Top story: Bank governor raises spectre of another 2008

Greetings once again – Warren Murray with your Friday news cheat sheet.

A hard Brexit could be on the scale of the 2008 financial crisis, the Bank of England governor has warned. Mark Carney, addressing Theresa May’s cabinet, painted a bleak economic picture of unemployment going into double percentages, house prices plunging, and air and rail links with the EU stalling.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mark Carney warned Theresa May and her cabinet about the impact of a no-deal Brexit. Photograph: Mary Turner/Reuters

Carney also set out a second scenario, which one cabinet insider described as “very concerning”, of leaving on worse terms than May’s Chequers plan. The government has released its latest technical notices on preparing for a no-deal Brexit. International driving permits will be issued at post offices for £5.50; shipping companies will face more paperwork; and the EU might not warn Britain about incoming asteroids and space debris any more (but hopefully the Americans will).

Passports will stay burgundy for a while but won’t have “European Union” on them, and, annoyingly, time remaining on old passports won’t be added to new ones.

Why Salisbury? Why not – Downing Street has accused Russia of “lies and blatant fabrications” over a TV interview with the two suspects in the Salisbury nerve agent attack. The duo accused of poisoning five Britons – and killing one of them – identified themselves as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov when they appeared on state-run Russia Today. The claimed they had only come to visit “wonderful” Salisbury. To back up the story, they recited some facts about its cathedral that had the ring of Wikipedia to them.

Play Video 1:24 Men claiming to be Salisbury novichok attack suspects speak to Russian state TV – video

“An illegal chemical weapon has been used on the streets of this country,” said a Downing Street official. “We have seen four people left seriously ill in hospital and an innocent woman has died. Russia has responded with contempt.” Much of their story – from snow hampering their sightseeing plans, to how they veered off the tourist trail into Sergei Skripal’s neighbourhood – did not add up. Our diplomatic editor, Patrick Wintour, analyses why this interview came about, and suggests a nervous Vladimir Putin might have felt the need to present his Russian audience with a counter-narrative to the British authorities’ evidence.

‘An entire culture criminalised’ – “Xinjiang has become a digital police state, studded with checkpoints, security cameras and facial recognition technology.” And then there are China’s “vocational education centres”, which from satellite pictures look like prison camps, and might hold in the order of a million Uighur Muslims. “The camps are the most shocking aspect of an intense and all-encompassing crackdown,” says our editorial, calling for continued international pressure on China.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman living in Almaty, Kazakhstan, after her ordeal in a Chinese internment camp. Photograph: Pavel Miheev/The Guardian

Lily Kuo, our Beijing bureau chief, travelled to Kazakhstan to meet some of those previously detained by the Chinese authorities, and loved ones of those who have disappeared into the camps. Kairat Samarkand says that during almost four months of detention he was punished using an outfit of “iron clothes” that kept him spreadeagled. There are other stories of shackling, sleep deprivation, beatings and various types of mass indoctrination. “I have only seen a small part,” said Gui, 23, who was held for six days. “There were a lot of people who had been there much longer and I hope telling my story will help end their suffering sooner.”

White hat hacker mystery – A missing cybersecurity expert, his drifting kayak, possessions scattered in a Norwegian waterway – and, days later, his personal mobile phones blinking on and off again in Germany. What happened to Arjen Kamphuis is gripping the internet, or at least the corners of it connected to WikiLeaks, which has claimed him as an “associate” of Julian Assange.

Arjen Kamphuis. Photograph: Netherlands police

Kamphuis, who is Dutch, has been an adviser to governments, corporations, journalists and activists on information security. Police say they are “holding all possibilities open in respect to what might have happened”. His friends are hopeful of his safe return – and have been sparring with WikiLeaks about how it has attached its name to the news of his disappearance. “I hate how overblown Arjen’s Wikileaks connection is becoming,” said one, Ancilla van der Leest. “He advised many parties and journalistic organisations on infosecurity.”

