Home
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, spoke to President Donald Trump of America about the importance of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but resisted his call for Britain’s ships to be sent there. The government considered sending British-made Octopus drone-interceptors to the Middle East. Sir Keir said £53 million would help a million households reliant on heating oil – £53 a household; ‘It’s moments like this that tell you what a government is about,’ he said. The economy showed zero growth in January, according to the Office for National Statistics. The ONS added alcohol-free beer to the basket of goods used to calculate inflation. John Lewis awarded staff a bonus for the first time in four years. The 217-year-old pottery company Denby appointed administrators
The Scottish parliament voted 69 to 57 against the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. The government fell out with the EU over university tuition fees for its citizens. Angela Rayner said that Labour was ‘running out of time’; Andy Burnham said the party should listen to her. The Unite trade union voted to cut the affiliation fee it pays to Labour by 40 per cent over the dustmen’s strike in Birmingham, which has been going on for more than a year. An outbreak of meningitis connected to the University of Kent killed two and left 11 seriously ill. Of 752 GPs in England who responded to a BBC questionnaire, 540 said they had never denied a sick note requested on the grounds of mental health. President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria paid a state visit. The National Trust for Scotland sought a ‘resourceful and enthusiastic’ tenant for a croft on Fair Isle.
The Prime Minister was warned, before Lord Mandelson’s confirmation as ambassador to Washington, that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein posed a ‘general reputational risk’. Documents released by the government also showed that Lord Doyle was ‘satisfied’ with Lord Mandelson’s written responses in the vetting process to three questions about his contacts with Epstein; Lord Doyle was suspended from the Labour party this year over another matter. A photograph was published of Epstein with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson, both wearing bathrobes. Len Deighton, author of The Ipcress File, died aged 97. Jane Lapotaire, the actress, died aged 81. Gerry Adams told the High Court in London, during a civil case, that wearing a black beret did not make him a member of the IRA: ‘Benny Hill wore a black beret too.’
Abroad
President Donald Trump of America sent 2,500 US marines to the Persian Gulf. He called on oil-consuming countries for help in opening the Strait of Hormuz and complained when it was not forthcoming; ‘WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE!’ he then exclaimed on Truth Social. A spokesman for Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, said: ‘It is not Nato’s war. Nato is an alliance to defend the alliance area.’ Iran should use the ‘lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz’, a written message from Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said, but he was not to be seen. Mr Trump wondered if he was dead. Iran kept on attacking Gulf states. Israel killed Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani in an air strike and continued to bomb Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon and began ‘limited’ ground operations there. America told its citizens to leave Iraq, where its embassy was hit by a dron
America bombed Iran’s Kharg island, but ‘for reasons of decency’, Mr Trump said, did not destroy the oil infrastructure there. Brent crude rose above $100 a barrel despite the promised release of 400 million reserve barrels by the 32 members of the International Energy Agency. America said that Russian oil already loaded on vessels at sea would not be subject to sanctions for a month. The EU leant on Ukraine to restore the flow of Russian oil through the pipeline crossing the country. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said: ‘Keeping our country out of this fire pit is our top priority.’ The Bahrain and the Saudi Arabia Grands Prix in April were cancelled. Cuba’s electricity grid collapsed.
Pakistan killed at least 100 in an air strike that hit a drug treatment centre in Kabul. Fighting intensified in South Sudan. The people of Sardinia resisted plans to jail 750 mafiosi on the island. Lava from the Piton de la Fournaise volcano on Réunion reached the sea. Jurgen Habermas, the atheist German philosopher, who published a dialogue with Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), died aged 96. CSH
Comments