Top story: US attorney general battles Russia revelations
Donald Trump’s attorney general, Jeff Sessions, has “recused” himself from overseeing FBI investigations into Russia’s interference in the US elections and contacts with the president’s campaign. But it hasn’t quietened the calls for his resignation.
Sessions is accused of lying under oath because he met with the Kremlin’s ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, while campaigning for Trump but then implicitly denied it at his senate confirmation. Trump can’t afford to lose him and insists his lawman did nothing wrong – it’s a “total witch-hunt”, Sessions just mis-spoke and the whole affair doesn’t really matter (here’s why it actually does).
In an overnight development, the vice-president, Mike Pence, is being asked why it was OK for him to use a private email address – that ended up getting hacked – to conduct state business as governor of Indiana, when Hillary Clinton received so much flak for having one.
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Soldier of fortune – Trump’s “military cosplay” look raised eyebrows when he visited the USS Gerald R Ford (see main picture). In his youth the future real estate mogul and president was exempted from the Vietnam draft five times. He was gifted the hat and jacket by the warship’s crew. Deploying those soaring oratorial skills that have come in for so much praise this week, he declared: “I have no idea how it looks, but I think it looks good.”
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‘Unstructured and disorganised’ – A scathing IPCC report on the violent death of toddler Poppi Worthington has concluded evidence was lost because Cumbria police took eight months to treat it as a crime. No one has been charged over Poppi’s unexplained death — her father, Paul Worthington, came under suspicion of sexual assault but denies wrongdoing. A full inquest is to be held in May.
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Best pub in Britain – They are raising a pint in Hudswell, Yorkshire, and not at all figuratively, after local watering hole the George & Dragon was named Britain’s best by the Campaign for Real Ale.
The victory is especially sweet (with malty notes and a classic dry hop finish) because the pub went broke in 2008 and was restarted by its customers as a co-operative two years later.
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‘Tide is turning’ – The Labour party has lost more than 26,000 members since last summer, according to leaked figures. Most of them had joined after the 2015 general election, when Jeremy Corbyn took over the leadership and membership surged. Up to 7,000 members are said to have resigned last month alone after Corbyn commanded MPs to support the triggering of Article 50. Martin Kettle suggests that the leader jumping feet-first into the Brexit fires might have something to do with the faithful turning their backs.
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Northern Ireland waits – Voting wrapped up last night in the snap Stormont election. Counting doesn’t start until 8am today, which seems a very civilised approach. Turnout was higher compared with last May. Parties must try to form a new power-sharing authority after the previous administration collapsed.
Lunchtime read: Could Ukip become Trumpkip?
Gaby Hinsliff warns that dismissing the squabbling Ukip as a spent political force may be premature – there’s plenty of reason to fear it morphing into the kind of toxic social movement that helped put the current US president into office.
Sport
David Conn reports that families of the Hillsborough victims are having to crowdfund after being hit with former South Yorkshire chief constable David Crompton’s legal costs. Simon Burnton and Jacob Steinberg have 10 things you should look out for in the upcoming weekend of Premier League football.
Elsewhere in sport Rory McIlroy is battling food poisoning at the Mexico WGC, and British Cycling is having an image crisis, which has led to promises they’ll overhaul their relationship with Team Sky. Nico Rosberg has praised the new-look Formula One cars as monstrous but Giles Richards says looks can be deceiving. British Athletics has confirmed it will maintain a close relationship with Mo Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar unless he is officially charged with wrongdoing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
Business
The parent company of the social media app Snapchat ended its first day on the New York market with a value of $28bn after shares soared 44% following its float. That makes billionaires out of co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy and, according to experts, also marks Snap Inc as a serious contender for tech-space supremacy with Facebook and Google.
Asian markets slipped as growing expectations of a rise in US interest rates on 15 March pushed the dollar higher but meant commodity prices fell. The pound was buying $1.23 and €1.17
The papers
The Times leads on the European parliament budget rising to nearly £1.7bn with Britain having to pay out more than £230m for things that won’t happen until it has left the EU.
The Mail’s headline is “Plague of the flytippers” – there were nearly a million cases last year in the UK, a 30% rise over the three years since councils scrapped weekly bin rounds. The Sun says the BBC and Channel 4 are at war after the winner of The Great British Bake Off was unveiled as the presenter of a rival show.
The Mirror splashes on a report saying four in five NHS hospitals are “no longer safe”. The Telegraph’s lead is that humans may one day be made in a laboratory after the successful creation of a mouse embryo using only stem cells. The FT leads on Snapchat’s float on Wall Street, saying that shares rose 40% in trading, breaking a drought of big technology listings.
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