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Iran fired two missiles at the British-American military base at Diego Garcia, 2,400 miles away, one being intercepted by a US warship and the other failing in flight. The attack was revealed after Britain announced that in ‘collective self-defence’ it was allowing America to use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz. The Israel Defence Forces said that Iranian missiles could now reach London. Iran told Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, that it had the right to respond to British ‘participation in aggression’. In the seven days to 23 March, 984 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats; the French coastguard rescued another 78 when their engine failed.
Four ambulances belonging to the Jewish charity Hatzola were set on fire by night in Golders Green, London. An Iran-aligned group, Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, claimed to have done it. Two men were arrested. The government’s slogan ‘Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’ may have cost thousands of lives during the coronavirus pandemic by deterring people from seeking treatment, the third report by the Covid-19 Inquiry found. Dame Jenni Murray, who presented Woman’s Hour for 33 years, died aged 75. Matt Brittin, 57, formerly the president of Google in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, was expected to be appointed director-general of the BBC. Transgender children were told they had to leave the Girl Guides by September.
Government borrowing costs rose above 5 per cent for the first time since 2008. Typical annual household energy bills are likely to go up in July by £332 when Ofgem, the regulator, resets the price cap, according to the usually reliable energy consultancy Cornwall Insight. Inflation remained at 3 per cent before petrol price increases were counted. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, promised unspecified ‘support for those who need it most’ if energy prices kept rising. The government will require all new homes in England to have solar panels and heat pumps installed. The Bank of England held interest rates at 3.75 per cent but mortgage rates rose. National Car Parks went into administration. Yvette Cooper set out the programmes to be cut under a 40 per cent reduction to Britain’s aid budget over the next three years. An announcement that HS2 would miss its 2033 deadline and cost more than £100 billion was postponed until after the May elections.
Abroad
President Donald Trump of America said he would ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened within 48 hours, but relented after saying talks with Iran had gone well. Iran said there hadn’t been any talks but a 15-point plan was reported to have been put to it. After Israel struck Iran’s South Pars gas field, Iran struck Qatar’s Ras Laffan, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas facility, on the southern side of the undersea Pars field. Mr Trump said he would ‘massively blow up’ the South Pars gas field if Iran hit Qatar’s gas facilities again. Gas and oil prices rose and fell. Mr Trump had said earlier that Nato were ‘cowards’ for not wanting to help open the Strait of Hormuz, ‘a simple military manoeuvre’. Iran said that ‘non-hostile vessels’ could pass through.
The US Treasury temporarily lifted sanctions on Iranian oil currently at sea, estimated at 140 million barrels, to keep prices down. The International Energy Agency urged governments to lower speed limits to reduce energy consumption. The Philippines declared a state of national energy emergency. Iran attacked the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Israel. Debris from an Iranian missile fell about 300 yards from the Al-Aqsa mosque, the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Israel had carried out more than 3,000 strikes since the start of the war. Israel continued its attacks on southern Lebanon, from which a million people were displaced, and planned to keep control of a region south of the Litani river.
Russia attacked Ukraine with 948 drones in 24 hours, hitting historic buildings in Lviv. Ukraine struck a Russian oil terminal at Primorsk in the Baltic. In French local elections, the Socialists hung on to Paris but in Nice, Éric Ciotti, of the Union of the Right for the Republic, was elected mayor. Lionel Jospin, the Socialist former prime minister of France, died aged 88. Italy’s referendum on a change to the constitution went against Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister, by 54 per cent to 46. CSH
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