Top story: ‘Utter miracle’ of taxi driver’s escape with life
Hello, Warren Murray here with your news rundown this Tuesday morning.
A suspected terrorist who blew himself up outside Liverpool Women’s hospital at the weekend has been named as 32-year-old Emad al-Swealmeen. Counter-terror police have said they “strongly believe” al-Swealmeen was the passenger who died when a taxi exploded shortly before 11am on Sunday. Police have declared the incident a terror attack with the home secretary, Priti Patel, announcing the threat level would be raised from substantial to severe, meaning another attack was “highly likely”.
According to reports, al-Swealmeen was believed to be of Syrian and Iraqi heritage. He is said to have converted to Christianity after moving to the UK from the Middle East and was later briefly taken in by Christian volunteers Malcolm and Elizabeth Hitchcott in Liverpool. Police said they could not be sure if the hospital was the intended target or if the device he had constructed had ignited prematurely but the NHS has advised all hospitals to review their security arrangements.
Four men who had been arrested in the Kensington area of Liverpool were released without charge by counter-terror police on Monday night. The taxi driver, David Perry, was treated for serious injuries and released on Monday, having stumbled from the cab just as it went up in flames. Perry’s wife, Rachel, said he was “lucky to be alive”, adding “how he managed to escape is an utter miracle”.
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‘Object’ – Boris Johnson’s attempt to draw a line under the sleaze scandal engulfing the Conservative party has fallen apart after a single backbencher, later named as Christopher Chope, shouted “object” to stop parliament endorsing the report that deemed Owen Paterson in breach of lobbying rules. Speaking to the Guardian, other Tories were furious at Chope, calling him among other things a “Jurassic embarrassment” who should retire. Chris Bryant, a Labour MP and chair of the standards committee, said he had been assured the motion would be retabled today with a one-hour debate to try again to endorse the Paterson report. Chope was contacted for comment.
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‘Prevent 100%’ – UK and French authorities are determined “to prevent 100% of crossings” over the Channel and make the route “unviable” for migrants hoping to enter Britain from France, it was announced on Monday. Last Thursday an estimated 1,185 people crossed the Channel by boat, a record for crossings in a single day. Three people were feared drowned. More than 23,000 people have made the journey so far this year. The UK home secretary, Priti Patel, and the French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, agreed to “accelerate the delivery” of their mutual commitments. The British government has accused France of failing to control the situation. Darmanin told CNews the British government needed to change its laws to discourage migrants being attracted to the UK.
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Biden, Xi spar over Taiwan – Xi Jinping has warned Joe Biden in a virtual summit that China was prepared to take “decisive measures” if Taiwan’s takes any moves towards independence that cross Beijing’s red lines. In response, Biden said the US remained committed to the “one China policy” that recognises only one sovereign Chinese state, and that Washington “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait”. Biden said they both had a responsibility to ensure their two nations’ rivalry did not “veer into conflict”. It comes at a time of high tension over everything from Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong and the Uyghurs, to Chinese hacking against the US, divisions over the climate crisis and China’s rapid development of its conventional and nuclear military forces.
The US president said he hoped they could establish “rules of the road” for their future behaviour. In his opening remarks, Xi said: “I feel very happy to see my old friend … China and the US need to increase communication and cooperation.” Earlier, Biden signed his hard-fought $1tn infrastructure deal into law before a bipartisan, celebratory crowd on the White House lawn. The president hopes to use the infrastructure law to build back his popularity, which has taken a hit amid rising inflation and the inability to fully shake the public health and economic risks from Covid-19.
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Care worker bonus urged – Social care workers should receive an immediate bonus of up to £1,000 to stop them quitting before the winter and putting even more pressure on the NHS, ministers are being told. The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and NHS Providers, which represents hospitals, say emergency payments would help tackle worsening staff shortages. Figures show hospitals across the UK cannot fill almost half of the number of consultant posts they advertise – the highest number for eight years.
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Lesser spotted – There are 247m fewer house sparrows in Europe than there were in 1980 and other common bird species have also suffered huge declines, a study has found. One of every six birds – a net loss of 600m breeding birds in total – have disappeared over less than four decades. Among the common species that are vanishing from the skies are yellow wagtails (97m fewer), starlings (75m fewer) and skylarks (68m fewer).
