Newspaper headlines: Sunak to meet EU chief on Brexit deal and 'Italy tragedy'

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By BBC News
Staff
Reuters

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen is on her way to the UK for talks on the Brexit deal

"Can Sunak sell his Brexit deal?" That's what the Daily Mail calls the "burning question", as the European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen heads to the UK for talks this afternoon. It says a new agreement on Northern Ireland trade could trigger what it's calling "another Tory civil war".

The Daily Telegraph also warns that a revolt is brewing, reporting that unionists and Tory eurosceptics are refusing to back a deal unless EU law is "expunged" from Northern Ireland.

The Times says the prime minister has been on a charm offensive to sell it to MPs. The paper has a guide to what it calls the "tribes that need taming" within the Tory ranks - along with a danger rating for how likely it is each group could scupper the deal.

This could be the most "perilous" week of Rishi Sunak's political life, says the Guardian. The Daily Express quotes the prime minister as promising the accord is "best for Britain" and will prove that "Brexit works". The Financial Times has been told the deal could enable pets to travel freely between Great Britain and Northern Ireland without the need for microchips and passports.

"ENERGY NIGHTMARE" reads the front page headline of the Daily Mirror. It carries a call from campaigners for the government to prevent an expected £500 rise in the typical annual energy bill from April. The paper says the increase will push an extra 1.7 million households into fuel poverty.

Students sitting the International Baccalaureate will be allowed to use the artificial intelligence chatbot, ChatGPT, to write their essays, according to the Times. It says the qualification body will allow pupils to quote work that is generated by the technology, as long as they credit it. The idea, it says, is to enable children to use the tool ethically, just as they have learned to use technologies such as calculators and translating apps.

Animal lovers are causing conflict between cats, badgers, hedgehogs and other British wildlife by leaving out food in the garden, a study cited by the Telegraph has found. The paper says researchers at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Brighton have analysed videos recorded by the public to investigate the interactions between different species. They found that animals would often get in to fights over the scraps - with badgers usually coming out on top.