Top story: Brexit deal – PM’s hands bound tighter still
Good morning, Warren Murray here with the news brought to order.
A controversial amendment allowed by the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, has left Theresa May boxed in over her Brexit deal. The prime minister was again defied by Conservative rebel MPs who voted with Labour in a cross-party alliance to adopt the amendment, which requires May to set out a “plan B” within three working days if her EU-endorsed deal is defeated next Tuesday.
The motion setting out the government’s plan can be amended by MPs hoping to push their own alternative proposals, from a second referendum to a harder Brexit. An accelerated timetable will also pile the pressure on Labour to decide which to back. Jeremy Corbyn will today repeat his calls for a general election. Downing Street sought to play down the significance of the amendment – a spokesman said: “Our intention has always been to respond quickly and provide certainty on the way forward in the event that we lose the meaningful vote.”
Bercow was accused of being biased against Brexit after he allowed the amendment, put forward by Dominic Grieve, to go forward. But he insisted: “I am clear in the mind that I have taken the right course.” Jessica Elgot writes that Bercow’s judgment – and his determination to side with the will of parliament over the government – is likely to be pivotal in the coming days.
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Job cuts at Jaguar – In news just breaking this morning, Jaguar Land Rover is poised to announce up to 5,000 job losses. The carmaker is reportedly set to embark on a savings programme amid falling sales in China, Brexit and a drop in demand for diesel cars. We’ll have more on that story on the site during the day.
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Congo election result announced – Riot police are on the streets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where authorities have belatedly declared Felix Tshisekedi winner of the presidential election. Pre-election polls had given opposition frontrunner Martin Fayulu, a respected former business executive, a healthy lead. Fayulu’s supporters believe outgoing President Joseph Kabila may have done a power-sharing deal to put Tshisekedi in power if his own anointed successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, did not win. Vote tallies compiled by the DRC’s Catholic church found Fayulu clearly won the election, diplomatic officials told the Reuters news agency. Security forces took up positions outside the offices of the DRC’s election commission and elsewhere in the capital, Kinshasa, amid fears of a violent response to the result.
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Trump gets the hump – Donald Trump has stalked out of a meeting with Democrats over the federal shutdown, gifting them the chance to reiterate that he is seeking to govern by “temper tantrum”. Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters afterwards: “The president just got up and walked out … He asked Speaker Pelosi: ‘Will you agree to my wall?’ She said no, and he just got up and said we have nothing to discuss and walked out.” The shutdown is nearing three weeks long. Elsewhere in US politics, the newly minted congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has hit out over “disgusting” fake photos published by conservative media that depicted her naked in a bathtub. “This was just a matter of time … Women in leadership face more scrutiny. Period.”
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Bad breath – It might seem a tad slow off the mark that officialdom is just realising even a fairly short ride on the tube makes your snot go black. Researchers have found air pollution in London’s underground stations is up to 30 times higher than beside busy roads in the capital. Passengers breathe in the same concentration of particulates in an hour on the tube as they do in a full day above ground. The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) has warned Transport for London (TfL) it is “likely there is some health risk”. Tests singled out the Northern Line and Hampstead station as particularly bad for hazardous PM2.5 particles. TfL says it has accepted the recommendations in the report and will carry out further monitoring and testing of dust samples.
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Space oddity – Possibly alien starship exhaust, but probably stars crashing into each other in a galaxy far, far away – the verdict on “fast radio bursts” (FRBs) coming in from outer space. A new, repeating source of origin for the millisecond-long pulses has been detected by a Canadian-led team with a new kind of radio telescope. In our more immediate cosmic neighbourhood, the Hubble space telescope is in a bit of trouble after its wide-field camera broke down. Nasa hopes to get it working again, and it did manage to discover the brightest ever quasar, with the intensity of about a trillion suns, before going offline.
