Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Monday 2 Jul 2018

High Street retailers in Britain will shed nearly 22,000 jobs
this year, the BBC predicts. Some 7,000 have already gone and
another 9,500 are going. A further 5,100 jobs are in doubt at
Poundworld, which is in administration. In the first six months of
2016, 1,200 stores run by major chains have closed or have fallen
into the risk of closure.

Germany’s ruling coalition is under threat of fragmentation
after the country’s interior minister threatened to resign over the
recent EU immigration deal arranged in Brussels. Horst Seerhofer,
leader of the Christian Social Union, offered to step down last
night but was persuaded by his party to have further talks with
Merkel today. 

No 10 has produced a third model for Britain’s trade relations
with the EU after Brexit – and it will be discussed by ministers at
Chequers on Friday, the BBC claims. The details of the new plan
have not been released, but it has been devised after Theresa May’s
cabinet failed to agree on two options presented – one more drastic
and one less so.

Left-wing candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will be Mexico’s
next president, after his rivals conceded defeat with votes still
being counted. Known by the acronym Amlo, the 64-year-old is a
former mayor of Mexico City who has run with a promise to tackle
the “evil” of corruption. He has also promised to double pensions
for the elderly.

A poll carried out by Sky News on its digital customers suggests
a majority of Britons fear the NHS will not survive for another 70
years. Sixty-eight per cent of the 1,138 asked said the NHS would
not last another seven decades, as it celebrates its 70th
anniversary. A narrow majority of 51% said it provided better care
than other EU systems.

Tennis greats Serena Williams and Roger Federer will both play
today, on the first day of the 2018 Wimbledon tournament. But
British two-time winner Andy Murray has pulled out, saying he was
fearful of playing too soon after hip surgery. British number ones
Kyle Edmund and Johanna Konta will play their first matches on
Tuesday.

A man aged 25 died in the River Derwent, in Derby, yesterday
after becoming trapped under a weir. Fire services said they were
called out to help three men who had got into difficulties at a
spot known locally as Pebble Beach. People across the country have
been swimming outdoors as the heatwave continues to bring record
temperatures.

Scientists in Copenhagen have created an artificial ovary in a
laboratory, raising hope that women whose fertility is destroyed by
cancer treatment may one day be able to conceive naturally. The
team isolated early-stage follicles in ovarian tissue and grew them
on a ‘scaffold’ made of proteins and collagen until they made a
functional ‘ovary’.

Dame Gillian Lynne, a chorographer who was involved in more than
60 West End and Broadway productions, has died in hospital in
London at the age of 92. Lynne will be best remembered for devising
the dances for the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats in 1981. Her
routines for that show have been performed 9,000 times in
London.

UKIP bosses are celebrating a reversal in their struggling
party’s fortunes after gaining around 500 new members following
their decision to join forces with three activists linked to the
“alt-right”.

Having taken the reigns in April, new party leader Gerard Batten
has “opened its doors to three controversial YouTube
personalities”, The Independent reports.