The Financial Times reports internal opposition to President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese imports, from US business groups and figures inside the Republican party. A senior figure at the US chamber of commerce warns the policy will “only raise prices for American families”. In its editorial, the FT calls the tariffs an “absurdity” which will result in the US being “one of the main victims in the resulting harm to its economy and its standing in the world”. It concludes, bleakly, that Donald Trump’s “trade war threatens to be disastrous, but the chaos will not end there”.
The Times claims that France’s President Macron will tell Sir Keir Starmer that his presence at an EU summit, which starts later in Brussels, shows that Brexit has failed. An unnamed senior diplomat has told the paper: “Brexit was a project for a stable and prosperous world, but in a complicated world obviously the UK will be closer to Europe”.
EPA-EFE/REX/ShutterstockThe Daily Express says the Prime Minister should “worry less about the EU and its failing economies” and instead look to the US.
The newspaper says across the Atlantic, “political freedom” is “in full flight”. It calls for the UK to prioritise a UK/US free trade deal. The Mail warns against “anti-democratic surrender”, in its editorial.
A review into the UK’s defence capacity is expected to call for additional measures to counter the threat of missiles launched by Russia, the i paper understands.
The strategic defence review is expected to be given to the government in the spring, and the report suggests it will also say that additional resources will need to be given to so-called hybrid war activities, including cutting undersea cables and deploying spy ships in UK waters.
The Sun has details about an 18-year-old volunteer soldier from Huddersfield who was killed by a Russian drone in July last year, minutes into his first mission fighting for Ukraine’s foreign legion.
The paper reports a US volunteer was seriously injured in the attack which killed James Wilton, who’d flown from Manchester, with no previous military experience, to help in the defence of Ukraine.
The Daily Mirror says there have been more than one thousand six hundred alleged crimes associated with the adult website OnlyFans reported to the police in the past five years.
They include rape, blackmail and child abuse. The website has told the paper that it has required proof of consent from all who perform in explicit videos since 2020.
The Guardian carries concerns from headteachers and teaching unions that the proposed changes to Ofsted school inspections in England are “worse than the old system”.
The paper says many of the proposals have been rejected as ineffective by unions, leaving the reforms in “disarray” at the start of the 12 week consultation period. The Daily Telegraph says parents are “bewildered” by the plan to replace one word reviews of schools with at least 40 points of comparison.
