Top story: Options diminish as Friday’s cliff edge looms

Good morning, this is Alison Rourke bringing you the top stories in another week of dramatic Brexit deadlines.

Amid increasing expectations that last ditch cross-party talks on a plan for Brexit will not produce anything concrete, Theresa May has again called for compromise to break the logjam. Speaking from her sofa on Sunday, in a new, laid-back style, the prime minister acknowledged that people want to see their politicians working together, but Labour reiterated it was yet to learn even the basics of the concessions that May might offer. The PM is facing intense pressure from her split cabinet, not to mention her split party, as time is running out to find a palatable solution. The EU27 leaders are due to meet on Wednesday evening to consider a further request for a Brexit delay. If nothing is agreed, the UK will exit with no deal on Friday. May has requested a pause until 30 June, but Brussels is keen on a wait of up to a year, which could be broken earlier if a solution is found. There will be a flurry of meetings today, including between the Irish taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. Jeremy Corbyn will meet Sinn Fein’s president, Mary Lou McDonald, who is expected to tell him Irish interests must be protected, whatever the outcome of his negotiations with May.

Play Video 2:16 Theresa May warns that parliament must agree a deal to deliver Brexit – video

You can check in on some of the possible outcomes from this week here, and read about concerns that Brexit confusion could hit EU residential tenants in the UK here. Under the right-to-rent rules introduced three years ago, landlords face fines of up to £5,000 per adult tenant if they are found to be renting out a property to an illegal immigrant. the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) is calling on the government to publish clear guidelines on the right-to-rent rules for landlords. “Technically EU citizens have the right to rent, but some landlords will not be aware of the law. Some may not even know what countries are in the European Union,” said the RLA’s policy director, David Smith.

Pay-to-order essays – A US firm is targeting first-year university students by infiltrating their private WhatsApp groups and offering to write their assignments for £7 a page. New York-based Quality Papers is offering made-to-order essays and has been hijacking new students’ group chats at at least five institutions, including Imperial College London, Bath University, Birmingham University and Durham University. The messages, posted on accommodation and course group chats created to help freshers settle into university life, boast that students can “pay after delivery”. The Quality Papers website says: “We will write all papers from scratch, and we guarantee you that the paper will have 0% similarity index.”

‘Break the rules’ – A long-running survey of attitudes to politics has suggested the UK is increasingly disenchanted with MPs and government and ever more willing to welcome the idea of authoritarian leaders who would ignore parliament. Public faith in the political system has reached its lowest point in the 16-year history of the Hansard Society’s audit of political engagement, lower even than at the depths of the crisis over MPs’ expenses. More than 50% of those asked agreed that Britain needed a “strong ruler willing to break the rules”. In all, 42% of respondents agreed with the idea that many national problems could be dealt with more effectively “if the government didn’t have to worry so much about votes in parliament”.

Another one bites the dust – President Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, has resigned. She was the public face of the administration’s border security policy but her position has been rocky for some time. In November, leaks from the White House suggested she would be out by the end of the year as Trump fulminated against what he complained was her weak performance. The New York Times previously reported Trump had humiliated her in front of the entire cabinet, for failing to reduce the number of undocumented migrants arriving from Mexico. According to some US media, her departure is another victory for Stephen Miller, the far-right senior adviser in the White House who has consistently steered the president in a hardline direction on immigration.

Social media crackdown – New laws proposed to tackle social media companies streaming child abuse, extremism, terrorist attacks and cyberbullying will be published in a white paper today. They include proposals to legislate for a new statutory duty of care by social media firms and penalties for failing to take down vision of child abuse, terrorist acts and revenge pornography, as well as behaviours such as cyberbullying, spreading disinformation and encouraging self-harm.

Plastic peril – Water bottles and soft drinks are the most prominent form of pollution in European waterways, according to a new report. The Plastic Rivers report, from Earthwatch Europe and Plastic Oceans UK, also says food wrappers, including crisp and sweet packets, are the second biggest form of plastic pollution, followed by cigarette butts. “This throwaway approach is having much more serious consequences and the report shows really simple ways to avoid this problem and stop plastic pollution,” said Jo Ruxton, chief executive of Plastic Oceans UK. The report says bottles make up 14% of visible items of litter in waterways, with food wrappers at 12% and cigarette butts at 9%.

