Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 29 Jan 2018

1. Lords say EU Withdrawal Bill must be rewritten

The House of Lords Constitution Committee has said the Government’s EU withdrawal bill must undergo a fundamental rewrite - hours before peers are due to begin debating it tomorrow. The committee said the Bill was “constitutionally unacceptable” and risks “undermining legal certainty” with its scale, complexity and problems in its drafting.

2. Fitness tracker exposes US military bases

Online fitness app Strava has published a map showing the routes run by its millions of users in training – and in doing so has inadvertently exposed the locations of US military personnel bases. As the app is more commonly used in the West, the routes used by US soldiers in the Middle East and elsewhere stand out particularly clearly.

3. Election ‘youthquake’ of 2017 did not happen

Data just released by the British Election Study gives the lie to the widespread belief that last year’s general election was dominated by the youth vote, with younger people supposedly turning out to vote for Jeremy Corbyn in a so-called ‘youthquake’. In fact, there was very little change in turnout by age between the 2015 and 2017 ballots.

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4. Bruno Mars wins six Grammy awards

R&B artist Bruno Mars dominated the Grammy awards last night, winning six gongs including the big three: album, song and record of the year. Kendrick Lamar had been tipped to win the best album spot but had to settle for dominating the rap categories. Only one female performer won a major prize: Alessia Cara, who was awarded best new artist.

5. Two British skiers die in French Alps fall

Two Britons have died after falling hundreds of metres in the French Alps while on a skiing holiday. The men, both in their mid 20s, have not been named, but their families are being offered support by the Foreign Office, officials said. The duo are believed to have slipped in very icy conditions while skiing off-piste in the Chamonix-Mont Blanc region on Sunday.

6. Irish cabinet to vote on abortion question

Ireland’s cabinet will today discuss what question should be asked in a national referendum on changing the country’s abortion laws, currently among the most restrictive in Europe. It has long been suspected that an Irish referendum might lead to the legalisation of abortion in cases of rape and incest – and possibly to more extreme changes.

7. Man charged over fatal London car crash

A 28-year-old man arrested at the scene of a horrific car crash in west London on Friday will appear in Uxbridge Magistrates Court today, after being charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Another man, aged 34, was arrested after voluntarily attending a police station on Sunday. Three teenage boys waiting at a bus stop were killed.

8. Top Vienna orchestra gets first female director

American conductor Marin Alsop is to become the first woman to be the artistic director of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. The 61-year-old, who was also the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, said she was honoured, called Vienna “the seat of classical music” and promised to “push the envelope” creatively.

9. Pub worker mistakenly paid thousands by prison service

A pub manager in the Midlands has been paid at least £10,000 for his “job” at Nottingham Prison - despite not actually working there. The man, who has not been named, was offered a position at the jail but decided not to take it up. He says he has been paid monthly for more than a year, despite contacting the prison authorities to try to stop the payments.

10. Briefing: how big a problem is modern-day slavery?

Thirteen people have been arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of slavery, a global problem that has drawn the attention of world leaders in Davos this week.

Prime Minister Theresa May has called slavery “the great human rights issue of our time” and has pledged to help eradicate the “barbaric evil” of human trafficking. However, a highly critical report by the Commons Work and Pensions Committee last year said there was an “inexcusable” lack of support for the estimated 10,000 to 13,000 slaves in the UK.

Davos 2018: how big a problem is modern-day slavery?