Top story: ‘Our election is being stolen’
Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the main things you need to know.
At least three people have been killed in the aftermath of Zimbabwe’s elections as soldiers and police fired live ammunition, teargas and water cannon during running battles with protesters in the capital, Harare. The violence erupted amid delays releasing the result of the historic vote and claims that the outcome is being rigged by the ruling Zanu-PF party.
“We support [opposition leader Nelson] Chamisa and we want him to be our president … Our election is being stolen,” said a 19-year-old student among the protesters. Some chanted: “This is war,” while others shouted slogans calling for the country’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to step down. Less than an hour before the violence, election monitors had called for votes to be counted in an open and timely way.
The scenes of violence contrasted dramatically with the jubilation and joy on the same streets that greeted the end of Mugabe’s rule in November. Images of soldiers firing on civilian protesters recall the darkest days of the Mugabe era. Under electoral law the presidential result has to be announced by 4 August, with a runoff in five weeks if no one wins more than half the votes. The UK foreign office minister, Harriett Baldwin, said she was “deeply concerned” and called on Zimbawean political leaders to “take responsibility for ensuring calm and restraint at this critical moment”. The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, made a similar plea.
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Follow the money – Pay growth for people switching jobs in the last 12 months hit 11% this year in the UK, suggesting a growing “disloyalty bonus” when compared with the 2.5% received by people who have stayed with their existing employer. But just 3% of workers have moved jobs in the last 12 months. Economists believe Britain’s lowest levels of unemployment since the mid-1970s should be helping workers to get a pay rise. But the Resolution Foundation says the lack of job-switching has reduced the pressure on firms to keep their staff loyal by paying more. The Bank of England will be looking for signs of wage growth as it today considers raising interest rates above o.5% for the first time since 2009. The Bank appears likely to raise the cost of borrowing to 0.75% – a level unseen since March 2009 when Britain was in the grip of recession.
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‘Blind Brexit’ – Remain campaigners are worried that Theresa May could be steering Britain into a face-saving deal with the EU where only vague details about future relations will be pinned down by the time Britain leaves at the end of March 2019. Rumours from Brussels have suggested that if Germany and France back the idea, the chief EU Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is prepared to leave difficult issues such as the planned future trading and security relationship until the transition period. “A blind Brexit would take the UK to the same place as a no-deal Brexit, but without the clarity,” said Chris Leslie, a Labour Co-op MP. The Remain campaign, now called People’s Vote, is focused on calling for a second referendum on leaving the EU. It wants more European leaders to say more loudly that they will keep the door open to the UK remaining in the EU.
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Drink and dementia – Drinking either no alcohol or too much in middle age might be linked to dementia, a study of 9,000 people that began in the 1980s has found. Participants were aged between 35 and 55 when they began being tracked. Abstinence in midlife was associated with a 45% higher rate of dementia compared with people who consumed between one and 14 units of alcohol per week. Among excessive drinkers, consuming more than 14 units per week, experts found the dementia rate increased the more a person consumed. The reasons are unclear. Commenting on the study, Dr Sara Imarisio, from Alzheimer’s Research UK, said it may be because teetotallers had actually previously been heavy drinkers.
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Caught in the net – The average Briton checks a mobile phone every 12 minutes and is online for 24 hours a week, according to Ofcom. A fifth of British adults feels stressed if they cannot access the internet, while only 12% of adults never use it. A quarter of adults spend more than 40 hours a week on the internet – a move driven by the uptake of smartphones, which many people are checking frequently from when they wake up in the morning until the moment they fall asleep at night. Time spent making phone calls from mobiles has fallen as people use messaging services instead.
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Left feeling flat – A man who bought a cheap, wrecked Tesla Model S and got it back on the road is seeking compensation from the maker after it prevented him using its “supercharger” stations.
Niall Darwin bought the wreck in Australia and shipped it to New Zealand where he sells electric scooters. He spent tens of thousands on his rebuild and had it recertified by Tesla. But Elon Musk’s electric car company has electronically blocked it from using the quick “superchargers”. The company says it is because the vehicle was written off permanently in Australia. But the rebuild is road-legal in New Zealand. Darwin has told Tesla he will see them in court: “I love your car but I hate the way you’re treating customers like me.”
Lunchtime read: Couldn’t care less about caring
Psychologist Charles Figley defines compassion fatigue as “a state of exhaustion and dysfunction, biologically, physiologically and emotionally, as a result of prolonged exposure to compassion stress”. It is important to understand in professions such as nursing, where over-exposure to trauma can lead to problems for the nurses and their patients.
But it can and has been applied to the general population too – especially when we are saturated with pleas for attention. So with appalling events happening around the world every day, is there a danger that we become numb to the headlines? And does it matter if we do?
Sport
Virat Kohli may have lit the touch paper on what could prove to be a fiery Test series after the India captain ran out Joe Root on the opening day at Edgbaston and then sent his opposite number packing with a “mic drop” celebration. The Football Association is confident of persuading Gareth Southgate to extend his contract as England manager beyond 2020 after he unexpectedly led the team to a World Cup semi-final in Russia. Samir Nasri has had his doping ban increased from six to 18 months following an appeal by Uefa’s ethics and disciplinary inspector against the original sanction. Maurizio Sarri expressed his exasperation at Willian’s late return for pre-season training, agreeing that the situation was strange, after he watched his Chelsea team go down on penalties to Arsenal following an entertaining 1-1 friendly draw in Dublin. And Andy Murray beat fellow Briton Kyle Edmund 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 in the second round of the Citi Open in Washington as his recovery from hip surgery continues.
Business
All eyes will be on the Bank of England today as it potentially raises the official interest rate to 0.75%, a level not seen since March 2009, during the recession. On world markets, Asian stocks have dropped after Donald Trump threatened China with 25% trade tariffs. The pound has been trading around $1.31 and €1.124 overnight.
The papers
The Guardian’s front-page headline today is: “Ministers’ secret plan to assess role of austerity in food poverty”. The i’s lead story is “Labour MPs plead with Corbyn to avoid crisis” and the Telegraph’s splash is on a similar theme: “Holocaust survivor: I was silenced by Corbyn”.
The heatwave features on the front of the Mirror – “Brits’ 118F hol hell” – and the Express, which is more cheery on the subject – “£31bn heatwave boost to economy”. The Times leads with “Visas for men who force teenagers into marriage”. The FT has “House of Fraser’s future in doubt after China rescue plan collapses”, the Sun leads with “Nursery crimes”, about a pre-school “slated for not spotting jihadis”, and the Mail leads with the one about us being “Addicted to our mobiles”.
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