Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 21 Jun 2015

1. GOVT AGREES £12BN BENEFIT CUTS

George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith have confirmed that they will slash spending on benefits by £12bn a year. Writing in The Sunday Times, they say will announce “significant” cuts to return the welfare budget to “sanity”. Meanwhile, child poverty is on course for the biggest rise in a generation, reversing years of progress that began in the late 1990s.

2. TYCOONS LAUNCH £20M EURO CAMPAIGN

Tycoons are preparing to launch a £20m campaign to persuade the British public to leave the European Union. Organisers of the campaign, including some of the country’s richest entrepreneurs and business people, are already in talks with sports stars and celebrities to act as ambassadors, says the Sunday Telegraph. The provisional title is: “No Thanks – We’re Going Global".

3. HUNT: ‘BULGING’ WITH FEMALE SUPPORT

Controversial UK scientist Sir Tim Hunt says hundreds of female scientists have written to support him in the wake of the row triggered by his headline-grabbing remarks about women in science. He tells The Observer his inbox is “bulging with touching emails from young women scientists who have been kind enough to write and thank me for inspiring them and helping them on their way”.

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4. BANNATYNE EX IN NAKED PICS CLAIM

A former Miss GB says Dragons Den star Duncan Bannatyne threatened to expose naked photographs of her. Michelle Evans, who publicly dumped the businessman last week using his famous phrase: “I’m out” on Twitter, claims he asked her to send him naked photographs, then threatened to leak them, leaving her feeling “violated”. Bannatyne has denied the claims.

5. EXPERT: TIME FOR CASH UNDER MATTRESS

One of Britain’s most senior fund managers says it's time to hold physical cash. Ian Spreadbury, who invests more than £4bn of investors’ money across a range of bond funds for Fidelity, is warning of a “systemic event” could rock markets, possibly similar in magnitude to the financial crisis of 2008, which began in Britain with a run on Northern Rock.

6. UK MENINGITIS B VACCINE FOR ALL

A vaccine for Meningitis B will be offered to all babies, says the government. All newborn babies in England and Scotland are to be offered the vaccine to combat the deadly infection from September. It will be given to babies at two months, four months and 12 months old. It is the first national, publicly funded programme against the deadly infection in the world.

7. LONDON PROTEST AGAINST AUSTERITY

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have marched through London protesting against the Tory government’s austerity measures. Comedian Russell Brand and singer Charlotte Church both spoke at the rally. Church branded austerity "unethical, unfair and unnecessary" as she joined the quarter of a million demonstrators.

8. MIRACLE SAVES RED DEVIL SKYDIVER

A Red Devil skydiver whose parachute failed during an air show had a lucky escape on Friday after a team-mate who accidentally collapsed his canopy took him to safety. The British Army freefall parachute display team was performing at the Whitehaven Air Show when corporal Mike French’s parachute became tangled in the legs of Wayne Shorthouse above him.

9. BILL GATES: TAKE PRIDE IN FOREIGN AID

Bill Gates says the UK’s foreign aid budget is not wasted. The businessman says the British public should be proud of the government’s foreign aid and what it achieves. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, he says British taxpayers are getting excellent value for their money, and making a transformational difference in the lives of the world’s poorest.

10. INDIA PM LAUNCHES GLOBAL YOGA DAY

The world holds its first International Yoga Day today, led by India's prime minister Narendra Modi. The PM led thousands in a mass yoga programme in the capital, Delhi, performing stretches, bends and breathing exercises with tens of thousands of school children, bureaucrats and soldiers. Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj says "tens of millions" will do yoga on Sunday.