RBS and NatWest websites were out of
order for several hours. The Bank of
England said 118 million paper £5 notes,
withdrawn from circulation in May 2017,
and 94 million £10 paper notes, withdrawn
in March 2018, have not been returned.T
wo small boats carrying 28 people
who said they were from Iraq and Iran
were found in the Channel. An Iraqi who
tried to swim from France to England was
found dead off Zeebrugge with plastic
water bottles for buoyancy and wearing
one flipper. About 970 people, at least 80
of them children, have been found in the
Channel in small boats this year. On his
way to the G7 summit, Boris Johnson, the
Prime Minister, said: ‘Melton Mowbray
pork pies, which are sold in Thailand and in
Iceland, are currently unable to enter the
US market.’ Pork pie manufacturers denied
that they exported to Thailand or Iceland,
though some pies had been sent to both
countries in 2015. Opponents of the Prime
Minister played upon the rhyming slang
meaning of pork pie.Abroad
T
he G7 summit at Biarritz was unable
to produce a communiqué. There was
much blame directed towards President Jair
Bolsonaro of Brazil for letting fires rage in
the Amazon. Brazil rejected a G7 offer of
$22 million to help fight the fires. President
Emmanuel Macron of France complained
that President Bolsonaro had ‘made
some extraordinarily rude comments’
on Facebook pictures comparing him
and his wife, 25 years his senior, with MrBolsonaro and his wife, who is 27 years
his junior. Mr Bolsonaro had posted a
comment translated as: ‘Don’t humiliate
the guy, ha ha.’ At the summit, President
Donald Trump of the United States said
he wouldn’t mind meeting President
Hassan Rouhani of Iran, but his immediate
response was that there was no point if it
was to be a mere photo opportunity. Mr
Trump looked forward to trade talks with
China, three days after stock markets
wobbled in response to an announcement
by America that it would raise tariffs on
$250 billion worth of Chinese imports from
25 per cent to 30 per cent from 1 October.I
srael said that it had struck several sites
in Syria from the air and, ‘using killer
drones’, had thwarted an Iranian attack
on Israel. Civilians tried to flee continuing
fighting in the province of Idlib in Syria.
Italy’s party political crisis continued.
Police in Hong Kong used water-cannon
against protestors in their 12th week of
demonstrations calling for democracy.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa of
Zimbabwe said his country wanted to trade
in a stockpile of ivory worth $600 million.A
US federal judge temporarily blocked
a new law banning nearly all abortions
in the state of Missouri. A judge in
Oklahoma ordered the drugmaker Johnson
& Johnson to pay $572 million for the care
of opioid addicts because its promotion
of addictive prescription painkillers had
‘compromised the health and safety of
thousands’; the company was to appeal.
Mattel put on sale a Barbie doll intended to
resemble Rosa Parks. CSHHome
T
he government sought to prorogue
parliament on 10 September and
have the Queen’s Speech opening the
new session of parliament on 14 October.
The Budget would be brought forward
to 4 September. The prorogation caused
much fury among Remainers. Jeremy
Corbyn, the Labour leader, had met other
opposition party leaders to hatch a plan to
pass legislation to stop Britain leaving the
European Union on 31 October without
a withdrawal agreement. Mr Corbyn had
proposed becoming prime minister for a
bit, but few fancied that prospect.
B
ury was expelled from the English
Football League after the company
trying to buy the club pulled out. England
won the third Ashes Test at Headingley
despite being bowled out for 67 in their first
innings and being left with 359 to make in
their second to beat Australia; Leach was
the last man in, with 73 to make, and a
dogged Stokes, scoring a total of 135, took
the partnership to victory. It was hot and
sunny for the late August bank holiday (not
observed in Scotland). Cuadrilla suspended
fracking operations near Blackpool after
tremors were detected; two days later a
tremor of magnitude 2.9 occurred, and a
picture was reported to have fallen off a
shelf at Lytham St Annes. Lord Bell, Tim
Bell, whose advertising campaigns helped
Margaret Thatcher win elections, died
aged 77. British Airways told thousands
of travellers that their flights had been
cancelled during strikes to be held by pilots
in September, then told them they hadn’t.