Different kind of immigration scam – A Nigerian man is accused of running a multimillion-dollar email scam out of an Australian immigration detention centre. More than $3m was stolen by the ring which operated from the Villawood holding facility using mobile phones. Police have said it is “highly unlikely” any funds will ever be recovered – “We can’t establish at this stage who it’s gone to or what it’s being used [for].” Australia’s government has tried for years to remove phones from inside immigration detention centres, but courts have upheld people’s right to have them. They are often the only contact detainees have with family members or with lawyers.

Cheeky – A newspaper has made headlines around the world by launching into print as the Uranus Examiner. But the mayor of its hometown Uranus, Missouri, is furious about it being the butt of jokes. On the briefing desk we tried to come up with an acceptable alternative title but the Uranus Express, Bugle or Mirror all carried similar innuendo. Just one more pun to go: time will tell if the Examiner’s reporters are good at getting to the bottom of things.

Lunchtime read: A good night’s sleep at last?

The effects of insomnia can be ruinous. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency in the US says it increases the risk of heart attack, cancer, obesity, and depression. It is linked to all major psychiatric conditions, and to more than a million car crashes a year in the US alone.

At the London clinic of psychiatrist Hugh Selsick, insomnia is treated not as a symptom, but as a disorder in itself. It remains an unorthodox view but the clinic claims improvement in 80% of patients, while almost half claim to have been fully cured. Selsick’s regimen combines cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), designed to break down negative associations with the entire business of drifting off, and “sleep efficiency training” – a recalibration of how many hours the individual patient spends in bed. “Some people need six and a half, some people need nine and a half,” he says. It doesn’t make anyone abnormal.” One satisfied patient, Zehavah Handler, says the therapy has changed her life. “I am happier. My relationships have improved. I have more patience. I’m no longer walking in a permanent fog. I am available.”

Sport

It is simultaneously fitting and sad that Great Britain’s last match in the 118-year-old history of the “old” Davis Cup before the competition morphs into a global experiment should be in Glasgow this weekend, scene of the team’s finest recent moments. Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight fight with Alexander Povetkin next week will not be a sellout, with the promoter Eddie Hearn admitting he has found it more difficult to sell tickets than for the WBA, IBF and WBO champion’s previous title defences at Wembley.

Surrey have clinched their first County Championship title since 2002 with a tense win at Worcester – their ninth straight victory. The West Ham co-chairman David Gold has launched a stinging attack on football agents, declaring they are “sucking tons of money” out of the game. Mauricio Pochettino believes Hugo Lloris ought to count himself fortunate he did not cause a serious accident in his moment of drink-drive madness as the Tottenham goalkeeper looks to refocus on football. With more interest than ever in women’s football, Uefa must seize the initiative to ensure it continues to grow, writes Eni Aluko. And the Rugby Football League has been accused of “working underhandedly” with Super League to try to manipulate the outcome of arguably the biggest vote the sport will hold in decades.

Business

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, may be a regional strongman but he can’t buck the markets. Having for weeks resisted raising interest rates to protect the battered lira, Erdoğan was powerless yesterday to stop the central bank lifting borrowing costs to a steep-looking 24%. It bought the currency some relief in Asian trading overnight as investors figured that it might prevent the country’s economy imploding. The FTSE 100 is set to rise 0.27% at the open this morning, while the pound will fetch you around $1.32 and €1.122 at the moment.

The papers

The Guardian, the Telegraph and the Times all show the Salisbury suspects in front-page pictures that capture them wearing various expressions of innocence and incredulity. All three fronts also feature Mark Carney’s crash-out warnings – ours and the Times’ headlines are neutral, but in the Telegraph he is chastised for spreading “Brexit property gloom”. The FT fills out four decks across two columns with: “Carney warns cabinet of no-deal Brexit property crash”.

The Mirror goes “Inside Kim’s Korea” with a “World Exclusive” chronicling its eight-day visit. The Express knows what it likes, so it is angry about “Your cash wasted on ‘junk’ art” – saying the government has spent £306,000 in one year hoarding “worthless tat”. “That’s rich, archbishop”, says the Mail, as it criticises Justin Welby for criticising Amazon when the church holds millions of pounds in the company’s shares.

Sign up

The Guardian morning briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, make sure to subscribe.

For more news: www.theguardian.com