'Healey to defer defence spend target' and 'Fergie's coming home'
Several of Saturday's papers focus on the UK's defence spending. The Financial Times says Chancellor John Healey "will shelve his own target of spending 3% of Britain's GDP on defence by 2030" in his first Budget in October.
Healey has been called a "hypocrite" by critics in reaction to his plans to scale back his target, the Daily Mail reports. Healey resigned as defence secretary in June in protest at then-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's spending plans.
In a move to apply pressure on Prime Minister Andy Burnham to increase defence spending, the US has threatened to oppose British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, the Daily Telegraph reports. According to the paper, the proposal is "among measures being drawn up" by Pentagon officials as an incentive to reach "Nato's 5% spending pledge".
The Daily Express headlines on Burnham's vow to abstain in the assisted dying vote and remain neutral when the bill returns to the Commons. His stance is expected to bring relief to campaigners, the paper reports.
King Charles III has written to the families of the two police officers who were killed in the A66 horror crash, the Daily Mirror reports. A royal source describes the King as "shocked" by the event, the paper says.
New polling for the i Weekend says Labour has leapfrogged Reform UK in the polls. Burnham is the only leader with a positive approval rating, the paper says, as Nigel Farage loses one in 10 of his voters to the Restore Britain party.
British economic advisor Lord O'Neill of Gatley has told the Times that if the UK government raises taxes in the Budget, it means ministers are not "thinking about growth as sincerely as they claim they are". The chancellor is considering tax rises "as concerns mount about the impact of the Iran war on the public finances", the paper reports, which O'Neill called "stupid".
The Guardian leads with a picture of a woman who survived the Nepal flash floods under the headline "the flood took everything away". The paper reports on three women who lost their "sons, husbands, and homes", while countless others wait for news about their missing loved ones.
The Independent also features pictures from the devastating Nepal flood disaster, including four Britons who are among the missing. The paper headlines on the "true cost of Brexit" to British trade being £11.7bn in the red.
Sarah Ferguson is heading back to the UK after leaving the country when new details emerged about the links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, according to the Sun. Coming in the wake of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's return to the country, Ferguson is renting a £10,000-a-week house in the Home Counties, the paper says.
And the Daily Star features British TV personality Joey Essex who says he still can't tell the time.
