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Before flying to Washington, Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said: ‘We have to be ready to play our role if a force is required in Ukraine once a peace agreement is reached.’ He told the Commons that Britain would raise defence spending to 2.5 per cent of national income by 2027, funded by cutting development aid from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent of GDP. The government surplus for January, when much tax comes in, was £15.4 billion, the highest ever, but far below the £20.5 billion predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Average household energy bills will rise from April by £111 to £1,849 a year. BMW said it was shelving reintroduction of electric vehicle production at its Oxford Mini plant. BP dropped its goal of cutting oil and gas production. The King pulled a pint of Gone for a Burton ale on a visit to the Tower Brewery in Burton-upon-Trent.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said in a speech that, to preserve its sovereignty and strength, Britain should be willing to consider leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Nigel Farage and Richard Tice, the deputy party leader, gave up their shareholding of more than 90 per cent in Reform UK, control of which passed to a company limited by guarantee. Mike Amesbury, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, was jailed for ten weeks for punching a man in his constituency, after which he lost the Labour whip. In County Down, a pony called Roana, thought to be the oldest horse in the United Kingdom, celebrated her 46th birthday.
Amanda Pritchard announced her resignation as chief executive of NHS England. Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, told the BBC that information released by the authorities in the hours after the Southport attack on 29 July 2024 was ‘inadequate’. Mr Hall said: ‘People got the sense that something was being withheld or fudged.’ In the week to 23 February no migrants arrived in small boats. It was reported that in 2024 no British act figured in the world’s top ten singles or albums for the first time since 2003.
Abroad
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was expected in Washington after agreement was reached over US acquisition of mineral rights. Earlier, after hard words from President Trump of the United States, he had said: ‘If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it for Nato membership for Ukraine.’ On the eve of the third anniversary of its all-out invasion, Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine. More than 95,000 people fighting for Russia’s military had died in the three years of war, according to data analysed by the BBC; in December, Mr Zelensky acknowledged 43,000 Ukrainian deaths. European leaders gathered in Kyiv. President Emmanuel Macron of France said that peace ‘must not mean a surrender of Ukraine’; he was speaking in Washington at a press conference with Mr Trump, who placed a rebuffed hand on his knee. Hackers stole £1.1 billion worth of the second biggest cryptocurrency Ethereum from the exchange platform Bybit. Roberta Flack, best known for her hit ‘Killing Me Softly with His Song’, died aged 88.
Israel said it was delaying the agreed release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners until the next handover of hostages by Hamas was guaranteed. The remains of Shiri Bibas, aged 32, and her children Ariel and Kfir, aged four and nine months when they were kidnapped on 7 October 2023, were returned by Hamas, with those of the peace campaigner, Oded Lifschitz, 84. But the remains said to be of Shiri Bibas were then found to be those of an unidentified woman; the correct remains were later returned. The Pope, critically ill in hospital, managed to telephone the priest of the Holy Family parish in Gaza, as had been his habit, and to approve the canonisation of the Venezuelan Jose Gregorio Hernandez and the Italian Bartolo Longo.
In Germany the centre-right Christian Democratic Union did best in the election; its leader Friedrich Merz said he wanted ‘to establish an independent European defence capability’ quickly. Alternative für Deutschland came second, doubling its vote to more than 20 per cent. Tesla sales in the EU fell by 50 per cent in January. The Swedish coastguard investigated damage to an undersea telecommunications cable connecting Germany and Finland. Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, was fined £8,942 for sexual assault in kissing the player Jenni Hermoso after the women’s World Cup victory in 2023. CSH
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