Olivier awards – A sprawling two-part, seven-hour play about the lives of gay men in New York emerged as one of the biggest winners at the UK’s most prestigious theatre awards last night. The Inheritance won four Oliviers. A gender-switching reinvention of Stephen Sondheim’s Company and a spirit-lifting September 11 musical from Canada, Come From Away, also won four awards each. You can read the Guardian’s full coverage of the awards here and what people wore on the red carpet here.

Today in Focus podcast: Is Facebook spying on you?

It is one of the most widely held conspiracy theories in tech: could Facebook be listening to its users in order to target ads at them? It isn’t, says the Guardian’s UK tech editor, Alex Hern, but the company has plenty of other ways to monitor you. Plus: George Monbiot on “rewilding” the planet to combat climate catastrophe.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest What does Facebook know about you? Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters

Lunchtime read: Billy Bragg on Brexit, Corbyn and holding back populism

Billy Bragg is back on tour and fronting a new documentary about skiffle (a music genre with jazz, blues and folk influences). But he would rather talk about Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn and progressive patriotism. He supports Corbyn and what the Labour party is currently doing: “There are things I don’t agree with, but he represents something really important, which is the rejection of the neoliberal agenda,” he tells Sam Wollaston.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Billy Bragg with Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury in 2017. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Bragg says no majority means governments, of whatever flavour, can’t do whatever they want. Bragg says no other party has tried to appeal to both remainers and leavers, or striven for consensus rather than taking sides, as Corbyn has. .“I wouldn’t be surprised if we look back on this and find that the ambiguity that everyone criticises him for is seen to be the best thing he could have done.” Bragg says he hopes the gruelling experience of Brexit will help inoculate the country against populism: “We will look back into the chasm of it, and realise how fragile our social contract is – as a community, as a nation – and make a promise not to go down that path.”

Sport

Gerard Deulofeu took out his anger on Wolves after being dropped from the starting Watford line-up, according to his manager, Javi Gracia, to inspire one of the great FA Cup comebacks. South Korea’s Ko Jin-young held off challenges from Lee Mi-hyang and Lexi Thompson to win her first major title with victory in the 2019 ANA Inspiration at Mission Hills. Leicester are English rugby’s most successful club in terms of honours, having won 20 major titles, but they could find themselves bottom of the Premiership at the end of next weekend. Kevin De Bruyne has rubbished suggestions that Tottenham’s new stadium could influence the outcome of the Champions League quarter-final against Manchester City. And Andros Townsend has applauded Danny Rose’s “bravery” in revealing his true feelings about racism and, following a shameful weekend for English football, is urging other players to exhibit similar honesty.

Business

Business confidence has crashed to the lowest point since 2012, and the economy is only growing because firms are stockpiling ahead of Brexit, according to a key sentiment indicator, the BDO optimism index. It fell faster in March that at any time since the bleakest days in the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. The figures suggest that the UK economy could struggle to post any positive growth in 2019, BDO said.

In other business news, new laws on payslips come into force from this week, requiring employers to set out variable rates of pay and hours worked so that workers can more easily check that they are receiving the minimum wage. The rules will also mean about 300,000 workers will receive payslips for the first time. It is expected to benefit many people on casual and zero-hours contracts.

The pound is buying $1.307 and €1.164.

The papers

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: The Guardian

Theresa May’s promise to work with Corbyn on Brexit features on several front pages today. The Guardian has: “Cabinet fury at May grows as long Brexit delay looms”; the i reports: “Labour deal ‘only way to save Brexit’”; and the Daily Express calls the talks: “The ultimate compromise”.

The Times’s splash is “Calls to end transgender ‘experiment on children’”, and it also features another front page story, saying “Brexit-weary Britons long for political strongman”.

The Daily Mail reports that none of the 50 Afghan translators promised refuge in the UK has arrived, in what it calls: “New betrayal of the brave”.

The Mirror says: “Google & £1.5bn in ‘unpaid’ tax” and the Telegraph reports: “UK internet laws ‘will be toughest in the world’”, while the Sun has news on Jack Shepherd: “Speedboat killer: I’m sorry”. The FT reports “Buffett urges Wells Fargo to look beyond Wall Street for next chief”.

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