1. Tory MPs to cast first votes
Tory MPs will cast their first votes this afternoon in the race to replace Boris Johnson. The Times said the contest had “descended into vitriol” as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries mounted “highly personal attacks” on Rishi Sunak and his team. Jeremy Hunt said the former chancellor would bring on a recession – an example of the “bitter mudslinging” between candidates, said the Daily Mail. The other hopefuls in the running are Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat and Nadhim Zahawi.
Tory leadership contenders: the odds and polls
2. Putin recruiting from prisons
Vladimir Putin is recruiting soldiers from Russian prisons after suffering tens of thousands of losses in Ukraine, said The Telegraph. Western officials claim Moscow is resorting to increasingly desperate measures including allowing older people to sign up to fight and actively recruiting from prisons. Ukraine claims that almost 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed during the conflict, while UK intelligence estimates that 55% of Russia-backed separatist forces in Donetsk have been lost.
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Is Vladimir Putin’s invasion down to ‘toxic masculinity’?
3. Police failed abuse victims
More than a thousand girls were sexually exploited in Telford over at least 30 years while the police dropped cases like a “hot potato” for fear of inflaming racial tensions, a report has found. The inquiry found that unnecessary suffering and child deaths might have been avoided had West Mercia police “done its most basic job”, said The Times. The report found agencies dismissed reports of child exploitation as “child prostitution” and that children, rather than perpetrators, were often blamed.
4. Heatwave deaths expected
The UK heatwave is expected to peak on Monday with temperatures heading towards 35C in parts of the nation. A rare amber warning for much of England and Wales has been issued from midnight on Sunday, meaning there could be a danger to life. Hospitals in some areas have already declared “critical incidents” and every ambulance trust is on the highest level of alert. The hot weather is likely to “silently kill hundreds”, said The Independent.
How to cool down in a heatwave – what the science says
5. Trump tweet was ‘call to arms’
A congressional inquiry has heard that a tweet from Donald Trump mobilised far-right extremists to converge in the US capital on the day of the Capitol riot. The then president’s message told supporters: “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.” Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the investigating committee, said the post “electrified and galvanised his supporters” while Stephanie Murphy, another Democrat member of the panel, said it “served as a call to action and in some cases as a call to arms”.
The 6 January hearings: a reckoning for Donald Trump?
6. ‘Fresh approaches’ for Covid jabs
Nearly three million adults in England have still not received a Covid vaccine, data has revealed. According to experts, that number includes people who could become seriously ill if they were to catch the virus. Meg Hillier MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “fresh approaches” are needed to tackle the persistent low uptake observed in some groups. Meanwhile, the health minister said restrictions “may well” have to be reintroduced if the rising number of Covid cases has an impact on the NHS backlog.
Non-Covid excess deaths: why are they rising?
7. Farah ‘relieved’ Home Office won’t act
Mo Farah has said he is “relieved” that the government will not take action against him after he revealed he was trafficked into the UK as a child. The government can remove a person’s British nationality if their citizenship was obtained through fraud but the Home Office told BBC News it would not investigate the Olympic medallist. An official said it is assumed children are not complicit when their citizenship is gained by deception. Farah had revealed he was forced to change his name and work as a domestic servant as a child.
Mo Farah reveals ‘astonishing truth’ about his real name
8. Macron ‘proud’ of Uber meetings
Emmanuel Macron has said he is proud to have supported Uber and would “do it again tomorrow and the day after tomorrow”. A trade union has joined French political figures from across the spectrum in calling for a parliamentary inquiry into reports that the French president had secret undeclared meetings with the cab-hailing company when he was economy minister. “I was a minister and I did my job,” Macron said. The meetings were revealed in the Uber files – a collection of 124,000 company documents leaked to The Guardian.
Uber files: what ‘unprecedented leak’ revealed
9. Brits poorer than foreign counterparts
The average British household is £8,800 poorer than its equivalent in five comparable countries, a new study has found. The report from the Resolution Foundation said that a “toxic combination” of poor productivity and a failure to address inequality has resulted in a widening prosperity gap with France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. “We underestimate the scale of our relative decline and are far from serious about the nature of our economy or the scale of change required to make a difference,” said the think tank’s chief executive, Torsten Bell.
10. Restraining order for Beckham stalker
An indefinite restraining order has been handed to a woman who went to the school of David Beckham’s daughter claiming to be her mother and said the football star’s sperm had been fused with her eggs. Sharon Bell, 58, has also been sectioned for stalking the Beckhams at their Oxfordshire and London homes between July and November last year. Arizuna Asante, prosecuting the case at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, said that the experience had made Victoria Beckham “anxious about her safety” and “scared to go out”.
