Top story: ‘Loss is unimaginable’ – but Capital Gazette journalists get their paper out
Hello – I’m Warren Murray and sadly we are ending the week with the aftermath of more deadly gun violence in the US.
Five people have been killed and several more injured in a shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper office in Annapolis, Maryland. Staff at the US local daily paper said the assailant shot his way in through a glass door and then opened fire on people inside. Some of those trapped tweeted for help during the attack. When officers entered the building they found the suspect under a desk with his weapon lying nearby. No gunfire was exchanged. Smoke grenades were also used in the attack, according to police and county chiefs.
The suspect in custody was named in reports as Jarrod W Ramos, 38, from Laurel, Maryland, who had previously sued the paper for defamation and lost. The victims were named as Rob Hiaasen, assistant news editor; Gerald Fischman, editorial page editor; Wendi Winters, special publications editor; Rebecca Smith, sales assistant; and John McNamara, staff writer. “The loss is unimaginable,” said Joshua McKerrow, a photojournalist at the Gazette.
Journalists at the Capital Gazette promised to publish an edition on Friday. “We are putting out a damn paper tomorrow,” tweeted reporter Chase Cook. Gavin Buckley, mayor of Annapolis, expressed shock: “What’s wrong with our society that we’re this tightly wound that you can be this upset at a newspaper that reports stories on cats being stuck up a tree … [a paper that] reports on our kids’ soccer games and good, local, interesting stuff that we want to hear about?”
Donald Trump’s muted condolences drew criticism. The Baltimore Sun, sister newspaper of the Capital Gazette, ran an editorial pointing to an atmosphere of hostility toward journalism in the US: “That’s why so many reporters across the nation got a sickening feeling Thursday afternoon – they couldn’t believe something like this had happened, except that they could.”
Brussels immigration ‘breakthrough’ – European leaders this morning are claiming to have reached a deal on migration after all-night talks. We are working through the details in our live blog on the Brussels summit. The plan agreed upon aims to bolster the bloc’s external borders and improve solidarity between member states, to reduce pressure on countries like Greece, Spain and Italy, which are points of arrival into Europe. Italy’s new prime minister Giuseppe Conte said: “We are satisfied. It was a long negotiation but from today Italy is no longer alone.”
On the Brexit talks, leaders of the EU minus Britain are calling for an intensified effort and warning of the prospect of the UK leaving the bloc on 29 March 2019 without a deal. Leaders arriving in Brussels criticised division and indecision in May’s government. Theresa May responded by calling on the EU27 leaders not to put their citizens’ safety at risk by excluding Britain from policing and information-sharing networks that are used to track criminals and terrorists.
London house prices lagging – House price growth in London has slowed to a nine-year low, according to Hometrack. London is one of five cities – along with Cambridge, Oxford, Belfast and Aberdeen – in the survey where house prices are falling in real terms when adjusted against consumer price inflation. In other areas of the country, prices are still growing strongly: by 7.1% in Edinburgh and 7% in Manchester, year on year. Richard Donnell from Hometrack said: “We expect house prices to keep rising across regional cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh over the next two to three years. During this time house price growth in London will remain flat.” Manchester and Birmingham are expected to be the first cities to move closer to London prices, with demand for housing likely to be boosted by strong job growth.
Pervert loophole to be closed – Cross-party MPs will seek to strengthen the “upskirting” bill that is before the Commons so that it makes the voyeuristic activity a sex crime without exception. They fear the current form of words could let perpetrators get away with it by arguing, for example, that they only did it for fun. MPs also want to amend the bill to make distributing upskirt images a crime. Conservative MP Maria Miller is to call for other forms of online “revenge porn” to be made a sex crime as well. The bill’s second reading is expected to be on 3 July.
End of the ATM? First the phone booth, now the cash machine. ATMs are closing at the rate of 300 a month, according to Which?, as contactless payment for small purchases leads to fewer people carrying cash. Rural areas are worst hit as the Link network and other operators pull their machines out of shops, partly because banks are paying them less for withdrawals. According to the banks, debit card payments have overtaken cash as the most popular form of payment in the UK. But David Clarke from the campaign group Positive Money says 77% of people still regard free access to cash as essential: “This is all about the banks wanting to cut the fees they have to pay rather than anything else.”
