Top story: ‘It’s not possible to rule anything out’
This is Alison Rourke bringing you Monday’s top stories to start your week.
Theresa May got the all-important signoff on her Brexit deal in Brussels yesterday, but now the big sell at home begins. EU leaders backed the deal but, with a hostile Commons vote ahead – likely to take place on 12 December – the PM this morning will gather her cabinet, then address parliament and embark on a mission to “speak directly to the British people”. She plans to explain the benefit of the deal, highlighting an end to the free movement of people “once and for all”. But there are plenty of choppy waters ahead. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, conceded that getting a vote through parliament looked “challenging” and, asked if the government could collapse, said: “It’s not possible to rule out anything.”
Amid reports the PM could seek a TV debate with Jeremy Corbyn, Labour’s leadership says its is determined to hold out against backing a second referendum on Brexit unless all other options have been exhausted. On what’s sure to be a bumper Brexit Monday, you can read about the multiple obstacles in May’s way to securing a deal here, and how a rise in EU nationals exiting public sector jobs is leaving gaps in hospital trusts, universities and other public bodies.
Black Sea tensions – Ukrainian MPs will vote today on whether to declare nationwide martial law in response to Russian forces seizing three of their navy vessels in the Black Sea. Russia accused the Ukrainian vessels of entering its territorial waters, but Kiev denied its ships had done anything wrong and asked for the international community to mobilise to punish Moscow. The seizure sparked protests by dozens of people outside the Russian embassy in Kiev. Some placed paper boats outside the residence while others threw smoke grenades and set fire to tyres piled up outside.
With relations still raw after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its backing for a pro-Moscow insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the clash risks pushing the two countries towards a wider conflict. On Sunday Kiev said six Ukrainian sailors had been injured and 23 taken hostage. The president, Petro Poroshenko, said martial law would not be a declaration of war, but for defensive purposes. The UN security council will also hold an emergency meeting today.
Trouble at the border – Mexico plans to deport migrants who were in a group of 500 people who it said tried to “violently” and illegally” cross the border into the US on Sunday. All border traffic was halted for several hours at the busy crossing between San Diego and Tijuana amid heated rhetoric, including from President Trump, who tweeted: “Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border.” Teargas was fired on to the migrants by US troops. You can see how the day unfolded in pictures here.
Winter is coming – More than half of doctors fear that their hospital will be unable to cope this winter, according to a poll which also found less than a third had been involved in any planning for the coming months. The Royal College of Physicians said that if staff were concerned that “the wheels could fall off at any moment”, it would lead to increased pressure and low morale. Asked how confident they felt about the ability of their service to deliver safe patient care this winter, just 2.4% replied “very confident” and 14.6% were “confident”. A larger proportion, 38.5%, were “worried” and 19.8% were “very worried”.
Medical implant investigation – Patients around the world are suffering pain and many have died as a result of faulty medical devices that have been allowed on to the market by a system dogged by poor regulation, lax rules on testing and a lack of transparency, an investigation has found. In a special series the Guardian has looked at a range of devices now known to have caused harm to patients to find out what went wrong and whether the problems could have been caught earlier. We have followed their histories to find out how and where they were approved by regulators, when the first warning signs were spotted and what responses these prompted. You can listen to Jan Faulkner’s story here: a mother of five, she tells how she suffered loss of bladder control and mobility after having a contraceptive device implanted.
‘The most detailed whale poo expedition ever’ – Most people go out of their way to avoid even the faintest whiff of excrement, but a team of scientists is preparing to voyage for seven weeks to the Antarctic so they can collect blue whale faeces and examine its impact on biodiversity and climate change. Dubbed the “most detailed whale poo expedition ever”, the project aims to test a theory that waste from the world’s biggest mammal plays a far more crucial role in maintaining the productivity of southern oceans than previously believed.
Today in Focus podcast: Why did the fishing industry vote for Brexit?
In June 2016 a poll suggested that 92% of the fishing industry voted to leave the EU. The Guardian feature writer Sam Wollaston spent four days onboard a trawler to find out why. Plus: columnist Nesrine Malik argues that Hillary Clinton is wrong to claim that curbing migration is the answer to rightwing populism.
Lunchtime read: Can an app guarantee a good night’s sleep?
Sleep health – the category covering everything from medication to mattresses – is a colossal industry. A report in 2017 found it was worth $30bn to $40bn (£23bn to 31bn) and growing 8% each year, spurred on by consumers’ exhaustion and fear of developing cancer, obesity and dementia, all of which have been linked to inadequate sleep. Among the more recent developments for insomniacs have been a flurry of mobile phone apps that claim to help lull us to sleep with specially designed combinations of nature sounds, white noise, hypnotherapy and music. But do any of them work?
The sleep researcher Dr Neil Stanley has reservations: “Anyone can write a sleep app without any knowledge of sleep,” he says. “The problem is there is no validity for any of these apps to show they work, so the public can’t judge whether they are any good.” He says the three essential ingredients for good sleep are a dark, quiet, comfortable place and a relaxed body and mind. And you should probably spend more on your mattress but, if you are planning on going down the app path, Laura Barton has tried a handful, with mixed results.
Sport
After three wins – the latest coming in Saturday’s convincing trampling of Australia – and a one-point defeat to New Zealand, English rugby is stirring and the future appears bright. Eddie Jones, meanwhile, has defended Owen Farrell’s controversial tackling technique after another lucky escape for his co-captain at Twickenham, insisting: “I like people being hit hard.”
With the Women’s World Twenty20 final done and dusted, the format is strongly in the running to be admitted as a new sport to the schedule at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.
The second leg of the Copa Libertadores final between River Plate and Boca Juniors, initially scheduled for Saturday, had been rescheduled for Sunday after an attack on the Boca team bus, but was cancelled again; there will now be a meeting in Asunción on Tuesday to decide where and when it will be played.
Eden Hazard has dropped his biggest hint yet he could leave Chelsea at the end of the season, while Barcelona have become the first sports team in history with average first-team pay in excess of £10m a year.
And England are pursuing a series whitewash against Sri Lanka, with four of the 10 wickets needed for victory in the third and final Test already taken before play started on day four.
Business
Britain shoppers are poised to carry on splashing cash into Cyber Monday, with some forecasts suggesting they planned to spend more than £7bn between Black Friday and today. The generous bargains on offer are expected to deal a further blow to the struggling high street as the Christmas shopping bonanza takes off. You can find the Guardian’s guide to the best UK deals and offers here.
The pound is buying €1.13 and $1.28.
The papers
Brexit dominates all of the papers this morning, with every paper covering Theresa May’s deal with Brussels. “PM seals the deal but will struggle to sell it to MPs” is the Guardian’s headline. “May embarks on hard sell” says the FT. The Telegraph says: “May seeks Corbyn TV debate on deal”, while the Times’ splash is: “May: vote for my deal or it’s back to square one”. The tabloids strike a more strident tone: “Get on with it!” demands the Express. “EUr havin’ a laugh” is the Sun’s headline, a reference to what it calls Emmanuel Macron’s “threat” that Europe has a “lever” over the UK. The Mail’s headline is “Theresa’s frantic fortnight”, but the paper says Jeremy Hunt has admitted the government could collapse if MPs reject the deal.
For more news: www.theguardian.com
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