Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 27 May 2019

1. Tories and Labour suffer as Brexit Party triumphs

Nigel Farage’s recently-formed Brexit Party won a sweeping victory in last week’s EU elections, with a massive collapse in support for the Tories and Labour. It topped the ballot in every region of England except London, while Scots voted overwhelmingly for the SNP. With counting unfinished this morning, Farage had won 28 of 73 seats.

2. Johnson: EU result is ‘final warning’ for Tories

Boris Johnson, hoping to become the UK’s next Prime Minister, writes in The Daily Telegraph today that the Tory party’s “crushing” defeat in the EU elections is a “final warning” which means it must pull the UK out of the EU “properly”. Meanwhile, senior Labour figures urged leader Jeremy Corbyn to support a second EU referendum.

3. Centrist parties suffer loss of support across EU

The EU election success of the right-wing Brexit Party at the expense of Labour and the Tories in the UK was mirrored across the rest of Europe, where parties occupying the centre ground of politics lost votes to extremists. The centre-right European People’s Party remains the largest bloc but liberals, greens and nationalists did well.

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4. Trump first foreign leader to meet Japan emperor

US President Donald Trump has become the first foreign leader to meet Japan’s new Emperor Naruhito, who took over from his father Akihito earlier this month. Coverage of Trump’s visit to Japan has been dominated by remarks in which he disagreed with his national security adviser on the threat posed by North Korean missile tests.

5. No-deal Brexit ‘could disrupt vaccinations in UK’

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, one of the biggest providers of vaccinations to the UK, has warned that a no-deal Brexit on 31 October could cause huge disruption to Britain’s flu vaccination programme. The firm says it cannot stockpile the jab, which is manufactured only shortly ahead of use. It warned of potential strain to the NHS.

6. Dangerous levels of antibiotics in world’s rivers

The largest global study yet on antibiotic resistance has found that hundreds of the world’s major rivers, from the Thames to the Tigris, are awash with antibiotics, passed into them from patients through sewage and waste from drugs firms. Prof William Glaze of the University of Exeter said the results were “quite scary and depressing”.

7. Humiliation for ‘Tommy Robinson’ at EU vote

The far-right anti-Islam figure Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name of Tommy Robinson, left the EU election count early last night as it became apparent he had not convinced the voters of North West England to back him. Yaxley-Lennon won only 2.2% of the vote and lost his £5,000 deposit. He blamed a ban on his online activities.

8. Number of over-70s in work doubles in a decade

Campaigners say new figures on people working beyond the age of 70 point to a worrying rise in pensioner poverty. The number of people in that age group still in employment has more than doubled in a decade, figures from the Office for National Statistics show, and now stands at nearly half a million, an increase of 135% since 2009.

9. ‘Talking heads’ app could pose blackmail risk

Researchers are warning that an app developed by Samsung’s AI centre in Moscow could be used to blackmail social media users. The ‘talking heads’ technology can produce video clips apparently showing a person laughing or shouting, generated from a single still image of a face. Criminals could do this with an image from social media.

10. Briefing: is facial recognition technology safe?

The first major legal challenge to the use of automated facial recognition (AFR) surveillance by British police begins this week.

Supporters claim facial recognition technology “will boost the safety of citizens and could help police catch criminals and potential terrorists”, reports The Daily Telegraph. But critics have labelled it “Orwellian” and say police have not been “transparent” about how they will use the data.

Is facial recognition technology safe?