Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Saturday 2 Sep 2017

1. Trump asks Congress for Harvey down payment

Donald Trump has asked Congress for $7.8bn (£6bn) as an initial down payment to help with recovery efforts in Texas and Louisiana. The authorities say there will be further requests for funds when the full impact of Hurricane Harvey is clearer. The US President is to visit Texas for a second time today. Some residents have been allowed to return to their homes.

2. 'Snooping' councils threaten £2,000 dustbin fines

Councils are using bin men to "snoop" on households and report families who fail to recycle, says The Times. An investigation found that local authorities have ordered workers to rifle through bins and to record when recycling was "contaminated" with food or waste. Although infringements generally lead to fines of £60, in some areas householders were threatened with penalties of up to £20,000 for leaving out bins for too long.

3. Labour MP says 'floppy left' failing abuse victims

A sacked Labour frontbencher claims the "floppy left" is failing vulnerable children because it will not confront the truth about sex crimes involving street-grooming. Sarah Champion was dismissed from the shadow cabinet by Jeremy Corbyn last month after she wrote in an article for The Sun claiming that Britain "has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

4. Tipsters rake in fortunes with misleading long shots

Tipsters who earn commission on the traffic they send to online bookmakers are raking in money by deliberately recommending long shot bets that are unlikely to win, reports The Guardian. The tipsters have a strong vested interest in seeing their suggested bets lose because they take up to a 30% cut of the losses their followers make to bookmakers. Earlier this week, it was revealed that the industry was harvesting people’s data to target low-income gamblers.

5. Scientists detect radio signals three billion light years away

Astronomers searching for signs of intelligent alien life in the universe have revealed they detected 15 mysterious radio signals from a dwarf galaxy three billion light years away. However, a researcher said: "I don’t think they are coming from intelligent civilisations." The team is part of the Breakthrough Listen project, set up by Professor Stephen Hawking to discover whether we’re alone in the universe.

6. Hunt lobby says National Trust 'painting targets'

The pro-hunting lobby claims the National Trust is "painting targets" by publishing details of hunting meetings. The trust came under fire for posting on its website the times and locations of legal hunts on its land. The field sports lobby said such information would be invaluable to saboteurs and animal rights activists, increasing the risk of violent disruption.

7. Kenya court invalidates presidential election result

Kenya’s supreme court has declared Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory in the presidential election invalid and ordered a new vote to be held within 60 days. The court had heard that electronic voting results were hacked and manipulated in favour of Kenyatta, who was declared the election winner with 54% of the vote. The ruling sets up a new race for the presidency between Kenyatta and the veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga.

8. Yellow Pages to stop printing after 51 years

The Yellow Pages will stop printing from January 2019 after more than five decades, its owner has announced. Yell is to fully digitise the directory business, bringing to an end the publication’s 51-year run. The iconic yellow-papered publication has run famous advertisements over the years, including the "JR Hartley" campaign in the 1980s and the "French Polisher".

9. Sports Direct 'used fingerprint ID to find unhappy workers'

A trade union claims that Sports Direct bosses asked warehouse workers to press 'happy' or 'sad' emoji buttons to say how they felt about their working conditions and then used fingerprint recognition to identify unhappy workers. A spokesman asked: "Would you risk having hours withheld, possibly losing your job and being called in by management because you indicated dissatisfaction with your work environment?"

10. Was the East Sussex haze caused by a shipwreck?

The coastguard says the gas cloud which affected hundreds of people on the East Sussex coast could have been caused by a shipwreck. The unknown haze caused evacuations and led to 150 people seeing treatment for streaming eyes, sore throats and nausea, after it hit the coast on Sunday. Some of those who experienced it said they could smell chlorine, but the fire service said it was "extremely unlikely" to have been the chemical.