Wednesday briefing: Sting in the north as PM imposes tier 3

Top story: ‘Mayor didn’t accept £60m offer’

Hello, Warren Murray bringing you midweek news in proportion to the time you have available.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has accused the government of playing a “game of poker with people’s lives” after Boris Johnson imposed the toughest Covid restrictions without agreeing support for businesses and low-paid workers. The prime minister has confirmed tier 3 measures will be imposed on 2.8 million people in the region from midnight on Thursday. Household mixing will be banned indoors and outdoors; pubs and bars will close unless serving meals; and a string of other businesses from betting shops to soft play centres will also be shut.

Burnham warned that local people faced “a winter of real hardship” and accused ministers of bullying the region into accepting less than their £65m request in a “deliberate act of levelling down”. Burnham had sought £90m in support, then £75m, then £65m. Johnson said he offered £60m and “the mayor didn’t accept this unfortunately”. Later the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said the £60m offer remained on the table subject to any “further discussions with local leaders”. Keep up with developments around the world at our global coronavirus live blog.

* * *

US election latest – Melania Trump withdrew from a scheduled return to the campaign trail on Tuesday, two weeks out from election day, due to a “lingering cough” following her coronavirus infection. She had been due to travel with her husband to Erie, Pennsylvania, for one of his election rallies where mask advice is usually flouted. Trump left the crowd bemused in Erie when he said he wouldn’t have bothered going there but he needed the votes because of the impact of the “plague” on his campaign.

A Russian analyst named Igor Danchenko says he is in hiding and “afraid for his life” after being unmasked by top congressional Republicans as the source behind the Steele dossier on Donald Trump and Moscow.

The president and the Republican senator Lindsey Graham have repeatedly alleged Danchenko is a suspected Russian spy. Danchenko’s lawyer has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the president’s lawyer over “allegations of treason and espionage” that “are extraordinarily serious. They are also completely false.” He is seeking to crowdfund the costs of his legal proceedings against Trump.

* * *

Watch: Coronavirus: Are cases rising or falling in current and possible Tier 3 regions?

Midweek catch-up

> Nasa’s Osiris-Rex space probe has briefly touched down on the asteroid Bennu to collect a handful-sized dust sample and return it to Earth. The sample capsule is due to parachute into the Utah desert in 2023.

> Deaths were reported after Nigerian security forces opened fire on hundreds of protesters in Lagos as rallies against police brutality continued in defiance of a 24-hour curfew.

> Next has been accused of destroying vital documents related to a gender equal pay claim. Lawyers acting for 330 shop workers say that as a consequence Next could be barred from defending itself against the claims. The retailer denies the allegation.

> A grand juror in the Breonna Taylor case has contradicted Kentucky’s attorney general by saying the jury was not offered homicide charges to consider against officers involved in Taylor’s shooting death during a police raid.

> Waitrose and the Co-op are cutting prices on hundreds of essential goods this week. The UK’s sixth- and eighth-largest supermarkets are taking action after their bigger rivals launched a price war ahead of a budget Covid-affected Christmas season.

* * *

Dirty air killing newborns – Air pollution caused the premature death of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life in 2019, mostly in the developing world, says the State of Global Air 2020 report. Nearly two-thirds of the deaths were associated with indoor air pollutants such as smoke from charcoal, wood or dung fires for cooking. Exposure to airborne pollutants harms babies in the womb, causing a premature birth or low birth weight, both associated with higher infant mortality. At least 6.7 million deaths globally in 2019 were from long-term exposure to air pollution, which raises risk of stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer and other diseases. Air pollution is the fourth highest cause of death globally, below smoking and poor diet.

* * *

Threat over ‘white privilege’ lessons – Schools are breaking the law if they teach pupils that “white privilege” is an uncontested fact, the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, has said. Badenoch was responding to the Labour MP Dawn Butler, who said in the Commons that black pupils were made to feel inferior and history “needs to be decolonised”. Badenoch said the government did not want children being taught about “white privilege and their inherited racial guilt … Any school which teaches these elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law”.

Separately a report from the RCP, which represents 30,000 of the UK’s hospital doctors, says practitioners from BAME backgrounds have been hindered in their search for senior roles because of racial discrimination and bias in the NHS. White doctors applied for fewer posts but were more likely to be shortlisted and hired. NHS in England responded that its “People Plan” commits to increasing BAME representation in leadership teams and eliminating discrimination and inequality.

