Top story: ‘Step change’ in security threat
Good morning – Alison Rourke with the main stories on this Monday morning.
Police and security services say they are facing a surge in convicted terrorists being released from prison. Analysis by the Guardian shows that more than 40% of the terrorism sentences handed down over a 10-year period will have been served by the end of this year. The figures, compiled by the Sentencing Council, show that more than 80 of the 193 sentences from 2007 to 2016 will end, including for the Islamist preacher Anjem Choudry, who was jailed in September 2016 for five and a half years.
The figures come as the home secretary is set to unveil the government’s updated counter-terrorism policy on Monday. Sajid Javid will warn that there has been a “step change” in the threat from terrorism, drawing a comparison between Islamic extremists and far-right groups. The new policy will include plans to bring forward legislation giving the government new powers to disrupt terror threats at an earlier stage; and to step up the pressure on tech companies to remove extremist material.
Kim wields the axe – Pyongyang’s three top military officials have been shown the door, according to a senior US official, just eight days before the on-again, off-again summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore. According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the men include the defence chief, the head of the army and the director of the country’s general political bureau. US officials have suggested they didn’t agree with North Korea’s new approach to its southern neighbour and the US.
Pay gap between young and old widens – The generational pay divide is leaving younger workers struggling to survive, the council of trades unions has warned. The TUC’s new report, Stuck at the start: young people’s experience of pay and progression, reveals the gap between over- and under-30s has grown from 14.5% in 1998, to 21.9% in last year. “We’re creating a lost generation of younger workers,” says the general secretary, Frances O’Grady. The report is part of the TUC’s push to boost union membership amongst younger workers, including the launch of a new digital service which will provide information about rights at work.
More doctors for Britain? – Visa caps on skilled migrants, including more than a thousand doctors denied entry to the UK, may be lifted after the home secretary said he was “taking a fresh look” at the policy. The government has been under pressure to loosen the restrictions on the so-called tier 2 visas, after quotas began to bite in recent months. A No 10 source said the policy was kept under review, and the NHS was always a high priority in ensuring Britain’s economy has the workers it needs.
‘Hard to believe’ – A former New Zealand sex worker has been made a dame in the Queen’s birthday honours list for services to the industry. Catherine Healy, who was arrested in a Wellington brothel in the 1980s, told the Guardian of her surprise: “I was very daunted and found it very hard to believe.” In 1986, Healy helped found the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, an organisation that supports sex workers’ rights. “Back then, I remember reading stories that spoke about us, but journalists never spoke to us,” she said. “It’s different to think about it today where we are sitting around table as equals with the police and plotting how to make sex work safer and allowing workers to report sexual violence.”
‘Slovenians first’ – The nationalist, anti-immigration Slovenia Democratic party has won just under 25% of the vote in the country’s general election, but it may struggle to pull together a government due to its hardline position on immigration. The party, led by former prime minister Janez Janša, said his party “puts Slovenia, Slovenians first”. Janša, who spent six months in prison in 2014 on bribery charges, enjoyed the backing of Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and effectively evoked memories of more than 500,000 migrants who crossed Slovenia in late 2015 and early 2016, even though most continued on to northern Europe.
Lunchtime read: Is Elon Musk turning from Iron Man into Gollum?
With his car company, Tesla, haemorrhaging money and shareholders pushing to dump directors from its board, the once-feted Elon Musk is being labelled as erratic and vengeful, writes Rory Carroll.
Musk’s attack last week on the “holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie” drew ire as a man lashing out at negative headlines. He threatened to “create a site where the public can rate the core truth of any article & track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor & publication. Thinking of calling it Pravda.” For some it was was evidence of Musk burrowing into ethical murk. Instead of Iron Man here was Gollum, erratic and vengeful. So how did it come to this? One possible answer: Tesla has skidded into trouble and Musk is blaming the messenger in apparent hope of soothing skittish investors and potential investors. Has that reality overtaken the hype?
Sport
Jos Buttler served up a treat with a thunderous display of hitting as Dom Bess picked up his maiden Test wickets in England’s three-day victory over Pakistan in the second and final Test at Headingley.
South Africa are relishing the chance to heap more misery on Eddie Jones and England in their three-match Test series after the Springboks were beaten 22-20 by Wales in Washington DC. Meanwhile, Jones has labelled Bruce Craig the “Donald Trump of rugby” as England’s head coach escalated his feud with the Bath owner.
England’s footballers are to be given a crash course in the new disciplinary rules being implemented in time for the World Cup amid concerns they do not fully understand the changes.
And the Golden State Warriors took a two-game lead in the NBA finals after Steph Curry scored 33 points to help shoot down LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers.
Business
A thinktank close to No 10 says there is no business case for divergence from the EU’s regulatory regime in a proposal sure to anger pro-Leave MPs impatient with Theresa May’s leadership on Brexit. Futures trading points to a 0.35% rise in the FTSE100 at 8am today on the back of Friday’s strong US jobs figures, while the pound buys $1.337 and €1.143.
The papers
A slew of papers are preoccupied today with good news for breast cancer sufferers: a breakthrough will spare 5,000 women a year from undergoing chemotherapy. The story leads the Mirror, Scotsman and the Metro and also features on the front of the Financial Times.
Sticking with the medical theme, the Telegraph says the visa cap on foreign doctors is going to be lifted, while the Express is worried that Britain is facing a summer of knife mayhem.
The Times has a story about secret files “proving” that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb and also features the notable headline on the front: “Why women are more likely to view life with healthy disgust”.
The Guardian leads on “Police facing a surge in extremists released from jail”. The Mail goes in on the “Very British farce” of the police bungling their investigation into Jeremy Thorpe’s killer and the Sun has a story on actor Jessie Wallace who got drunk at an awards ceremony giving them the great pun: Ender on a Bender.
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