Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 3 Apr 2018

1. Girl dead and boy hurt in London shootings

A 17-year-old girl has died in hospital after a shooting in Tottenham, north London, while a 16-year-old boy is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot in Walthamstow, in the east of the city. The shootings came days after it emerged that London suffered more murders in February and March than New York City did in the same period.

2. White House attacks China’s tariff tit-for-tat

The White House has responded angrily to China’s decision to impose tariffs of up to 25% – $3bn (£2.14bn) annually – on imports from the US, saying China should end the “subsidisation and… overcapacity” that is the “root cause of the steel crises”. US and Asian stock markets fell sharply on the news of the tariffs.

3. Corbyn criticised for Passover visit to Jewdas

Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of provoking Labour moderates by sharing a Passover meal with a radical Jewish group that has called claims of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party “hypocrisy and opportunism”. Corbyn went to a Seder meal run by Jewdas on Monday night, prompting another Jewish group to dub him “duplicitous”.

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4. Dating app Grindr defends HIV data sharing

Gay dating app Grindr has defended its sharing of user data, saying giving other firms customer information such as HIV status and last test date was in line with standard industry practice. The two companies that received the data were paid to improve the app’s efficacy.

5. Legal fight over blue passport decision

De La Rue, the company which makes British passports, is taking the Government to court over its decision to award the contract for the new, post-Brexit blue books to a Franco-Dutch firm, Gemalto, which bid £120m less. The European Parliament’s April Fool joke this year was to claim EU passports will now be blue.

6. Former health secretary has bowel cancer

Former Conservative health secretary Andrew Lansley has revealed he is suffering from bowel cancer, saying he was lucky it was caught early and he has undergone surgery. The 61-year-old proposed a new bowel cancer screening programme during his time as health secretary and had planned to extend it across England.

7. Escaped elephants close Spanish motorway

A Spanish motorway closed yesterday after five elephants escaped on to the road when a circus lorry crashed. One of the animals died while three were injured and had to be lifted to safety by crane. The causes of the accident near Pozo Canada, in Castile-La Mancha, are being investigated.

8. Milky Way ‘growing at 1,600ft per second’

The Milky Way is expanding at 1,640ft per second, researchers say. A team from the Astrophysical Institute of the Canaries in Tenerife calculated the rate of growth by observing similar galaxies using a range of telescopes on Earth. The galaxy, which contains our solar system, will eventually merge with Andromeda.

9. Women 'too modest for Have I Got News For You’

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop says women are “too modest” to agree to present satirical BBC TV show Have I Got New For You. The journalist, one of the regular team captains on the show, said the producers had asked several female politicians to chair an episode but only one agreed. Ten male politicians have hosted the show.

10. Briefing: The world’s safest – and least safe – airlines

Last year was statistically the safest on record for air travel, according to the Aviation Safety Network (ASN), which tracks aviation incidents and accidents.

The ASN found there were 10 fatal commercial passenger and cargo air crashes which killed a total of 44 people, way down on the five-year average of 17 crashes with 495 deaths.

The world’s safest – and least safe – airlines for 2019