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Humza Yousaf resigned as the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National party, posts he had held since the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last year. He had precipitated confidence votes by terminating an arrangement with the seven Scottish Green MSPs. Royal Mail stopped imposing £5 penalties on letters with stamps deemed to be counterfeit after suspicions that China had produced many. Nigel Railton, the former chief executive of the Lottery operator Camelot, was appointed interim chairman of the Post Office. The Abu Dhabi-backed investment fund RedBird IMI abandoned its attempt to buy the Telegraph and The Spectator, which will now be up for sale. The King resumed public engagements by visiting a cancer centre with the Queen.
The government finally got its Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill through parliament. The next day, 141 people crossed the Channel in small vessels and, the day after, 359; with another 132 on Monday. A failed asylum seeker was flown to Rwanda and received £3,000 under a voluntary removal programme. Eighty per cent of asylum seekers reaching Ireland were said by its government to come via Northern Ireland and, to send them back, the Irish government planned legislation declaring the UK a safe country notwithstanding a Dublin High Court ruling. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said Britain would not take them until EU asylum rules were changed. In N. Ireland the DUP approved the addition to the Windsor Framework of a new EU law reducing the organic content requirement of dog food to 95 per cent, as in Great Britain. Physical checks began on meat, plants and dairy produce entering the UK from the EU. In West Yorkshire, 24 men were sentenced to up to 30 years in jail for sexually exploiting girls. The wet spring promised a poor harvest and price rises for biscuits.
The Conservatives glumly endured local elections. Dan Poulter, a health minister for three years in David Cameron’s first administration, crossed the floor and joined the Labour party. The Conservative MP Tim Loughton said he was detained and barred from entering Djibouti because of its close ties to China, which sanctioned him in 2021. The 23,500-capacity Co-op Live arena in Manchester postponed its opening. C.J. Sansom, the author of the Shardlake series of historical novels, died aged 71. Mike Pinder, co-founder of the Moody Blues, died aged 82. Two men in their thirties were charged with criminal damage to Hadrian’s Wall and to the sycamore felled there last year. Two cavalry horses that caused a stir by running loose for six miles through London – the black Quaker and the grey Vida – were recovering from surgery.
Abroad
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said that its forces had withdrawn from some positions in the Donetsk region. Ukraine began to use longer-range ballistic missiles provided by America against Russia, but remained short of Patriot air defence batteries. Russia repeatedly attacked Ukrainian power stations, some with cruise missiles fired by Russian bombers based in the Arctic Circle. The Duchess of Edinburgh visited Ukraine.
Hundreds at American universities demonstrating over the war in Gaza were arrested. ‘Horrific violence’ between pro-Palestinians and pro-Israelis was reported at UCLA in California. The United States built a pier at Gaza for food relief. World Central Kitchen decided to resume distributing food. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said he was ‘hopeful’ Hamas would accept Israel’s latest ‘extraordinarily generous’ proposal for a truce and release of hostages. But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, declared: ‘We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal.’ Mr Blinken then visited Beijing, and said that Chinese enterprises supplying Russia with components helped it perpetuate aggression against Ukraine. Elon Musk visited Beijing to seek acceptance of the autonomous driving mode on Tesla cars. ‘Going balls to the wall on autonomy is a blindingly obvious move,’ he said.
Pedro Sánchez decided not to resign as Prime Minister of Spain and leader of the Socialist party, after five days pondering a court inquiry into claims of corruption against his wife, Begoña Gómez. Ariel Henry resigned as Haiti’s Prime Minister as a transitional council was sworn in to confront gang violence. A cat from Utah called Galena was rescued at an Amazon depot in California after several days in a parcel of boots that had been returned. CSH
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