Top story: How Brexit party could have been beaten

Good morning, it’s Warren Murray opening the road today.

The Labour party’s disastrous EU election result has finally convinced its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to back a second referendum on any Brexit deal. Paul Mason writes: “With a clear position of remain and reform and the call for a second referendum on any deal, Labour could have beaten Farage’s Brexit party … but as at all other times, Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers saw fit to ignore the evidence.” The Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, says Labour voters switched to his party in droves and it could have outpolled the Brexit party if remain forces had formed an election pact.

On the Conservative side, Martha Gill writes the party may have lost a chunk of voters to remain parties, but “they will hear only one message: they are under threat from Nigel Farage” and, accordingly, they will lean towards a Brexiteer for their next leader. On that front, Michael Gove has promised free UK citizenship for three million resident EU nationals if he becomes PM and gets Brexit through; while Jeremy Hunt has warned the Tories will be annihilated if the next leader goes for a hard Brexit and/or triggers a general election.

Both sides of the Brexit divide have claimed the EU election results as a victory, but let’s look at this: though Nigel Farage’s party won big, support for pro-remain parties eclipsed pro-leave parties, and the narrow pro-remain lead is confirmed when Conservative and Labour votes are factored in (adjusted for the proportions of leavers and remainers in their ranks). Remainers won, argues Polly Toynbee, and would win a second Brexit referendum.

How are things shaking out on the continent, you ask? The EU’s Greens are jubilant after surging to 70 seats in parliament, giving them roughly the same clout as the far-right populists led by Italy’s Matteo Salvini, and a much better chance of using said clout. Paris and Berlin are at odds over the replacement of Jean-Claude Juncker as European commission president after poor results for the centre-right damaged Manfred Weber, who was Angela Merkel’s choice. Emmanuel Macron’s centrists are licking their wounds in France after running a close second to the far-right National Rally party of Marine Le Pen. And in Austria, victory for his centre-right party in the EU elections has not proven enough to prevent the ousting of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who has just lost a no-confidence vote over a scandal that engulfed his coalition government. Plenty more reading at our European elections page.

Japan mass stabbing – A schoolgirl and a man have been killed and 15 others injured, most of them young children, in a knife rampage in the Japanese city of Kawasaki. The children, believed to be aged six or seven, were waiting for a bus to school around 7.45am when a man in his 40s or 50s set upon them with at least one knife, police said. The suspect then fatally stabbed himself in the neck. No motive was reported. In 2016 a man surrendered after killing 19 people and injuring 26 others in a knife attack at a care facility near Tokyo; while an attack on a primary school in 2001 left eight children dead.

Play Video 0:37 Two die, 15 injured in Japan mass stabbing – video

Death in thin air – The fatal debacle on overcrowded Mount Everest has continued. An American climber reached the top but then died at the South Col on his way down. Meanwhile an Australian climber has been hauled down from 7,500ft by sherpas and evacuated on a yak after being found unconscious. Most of the nearly dozen deaths on Everest this year have been attributed to exhaustion and tiredness, exacerbated by climbers thronging the route to and from the summit, causing delays in the only temporarily survivable high-altitude environment. If you missed it over the weekend, Peter Beaumont explains how this appalling situation has been brought about by “the commodification of the world’s highest mountain”.

Two more problems for Trudeau – A pair of groundbreaking female ministers ousted from Justin Trudeau’s Canadian government will run as independents against his scandal-plagued Liberal party in this year’s general election. Jane Philpott and Jody Wilson-Raybould had spoken out against Trudeau over his alleged interference in the prosecution of engineering company SNC Lavalin. “It’s for those young girls I want to say there is a future; don’t ever be afraid to speak the truth,” Philpott said of her decision to stay in politics. “What lesson would it be for those young girls if I walked away?”

Plastic shame – Unwanted plastic from the west has accumulated in the ports of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam while vast amounts from Europe and the US have built up across Malaysia. Now, south-east Asia is saying no more: Malaysia has started sending it back by the container load, while the Philippines has threatened to dump 1,500 tonnes of Canada’s waste plastic back in that country’s waters. Only 9% of the world’s plastics are recycled, with the rest mostly ending up in landfills across south-east Asia or illegally incinerated, releasing poisonous fumes blamed for contaminated water, crop death and respiratory illnesses. Beau Baconguis, from the anti-plastics GAIA group, said western countries were still only willing to take back their rubbish “begrudgingly” but “it’s their waste so these countries should be responsible for it”.

