Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 26 Sep 2017

1. May to meet Donald Tusk for Brexit talks

Theresa May will meet European Council president Donald Tusk at Downing Street today for talks in parallel with the fourth round of Brexit negotiations, which are taking place in Brussels. In four weeks, the Council will decide whether sufficient progress has been made with the terms of British exit for talks on a future trade deal to begin.

2. North Korea mobilises aircraft after threat

According to South Korean state news, North Korea has been mobilising aircraft and boosting its defences. After being informed the US was sending bombers to the Korean peninsula, North Korea’s foreign minister insisted on Monday that the North has the right to shoot them down because Donald Trump has “declared war”.

3. Labour calls for £500m NHS winter bailout

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, will today use his party conference speech to call on the government to commit £500m to a winter ‘bailout’ fund for the NHS. Labour believes 10,000 people will wait four hours or longer for A&E treatment this winter. Ashworth will accuse Theresa May of having “her head in the sand”.

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4. Palestinian gunman kills three Israelis

Three Israelis have been shot dead by a Palestinian at the entrance to a Jewish settlement on the West Bank. The 37-year-old gunman, who opened fire while queuing with labourers to be allowed into Har Adar, was shot dead, Israeli police say. Hamas and Islamic Jihad welcomed the attack but did not claim responsibility for it.

5. Man charged with stabbing surgeon at mosque

A 28-year-old man of no fixed address has been charged with stabbing a 58-year-old orthopaedic surgeon as he arrived at a mosque in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, on Sunday evening for prayers. Ian Anthony Rook has been charged with assault. Victim Nasser Kurdy was treated in hospital and has since been discharged.

6. US marine smashes officer ‘glass ceiling’

For the first time, a woman has completed the US Marine Corps infantry officer training, a famously demanding 13-week series of challenges. Her course began with 131 candidates, of whom only 88 graduated in Quantico, Virginia, on Monday. The woman, who is keeping her identity private, will be given a 40-strong platoon to lead.

7. Abbott calls for end of abuse of Kuenssberg

Diane Abbott, the MP subjected to the most online abuse in the country, has called on Labour supporters not to vilify the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, saying she was saddened to hear that the corporation’s political editor was attending the party conference with a bodyguard. She said female journalists faced more abuse than men.

8. Health experts: Ban school rugby tackling

Academic experts are calling for a ban on contact in school rugby, saying it would reduce concussion and head or neck injuries. Prof Allyson Pollock of Newcastle University has led the research and says government has a “duty to protect children from risks of injury”. Last year a call for a ban on tackling in youth rugby was rejected.

9. Small island mystified by unclaimed lottery

The 180 residents of the small Irish island Bere are mystified that an islander has bought a winning lottery ticket worth £440,000 in the local post office – but has not come forward to claim the prize. The postmistress who sold the ticket is confident it was bought by a local not a visitor. Lottery officials have visited the island to no avail.

10. Briefing: How school segregation returned to the US

On 25 September 1957, nine African American teens in Little Rock, Arkansas, who just three weeks earlier had been blocked from taking their place at high school by members of the national guard, braved a hostile white crowd, climbed the school steps and were escorted to class by the US Army.

The Little Rock Nine, as they became known, were revered for shattering racial segregation in US schools. But 60 years on from the events of that day, racial separation in US schools remains.

While levels of segregation did drop between the late 1960s and 1980, they have steadily increased since then to the point that schools are about as segregated today as they were in the late 1960s.

Little Rock at 60: how school segregation returned to the US