Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 18 Feb 2019

1. MPs call for tougher regulation of Facebook

Facebook deliberately broke privacy and competition laws and showed contempt for the UK parliament, according to the findings of an 18-month report by a cross-party group of MPs. The newly published report accuses the social network giant and its executives of acting like “digital gangsters”. The MPs are calling for Facebook to be subject to statutory regulation.

2. At least four Labour MPs ‘poised to quit’

At least four backbench Labour MPs are set to quit the party over Jeremy Corbyn’s handling of Brexit and anti-Semitism, according to reports. Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has urged Labour rebels to stay, saying that a second referendum on leaving the EU was still viewed as an option by the party and “might come about”.

3. Flybmi customers told to seek refunds

Flybmi is advising customers to seek refunds from credit and debit card companies, or rebook with other airlines, following the company’s collapse on Saturday. Sister firm Loganair has taken over some of Flybmi’s routes, but thousands of customers’ flights have been cancelled from airports including Aberdeen and Bristol.

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4. Spanish navy orders boats out of UK waters

A Spanish warship with its guns manned ordered commercial ships to leave British Gibraltar waters on Sunday, the territory’s government says. The warship’s crew can be heard in an audio recording of a radio exchange telling vessels anchored at the Rock to “leave Spanish territorial waters”.

5. End of the line for peak rail fares

Trials of the biggest shake-up of train ticket prices in in two decades are expected to begin later this year. A new report from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, suggests axing traditional peak and off-peak tickets, to reduce overcrowding on the first off-peak trains each day. Return fares might also be scrapped, to end the need for so-called split-ticketing.

6. Retailers ‘watering down deposit scheme’

Environmental groups are accusing large retailers of seeking to water down government plans to introduce a plastic bottle deposit scheme to encourage recycling. Campaigners want the tariff to apply to all plastic bottles, regardless of size, but the Government is considering suggestions to exempt larger containers.

7. Police apology after racist graffiti goes viral

Greater Manchester Police have apologised for their delayed response to a hate crime in which “no blacks” was spray-painted on a Salford family’s home. Jackson Yamba posted an image on social media showing the graffiti on his front door, and said he had reported the attack ten days earlier but had received no response from police. The force is now investigating after the post went viral.

8. Labour MP Paul Flynn dead at 84

Veteran Labour MP Paul Flynn has died at the age of 84, after 32 years representing Newport West. He had not spoken in the Commons since February 2018, after his long affliction with rheumatoid arthritis worsened. Tributes have poured in, with Jeremy Corbyn describing Flynn as an “independent thinker”.

9. Trump lashes out at Alec Baldwin skit

US President Donald Trump last night called for “retribution” on long-running satirical TV show Saturday Night Live after its latest parody of one of his press conferences. Playing Trump, Alec Baldwin said: “We need wall... Wall works, wall makes safe.” Trump’s call for “retribution” was seen as unconstitutional by some analysts.

10. Briefing: was Churchill a hero or villain?

Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell is in the firing line after calling wartime PM Winston Churchill a “villain”.

Responding to quick-fire questions at the end of a live video interview with Politico, McDonnell was asked if Churchill was a hero or a villain, to which he replied: “Tonypandy - villain.”

Winston Churchill: antifascist hero or racist warmonger – or both?