Newspaper headlines: ‘Putin’s nuke threat’ and ‘Farmageddon!’

A number of the front pages carry warnings of an increasing nuclear threat from Vladimir Putin, after he approved new rules for Russia’s military. “Putin clears way for nuclear strike,” declares the Daily Mail‘s headline, after Ukraine fired US long-range rockets into Russia for the first time. The paper calls it a “dramatic escalation on the 1,000th day of the conflict”.

The Times says Putin has raised the “nuclear stakes” by lowering the legal threshold for using atomic weapons, in retaliation for attacks on its territory with Western-supplied weapons. The paper says Putin has been weighing up altering his nuclear doctrine for several months.

President Putin has “ramped up fears of nuclear war”, says the Daily Mirror. It labels him a “tyrant” – and, in a comment piece, the MIRROR says the Russian leader invaded his neighbour “in a bloodthirsty land grab” and now the victim he is pummelling is fighting back with US-supplied weapons.

The Guardian reports that the United States is “incredibly concerned” about what it calls a “Russian hybrid warfare campaign” against the West. According to the paper, people briefed on discussions about Russia’s likely response say that potential hybrid attacks could include expanding “its campaign of sabotage and assassinations in Europe” or “further arming US adversaries in the Middle East and Indo-Pacific”.

The farmers’ inheritance tax protest in London is also on the front pages. The Telegraph carries a large photo of Jeremy Clarkson – who owns a farm – talking to the media. He was one of the high-profile supporters to join thousands of farmers at Westminster.

The Mail calls it “the day Clarkson’s farmer army parked on Starmer’s lawn”. The paper says protesting farmers have warned that “this is just the warm up” against what it calls the “government’s inheritance tax raid”.

The Times reports that Labour MPs have privately warned that the plans to raise inheritance tax risk hitting the “average farmer”, rather than the intended targets. As the paper puts it, they are “non-farmers buying swathes of agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax”.

The i describes the protest as a “farmer drama for Starmer”. The paper says it understands that Labour MPs in rural areas are lobbying ministers behind the scenes. But it adds that some insiders are digging in over the protest, saying: “They don’t vote for us anyway.”

Farmageddon!” warns the Metro‘s headline.

First class stamps are now so expensive, it can be cheaper to fly to Europe to post your Christmas cards, according to The Telegraph. It says Royal Mail’s decision to raise the price to £1.65 means that sending a letter from some countries abroad costs half as much as sending it domestically. Analysis found six foreign destinations where posting 100 cards would be cheaper than in Britain even when including the cost of a return flight.

For instance, sending 100 cards from Belgrade to the UK would cost £78 and flights from Luton to the Serbian capital can cost as little as £33 – a total of £111 – still much less than the £165 the postage would cost in the UK.