Top story: Hate is hate, says Saunders
Good morning, Graham Russell here with the news stories to start your week.
Online hate crimes will be treated as seriously as offences committed face-to-face, the director of public prosecutions has said, drawing a link between online abuse and the extremist rallies in Charlottesville in which a woman was killed.
“Whether shouted in their face on the street, daubed on their wall or tweeted into their living room, the impact of hateful abuse on a victim can be equally devastating,” writes Alison Saunders in the Guardian, against the backdrop of a 20% rise in such abuse in the UK at the start of 2017.
New plans unveiled by the Crown Prosecution Service will hopefully lead to more prosecutions and longer sentences, said Saunders, and will tackle distinct strands of hate crime: racist and religious; disability; and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic.
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US destroyer hits oil tanker – Ten US Navy sailors are missing and five more were injured after destroyer USS John S McCain collided with an oil tanker off the coast of Singapore. A rescue mission was launched after the early morning incident involving the Alnic MC, a 182-metre vessel that sails under a Liberian flag. It is the second collision involving a ship from the navy’s 7th Fleet in the Pacific in two months. Seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship hit each other in waters off Japan.
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Brexit deals trade blow – Negotiations are taking so long – fuelled by “unrealistic” UK proposals – that British hopes of opening trade talks this autumn have no chance, the Slovenian PM has said. Miro Cerar’s comments suggest business talks might be delayed until December or January, leaving the UK with 10 months at best to find agreement on a transitional deal to prevent a cliff edge for business in March 2019, when Britain leaves the EU.
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Trump mulls changes in Afghanistan – Donald Trump will unveil his military strategy for Afghanistan and south Asia tonight. The US president was said to be dissatisfied by initial proposals to send in a few thousand more troops, and advisers were studying an expanded strategy for the broader region, including Pakistan.
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Chicago murder – The fatal stabbing in Chicago which led to a manhunt for an Oxford college worker and US professor was part of a sexual fantasy hatched in an online chatroom, a court has heard. Professor Wyndham Lathem and Andrew Warren stabbed Lathem’s boyfriend 70 times before fleeing, prosecutors said.
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Jerry Lewis’s terrible brilliance – The “king of comedy” has died aged 91 and his long mercurial life in the spotlight has provided ample material to consider his legacy. Our very own Peter Bradshaw views the life and times of Lewis through the prism of 1963 film The Nutty Professor, which is variously considered a masterpiece or unendurably awful.
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MPs sound off – Big Ben will fall silent at midday today, but the MPs surrounding it appear unlikely to follow suit as the row over the length of repairs continues. Labour MP Stephen Pound hopes at least 20 colleagues will witness the silencing “with our heads bowed but hope in our hearts”, the hope bit referring to a promise by the House of Commons commission to review the length of the four-year project. Conservative MP Conor Burns told Radio 4: “I think when you see the footage tomorrow of our colleagues who gather at the foot of Big Ben you will not see too many colleagues who have careers ahead of them.”
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Lunchtime read: How do you live on £36.95 a week?
“Always her friends in school talk about trips – going to the zoo, vacations to places. I looked at going to the zoo and the family tickets were I think £65, it’s too much for me.” So says Binar, an asylum seeker who has to balance a frugal existence on benefits with giving his daughter – seven-year-old Zara – some kind of life. Holder of a master’s degree from a British university, he is one of many who are waiting years for their claim to be assessed, unable to work and provide for their families. Kate Lyons spoke to four groups of asylum seekers about how they survive on payments amounting to about half that of jobseeker’s allowance.
Sport
It didn’t take long. #WengerOut was trending over the weekend as Arsenal fans reacted to a familiar event, their team flopping at Stoke City but Arsène Wenger reckons it is too early to wail about the same old failings. Antonio Conte has warned Tottenham the grandiose surroundings of Wembley may serve to inspire visitors to their temporary home after his Chelsea side won 2-1 there on Sunday. In a symbolic changing of the guard, Mo Farah ended his final track race on British soil by ripping off his cherished British vest and passing it to team-mate Andy Butchart. And there was to be no grand US capitulation in the Solheim Cup as Lexi Thompson’s “weirdest round” helped her team beat Europe comfortably in Des Moines.
Business
The German finance ministry says the diesel emissions scandal is a threat to the country’s economy, along with Brexit and possible US trade tariffs. Cars are Germany’s biggest export but revelations that manufacturers cheated on US pollution tests have hurt the once all-powerful sector.
In the markets, most Asian bourses were down before joint US and South Korean military exercises. The pound was little changed at $1.287 and €1.095.
The papers
It’s Monday – so it’s another varied bunch of stories on the front pages. One thing that glues many together is the use of the image of Julian Cadman, the young boy who has been confirmed dead in the Barcelona terrorist attack.
The Mirror’s headline is “Our beloved cheeky Julian”. The Guardian also has a large picture of the seven-year-old on its front but with the splash story, mentioned above, on the crackdown on social media hate crimes.
The Sun decides to go its own way with a story about claims by Princess Diana’s former private secretary. “Diana didn’t love Dodi” is the headline. The Mail is also on the royal story hunt. It says a poll shows Prince Charles’s popularity has been dented in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the death of his wife.
The Telegraph leads with an interview with the new trade negotiator for the UK who says Britain’s post-Brexit trade deals will make the world a safer place.
And the FT predicts the Trump administration will go on an all-out push for tax reforms in order to win over the Republican establishment.
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