Wednesday briefing: Clap along with Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/01/wednesday-briefing-clap-along-with-trump

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Top story: ‘New chapter in American greatness’

Hello, it’s Warren Murray helping you hit the ground running.

Donald Trump gave his first address to Congress overnight and was greeted with a round of applause for every complete sentence.

There were few surprises as the president sounded the alarm on Isis and terrorism, promised to secure the borders, beat the drum for American industry and vowed to do better than Obamacare.

Ben Jacobs reports from Washington DC that the biggest shock was the way Trump largely stuck to the script and spared his joint-session audience the apocalyptic tones of his inauguration address. Richard Wolffe has summed it up as a heroic effort in contradiction and cliche. But like all things that tumble out of this president’s mouth, the claims he made are worth a fact check.

His speech honoured William “Ryan” Owens, the navy Seal killed in a raid the president ordered in Yemen on dubious grounds. Reacting to a lengthy ovation, and with tearful widow Carryn Owens looking on, the president joked that the serviceman must be “looking down right now very happy, because I think he just broke a record” (for applause).

Trump condemned hate crime and intolerance. Having faced criticism for not saying enough about threats against Jewish targets, he singled out antisemitic crimes for special denunciation.

Phone fines – Using your mobile phone while driving just got a great deal more costly. From today, getting caught means six penalty points (loss of licence for a recently qualified driver) as well as a £200 fine. Second-time offenders will face court, disqualification from driving and a £1,000 fine.

Obamas’ book deal – The former Potus and Flotus have signed up with Penguin Random House to write about their White House years in a publishing deal thought to be worth tens of millions.

The ex-president is no stranger to the book trade, having tasted success with Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope. Michelle Obama put out American Grown, a book about food and gardening, in 2012. The couple plan to donate a “significant” portion of proceeds to charities including the Obama Foundation.

Brexit ping-pong – Theresa May’s insistence on calling all the shots over Article 50 has been brought up with a round turn in the House of Lords where peers are demanding protections from the start for EU citizens living in Britain. The government has insisted it needs to keep that one up its sleeve to barter for a reciprocal deal for British citizens on the continent. But the Tories look like being defeated in the upper house over the Labour amendment. A period of ping-pong between the Lords and Commons is predicted.

Offer day – Many students and their parents in England find out today whether they have secured a place at their preferred secondary school – and it all seems more fraught than ever. About 90,000 will miss out on their first choice, says the Good School Guide. Affluent parents buying up houses around the best-performing comprehensives take part of the blame for poorer students not getting in. The Local Government Association also says the proliferation of academies, which are outside council control, has made it harder to provide more places.

‘Knight night’ – The extraordinary sniping between Ukip’s only Commons MP and its former-leader-slash-figurehead has continued as the anti-EU party appears to struggle for something to do. Douglas Carswell is accused by some of ruining Nigel Farage’s chances of getting a knighthood. Farage says Carswell never really left the Tories in 2014 when he defected. Now there’s talk of him flipping back to the Conservatives.

Lunchtime read: Life and death along the wall

For many Mexicans trying to cross into the US undocumented, a border wall of one kind or another – steel fence, electronic surveillance – is already a reality.

In Nogales, border patrol agents wait on the American side to capture those who make it, and march them through the justice system under a policy known as “enforcement with consequences”. But on this frontier between hope and despair, sometimes it turns out much worse – sometimes people die, writes William Atkins.

Sport

Jess Varnish has questioned British Cycling’s promises of reform after she was gagged from speaking about the details of its internal report into her allegations of sexism and bullying. David Haye hopes his latest retirement schedule rethink can be his last and he can call it a day at the age of 38. Rory McIlroy has said he talked about golf, not politics, during a round with Donald Trump and that he was surprised by criticism he received. Leicester City are talking to former England manager Roy Hodgson about taking over the reins at the King Power Stadium, and Jürgen Klopp has confirmed that Daniel Sturridge’s future at Liverpool will be reviewed at the end of the season.

Business

Reaction to the Trump speech will be a key factor for the markets. So far it has been pretty muted. The Nikkei in Japan did rise strongly thanks to the rising US dollar, but other bourses were more subdued, with Sydney sinking into the red, while South Korean and Hong Kong shares were up 0.2%.

The pound was buying US$1.24 and €1.17 this morning.

The papers

Put to bed before Trump got going, most of Wednesday’s newspapers have another larger-than-life character in their sights: Philip Green, who has agreed to pay £363m into the BHS pension fund (the deficit was assessed at £571m). The Times, Guardian and Mirror all lead on it – with the latter in particular wondering whether Green’s about-turn was an effort to keep his threatened knighthood.

He’s won over the Daily Mail, anyway, which pronounces him “PARDONED!”, adding a comradely “Well done, Sir Phil”.

The Telegraph focuses instead on internet safety lessons for four-year-olds, while the Sun and Metro lead on the trial of a private surgeon accused in court of unnecessary breast surgery on nine women and one man.

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