Top story: MPs warn over hacking of Brexit vote

Good morning. This is Martin Farrer with the top stories this morning.

A committee of MPs has found that foreign governments such as Russia and China could have interfered with the Brexit referendum last June. Concern focuses on the collapse of the government’s voter registration website on 7 June, raising the possibility that thousands of people were disenfranchised. The MPs say there is evidence that the crash was caused by distributed denial of service attack (DDOS) using botnets – a network of computers infected with malicious software. It follows months of speculation about the possible role of the Kremlin in the US elections.

Syria strains – Still with Russia (sort of), and the big news today will be how Rex Tillerson fares on his first visit to Moscow since becoming Donald Trump’s secretary of state. Our man in Moscow, Alec Luhn, explains why he might get a frosty reception and is unlikely to meet Putin as the Kremlin strongman hardens his stance on Syria.

Meanwhile, accident-prone Sean Spicer is in trouble after trying to defend the Syria airstrikes, claiming that “even Hitler didn’t use chemical weapons”. And Trump faced the first proper electoral test of his leadership so far – albeit indirectly – with a congressional election in the heartland state of Kansas. The Republican candidate only just scraped home.

Dortmund mystery – Police in Germany have yet to divulge the contents of a letter claiming responsibility for a bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus shortly before they were due to play Monaco in the Champions League quarter-final last night. Defender Marc Bartra was injured in the blasts which police have been at pains so far not to describe as a terror attack.

A doomed love – Letters written by Sylvia Plath are understood to detail how her husband, the poet laureate Ted Hughes, beat her two days before she had a miscarriage and that he wanted her dead. The revelations about the couple’s marriage come in unseen letters from the American poet to her therapist in the early 1960s. They are part of an archive of material put up for sale by an antiquarian bookseller.



Brand blow – It will be illegal to sell branded cigarettes from next month after the supreme court refused permission for tobacco companies to appeal over standardised packaging legislation. The court’s ruling is final which means that all cigarettes will be sold with standard packets from 20 May, the department of health said. The firms said the rules were unfair because they destroyed their brands.

No more dog dinners – The rising popularity of pets has prompted new legislation in Taiwan banning the slaughter of cats and dogs for human consumption. The law also makes it illegal to “walk” a pet while riding a scooter or driving a car.

People in Taiwan will be named and shamed for eating cats and dogs. Photograph: AP

Lunchtime read: The money machine

An attempt by a lawyer to move $23m from his client’s London bank account to one in Cyprus in 2014 promised to expose the outrageous kleptocracy of former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich. The then home secretary Theresa May promised a new era of international cooperation but within a year the inquiry had collapsed. Oliver Bullough finds out how it all went wrong.

Sport

Monaco supporters forced to spend another night in Dortmund in the wake of the team bus attack have been offered emergency accommodation via social media and the hashtag #bedforawayfans. Meanwhile, Paulo Dybala eclipsed his fellow Argentine Lionel Messi in Juventus’ 3-0 win that leaves Barcelona with a mountain to climb in the Champions League, and Craig Shakespeare, preparing his Leicester City side to take on Atlético Madrid, has insisted he was “quite comfortable with my own conscience”, after claims by Claudio Ranieri that an unnamed member of his backroom staff may have contributed to his sacking. And the MCC has officially released its new laws of cricket, which include gender neutral terminology and alterations to the Mankad rule.

Business

Donald Trump’s “tax holiday” plans will save the biggest US companies $300bn, according to a new report from Oxfam. Not that it’s done investor morale much good: the markets were flat due to tension over Korea and Syria, with Tokyo shares dropping the most as the safe-haven yen rose.

The pound has more or less kept its gains from yesterday at $1.25 and €1.18.

The papers

The FT, like the Guardian, leads with the claims by Putin that the US may have been duped into believing that the Assad regime had carried out a chemical weapons attack and responding with an airstrike. The Telegraph and Times are on similar ground, but focus on the G7’s rebuke to Boris Johnson over more sanctions against Russia and Syria.

The Guardian front page Wednesday 12 April. Photograph: The Guardian

The Mail and the Mirror both lead with the high court ruling that the life support machine of eight-month-old Charlie Gard should be turned off – despite the wishes of his parents. Charlie suffers from a rare genetic disorder and brain damage which specialists believe cannot be reversed.

The Sun is more off-piste, however, leading with news that Chelsea star Cesc Fabregas accidentally hit a baby in the head with a football during a kickabout with his family in a London park.





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