The Times reports that the National Crime Agency has warned parents about letting their children on Facebook. The platform’s parent company Meta is to introduce encrypted messaging – meaning it will no longer be able to see what users are sharing with each other. The agency believes this will lead to Meta providing fewer reports of child abuse to police, a claim the company disagrees with. The agency’s director general of operations, Rob Jones, told the paper the NCA had lobbied Meta against the move, which he believes is based on profitability.
“Justice for My James” is the Daily Mirror’s headline. It quotes James Bulger’s mother, Denise Fergus, as saying that the refusal of parole for Jon Venables, one of her son’s killers, is the best thing that has happened to her for 30 years. James was abducted, tortured and murdered by Venables and Robert Thompson in 1993.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Britain is to spearhead a fighter jet project under a new treaty to be signed with Japan and Italy later on Thursday. Originally announced last December, its aim is to create the next generation of supersonic aircraft, to be in the skies by 2035, to replace the Typhoon jet. It’s the first time the UK will have provided the headquarters for a multinational fighter jet programme.
The Times says that new analysis of official figures suggests that hundreds more middle-aged people have been dying each month since the pandemic ended. It reports that 28,000 more people died in the first six months of the year, compared with the five year average. The biggest rise in unexpected deaths was in adults aged 50 to 64. The paper says obesity levels and NHS waiting lists since Covid are partly to blame.
The Daily Mail reports that the Conservative Party’s deputy chairman for women has vowed not to stay silent on women’s rights, after police took no action against her over allegations she’d been transphobic. Rachel MacLean shared an online post about an aspiring Green MP who’s transgender which called them “a man who wears a wig and calls himself a proud lesbian”. She apologised for any offence but told the paper she’s going to carry on saying “what a woman is”.
The Daily Telegraph says that under new NHS targets two million people will be advised to boost their statin dose to reduce cholesterol levels. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence wants people already on statins to have lower levels of cholesterol – both the good and the bad – than those set for the general public. It hopes the advice will mean about 145,000 and fewer heart attacks, strokes or other cardiac incidents over the next 10 years.
And the Sun, Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph all carry pictures on their front pages of the missing Norfolk woman, Gaynor Lord, who hasn’t been since Friday. The Daily Mail says CCTV footage of the 55-year-old has only deepened the mystery of her disappearance because it shows her smiling at work moments before she disappeared. Police believe the most likely scenario is that she “entered the water” of the river Wensum in Norwich. The Sun says Norfolk Police are liaising with the police in Lancashire where Nicola Bulley disappeared in almost identical circumstances in January.
