Top story: Labour party ousted in Copeland but holds Stoke
Hello, Warren Murray here, bringing you the pick of the news this morning.
In a night of mixed fortunes for Labour, the party won the Stoke-on-Trent Central byelection, seeing off a challenge from Ukip in the shape of its leader, Paul Nuttall. But there was a bruising defeat for Jeremy Corbyn in Copeland, where the Tories snatched away a seat dominated by Labour since 1924.
“We’ve had Labour here for more than 80 years but it’s been very clear talking to people throughout this campaign that Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t represent them,” said Trudy Harrison, the Tory winner, after her victory was announced. Gillian Troughton, Labour’s Copeland candidate, was not helped by her leader’s perceived hostility to nuclear power, a major local employer.
The news was brighter for Corbyn in Stoke-on-Trent Central, where Ukip’s Nuttall failed to crack into the Commons after a campaign dogged by his PR debacle over the Hillsborough disaster. The way forward for the anti-EU party seems unclear. The Labour victor, Gareth Snell, said: “The city lazily dubbed by some as the capital of Brexit has once again proven to the world that we are so much more than that.”
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‘Chemical weapon’ killed Kim Jong-nam – The nerve agent VX – a weapon of mass destruction banned worldwide – was used to murder the exiled brother of North Korea’s ruler, Malaysian authorities have said. Kim Jong-nam was doused with the world’s deadliest nerve agent after being grabbed from behind in Kuala Lumpur airport, according to test results. Kim Jong-un is showing his foes he means business, writes Julian Borger.
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SOS: save our squirrels – The Wildlife Trust is seeking 5,000 volunteers to help stop Britain’s native red squirrels being completely wiped out by their introduced grey cousins in as little as 35 years.
Trapping and “dispatching” greys is part of the programme and it’s “not everyone’s cup of tea”, the Trust admits. But other jobs include setting up cameras, monitoring squirrel numbers and behaviour, and helping with educational programmes.
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Running on sugar – Children are consuming the equivalent of five doughnuts’ or 20 chocolate chip biscuits’ worth of the sweet stuff a day, anti-obesity campaigners have warned. The Obesity Health Alliance says food companies need to help reduce the average 73g sugar intake of children and young people. At the individual level here’s some helpful advice from the people who manage to get down 10 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables a day.
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‘Maniacally focused’ – Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, has declared Donald Trump an “economic nationalist” bent on defeating the “corporatist, globalist media” to achieve his aims. After Bannon’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one analyst said it seemed to confirm “we are getting [Bannon’s] ideas coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth to a great extent”. Separately, Luke Harding’s video explainer on what we know about Donald Trump and Russia is enlightening.
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Degree of speed – The government wants to lift the £9,000 annual tuition fee cap so university students can complete undergraduate studies in two years instead of three. Yearly fees would rise to more than £13,000 but the “fast-track degrees” would cost the same overall, and have the same academic standing.
Lunchtime read: War of the Wikibots
Inside the web’s encyclopaedia a very nerdy battle is being waged – not between human editors, but armies of competing “bots” determined to present the facts their way. Ian Sample reports on how the use of programs to perform routine tasks on Wikipedia has spawned a kind of automated trench warfare, with bots sometimes pairing off in one-on-one combat for years, undoing and replacing each other’s edits by the thousands.
Sport
Leicester, letting their head rule their heart, sacked Claudio Ranieri nine months after he led them to the Premiership. The India v Australia cricket Test was marked by an unfortunate incident when Matt Renshaw was caught short in Pune. Wayne Rooney ends speculation that he might be taking a fast plane to China (and collecting some serious yuan) by saying he’s staying at Manchester United.
Business
A sure sign the post-Brexit retail boom is over comes with news that John Lewis is cutting almost 800 jobs from in-store restaurants and administrative teams. The successful department store and Waitrose supermarket group is also planning 700 job losses as part of store closures.
On the markets, Asian shares dipped from recent highs after Donald Trump unsettled investors by describing China as the “grand champions” of currency manipulation. The FTSE, however, was on course to open slightly up for the morning, while the pound was buying$1.25 and €1.18.
The papers
The last editions’ front pages will be all about the byelections in Stoke and Copeland.
But the first editions had a different flavour. The Mail splashes on the “Danger Tumble Dryers Furor” explaining that millions of families are concerned about the possibility of theirs catching fire.
The Times reports on ministers’ plans for two-year university degrees. The FT reports that hedge funds are stockpiling large amounts of cobalt – an essential element in new batteries – in an effort to profit from increasing demand.
The Telegraph splashes on comments by the Northern Ireland secretary that criminal inquiries into soldiers’ conduct during the Troubles should be overhauled. And the Mirror leads on “The Wrath of Doris” – the storm that brought destruction to parts of the UK.
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