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Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, announced the granting of 100 new North Sea oil and gas licences. In Aberdeen he confirmed funding for two new carbon capture projects. Thangam Debbonaire, the shadow leader of the House, said: ‘We are not going to grant any more. It is not OK. The world is on fire.’ Sir Bob Neill, the chairman of the Commons justice committee, called for a change in rules that deduct the cost of board and lodging in jail from compensation of those unjustly imprisoned. He was responding to the case of Andrew Malkinson, 57, cleared after 17 years in prison of a rape he did not commit.

The Infrastructure and Projects Authority gave a red rating to the HS2 railway from London to Birmingham and then to Crewe, indicating ‘successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable’. A one-day strike by railway workers in the RMT union was followed by a week of overtime bans by train drivers belonging to Aslef. Britain will continue to recognise the EU’s CE (Conformité Européenne) product safety mark and will not insist from the end of 2024 on its own mark. A man on an electric scooter died after colliding with an ambulance in Barnsley. Royal Mail began using drones to take post from Stromness on Orkney to the islands of Graemsay and Hoy.

The electors of Rutherglen and Hamilton West removed by a recall petition their MP Margaret Ferrier, who had been convicted of reckless conduct in catching a train while suffering from Covid; a by-election will be called after parliament sits again next month. Some 47 per cent of parents reported that children’s social and emotional skills had worsened during the first year of the pandemic, according to a survey by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the UCL Institute of Education. Mortgage approvals rose to 54,700 in June from 51,100 in May. House prices fell 3.8 per cent from their level a year ago, according to Nationwide. Net borrowing as consumer credit rose to £1.7 billion, the highest since 2018. British Gas reported half-year profits of £969 million, compared with £98 million for the same period in 2022. BP profits fell to £2 billion for the second quarter of the year compared with £6.5 billion for the second quarter of 2022. The Costa Coffee chain was criticised for images on its vans of a trans man showing mastectomy scars; ‘At Costa Coffee we celebrate the diversity of our customers,’ a spokesman said. Stuart Broad, having announced his retirement from Test cricket, took the last two Australian wickets in the gripping Ashes series to level it 2-2.

Abroad

Ukrainian drones hit the same skyscraper in Moscow two days running. President Volodymyr Zelensky commented: ‘Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.’ Russia bombed grain facilities on the Danube. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, was photographed in St Petersburg during an Africa-Russia summit shaking hands with Freddy Mapouka, a presidential adviser in the Central African Republic. In a military coup, General Abdourahamane Tchiani declared himself Niger’s new leader in place of President Mohamed Bazoum; France set about evacuating its citizens.

Donald Trump, the former American president, was indicted on four charges of attempting to overturn the presidential election results in 2020; they include conspiracy to defraud the United States. China replaced the commander of its nuclear arsenal and his deputy, who had disappeared several months ago. China will require special licences for the export of gallium and germanium, essential in making semiconductors. China appointed Pan Gongsheng, said not to be a very close ally of President Xi Jinping, as governor of its central bank. Joining China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2019 was an ‘atrocious’ decision, said Italy’s defence minister, Guido Crosetto, and the problem was how to leave it without damaging relations with Beijing. The European Central Bank raised interest rates in the eurozone for the ninth time running, to 3.75 per cent, a level last seen in 2000. Rain reduced temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona, after 31 days over 110˚F. Clashes in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp in Lebanon, established in 1948, between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and Islamist groups, left 11 dead and saw 2,000 flee. A man carried a bomb into a political rally at Khar near Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, killing at least 45 people; the local Islamic State group said the bombing was part of its ‘war against democracy’.