Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 6 Jan 2017

1. Theresa May to meet Donald Trump in February

Theresa May will visit Donald Trump next month, following his inauguration as US president and a few weeks before she triggers the start of Brexit by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Her chiefs of staff, Fiona Hill and Nick Timothy, visited Trump's team in December.

2. President-elect should 'grow up', says Joe Biden

US vice president Joe Biden has told Donald Trump to "grow up" and said it was "absolutely mindless" for the president-elect not to trust the intelligence agencies' claims that Russia meddled in the election process. Moscow denies hacking Democratic Party emails a few weeks before voting opened in November.

Trump travel ban: Judge expands definition of relatives

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3. East is East star Om Puri dies aged 66

Indian actor Om Puri, best known in the UK for his role in the 1999 film East is East, has died at the age of 66 after suffering a heart attack at home in Mumbai. His long career saw him appear in Indian, Pakistani, British and US films. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences.

4. English hospitals warn over patient numbers

A third of England's NHS hospital trusts warned they were unable to cope with the number of patients they were receiving last month. Seven of the 50 trusts who issued alerts said they were not able to give patients comprehensive care, while the Royal College of Emergency Medicine warned patients face delays receiving pain relief.

5. US 'identifies' Russian agents behind hacking

The US says it has identified the Russian agents behind the alleged hacking of Democratic Party emails ahead of November's presidential election won by Donald Trump. The unnamed agents are said to have sent the messages to WikiLeaks. Russia denies any involvement and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Moscow was not the source.

6. Russia to scale back Syrian operations

Russia is scaling back its military involvement in Syria and will withdraw its aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, from the Mediterranean. The announcement comes a week after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime reached a ceasefire deal with rebel forces. Peace talks are expected to begin later in Kazakhstan this month.

Russia begins military withdrawal from Syria

7. Half a million older people spend entire days alone

Half a million people over the age of 60 usually spend every day alone and have no interaction with other people, a poll from Age UK says. The same number said they tended not to see or speak to anyone for five or six days each week. Age UK said the results highlighted a growing number of chronically lonely older people.

8. Bowie 'did not know he was dying until final months'

David Bowie did not know he was terminally ill until three months before his death, a new documentary claims. That would mean the singer was unaware he was dying when he wrote his song Lazarus, which contains contains the line: "Look up here: I'm in heaven" and has been interpreted as a "parting gift" to fans.

9. US agents find $20m cash under mattress

A man has been arrested after US anti-fraud agents investigating an alleged fake internet phone service found $20m (£16m) in cash stuffed under a mattress in a Massachusetts apartment. Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, 28, has been charged with money-laundering in connection with a multi-billion-dollar global fraud.

10. Briefing: Meet your 'newest' organ – the mesentery

A neglected membrane in the digestive tract may in fact be an undiscovered organ, a surgeon has claimed. Professor J Calvin Coffey of the University of Limerick says the mesentery, a humble two-walled sheet of fatty membrane which holds the intestines in place, has been unfairly overlooked as the 79th organ in the human body.

Meet your 'newest' organ – the mesentery