A variety of stories lead Wednesday's papers. The i says private schools are set to "go to battle" with Labour over the party's plans to charge 20% VAT on school fees if it wins the next election. Many private schools have charitable status and so are currently exempted from various taxes. The paper says some have threated to withdraw from schemes under which they support state schools if the plans go ahead.
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The policy shows Labour's "class war begins on day one", according to the Daily Mail. The paper quotes Education Secretary Gillian Keegan calling the plan "ill thought through" and says fears have been raised that it could mean the state sector would have to accommodate an extra 40,000 pupils whose parents would be priced out of the private sector.
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The Metro leads with a speech by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, delivered on a visit to the US, in which she called for reforms to the UN rules governing the definition and treatment of refugees. The paper says Ms Braverman argued the threshold for claiming refugee status had fallen too low and that it had become too easy to claim asylum.
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Ms Braverman also argued that a failure to integrate migrants and a "misguided dogma of multiculturalism" had proved a "toxic combination" in Europe and that current levels of immigration pose an "existential threat" to the West, according to the Times. The paper quotes her as saying that Europe had reached a "critical juncture" and that a failure to tackle illegal immigration would "create the conditions for more extreme politics".
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The Daily Mirror describes the speech as "poisonous" and accuses Ms Braverman of trying to "distract from her own failures". It also quotes Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty UK, calling the speech a "display of cynicism and xenophobia".
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Three bosses on the HS2 rail project have been given salaries worth a combined total of £1.3m, while more than 40 others picked up at least £150,000 each, according to the Daily Express. It comes amid questions about the future of parts of the project because of spiralling costs. The paper calls the salaries "shameful".
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The Guardian leads with a study, published in the Lancet and drawing on evidence from 185 countries, that says a "feminist approach" to cancer treatment could save the lives of 800,000 women globally every year. The paper says the study found that "gender inequality and discrimination are reducing women's opportunities to avoid cancer risks and impeding their ability to get a timely diagnosis and quality care".
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A report prepared for the Covid Inquiry by The Children's Rights Organisations alliance, a collective of children's charities, has said the harm caused to children by lockdown measures like social distancing and school closures was preventable, according to the Daily Telegraph. The paper says the report, set to be submitted to the inquiry on Wednesday, will say that children's views and rights should have been a greater factor when ministers were making decisions about how to limit the spread of the virus.
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The Financial Times leads with a lawsuit brought against Amazon by the US Federal Trade Commission and 17 US states alleging that the retailer illegally uses monopoly power to overcharge consumers, hobble competitors, and exploit sellers on its marketplace platform. The paper says the suit marks one of the biggest tests yet for Commission chair Lina Khan and her "more aggressive stance towards Big Tech, which she believes has skirted regulatory scrutiny for decades".
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A British Airways pilot has been sacked after snorting coke off a women's bare breasts before trying to fly a jet full of people from South Africa to the UK, the Sun reports. The paper says Mike Beaton, of Devon, confessed his antics to a stewardess friend, telling her "I've been a very naughty boy", but that the stewardess reported him to bosses, who cancelled the flight and drug-tested him.
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And the Daily Star says it has taken "decisive action" by spending £78 to buy a one-acre "buffer zone" of land on the moon to keep the US and China apart. The paper says it comes after Nasa warned of a dangerous new space race between the two countries. The headline reads: "Daily Star saves the world".
