Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s headlines. If you’d like to receive this briefing by email, sign up here.
Top story: UN says 12 years to prevent catastrophic warming
A landmark report by the world’s leading climate scientists has concluded there are only a dozen years left to stop global temperatures rising more than 1.5C, beyond which lies a vastly increased risk of extreme weather and crushing poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, published on Monday, says governments could halt the catastrophe of 2C warming, but the changes required are urgent and unprecedented.
- Paris discord. The IPCC report was commissioned during the Paris climate talks in 2016, before Donald Trump was elected president on a promise to withdraw the US from the Paris accord.
- A conservative assessment. Climate change expert Bob Ward warns that the report, though stark, is nonetheless “a relatively conservative assessment of the consequences we might face” if warming exceeds 1.5C.
‘Tropical Trump’ wins first round of Brazil presidential race
The far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro has won the first round of Brazil’s presidential race by a resounding margin, though not quite resounding enough to avoid a runoff against his leftwing rival, Fernando Haddad, on 28 October. Bolsonaro – a former army officer who has endorsed military dictatorship and repeatedly attacked black, gay and indigenous communities in Latin America’s largest democracy – took close to 47% of the vote with 94% of ballots counted.
- A grand coalition? Haddad, the Workers’ party candidate, won 28% of the vote, which gives him little chance of beating Bolsonaro in the second round unless he can muster a vast, centrist coalition.
Monsanto facing flood of lawsuits after watershed verdict
DeWayne Johnson, a terminally ill school groundskeeper who took Monsanto to court over the cancer risks of Roundup – and won – has inspired a deluge of fresh lawsuits against the agrochemical giant. The historic verdict in August has opened the door to 8,700 plaintiffs across the US, who allege that their exposure to glyphosate – the key chemical in Roundup, Monsanto’s widely used weedkiller brand – has led to various types of cancer.
- ‘Junk science’. Monsanto, which was acquired earlier this year by the German pharmaceutical giant Bayer, has appealed against the verdict, calling the evidence against glysophate “junk science”.
Taylor Swift breaks political silence to endorse Democrats
After years of fevered speculation, Taylor Swift has at last come out as a Democrat, endorsing two candidates in Tennessee ahead of the November midterms. In a lengthy Instagram post, the singer admitted: “In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now.”
- Blue wave. Swift endorsed Democrats Phil Bredesen for the Senate and Jim Cooper for the House of Representatives, while criticising incumbent senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican endorsed by Donald Trump.
- Progressive values. The singer specifically voiced support for LGBTQ rights, gender equity, and an end to “systemic racism” in her post, which attracted 360,000 likes in an hour.
Crib sheet
- A stretch-limousine crash in upstate New York has left 20 people dead, including two pedestrians, the limo driver and his 17 passengers, who were reportedly on the way to a birthday party.
- About 5,000 people are still missing, feared dead, following the earthquake and tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi more than a week ago.
- The missing Interpol chief, Meng Hongwei, has resigned from the international police agency after it emerged he was being detained in China by a government anti-corruption unit.
- Jodie Whittaker has made her debut as the first female Doctor Who, to widespread critical acclaim.
Must-reads
One year on, has Hollywood learned its #MeToo lesson?
It’s 12 months since the allegations against Harvey Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement, which has spread outward from the entertainment industry ever since. Pamela Hutchinson finds out what’s changed in Hollywood – and what hasn’t.
Helena Bonham-Carter: ‘Standing up to Harvey wasn’t easy’
Helena Bonham-Carter recalls her own experiences of working with Weinstein, as she tells Simon Hattenstone about her long career, her recent divorce from Tim Burton – and the new film she says is her most personal yet.
The white southerners who are re-learning race
Mississippi bartender Krista Hinman openly admits she grew up a racist. But today she’s one of many white southerners speaking out against white supremacy and calling for Confederate symbols to go. “They all need to come down,” she tells Donna Ladd.
Red, blue – or green? Why left and right agree on weed.
The partisan divide is at its deepest in living memory as the midterm elections approach. But there’s at least one issue on which both sides appear to agree: marijuana legalisation.
Opinion
Brett Kavanaugh’s elevation to the supreme court revealed a political system still rigged against women, writes Nesrine Malik. But Jessa Crispin warns against the delusion that women were united in opposition to Kavanaugh.
We should stop trying to lump all women together when we mean a specific section of women, and stop speaking on behalf of women who clearly want nothing to do with us.
Sport
Saturday’s UFC contest between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov may have been controversial, but the sport’s organisers seem to have decided that all publicity is good publicity, writes Josh Gross.
Arsenal continued their winning streak with a 5-1 drubbing of Fulham on Saturday. That’s one of 10 talking points from the weekend’s Premier League fixtures.
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