Top story: Overdue bills now the main money problem
Hello, it’s Warren Murray getting you into the news this morning.
British households owe almost £19bn in utility bills, missed council tax payments, fines and overpaid benefits, according to the charity Citizens Advice. Missed bill payments have overtaken credit card troubles as people’s main money problem.
Bank of England figures show consumer borrowing reached £213bn in June, rising much faster than workers’ pay. But there are no official figures for missed bill payments, so Citizens Advice worked it out after helping more than 690,000 people with household bill troubles in 2017. One in three people in financial difficulty had problems with their mental health. Citizens Advice is calling on the government to measure and report on levels of household debt on an annual basis, and for tighter regulation of bailiffs to protect people struggling with their bills.
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Novichok man ‘loses sight’ – Charlie Rowley has gone back to hospital suffering eyesight problems, according to his older brother, Matthew. Rowley was hospitalised for novichok poisoning in June along with his girlfriend, Dawn Sturgess, who died. He was discharged a month ago. “I got a phone call from his friend to tell me he was really ill. The hospital told me he had been admitted with problems,” said Matthew Rowley. “He’s just told me now he can’t see, he has blurred vision … He’s been knocked sideways.” A spokesman for Salisbury district hospital said: “We’re not currently treating anyone for nerve agent-related illness.” UK authorities have blamed Russian agents over the death of Sturgess and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. Jeremy Hunt will today call for Donald Trump to impose tougher sanctions on Russia as he makes his first visit to Washington as Britain’s foreign secretary.
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NHS leak warns of Brexit risk – Hospitals face running out of drugs in a no-deal Brexit, the group that represents NHS hospital and ambulance service has privately warned. In a leaked letter, the NHS Providers chief executive, Chris Hopson, tells the heads of NHS England and NHS Improvement that a hard Brexit or no deal could negatively effect “the entire supply chain of pharmaceuticals” and “jeopardise” the EU citizens making up the “workforce on which the NHS relies”. The Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, heads to Brussels today and tomorrow for more negotiations with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. On Thursday the government will publish the first of a series of technical notices designed to help people and businesses prepare for a no-deal scenario.
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Italy trek tragedy – At least 10 people are dead after a flash flood in a gorge in southern Italy that is popular with hikers. Authorities said another 18 people were rescued from the Raganello creek, part of the mountainous Pollino national park in the Calabria region. The level of a white-water creek suddenly surged after heavy rainfall upstream. A search continued overnight, with the number of people who were in the gorge not known. Most tourists and trekkers who visit the area are Italian.
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Argento accused – #MeToo leaders have called for the movement to hold together after one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers was reported to have paid a settlement for alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old actor. Police in Los Angeles have said they will investigate the claim against Argento. Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, lambasted Argento for “a stunning level of hypocrisy”.
The feminist writer Moira Donegan, in response to the Argento news, warned: “Cynical people are going to use individual examples of women’s bad behavior to argue that sexual harassment and assault are not part of structural misogyny.” Rose McGowan wrote that she got to know Argento because of the “shared pain of being assaulted by Harvey Weinstein. My heart is broken. I will continue my work on behalf of victims everywhere.”
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First lady’s Twitter caution – Melania Trump has warned about the destructive power of social media, on the same day her husband used Twitter to attack John Brennan as “the worst CIA director in our country’s history”. Opening a summit on bullying, the first lady said: “Let’s face it: most children are more aware of the benefits and pitfalls of social media than some adults.” The president has said he won’t testify to the Trump-Russia special counsel, Robert Mueller, because it might be a “perjury trap”. “Even if I’m telling the truth, that makes me a liar. That’s no good.” He asserted his own authority as president over the investigation: “I’ve decided to stay out. Now, I don’t have to stay out, as you know. I can go in and I could ... do whatever. I could run it if I want.”
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‘Teach children to cook’ – Prue Leith says packed lunches should be banned because parents give in to their children and send them to school with unhealthy food. The Great British Bake Off judge (yes it’s coming back on) called for children to be taught how to cook and where food comes from. The British Dietetic Association agreed many packed lunches were not as healthy as they could be – though the Guardian restaurant critic Grace Dent said food poverty needed to be taken into account and “many kids are arriving at school starving. Teachers are grateful if some of them have been sent with any food at all, even if it’s a tube of Pringles.”
Lunchtime read: Becoming a mother in your 50s
The number of births to women aged over 50 is soaring. But what’s the real story behind the rise?
Three mothers talk to Joanna Moorhead about the joy of finally having a baby long after it would once have been possible.
Sport
Injury was added to insult for England on a demoralising third day of the third Test against India in Nottingham when Jonny Bairstow sustained a fractured finger that looks set to rule him out of the final two Tests of the series.
Jürgen Klopp praised Liverpool for playing “ugly” to squeeze their way beyond Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and maintain their winning start to the new season. Gloucester have fined Danny Cipriani, who has yet to play for the club after joining from Wasps in the summer, £2,000 following an incident in a Jersey nightclub last week. And NBA legend Paul Pierce has said he suffered from depression and anxiety attacks after being stabbed 11 times outside a nightclub in 2000.
Business
Asian stocks have risen, supported by hopes Beijing and Washington would dial back trade hostilities, though comments from the US president about the yuan and Federal Reserve policy capped gains and weighed on the dollar. The pound has been getting $1.282 and €1.113 overnight.
The papers
“Prostate hope for millions of over-5os”, announces the Mail, telling how a five-minute treatment can “cure embarrassing condition without surgery”. The Guardian’s splash is the resurgence of deadly measles in Europe, with a fall in vaccination rates blamed.
The Express carries Jeremy Hunt’s warning to the EU: “Don’t risk a messy divorce”. The Telegraph also covers politicians telling other politicians what not to do: “Don’t alter rules to elect Boris, Hague warns Tories”. The FT’s splash headline is as polysyllabic as ever: “Venezuela in 95% currency devaluation as crisis mounts”. The Times reports: “Quaker trust funds group with ties to Ulster terror”, saying the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust gave money to an organisation called CRSI. The i leads on “Animal welfare row over deal with Saudis”, about Britain exporting non-stun slaughtered lambs. “Holby Kitty” is the Sun’s front-page headline and a good one at that, about a Surrey hospital where A&E staff secretly harboured a stray cat.
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