Top story: ‘Ready for British justice but not American injustice’
Hello – Warren Murray here with everything that’s going on.
A judge is due to rule today on whether the arrest warrant keeping Julian Assange pinned down inside a London embassy should remain in force. It is nearly six years since Assange snuck into the Ecuadorian mission where he sought and was granted political asylum.
Since then, Swedish authorities have dropped sexual assault charges against the WikiLeaks founder, but a British arrest warrant remains in place for breach of bail. Assange’s legal team argues the warrant has lost its purpose, and its pursuit is no longer proportionate in the interests of justice.
When he fled to the embassy in 2012, Assange said he feared being extradited by Sweden to the US because of WikiLeaks’ publication of intelligence documents. The Australian national was made an Ecuadorian citizen last month, but the UK refused to give him diplomatic status, which would have conferred legal immunity.
Even if he wins in court, Assange would be unlikely to leave the embassy immediately. But a victory might force British authorities to disclose any outstanding extradition warrants from the US, where the FBI, CIA and Trump White House have made clear they want him arrested. “We must confront the real issue in this case,” said Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson, “… [that] he risks facing extradition to the US to face prosecution for publishing information in the public interest with WikiLeaks.
“Mr Assange remains ready to face British justice … but not at the risk of being forced to face American injustice.”
Got a Brexit to sell you – Boris Johnson will portray Brexit as a great liberalising project in a speech seeking to build bridges with remainers by painting political union, not trade, as the EU’s raison d’être. According to the foreign secretary, “it is not primarily there to create opportunities for companies to trade freely across frontiers, it is primarily there to create a united EU”. Britain can only take advantage of Brexit for economic gain by diverging from Brussels on regulations, says Johnson. But his argument could raise fears about plans for deregulation and a lowering of EU-enforced standards – leaked civil service analysis is believed to say Brexit offers the chance for deregulation in “areas of high sensitivity” such as employment, consumer protections and the environment. The Labour MP Stephen Doughty says the EU has been the source of hugely progressive legislation in such areas: “There is no liberal case for Brexit.”
‘Serious concern’ for boy, 12 – A grandmother who is the legal guardian of her missing grandson fears he has been taken away to live an “alternative lifestyle” by his mother and grandfather. Alex Batty, who turns 12 today, went missing last September with Melanie Batty, 37, and David Batty, 58, while on holiday in Malaga, Spain. Greater Manchester police say Melanie and David Batty are wanted in connection with Alex’s abduction. DS Pete Morley says police hold “serious concern” the boy may not be receiving proper healthcare or schooling. Alex’s grandmother and custodian, Susan Caruana, 62, from Oldham, says she believes the pair don’t want him to live “how normal people do … they didn’t want him to go to school, they don’t believe in mainstream school”.
Bad dog – Do the boffins of Boston Dynamics delight in terrifying us, or are they just geekishly oblivious to how scary the increasing capabilities of their autonomous robots are to many people? The latest advance is SpotMini, a dog-like droid with an arm-claw where its head should be.
Said arm-claw can operate a door handle – in the video, SpotMini holds open the door to let itself and a companion through. They sally forth together with a left-right-left-right rhythm that suggests a whole army of SpotMinis one day marching out of the laboratory to bring humankind to heel.
And finally: A couple have been fined for using a fake garage door to hide a tiny home they built in their garage against planning regulations. Reeta Herzallah and Hamdi Almasri of Enderby, Leicestershire, were each ordered to pay a £770 penalty, legal costs of £1,252 and a £77 victim surcharge. Looks like it was an open-and-shut case …
Winter Olympics
Monday’s women’s slopestyle final was scooped by America’s Jamie Anderson but will be remembered principally for blowing most of its competitors out of contention. Olympics organisers have rather bafflingly rebuffed those saying the event should have been cancelled: “Nobody was forced to go down and compete,” the FIS said on Tuesday.
Today’s forecast includes more strong winds but Tuesday morning Pyeongchang time saw the finals of the women’s halfpipe snowboard, with all eyes on 17-year-old superstar Chloe Kim. To the surprise of few and the awestruckness of many, the US teenager swept all before her: her third and final run – when she was already in an unassailable gold medal position – racked up an entirely justified 98.25.
There was also medal action in the mixed doubles curling, with the Olympic athletes from Russia (OAR) – and married couple – Anastasia Bryzgalova and Aleksandr Krushelnitckii securing bronze 8-4 ahead of the Norwegian pair of Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten.
On the sidelines, the rigidly choreographed rooting of North Korea’s cheerleaders has certainly been something different.
Meanwhile the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, has praised the “sincere and impressive” efforts by South Korea to welcome a delegation that included his sister, Kim Yo-jong.
Remember to follow our live blog for the latest action and you can also keep up with the latest news and main events by subscribing to our special daily recap email during the Games.
Lunchtime read: Funny old World
Almost seven times the size of Venice and ringed by a 20-mile breakwater, Dubai’s outlandish project to create a sandy archipelago of 300 “countries” as a playground for the rich and famous fell into hiatus after the 2008 financial crash. A now-forlorn resort on the islet that represents “Lebanon” is the only part of The World that ever opened to the public.
But, writes Oliver Wainwright, work is restarting as The World bounces back with more ambitious plans than ever. “Trucks are trundling from a concrete batching plant on Monaco over towards Sweden. On Italy, the Portofino Hotel is rising out of the sand. ‘I am going to make it snow all year round,’ says property developer Josef Kleindienst,” who owns Austria and a bunch of other islands. Get out your wallets, jetsetters …
Sport
In a long, discursive interview with the Guardian, Roger Federer, who can be world No 1 again this week, says he is not ruling out an Olympic swansong in 2020.
Antonio Conte has vowed to fight speculation over his future “until the end” after Chelsea recovered their place in the top four with a much-needed 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion. The Champions League returns this week, with Tottenham taking on Juventus tonight in Turin, where Spurs striker Harry Kane must get past the defender he calls one of the toughest, Giorgio Chiellini. And England have lost one No 8 but gained another before the Calcutta Cup match against Scotland in Edinburgh next week with Wasps’ Nathan Hughes fit again and set to make an instant return in place of the injured Sam Simmonds.
Business
Asian stocks have pulled further away from two-month lows on Tuesday, lifted by Wall Street’s extended rebound from last week’s steep fall. Investors remained cautious ahead of US inflation data later in the week. Spreadbetters expected a higher open for European equities, forecasting 0.25% for the FTSE and 0.3% for Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 1.1%, Australian stocks rose 0.6% and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.65%. Japan’s Nikkei started higher but lost steam to slip 0.75% while the Shanghai Composite was 1% higher.
Sterling has been trading at $1.385 and €1.124 overnight.
The papers
The Oxfam sexual misconduct scandal fills the front pages for a second day.
The Times splashes on allegations that Oxfam chief Mark Goldring knew of sex claims and failed to act; the Guardian leads on the resignation of the charity’s deputy as the organisation faces losing £29m in European funding; and the Telegraph goes with the particularly gob-smacking headline “Oxfam workers ‘offered aid for sex’.”
The Mail has a slightly different take on the story, with revelations that abuse is rife in Oxfam shops, with 123 incidents of alleged sexual harassment over the past nine years.
As usual the red tops go their own way. The Sun has a story about an inmate trying to murder the Soham killer Ian Huntley. The Express splashes on the arthritis drug that can slash the risk of dementia by half. The Mirror, meanwhile, has an exclusive on Meghan Markle visiting Grenfell Tower victims.
The Financial Times is also alone with its main story: “Barclays charged for second time over Qatari cash injection in crisis”.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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