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Andy Burnham, who was expected to become prime minister on 20 July, took off his tie and put on a dark T-shirt for a speech in which he said he would establish a ‘No. 10 North’ in Manchester as the ‘nerve centre of a rewired Britain’. He promised council houses, welfare reform and ‘good growth in every postcode’ by means of ‘Manchesterism’. He took no questions. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, presented the delayed defence investment plan, and said that spending would rise by £15 billion by 2030. He landed his successor with £4.7 billion of the sum being left unfunded. The Ministry of Defence would also have to find £10.7 billion in efficiency savings in the next four years. Some spending on energy and roads would be sacrificed to meet the funded part of the bill. John Healey, who had resigned as defence secretary in the face of underfunding, commented: ‘Britain will still be spending just 2.7 per cent of GDP in 2030, the date when Nato has warned we could face a Russian attack.’ The news publisher Axel Springer acquired the Telegraph for £575 million.
People who are granted asylum would have to pay back about £10,000 towards their accommodation and support, under the new Immigration and Asylum Bill. From later this year organisations such as ‘trusted universities’ would be allowed to sponsor refugees who applied to come to Britain. Shabir Ahmed, 73, was released after serving 14 years for 30 child rapes, but could not be returned to Pakistan because he arrived in Britain before 1973. In the seven days to 29 June 740 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. The Liberal Democrats admitted they unlawfully discriminated against the former BBC journalist David Campanale on the basis of his Christian religious beliefs when he was dropped from candidacy in the Sutton and Cheam constituency in 2024. Energy prices rose by 13 per cent. Britain’s National Energy Systems Operator had to pay £1,379 per megawatt hour to import electricity from Europe one evening during last week’s hot spell, at the end of which a new June record of 37.3ºC was set, at Santon Downham, Suffolk. Dame Penelope Keith, the actress, died aged 86.
For the rest of his days, the King will not move into Buckingham Palace to live. He disclosed he paid £12.9 million in tax for 2024-2025. Some £114 million was extracted from Royal Mail last year and paid to a company controlled by Daniel Kretinsky, its owner, to cover interest payments linked to its acquisition. Barclays bought its Canary Wharf HQ for £750 million. Scotland were knocked out of the World Cup, but England went through to play DR Congo. Ben Stokes, the captain of England, announced his retirement from international cricket during the third Test against New Zealand, which England lost.
Abroad
Sevastopol, in the Russian-occupied Crimea, was left without electricity by a Ukrainian drone attack. Crimea declared an emergency. Ukrainian drones set fire to a refinery in the Krasnodar region and hit a military industrial site in Volgograd. ‘Unfortunately, there are still queues at petrol stations,’ President Vladimir Putin acknowledged. Russia attacked Kyiv with ballistic missiles. Paraguay knocked Germany out of the World Cup.
America launched strikes on Iranian targets after a drone attack on a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran then hit the Ali al-Salem Air Base in Kuwait and the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain. Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington. Pakistan launched air strikes and sent ground troops across its border into Afghanistan. Thousands of demonstrators in South African cities called on undocumented migrants to leave the country. Guo Wengui, a property tycoon who fled China for the United States in 2017, was sentenced by an American court to 30 years in jail for fraud. A small aircraft crashed into Beijing’s tallest building, the 1,732ft Citic Tower.
Two earthquakes of 7.2 and 7.5 struck 38 seconds apart, with an epicentre 180 miles west of Caracas, Venezuela; more than 1,700 were confirmed dead and tens of thousands were missing. Three firemen were killed fighting huge wildfires on the Colorado-Utah border. The US Supreme Court overturned President Donald Trump’s attempt to deny automatic citizenship to children of undocumented migrants born on American soil. By joining the European Broadcasting Union, Canada became eligible to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. CSH
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