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The electors of Makerfield decided who might be prime minister. After John Healey resigned as defence secretary, Al Carns resigned as armed forces minister. Mr Healey had declared that Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, had ‘been unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling, to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country’. Dan Jarvis was appointed Defence Secretary. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said the armed forces would have to ‘dial back’ operations without more funding. Belfast had multiple nights of anti-immigrant rioting in response to the terrible knife attack on Stephen Ogilvie. Two Ukrainian men were found guilty of plotting firebomb attacks on properties linked to Sir Keir Starmer. They were said to have been in the pay of a Russian handler known as EL Money. In the Channel, British forces boarded a Russian shadow fleet oil tanker, Smyrtos, with 704,962 barrels of oil. Two days later, the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich fired warning shots towards a 40ft British-registered yacht, Bright Future, in the Channel. The government promised to ban the import of diesel and jet fuel made from Russian oil by 1 January 2027. Scotland beat Haiti in the World Cup.
Sir Keir Starmer said that from next spring those under 16 would be prohibited from using such platforms as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, but not WhatsApp or Signal. Resident doctors in England called off a week of strikes after the British Medical Association union said the government had ‘made a new offer’. Inflation remained at 2.8 per cent. GDP fell by 0.1 per cent in April, but grew by 0.7 per cent in the three months to April. Ed Miliband was to ban the sale of most electric towel rails. Samuel Corner, 23, a Palestine Action agitator, was jailed for seven years and eight months for grievous bodily harm for breaking a woman police sergeant’s back with a sledgehammer; three others were jailed for causing £1.2 million damage at an Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in 2024. Outside the sentencing hearing, police arrested 107 protesters for supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation. Prince George will go to Eton from September.
Southwark Council took possession of a council flat rented by Fatima Jabbe-Bio, the wife of Sierra Leone’s President. Among 1,182 honoured for the King’s official birthday, Dame Helen Mirren and Sir Don McCullin were made Companions of Honour. David Hockney, the painter, died aged 88. Lord Hattersley, deputy leader of the Labour party from 1983 to 1992, died aged 93.
Abroad
America and Iran agreed a memorandum of understanding to end their war: the Strait of Hormuz was to be opened; Iran could sell oil; America was to ensure that Israel ended its war in Lebanon. President Donald Trump of America said he ‘didn’t like where two hours before we’re signing the agreement that there was an attack in Lebanon’ by Israel. In an airstrike, America killed Héctor Rusthenford ‘Niño’ Guerrero Flores, the leader of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Mr Trump celebrated his 80th birthday by watching a cage fight on the South Lawn of the White House. Five men were charged with an alleged plot to kill people there with drones and firearms.
A Russian airstrike badly damaged the 11th-century Dormition Cathedral in Kyiv. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration and artificial intelligence company, was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange at a value of $2,200 billion; Mr Musk’s total wealth was put at $1,100 billion, making him a trillionaire in American terms. Anthropic, the American AI company, said it had been ordered to suspend foreign nationals from using its Claude Fable 5 program, and so had disabled Fable 5 and Mythos 5 for all its customers to ensure compliance. Pizza Hut was sold in two slices for $2.7 billion.
Switzerland rejected a proposal to cap its population at ten million in a referendum by 55 per cent to 45 per cent; the turnout was 60 per cent. Marius Borg Hoiby, the son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, was jailed for four years on two counts of rape. The Swedish government will draft legislation to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 14 from the current 15 to counter gang violence; a reduction to 13 met parliamentary opposition. In Vietnam more than 400 cats stolen to be sold for food were rescued, according to Ho Chi Minh City police. CSH
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