Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 18 Jun 2018

The US First Lady has made a rare political intervention, saying
she “hates to see children separated from their families” when they
try to enter the US illegally. Melania Trump added that she hoped
“both sides of the aisle” could achieve “immigration reform”. The
separations have drastically increased during her husband’s
presidency.

US-based management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman has estimated
that Brexit could leave British households £1,000 worse off every
year, because of trade barriers. That estimate is for the most
negative post-EU scenario of high import tariffs and regulator
barriers. The total cost to the economy annually would be
£27bn.

The group behind the Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks, CYBG, has
bought high street lender Virgin Money for £1.7bn, saying the
resulting new firm will soon be “disrupting the status quo and
championing customer service excellence”. The Virgin Money brand
will be retained and will become the UK’s sixth-biggest bank.

Debit cards were used more often than cash for the first time in
the UK last year, new figures show. A total of 13.2 billion
payments were made using the cards, up 14% on the previous year,
while 13.1 billion cash payments were made, down 15%. An estimated
3.4 million people hardly used cash at all, banking body UK Finance
says.

A couple who live in a block with the same style of cladding as
that which caused the Grenfell Tower fire to spread so quickly are
to sue the Government after the value of their flat dropped from
£600,000 to just £90,000. Nerisa Ahmed and her husband Asher
Garnett bought a flat in Greenwich with a loan from the help to buy
scheme.

Chinese state newspaper the People’s Daily has attacked the US
administration of Donald Trump – calling it “rude”, “selfish” and
“boring” – as the two nations move towards all-out trade war. The
editorial added: “The wise man builds bridges, the fool builds
walls.” Trump announced another round of tariffs on Chinese imports
on Friday.

England football fans started arriving at the weekend in
Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, for their team’s first match
tonight. The FA says fewer than 2,000 tickets for the game against
Tunisia have been sold to the official supporters’ club, apparently
because of fears of violence. It is thought swaths of seats will
remain empty.

Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby is to step down from hosting
the BBC’s flagship debate show Question Time, after 25 years as
chair. Now 79, the son of broadcaster Richard Dimbleby says he
plans to return to “my first love: reporting”. It is not known who
will succeed him on Question Time after his last show on 13
December.

Thomas Markle, whose daughter Meghan is now the Duchess of
Sussex after marrying Prince Harry, has said he feels sad he was
not able to attend her wedding because of heart surgery. He told
ITV: “I’m a footnote to the greatest moment in history rather than
the dad who walked his daughter down the aisle. That upsets me
somewhat.”

Spain’s new interior minister has announced that dismantling
barbed wire fences that separate the two Spanish enclaves of Ceuta
and Melilla from Morocco is among his “main priorities”.

Coils of razor blades top some of the fences that surround the
two autonomous towns, which as territories of Spain form the only
direct land borders between Europe and Africa. Migrants trying to
reach European shores frequently try to scale the 6ft-high
barriers, despite risking serious injury.