Top story: Quick switch to heat pumps urged
Hello, Warren Murray reminding you that “30 days hath September” and today is the 29th so if it needs doing by month’s end, best be getting on with it.
The millions of gas boilers in UK homes produce twice as much climate-heating carbon emissions as all the nation’s gas-fired power stations, according to an analysis. The data also shows they collectively produce eight times as much nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant linked to tens of thousands of early deaths a year in the UK. The Confederation of British Industry has said the installation of new gas boilers must be banned from 2025 or the UK’s net zero climate target will be “doomed”.
The main alternative to boilers – heat pumps – run on electricity and are efficient, but they do cost more to install. The UK is lagging behind most European countries in terms of heat pump installations. Neil Jones, at the climate charity Possible, which produced the analysis with the social enterprise Scene, said: “Amid a frightening gas price crisis, and a decade of opportunity wasted by the government to insulate our homes, supporting households to begin switching to clean heat pumps has come suddenly into focus.”
A second analysis has found high gas prices mean the energy bills of people living in poorly insulated homes will rise by up to £246 a year. Insulate Britain, a protest group demanding a legally binding national plan to fund low-carbon retrofits of all homes by 2030, has blocked motorways, A-roads and the port of Dover in recent weeks. Ministers have promised to publish their heat and buildings strategy before the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.
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‘Taken hostage’ – Three-quarters of small French fishing boats could be denied access to British waters under a post-Brexit regime, risking further damage to relations. The UK government granted 12 out of a total of 47 applications for licences for the French vessels under 12 metres long to fish the UK’s inshore waters. France’s maritime minister, Annick Girardin, said: “It’s a new refusal by the British to implement the conditions of the Brexit agreement despite all the work we have done together. French fishing should not be taken hostage by the British for political ends.” In Northern Ireland, four rival unionist parties have allied to fight the Brexit border in the Irish Sea, citing the “huge disruption of trade in the supply of goods from Great Britain”.
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Midweek catch-up
> Keir Starmer will today repudiate the Corbyn era and accuse the government of being “lost in the woods” in a Labour conference speech that will put addressing Britain’s mental health crisis at the heart of his pitch to voters.
> Britain’s supply chain strain could last until after Christmas, Boris Johnson has admitted as he urged motorists to stop panic-buying fuel and insisted supplies were “improving” despite thousands of forecourts remaining dry.
> The North Korean regime has said the missile fired into the Sea of Japan on Tuesday was a new kind of hypersonic weapon.
> In the Britney Spears conservatorship case, a judge today will consider requests to remove her father as the authority over her estate or terminate the arrangement altogether.
> UK and European leading supermarkets have said they will cut ties with meat suppliers that do not meet their ethical standards after a Guardian investigation found allegations of widespread exploitation of workers.
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Suga substitute – Japan’s ruling party, the LDP, is voting for a new leader who will almost certainly become PM ahead of a general election due before December. After today’s first round, the vaccine minister Taro Kono, 58, a former defence and foreign minister, will go into a runoff with the ex-foreign minister Fumio Kishida. Falling by the wayside today were the former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi, 60, and Seiko Noda, 61. The contest is happening because Yoshihide Suga stepped down after just a year as prime minister, having become unpopular.
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‘Strategic failure’ in Kabul – The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and evacuation of Kabul was “a logistical success but a strategic failure” that left terrorists in control of the country, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, has told the Senate. Milley and other top brass confirmed that when the new Biden administration was formulating its Afghanistan policy, they had advised the president that a small US force of about 2,500 should remain. None could explain Joe Biden’s subsequent claim that he had not received any such advice.
