Newspaper headlines: Britain 'defiant' on Russia sanctions By BBC News

Staff Published duration 11 April 2017

image copyright EPA image caption The Times argues that Vladimir Putin could help find an alternative leader in Syria

The G7 summit in Tuscany is giving serious consideration to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's demand for new, tougher sanctions to be imposed on Russia, the Daily Telegraph reports.

"To judge by the tone of the discussions," it says, "President Putin must be ruing the day he decided to give his backing to the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad".

The Times says Mr Johnson believed he had scored an important goal by bringing US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on board.

But it thinks the two face an uphill task to convince the rest of the G7 to back fresh sanctions on Russia.

"But," it says, "serious questions hang over his ability to play world statesman".

Russia 'not reliable partner'

One of President Trump's sons has told the Daily Telegraph that his father's decision to launch a cruise missile attack on Syria proves that he's not in league with Russia - and will not be pushed around by Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with the paper, Eric Trump confirms that his sister, Ivanka's, reaction to the gas attack in Idbil influenced their father's decision to strike.

In his column in the same paper, the former foreign secretary, William Hague, says the "sad truth" has dawned on President Trump - that "Russia under Putin is not a reliable partner".

There's considerable analysis of the diplomatic pressure on Russia to abandon its support for the al-Assad regime.

The Times argues that Vladimir Putin could break a dangerous East-West impasse by helping to find an alternative leader to the "butcher of Damascus".

But the Guardian believes he's in too deep: five years of political capital; tens of billions of dollars; Russia's role as both dominant regional presence and rising global force - these are all at stake, it says, if Vladimir Putin abandons Syria's leader.

Medical breakthrough

The Daily Express leads on details of a medical procedure which has seen patients with severe heart disease recover full fitness - without the need for a transplant.

The system, involving a battery-operated pump, has been developed by a team at Newcastle University.

The pump is intended to be a bridge which can keep the patient alive until a heart is available for transplant.

But the researchers have found they help some patients to recover to such an extent that they no longer need a transplant.

The Daily Mirror claims "Tory cuts" have created a North-South divide in the funding of care for the elderly.

The charity, Independent Age, is said to have found that aid to northern councils is being cut more than to councils in the south.

"The north west," says the Mirror, "well known for its anti-Tory sentiment, has the worst performing care homes in England".

The paper calls it a "scandal".

Town hall 'fat cats'

People at risk of HIV in Scotland are to be given drugs on the NHS that will protect them from infection, according to the lead in the Guardian

The paper calls it "a significant victory for campaigners".

The National Aids Trust says the speed and decisiveness of the Scottish process contrasts starkly with delays in the other three UK nations.

According to the Daily Mail , 539 "town hall fat cats" are now being paid more than the prime minister, while households are hit by huge council tax rises.

The figures, from the Taxpayers Alliance, show a rise last year of 11% in the number of council staff earning more than £150,000.

Critics, the paper says, are asking why councils do not curb executive pay instead of frontline services.

The Sun calls it a scandal and asks "have the town hall paper shufflers no shame?"

'Unprecedented mourning'

There's extensive coverage of the funeral on Monday of PC Keith Palmer - who was killed at the Houses of Parliament in the Westminster attack last month.

The front pages of the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror focus on a fellow officer wearing white gloves carrying his helmet into the service at Southwark Cathedral, after thousands of people lined the route of the procession from the Houses of Parliament.

The Sun says his final journey began through the gates that he laid down his life to defend. It says 50,000 people lined the route in what was "an unprecedented show of mourning for an officer killed in the line of duty".

'Life-changing'

The Guardian has a photo on its front page of a smiling girl who it says is the first child in Britain to receive an artificial heart

Chloe Narbonne, who is 13 and from Worcester, had the device installed in a nine-hour operation involving 30 staff at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.

The artificial heart kept her alive until a real one became available a few weeks later.