What the papers say: Thursday's front pages

A wide variety of stories feature across Thursday’s front pages, including the attack on an off-duty police officer in Omagh and an alleged fraud scandal involving a retired GAA star.

The Irish Times publishes a new poll showing that support for Fianna Fáil has slipped three points since Michéal Martin left the taoiseach’s office in December.

High Court actions have been launched by the family of an American couple who died after their pony and trap plunged down a steep rocky ravine near Killarney, the Irish Examiner reports.

A leading bank is in contact with gardaí as part of an investigation into an alleged fraud scandal involving a retired GAA star, according to the Irish Independent.

The Irish Daily Mail reports on new CSO data that reveals 66,000 Irish pensioners are living in consistent poverty.

The Irish Daily Mirror and Belfast Telegraph report on the shooting of a senior police officer by masked men in front of young people he had been coaching at a sports centre in Co Tyrone.

A man who broke an 8-year-old's nose with a punch features on the front page of the Irish Daily Star.

The British papers are led by plans to crack down on the UK's soaring backlog of asylum cases.

The Daily Express reports the scheme, which is being launched on Thursday, will aim to fast-track thousands of cases.

The Daily Mail leads with critics of the policy labelling it an “amnesty in all but name”.

Elsewhere, The Independent leads with bare supermarket shelves as fruit and vegetable shortages spread across the UK.

Metro says a Lidl manager stopped a woman from buying 100 cucumbers for her business, while the Daily Star dedicates its front page to a campaign to “save our salad”.

The Telegraph carries a warning from telecommunications giant BT that a planned increase in corporation tax would send Britain in a “drastically anti-investment direction”.

The Guardian reports pollutants which build up in the body and do not break down in the environment have been found at high levels at thousands of sites across the UK and Europe.

The UK's health service wants to double medical school places under a blueprint to tackle the industry’s chronic job shortage, according to The Times.

The i says the nurses’ union has been accused of breaking ranks with fellow strikers after it paused planned industrial action to engage in “intensive talks” with the government.

The Financial Times reports tobacco group Phillip Morris International has said it would “rather keep” its business in Russia than sell it on stringent Kremlin terms.

And the Daily Mirror carries an interview with two captured members of Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries.