Top story: President demands military parade ‘like France’
Hi again – I’m Warren Murray and this may contain traces of news.
Donald Trump has issued orders for the Pentagon to stage a grand military parade that would see soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the streets of Washington. “The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” an official has told the Washington Post, in reference to the Bastille Day parade Trump witnessed there last year. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”
The criticism has been instant. Retired general Paul Eaton called Trump a “wannabe banana republic strongman … he has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies and this is just another worrisome example.” Comparisons were also drawn with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader who has a penchant for such displays.
Trump was known to be deeply impressed by the parade he witnessed in Paris on 14 July last year that included American and French soldiers marching on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, tanks and a flyover of fighter jets. “We may do something like that,” he later told journalists. Options for the date include Memorial Day on 28 May, Independence Day on 4 July or Veterans Day on 11 November.
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Star man sitting in a tin can – Was a secondhand Tesla roadster really the most useful and beneficial-to-humankind cargo Elon Musk could come up with for his latest groundbreaking rocket launch? Anyway, it’s done now, so the briefing had better get with the boosters (like it, like it – Ed) and hail the mostly successful test of Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket.
If turned to productive purposes, the Falcon Heavy will give the US a space heavy-lift capability not seen since the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo missions, and help put humankind on the road to Mars. The two side boosters returned and landed safely, though the third, central one crashed. Musk’s Tesla Roadster, with a dummy named Starman in the driver’s seat, is scheduled to make a flypast of Mars before going into orbit around the Sun pretty much forever.
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Tesco sued over unequal pay – A law firm has launched legal action on behalf of nearly 100 mostly female shop assistants who say they earn as much as £3 an hour less than male warehouse workers in similar roles. Up to 200,000 shopfloor staff could be involved in the claim, which could cost Tesco up to £20,000 per worker in back pay, or a total of £4bn, over at least six years. Paula Lee, a Leigh Day lawyer handling the case, said: “There might be lifting and carrying in the distribution centre but there is also lifting and carrying in shops as well as dealing with customers asking questions and handling money.” The lawyers are starting by taking Tesco to Acas, the conciliation service. Similar actions against Asda and Sainsbury’s are under way.
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First white Britons were black – The earliest modern Britons linked to today’s white population probably had “dark to black” skin, dark curly hair and blue eyes, tests on the “Cheddar Man” skeleton have suggested. Researchers at the National History Museum sequenced the skeleton’s DNA using bone powder from the skull. Cheddar Man was found in a cave in Somerset more than a century ago. He lived about 10,000 years ago, shortly after the first settlers crossed from continental Europe to Britain at the end of the last ice age. People of white British ancestry alive today are their descendants. Channel 4 will air a documentary about the project to reconstruct Cheddar Man’s origins on 18 February.
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Brexit still happening, not going well – The government has been too slow in making practical preparations for Britain’s exit from the EU in just 14 months’ time, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded. Whitehall departments are yet to recruit hundreds of staff they need, shelve existing work and streamline themselves to focus on EU withdrawal, says the public accounts committee.
As cabinet ministers gather for two days of crucial Brexit meetings, the British Chambers of Commerce has warned that its “patience is wearing thin” at continued division in the government and the lack of “answers to the many practical questions businesses now face”. And it has emerged that Brussels wants to be able to punish Britain at will for infringing EU law during any transition period without having to go to court.
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Prickly problem – Hedgehog numbers in Britain have dwindled by about half since the year 2000, with decline of the species’ hedgerow habitat and insect diet thought to be contributing, according to a survey. There are perhaps just a million left, when there were an estimated 30m in the 1950s. Impressively, a hedgehog will roam more than a mile each night in search of food – but they need the space to do it. Two wildlife trusts have begun the Hedgehog Street project, whereby people make their gardens more hedgehog-friendly and leave CD-sized holes in their fences to let them through. There is a glimmer of hope in the survey, which suggests hedgehogs in towns and cities may be doing better than their country cousins.
Lunchtime read: Town where people disappear
“It’s the kind of place where you might find a wild donkey at your back door or a death adder in your bed. A place where neighbourhood disputes sometimes result in a wallaby carcass being thrown into a person’s front yard or one’s pet peacocks being fed to the resident croc.” Or the kind of place where a man like Paddy Moriarty, one of Larrimah’s 10 residents, might vanish without a trace.
The Irish expatriate disappeared after heading home from the Pink Panther pub, his regular watering hole. He was considered a good-hearted soul – but no one in this Australian outback town enjoys the luxury of being universally liked by the rest of the residents. It has been the setting for bizarre feuds over everything from stolen buffalo pie recipes to those ill-fated pet peacocks. “But just because people argue doesn’t mean they’ve gone out and killed him,” says Detective Sergeant Matt Allen, who is investigating the disappearance. Kylie Stevenson picks up the trail.
Sport
Carlos Carvalhal can look forward to a reunion with Sheffield Wednesday after Swansea emphatically swept aside Notts County 8-1 to stride into the last 16 of the FA Cup and set up an intriguing tie at Hillsborough on Saturday week. Manchester United fans have gathered in Munich to mark the air disaster’s 60th anniversary as the strains of “We’ll keep the red flag flying high” rang out across Manchester Platz.
In rugby union, Richard Wigglesworth has shrugged off the pain of rejection and harbours hopes of playing at next year’s World Cup after earning an England recall. Billy Morgan, the snowboarder known for his outrageous tricks, has learned to control his fear when pushing the boundaries and could bring Great Britain an early Winter Olympics medal in slopestyle. And the future of snowsports is under threat, according to a report into the impact of climate change on grassroots and elite sport. Golf and cricket could also be adversely affected.
Business
Economic growth in the UK is poised to rebound this year after a slowdown in 2017, as a strong global performance offsets the impact from the Brexit vote, says the leading forecaster NIESR. It predicts the strength of the world economy and the benefit for British exporters from the weak pound will help increase GDP growth by almost 2% this year and next – higher than many other forecasts.
Asian shares have made a broad rebound, mirroring the bounce-back rally on Wall Street, though gains were in a modest range and most benchmarks gave up some gains after opening sharply higher. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index surged as soon as trading began as investors sought bargains, finishing morning trading up 3.1%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.2%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 1% and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1% to 3,376.36.
The pound has been trading at $1.396 and €1.126 overnight.
The papers
Lots of different leads on the front pages. The FT concentrates on the markets: “Europe and Asia bear the brunt as stocks reel from volatility’s return” is the headline. The Telegraph meanwhile splashes with news that MI6 has apparently raised concerns over the stock market flotation of a company that is controlled by a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.
The Times leads on the Guardian’s exclusive from earlier yesterday: a Brexit story saying Brussel will have the power to punish the UK at will during any transition period including closing off parts of the single market to British companies. The Express goes with the same story and the headline: “EU still trying to rule Britain.”
The Mirror has an emotional story about parents of a child with brain damage who have gone to court to ask for permission to take their son abroad for treatment. The Guardian’s splash is on Tesco and how the company is facing a demand for up to £4bn in back pay from thousands of mainly female shop floor workers in what could become the UK’s largest ever equal pay claim.
Lastly the Sun and Mail share the same lead: a man whose sexual abuse claims against senior UK politicians were discredited is to face trial himself for possessing child abuse images.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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