The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Rishi Sunak defends Kathleen Stock, food prices rise and AI extinction warning

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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, supported a visit to the Oxford Union by Professor Kathleen Stock, who believes that there are such things as women: ‘University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled,’ he said. He said in a separate announcement that he would ban companies from giving out free samples of vaping supplies to people under 18. He then packed his bags for a visit to Washington, DC, in the coming week for talks with President Joe Biden. Delaney Irving, aged 19, from Vancouver Island, won the women’s race at the Cooper’s Hill cheese-rolling event near Gloucester.

Food prices continued to rise rapidly, according to the British Retail Consortium, by an annual rate of 15.4 per cent in May, compared with the even steeper rate of 15.7 per cent in April. The government discussed plans for supermarkets to introduce a voluntary cap on the price of basic food items. But Lord Rose of Monewden, the chairman of Asda, warned that any such agreement might have the contrary effect of limiting price reductions, tantamount to an illegal cartel. Banks and building societies withdrew more than 800 different mortgage packages, and mortgage interest rates crept up. BT laid plans to cut 55,000 jobs or 42 per cent of its workforce by the end of the decade, citing the effects of AI technology. The Rugby Football Union offered London Irish a stay of execution as the club faced financial ruin and suspension from the Premiership. Five men who streamed Premier League association football matches to 50,000 subscribers and received more than £7 million were jailed, the ringleader for 11 years, after a private prosecution brought by the Premier League. Train drivers went on strike on two separate days, affecting travel to the Derby and the FA Cup Final.

The official Covid inquiry demanded that the Cabinet Office should hand over Boris Johnson’s WhatsApp messages from his time as prime minister.

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