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| Wednesday briefing: Chancellor has chequered budget prospects | Wednesday briefing: Chancellor has chequered budget prospects |
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| Top story: ‘Hard job but he makes it harder for himself’ | Top story: ‘Hard job but he makes it harder for himself’ |
| Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the news in a nutshell. | Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the news in a nutshell. |
| Philip Hammond is in a “make or break” position as he delivers the autumn budget today, senior Tories have warned. The chancellor of the exchequer is under pressure from Brexiters to make leaving the EU sound like a good thing, while winning back voters by improving housing affordability, boosting education, increasing NHS funding and easing the public sector pay freeze. Rafael Behr sums up Hammond’s predicament: “He must build houses, but not in anyone’s backyard. He must raise revenue, but not from taxes.” | Philip Hammond is in a “make or break” position as he delivers the autumn budget today, senior Tories have warned. The chancellor of the exchequer is under pressure from Brexiters to make leaving the EU sound like a good thing, while winning back voters by improving housing affordability, boosting education, increasing NHS funding and easing the public sector pay freeze. Rafael Behr sums up Hammond’s predicament: “He must build houses, but not in anyone’s backyard. He must raise revenue, but not from taxes.” |
| Hammond’s March budget was overshadowed by a failed attempt to increase national insurance for the self-employed; and this time around, saying on national television that there are no unemployed people in Britain has not helped his cause. “He’s got a hard job but the way he deals with it makes it harder for himself,” said one Conservative source. Here are the five charts you need to see before the red briefcase creaks open a bit after midday. | Hammond’s March budget was overshadowed by a failed attempt to increase national insurance for the self-employed; and this time around, saying on national television that there are no unemployed people in Britain has not helped his cause. “He’s got a hard job but the way he deals with it makes it harder for himself,” said one Conservative source. Here are the five charts you need to see before the red briefcase creaks open a bit after midday. |
| The reluctant idol – David Cassidy, star of The Partridge Family, has died aged 67. Cassidy had been hospitalised in Florida for several days after kidney and liver failure. He became a teenage hearthrob after being cast as Keith Partridge in the 1970s sitcom about a fictitious band. | The reluctant idol – David Cassidy, star of The Partridge Family, has died aged 67. Cassidy had been hospitalised in Florida for several days after kidney and liver failure. He became a teenage hearthrob after being cast as Keith Partridge in the 1970s sitcom about a fictitious band. |
| The show was such a hit that Cassidy went on to sing on eight Partridge Family albums before launching a solo career. He was said to dislike his TV character’s clean-cut image and the adulation it brought. Cassidy struggled with alcoholism over the years. This February, still performing, he fell down during a concert, later revealing he had dementia – the disease that killed his mother and maternal grandfather. “David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long,” said a statement from his family released early this morning. | The show was such a hit that Cassidy went on to sing on eight Partridge Family albums before launching a solo career. He was said to dislike his TV character’s clean-cut image and the adulation it brought. Cassidy struggled with alcoholism over the years. This February, still performing, he fell down during a concert, later revealing he had dementia – the disease that killed his mother and maternal grandfather. “David died surrounded by those he loved, with joy in his heart and free from the pain that had gripped him for so long,” said a statement from his family released early this morning. |
| New low for Uber – Uber has admitted it paid off hackers following a massive privacy breach and did not tell the 57 million people whose details were stolen. Names, email addresses and phone numbers were exposed, as well as the licence details of about 600,000 drivers in the United States. Uber’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, was one of two employees fired over the affair. “None of this should have happened and I will not make excuses for it,” said Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi. Robert Judge, an Uber driver in Pittsburgh, said he only found out through the media: “The hack and the cover-up is typical Uber only caring about themselves.” The ride-hailing company has been denied a new operating licence for London after being plagued by scandals – from its secret “greyball” software, to a toxic internal culture that led to the forced resignation of its founder, Travis Kalanick. | New low for Uber – Uber has admitted it paid off hackers following a massive privacy breach and did not tell the 57 million people whose details were stolen. Names, email addresses and phone numbers were exposed, as well as the licence details of about 600,000 drivers in the United States. Uber’s chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, was one of two employees fired over the affair. “None of this should have happened and I will not make excuses for it,” said Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi. Robert Judge, an Uber driver in Pittsburgh, said he only found out through the media: “The hack and the cover-up is typical Uber only caring about themselves.” The ride-hailing company has been denied a new operating licence for London after being plagued by scandals – from its secret “greyball” software, to a toxic internal culture that led to the forced resignation of its founder, Travis Kalanick. |
