Top story: ‘Compelling evidence’ Williamson was responsible

Good morning, Warren Murray with you as we plough on into Thursday.

Penny Mordaunt has become Britain’s first ever female defence secretary after the dramatic sacking of Gavin Williamson over the leak of National Security Council discussions about Huawei. In a letter, Theresa May told Williamson he had failed to fully co-operate with the leak investigation, which found “compelling evidence suggesting your responsibility for the unauthorised disclosure. No other, credible version of events to explain this leak has been identified.”

Williamson replied that he believed a “thorough and formal inquiry” would have vindicated him. The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, and the shadow defence secretary, Nia Griffith, suggested Williamson could face prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. May’s spokesman said that from her own point of view “she considers the matter to be closed”.

Martin Kettle dispatches Williamson as a “genuine minnow who got himself fired because of his ambition”. Our editorial concurs and says while leaking to the press is justified when in the public interest, it is not when seeking to become prime minister. Williamson was determined by a cabinet inquiry to have leaked the story of how May cleared Huawei for “non-core” involvement in Britain’s 5G telecommunications network, despite spying concerns about the company.

‘UK must set climate example’ – Britain must immediately bring in a legally binding target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, the government’s official climate advisers have said. That would mean no more petrol or diesel cars, an end to gas boilers, eating less meat, quadrupling clean electricity output and planting about 1.5bn trees. “We are not asking people to lead a miserable life,” said Lord Deben, chair of the Committee on Climate Change. “We are looking to have as fulfilled a life as today, but to do it in a way that takes responsibility for the future by respecting the planet which gives us life.” As a wealthy nation with a long history of carbon emissions, the UK had a responsibility to lead the fight, he said. Here is how the CCC says Britain can make the “necessary, affordable and desirable” switch to a zero-carbon economy. As Jeremy Corbyn pushes for a “climate emergency” to be declared, we examine how Britain’s performance stacks up so far.

‘We couldn’t have done this without you’ – The Guardian has achieved an important milestone: we have broken even and produced a small operating profit, writes our editor-in-chief, Katharine Viner. “Three years ago we faced a very different situation, when a broken business model for news was threatening to destroy media organisations around the world: print advertising was collapsing, newspaper sales were declining, and the promise of digital advertising growth was going almost entirely to Google and Facebook. These threats still exist, and while we’ve found a way to counter them, the situation remains fragile.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Guardian’s future is now more secure but the situation remains fragile, writes Katharine Viner. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

“Our unique ownership model means we are not controlled by a billionaire owner, or a group of shareholders demanding financial returns – any profits made, and all financial contributions from readers, are reinvested directly into our journalism … We would never have been able to achieve this without you. Just as we did three years ago, we have now set a new ambitious goal: to achieve the support of two million people around the world by 2022. This level of support will mean we can continue to investigate and illuminate the most significant global stories of our times.” You can support our journalism by making a contribution, subscribing or by becoming a Patron.

Thai the knot – Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has surprised the nation by marrying the deputy head of his personal security detail a few days before his coronation. Suthida Tidjai is now the Queen Suthida to his King Rama X.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thailand’s King Rama X and Queen Suthida after their wedding ceremony. Photograph: Thai Tv Pool/AFP/Getty Images

Vajiralongkorn has previously been married and divorced three times, and has seven children. He is due to be officially crowned on Saturday. His father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016 after 70 years on the throne.

Bodies in freezer – Zarhid Younis, 24, has been charged with preventing the lawful burial of two women whose remains were found in a freezer at a flat in Canning Town, London. Police arrested a 50-year-old man on Monday on suspicion of murder; they have since released him while investigations continue. Police are still working to formally identify the women and notify next of kin.

Recall race in Peterborough – Fiona Onasanya, the MP found guilty of lying to avoid a speeding ticket, has become the first parliamentarian to be removed from office by a recall petition, which triggers a byelection in her Peterborough seat. Labour has put forward Lisa Forbes to run in place of its disgraced former MP, while Nigel Farage’s Brexit party will field its first parliamentary candidate.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Fiona Onasanya. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Onasanya, 35, will stop receiving her parliamentary salary, expenses and pension payments, while she becomes a preserved member of the pension scheme but can no longer contribute to it. Chris Davies, the Conservative MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, will face a recall petition on 9 May after pleading guilty to submitting a false expenses claim.

