Top story: Finsbury park ‘every bit as sickening’ as Manchester and London Bridge attacks
Good morning, it’s Warren Murray with your Briefing today.
Witnesses have told how bystanders protected the suspect in the north London attack from harm while they waited for police to take him into custody. Cardiff man Darren Osborne, 47, has been arrested on suspicion of terrorism after a van was driven into a group of people outside the Muslim Welfare House in Finsbury Park, killing one person and injuring 11. Local imam Mohammed Mahmoud has been praised for helping to subdue an angry crowd that gathered around Osborne while several people restrained him on the ground. The suspect is a married father of four from the suburb of Pentwyn in the Welsh capital.
Theresa May declared the attack on Muslim worshippers “every bit as sickening” as Manchester and London Bridge, and made a point of broadening her recent declarations about tackling extremism to encompass “extremism of any kind, including Islamophobia”. Nesrine Malik says there is still too much tolerance of anti-Muslim hate speech and failure to condemn it in the same terms as Islamist extremism. Amber Rudd, the home secretary, writes that the Finsbury Park attack was as much a terrorist attack as the others and the Muslim community deserves the full protection of British law and society.
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Brexit bill – An election-chastened Conservative government has been forced to accept it cannot dictate the terms of Brexit, making a significant climbdown on the first day of talks in Brussels. It now seems clear that a “divorce bill” running into billions will have to be agreed before negotiations on the big prize of free trade can commence. How to manage the Irish border has also been pushed back. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, tried to put on a brave face: “It’s not how it starts, it’s how it finishes that matters.” But as a poll showed citizens on the continent want the EU to take a tough line on Brexit, Michel Barnier, the head EU negotiator, said: “I am not in a frame of mind to make concessions or ask for concessions … We are looking to unravel 43 years of patiently built relations.” Theresa May is scheduled to visit Brussels on Thursday to make an offer on another big-ticket item: the rights of EU citizens in the UK.
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‘Brutalised’ by Kim Jong-un – Otto Warmbier, the US student jailed by North Korea in 2016, has died after the regime sent him back to his home country in a coma. Doctors in Cincinnati found the 22-year-old was effectively brain-dead, and he died on Monday. Warmbier’s parents, Fred and Cindy, blamed “the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans”.
Warmbier had been given 15 years’ hard labour for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster during an organised tour. At the time he made a distraught televised confession saying it was the “worst mistake of my life”. Responding to his death, Donald Trump condemned North Korea’s “brutal regime”. The North is still holding three other US citizens prisoner.
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Grenfell Tower: cladding under microscope – Councils have been told to provide samples for government testing of aluminium composite material (ACM) used on any of their buildings. Private landlords should be encouraged to do the same, says the Department for Communities and Local Government, which has told councils that “ACM cladding is not of itself dangerous, but it is important that the right type is used”. This morning the estimated death toll from the Grenfell fire stands at 79 as the search continues for the bodies of victims. Legal aid groups fear some may never be identified because they were living in unauthorised sublets. Meanwhile it has emerged that Kensington and Chelsea borough – which has been criticised over the disaster and its response as a council – is holding £274m in reserves and previously offered £100 council tax rebates to some of its wealthiest residents.
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Spicer racks his microphone – Donald Trump’s much-derided press secretary is looking for a new role away from the lectern, according to White House insiders. Sean Spicer has already been giving fewer press briefings, with other administration officials taking his place. Being regularly parodied by Melissa McCarthy on Saturday Night Live may have taken its toll. Spicer famously sought to portray Donald Trump’s inauguration audience as the biggest ever, when it clearly wasn’t. He is said to want more of a strategy role in future.
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Cholesterol vaccine – Medical researchers say they may have come up with a jab that protects against heart attacks. Human trials are to begin of AT04A, which has been shown to lower the levels of “bad cholesterol” in mice and reduce its buildup on their arteries. The Austrian lab developing AT04A says it could lead to a vaccine requiring only an annual booster, which would be used as an alternative to daily statin pills. But other experts say it could be years before the treatment is proven safe and effective.
Lunchtime read: ‘Like being buried alive’
A combination of harsh sentencing rules and Britain’s greying population means our prisons are now a major but ill-equipped provider of residential aged care for frail, elderly men – the oldest of them is 101. Some have dementia and no longer understand they are in prison or how they got there. Others, despite being incapable of escape, still have to be shackled to a guard when they increasingly need hospital visits.
Victorian-era prisons offer little in the way of comfort for the infirm: unsuitable for wheelchair access, with narrow corridors, stairs everywhere, and showers that pose the risk of falling, the conditions often leave elderly inmates trapped in their cells. While there is little sympathy for violent and repeat offenders, it is hard to see how such a cruel situation can be justified, writes Amelia Gentleman.
Sport
Peter O’Mahony is fast emerging as the surprise frontrunner to lead the British and Irish Lions, who play their final warm-up against the Chiefs this morning, in Saturday’s first Test against New Zealand. Andy Murray has pledged his winnings at this year’s Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club – which will be more than £346,000 if he wins his sixth title on Sunday – to the families of the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy.
Dani Alves has told Juventus he wants to leave amid interest from Manchester City. Dawid Malan is one of a number of players pressing for a regular place in the England team for the T20 series against South Africa, which starts on Wednesday. And Australia’s tennis enigma, Nick Kyrgios, was down at Queen’s Club on the first day of the Aegon Championships but emphatically not out of Wimbledon in two weeks’ time, he says – whatever the state of a lingering hip injury.
Business
Technology stocks have bounced back after sudden falls last month and Asian markets have also risen with Japan’s Nikkei leaping more than 1% to hit a near two-year high. Investors are betting on solid growth in the economy and corporate profits globally, according to Reuters analysis.
The pound has been buying US$1.27 and €1.14 overnight.
The papers
Print editions are naturally mostly splashing on the same story: the terrorist attack at a Muslim centre in Finsbury Park, north London.
The Mail has a picture of the suspect, Darren Osborne, next to the headline “I’d do it again”. The Express headline is “May: Evil will never succeed” as it repeats the prime minister’s vow to tackle extremism in all its forms.
The Times goes with “Jobless ‘lone wolf’ held over attack on mosque”. Its report says the family of Osborne deny he is racist. The Guardian highlights the imam who persuaded members of the public to hand the suspect to police rather than harm him. The Sun’s version says “Imam saved mosque maniac”, while the Mirror goes with “Hero of the mosque”. The Telegraph has a slightly different take, saying that the suspect had “turned against Muslims after London attack”, and reports that Osborne had become increasingly agitated following recent “outrages”.
Lastly, the FT splashes with EU news and says “Britain concedes on sequence of talks in opening Brexit encounter”.
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