Newspaper headlines: 'Truss turns on the charm' and 'wrath of Putin'

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By BBC News
Staff

The Daily Telegraph says Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that Ukraine was behind the bombing of a bridge to Crimea paves the way for an escalation in Moscow's handling of the war.

A former Kremlin adviser is quoted by the paper saying "it's time for Russia to stop talking and instead begin silently and painfully beating them".

The Sun says President Putin's backers have urged him to launch an all-out war in order to "plunge Ukraine into dark times".

The Guardian agrees there there is a growing expectation that Moscow is planning an "imminent and harsh escalation".

The Metro says that a Russian missile attack on Zaporizhzhia, in which at least 13 people died, was revenge for the bridge bombing, and shows what it calls the "wrath of Putin".

Elsewhere, the papers are predicting a make or break week for the prime minister with the Guardian saying Liz Truss is teetering close to another major U-turn on a real terms cut to benefits.

The Express says Jacob Rees-Mogg and Therese Coffey are the latest cabinet big guns to demand rebel Conservative MPs "stop the plots" and show loyalty to the prime minister.

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The Times says Ms Truss will launch a charm offensive including policy lunches to try to win over MPs.

The Mirror calls for the benefit rise to be linked to inflation arguing that a failure to do so would condemn hundreds of thousands of people to poverty.

The i says some rebels still hold hopes of forcing Ms Truss from office "within weeks". One tells the paper "we will get rid of her", with another adding that "a lot of what she's doing is only going to appeal to the Faragesque wing of the party".

But the Express calls on Conservatives to rally behind Ms Truss' vision, adding "shame on those who seem intent on sniping from the sidelines".

Under the headline, "Campus Wokery on the March", the Daily Mail accuses universities of "caving in to activists" and imposing "left wing ideology" on the curriculum.

It reports on attempts to "decolonise" or reconsider the teaching of university topics such as dentistry and thermodynamics, and says there is an increase in the use of unconscious bias courses, which it says are discredited. The paper says the developments it has found are deeply concerning and has called on the government to act.

Finally, there is a warning in the Daily Telegraph for job seekers undergoing video interviews that their appearance might be off putting to the artificial intelligence programme being used to judge them.

It says research in Cambridge University found that many AI programmes discriminate against people for spurious reasons, such as wearing glasses or appearing in front of bare walls.

The paper advises that a headscarf be worn to show the programme you are less neurotic, and to sit in front of a book case to suggest you are conscientious.

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