Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Tuesday 11 Sep 2018

1. Trump and Kim planning second meeting

The White House has announced plans for a second meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, after the North Korean leader sent the US president a “very warm, very positive” letter. Last week Trump congratulated Kim for holding a nuclear weapon-free military parade, tweeting: “There is nothing like good dialogue from two people that like each other!” But talks on Kim’s nuclear missiles have stalled since the pair met in June.

2. Police ‘struggling to deliver’ following cuts

Police forces in England and Wales are “struggling to deliver effective services to the public” as a result of funding and staffing cuts, the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned. In a new report, the NAO says cuts have contributed to increased levels of “high harm” crime and a higher terror threat - and that the situation may get worse.

3. Pound jumps after Barnier’s Brexit words

The pound rose one cent against the dollar, and half a cent against the euro, after chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said yesterday that a deal might be reached by November. Barnier said it was “realistic” to hope for an agreement in the first stage of the negotiations “within six or eight weeks”, adding: “I think it’s possible.”

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. US warns ICC not to prosecute US troops

The US has threatened to introduce sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which America has never ratified, if it prosecutes Americans. The ICC is in the process of deciding whether to bring a case against US troops for allegedly abusing detainees in Afghanistan. Senior US official John Bolton labelled the court “illegitimate”.

5. Hurricane Florence to hit US coast

Hurricane Florence is expected to bring winds in excess of 150mph to the coast of North and South Carolina on Thursday. More than a million people have ordered to evacuate its path, schools are closing – and Donald Trump has taken to Twitter, warning it may be the worst storm in “many years”.

6. Government ‘must tackle illegal Traveller sites’

Ministers have been urged to make deliberate trespass a criminal offence in England, to target Travellers who occupy sites illegally. Tory MP Andrew Selous said the “atrocious” sites become “ungoverned space where modern slavery and other crime flourishes”. The Government said that most Travellers are law-abiding.

7. Missing Chinese star gets ‘0% goodness’ rating

Chinese film star Fan Bingbing has been listed at the bottom of a league table that ranks celebrities on their social responsibility, fuelling fears that she is under arrest. Fan has not been seen since June and it is thought she may have been involved in tax evasion. She has been awarded a 0% “goodness rating” in the China Film and Television Star Social Responsibility Report, carried widely by state media outlets.

8. Labour under Corbyn is ‘party of quinoa’

Focus groups on the public perception of Labour carried out by consultancy firm Britain Thinks in Crewe and Thurrock have thrown up a surprising result: asked what food the party is most associated with, many people mentioned the trendy grain quinoa. The firm says the party is no longer seen as working class.

9. Toksvig: ‘Women are cut from panel shows’

Female panellists on comedy shows often have their contributions edited out and are instead shown “just laughing at the boys and not saying anything at all”, QI host Sandi Toksvig has claimed. Toksvig also told the Radio Times that she is paid around half as much as her predecessor on the BBC quiz panel show, Stephen Fry.

10. Briefing: what is monkeypox?

Doctors have documented Britain’s first ever case of monkeypox, a rare disease that can be fatal if left untreated.

The viral infection was spotted in a Nigerian national currently staying at a naval base in Cornwall, Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed.

What is monkeypox and should you be worried?