Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 23 Jul 2012

1. BRADLEY WIGGINS WINS TOUR DE FRANCE

A Briton has won the Tour de France for the first time in the gruelling cycle race’s 99-year history. But Bradley Wiggins had no time to savour his amazing achievement at the Champs-Elysees finish line: the 32-year-old left Paris within hours of the end of the race to begin training for the Olympics at home.

Is Bradley Wiggins Britain's greatest ever sportsman?

2. TAX AVOIDERS TO BE ‘NAMED AND SHAMED’

The Treasury is considering new proposals to force finance companies to ‘name and shame’ wealthy individuals who use aggressive, but legal, tax avoidance schemes. Yesterday it emerged that a major study for the Tax Justice Network found that a global elite has squirreled away at least £13tn in tax havens.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Tax avoiders could be named and shamed under new rules

3. OBAMA MEETS BATMAN SHOOTING VICTIMS

US president Barack Obama has spoken of sharing “hugs and tears” with the survivors of the shooting which took place during a midnight screening of the new Batman film in a cinema in Colorado, as he visited them in hospital. Warner Bros has cancelled another two national premieres of the film, in Japan and Mexico.

Batman shooting: 'miraculous' escape for unborn baby

4. MIGRANTS STUCK IN ‘BERMUDA TRIANGLE’

A select committee of MPs has found that there is a backlog of more than 275,000 failed migrants waiting to be removed from the UK. Home affairs chair Keith Vaz MP dubbed the situation a “bermuda triangle”. The committee said it would take the UK Border Agency “years” to remove them, if it was able to at all.

5. SYRIA WON'T USE CHEMICALS ON REBELS

Syria has promised not to use chemical weapons against its own people. A foreign ministry spokesman insisted its chemical arsenal is secure and "will not be used unless Syria is subjected to external aggression". Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army has told the BBC that they have been encouraged by a bomb last week that assassinated key regime figures.

6. YEO: OSBORNE IS WRECKING GREEN PLANS

Former Tory minister Tim Yeo, who now chairs the Commons energy and climate change select committee, has lashed out at chancellor George Osborne, accusing the Treasury of sacrificing green energy plans in order to placate “Conservative backbenchers” who object to onshore wind farms.

7. SPAIN BANS SHORT-SELLING

Spain has banned short-selling of shares - the practice of betting on a fall in value - for three months in an attempt to restore confidence to the markets. Italy has introduced a one-week ban. Earlier, shares across Europe fell sharply amid fears that Spain might need a full bailout. The FTSE-100 was down 2.3 per cent at 3.44pm today.

8. TALKS START OVER MILK PRICE ROW

Talks between dairy farmers and milk processing firms will take place today to try to solve their ongoing disputes after several major protests by angry farmers who blockaded milk plants in recent days because of low prices for milk. Farming minister Jim Paice wants and independent adjudicator to be involved.

9. CLEGG: I WOULD WORK WITH LABOUR

Amid what the Telegraph says is “growing speculation” about his future as Lid Dem leader, Nick Clegg has said he would go into coalition with Labour in a future parliament, working with Ed Miliband. He said that “personal likes and dislikes” were irrelevant. A new poll has ranked Miliband over David Cameron.

Nick Clegg stabs PM in the back saying: 'I'll work with Miliband'

10. HOT TICKET: VISIT SHAKESPEARE’S WORLD

A major Shakespeare exhibition, Staging the World, has opened at the British Museum. The show evokes Shakespeare’s era and inspirations through over 190 objects, ranging from rare manuscripts to weapons and bear skulls, alongside recorded readings by Royal Shakespeare Company actors. “A tour de force,” says the Telegraph.

All the world's a stage in British Museum's Shakespeare show