What the papers say – March 10

At the end of the working week, Britain’s front pages report that the country’s long delayed high-speed rail line will be pushed back by another two years.

The Times, the Daily Mirror and the i carry the announcement from the transport secretary that construction of the HS2 between London and Manchester has been delayed with ministers blaming spiralling construction costs.

The Daily Mail and the Daily Express continue to follow the fallout of Gary Lineker criticising the Government’s new migrant Bill.

Staying with the small boats crisis, The Independent says Emmanuel Macron is expected to reject British calls to return Channel asylum seekers to France, after his calls for more safe and legal routes to the UK were ignored.

Elsewhere, Metro focuses on events in Ukraine after its nuclear plant was again targeted in a Russian missile strike.

Sticking with Russia, the Financial Times reports two oligarchs are planning to offload their 2.3-billion-dollar stakes in Russia’s largest private lender to free themselves from sanctions imposed by the West over the war.

More than 500 seriously ill patients died last year before they could get treatment in hospital after the ambulance they called for took up to 15 hours to reach them, an investigation by The Guardian has revealed.

Children are being taught sex education lessons that have “no basis in any reputable scientific biological explanation”, the head of the schools regulator Ofsted has warned, The Daily Telegraph says.

And the Daily Star calls the Duke of Sussex a hypocrite for christening his daughter with a royal title.