Top story: Kremlin’s hackers caught red-handed
Good morning. I’m Warren Murray presenting the news digest you should never leave home without.
It must go down as one of the most embarrassing months ever for Russia’s military intelligence, Luke Harding writes today – the secretive GRU agency has been publicly, comprehensively and humiliatingly exposed by rival intelligence agencies and online sleuths. The group of men caught trying to hack the OPCW chemical weapons watchdog were outed by mundane details such as their taxi receipts – as well as the compromising of their cover by everything from online college histories and vehicle records to internet dating profiles, car pool records and football team rosters.
Our visual guide explains the clumsy attempt to hack the OPCW headquarters in the Netherlands, which happened only weeks after the Salisbury novichok attack. The crack team, who arrived on diplomatic passports, were monitored all the way from the airport by Dutch counter-intelligence and eventually caught in a rented Citroen with a bootload of hacking gear, mobile phones, stolen WiFi passwords and money. British officials say the same GRU “close access” unit previously tried in Malaysia to hack the investigation into the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. They were also in Switzerland when the World Anti-Doping Agency was hacked. The GRU made other failed attempts to hack the UK Foreign Office and Porton Down chemical warfare facility. Patrick Wintour examines how the British government decided to go on the offensive and lead its western allies in laying bare the GRU’s brazen activities.
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Men’s jobs under Brexit threat – There is a warning that older men with job-specific skills but few qualifications, particularly in manufacturing, are the group most at risk from job losses caused by new trade barriers after Britain leaves the EU. “These are the sorts of workers who are most likely to find it hard to adapt and to find new roles that are equally well paid elsewhere,” said Agnes Norris Keiller, a co-author of the report for the IFS thinktank. Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has urged Theresa May to publish her revised Brexit border plan “as soon as possible” and not wait until a crunch summit that starts on 17 October. Brexiters including Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg and David Davis have seized on remarks by EU chief Donald Tusk that Brussels remains ready to offer the UK a “Canada-plus-plus-plus deal”: a trade accord with agreements on security and foreign policy. But they glossed over that it would likely include keeping Northern Ireland in the EU customs union and single market.
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Snake bite kills Briton – A British man working on a fishing trawler off Australia’s northern coast has died after being bitten by a sea snake that was pulled up in its nets. Paramedics were called to the trawler on Thursday but the 23-year-old was already dead. The boat later docked at Borroloola in the Northern Territory. Sea snakes are venomous but considered to be non-aggressive and rarely attack unless provoked. The British embassy was notified, said Northern Territory police.
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Elongated scandal – If investors want Tesla to put the fraud furore behind it, their cause has not been helped by founder Elon Musk mocking the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “The Shortseller Enrichment Commission is doing incredible work,” he tweeted, after having agreed to pay a $20m fine and step aside as Tesla’s chairman for three years. Musk’s seemingly spurious statements in August about taking Tesla private have also cost the company itself a $20m fine. His tweets appeared to be aimed at boosting Tesla’s share price to punish short-sellers. A US district judge has ordered the SEC and Musk to demonstrate their settlement of the fraud charges is fair, reasonable and does not hurt the public interest.
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Kavanaugh cleared, say Republicans – Two key Republican senators, Susan Collins, and Jeff Flake, have expressed satisfaction with the FBI report into sexual misconduct claims against Donald Trump’s supreme court nominee. The Democrats have criticised the investigation, implying that it was kept narrow in scope to protect Kavanaugh, while hundreds of women, including Amy Schumer, were arrested when thousands protested at the US Capitol in Washington.
Republican leaders in the Senate are moving to guillotine the debate, which could lead to a vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination as early as Saturday.
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Paris punch sentence – A man who assaulted a woman outside a Paris cafe has been given six months in prison and ordered to pay a €2,000 fine. Video went viral of the attack on student Marie Laguerre, 22. The defendant, referred to as Firas M, was also given a six-month suspended jail term and ordered to have treatment for drug and alcohol problems. Noemie Saidi-Cottier, Laguerre’s lawyer, said: “My client wanted a punishment but she didn’t want his head to roll … If he never does that again, she feels she has won.” Within days of the attack, a new law imposed on-the-spot fines of up to €750 on cat-callers and aggressively lecherous people.
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Sunlight can’t be bottled – Vitamin D supplements do nothing for bone health and the government should stop telling people to take them in the darker months, according to the biggest ever review of research on the subject. Vitamin D is made in the body naturally from exposure to the sun. Researchers who trawled 81 separate studies found supplements helped only people at high risk of a few rare conditions. But Professor Martin Hewison from the University of Birmingham, who was not one of the authors, says too little research has been done on people with very low vitamin D levels to be certain of the findings. In other medicine to bookmark for future meta-analysis, GPs in Shetland are to begin prescribing birdwatching, rambling and beach walks to help treat chronic physical and mental illness. Dr Chloe Evans, a GP with NHS Shetland, said the “nature prescriptions” would supplement normal treatments.
Lunchtime read: ‘I was welling up!’
The child stars of the West End musical School of Rock form a band under the dubious tutelage of Dewey Finn, who poses as a supply teacher. Here is what their real-life teachers make of the hit show.
Sport
Nike has announced it is “deeply concerned” about the allegations surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo, with whom it has a £768m endorsement deal. Gareth Southgate has given a vote of faith to some of England’s hottest young stars with the call-ups of Jadon Sancho, Mason Mount and James Maddison for forthcoming Nations League matches against Spain and Croatia. Harry Winks is also back in the squad, a player who features in this weekend’s Premier League: 10 things to look out for column.
Warrington’s 63-year Super League championship wait is one step closer to being over after an 18-13 win over St Helens, courtesy two tries to Tom Lineham. And ahead of Sunday’s F1 Grand Prix in Japan, Giles Richards reflects on one of the unique race tracks in world motorsports.
Business
Asian shares have dipped in overnight trade as the rise in US bond yields and the prospect of inflationary wage rises in the world’s biggest economy continued to unsettle investors. Currencies around the Asia-Pacific region were also under pressure from the rising greenback with India widely expected to raise rates to bolster the rupee after it slumped to a record low on Thursday. The FTSE 100 is seen rising 0.2% at the open while the pound is buying $1.30 and €1.13.
The papers
Dominating the front pages today is the GRU story, which is the Guardian’s lead: “Russia accused of cyber-attack on chemical weapons watchdog”, alongside a story saying “Drop advice on taking Vitamin D, say experts”. The Telegraph says “Russia’s cyber raiders foiled in humiliation for Putin”, the Times has “Russia caught in the act”, the i has “Carry on spying”, the FT’s splash is “West launches attack on Russia with claims of cyber crime spree” and the Express says “Putin’s army of 80,000 spies”.
The Sun says the attack has made Putin a “global laughing stock” and runs the headline “The novichokle brothers”. The Mail’s splash is “Shaming of Putin the cyber gangster”. The Novichok story ranks as only the third most significant on the front page of the Mirror, behind their splash: “Scandal of body parts mountain” about mishandling of NHS waste; and a surreal story, if we can use the term loosely, headlined “When Harry & Meghan went to Butlin’s”, in which the paper sent lookalikes of the Duke and Duchess to the Bognor Regis resort for a photo shoot.
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