Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 25 Apr 2019

1. Climate change demonstration to end today

Demonstrators demanding action on climate change have said Thursday will be the last day of their action in London, after almost two weeks of protests. The Extinction Rebellion group has seen a large spike in online support in recent days and said it thanked Londoners for “opening their hearts” and putting up with disruption.

2. Food bank network hands out record 1.6m parcels

The Trussell Trust says its network of food banks handed out a record 1.6 million food parcels last year, more than half a million of them to children. The charity is calling for urgent changes to the benefits system, blaming cuts to payments, delays with universal credit and rising poverty for soaring food bank demand.

3. Measles ‘time bomb’ in UK

The NHS is warning of a measles “time bomb” in the UK as figures from Unicef show that more than half a million children were not vaccinated between 2010 and 2017. The health service says measles cases in England have quadrupled in a single year. Unicef blames a mixture of complacency, misinformation and lack of access for the immunisation downturn.

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4. Sri Lanka attacks: suicide vest ‘failed to explode’

One of the nine suicide bombers who killed at least 359 people in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday missed his original target after his suicide vest failed to detonate, according to The Times. Sources told the newspaper that Abdul Lathief Jameel Mohamed, who went to university in England, was forced to abandon an attack on a five-star hotel, before later killing two people in a blast at a guest house.

5. Kim and Putin pledge closer ties in Vladivostok

Russian leader Vladimir Putin met his North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un for the first time today at a two-way summit in Vladivostok. The two men pledged closer ties between their nations and said they would discuss denuclearisation. It is thought Kim is seeking support from Russia after his talks with US President Donald Trump led nowhere.

6. Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned

Thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned when the ice shelf that was home to their colony was destroyed in severe weather, a team from the British Antarctic Survey has discovered. Scientists say the young chicks were unable to swim following the collapse of the edge of the Brunt Ice Shelf, in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, in 2016 because they had not yet grown the necessary feathers.

7. Saudi app ‘allows men to monitor women’

Two sisters who fled from controlling families in Saudi Arabia and are now seeking asylum in Georgia have urged Apple and Google to withdraw support for a Saudi government smartphone app. Maha and Wafa al-Subaie say the Absher app, which provides a range of services, can be used to monitor women’s movements.

8. Runners Farah and Gebrselassie in row over alleged theft

Elite athletes Sir Mo Farah and Haile Gebrselassie are locked in a public dispute after Farah publicly accused the Ethiopian legend of ignoring his pleas for help following a theft from his room at a Addis Ababa hotel last month. Gebrselassie in turn has accused Farah and his entourage of “multiple reports of disgraceful conduct” while staying at the hotel, which he owns.

9. Mexicans outraged over cold beer ban plan

A proposal to ban the sale of cold beer in Mexico in a bid to cut excessive and underage consumption has caused outrage across the country. If passed, the motion would force shops in Mexico City to sell beer at room temperature only. The suggestion has spawned a hashtag on Twitter, #ConLasCervezasNo, which translates as “Don’t Mess With Our Beer”.

10. Briefing: how Isis began

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Sri Lanka that left at least 359 people dead and more than 500 wounded.

Although the terrorist group has yet to prove its involvement in the Easter Sunday bombings, which targeted churches and high-end hotels, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says that such a link had been suspected. So how did Isis start?

Isis: what does the future hold for the terror group?