Day: 23 February 2024

The Daily Express says the Metropolitan Police has been accused of “normalising aggressive and offensive acts” after a pro-Palestine slogan was beamed onto Big Ben. The paper describes the contentious slogan as genocidal. Scotland Yard said it was not a criminal offence.

The Sun’s front page features pop star Ellie Goulding, pictured in Costa Rica with a man said to be her surfing instructor. The paper suggests the singer is in a new relationship with a ‘surf hunk’ claiming ‘wedding rings are off’ and her ‘hunny remains in the UK.’

The Daily Mirror leads on a pensioner jailed for smuggling £1m worth of cocaine on a cruise ship has told of his regrets after breaking his silence for the first time. The paper says he refuses to admit guilt and instead is demanding compensation for ‘human rights breaches.’

No one single story dominates Friday’s front pages, instead, a mix of domestic and international topics find space on the front splashes. However, most papers continue their coverage of Wednesday’s Commons chaos, as it emerged the Speaker of the House bent the rules due in part to fears over the safely of MPs. 

A private US company – Intuitive Machines – has made history by becoming the first commercial outfit to put a spacecraft on the Moon. “What we can confirm, without a doubt, is our equipment is on the surface of the Moon and we are transmitting,” flight director Tim Crain announced.

Five students have been wounded in an apparent knife attack at a school in the western German city of Wuppertal. According to a teacher, the pupils were attacked with a knife and a pair of scissors, German media reported. 

The mother of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has said she has been shown her son’s body but the Russian authorities are pressuring her to allow a “secret” burial. 

Social media company X has confirmed that it has taken down accounts and posts related to the ongoing farmers’ protests in India. The site, formerly known as Twitter, says it took down the pages after the Indian government sent them “executive orders”.

Beau Lamarre, a 28-year-old police officer, has been charged with murdering missing Australian TV personality Jesse Baird and his boyfriend Luke Davies.

Emergency services in Valencia say that a devastating fire has killed at least four individuals in a towering residential complex. The inferno consumed a 14-story building in the Campanar neighbourhood and extended its reach to an adjacent structure.