Monday briefing: Merkel weakened by surge of far right

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/25/monday-briefing-merkel-weakened-by-surge-of-far-right

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Top story: Merkel party suffers worst result since 1945

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s daily briefing. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the top stories this Monday morning.

Angela Merkel will start a fourth term as German chancellor today after her coalition secured the biggest share of the vote in Sunday’s election. However, the result for her CDU party was its worst since 1945 as it lost votes to the anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, which emerged as the third-largest party with 13%. The AfD will take 88 seats in the Bundestag, meaning that the far right is represented in parliament for the first time since 1961. The refusal of the centre-left SPD to join Merkel in a “grand coalition” leaves her facing weeks of talks with the various minority parties in order to secure a governing majority. And on top of challenges including an ailing steel industry, the diesel engines crisis and low birth rates, Merkel will be under pressure to take account of AfD’s populist message as she tries to manage the tensions created by her decision to allow around one million refugees into Germany in 2015.

Travel trouble – Donald Trump has made a third attempt to restrict travel to the US. The proclamation issued late on Sunday night will come into force on 18 October and extends the controversial travel ban to eight countries with North Korea, Venezuela and Chad joining Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Libya and Iran. Sudan has been dropped from the original list of six nations. Trump said on Sunday he acted to “protect the security and interests of the US” but will hope that his inclusion of non-Muslim countries such as North Korea and Venezuela will help overcome legal challenges which argue that the ban is illegal because it deliberately targets Muslims.

It was a busy night in US politics with reports that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, used his private email to conduct official White House business. During the 2016 election campaign, Trump derided Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server for official correspondence when she was secretary of state.

Earlier in the day, multiple protests by NFL footballers against the US national anthem began at Wembley in the match between Jacksonville and Baltimore. The protests defy Trump, who has condemned the kneeling gesture as unpatriotic.

Conference call – Labour’s deputy leader John McDonnell will kick off the party’s conference in Brighton today by pledging to introduce a cap on interest payments faced by people trapped in a spiral of credit card debt. The measure would help three million people who are paying far more in interest than they borrowed and follows the Guardian’s series about Britain’s £200bn of unsecured personal borrowing. Labour also revealed that writer Naomi Klein will address conference tomorrow.

Back with Trump, and London mayor Sadiq Khan has accused the US president of using the language of Islamic State in trying to justify his travel ban. Speaking at a Guardian live event in Brighton, Khan said Trump’s rhetoric of a clash of a civilisations “was not dissimilar to what IS says”.

It will be a busy week for the BBC’s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg, who, according to reports, is being protected in Brighton by security guards following abuse she has received over her role, according to reports.

The colour of power – A new study has shown that barely 3% of the country’s most powerful and influential people are from black and minority ethnic groups, highlighting inequality despite decades of legislation to address discrimination. An analysis of over 1,000 of the UK’s top political, financial, judicial, cultural and security figures by the Guardian in partnership with Operation Black Vote and in consultation with academics showed only 36 (3.4%) were from ethnic minorities. Just seven (0.7%) of those 36 were women. That contrasts with Britian’s overall minority population of 13%.

Mosque stabbing – Police in Manchester are treating the stabbing of a man outside a mosque as a hate crime. The victim, named locally as Nasser Kurdy, an orthopaedic surgeon and imam, was reportedly arriving at the Altrincham Islamic centre on Sunday at 6pm when he was stabbed in the neck. Two men aged 32 and 54 have been arrested.

Shark bait – A council in Australia has begun digging up a 12-metre long humpback whale that it buried on a beach a week ago, bowing to complaints from locals that the carcass was attracting sharks. Workers from Port Macquarie-Hastings council on the New South Wales coast employed “a digger with big teeth” to cut the 18-tonne animal into pieces small enough to be hauled up the beach and carted off in skips.

Lunchtime read: How to save money

We all love a bargain, right? So as part of our saving money week, we’ve been talking to Britain’s bargain-hunters extraordinaire. Holly Smith, for example, has almost a million followers on her Facebook page, where she posts the best coupons she has found; she once bought £1,164.39 worth of shopping for £0, and gave it all away to charities. Neil Wright, meanwhile, is an avid user of cashback websites where buying from retailers come with a discount. He reckons it saves him £1,000 a year. You can also check out our top tips for saving money on shopping which includes suggestions about how to haggle for pricey items such as electronics.

Sport

Fifa is set to lift its controversial ban on the home nations wearing poppies on their shirts in time for England’s freindly with Germany on the eve of Armistice day in November. The British & Irish Lions have bowed to pressure from clubs and agreed to reduce their fixtures for the 2021 tour of South Africa. Moeen Ali hit a blistering century to power England to a comfortable win over the West Indies in the third ODI in Bristol, while Australia slumped to an “unacceptable” series defeat in India when they lost the latest one-dayer in Indore. And rising American star Justin Thomas has won $10m for being the top golfer on the US tour.

Business

The food delivery company Deliveroo has raised more than £300m in new cash to expand the business, putting its valuation at £2bn, writes business reporter Simon Goodley. Elsewhere in the gig economy, Uber will step up its fight this week to have the ban on its London licence reversed.

On the markets, the pound gained ground on the euro to €1.133 thanks to Merkel’s less than convincing win, and also rose against the dollar to $1.353.

The papers

The Guardian leads with the German election story under the headline “Merkel fourth term win marred by rise of far right”, while the FT has the almost identical head of “Merkel’s fourth term in power marred by rise of rightwinf AfD”. Ditto the Times as well which has “Merkel win eclipsed by resurgence of far right”.

The Telegraph has a picture of a beaming Merkel, but leads with a story about the continuing cabinet strife over Brexit: “Boris ‘simple-minded’ on Brexit”. Likewise the Mail marks the AfD’s rise in Germany, but leads with “The march of the GP receptionist”, a story claiming that surgeries are training reception staff to screen patients and reduce the number of appointments.

The Sun’s splash headline is “I found migrant in boot of my Nissan”, which relates how a man found an Ethiopian in the back of his car after driving from France to Wales. The Mirror leads with claims that Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has moaned about not being able to claim poppy day expenses.

For more news: www.theguardian.com

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