A number of Wednesday’s papers lead with a row between the the government and the Covid-19 inquiry over calls to submit WhatsApp messages exchanged between former PM Boris Johnson and others during the pandemic. The Daily Telegraph says the Cabinet Office initially refused to hand over the messages, arguing some were not relevant, but then hours before the deadline on Tuesday claimed it did not have them. The paper says the row has led to allegations of a cover-up, a claim that has been denied by Number 10.
The Daily Mirror carries a picture of Mr Johnson out for a jog on Tuesday alongside the headline: “Running & hiding”. It says ministers have been given until 16:00 BST on Thursday to deliver the WhatsApp messages.
PM Rishi Sunak is facing mounting calls – including from some within his own party – to hand over the messages, while relatives of some who died in the pandemic are questioning “what ministers have to hide”, according to the Guardian. A spokesperson for Mr Johnson has also told the paper he has “no objection” to his WhatsApps, as well as 24 notebooks, being given to the inquiry.
The Daily Mail leads with a joint statement from 350 experts on artificial intelligence warning that the technology could “wipe out humanity”. The paper quotes the statement, which was also backed by heads of leading AI companies, saying the issue should be given global priority “alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”.
Among the concerns expressed in the statement are that AI could be used to quickly build weapons of mass destruction, destabilise governments, censor communication, and ‘enfeeble’ dependent humans, according to the i.
The Times quotes Dr Carissa Veliz, from the institute for ethics in AI at Oxford University, saying the technology “can create huge destruction short of existential risk” and that the focus on such risks distracts from “more pressing issues, like the erosion of demise of democracy, that CEOs of certain companies do not want to face”.
Western nations are ramping up pressure on Turkey to allow Sweden’s accession to Nato following President Erdogan’s re-election in a run-off over the weekend, according to the Financial Times. Erdogan has so far blocked the move, accusing Sweden of harbouring militants from the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group. Writing for the paper, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson says an anti-terror law coming into force on Wednesday delivers on the last part of an agreement between the two countries and that “only [Russian president] Vladimir Putin has anything to gain from Sweden remaining outside of Nato”.
The headline in the Daily Star reads: “Spy who came in from the cod”. The paper says a beluga whale thought to have been trained to spy for Russia has been spotted after a four-year absence.
This Morning presenter Holly Willoughby will return on Monday despite pressure to step down amid the turmoil engulfing the show, according to the Sun. The paper quotes former host Eamonn Holmes saying Willoughby should “follow Phil out the door” but says she remains “defiant”.
The Daily Express reports some civil servants are considering strike action over government plans to deport people arriving in the UK illegally to Rwanda and that Tory MPs have called for anyone who takes part to be sacked.
And the Metro says a primary school teacher has been fired over an online post in which he told four people he would bring them to justice over threats made against his wife. Michael Flynn, 52, tells the paper: “I’m the victim of a crime, yet I’m being punished.”
