Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 20 Jun 2018

The conclusions of an inquiry into the deaths of hundreds of
elderly patients in Gosport War Memorial Hospital in Hampshire come
out today, 20 years after concerns were first raised on the number
of painkilling injections prescribed there. Retired doctor Jane
Barton is at the centre of the inquiry into failings between 1988
and 2000.

The US has quit the UN Human Rights Council, alleging it is
politically biased. US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said the
Council was a “hypocritical and self-serving” body which “makes a
mockery of human rights”. She added that Israel is “singled out in
a way that no other country is singled out” by the 47-member
group.

Five people were injured yesterday by an explosion at Southgate
Underground station in west London. Police say the “minor
explosion” was not terror-related but was caused by a
short-circuited battery. Six-foot flames and a smell of burning
rubber were reported by witnesses. Some injuries were caused when
people ran in panic.

Canada has become the second country in the world, after
Uruguay, to legalise recreational use of marijuana. The country’s
senate voted in favour of the Cannabis Act yesterday, 52 to 29,
despite opposition from conservatives and indigenous groups. The
new law will come into effect by September. Medical use has been
legal since 2001.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock, who has his own eponymous social
media network for those keen to keep up with his political work,
has said schools should ban pupils from carrying mobile phones.
However, he does not believe this should be enforced by
legislation. Instead he says more headteachers should ban the
handheld devices.

More than 100 employees of Microsoft have written an open letter
to the tech giant calling on it to stop working with the US Border
Patrol, as concern deepens in the US about the separation of
families trying to enter the country illegally. In the letter, the
staff say they “refuse to be complicit” in removing children from
their parents.

The Central African Republic has denied that German former
tennis star Boris Becker is one of its diplomats, saying the
passport he claims gives him immunity from prosecution over his
debts in the UK is “a fake”. Civil servant Cherubin Moroubama told
AFP the passport’s serial number matches one of a batch of
passports stolen in 2014.

Japanese football fans impressed their Russian hosts yesterday
by cleaning up the stadium in which they watched their national
side beat a South American team for the first time, using bin bags
they brought for the purpose. The behaviour is not unusual, says
the BBC, but happens after every match.  Japan beat Colombia
2-1 last night.

A Bakewell pudding launched towards space by a primary school
has gone missing. The local delicacy is somewhere in or above the
stratosphere after being launched by pupils at St Anselm’s
Preparatory School in Derbyshrie, with hopes it might reach
114,000ft. Tracking devices were attached – but these have since
stopped working.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has landed in Beijing for a
two-day state visit to China, Chinese state media have
announced.

It is Kim’s third trip to China this year, and comes a week
after he met President Donald Trump in Singapore for a historic
summit between North Korea and the US.