Top story: Putin advisers ‘afraid to tell him truth’
Hello, it’s Warren Murray wishing you good morning once again.
Russia is building up its forces in readiness for new attacks in the Donbas region despite the planned resumption of peace talks on Friday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. Moscow had claimed it was withdrawing to eastern Ukraine to focus on “liberating” the Donbas region – which includes besieged Mariupol – but Zelenskiy said Russian troops were being driven back around places like Chernihiv and Kyiv as “the consequence of our defenders’ work”.
A possible shift in the military situation comes as the head of Britain’s spy services agency says Putin has been misinformed about the extent of Russian military failure because his advisers are too frightened to tell him the damning truth. Sir Jeremy Fleming, speaking in Australia, said the Russian leader had misjudged the strength of Ukrainian resistance, the western response and the ability of his forces to deliver a rapid victory. “And even though we believe Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, what’s going on and the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.” Russian troops were poorly equipped, suffering from low morale and refusing to carry out orders, Fleming said.
In the US, the Biden administration is considering a plan to release roughly one million barrels of oil a day from US reserves for several months to combat rising fuel prices. Meanwhile Liz Truss, Britain’s foreign secretary, is due to land in India today to urge Narendra Modi’s government to reduce its strategic dependency on Russia – at the same time as her sparring partner Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, will be making his first visit to India since the invasion of Ukraine. And major jewellers including Tiffany, Chopard, Signet and Pandora have announced they will stop buying diamonds of Russian origin. Keep up with further developments at our live blog.
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‘Not the whole story’ – Police are examining 600 cases linked to maternity practices at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital after a damning report into baby deaths condemned health staff for blaming mothers while ignoring their own catastrophic blunders. Health officials failed to undertake serious incident investigations, while deaths were dismissed or not investigated appropriately, the independent inquiry found, and a total of 201 babies and nine mothers could or would have survived if the NHS trust had provided better care.
There were also 29 cases where babies suffered severe brain injuries and 65 incidents of cerebral palsy. Rhiannon Davies, one of the mothers who fought for justice after her daughter Kate died in 2009, said the numbers themselves did “not tell the whole story” of the impact on families. The health secretary, Sajid Javid, issued a Commons apology for the failings: “We entrust the NHS with our care, often when we’re at our most vulnerable. In return we expect the highest standards.” Louise Barnett, the chief executive at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, said: “We offer our wholehearted apologies for the pain and distress caused by our failings as a trust.”
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One rule for them – Keir Starmer is headed to Bury to launch Labour’s five-week-long local elections battle with the slogan “On your side”, urging voters to send the Conservatives a message about the cost of living crisis and No 10 lockdown breaches. Labour sources said the slogan was intended to evoke the feeling of “one rule for them” that the public expressed during exposés of lockdown breaches. The party launches its campaign with analysis claiming families will be £2,620 worse off even after Rishi Sunak cut fuel duty and raised the national insurance threshold. Other campaigns will be launched in Worthing and Derby. Labour will pledge to reform employment law to outlaw a repeat of the P&O sackings, and promise tougher action on crime with police hubs in every neighbourhood.
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‘Lock down extreme porn’ – An “immediate and urgent” introduction of age checks is needed to stop children accessing extreme content on pornography websites, children’s charities say. In an open letter to the largest porn sites in the UK, the coalition led by Barnardo’s said this could not wait to be addressed as part of the online safety bill, which has yet to come into effect. Barnardo’s says its frontline workers have had to help children including a 15-year-old boy exposed to pornography during lockdown. He was arrested after exposing himself to an older woman and said he had been watching that kind of content online. A new YouGov poll shows that almost 70% of UK adults agree that extreme pornography that would be illegal to sell on a DVD should also be illegal online. Among parents and guardians the figure was 75%.
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Health cost of firewood – Air pollution from wood burning in homes is responsible for more than £1bn a year in health damage in the UK and €10bn (£8.5bn) across the EU, according to a report from the European Public Health Alliance. Health damage produced by all kinds of home heating adds up to €29bn a year, with wood burning the biggest single cause despite producing only 10-14% of the heat in homes. The report found heat pumps and solar water heaters produced no air pollution at homes using them. Air pollution is the single biggest environmental risk to health, causing millions of early deaths a year globally. The UK government’s proposed new air quality limits for 2040 would still allow twice as much dangerous PM2.5 particle pollution in England as the WHO recommends as an upper limit today.
