Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 14 Sep 2011

TUC LEADER CALLS FOR NOVEMBER 30 national strike TUC leader Brendan Barber has called for a day of national strike action on November 30. The three biggest unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB - have already announced they will ballot their members on whether to strike over pension reforms. Together with other unions, coordinated strikes could involve over 2 million members. KABUL GUN BATTLE: 'ALL INSURGENTS DEAD'All the Taliban insurgents responsible for yesterday's attack on the US embassy and Nato headquarters in Kabul have now been killed by Afghan forces, and the multi-story building the gunmen were using has been cleared, according to Afghan authorities. At least seven people, four of them policemen, were killed in the attack. In pictures: assault on Kabul UK CHILDREN LOST IN 'COMPULSIVE CONSUMERISM' British parents are failing their children by leaving them trapped in "compulsive consumerism" because they "pointlessly" buy them goods rather than spend time with them, says a Unicef report. The study was ordered by the Department of Education after Unicef listed Britain as the worst industrialised country in which to be a child. unemployment: largest rise in two years UK unemployment rose by 80,000 to 2.51 million in the three months to July. According to the Office for National Statistics, this represents the largest increase in two years and brings the unemployment rate to 7.9 per cent. DAHL FAMILY LAMBASTED over WRITER'S SHED APPEALA BBC Radio appeal from model Sophie Dahl, granddaughter of the bestselling children's author Roald Dahl, for fans to contribute £500,000 towards saving the 6ft by 7ft garden shed in which he wrote his books, backfired yesterday. A deluge of complaints followed, demanding to know why the family could not pay for it themselves. Radio 4 listeners slam Sophie Dahl’s shed appeal LABOUR'S MILIBAND 'NOT SEEN AS PM', POLL FINDSLabour leader Ed Miliband (above) is not seen as a potential prime minister by 63 per cent of the general voting population and, crucially, by 49 per cent of his own party, a Populus poll for the Times. The findings follow Miliband's appearance at the TUC yesterday when he was booed by trade unionists for calling their last pension strikes a "mistake". Sickly Ed Miliband risks further anger from unions Ed, George and an S&M joke in the Commons hosepipe hope for climate change engineering University of Bristol scientists are planning to pump water into the atmosphere from an airfield in Norfolk using a 1km-long hose suspended from a helium balloon. The aim is to develop geoengineering technology that will mimic volcanic eruptions which have a cooling effect and might one day mitigate climate change. WINKLEVOSS TWINS POKE FUN AT ZUCKERBERG IN ADCameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the twin brothers who took Mark Zuckerberg to court and accused him of stealing their idea for a social network, have poked fun at the Facebook CEO in a commercial for pistachio nuts. In the ad, one of the brothers opens a pistachio nut. The other says: "That's a good idea." The first brother replies: "Think someone will steal it?" Both brothers then turn to the camera and say: "Who'd do that?" POP ART PIONEER RICHARD HAMILTON DIES AT 89Richard Hamilton, the British artist acclaimed as the 'Father of Pop Art' for his 1956 collage featuring a body builder, a girl on a sofa and a tin of ham, has died at 89, the Gagosian Gallery announced last night. London-born and expelled from the Royal Academy for defying his teachers, Hamilton was working on a major retrospective. RAILWAYS 'A RICH MAN'S TOY' SAYS HAMMONDBritish railways have become a "rich man's toy", the transport secretary Philip Hammond told MPs on the Commons transport committee yesterday. He said it was an "uncomfortable fact" that trains were already used by the better-off and some fares were "eye-wateringly expensive". Season tickets are set to rise 8% next year. Neil Clark: bring back British Rail

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