Pm urged to up defence spend and strike on Kyiv hospital
The general election may be over but UK politics continues to dominate the front pages, with the i’s main headline describing new Chancellor Rachel Reeves as being “ready for war” on housing and those against new homes being built. Labour, the paper adds, is beginning to “set about meeting its pledge to build 300,000 homes a year”.
Ms Reeves is also the focus of Tuesday’s Financial Times. The business paper reports that the chancellor has instructed the Treasury to “examine previous spending under the Conservatives”, having warned that Labour has inherited “the worst set of circumstances” since World War Two.
Defence spending is another issue on some front pages, with the Times reporting Sir Keir Starmer is “under pressure from former military chiefs” to increase it. The paper says the new prime minister will travel to Washington on Wednesday for a Nato summit and, while there, sit down with President Joe Biden. It comes as Mr Biden dared members of his own party to run against him for the Democratic presidential nomination, as the Times covers in a separate story.
Also leading on defence spending is the Daily Mail, describing a strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday as an “atrocity” – and an example of “why Britain and Nato must spend more on defence”. The paper says the summit in Washington will amplify Ukraine’s demands for more air defence weapons to defend its skies” from Russian attacks.
The Daily Mirror is more direct in its report, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of bombing “cancer kids” by carrying out the attack. The attack has sparked global fury, the paper adds. Russia has denied targeting the hospital, saying it was hit by fragments of a Ukrainian air defence missile, but Ukraine says it found remnants of a Russian cruise missile.
“A war against life itself” is the Guardian’s headline about the hospital struck in central Kyiv – with an accompanying image of a child being carried to safety. Back in the world of UK politics, the paper also covers what it bills as new Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s “first major policy announcement”, in the form of “billions of pounds” reportedly being diverted from hospitals to GPs.
Another image of the aftermath in central Kyiv sits atop the Daily Telegraph, with a woman seen crying and holding a child whose hand is bandaged and bleeding. The paper’s main story, though, is about an ongoing feud between J K Rowling and Labour, over the party’s stance on women and transgender rights. The author has criticised Sir Keir for selecting Anneliese Dodds as his minister for women and equalities, after Ms Dodds previously said there are “different definitions legally around what a woman actually is”.
JK Rowling “attacks ‘nonsensical’ past comments by new women’s minister’ is the Daily Express’s take on the row. Elsewhere, the paper asks whether the new chancellor will have to raise taxes or implement cuts to services as she settles into her new role and warns of tough choices. There is also another picture of the blast at a children’s hospital in Ukraine.
In some travel-related news, the Metro says “thousands of holidaymakers” being left grounded after airlines reportedly axed dozens of flights due to bad weather – dubbing the issue “groundedhog day”. The issue largely affected London’s busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, the paper writes.
“I got 99 problems but a beach ain’t one” is the Daily Star’s main headline – about an ice cream van that was washed out to sea after being parked on a beach in Cornwall. A photo shows people trying to save the vehicle as it becomes more and more submerged.
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