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The government funnelled three dozen bills into the King’s Speech, highlighting one to make a specific offence of spiking a drink, which is already illegal. But backbenchers and Labour in Scotland failed in efforts to remove the cap of two children for the payment of child benefit. A new state-owned energy company would be set up and railways nationalised. Landlords’ rights to evict tenants would be reduced. Police were to be given more powers against gangs smuggling migrants in small boats. Between 10 and 15 July, 701 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats. With births at 598,393 and deaths at 597,992, the annual natural change in population of England and Wales to mid 2023 was found to be only 401; but with immigration to Britain at 1,084,000 and emigration at 462,000 for the same period, the net population growth was the highest for at least 75 years.
Vaughan Gething resigned as the First Minister of Wales after 118 days; four ministers in the Senedd had resigned and called upon him to do so. Annual inflation remained at 2 per cent. The government said that defence was such an urgent priority that Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former Nato secretary general, should review it and not report till next year. The Princess of Wales, dressed in Wimbledon purple, presented the men’s singles trophy to Carlos Alcaraz. A judge sentenced Gavin Plumb, 37, a big fat man from Harlow, Essex, to a minimum of 15 years and 85 days in prison for plotting to kidnap, rape and murder television presenter Holly Willoughby. Police arrested a man in connection with the killing of the wife of a BBC racing commentator and their two daughters by someone with a crossbow. Police arrested a man after two suitcases were found at the Clifton Suspension Bridge containing the bodies of two men.
Spanish police in Tenerife found the remains of Jay Slater, 19, who went missing on 17 June; the Canary Islands High Court said his fatal injuries were ‘compatible with a fall in a rocky zone’. The remains of Matthew Flinders, the explorer who popularised the name Australia, were buried at Donington, Lincolnshire, having been discovered during works on HS2 near Euston station. England lost 2-1 to Spain in the final of the football Euros; Gareth Southgate resigned as manager. Among members of the winning team chanting ‘Gibraltar is Spanish’ was Rodri Hernandez, who also plays for Manchester City.
Abroad
Donald Trump, the former US President and candidate for the presidency, was shot at an outdoor rally at Butler, Pennsylvania. He raised his fist in the air and said ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ before being bundled from the stage by Secret Service officers. The bullet hit the fleshy upper part of his right ear. A member of the audience was killed and two others critically wounded. The gunman, later identified as Thomas Crooks, aged 20, used a rifle from the roof of a building being used by local police and was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper. Joe Biden rang Trump as did Sir Keir Starmer. The King of the United Kingdom wrote. Trump chose as running mate for the presidency J.D. Vance, the senator for Ohio, who published the memoir Hillbilly Elegy in 2016. The legal case accusing Trump of taking classified documents was dismissed by a judge ruling that the appointment of the lawyer prosecuting him was unconstitutional. President Paul Kagame extended his 24-year rule of Rwanda by another five years after an election gave him more than 99 per cent of the votes.
A counsellor at the North Korean embassy in Cuba had defected to South Korea in November, it was discovered. China’s economy grew at an annual rate of 4.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2024, compared with a target of 5 per cent. A Chinese woman in her twenties, swept from a beach in Japan while swimming with a rubber ring, was rescued 36 hours later 50 miles away.
David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said 141 Palestinians had been killed in four days of Israeli air strikes. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visited Ireland. In Ecuador, dogs found 6.23 tons of cocaine hidden in 5,630 parcels in a banana shipment bound for Germany. Six people were killed with cyanide in a Bangkok hotel. The spire of Rouen cathedral caught fire during restoration work, but the flames were put out. CSH
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