'Day that changed the world forever' and 'Mayors plot hols tax'
Several of Friday's papers lead on the news that from early 2028, local mayors in England will be able to impose a tourist tax. The Guardian notes that the move has been "welcomed" by regional leaders, but ministers are facing "outrage" from the hospitality industry, which it says was expecting much stricter controls on how much could be charged and how the money will be used.
The Daily Mail accuses Burnham of "launching another raid on struggling families", estimating the unlimited overnight visitor levy would cost holiday makers approximately £1.6bn by the end of the decade.
Labour mayors have committed to keeping the levy below 5%, the Daily Telegraph reports, while Reform UK and Conservative mayors have pledged not to introduce it at all. It reports that Burnham's own backbenchers have said the plans will damage the economy, describing it as "anti-growth" and arriving at "the worst time" for the hospitality industry.
"What the hol, PM?" asks the front page of the Sun, suggesting the move is at odds with the prime minister's vow to help with cost of living.
Actress Helen Mirren glitters front and centre of the Times, after the 81-year-old "dazzling dame" attended the London premiere of the new series of MobLand. The main story for the paper is a potential £100 increase on energy bills by the end of the decade, which it says is due to a "failure to upgrade Britain's power network".
Several publications have used their front page to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City. On Tuesday 11 September 2001, hijackers seized US passenger jets and crashed them into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing 2,977 people. The i Paper says it was the "day that changed the world".
Similarly, the Metro describes a "day of terror that shook the world". It adds that 9/11 has left a "deadly legacy", reporting that thousands of people who breathed in the toxic dust that followed the fall of the two skyscrapers have since died from cancer.
The 9/11 tribute twin light beams are pictured on the front page of the Financial Times, which shine every year on 11 September to commemorate the victims of the attack. The paper also carries a story that leads on the surge in US long-term borrowing costs, which it says have reached their highest in nearly two decades.
The Daily Express has spoken to a terminally ill woman ahead of the vote on assisted dying in the House of Commons on Friday. Hannah Slater, a 38-year-old with incurable cancer, told the paper that MPs should "just pass the bill".
The vote on assisted dying is also the lead story for the Daily Mirror. Dame Esther, who is 86 and terminally ill with cancer, said that though she had planned to end her life at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, she is now too frail to travel. She demanded that ministers vote in favour of the bill, writing that "everything I didn't want to happen I'm having to go through now".
Quoting Dame Esther, the Daily Star's headline is: "It's too late for Dignitas."