Milley faced hostile Republicans, some of whom have demanded his resignation following revelations that he spoke twice to his Chinese counterpart reassuring him that Donald Trump would not launch a surprise attack. The general said his two calls with the Chinese army chief followed intelligence suggesting China was fearful of an attack, and were intended to defuse tensions. “I am certain president Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese,” Milley said. “My task at that time was to de-escalate … stay calm, steady and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”
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Show time for Craig’s goodbye – Daniel Craig’s last James Bond film, No Time To Die, has premiered in London, continuing an unbroken tradition whereby the actors who play 007 eventually don’t play him any more.
Peter Bradshaw awards five stars and says Craig’s swan song is a weird and self-aware epic with audacious surprises up its sleeve – warning, spoilers ahead.
Today in Focus podcast: China’s coal call
Beijing has won international praise for announcing that it will stop funding coal projects in the developing world – but it is still heavily reliant on the fossil fuel for rapid economic growth at home. The Guardian’s global environment editor, Jonathan Watts, explains why China took such a significant step before Cop26 – and how much there still is to do.
Lunchtime read: ‘Do I sound like an incel elder?’
The comedian Jimmy Carr’s new book is a surprising mix of memoir and self-help. Has having a baby softened his edges? He talks about depression, anxiety, punching down and his friend Sean Lock.
Sport
A delighted Lionel Messi hailed his first goal for Paris Saint-Germain as an “important moment” as Manchester City were beaten 2-0 at Parc des Princes to take the French club top of their Champions League group. The luxury of the moment of brilliance showed flickers of what Paris Saint-Germain and Messi 2.0 can do together. Liverpool sported black armbands in memory of Roger Hunt but perhaps the finest tribute to their prolific former striker came in the form of another ruthless rout of Porto, a 5-1 win during which Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino both scored twice.
England’s new attack coach Martin Gleeson believes he can emulate his friend Shaun Edwards and make a significant difference at the highest level of international rugby union over the next two years leading up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Emma Raducanu, the US Open champion, will make her return to the tennis tour at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells next week. Raducanu had been mulling over where to make her first appearance since her stunning US Open victory and news came on Tuesday evening that the 18-year-old Briton has been given a wildcard into the prestigious event. Greg Rutherford’s audacious dream of becoming the first British athlete to win a medal at a summer and winter Olympics has moved a significant step closer after he was selected for the GB bobsleigh squad that will attempt to qualify for Beijing 2022.
Business
China’s stricken Evergrande Group has said it will sell a 9.99 billion yuan ($1.5bn) stake in Shengjing Bank to a state-owned asset management company. Shengjing, one of the main lenders to Evergrande, has demanded all net proceeds be used to settle the financial liabilities of the property developer due to the lender, Evergrande said in an exchange filing. It suggests Evergrande will be unable to use the funds for other purposes such as another interest payment to offshore bondholders of $47.5m due on Wednesday. Evergrande has rapidly become China’s biggest corporate headache as it teeters between a messy meltdown, a managed collapse or the less likely prospect of a bailout by Beijing. This morning the FTSE should open flat or a few points down, while the pound is worth $1.354 and €1.159 at time of writing.
The papers
The Guardian this morning leads with “Starmer says government is ‘lost in the woods’ as he rejects Corbyn era”. In the speech itself, though, the former Labour leader will remain he who must not be named. “My school revolution” – the Mirror says Starmer would recruit “thousands of new teachers” to “sort out the mess” left by “crippling Tory cuts”. The No 10 incumbent has another mess on his hands: “Boris in a battle to save Xmas” says the Mail. The Express assures “We’ll save Christmas” and the subheading “Go about your business as usual, Britons urged” nearly made me laugh out a piece of apple.
“We’ve had our fill” – the Metro’s front page picture is people fighting on petrol station forecourts, including a man pulling a knife in Welling and an “angry racist biker” going at a filling station attendant. “Petrol rage takes hold with queues to last days” says the i. The Times goes further: “Disruption at pumps could last a month”.
The Financial Times has “US risks running out of money by October 18, Yellen warns” which is about another one of these looming shutdowns. And the Telegraph has “French accuse UK of igniting fishing war”.
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