Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 15 Jun 2018

The new Universal Credit benefits system may end up costing more
money to administer than the system it was supposed to streamline,
according to public spending watchdog the National Audit Office.
The Government claimed the changes would bring 200,000 more people
into work and save £2.1bn in fraud and error.

Labour candidate Janet Daby has won the Lewisham East
by-election, triggered by the resignation of Heidi Alexander to
work with London Mayor Sadiq Khan. With a low turn-out of 33%,
Daby took just over 50% of the vote in the southeast
London constituency, ahead of Lucy Salek of the Lib Dems, who
leapfrogged the Conservatives to take second
place. Labour’s share of the vote fell by
almost 18% from the 2017 election.

A 35-year-old man from Lincoln has been charged with 14 counts
including encouraging murder in connection with threatening letters
sent to Muslims earlier this year. David Parnham allegedly
posted hate mail promoting a so-called “Punish a Muslim Day”, to be
held on 3 April, causing “anger, dismay and fear” among Muslim
communities, according to Tell Mama, a group which
assists victims of anti-Muslim prejudice.

Taking photographs up women’s skirts in public without their
consent is to become a specific criminal offence in England and
Wales, punishable by up to two years in jail. In the most serious
cases, those found guilty of “upskirting” may be placed on the
sexual offender register. The offence is currently prosecuted under
wider existing laws.

The body of a British botanist who was kidnapped in South Africa
on 10 February this year has been found and identified, almost four
months after her husband’s body was recovered. The kidnapping of
Rachel and Rodney Saunders, who were 63 and 74 respectively, may be
linked to the Islamic State group, police say. The couple owned a
business in Cape Town.

Retired tennis player Boris Becker has claimed diplomatic
immunity from prosecution from ongoing bankruptcy charges in the
UK, citing his appointment by the Central African Republic as its
sports and culture attache to the EU. Becker is being pursued in
the High Court by private bank Arbuthnot Latham for a debt dating
back as far as 2015, but claims he is no longer subject to legal
process.

The football World Cup continues in Moscow today, following a
lavish opening ceremony last night. The first game today is Egypt
vs. Uruguay, with a 1pm (UK time) kick-off. Morocco take on Iran at
4pm, while Portugal play Spain at 7pm. England’s first game will be
on Monday, when they play Tunisia in Volgograd at 7pm, to be
broadcast by the BBC. Last night Russia beat Saudi Arabia 5-0.

McDonald’s is to stop giving out plastic straws in its UK and
Ireland restaurants. The burger chain, which gets through 1.8
million straws every day in the UK, will instead provide
customers with paper straws. The Government proposed a ban on
plastic straws in England earlier this year, a move that has
already been undertaken by firms including Waitrose.

Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have been criticised for
lavish spending on new plates for the Elysee Palace, at a time when
the French president has been railing against the country’s welfare
bill. The new china, to be made by the Manufacture de Sevres, will
cost between €50,000 (£44,000) and €500,000 (£440,000), according
to French media.

Formed by a secret presidential memo in 1952 amid growing Cold
War tensions, the fledgling National Security Agency commissioned
posters to remind its employees to keep mum about their top-secret
work.

Government Attic, a website that requests historical government
documents under the Freedom of Information Act, has secured the
release of more than 100 of them produced between the 1950s and the
1970s.