Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 20 November 2022

1. Historic fund agreed at Cop27

Applause broke out at Cop27 in Egypt as almost 200 countries agreed a landmark deal to launch a fund to help nations worst affected by climate change. The historic fund was approved just before dawn after negotiations continued throughout the night. The United Nations summit has brought what was a “taboo issue” into the mainstream, said Sky News, with even the US, a longtime obstacle, “accepting the need for such a pot of money”.

2. UK may have ‘Swiss relationship with EU’

The government hopes to establish a Swiss-style relationship with the European Union in a move that will “infuriate hardline Conservative Brexiteers”, said The Sunday Times. Switzerland has access to the European single market through bilateral agreements. A source said that although “it’s obviously something the EU would never offer us upfront because they would say you are trying to have your cake and eat it” it is “overwhelmingly in the businesses interests on both sides”.

3. Starmer ‘will abolish House of Lords’

Keir Starmer will abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a new elected chamber, said The Observer. The party leader believes that the public’s faith in the political system had been undermined by successive Tory leaders handing peerages to “lackeys and donors”. He has told Labour peers that there is strong support for reform of the Lords and outlined “some very clear principles”, including that any new chamber should be elected by voters rather than appointed by politicians.

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4. Migrant dies at Manston

The Home Office has announced that a migrant at the Manston processing centre in Kent has died. The man was taken to hospital on Friday evening but died on Saturday morning. A spokesperson for the Home Office said there was “no evidence at this stage” that the person had died from an infectious disease. There have been reports of infectious diseases like diphtheria at the centre, and claims that guards sold drugs to asylum seekers. The incident has been referred to the coroner and to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

5. Musk lifts Trump ban

Elon Musk has announced that Donald Trump’s Twitter account has been reinstated following a poll in which users narrowly backed the move. “The people have spoken,” tweeted the new owner of the platform, saying that 51.8% of more than 15m Twitter users voted for the ban to be lifted. However, the former US president has indicated he may not return, saying: “I don’t see any reason for it”. Trump’s tweets “often moved the markets, set the news cycle and drove the agenda in Washington”, said CNN.

6. Sunak meets Zelenskyy

Rishi Sunak pledged £50m in defence aid to Ukraine as he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his first visit to Kyiv as PM. Sunak said it was “deeply humbling” to be in Ukraine and insisted that the UK would continue to stand by country. Zelenskyy praised a “meaningful and useful visit for both our countries”, during which the two leaders had discussed how to protect “European and Ukrainian energy security” and defence cooperation.

7. Turkey bombs Syria

Turkey has bombed several sites across northern Syria, according to Kurdish-led forces. Earlier this week, Turkey blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ party for last Sunday’s deadly bombing in central Istanbul. “The hour of reckoning has come,” the Turkish defence ministry tweeted early on Sunday, along with an image of a military jet, adding that those who were responsible for the “treacherous attacks” would be held accountable.

8. Pipe bombs seized in Belfast

Police have seized handguns and pipe bombs in an operation targeting East Belfast UVF. The arms were found during “dramatic swoops” on three houses and a business premises on the lower Newtownards Road late on Friday night, said the Belfast Telegraph. Four men - aged 34, 47, 49 and 51 - have been arrested and are being questioned. The East Belfast UVF is a sect of the loyalist paramilitary group the Ulster Volunteer Force.

9. Protesters occupy Ramsay restaurant

Activists occupied Gordon Ramsay’s three-star Michelin restaurant in London to protest at the “perfect inequality” of such high-end dining venues. The Animal Rebellion members sat on tables in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay on Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea yesterday evening, and held mock menus that detailed the environmental costs of items on the real menu, including steak and veal. The protest was “incredibly inappropriate and deeply disrespectful”, said a restaurant spokesperson.

10. Astronauts ‘to live on the moon’

NASA says it will have astronauts working and living on the moon within 10 years. The US space agency plans to establish an Artemis Base Camp, which will have “a modern lunar cabin and even a mobile home” which will allow astronauts to stay for up to two months. “Early missions will include short surface stays,” said a spokesperson, “but as the base camp evolves, the goal is to allow crew to stay at the lunar surface for up to two months at a time”.