Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 21 Feb 2018

1. Almost 200 killed in Syrian enclave in two days

Almost 200 people in Eastern Ghouta have been killed by air strikes and shelling by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in just two days. Amnesty International said “flagrant war crimes” were being perpetrated on an “epic scale” in the Syrian opposition enclave, home to around 400,000 civilians, on the outskirts of Damascus.

2. Trump promises to make gun modifiers illegal

Donald Trump announced yesterday that he has signed an order instructing the US Justice Department to ban the use of bump stocks. The devices are used to modify guns to fire faster, and were employed by the Las Vegas shooter, who killed 58 people attending a music festival in October.

3. Soft Brexit Tories criticise ‘ransom note’

Soft Brexit Tories including Nicky Morgan have damned a letter to the Prime Minister signed by more than 60 Conservative MPs that sets out a list of hard Brexit demands. Morgan called the letter a “ransom note”. The letter demands that Britain must, after leaving the EU, have “full regulatory authority”.

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4. Lloyds profits jump 24% to £5.3bn

Lloyds Banking Group has reported annual pre-tax profits of £5.3bn, a rise of 24% and its biggest profit since it took over Halifax at the height of the 2007-08 financial crisis. The profits follow the return of the bank to full private ownership last May, when the Government sold its remaining shares in Lloyds, eight years after pumping in £20bn to save it.

5. Save The Children apologises over ex-boss

Save The Children has apologised to three women who complained of inappropriate behaviour by its former chief executive, Justin Forsyth, who reportedly sent inappropriate texts and made comments about what young female colleagues were wearing. Forsyth, who is now at Unicef, apologised for causing “hurt” with his “thoughtless” remarks.

6. Police allowed 1998 mink farm attack

The Metropolitan Police allowed an animal rights raid on a mink farm in Hampshire to go ahead, resulting in 6,000 of the animals being released into the countryside, it has emerged. Many of the minks were subsequently killed to protect pets and livestock. The 1998 raid went ahead because an undercover officer was involved.

7. Queen makes ‘frow’ appearance with Wintour

The Queen hit the fashion “frow” (“front row”) yesterday, sitting next to legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour at Richard Quinn’s London Fashion Week show. Following the catwalk show, the monarch, who wore a duck-egg blue dress suit, gave the designer a new design award created in her name.

8. Japanese firm invents edible banana skin

A Japanese firm has invented a banana with edible skin by using a “freeze thaw awakening method”, which manipulates banana growth cells. D&T Farm says the Mongee banana is “cultivated organically without chemicals”. The skin is said to have a lettuce-like texture.

9. Dust storm turns Australian town orange

An Australian outback town has been left orange after being hit by a dust storm. Charleville, a town of 3,300 in southwest Queensland, suffered only minor damage in the 124-mile-wide storm, which lasted for a few hours on Tuesday - but is now covered in a thin film of bright orange dust.

10. Briefing: Brexit hero or Mad Max maniac?

For all of David Davis’s support on the Eurosceptic Conservative backbenches, his critics routinely question whether the Brexit Secretary is up to the job - and even suggest he might be driving Britain into a Mad Max-style dystopian future.

Yesterday, however, Davis tried to calm fears in a speech to Austrian business leaders in Vienna, saying that the UK hopes “mutual recognition” of EU regulations will continue after Brexit, and that the aim is to achieve frictionless trade and fair competition, the BBC reports.

David Davis: Brexit hero or Mad Max maniac?