Top story: ‘We now have immense influence,’ boasts leader

Good morning briefers. I’m Martin Farrer and this is your all-you-can-eat news breakfast. Enjoy.

The far-right Sweden Democrats made ground in Sunday’s election, which left the main two centrist parties deadlocked and the country facing weeks or even months of uncertainty amid negotiations to settle a ruling coalition. The populist, anti-immigrant party won 17.6% of the vote, a significant increase on the 12.9% it took in 2014. The governing Social Democrats, led by prime minister Stefan Löfven, saw their share fall to 28.4%, the lowest for a century, while the centre-right Moderate party also slipped to 19.8%.

The gains made by the Sweden Democrats, though not as big as expected, follow a strong showing for far-right parties across Europe, with Germany’s AfD now the country’s third biggest party and the League in power in Italy. The SD leader, Jimmie Åkesson, boasted on Sunday that he would now have “immense influence over what happens in Sweden in the coming weeks, months, years”.

Jon Henley, our reporter in Stockholm, writes that the famously open and tolerant nation was “facing a right-wing populist insurgency … that – despite a performance it will view as disappointing – has now become a very real political force”.

Free advice for drinkers – It might not be what you want to hear on a Monday morning, but Britain’s ranks of middle-aged drinkers are being urged to have more alcohol-free days. A new campaign launched today called Drink Free Days aims to remind people that they increase the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer if they drink too much. Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of Public Health England, said he didn’t want to be “narking at people” but designating some days as booze-free was “an easy way to drink less and reduce the risks to your health”.

‘Let’s be happy and dynamic’ – Boris Johnson has fuelled more speculation about his Tory leadership ambitions by using his regular newspaper column today to promote economic reforms centred around cuts to income tax, stamp duty and capital gains. In what reads suspiciously like an election manifesto, Johnson writes in the Telegraph that Britain should borrow from Donald Trump’s playbook and slash taxes to create a “happy and dynamic economy”. And the former Brexit minister Steve Baker has warned that Theresa May risks a “catastrophic split” in the Tory party if she pushes ahead with her Chequers plan. It follows a weekend when the party lurched towards civil war after the former foreign secretary described May’s plan for Brexit as a “suicide vest”.

Paris attack – Two British tourists have been wounded in Paris after they were attacked by a man armed with a knife and an iron bar on Sunday night. The suspect has been arrested and was believed to be an Afghan national. However, nothing indicated any link to terrorism, sources told AFP news agency, adding that the attacker had targeted “strangers in the street”. Of the seven wounded, four were in a critical condition. Le Parisien newspaper said one of the Britons suffered a chest injury while the other was stabbed in the head.

Case closed – The Metropolitan police last year dropped its investigations into 34,164 crimes on the day they were reported, compared with 13,019 the year before, according to figures obtained by the Guardian. In the first five months of this year, 18,093 crimes were closed in 24 hours, putting the number for the year on track to exceed last year’s total. The freedom of information data shows the number of sexual and drug offences being dropped are on the rise.

Peppers wrapped individually in plastic. Photograph: DutchScenery/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Pack it in – Consumers are beginning to see reducing waste and packaging as more important factors in their purchases than price. A survey of 2,000 people found that 62% were concerned with the need to reduce plastic packaging and use materials which were recyclable, while 57% said price would be a main driver for their purchases in the next 10 years. Nearly one-fifth of 18- to 24-year-olds questioned in the survey by ThoughtWorks said people would not be eating meat in the future.

Lunchtime read: Extra time for a modern masterpiece

An audience watching The Clock. Photograph: Tate

The Clock is ticking again in Britain. The much-celebrated conceptual masterpiece by Christian Marclay is returning to London – where it was first screened – with a run at the Tate Modern until January. Peter Bradshaw explains how the American film-maker took clips of clocks from thousands of films to piece together one sequential 24-hour-long work of art. Featuring famous moments from High Noon, Pulp Fiction, The Stranger and innumerable scenes of Big Ben, Marclay relied on painstaking work by a team of researchers to hunt down the clips he needed. The results is a “mesmerising, dreamlike kaleidoscope that is also hilarious”.

Sport

Alastair Cook will resume at the crease today on 46 not out in the final innings of his Test career after England consolidated a modest first innings lead on day three of the fifth Test against India. The loss of Cook’s experience for this winter’s tour to Sri Lanka has strengthened the case for Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad being retained amid talk that one or both could be rested with a view to being fresher for next summer’s Ashes.

Novak Djokovic had to come through two stirring Juan Martín Del Potro fightbacks to win his third US Open and 14th grand slam title, while Japan was ignoring the Serena Williams furore to celebrate Naomi Osaka becoming the first player from the country to win a major.

Gareth Southgate has admitted his England side are still some way behind the world’s top teams, but says having a challenging Nations Cup group is important for his squad’s development.

George Ford believes he has sharpened his attacking instincts after he was ousted by Danny Cipriani as England’s fly-half, but denied that losing his place was “a wake-up call”.

And Amir Khan has said he wants “a super-fight with a massive name and I’d love it in a stadium” after Saturday’s victory over Samuel Vargas in Birmingham.

Business

Nearly 19,000 people in the UK earn more than £1m a year, according to new figures, which is a rise of 3,700 on the previous year. One-third of the high earners live in London, most of them in Kensington and Westminster, data from HMRC shows. The high-rollers will no doubt like to know that the FTSE100 index is due to open up 0.3% this morning, shrugging off concerns felt in Asian markets about the ongoing US-China trade spat.

The pound is buying €1.292 and $1.118.

The papers

Guardian front page, Monday 10 September 2018 Photograph: The Guardian

The Guardian’s top story is “Met dropping more inquiries into serious crimes on first day”. Boris Johnson’s attack on Theresa May also makes the front, along with the Swedish elections.

Johnson is a popular choice on other fronts. The i says: “Top Tories line up to condemn Johnson” and the Mail’s headline is “Boris triggers Tory mayhem”.

The Times is more sympathetic to the former foreign secretary – “Johnson’s allies accuse Downing St of smears” – as is the Telegraph, which for the second week in a row uses Johnson’s column as the basis for their splash: “Boris: May must cut taxes to help Britain thrive post-Brexit”.

The Sun’s lead story focuses on Johnson’s divorce – “Wife knifes bonking Boris”. The Express has a picture of Johnson on the front, but its main story is “Dementia cure ‘within a decade’”. Likewise, the Mirror has a picture of Johnson, but its lead story is focused on Jamie Oliver fighting off a burglar: “Chef’s intruder terror: Hero Jamie fights raider”.

The Tory pretender doesn’t make it in any of the headlines on the FT’s front, but he is in their lead story – “Relief for May as Barnier set for go-ahead to pin down Brexit deal”.

For more news: www.theguardian.com

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