Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 13 Jun 2018

MPs voted last night by 324 to 298 to back the Government on its
Brexit bill, in a narrow escape from a humiliating defeat for
Theresa May. Tory rebels were placated at the eleventh hour by
concessions from the Prime Minister, in a personal meeting. She
promised them the Commons will get a bigger say on the final Brexit
deal.

North Korean state media has reported that US President Donald
Trump “expressed his intention” to lift sanctions when he met Kim
Jong Un in Singapore yesterday – though sanctions were not
mentioned in the document the two men signed and Trump said after
the historic summit that they would remain in place for the
present.

Sir Martin Sorrell, who left his job as chief executive of the
world’s biggest advertising firm in confusing circumstances earlier
this year, is expected to receive £19m in bonuses from WPP.
Shareholder are expected to approve the payment at the firm’s AGM
today. The BBC says 25% of voters will be opposed to the
payments.

An FBI agent who accidentally shot a member of a crowd in a bar
has been charged with second-degree assault. Mobile phone footage
showed Chase Bishop performing a backflip in the bar in Denver on 2
June, causing his gun to fall onto the floor. In picking it up, he
shot into the crowd. The 29-year-old turned himself in to
police.

Motorists’ group the RAC says the current price of petrol cannot
be justified and should fall by 2p per litre immediately to reflect
recent falls in the wholesale cost of the fuel. The group says fuel
prices have risen almost every day since April despite wholesale
costs dropping about 2.5p per litre since 24 May. Diesel prices are
similar.

An Uber driver in New York City has had his licence suspended by
the ride-sharing app after he told a lesbian couple to get out of
his car because they were kissing. Alex Iovine and Emma Pichl say
they had a “peck” on the lips as they travelled from Brooklyn to
Manhattan on Saturday, which Ahmad El Boutari said was
“disrespectful”.

The former Yugoslavian republic of Macedonia is to change its
name after 27 years to end a diplomatic row with neighbouring
Greece, which says the name infringes on its northern province of
Macedonia. The country will now be North Macedonia. In return,
Greece will lift its objections to its neighbour joining NATO and
the EU.

A tourist couple, believed to be British and Australian, have
fallen to their deaths in Portugal, apparently while trying to take
a selfie at the top of a 130ft sea wall. Portuguese media say the
couple died at the Praia dos Pescadores beach near Ericeira on the
west coast. It is thought the pair fell while trying to retrieve
the phone.

A ten-year-old handbag sold in London has set an auction price
record for Europe. The used Hermes Birkin bag sold for £162,500,
exceeding its top estimate of £150,000, on Tuesday. While the most
expensive sold at auction in Europe, the bag did not fetch as much
as the Hermes Birkin which went for £253,700 in Hong Kong in
2017.

Despite typical lifespans of hundreds or even thousands of
years, Africa’s baobab trees are dying off rapidly, according to a
new study by ecologists.

Also known as upside-down trees, baobabs, with their distinctive
bulbous trunks and spindly branches, are synonymous with the
African bush, where the vast majority of them are found.