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MPs voted by a majority of 23 – 314 to 291 – for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which says people in England and Wales may lawfully ‘be provided with assistance to end their own life’. In the free vote, the Health Secretary voted against and the Prime Minister voted for. The bill now goes to the Lords.
‘Iran never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and the US has taken action to alleviate that threat,’ Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said. Seven men were charged with grievous bodily harm after protestors outside the Iranian embassy in London were attacked. Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation after supporters got into Brize Norton airbase to damage two RAF Airbus Voyagers; but 500 supporters rallied in Trafalgar Square and seven were charged. In the seven days to 23 June, 1,855 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. Pakistan refused to take back two convicted ringleaders of a Rochdale grooming gang after they tore up their passports and renounced Pakistani citizenship. England achieved an astonishing victory against India in the first Test at Headingley by successfully chasing 371 to win by five wickets with 13 overs to spare.
The King asked President Volodymyr Zelensky to lunch at Windsor before the Nato summit at The Hague. Sir Keir Starmer undertook to meet a new Nato target by spending 5 per cent of GDP on national security (including things like roads) by 2035. Britain is to buy 12 F-35A fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear bombs. More than 120 Labour MPs signed an amendment to scupper the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill, but Sir Keir said: ‘I intend to press ahead.’ Britain will lose 16,500 millionaires this year, according to a report from Henley & Partners. Emma Gilthorpe, the fifth chief executive of Royal Mail in six years, resigned. River Island was to close 33 of its 230 shops. Government borrowing rose to £17.7 billion in May. A project by a team under Lord Foster of Thames Bank was chosen to commemorate the late Queen with a statue, a glass-sided bridge and another statue with the late Duke of Edinburgh, all in St James’s Park.
Abroad
The United States bombed three nuclear sites in Iran – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. At Fordow, built into a mountain, the 30,000lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) was used. Seven B2 stealth bombers each dropped two MOPs. In a television address, President Donald Trump of the United States said: ‘Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace.’ He added: ‘I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God.’ But a leaked preliminary Pentagon assessment found that the bombs sealed the entrances of the nuclear facilities but did not collapse the underground buildings. Although Pete Hegseth, the US Defence Secretary, said the US bombing ‘has not been about regime change’, Mr Trump posted a remark: ‘If the current Iranian Regime is unable to make Iran great again, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change?’ After the strikes, Israel bombed targets in Iran more fiercely than ever, striking the Fordow site and Evin prison. Iran launched more missiles, some targeting America’s big Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, with little effect. Hours later Mr Trump announced a ‘complete and total’ ceasefire between Israel and Iran. But Iran fired another missile and Israel sent more bombers, provoking Mr Trump to exclaim: ‘They don’t know what the fuck they’re doing.’ Earlier Israel said it had assassinated three more Iranian military officials, including Saeed Izadi, described as one of the architects of the Hamas attacks on 7 October. Israel recovered the bodies of two civilians and a soldier held hostage in Gaza.
Sergei Tikhanovsky, the husband of the Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was unexpectedly released from prison in Belarus after five years and reunited with his wife, in exile in Lithuania. Russian air strikes on southeastern Ukraine damaged schools, hospitals and a passenger train, killing 17. Switzerland cut interest rates to zero. Rafa Nadal, the tennis player, was made Marquess of Llevant de Mallorca by the King of Spain.
At least 22 people were killed and 63 wounded in a suicide bomb attack at the Greek Orthodox church of the Prophet Elias in Damascus. More than 200 armed Islamists on motorbikes attacked a Niger army base near the border with Mali, killing 34 soldiers. A man drove down the Spanish Steps in Rome but the car got stuck and had to be removed with a crane. CSH
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