* * *

Postal service goes into reverse – Royal Mail workers will for the first time collect parcels on the doorstep. From today customers across the UK will be able to pay a fee of 72p on top of standard postage costs for every package under the new “parcel collect” service. Pre-paid return items will cost 60p per item. Up to five items per customer per day between Monday and Saturday will be allowed, limited to 61cm x 46cm x 46cm and 20kg in weight. Items will be collected from the door or from a safe place on the property chosen by the customer. Customers will be able to make bookings only via Royal Mail’s “click and drop” online service until midnight on the day before collection.

Watch: The new restrictions in South Yorkshire

Today in Focus podcast: An Australian-style asylum system?

Guardian Australia reporter Ben Doherty looks at the history behind Australia’s asylum seeker policies, including the controversial practice of offshore processing and resettlement. It is one of the options the British government is allegedly considering to deter asylum seekers from attempting to cross the Channel to the UK. The Kurdish journalist Behrouz Boochani, who spent seven years in detention in Papua New Guinea, discusses the impact the policy has had.

Lunchtime read: ‘Chance to smile again’

Jacqui Smith – the first female home secretary and Labour ex-MP – discusses the government’s Covid response, online dating in your 50s and why the Strictly Come Dancing glitterball is within her reach.

Sport

Ole Gunnar Solskjær was delighted after Manchester United beat a “fantastic” Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in their opening Champions League group game, with Marcus Rashford again scoring a late winner against the French champions. At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea made few chances but managed a goalless draw against an awkward Sevilla side. Plans for a lucrative breakaway European Premier League involving top English clubs that would supersede the Champions League have been revived. The world 400m champion Salwa Eid Naser has escaped a doping ban on a technicality – after one of her missed drug tests was struck off due to a “confused” tester knocking on a door containing gas canisters by mistake.

The defending champion Primoz Roglic attacked in the final kilometre after a difficult climb to win an explosive opening stage of the Vuelta a España. Bradley Wiggins has wound up two of his companies with debts of more than £1m after the failure of his defunct Team Wiggins team. Nikita Parris has said the Football Association needs to look at the location of its centres of excellence if it wants to open the door to more black, Asian and minority ethnic players in the England Women’s squad. Elliot Daly will miss the start of England’s autumn campaign this weekend as he awaits tests on a leg problem but the head coach, Eddie Jones, has hinted that Leicester’s Ben Youngs will win his 100th cap in Italy next week. And Liverpool’s fury at losing Virgil van Dijk has been laid bare when Georginio Wijnaldum accused the goalkeeper Jordan Pickford of being “completely stupid” and Everton of a “completely unacceptable” approach to Merseyside derbies.

Business

A rightwing thinktank has urged ministers to consider scrapping the pensions triple-lock, cutting the aid budget and further limiting child benefit as part of £30bn worth of spending cuts to reduce the budget deficit widened due to the pandemic. The Centre for Policy Studies said its nine-point plan would ensure that the government was getting value for money and protect frontline services. The FTSE 100 is set to edge higher on broad hopes of a market stimulus being agreed in the US, while the pound is up to $1.297 and €1.095.

The papers

We’ve gone from Andy Burnham emerging as the king in the north to Andy Burnham introducting the mother of draconian measures. The Guardian reports how Burnham accused the prime minister of playing a “game of poker with people’s lives”. The Mirror also picks up on that: “PM’s playing poker with the pandemic” and in the Manchester Evening News early edition Johnson is depicted as the joker from a pack of playing cards. The Yorkshire Post says “Northern uproar as strictest virus restrictions are imposed”.

Back in London the Times has “Manchester forced into highest level of lockdown” and the Telegraph warns “Northern cities could be next”. The Mail headlines its splash “Now show us your papers”, saying restaurants and pubs have been told to check patrons’ names, addresses and photo ID to ensure they stick to lockdown rules. Today’s winner though is “Tier and loathing” in the Metro. In Scotland, which has its own restrictions regime, the Herald says “Restaurants face forced closure after refusing to follow rules”. You can see the front pages here.

Watch: Coronavirus lockdown in England - South Yorkshire to move to Tier 3

Sign up

The Guardian Morning Briefing is delivered to thousands of inboxes bright and early every weekday. If you are not already receiving it by email, you can sign up here.

For more news: www.theguardian.com