Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 17 August 2022

1. Truss under fire over recording

Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has come under fire for suggesting British workers are lazy in comments made in a leaked voice note. During the recording, published by The Guardian, Truss suggests British citizens lack the “skill and application” of foreign nationals and need “more graft”. Labour described the foreign secretary’s comments as “offensive”, saying they “effectively brand British workers as lazy”. When asked about the comments last night, Truss said: “I don’t know what you are quoting there.” Just hours earlier, sources in her own team implied her comments were genuine, describing them as “half-a-decade-old”.

Will Liz Truss keep her promises?

2. Age UK warns of elderly deaths

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been warned that “unprecedented numbers” of pensioners may die in their homes this winter unless the next PM does more to help them pay their soaring energy bills. Age UK has called on the Tory leadership hopefuls to commit to offering further emergency support to older people and to restore the pensions triple lock – a guarantee that pensions grow in line with whichever is the highest out of average earnings, the inflation rate or 2.5%.

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

The cost-of-living support available from government

3. Scandal victims to get £100k

More than 4,000 UK victims of the infected blood scandal are to receive interim compensation of £100,000 each, said the government. The payment will be given to those whose health is failing after developing blood-borne viruses like hepatitis and HIV, as well as the partners of people who have died. It is the first time compensation will be paid and follows “decades of campaigning”, said the BBC. More than 2,400 people have died as a result of contaminated blood products administered in the 1970s and 1980s.

How haemophiliacs were infected with HIV

4. Cyclists could face speed limits

The transport secretary has called for cyclists to be fined for breaking speed limits in residential areas. Speaking to The Times, Grant Shapps said “there is definitely a hard core of cyclists who seem to think the laws of the road don’t apply to them” and “the Highway Code should be updated to recognise speed limits for cyclists”. Last year, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety said that one in 100 crashes where a pedestrian is killed is a cyclist’s fault, compared to 65 out of 100 where a car driver is responsible.

5. Blair warns of ‘impending crisis’

Masks should be made compulsory on public transport and a booster vaccine should be offered to every British adult over the autumn, Tony Blair has said. The former PM’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute, has warned of an impending crisis in hospitals, claiming that “this winter will bring a perfect storm, resulting in unprecedented demand and reduced capacity, which will combine to create the worst winter crisis in the NHS’s history”. The i news site said Blair developed a reputation during the pandemic for calling for policy changes which were later followed by the government.

6. Man in 80s killed in Ealing

An elderly man has died after being stabbed while riding a mobility scooter in Ealing, west London. Emergency services were called to Cayton Road, Greenford, yesterday afternoon to reports of a man with stab injuries. Despite the efforts of paramedics, the man, believed to be in his 80s, died at the scene. “We always used to see him on his mobility scooter – he always used to smile, he was a nice old man,” said a local resident. Earlier on Tuesday, a 58-year-old woman was stabbed to death close to Acton Town station in Ealing.

7. Cheney loses Congress seat

Trump critic Liz Cheney has lost her seat in Congress to a challenger backed by the former president. The Republican primary election to decide Wyoming’s lone member in the House of Representatives saw Cheney, the vice-chair of the 6 January committee, beaten by Harriet Hageman, who has amplified Trump’s false claims of widespread voter fraud. CNN said Trump and his allies have “spent the spring and summer turning Republican primaries across the political map into bitter fights in which loyalty to the former president was the central factor”.

How the 6 January hearings may affect Trump’s 2024 prospects

8. Saudi jailed for using Twitter

A Saudi woman has been sentenced to 34 years in jail for having a Twitter account and for following and retweeting dissidents and activists. Salma al-Shehab, 34, a mother of two young children, was originally sentenced to three years for using the internet to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”. However, an appeal increased the punishment to 34 years in prison followed by a 34-year travel ban. She had been studying at Leeds University and had returned home for a holiday.

9. Giggs: ‘I’ve never been faithful’

Ryan Giggs has told a court that he is a “love cheat” and has never been faithful to a woman. The 48-year-old former footballer made the admission as he gave evidence yesterday at Manchester crown court, where he denies assaulting Kate Greville, or controlling and coercing her during their relationship. Giving evidence for the first time, Giggs conceded that he is a “flirt by nature” who cannot resist the opposite sex, “regardless of marital status”. But when asked if he had ever physically assaulted a woman, he responded “no”.

Ryan Giggs trial: lockdown ‘utter hell’ for ex

10. Musk makes Man U joke

Elon Musk sent Twitter ablaze early this morning when he joked about buying Manchester United, one of the biggest football clubs in the world. “I’m buying Manchester United ur welcome,” wrote the Tesla billionaire in a tweet which has received more than 100,000 retweets. He later followed up with a post claiming that “standup is my side-hustle”, suggesting that his initial claim was a joke. The world’s richest man “was urged to buy the Premier League club by desperate fans earlier this year”, said the Daily Mail.

A guide to Elon Musk’s big family