Find a GP for life – If you like your doctor, stick with her or him and you will have less chance of an untimely death, research suggests. So-called “continuity of care” was already known to produce better medical outcomes and now a “study of studies” has pointed to corresponding benefits in reducing mortality rates. “This phenomenon applies to specialists as well as generalist doctors,” said Sir Denis Pereira Gray, first author of the research from St Leonard’s Practice, Exeter. “We think this is a human effect that goes across medicine.” But doctors say it is increasingly a challenge to maintain continuity of care with stretched resources. “Ultimately the answer is more GPs and more resources for the profession,” said Professor Kamila Hawthorne, vice chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners.
World Cup
It’s still coming home, right? On an underpowered, slightly strange night in Kaliningrad, England fell to a 1-0 defeat to Belgium to finish second in Group G and book a last-16 date with Colombia. Gareth Southgate had to defend his weakened selection, and a reluctance to bring Harry Kane off the bench as his side chased an equaliser, by suggesting England’s next fixture is the nation’s “biggest game for a decade”. Defeat has certainly thrust England into a favourable half of the draw but only if they quell the considerable threat of the South Americans in Moscow on Tuesday.
Japan snuck into the knockout stage in rather undignified fashion, courtesy of a goal scored 400 miles away in Samara by Colombia’s Yerry Mina and by virtue of the fact they accrued two yellow cards fewer than Senegal. The Japan coach, Akira Nishino, unhappily admitted his tactics were “very regrettable”. Reaction to Germany’s exit continues, with Toni Kroos making no attempt to downplay its significance, nor any attempt to deflect the blame.
Today marks the first day in two weeks with no live football. But our daily liveblog cares not – we are up and running with reaction to last night’s games and a look ahead to the last-16 lineup.
Lunchtime read: ‘They talk about Sicario as if it’s a documentary’
“They separated the families as if they’re criminals. Wait; keep them together and investigate. Some of those people deserved to have a second chance to start their lives in a new setting like the United States.” As Benicio Del Toro promotes the narco thriller Sicario: Day of the Soldado, he has been drawn into the debate about immigrant children being taken from their parents at the border of the US and Mexico.
“That’s separate from Sicario,” he cautions, and makes clear he is less than impressed with how some journalists have interpreted the sequel. “Someone just said to me: ‘Your movie has to do with the exact same thing that’s going on right now. You take a child and you separate her from her father.’ … I say: ‘No, no, I kidnap the girl. It’s very different.’” Lanre Bakare interviews the actor who, across four decades, has made the drug-war genre his own.
Sport
On the back of a fine fielding display England’s women cantered to a comprehensive seven-wicket victory over New Zealand in a dress rehearsal for Sunday’s T20 tri-series final. Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes are in a stronger position than ever to enhance his Formula One world championship advantage at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Kyle Edmund’s Wimbledon preparations suffered a setback as the British No 1 went down to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in the quarter-finals of the Nature Valley International. Ben Stokes will return from injury next week to make a rare appearance for Durham and thus create a selection logjam in England’s batting lineup for white-ball cricket. And former Australia captain Steve Smith notched a half century in a Canadian T20 game on his return to cricket while he serves a 12-month international and first-class ban for ball tampering.
Business
Asian share markets have rallied from nine-month lows after China eased foreign invesment limits on sectors including banking, automobiles, heavy industry and agriculture. But underlying sentiment has been dampened by worries over trade frictions a week before initial US and Chinese tariffs are set to take effect.
The pound traded at $1.31 and €1.126 overnight.
The papers
“Revealed: true scale of UK role in torture and rendition after 9/11”. That is the splash in the Guardian while the Mail phrases it as “Cash for torture”, saying British spy chiefs paid the US to fly suspects to “black ops” prisons. A similar headline on two fronts for the EU summit story: “EU putting lives at risk over Brexit, warns May” says the Times. The Express explains it better: “EU ‘risking lives’ in row over security”. The i puts the heat back on the PM: “Divided cabinet dismays Europe”.
Several papers take the prospect of playing Colombia, instead of more favoured sides, as the consolation prize from England’s loss to Belgium in their World Cup match. “Well played, lads!” encourages the Sun’s front page. “Look on the bright side – at least England will avoid Brazil” says the Telegraph in its pic slot, while splashing on calls for a boost to NHS mental health care for children. “Second’s best”, says the Mirror, about the football – its main story concerns a book that makes “distasteful and tawdry” claims regarding the Queen’s marriage. The FT splashes on BAE winning a £20bn contract to build warships for the Australian navy.
Finally we want to honour the journalists of the Capital Gazette – here is their Friday front page remembering their fallen colleagues, produced despite the terrible events in Annapolis.
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