| Hopes for ‘a better Zimbabwe’ – Robert Mugabe has resigned as Zimbabwe’s president, sparking jubilation across the country. The autocratic leader had refused to stand aside following a military coup, but bowed to the inevitable as MPs and senators met to impeach him. After opposition and government politicians received the news, jubilation quickly spread into the streets. Emmerson “Crocodile” Mnangagwa, the vice-president whose dismissal led to Mugabe’s downfall, is likely to be sworn in as president. Our editorial asks whether the country’s new leadership will be capable of undoing the damage wrought by 37 years of misrule by Mugabe and Zanu-PF. And Simon Tisdall points out this morning that other autocratic African leaders might have have reason to fear a similar fate. | Hopes for ‘a better Zimbabwe’ – Robert Mugabe has resigned as Zimbabwe’s president, sparking jubilation across the country. The autocratic leader had refused to stand aside following a military coup, but bowed to the inevitable as MPs and senators met to impeach him. After opposition and government politicians received the news, jubilation quickly spread into the streets. Emmerson “Crocodile” Mnangagwa, the vice-president whose dismissal led to Mugabe’s downfall, is likely to be sworn in as president. Our editorial asks whether the country’s new leadership will be capable of undoing the damage wrought by 37 years of misrule by Mugabe and Zanu-PF. And Simon Tisdall points out this morning that other autocratic African leaders might have have reason to fear a similar fate. |
| ‘He is not going to die’ – Dramatic footage has emerged of a North Korean soldier being shot at by his compatriots as he desperately flees to the South. | ‘He is not going to die’ – Dramatic footage has emerged of a North Korean soldier being shot at by his compatriots as he desperately flees to the South. |
| The video, released on Wednesday by the UN command in the South, shows the soldier, who defected last week, racing towards the border village of Panmunjom in a military vehicle, then escaping on foot across the demilitarised zone (DMZ). North Korean soldiers open fire and he lies collapsed on the ground before South Korean soldiers drag him to safety. The defector, who was shot five times, is recovering in a South Korean hospital after a string of life-saving operations. “The reason that he defected, risking death and facing a barrage of gunshots, was because he had positive hopes about South Korea,” lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong told the press. | The video, released on Wednesday by the UN command in the South, shows the soldier, who defected last week, racing towards the border village of Panmunjom in a military vehicle, then escaping on foot across the demilitarised zone (DMZ). North Korean soldiers open fire and he lies collapsed on the ground before South Korean soldiers drag him to safety. The defector, who was shot five times, is recovering in a South Korean hospital after a string of life-saving operations. “The reason that he defected, risking death and facing a barrage of gunshots, was because he had positive hopes about South Korea,” lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong told the press. |
| Delicate genius at work – The Francis Crick Institute, London’s shiny new £700m cathedral to biomedical science, is proving too noisy for some of the bright minds trying to produce the next breakthrough. The open-plan layout was meant to foster collaboration. Nicholas Luscombe, leader of one of the Crick’s research groups: “Some people like the background noise as if they were working in a cafe. Some want absolute silence and it’s not great for that.” On the other hand, “you keep bumping into people and that has created new collaborations for me”. Ways of quietening things down without losing the creative foment are being examined. | Delicate genius at work – The Francis Crick Institute, London’s shiny new £700m cathedral to biomedical science, is proving too noisy for some of the bright minds trying to produce the next breakthrough. The open-plan layout was meant to foster collaboration. Nicholas Luscombe, leader of one of the Crick’s research groups: “Some people like the background noise as if they were working in a cafe. Some want absolute silence and it’s not great for that.” On the other hand, “you keep bumping into people and that has created new collaborations for me”. Ways of quietening things down without losing the creative foment are being examined. |
| Grip of the grape – Maybe gin really can make you depressed. An international survey has found that spirits are often associated with feelings of energy, confidence and sexiness – but on the flip side, anger and tearfulness. Red wine and beer are linked to relaxation, but wine is also blamed for tiredness. (It feels like we need more specifics for this to be of practical use. Cabernet or pinot noir? Scotch or vodka? etc) Drinking was found more likely to be linked to feelings of relaxation and tiredness when done at home; confidence, sexiness, energy – and feeling ill or aggressive – were more likely when out. On a side note, after she was criticised for failing to hold her glass by the stem, here is some wine-drinking advice for Theresa May. | Grip of the grape – Maybe gin really can make you depressed. An international survey has found that spirits are often associated with feelings of energy, confidence and sexiness – but on the flip side, anger and tearfulness. Red wine and beer are linked to relaxation, but wine is also blamed for tiredness. (It feels like we need more specifics for this to be of practical use. Cabernet or pinot noir? Scotch or vodka? etc) Drinking was found more likely to be linked to feelings of relaxation and tiredness when done at home; confidence, sexiness, energy – and feeling ill or aggressive – were more likely when out. On a side note, after she was criticised for failing to hold her glass by the stem, here is some wine-drinking advice for Theresa May. |
