Top story: George Clooney gives Trump and Bannon two thumbs down
Hello, this is Warren Murray getting you up to speed.
George Clooney’s name came up on the celebrity rota of Donald Trump critics and he did the job in style, throwing the “Hollywood elitist” tag straight back at the president, who has made millions from film and television roles.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, is a “failed film writer and director” who couldn’t get a Shakespearean rap musical made, Clooney points out. Bannon had greater success investing in Seinfeld and still rakes in royalties. “He’s elitist Hollywood – I mean, that’s the reality,” said Clooney.
Clooney points out that Trump even has a Screen Actors’ Guild pension. The president’s on-screen appearances have included the Apprentice (which made him $213.6m) and cameos in Home Alone 2 and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.
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Brit awards - David Bowie posthumously scooped best British male solo artist and album, while Beyoncé picked up the gong for female international solo artist at the UK recording industry’s big night. Here is the full list of winners.
The awards redressed last year’s dearth of black, Asian, minority ethnic and female nominees, but to some puzzlement grime’s big moment failed to arrive.
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‘Gory, bitter and twisted’ – MPs hoping for a cosy post-Brexit trade deal with the EU have been brought down to earth with a thump. Britain’s former ambassador to Brussels, Sir Ivan Rogers, has explained that getting any sort of agreement could take 10 years, well beyond the two-year exit period – and what the UK wants will be the last thing on the other countries’ minds. John Crace writes that heads started to hit the desk at the Brexit select committee well before Rogers finished his two and a half hours of testimony.
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Isis Briton wasn’t under watch – The security services, and both sides of politics, are facing questions over how a former Guantánamo inmate who got six-figure compensation from the government ended up becoming a suicide bomber in Iraq.
Jamal al-Harith, 50, a Muslim convert from Manchester, was able to leave the UK and join Isis in 2014 because he was no longer being monitored. He had been released from Guantánamo in 2004, under Labour, and received a payout in 2010, when Theresa May was running the Home Office for the Tories. Our editorial makes the case that whatever Harith went on to do, it was only proper that he be compensated for his mistreatment while held without due process in Camp X-ray.
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‘Sinister purpose’ – It’s all been a fit-up and Kim Jong-nam simply had a heart attack, North Korea has declared. The regime is damning Malaysia for its “unfriendly” determination to find out why dictator Kim Jong-un’s exiled brother died soon after being accosted in Kuala Lumpur airport by a group of strangers.
The poisoning claims were dreamt up by South Korea, fumes the North, and because the dead man had a diplomatic passport his body should have been handed over straight away for cremation (Malaysia has asked – perhaps with tongue in cheek – that the remains be claimed by a family member).
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10 is the new 5 – Take your five a day and double it if you really want to live longer, new health findings suggest. Labouring through the nationally recognised intake of fruit and veg is still a good start, but eating 10 portions could cut 7.8 million premature deaths worldwide, say researchers from Imperial College London (how long until we reach one apple per hour?).
Lunchtime read: PPE, your ticket to rule
No, we don’t mean “personal protective equipment” – dust masks and such. Andy Beckett explains how the Oxford degree in philosophy, politics and economics has become the academic qualification that runs Britain, permeating the upper echelons of politics, media, the bureaucracy, the liberal left and the capitalist elite.
Sport
It seems that all the talk in football is of an imminent move from Man Utd to China for Wayne Rooney – although some people aren’t buying it. Leicester City were thrown a lifeline with a late Jamie Vardy goal in their Champions League match against Sevilla. The Foxes lost 2-1 in Spain. Manny Pacquiao has revealed he is in talks with Amir Khan for a possible fight in the UAE.
Business
Although the Dow closed at a record high for the ninth straight session, Asian markets were more becalmed on Thursday after the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting pointed to the chance of another US rate rise in March. The US dollar drifted down so the pound was buying $1.25 and €1.18. At home, the chancellor, Philip Hammond, will announce some relief for firms hardest hit by the controversial changes to business rates.
The papers
The Mirror has a heartwarming splash about a single mother who has just won more than £14m on the lottery. She is moving out of her council house.
The Star splashes on the Brit awards and the skeletal effigies of Donald Trump and Theresa May that appeared on stage with Katy Perry. The Times splash says that Britain is wasting £450m a year transporting wood pellets from the US to burn in power stations and they produce more greenhouse gas than much cheaper coal.
The Mail leads on news that RAF drones are working through an Isis “kill list” in Syria and Iraq. The Telegraph says the government is under pressure to assure the public that none of the £20m paid out to Guantánamo Bay detainees ended up in the hands of Isis. The FT leads on news that Unilever, fresh from beating off a takeover bid from Kraft, is revamping its operations to deliver better value to shareholders.
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