Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Sunday 17 Jun 2018

1. Documents show contact between Leave.EU & Moscow

Leave.EU campaign spokesman Andy Wigmore passed confidential legal documents to high-ranking officials at the Russian embassy and then denied it to parliament, claims The Observer. Wigmore is the business partner of Arron Banks, the biggest funder of Brexit. A leader of the campaign also suggested forwarding a "message of support" to the Russian ambassador after the then foreign secretary was critical of Moscow.

2. Critics question May's 'birthday present' funding to the NHS

Ministers have announced additional funding of £20bn for the NHS, describing it as a 70th "birthday present". Although Theresa May told the BBC the boost will partly be funded by a "Brexit dividend", critics say much of it will come from tax rises. The Mail on Sunday calls the move a "gamble", betting on whether the public will be willing to face tax hikes to pay for better care.

3. Eight hurt as taxi cab ploughs into pedestrians in Moscow

Eight people were injured when a cab drove into a crowd of people in central Moscow. Although local authorities said the driver had not driven into the crowd of people deliberately, video footage posted on social media showed the yellow Hyundai taxi swerve abruptly out of a line of stationary traffic, mount a pavement and collide with pedestrians, including Mexico World Cup supporters.

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4. China retaliation takes them to brink of all-out war with US

Beijing will retaliate against new US tariffs on $50bn in Chinese imports. China’s finance ministry said it would begin imposing its own 25% tariffs on 545 categories of US products worth $34bn, including soyabeans, beef, whiskey and some vehicles. The Financial Times says the move takes the world’s two largest economies to the brink of a full-scale trade war.

5. New calls for medicinal cannabis to be legalised

There are demands for the legalisation of medicinal cannabis after the home secretary allowed a severely epileptic boy to be treated with the remedy. Crispin Blunt MP, the co-chair of the all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform, described the existing law as "frankly absurd". Billy's mother Charlotte has called for the oil to be freely available.

6. Newspaper cartoonist blames sacking on his Trump sketches

A newspaper cartoonist who lost his job believes his critical sketches of Donald Trump were the cause of his firing. Rob Rogers was terminated by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after 25 years. He says six cartoons in a row were spiked and his employer tried to change his terms of working. "Suppressing voices in any situation is bad," he told The Guardian.

7. Aquarius migrants welcomed in Spain after rejections

Some 630 migrants and refugees from the Aquarius rescue ship have disembarked in Valencia, after being turned away from Italy and Malta. The Aquarius sparked a major diplomatic row when it was left stranded on Monday but Spain's new socialist government has promised free healthcare. "It is our duty to help avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

8. BBC waves white flag on listeners and shifts attention

The BBC has admitted defeat in the battle for radio audiences, reports the Sunday Telegraph. The corporation will instead focus on the threat from music on Spotify and podcasts. The BBC’s director of radio, James Purnell, will declare in a speech this week that he does not "care" about audience share or beating commercial stations. "We’ll need to change where we allocate our money," he will say.

9. Germany shelves high-speed rail link with London

Germany has shelved plans for international high-speed services between London, Cologne and Frankfurt due to "changes" in the "economic environment," reports The Independent. The state rail operator, Deutsche Bahn, said the services to London would now "not be on the agenda in the foreseeable future". The company refused to comment on whether Brexit was the cause.

10. How faecal transplants could help save the koala

Scientists say that faecal transplants could boost the health and viability of endangered creatures. They believe the method could save the endangered koala bear after researchers altered microbes in koalas’ guts in order to improve type of food they consume. They found they could alter the koala’s gut bacteria from one type to the other.