Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 13 Jun 2019

1. Conservative leadership candidates face first vote

The first round of voting to choose the next leader of the Conservative Party is taking place in the House of Commons today, with a result expected some time after 1pm. Any of the ten candidates still in the race who fails to secure at least 17 votes from Tory MPs will be eliminated. A final winner of the contest to succeed Theresa May is to be announced in the week of 22 July.

2. Motion to block no-deal Brexit defeated

MPs have rejected a Labour-led attempt to make it impossible for the next British prime minister to take the country out of the EU without an agreement for future relations in place. The motion was defeated by a margin of 11 votes in the Commons yesterday. Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, said he would continue to fight against a no-deal Brexit.

3. Trump: I’d take dirt on opponent from foreign power

Donald Trump has said publicly that he will listen if a foreign power offers him “dirt” on any of his opponents in the 2020 presidential election. He told ABC News: “I think I’d want to hear it. There’s nothing wrong with listening.” The US president added that he would not notify the FBI. His comments come just a month after he pledged not to use such information.

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. Hong Kong shaken by violence at democracy rallies

Hong Kong is “in shock” after street protests yesterday erupted into some if the worst violence seen in the city in decades, the BBC reports. Police and protesters fought pitched battles around government buildings but the crowds had largely dispersed by this morning. The demonstrators are opposed to new legislation that will make it easier to extradite people to mainland China.

5. Cyclist Chris Froome in intensive care following crash

British cyclist Chris Froome is in intensive care in hospital after fracturing his right femur, elbow and several ribs in a serious crash while training yesterday. The 34-year-old hit a wall outside the French town of Roanne when he took his hands off the handlebars to blow his nose and high winds caught his front wheel. He has been ruled out of the Tour de France, which starts next month - bad news for his Team Ineos, formerly Team Sky.

6. Mira Sorvino: I was date raped

US actor Mira Sorvino has revealed that she is a survivor of date rape. The Oscar winner spoke out during a press conference yesterday with New York State’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, in support of the push to drop the statute of limitations on rape allegations. Sorvino was one of the first women to accuse film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.

7. Johnson ‘will suspend Parliament for no-deal Brexit’

Conservative leadership front-runner Boris Johnson has privately told the hard-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) of Tory MPs that he is willing to suspend Parliament to stop MPs blocking a no-deal Brexit if necessary, according to The Times. The former foreign minister yesterday said publicly that he is “strongly not attracted to” leaving the EU with no deal.

8. Unpaid police forensics roles ‘will be a disaster’

Forensics expert have warned that a police force’s decision to use volunteer forensic analysts is a “disaster waiting to happen”. West Midlands Police have advertised for volunteer digital forensic analysts to comb through “distressing [and] indecent images”, but paid forensic specialists say the volunteers will need counselling to cope with what they see.

9. British man donates frost-bitten toe to Yukon bar

A British man who suffered frostbite competing in an ultra-marathon in the Yukon has donated his amputated big toe to a bar that plans to serve it in a cocktail. Ex-commando Nick Griffiths sent it by Royal Mail to the Downtown Hotel in Canada’s Dawson City, which has a tradition of serving drinks containing a mummified human toe.

10. Briefing: what is the Rockall dispute?

Scotland and Ireland are at loggerheads over a tiny uninhabitable island off the Scottish west coast, as Irish fishermen defy orders to quit the surrounding waters.

The standoff comes after the Scottish government last week threatened to take action against Irish vessels that the authorities claim are fishing illegally around Rockall. So how did the row begin?

Rockall dispute: why Scotland and Ireland are fighting over the tiny island