Top story: ‘We can break political stalemate’
Good morning, I’m Warren Murray delivering your bento box of news.
Donald Trump has attacked “ridiculous partisan investigations” into Russia’s election meddling and announced a meeting with Kim Jong-un later this month as he delivered a lengthy State of the Union address overnight. “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” he declared, hitting on a theme that clashed with his appeals for unity.
Addressing a joint chamber of Congress, Trump reasserted his vow to build a wall on the southern US border with Mexico – though stopped short of threatening to invoke “national emergency” powers. He covered a range of topics, from new funding to end the HIV epidemic to rebuilding America’s “crumbling infrastructure” and supporting the people of Venezuela – here are the five key takeaways.
Trump had spirited exchanges with Democratic women of the House who all dressed in suffragette white, as he hailed advances in women’s representation in employment and in Congress, which they stood and applauded. In response to Trump’s address, Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the race for governor in Georgia in an election marred by accusations of voter suppression, called voting rights the “next battle for our democracy … The foundation of our moral leadership around the globe is free and fair elections, where voters pick their leaders – not where politicians pick their voters.”
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‘Insurance policy’ – Hard Brexiters’ feathers are ruffled after Theresa May declared in Northern Ireland there was “no suggestion” of Britain leaving the EU without provisions to prevent a hard border. It sounded quite like a backstop. “She knows what she promised us,” said one source from the Tory leaver faction ERG. “Even if she didn’t mean what she said, we do.” The PM is due to travel to Brussels on Thursday to proffer “alternative arrangements” to the backstop that have been worked on by MPs and ministers. The respected NIESR economic thinktank has predicted Britain can avoid slumping into a hard-Brexit recession if the government and the EU follow through on their contingency plans. But NIESR says every Brexit outcome will still be worse for the economy than remaining in the EU. Rightwing thinktank the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has been censured for producing a policy document that advocates a hard Brexit – as a charity it is banned from campaigning on political issues unrelated to its stated purpose of furthering education.
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Midweek catch-up
> A fire at Ocado’s robotic warehouse in Hampshire continued to burn this morning after more than 24 hours. The online grocer had to cancel deliveries on the same day it announced annual results and a new delivery venture.
> The Today programme host John Humphrys is “assuming” he will leave Radio 4 this year but has not fixed a date. He told the Mail he still loves the job but “there are other things I want to do with my life, and one has to make the decision sooner or later”. (The Briefing is a fan but did note this morning’s little slip-up: “It’s six o’clock on Tues … oh well no it isn’t it’s Wednesday good heavens …”)
> Labour has called for fines against technology companies that fail to protect children. The shadow culture secretary, Tom Watson, is due to announce Labour’s policy today, in response to Tory plans to police social media over child safety.
> Workers at a Brazilian mine have said they warned bosses that a dam had been weakened and was at risk of bursting. More than 140 people died and 194 are still missing after the disaster in Minas Gerais state on 25 January.
> Universal credit has left a wave of people in rent arrears and at risk of being evicted, Citizens Advice says, calling for the system to be reformed “so it leaves people with enough money to live on”.
> A runner in Colorado managed to suffocate and kill a mountain lion that attacked him, rangers have said. The man was praised for doing the right thing by fighting back.
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Outcry over deportations – The Home Office has made fresh attempts to deport people to the Caribbean despite their being claimants under the Windrush scheme. Two such people were removed at the eleventh hour from a list of dozens of people scheduled to board a charter flight to Jamaica that may leave as early as today. The revelation came as the Labour MP David Lammy spoke out against expulsions of other Caribbean-born people convicted of crimes, some of whom have been in Britain almost all their lives and have no connection to their country of birth. The home secretary, Sajid Javid, said everyone set to be deported on the charter flight had been convicted of serious crimes, among them rape and murder: “We are required under the law, quite correctly, to deport anyone that has such a serious conviction.”
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Go in peas – A 12-year-old is trying to convince the pope to turn vegan for Lent, in return for a $1m donation to a charity of his choice. Genesis Butler said. “If I tell people about the damage that the animal agriculture industry is doing to the planet, then some of them want to go vegan.”
The campaign, run by the organisers of Veganuary, is backed by celebrities including Paul McCartney and funded by Blue Horizons International, which invests in companies producing plant-based foods. The pontiff has been outspoken on the environment and said in a 2015 encyclical that protecting it would involve changes in lifestyle, production, and consumption.
Today in Focus podcast: Boys stranded in Syria by fall of Isis
The young children of an Islamic State fighter were abandoned in Syria after his death. But with the help of human rights lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith and reporter Joshua Surtees, they have been reunited with their mother.
Also today: columnist Gary Younge on the storm over Liam Neeson’s race comments.
Lunchtime read: ‘Spoiler alert: Ross and Rachel date!’
The gang from Friends are still a hit with under-18s, many of them not even born when the show wrapped up in 2004. Young readers reveal why they adore it – from the sarcasm to the timeless love stories. Today it’s the world’s most streamed show, and we know what happened to the stars, but what about Fun Bobby, Jack Geller and the other characters? A host of supporting cast tell their stories.
Sport
More than 1,000 tickets for the Six Nations have appeared for sale on the controversial website Viagogo for a combined £370,000 according to Guardian analysis. Eddie Jones’s options for England’s match against France are a cause for joy but they also bring problems, while Thomas Young is in line to make his Six Nations debut for Wales against Italy in Rome on Saturday after impressing during training in Nice. Newport County of League Two sunk Middlesbrough to seal an FA Cup fifth-round meeting with Manchester City, whose manager Pep Guardiola has urged his side to score as many goals as possible in the knowledge that it could decide the Premier League title race.
Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong is hoping home advantage for the first time in 26 years will give Great Britain the X factor when they compete in an eight-team round-robin tournament in Bath. And Joe Denly arrives in St Lucia for the third Test against the West Indies determined to prove he is not simply a stopgap Test opener and instead book a place in this summer’s Ashes series.
Business
Ladbrokes Coral has told staff to sign up as many gamblers as possible to online accounts if they want to avoid being among 5,000 employees it plans to make redundant as it closes high street bookies. And although HMV has been saved by a Canadian buyer, it will still be shutting 27 stores.
Asian markets were quiet as investors absorbed the State of the Union speech and China remained closed for the lunar new year. The FTSE will open flat later today, futures trade suggests. The pound has been trading at $1.296 and €1.136 overnight.
The papers
There is not a lot of crossover on the front pages today. The Guardian and the Telegraph are the only ones leading on Brexit – in particular the backstop conundrum. The Telegraph declares “May insists the Irish backstop is here to stay” and the Guardian tells a slightly different story: “May’s pledge on Irish border threatens to reopen Tory rift”.
The Express leads on policing shortages after a spate of violence: “Police chief: we ran out of officers”. The Times give us a glimpse into the future with “Driverless cars on UK roads by end of the year”. There is good news for the nation’s health in the Mail: “Now Britain’s sobering up – number drinking to harmful level falls sharply”. The Sun leads with Liam Neeson denying he is a racist in the wake of his astonishing comments about wanting to kill a black man following a friend’s rape. The FT has “Interserve talks close in on deal to avert Carillion-style collapse”.
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• This article was amended on 6 February 2019 to more accurately state that as a charity the IEA is banned from campaigning on political issues unrelated to its stated purpose of furthering education.
