Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 27 September 2022

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1. Tories fear ‘world of pain’
2. Nasa hails asteroid breakthrough
3. Labour opens wide lead over Tories
4. Non-doms dodging £3.2bn tax
5. Abe funeral divides nation
6. Millions take extra jobs
7. Chess champ calls rival a cheat
8. Palm trees face extinction
9. Pharmacies warn they could disappear
10. Cuba votes for same-sex marriage

published 27 September 2022

1. Tories fear ‘world of pain’

Some mortgage deals have been withdrawn by lenders after the government’s mini-budget caused the pound to collapse. Ministers are scrambling to prevent a complete loss of market confidence in the government’s economic strategy. Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, and the Treasury issued “apparently co-ordinated statements” in an attempt to “calm the markets and shore up the pound,” said The Times, but sterling fell after their intervention. Tory MPs say they now fear a “world of pain” if voters blamed them for soaring mortgage costs.

NASA has successfully smashed a spacecraft into an asteroid seven million miles from Earth. The last image from the vending machine-sized collider showed the surface of the asteroid Dimorphos seconds before impact. The collision was intentional and designed to test whether space rocks that might threaten Earth could be pushed safely out of the way. Dr Lori Glaze, director of planetary science at the space agency, said: “We’re embarking on a new era of humankind, an era in which we potentially have the capability to protect ourselves from something like a dangerous hazardous asteroid impact.”

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Labour’s lead over the Conservatives is the biggest in more than two decades, according to a new poll. Keir Starmer’s party has an approval rating of 45% while the Tories are at 28%, a YouGov poll for The Times found. Labour’s current lead is a level of support not seen since Tony Blair won his landslide victory in 2001. The paper said the survey “revealed widespread public opposition,” including among Tory supporters, to the tax-cutting measures announced by the chancellor last week.

Non-doms in the UK are being legally allowed to avoid paying more than £3.2bn of tax on at least £10.9bn of offshore income a year, according to a report. The researchers at the University of Warwick and the London School of Economics and Political Science found that 26,000 people granted non-dom tax status by the taxman collect an average of £420,000 a year in unreported overseas income and capital gains. However, noted The Guardian, the government argues that the non-dom scheme is good for the UK economy as it attracts wealthy overseas people to the country.

Politicians from around the world are gathering in Tokyo for a state funeral for Japan’s assassinated former prime minister, Shinzo Abe. However, said the BBC, many people in Japan are “not thrilled” about the money being spent on Abe’s funeral, which is estimated to cost 1.65bn yen (£10.1m). Abe died in hospital after he was shot at a political campaign event in July. He was shot at twice while he was giving a speech on a street in the city of Nara.

Millions of workers have been forced to take on additional jobs due to the cost-of-living crisis, according to a report by insurer Royal London. Data seen by the BBC, showed that 5.2m workers have turned to second or multiple jobs to help pay for the increased cost of living, while another 10m intend to take on more work. “It could be an incredibly tough winter ahead,” said Sarah Pennells, consumer finance specialist at Royal London, which carried out the survey of 4,000 UK adults at the end of August.

Chess star Magnus Carlsen has officially branded American teenager Hans Niemann a cheat and says he will never play against him again. Carlsen, the world champion, escalated his ongoing public feud with Niemann by saying he “has cheated more – and more recently – than he has publicly admitted.” Carlsen had previously made veiled accusations against Niemann, who defeated him this month in a major upset, but has offered no evidence, or direct allegation, of cheating.

Scientists have warned that more than a thousand species of palm tree are at risk of extinction. Using artificial intelligence to assess risks to the entire palm family, from tall trees to climbing plants, experts at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, found that more than a thousand species - just over 50% of palms - are threatened with extinction. Palms are a “huge plant family” that provide millions of people with food, drink and shelter, noted the BBC.

Thousands of high street chemists could close within two years because of high inflation and static NHS funding, warned a report by the National Pharmacy Association. In England, the value of the contract between the NHS and community pharmacies dropped by 10% between 2015 and 2017. The Times said the report’s warning “raises questions about the feasibility of government plans to expand the role of community pharmacists to tackle the NHS crisis”.

Cuba has legalised same-sex marriage after a national referendum. Cubans voted in favour of a family code that increased protections for minorities on the island, the country’s National Electoral Council confirmed. Attitudes towards homosexuality on the island have changed over the past decades, said the BBC. During the early years of Fidel Castro’s rule after the 1959 revolution, homosexual men and women were sent to work camps for supposed “re-education”.

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