Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 24 January 2023

1. Maxwell: Epstein was murdered

Ghislaine Maxwell has claimed that Jeffrey Epstein was murdered in prison. In an interview with TalkTV, the British socialite said she was “shocked” to hear of the disgraced financier’s apparent suicide at a New York City federal jail in 2019. “I believe that he was murdered,” she said. “I was shocked. Then I wondered how it had happened?” She also declined the opportunity to apologise to her victims. Instead, she said they should take their “disappointment and upset” out on the US authorities that had “allowed” Epstein to die.

Ghislaine Maxwell: from high society to decades behind bars

2. Zahawi headache for Sunak

Rishi Sunak is facing further scrutiny over whether he knew about an HMRC inquiry when he appointed Nadhim Zahawi to his cabinet. The prime minister, who has instructed his ethics adviser to investigate the tax affairs of the Conservative party chair, admitted there were “questions that need answering” after reports that Zahawi was forced to pay a fine and millions of pounds in unpaid taxes to HMRC. A government source told The Guardian that Downing Street had been aware of a penalty when Sunak appointed Zahawi. However, Downing Street strongly denied the claim.

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Back to basics: can Sunak stave off return of Tory sleaze?

3. Japan demographic decline

Japan is close to not being able to function as a society because of its falling birth rate, said its prime minister. There were fewer than 800,000 births last year, a far cry from the 1970s, when the figure was more than two million. Life expectancy has risen, meaning there are a growing number of older people, and a declining numbers of workers to support them. “Japan is standing on the verge of whether we can continue to function as a society,” Fumio Kishida told the media.

Japan’s million-yen idea to tackle demographic decline

4. Labour calls for closer EU cooperation

Labour would put closer cooperation with Europe at the centre of its plan to reconnect “a tarnished UK” with its closest allies, David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, will say. “Ideological leadership and reckless choices have left Britain increasingly disconnected from its closest allies, an economy in crisis, and a tarnished international reputation,” he will reportedly tell the thinktank Chatham House later today. He will suggest intensive regular bilateral meetings between the UK and the EU and a renewed focus on negotiating a defence security pact with Brussels.

Is Labour now the party of business?

5. Another mass shooting in California

A gunman killed seven people before being arrested in California, two days after a shooting claimed 11 lives at a popular dance hall. The latest attacks took place at two separate locations in the coastal city of Half Moon Bay, about 30 miles south of San Francisco. One took place at a mushroom farm and another near a trucking facility, approximately two miles from the farm, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said. The attacker was identified as 67-year-old Zhao Chunli, a local resident. The new year “has brought a shocking string of mass killings in the US — six in less than three weeks, accounting for 39 deaths”, said AP.

6. Aleena relative accuses probation service

Government ministers and the probation service have “blood on their hands” said the family of the law graduate Zara Aleena, after a excoriating report found a catalogue of errors in the probation service's handling of Jordan McSweeney, which “meant he was not treated as a high-risk offender and was ‘free’ to commit this ‘most heinous crime’”, said Sky News. Jordan McSweeney, 29, attacked Aleena in June 2022, nine days after his release on licence from prison. “Government bears responsibility too, it is not just the probation service,” said Farah Naz, Aleena’s aunt. “They have blood on their hands.”

What happened to Zara Aleena?

7. China ‘can spy through UK light bulbs’

Ministers have been warned that Beijing has the ability to spy on millions of people in Britain by “weaponising” microchips embedded in cars, domestic appliances and even light bulbs. A report by a former diplomat who has advised MPs on Beijing warned that the “Trojan horse” technology poses a “wide-ranging” threat to UK national security. Modules collect data and then transmit it via the 5G network, “giving China the opportunity to monitor the movements of intelligence targets”, said The Telegraph. The warning comes following revelations late last year of a network of more than 100 illegal Chinese “police stations” in dozens of countries around the world in an effort to monitor, harass and coerce its citizens in exile

Chinese secret police stations around the globe

8. Two probes over BBC chair appointment

The selection of Richard Sharp as BBC chair is now the subject of two separate investigations. Following claims that he helped Boris Johnson secure a loan of up to £800,000 weeks before he was recommended for the job by the then PM, Sharp’s appointment is being probed by the commissioner for public appointments, and by the corporation itself. Sharp’s detailed denial that he had acted in any way improperly, “has failed to assuage anger among BBC workers”, said the i news site, with a number telling the website that Sharp’s presence “now undermines his own insistence that the broadcaster must be unimpeachable on impartiality”.

9. Baldwin keeps role on Rust

Alec Baldwin will remain in the lead role of Rust as it continues filming, the movie’s lawyer has confirmed. The 64-year-old actor is facing an involuntary manslaughter charge following the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the film’s set in 2021. He has denied responsibility for the shooting. Melina Spadone told Sky News that the project will include safety supervisors, and will bar any use of working weapons. “Live ammunition is, and always was, prohibited on set”, the lawyer added.

10. Witchcraft fears at New Forest church

Animal hearts surrounded by candles have been discovered found near a church whose vicar recently warned of “sinister goings-on”, reported The Times. A walker discovered the hearts laid on top of a triangulation station with candles in a circle around the stone landmark at the top of Stagbury Hill in the New Forest. In 2019, someone stabbed a sheep and sprayed it with pentagrams as well as painting occult markings on the village’s 12th-century church. Last year, a dead cat and a dead fox were discovered near St Peter’s Church, raising fears of witchcraft.