Top story: Data svengali boasts of covert Trump campaign

Hello – it’s Warren Murray with the news tailored to fit your morning.

Cambridge Analytica’s boasts about covert work to get Donald Trump elected are fuelling outrage against Facebook, while MPs have demanded an explanation in person from Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social network.

Calls to #DeleteFacebook are being echoed widely, with the WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton among those joining the campaign. Data from at least 50m users was harvested from Facebook profiles and then used by Cambridge Analytica for its secretive campaigns.

Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix, has been suspended after being caught on undercover video bragging about the type of “unattributable and untrackable” methods used to support clients, including unbranded advertising and self-destructing emails. Of the Trump campaign, he said: “We did all the research, all the data, all the analytics, all the targeting. We ran all the digital campaign, the television campaign and our data informed all the strategy.”

Mark Turnbull, the head of Cambridge Analytica’s political division, took credit for the “Defeat Crooked Hillary” campaign, which was run through a Trump-aligned “political action committee” (Pac). Company staff described how their work was cloaked behind Pacs that carried out the “air war” for the Trump campaign – a form of collaboration that could be illegal under US election law.

Cambridge University, meanwhile, has sought assurances from Facebook that one of its academics, Aleksandr Kogan, did not use university resources when he mined user data that was passed on to Cambridge Analytica. Kogan told the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning that he is being made a scapegoat by both companies, and that Cambridge Analytica had approached him to develop his data-harvesting Facebook app, not the other way around.

‘Big fireball and smoke’ – A Red Arrows plane has crashed, killing an RAF engineer who was on board. The pilot ejected and survived when the Hawk jet came down at RAF valley air base in north Wales on Tuesday afternoon. Witnesses described seeing the plane at an odd angle as it approached the runway before crashing in a fireball. Names have not yet been released after what the RAF described as a “tragic accident”. The last Red Arrows fatality occurred in November 2011 when Flt Lt Sean Cunningham was accidentally ejected from his Hawk aircraft while sitting on the runway, then plunged to his death when the parachute failed to open.

‘The work of Putin’s circle’ – Exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky says he lives with the knowledge that Vladimir Putin could kill him if he wanted to. The former Yukos oil group head and critic of Putin says the British government needs to target not the whole of Russia and its government, but the “criminal group” surrounding the president, over the Salisbury poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal with a “novichok” nerve agent invented in Russia. “The Russian government is not involved in this,” he said. The targeting of Skripal was a clear case of retribution towards a defector, said Khodorkovsky, who lives in London.

Anger over self-driving Uber death – Friends of a woman fatally hit by a robotic Uber car have called for the company to be shut down as punishment. Elaine Herzberg, 49, was walking her bicycle on a road in Tempe, Arizona, when she was struck by the Volvo SUV. “This shouldn’t have ever happened,” said Carole Kimmerle, a friend of Herzberg. A human driver was on board but not in control of the car at the time, raising questions about why the car did not detect and automatically avoid Herzberg. Uber said it was suspending its self-driving operations in several cities but did not comment further.

Quick catch-up – Here is your mid-week booster shot of news.

> Donald Trump and the EU supremo Jean-Claude Juncker are drawing fire for congratulating Vladimir Putin on his heavily orchestrated election win. As Britain expelled Russian diplomats over the Salisbury attack, the EU Brexit coordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, shot back at Juncker: “This is no time for congratulations.”

> The government has abandoned plans to force a million NHS staff to give up a day’s holiday in return for ending the pay cap. Unions appear poised to recommend the pay rise deal to members in England.

> Stephen Hawking’s ashes will be interred at Westminster Abbey near the grave of Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge – a position once held by Newton. A thanksgiving service is to be held later in the year.

And finally … Scientists have added basil and mint genes to the DNA of brewing yeast to make beer without hops. Tasters said the brew was redolent of “fruit loops and orange blossom”. Doing away with hop crops could save a lot of water, say US researchers behind the feat. Fancy a GMO pint with your chlorinated coronation chicken, anyone?

Lunchtime read: Corbyn’s Labour – a party of one

An uncompromising political leader, in total control, invulnerable to challenge for the foreseeable future. We are not talking of Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping – but of Jeremy Corbyn who, writes Heather Stewart, now enjoys complete control of the Labour party machine.

Our political editor writes that Jennie Formby’s coronation as Labour general secretary is the culmination of a two-year battle by Corbyn’s camp to push supportive candidates into every key party post. While “all Labour leaders have sought to stamp their imprint on the party”, the extent of Corbyn’s success in doing so has rung alarm bells. “Labour has always prided itself on being a broad church,” says one insider. “Now ideology is the most important thing and to hell with skills, experience, the time and work you put in.”

Sport

England’s longest cricket tour for more than half a century enters its final phase in Auckland on Thursday with captain Joe Root desperate to salvage something from a trip tainted by the Ashes series defeat to Australia.

Rory McIlroy has admitted Sunday’s long-awaited victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational supplied the “validation” he can draw upon ahead of another Masters tilt. The physical strain on England’s leading players shows little sign of easing with the Premiership champions Exeter resigned to losing Jack Nowell and Harry Williams for several more weeks and the Champions’ Cup holders Saracens unsure if Billy Vunipola will be fit to feature in next month’s European quarter-final against Leinster in Dublin.

There is a desperate need for a successful World Cup – the upcoming tournament in Russia has to save international football from crisis, writes Barney Ronay. And the Gold Coast council will use a new city wifi service to harvest Facebook data from visitors during next month’s Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Business

Asian stock markets have advanced ahead of the Federal Reserve’s first meeting with Jerome Powell as chairman. US stock indexes finished mostly higher on Tuesday. The Fed’s leaders have begun a policy meeting that is expected to result in another interest rate increase, which could be one of three or four this year.

The pound is sitting on $1.401 and €1.142 this morning.

The papers

The Cambridge Analytica scandal dominates the papers today. The Guardian keeps the pressure on with a splash about how the data firm bragged about its role in Donald Trump’s victory, while the Times leads on a story about how the embattled company entrapped a Caribbean politician. The Financial Times splashes on regulators ratcheting up pressure on Facebook over the mass data leak to Cambridge Analytica.

Elsewhere, the Telegraph goes with: “Hackers led warplanes to hospital, claims Syria surgeon.” And exclamation marks are out in force at the Express and the Mail! The Mail demands “Let’s put our elderly first!” atop a story about Jeremy Hunt’s blueprint to transform old age care. The Express has the same story with the headline “Care crisis: It must be fixed now Mr Hunt!”

The Sun sets its sights on YouTube, or “YouFools”, with a story about the site showing children how to make guns. Meanwhile the Mirror leads on an exclusive about the first British “suicide clinic”, located in the Channel Islands.



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