Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 12 May 2015
- 1. TORY CABINET MEETS - FIRST FOR 18 YEARS
- 2. GREECE: 'TWO WEEKS UNTIL CASH RUNS OUT'
- 3. KERRY TO MEET PUTIN IN RUSSIA
- 4. PICASSO PAINTING SETS AUCTION RECORD
- 5. ‘ALARMING’ RISE IN WORKING-AGE STROKES
- 6. UMUNNA STANDS AS LABOUR LEADER
- 7. RMT VOTES TO STRIKE OVER PAY
- 8. STONE CIRCLE FOUND AT 1,700FT ON DARTMOOR
- 9. NEPAL HIT BY NEW EARTHQUAKE
- 10. SHOULD WE SCRAP THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT?
1. TORY CABINET MEETS - FIRST FOR 18 YEARS
For the first time in 18 years, an all-Conservative cabinet has met in Whitehall. David Cameron told his ministers the Tories were the real party of working people. One third of attendees will be female. Boris Johnson will attend, without portfolio, but party chairman Grant Shapps has not been invited.
Queen's Speech: Cameron reveals radical agenda
2. GREECE: 'TWO WEEKS UNTIL CASH RUNS OUT'
Greece’s radical finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has warned his government, which is resisting pressure to increase austerity, may run out of cash in a fortnight. After a meeting of his eurozone colleagues to discuss the €7.2bn final tranche of a bail-out package, he said the situation was “terribly urgent”.
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3. KERRY TO MEET PUTIN IN RUSSIA
US foreign minister John Kerry will meet Russian president Vladimir Putin during his first visit to Russia since the start of the Ukraine crisis last year. The Secretary of State is also holding talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at the Black Sea resort Sochi. Russia called the meeting, the first between Kerry and Putin since 2013, a "positive" step.
4. PICASSO PAINTING SETS AUCTION RECORD
A cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O), 1955, sold for $179.4m (£115m) at Christie’s in New York. The record was previously held by Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which fetched £91.5m in 2013.
Picasso and the world's most expensive artworks
5. ‘ALARMING’ RISE IN WORKING-AGE STROKES
Poor diet and a lack of exercise are behind an “alarming” rise in the number of working-age people in England suffering strokes, warns the Stroke Association. The number of people having strokes between the ages of 20 and 64 has risen by 25% since the year 2000. High blood pressure is partly to blame.
'Shocking' rise in number of young stroke victims
6. UMUNNA STANDS AS LABOUR LEADER
Chuka Umunna, the MP for Streatham and shadow business secretary, has announced that he will run for the leadership of the Labour party. He made the announcement in a video on Facebook. He is the second MP after Liz Kendall to enter the race to succeed Ed Miliband. Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Tristram Hunt are also tipped to stand.
7. RMT VOTES TO STRIKE OVER PAY
Members of the RMT union have voted in favour of strike action in a row with Network Rail over pay. Four out of five of those who voted backed strike action said the union. RMT members had already rejected a four-year pay offer from Network Rail, that included a £500 bonus but no payrise this year. There were also fears of redundancies after 2016.
8. STONE CIRCLE FOUND AT 1,700FT ON DARTMOOR
The highest stone circle known in England has been discovered on Dartmoor – and it is the first ‘new’ circle to be found for 100 years. Situated at 1,722ft above sea level, archaeologists say the 30 stones are part of a “sacred arc” of circles, showing evidence of co-ordination between separate late-Neolithic communities
9. NEPAL HIT BY NEW EARTHQUAKE
Nepal has been struck by another major earthquake, two weeks after more than 8,000 people were killed by a devastating quake. There have been reports of more deaths and many buildings damaged last month have collapsed in the wake of the latest quake, measured at magnitude 7.3.
Major earthquake hits Nepal for second time in two weeks
10. SHOULD WE SCRAP THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT?
The Conservatives argue that their scrapping the Human Rights Act will ensure that the European Court of Human Rights will no longer be able to overrule judgements made in British courts and will make "the Supreme Court supreme". But such a reform would also "plunge the UK into a constitutional crisis," The Guardian says.
Will the Human Rights Act be scrapped?
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