Top story: ‘He will succeed’ – warning over North Korea nukes
Good morning, it’s Warren Murray bringing you the biggest and best stories.
A top US commander has warned he is not confident that Kim Jong-un will refrain from using nuclear weapons as the North Korean regime has repeatedly threatened.
Admiral Harry Harris, in charge of US Pacific Command, has told a congressional panel that “something precipitous” might happen if Kim succeeds in fitting a functioning nuclear warhead to a missile – “and one of these days soon, he will succeed”.
But the dictator needs to be brought “to his senses, not to his knees”, says Harris, acknowledging that attacking the North would put thousands of South Korean citizens and US troops at risk from retaliatory action.
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Determined to stand for something – He stood as a Conservative for a seat in the Commons, and won. He ran for mayor of London, and lost. Then he resigned as an MP over the Heathrow expansion, stood in the resulting byelection, and lost. But Zac Goldsmith has decided the people can’t do without him, taking up the cudgel again for the Tories in the snap election.
The Lib Dems now hold his old seat of Richmond Park and their leader, Tim Farron, says Goldsmith has no case to get it back, being a Brexit backer in a pro-EU constituency, and, like it or not, coming from the party that gave Heathrow’s controversial expansion the go-ahead. Zac’s prospects aside, the Conservatives’ real priority is an all-out assault on Labour-held seats.
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Tax is for poor people – Donald Trump has unveiled a plan that would give sweeping tax cuts to people more or less like himself. The president, who has breached convention by refusing to release his own tax returns, wants to reduce the number of US tax brackets, slash corporate rates, abolish inheritance tax and let the super-wealthy get away with paying no tax at all. Americans for Tax Fairness summed it up as a “massive tax giveaways to corporations, the wealthy, and [Trump’s] own family” that can only be funded by cutting essential services and hurting ordinary folks. Meanwhile, overnight the president dumped his election promise to scrap the Nafta free trade agreement, telling the leaders of Canada and Mexico that he wants a renegotiation instead.
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Stubbed out – Plain packaging for cigarettes will be introduced in less than a month and health researchers say 300,000 people in Britain could give up smokes as a result. The generic packs feature graphic health warnings and if the results seen in Australia are reproduced, about 0.5% of smokers will hopefully quit in the first year, while others will be discouraged from taking it up.
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Entire village sold – A property group has bought West Heslerton Estate, a hamlet near Scarborough, one year after it went on the market for £20m. It comes with a 21-bedroom mansion, 43 houses, a pub and more than 2,000 acres of farmland. There are 375 residents in rented cottages and the last of its ancestral owners, the Dawnay family, died five years ago. The Norfolk-based real estate and farming investment firm that bought it said West Heslerton would be “incorporated within our North Yorkshire Estate”. And if you fancy owning a manor of your own, you could buy a £2 lottery ticket in this one.
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‘Forgivable’ student fees – A shortage of teachers has led to a radical proposal: wipe their student debt if they stay in the classroom for at least seven years. A thinktank says “forgivable fees” should be considered because bursaries to attract the right talent to study education are proving inadequate. Secondary schools in particular are struggling to recruit maths and science teachers, and experts warn it could threaten the life chances of a generation of students.
Lunchtime read: Rise of the sex robots
Meet Harmony: proportioned like a porn star, “she” talks, listens, learns your birthday and, when it comes to sex, is always there. Harmony is one of the first efforts to build a true sex robot – there is already a $30bn world market in sex tech, and developers are looking to take it to the next level.
For now, Harmony is an animatronic head run by an artificial intelligence computer, attached to a regular silicone sex doll’s body. It can talk dirty but, aside from eventually getting a body with the moves to match, its inventors say the real key to building the ultimate sex robot is creating the illusion of human companionship. But isn’t there something disturbing about having a totally submissive partner?
Sport
Maria Sharapova refused to reveal if she will be seeking an alternative medication to the drug that got her banned from tennis for 15 months after she proved her competitive instincts remain intact with victory over Roberta Vinci at the Stuttgart Open.
Christian Eriksen helped Tottenham close the gap at the top of the Premier League with a precious winner at Crystal Palace, while Robert Huth’s own goal gave Arsenal a welcome win over Leicester. And Ronnie O’Sullivan’s world championship campaign ended with defeat to Ding Junhui at the Crucible after sparking debate about whether he spurned the chance of a maximum break because of the low prize money on offer.
Business
Fears of a trade war between the US and China will be heightened after Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, announced an investigation into imports of cheap aluminium, citing concerns about a dwindling US capacity to produce high-grade metal for defence. The review chimes with Trump’s campaign pledges to protect US industry but his vow to tear up the trade pact with Canada and Mexico went out the window as he said he would “renegotiate” rather than exit Nafta.
On the forex markets, the pound nudged up to $1.286 and €1.178.
The papers
The Sun leads on the tax raid at Newcastle United and West Ham United and uses the strapline: “Football in the dock.” It also gives over a small bit of its front to a Boris Johnson comment piece calling Jeremy Corbyn a “mutton headed mugwump.” Mugwump? See here.
The Mail splashes on MPs condemning GPs as millions of patients are denied appointments during the week because of surgery opening hours.
The Times says the world’s biggest drug companies could leave Britain over concerns at rationing of health treatment. The Mirror reports that an NHS trust already under the spotlight over 15 baby deaths has also reported more than 50 serious incidents in its maternity care unit.
The Telegraph splashes on a Tory U-turn, reporting that Britain will be bound by European human rights laws for a further five years as Theresa May abandons a pledge to withdraw from the European court.
The FT is splashing on Trump’s tax plans with the headline: “White House pledges biggest ever tax cut to unleash US economy.”
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