Top story: Outrage as Trump dismisses ‘shithole countries’
Good morning. I’m Martin Farrer and this your morning briefing with all the best stories from home and abroad.
Donald Trump’s planned visit to London this year to open the new US embassy has been cancelled. The US president tweeted late on Thursday night that he would not be coming in protest at the Obama administration’s decision to sell the former US embassy site in Grosvenor Square too cheaply. “Bad deal,” he wrote. However, it seems unlikely the president’s explanation will hold much water. Trump was invited to Britain for a full state visit last year by Theresa May before those plans were put on hold because of concerns about protests. A less formal visit to open the new embassy on the south bank of the Thames in May was then pencilled in. But, with relations between the two countries cooled by Trump’s retweeting of material posted by the far-right extremist group, Britain First, even a low-key visit appears to have become too risky for both sides.
Trump’s talent for causing offensive shows no signs of abating. The Washington Post has reported that the president referred to El Salvador and Haiti as “shithole” countries during a White House meeting with lawmakers about immigration policy. The White House did not deny the report, instead praising Trump’s hardline stance. Trump was widely panned on social media with US politicians from diverse backgrounds leading the attacks on his “unkind and divisive” comments. And if that’s not enough Trumpery for you this morning, check out our analysis of how his health – mental or otherwise – compares with the average American.
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Costly banter – BBC bosses are said to be “deeply unimpressed” by the veteran Today programme host John Humphrys after a leaked recording revealed him joking about the corporation’s gender pay gap. In an off-air conversation with the BBC’s North America editor, Jon Sopel, the pair discuss Carrie Gracie’s comments on pay following her resignation as the broadcaster’s China editor. Humphrys asks Sopel, who is one of the men who earns more than her for the same seniority of role, how much of his salary he is prepared to give up to keep her. Humphrys then says: “She’s actually suggested that you should lose money; you know that don’t you?” Humphrys dismissed the recording as “banter” between old friends but a BBC source said “management are deeply unimpressed”.
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Brexit vote 2.0? – It’s not often that pro-Europeans have cause to thank Nigel Farage for anything. But there’s a first time for everything and the former Ukip leader’s suggestion that there should be second Brexit referendum to “kill off” the issue for a generation might be such a moment. Farage’s surprise remarks have ignited hopes among remainers that that both sides of the debate could unite behind the idea of referendum on Theresa May’s final Brexit deal. Anti-Brexit campaigners believe the original outcome could be overturned in a second vote although many obstacles remain before that could happen, not least that the prime minister and Jeremy Corbyn (for now at least) don’t want another vote.
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Doctors’ warning – The winter crisis besetting the NHS intensified with warnings from senior doctors that patients are dying in hospital corridors because of underfunding and understaffing. Specialists in emergency medicine from 68 hospitals have written to Theresa May saying that A&E units are under such intense strain that patients are at “intolerable” risk of being harmed by poor care. They tell the prime minister that they want to highlight “the very serious concerns we have for the safety of our patients”. May has blamed the problems on a flu epidemic but a Guardian editorial says that the NHS is facing “a system-wide crisis brought about by seven years of mounting austerity”.
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Free to remain – Paulette Wilson, a 61-year-old woman who has lived in Britain since she was 10, has been told she can remain in the country after being threatened with deportation. Wilson, a former House of Commons cook who has not visited her native Jamaica since emigrating to Britain as a child, received a biometric residency permit this week confirming her right to stay. Wilson was detained in Yarl’s Wood detention centre before winning her reprieve. She said “it would be nice” to have an apology from the government.
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Heavy lies the crown – The Queen has given a rare account of her coronation in 1953, joking about the tremendous weight of the Imperial State Crown (1.28kg) and the discomfort of the golden carriage used for the ceremony. In The Coronation, which airs on the BBC on Sunday, the Queen remembers how she could not look down while wearing the crown for fear it would “break your neck”. She said the carriage was “horrible – it’s only sprung on leather, not very comfortable”, before adding that it was just part of the monarch’s job. “It is sort of a pageant of chivalry and old-fashioned way of doing things, really.”
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Lunchtime read: Julie Delpy: ‘Careers and lives have been destroyed’
“He picked the wrong woman to crush. I’m not going to let him get away with it.” So says Julie Delpy, the French actor, writer and director, during an interview with Cath Clarke as she rages about an American lawyer who she accuses of blocking her efforts to obtain funding for her new film, My Zoe. Her comments shed yet more light on the ongoing struggles faced by women in the film industry and she also reveals what she believes was the damage done to her career when she rejected a Hollywood director’s casting-couch advances more than 20 years ago. Delpy, who has won two scriptwriting Oscar nominations with director Richard Linklater and actor Ethan Hawke for the Before Sunrise trilogy, says: “I didn’t work with a lot of people because I had the reputation of saying no ... And you realise that all those actresses who had the reputation of being difficult, they’re not difficult. You realise so much damage has been done. Careers destroyed. Lives destroyed. It really hurts me inside.”
Sport
Liverpool start the post-Coutinho era, Sam Allardyce looks to impress at Wembley and Riyad Mahrez gets a chance to shine – just some of the 10 things to watch out for in the Premier League this weekend. In NFL/UK news, a London franchise has moved closer after it was confirmed that Oakland will play Seattle march at Spurs’ new stadium. There will also be two games at Wembley, with the NFL’s Mark Waller hinting a permanent franchise could happen in 2021. A Belgian road cyclist has revealed he refused to use the same asthma medication for which Chris Froome failed a drugs test because he feels uneasy about dependency on such medication, which he believes is widespread in the sport.
In Melbourne, Rafael Nadal played a surprise exhibition match against Dominic Thiem in preparation for the Australian Open.
Business
Four out of five working people are concerned about falling pay and job security as the uncertainty around Brexit takes hold, according to research by the thinktank Royal Society for Arts. Markets in Asia were flat overnight despite a more positive session on Wall Street, while the FTSE100 is also expected to be flat at the open. The pound is buying $1.354 and €1.124.
The papers
Late editions of the Guardian lead with the likely cancellation of Trump’s visit to London, replacing the earlier lead on a the possibility of a second Brexit referendum. The Mail also leads with the Trump story, but Brexit was favoured by the Express as well as the Mirror, which splashes with “Farage: I want 2nd referendum”.
The Sun has a tabloid speciality splash - alleging that a Tory MP has left his wife for another woman. The Telegraph says the government is to give banks lists of illegal immigrants “suspected of hiding in the UK” which they hope will lead to accounts being closed and those migrants leaving the country.
The Times claims an exclusive on plans to cut the armed forces by 14,000 and to combine elite units such as the Royal Marines and paratroopers. The FT says the big retailers “feel chill of consumer spending freeze”.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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