Top story: ‘Better late than never’
A controversial coalmine planned for Cumbria appears to have been put on hold with the local government secretary, Robert Jenrick, taking responsibility for the scheme away from the local authority and putting it to a public inquiry. Ministers have previously been criticised for not blocking the coalmine, particularly given that the UK is hosting Cop26, the UN climate summit, in November. A few weeks ago one of the country’s most eminent environmental scientists, Sir Robert Watson, said it was “absolutely ridiculous” the government was refusing to act.
A notice from Jenrick’s ministry to Cumbria county council said he was “calling in” the planning application, citing “further developments” since he last considered the case including a report from the independent Committee on Climate Change, which advises the government on emissions targets. The council approved the mine, called Woodhouse Colliery, in October, and Jenrick refused to intervene at the time. Alok Sharma, the former business secretary put in charge of organising Cop26, was said to be furious at the decision to let it proceed.
Greenpeace has hailed it as “fantastic news and definitely better late than never”. Friends of the Earth added it was a “startling, but very welcome U-turn”, and urged the government to refuse permission for the project.
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‘Bright and beautiful’ – Relatives of Sarah Everard have spoken of their pain after police searching for the missing 33-year-old said they had found human remains. The marketing executive’s family paid tribute to the “bright and beautiful” woman on Thursday and appealed for anyone with information about her disappearance to come forward to authorities. They described her as a “wonderful daughter and sister”, adding: “She was kind and thoughtful, caring and dependable. She always put others first and had the most amazing sense of humour.”
They added: “She was strong and principled and a shining example to us all. We are very proud of her and she brought so much joy to our lives. We would like to thank our friends and family for all their support during this awful time and we would especially like to thank Sarah’s friends who are working tirelessly to help. We are so grateful to the police and would like to thank them for all they are doing. We are now pleading for additional help from the public. Please come forward and speak to the police if you have any information. No piece of information is too insignificant. Thank you.”
Meanwhile Reclaim These Streets, which wants to hold a vigil on Saturday evening close to where Everard disappeared, has said it was told by police that it would be unlawful. The Met said in a statement last night that it understood “the public’s strength of feeling … We remain in discussion with the organisers about this event in light of the current Covid regulations.” The Labour MP Harriet Harman said she had written to the Met to back the event, adding: “Parliament has not specifically acted to constrain the right to demonstrate, so long as social distancing is observed this vigil will be perfectly lawful.”
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Met faces inquiry over Everard suspect – The Metropolitan police is to face an inquiry into whether it properly investigated a claim of indecent exposure involving the suspect in the alleged murder of Sarah Everard. PC Wayne Couzens has been arrested on suspicion of the kidnap and murder of Everard. He has also been arrested on suspicion of an indecent exposure involving another woman, and this is the incident that will be investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The alleged indecent exposure happened on 28 February at a fast food restaurant in south London. Everard disappeared after leaving a friend’s house in the south of the capital at about 9pm on 3 March to walk home.
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Arts rescue fund slow to pay out – A government fund established to prop up the arts and heritage sectors during the coronavirus pandemic has handed over little more than half of the money it has allocated, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has discovered. The National Audit Office said the culture recovery fund had budgeted for £830m in grants and loans funding so far, but only £495m had been paid out. MPs have responded angrily to the findings, urging the government to hand over the cash while “there are still organisations left to support”. London has received 31% of total revenue grant funding, followed by the north-west and the south-east of England, which each received 12%, auditors said.
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‘Pass the domestic abuse bill’ – Boris Johnson has come under concerted pressure to take action to tackle male violence and misogyny and make the UK safer for women. During the annual International Women’s Day debate in the House of Commons dozens of female MPs have told moving and angry stories of harassment. The Labour MP Jess Phillips read out the names of 118 women killed by men since last year’s debate.
The Lib Dems’ Wendy Chamberlain urged the government to make misogyny a hate crime. “Pass the domestic abuse bill – it’s been in the offing for four years,” she said. There is cross-party pressure to use the crime and sentencing bill to take tougher action on crimes against women, when the wide-ranging legislation returns to the House of Commons next week. The government is yet to publish a long-promised strategy on tackling violence against women and girls. The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Thursday that ministers hoped to do so by the end of the year.
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‘No place for us to go’ – Residents in the Yemeni province of Marib are bracing for what could be the worst mass displacement of the war as a Houthi rebel offensive intensifies, leaving more than 2 million people trapped including many displaced by the conflict from elsewhere. The frontline is getting closer to Marib city, an oil-rich desert town 75 miles (120km) east of the capital, Sana’a, that was home to approximately 400,000 people before the war. Its population has swollen to about 2.7 million because of people fleeing fighting elsewhere in the country.
