Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 27 Jan 2017

1. May meets Trump in Washington DC

Theresa May was due to meet Donald Trump in Washington DC today in the first visit of a foreign leader to the White House since the inauguration. On the agenda was a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal. Yesterday, the Prime Minister told Republican Party chiefs that the days of the US and UK intervening militarily overseas are over.

Donald Trump sued by two states over business links

2. Mexico condemns Trump's border wall tax

Mexico has condemned Donald Trump's plan to impose a 20% import tax on its products to fund the building of a wall along its border with the US. Foreign minister Luis Videgaray said the tariff would make Mexican goods more expensive for US consumers, who would therefore finance the build themselves.

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3. Taxman fails to target super-rich, MPs say

A cross-party group of MPs have issued a scathing report on the way the super-rich are taxed in the UK, warning that a failure to crack down on tax avoidance undermines confidence in the whole system. The public accounts committee said there was "one rule for the rich and another for everyone else".

The Business: UK betting income rockets as terminals grow

4. Tesco to buy Londis and Budgens owner

UK supermarket giant Tesco is to buy wholesalers Booker, the owners of Londis and Budgens, in a share-and-cash deal worth £3.7bn. Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis said the merger would create "the UK's leading food business with combined expertise in retail, wholesale, supply chain and digital".

5. Two missing as wildfire destroys town in Chile

A town of 1,000 buildings has been razed to the ground by Chile's worst wildfire in modern history. Two people are missing and one body was found in the ashes of Santa Clara, in the Maule region. Help has been sent from around the world. Mayor Carlos Valenzuela said the destruction was "literally like Dante's Inferno".

6. Doomsday is 30 seconds closer, scientists say

Donald Trump's comments on nuclear weapons and climate change have brought the apocalypse closer, say scientists at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The group has moved its "Doomsday Clock" from three minutes to midnight to two-and-a-half minutes - the closest the world has been to destruction since 1953.

What is the Doomsday Clock and what time is set to now?

7. Girls 'feel inferior' by age of six, study shows

A study of gender roles in US children has thrown up "disheartening" results, researchers say. They found that by the age of six, girls have started to believe that they are intrinsically less talented than boys. Just one year earlier, both genders agreed their sex was "brilliant". Exposure to media, peers, teachers and parents is the probable cause.

8. 'Giant of Scottish politics' Tam Daylell dies

Former Labour MP Tam Daylell has died at the age of 84. A stalwart of the backbenches - and a thorn in Margaret Thatcher's side, memorably pressing her on the sinking of the Belgrano during the Falklands War – he served as an MP in Scotland from 1962 until 2005. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon called him “a real giant of Scottish politics”.

9. Nuclear threat 'seems real again', says Gorbachev

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has warned that the growing "militarisation of politics" could open the door to a new arms race and the renewed threat of nuclear war. A quarter of a century after his "perestroika" and "glasnost" policies helped end the Cold War Gorbachev says "the nuclear threat once again seems real".

US and Russia spar over vetoed Syria sanctions

10. Briefing: Is stamp duty damaging the economy?

Of the many taxes we all have to pay stamp duty is one of the most maligned. Many potential home movers begrudge having to pay thousands of pounds out of already-taxed income in order to secure a home. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the UK has the highest property taxes of any developed country.

Is stamp duty damaging the economy?