Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 10 Jan 2019

1. Jaguar Land Rover to cut 5,000 jobs in UK

Jaguar Land Rover is cutting as many as 5,000 jobs in the UK in an attempt to save £2.5bn costs. The firm, which employs 40,000 people in Britain, says most of the jobs to go will be in marketing, management and administration. A “perfect storm” of falling demand for diesel cars and Brexit uncertainty is to blame, according to the BBC.

2. Bercow vilified in newspapers over Brexit vote

Commons Speaker John Bercow is vilified in right-wing newspapers today, after allowing an amendment Brexit vote. The Sun dubs him “Speaker of the devil”, while the Daily Mail says he is a “disgrace to his office”. Bercow broke with precedent in allowing yesterday’s vote, which the Government lost - meaning it must provide an alternative EU deal within three days if it loses next week’s vote on Theresa May’s Brexit plan.

3. Judge dismisses Weinstein harassment claim

A Los Angeles judge yesterday dismissed actor Ashley Judd’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, saying the new law under which she was suing could not be applied retrospectively. However, her claim that Weinstein defamed her in an attempt to sabotage her career can go ahead, the judge decided.

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4. Christmas sales figures ‘worst in a decade’

The British Retail Consortium says shops have experienced their worst Christmas sales in a decade, with year-on-year growth for December at 0%, despite price cuts. Meanwhile, Barclaycard says consumer spending grew by just 1.8% in December, the lowest year-on-year increase since March 2016, amid “ongoing economic uncertainty”.

5. ‘Secret’ £75m Brexit contracts condemned

The Government has been condemned for not revealing the existence of Brexit-related contracts worth a total £75m awarded to nine consultancy firms - of which £25m went to US companies. The deals were not publicly announced when they were struck eight months ago, says Sky News. Labour MP Meg Hillier said the secrecy was “completely unnecessary”.

6. Police take to Congo streets after election

Riot police have been deployed to the streets of Kinshasa, the capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, after opposition candidate Felix Tshisekedi was declared the shock winner of the 30 December election. The result is controversial because a different opposition candidate, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, polled much higher.

7. Corbyn: election will break Brexit deadlock

Jeremy Corbyn will argue today that only a general election can break the Brexit deadlock. In a speech in Yorkshire, the Labour leader will say that only a government with a “renewed mandate” could get public support for a deal to leave the EU. Theresa May is trying to win over both her own party and Labour to back her Brexit plans in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote.

8. Trump walks out of shutdown meeting

US President Donald Trump yesterday walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders over the funding deadlock that has led federal government services to be shut down for almost three weeks. Trump, who is refusing to cooperate unless funds are released for a border wall with Mexico, later tweeted that he had said “bye-bye”.

9. Hubble telescope loses camera but finds quasar

The Hubble space telescope is operating without its best camera, after a hardware failure forced the shutdown of the device, installed by spacewalking astronauts in 2009. However, the news comes as it was confirmed that the telescope had discovered the brightest quasar ever seen, shining around 600 trillion times brighter than our own sun.

10. Briefing: what are the laws on flying a drone?

The Government has announced tightened regulations on the operation of drones, following major disruptions at some of the UK’s busiest airports, including chaos at Heathrow this week.

So what are the new rules and do they go far enough to prevent future disruptions?

The new rules on owning a drone