Top story: ‘I wonder where the bottom might be’
Good morning – it’s Warren Murray helping you burrow into the news of the moment (pun explains itself further down).
Michelle Obama has told of her dismay that so many American women chose Donald Trump as their president instead of Hillary Clinton. In her memoir Becoming, published today, the former first lady admits some news stories now “turn her stomach” and, as her husband Barack Obama’s legacy is aggressively unravelled, she sometimes wonders “where the bottom might be”. “I am not a political person, so I’m not going to attempt to offer an analysis of the results … I just wish more people had turned out to vote. And I will always wonder about what led so many women, in particular, to reject an exceptionally qualified female candidate and instead choose a misogynist as their president.”
Today we publish an exclusive extract in which Michelle Obama recalls her internal struggle with her identity in the first days as wife of the future US president. “If you grew up in the 1960s and 1970s as I did, wives seemed to be a genus of white women who lived inside television sitcoms – cheery, coiffed, corseted. They stayed at home, fussed over the children, and had dinner ready on the stove. My parents’ arrangement was as traditional as anything we saw on TV. Barack sometimes jokes, in fact, that my upbringing was like a black version of Leave It to Beaver. Personally, as a kid, I preferred The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which I absorbed with fascination. Mary had a job, a snappy wardrobe, and really great hair … If you were a girl with a brain and a dawning sense that you wanted to grow into something more than a wife, Mary Tyler Moore was your goddess. I wanted to have a work life and a home life … It was an odd and confounding thing to ponder. Could I have everything? Would I have everything? I had no idea.”
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‘Stop the badger blame game’ – Badgers should not be singled out as the main cause of bovine tuberculosis outbreaks, with the cattle trade and poor biosecurity on farms “severely hampering” efforts to tackle the disease, according to an independent review for the environment secretary. Scientists have told Michael Gove it is “highly desirable” to move from culling to vaccination of badgers. Gove approved a huge expansion of badger culling in September with up to 42,000 to be shot this year. The report is highly critical of both farmers and ministers – poor use of measures such as secure fencing to prevent TB transmission on farms is “severely hampering disease control measures”, it concludes, as are the 2m movements of cattle every year as they are bought and sold.
To date the government has spent about £40m on badger culling while £700,000 is offered for badger vaccination over four years. The Badger Trust’s Dominic Dyer said: “The badger cull is a disastrous policy that is failing farmers, taxpayers and badgers. It’s time to stop playing the badger blame game and bring this cruel, costly and ineffective policy to an end.”
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Brexit talks ‘endgame’ – Theresa May’s efforts to secure a Brexit deal by the end of March have suffered further setbacks as UK and EU negotiators struggle to resolve the Irish border backstop in time for a November summit. Negotiators stayed up until 2.45am on Monday in pursuit of a breakthrough that did not come. “The negotiations for our departure are now in the endgame,” May told the lord mayor’s banquet at the Guildhall in London last night. She warned that Brussels negotiators could not expect concessions this week just to keep the idea of a November Brexit summit alive. Labour will launch a bid today to make ministers publish the government’s legal advice on the backstop. Jo Johnson, who resigned from the government on Friday to support a second referendum, will address a rally in Westminster today.
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Excelsior! – Stan Lee, co-creator of Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Daredevil and the X-Men, has died aged 95. The Marvel Universe he created crossed from page to screen in a series of TV and movie adaptations and changed the face of popular culture. At 17, Lee landed a job at a publishing company writing scripts for superhero and mystery comics. At age 19 he found himself editor-in-chief. Over the following years at Marvel the hundreds of characters co-created by Lee included Thor, the Hulk and Doctor Strange.
