Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Wednesday 11 Jul 2018

It has emerged that the pumps being used to drain water from the
Thai cave network where 12 boys and one adult were trapped for more
than two weeks failed just hours after the last boy was rescued,
and with 100 divers and other workers still inside. The Wild Boars
football team survived in the cave by drinking water dripping down
its walls.

Britain will send another 440 troops to Afghanistan, to work in
non-combat roles, taking the total deployment to 1,090, Theresa May
will say today at the Brussels Nato summit. Around half will deploy
from the Welsh Guards in August, with the rest following in
February 2019. A total of 16,000 Nato personnel are in
Afghanistan.

US President Donald Trump said last night that he wants to speak
to his “friend”, Boris Johnson, when Trump visits the UK later this
week. Trump said yesterday that Britain was in “turmoil” and he
thought speaking to Vladimir Putin would be easier than speaking to
Theresa May. He arrives in London late on Thursday evening.

Social network Facebook has been fined £500,000 by the UK’s
Information Commissioner, the biggest levy her office can impose.
Elizabeth Denham, the Commissioner, said Facebook had failed to
ensure its client Cambridge Analytica, whose parent company will
face legal action from Denham, had deleted user data.

British doctors are warning that a little-known
sexually-transmitted infection, which often has no symptoms, could
become the next superbug if people are not vigilant. Mycoplasma
genitalium, known as MG, is developing resistance to antibiotics.
When it does have symptoms, they include inflammation of the
urethra and womb.

Britain’s most senior counter-terror policeman, Neil Basu, has
warned that the dose of Novichok nerve agent which killed
44-year-old Dawn Sturgess and left her partner critically ill,
presumed to be from the batch used to poison former Russian spy
Sergei Skripal and his daughter, could remain active for 50 years
in a sealed container.

The boyfriend of the late Love Island reality TV contestant
Sophie Gradon has been found dead, days after her 5 July funeral.
Gradon died on 20 June at the age of 32 at her parents’ home in
Northumbria. Aaron Armstrong, 25, wrote on social media before his
death: “I will see u very soon my angel so keep are bed worm for
me.”

More than 100 years after his death, an Aberdeen sailor killed
in a land battle in France during the First World War is to receive
a full military burial. The remains of Able Seaman James Robertson,
who was 27 when he died in April 1917, were found in Gavrelle in
2016. His nephew, 81-year-old Frank Treasurer, will attend the
burial.

Former governor of Alaska and US vice-presidential candidate
Sarah Palin has complained of being “duped” by Borat actor Sacha
Baron Cohen for his new series of TV interviews. Palin said Cohen
had “disguised himself as a disabled US veteran”. She said: “I sat
through a long interview full of Hollywoodism’s disrespect and
sarcasm”.

Attention has turned this week to the 1922 Committee, a
parliamentary group of Conservative backbenchers who will play a
key role in deciding whether Theresa May remains prime
minister.

May is facing a leadership crisis following the resignations of
two senior cabinet members, Boris Johnson and David Davis, in
protest against her plans for Brexit.