Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 13 Apr 2018

1. May wins Cabinet support for Syria action

The Cabinet met yesterday and agreed unanimously on the need to take action in Syria to deter further chemical attacks of the sort seemingly carried out by the Assad regime on its own people in the city of Douma last week. Theresa May spoke to US President Donald Trump afterwards, agreeing to work closely on a response.

2. Russia warns of war over Syria response

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, warned yesterday that a US-led military response to Syria’s internal violence could lead to war between his country and America, saying the situation was “very dangerous”. A spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry told Sky News that Moscow would protect its people on the ground in Syria.

3. Hunt apologises for luxury flat ‘mistake’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has apologised for allegedly breaking parliamentary rules on declaring business interests, saying he made “administrative mistakes” over the purchase of luxury flats in Southampton with his wife. Hunt also failed to tell Companies House of a 50% interest in a firm in time, The Daily Telegraph claims.

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4. Ex-FBI boss Comey likens Trump to Mafia don

Former US intelligence agency boss James Comey has written a memoir of his encounters with Donald Trump, who fired him last year. Comey repeatedly compares the US president to a Mafia boss in the book. He writes that the President’s style reminded him of mobsters he prosecuted earlier in his career and calls the Trump presidency a “forest fire”.

5. A drink a day ‘can shorten life’, study finds

One alcoholic drink a day can shorten the drinker’s life, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. Analysis of 60,000 people found five to ten drinks a week are likely to shorten life by up to six months. People who drink 18 or more alcoholic drinks a week live six months less, on average, than those who do not drink, the study found.

6. Think tank warns of bogus apprenticeships

Big companies including fast-food outlets are rebranding jobs to get around recently introduced laws compelling them to spend money on apprenticeships, warns a new report by public sector think tank Reform. Low-skilled and low-paid jobs are being passed off as apprenticeships, says Reform – but the Government insists quality is its priority.

7. App ‘collected direct messages on Facebook’

An app created by a contractor for UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica collected Facebook users’ direct messages, The Guardian says. Aleksandr Kogan’s This Is Your Digital Life quiz collected private messages sent to and from users who tried it, the newspaper says. The firm collected data in a bid to influence the US election.

8. Human remains found on salvaged boat

Human remains have been found on a fishing boat pulled from Loch Fyne, in the west of Scotland, months after it capsized. Crew members Duncan MacDougall and Przemek Krawczyk have been missing since the trawler Nancy Glen sank on 18 January this year. A third sailor, John Miller, was picked up safely by a passing boat.

9. Stolen Chagall painting found after 30 years

A painting by the modernist master Marc Chagall is to be returned to the estate of its owners, 30 years after it was stolen. The 1911 painting Othello and Desdemona was taken in 1988 from the New York flat of Ernest and Rose Heller, who are no longer living. It was found after a man tried twice to sell it, in 2011 and again in 2017.

10. Briefing: why Cliff Richard’s case against the BBC is a big deal

A legal battle between Sir Cliff Richard and the BBC beginning in London’s High Court today will have “massive implications” for the future of media reporting, according to legal experts.

The singer is suing the BBC over its coverage of a police raid at his apartment in Sunningdale, Berkshire, in August 2014. Richard, who has also sued South Yorkshire Police, was targeted by investigators after a man claimed to have been sexually assaulted by him as a child, in an incident at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane football stadium in 1985.

What is Cliff Richard doing now?