Newspaper headlines: Jeremy Clarkson row, and fake news By Owen Amos

BBC News Published duration 16 November 2016

Jeremy Clarkson, a can of beer, and an airport worker who may - or may not - have been Argentinian.

What could possibly go wrong?

On Monday, Mr Clarkson was flying from Stuttgart to London with James May and Richard Hammond, the Sun reports

The presenter - and Sun columnist - says the group was stopped at the departure gate.

When he asked what was wrong, he claims a worker smiled and said: "You've missed it."

When Mr Clarkson said they had left the lounge on time, the worker allegedly said: "I'm from Argentina", before swearing at the group.

"His colleagues were suggesting we were too drunk," Mr Clarkson says. "But we'd had one can of beer.

"The police met us and could see we were stone cold sober."

According to the presenter, officers said the worker may have committed a "hate crime".

image copyright SEBASTIAN GUZMAN image caption The number plate that got Mr Clarkson into trouble in Argentina in 2014

For his part, the airport worker insists he wasn't rude - and says he is Spanish, not Argentinian.

In 2014, Mr Clarkson had to flee Argentina after locals thought the number plate on his Porsche - H982 FKL - referred to the Falklands War.

The Stuttgart stand-off did have a happy ending, though.

After failing to catch the BA flight, Mr Clarkson's group went home on Easyjet - which, he says, got there quicker.

"It's England 1, Argentina 0," the presenter says.

Screen test

image copyright Thinkstock

Pre-school children are "glued to their screens for four hours a day", says the front page of the Daily Mail.

According to Ofcom figures, they are online for 71 minutes - and spend another three hours watching television and playing computer games.

"The findings are very, very worrying," the literacy adviser Sue Palmer tells the paper. "There are so many other things that kids of that age should be doing."

The Times puts a different spin on the Ofcom data. " Children turn off TV and log on instead ," reads its headline.

The paper says youngsters aged 5 to 15 spend 15 hours a week online, an increase of over an hour on last year.

Meanwhile, TV viewing dropped by more than an hour to just under 15 hours.

"Children's lives are increasingly digital," says Jane Rumble, director of market intelligence at Ofcom.

However, television is still popular - as a letter in the Daily Telegraph proves.

"On Monday I told my 13-year-old son - whose time would be totally consumed by television or any other screen given the opportunity - that for the first time in his life and mine there would be a supermoon," writes James Fenner from London.

"His reply: 'Cool - what time is it on?'"

media caption James Lyons and Bronwyn Curtis review Wednesday's papers

Brexit bill

Britain could have to pay a £50bn "exit charge" when it leaves the EU, reports the front page of the Financial Times

The bill (60bn euros) includes unpaid commitments, pension liabilities, and spending on UK-based projects.

The paper's previous estimate was for a £17bn bill - but it says Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief negotiator, is planning a more "hefty" charge.

In the Guardian, columnist Rafael Behr questions the government's Brexit tactics - or lack of tactics.

"It is understandable that Mrs May is unwilling to give greater clarity about her agenda," he writes.

"Her stubborn, cultivated inscrutability may be vindicated in time.

"But the prime minister's enigmatic confidence increasingly calls to mind the emperor's new clothes."

The Daily Mail, however, has no time for such pessimism.

"After being proved 100 per cent wrong over the immediate consequences of a Brexit vote, you might expect the Remainers to show a little caution and humility before prophesying disaster again," says the Mail's editorial.

"Some hope!"

Send in the Army

image copyright Reuters image caption Prison guards outside Wandsworth on Tuesday

"Justice Secretary Liz Truss was poised to call in hundreds of squaddies to man jail perimeters," the paper reports. The story claims soldiers were "minutes away" from being sent in.

The Daily Telegraph says the walkout was called by "left-wing supporters of Jeremy Corbyn".

It says the head of the prison officers' union, Steve Gillan, "supported Mr Corbyn at momentum meetings".

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror speaks to a former prison officer who was stabbed with a broken bottle in Durham's Frankland jail in 2010.

"In fact, I think it's worse."

Fruit case

A court case involving Mr Banana and Ms Orange is - inevitably - covered widely in the tabloids.

Themba Banana, who's 29 and from Preston, pleaded guilty to assaulting his girlfriend, Sarah Orange.

The court heard the pair argued when Miss Orange, 22, thought Banana was speaking to another woman.

In the row that followed, Banana threw a plant pot at Miss Orange.

He was given a community order with 25 hours' rehabilitation and 100 hours' unpaid work.

Also in the news

image copyright EPA