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People embrace during a prayer vigil for victims of the First Baptist church massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

Tuesday briefing: Texas killer was left off gun ban list

This article is more than 6 years old
People embrace during a prayer vigil for victims of the First Baptist church massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Photograph: Larry W Smith/EPA

Devin Kelley’s domestic violence record didn’t show up in background checks … Paradise Papers reveal private jet lurk … cyclist who flipped off Trump is fired

Top story: Deadly blunder over Devin Kelley’s violent history

Hello – it’s Warren Murray bringing you this morning’s summary of the news.

The Texas church gunman was able to buy firearms because the air force apparently failed to submit his record of extreme domestic violence to a criminal database, it has emerged. Devin Kelley, 26, received a bad-conduct discharge in 2014 after serving a year in military prison for “assault on his spouse and child” that included life-endangering beatings and threats with guns. But his alarming history did not show up on national background checks when he was arming himself ahead of his rampage on Sunday.

A bystander who shot at Kelley and the driver he flagged down to pursue the gunman have told their stories. At the end of their chase, Kelley was found dead in his crashed car with a suspected self-inflicted gunshot wound.

‘It was act now, ask questions later’: hero on car chase after Texas shooting – video

Kelley’s victims included a pregnant women and three of her children, and an 18-month-old child. The pastor of Sutherland Springs First Baptist church, Frank Pomeroy, said after the shooting in which his 14-year-old daughter, Annabelle, was killed: “You lean in to what you don’t understand, you lean in to the Lord.”


Sky-high tax refunds – The F1 driver Lewis Hamilton is among the latest famous names dug up from the Paradise Papers. Hamilton’s advisers put his purchase of a private jet through the Isle of Man and recouped £3.3m in VAT as a result, according to documents. HMRC is set to examine schemes under which Hamilton and others effectively leased their own jets from themselves. There is no suggestion the racing champion himself acted illegally, but experts say the validity of such schemes is questionable. Bono, the U2 frontman, has said he wants to know the truth about whether a Lithuanian shopping centre he invested in has broken tax rules, and called for transparency about ownership of offshore companies. “The fact is, I welcome this reporting. It shouldn’t take leaks to understand what’s going on where.” Theresa May has refused to commit to action over tax havens following the Paradise Papers revelations. Labour’s John McDonnell says that with the likes of Tory donor Lord Ashcroft attracting scrutiny, the fingers point too close to home for the Conservatives.


Brexit show-and-tell – The government has been given until this evening to release Brexit impact assessments on 58 sectors of the economy or explain to the Commons why it has failed to do so. David Davis, the Brexit secretary, has complained that the material encompasses an array of documents and collating them takes time. But the Speaker, John Bercow, has said the government should comply “very promptly indeed” with MPs’ unanimous demand to hand them over to the Brexit select committee. Britain will have to get used to the taste of chlorinated chicken, judging by what Donald Trump’s commerce secretary is saying, if it wants to strike a post-Brexit trade deal with his administration. Wilbur Ross suggested other bothersome EU red tape on, oh let’s see, the safety and origin of your food, trade in chemicals, medical implants, car standards, that sort of thing, would have to go as well.


One and only – Could this be the return of Silvio Berlusconi? The centre-right bloc backed by Old Bunga Bunga is poised for victory in a Sicilian regional election. Berlusconi meanwhile is hoping the European court of human rights will overturn his 2013 tax fraud conviction, which bars him from running for office. He is 81, but has been out campaigning after open-heart surgery, and even if he remains unable to stand for election the ex-PM threatens to be a potent force in a national vote set for next May.


UN’s Rohingya plea – The security council has called on Myanmar to end a military campaign and allow the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have been driven across the border into Bangladesh. Since late August more than 600,000 Rohingya have been driven from their homes by an army campaign that the UN has described as ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government, whose de facto leader is Aung San Suu Kyi, says the military operation is aimed at rooting out Rohingya militants.


Flipped out of a job – The Virginia cyclist whose raised digit became an embodiment of mass sentiment towards Donald Trump has been fired from her job. Juli Briskman flipped the bird to the president’s motorcade as it drove past. When the picture went viral, she thought alerting the HR department at her employer, Akima, was the right thing to do. Their response: “We’re separating from you.”

One more time for good measure … Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

There was an admirable amount of political awareness powering that middle finger: “I’m thinking, Daca recipients are getting kicked out. He pulled ads for open enrolment in Obamacare. Only one-third of Puerto Rico has power. I’m thinking, he’s at the damn golf course again.” Briskman said she had no regrets and wanted to find a new job somewhere with a social conscience. In Japan, Trump has met his fellow hand-gesture enthusiast Pikotaro, creator of the YouTube hit Pen Pineapple Apple Pen. Pikotaro said it was an honour. Trump didn’t tweet about it.


‘Yes that bloody cat’ – A feline intruder nearly caused an international incident when newly minted New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern took a phone call in her living room from Donald Trump. “She leapt up onto the chair next to Jacinda and began announcing her very squawky arrival,” writes Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford. “There was a flurry of action as I tried to hustle it into the next room.” One of the little things Gayford remembers from the hurly-burly of Ardern’s ascent to the country’s top office.

Lunchtime read: ‘This is a revolution’

Revolutions are normally expected to come from outside the halls or palace corridors of power. But the convention has been upended in Saudi Arabia, where the heir to the throne has dramatically placed 30 senior royals under arrest on graft charges.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

Prince Mohammed is seeking to shatter the nexus between the elite and the state and open the country up to the world – especially much-needed foreign investors who demand business transparency. But can he keep it up? Family rivals who oppose his reforms say the purge of the princes is a power grab: “How can you get away with something like this?” Donald Trump isn’t getting in Prince Mohammed’s way after the arrests, which were made with little warning or legal process. Some of those detained had been “milking their country for years!”, tweeted Trump – who, as it happens, has been courting Saudi Arabia to list its Aramco oil company on the New York stock exchange or Nasdaq.

Sport

The exit of Chelsea’s veteran technical director, Michael Emenalo, has left the Blues’ board exposed and vulnerable to criticism without their most stable lightning-rod, while the injured Tottenham duo Harry Kane and Harry Winks have pulled out of England’s upcoming friendlies. In rugby, all eyes are on Ellis Genge, the promising Leicester loosehead, who seems set to start Saturday’s match against Argentina. And in Australia, trainer Joseph O’Brien trumped his father Aidan as Irish horse Rekindling won the Melbourne Cup, 24 years after the last Irish champion, Vintage Crop.

Business

Asian shares rallied to their highest in a decade overnight, while oil prices gave up some of their gains having previously surged to a more than two-year peak following the anti-corruption purge by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince.

Sterling has been trading at $1.317 and €1.134 overnight.

The papers

The Guardian continues with the latest in the welter of information from the Paradise Papers, leading on news that Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton benefited from a scheme based in the Isle of Man to avoid taxes on his private jet – a story also picked up by the Mirror (which slams what it calls “the tax dodge parasites”), the i and Metro.

Guardian front page, Thursday 7 November 2017

The Sun follows up on news from the leaked documents that stars of Mrs Brown’s Boys used offshore companies to avoid paying taxes, and the Times covers the revelations about Apple’s move to Jersey.

Elsewhere, the Telegraph opts for US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross dangling a trade deal in front of post-Brexit Britain – as long as it drops EU rules such as those against chlorinated chicken. And the Daily Mail leads on the chances missed to help 18-month-old Elsie Scully-Hicks, whose adoptive father was yesterday found guilty of her murder.

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