Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 24 August 2022

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1. Energy boss ‘proposes £2k cap’
2. ‘Toxic’ culture at Red Arrows
3. Prices may impact Ukraine support
4. Police hunt Liverpool gunman
5. Truss under fire over department pay
6. Owami Davies found safe and well
7. Drinking water used at data centres
8. Old-fashioned police hats returning
9. Welsh councillor posed with gun
10. Cliff Richard was ‘hesitant’ to sue BBC

published 24 August 2022

1. Energy boss ‘proposes £2k cap’

An energy giant has told ministers that a rescue plan to protect households from rising bills will need funding of more than £100bn over two years. Keith Anderson, chief executive of Scottish Power, reportedly proposed capping household energy bills at about £2,000 a year during a meeting with business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. Suppliers would bridge the gap between the cap and the wholesale price of gas and electricity by borrowing from a “deficit fund” arranged by the government through commercial banks, explained the FT.

Members of the Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force’s aerobatics display team, have been accused of bullying, misogyny, assault, sexual harassment, indecent exposure, intimidation and drunkenness, reported The Times. More than 40 personnel, several of them young women, have provided 250 hours of evidence to a long-running inquiry launched in December by Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston. “It’s a toxic environment… It’s all men in senior positions. It is run by misogynistic white male blokes,” an inside source told the paper.

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Britain fears that European support for Ukraine’s battle with Russia will weaken due to the cost-of-living crisis. UK diplomats have been travelling to European capitals to make the case against cutting aid to Kyiv, said The Telegraph, as European governments have reportedly been concerned about spending on arms and humanitarian supplies while their citizens face increased energy prices. Meanwhile, Ukraine fears possible brutal strikes as it marks 31 years since the country broke free from the Soviet Union and six months since war began with Russia.

Merseyside Police has appealed to anyone with information to come forward to assist in the hunt for the person who shot dead a nine-year-old girl at her home in Liverpool. Olivia Pratt-Korbel was killed by a masked gunman who had chased an unknown male into a house in the Dovecot area on Monday night. "I want to take the opportunity to appeal to members of the criminal fraternity and ask them to examine their consciences as they will have vital information that can help us,” said Chief Constable Serena Kennedy.

Liz Truss is facing a revolt within her own department after the Foreign Office pay award, announced to staff on Monday, led to an outpouring of anger from around 100 officials on the staff intranet. The i news site said the award allegedly leaves staff paid different amounts for doing the same job. One civil servant told the paper: “Liz Truss can’t even level up her own department, let alone the country.” During her campaign to be the next PM, Truss has attacked the civil service for being “woke”.

The Met Police has confirmed that student nurse Owami Davies has been found alive and well in Hampshire. She was located following a tip-off from a member of the public on Tuesday morning – the 118th reported sighting that officers had received. Speaking on Twitter, her family said: “Our prayers were answered.” Davies, who is studying nursing at King’s College London, left her home in Grays, Essex, on 4 July, and was last seen on CCTV in Croydon on 7 July.

Thames Water has admitted that drinking water is being used to cool data centres around London. The company is to investigate exactly how much drinking water is used by data centres in its area for their cooling facilities as it tries to cut water use during the drought. “It isn’t necessary for data centres to use drinking quality water for cooling,” John Hernon, Thames Water’s strategic development manager, told the FT. “We want to look at how raw, non-drinking water can be used and reused.”

Traditional police hats are to reappear after a force decided to scrap baseball caps, describing them as a “backward step in how modern policing is presented”. Lancashire Constabulary is to spend £40,000 bringing back traditional flat caps for all male officers, with women given the option of wearing bowler hats. Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden said the change was about “reinforcing the figures of authority police should be in our communities”.

Police in Wales are investigating a Plaid Cymru councillor over a Facebook post that showed him brandishing a gun and saying he wanted to make sure “there wasn’t any English people trying to cross the channel”. Jon Scriven, a representative on Caerphilly Council, later deleted the post and apologised for the “ill-judged” photo, taken at the Ogmore-by-Sea village, which overlooks the Bristol Channel across from England. He has been suspended by the Welsh nationalist party. Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda in south Wales, described the councillor’s post as “appalling”.

Cliff Richard has revealed that a patriotic feeling almost stopped him from suing the BBC for its coverage of the police raid on his home. Speaking on a Channel 4 documentary, the singer said: “I said to the lawyers, how can I sue the BBC? It’s like suing Britain.” However, he added: “I thought, ‘These people need to learn that I’m serious about this, this was a very serious, nasty, harmful thing said about me’.” The BBC broke the story of the raid on Richard’s home in Berkshire on the lunchtime television news in 2014 using footage from a helicopter. The case was dropped in 2016.

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