Top story: ‘Inappropriate to have this meeting’
Hello, it’s Warren Murray and the week ends with a farcical turn of events in Korean peace efforts.
Donald Trump’s cancellation of 12 June talks with Kim Jong-un in Singapore is being seen this morning as a typical development in his chaotic presidency. “Sadly, based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” the US president wrote to the North Korean leader, in a letter that was released publicly. Trump verbally brandished the “massive and powerful” nuclear capabilities of the US compared with North Korea’s. Overnight, the North Koreans called the talks “desperately necessary” while the South’s president, Moon Jae-in, expressed bewilderment at Trump’s decision.
After initial enthusiasm for talks, North Korean officials had bristled, perhaps unsurprisingly, at the US secretary of state and the vice-president both talking of a “Libya” option for dealing with North Korea – which conjured the idea of an upfront handover of nuclear weapons, and a disastrous eventual fate for Kim, his regime and the country. Responding to the cancellation, North Korea’s vice foreign minister, Kim Kye Gwan, said in a statement: “We tell the United States once more that we are open to resolving problems at any time in any way.”
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Scandal of online touting – A Guardian investigation reveals today how ticket touts are still using resale sites to massively rip off fans. Undercover filming has revealed how websites including Viagogo and Ticketbis exploit alliances with professional touts to bypass laws drawn up to improve fan safety and prevent unauthorised sales following the Hillsborough disaster. Tickets bought by the Guardian for games involving Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea were priced far above face value. In some cases, purchasers’ safety has been put at risk after their tickets placed them in hostile spectator sections. Insp Matt Ashmead from the Met’s central football unit said loopholes in UK law left the companies involved, and touts, free to trade via offshore sites: “The legislation has not kept pace with the technology.” Here is how so-called “secondary ticketing” happens and what needs to be done about it.
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‘Chasing a fantasy’ – A senior EU official has called for the UK side to “accept the consequences of its own decisions” in the Brexit talks. “I have the impression that the UK thinks everything has to change on the EU’s side so that everything can stay the same for the UK.” A whole host of withdrawal issues are yet to be dealt with despite the looming autumn deadline for an agreement – with the Irish border the most difficult. In a blow to Theresa May, the EU has formally rejected suggestions that the entire UK could remain half-inside the EU’s single market, while benefiting from a special customs deal to avoid a hard border.
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Weinstein’s reckoning – The disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is expected to surrender himself to police today on sex charges. Weinstein will be charged over a complaint made by Lucia Evans that he forced her to perform oral sex in 2014. More than 70 women have made allegations against Weinstein ranging from sexual harassment to rape. He denies non-consensual sex. Separately, the actor Morgan Freeman has been accused of inappropriate behaviour by eight women, including leering and sleazy comments. In a statement, Freeman said he did not mean to “intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy. I apologise to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected – that was never my intent.”
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Ireland decides – A close result is predicted as Ireland’s abortion referendum is held today. The yes campaign, backing a repeal of the Republic’s ban on abortion, appears to have an advantage as polls open this morning. If the vote is in favour of repealing the eighth amendment to the constitution, the government plans legislation to permit unrestricted abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and up to the 23rd week when a woman’s health is threatened and in cases of a fatal foetal abnormality. The votes of thousands of Irish expatriates travelling home to take part could be significant. Lauryn Canny tweeted: “I’m coming #HomeToVote. Will be travelling 5,169 miles from LA to Dublin and will be thinking of every Irish woman who has had to travel to access healthcare that should be available in their own country. Let’s do this, Ireland!”
Lunchtime read: How Britain became Russia’s money laundry
For decades, politicians have welcomed Russia’s super-rich with open arms. Now they’re finally having second thoughts. But is it too late? Oliver Bullough, a journalist and authority on financial corruption in the former Soviet Union, writes that since the 1990s “British politicians have welcomed Russian money to our shores … celebrated when oligarchs bought our football clubs, gladly accepted their political donations, patronised their charitable foundations”.
Warnings of influence over democracy and the rule of law were ignored. Then came the Salisbury poisoning, and “Britain’s entire political class joined the prime minister in a screeching handbrake turn”. Still, Britain’s financial system harbours tens of billions of pounds in Russian investment; and tens of billions more goes through Britain’s offshare tax-haven territories. “By letting Putin’s allies launder their stolen fortunes, and hide them in our country, we are drawing a line under their crimes, and rewarding them for actions we should not be condoning. Do we really want Britain to be the Kremlin’s fence?”
Sport
A back-to-school day for Ben Stokes and Jos Butler was hit by a lack of homework as the Lord’s wicket did more than Alastair Cook expected and England collapsed to leave patient Pakistan brimming with hope in the first Test. Three hundred Liverpool shirts have been sent to the small Senegalese village of Bambali in the buildup to the Champions League final, donated by Sadio Mané, its most famous son.
Simon Yates said he isn’t sure if the cracks are beginning to show in his bid to win the Giro d’Italia after his lead was halved by Tom Dumoulon’s late burst on stage 18. Lyon’s right-back Lucy Bronze described becoming the first England player to win the Champions League in its current format as “the best thing I’ve done to date”. Steve Smith’s comeback to cricket has begun, with the suspended former Australia captain named as a marquee player in Canada’s T20 league. And Argentina’s Nicolas Kicker, the world No 84, has been found guilty of match-fixing and “other offences”, the Tennis Integrity Unit has announced.
Business
The Australian hardware chain Bunnings has pulled out of Britain after failing to sell its warehouse-style retail experience to shoppers. Bunnings’ parent group, Wesfarmers, bought the Homebase stores for £350m in 2016 but after a £500m-plus writedown earlier this year the business has been sold to Hilco Capital, reportedly for £1.
Asian shares were muted after the cancellation of the US-North Korea summit. The pound was flat at £1.337 and €1.141.
The papers
The Trump-Kim debacle leads several of the fronts. The FT’s treatment: “Trump cancels N Korea summit in face of Kim’s ‘anger and hostility”; while the Times says “Trump blames China for wrecking Korea summit”. The Guardian leads with North Korea too, and so does the i.
“Morgan ‘the sex pest’” is the Express splash as it goes into the harassment claims being made against Morgan Freeman. “More Romanians here than Irish” – an ugly bit of phrasing on the front of the Mail which leads with the latest immigration figures. “50 Shades lust of chute beast” is the Sun’s headline for the story of Emile Cilliers, convicted of sabotaging his wife’s parachute to try and kill her. Finally the Telegraph: “Fire brigade failed us, say Grenfell survivors” – families say advice to “stay put” robbed people of their chance to escape.
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