Top story: Tributes and reaction after death of Martin McGuinness
Good morning, Warren Murray delivering your early news this morning.
As the Briefing goes out, news is just breaking that Northern Ireland politics has lost a key figure. Martin McGuinness was the IRA chief of staff who went on to become the Sinn Féin deputy first minister in the devolved power-sharing assembly at Stormont.
McGuinness quit politics ahead of the recent Northern Ireland elections, citing ill health. He was 66 and had a rare genetic disease that affects tissues and organs. We have commenced rolling coverage of tributes and reaction. His life and times are remembered in this Guardian obituary.
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‘Global Laundromat’ – Britain’s banking system has been identified as one of the channels through which billions of dollars in laundered criminal money flowed out of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the Guardian can reveal after a special investigation.
A scheme that has been dubbed the “Global Laundromat” entailed up to $80bn being moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014.
HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts are among financial institutions facing questions after $740m was funnelled through Britain’s high street banks. HSBC alone processed $545.3m.
British-registered companies – whose owners are kept secret by offshore laws – were used as part of the process and then wound up. A coalition of media and investigators has been working with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to unravel the complex web of transactions.
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‘Unusual circumstances’ – The FBI director, James Comey, has dismissed the wiretapping conspiracy story promulgated by the White House – while confirming that his agency has, as far back as July 2016, been investigating whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow to influence the election.
Comey and the National Security Agency director, Admiral Michael Rogers, told the House intelligence committee that Russian intervention in the election had been “unusually loud” and Moscow did not seem to care about being caught. It was clear the Russians had been determined to intervene on Trump’s side in the election and damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Trump weighed in with some alternative facts during the hearing, putting out a tweet claiming the FBI and NSA had just told Congress there was “no Russian influence” on the election process. This was clearly false. When the tweet was put to NSA director Rogers, he made a puzzled double-take. Comey’s effective response was that he didn’t believe they had told the hearing anything of the sort.
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‘Uncharted territory’ – The extent of climate change is getting beyond what anyone expected and scientific modelling is struggling to cope, weather experts have warned. The World Meteorological Organisation says that after 2016 became the hottest year ever recorded, 2017 is continuing the trend with rising seas and the disappearance of ice at the poles. “Earth is a planet in upheaval due to human-caused changes in the atmosphere,” says glaciologist Jeffrey Kargel.
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Cellphones only – Passengers on airlines from 13 countries including Saudi Arabia and Jordan are banned from having electronic devices larger than a mobile phone in the cabin under new US aviation rules. Confusion is swirling around the “confidential” edict from the Transportation Safety Administration, but airlines including Saudia and Royal Jordanian quickly warned their passengers of the new rule affecting flights to and from the US. Reuters cited a US official as saying the measure was in response to a “terrorism threat”.
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Green’s pension payback – Sir Philip Green is being called on to make sure a £15m refund from the BHS pension scheme rescue doesn’t settle in his own pocket. The Labour MP Frank Field has said a loophole lets Green take the money back if 90% of eligible members cash out rather than continuing their pensions. Green struck a £363m deal to save the scheme after a huge public outcry. Field said: “I hope Sir Philip will recycle any refund back into the scheme as BHS pensioners will still be facing cuts in the benefits for which they paid.”
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‘It feels surreal’ – A British veteran of the second world war is facing deportation from Australia at the age of 92. James Bradley and his wife, Peggie, 91, emigrated in 2007 to be with their daughter and her family under Australia’s “aged parent” visa system. The visa is only available to people aged 65 or over, but perversely James was deemed no longer eligible after failing a medical in 2014. The family is appealing against the decision.
Lunchtime read: One country, zero freedom
Anyone who thought Hong Kong a haven from Communist party authorities was given cause to think again when they started spiriting booksellers away to the mainland, then dramatically snatched one of China’s richest businessmen from his swank hotel suite. Howard W French asks whether it is now too late to save the “one country, two systems” deal that was supposed to preserve independence and civil freedoms after British rule ended.
Sport
Jamie Vardy has claimed he received death threats because of his alleged involvement in the dressing-room mutiny that undermined Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City, while Olivier Giroud believes the Arsenal players are right behind Arsène Wenger and want him to stay on at the club despite mounting fan unrest and a poor run of form.
A deal to stage Cricket World Cup matches at the London Stadium, potentially creating the biggest crowd in England in the modern history of the sport, is close to being secured.
Tiger Woods has opened up over the racial slurs that drove his desire to dominate the golf world. And police are investigating after a brawl that broke out at a rugby match between the universities of Sussex and Brighton left several students arrested and one in hospital.
Business
Some Asian indexes have hit 15-month highs including Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.3% though.
As Google apologises for allowing online adverts for major brands to appear on extremist sites, Nils Pratley says it isn’t taking the issue seriously enough or it would allocate more resources “which it can afford to do” and stop relying on viewers to report contraventions.
The pound was buying US$1.24 and €1.15 overnight.
The papers
The Times leads on more companies – including VW, Toyota and Tesco – pulling adverts from Google, claiming it is not doing enough to keep them off extremist websites. It also features images from an American Vogue photoshoot with Theresa May.
The Mail is in familiar territory with the headline “BBC’s Brexit Bias Storm”. The story says that up to 70 MPs have written to the head of BBC saying its coverage of Brexit is “too gloomy”. The Telegraph – as it often does – mirrors the Mail with “BBC warned over Brexit bias”.
The Sun splashes on what it says is the case of a rapist who was moved to a women’s prison after gender reassignment. The Mirror, under the headline “Russia’s Ultra Yobs Infiltrated”, reports that hardline thugs are warning English football fans they will be “beaten to death” at next year’s football World Cup.
The FT splashes on the story of FBI director James Comey confirming an investigation into links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin during the presidential election.
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