Top story: ‘Nothing wrong with listening’ to foreign dirt on rivals

Good morning – Warren Murray with just the very thing at this stage of the day.

Donald Trump has said he would accept information from a foreign power about an election opponent – calling into question his vocal rejection of the idea his campaign could have been involved in collusion.

“I think you might want to listen,” said the US president, answering a question on ABC News. “There’s nothing wrong with listening. If somebody called, from a country – Norway – we have information on your opponent. Oh, I think I’d want to hear it.” Several of Trump’s Democratic opponents in the 2020 race, including the senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand, repeated their calls to begin impeachment hearings in the wake of the president’s latest remarks.

This morning we launch special coverage ahead of the 2020 US election. We have a straightforward primer explaining everything from the conventions, caucuses and primaries to who gets to vote, when, and how the electoral college works. David Smith writes that Donald Trump will be hoping lightning can strike twice when he kicks off his campaign with a rally in Florida. And with Democrats like Sanders, Warren, Beto O’Rourke and Kamala Harris lining up to deny Trump a second term in the White House, here is where they and others stand on key issues like the climate emergency, gun control and impeachment.

Protesters quiet but ready – Hong Kong’s legislature has been suspended and government offices will remain closed for the week after the extradition bill protests. On Thursday morning only a handful of people remained on the streets but protesters were restocking on supplies of water, helmets and other protective equipment. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, who is championing the proposed law, condemned protesters for “dangerous and life-threatening acts”, and likened them to errant children. “I have two sons … if I let him have his way every time my son acted like that, such as when he didn’t want to study, things might be OK between us in the short term. But if I indulge his wayward behaviour, he might regret it when he grows up. He will then ask me: ‘Mum, why didn’t you call me up on that back then?’” Governments of other countries have said they support Hong Kong people’s right to protest.

Crashing out one step closer – Members of parliament opposing a no-deal Brexit have been handed a setback after Labour’s attempt to tie the next PM’s hands failed in the Commons. If a hard Brexit is what the next prime minister wants, there is little left short of bringing down the government to stop it happening, Heather Stewart says. In the Conservative leadership race, Tory MPs will today take part in the first of several rounds of voting that will eventually produce two finalists to be put to party members. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, at 40 the youngest candidate, has said he can “turn the page” on Brexit and would seek to negotiate a time limit to the Irish border backstop. And Boris Johnson has apologised for the gaffes that have characterised his political career, but said the public felt alienated from politicians because “too often we are muffling and veiling our language … when what they want to hear is what we really think”.

Buyers could have helped themselves – More than half of people using the government’s help-to-buy loan scheme could have bought a home without it, the National Audit Office has found. The scheme has led to as few as 78,000 additional sales of new-build properties since 2013. About 211,000 loans worth £11.7bn were made to house buyers over the past five years, and the NAO says the scheme has achieved its goals of increasing home ownership and the construction of new homes. But about a fifth of people using the scheme already own property, and it is not means tested. More than 8,000 people who benefited from it had household incomes of more than £100,000. The scheme, introduced by George Osborne, has proven controversial as housebuilders’ profits have dramatically increased since its introduction, benefiting company bosses and shareholders.

UK lagging on maternity leave – Britain is among the least family-friendly of the world’s richest countries, according to a Unicef assessment of child care and parental leave. Estonia offers women 85 weeks’ maternity leave at full pay after having a baby. By contrast, the UK ranks 31st out of 41 countries in the OECD with six weeks at 90% of pay and 33 weeks at a lower rate. When only considering parental leave, people in the UK do well compared with parents in Japan, Australia and the US, the last of which offers zero parental leave as a norm. Research by the Trades Union Congress has found that only 1% of new parents in the UK are using shared parental leave, out of more than 900,000 who were eligible. Take-up remains poor because most fathers cannot afford to live off the £145 a week payment, the TUC said.

Leaf off – Train delays caused by “leaves on the line” could become a thing of the past via a simple-sounding solution: spraying water on the rails whenever slippery conditions are detected. The system is one of 24 trials backed with almost £8m of Department for Transport (DfT) funding aiming to make the rail industry more efficient, greener and cleaner. Other ideas include using cameras and artificial intelligence to map leaf-shedding trees that need cutting back; track inspections by drones; and special walls that can deflect as much train noise as barriers three times their height.

