Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 9 Mar 2018

1. Trump to meet Kim Jong-un by May

Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to meet North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un by May. The US President tweeted the news, saying that “great progress” had been made in talks between North and South Korea. The meeting is a turnaround, coming after months of aggressive talk between the two men, with Trump threatening “fire and fury”.

2. Russian spy poisoning: 21 people hurt

A total of 21 people have been treated in hospital as a result of exposure to the nerve agent used to poison a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury on Sunday. Police sergeant Nick Bailey, first to come to Sergei Skripal and his daughter’s aid when they collapsed on a park bench remains critically ill in hospital, as do they.

3. NHS staff to get pay rise but lose holiday

The Guardian claims today that the Government is on the point of offering NHS staff in England a 6.5% pay rise over the next three years – but with a catch. They must give up one day of holiday in return. The deal will mean an extra £3.3bn of spending and would be the first meaningful pay rise for NHS staff in England since 2010.

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4. Wagamama fined over minimum wage

Asian restaurant chain Wagamama has been fined an undisclosed sum for failing to pay the minimum wage to some staff, as has TGI Fridays. Wagamama said the failure was because of an “inadvertent misunderstanding” of the rules bacause it had asked staff to wear black jeans with their uniform T-shirt but had not paid for them.

5. Ministers reject call for levy on coffee cups

The Government has rejected the call made by a cross-party select committee for a so-called ‘latte levy’ - a tax on disposable coffee cups, most of which are not recyclable. Labour’s Mary Creagh MP, who chaired the environmental audit committee, said the response showed that “despite warm words they plan no real action”.

6. Speaker John Bercow accused of bullying

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, is among MPs accused of bullying by female office workers in Parliament. His private secretary, Kate Emms, left her job in 2011 suffering stress but Bercow has denied the claim he shouted at and belittled her as “simply untrue”. The claims were made to the BBC’s Newsnight programme.

7. Calais boss warns of Brexit tail-backs

The manager of the French port of Calais, Jean-Marc Puissesseau, has warned there could be tail-backs of 30 miles in all directions after Brexit, if the UK’s trade deal with the EU involves mandatory sanitary and customs checks. Meanwhile, a leading local politician in Calais says the bureaucracy could be worse than the Irish border.

8. M25 rapist dies waiting for parole decision

A man known as the M25 rapist for a series of horrific attacks on women and girls as young as 10 has died in custody while waiting for a parole board decision on his release. Former railway worker Atoni Imiela, 63, was jailed in 2004. In 2006, his DNA was matched to samples taken after a 1987 rape and he was jailed for a further 12 years.

9. Nuclear fusion ‘within 15 years’

The holy grail of power generation, nuclear fusion, could be achieved within 15 years, US university MIT says. Fusion is safer and cleaner than the usual process of generating electricity by nuclear fission – splitting atoms. MIT is co-operating with a private firm to try to achieve fusion cheaply enough to make it worthwhile.

10. Briefing: Gibraltar and Brexit

The UK is believed to be negotiating with Spain for Gibraltar to be treated the same as Britain when it leaves the EU in March 2019, including admission to any deal for continued “barrier-free access” to the bloc’s financial markets.

The European Council sparked anger last April by offering Spain a veto over the territory’s fate after Brexit, the Daily Mail reports, but UK ministers are now working to ensure that Spain is unable to exclude the Rock from any post-Brexit deal Britain strikes with the EU.

Gibraltar and Brexit: what are the main issues?