Top story: ‘We will consider a stone a firearm’
Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the round-up to round out the week.
Donald Trump has threatened to set up “cities of tents” on the Mexico border rather than let asylum-seekers into the US while their claims are handled. “We are going to catch but we are not going to release, they are going to stay with us until the hearing takes place,” the president said, during a luridly toned address at the White House that tipped his rhetoric over immigration further into the realm of the extreme ahead of next week’s midterm elections.
The president’s most inflammatory remarks concerned the actions of US troops at the border: “Anybody throwing stones, rocks … we will consider that a firearm because there’s not much difference when you get hit in the face with a rock.” The “migrant caravan” referenced in his remarks is still more than 800 miles from the US border.
In a bleak dispatch from the El Paso Processing Centre, Justine van der Leun explains why it is one of the worst places in the US to seek asylum – as discovered by Wassim Isaac, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee who arrived there unwittingly in 2016, only to be interned in “the Camp” and swept up in El Paso’s notoriously unforgiving adjudication processes. “Here in the US, there is democracy, but we still have fear,” says Wassim. “I got asylum, but if they want to make a problem, they can do it.”
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Leave.EU faces criminal inquiry – There are calls for the Brexit process to be suspended as the National Crime Agency moves to investigate Arron Banks and his unofficial Leave.EU campaign. The Electoral Commission has said there are reasonable grounds to suspect Banks was “not the true source” of £8m in funding to Leave.EU. Luke Harding writes that the NCA will inevitably look at Banks’s contacts with Russian officials in the run up to the vote. David Lammy and other Labour MPs called for Brexit to be put on hold, while the Lib Dems said it could not go ahead based on “a leave campaign littered with lies, deceit and allegations of much worse”. Downing Street responded: “The referendum was the largest democratic exercise in this country’s history and the PM is getting on with delivering its result.” Banks and Leave.EU chair Elizabeth Bilney have denied wrongdoing.
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Britain on hot trend – Heatwaves in the UK are lasting twice as long as they did 50 years ago, according to the Met Office. Since 1990 the average longest warm spell has gone from 5.3 days to 13.2 days. This year was even longer at 17 days. Tropical nights – when minimum nighttime temperatures remain above 20C – used to be almost unheard of but since 1995 they have happened in London, Kent, the Isle of Wight, and occasionally in Wales and the north-east. “Icing days”, the average number of days each year with freezing temperatures, have fallen from 4.8 to 3.2 and in the south-east last year there was not a single day averaging below 0C. There is some hope about climate change in the prediction that Britain’s summer energy needs will be met entirely from renewable sources by 2050.
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Illegal hunts flourish, say activists – Labour has announced it will remove loopholes from the 2004 Hunting Act that campaigners say allow blood sports to continue under the guise of trail hunting. After cuts “severely compromised” the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), convictions for breaking the law have fallen to historic lows, despite claims from hunting groups that the practice is as popular as ever. Environmental groups say cases supported by video evidence of foxes and hares being torn apart by hounds are not being carried through to prosecution. In 2017 Theresa May said she had “always been in favour of foxhunting”, but plans to give MPs a free vote on the issue were later abandoned.
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High street brought low – Grimsby has been judged to have the “unhealthiest” high street in the UK, whereas Edinburgh has the “healthiest”. It is not all about food – the league table produced by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) weighs the prevalence of payday lenders, bookmakers, tanning salons and fast food outlets (bad) against pubs and bars, libraries and museums, pharmacies, dentists, opticians and leisure centres (good). Shirley Cramer, the RSPH chief executive, explains: “We come to the high street with our money and time, and convert it into a leisurely hour with a friend, a bag full of shopping or a social experience … When our time and money are converted into a loss at the bookmakers, a tan from a sunbed, a high-cost loan or a bucket of fried chicken, the high street is enabling and supporting poor health behaviours.” You can find out here how other high streets fared.