Fauna corner – The Wolong national nature reserve in China’s Sichaun province has captured what is believed to be the world’s first image of an albino panda. The photo was taken by an infrared camera. The giant panda, native to China, is the rarest member of the bear species, with fewer than 2,000 remaining in the wild.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A rare all-white giant panda roams past a camera in the Wolong nature reserve in Sichuan province, China. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Closer to home, the extermination of non-native rats from Lundy Island has allowed its feathered population to burgeon (bird-geon?) to 21,000 puffins, Manx shearwaters, guillemots, razorbills and other seabirds. Black and brown rats that came as ship stowaways to the island off the coast of Devon were finally wiped out between 2002 and 2004, letting ground-nesting birds flourish again.

Today in Focus podcast: Britain’s EU election earthquake

A wave of support for populists and Greens has disrupted centrist parties across the European Union. Daniel Boffey considers what it means for the EU and Brexit. Plus: Julia Kollewe on the world’s first raspberry-picking robot.

Lunchtime read: The deep crisis of conservatism

“Even when other parties have been in office, leaders such as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have continued with the conservative project of privatising the state and deregulating business,” writes Andy Beckett this morning. “For decades, armies of rightwing activists – with rich financial backers and many allies in the media – have successfully spread and entrenched conservative ideas. Many of conservatism’s opponents have come to expect that, somehow, it will always prevail.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Guardian Design

“Yet this aura has led to an overconfidence about conservatism’s underlying health. In Britain and the US a deep crisis of conservatism has been building since the end of the Reagan and Thatcher governments. It is a crisis of competence, of intellectual energy and coherence, of electoral effectiveness, and – perhaps most serious of all – of social relevance.”

Sport

A mixture of euphoria and optimism swept through Aston Villa as Dean Smith claimed they are back where they belong after winning promotion to the Premier League. Eden Hazard, who is preparing for what is likely to be his final appearance after seven years at Chelsea, has ruled out playing for another English club. Harry Kane has made it plain he will be fit for the Champions League final against Liverpool on Saturday, going so far as to say that, if the game were tomorrow, he would be available.

Serena Williams survived a briefly wretched opening to the French Open and, despite recovering well to trounce the world No 83, Vitalia Diatchenko, she is yet to convince her peers and rivals she can last a tournament. In the men’s draw, the weight of history is bearing down on Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic more heavily than usual this year, although there were no signs on day two of the championships that it would break them. And Mo Farah has conceded he will almost certainly never run a track race again and said his sights are now firmly on running the Olympic marathon in Tokyo.

Business

Asian stocks have mostly risen in muted trading during Donald Trump’s visit to Japan. The Nikkei added 0.4% in early trading while the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.6%. South Korea’s Kospi was little changed, the Hang Seng put on 0.3% while the Shanghai Composite rose nearly 0.6%. The pound is worth $1.267 and €1.133 at the moment while the FTSE should get a bump at the open.

The papers

Unsurprisingly, the fallout from the EU elections and what it means for the UK’s Brexit dramas is splashed across the front pages. The Guardian carries a big picture of Jeremy Corbyn with the headline: “Brexit deal must be put to public vote, says Corbyn”. The Times has a picture of Nigel Farage and some of his Brexit party entourage (including Ann Widdecombe) on its front page: “Tories embrace no-deal Brexit” is its headline.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Tuesday 28 May 2019.

The Express and the Mirror also carry pictures of Farage and Widdecombe. The Express has: “Battle to get Brexit sorted”, while the Mirror calls the Euro elections fallout a “Right mess”. The Sun has some fun, characteristically not in the best of taste, with: “Brexs*it hits fan”, over a picture of a triumphant-looking Farage.

The Telegraph splashes with “Pursuing a no-deal Brexit would be suicide for Conservatives, warns Hunt”. But it doesn’t let the reader forget who its frontrunner for PM is, with a big photo of Boris Johnson dominating the front page. The Mail takes its anger out on Labour: “Now Corbyn is cornered”, adding, “After Labour poll humiliation he’s forced to back public vote ‘on deal’ – but closest allied insist it’s STILL not enough”.

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