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Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, said that anyone convicted of unlawful killing would be excluded from the early release scheme intended to stop the collapse of prisons; the change would prevent the release of PC Andrew Harper’s killers. To make room, prison laundries would be turned into cells. Sir Keir Starmer left the Commons by being granted the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, in place of Josh Simons. In his first address in the Commons as Prime Minister, Mr Burnham said he would ‘stand firm in providing what help we can to enable Ukraine to defend itself’. Turning to energy, water and devolution, he said: ‘The government I lead will be relentless in giving people and places what they were promised ten years ago, ownership and control.’ He blamed Brexit for economic woes. Earlier he said he would abstain on the Assisted Dying Bill when it returns to the Commons on 11 September. John Irvin, the director of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the BBC in 1979, died aged 86.
Government borrowing costs rose, with 30-year gilt yields at 5.89 per cent, their highest rate since 1998. John Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was expected to ‘shelve his own target of spending 3 per cent of Britain’s GDP on defence by 2030’ in the Budget in October, the Financial Times predicted. A possible windfall tax on banks and oil companies was floated. Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, warned of a severe downturn in global stock markets if the AI bubble bursts. An extra 200 police officers were sent to Middlesbrough after the crash that killed five young men in one car and two policemen in another. A man appeared in court charged with murder over a fire at a house in Grangetown, near Middlesbrough, that killed a woman and her little niece. Sarah Ferguson, the former wife of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, headed for the Home Counties from Switzerland.
The number of asylum seekers in hotels halved from 32,000 last June to 16,000, according to the Home Office. In the seven days to 30 August, 616 migrants arrived in England in boats. Sir James Cleverly resigned from the shadow cabinet to stand for Mayor of London, and Katie Lam replaced him as shadow housing secretary. Tom Tugendhat replaced Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary. Claire Coutinho became shadow business secretary, replacing Andrew Griffith, who replaced Sir Mel Stride as shadow chancellor. Alex Burghart became deputy leader of the Conservatives. Twenty-six councils suspended collection of old fridges as a mountainous backlog grew.
Abroad
A huge piece of glacier fell into a river valley, causing flash floods on the border between Nepal and Tibet, killing more than 1,100, with 4,000 unaccounted for, 600 of them foreigners. A Russian drone strike west of Kyiv killed 38 people when it triggered an explosion at a munitions warehouse. Russia hit printing presses and publishing houses, destroying 12 million books. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned airlines that ‘the Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous’. Germany said Russia was responsible for last month’s drone attack at Leipzig airport. Western intelligence officials suggested that Russia would continue ‘hybrid activity’ against Nato, such as cyber-attacks and sabotage. At a security summit in Kyrgyzstan, Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, urged President Vladimir Putin to end the war.
The United States attacked missile-launchers in the Strait of Hormuz, its first attack on Iran in a month, with more the next day; Iran attacked US bases in Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Bahrain. President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video captioned ‘Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!’ The United States took control of 65 billion barrels of Venezuela’s oil reserves, according to Mr Trump. Meta agreed an $18 billion settlement with US states over claims that Facebook and Instagram harmed children.
King Harald V of Norway died aged 89 and was succeeded by his son Haakon VIII. Ratko Mladic, the former military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, imprisoned for crimes against humanity, died aged 84. Yayoi Kusama, the pop artist who spent years as a voluntary patient in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital, died aged 97. Uefa requested access to evidence for use in criminal proceedings in Switzerland against Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa. In a referendum, Iceland voted 53 per cent against resuming talks, broken off in 2013, on joining the European Union. CSH
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