Newspaper headlines: 'Defiant' May gives Brexit 'ultimatum' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 22 September 2018

image copyright SNS image caption Theresa May tried to sell her Brexit blueprint to EU leaders in Salzburg

Theresa May's Downing Street statement is on the front page of most of Saturday's newspapers.

"Defiant May raises stakes with no deal threat to EU," is the headline in the Times, while the i newspaper reads: "May tells EU: I'm not for turning."

The Sun describes the televised speech as a "dramatic retaliation for her Salzburg humiliation", while the Mail calls it a "stirring" riposte.

And in a front page comment piece under the headline "May's finest hour", the Express says the "self-serving" EU leaders turned their backs on the prime minister and insulted the UK.

The Financial Times quotes an unnamed EU diplomat as saying Mrs May's defiance was primarily aimed at her domestic audience before the Conservative Party Conference later this month to show she was not a "wounded animal" after Salzburg.

Similarly, her speech is dismissed as "a piece of posturing" by the Mirror. The newspaper says her "synthetic anger at Brussels" was a bid to "save her skin" ahead of the Conservative Party Conference.

The Guardian reports that Downing Street is "calculating" that the prime minister can win support by appearing to stand up to the EU.

But the paper says critics within the Tory party believe Mrs May needs to drop her Chequers plan or risk facing hostile activists at the conference.

According to the Telegraph, Mrs May is heading for a showdown with her ministers at a cabinet meeting on Monday. The paper reports she will be urged to offer an alternative plan to the one agreed at Chequers - or face resignations.

Gender neutral army fitness

Many papers give prominence to an announcement from the Ministry of Defence that the Army is to scrap easier fitness tests for female and older soldiers.

The Sun says the gender and age-neutral tests will be introduced next year.

According to the Telegraph, the tests - which previously had varied time limits or requirements depending on age and gender - will now have a set standard for everyone.

An army official is quoted as saying: "I don't care if you are a man or a woman. I don't care what you do, and the enemy doesn't either".

image copyright Getty Images image caption Aaron and Jasper are declining in popularity but Nigel is making a comeback of sorts

Many papers report that one of the most popular names given to baby girls for more than a century - Sarah - has dropped out of the top 100 list in England and Wales for the first time since records began.

The Telegraph says the name - which was number one in 1974 and 1984 - fell to 103 last year.

The Guardian says official figures show that parents are clearly aiming for something more celestial now - with Luna and Aria among the fastest rising girls' names of the last decade.

The most popular names were Oliver for boys and Olivia for girls. The least popular, according to the Mail, included Ajax, Reese and Ripley among boys and October, Success and Zamora for the girls.

Meanwhile, tourists are being urged to return pebbles taken as souvenirs from a Greek beach where the Abba musical Mamma Mia! was filmed.

The Guardian reports that containers emblazoned with the words "Lalaria Beach return pebbles box" have appeared at the airport on Skiathos - where locals are campaigning against tourists stripping the beach of its famously smooth marble stones.