| Lunchtime read: Striking back against the empire myth | Lunchtime read: Striking back against the empire myth |
| The English don’t know their history, Salman Rushdie once remarked, because so much of it happened overseas. That would change, Afua Hirsch argues, if Britain had a museum of empire to make sure colonial crimes are never forgotten. | The English don’t know their history, Salman Rushdie once remarked, because so much of it happened overseas. That would change, Afua Hirsch argues, if Britain had a museum of empire to make sure colonial crimes are never forgotten. |
| “Britain’s empire is cast as a great moral achievement, and its collapse as an act of casual generosity, without any hint at the irreconcilability of the two,” writes Hirsch. There are museums of the Holocaust, and of slavery. “That there is not a single museum dedicated to empire, the historical episode with the most profound consequences for modern British identity, is nothing short of remarkable.” | “Britain’s empire is cast as a great moral achievement, and its collapse as an act of casual generosity, without any hint at the irreconcilability of the two,” writes Hirsch. There are museums of the Holocaust, and of slavery. “That there is not a single museum dedicated to empire, the historical episode with the most profound consequences for modern British identity, is nothing short of remarkable.” |
| Sport | Sport |
| In the face of increased pre-series sledging, Joe Root has reminded Australia that it is England who have been the dominant force during recent Ashes encounters. | In the face of increased pre-series sledging, Joe Root has reminded Australia that it is England who have been the dominant force during recent Ashes encounters. |
| Jürgen Klopp admits Liverpool stopped playing at half-time against Sevilla, after they surrendered a 3-0 lead, while Manchester City are grateful for Raheem Sterling’s late winner against Feyenoord in the Champions League. | Jürgen Klopp admits Liverpool stopped playing at half-time against Sevilla, after they surrendered a 3-0 lead, while Manchester City are grateful for Raheem Sterling’s late winner against Feyenoord in the Champions League. |
| Sam Simmonds is poised for a first England start after Nathan Hughes was ruled out of England’s final autumn Test against Samoa on Saturday. | Sam Simmonds is poised for a first England start after Nathan Hughes was ruled out of England’s final autumn Test against Samoa on Saturday. |
| Business | Business |
| Asian markets have performed well this morning on the back of strong corporate profit figures. Reuters reported Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.8% and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.4%. The pound was buying US$1.33 and €1.13 overnight. | Asian markets have performed well this morning on the back of strong corporate profit figures. Reuters reported Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.8% and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.4%. The pound was buying US$1.33 and €1.13 overnight. |
| The papers | The papers |
| The end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe and the looming British budget dominate the papers today. The Guardian, the digital Independent and the Times all splash on jubilation on the streets of Harare after the president finally gave in to a military coup, political opposition and popular sentiment. | The end of Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule in Zimbabwe and the looming British budget dominate the papers today. The Guardian, the digital Independent and the Times all splash on jubilation on the streets of Harare after the president finally gave in to a military coup, political opposition and popular sentiment. |
| The Telegraph goes with a story about Theresa May being at war with the chancellor over his “uninspiring” budget. The paper reports that No 10 was anxious that the financial statement would “fall flat” and at the last minute ordered the Treasury to rush out an announcement on schools. On the same subject, the Mirror has an exclusive claiming that May has cut $413m from police funding when she claimed it was safe. | The Telegraph goes with a story about Theresa May being at war with the chancellor over his “uninspiring” budget. The paper reports that No 10 was anxious that the financial statement would “fall flat” and at the last minute ordered the Treasury to rush out an announcement on schools. On the same subject, the Mirror has an exclusive claiming that May has cut $413m from police funding when she claimed it was safe. |
| In other news, the Mail is outraged on behalf of savers, and echoes the deputy governor of the Bank of England by calling on them to “Boycott the greedy banks” for not passing on the rate rise. Away from local and international politics, the Express claims a daily vitamin D pill can “beat arthritis”, while the Sun reports on I’m a Celebrity and the exit of Jack Maynard: “Jungle Jack Sacked”. | In other news, the Mail is outraged on behalf of savers, and echoes the deputy governor of the Bank of England by calling on them to “Boycott the greedy banks” for not passing on the rate rise. Away from local and international politics, the Express claims a daily vitamin D pill can “beat arthritis”, while the Sun reports on I’m a Celebrity and the exit of Jack Maynard: “Jungle Jack Sacked”. |
| For more news: www.theguardian.com | For more news: www.theguardian.com |
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