Top story: President’s critics threatened
Good morning all, Graham Russell here with a round-up of today’s news.
Donald Trump has removed the security clearance of John Brennan, the CIA’s director during the Obama years, in a move Brennan likened to the behaviour of “foreign tyrants and despots”. The Trump critic – who has condemned the president for calling Omarosa Manigault Newman “that dog” – was being punished for his “lying” and “increasingly frenzied commentary”, said press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Brennan – who has served four presidents over 30 years – called the move “an abuse of power” in an interview with MSNBC and vowed to continue to speak out. He tweeted: “This action is part of a broader effort by Mr Trump to suppress freedom of speech and punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent.”
Sanders last month floated the idea of removing the clearance of Brennan and other Obama administration officials, something the House speaker, Paul Ryan, dismissed at the time as just Trump “trolling people”. On Wednesday, Sanders flagged nine other officials who could lose their clearance, eight of whom have criticised Trump.
The move by a US president to use his executive powers to settle personal scores represents an unprecedented blurring of the lines between politics and national security, said one former CIA analyst.
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‘Britain’s Tiananmen Square’ – It is the bloodiest clash in British political history yet even those living nearby don’t know about it. So says director Mike Leigh of the Peterloo massacre in 1819, who is calling for it to be taught in schools. “From where I grew up in Great Cheetham Street you could walk to where it happened in less than half an hour. No one took us out from school and marched us about to say ‘this happened here’, which is remarkable,” said Leigh, who releases a dramatisation called Peterloo in October. An estimated 18 people demanding political reform and protesting against poverty were killed and more than 650 injured when cavalry troops charged the crowd, an incident that led to the creation of what is now the Guardian.
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Setting an example – Labour appears to be edging closer to amending its antisemitism code of conduct to include all of the examples recommended by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The example the party finds thorniest – “claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour” – depends on finding a way to avoid curtailing free speech but Labour hopes to settle the issue before its conference at the end of next month. Meanwhile, the Anti-Nazi League’s founders have called for a national campaign to oppose all forms of racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism after a “timely” call to action from the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell. Read their letter to the Guardian here.
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Degree of scepticism – Young people are less enthused by the benefits of going to university, though most still plan to, research suggests. The poll of 2,300 English and Welsh pupils found 75% agreed it was “important” to go, an 11-percentage point dip on five years ago. Still, more than three-quarters of those surveyed said they were likely to go. It’s A-level results day today and if uni is the goal, let me just mention that more than 26,000 places are on offer through clearing in England alone. Here is your guide to the essentials of it, plus six pointers on getting an offer you can’t refuse.
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Banksy in the dark – It was Moscow’s art event of the year, a “one of a kind” Banksy exhibition that had pulled in 200,000 visitors in just two months. Just a shame the organisers didn’t tell Banksy. “What’s the opposite of LOL?” the artist wrote in an online chat. Urged to disavow the exhibition, which to be fair never said it had involved the artist, Banksy replied: “Hmm – not sure I’m the best person to complain about people putting up pictures without getting permission.”
Lunchtime read: Fighting Trump’s war on words
“Donald Trump is not the first US president to attack the press or to feel unfairly treated by it. But he is the first who appears to have a calculated and consistent policy of undermining, delegitimising and even endangering the press’s work.” This is the Guardian view, one of 343 editorials that news organisations have pledged to launch on Thursday to push back against Trump’s attacks on the media and press freedom. The effort was organised by the Boston Globe to denounce what the paper called a “dirty war against the free press”.
The Guardian’s editorial continues: “The breadth of the response to the Boston Globe’s suggestion – and the fact that each editorial will be separately and independently written – suggests ... that those who report and comment, day in and day out, in as professional and objective a manner as we can, are concerned that public respect for journalistic truth, reason and civility are under a new and present threat against which we must stand as best we can. As one editor has put it: we’re not at war with the Trump administration, we’re at work.”
Sport
The England rugby union international Danny Cipriani faces a battle to save his career after he was arrested and charged with five offences including assaulting police following a nightclub incident during Gloucester’s pre-season tour in St Helier. Ben Stokes and Alex Hales have a protracted wait to learn if they face any cricketing sanctions but there is understood to be no ill feeling between the pair after a potentially divisive end to the Bristol court case in which the former was cleared of affray.
Manchester City fear Kevin De Bruyne could be sidelined for up to three months after the midfielder sustained a knee injury in training, while Real Madrid began life without Cristiano Ronaldo with an extra-time defeat to bitter rivals Atlético Madrid in the Uefa Super Cup. And cobalt doping does not improve a racehorse’s performance, according to Mark Johnston, who will shortly become the most successful British trainer by number of wins.
Business
Qatar has come to the rescue of Turkey’s banks, pledging loans worth $15bn (£11.8bn), helping the lira recover to six to the US dollar at 6am today after reaching an all-time low of 7.24 earlier in the week. The threat of further US sanctions against Ankara along with weak China data hit global financial markets hard on Wednesday but they bounced back overnight in Asia. London’s FTSE 100 is poised to open up 0.7% later this morning. The pound is at $1.272 and €1.117.
Elizabeth Warren, tipped as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, has unveiled new plans to rein in big corporations and redistribute wealth, changing a model she says has caused corporations to chase shareholder profits to the detriment of workers.
The papers
The Guardian’s main story today is “BBC faces bill for millions after dropping Cliff Richard appeal”.
A few newspapers have led their coverage with the bridge disaster in Genoa. The Times has “Italy blames Brussels and big business for tragedy” and the Express has the account of a British family on the bridge, “We just ran for our lives”.
The Daily Mail asks “Are house prices set to take a tumble?”, the Telegraph says “EU fears Brexit talks about being bugged”, the i splashes with “Unis offer £1000 bribes to smart students”. The FT says “Spooked investors push emerging market stocks into bear territory”. The Mirror pushes the Thomas Markle drama on for another day: “Meghan should look after me ... but I haven’t had a dime” and the Sun has “Cipriani held over bar ruck”.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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