Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 21 May 2019

1. Philip Hammond: no-deal Brexit would be ‘hijack’

Chancellor Philip Hammond will warn today that leaving the EU without a deal for future trading and other relations would be “to hijack the result of the referendum and… knowingly inflict damage on our economy and our living standards”. Theresa May will hold a fourth Commons vote on her Withdrawal Agreement early next month, but is expected to lose.

2. ‘County lines’ drug gangs: police arrest 586

Police investigating so-called county lines drug gangs have arrested 586 people in the past week, the National Crime Agency has revealed. Forces taking part in the crackdown have also seized cocaine worth £176,780, a total of £312,649 in cash, and 46 weapons. The NCA believes around 2,000 city gangs are using vulnerable young people to sell drugs in smaller towns.

3. Rise in sea levels ‘could displace millions’

A new study on the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica has concluded the ocean levels may rise almost twice as much by 2100 as had previously been predicted. The research, based on expert opinions, found that owing to accelerated melting, the world’s seas are on course to rise by two metres by the end of the century – which would displace hundreds of millions of people across the globe.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

4. Facial recognition: police face court case

The first major legal challenge to the use of facial recognition technology by British police begins in Cardiff today. Office worker Ed Bridges, whose image was captured and logged by police computers while he was out shopping, says the near-unregulated use of the technology breached his human rights. The technique has been banned in the US city of San Francisco.

5. Austrian F1 legend Niki Lauda dead at 70

Austrian Formula 1 driver Niki Lauda has died at the age of 70, more than four decades after almost losing his life in a horrific crash during the German Grand Prix. Lauda was world champion in 1975 and then again in 1977 and 1984, after recovering from the 1976 accident, in which he was badly burned. He had kidney transplants in 1997 and 2005, and underwent a lung transplant last year.

6. Lord Heseltine loses Tory whip over EU

Tory grandee Lord Heseltine has had the party whip suspended after announcing that he will vote Lib Dem in Thursday’s EU elections. The former deputy prime minister, 86, wrote in The Sunday Times that the Conservatives are “myopically focused on forcing through the biggest act of economic self-harm ever undertaken by a democratic government”.

7. Trump stops McGahan testifying to Congress

US President Donald Trump has intervened to stop former White House counsel Don McGahan from testifying to Congress about the report on alleged links between Trump and Russia. McGahan has been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee after the Mueller report said he blocked Trump’s attempts to obstruct justice.

8. Nurses warn of ‘hippy crack’ health risks

The Royal College of Nursing is calling for a national campaign to highlight the dangers involved in the recreational use of nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas or “hippy crack”. Nitrous oxide is the second-most popular drug among young people, but can cause breathing problems, paranoia and even death.

9. Struggling care worker inherits country estate

A care worker who says he had a “tough start in life” has inherited one of Britain’s grandest country estates, after a DNA test showed he was the heir. Jordan Adlard Rogers, 31, had spent years trying to prove he was the illegitimate son of Charles Rogers, whose family had owned the Penrose Estate, near Porthleven in Cornwall, since the 18th century. The test was finally carried out following Rogers’ death last August at the age of 62.

10. Briefing: should HS2 be scrapped?

The Conservatives’ controversial HS2 railway line is in the spotlight once again amid growing speculation that potential successors to Theresa May might scrap the £56bn project.

So what are the arguments for and against ditching it?

Will HS2 be scrapped and what has it cost?