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Faraway star – The most distant star ever seen, 12.9bn light years away, has been photographed by the Hubble space telescope in images that might never be possible again. The observation of the star, named Earendel (“morning star” in old English), was possible thanks to a rare cosmic alignment. Scientists estimate Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of the Sun and millions of times as bright, placing it among the most massive stars known.
It showed up in pictures because of natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, which sits between us and Earendel. The cluster’s gravitational pull is so intense that light bends around it, creating a cosmic magnifying glass. In this way, scientists calculate that Earendel’s brightness was magnified by a factor of thousands.
Today in Focus podcast: Is Russia really changing tack?
On Tuesday, Russia announced it would “radically reduce” its military activity in northern Ukraine, but the Ukrainian military warns that Russia’s statement is intended to mislead them. Emma Graham-Harrison reports from Kharkiv.
Lunchtime read: Made in south London
From the playing fields of Lewisham and Bromley to the Premier League, its football clubs have nurtured wave after wave of stars. And these players have become proud symbols of a place reshaped by each new generation of migrants.
Sport
A place in the Women’s Cricket World Cup final against Australia is up for grabs after England posted a competitive total of 293-8 against South Africa in their semi-final in Christchurch. The trans woman cyclist Emily Bridges has been blocked from participating in the British National Omnium Championship on Saturday after cycling’s governing body, the UCI, ruled she was ineligible. Formula One will stage a grand prix in Las Vegas next year, reflecting the growing popularity of the sport in the US with two races already set to be hosted this year in Miami and Austin.
Gareth Southgate has emphasised that Harry Maguire retains his full support but knows he cannot give the beleaguered defender any guarantees over a starting place in his England team at the World Cup later this year. A world record crowd of 91,533 at the Camp Nou saw Barcelona recover from 2-1 down against Real Madrid to win their Women’s Champions League quarter-final second leg 5-2 and 8-3 on aggregate. And England collapses in the West Indies have brought back bad memories of 2019, writes Mark Ramprakash, with little having changed and pressure to succeed at Test level still leading to bad decision-making.
Business
It looks like being another turbulent day on the international energy markets where oil has dropped nearly 5% in trade so far today to just under $108 a barrel. The fall has been partly driven by continued lockdowns in China but it may help ease fears of soaring prices in the west. The German government has warned that it might introduce rationing of natural gas if supplies from Russia are cut off, while gas prices rose to all-time highs in the UK and other European markets this month. The FTSE100 is set for a modest rise this morning. The pound is on $1.312 and €1.175.
The papers
Our print edition of the Guardian today leads with “NHS maternity scandal: police investigate 600 further cases” as outlined above. Also on the front: “The lights are off. But Ukraine’s rail lifeline brings hope”. Shaun Walker in Kyiv and photographer Jelle Krings have filed a poignant picture essay on the the people who keep the refugee trains running, and their passengers. The Telegraph splashes on “Putin’s aides are lying to him, says GCHQ chief”. Its front-page picture is of Bruce Willis who is sadly retiring from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia, a type of brain damage that impedes speech.
The Metro holds up its front page of yesterday, as evidence on its front page of today, that Vladimir Putin can’t be trusted: “What Putin’s peace looks like”, it says, the headline overlaying a picture of more destruction in Ukraine (yesterday’s headline you may recall was “Russian roulette”). The main story is “Rape ordeal of trans MP”, about Jamie Wallis who has come out as Britain’s first openly transgender member of parliament. The Financial Times has “Germany and Austria prepare gas rationing in stand-off with Russia”. The Sun leads with “Masked raider in Becks mansion” after the Beckhams were burgled.
Others cover the NHS maternity scandal from various perspectives. “Childbirth ‘is not safe for women in England’” says the Times. “Biggest maternity scandal in history of the NHS” – the i uses an oft-repeated line about the Shrewsbury and Telford inquiry. “Natural birth dogma left mothers and babies to die” is the Daily Mail headline, while “Stolen lives” says the Mirror. “Justice coming for every baby”, the Express promises.
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