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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. The left-wing coalition won 28 per cent and President Emmanuel Macron’s party 20 per cent. Seats in parliament depended on the second round, a week later, after attempts to withdraw third-place candidates in order to keep out the right. Iran had to hold a run-off presidential election after neither the hardline candidate Saeed Jalili nor his rival Massoud Pezeshkian won 50 per cent of the vote.
American Democrats discussed whether they could find a different candidate for president after a television debate between Donald Trump, the Republican challenger, aged 78, and President Joe Biden, aged 81. Biden lost the thread more than once, notably saying: ‘We’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to deal with, with, with. The Covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with… what if we finally beat Medicare.’ Trump retorted: ‘Well, he’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.’ The United States Supreme Court ruled that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts taken while in office, but have no immunity for unofficial acts; a lower court will apply the ruling in the case against Trump over alleged attempts to reverse the 2020 election result. A New York judge delayed to September his sentencing for falsifying business records. A crush at a Hindu religious festival in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, killed 121 people. Fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas continued, with Israeli warplanes targeting Shejaiya. Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it had launched 20 rockets from Gaza towards Israeli border communities. Israel then issued evacuation orders to people in the east of Khan Younis. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine renewed his appeal for more long-range weapons and air defences after a Russian missile attack on Vilniansk near Zaporizhzhia. Russia claimed it had destroyed five Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jets in a missile strike on an airfield in Ukraine. A Tianlong-3 space rocket owned by a private Chinese company accidentally launched itself during a test, crashing into a hillside. North Korea said it had test-fired an advanced multiple warhead missile, but South Korea accused it of lying. A car ploughed into a crowd of people killing at least nine in Seoul, the South Korean capital. Norway blocked the sale of a 23 square mile estate on Svalbard to China on grounds of national security. CSH
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