Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 10 Aug 2018

1. France rescues hundreds from severe floods

Around 1,600 people, including 100 children at a summer camp had to be rescued yesterday from heavy floods in the south of France. A 70-year-old German, said to be one of the camp workers, is missing. More than 400 firefighters and police have been deployed to deal with the floods, which are particularly bad in Gard, Ardeche and Drome.

2. Scrap migration targets after Brexit, says CBI

Business lobby the CBI wants net migration targets to be scrapped after Brexit, and freedom of movement for workers from othe EU countries preserved, because the contribution they make to the economy is “profoundly important and will be needed in the future”. The Home Office said it remained committed to the targets.

3. Ryanair cancels flight as pilots go on strike

Budget airline Ryanair has been forced to cancel around one sixth of its flights during the peak holiday season because of a 24-hour strike by pilots. Staff are walking out in Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands. The airline cancelled 300 flights in July.

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4. House of Fraser goes into administration

Department store House of Fraser has called in the administrators, saying in a statement that talks aimed at finding a way out of its financial woes had “not concluded in a solvent solution”. Chinese firm C.banner pulled out of a rescue deal earlier this month, leaving 17,500 jobs at risk.

5. Trump’s Space Force is ‘dumb’, says astronaut

A veteran US astronaut has said US President Donald Trump’s idea to create a new branch of his country’s armed forces for space defence is a “dumb idea”. Captain Mark Kelly, who flew four space shuttle missions, said it didn’t “make sense to build a whole other level of bureaucracy”.

6. NHS scraps leukaemia drug restrictions

The body that decides which drugs can be used on the NHS has scrapped “secret” limitations on who could be prescribed the cancer drug ibrutinib, The Times reports. Patients who had been in remission for more than three years were not being given the drug until the newspaper investigated.

7. Melania Trump’s parents become US citizens

The US First Lady’s parents became US citizens in a private ceremony in New York on Thursday, their lawyer has confirmed. Viktor and Amalija Knavs are Slovenian and have been living in the US on green cards sponsored by the US President, Donald Trump, who has previously objected to family-based immigration.

8. Pussy Riot activist flees Russia for Edinburgh

A member of Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot has defied a Russian travel ban and driven 1,000 miles through Belarus, Lithuania and the EU to attend the Edinburgh Festival, The Guardian says. Maria Alyokhina was told she could not leave Russia because she has refused to serve a community service sentence handed down for protesting.

9. Warning of ‘monkey dust’ drug epidemic

Sky News says there is use of the illegal drug known as ‘monkey dust’ has reached epidemic proportions in Staffordshire, with violent and psychotic episodes “now almost a daily occurrence for police”. Bags of the drug can be bought in Stoke for as little as £2. Also known as MDPV, the drug stops users feeling physical pain.

10. Briefing: why Argentinian Senate voted against legal abortion

Argentina’s Senate has rejected a bill to legalise elective abortion, following a bitterly contentious debate in the predominantly Catholic country.

Senators debated for more than 15 hours before eventually voting down the proposal 38 to 31, with two abstentions and one absentee.

Why Argentinian Senate voted against legal abortion