Newspaper headlines: 'Alfie's battle' and William 'nods off' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 26 April 2018

image copyright PA

The pledge by more than 40 companies, including most of the UK's largest supermarkets, to cut plastic packaging is covered widely.

It is, according to the Daily Mail's headline, the "Day the Tide Truly Turned" . The paper says the companies are vowing to "kill off throwaway plastic".

The Times describes it as the most significant voluntary initiative to reduce plastic waste since the issue rose up the political agenda last year, partly in response to the BBC's Blue Planet series.

It adds that the commitment is not to remove all single-use packaging, but only that which is "problematic or unnecessary".

According to the paper, Tom Evans - the father of the seriously-ill child - is to launch a private prosecution against doctors. A summons has been served against three members of staff at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool who recommended switching off his life support.

image copyright Alfies Army Official/PA

Rejecting a fresh bid for Alfie to have treatment abroad, judges said the medics had been providing "world class" care.

Writing in the "i", Deborah Orr says in his grief, Tom Evans is unable to see that he is being used by right-to-life propagandists.

She says they can no more save his son than the medics who have been trying for so long.

The Daily Express leads on the case - reporting a message from Alfie's father to supporters hailing his son as a "warrior".

The paper says the reaction to the court ruling that life support should be turned off has "transfixed and divided the world".

Windrush treatment

The treatment of the Windrush generation of immigrants continues to attract headlines.

The Daily Express reports on the case of a women who has paid UK taxes for almost 40 years but was sacked last month from her job as a receptionist at a charity because she could not prove her right to remain.

Jessica Eugene arrived in Britain from the Caribbean in 1970 at the age of 10. She urges the authorities to look at people as individuals.

The Financial Times reports an announcement by WhatsApp that it is raising the minimum age for users in Europe to 16.

image copyright Reuters

The instant messaging app is responding to EU data protection rules which take effect next month.

The paper says it is unclear, though, how the age limit will be enforced.

The FT quotes one analyst as saying the move will irritate many parents who use WhatsApp to communicate with their children.

Only 90 minutes

It says the firm helped to produce a proposed customs arrangement designed to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.

Politico says the contract ended last month, and the plan was dismissed by the EU almost as soon as it landed in Brussels.

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It says the opening of Wednesday's hearing was taken up with a spat over whether the 90 minutes which Mr Davis said he could spare would be long enough.

The Telegraph's Michael Deacon writes that the Brexit secretary's answers are invariably so waffly and unenlightening, you would think committee members would be demanding less time with him, not more.