Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 9 Feb 2017

1. Labour's Clive Lewis quits front bench over Brexit bill

Shadow business secretary Clive Lewis resigned from Jeremy Corbyn's front bench last night after defying a three-line whip to vote against the Brexit bill, which passed by 494 votes to 122. He was one of 52 Labour MPs to defy the party leader. Diane Abbott, who missed last week's vote with a migraine, voted for the bill.

Will Labour survive Brexit?

2. Lord Dubs: Ending child refugee policy is 'shameful'

Lord Dubs has called the government decision to stop accepting lone child refugees "shameful". The policy will end after 350 children enter the country, far less than the 3,000 campaigners called for. Dubs first arrived in the UK as one of the Kindertransport children fleeing Nazi Germany in the late 1930s,

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Anger as ministers quietly shut child refugee scheme

3. NHS figures are worst ever, leak suggests

NHS England waiting times in January were the worst since the introduction of the four-hour target was introduced, according to documents leaked to the BBC. The number of patients kept waiting more than four hours in A&E reached its highest levels since 2004, while record numbers waited more than 12 hours for a bed.

Pros and cons of privatising the NHS

4. Turkish soldiers killed in Russian air strike

Three Turkish soldiers have been killed in a Russian air strike in Syria. The soldiers were fighting alongside Syrian rebels trying to reclaim the city of al-Bab from so-called Islamic State. Russia is also fighting IS, but backs Syria's government forces. Russia said Vladimir Putin had "expressed condolences" to Turkey.

5. Ecuador presidential candidate promises to evict Assange

Julian Assange will be given a month's notice to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London if the country's main opposition candidate wins the presidential elections next week. Guillermo Lasso told The Guardian Ecuador "should not have to bear" the expense of keeping Assange and he would give the WikiLeaks founder 30 days to leave.

6. House of Lords 'faces abolition if they block Brexit'

Peers have been warned the Lords could be abolished if they oppose the Brexit bill, which passed through the Commons yesterday. A government source told the BBC: "If the Lords don't want to face an overwhelming public call to be abolished, they must get on and protect democracy and pass this bill."

What will happen to EU citizens after the December Brexit deadline?

7. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson: Death is 'unexplained'

Police are treating the death of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson as "unexplained". The former socialite, a god-daughter of Prince Charles, was found dead at her flat in London yesterday aged 45-year-old. She had been receiving treatment for a brain tumour.

Former 'It girl' Tara Palmer-Tomkinson dies at 45

8. Hundreds of jobs to go as Waitrose closes stores

Upmarket supermarket Waitrose is to close six stores in Hertford, Staines, Leek, Huntingdon, Cardiff Queen Street and Palmers Green in north London this year, threatening as many as 600 jobs. An additional 180 managers are to go nationally.

9. Archaeologists find new Dead Sea Scrolls cave

Archaeologists have discovered a cave that once held the Dead Sea Scrolls. Storage jars, fragments of scroll wrapping and a leather tying string were found at the site in the West Bank, taking the total number of caves to 12. Researchers from Israel's Hebrew University said the parchments had probably been looted in the 1950s.

10. Briefing: The legal argument over Trump's 'Muslim ban'

The US Court of Appeals is considering the legality of Donald Trump's executive order temporarily suspending entry to the country for people from seven majority-Muslim countries. At the heart of the issue is whether Trump exceeded his authority by issuing the blanket ban on visas for anyone from Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Syria.

Trump travel ban: Judge expands definition of relatives

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