Jawbone connected to the genome – The “spectacular” find on a Tibetan plateau of a mandible from the ancient Denisovan human species has shown they could live at extreme high altitude, and might have passed down the trait to today’s Sherpas. The discovery of the 160,000-year-old jawbone indicates that Denisovans adapted to high-altitude, low-oxygen environments much earlier than when modern humans arrived in the region about 40,000 years ago. We turn our attention now to another of our genetic neighbours, the chimpanzee: in this case, one called Sugriva, who enjoys sitting around scrolling his safari park’s Instagram feed for pictures and videos of himself (“There’s an ape for that.” Eh? Eh?). Researchers say Sugriva’s adeptness at swiping is no surprise – chimps use tools and can get quite good at computer games – but one expert was worried that “the chimp seems to be in a home, which is dangerous for people and also chimps”.

Today in Focus podcast: The saga of Assange and WikiLeaks

Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching bail conditions after spending almost seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Today he has an extradition hearing, which could conclude with him being sent to the US. Esther Addley and Julian Borger chart his rise and fall. Plus: Sean Ingle on the Caster Semenya ruling.

Lunchtime read: Fact – we are hooked on conspiracy theories

“In January 2015, I spent the longest, queasiest week of my life on a cruise ship filled with conspiracy theorists. Some of them asserted mass shootings such as Sandy Hook are staged by the US government as part of a gun-grab. The moon landing was obviously fake. The government was covering up not just the link between vaccines and autism but also the cures for cancer and Aids … I chronicled my experience onboard the Conspira-Sea Cruise as a reporter for the feminist website Jezebel, and then I tried to forget about it. Conspiracy theorists, after all, were a sideshow.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Illustration: Guardian Design

“Soon after, the US narrowly elected a conspiracy enthusiast as its president, a man who wrongly believes that vaccines cause autism, that global warming is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese, and who claimed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. In a very short time, some of the most wild-eyed conspiracy-mongers in the country were influencing federal policy and taking meetings at the White House.” From the Kennedy assassination, to dubious health supplements, and more, Anna Merlan explores the mad and the bad among conspiracy theories and their proponents.

Sport

Jürgen Klopp described Lionel Messi as unstoppable after the brilliant Barcelona captain orchestrated Liverpool’s heaviest defeat of the season in the Champions League semi-final first leg. The court of arbitration for sport has come down on one side of the debate over Caster Semenya, but its ruling contained enough holes and caveats to mean the dispute will continue. Ruby Walsh, arguably the finest National Hunt jockey the sport has seen, announced his immediate retirement on Wednesday evening. Alex Hales will return to cricket with Nottinghamshire on Friday for the first steps of what his club have called “a long road back” to redemption. The Football Association is quietly confident that the record attendance for a Women’s FA Cup final will be broken when West Ham meet Manchester City on Saturday. And Judd Trump took a swipe at Stephen Maguire after demolishing the Scot 13-6 to book his place in the world championship semi-finals at the Crucible.

Business

The US Federal Reserve’s decision to resist Donald Trump’s calls for a cut in interest rates has disappointed investors in Asia who had hoped the central bank might loosen monetary policy at its meeting on Wednesday. It also looks set to send the FTSE100 down when it opens later this morning. The pound is steady at $1.305 and €1.164.

The papers

There is one story in town today: Theresa May’s sacking of defence secretary Gavin Williamson. Well, there is also a smattering of pictures of Princess Charlotte too, who turns four today. The Times has a straight headline on the sacking but the intro leads on Williamson accusing senior civil servant Sir Mark Sedwill of having a “vendetta” against him. Its sidebar focuses on the call by the government’s climate change advisers to plant billions of trees.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, 2 May 2019. Photograph: Guardian

The Telegraph, which might be seen as operating from a position of knowledge, says in its headline: “You’ve got the wrong man, sacked Williamson tells May”. The accompanying analysis says: “Cabinet ministers usually have a licence to leak, but this appears to have overstepped the mark.” The Guardian has: “May tells defence secretary: ‘You leaked, you are fired’” and leads with Williamson’s claim of being tried in a “kangaroo court”. The Mail has an even-handed front page, featuring May and Williamson facing off. She says “You’re fired”, he says “I didn’t do it”.

The FT leads with Williamson but also carries the story of US attorney general William Barr defending his controversial summary of the Mueller report. Things get a bit more emotive and/or speculative elsewhere, with Williamson “sacked for treachery” in the Express, “facing jail” in the Mirror, while the Sun goes with “leaky chump time”. Metro wins the wit award by using a previous Williamson quote against him. The headline is: “Go Huawei … and shut up.”

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