Papers assess second troop surge

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The announcement of thousands of extra American troops for Afghanistan prompts the Daily Telegraph to declare: <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6704241/Afghanistan-UK-and-US-troops-to-launch-new-onslaught-against-Taliban-within-weeks.html">"Taliban face knock-out punch".</a>

The report says 9,000 US Marines will be deployed to Helmand to fight beside British forces in a New Year offensive.

The paper sees the surge as the biggest gamble of Barack Obama's presidency.

The Times calls the surge <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article6939824.ece">late but welcome.</a> But in the Daily Mail, Max Hastings says the strategy is about managing failure, <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1232483/MAX-HASTINGS-Obamas-Afghan-surge-winning-war-managing-looming-failure.html">not winning the war.</a>

Vanishing ice sheets

The Copenhagen Conference is next week, and the papers focus on climate change.

The Sun has sent its environment editor to the Greenland ice sheet, which he finds "vanishing at breakneck speed".

But the <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.express.co.uk/home">Daily Express</a> devotes its front page to an assault on the scientific consensus that global warming is caused by human activity.

The Independent, meanwhile, says David Cameron is facing a backlash from some of his MPs who are uncomfortable with his environmental stance.

'Backbench fast track'

The Daily Mail <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232472/Furious-MPs-accuse-Johnson-refusal-save-Gary-McKinnon-extradition.html">hammers the home secretary</a> for defending the extradition of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker with Asperger's Syndrome.

The Guardian says Alan Johnson looks less like the next Labour leader and seems "on the fast track to the back benches".

The Mail reports on figures suggesting extra spending on schools under Labour has delivered <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232447/Damning-indictment-Labours-record-schools-grades-barely-improve-despite-spending-doubled.html">negligible improvement.</a>

The record investment has produced an average increase of one GCSE per pupil every five years, the newspaper says.

Last of its type

A literary sensation is reported in the Guardian and the Independent.

The novelist Cormac McCarthy is <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/dec/01/typewriters-fine-writing">selling his trusty typewriter,</a> on which he has written an estimated five million words during five decades.

The author of No Country for Old Men has accepted it is time to replace his portable Olivetti machine, which he bought at a pawn shop for $50 in 1963.

It will be auctioned in New York on Friday, when bidding is <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/after-five-million-words-the-end-of-the-road-for-cormacs-typewriter-1832214.html">expected to reach $20,000 (£12,000).</a>