Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 4 Mar 2018

1. Beast from East cost UK £1bn a day

Snow and ice brought to the UK by the Beast from the East weather formation cost Britain £1bn a day this week, The Observer reports. The paper says economic analysts fear idle airports, empty restaurants and gridlocked motorways will halve the country’s GDP growth for the first quarter of this year, reducing it from 0.4% to 0.2%.

2. Rural areas still cut off, despite thaw

Despite a thaw across much of the country yesterday, with temperatures expected to rise further today, some rural communities remain cut off by snow. The Met Office has two yellow warnings in place: one for snow across a large part of Scotland and another for ice in England, Wales and Northern Ireland until 11am on Sunday.

3. Syrian forces take 10% of eastern Ghouta

The BBC says the Syrian regime has now re-taken some 10% of the eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave of Damascus, killing more than 640 people since 18 February, including 150 children. UN Secretary General Antnoio Guterres said people there are living in "hell on earth". A daily five-hour ceasefire ordered by Russia has failed.

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4. Trump threatens to tax European cars

After abruptly announcing high new tariffs on steel and aluminium imports this week, Donald Trump has now threatened to tax cars imported from Europe. The US President said he would tax cars if the EU increased its tariffs on American steel in response to his abrupt announcement. In a tweet, he wrote of “a Tax on their Cars”.

5. New homes: councils to be forced to build

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid is to target “nimby councils” in England that do not meet targets for having new homes built. Javid told The Sunday Times he would be “breathing down the necks” of councils and those that failed to reach targets would face independent inspections. Labour accused the Government of years of failure.

6. Italian voters go to the polls

Italians are voting in a national election today, with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi still expected to hold the keys to power, despite being barred from standing for office. Analysts think the election will result in a coalition government – and Berlusconi could be kingmaker, brokering a deal between rival parties and his Forza Italia.

7. Heseltine damns May’s ‘platitudes’ on Brexit

Tory grandee Michael Heseltine has accused Theresa May of “phrases, generalisations and platitudes” in her latest Brexit speech. He told The Observer that the Prime Minister was still trying to cherry pick parts of EU unity, even though the EU has said “sorry, there is no cherry-picking”. He said no progress has been made in 18 months.

8. Missing airliner MH370 search to end in June

The latest search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 is likely to end in June, according to Malaysian officials. The country agreed a ‘no find, no fee’ deal with US-based Ocean Infinity in January to start looking for the plane again, one year after the internationally co-ordinated official search ended without the jet being found.

9. Three charged over Leicester explosion

Three men have been charged with manslaughter and arson over the death of five people in a huge explosion in Leicester one week ago. The three men – from Leicester, Oldham and Coventry – will appear in court on Monday. Police have refused to comment on media reports the blast was linked to an illegal alcohol distillery.

10. Hollywood gets ready for Oscars ceremony

The 90th Academy Awards will be given out in Hollywood tonight, with Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water leading the field with 13 nominations, including best actress for Briton Sally Hawkins. Three British actors lead the field in the best actor category: Daniel Kaluuya, Daniel Day Lewis and the favourite, Gary Oldham.