News Daily: MPs return and Trump impeachment inquiry
Your morning briefing for 25 September 2019. …
If you want to get this briefing by email, sign-up here
Parliament suspension: MPs return after Supreme Court ruling
Parliament is back later, following the Supreme Court’s ruling that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend it for five weeks was unlawful. Mr Johnson is expected to address MPs at some stage, having cut short his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
He has spoken to the Queen, although the government is giving no detail of the conversation. Opposition parties are calling for Mr Johnson to resign, which Downing Street is ruling out.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg looks at what the PM might do next. And BBC Europe editor Katya Adler wonders what impact the court’s ruling will have on Brexit talks.
Tuesday was an extraordinary day, even by the standards of recent political events. Catch up here with all the key developments.
Trump impeachment: Democrats launch inquiry into Ukraine claims
US President Donald Trump denies asking Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call for help to damage a political rival. But Democrats have launched a formal impeachment inquiry.
It’s alleged Mr Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless it investigated corruption allegations against former Vice-President Joe Biden – a candidate for next year’s presidential election – and his son Hunter. Mr Biden denies any wrongdoing.
Senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi says Mr Trump committed a “violation of the law”. The BBC looks at why she has made the impeachment move now and what might happen next.
Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning
Thomas Cook collapse: Tourists ‘trapped’ in Cuba
Following the collapse of tour operator Thomas Cook, several holidaymakers and crew say they are being held in hotels in Cuba until they pay their bills. “It’s getting very worrying now,” one tourist told the BBC.
More than 1,000 flights are booked between now and 6 October to repatriate the 135,300 holidaymakers still abroad. Some of those affected by Thomas Cook entering liquidation share their stories.
Can a computer fool you into thinking it’s human?
By Tim Harford
Each year, the Loebner Prize challenges chatbots to pass the Turing test, proposed in 1950 by the British mathematician, codebreaker, and computer pioneer Alan Turing. In Turing’s “imitation game”, a judge would communicate through a teleprompter with a human and a computer. The computer’s job was to imitate human conversation convincingly enough to persuade the judge.
Turing thought that within 50 years, computers would be able to fool 30% of human judges after five minutes of conversation. He was not far off. It actually took 64 years.
What the papers say
The future of Boris Johnson, following the Supreme Court’s decision that suspending Parliament was unlawful, is discussed in great detail. The Guardian calls the judgement “crushing”, adding that the PM’s response has been “defiant”. The Financial Times describes the court’s ruling as a “damning indictment”, while the Daily Mirror says he could quit soon.
However, there is support for Mr Johnson in other newspapers. The Daily Mail argues that the court’s intervention raises a question of “who runs Britain”. And the Daily Express asks: “What’s lawful about denying 17.4 million [people] Brexit?”
Daily digest
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe British-Iranian national must be released, Johnson tells Iran’s president
‘Quiet green tax’ Gardeners charged up to £100 a year for kerbside garden waste collections
Mont Blanc Glacier in danger of collapse, experts warn
Birth options Repeat Caesareans “often safer”
If you see one thing today
Stoke: The city divided by a youth club
If you listen to one thing today
Why are so many people addicts?
If you read one thing today
‘My stepfather killed two girls – now I track other murders’
Sign up for a morning briefing direct to your phone
Lookahead
Today Film items including Dorothy’s dress from the Wizard of Oz and Darth Vader’s helmet are up for auction in Los Angeles.
13:30 The annual Bloomberg Global Business Forum takes place in New York, with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and incoming European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde among the speakers.
On this day
1950 United Nations forces take control of the South Korean capital Seoul, three months after it fell to North Korea.
From elsewhere
The homeless death of Jake Humm (Guardian)
Wellington’s spy network (History Today)
Beauty of nocturnal northern skies captured by photographer pulling all-nighters (Independent)
Trollyeybus routes from the 1960s (Derby Telegraph)
About The Author