Today in Focus podcast: Private armies and secret deals

Luke Harding reports on how a close ally of Vladimir Putin is leading a push to turn Africa into a strategic hub for Russia.

Lunchtime read: ‘Bread is practically sacred’

“My parents’ social life in Bosnia (and therefore their children’s) regularly featured a bunch of their friends getting together for a lot of food and drinking and singing and laughing,” writes Aleksandar Hemon, in a more than bite-sized reminiscence of family life. “Nobody would ever call that endeavour ‘dinner’ – the activity revolved around food, but could never be reduced to it.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Bosnian Serb boy roasts lamb and pig in the village of Vojkovici, near Sarajevo. Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

“In my family, food is part of a complex system of knowledge that has its own hierarchy of value, wherein meat and bread are at the top. Meat is appreciated in all its variations: cuts, smoked meat, sausage, spit-roasted. After more than 20 years in displacement, my parents have assembled a life, nutritional and otherwise, that aimed to be a restorative replica of the previous one. They eat everything they would have been eating if they had stayed in Bosnia, even if it can be hard work to get all the stuff.”

Sport

Chris Froome is out of the Tour de France after sustaining “multiple serious injuries” in a freak high-speed accident. The Team Ineos rider and four-times champion, who is in intensive care, broke a leg, ribs and an elbow after colliding with a wall outside the town of Roanne in the Loire. Eugénie Le Sommer held her nerve to score a VAR-awarded penalty winner for France after Wendie Renard had potentially gifted Norway a vital point in the race to top Women’s World Cup Group A, while Sara Däbritz scored the only goal of the game as Germany beat Spain 1-0 and Nigeria took their chances against the run of play to beat South Korea. Michael Holding has hit back at “censorship” by the ICC following a request to tone down his views on umpiring while commentating on the Cricket World Cup. David Warner’s century and mad axeman’s charge lit up a fine game between Australia and Pakistan in Taunton but the World Cup has not been designed to thrill, writes Matthew Engel.

Norwich have capped ticket prices at £30 on their return to the top flight, reviving the issue of accessible pricing for fans in the Premier League. And the long-running legal case in which Megan McCann, a student from Northern Ireland, was suing the bookmaker Bet365 for £1m in unpaid winnings has been discontinued shortly before it was due to return to court.

Business

Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia group has avoided the ignominy of going into administration after landlords backed the fashion company’s plans for a restructuring. It means up to 1,000 jobs could be lost as 50 stores are closed to cut losses. Mass protests in Hong Kong have pushed the Hang Seng index lower by 1.5% after similar falls on Wednesday. Asian stocks were generally down as gloom about the US-China trade dispute continued to cast a shadow over markets. The FTSE100 is expected to fall slightly at the open. Sterling is struggling at $1.268 and €1.123.

The papers

The Express says a failed Labour-led attempt to pass a motion ruling out a no-deal Brexit is a “Victory for Brexit”. The Guardian has the same story on its front: “Labour defeat hands boost to hard Brexit candidates”. The Times reports on Boris Johnson, saying: “Johnson ‘won’t rule out suspending parliament’” to force through no-deal Brexit, whereas the FT says “Johnson eases no-deal rhetoric as leak warns Britain is unprepared”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Thursday 13 June 2019.

The Telegraph dedicates serious front page space to the launch of Boris Johnson’s campaign for the top job, with its headline a quote from Johnson: “‘Now is the time to remember our duty to the people’”. The Mirror also leads on Johnson’s leadership bid launch, but focuses on how Johnson “ducked questions” about his cocaine use, with the headline: “Who’s a snorty boy!”

The i focuses on another Tory leadership contender: “Incompetent Tories not up to the job, admits Javid”. The Mail does have Johnson’s launch on its front, weirdly fixating on the question of “how did his young girlfriend tame him” for the launch, but its lead story is: “Victory on post offices” after a Mail campaign to increase pay rates for postmasters. The Sun’s lead story is about comedian Jo Brand who made comments that protesters should throw acid, not milkshakes, at Nigel Farage: “Jo’s acid tongue”.

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