Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 9 August 2023

1. Five years of lost growth forecast

Rishi Sunak will fight the next general election with an economy suffering from five years of lost growth and a widening of the gap between the affluent and less well off, said the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. A triple blow of Brexit, Covid and the Ukraine war had badly affected the UK economy, said the thinktank, and it forecast that the spending power of workers in many parts of the UK will remain below pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2024.

Is Rishi Sunak delivering on his five pledges?

2. PSNI reveal data breach

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) apologised after it accidentally revealed details of all its 10,000 staff. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the PSNI shared names of all police and civilian personnel, where they were based and their roles. The “ultra-confidential” information, which was published online, is a “gold mine for terrorists”, said the Belfast Telegraph. NI’s Police Federation said the breach could cause “incalculable damage”.

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3. Amazon nations in ‘rare conclave’

The countries that share the Amazon basin have fallen short of an agreed goal to end deforestation. Delegates from the eight nations are meeting in the Brazilian city of Belém for a “rare conclave” about the future of the world’s largest rainforest amid “growing concern over the global climate emergency”, said The Guardian. Although a joint declaration created an alliance to combat deforestation, it left each country to pursue its own conservation goals, noted the BBC.

Deforestation and the state of the world’s rainforests

4. Smaller steps target suggested

Taking just 2,337 daily steps is enough to reduce the risk of dying prematurely, a new study has found. Since the 1960s, 10,000 daily steps has been “touted as a magical number for staying fit and healthy”, said The Times. But a study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, has found that anything above 2,337 steps a day saw a significant reduction in the risk of dying from heart diseases or stroke and walking at least 3,967 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from any cause.

5. Weight-loss drug ‘reduces heart risk’

A weight-loss jab can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke by 20%, a trial has found. When pharm company Novo Nordisk conducted a five-year study of semaglutide, sold under the brand name Wegovy, it found the risk of heart attack or stroke in obese patients given a 2.4mg once-weekly dose, alongside standard care for the prevention of heart attacks or stroke, reduced by a fifth compared with those given a placebo drug. The company said the results would change the way obesity is regarded and treated.

Obesity drugs: is new ‘skinny jab’ a game changer or a quick-fix fad?

6. Civil servants ‘dodge pay freeze’

The number of civil servants earning more than £100,000 a year has nearly doubled, said The Telegraph, as new figures suggest that Whitehall has been “using a loophole to get around pay freezes”. Data shows there are now 2,050 mandarins who take home six figures - an increase of 88% from 1,090 in 2016. The news comes a day after the BBC reported that civil servants in Scotland used bank cards to make tens of “thousands of purchases”, including spending nearly £10,000 on VIP airport services.

Attack of ‘the Blob’: is the civil service working against the Tories?

7. Joint action against water firms

The public could receive hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation in the first class action against water companies. A collective case against six water companies claims they have failed to properly report sewage spills and pollution of rivers and seas to the Environment Agency and Ofwat, the regulator for England and Wales. It also claims they have abused their position as privatised monopolies. However, trade body Water UK said the accusations were “without merit”.

What’s caused the big stink over Britain’s sewage?

8. William and Kate to lead Queen tribute

The Prince and Princess of Wales will lead the tributes to the Queen on the first anniversary of her death. The royal couple will deliver a public message honouring the life and legacy of the monarch, who died on 8 September. A source told The Mirror that William and Kate will also use the occasion to “look forward”. Palace officials said the King will spend the anniversary “quietly and privately, just as the late Queen did to mark her own father’s passing”.

9. Trump lashes out at women’s team

Donald Trump has blamed wokeness for the US team’s exit from the women’s World Cup. Writing on his social media platform, he said the exit is “fully emblematic of what is happening to our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden”, adding that “many of our players were openly hostile” to America. “WOKE EQUALS FAILURE”, he continued. The USA, the reigning champions, were “stunned by Sweden” on penalties on a night of “incredible drama in Melbourne”, said the BBC.

The meaning of woke

10. Bananas grow in UK

Bananas have been growing in Britain thanks to this year’s wet summer. The Royal Horticultural Society said a combination of rain throughout the spring and summer and a very hot June helped the crops, usually found in tropical regions, to grow here. “It’s not something that you see or are meant to see in Hackney”, Ray Ripon, a hobby gardener told The Telegraph after his 10-year-old banana plant produced fruit for the first time.