Newspaper headlines: 'King's relief' Harry will fly home for coronation

By BBC News
Staff
"Harry home alone" is the headline that sits atop the Metro, highlighting a royal story that is popular with today's papers. Alongside images of the King and Duke and Duchess of Sussex is the news that Prince Harry will travel back to the UK alone for his father's coronation while his wife stays in the US with their children. Below that the paper warns of "naked fury", referring to hundreds of complaints made over Channel 4's new programme Naked Education, which sees "naked adults strip in front of schoolchildren" to teach them about bodies.
Prince Harry's coronation trip is described as "blink and you miss it" by the Daily Mail, with columnist Sarah Vine claiming Meghan's absence will be a "relief" to Buckingham Palace. The paper - whose publisher the prince is in the process of suing over separate allegations of phone-tapping - says the announcement came after "delicate negotiations" between the Sussexes and the Palace, described to the Mail by an unnamed sourced as "a game of 'transatlantic ping pong'".
"Spare will be there" is how the Daily Mirror sums up Prince Harry's coronation plans, making reference to his recent memoir, titled Spare, which saw the royal make a swathe of allegations about his family - including of a physical fight between him and brother Prince William over remarks the latter supposedly made about Meghan. Prince Harry's trip to the UK will be quick, the Mirror reports.
Citing unnamed royal sources, the Daily Telegraph claims Prince Harry's decision to attend the coronation has "pleased the King" - and has raised hopes that the pair are on track for some form of reconciliation. "It is about showing support and being there for his father," one source told the paper, adding it was a "personal decision, not a PR one". There is also some detail about Meghan's decision to stay in California, which the paper claims is to celebrate the couple's son Prince Archie's fourth birthday - the same day as the coronation (6 May).
The King's "relief" that his youngest son will be at his coronation is the focus of today's Daily Express, with the paper branding the monarch "forgiving" and the prince "disgruntled". Despite the news, the paper warns that "there will inevitably be a lot of scrutiny on the strained links" between the royals after the duke's bombshell memoir, published earlier this year. The celebrations will mark the first time Prince Harry has been seen with his family since the book's release.
The i leads on US President Joe Biden's promise to invest billions in Northern Ireland, "if parties work together and return to power sharing at Stormont". There is also a top spot for the story about Prince Harry flying solo to the King's coronation next month, with the paper using an image of a stern-looking Duke of Sussex alongside his wife Meghan.
Mr Biden's appeal to Northern Ireland's political parties is also covered by the Financial Times, which carries a photo of the leader with actor James Martin who recently starred in the Oscar-winning film An Irish Goodbye. The president will spend the rest of his trip in the Republic of Ireland, the paper notes.
While the prince's coronation trip features on the Times' front page, the paper leads with a story about US intelligence leaks. MPs fear that British lives have been put at risk while Whitehall is bracing itself "for further damaging disclosures about sensitive military operations," it reports, citing various defence officials.
The Daily Star warns of the "worst shortage ever" of penguins and in turn their faeces. The paper cites "enviro boffins" as saying the bird's excrement has major environmental benefits.

The confirmation that the Duke of Sussex will attend the King's coronation next month is the focus of many of today's front pages. The Daily Mirror sums up the situation with the headline: "Spare will be there".

The Daily Telegraph says the Duke is understood to have agonised over the decision for weeks, following the recent rift in the family. The Sun claims the King is happy that his younger son is coming back to the UK for the ceremony, but has "some disappointment" that the Duchess of Sussex and the couple's children will not be making the trip.

Some of the papers note that the Duke is expected to have a limited role - the Daily Mail's headline is: "Harry's blink and you miss it Coronation visit".

Reuters

The Times says Whitehall officials and intelligence agencies are braced for the potential release of further information about sensitive military operations, following US intelligence leaks. The documents, which first circulated online, include allegations about the presence of British special forces in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defence says the leaked files contain a "serious level of inaccuracy".

A security source is quoted in the paper as saying it is worrying that there could be more revelations. The Daily Mail focuses on comments from a 20-year-old British student who discovered that the US intelligence leaks were posted online.

Some of the papers pick up on a report which says the UK is experiencing a "rapidly escalating" diabetes crisis. The charity Diabetes UK, which published the findings, says 4.3 million people have been diagnosed with the condition, and almost a million others are living with it, but have not yet been formally diagnosed.

The Daily Express has spoken to one family GP who says he has noticed the increasing number of people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes over his almost 40-year career, which has left him to conclude that "surely the time has come to invest in prevention".

Getty Images

The Guardian reports that more measures are having to be introduced so that music festivals in the UK can adapt to extreme weather conditions. The paper highlights the case of Standon Calling, a festival in Hertfordshire, which in the summer of 2021 was preparing for a dry weekend, then had to deal with a downpour which flooded part of the site.

A year later, after taking precautions following the flooding, the organisers had to deal with a heatwave. John Rostron, from the Association of Independent Festivals, is quoted as saying the biggest challenge for those he represents is a "lack of action on the climate".

Both the Mail and the Express have published photographs of Arnold Schwarzenegger fixing a huge pothole near his home. The actor and former governor of California posted footage of himself shovelling tarmac and explaining that he felt compelled to do something as people in the neighbourhood kept complaining about the state of the road. Both papers have dubbed him the "Tar-minator".