Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 2 October 2022

1. Questions over Kwarteng’s hedge fund party

The chancellor joined a private champagne reception hours after delivering his mini-budget where hedge fund managers who would profit from a crash in the pound encouraged him to commit to his plans. The news “raises questions” about Kwasi Kwarteng’s “political judgment,” said The Sunday Times. “It will also raise concern that the event informed his decision to announce plans for even bigger tax cuts,” it added. Earlier this week, The Times revealed that Kwarteng’s former hedge fund boss bet big on the pound falling after a lunch with the Tory politician.

2. Deadly stampede at Indonesian match

At least 129 people have died in a stampede at an Indonesian football match. The stampede happened after police tear-gassed rioting supporters after Arema FC lost to bitter rivals Persebaya Surabaya in East Java. Images showed people who appeared to be unconscious being carried away by other fans. A local health official said many of the victims died of “chaos, overcrowding, trampling and suffocation”. President Joko Widodo has ordered that all matches in Indonesia’s top league must be stopped until an investigation has been concluded.

3. Ally urges Putin to go nuclear

A Chechen leader and key Kremlin ally has called on Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine in the wake of another embarrassing military defeat. “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in [Russia’s] border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app, after Moscow’s latest defeat. His remarks are the first time a Russian official has openly and explicitly called for the use of atomic bombs in Ukraine.

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4. Truss tells King to avoid climate summit

King Charles has scrapped plans to attend next month’s Cop27 climate change summit after Liz Truss told him to stay away. The monarch, a “passionate environmental campaigner”, had intended to deliver a speech at the meeting of world leaders in Egypt but Truss objected to the plan during a personal audience at Buckingham Palace last month, said The Sunday Times. The development comes amid suspicion that the government may water down, or abandon, its environmental target to achieve “net zero” by 2050, added the paper.

5. Monkeypox situation improving in the UK

The state of play with monkeypox is looking “very positive” in the UK, with cases continuing to fall, said a leading infectious disease modeller. The UK has recorded more than 3,500 cases, but in recent weeks there have been fewer than 100 new infections. Prof Ferguson, who was involved in the UK’s Covid response and is currently advising the government on monkeypox, told the BBC that vaccines and vigilance have helped drive cases down from a peak in July this year.

6. Deadly milestone in West Bank

At least 100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, according to the BBC. The milestone was reached as an 18-year-old man was shot dead in East Jerusalem on Saturday, the latest death in a year dominated by Israeli military raids. This year is “now on course to become the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2015”, said the broadcaster. Palestinian officials have accused Israel of carrying out “field executions” but the Israel Defense Forces said it only used live fire when all other options were exhausted.

7. First-class carriages could be scrapped

First-class commuter carriages could become a thing of the past after Whitehall gave an operator permission to axe them and free up seats. With demand still below pre-pandemic levels, train operators have been ordered by the Department for Transport to find cost savings. Last week, Southeastern, the nationalised operator that runs more than 1,500 services from Sussex and Kent into London every day, said it would scrap first-class tickets entirely. A government spokesman said: “Commuters have often been vocal when forced to stand overlooking empty first class seats in packed trains.”

8. Venezuela swaps prisoners with US

Venezuela has freed seven jailed Americans, including five oil executives, in exchange for Washington releasing two nephews of President Nicolás Maduro’s wife who had been jailed for years on narcotics convictions. The agreement follows “months of back-channel diplomacy by senior US officials”, said The Observer, adding that the swap is an “unusual gesture of goodwill” from Venezuela and a “hint of thawing relations between the two countries.

9. Charge in Pratt-Korbel probe

A man has been charged with the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel who was shot dead in her home in Merseyside. The Crown Prosecution Service said 34-year-old Thomas Cashman has also been charged with the attempted murder of her mother Cheryl. Olivia was shot in the chest and her mother injured as a convicted burglar was chased into their home. Assistant Chief Constable Chris Green, of Merseyside Police, said his team had worked “relentlessly” in what has been “a complex inquiry, supported by Olivia's mum and dad and the wider Merseyside community”.

10. Dorries still ‘baffled’ by Boris exit

Nadine Dorries said Boris Johnson was “one of the world’s best leaders” and she is still “baffled and bewildered” that the Tories replaced him. “There was just no doubt that Boris was a winner,” she told The Sunday Times. “I always think the reason Tony Blair did so well was because people voted for Tony Blair; they did not want to go out and vote for Gordon Brown. It’s the personality, the character that people voted for as well as the policies. In recent experience it was clear that people voted not always for the Conservatives — they voted for Boris.”