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Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, announced a full national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs (which he had previously opposed) on the recommendation of Baroness Casey of Blackstock, who had been asked to audit the matter. His announcement came after four men born in Pakistan and three Rochdale-born taxi drivers of Asian descent were convicted of offences against two teenage girls who were repeatedly raped and assaulted in Rochdale from 2001 to 2006. The Casey report said that Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire had ‘disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation’. At the G7 summit in Canada, Sir Keir managed to sign a limited agreement on tariffs with President Donald Trump, who left early. British Steel secured a five-year, £500 million contract to supply rails for Network Rail. A London Underground driver was sacked after knitting and watching videos while operating a train. Blaise Metreweli is to head MI6.
MPs voted 379 to 137 for Tonia Antoniazzi’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, decriminalising abortion at any stage. Taxpayers discovered that the spending review assumed council tax will rise by the maximum allowed of 5 per cent a year and that police funding assumed a rise in the police precept added to council tax. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, said that a priority of the spending review was ‘to grow Britain’s economy so that working people are better off’. Gross domestic product fell by 0.3 per cent. Inflation remained at 3.4 per cent. Rioters set fire to a leisure centre in Larne, Co. Antrim, used as a refuge for migrants from previous days’ violence – and live-streamed on TikTok the burning of a house in Ballymena. The government said it would phase out the use of hotels for asylum-seekers by building state-owned accommodation and cutting small-boat crossings. In the seven days to 16 June, 1,733 migrants arrived in small boats.
Among the 1,215 recipients of the King’s birthday honours (48 per cent women), Roger Daltrey of the Who and David Beckham, the ex-footballer, were made knights. Penny Mordaunt, who carried the Sword of State at the Coronation, and the ceramicist Emma Bridgewater became dames. The darts player Luke Littler, 18, was appointed MBE. Alfred Brendel, the pianist, died aged 94. The waiting list for routine hospital treatments in England fell from 7.42 million in March to 7.39 million in April. A drought was declared in Yorkshire.
Abroad
Israel went to war with Iran, launching dozens of strikes on long-range missile sites and targets related to the nuclear programme. The first attack killed General Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s chief of the military staff, and Hossein Salami, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as leading nuclear scientists. Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to overthrow their rulers. Iran retaliated with missiles and drones, some hitting near Tel Aviv and Haifa, as Israelis took to shelters. In the first three days, 24 people were killed in Israel and 224 in Iran. During a bulletin from the Iranian state broadcaster, debris fell and dust filled the studio. ‘This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us,’ Friedrich Merz, the German Chancellor, said. Mr Trump posted a message on social media: ‘Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.’
Russia carried out a missile and drone attack on Kyiv, killing at least 21 people. Mr Trump made a speech on his 79th birthday at the military parade in Washington, DC, to mark the 250th birthday of the American army; thousands demonstrated against him in several cities. Mr Trump called on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to carry out ‘the single largest Mass Deportation Program in History’. On the way to the G7, President Emmanuel Macron of France visited Greenland.
A London-bound Air India plane carrying 242 people, including 53 Britons, crashed shortly after take-off at Ahmedabad, falling on accommodation at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy medical college; one passenger survived, a man from Leicester. Fire engulfed the 67-storey Marina Pinnacle in Dubai Marina; all 3,820 residents were rescued. A Chinese captain was jailed for three years by a Taiwanese court for damaging an undersea cable to the Penghu islands. Brian Wilson, the songwriter with the Beach Boys, died aged 82. CSH
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