Top story: Plan to flout no-confidence vote
Hello, Warren Murray here, with the right amount of news at just the right time.
Boris Johnson has no intention of renegotiating the withdrawal agreement and a no-deal Brexit is his “central scenario”, European diplomats have been told. The assessment was made after David Frost, the government’s new chief Europe adviser, was said to have sought discussions with Brussels on how negotiations might be reset after the UK crashes out on 31 October. The UK’s failure to provide any proposals on how to deal with the controversial Irish backstop was felt to be significant by EU officials who spoke to the Guardian. Tory MPs have said they will join with Labour to prevent no deal, but Johnson’s senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, believes that instead of resigning if he lost a no-confidence motion, the PM could respond by scheduling a general election for November when Brexit would already have taken place.
Meanwhile, Johnson’s new cadre of special advisers present a radical ideological mix. Cummings has been well profiled but you’ve also got Munira Mirza, a Westminster outsider once linked to Marxists but latterly a libertarian and critic of multiculturalism; Chloe Westley, a Vote Leave and TaxPayers’ Alliance veteran and free marketeer; Ross Kempsell, who comes by way of the rightwing GuidoFawkes website; and Danny Kruger, formerly of the Legatum Institute and the Telegraph, who once called for a “period of creative destruction in the public services”.
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Tate attempted murder charge – A 17-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after a six-year-old boy was allegedly thrown from the viewing platform at Tate Modern. The teenager was first arrested on Sunday afternoon at the gallery, after the younger boy was allegedly thrown from the 10th floor, landing on a fifth-floor roof. At last report he was in critical but stable condition in hospital. The accused, who is too young to be named legally, will appear before Bromley youth court today.
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‘Currency manipulator’ – Financial markets have fallen sharply after Donald Trump accused China of “unfair trade practices and currency manipulation”, in a major flare-up of his trade war against China. In the first such move since 1994, the US Treasury has officially designated China as a currency manipulator, saying it alters the value of the yuan “to gain unfair competitive advantage in international trade”. China has allowed the yuan to weaken past the key seven-per-dollar level for the first time in more than a decade, blaming “the effects of unilateralist and trade-protectionist measures and the expectations for tariffs against China”. An editorial in the Communist party’s People’s Daily newspaper accused the US of “destroying international rules and the international system … These Americans need to wake up!”
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Sibera blast sparks evacuation – This video shows the moment a Siberian arms dump blew up, killing at least one soldier, injuring seven more and sending shrapnel flying. Thousands of local residents were evacuated from nearby neighbourhoods.
An estimated 40,000 tank and artillery shells are kept on the base in Achinsk, a Siberian city that lies near the Trans-Siberian railroad, 2,000 miles east of Moscow. The Russian defence ministry said the storage site that exploded held gunpowder charges for artillery shells.
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‘Third Reich’ – Donald Trump has been condemned for using Nazi-era rhetoric after declaring that gun reform should be linked to immigration reform. In an address the US president went out of his way to blame anything but lack of gun control for America’s latest mass shootings. Separately he wrote: “Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform.” The Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke, from of El Paso, responded: “The only modern western democracy that I can think of that said anything close to this is the Third Reich, Nazi Germany.” David Smith, our Washington bureau chief, writes that Republicans have become too cowed to call Trump out on such occasions. The hatemongering website 8chan which glorified the shootings has been kicked offline by a succession of web hosts.
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‘Die like cockroaches’ – Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has said he hopes criminals will “die in the streets like cockroaches” if he can bring in legislation to shield security forces and citizens who shoot alleged offenders from prosecution. Activists fear it could cause a bloodbath but Bolsonaro argued Brazilian police were fighting an “unequal” battle against crime and should not be taken to court. In the first six months of this year Rio police reportedly killed 881 people – or one person every five hours. Last year Brazilian police killed nearly 6,200 people. “These are abhorrent comments,” said Ariel de Castro Alves, a human rights activist and lawyer, who argues Bolsonaro’s truculent and dehumanising discourse has already caused a spike in deadly police violence – largely against poor, young, black men.
