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Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, began a tour of the United Kingdom, making small announcements. But on the matter of the early release of the killers of PC Andrew Harper, he said he was ‘increasingly confident’ that work to increase space in prisons would ‘prevent their early release altogether’. All 50 chief constables in the United Kingdom urged him to prevent it. Probation officers voted in favour of strike action over the early release scheme. Trains in the north-west of England were disrupted for two days after a 90-second power failure in Manchester affected a Network Rail operations centre and signalling. More regions were declared to be in drought, encompassing 45 million people, of whom 27 million are restricted in their use of water. In the seven days to 10 August, 911 migrants crossed the Channel, 230 of them in one dinghy. Asylum seekers were removed by police from properties in Thetford for their own safety after crowds attempted to storm their homes and a policewoman was bitten. Counter Terror Police investigating the murder of Ann Widdecombe reopened an inquiry into a firebombing incident in April 2025 at the home of Nigel Farage, which he said was ‘directly linked’ to the murder.
Cambridge University announced that it would review its process for appointing senior staff, after Dr Jason Arday resigned his professorship in Sociology of Education, thus also ending his fellowship at Jesus College. His decision came after media scrutiny of his strange professional and biographical claims. Cambridge council installed squatting lavatories in Silver Street because they are ‘preferred by some international visitors’. Sir Anthony Kenny, the philosopher who was Master of Balliol 1978-89, died aged 95.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct investigated two Metropolitan Police officers after the conviction of Simon Levy, 40, for the murder of two women and the rape of another while he was on bail. Royal Navy K3 Scout surface surveillance drones were found to be sending data to China from cameras supplied by a third party. The sun was eclipsed.
Abroad
Ukrainian drones hit an oil refinery at Nizhnekamsk, a city in Tatarstan 600 miles east of Moscow, with 13 reported dead; drones also hit an oil refinery in Orsk. Russia said it had hit the Kyiv plant of Fire Point, the Ukrainian defence company developing long-range weapons. President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh call for more US-made Patriot interceptor missiles as Russian missiles hit Kyiv. He said that North Korean missiles were being used and that North Korea had decided to deploy between 30,000 and 50,000 troops in Russian territory. A bus driver at Leipzig airport kicked a drone aside as it approached a Ukrainian cargo plane; the drone was carrying Semtex which failed to explode. A flight from Victoria to Toronto in Canada was cancelled because a little child refused to wear a seat belt.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, rejected the plan for Gaza put forward by President Donald Trump of America, and said that no military withdrawal would happen until Hamas is ‘genuinely’ disarmed. Iran warned that any agreement with Oman would see no immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed a defence agreement, saying an attack on one would be an attack on all. Mr Trump secretly changed planes, hidden in an airport catering lorry, it emerged, as he left a Nato summit in Turkey last month, to escape the risk of an Iranian missile attack. A federal appeals court ordered a stop to construction of Mr Trump’s $400 million ballroom at the White House. RWE, a German energy company, abandoned its offshore wind projects in the United States after a $1.2 billion payout from the Department of the Interior; it would transfer efforts to gas production. In France 420 people, including 166 minors, were arrested for starting wildfires.
Spain imposed border controls on air and sea travel from Italy in response to similar provisions by Italy over the sudden arrival of 78,000 Moroccans in Ceuta. After meeting senior executives in Morocco, Gianni Infantino remained president of Fifa, to which Uefa became increasingly hostile. A boat carrying 95 people sank on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe. All 255 passengers aboard a boat on the river Congo 40 miles from Kinshasa were being monitored for Ebola after travelling 1,000 miles downstream. CSH
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