Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 17 May 2019

1. Cross-party Brexit talks end with no agreement

Six weeks of talks on Brexit between Labour and the Tories are coming to an end today with no agreement reached. Instead, Theresa Maya and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will try to agree a timetable for a series of Commons votes intended to find a consensus. May last night asked Tory backbenchers to let her stay in office until July.

2. Brexit mess is ‘crushing disaster’ for business

The head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that the “paralysis” in Westminster over the UK leaving the EU is a “crushing disaster” for the nation’s businesses. Carolyn Fairbairn said that “every day without a deal is corrosive” and that business leaders had been forced to cancel plans to expand as a result of the uncertainty over Brexit.

3. Taiwan first in Asia to legalise gay marriage

Taiwan has become the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage, after its parliament voted by a comfortable margin in favour of the change. Hundreds of human rights supporters gathered near the parliament in Taipei despite heavy rain as the measures were debated earlier today. The issue has divided Taiwanese society.

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4. Amazon investing in Deliveroo

Online retail giant Amazon has made a big investment in food delivery service Deliveroo. The exact figure paid out has not been revealed, but Amazon’s cash injection forms part of a round of fundraising aimed at raising a total of $575m (£450m). Deliveroo said the new funding would be used to expand into more countries, improve services and build more delivery-only kitchens.

5. Iran told militias to ‘prepare for proxy war’

Iran’s most prominent military leader met Iraqi militias in Baghdad and told them to “prepare for proxy war” three weeks ago, before the US announced it was moving bombers and an aircraft carrier to the region, The Guardian reports today. The meeting prompted the US to pull out all but essential diplomatic staff in Iraq.

6. Keyhole surgery to repair baby’s spine in womb

Doctors have used keyhole surgery to repair the spine of a baby still in the womb, in a UK medical first. Jaxson Sharp was operated on 20 weeks into his mother Sherrie’s pregnancy, after scans showed his spine was not developing properly. Doctors said the procedure was not a cure but gave the baby the best chance for his future.

7. Louvre pyramid architect I.M. Pei dead at 102

The architect behind the famous glass pyramid outside the Louvre in Paris has died at the age of 102. I.M. Pei, who designed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Ohio, was the son of a prominent Chinese banker and moved to the US in 1935. Although Pei formally retired in 1990, he worked until he was well into his late 80s.

8. Chelsea Manning jailed again over WikiLeaks

The former US intelligence analyst who passed 700,000 confidential US files to WikiLeaks in 2010 has been jailed for the second time this year for refusing to testify before an inquiry into the website. Chelsea Manning was released last week after serving a two-month sentence for an earlier refusal to testify. The US hopes to prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

9. Private school pupils study wrong GCSE book

Parents of girls at a £37,000-a-year private school are up in arms after pupils sitting a GCSE English literature exam this week opened their papers to discover they had spent two years studying the wrong book. Malvern St James girls’ school in Worcestershire has apologised, and says it has contacted the exam board and asked for special consideration to be given to the pupils by markers.

10. Briefings: what MEPs do and how much they earn

The Government has signalled that British MEPs elected in the upcoming European elections must be ready to take up their seats despite the ongoing Brexit negotiations.

Polls suggest that candidates on the extremes of the Brexit divide will be the big winners in the 23 May elections. But what does being an MEP involve?

What do MEPs do and how much do they earn?