Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 6 September 2022

1. Dorries and Patel step down

Nadine Dorries and Priti Patel both quit the cabinet hours after Liz Truss won the Conservative leadership contest. A friend of Dorries told Mail Plus that the former culture secretary “has decided now is the right time to leave”. Patel was expected to be replaced as home secretary by Suella Braverman, the former attorney general, so her departure is seen as an attempt to “avoid the embarrassment of being sacked”, said The Guardian. Cabinet Office minister Nigel Adams and Conservative Party co-chair Ben Elliot also announced that they are stepping down.

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2. Truss plans ‘energy bill freeze’

Liz Truss, Boris Johnson’s successor as UK prime minister, is reportedly planning to announce a freeze on some energy bills. Allies of the former foreign secretary told The Times that the intervention would be “big and bold” and “get money to everyone”, adding that it could cost as much as £90bn. According to sources at the Treasury, funds would be provided by commercial banks and backed by government guarantees, and added to consumers’ bills over the long term.

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Is the government more to blame than energy firms for soaring bills?

3. Trump granted ‘special master’

A judge has granted Donald Trump’s request for a “special master” to oversee the case into his alleged handling of classified materials when he left the White House. In a victory for the former president, the “special master” – an independent lawyer who decides if any of the records are covered by attorney-client or executive privilege – will now be involved in the investigation. Trump’s lawyers had argued that a “special master” was needed because they cannot trust the Justice Department to be fair.

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4. Ministers ‘warned about Rwanda’

The High Court has heard that government documents, advice and experts repeatedly warned ministers about Rwanda’s poor human rights record, reported the BBC. The court was told that the home secretary and government, including the Foreign Office and Downing Street, were “themselves aware of, and appear to have had serious concerns, over Rwanda’s present and historic human rights record” as they devised the plan to send some cross-Channel migrants to the African nation.

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5. Glacier ‘holding on by fingernails’

Antarctica’s “doomsday glacier” is “holding on by its fingernails”, scientists have said. The glacier – which earned its nickname from its high risk of collapse and threat to global sea levels – could rapidly retreat in the coming years and raise sea levels by several feet. In a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers said “we should expect to see big changes over small timescales in the future – even from one year to the next – once the glacier retreats beyond a shallow ridge in its bed”.

6. Earthquake hits southwestern China

At least 65 people have been killed after an earthquake hit southwestern China, the country’s state media has reported. The 6.6 magnitude quake struck on Monday afternoon in Sichuan province at a depth of 10km. Experts said the quake’s epicentre was about 43 kilometres (27 miles) southeast of Kangding, a city of around 100,000 people. It severed telecommunications lines and triggered mountain landslides that caused “serious damage”. Some 21m people in the area were in a Covid lockdown when the earthquake struck.

7. Canada suspect found dead

One of the two suspects in Sunday’s mass stabbings in Saskatchewan, Canada, has been found dead, police have said. The body of Damien Sanderson was found in the James Smith Cree Nation, home to several victims, with visible injuries that are not believed to have been self-inflicted. His brother, Myles Sanderson, is still at large and believed to be in the city of Regina. The Globe and Mail said there is speculation that Myles Sanderson may have killed his brother.

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8. Maitlis stalker jailed again

A stalker who has had a three-decade obsession with the former BBC presenter Emily Maitlis has been jailed for eight years after attempting to breach a restraining order for the 20th time. Edward Vines wrote eight letters addressed to Maitlis expressing his “unrequited” love for her, which he tried to send from HMP Nottingham between 2020 and 2021. In one, he told The News Agents host that he would “continue to brood and to write letters in prison”. A judge at Nottingham Crown Court told the 52-year-old that it was clear he saw the restraining order as “meaningless”.

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9. This Morning slammed for ‘dystopian’ game

The ITV show This Morning has been criticised for running a competition that saw the winner have their energy bills paid. Introducing the Spin The Wheel game, host Philip Schofield said: "This week we’ve got our usual cash prizes, but you could also win some extra cash to pay your energy bills until the end of the year. That’s four months of energy bills taken care of.” The segment provoked anger on social media, with one describing it as “the most dystopian and sad reflection on society right now.” They asked: “How did we get to this point?”

10. Cornwall questions Farage gin

Nigel Farage has been criticised by the Cornish for launching his own gin and claiming it is made by an “artisan distillery in the heart of Cornwall”. The Guardian said Cornish critics expressed “distaste” that the millionaire champion of Brexit, “which has caused millions of pounds of EU money to be lost to one of the poorest areas of northern Europe”, was “using the place to further his business interests”. The paper added that “gin producer after gin producer” has come forward “to make it clear that they had had nothing to do with Farage Gin”.