Your morning briefing: What you should know for Thursday, March 21

PM to make case for Brexit delay

Theresa May is to make the case for a delay to Brexit as she travels to Brussels amid growing fears of a no-deal outcome.

The Prime Minister will appeal for EU leaders to accept an extension to the Article 50 withdrawal process until June 30

She is to address a summit later today, which comes just eight days before the UK is due to leave the bloc on March 29.

Mrs May was last night accused of “pitting Parliament against the people” by hitting out at MPs in her speech at Downing Street.

Addressing the nation, Mrs May said that MPs have done "everything possible" to avoid making a choice on Brexit.

It comes after EU leaders agreed to only consider a delay to the divorce process if the PM can force her deal through Parliament.

NZ to ban ‘military-style’ guns after attacks

New Zealand’s Prime Minister has said she hopes a ban on “military-style” guns to come into force by April 11.

The country’s gun laws have been in the spotlight since 50 people were killed in mass shootings at two mosques last Friday.

Ms Arden said an amnesty buy-back scheme would be imposed which she estimated could cost up to $200 million.

“But that is the price that we must pay to ensure the safety of our communities,” she said.

Battle to find survivors of Cyclone Idai

Rescuers have been rushing to reach Cyclone Idai survivors in Mozambique as the full scale of the disaster became clearer.

Charities have said thousands of people were left stranded by catastrophic flooding.

The death toll is expected to rise after about 300 people were confirmed dead in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Handcuffed man’s body found in river

A man's body has been found in a river still wearing police handcuffs two months after he ran away from officers.

Reece Hillier, 22, ran off after being detained by officers in Southampton on January 12.

His death is not being treated as suspicious and Hampshire Police have launched an internal review.

Final supermoon of 2019 dazzles stargazers

Stargazers have been treated to the third and final supermoon of the year.

The Super Worm Moon lit up the night skies across the world and appeared in the UK in the early hours of today.

It coincided with the Spring Equinox and completed a hat trick of supermoons visible in skies over winter.

On this day…

1556: Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, was condemned as a heretic under Catholic Queen Mary I and burned at the stake in Oxford.

1918: The last major German offensive of the First World War began on the Somme.

1933: The first Nazi concentration camp was completed in Germany. It served as a prototype and model for the others that followed including Auschwitz.

1960: The Sharpeville massacre took place in the Transvaal, South Africa, when police fired on a demonstration against Pass Laws, killing 69 people.

1963: Alcatraz, the notorious maximum security prison in San Francisco Bay, was closed.

1991: The poll tax was ditched as Environment Secretary Michael Heseltine unveiled a new property tax to replace it.

1993: The IRA claimed responsibility for two bomb attacks in Warrington which killed a four-year-old child.

1995: Police raided the Tokyo headquarters of the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect after Sarin nerve gas was released on five trains in the Tokyo underground system.

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