The house sparrow and its close relative the tree sparrow have declined because of changing farming practices; house sparrows have also vanished from many cities for reasons that are unclear but likely to include food shortages, diseases and air pollution. Many species have been hit by agricultural intensification causing habitat loss and killing the insects they feed on.
Today in Focus podcast: The cricketer and the ‘banter’
When Azeem Rafiq went public with the claim that he had faced a series of racist incidents throughout his time at Yorkshire cricket club, the incidents he described were written off as “banter”. But that defence has crumbled – and now he is ready to give evidence to MPs. What will he reveal about his experiences of bigotry in cricket?
Lunchtime read: ‘Like Attenborough doing jetskiing’
How has TV’s petrolhead-in-chief Jeremy Clarkson been reborn a son of the soil? As the presenter wins a farming award for Clarkson’s Farm, he talks about his new enemies: badgers, Bafta and “the red trousers brigade”.
Sport
Gareth Southgate praised England’s hunger and mentality after Harry Kane scored four first-half goals and they qualified for the 2022 World Cup by thrashing San Marino 10-0. European champions Italy must go into the play-offs after being held to a goalless draw by a brilliant Northern Ireland side at Windsor Park, while goals from John Souttar and Che Adams helped Scotland to a superb 2-0 victory over Denmark at a rapturous Hampden Park that secured a home play-off by virtue of seeding. Michael Vaughan is battling to save his reputation ahead of the evidence session in parliament on Tuesday where Azeem Rafiq will outline his experiences of racism at Yorkshire and has English cricket braced for the names that could emerge.
Toto Wolff has described Lewis Hamilton’s victory at the Brazilian Grand Prix as one of the world champion’s best performances but the Mercedes team principal also hit out, expressing anger at how he believed his team were harshly treated by some “laughable” decisions at Interlagos. England are preparing for Saturday’s World Cup final rematch against South Africa without their captain Owen Farrell and facing a front-row crisis after Eddie Jones was dealt a huge double injury blow on Monday. Nick Kyrgios has called for the Australian Open to be cancelled rather than enforce a “morally wrong” vaccine mandate on players at 2022’s opening grand slam. A growing movement including Chinese feminist groups and international tennis stars is raising concern over the whereabouts of the former Chinese doubles pro Peng Shuai after she accused a senior government figure of sexual assault. And reforms in Qatar have stalled with a year to go before the World Cup, leaving thousands of migrant workers trapped and exploited, according to a damning new report by Amnesty International.
Business
The prospect of a pre-Christmas increase in interest rates has loomed larger after the Bank of England governor told MPs he was troubled by the UK’s rising inflation rate. Andrew Bailey said he was “very uneasy” about rising prices and that he could vote for a hike at December’s policy meeting. The pound is up at $1.343 and €1.180, and the positive vibes from the Xi/Biden summit looks like ensuring the FTSE100 will open in positive territory this morning.
The papers
The splash in our Guardian print edition today is “Terror threat raised after Liverpool suicide attack”. Down the page is “Plan for Covid passes to need proof of three jabs”. Those eligible for booster jabs would need them in order to qualify as being fully vaccinated in areas where people must prove their status, such as travel or avoiding mandatory isolation. The requirement could be in place in England by the early spring. Page one also has pictorial coverage from the humanitarian crisis on the Poland-Belarus border.
The Daily Mail leads with “Revealed: hospital bomber a Christian convert” and the Express has much the same headline, as do the Times and Telegraph. The Mirror says he “targeted new mums and babies” while the Metro says the taxi driver David Perry is “lucky to be alive” after what the paper calls the “Poppy Day bomb attack”. The Times also carries “Pre-school children to have NHS anti-obesity coaches”, which you can read about here this morning.
The i’s front page today says “Get booster jabs to save Christmas, PM tells over-40s”. The top story in the Financial Times is “Shell plan to move tax base to UK spurs Dutch into last-ditch action” – here is our own Nils Pratley’s take on that. It also has Steve Bannon appearing in court charged with contempt of Congress for failing to appear before the Capitol attack investigation. For now, he has been bailed with his passport taken away.
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