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Newspaper headlines: PM 'downbeat' about unlocking, and Biden on NI

By BBC News
Staff

Published
image captionThursday's i newspaper describes Boris Johnson as downbeat about the plan to lift all lockdown rules in England on the planned date of 21 June. It says the chances of the reopening going ahead are fading, and the prime minister will make a decision on Sunday night after the G7 summit finishes. Scientists are warning Downing Street that the UK could still face a threat from a "substantial third wave", the paper adds.
image captionGovernment sources are also suggesting the outlook for 21 June was more pessimistic, the Guardian reports. But its top story is on Matt Hancock, who is set to appear before MPs later to defend his handling of the pandemic. The paper has spoken to some of the UK's largest care home providers who say they repeatedly warned Mr Hancock's department about the risk of not testing residents before they were discharged from hospitals.
image caption"Why so glum?" the Daily Mail asks Boris Johnson, as it reports three pieces of good news which it says gives a huge boost for the case to end lockdown on 21 June. It says a record 1.1 million vaccine appointments were booked in a single day; an NHS boss expressed confidence that jabs have broken the link between infections and deaths; and the head of the Bank of England said the economy was booming.
image captionThe Times reports that even if the lockdown easing on 21 June is delayed, unlimited numbers will be allowed at weddings. But its top story reports that US President Joe Biden ordered officials to issue Boris Johnson with a diplomatic rebuke - something rarely exchanged between allies - for "inflaming" tensions amid the row over part of the Brexit deal called the Northern Ireland protocol.
image captionThe Financial Times says President Biden will put pressure on Mr Johnson to work with the EU to resolve the stand-off later, saying Mr Biden has "deep" concerns that it could endanger peace in NI. Boris Johnson is set to meet US President Joe Biden later, before the G7 summit begins on Friday.
image captionThe row between the UK and EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which could soon see sausages from Great Britain banned from entering NI, also makes the front of the Daily Star but it delivers it in its unique way. "Euro chiefs wave their chipolatas in our faces," is its headline, with the story going on to add: "And these guys really take their chipolatas seriously." The paper's thought for the day adds: "What's the wurst that could happen?"
image captionThe Daily Mirror says it is joining a campaign to save a pub in Lancashire, which needs to be bought by Sunday or will be lost. The paper says nearly a fifth of pubs face being closed by August after being devastated by the pandemic. Locals need to raise £75,000 in days to buy it.
image captionThe Metro's front page brings the latest from the court case of Danyal Hussein, who is accused of killing Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, in north London last June. It says the court heard that Hussein killed the two sisters after believing he'd made a pact with a demon promising to "sacrifice" women in exchange for winning the lottery.
image captionThe Daily Express' front page is on the royals, following the headlines about whether Prince Harry and Meghan had spoken to the Queen before naming their newborn daughter Lilibet, her nickname since childhood. It notes that Thursday would have been the Duke of Edinburgh's 100th birthday.
image captionAnd the Daily Telegraph reports that more than 150 lecturers at Oxford University are boycotting one of the university's colleges and refusing to teach its students in protest at the decision to keep the statue of Cecil Rhodes. There have been calls to remove the statue of British imperialist Rhodes at Oriel College, saying he represented white supremacy. The rebel lecturers have been accused of "academic blackmail".

The G7 summit features in several of Thursday's newspapers, as world leaders begin to arrive in Cornwall before the official meeting starts on Friday.

Like many of the papers, the Daily Telegraph has a front page photo of President Biden arriving in the UK on Wednesday evening with the First Lady, smiling and waving as they emerge from Air Force One.

It reports on an aspect of the deal expected to be signed by the president and the prime minister when they meet in Cornwall - the full reopening of transatlantic air travel.

The Telegraph suggests that a joint taskforce is to be set up which could give its recommendations next month. The paper believes this offers "the hope of US holidays later this summer being salvaged".

Boris Johnson - in a piece for the Times - extols the virtues of the new Atlantic Charter he intends to sign with President Biden.

image copyrightPA Media
image captionPresident Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrived at an RAF base in Suffolk on Wednesday, before jetting to Cornwall

There's advice for the prime minister in the Daily Mirror, which urges him to "listen to Joe" when it comes to the standoff with Brussels about the checks on some items of British produce arriving in Northern Ireland.

The Mirror believes President Biden's warning - that the impasse could harm the Good Friday Agreement - is correct, and it calls on Boris Johnson to heed it, and stop what it calls his "dangerous grandstanding".

According to the i newspaper, "a Brexit-shaped cloud hangs over Cornwall". The paper believes that the ongoing row with Brussels will overshadow the G7 summit.

It argues that while Boris Johnson may press for greater international collaboration on issues like climate change, and Russian and Chinese aggression, "there is a real danger of the ongoing effects of Brexit seeping into all parts of Britain's diplomacy".

Under the headline "from fry-up to foul-up", the Daily Mail describes the idea of the European Commission in effect banning the sale of British sausages in Northern Ireland as "absurd".

It thinks a "pragmatic compromise" must be found - and suggests "Joe Biden may act as peacemaker at the G7 summit".

But it concludes that "bangers should be on the breakfast table, not the international agenda".

image copyrightGetty Images
image captionThe UK and EU are in a row about arrangements for goods such as chilled meats arriving in NI from mainland Britain

The Daily Mail's front page focuses on the coronavirus lockdown measures which, under the original plan, were due to end in England on 21 June.

Under the headline: "The data's great, now cast off our chains", its leader urges Boris Johnson to stick to his plans.

To underline its case, the paper refers to what it calls a "triple dose of good news". This includes the large numbers of under-30s booking coronavirus jabs, the fact that the economy is doing better than expected, and the belief by some senior NHS figures that vaccinations have broken the link between Covid infections and deaths.

The Times reports that, whether or not restrictions are relaxed later this month, Mr Johnson will lift the 30-person limit on weddings.

The paper says it has been told that the prime minister - who himself got married at the end of May - is determined to relax curbs on weddings and receptions.

"Last chance saloon" is the Daily Mirror's lead. It suggests that nearly one fifth of the UK's pubs are facing closure by August, as a result of the Covid crisis.

Under the headline: "find it inn your heart", the paper calls on readers to back its campaign to save one such pub, the Trawden Arms in Lancashire.

The Mirror says villagers in Trawden need to raise another £75,000 pounds in order to buy it as a community asset - or it will close within four days

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Meanwhile, the Guardian says it has been told by some of the UK's biggest care home operators that - during the first wave of Covid in 2020 - they repeatedly warned the Department of Health, about the risk of not testing people discharged from hospitals into care homes.

The paper suggests the findings will "increase pressure" on the Health Secretary Matt Hancock - who is due to be questioned by MPs today.

The department is quoted saying that in February 2020, the scientific understanding suggested people with no symptoms did not pose a significant transmission risk. It also points out that: "Those with symptoms would have been tested and isolated accordingly".

The Daily Telegraph reports that a new radio telescope has detected hundreds of "mysterious" radio bursts from space.

It is in Canada and picked up more than 500 of the short, intense pulses between 2018 and 2019 - far more than have ever been spotted.

The discovery has prompted Avi Loeb, a Harvard science professor who is not involved in the project, to speculate that they may have come from distant civilisations. The headline asks if this is: "Alien FM."

Finally, the Sun and the Express both report that the chimes of the clock - at All Saints' Church, in the village of Kenton in Devon - are to be silenced, after one person complained to the local council.

Teignbridge District Council says it was obliged to investigate, and concluded that there was a noise nuisance.

The Sun's headline calls it "Un-BELL-ievable".