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.