There are 138 poorly serviced displacement camps in the area – five have been abandoned and their residents relocated since February, according to the Marib Girls Foundation. Hamas al-Muslimi, a student who has lived in Marib for several years, said: “The fighting is just a few kilometres away now … but there is no other place for us to go.” Joe Biden is pushing for the resumption of UN-sponsored talks to end the conflict. Marib is the Yemeni government’s only northern stronghold: its fall would greatly weaken their negotiating position and derail diplomatic efforts to end the war.
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World may be at ‘peak twin’ – Twin births may be more common today than at any time in history, according to the first comprehensive global survey in the field. Researchers looked at more than 100 countries and found for every 42 people born, one is a twin, which adds up to 1.6 million children a year. The global twin birthrate has risen by one-third, on average, over the past 40 years. But the world may have reached “peak twin”, the authors say, as the most recent data suggest some countries have begun to see rates plateau or fall. While the birthrate for identical twins – created when a single fertilised egg splits – has barely changed, researchers found an increase in naturally conceived, non-identical twins, as well as twins born as a result of medically assisted reproduction. Most now are born as a result of fertility treatments.
Today in Focus podcast: Freeing Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has endured a five-year nightmare after being arrested and jailed in Iran while on holiday. But now as her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and the Guardian’s Patrick Wintour explain, having served her sentence she is being threatened with further charges.
Lunchtime read: ‘Boob envy since my teens’
The actor and comic Eddy Izzard on making her female pronouns permanent, shouting down abuse, enduring a marathon-a-day – and running for Labour.
Sport
Manchester United took the lead through teenager Amad Diallo’s first goal for the club but AC Milan left Old Trafford with a draw after Simon Kjær’s late equaliser in the Europa League. In Greece, goals from Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel and Mohamed Elneny gave Arsenal a last-16 first leg lead over Olympiakos while Harry Kane scored twice as Tottenham beat Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 at home to give them an advantage going into their second leg. Eddie Jones has been drilling England on how to react to dodgy refereeing decisions as they seek to exorcise their discipline demons against France on Saturday. Eoin Morgan and Virat Kohli have both claimed their opponents are favourites for the T20 World Cup later this year.
Rory McIlroy, the defending champion at Sawgrass, trails leader and playing partner Sergio García by 14 shots after the first round. Football Index, the self-styled “football stock market”, appeared to be heading into administration on Thursday evening, five days after a massive crash on its market that left its customers with tens of millions of pounds trapped in its platform. The FA has apologised for telling several players, including an “in tears” goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, that they were not on the 35-player Team GB squad shortlist for the Tokyo Olympics one and a half hours before kick-off between Birmingham and Everton on Thursday. And Roger Federer’s comeback from injury ended in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open after he was beaten in three sets by Nikoloz Basilashvili.
Business
Shoppers across Britain fear that the closure of John Lewis stores could deal the final blow to high streets already struggling with multiple retail failures. The chain has signalled that it will have to close more of its stores after racking up a loss of £517m last year amid the ravages of the pandemic. The FTSE100 looks like opening fairly flat despite big gains in Asia overnight, while the pound will buy you $1.398 and €1.168.
The papers
The Guardian leads this morning with “Met police face inquiry over handling of Everard suspect”. The downpage lead is “WhatsApp chats raise pressure on Hancock over publican’s NHS deal”. The health secretary’s former neighbour who is supplying the NHS with Covid test tubes joked via message to Hancock that he had “never heard of him”.
The Sun’s splash is “Sarah suspect linked to sex offence … did cops fail to act?” while the Telegraph has “Everard suspect ‘exposed himself in restaurant’”. Its picture lead is “Duke: we are very much not a racist family”, the duke in question being Prince William. The Times has those stories in the same sort of arrangement, though its take on the police story is “Policeman’s ‘sex crime’ missed by Met officers”. It also reports on the Iranian ordeal of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who has still not been freed. The i says “Police face inquiry on Everard suspect”. The Metro has “#Reclaim These Streets – Sarah outrage sparks vigils across Britain for the female victims of male violence”.
The Mail, the Mirror and the Express all cover the Everard case on their fronts but they also amp up the relatively few words spoken by Prince William yesterday on the topic of Meghan and Harry. “William blasts back at race slur” says the Mail, and gets the boot in with “… as he and Kate show what duty really means”. “William on Harry – we haven’t spoken” says the Mirror. “Haunted by race slur, William strikes back” says the Express, describing him as “Looking weary and deeply troubled …”, and leaving us wondering if certain quarters of the press have learned anything at all. Finally the FT has “EU vaccine woes deepen as clouds gather over AstraZeneca supplies”. Reports of blood clots have led some countries to suspend use of the vaccine developed in conjunction with Oxford researchers.
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• The headline of yesterday’s briefing email stated that there had been a murder charge in the Sarah Everard case. This was not correct; a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder, but he had not been charged with murder. Apologies for the error.
