WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
ICC sanctions, a 'grim' growth forecast, and how sperm carry past trauma in their DNA

 
today's international story

Trump sanctions 'illegitimate' ICC

What happened
Donald Trump signed an executive order authorising economic and travel sanctions on people who work on International Criminal Court investigations, accusing the court of "illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel".

Who said what
The order says the ICC's recent actions "set a dangerous precedent" that endangers Americans by exposing them to "harassment, abuse and possible arrest".

The US is not a member of the ICC and has "repeatedly rejected any jurisdiction by the body over American officials or citizens", said the BBC. Further to that, Trump's White House "believes the ICC is placing constraints on Israel's right to self-defence".

Certainly, the signing of the executive order "appeared timed" to coincide with a visit to Washington by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said NBC News. Netanyahu is wanted by the ICC over the war in the Gaza Strip.

What next?
Trump and Netanyahu "have had a complicated relationship", said CNN, but Trump's recent comments have "reinforced an impression that the Israeli leader would enjoy a far wider remit from the American government to prosecute his goals with Trump in office".

ICC officials have described the presidential order as a "worst-case scenario" given the US is imposing sanctions not just against the institution, but also individuals. It is unclear how quickly the Trump administration will announce the names of those who will be sanctioned.

 
 
today's economics story

Bank of England cuts growth forecast

What happened
The Bank of England has halved its growth forecast for the year and warned households that they will face rising prices.

Having cut interest rates by a further quarter of a point to 4.5%, the central bank now expects the economy to grow by just 0.75% this year, compared with a previous forecast of 1.5% made in November.

Who said what
Several analysts suggested the Bank's forecasts show the UK sliding towards "stagflation", which is a "toxic combination of weak growth and high inflation" that is "hard for policymakers to manage", said The Guardian.

The BoE's "grim snapshot" of the UK economy has "raised fresh concerns about the government's efforts to lift growth", said the Financial Times.

What next?
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is now "putting an awful lot of faith in ripping up planning rules and 'getting Britain building again' to turn things around", said The Independent. "It may not be enough. She needs to find a bigger rabbit in her hat."

 
 
Today's climate story

Warmest ever January puzzles scientists

What happened
The warmest January on record is raising questions about the pace of climate change.

Scientists had expected cooler temperatures due to a shift away from a weather pattern known as El Niño. But instead this January was the warmest ever recorded, beating January 2024 by nearly 0.1°C.

Who said what
"The basic reason we're having records being broken, and we've had this decades-long warming trend, is because we're increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Gavin Schmidt, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told BBC News.

But he added that scientists were still trying to figure out the "specifics" of why 2023, 2024 and the beginning of 2025 had been "so warm".

What next?
Scientists still predict that 2025 might be slightly cooler than last year, but recent trends mean scientists are all the more concerned about the increasing pace of global warming.

 
 

It's not all bad

Nasa and the European Space Agency have reassured the public that asteroid 2024 YR, currently listed as a potential Earth impactor in 2032, is unlikely to pose a real threat. While its probability of striking Earth was recently raised slightly to 2.3%, experts stressed that further observations would likely lower the risk to near zero. Nasa's past success in altering asteroid trajectories also offers confidence that, if needed, deflection technologies can be deployed.

 
 
under the radar

Sperm cells carry past trauma in their epigenetics

A study published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry found that sperm cells can carry traces of trauma. Specifically, the researchers looked at the epigenetics of sperm from people exposed to high levels of stress in their childhood – and the findings suggest a parent's life experiences may have a larger impact on future generations than previously assumed.

"Understanding inheritance through genes and DNA has been one of the most crucial elements of our understanding of biology," Dr Jetro Tuulari, an associate professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at the University of Turku in Finland and the author of the study, told Live Science.

Epigenetics is the study of how cells alter "which genes can be switched on" without changing the DNA sequence, said Live Science. Researchers here looked at two epigenetic markers: DNA methylation and small noncoding RNA. The findings showed a "different epigenetic profile compared with the sperm from men who reported less trauma", with the pattern holding "even after the researchers checked if the differences could be attributed to other factors, such as drinking or smoking".

These results "provide further evidence that early life stress influences the paternal germline epigenome and supports a possible effect in modulating the development of the central nervous system of the next generation", said the study.

Scientists have long been interested in how the behaviour and experiences of parents genetically affect their children. A study last year found that paternal diet and weight could affect their offspring's metabolic health – even if the offspring had a healthy diet.

 
 
on this day

7 February 1991

Members of the Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister John Major, injuring four people. Yesterday a judge ruled at an inquest that the use of lethal force by SAS soldiers – who shot dead four members of the IRA in an ambush in County Tyrone in 1992 – was not justified.

 
 
Today's newspapers

Rachel Reeves has been "put on notice" after "putrid" economic growth forecasts were slashed, says the Daily Express. The UK economy is expected to grow by just 0.75% this year, in what The Guardian calls a "fresh blow" to Reeves's attempts to raise confidence. Hospitals are "running out of beds", says Metro, with fewer than half the people fit for discharge released each day in England. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror reports that celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo has been accused of "sexually inappropriate" behaviour in a probe by ITV News.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Judge too judgy 

An upstate New York judge has resigned after he got out of jury duty by claiming that he believed everyone brought before a court was guilty. The judge overseeing the jury selection in 2023 reported Richard T. Snyder to state officials. Snyder, who had been a justice of the Petersburgh Town Court for a decade, left his post after being charged with misconduct by a state judicial commission. He has agreed to never serve as a judge again.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Jamie Timson, Harriet Marsden, Ross Couzens, and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Alex Gottschalk / DeFodi Images via Getty Images; Dan Kitwood / Getty Images; Jose A. Bernat Bacete / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.