Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 31 May 2018

1. Trump meets Kardashian West to discuss drug pardon

President Donald Trump has met Kim Kardashian West to discuss a potential pardon for a 63-year-old great-grandmother who is serving life in prison for a first-time drug offence. The meeting came after months of discussions between Kardashian West and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner about the case of Alice Marie Johnson, who has been behind bars for more than two decades.

2. 'Pitiful' excuses of FTSE bosses over female board progress

Bosses at FTSE companies are using “pitiful and patronising” excuses to keep women out of the boardroom, a government-backed review has found. The chiefs claimed that women “don’t want the hassle” of sitting on a board. They also said that women struggle with “extremely complex” issues and do not “fit comfortably” into the boardroom culture. Ministers have condemned the comments as “outrageous”.

3. France ‘blocking’ UK’s bid for post-Brexit security

Britain’s attempt to remain part of a European Union security system that helps to identify foreign criminals is being blocked by France, reports The Times. The Government insist that Britain’s participation in the so-called Prum Convention is “clearly in the national interest”. The French-led bid to end that involvement is seen as the latest evidence that Theresa May is struggling to strike a post-Brexit security deal.

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. North Korean envoy meets US secretary of state in New York

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s right-hand man has met US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York. General Kim Yong Chol dined with Pompeo after flying in from China, becoming the most senior North Korean to visit the US in almost two decades. The pair are due to meet again today. Both sides are making efforts to reinstate the June summit that was cancelled by Donald Trump.

5. Millions face energy price rises as SSE hikes tariffs

Millions of Brits face paying around £100 a month for heating and lighting after SSE became the last of the Big Six energy firms to raise its tariffs. Britain’s second-biggest supplier is also cancelling a discount for online bills – meaning 2.4 million customers will pay an extra £87 a year, on average. All of the Big Six will now be charging around £1,200 a year for a typical household.

6. Germaine Greer says rape sentencing should be softer

Germaine Greer says punishment for rape should be softened, arguing that society should not see it as a “spectacularly violent crime” but more often as a “lazy, careless and insensitive” offence. Speaking at the Hay literary festival, the feminist academic said that rather than prison terms, a suitable punishment for the offence might be 200 hours’ community service and an “R” tattoo on a visible part of the rapist’s body.

7. Record number of GPs planning to quit

Two in every five GPs intend to quit within five years, according to a study. A survey of 2,195 GPs in 2017 found that 39% were likely to leave “direct patient care” by 2022 – the highest proportion ever recorded. Professor Kath Checkland, a co-author of the study, said the news is “particularly worrying in terms of the possible implications it might have on recruitment, retention and patient care”.

8. Britain used own troops as ‘nuclear guinea pigs’

British nuclear test crews were used as human guinea pigs by their own government, according to the Daily Mirror. Unearthed paperwork supports the story of Eric Denson, a former officer whose family say they inherited birth defects as a result of the experiments. Denson was ordered to fly through the cloud of a thermonuclear explosion, exposing him to huge doses of radiation. He later killed himself, after suffering years of crippling headaches that he attributed to the radiation exposure.

9. One last mission in search for flight MH370

There could be one last roll of the dice in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Although the Malaysian government said on Monday that the search had ended, the company leading the mission said it was heading to one last spot of interest. Its vessel will sail to the spot in the southern Indian Ocean where a Chinese patrol ship detected an ultrasonic pulse in 2014.

10. Controversy over posts by Cambridge drinking societies

The future of Cambridge drinking societies is in doubt after a Facebook page dedicated to shutting them revealed hundreds of accounts of sexual misconduct, bullying and classism. A male member of a society wrote that female students would “be going home in wheelchairs” after an event, and another member attempted to ban someone from entering a bar because they had attended a state school.