Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 16 Feb 2018

1. ‘Remorseful’ school shooting suspect visited McDonald’s

The 19-year-old believed to be behind the murders of 17 pupils and teachers at a Florida high school on Wednesday is “remorseful” and a “broken human being”, his lawyer has said. Police say Nikolas Cruz, previously expelled from the school, has admitted carrying out the shooting. He is said to have joined a white supremacist group.

2. Clubs have questions to answer over Barry Bennell

Former youth coach Barry Bennell, now believed to be the worst child sex offender known in football, will be sentenced for another 50 offences on Monday, after being convicted yesterday. But some survivors and commentators say football clubs have serious questions to answer because it emerged in the trial that they were warned.

3. Mid-earners unable to afford to buy homes

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says mid-earners – defined as individuals or couples taking home between £22,200 and £30,600 – aged 25 to 34 are the group most hit by increasing house prices. Over the past 20 years, home ownership among that group has dropped from 65% to just 27%. The biggest fall has been in south-east England.

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4. Team GB wins first medal at Winter Olympics

Team GB has taken its first medal at the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Dom Parsons produced the “performance of his career”, says The Guardian, to win bronze in the men’s skeleton after a mistake by Martins Dukurs, who had been ahead of him. Parsons, who is ranked 12th in the world, won his bronze by a 0.11-second margin.

5. Report calls for £10,000 basic income for all

The Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) wants the Government to introduce a Universal Basic Income (UBI) of £10,000 a year for everyone. Payments would not be means tested, though people would have to demonstrate how they planned to use the money. State benefits would be cut.

6. Japan grants asylum to just 20 of 20,000 applicants

New figures show Japan accepted just 20 asylum seekers last year, despite receiving a record 19,628 applications, prompting accusations the country is unfairly ignoring those in need. The authorities say a huge number of bogus applications are now being received after the law was changed to allow asylum seekers to work.

7. Council proposes feeding children during holidays

North Lanarkshire council, in central Scotland, wants to tackle “weekend and holiday hunger” by giving schoolchildren free meals 365 days a year. The council has cited national research which suggests almost one third of parents who are earning less than £25,000 skip some meals during school holidays to feed their children.

8. Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux separate

Actors Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux have announced that they separated late last year, seven years after meeting on the set of Wanderlust. The couple were married in August 2015 and do not have children. In a joint statement, they said they were speaking publicly because the “gossip industry” would otherwise “speculate and invent”.

9. Kim Jong-un impersonator shocks North Koreans

The Winter Olympics in South Korea received a surprise guest yesterday, who seemed at first to be North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. An impersonator who gave his name as Howard and said he was Australian, the interloper posed in front of the North Korean cheerleading squad, shocking them into silence, before he was thrown out.

10. Briefing: US gun violence in six chilling statistics

Of the 49 months since January 2014, only six have passed without at least one instance of gun violence in a US school. And between 2014 and 2017, shootings claimed the lives of 2,710 children under the age of 12.

Those are just two of the takeaways from the chilling statistics compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a charity that tracks shooting incidents in the US.

US gun violence in six chilling statistics