Top story: Scott Morrison fifth prime minister in five years

Hello, it’s Warren Murray bringing you another lively Briefing to end the week.

The hard right of Australia’s ruling Liberal party has failed to seize the prime ministership, with their candidate, Peter Dutton, beaten by Scott Morrison in a ballot to replace Malcolm Turnbull as leader. We are covering the situation live at time of writing.

It was the second time in four days that Dutton had forced a leadership ballot after undertaking a bitter campaign to destabilise Turnbull. At the end of a fraught week Morrison, the sitting treasurer, was able to go “up the middle” and defeat Dutton by 45 votes to 40 at a meeting of the party’s MPs in the national parliament. Addressing the media after the ballot, Turnbull took a swipe at his hard right enemies including Dutton and others in and out of parliament. “There was a determined insurgency from a number of people both in the party room and backed by voices, powerful voices, in the media … [to] certainly bring down my prime ministership.” The reference to the media appeared to mean Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation newspapers and TV channels have consistently campaigned against Turnbull.

Morrison is the fifth person to serve as Australia’s prime minister in just over five years. Four of those have been knifed by their own party between general elections. No Australian PM has served a full term since John Howard left office in 2007.



Salmond sues Scottish government – Alex Salmond has denied allegations of sexual misconduct during his tenure as first minister of Scotland. The former SNP leader has issued a public rebuttal over a report in the Daily Record that claims made by two staff members relating to incidents in 2013 had been referred to the police. Salmond, 63, says he is taking the Scottish government to court arguing that he was denied the chance to properly challenge the accusations. A spokesman for the Scottish government said it would “defend its position vigorously”. Scotland’s police service had no comment.

Another one flips – Donald Trump has a potential new target for his incendiary tweets. He is David Pecker, CEO of National Enquirer, the tabloid magazine involved in hush-money deals with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal. Pecker, a friend and confidant of Trump, has been granted immunity by prosecutors who have already gotten Michael Cohen’s guilty plea on federal campaign finance violations stemming from the payments. The Enquirer has maintained a cosy relationship with Trump, running smear stories about his rivals while apparently killing off negative stories about him. Pecker talking to prosecutors could pose a serious problem for the president.

Russia sows vaccination doubts – Bots and Russian trolls spread misinformation about vaccines online before and during the American presidential election, according to a new study. Scientists at George Washington University, in Washington DC, discovered Russian online campaigns to skew online debate and polarise views about vaccine safety. The findings come as Europe faces one of the largest measles outbreaks in decades, partly attributed to falling vaccination rates. In the first six months of 2018 there were 41,000 cases across the continent, more than in the entirety of 2017. The rate of non-vaccination is climbing in the US.

Door slammed on Banks – The Conservatives say they have rejected an application by the Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks to join the party. Banks was Ukip’s principal financial backer in the Farage era, providing millions in loans and donations in the run up to the 2016 referendum. His finances and his meetings with the Russian officials in the UK have come under scrutiny. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has warned that leaving the EU without a deal would blow an £80bn hole in the public finances – just hours after the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, optimistically launched 24 “technical notices” advising businesses and consumers how to cope with a hard Brexit. Here, we break down some main points of Theresa May’s no-deal Brexit survival guide.

Fears of another Grenfell – Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have widened their campaign to have combustible cladding fixed. Nicholas Burton, whose wife, Pily, died as a result of the fire and Edward Daffarn, who escaped from the 16th floor, are helping residents of council tower blocks in Salford that have similar cladding. Residents of the Pendleton estate in Greater Manchester understand the project to replace their cladding and install sprinklers could take up to two years to complete. People in Spruce Court have been told to keep their windows closed until further notice because of problems. There are thought to be 474 residential buildings more than 18 metres tall across England and Wales wrapped in combustible cladding, with only 17 known to have been completely fixed.

Tesla killer? – The Russian arms maker Kalashnikov Concern has unveiled an electric car it is calling the CV-1. “This technology will let us stand in the ranks of global electric car producers such as Tesla and be their competitor,” RIA-Novosti said, quoting Kalashnikov.

The look was inspired by a Soviet hatchback model developed in the 1970s called “Izh-Kombi”, according to Kalashnikov. The company said it had developed cutting-edge elements for the “electric supercar” including a “revolutionary” inverter and a range of 217 miles (350km) on one charge.

Lunchtime read: James Bond on film – ranked!



With the news of Danny Boyle’s departure as director of the next 007 instalment, Peter Bradshaw ranks the big-screen outings of Britain’s finest, from 1962’s Dr No to 2015’s Spectre.

Sport

Joe Root has secured the Twenty20 experience he has long been craving and will play for Sydney Thunder in Australia’s Big Bash League in between England’s winter tours to Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. Jonny Bairstow has been offered no guarantees he will resume as England’s Test wicketkeeper once his broken finger has healed after Trevor Bayliss said Jos Buttler, who will play alongside Root in Sydney, could now make a pitch for the job full-time.

Poet’s Society, a 20-1 shot ridden by Frankie Dettori, finally secured Mark Johnston’s place as the trainer with most wins in British racing history. Eddie Jones has been urged to hold talks with Danny Cipriani, and judge the fly-half on form rather than his off‑field “mistake” in Jersey, when considering his England future. Serena and Venus Williams could be headed toward their earliest grand slam meeting in 20 years, while Andy Murray could face Juan Martín Del Potro in the third round of the US Open. And Lewis Hamilton intends to close out his attempt to win a fifth Formula One world championship without relinquishing the lead he has over Sebastian Vettel.

Business

The attention of world markets will be on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this weekend as the world’s central bankers gather for the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium. Rising US interest rates and a higher dollar have tightened credit around the world this year so Fed chief Jerome Powell’s speech later today will be pored over for clues about what’s next for borrowing costs. Asian share markets were subdued ahead of the speech while the pound was flat at $1.282 and ever more anaemic against the euro at €1.108.

The papers

The Guardian’s splash is “Russians ‘spreading discord and lies’ about vaccine safety online”. Also on our front page is a large photograph of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe holding her daughter, while on a three-day furlough from Iranian prison. Pictures of this meeting feature on the front pages of all the newspapers we look at in the Briefing.

Philip Hammond’s Brexit warning features on a number of front pages. The Telegraph says: “Hammond under fire for no-deal warning”. The Express asks: “What does Hammond think he’s playing at?”, the i says “New Cabinet rift on UK’s plan for no-deal Brexit”, the Mail splashes with “Eeyore Hammond launches project fear (Pt2)” and the Times has “Brexit splits in cabinet laid bare by Hammond”. The FT’s lead story is “Banks to lend Riyadh $11bn as Aramco listing stalls” and the Mirror leads on the man who attacked Strictly star Katie Piper being freed from jail with “Katie’s agony”.

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