Top story: Only one of London attackers came out of the blue
Good morning, it’s Warren Murray with the news you need to get started.
Police investigating the London Bridge attack have just announced an arrest in Ilford, east London. A 30-year-old was taken into custody after an early morning raid, according to Scotland Yard. Meanwhile, as the mourning and investigations continue, it has emerged that the third and final attacker to be named, Youssef Zaghba, was profiled by European authorities as a potential terrorist. The Moroccan-born Italian was stopped while trying to travel to Syria, telling officials at Bologna airport: “I am going to be a terrorist.” He was investigated and put on a Europe-wide database of potential jihadis, but not charged, and after moving to London he did not attract MI5’s interest. Only one of the attackers, Rachid Redouane, appears to have been a complete unknown as far as suspicions of extremism are concerned.
Tackling extremism and terror sits squarely at the top of the political agenda on the last day before Britain’s general election. Theresa May overnight has promised to rip up human rights laws where they get in the way of deporting or controlling terror suspects, as well as strengthening other anti-terror measures.
Other parties immediately targeted the prime minister over the cuts she made to policing that have emerged as a key political vulnerability for the Conservatives after the Manchester and London attacks. Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn accused May of trying to “keep our country safe on the cheap”. The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, said: “What the security services lack is not more power, but more resources.”
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Harsh reality – The young US intelligence contractor charged with leaking a top-secret file on Russian election hacking to the press faces a 10-year jail sentence if convicted. Reality Winner, 25, was repulsed by Donald Trump and may have let it get the better of her after leaving the air force and taking a job that placed her with the NSA. The document tells how Russian hackers tried to manipulate the US electronic voting system in the 2016 election.
Family have been floored by her arrest – mother Billie Winner-Davis has said in an emotional appearance before the press that she wants her daughter to be “treated fairly”, while stepfather Gary Davis described her as someone “trying to make the world a better place”. The case shows how the prolific use of private contractors leaves the US intelligence system vulnerable, writes Lois Beckett of Guardian US.
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Trump’s Qatar gaffe – The US president got defence officials and diplomats running in circles after he seemed bent on sabotaging relations with a key ally in the Middle East. Donald Trump tweeted his backing for countries including Saudi Arabia that have isolated Qatar over support for Islamist extremists. America just happens to have 10,000 troops and a key air base in Qatar that is used for the fight against Isis in Syria and Iraq. Following the tweets, US officials seeking to limit the damage have been rolling out platitudes for the Qataris’ “enduring commitment to regional security” and “great partnership and real progress” in cutting off terrorist financing.
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Bottling up trouble – A daily drink does not protect the brain and may be harmful in the long term, a study has found, contradicting a commonly held belief about alcohol. Researchers from Oxford and UCL followed the drinking habits of 550 men and women across 30 years, then put them through an MRI scan. None of the participants were deemed to be alcoholic, but the scans found moderate or heavier drinkers had damage to important structures in the brain. They also found certain cognitive tasks more difficult. Experts say the study does not show cause and effect and people should stick to Department of Health guidelines on alcohol.
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‘Renewables train has left the station’ – Solar, wind and other forms of green energy had a bumper year in 2016, with the transition away from fossil fuels now “well under way”, according to the global REN21 network. Prices for renewable energy fell well below coal and nuclear in several countries, and at the end of the year more than 24% of global electricity was produced from non-carbon sources. After Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris climate treaty, experts say the US faces being left behind as renewables take off and the link between economic growth and carbon emissions is steadily broken down. Transport and heating remain key areas where the switch to green energy needs to speed up if the worst of global warming is to be avoided, according to REN21.
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Mac on a roll – It’s a good time to check in on French politics again as the new centrist president, Emmanuel Macron, aims for a parliamentary majority to push through his reform agenda. Citizens in “overseas constituencies” (a novel feature of the French system) such as the US and Canada, and northern Europe, get to elect their own MPs. Candidates for Macron’s En Marche party have come out on top in first-round overseas voting, which has taken place ahead of the 11 June poll in France itself. Macron needs 289 or more seats to pursue “essential and urgent” welfare, pension and labour reforms.
Lunchtime read: Why Labour probably won’t win
Jeremy Corbyn believers, you might want to look away now. Anne Perkins has gone through the polling, and the history books, to conclude that the Labour leader’s prospects of becoming prime minister in tomorrow’s election are quite remote.
Back in 2015 the polls had Britain going to the ballot box with Labour and the Tories neck and neck – and we all know how that turned out. This time, on polling averages, Theresa May is heading into the election seven points ahead. There may be some polls showing the race much tighter, and Corbyn has “generated excitement and a sense of the possible” among supporters – but there is “no evidence that points to anything other than a Tory victory”.
Sport
Fast bowlers Jake Ball and Mark Wood picked New Zealand apart to ensure England will play in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals, and Ali Martin lauds Wood’s emergence as a game-changing paceman. A good thing, too, as Andy Bull’s Spin this week illustrates the unending suffering of the poor bowlers in their quest to tame modern batsmen.
British Cycling will sever its last remaining ties with Team Sky by asking the professional squad to move out of the Manchester velodrome they have used as a shared home for the past seven years, according to Martha Kelner’s exclusive report. Meanwhile, most of the British Cycling directors accused of covering up a report into claims of bullying within the GB team will be replaced as part of looming reforms.
British and Irish Lions back Robbie Henshaw is relishing his “surreal” meeting with Sonny Bill Williams later today, while Bret Harris argues that world rugby’s superpowers should allow discarded internationals of Pacific Islander descent to represent their country of origin. Elsewhere, Andy Murray is full of confidence heading into his French Open quarter-final encounter with Kei Nishikori; the FA has handed out its first ever life bans to English football hooligans; and poor old Team New Zealand have quite spectacularly capsized during the America’s Cup challenger semi-final.
Business
Despite some anaemic GDP figures, Australia has recorded its 103rd consecutive quarter without a technical recession. The economy grew 0.3% in the three months to the end of March and established what some economists have claimed is the longest stretch of recession-free growth ever seen, surpassing a record previously held by the Netherlands. But there’s more than a whiff of dispute about that, according to our economics expert down under.
The news boosted the Aussie dollar by 0.4%, while the pound was stable but not very strong at US$1.29 ahead of tomorrow’s election. On the continent it was buying €1.145.
The papers
On the eve of the election, a number of the usual suspects go after Jeremy Corbyn. The Mail fronts its edition with a comment piece branding the Labour leader an “Apologist for terror” based on his political past. “Jezza’s jihadi comrades”, says the Sun, showing Corbyn addressing a rally attended by followers of hate preachers. “Vote May or we face disaster”, thunders the Express – she will deliver “independence from foreign rule”, security and a stable economy.
The Telegraph and the Mirror share the same splash headline: “I’m going to be a terrorist”, quoting what the London Bridge attacker Youssef Zaghba told Italian police. More or less the same thing in the Times. In the Guardian we have gone with Theresa May’s threat to dismantle human rights laws if they stand in the way of the fight against terrorism. The main story on the FT’s front is Donald Trump backing Gulf states’ isolation of Qatar.
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