Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Saturday 20 May 2017

Donald Trump told Russian officials that firing FBI director
James Comey eased “great pressure” on him. The New York Times
claims the President called Comey a “real nut job”. Meanwhile, the
Washington Post says a current White House official “close to the
President” is a “significant person of interest” in the
investigation into alleged links between the Trump campaign and
Russia.

Hassan Rouhani is on course for a second term as Iran’s
president, according to preliminary results. Rouhani has won more
than half of the votes counted so far – 14.6m out of 26m –
officials announced on state TV. His main rival, Ebrahim Raisi, has
complained about voting irregularities, accusing Rouhani’s
supporters of illegal propaganda at voting booths. There was an
unexpectedly high turnout of about 70%.

Theresa May says she will make Britain the world’s internet
policeman and has warned tech giants that she will force them to
give their customers more power over their own data. Speaking to
The Times, the PM said that Britain “should be a leader” in
regulating the internet. Experts reacted with scepticism. “I’m not
sure how achievable it is,” said one.

Julian Assange said that “the proper war is just commencing”
after Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation into an
allegation of rape against him. As a seven-year extradition battle
came to an end, the 45-year-old WikiLeaks founder appeared on the
balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He said his
organisation would escalate its leaks of documents about the
CIA.

Jamie Oliver has attacked Theresa May over her plan to end free
lunches for some of the youngest primary school children. The
celebrity chef and healthy eating campaigner said the
“short-sighted” move would harm children’s health and end up
costing the country in the long run. “It’s awful, it’s awful. She
will regret it,” he told Channel 4 News.

The Labour shadow cabinet is at odds over the future of Trident.
Defence secretary Nia Griffith says shadow foreign secretary Emily
Thornberry was “wrong” to suggest the party might drop its
commitment to the nuclear deterrent. Griffith told Newsnight it was
“already settled” that Trident would remain. She spoke out after
Thornberry had hinted that support for the missile system could not
be guaranteed following a defence review.

Thousands of pets’ lives were put at risk after a drug giant
raised the price of vital medication by 1,900%. Aspen Pharmacare, a
South African company that is already under suspicion of “price
gouging” in relation to five cancer medicines, hiked the price of
100 fludrocortisone tablets, a drug used to treat Addison’s
disease, from £5 to almost £100.

Saudi Arabia is offering to inject $200bn into the American rust
belt as a sweetener for arms deals and better relations between the
two countries, reports The Times. Sources say that deputy crown
prince Mohammed bin Salman made the offer during a visit to
Washington this year. President Trump hopes the money would benefit
the impoverished states which helped propel him to power.

Air Transat is the least punctual airline in Britain, with only
55% of its flights landing within 15 minutes of their planned
arrival time. Icelandair and Norwegian Air Shuttle also fared badly
in the research, which found that on average only 75% of all
flights arrived on time. Consumer group Which says that Dutch
airline KLM is the most punctual carrier.

Cher thinks that her music is “crap”, reports Billboard. “I’m
not a Cher fan. I just don’t think my aesthetic taste lies in that
direction,” she told the magazine. Asked about her 1990s output,
she said it was “crap”, adding: “I don’t remember what’s on it. I
didn’t like any of it.” She described her biggest hit Believe as “a
nightmare”.