Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 19 October 2022

1. Truss faces further unrest

Liz Truss is facing even greater unrest from ministers over her plans for “brutal public spending cuts” after the “disastrous” mini-budget put major pledges at risk, including the pensions triple lock, said The Guardian. Truss has told MPs on the right of her party that her tax U-turns were “painful”. The prime minister is attempting to shore up support in her party, but, a former minister told the inews site: “She’s more f**ked than Boris. When your personal ratings are -70 and the party is -33, there’s no way out of that.”

Can Jeremy Hunt’s mini-budget reversal save Truss?

2. ‘Melting ice’ could cause pandemic

The next pandemic may come not “from bats or birds” but from “matter in melting ice”, said The Guardian. Research of soil and lake sediments from the largest high Arctic freshwater lake in the world, Lake Hazen, suggests the risk of viral spillover is greater close to melting glaciers. In 2016 an outbreak of anthrax in northern Siberia, that killed a child and infected at least seven other people, was blamed on a heatwave that melted permafrost and exposed an infected reindeer carcass.

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SEP 21: How new evidence suggests Covid-19 jumped from animals to humans multiple times

3. Inflation back to double figures

New data is expected to show inflation returned to double figures in September due to the spiralling cost of food. As the Office for National Statistics prepares to reveal the latest increase in the cost of living for UK households, a survey for the BBC found that some 85% of those asked are now worried about the crisis, up from 69% in a similar poll in January. A separate new survey has showed “confidence among British businesses has dropped”, said Sky News.

Why does inflation matter?

4. Hunt will ‘target banks’

The chancellor will raid the profits of banks and energy companies in an attempt to fill a £40bn fiscal hole through a mix of tax rises and public spending cuts. Allies of Jeremy Hunt’s say his budget on October 31 will see him target the earnings of lenders and oil and gas companies. Lenders are expected to make “bumper profits from rising interest rates”, said the Financial Times, including from reserves held on deposits overnight at the Bank of England, and from bigger margins on lending.

The arguments for and against a windfall tax on oil and gas profits

5. China diplomat ‘involved in violence’

A UK MP has claimed that one of Beijing’s most senior UK diplomats was involved in violence against protesters at the Manchester consulate at the weekend. “What we saw was the Chinese consul-general then ripping down posters and peaceful protest,” Alicia Kearns told fellow MPs in the House of Commons. China claims the protestors had “illegally entered” the grounds of the consulate.

6. Fears grow that Putin will go nuclear

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has flown to Washington for emergency talks with the Pentagon amid mounting concerns that Vladimir Putin will make a “nuclear show of force”, said the Daily Mail. After the new head of Russia’s armed forces Sergei Suvorikin, nicknamed General Armageddon, launched a series of missile and drone strikes, a security source told The Sun that fears are growing that the Russian president is considering detonating a low-yield nuclear warhead over the Black Sea. “The threat has increased recently”, they said.

Does Syria offer warnings for Russia’s Ukraine escalation?

7. Parental coldness linked to childhood obesity

Children whose parents lack emotional warmth are more likely to grow up overweight or obese, according to a ground-breaking new study. Researchers at the International Congress on Obesity in Melbourne will announce today that parental warmth is key to a healthy weight. After studying data on 10,000 children in the UK, they found authoritarian and neglectful parenting in early childhood – both characterised by a lack of warmth - were linked with higher weight throughout childhood and adolescence. In England, more than a quarter of four- and five-year-olds are overweight or obese.

Why might UK scrap anti-obesity drive?

8. Rees-Mogg could be sued over fracking

Jacob Rees-Mogg is “facing legal action over his decision to lift the freeze on fracking”, according to The Independent. Climate and community groups have sent a legal letter to the business secretary, seen by the paper, announcing their plan to seek judicial review of his decision. The activists believe they are grounds to suggest that it was “unlawful” to reverse the 2019 ban on the controversial gas extraction method without fresh scientific evidence to prove it is safe. Meanwhile, Labour is pushing for fracking to be banned “once and for all” through a parliamentary vote.

The pros and cons of fracking

9. Fuel costs put Brits back on bikes

Rising fuel prices are putting Brits “back in the saddle”, said The Times. Citing figures from the Department for Transport, the paper said in the past four months cycling levels are 54% higher than before the pandemic and 11% up on the same period in 2020, when people were told to avoid public transport due to Covid. “The surge in people cycling since March, particularly midweek, corresponds with rising costs of fuel and living in general,” said Sarah Mitchell, the chief executive of Cycling UK.

How high will petrol prices go?

10. Rapper wins Mercury Prize

Little Simz has won the Mercury Prize, for the best British or Irish album of the last 12 months. The rapper took the £25,000 award for her fourth album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, described by the BBC as a “hip-hop coming-of-age tale delivered with a cinematic sweep”. Accepting the award at London’s Eventim Apollo, Simz, born Simbiatu Ajikawo, said: “Glory to God – God thank you so much; to my family over here, my loved ones right here.”

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