PSG fans, wild horses and a march for Ukraine: photos of the weekend
Paris Saint-Germain fans let off flares as they celebrate their team's 5-0 victory over Inter Milan in the Uefa Champions League final Photograph: Lou Benoist/AFP/Getty Images
People take part in a race on the Bistrica river during the Bunar festival Photograph: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images
Wild horses are corralled to be branded during the traditional Rapa das Bestas festival Photograph: Kiko Delgado/EPA
A man stands at the peak of Jabal al-Nour mountain after visiting the Hira cave, one of the stages of the annual Hajj pilgrimage Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Migrants wait for a dinghy to cross the English Channel Photograph:People take part in the Senegambia cross-border friendship festival, showcasing the cultural similarities and differences between the neighbouring countries Photograph: Jérôme Favre/EPA
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate mass in St Peter's Square Photograph: Andrew Medichini/AP
The artist Cedano works on a sand portrait of John Lennon Photograph: Juan Herrero/EPA
People take part in a march to demand Russia return Ukrainian children to their home country Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA
An Israeli missile explodes as it hits a building Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP
The former Polish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Lech Wałęsa casts his vote in the country's presidential election Photograph: Adam Warżawa/EPA
A quad-bike rider performs at the Day of Moscow sports festival Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
People take part in the city's 2025 Pride parade Photograph: Narong Sangnak/EPA
People observe the site of a huge landslide that destroyed the village of Blatten
Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
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Telegraph
11 minutes ago
- Telegraph
How Starmer became Reeves's biggest enemy
Rachel Reeves has one eye on the bond market and the other on her own backbenchers. The Chancellor has been forced to spend the last few weeks focusing on rebellions over benefit cuts and spending plans that she must stick to if she wants to balance the books. Now, though, her authority is starting to be undermined much closer to home. The latest challenge is not coming from investors, the Red Wall or Reform UK. Instead, it is the man next door – her partner at the top of the Government – the Prime Minister. Two bold announcements from Sir Keir Starmer shed some light on the issue. Starmer's pledge to restore the winter fuel allowance to pensioners and his hint that the cap on benefits for families with more than two children will be removed were welcomed by the party faithful. However, they have left Reeves to count the cost, putting Britain on a path to higher taxes in the autumn. Restoring winter fuel payments to all pensioners and scrapping the two child benefit cap entirely would cost a combined £5bn a year if each policy was fully reversed, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank. That's a significant amount considering Reeves only has a £10bn buffer to meet a self-imposed goal of ending borrowing to fund day-to-day spending. But with less than a fortnight until she locks in Whitehall spending plans for the next three years, Starmer appears to have decided that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. For the Government, though, it will be seen as a sign of a breakdown in relations. This chaotic approach to policy-making is understood to have stemmed from growing tensions in Downing Street, particularly in the leader's office itself. Some blame Liz Lloyd, No10's director of policy, delivery and innovation. Lloyd, who also served as Sir Tony Blair's deputy chief of staff, is being singled out as the trigger of a wave of recent adviser departures, including one who was accused of 'mansplaining' the economy to Reeves. Lloyds is said to have clashed with Stuart Ingham, Starmer's longest-serving aide, who was appointed alongside career civil servant Olaf Henricson-Bell to run the No10 policy unit. 'They're all in each other's business,' says a source. 'Stuart threatened to resign if Liz was appointed. Yet they are both there and have a toxic relationship with each other. Olaf is fed up with both.' Several others in the unit are said to feel frozen out, although Labour Party HQ says it doesn't recognise the tensions and insists it is business as usual. However, few can deny that it is resulting in incoherent policymaking, including a flat-out denial of reports detailing changes to the winter fuel allowance that were subsequently vindicated just weeks later, and a Downing Street that doesn't look like it has anywhere near a majority of more than 170 seats. Another battle is under way over a cap on benefits that means that families can only claim child tax credit and universal credit for their first two children if they were born after April 2017. Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir's chief of staff, is said to be against the policy. Many of the Labour Left are making it their mission to reverse it. One Labour source summarises the party's dilemma. 'The two child cap is a political bind,' they say. 'On the one hand, how can the state subsidise poor people to have three kids when it's too costly for middle class couples to have one? On the other, how is it morally ethical for a Labour government to choose to keep kids in poverty?' At the same time, Starmer is facing the biggest rebellion of his premiership over £5bn in welfare cuts that will affect hundreds of thousands of people claiming disability benefits. Reports suggest another £500m climbdown is on the cards, in a move that could allow up to 200,000 people to keep their cash. However, it is understood that while options for further tweaks to the policy are on the table, changes are being kept on the back burner for now as Starmer and Reeves focus on other electoral carrots. Part of this will come from big spending in infrastructure in Red Wall seats to combat the threat of Reform. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) highlights that choices around health spending until 2030 will also determine how much other Whitehall departments receive. For example, if Reeves chooses to raise health spending by 3.4pc per year in real terms – or roughly the long-run average, departments outside defence face a 1pc real terms cut to their budgets. That's less funding for schools, policing and prisons. What's more, if Starmer wants to get defence spending to 3pc of GDP by 2030, it implies real terms cuts of 1.8pc. While it would not be anything like the austerity presided over by George Osborne as chancellor, for some departments where the low-hanging fruit was plucked a decade ago, it will feel like it. 'Sharp trade-offs are unavoidable,' the IFS warns in a report. Public sector pay continues to be a headache for the Chancellor. An announcement that public sector workers in England will receive a pay rise of between 3pc and 5pc this year – higher than the 2.8pc budgeted for by the Chancellor – will cost about £3bn. Reports suggest that as many as 50,000 civil service jobs could go as Reeves wields the axe as part of the Spending Review on June 11. But stopping the public sector workforce growing further above the current level of 6m will be a hard task. Keeping costs down while allowing those already on the payroll to be paid more is in theory a good idea. The IFS estimates that if public sector employment stayed constant between now and 2028–29, and the pay pot grew at 1.2pc each year in real terms in line with the overall spending envelope that has already been set out, pay awards could average 2.6pc per year in cash terms. However, Bee Boileau, an economist at the IFS, says this may not be realistic. 'Constraining the growth of the overall public sector will be tricky in the context of an NHS workforce plan that implies growth in the health service workforce of 3.1pc to 3.4pc per year, a manifesto promise to hire 6,500 more teachers, and a likely reluctance to reduce the number of police officers, prison officers or members of HM Forces,' she says. There is also a bigger problem: weak growth. JP Morgan believes Starmer's trio of trade deals with the US, EU and India will reduce borrowing by around £2.5bn. However, it thinks this will be more than offset by a tariff hit of £7.3bn and weaker growth delivering another £9bn blow to the public finances. This, together with a reversal on winter fuel, benefits for families and another fuel duty freeze is expected to turn a £9.9bn borrowing buffer into a black hole of around £15bn. Capital Economics says higher UK bond yields and expectations that interest rates will remain higher for longer also currently imply £4.4bn more will be devoted to servicing the Government's interest payments by 2030. It also warns that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is likely to say the Government's policy to cut migration 'by up to around 100,000 per year', will reduce growth 'and therefore raise the OBR's borrowing forecast by £6bn in 2030'. In short, there could be another £25bn of extra tax rises coming this autumn. With the threat of more tax raids around the corner, Starmer has voiced concerns about the fiscal watchdog itself. While its authority is not being questioned, the Prime Minister has asked why Reeves faces adjusting taxes and spending twice a year if she is deemed to have missed her borrowing rules when she only has one Budget. There is little appetite within Downing Street to change fiscal rules that have already been altered nine times in 16 years. 'Ripping up her so called 'iron-clad' and 'non-negotiable' rules only a year after introducing them could erode the Chancellor's political credibility,' says Ruth Gregory at Capital Economics. However, some in government are now thinking about whether one official economic forecast a year is more sensible. Such a move would require legislation. Either way, Reeves is likely to keep coming under pressure to spend more in the next few years. The bond vigilantes may be watching. But so is Starmer.
