Yahoo News Your morning briefing: What you should know for Friday, October 18
PM in bid to win over MPs before Brexit deal showdown
Boris Johnson will today launch a charm offensive as he tries to sell his last-minute Brexit deal to MPs.
The Prime Minister’s blueprint was yesterday approved by all 27 EU leaders as they gathered for a crucial summit in Brussels.
But he faces an uphill battle to get the agreement through Parliament in what is expected to be an historic sitting on Saturday.
Mr Johnson said there is a "very good case" for MPs to vote in his favour and urged them to "come together and get this thing done".
However, there is significant opposition lining up to thwart it, with key allies in the DUP already rejecting the deal and the SNP tabling an amendment to it.
XR set for 'red hand' protest in Westminster
Extinction Rebellion is planning a "red hand" march today, marking the penultimate on the day of its protest.
The climate activists will spray-paint hand prints using washable chalk spray to mark the path the march from Whitehall Gardens to six government departments.
They plan to deliver a set of specific demands to each department.
The group apologised yesterday after its action to disrupt London’s Tube network turned violent.
Activists and commuters clashed during Thursday morning's rush hour at Canning Town Tube station as protesters clambered on top of a train in a bid to paralyse services.
Drugs not involved in death of England fan in Bulgaria, friend says
A friend of an English football fan who died in police custody in Bulgaria has denied suggestions he had used drugs prior to his death.
Robert Spray, 32, died in Sofia on Monday after travelling to watch the England’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Bulgaria.
Mr Spray, from Staffordshire, was said to have been found in a "helpless condition" in the centre of the city and taken to hospital.
Bulgarian authorities said he then began to act aggressively and the police were called. Mr Mr Spray later died while being transported to a police station and it was suggested that he had used drugs.
Halloween costumes sold 'to contain 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste'
Halloween costumes sold by some of the UK's biggest retailers will contain the equivalent of 83 million plastic bottles, a study has found.
An investigation of 324 clothing lines sold by 19 retailers found that 83 per cent of the material in the costumes is oil-based plastic.
The most common plastic polymer found in the clothing sampled was polyester, making up 69 per cent of the total of all materials.
Astronauts to make history with first ever all-women spacewalk
Two female astronauts are set to make history today as they gear up for the first ever all-women spacewalk.
Christina Koch and Jessica Meir will venture outside the International Space Station (ISS) on the historic mission.
The mission and is expected to last five-and-a-half hours.
The pair will replace a faulty power unit on the ISS which stopped working at the weekend.
On this day...
1826: The last state lottery was held in Britain.
1910: The trial of Dr Crippen began at the Old Bailey. The American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser was later hanged in London's Pentonville Prison for the murder of his wife, and was the first suspect to be captured with the aid of wireless telegraphy.
1922: The British Broadcasting Company was officially formed.
1926: Bing Crosby made his first commercial recording, I've Got The Girl.
1961: Henri Matisse's Le Bateau attracted big crowds when it went on show in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was not until 116,000 people had seen it, 46 days later, that someone noticed it was hanging upside down.
1967: The Soviet Union successfully sent a space probe into the atmosphere of the planet Venus for the first time.
1977: German anti-terror troops stormed a high-jacked Lufthansa airliner at Mogadishu, Somalia, killing three Palestinian terrorists and freeing all hostages.
