Top story: Make-and-break time for Trump

Good morning to you, Graham Russell here with a selection of what’s moving today.

Donald Trump has performed a remarkable series of foreign policy reversals, cooling his ties with Russia over the Syria chemical attack while praising Nato as a “bulwark of international peace and security” rather than the obsolete organisation he liked to lambast. And China now appears to be more a great friend than a currency manipulator.

Bashar al-Assad’s attack – and US retaliatory missile strike – appear to have put US relations with Russia at an “all-time low”, Trump has said, a frank assessment from a leader dogged by his links to the country and Vladimir Putin. The facts support his assertion: Russia vetoed a US-backed UN security council resolution arising from the Syria attack, and a meeting between Rex Tillerson and Putin failed to heal the rift between the rival powers.

Earlier, Trump warmly hosted Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the White House, and abandoned his previous criticism. “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete,” he said.

Ordinary world – The education secretary, Justine Greening, is to say that the new generation of grammar school must focus on “ordinary working-class families” with incomes of up to £33,000 in an upcoming speech. It marks the first attempt to define what Theresa May’s “just about managing families” really means. Labour said her department’s calculations were a sign of “policy-based evidence-making”.

Nuclear fears – North Korea appears to be preparing to conduct a fresh nuclear test, satellite imagery shows. The Punggye-ri test site looks “primed and ready”, said monitoring group 38 North. It would be the country’s sixth such test. About 200 reporters are in Pyongyang to mark the 105th birth anniversary on Saturday of founder Kim Il-sung, and some experts expect a show of military might to coincide with the date.

Mental health – Thousands of people who have received mental health treatment face a heightened suicide risk because of a lack of aftercare, FOI figures show. At least 11,000 people a year who have received inpatient care are not contacted within a week of arriving home, despite guidelines requiring the NHS to get in touch with them.

Postpartum death – The inquest continues into the death of the Antiques Roadshow expert Alice Gibson-Watt after she suffered suspected postpartum psychosis. The 34-year-old had to be restrained by five emergency personnel after she suffered delusions so severe she believed her five-week-old baby was communicating with her telepathically. The coroner will determine whether she was injured while being held down.

No ant left behind – Ants might come across as slightly unfeeling in popular understanding but consider this: one species has been found that carries its wounded back home. It’s not empathy, simply a pheromone.

Lunchtime read: Who are the new jihadis?

Jihadi terrorist violence has changed in the past two decades, with perpetrators pursuing violence – and their own death – as ends in themselves, writes Oliver Roy. What does it say about contemporary Islamic radicalism? And what does it say about our societies today? The lives of “homegrown” European terrorists show they are violent nihilists who adopt Islam, rather than religious fundamentalists who turn to violence.

Sport

Antoine Griezmann gave Atlético Madrid a narrow 1-0 advantage over Leicester City with a penalty that left Foxes manager Craig Shakespeare furious. Earlier, fans of the Premier League club had clashed with Spanish police, with claims rubber bullets and tear gas were fired at them. Meanwhile, the Borussia Dortmund manager, Thomas Tuchel, angrily criticised Uefa over the rescheduling of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Monaco, which the German club lost 3-2, and Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice to fire Real Madrid to a 2-1 win at Bayern Munich. The specialist police unit investigating child abuse in football has received more than 400 new referrals since publishing its last updated figures and is now investigating complaints involving more than 300 clubs. And Sonny Bill Williams has been cleared to continue covering up sponsors’ logos on his Auckland Blues shirt due to his religious beliefs.

Business

The average number of homes for sale by each estate agent has fallen to a record low, with agents in parts of the country gloomier than at any time since the financial crash, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has found.

Elsewhere, the dollar and Treasury yields tumbled after Donald Trump said he wanted the Fed to keep interest rates low because the dollar was getting too strong. Asian stocks swung between gains and losses, with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan recently up about 0.2%.

The pound is buying $1.25 and €1.17

The papers

A diverse set of front pages this morning. The Guardian focuses on London’s rise in crime amid police cuts, as did the Telegraph before switching to the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, who says Christian refugees from Syria are underrepresented in the numbers being taken in by the UK.

The Sun and Mirror cover the terrorist threat to Premier League clubs as Manchester United head to Brussels in the wake of the Dortmund attack. The Times has the latest on the Syria fallout during Rex Tillerson’s Russia visit, plus a special investigation that accuses Facebook of failing to take down terrorist-related material and child abuse images.

The Mail says Theresa May will move to cap energy bills after EDF revealed plans for a second price rise. The FT says UK space companies face being excluded from the €10bn Galileo project as a result of Brexit. The European Commission wants the right to cancel contracts if a supplier is no longer in a member state.

And the i covers the 6.1% rise in student loan interest rates, calling it a “student tax by stealth”.

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