Friday briefing: Novichok still a serious risk, Salisbury is warned
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Version 0 of 1. Top story: ‘Toxic hotspots may still exist’ six weeks on Hello, it’s Warren Murray with the round-up to round out your week. The people of Salisbury have been warned their city may still be contaminated with potentially lethal quantities of the novichok nerve agent used to poison the Skripals. “The chemical does not degrade quickly. You can assume that it is not much different now from the day it was distributed,” a government scientist has told a public meeting. Ian Boyd, the chief scientific adviser at Defra, likened it to the spread of ink on someone’s finger. “If that ink doesn’t dry and you go through your normal daily activities, you will find that ink in a lot of different places. Ink is OK – you can see it. We’re dealing with a chemical that you cannot see.” Answering criticism of the time the clean-up is taking, Boyd said: “We have to make the assumption that there are still hotspots to find … The deeper you look into this, the more complicated it is.” Police and council officials are being moved out of offices at Bourne Hill in the city for eight weeks so that they can be decontaminated and deep-cleaned; a police evidence store also needs decontamination, along with ambulance stations at Salisbury and Amesbury, and the home of DS Nick Bailey, who fell ill after responding to the attack. Other locations include the Maltings park where the Skripals fell ill; and the Mill pub and Zizzi restaurant they visited. Investigations are still taking place at Sergei Skripal’s home and any clean-up there remains some weeks away. Windrush scandal – Days after the government apologised to Caribbean-born British citizens, Albert Thompson is still waiting for a call to confirm he will get NHS radiotherapy for his cancer. “The prime minister said I would get treatment, so I presume it is true, but I won’t believe it until I get the go-ahead for the treatment,” Thompson said. Other Caribbean-born Britons – some of whom arrived as far back as the 1950s – have told how holidays turned into exile when they travelled abroad and were denied re-entry to the UK. Meanwhile official accounts reveal that as home secretary, Theresa May agreed to a package of immigration measures including vans with “Go home” signs being driven around London boroughs – contradicting a former adviser who said she tried to stop it. Gary Younge writes this morning that rightful outrage about the exclusion of “worthy immigrants” must not obscure that “outrageous immigration policies made such exclusion possible and will continue to exclude others deemed ‘unworthy’”. Brexit’s hidden figures – The Brexit divorce bill could be billions more than the government thinks once a range of currently unknown liabilities come into play, the National Audit Office has warned. While it calls the Treasury’s £35bn-£39bn guesstimate “reasonable”, the NAO says there might be at least another £5.9bn in contributions to make before leaving. It warns that the European commission could “skew future decisions” to affect the amount Britain pays back. Meg Hillier, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee, said Brexiters had promised a “bounty” for public services but now “I fear the cost of the UK leaving the EU could increase further”. About-face on privacy – Having told lawmakers it will respect the “spirit” of the new European data privacy regime globally, Facebook has moved 1.5bn users to its American servers, where the GDPR doesn’t apply. Facebook has insisted to the Guardian that all users will still have the same protection, and the move is taking place because of “specific wording” required by the EU for privacy notices. Privacy researcher Lukasz Olejnik disagrees: “Users will clearly lose some existing rights, as US standards are lower than those in Europe. Data protection authorities from the countries of the affected users, such as New Zealand and Australia, may want to reassess this situation.” Worker rights ‘burdensome’ – The World Bank has alarmed unions and the International Labour Organisation with a proposal for companies to be able to pay as little as they want and fire workers at will. A draft of its World Development Report chafes like a multinational CEO at “burdensome regulations … high minimum wages, undue restrictions on hiring and firing, and strict contract forms”. The International Trade Union Confederation says the report almost completely ignores workers’ rights and social protections – taking as a given unfair employment practices like zero-hours contracts and Uber-style “contractor” arrangements rather than challenging them. The World Bank says it is aimed at “stimulating debate”. The final report is due in the autumn. ‘She wore it well’ – There was a stir but no feathers were ruffled when the New Zealand prime minister wore a traditional Māori cloak to Buckingham Palace. The Kahu huruhuru is bedecked with bird feathers and symbolises leadership, prestige and power – fitting for Jacinda Ardern, who has just been named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 influential people in the world. Lunchtime read: Communist Manifesto comes to life Was the Communist Manifesto right after all? It would be hard, argues Yanis Varoufakis, to read Marx and Engels’ examination of the capitalism and its end-game, apply it to today’s world and think otherwise. Society has indeed “conjured up gigantic means of production and of exchange”, becoming “like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells”. “Marx and Engels want us to realise that capitalism is insufficiently evolved to survive the technologies it spawns,” writes Varoufakis. “Capital’s success at spreading its reach via accumulation for accumulation’s sake is causing human workers to work like machines for a pittance, while the robots are programmed to produce stuff that the workers can no longer afford and the robots do not need. “The workers’ states inspired by the manifesto are almost gone, and the communist parties disbanded or in disarray. Liberated from competition with regimes inspired by the manifesto, globalised capitalism is behaving as if it is determined to create a world best explained by the manifesto.” Sport The British marathon record holder Steve Jones fears Mo Farah will always be tainted by his association with Alberto Salazar – and says he wishes he had left his former coach years ago. Victor Moses struck to give Chelsea a 2-1 win over Burnley in the Premier League last night, while a goalless stalemate at Leicester left Southampton’s hopes of survival hanging by a thread. Lance Armstrong has reached a $5m settlement with the federal government in a whistleblower lawsuit that could have sought $100m in damages from the cyclist who was stripped of his record seven Tour de France victories. And the 50,000 fun runners taking part in the London Marathon on Sunday have been urged to go slower than planned and avoid fancy dress on what is expected to be the hottest day in the race’s history. Business Shares were lower in Asia after a major supplier to Apple forecast continued weak demand for mobile devices. A warning by the head of the IMF over the potential for trade tensions to harm global growth also weighed on sentiment. Sterling has been trading at $1.407 and €1.140 overnight. The papers Amber Rudd, already under pressure over Windrush, now faces demands from leaver ministers to speed up the tabling of the Brexit immigration bill, the Times reports. The Telegraph says “Ireland Brexit proposal in tatters” as it reports that Theresa May’s ideas to avoid a hard border have been subjected to a “systematic and forensic annihilation” by the EU. The Guardian leads on Windrush victim Albert Thompson still receiving “no clarity, no urgency” about his cancer treatment. “Stop this injustice” blasts the Express as it fumes that the cost of receiving social care has become a “postcode lottery”. The Mail’s got the story about the Save the Children chairman quitting over his handling of a sex scandal. The Sun leads with “Muttiny!”, reporting that Irish Guards squaddies fear their ageing wolfhound mascot, Donhall, is being worked to death when he should be enjoying retirement. Sign up The Guardian morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, make sure to subscribe. For more news: www.theguardian.com |