Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 27 Jul 2017

1. May: Tories were wrong on gay issues

Theresa May has admitted the Conservative Party was "wrong" on gay issues in the past. She said her own voting record, including opposing lowering the age of consent, might cause "scepticism", but she and her party had "come a long way". It is the 50th anniversary of homosexual acts being decriminalised in England,

2. Report to consider EU migrants' economic role

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has asked for an investigation into the economic impact EU migrants have on the economy. The independent migration advisory committee will report in September 2018, merely months before Brexit in March 2019. Critics have questioned why the inquiry is being launched a year after the EU referendum.

3. Lloyds sets aside extra £700m for PPI

Lloyds Bank says it has set aside an additional £700m to cover PPI claims this year, on top of the £300m already allocated. The bank, which returned to private hands in May, has also revealed its biggest half-year profits for eight years, posting a four per cent rise of £2.5bn in the six months to the end of June.

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4. US Senate rejects bill to gut Obamacare

The US Senate voted yesterday against a bill which would have scrapped large parts of Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act without proposing a replacement. Seven Republican senators turned against their party to vote the bill down alongside their Democrat colleagues. Some Republicans felt the bill did not go far enough.

5. Housing market 'still reacting to 2007 crash'

The housing market is still reacting to the global financial crisis of 2007, says estate agent Savills, adding the market is "more divided at a regional level than ever before". The average house price in £478,142 in London compared to £209,971 nationally and home owners are struggling to trade up.

6. Don't finish antibiotics course, say experts

Finishing a course of antibiotics even though you feel better may not be the correct course of action, say experts at Brighton and Sussex medical school. Writing in the BMJ, the team say traditional advice to complete an entire course could encourage antibiotic resistance and that short-term use of the drugs could be as beneficial.

7. Noon deadline for Charlie Gard case

A noon deadline has been given for the parents of Charlie Gard and Great Ormond Street Hospital to come to an agreement on the terminally-ill baby's final days. Connie Yates and Chris Gard want to keep their son alive in a hospice for "a week or so", but the hospital says it does not have the resources to provide the necessary care. A judge will decide if no agreement can be reached.

8. 'We are made of stars,' say astronomers

Up to half the matter in the Milky Way - including human beings - is made of atoms blasted into our galaxy by supernova explosions, an international team of astronomers says. They say the matter came from distant areas in space, driven here by strong interstellar winds created when stars exploded.

9. Teacher banned for having sex with pupil

A teacher who had sex with a pupil on a plane has been banned from the profession. Eleanor Wilson, 28, who worked in Bristol, denied having an inappropriate relationship with the boy from 2015 to 2016, but the National College for Teaching and Leadership found she had engaged in sexual activity with him in August 2015.

10. Briefing: The nine ways you can avoid dementia

A third of dementia cases could be avoided if if more people looked after their brain health, according to the biggest-ever study into the causes of the disease.

A group of 24 experts on ageing, led by University College London, "looked back at hundreds of research papers and analyses of the causes of dementia to come up with a life-plan which can dramatically cut an individual's chance of developing diseases like Alzheimer's," says the Daily Telegraph.

"There are a lot of things that individuals can do and there are a lot of things that public health and policy can do, to reduce the numbers of people developing dementia," said Gill Livingston, professor of psychiatry of older people at University College London and a co-author of the report.

What is dementia and how can it be prevented?