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BP reported quarterly profits of £6.9 billion, its biggest for 14 years, after oil and gas prices rose steeply. Typical domestic energy bills were forecast by the consultancy Cornwall Insight to go above £3,600 a year in the coming winter. Under the family scheme for visas, 31,300 Ukrainians had arrived in the United Kingdom, and 72,700 under the sponsorship scheme. British Airways suspended new ticket sales for short-haul flights from Heathrow until at least 15 August, to meet the airport’s limit on the number of passengers departing each day of 100,000. On 1 August, 696 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats; in July the total was 3,683, and more than 17,000 so far in 2022. Sir Christopher Meyer, the British ambassador to the United States 1997-2003, died aged 78.
There was a delay in sending out ballot papers for members of the Conservative party to vote for either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak as the new party leader and hence prime minister, and a rule was dropped that had allowed an online vote to supersede one sent by post. Ms Truss remained ahead and Mr Sunak suddenly declared he would reduce income tax by 4p in the pound within seven years (in his second as prime minister). Ms Truss said that Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish Nationalists, was merely an ‘attention seeker’. The Truss campaign said that £8.8 billion could be saved by having salaries for government employees set by regional pay boards; before the day was out, the proposal was dropped in the face of objections from public servants. Jaswant Singh Chail, 20, allegedly found with a crossbow in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Christmas Day, was charged under the Treason Act.
Covid infections in Britain fell for the first time since May: the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus fell to one in 20 in England and one in 19 in Scotland (from one in 17 and one in 15 a week earlier), according to surveys by the Office for National Statistics.
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