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

1. Unions to back pay rise for NHS staff

The UK’s biggest health unions will back a government plan to give NHS England staff an average pay rise of about 6% over three years, according to the BBC. The lowest paid will get the biggest raises under the deal, which could cost the Treasury up to £4bn. Contrary to earlier reports, staff will not be asked to give up a day’s holiday in return.

2. Facebook’s Zuckerberg under pressure

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg is facing growing criticism over his ongoing failure to comment publicly on the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The British firm was hired by Donald Trump’s campaign team and used millions of Facebook profiles without authorisation in a bid to influence the US election. A corporate statement said Facebook was “outraged”.

3. Plastic waste in oceans to treble by 2028

The amount of plastic in the world’s oceans will treble within a decade unless something is done to control litter, according to a new report on the future of the seas. The government-commissioned Foresight report also says there are opportunities for the UK to cash in on the “ocean economy”, which will be worth £2tn by 2030.

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4. Trump congratulates Putin on election win

Donald Trump phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday to congratulate him on his latest landslide election win. Critics have accused Putin of vote rigging – and opposition leader Alexei Navalny was not allowed to stand because of a fraud conviction seen by many as politically driven. Meanwhile, Trump is accused of having sought Russian help to win the US presidency.

5. Fatal Red Arrows crash investigation

An investigation has been launched into a fatal crash by one of the RAF’s Red Arrows aerial display planes in Wales yesterday. The Hawk jet burst into flames after crashing to the ground at RAF Valley on Anglesey, killing an engineer. The pilot is though to have ejected and is being treated in hospital for injuries.

6. Israel admits destroying Syrian ‘nuclear site’

Israel has admitted for the first time that it blew up a suspected nuclear reactor in eastern Syria in 2007. Syria has repeatedly denied that the Deir-al-Zour site was a nuclear facility, but the International Atomic Energy Authority says it is “very likely” that the site was a reactor built by the regime with North Korean assistance.

7. Sex and the City star launches governor bid

Sex and the City actor Cynthia Nixon yesterday launched a campaign to become the next governor of New York state. The New York Times says that “some of her initial rhetoric on inequality echoed Senator Bernie Sanders”. Nixon held her first rally in a deprived area.

8. Man dies from head stuck in cinema seat

A man has died after getting his head stuck under an electronic footrest in a Vue cinema, it has emerged. The victim, who was watching a film with his partner, had been trying to retrieve a mobile phone that had dropped into a gap between cushions in the Star City leisure complex, in Birmingham. He died in hospital a week later, on 16 March.

9. Tonga bans girls from rugby and boxing

There has been outrage in the southern hemisphere after the island nation Tonga banned schoolgirls from boxing and rugby, to “preserve the dignity of Tongan women and hold on to Tongan cultural values”. Olympic shot-put champion Dame Valerie Adams, whose mother is Tongan, said all women should be “free to choose their destiny”.

10. Briefing: Egypt prepares for ‘Putinesque’ presidential election

Voters in Egypt will head to the polls next week in a presidential election that has been widely dismissed as a farce. Half a dozen potential challengers to incumbent Abdel Fattah el-Sisi have ended up in jail or dropped out of the race citing intimidation and threats of violence. One opponent remains, but critics allege he is a token candidate designed to give the election an appearance of legitimacy.

Egypt prepares for ‘Putinesque’ presidential election