Top story: ‘Off the rails’ – May told to sort timetable mess
Good morning, I’m Warren Murray and this scheduled service is now arriving on your preferred platform.
Chris Grayling has criticised Govia Thameslink, Northern rail and Network Rail over the severe disruption to train services, saying it is “clear that GTR and Northern were not sufficiently prepared to manage a timetable change of this scale”. But Labour and the people of the north are turning their fire on the government with calls for Theresa May to sack the transport secretary for letting it happen.
Cancellations and delays have continued despite services being reduced to minimise disruption. Today, 25 regional newspapers have taken up the cudgel, using their front pages to demand that the prime minister get a grip on the situation. In Cumbria, the suspension of the Lake Line has brought havoc for tourist firms as visitors are shuffled on to replacement buses – compounding existing problems of fewer and less reliable services. “Trains are dire in this part of the world,” said passenger Jack Eldon, 65, from London.
Separately, plans for the contentious third runway at Heathrow airport are expected to be approved by ministers today. The somewhat beleaguered Grayling will present the proposal to cabinet and is expected to make a statement to MPs where he will warn there is no alternative if they block it.
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‘Houses became ovens’ – Rescuers have told harrowing tales of pulling bodies from the ocean of ash and debris that engulfed communities around Guatemala’s Fuego volcano. The official death toll was 62 by Monday but the final number is likely to be far higher, with scores still missing.
With heavy machinery, shovels and picks, rescue workers have been trying to dig their way into houses – but the ash still holds enough heat to melt their workboots. “Every time we lift off a metal roof a huge gush of steam rises out of the building”, said rescue worker Juan Diego Alvarez. The fate of people in dozens of smaller settlements on higher plots remains unknown, and authorities fear heavy rains later this week could turn the ash on the slopes into huge mudslides.
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Manafort bail breach – Prosecutors have accused the Trump-Russia figure Paul Manafort of attempting to tamper with witnesses. Robert Mueller’s investigation wants the former Trump campaign manager’s bail “revoked or revised” as a consequence. A court filing says Manafort made phone calls and used encrypted messaging to approach witnesses “in an effort to influence their testimony and to otherwise conceal evidence”. Manafort is facing charges of concealing millions he had earned advising pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine, conspiring to launder money and failing to register as a foreign agent. Trump, meanwhile, is sticking to his suggestion that he can simply pardon himself if things get too hot with the Russia inquiry.
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Terminal cancer vanquished – Breast cancer has been eradicated from throughout a woman’s body using her own immune cells, say medical researchers. Judy Perkins, an engineer from Florida, was 49 when she was given three years to live after a tumour spread to her liver and other areas. Researchers harvested immune cells from pieces of her tumours, grew billions more in the laboratory, separated out those that were the most effective against the cancer, and re-injected them. Tests after 42 weeks showed Perkins was completely cancer-free. Experts caution that the treatment has only proved itself in one woman, and is expensive and complex. Researchers are planning full-scale clinical trials.
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One week to Trump-Kim talks – Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Kim Jong-un at 9am Singapore time a week from today on Tuesday 12 June, the White House has announced. “We feel like things are continuing to move forward, and good progress has been made,” said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders, adding that the White House “advance team” of military, security, technical and medical staff were on the ground making preparations. At home, perhaps to show the North Korean leader that he’s not the only one in the world presiding over a self-fertilising cult of personality, Trump has boasted of “500 days of American greatness” and how he brought them about.
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Breath of fresh energy – An electricity company has worked out how to store electricity by freezing air until it becomes a liquid and storing it in a tank at -196C. At times of peak demand the air is turned back into a gas and rushes through a turbine to generate power. Highview Power, which operates a demonstration plant near Bury, Greater Manchester, says it may be less efficient than a lithium-ion battery but it doesn’t wear out like one either. The company argues its liquid air technology can help electricity grids cope with the variable output of wind and solar power.
Lunchtime read: Five myths about the refugee crisis
The emergency of 2015-16 is over. We can neatly partition “genuine refugees” from “economic migrants” and guiltlessly turn away the latter. It’s not about racism, but protecting European values.
Today, Daniel Trilling, editor of New Humanist and author of Lights in the Distance, deconstructs these and other beliefs that continue to shape policy and public opinion on refugees.
Sport
Yaya Touré has launched a broadside at Pep Guardiola, accusing him of “having problems with Africans wherever he goes” and claiming the Manchester City manager’s coaching reputation is “a myth”. When Serena Williams withdrew from the French Open, less than an hour before her highly anticipated fourth-round match against Maria Sharapova, she admitted it was because of a pectoral injury that struck two days earlier.
Jos Buttler, England’s one-day specialist, is a thinker about the game of cricket and even at the age of 27, there is plenty of time remaining for him to have a decent Test career, writes Vic Marks. Eddie Jones’s predecessor as national head coach, Stuart Lancaster, has warned the England players and management to brace themselves for a challenging tour of South Africa. Loris Karius’s calamitous performance in the Champions League final could have been a result of concussion he sustained against Real Madrid, a doctor who assessed the Liverpool goalkeeper in Boston has said.
Business
Asian shares have been mixed in narrow trading as investors watch the US-China trade row. China and Hong Kong stocks firmed after data showed China’s services sector expanded at a steady pace in May. Sterling traded at $1.33 and €1.138 overnight.
The papers
“Three British women to get new wombs” – the Mail reports on some pioneering medicine as women with “absolute uterine infertility” receive transplants from their mother or sister in the hope they will be able to fall pregnant. The front page also has a pic of the comedian Michael McIntyre who was robbed on the school run – the Sun splashes this no doubt very frightening event as “McINTYRE CARJACK TERROR”. The Mirror goes with “McINTYRE MUGGED”, calling it “TV comic’s robbery terror”.
“Why weren’t they told to get out?” – the Telegraph repeats this much-asked question over a full-length picture of the burning Grenfell Tower. Grenfell safety failings are also the splash in the Guardian’s print edition. The Times leads with the conviction of the all-female jihadist gang and the MI5 sting that snared them. The Mail reports on “Britain’s shameful care home time bomb” and says more than 160,000 older people have fallen into debt for in-home or residential care. The FT’s splash: “RBS share sale kicks off five-year plan to privatise bailed-out bank”. Finally a shout-out today to the Yorkshire Post, one of the regional newspapers taking part in a communal shaming of the government over the rail fiasco: “Enough is enough Mrs May” it says.
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