Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 2 May 2018

1. May faces customs partnership showdown

Theresa May will try to stave off a rebellion from senior pro-Brexit MPs today, amid calls for her to drop the “customs partnership” option for trading with the EU after the UK leaves. The 11-strong Brexit sub-committee is meeting to discuss the issue, with Brexiteers hoping to force the Prime Minister to commit to a full separation from the EU.

2. RAF ‘killed civilians with Isis strikes’

The MoD’s claim that it has seen no evidence RAF strikes on IS ever killed civilians is “nonsense”, an anonymous source “inside the coalition fighting the Islamic State group” has told the BBC. The source said it would have been “impossible” to conduct a bombing campaign on the densely populated Mosul in Iraq without killing civilians.

3. Speaker John Bercow ‘bullied private secretary’

John Bercow’s former private secretary has broken the terms of a non-disclosure agreement to accuse the Speaker of the Commons of bullying. Angus Sinclair, who served in the Royal Navy for 30 years, says Bercow shouted and swore at him, and smashed a phone on his desk. Bercow immediately denied the claim.

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4. Trump ‘dictated own health letter’, says doctor

A 2015 doctor’s letter describing Donald Trump as “astonishingly excellent” health was written by the then-presidential candidate himself, according to the US president’s former physician. Harold Bornstein said Trump “dictated that whole letter”. Of the claim that Trump would be the “healthiest” president ever elected, Bornstein said: “I just made it up.”

5. One man killed and another hurt in London shooting

A man has been killed, and another injured, in a shooting outside Queensbury Tube station in northwest London. The dead man, said to have been in his 30s, was found at the scene just after 9pm last night. A man in his 20s is in hospital in a stable condition. The death is being treated as murder and police are appealing for information.

6. Apple stock climbs on best-ever Q2 results

Apple’s share price has soared as investors respond to the tech giant’s latest results. Apple reported its best-ever revenues for the second quarter – a 16% increase to $61.1bn (£44.9bn). The company showed solid growth in iPhone sales, despite fears that the new iPhone X was not popular. Apple sold 52.2 million phones during Q2.

7. Vet accused of implanting heroin inside puppies

A Colombian veterinarian appeared in US federal court in Brooklyn yesterday accused of “cruel” surgery to turn puppies into drugs mules. Andres Lopez Elorez had been extradited from Spain, where he was arrested after fleeing Colombia in 2005. He is alleged to have implanted liquid heroin in puppies who were then flown to the US and killed.

8. Outcry over plans for tallest onshore windfarm

Opposition to a windfarm scheme on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland is growing after French firm EDF Energy said it wanted the turbines to be the tallest onshore in the UK. Locals have been told that turbines in one of the new windfarms could be 650ft (200 metres) tall - more than 200ft (60 metres) higher than the London Eye - and the other 615ft (185 metres) tall. The tallest onshore turbines in the UK at present are 635ft (195 metres).

9. Kanye West says slavery ‘was a choice’

Eccentric rap star Kanye West has provoked outrage after claiming during a TV interview that slavery was a “choice” by those enslaved. He told interviewers on US channel TMZ: “When you hear about slavery for 400 years... for 400 years? That sounds like a choice. We’re mentally imprisoned.” He has also released a song defending his support of Donald Trump.

10. Briefing: what can be done about the Irish border?

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier is on a two-day visit to Ireland amid rising tensions over the future of the Irish border following Brexit.

“Twenty-two months on from Britain’s EU referendum, the Irish question has become the most intractable of Brexit dilemmas,” says the Financial Times.

Boris Johnson’s alternative to the Irish backstop