Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 16 Jan 2020

Jump to category:

1. TV cameras to be allowed in Crown Courts
2. Alcohol ‘more damaging than hard drugs’
3. Attenborough calls for urgent action on climate crisis
4. Momentum throws weight behind Long-Bailey
5. Giuliani aide: Trump knew about Ukraine
6. Harry carrying out first duty since shock announcement
7. Russian government quits as Putin plots to retain power
8. Scottish FA to ban headers for children
9. Patrick Stewart: Brexit is ‘grimmest thing’
10. Briefing: the problem with the UK’s immigration rules

published 16 January 2020

1. TV cameras to be allowed in Crown Courts

Filming of Crown Court cases in England and Wales is to be allowed for the first time, under new legislation due to come into force in late spring. Only judges will be seen on camera – and only their sentencing remarks will be filmed, after a verdict is reached. Filming of sentencing statements has been permitted in Scotland since 2012.

Alcohol is “the most damaging drug in pretty much every Western country”, the government’s former chief drug adviser has warned. Professor David Nutt was sacked by the Home Office in 2009, after claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol. In a new book, he says that studies carried out with his colleagues in the independent Drug Science group show that alcohol harm outstrips that of heroin and crack cocaine, tobacco, cannabis and ecstasy in the UK, Europe and Australia.

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Veteran natural history presenter David Attenborough has warned the world is at a “moment of crisis” for climate change, and is urging China and other economic superpowers to tackle the growing problem. The 93-year-old told the BBC that it was “palpable nonsense” to suggest, as have some politicians, that the ongoing bushfires in Australia have nothing to do with the world becoming warmer.

Left-wing Labour group Momentum is expected to back Rebecca Long-Bailey to become the party’s next leader - as the pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group asks its members to vote on whether to support her campaign without offering an alternative. The shadow business secretary’s leadership bid has received a further boost from the results of a poll of readers of the independent LabourList website. The survey put Long-Bailey in the lead with 42% of the vote, followed by Keir Starmer on 37%.

Prince Harry is today carrying out his first royal duty since revealing that he and wife Meghan Markle plan to step back from their position as senior royals. The Duke is hosting the Rugby League World Cup draw at Buckingham Palace, meeting representatives from the 21 nations taking part. Harry is expected to remain in the UK for meetings next week, despite rumours that he was preparing to fly to Canada to be reunited with the Duchess and their baby son Archie.