Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 1 Oct 2017

1. Theresa May pledges to freeze tuition fees

Theresa May will announce that tuition fees will be frozen at £9,250 a year, according to reports this morning. The Prime Minister will also raise the repayment threshold, so graduates will only start paying back loans once they earn £25,000, rather than £21,000. The Tories are keen to woo back younger voters. Labour, which wants to scrap tuition fees, called the plan "desperate".

2. Air France jet in emergency landing crisis after engine fails

A passenger flight from Paris to Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing after it lost part of an engine over the Atlantic. Air France confirmed flight AF066 landed safely after being diverted to Goose Bay airport in Canada. Although no-one was injured, passengers remained on board hours after the landing. One said he heard "a loud boom" and "thought we were going to go down".

3. US in direct talks with North Korea over nukes

Donald Trump’s administration is communicating with North Korea as it bids to encourage the regime to abandon its build up of nuclear weapons, secretary of state Rex Tillerson has revealed. Washington has long had back channels with North Korea for hostage negotiations but Tillerson's remarks suggest the White House is also using secret talks to convince Pyongyang to hold official negotiations aimed at easing tensions.

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4. Sajid Javid refuses to back Theresa May for election

Theresa May has received a fresh blow after communities secretary Sajid Javid declined to reply when asked if May should lead the Tories into the next election campaign. When posed the question during an interview with The Observer, Javid laughed, stood up and declared: "I think we are out of time." According to The Sunday Times, Boris Johnson believes May will be gone in a year.

5. Voting begins in 'illegal' Catalan referendum

Voters are going to the polls in a highly controversial referendum in the Spanish region of Catalonia. The Spanish government has pledged to stop the vote, which has been declared illegal by the courts. Sky News reports that late into the night, pro-independence campaigners camped out, many with children, to keep the schools open to ensure they could be used as polling stations.

6. CofE and BBC in war of words over sexual abuse

The Church of England and the BBC have traded insults over their responses to sex abuse scandals within their ranks. Speaking about the Jimmy Savile scandal, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the BBC had not shown the same integrity over accusations of child abuse that the Catholic and Anglican churches had. The BBC’s Martin Bashir responded by listing cases of alleged sex abuse within the Anglican church.

7. Monarch airlines granted one-day reprieve amid 'bloodbath'

The UK’s fifth largest airline has been granted a one day extension to its licence after emergency talks with regulators. With Monarch’s future in doubt, the CAA said it would provide a "daily update" on the status of its ability to operate its package holiday arm. There are fears that the airline’s losses are spiralling out of control. A source told the Sunday Telegraph there is a "bloodbath" in trading for short-haul carriers.

8. Private treatment at NHS hospitals is putting patients at risk

A think tank claims the lives of NHS patients who cannot afford to pay "may be at risk" as NHS facilities are used to treat private patients. Statistics obtained under Freedom of Information law show income from private patients at the Royal Marsden in London, one of London’s best-known cancer-specialist hospitals, doubled in six years as the law was changed to allow NHS trusts to do more paid work.

9. Marilyn Manson hurt at New York concert

Marilyn Manson has been injured after a piece of stage scenery fell on him during a performance. The rock star was hurt during a set at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on Saturday night. Videos posted on social networks appear to show a scaffolding rig that was supporting two giant pistols falling towards the front of the stage onto the singer. Some reports suggest that he was climbing up the scaffolding immediately before it came down.

10. LGBT equality 'gone a bit far' says new Ukip chief

The new Ukip leader says LGBT equality has gone "a bit far" and children are being encouraged "to question their own sexuality". Former soldier and police officer Henry Bolton, who was announced as the party’s fourth leader in just over a year at the party’s annual conference, said of LGBT equality: "If somebody feels it has gone too far they should be free to express that concern."