Day of turmoil in UK

The resignations of Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and work and pensions secretary Esther McVey, and the threat by arch Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg to force a vote of no confidence in Theresa May as Conservative Party leader, left British politics in turmoil on Thursday evening. But The Guardian and CNBC report that May has vowed to push ahead with her Brexit plan, saying she believed “with every fibre of my being” that the agreement unveiled on Wednesday was “the right one for our country and all our people”. The BBC reported late on Thursday that Brexit supporting minister Michael Gove is also considering resigning after rejecting May’s offer to replace Raab as the UK’s chief Brexit negotiator. Bloomberg argues that the Brexiters’ belief that the UK can forge better trading relationships with countries outside the EU is at “odds with the theory of trade gravity”. The Guardian has a guide to six possible scenarios of what happens next. The Guardian also has a fun interactive game that allows readers to use the votes of different MP groupings to try get the bill through parliament.

Fire death toll and missing numbers rise

The number of people now reported missing in the wake of the wild fires in California has risen to 631, Fox News reports. Seven further bodies were discovered on Thursday to bring the total of fatalities to 63. Some 52,000 people have been displaced. The BBC has dramatic drone footage of the devastation wreaked by the fires on the town of Paradise.

Amazon not too big to fail: Bezos

Jeff Bezos told his Amazon employees last week that the company will one day go bankrupt, CNBC reports. Bezos was responding to a question at an all-hands meeting at the company’s HQ in Seattle. He reportedly said that large companies tend to have a lifespan of “30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years”. Bezos predicted that “one day Amazon will fail”, but that “we have to try and delay that day for as long as possible."

Zuckerberg ignorant of Soros attack links

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he only learned of his company’s ties to a PR firm that attempted to discredit the company’s critics by claiming they were agents of the billionaire George Soros when he read about it in the New York Times. The Guardian cites Zuckerberg as saying that he took immediate action. “We’re no longer working with this firm,” he told a conference call with reporters on Thursday.

Beyoncé cuts Green ties

Beyoncé’s Ivy Park clothing label will be 100% owned by the singer’s Parkwood company after it bought out shares belonging to disgraced British businessman Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, The Guardian reported on Thursday. “Parkwood has acquired 100% of the Ivy Park brand. Topshop/Arcadia will fulfil the existing orders,” Ivy Park said in a statement.

Khmer Rouge pair guilty of genocide

In what is the first official acknowledgement that the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia committed genocide, two leading figures were handed life sentences by a court in Phnom Penn early on Friday. 92-year old Nuon Chea and 87-year old Khieu Samphan, 87 were already serving life sentences for crimes, but the trial by the UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal was significant. “This is comparable, in Cambodia, to the Nuremberg judgment after world war two,” the UN’s David Scheffer told The Guardian.

Football: Red Lions fall and Rooney farewell

Luxembourg’s national football team lost 0-2 to Belarus at the Josy Barthel stadium on Thursday evening to seriously dent their ambition of qualifying for Euro 2020. At Wembley in London, Wayne Rooney bade an emotional farewell to international football, The Guardian says. England beat the USA 3-0. Rooney was capped 120 times for his country and scored a record 53 goals.

Lost Disney film found in Japan

The BBC reports on the story of an anime historian in Japan who had a “lost” 2-minute Disney film in his possession for 70 years. He had purchased the cartoon, starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as a teenager. But when he read a book about seven missing Disney films, he realized the significance of the 16mm film.

Today’s breakfast briefing was written by Duncan Roberts