Top story: Legal battle looms over ‘desperate’ measure
Good morning, it’s Warren Murray getting you off to a running start.
Donald Trump is moving to declare a national emergency in an attempt to build his wall on the border with Mexico. Democrats are drawing constitutional battle lines over what they have called a “desperate” abuse of presidential powers.
Overnight the US Congress passed a spending bill to avert another government shutdown – it includes $1.375bn for 55 miles of new border fencing, far less than the $5.7bn Trump sought for a concrete or steel wall. The bill will go before Trump today. “President Trump will sign the government funding bill,” said a White House statement, “and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action – including a national emergency.” That could involve trying to mobilise the military to build the wall.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, has said she will consider a legal challenge to the emergency declaration, and there are questions over whether, and how, it could ultimately be used to build the wall.
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‘They don’t compromise, they never have’ – Theresa May has been defeated in the Commons by hardline Brexiters of the European Research Group (ERG), who refused to vote to endorse her EU negotiating strategy. Remain-minded Tories were furious after the vote and said the PM should sideline the ERG by seeking agreement across the House rather than trying to please Jacob Rees-Mogg’s grouping. A cabinet source said: “Once again the ERG have made life hell for the prime minister and put their own fantasies in the way of pragmatic politics.” The ERG sided against May because, it said, she was trying to take a no-deal Brexit off the table. The rebellion marks the end of a temporary truce over Brexit among Conservative MPs, who had voted last month to endorse May’s strategy to try and obtain concessions on the Irish border backstop.
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‘Beginning of great changes’ – The school climate strike comes to the UK today. Greta Thunberg started the YouthStrike4Climate movement last summer as a lone demonstrator outside the Swedish parliament.
“We are in the middle of the biggest crisis in human history and basically nothing is being done to prevent it,” she told the Guardian. “I think what we are seeing is the beginning of great changes and that is very hopeful.” Thunberg has risen rapidly in prominence and influence – berating world leaders at the United Nations climate conference, and taking her message to the global business elite at Davos. If you are taking part today, let us know about it with your videos, photos and stories.
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Novichok third man theory – Another possible suspect in the death of Dawn Sturgess and the poisonings of Sergei Skripal, Yulia Skripal and Charlie Rowley has been identified by online investigators as a Russian military intelligence officer. Bellingcat says Denis Sergeyev is the real identity of a man operating under the name of Sergey Fedotov. He was in Bulgaria when another suspected poisoning took place. British authorities have not identified a third suspect, and the Bellingcat report acknowledged that “it is unclear what [Sergeyev’s] role may have been, if any, in the preparation and execution of the poisoning operation”.
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Condoms in schools – Giving out condoms to students reduces sexually transmitted infections (STIs) but does not lead to the young having sex earlier, more often, or becoming pregnant, a major UN study has found. Researchers concluded that once condom programmes were in place in schools, students used them, and such schemes could be especially beneficial in countries with a higher risk of HIV. Comprehensive sex education programmes should be introduced alongside giving out condoms, said Bidia Deperthes from the UN Population Fund. “Putting them in a corner and expecting it to do the job, is not going to happen.”
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Man v mountain lion – A Colorado jogger has told how he wrestled a mountain lion that attacked him and jammed his foot on its throat until it choked to death. “It finally stopped moving and then the jaws opened and I was able to kind of scramble back up the hill and get the heck out of Dodge,” said Travis Kauffman of the 4 February ordeal. When the animal pounced, it locked its teeth on to his wrist and they tumbled off the side of the trail. Kauffman grabbed a rock with his free hand and beat the cat on the back of the head. He also tried stabbing it with a twig, but it held on until “I was able to kind of shift my weight and get a foot on its neck”. “Travis is a pretty amazing young man,” said Ty Petersburg, from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
Today in Focus podcast: Did air pollution kill Ella?
This Friday marks six years since nine-year-old Ella-Kissi Deborah died. Her mother believes London’s air pollution is responsible for her death. Plus: 15-year old George Bond explains why he is going on today’s school climate strike.
Lunchtime read: America’s hidden empire
The United States likes to think of itself as a republic, but the truth is, it holds territories all over the world. At the turn of the 20th century, when many were acquired (Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, Hawaii, Wake), their status was clear. They were, as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson unabashedly called them, colonies.
That forthright imperialism didn’t last. Within a decade or two, the c-word became taboo. “The word colony must not be used to express the relationship which exists between our government and its dependent peoples,” an official admonished in 1914. Better to stick with a gentler term, used for them all: territories. Today’s typical mental map is a union of states bounded by the Atlantic, the Pacific, Mexico and Canada – possibly with the addition of Alaska and Hawaii. But, writes Daniel Immerwahr, that shape does not match the country’s legal borders, and leaves territorial American nationals relegated to the shadows.
Sport
Goals from Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud gave Chelsea a 2-1 win at Malmö in their Europa League last-32 tie as European competition offered Maurizio Sarri some respite. Arsenal lost 1-0 at Bate Borisov, with Alexandre Lacazette having an equaliser ruled out then being sent off for a retaliatory elbow while on a bruising night in Glasgow for Brendan Rodgers and Celtic, Valencia cantered towards a 2-0 victory which should render next week at the Mestalla a formality.
Wales are ready for a war of words in the buildup to their match against England in Cardiff a week on Saturday, with Eddie Jones making an early start on Sunday by declaring he does not see the Principality Stadium as a fortress. Shannon Gabriel, the West Indies fast bowler, has offered an unreserved apology to Joe Root and claimed the on-field comment to the England captain that triggered his four-match ban was: “Do you like boys?” Caster Semenya’s lawyers have said the 800m Olympic champion is “unquestionably a woman” who will be fighting for her right to compete internationally without “unnecessary medical intervention” when she appears at the court of arbitration for sport. And US golfer Matt Kuchar has defended his decision to pay his caddie $5,000 following a victory that earned him $1.3m in the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
Business
Asian stocks were subdued by surprisingly weak US retail sales figures on Thursday showing their biggest fall for nearly 10 years. News that Donald Trump wants to declare a national emergency didn’t help market nerves. The FTSE100 is expected to open slightly down while the pound is still floating around in the doldrums at $1.279 and €1.134.
The papers
The front page of the Times features a follow-up to their story of yesterday on the Bethnal Green schoolgirl: “Family of Isis bride make plea for mercy”. The Express is also following up on the Times exclusive, with quotes from the girl’s family: “We know why you don’t want her back”.
The Mail has: “‘Dozens’ of jihadi brides want to get home” and the i reports: “Isis child bride faces UK arrest”. The Sun is unsympathetic about her desire to return to the UK: “No regrets, no remorse, no entry”. The Telegraph’s lead story is: “US plans to send British jihadists to Guantanamo”.
Brexit leads on the front of the Guardian: “Another Brexit vote, for May, another humiliation” and the FT: “May’s credibility takes fresh blow as MPs shoot down Brexit plan B” while the Mirror marches to the beat of its own drum, splashing with: “Two diet drinks a day stroke fear”.
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