Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 18 May 2018

1. Trump contradicts security adviser on Korea

Donald Trump yesterday flatly contradicted his recently appointed national security adviser, John Bolton, on the subject of North Korea. As Bolton looked on, the US president said that contrary to what his adviser had said, the “Libya model” for de-nuclearisation was not being considered. North Korea has threatened to pull out of a summit with the US.

2. Emergency talks as Ebola virus spreads

The World Health Organisation is to hold emergency talks to discuss the risk of the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus spreading from the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least 44 people are believed to have been infected, with at least deaths, in the outbreak, which began in a rural area but has now reached the northwest city of Mbandaka.

3. Crowds gather in Windsor for royal wedding

Dozens of people spent last night on the street in Windsor, and will spend a second night there tonight, in order to secure the best spots to see Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pass through the Berkshire town on their wedding day. Hundreds of police have been deployed to the area and many roads are closed, in a bid to prevent any potential terror attacks.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

4. May to create new lords to fight Brexit rebellion

Theresa May is to create ten new Conservative peers in an attempt to quash the rebellion against her Brexit plans in the House of Lords. The Prime Minister is also expected to hand a peerage to a member of Northern Ireland’s DUP, the support of which she relies in the Commons. Remainer and Labour peer Lord Adonis said this was a desperate attempt to “pack” the Lords with leavers.

5. Committee drops migration questionnaire

An online questionnaire set up by a committee that advises the Home Office on migration has been scrapped, over questions asking students about the experience of having international colleagues at their universities. Academics said the survey was “unethical” and open to abuse. Participants were not asked to prove that they were a student.

6. Man of 24 stabbed to death in east London

A spate of murders in London continued on Thursday night, when a man was stabbed to death in Barking, in the east of the capital. The 24-year-old’s name has not been released but his next of kin have been informed. No arrests have been made as yet. The Met Police has recorded more than 60 murders this years, of which 39 involved knives.

7. Ecuador cancels Assange security budget

Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno has ordered an end to extra security being provided for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he is holed-up for fear of deportation to the US. It had emerged that the South American nation had spent $5m (£3.7m) over five years monitoring embassy staff and Assange’s visitors.

8. Bercow accused of calling Leadsom ‘stupid woman’

Speaker of the Commons John Bercow has been accused of calling senior cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom a “stupid woman” during a foul-mouthed tirade against the Government made under his breath from his woolsack seat in Parliament. A spokesman for the Speaker, under pressure to quit over alleged bullying, did not deny the remarks.

9. Bill Gates: Trump ‘memorised my daughter’

A video has emerged showing Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates speaking frankly about Donald Trump. He says the US president remembered a “scary” amount about Gates’s daughter’s looks after meeting her at a horse show. Gates also says that Trump was confused about the difference between HIV and HPV.

10. Briefing: new rules on fixed-odds betting explained

The maximum stake on a fixed-odds betting terminal is to be reduced from £100 to £2, following a lengthy government inquiry.

Punters in Britain’s betting shops can currently stake up to £100 every 20 seconds on electronic casino games such as roulette, with the betting machines, or FOBTs, dubbed the “crack cocaine of gambling”.

New rules on fixed-odds betting machines explained