Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Thursday 3 May 2018

New Home Secretary Sajid Javid yesterday sided with leavers on
the 11-member Brexit cabinet, undermining Theresa May by saying her
preferred option of a “customs partnership” with the EU was
“unworkable”. Downing Street insists the option, under which the UK
would levy tariffs for Brussels, is still on the table.

One of Donald Trump’s legal team has outraged US commentators by
admitting the US President repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen the
$130,000 hush money he had given adult film star Stormy Daniels,
who claims she had an affair with Trump. Trump had denied knowing a
payment had been made to Daniels before the 2016 election.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons yesterday that as
many as 270 women may have lost their lives because of an NHS
computer error which meant 450,000 patients were not told to attend
for breast cancer screening. Hunt apologised to the women and their
families for the failure, which was caused by a bad
algorithm. 

Electric car firm Tesla, owned by PayPal billionaire Elon Musk,
has revealed a record loss of $709.6m (£521.9m) for the first
quarter of 2018 – and a cash burn of $745.3m (£548.2m). The firm is
struggling to produce large numbers of its latest Model 3 vehicle.
Musk said: “It’s high time we became profitable.” He vowed to
restructure.

The mother and stepfather of a 24-year-old man who stabbed a
stranger to death in woodland in Norfolk last August repeatedly
warned mental health services that he was collecting knives and
believed it was “inevitable” he would kill somebody. Alexander
Palmer stabbed Peter Wrighton, aged 83, 45 times as he walked his
dog.

English voters are choosing their local council representation
and elected mayors today. Polling stations open at 7am and close at
10pm, with electors choosing 4,371 local council seats across
England. The Guardian asks if Labour will make good on its boast
that it will metaphorically steal the “crown jewels” from the
Conservatives.

A celebrated Australian botanist and ecologist is to end his own
life in Switzerland at the age of 104. Dr David Goodall, born in
the UK, wants to die because of his diminishing independence –
although he is still working at Perth’s Edith Cowan University.
After a serious fall at home last month, he was forced to stop
living alone.

The great-nephew of John Profumo, the war minister whose affair
with 19-year-old Christine Keeler inspired the film Scandal, has
been arrested after he returned to the UK from fighting with
Kurdish forces against Islamic State (IS). Jamie Janson, 42, was
arrested in Folkestone on a coach from France and held by police
overnight.

Pakistan’s largest province has decided that so-called ‘energy
drinks’ may no longer make that claim. Red Bull and others will
have to drop the word ‘energy’ from their packaging because it is
scientifically misleading. The Punjab Food Authority said the
highly-caffeinated drinks only stimulate the release of existing
bodily energy.

Inheritance tax should be scrapped and replaced with a fairer
system that would be harder to avoid, according to a leading
British think tank.

The Resolution Foundation is calling for a new tax that “would
raise more for the state and would encourage families to pass their
wealth to younger members”, says The Times.