Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 25 August 2022

1. Hospital bosses warn on Truss plans

Health chiefs have warned that they face “impossible choices” under Liz Truss’s plan to divert £10bn a year from the NHS to social care. The hospital bosses said the Tory leadership hopeful’s pledge to remove cash earmarked for the health service will “slam the brakes” on efforts to tackle record waiting lists. An extra £36bn has been set aside for health and care spending over the next three years, of which less than £2bn a year is due to go towards social care, but Truss has announced that she will divert the entire amount for older people’s care.

How do Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak plan to tackle the NHS crisis?

2. British Gas move a ‘token gesture’

British Gas said it will donate 10% of its profits to help customers cope with soaring bills for the “duration of the energy crisis”. The firm, which has seen huge profits this year, said thousands of households would receive grants of £250-£750. The cash will go into an existing support fund, trebling help available this winter for the poorest customers. However, “sceptics” say the move is a “token gesture that represents a tiny fraction of the overall cost to households”, the BBC reported. The next energy price cap – which limits what suppliers can charge per unit of energy – is set to be announced on Friday.

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How to save money on gas and electricity

3. ‘Active Tory agent’ on BBC board

Emily Maitlis said BBC board member Robbie Gibb is an “active agent of the Conservative party” who is shaping the broadcaster’s news output by acting as the “arbiter of BBC impartiality”. Gibb, who previously worked as Theresa May’s director of communications and helped to found the right-wing GB News channel, was appointed to the BBC’s board by Boris Johnson’s government. Maitlis, who left the BBC earlier this year, said the corporation often descended into a “both-sides-ism” approach to impartiality that gave a platform to individuals that did not deserve airtime.

BBC licence fee: the pros and cons

4. Sunak: mistake to ‘empower scientists’

Rishi Sunak said that it was a mistake to “empower scientists” during the Covid pandemic. Speaking to The Spectator magazine, the former chancellor said he became “very emotional” at times about the damage closing schools would cause to children, but said his objections were met with a “big silence” from cabinet colleagues. He added that the minutes from meetings with the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) were edited so that dissenting voices were not included in the final draft.

5. Torrential rain won’t ease drought

South and eastern England will be hit by thunderstorms and heavy rain today, but it won’t be enough to ease the drought. The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for the regions, saying that driving conditions could be affected by spray, standing water and hail and there may be delays to train services, power cuts, flooding and lightning strikes. However, a Met Office spokesman said that while the forecast rain for this week will mean this month will “catch up a bit” with rainfall totals, “it’s certainly going to be a dry August for the whole of the UK”.

How the UK’s droughts compare with the rest of the world

6. Russia attacks Ukrainian train station

At least 22 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian railway station. The attack came as the country marked six months since Moscow’s invasion. Addressing the United Nations last night, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the rockets struck a train in a station in the town of Chaplyne, about 145km (90 miles) west of Donetsk. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s armed forces said that “several” explosions were heard in the Vyshgorod district this morning.

How will the Ukraine war end?

7. CCTV captures sound of Olivia shooting

A man targeted in the shooting that killed Olivia Pratt-Korbel is due to face further questioning about her murder. The nine-year-old was shot as her mother struggled with two men, one with a gun, at her home in Liverpool on Monday night. Meanwhile, CCTV footage capturing the sound of gunshots during the murder has emerged. Although the video does not show the attack itself, the audio “clearly captures the sound of four gunshots”, said Sky News. The intended victim of the shooting has been named as 35-year-old Joseph Nee, a convicted drug dealer.

Nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel fatally shot in Liverpool home

8. Law firm sues Ghislaine Maxwell

A US law firm that helped defend Ghislaine Maxwell is suing her, her brother and her husband, saying it was never paid for more than $878,000 for its work. Haddon, Morgan and Foreman alleged in a lawsuit that Maxwell, the socialite convicted of helping the financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, put her brother Kevin Maxwell in charge of paying her legal fees, but that he only paid a fraction of what they had charged. Maxwell, who was found guilty of sex trafficking, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts and two conspiracy charges, is serving 20 years in prison.

9. Botham blasts ‘self-righteous’ hunt saboteurs

Ian Botham said “self-righteous” hunt saboteurs have disrupted legal countryside pursuits following a stand-off with protesters. The former cricketer was part of a grouse shooting party forced to abandon its shoot last week on Snailsden Moor in the Peak District after hunt saboteurs sat down in front of his 4x4. Writing for The Telegraph, Botham said protesters “lack the intellectual and social skills needed to persuade”. The Hunt Saboteurs Association said Botham was “among many grouse shooters heading home with an empty bag”.

10. French prison held go-karting day

The governor of a French jail has admitted to an “error of judgement” after holding a go-karting event for prisoners. The go-karting was part of a day of activities at France’s second-largest jail, with swimming and a tug-of-war also on offer. The Independent said images of the events at Fresnes Prison “sent ripples through French politics”, particularly after it emerged that two of the inmates who took part were serving sentences for murder and rape. Eric Ciotti, of the conservative party Les Republicains, said: “Our prisons are not holiday camps where inmates and guards become friends.”