Top story: White House chief strategist gives accidental interview
Good morning – Warren Murray bringing you today’s briefing.
Donald Trump’s top White House strategist, Steve Bannon, has laid out his apocalyptic world view in a repeat of the Anthony Scaramucci affair. In unguarded remarks to a journalist – from, perhaps most extraordinarily, the leftwing magazine American Prospect – Bannon talked openly about fighting and winning a trade war with China being his main priority. Bannon called up the magazine’s co-editor Robert Kuttner out of the blue and eagerly laid out his agenda. Like Scaramucci, but apparently in less profane terms, Bannon promised to oust his rivals across the Trump administration who he said were “wetting themselves” in fear of him.
On China, he told Kuttner: “We’re at economic war … They’re not shy about saying what they’re doing. One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years and it’s gonna be them if we go down this path. On Korea, they’re just tapping us along. It’s just a sideshow.” The former boss of far-right Breitbart News undermined Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” against North Korea by saying there was no military solution that would not leave “10 million people in Seoul” dead in the first 30 minutes from the regime’s counter-attack. (Here, incidentally, is today’s long read on how Trump’s blunderings in the region could plunge China and Japan into war.)
With the Trump administration under siege over its response to Charlottesville, Bannon brushed off the deadly violence as the antics of a “collection of clowns” who were “irrelevant … It’s a fringe element. I think the media plays it up too much.”
Trump himself, meanwhile, has disbanded two key White House business councils as one CEO after another resigned over his response to Charlottesville. Susan Bro, the mother of counter-protester Heather Heyer who was run over and killed, has told a crowd of 1,200 at a memorial service in Charlottesville: “By golly, if I’ve got give her up, we’re going to make it count … This is just the beginning of Heather’s legacy.”
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A-level results – The exams regulator, Ofqual, has said students can be confident their results will be fair as grades under the new A-level testing system are sent out today. Changes have included new formats for A-levels in 13 subjects, with reformed exams covering English, history, physics, biology, chemistry and psychology. Maths is to follow next year. There have been complaints of a lack of practice papers, inadequate textbooks and teachers not preparing pupils well enough, as well as fears that the revised exams were tougher than previous ones. Ofqual chief Sally Collier said: “The content of new A-levels has been refreshed with input from universities in order to better prepare students for further study, and they remain of the same, high standard as the ones they are replacing.”
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Will fracking pay? – Drilling for gas in the UK may be unviable due to low yields and consequent thinner profits, a geologist has warned. Prof John Underhill, of Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, says Britain’s geological layers were “lifted up, buckled and depressurised” by tectonic activity 55m years ago, as well as cooled. Consequently “these are not good places for hydrocarbons”. Stuart Haszeldine, from Edinburgh University, also cast doubt, saying any remaining deposits that had not “leaked away” were likely to be too deep to economically drill.
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Peanut allergy ‘cured’ – Break out the Snickers: researchers have found a way to desensitise children to peanuts. A team in Australia used 18 months of immunotherapy that combined small doses of peanut protein with a probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus (an ingredient in some kinds of yoghurt), to “give the immune system a nudge”. At the end of the original trial in 2013, 82% who received the treatment were deemed tolerant to peanuts compared with 4% in a placebo group. Four years later, the effect has lasted. Further clinical trials are needed but the regimen offers the hope of freeing sufferers from the threat of anaphylaxis, one of the most common causes of death from food allergy.
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Legal bar – In other news containing traces of nuts: Poundland has gone to court fighting for the right to launch its Twin Peaks chocolate, a copycat version of the Toblerone. The discount chain has sold millions of the genuine article, but says that since its maker reduced the weight to save money, the latest incarnation has too many gaps and too few chunks. So Poundland commissioned Walkers Chocolates to produce one “with the spaces in the right places”.
Toblerone’s owner, Mondelēz, is brandishing its EU trademark on the triangular prism shape, but Poundland argues the bars have changed so much that it is no longer valid. Irate fans of the original have said its radical new shape looks like “a weird knock-off of itself”.
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Catch of the year – Nathan Outlaw’s eponymous seafood restaurant in Cornwall has been named Britain’s best by the Good Food Guide – an award it can hang up alongside two Michelin stars. The 2017 winner, situated in Port Isaacs, ousts Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, though both retain a perfect score of 10. GFG’s chef of the year is Peter Sanchez-Iglesias, of Casamia in Bristol – the city has the highest number of new entries to the guide of any city outside of London.
Lunchtime read: Meet the Proud Boys and other scary people
The US has so many rightwing extremists that it is hard to imagine there being any room at all for Donald Trump’s “very fine people” of benign intent in amongst the swastikas and torches in Charlottesville.
Joanna Walters has compiled this who’s who of the far right. The Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis need no introduction – but what about the Stormer Troll Army, the white nationalists in their neat businesslike attire, the “identitarians” uniformed in white polo shirts and khaki trousers, or the “neo-confederates” dedicated to bringing back old-fashioned southern racism? It is an alarming roster.
Sport
The FA is facing questions over why it paid “hush money” to international footballer Eni Aluko over a bullying complaint against the England manager, Mark Sampson.
Wu Ching-kuo’s controversial 11-year reign at the top of amateur boxing’s governing body, Aiba, looks to be drawing to a close. Manchester City are targeting West Bromwich Albion’s Jonny Evans in a move that could make the former Manchester United defender only the sixth footballer to represent both Manchester clubs in the Premier League era.
Joe Root has called on his England players to think on their feet before Thursday’s maiden day-night Test against West Indies at Edgbaston. And Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor will fight with smaller gloves, though not nearly as small as the ones McGregor is used to wearing, in next weekend’s bout in Las Vegas.
Business
The receding prospect of a Fed interest rate rise was the main driver of the markets overnight rather than the US corporate community’s apparent loss of confidence in Donald Trump. The Fed minutes pointed to perhaps only one more rate rise this year – in December – which meant Asia-Pacific markets were quite subdued. The FTSE100 looks likely to follow suit with a drop of around 0.15% at the open. The pound benefited from the lower dollar at $1.291 and is at €1.095.
The papers
The Telegraph leads on the views of Theresa May’s former chief of staff who says the university tuition fees system is a “a Ponzi scheme” and needs to be reformed.
The Mirror goes with the court case involving a homeless man, hailed a hero for helping Manchester attack victims, only to be accused of stealing from one of them – an accusation he denies. The Sun leads on the battle between the BBC and Channel 4 over their respective cooking programmes.
The Mail’s headline is “Hounded out for speaking out on child sex gangs” and reports the resignation of Labour’s Sarah Champion after she wrote a controversial column in the Sun. The Times meanwhile reports that under government draft plans EU citizens will be free to travel and live in Britain post-Brexit, but companies that want to employ them will have to apply for a permit. The Express handily tells us how many EU migrants there are in the UK: 2.37 million, apparently.
Lastly the FT splashes with a warning from one of the Federal Reserve’s top policy makers who says that efforts in the US to loosen constraints on banks are “dangerous”.
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