Legend, The Times headlines that Just Stop Oil protesters have been given lengthy prison sentences. Five activists, including the group’s co-founder Roger Hallam and 22-year-old Cressida Gethin, have been jailed for terms ranging from four to five years for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25 motorway in 2022. The newspaper quotes environmental activists as calling the sentences a “gross miscarriage of justice”. The Times also headlines that US President Joe Biden’s “former boss”, Barack Obama, wants him to reconsider running for president. Legend, The Guardian also runs the headline Just Stop Oil, noting that the prison sentences are likely to be the longest ever handed down in the UK for non-violent protests. The paper also features a photo of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shaking hands, noting that the Ukrainian president is due to meet the new British cabinet on Friday.Legend, A photo of Extinction Rebellion co-founder Roger Hallam takes up a large portion of the Daily Telegraph’s front page. “XR founder, a bigot, jailed for five years,” the newspaper headlines. In a statement delivered at the trial, Hallam said there was “an obligation” to stop the “unimaginable horrors of climate change and social breakdown.” The newspaper also reports that some Democrats believe President Biden could withdraw from the presidential race as early as this weekend. Legend, The Daily Mail said the judge who sentenced the Just Stop Oil activists to lengthy prison terms “spoke for us all”. But TV presenter and environmental campaigner Chris Packham criticised the sentences, calling the law under which they were convicted an “irresponsible and reckless erosion of our human rights”.Legend, “Time is up,” is the message Barack Obama reportedly sent to Joe Biden, according to i. The newspaper’s lead story says workers will be allowed to ignore emails, texts and phone calls in the evenings under new rules set by the new Labor government. The rules are not mandatory but are part of a “new code of conduct for workplaces,” the newspaper says. Legend, Democrat Nancy Pelosi has also reportedly cast doubt on President Biden’s chances of winning the White House race, the Financial Times reports. The newspaper adds that Barack Obama has told allies that Biden’s chances of beating Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump later this year have diminished significantly. Legend, “They have let us all down,” headlined the Daily Mirror, referring to the findings of the Covid inquiry published on Thursday. The report “criticised Boris Johnson’s handling of the crisis” and quoted Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK as saying that “the last government failed its citizens”. The former prime minister has previously apologised to victims for the “pain, loss and suffering” people have suffered during the pandemic, but said ministers did their “best” to respond to the virus in difficult circumstances.Legend, The Metro headlines a “damning report” that claims Andrew Malkinson, a man who was jailed for 17 years for a crime he did not commit, could have been exonerated a decade earlier.Legend, The Daily Express hails “progress” after a British ship reportedly brought migrants to France for the first time, “a further sign of improving cooperation on the small boat crisis”. It also asks “is it all over for Joe?” amid speculation he will pull out of the presidential race.Legend, “Scorchio!” wrote the Daily Star, as a heatwave hit the UK on Friday.
The findings of the first report of the public inquiry into Covid are widely reported in today’s newspapers.
“They failed us all,” ran the headline in the Daily Mirror, alongside a photo of former prime minister Boris Johnson wearing a face mask. The Guardian cited the report, which said Britain’s Covid planning was “marred by fatal flaws”. The Sun claimed the UK’s Covid failures caused 235,000 deaths. But it claimed the only real fault of successive health ministers was accepting complacent assurances from the health experts advising them.
The Times said the report highlighted “a culpable failure of imagination on the part of politicians and scientists… who failed to consider the full range of potentially disastrous scenarios while there was still time to do something”. This must never happen again, the newspaper said. The Daily Express agreed, saying that “next time we must be prepared”.
The i newspaper, the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph all report on the efforts of Democrats to push US President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign. The Telegraph reports that Mr Biden could step down this weekend. It quotes a friend of the president as saying: “I pray he does the right thing. He’s headed in that direction.”
The i editorial said Biden’s advisers “have hidden their growing concerns about his ability to run the campaign and ultimately win the highest office.” The Financial Times said Democratic officials were lobbying behind the scenes, but Biden’s campaign team was fiercely defending him, insisting he remained in the race.
“The judge who spoke for us all on Eco-Fanatics” is the headline in the Daily Mail, under photos of the five environmental protesters sentenced to up to five years in prison on Thursday for blocking the M25 for four days. But the Times criticises the sentences. The newspaper quotes entrepreneur Dale Vince as saying that the prison sentences – the longest ever handed down for non-violent protests – “cannot be justified”, given prison overcrowding. Guardian columnist George Monbiot said: “These are sentences of the kind you would expect in Russia or Egypt”.
Legend, The sketch’s writers focus on Sir Ed Davey’s appearance at the Post Office inquiry on Thursday.
The sketch’s writers focus on Sir Ed Davey’s appearance at the Post Office Horizon inquiry. Writing in the Daily Mail, Quentin Letts said he was glad the appearance had taken place after the general election. If the “Thursday session” had taken place before polling day, he said, the Lib Dems “might have gone down with a fire in their arses”.
For John Crace in The Guardian, “He was, at times, a shifty Ed. At other times, a bewildered Ed. An Ed who couldn’t believe what had happened to him.”
The Times’ Tom Peck reports that Sir Ed narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. “I watched those same eyes as their owner straightened up and was propelled 80 feet into the air by a giant pendulum. I saw them swing around a high curve at 68 mph and transform into the only quadruple-barrel roller coaster section in Europe. I only realise now that I’ve never seen the man look nervous,” he says.
