Newspaper headlines: Trump's NHS pledge, and online gambling fears By BBC News

Staff Published duration 4 December 2019

US President Donald Trump grabs the newspapers' attention with his denial of interest in the NHS - even "on a silver platter".

By contrast, the Guardian reports that the Labour leader is using the issue to "pile pressure" on the Conservatives.

The Daily Mirror argues that Mr Trump's denial could be taken as confirmation the NHS is a target in a trade deal, because the exact opposite of what he says tends to be the truth.

image copyright EPA

The Telegraph notes that Boris Johnson spent most of the day steering clear of the US president - even failing to greet Mr Trump and the First Lady outside No 10 to minimise the number of photographs of them together.

The paper explains that the prime minister wanted to avoid giving Labour the chance to criticise him over his relationship with the president.

For the Times and the Financial Times the main story is the prime minister's determination to push ahead with a new tax on technology giants, despite the risk of a trade war with the US.

Mr Trump is threatening France with tariffs because it has introduced a similar levy. The Times says ministers here have warned Mr Johnson that his proposal could derail post-Brexit trade talks with the US.

The Daily Mail's main story is an NHS survey suggesting 53% of people in England gambled last year. The Telegraph, which also highlights the findings, says smartphones have been blamed for causing increasingly addictive behaviour.

The Mail adds that the study paints a bleak picture of a country also struggling with obesity, heavy drinking and chronic diseases. "Fat and boozy?" says the Sun, "You bet we are".

The Mirror's front page declares that "ordinary households" would each be £6,716 better off under Labour - because bills would fall as public services are nationalised.

Inside, it admits that the calculations which produced that precise figure will be "picked over" but it says there's no dispute over who the party aims to help: working people.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Shadow chancellor John McDonnell will give a speech in Birmingham later

According to the Telegraph, a lesbian couple from Essex have become the first parents to have a baby carried in both of their wombs , in an IVF procedure known as "shared motherhood".

Jasmine Francis-Smith gave birth to the couple's son, Otis, two months ago using an egg incubated by her wife, Donna. The women say the procedure made them feel equal in the whole process.

The i newspaper, among others, highlights research suggesting that dogs are better at understanding language than previously thought.

Tests found that they can recognise a word even when it is spoken by a range of people with different voices.

Dogs can also filter out accents and distinguish between different speakers -techniques critical to language.

"They're being clever and doing two things at once", Holly Root-Gutteridge, of the University of Sussex, tells the paper.