Portrait of the week: an election looms, Joe Biden crashes and England wins

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A general election shook the nation’s political snowglobe. Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, was able to stop stunts for the camera after making a bungee jump at Eastbourne. Before the election, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister for the time being, commented on Channel 4 footage of a Reform UK supporter talking of him in racially abusive language: ‘My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki. It hurts and it makes me angry.’ Reform UK made an official complaint against Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, claiming that the supporter filmed was an actor. England beat Slovakia 2-1 in the Euros to go into the quarter- finals against Switzerland; Uefa investigated a crotch-grabbing gesture made by the England midfielder Jude Bellingham after his late equaliser.

A new Ofgem price cap brought domestic energy bills down to their lowest for two years, but the usually reliable Cornwall Insight predicted that a typical household would see a 10 per cent increase between now and October. The Unite union called off a strike planned for Monday at the Port Talbot steelworks because it might hasten their closure. Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipbuilder, announced losses of another £43 million last year. The House of Keys on the Isle of Man rejected by 12 to 11 putting its Assisted Dying Bill to a referendum. Dustmen in Edinburgh voted to strike during the Festival.

Linda De Sousa Abreu, 30, was charged with misconduct in public office after a video emerged that allegedly showed a prison officer having sex with a prisoner in a cell. The Woodland Trust decided to move two osprey chicks from Lochaber to Valencia because their father was not catching enough fish. Frank Duckworth, one half of the duo behind the Duckworth-Lewis Method of setting batting targets in rain-affected one-day cricket matches, died aged 84.

Abroad

France was in a political fever after Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally won the first round of its general election with 33 per cent of the vote.