Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 17 Apr 2018

1. Syria: inspectors to visit Douma tomorrow

Russia has said the site of a presumed chlorine attack in Syria can be visited by international chemical weapons inspectors tomorrow. The international consensus is that Syria carried out the 7 April attack on its own civilians in Douma, near Damascus. Russia and Syria have denied involvement and claim the atrocity was staged by foreign agents.

2. PM denies following Trump’s orders on Syria air strikes

Theresa May yesterday angrily denied claims that she was following US President Donald Trump’s “orders” when she authorised air strikes on Syria on Friday. During a lengthy Commons debate yesterday, the Prime Minister insisted the attack was morally and legally right. She will face another grilling there this afternoon at a second debate on the issue.

3. May to reassure Caribbean leaders on Windrush

The PM will today assure Caribbean leaders gathered in London for a Commonwealth summit that she is taking action to stop the so-called Windrush generation being deported. It has emerged that thousands of Britons who arrived from Commonwealth countries as children decades ago are being wrongly identified as illegal immigrants.

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4. Pound continues to rally against the dollar

The pound has continued its rally against the dollar, with its value now firmly above $1.43, as sterling recovers from the slump caused by the Brexit vote. In January 2017, the pound touched $1.206. Against the euro yesterday, it was 0.2% higher than its close last week at €1.1569. The UK has the best-performing currency in the G10 this year.

5. One in three millennials ‘will never own a home’

One in three millennials will never own their own home, according to a gloomy assessment of the housing market for young people published by the Resolution Foundation today. The think tank says that half of the UK’s 14 million people aged between 20 and 35 will still be renting in their 40s, and that a third could still be doing so in their 60s, at great cost to the state when they retire.

6. Teenager dies in latest London stabbing

A spate of murders has continued in London, with a man of 18 stabbed to death in east London on Monday night. The victim died at the scene, in Forest Gate. He has not been formally identified and no arrests have been made. At least 37 people have been stabbed to death in the capital this year, including two on Sunday.

7. Kendrick Lamar wins Pulitzer for music

Rapper Kendrick Lamar has won the Pulitzer Prize for music for his album Damn, the first time the prestigious US award has been given to anything other than a classical recording. The prize for reporting, with which Pulitzer is most strongly identified, went to The New York Times and New Yorker jointly for the Harvey Weinstein expose.

8. Trainee barristers warned not to wear short skirts

Trainee barristers at the private BPP University are warned that they risk losing marks in their exams if they wear short skirts, flashy socks or “kinky boots”, it has emerged. The website Legal Cheek got hold of a document listing potential infractions of an extremely conservative dress code – but the London-based university told the BBC it might consider revising the list.

9. Briefing: is drinking wine good or bad for you?

Bon viveurs have been left reeling by reports that drinking ten glasses of wine a week can shorten life expectancy by two years.

Or to put it another way, you lose “15 minutes of life for each unit above the safe amount, the equivalent of smoking a cigarette”, says The Daily Telegraph’s science editor Sarah Knapton.

Is drinking wine good or bad for your health?

10. Scientists create plastic-eating enzyme

Scientists in Britain have “accidentally” created a mutant enzyme capable of breaking down plastic drinks bottles. The breakthrough could help solve the global plastic pollution crisis by enabling for the first time the full recycling of bottles.