Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 26 August 2022

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1. Truss plans energy support package
2. Postal workers start strike
3. Pharmacy checks ‘could save lives’
4. Redacted Trump affidavit to be released
5. Health secretary confronted in street
6. Synthetic mouse embryos created
7. Truss under fire for Macron comment
8. Kim ‘builds eight houses’
9. Start-up criticised for accent editing
10. Golf was ‘imposed on the world’

published 26 August 2022

1. Truss plans energy support package

Liz Truss is planning a “big package” of support to help people with energy bills, said The Times. Ofgem, the energy regulator, is expected to announce today that the energy price cap will rise from £1,971 to about £3,500, and ministers were warned yesterday that the rise would leave millions of people unable to heat their homes or cook food. Truss is reportedly working on plans to provide billions of pounds in targeted support to pensioners and the poorest households but will face intense pressure to go further, as forecasts suggest bills could rise to £6,823 next year.

Around 115,000 Royal Mail postal workers are striking today in a dispute over pay. It is the first of four days of industrial action, with walkouts also taking place on 31 August and 8 and 9 September. The union representing the workers is demanding a pay rise that more closely reflects the current rate of inflation, arguing that the 2% pay rise imposed on them by management was not good enough. A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We cannot cling to outdated working practices.”

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An NHS scheme offering free blood pressure checks at high street pharmacies could save thousands of people’s lives, research suggests. In a drive to slash rates of heart attacks and strokes, NHS England is encouraging everyone over 40 to go to their local pharmacy for a check-up. Analysis suggested that the scheme will prevent 5,500 heart attacks and 8,140 strokes, and save 4,400 lives over the next five years. John Maingay, of the British Heart Foundation, said that the news was “very encouraging”, adding: “This will save lives.”

A redacted version of the affidavit used for the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is set to be published today. Sky News said the document is likely to contain key information about the justification for the search by FBI special agents on 8 August and some of the evidence the government presented to the judge. However, the redactions or blacked-out portions are expected to be extensive. CNN said that behind Trump’s “bravado” there are growing “private concerns” about his legal situation.

A member of the public confronted Health Secretary Steve Barclay in the street, demanding to know why the government has done “bugger all” about record-high waits for ambulances. During an interview with broadcasters in London on Thursday afternoon, Barclay was told by the angry woman that the Conservatives had had “long enough” to fix the NHS and that “people have died” while ministers did nothing. Barclay said later that “a range of measures” were being taken to reduce ambulance wait times.

Scientists have created “synthetic” mouse embryos with growing brains and beating hearts without using sperm or eggs, reported the Financial Times. Researchers at Cambridge University and the California Institute of Technology said theirs were the most complete mammalian embryos made so far from stem cells. They have reached a stage equivalent to a natural embryo at eight-and-a-half days gestation or almost half the normal pregnancy time in mice. The team now hope to extend their findings to human development.

Liz Truss has faced criticism after she said the “jury was still out” on French president Emmanuel Macron. The remark was her reply to the question of whether Macron was a “friend or foe” at a Tory leadership hustings in Norwich. The foreign secretary added that if elected PM she would judge him on his “deeds not words”. Labour’s David Lammy accused the Tory leadership hopeful of “a woeful lack of judgement” and former Conservative minister Gavin Barwell said: “You would have thought the foreign secretary was aware we are in a military alliance with France.”

Kim Jong-un’s fears of assassination have prompted him to build eight new luxury mansions so that his enemies never know where he is sleeping, according to reports. A study from North Korea Leadership Watch has published satellite imagery that shows construction work taking place in the VIP zone of central Pyongyang that is known as Kim’s “Forbidden City” where he and other chiefs live. The Mirror said the tactic is “right out of the book” of China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who is famed for sleeping in a different location every night to avoid being assassinated.

A Silicon Valley start-up is under fire for using technology that can change the accents of call centre workers in real time. Sanas told the BBC that its technology could overcome accent-based prejudice and reduce racist abuse faced by staff, but critics accused Sanas of making agents, many of whom are from the global south, “sound white”. Sanas said its purpose was to improve communication in situations where an accent might present a barrier.

A Scottish university has claimed that golf balls were the product of colonial exploitation, with the game “imposed” around the world by the British Empire. The University of St Andrews, in the Fife town regarded as the “home of golf”, said the sport is connected to imperial “exploitation” because its balls were once made using rubber harvested from colonial territories. Golf was “imposed” across the Empire, claims an exhibition at the centre, as British enthusiasts established clubs from South Africa to Hong Kong.

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