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Theresa May became Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative party when Andrea Leadsom withdrew her candidacy for election by party members. This came after a front-page report by the Times based on an interview with Mrs Leadsom in which she said: ‘I feel being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country — a tangible stake. She [Mrs May] possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people, but I have children, who are going to have children.’ Her remarks were criticised by some fellow Conservatives, which Mrs Leadsom found ‘shattering’. Mrs May said gnomically that ‘Brexit means Brexit’. David Cameron, who had been booed when he watched tennis in the royal box at Wimbledon, agreed to tender his resignation to the Queen after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Larry the Downing Street cat decided to stay at No. 10.
Labour’s national executive ruled that Jeremy Corbyn did not need the backing of 20 per cent of Labour MPs and MEPs to stand for re-election as party leader against a challenge by Angela Eagle and Owen Smith. Labour party members who have joined in the past six months were denied a vote, but for £2 could gain one by joining a union. A brick was thrown through the window of Ms Eagle’s constituency office during the night when no one was there. She said that Mr Corbyn needed ‘to get control of people supporting him’. Serena Williams won her seventh Wimbledon singles final and Andy Murray his second. Sir Cliff Richard began legal action against the BBC and South Yorkshire Police over live coverage of a raid on his house in 2014 by police investigating allegations of sexual abuse that proved groundless.
The petitions committee said that there would be a Commons debate on September 5 on a petition signed by 4.1 million people asking the government ‘to implement a rule that if the Remain or Leave vote is less than 60 per cent, based on a turnout of less than 75 per cent, there should be another referendum’. The government is to buy nine new maritime patrol aeroplanes from Boeing in a£3 billion deal entailing a facility for the aircraft at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray. Britain is to send 500 soldiers to Estonia and 150 to Poland, with 3,000 on call, to counter Russia’s threat in the region. Poundland agreed to a £597 million takeover by a South African retail group, Steinhoff International. The shirt worn by Sir Geoff Hurst when England won the World Cup in 1966, which had been estimated to fetch £300,000-£500,000 at auction, failed to meet its reserve price at Sotheby’s.
Abroad
A black former soldier, Micah Xavier Johnson, aged 25, shot dead five policemen and wounded 11 people in Dallas, Texas, before being killed by a bomb sent by a police robot during a stand-off. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, protests continued after police killed a black man on 5 July. America sent 560 more troops to Iraq, some of them to be stationed at Qayara airbase, south of Mosul, recaptured from the Islamic State last Saturday. Saudi Arabia arrested 19, including 12 Pakistanis, as it investigated the bombs set off at Medina and two other cities. Thousands crossed to Colombia after Venezuela opened the border for 12 hours to allow people to buy food and medicine.
At least 25 people died when two passenger trains collided head-on on a single-track line between Bari and Barletta on the Adriatic coast of Italy. TheEuropean Central Bank required the Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (founded 1472) to reduce its holdings of bad debt. Portugal and Spain faced fines after the European Council found that both countries had not tried hard enough to prevent their deficits exceeding 3 per cent of GDP. The matador Victor Barrio, 29, died when he was gored in the chest during a fight being broadcast live from Teruel.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled that China had no historic rights to the waters or resources within an area claimed in the South China Sea that includes the Spratly Islands, the Paracels and the Scarborough Shoal; China said in response that the tribunal had no jurisdiction. Ikea recalled its popular Malm chests of drawers after six children were crushed to death in North America when the furniture toppled on to them. In Java, 12 people died of dehydration in a traffic jam that built up during hot weather as Ramadan ended. CSH
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