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Get out to the theatre – After that lot we could do with a breath of fresh air. Here’s our pick of non-London venues for outdoor summer shows, from Cornwall’s coastal Minack to Glasgow’s wooded Greenbank Garden.
Today in Focus podcast: What Google knows about you
Alex Hern explains how Google’s use of personal data has potentially helped create a new age of mass surveillance. Plus Lois Beckett on the response to two mass shootings in the US.
Lunchtime read: ‘It would be catastrophic’
Boris Johnson was on the steps of Bute House (the Edinburgh residence of the Scottish first minister) with Nicola Sturgeon, and condescendingly extended one of his arms with a view to escorting her inside. She appeared to say something, whereupon the arm went down and Johnson awkwardly followed her in. “I abhor what he is trying to do to the UK,” Sturgeon tells John Harris. “And I abhor what the implications of that are for Scotland. So I don’t think it will be surprising to anyone to hear me say that I wasn’t absolutely thrilled to be welcoming Boris Johnson as prime minister.”
“He talks about Brexit, and a no-deal Brexit in particular, as if there is nothing to worry about, and anyone who says there is just being pessimistic and downbeat. I was very frank with him that I think it would be catastrophic, if it were allowed to happen.” The SNP leader is also “no great fan of Jeremy Corbyn. I think his lack of leadership on Brexit in particular … well, if we do crash out without a deal, he will bear almost as much responsibility as Theresa May or Boris Johnson. I can’t see the SNP going into formal coalition with Labour … But some kind of progressive alliance that could lock the Tories out of government … it wouldn’t be a blank-cheque type scenario. We would want Jeremy Corbyn to take a very firm anti-Brexit position. We would look to do what was right for Scotland.”
Sport
Joe Root says England must avoid making “shotgun” decisions after their crushing defeat by Australia in the Ashes opener, a result that left the hosts with red faces after years of neglecting Test cricket. The Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht has died after crashing at the Tour of Poland. Jamie George is enjoying one of the most successful periods of his career but the England hooker insists international rugby and the cauldron of a World Cup will require a step up.
Derby County have held talks with the former England captain Wayne Rooney over a potential player-coach role. Harry Maguire has become the most expensive defender in the world and the £80m signing looks to be the right fit for Manchester United, writes Jonathan Wilson, even if the deal should have been pushed through earlier in the summer. Today marks the start of the final Kia Super League which, after four years as the premier domestic women’s cricket competition in England, will be replaced next season by the Women’s Hundred. And the Miami Marlins have said sorry after their official Twitter account blamed their cross-state rivals, the Tampa Bay Rays, for the death of TV presenter Steve Irwin.
Business
Asian stocks have followed Wall Street lower after China let its currency sink and halted purchases of US farm goods, fuelling fears Beijing’s trade war with Donald Trump will harm the global economy. China’s main index lost 2.5% and Tokyo fell 2%. Markets in Hong Kong, Sydney and Seoul also retreated. The pound is trading at around €1.084 and $1.216 while the FTSE looks like opening lower.
The papers
The impasse over Brexit negotiations leads on some of the front pages today, including the Telegraph: “Brussels expects no deal” and the Guardian: “PM intent on hard Brexit and has no desire to renegotiate, EU told”. The Times has: “Johnson to defy any vote of no confidence”, whereas the i reports on a dispute over whether money spent on health was “new” money: “Old money: Johnson in NHS hospital funding row”.
Barbara Windsor’s campaign for better dementia care leads on the Express: “Dame Babs’ plea to end dementia agony” and the Mirror: “Babs begs Boris for fairer dementia care”.
The Sun has a campaign to allow a mother to travel to Italy for health treatment: “Don’t let my little girl die”. The FT reports on the trade war: “China allows currency to weaken in escalation of trade war with US” and the Mail has a story about the VIP sex ring accuser: “‘Nick’: the damning document”.
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