There is a picture on the front of the Times of British Royal Marines, marching across a runway, as they head to Sudan to help UK nationals leave the country.
The headline is “make your own way to Sudan airlift, Britons told”. It quotes an unnamed defence source denying that the UK abandoned its citizens when it decided to pull diplomats out first.
The i also leads on Sudan stating that UK troops will use force to defend the evacuation operation, if it is targeted by Sudanese militias. The Metro’s front page has a photo of an RAF plane taking off from a base in Cyprus, on its way to the African country. The headline is “run for your lives”. The Daily Express describes it as the “great escape”. In a comment piece, the former British Army commander, Colonel Richard Kemp, warns that it is a “race against time” because the ceasefire could collapse at any moment.
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Around 40 UK nationals arrived on the first RAF flight from Sudan to Cyprus
Under the headline “end dithering”, the Daily Mirror’s opinion column accuses Britain of being “slow off the mark” in its response to the conflict in Sudan. It suggests the Foreign Office was “caught on the hop” and expresses hope that now the evacuation mission has begun it will be a case of, in the paper’s words, “better late than never”.
The Sun suggests that what it calls the “shambolic” response to the crisis may be because many Foreign Office staff are still working from home. Under the headline “shirk force” it asks: “how urgent and co-ordinated could any effort be to rescue thousands of Brits from an African war zone when key officials pad down the hall in slippers to ‘work’ from their spare room?”
Image source, Getty Images
Joe Biden has announced his bid for re-election
The Financial Times focuses on President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will run for another term in the White House. The paper’s leader column describes the decision as “a high-risk gamble for the Democratic Party, for America and for the wider world”. This it argues is because of his age – 80 – which the FT believes makes him a “liability for the Democrats”.
“Age is not disqualification to great office,” says the Daily Telegraph, referring in its leader to both Gladstone and Churchill. It is more worried about Joe Biden’s record in office, which it believes has “not been a success”. It questions whether he would be up to the global challenge posed by, for example China invading Taiwan.
There is disgust in the Daily Mail about the prospect of Mr Biden battling it out with Donald Trump. Under the headline “American nightmare”, the paper’s leader column states that it is “dispiriting to think that the US may have to choose between “an octogenarian seemingly suffering from cognitive decline, and a puffed-up 76-year-old narcissist fighting to stay out of prison”.
Finally, the Guardian is among several papers to mark the death of Harry Belafonte, whom it describes as a “rebel spirit, singer, actor and activist”. In an interview, the British film maker Steve McQueen, who directed “Twelve Years A Slave”, describes how he met Belafonte after the film was released, and the older man “became a mentor”. McQueen tells the paper: “He meant everything to me”.