Lee let the characters from one title crop up in others, creating a fictional universe for readers to explore. In 2000 Bryan Singer’s blockbuster version of X-Men set the template for success on the big screen, and films from Iron Man to Ant-Man and the Wasp have made a combined $17.6bn (£13.6bn) at the box office, with a cameo by Lee becoming customary. “There will never be another Stan Lee,” said the Captain America actor Chris Evans. “For decades he provided both young and old with adventure, escape, comfort, confidence, inspiration, strength, friendship and joy … Excelsior!!” Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr said of Lee: “I owe it all to you.”
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Alarm over prison births – Women have given birth in prison cells without access to proper medical care, a report shared with the Guardian reveals. One inmate was given “paracetamol and a cup of tea” by prison nurses who didn’t believe she was in labour, according to research by Dr Laura Abbott of the University of Hertfordshire. Minutes later the baby arrived in the dangerous feet-first position. With figures unavailable, the charity Birth Companions estimates there are 600 pregnant women in prison and 100 give birth each year – “If you have got women in prison who are pregnant or who have babies in prison then we really do need to look after them,” says director Naomi Delap. A Prison Service spokesperson said: “We know it is extremely rare for a woman to give birth in prison – because every step is taken to get them to hospital – but those unique cases are invariably down to the unpredictability of labour.”
Today in Focus podcast: Can Theresa May deliver Brexit?
The PM is fighting against the clock to reach a withdrawal deal with the EU in Brussels. Once she brings that deal back to parliament it will face a crucial vote.
The Guardian’s political editor Heather Stewart looks across the House of Commons at the warring groups the prime minister will need to win over to seal a deal before the deadline of 29 March 2019. Plus: Caroline Davies on Prince Charles at 70.
Lunchtime read: Not so rapt in plastic
It is the colourful yet banal background material of modern life. Each year, the world produces around 340m tonnes of plastic, enough to fill every skyscraper in New York City.
But decades after it became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt is under way against its harmful legacy. So why do we care all of a sudden? Stephen Buranyi unpacks the war on plastic.
Sport
Roger Federer, reaching for the 100th tournament win of his 20-year career in London this week, has found himself at the centre of an awkward controversy over claims he has long benefited from preferential scheduling, and that he is undermining the integrity of the Davis Cup. If Eddie Jones’s warning that they will be “physically smashed” against England on Saturday was not jarring enough for Japan’s players, their coach has revealed his squad are being paid only £13.64 a day (2,000 yen) to represent their country.
England’s Women’s World Twenty20 campaign finally got under way in St Lucia, but in far from convincing fashion – the seven-wicket margin of victory over Bangladesh belying their nervy performance with the bat. Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana played to a third straight draw in the third game of their world championship showdown in London, though the balance of the best-of-12-games match continues to tip slightly in the Norwegian champion’s favour. And Daniel Sturridge has been charged with misconduct in relation to alleged breaches of the Football Association betting rules in January, although the Liverpool striker insists that he has “never gambled on football”.
Business
Stocks in Asia have endured a tough overnight session after another sharp sell-off on Wall Street. Shares in Apple fell 5% in New York over concerns that the long boom in technology companies might have peaked. Investors are also concerned about rising US interest rates and signs of weakness in the Chinese economy. The FTSE 100 is expected to open flat this morning, while the pound has edged up slightly to $1.287 and €1.145.
The papers
The Guardian’s splash is “Time running out as May claims Brexit negotiations in ‘endgame’”. The Telegraph has a warning from Eurosceptic cabinet members that “No deal is better than caving in to Brussels” and the Times has “Barnier tries to bounce May into Brexit deal”.
The Mail reports on the Asia Bibi case: “Boris: UK must help mother in fear of lynch mob”. The i has “Chancellor faces defeat on ‘crack cocaine’ betting machines”, the Express reports on escalating crime in the country: “Give us back 20,000 police” and the FT leads with “MoD places Babcock under close watch over nuclear subs contract”. The Mirror has a story about “Brit killed by rabies from cat bite” and the Sun has an interview with Simon Cowell: “Cowell: I’ve been living like a vampire”.
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