Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 16 Apr 2019

1. Macron: we will rebuild Notre-Dame cathedral

France’s President Emmanuel Macron vowed yesterday that the spire and roof of Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which collapsed in a huge blaze yesterday, will be rebuilt. One of the country’s richest men, François-Henri Pinault, has already pledged €100m (£86m) towards the cost of restoring the 850-year-old landmark.

2. London climate protests: 113 arrested

Police have arrested 113 people in London for obstructing busy city-centre roads as part of a protest for climate change action led by the group Extinction Rebellion. After blocking routes yesterday activists camped overnight. Police began moving people from Waterloo Bridge in the early hours of this morning, on suspicion of public order offences.

3. One-fifth of teachers “want out within two years”

A poll by the Education Union suggests that 18% of teachers expect to leave the profession within the next two years, with the high workload and “excessive” accountability cited as reasons, along with Ofsted inspections and school league tables. The survey also found that two-fifths plan to leave within five years.

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4. Trump faces Republican challenge for presidency

The first Republican who intends to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency of the US in 2020 has declared. Bill Weld is a former governor of Massachusetts, and stood as the Libertarian candidate for the vice-presidency in 2016. The 73-year-old faces an “uphill battle to take over a party refashioned in Trump’s image,” the BBC says.

5. DNA analysis shines light on Stonehenge builders

DNA analysis has revealed that the ancestors of Stonehenge's builders came from Anatolia, now part of Turkey, and moved to Britain via the Iberian peninsula, in a migration that replaced an earlier hunter-gatherer population with farmers. They reached Britain about 900 years before the first building at Stonehenge.

6. May pressured to end Brexit talks with Labour

Theresa May is under pressure from within her own party to end the talks on Brexit she is holding with the Opposition, according to The Guardian. The newspaper says neither party wants to appear responsible for the breakdown of the discussions, but the Conservatives fear heavy losses in the local elections if a deal is not made.

7. Driver who filmed crash slips through loophole

A man who filmed a car crash near his home while he was driving has had his conviction overturned because a judge ruled the ban on using phones at the wheel only applies to their use for communication. The High Court will now rule on the case. Ramsey Barreto was spotted by police as he drove past the crash.

8. US local paper wins Pulitzer for massacre issue

A local newspaper in Maryland has won the most prestigious prize in journalism, the Pulitzer, for its coverage of a massacre in its own newsroom. Five staff were murdered by a gunman in June 2018, allegedly by a man with a long-standing grudge against the paper. He is still awaiting trial. Staff at the paper are said to have celebrated quietly.

9. Amazon ‘flooded with fake five-star reviews’

Consumer group Which? says that online retail site Amazon is flooded with fake five-star reviews. Which? found that the top reviews for products are dominated by unfamiliar brands, many of them unverified, meaning that the items may not have been purchased on the site. Amazon insisted it was using automated technology to weed out fakes.

10. 20 years on from the Columbine Massacre has anything changed?

This week, towns and cities across the US will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, one of the most infamous mass murders in the country’s history and a watershed moment for gun violence in schools. But two decades on, has anything changed?

Columbine Massacre: 20 years on, has anything changed?

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