A number of Thursday’s papers carry a picture of 10-month-old Kfir Bibas – the youngest hostage to be taken on 7 October – who Hamas claims died, along with his mother and four-year-old brother, in an Israeli strike.
The Daily Telegraph carries a picture of him in his mother’s arms. The Daily Express has just a photo of Kfir’s face – “Smile of an innocent “lost” in a war with no end” – is its headline. Israel said it is investigating the report.
The Times says Rwanda’s support for Britain’s plan to send some asylum seekers to the country is at “risk of collapse” because of the continued delays in getting flights off the ground.
It says senior diplomats have privately warned the Foreign Office that Rwanda’s commitment cannot be taken for granted.
The paper says it has been told by government sources that they are braced for relations between the two countries to be tested further when emergency legislation is introduced in parliament.
Details from Omid Scobie’s new book about the Royal Family feature on the front page of the Daily Mail. It reports that two Royals who were named in a Dutch translation of the book as raising “concerns” about the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s son were identified on UK television on Wednesday.
The book was withdrawn from sale in the Netherlands. The paper says the revelation was made by Piers Morgan on his Talk TV show and on social media.
Mr Morgan said he believed it would enable people in the UK to have a more open debate about what he described as “this whole farrago”. The Mail says Buckingham Palace has declined to comment.
“Air pollution from fossil fuels kills five million people a year” is the headline in the Guardian.
The paper says the figure – which was published before the start of the COP28 climate summit in Dubai – will increase pressure on world leaders to take action. It says that among the decisions they must make at the conference is whether to agree to gradually phase out fossil fuels.
The Daily Mirror leads with its own investigation into the NHS, under the headline: “Nightmare at A&E”.
The paper says its examination of performance reports on every hospital trust paints an alarming picture of accident and emergency wards “stretched to breaking point”, with over half rated as “inadequate” or “requiring improvement”.
And there is exciting news for baked beans lovers, according to the Times, which reports that a home grown commercial crop of the haricot bean has been canned in Britain for the first time.
The plants that yield the best beans do not thrive in Britain, the paper explains. But after 13 years of research a dozen cans have been produced using a variety of the bean called capulet, which has been grown in Lincolnshire.
