Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 1 October 2022

1. Truss tells UK to expect ‘disruption’

Liz Truss has admitted that there has been “disruption” in the UK economy following the mini-budget. Writing in The Sun, the PM insisted the government had “acted decisively” to help people with the cost of living. “I am going to do things differently”, she wrote, which “involves difficult decisions and does involve disruption in the short term”. Meanwhile, in an article in The Telegraph, chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said: “The British taxpayer expects their government to work as efficiently and effectively as possible, and we will deliver on that expectation.”

2. Hopes of Moors breakthrough

The search for the body of one of the Moors murderers’ victims has been re-launched after “potential human remains” were found on moorland, police have said. Keith Bennett, 12, was one of five children tortured and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in the 1960s, but his body has never been recovered. His family told the Daily Mail they hope that the boy’s body will finally be found “after all these years” of trying “to find closure”.

3. Biden says Putin won’t scare him

Joe Biden has warned Russia that the US will not be intimidated by reckless words after Vladimir Putin annexed four occupied regions of Ukraine and appeared to make a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons to defend the territories. The US president criticised Putin’s “reckless words and threats”, and added that the Moscow leader was “not going to scare us”. Putin’s signing of “accession treaties”, formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, is “the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war”, said The Guardian.

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4. Biggest rail strike starts

Today’s rail strike will be the biggest yet this year, with a skeleton service of just 11% of the usual rail timetable expected to operate and most cities cut off from the network. A “weekend of chaos” lies ahead, said The Times, as members of the RMT union, Unite, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association and Aslef, the drivers’ union, stage a co-ordinated walkout – the first in which all four have walked out simultaneously. No trains will operate between London and cities including Edinburgh, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Newcastle, Brighton and Norwich.

5. Covid cases and hospitalisations up

Covid infections are on the rise in the UK, with official estimates stating that cases are increasing by 14% week-on-week. With a rise in hospital admissions of patients with Covid, deputy chief medical officer for England, Dr Thomas Waite, told the BBC that the developments are a “wake-up call”. Sarah Crofts, from the ONS Covid-19 infection survey, said “it is too early to identify whether this is the start of a new wave of infections”.

6. Tory voters fleeing

Almost half of all voters who backed the Tories at the last election have abandoned the party, a poll for The i found. Of those who voted Conservative in the 2019 general election, only 54% say they still support the party while 15% have switched to Labour. Current polling would give Labour “a 1997-esque landslide majority” at the next general election, according to BMG. The paper said the 2022 Conservative conference is Liz Truss’s last chance to save her job as prime minister, and her party.

7. Molly’s father criticises social media

Molly Russell’s father said social media giants are “monetising misery” after an inquest ruled that harmful online content contributed to the 14-year-old’s death. Pointing the finger at Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, Ian Russell accused them of leading his daughter on a “demented trail of life-sucking content”. The inquest heard that Molly, from north-west London, had viewed content related to suicide, depression, self-harm and anxiety on Instagram and Pinterest before she died in November 2017.

8. Fraud warning as bills rise

Energy prices rose for millions of households today, with a typical annual bill going up from £1,971 to £2,500. However, the increase has been cushioned by a government cap on the cost per unit. Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said messages asking for people to provide personal or financial details to receive their support packages should be treated as fraudulent activity, as no applications are required.

9. Neymar backs far-right leader

Brazilian football star Neymar has offered his support to President Jair Bolsonaro, just days before Sunday’s election. The Paris Saint-Germain forward recorded a video for TikTok, singing along to a Bolsonaro jingle and making V signs with both hands to signify 22, the number of Bolsonaro’s party on Brazil’s electronic ballots. Bolsonaro is “known as Trump of the Tropics,” said the Telegraph, and has hinted that he may not recognise the results of the forthcoming election.

10. World reacts to Truss fallout

The French government is “worried” about the economic situation unfolding in Britain, said Emmanuel Macron’s finance minister. In recent days, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed the pound is “blowing up”, Brussels diplomats have accused Liz Truss of “gaslighting” the British public and the White House said it was “alarmed” by the situation in the UK. Spain’s El Español’s newspaper said Truss’s first three weeks in office “could not have been more catastrophic” and the German tabloid Bild said: “The Brexit British currently have a nasty money problem.”