Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 23 Oct 2019

1. Johnson to push for election if Brexit is delayed

Boris Johnson will push for a general election if the EU agrees to extend the Brexit deadline, according to a Downing Street source. The prime minister is waiting to hear whether the EU will grant his extension request - which he was forced to make by law - after MPs last night voted 322 to 308 to reject his plan to get a deal signed off in three days, in time for next week’s 31 October deadline.

Who will win the general election? Voting day poll results and odds

2. Advertising watchdog bans influencers’ posts

Posts by three Instagram influencers promoting diet products have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority. Katie Price and Lauren Goodger showed off a BoomBod shot drink on their accounts, while Georgia Harrison pushed Protein Revolution weight loss gummies. The watchdog said the influencers’ ads were “irresponsible”.

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3. Paralympian Vervoort ends life through euthanasia

Paralympic athlete Marieke Vervoort has ended her own life by euthanasia at the age of 40, after her incurable degenerative muscle disease left her in constant pain and suffering seizures, paralysis and insomnia. Euthanasia is legal in Vervoort’s home country of Belgium. The wheelchair sprinter won gold and silver medals at the 2012 London games.

4. Woman discovers cancer through tourist camera

A woman from Berkshire has told how she discovered she had breast cancer during a visit to the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions attraction in Edinburgh. Bal Gill, 41, was looking at an image of herself taken by a heat-sensitive camera when she spotted a “weird” red patch on her left breast. The mother-of-two was later diagnosed with a ductal carcinoma and has undergone surgery.

5. Blood pressure pills ‘work better in evening’

Daily blood pressure medication works better if the pills are taken just before bed rather than in the morning, a new Spanish study suggests. Experts believe the body’s natural clock, or circadian rhythm, changes how people respond to the medication. The study is the largest yet into how the phenomenon may affect the efficiency of blood pressure pills, and included more than 19,000 people on the medications.

6. Poor toilet hygiene behind spread of E. coli, say experts

Researchers have found that the main cause of the spread of the worst strain of E. coli is people failing to wash their hand after going to the toilet, and not eating undercooked meat as is commonly believed. The study, led by a team at the University of East Anglia, looked at 20,000 human faecal samples, as well as blood and sewage. The researchers also analysed beef, pork, chicken, fruit and salad.

7. Child anorexia on the rise, study suggests

A new study suggests that cases of anorexia among pre-teen children in the UK and Ireland have doubled within a decade. Researchers estimate that 3.2 per 100,000 children aged eight to 12 met criteria for anorexia in 2015, compared with 1.6 in 2006. The research follows reports of a doubling in hospital admissions for eating disorders in the past six years, with the increase driven by a growing number of cases among teenage girls and young women.

8. Yale study finds people with posh voices get hiring boost

Having an accent perceived as upper class can help secure a job, according to a team at Yale University. They found that interviewers made immediate assumptions about socio-economic class based on the first few words they heard – and deemed upper class people more likely to be good at the role for which they were being interviewed.

9. First fully electric black cab in 120 years launches in London

A new type of black cab has been licensed for use in London – and it is the first 100% electric vehicle to be used by the capital’s cabbies in 120 years. An electric cab was launched in 1899 but failed to gain popularity over horse-drawn versions. The new vehicle is converted from a Nissan van.

Battery electric vs. hydrogen fuel cell vehicles: which are the better zero-emission cars?

10. Briefing: what Lebanese protesters want

The Lebanese government is trying to appease demonstrators as mass protests rocked the country for a fifth consecutive day.

The BBC reports that the “biggest protests to sweep the country in over a decade” began on Thursday after a series of controversial new taxes were proposed by the government. So what is going on?

What Lebanese protesters want