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A while to sink in – Japan could see its territorial waters shrink after a tiny island evidently “disappeared” – unnoticed by villagers on the northern tip of the main island of Hokkaido 500 metres away. An author reported the disappearance of Esanbe Hanakita Kojima to the coastguard when he visited the area to write about Japan’s “hidden islands”. Such outlying islands are important to staking out Japan’s territory in maritime disputes with China and Russia. When the island was last surveyed in 1987 it protruded just 1.4 metres above the surface – experts say it must have been eaten away by wind and winter drift ice. Fishing boats hadn’t gone near it for years due to submerged reefs.
Today in Focus podcast: Midterms – all about Trump?
Gary Younge visits Racine, Wisconsin, one of the bellwether races in the US midterms. In recent history the city has been a reliable predictor of which way the country will swing. But how much will the Trump factor influence the result? Plus: Gaby Hinsliff on why people hate vegans.
Lunchtime read: Taking back control
France is facing a Brexit referendum of sorts this weekend as New Caledonia votes on becoming a country in its own right. Polls in the Pacific territory suggest an overwhelming majority – between 69% and 75% – will vote against independence. But there are pro-independence strongholds of the indigenous Kanaks, including the mining town of Thio which makes New Caledonia the third-largest nickel producer in the world. Its people say huge profits have been ripped from New Caledonian soil without returning any benefit.
If New Caledonian people vote no, they may be allowed to hold two further referendums on the question of independence – one in 2020, and if that is unsuccessful, another in 2022 – as part of a process stemming from a civil war in the 1980s. Here is how it all works.
Sport
The opening autumn fixture against South Africa at Twickenham will, if nothing else, reveal the extent of English rugby’s strength in depth. Owen Farrell will start at fly-half on Saturday in a reshuffled England line-up, while Mark Wilson is set for a “dream” start at No 8.
Manchester City’s passage to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals via a 2-0 win over Fulham left Pep Guardiola concerned regarding Kevin De Bruyne after the midfielder limped off with an injury to his left knee. Simone Biles overcame a series of uncharacteristic mistakes to become the first woman to win four all-around world championships. The World Anti-Doping Agency president, Sir Craig Reedie, has vehemently denied making a backroom deal with Russia and insisted he will not resign despite mounting criticism from athletes and anti-doping groups. And Usain Bolt’s remarkable quest to become a professional footballer in Australia has ended, with the Olympic sprint champion officially turning down Central Coast Mariners’ offer of an A-League contract.
Business
Shares in Apple fell 7% on Wall Street last night after chief executive Tim Cook said sales over the coming holiday period would probably miss expectations. The fall wiped $70bn off the stock, meaning the company’s overall value fell below $1tn. Asian markets were cheered by a tweet from Donald Trump suggesting trade talks with China were “moving along nicely”. The FTSE100 looks set to open up nearly 1% this morning while the pound has risen to $1.30 in overnight trading. It’s worth €1.139.
The papers
The Guardian’s lead story today is: “Leave.EU backer Banks faces criminal inquiry over Brexit campaign”, which the FT presents as: “Crime agency investigates Banks over Leave.EU electoral spending”.
The Mail’s lead story is about the resignation of the sports minister Tracey Crouch, who has criticised the government for not acting more quickly to tackle fixed-odds betting terminals: “Blood on their hands”. And in an interesting shift in tone for the newspaper, previously fiercely pro-Brexit, it also has the Arron Banks news on the front, asking: “Did Russian money help fund his £8m Leave campaign?”
The story of minister Crouch’s resignation also leads the Telegraph: “May faces revolt over gambling curbs delay”. The Sun’s lead is David Cameron apparently considering a return to frontline politics: “Second Camming”. The Times says civil service failings caused Amber Rudd to “inadvertently” mislead parliament over Windrush: “Home Office blundering exposed by leaked file”. The Express leads on knife crime: “‘Wild West’ Britain out of control”, the Mirror has “Heathrow pilot nine times alcohol limit” and the i says: “Unis on the brink: ministers urged to fund bail-outs”.
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