Top story: ‘Public did not believe in change we offered’
Hello, Warren Murray with you as we run up against the end of the week once again.
A picture has emerged of dysfunctionality, toxicity and drift inside Labour’s election-fighting machine after a major review of the party’s 2019 defeat. Negative perceptions of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, doubts about the manifesto and the party’s ambivalent Brexit stance created a “snowballing” effect, a report by the party group Labour Together argues.
Two decades of demographic and political change also hit the party’s traditional base and could endanger more Labour seats in 2024. Corbyn’s leadership was deemed a “significant factor” in the 2019 result. Ed Miliband, a member of the review panel, writes: “Labour must learn the deep lessons about why the public did not believe in the change we offered in 2019 and the deep roots of our defeat. Every part of the party needs to understand the mountain we have to climb to come back.”
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Policeman shot dead – One officer has been shot and killed and another wounded in New Zealand after police stopped a vehicle for a traffic check. The car hit and injured a bystander when it sped off after the shooting. At time of writing a manhunt continues. The parliament had just passed the latest round of gun restrictions in response to the mosque shootings of March 2019 in which 51 people were killed.
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Coronavirus latest – Two in five adults in the UK feel lonelier under lockdown, a survey by the British Red Cross has revealed. Among 2,000 adults representative of the population, 28% worried no one would notice if something happened to them, while 33% said they feared their loneliness would get worse in the years ahead. A third of adults – 33% – had not had what they regarded as a meaningful conversation in the previous week, while 37% said their neighbours were like strangers and 31% felt they had no one to turn to when confronting a problem. The survey was undertaken by pollsters Opinium between 12 and 15 May, when a full lockdown restriction was still in place.
All non-essential shops in Wales will be able to reopen from Monday so long as physical distancing can take place. The Labour-led administration is not expected to change its guidance that people should not travel more than five miles, which will be reviewed by 6 July. Non-essential shops in England and Northern Ireland have reopened while the Scottish government has announced that all shops would be allowed to reopen from 29 June.
There’s more in our Coronavirus Extra section further down … and here’s where you can find all our coverage of the outbreak – from breaking news to factchecks and advice.
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‘We do have lives’ – Four months before he was killed, Rayshard Brooks opened up on camera about his life and the US justice system. In the interview, Brooks said: “Some of the system could, you know, look at us as individuals. We do have lives, you know … it’s just a mistake we made.
“And you know, not just do us as if we are animals.” The 27-year-old black man was killed outside a Wendy’s restaurant by an Atlanta police officer on 12 June. Donald Trump has appeared to defend Garrett Rolfe, the police officer who shot and killed Brooks, telling Fox News: “It’s going to be up to justice. I hope he gets a fair shake, because police have not been treated fairly in our country. But again, you can’t resist a police officer like that.” In the UK, after Dominic Raab was derisive about people taking the knee as a Black Lives Matter solidarity gesture, Gaby Hinsliff suggests this was more than a flippant comment and represents the government dogwhistling a message that is popular within both its own and part of Labour’s constituency – that “it’s time to get up off their knees and stop apologising” – rather than having to talk about its failings on racial equality and the coronavirus response.
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Russia bridles over hitman case – Moscow will react if Germany takes action against Russia over the killing of a Georgian national in Berlin in 2019, the Kremlin ambassador to Germany has said. German prosecutors are to file murder charges against a Russian identified only as Vadim K, alias Vadim S. The victim, Tornike K, a Georgian of Chechen ethnicity, was shot dead in a park in broad daylight on 23 August. He had survived multiple assassination attempts and received threats after fleeing to Germany in 2016. The prosecutors alleged that Russian state agencies tasked Vadim K with the killing. The murder case and alleged Russian involvement in the 2015 hacking of the German parliament have weighed on relations between the two countries in recent months.
Coronavirus Extra
“We’re watching Cats five minutes a night – to prolong the agony.” Ran, Akira Kurosawa’s “uplifting” film about poverty, and Chernobyl are on the lockdown viewing roster of the Avenue 5 creator Armando Iannucci, who calls on the UK government to prioritise the arts sector.
The mood in the seaside town of Warnemünde on Germany’s Baltic coast is upbeat as tourism begins to recover, but foreign visitors are still thin on the ground despite the opening of borders this week
Today in Focus podcast: Trump’s comeback rally on massacre site
The president’s decision to hold his first rally since the coronavirus lockdown in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has ignited fresh controversy. In 1921 the city was home to one of America’s worst ever acts of racial violence, a moment marked in recent Black Lives Matter protests, and Oklahoma is now seeing a new wave of coronavirus infections. So why has Trump chosen Tulsa?
Lunchtime read: ‘Fascinated by trash TV’
At 77 and holed up in lockdown, the veteran director and latter-day actor Werner Herzog shows no signs of slowing down or accepting any limitations.
Sport
José Mourinho has accused the football authorities of double standards over the decision to ban Dele Alli for an ill-judged social media post about coronavirus but ignore much worse behaviour from others in the game during the pandemic. Ole Gunnar Solskjær is confident Paul Pogba can finally show his “world-class” ability after an injury-blighted season, with the Manchester United midfielder possibly ready to return against Tottenham on Friday. An independent inquiry has found that sport can be used as a cover by the perpetrators of child sexual abuse. The Rugby Football Union is conducting a review into the singing of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot by England supporters, admitting that many of them are unaware of its origins as a song about slavery. Brooks Koepka let fly about wearing a microphone on the golf course at the RBC Heritage, saying he would be heard if announcers would “shut up”, as Ian Poulter made a fast start at Hilton Head. And Nigel Walker, the former Welsh rugby international, has told the Guardian he did not believe British sport was institutionally racist but it had “turned a blind eye” to problems within the system.
Business
Britain’s cycling market could shrink 10% this year despite the well-reported boost in sales during the lockdown period. Market research shows the mini-boom will be offset by lower consumer spending later in the year as recession bites. The Bank of England injected another £100bn into the economy yesterday to try to avert that recession as global stock markets remain jittery about a second wave of the coronavirus. The FTSE100 looks like lifting slightly this morning while the pound is buying $1.243 and €1.108.
The papers
Dame Vera Lynn is both mourned and celebrated on front pages today. “We’ll meet again”, says the Mirror while the Metro’s salute is a full-page monochrome portrait, the Mail says “Goodnight sweetheart” and the Express says “Queen: I’m so very, very sad”. Our Guardian cover says: “The forces sweetheart dies aged 103”.
In other news the Mail goes after Matt Hancock after the government abandoned its contact-tracing app in favour of Google and Apple’s solution. “How many more corona fiascos?” the paper asks. The Times is also vocal: “Tech failure leaves virus tracing plan in disarray”.
As per our top story, the Guardian has the “dysfunctional toxic culture” blamed for Labour’s 2019 election defeat. The Telegraph says “Extra £1bn for children to catch up on learning” – here is our coverage of that story – but the i has troubling news for students: “2020 GCSE and A-level grades set to be cut” because teachers’ predictions were too “generous” (as if lockdown isn’t already putting the young far enough behind). The FT has “Wirecard shares plummet as auditors warn €1.9bn is missing” – it’s a Germany-based payments processing company.
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