive team. It says the move has raised concerns among some partners that any financial hit related to Wirecard - the payments group which EY audited until it collapsed in a fraud scandal last year - might also be shared.

The Metro says the UK is on "third wave alert" because of a rise in coronavirus cases linked to the variant first identified in India.

Prof Susan Michie, a government adviser, says the plan to ease all restrictions in England next month is now "on a knife edge".

There's a similar message in the Guardian. Prof Danny Altmann, an expert in immunology, says he is "disturbed" that the UK may be "drifting into a plan to tolerate long-term endemic virus".

But the Daily Mirror's leader says talk of a third wave "no longer feels as threatening as the first and second" because the successful vaccination roll out has "changed the battle".

image copyrightPA Media
image captionTwickenham Stadium, in south-west London, turned into a vaccine walk-in centre on Monday

The Times has learnt that the school day could be extended by half-an-hour in England to help children catch up with their education following months of lockdown closures.

It has seen a leaked presentation of a report by the government's education recovery commissioner, Sir Kevan Collins, which also hints at an extra year of sixth form if teenagers cannot complete their A-levels in time.

The document says the plan would cost £15bn - a figure Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reportedly "baulked at" - with the Treasury thought to be offering £1.5bn,

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Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is to present a "rap sheet" of Russia's bad behaviour at a Nato meeting later, according to the Daily Telegraph. Mr Raab will list British objections to actions including the build up of troops near Ukraine and the forced landing of a plane in Belarus by the Putin-backed Lukashenko regime.

There will also be criticism over Russia's decision to call some of the UK's allies "unfriendly countries". The Kremlin said the build up of troops to Russia's west was in response to a growing Nato threat.

"Unmasked," declares the Daily Mail, as it documents the story of the "red don of Oxford who gave nuclear secrets to Czechs".

According to newly declassified files from the security services in Prague, Prof Jirina Stone, who is now 82, passed on information about plans for third-generation nuclear weapons and UK radar during the Cold War. The documents also reveal that some of her meetings with her handler were in a branch of Miss Selfridge on Oxford Street in London.

Prof Stone emphatically denies being a spy and says she handed over only inconsequential information that posed no security risk. She says she cooperated with the agents for her own safety and that of her children in her native Czechoslovakia.

"Police fail to tackle racism by officers," is the headline in the i, which has found that out of 7,837 complaints to forces across the UK, only 181 resulted in formal action such as dismissal. The data was obtained via freedom of information requests, covering the period between 2015 and 2020.

Campaigners say the complaints system is "totally broken". The Home Office has said it expects forces to take a "zero-tolerance approach" to racism within the workplace.

image copyrightAndrew Matthews/PA Media
image captionCrowds flocked to Bournemouth beach to enjoy the warm weather

Many papers feature pictures and reports on the hottest day of the year, as temperatures passed 25C in the UK. The Daily Express calls it a "record baker", while the Sun points out that Britons enjoyed warmer weather than in the Algarve.

Estimates in the Daily Mail suggest 42 million pints were sold this weekend.

And in one of the more unusual developments, the Times reports that the warm weather has lured a tropical sunfish to Port Isaac in Cornwall.