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Resolute in the new year – If you feel like your new year’s resolutions are already slipping away, we’ve got nine ways to boost your willpower, or at least make the most of your existing reserves, to get fit, write that book, or stay off the drink. Remember that experiment with the children and the marshmallows, where they could eat one now, or two later? “The ‘high delayers’ went on to achieve greater academic success, better health and lower divorce rates,” Anita Chaudhuri reminds us. “So there is more at stake than whether or not you make it to the end of Dry January.” (The Briefing wonders, though, whether they factored in that some kids probably like marshmallows more than others.)
Today in Focus podcast: El Salvador’s abortion ban on trial
The shocking case of Imelda Cortez has put El Salvador’s strict abortion laws in the spotlight. Human rights lawyer Paula Avila-Guillen and reporter Nina Lakhani describe how a surprise verdict has given fresh hope to women in El Salvador. Plus, in opinion, Randeep Ramesh on the Guardian’s call for a citizens’ assembly to break the Brexit deadlock.
Lunchtime read: Tragic legacy of ‘imprisonment for public protection’
The sister of an inmate who killed himself while serving an unlimited jail term is campaigning for other sentences under the now-defunct “imprisonment for public protection” (IPP) regime to be commuted. Tommy Nicol was jailed in 2009 after breaking a man’s arm while trying to steal a car. His four-year minimum tariff was up in 2013 but he was repeatedly refused parole, while the system failed to deliver promised therapeutic measures to help his prospects of release. Nicol protested that it was “psychological torture” and after a number of cries for help, increasingly disturbed behaviour and eventually ending up in restraints, he was found unresponsive and died in hospital aged 37.
IPP sentences were scrapped in 2011 after being applied far too widely, sometimes for low-level crimes. But nearly 2,600 people are still serving them. “I can just see how much this sentence has impacted him – it’s made my brother take his life,” said Nicol’s sister, Donna Mooney. “He had a complete loss of hope.” She believes that, had Nicol known he had a fixed release date, he would still be alive. Mooney is calling for the remaining IPP prisoners on minimum tariffs of four years or less to be immediately switched to determinate sentences. She is seeking to meet with the justice secretary, David Gauke, about the matter.
Sport
Aaron Ramsey has agreed a five-year deal with Juventus worth £36m and will join the Italian champions on a free transfer at the end of the season. Nigel Clough managed to retain his sense of humour after Burton’s 9-0 trouncing by Manchester City by stating he hoped Pep Guardiola had “more than one glass” of wine on offer for the post-match drink.
Billy Vunipola has warned that rugby union is more brutal than ever but admits he does not know how the sport can fix the problem. Ashley Giles, England’s new director of cricket, has said he is not bitter about his 2014 sacking and will not be afraid to make the difficult decisions in pursuit of success. And the International Cricket Council has announced an unprecedented 15-day amnesty for anyone who has failed to report a corrupt approach in Sri Lanka.
Business
Asian markets have been mostly lower as US and Chinese officials wrapped up three days of talks in Beijing without significant breakthroughs. The FTSE is tracking towards a lower open as well. Sterling has been trading at $1.278 and €1.155 overnight.
The papers
Front pages are focused on the vote in parliament that requires May to present a “plan B” for Brexit if (when?) she loses the vote next week. John Bercow’s role in the process naturally comes in for scrutiny: “Mr Speaker takes control” says the Telegraph and “Out of order!” cries the Mail, which calls Bercow an “egotistical preening popinjay”. The Sun’s headline is: “Speaker of the devil” and the Express says: “You’re so out of order!”
The Times reports: “Tory rebels join forces with Labour over Brexit”, while the Mirror claims it as a victory for Labour and its constituency: “May caves in on workers’ rights to save Brexit deal”. The Guardian’s splash is “May’s power ebbing away as she suffers another humiliating defeat” and the i has a similar focus, writing: “May losing control of Brexit”. The FT goes with “May offers MPs ‘backstop’ veto after second Commons defeat”. You can take a closer look at today’s front pages here.
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