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In 19 English counties 1mm or less rain fell in July. Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union, said that yields of wheat and oats were ‘very, very poor’. Fire affected 375 acres of Suffolk at Dunwich Heath. Shell agreed to sell its European onshore renewables arm, including solar farms, to France’s TotalEnergies. BP’s profits rose to the highest since 2022, after the war in the Middle East pushed up oil prices. BP put its UK offshore oil and gas business up for sale. A trial by researchers at King’s College London started recruiting 220 children aged 11 to 16 to assess puberty blockers after the High Court rejected a legal challenge.
Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, excluded prisoners who had committed rape and serious child sex offences from an early release scheme. But two killers of PC Andrew Harper would remain eligible for release. Mr Burnham proposed that regional mayors in England should keep a share of income tax and business rates. Bev Craig, the Labour candidate, won the by-election for mayor of Greater Manchester. Reform came second; turnout was only 25 per cent. The Tories chose as a Somerset council candidate a former neo-Nazi, Joshua Bonehill-Paine, jailed for three years in 2015. Diane Abbott had the Labour whip restored. Mr Burnham went on holiday.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, considered a pact with Restore Britain suggested by its leader, Rupert Lowe. Reform said that it would use the Royal Navy to stop small migrant boats in the Channel. In the seven days to 3 August, 1,211 migrants crossed the Channel and four died. The engine of a dinghy carrying 173 migrants caught fire in French waters and it was returned to shore. An Afghan national who steered a dinghy carrying 95 people to England in June was jailed for two years; an 18-year-old Sudanese national was sentenced to 18 months after piloting a boat carrying 81 people. Robert Bush, an undertaker, was sentenced at Hull Crown Court to 20 years after admitting to 67 offences, including denying 30 people a decent and proper burial. The Southport killer of three young girls, Axel Rudakubana, 19, was charged with three attacks while in prison. Rod Liddle, editor of Today on Radio 4 from 1998 until 2002, and thereafter a columnist for The Spectator, died aged 66.
Abroad
The Spanish interior minister said that 72,000 migrants (of whom at least 76 died) crossed from Morocco into the Spanish north African territory of Ceuta. Most were young men, and officials estimated that 7,000 were minors. A day later, 70,000 began to return to Morocco after Spain sent troops. Twenty-two EU states issued a letter on the need to counter ‘the perception that illegal entry into the European Union is possible’.
President Donald Trump said he had cancelled ‘massive’ strikes against Iran. Oil prices fell as Iran and Oman discussed the Strait of Hormuz. Mr Trump earlier announced the ‘complete disarmament’ of Hamas followed by Israel leaving Gaza. Hamas said that handing over its heavy weapons was contingent on Israel withdrawing; a senior Israeli official said: ‘There will be no IDF withdrawal from the current Yellow Line without the genuine disarmament of Hamas.’ The British-Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, 43, was among ten killed by an avalanche on Broad Peak in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan.
A video showed a Ukrainian vegetable seller in Kherson being chased by a remotely operated Russian drone, fired on and badly wounded. Russia hit Kyiv with ballistic missiles, killing at least ten on one night and 14 on another. Ukraine sank a Russian-owned container ship in the Black Sea and hit the Engels strategic airfield in the Saratov region. Russia said it had hit three ships in Ukraine’s part of the Black Sea, and a cargo vessel in the port of Mykolaiv. Ukraine hit a warehouse in the Vladimir region in a series of a dozen strikes on Russia’s biggest online retailer Wildberries. A Ukrainian drone hit a beach near the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik and seven were reported killed. Russia suffered its highest monthly casualty rate of the war in July, with the Ukrainian army estimating 42,860 Russians killed or wounded. Fifa dropped a plan hatched by Gianni Infantino to sell commercial rights to its tournaments, including the World Cup, to private investors. Bartlomiej Kubkowski became the first person to swim the Baltic, from Sweden to Poland: 100 miles in 56 hours. CSH
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