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Portrait of the week: Crisis in Iran, fires in Australia and Manchester rapist jailed

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Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, who had not been told in advance of America’s killing in Iraq of Qassem Soleimani, the leading Iranian military leader, said that America ‘had a right to exercise self-defence’. British troops were put on standby to be sent to the region, and the frigate Montrose and the destroyer Defender sent to the Strait of Hormuz. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, returning from holiday in Mustique, said: ‘Given the leading role he has played in actions that have led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians and western personnel, we will not lament his death.’ England secured a 189-run victory over South Africa on the fifth day of the second Test in Cape Town, levelling the series 1-1.

Reynhard Sinaga, an Indonesian national, was convicted of 159 sex offences, including 136 rapes, against men in Manchester. A 19-year-old British woman was given a four-month suspended sentence for ‘public mischief’ after withdrawing a claim that she had been raped by 12 Israeli youths at a hotel in Ayia Napa, Cyprus. Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, announced that she was pansexual and living with a press officer. Six Labour MPs said that they wanted to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as party leader: Sir Keir Starmer, Lisa Nandy, Jess Phillips, Emily Thornberry, Clive Lewis and Rebecca Long Bailey, who said: ‘I thought Jeremy was one of the most honest, kind, principled politicians that I ever met…
I’d give him ten out of ten.’

Announcing the Budget for 11 March, Sajid Javid, the Chancellor, said, ‘There will be an infrastructure revolution’; but he told ministers to ‘root out waste’. Travelex, the foreign exchange company, turned off its computers in 30 counties after they were hacked by people demanding money.

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