WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Russia vows reprisals, Māori protest, and Richard III gets his voice back

 
today's international story

Russia vows 'tangible' response to US missiles

What happened
Russia has accused Joe Biden of adding "fuel to the fire" of the Ukraine conflict by allowing Kyiv to use US-made long-range missiles and vowed that any use of such weapons would be met with "an appropriate and tangible" response.

Who said what
Joe Biden's apparent decision to allow Ukraine to conduct strikes with US-made weapons deep inside Russian territory is "reckless, dangerous, (and) aimed at a qualitative increase in the level of involvement of the United States", said Vladimir Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Biden, who has just arrived in Rio de Janeiro for his last G20 Summit, has yet to comment on the authorisation, which "marks a significant shift in US policy", according to The Guardian. The decision is "unprecedented in the decades-old history of tensions between Russia and the US", agreed The Times, and has "triggered apocalyptic rhetoric among officials in Russia".

Hardliners on state television threatened that Russia would retaliate with nuclear strikes that would destroy the US, though "such rhetoric has been common" since Putin's invasion of Ukraine began three years ago, added The Times.

What next?
Biden's apparent green light has caused "consternation among some of Donald Trump's allies", said the BBC. Donald Trump Jr posted that the president was trying to "get World War Three going" before his father took office. Trump has yet to comment, but he won the presidential election after promising to end the war in Ukraine.

Biden's authorisation has not been formally confirmed "and it may never be", according to the BBC.

 
 
today's asia pacific story

Māori protest march reaches Wellington

What happened
A nine-day march across New Zealand culminated in a rally in Wellington today against a bill that opponents say would redefine the country's founding treaty with the Māori people.

Who said what
The proposed Treaty Principles Bill would reinterpret New Zealand's founding document, the Treaty of Waitangi, explained Australia's ABC. The bill proposes that the terms of the treaty should apply to all New Zealanders, not just Māori, so "all Kiwis have the same rights and privileges", said the ABC. Critics say the bill threatens constitutional upheaval and would remove rights promised in the treaty that are now enshrined in law.

New Zealand has "long been considered a leader in indigenous rights", said the BBC, but the Treaty Principles Bill arrives at a time when the country's current conservative government has faced criticism for closing the Māori Health Authority and reprioritising the English language over Māori in official naming practices.

What next?
The bill passed a first reading last Thursday, backed by all parties from the ruling coalition, but is unlikely to pass a second reading as two of those governing parties have indicated that they will not support it.

 
 
Today's sport story

Spurs midfielder Bentancur sanctioned for racism

What happened
Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur (pictured left) has been handed a seven-match domestic ban over an alleged racist remark made about South Korean teammate Son Heung-min (right) in a TV interview in June. Betancur, 27, was charged with an "aggravated breach" of the Football Association's rules after he joked about Son and his cousins, saying "they all look the same".

Who said what
The former Juventus player apologised to Son on Instagram for the "very bad joke", adding that he would "never disrespect you or hurt you".

Bentancur "would not mean to ever intentionally say something offensive", said Son at the time. "We are brothers and nothing has changed at all. We're past this, we're united and we will be back together in pre-season to fight for our club as one."

What next?
Bentancur has also been fined £100,000 and ordered to attend a "face-to-face education programme", which he has to complete by March. He will be able to play in upcoming Europa League matches.

 
 

It's not all bad

Richard III's voice has been digitally recreated using cutting-edge technology – and he has a Yorkshire accent. Unveiled at York Theatre Royal, the project, led by Professor Caroline Wilkinson, involved a digital avatar being crafted by Face Lab at Liverpool John Moores University. Drawing from historical and scientific research – including speech therapy and cranio-facial analysis – the initiative built on Philippa Langley’s 2012 discovery of King Richard's remains in Leicester. The recreation highlights the importance of Richard's reign and legacy in English history, and aims to provide insight into how the long-dead monarch might have sounded.

 
 
under the radar

Mars was possibly habitable more recently than thought

Mars may have hosted life billions of years ago, a possibility that has long intrigued scientists. Now new evidence suggests the planet was habitable for even longer than previously thought due to the presence of a global magnetic field. The finding changes what was once believed about the history of Mars and could help uncover more information about the planet and our solar system at large.

Like the Earth, Mars had a magnetic field surrounding it – the "dynamo". While the Mars of today is dry and barren, it may have once been full of life before the dynamo vanished. A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that Mars's magnetic field may have been around longer than scientists thought, only disappearing approximately 3.9 billion years ago compared to the previous estimate of 4.1 billion years.

These findings are significant because 200 million years is a lot of time for life to potentially develop. The dynamo's extended timeline "overlaps into the era when the surface of the Red Planet became covered in water, evidence for which has been discovered by NASA Mars rovers", said Space.com.

"We are trying to answer primary, important questions about how everything got to be like it is, even why the entire solar system is the way that it is," said Sarah Steele, a student at the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a lead author of the study. "Planetary magnetic fields are our best probe to answer a lot of those questions and one of the only ways we have to learn about the deep interiors and early histories of planets."

 
 
on this day

19 November 2007

Amazon began selling the Kindle e-reader, an enormous success that permanently changed the book industry. More than a million authors have now used the Kindle self-publishing platform, but a recent study found that readers were "significantly" worse at remembering what they'd read using Kindles compared with paper books.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Mirror quotes Keir Starmer's pledge to stop Vladimir Putin from winning in Ukraine, and The Guardian reports that the UK is expected to let Kyiv use its missiles to attack Russia. Rachel Reeves has been told by the country's biggest retailers that shops will close, jobs will be lost and prices will rise because of her decision to raise National Insurance, says The Times. Meanwhile, reports the Daily Mail, dozens of British Airways flights were disrupted last night after a major IT glitch "caused chaos".

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Mo problems

Two thieves got more than they bargained for when they tried to rob Mo Farah. The most successful track distance runner of all time was on a jog with wife Tania on their private estate when he saw a white van pull up beside the mobile phone he'd left at the side of the road. When the would-be thieves snatched the phone, the 41-year-old and four-time Olympic gold medallist "reflexively kicked into action" and ran full pelt towards the van, said The Times. The men "immediately handed back the phone" when confronted by the Olympian.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Artur Widak / NurPhoto / Getty Images; Sanka Vidanagama / AFP / Getty Images; Ben Stansall / AFP / Getty Images.