Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 28 Jan 2019

1. Loyalists ‘to abandon May and push for softer Brexit’

Conservative MPs who backed Theresa May’s defeated Brexit deal are set to abandon her if the Commons votes tomorrow in favour of Yvette Cooper’s amendment to block a no-deal departure and delay Britain’s exit from the EU, The Times reports. Rather than wait for the prime minister to renegotiate with the leaders of the bloc, former loyalists will support a softer Brexit, the newspaper says.

2. Johnson calls on PM to renegotiate

Former foreign secretary Boris Johnson has publicly called on Theresa May to secure changes from the EU on the Northern Irish backstop in her Brexit deal. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Johnson - long seen as a leadership challenger - says the PM should secure a “freedom clause” to include an expiry date for the backstop, or include a mechanism allowing the UK to unilaterally withdraw from it.

3. US warns Venezuela against threats

US National Security Adviser John Bolton has warned Venezuela that threats against US diplomatic staff or Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido will be met with a “significant response”. The warning comes days after the US and more than 20 other countries recognised Guaido as interim president, amid a renewed push to oust Nicolas Maduro as leader.

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4. Teachers to get cash to stay in schools

Ministers plan to tackle worsening teacher shortages by offering some young secondary school teachers additional £5,000 payments in their third and fifth years in the classroom - on top of initial £20,000 training bursaries. The “early career payment” scheme has already been trialled with maths teachers.

5. Popular cars at risk of keyless theft

Hundreds of popular new cars - including four of the five best-selling models in the UK - are at risk of “keyless thefts”, a new study has found. Criminals are believed to be using remote technology increasingly to open doors and start cars. Of the top-selling cars in Britain, only the Vauxhall Corsa – which is not keyless – was deemed safe, Which? says.

6. Climber rescued in ‘appalling conditions’

Rescuers have overcome “appalling” weather conditions to save an injured climber on the Cairngorm plateau in the Highlands of Scotland. The man, who had non life-threatening back and leg injuries, was airlifted to safety on Sunday evening, hours after he raised the alarm using a personal locater beacon. Mountain Rescue Teams are volunteers.

7. Mass parachute drop to mark D-Day

Up to 300 parachutists will jump from 30 wartime Dakota aircraft to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June this year. Imperial War Museums says a programme of events on an “unprecedented scale” is being planned to commemorate the Battle of Normandy - the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during the Second World War.

8. Search for Shackleton’s lost ship

An Antarctic expedition has set out to find the remains of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, the Endurance. The vessel sank in November 1915 after being crushed in ice. Shackleton and his crew had time to escape, but their vessel has not been seen since. Robotic submersibles will be used to look for the Endurance on the floor of the Weddell Sea.

9. Colman: I wrote to Wikipedia about my age

Oscar-nominated actor Olivia Colman has revealed that she once wrote to Wikipedia pretending to be a fictional former schoolfriend of herself in an attempt to correct her age, which was overstated by eight years. The 44-year-old told a podcast that after getting no response, she wrote to the online free encyclopaedia again and admitted her true identity, despite fearing that she would appear “vain”.

10. Briefing: how life on Earth began

The conditions for life on Earth were created when the planet crashed into another body the size of Mars about 4.4 billion years ago, a new study claims.

For life to emerge on an otherwise dead planet, “an assortment of chemical compounds, or volatile elements, are required, including carbon, nitrogen and sulfur”, says science news site Gizmodo. Conventional scientific thinking has always been that Earth’s volatile elements arrived through a steady bombardment of ancient meteorites.

How life on Earth began