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Net zero jobs plans are fundamentally flawed, Miliband warned
Ed Miliband has been urged to slash taxes on the North Sea to prevent the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. Researchers at Robert Gordon University (RGU) said oil and gas jobs were disappearing faster than new clean energy roles were being created as a result of the slower-than-expected deployment of wind farms. It threatens the loss of tens of thousands of skilled British jobs by the end of the decade. The RGU report warned that the offshore wind sector may only generate 29,000 jobs by 2030, while some 58,000 disappear from oil and gas – the equivalent of 200 jobs lost every week for the next five years. Paul de Leeuw, director of RGU's Energy Transition Institute, said: 'You have to wait pretty well to the back end of this decade before there's enough capacity in the renewables sector to take all the people coming out of oil and gas. 'So there is a very valid, very real concern in oil and gas, in the world-class supply chain and the absolutely fantastic workforce, and they're saying 'actually, we're quite happy to work on the renewable agenda, but the jobs are simply not there'. 'It's a timing issue.' To avoid heavy job losses, RGU said Mr Miliband, the Energy Secretary, needed to either attract a larger share of turbine manufacturing to the UK or reverse his ban on new North Sea drilling licences to temporarily boost oil and gas production. Buying time Mr Miliband has promised a 'just transition' in the North Sea, saying offshore wind jobs will replace those lost on oil and gas rigs. He is targeting between 43 and 50 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030 as part of his clean power plans. The Government argues this will not only deliver energy security but also provide lasting employment for North Sea workers. However, based on the industry's current trajectory, new jobs will not be created fast enough to match the decline in oil and gas. In a worst-case scenario, researchers said the overall number of people working in offshore energy could fall by one fifth to 125,000. It comes after energy consultancy BloombergNEF warned the Government was on course to miss its offshore wind deployment target by 10GW. RGU said Mr Miliband could miss his wind power targets and still avoid job losses, but only if he attracted a larger share of turbine manufacturing to the UK or reopened the North Sea. Prof De Leeuw said: 'Getting to the Government's target for offshore wind capacity would be an absolutely heroic achievement, especially in just the next five years. 'So if you might not get there, you want to keep your options open. We think you need to keep oil and gas going for just a bit longer, to buy more time for the cavalry to arrive in the form of renewable energy jobs.' The RGU report predicted demand for between 125,000 and 212,000 offshore energy workers – including both those in oil and gas and those in renewables – by 2030. This depends on various factors, including the amount of offshore wind capacity that is built, the share of turbine manufacturing that is done domestically, and the level of oil and gas production. In nearly every scenario where Mr Miliband hits his upper target for offshore wind generation, or 50GW of capacity, the number of North Sea jobs either increases or stays more or less the same. But in most scenarios where only 40GW or 30GW are delivered, large numbers of jobs are lost. Government levers BloombergNEF recently warned that Mr Miliband was on course to deliver just 33GW by 2030, with Ørsted's decision to cancel the massive Hornsea 4 project also viewed as a sign of industry turbulence. Significant job losses are less likely if more money is spent on building wind farm equipment in Britain, RGU said. However, this may be beyond the Government's control. Another way to ensure jobs are not lost in almost every scenario is to ensure oil and gas production stays at 700,000 barrels per day or more, compared to a current forecast of between 500,000 to 600,000 barrels per day. This would only be possible if controversial developments such as the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields went ahead, as well as other schemes. Prof De Leeuw suggested ministers could try to grow domestic turbine manufacturing by making supporting investments in factories, perhaps through the National Wealth Fund and state-owned Great British Energy. But he warned the Government 'doesn't have all the levers' to ensure that happens, whereas the windfall tax on oil and gas producers and the ban on new licences were within its control. While stressing the North Sea was still in 'managed decline', he added: 'It is very hard for the Government to make the renewables agenda go faster. 'But what they do have is all the levers on how to manage the decline in oil and gas, and particularly around what they do with the tax regime and the fiscal levers.' Asked whether Mr Miliband should reverse the ban on new drilling licences, a key pledge in Labour's election manifesto, he replied: 'You have to get investor confidence to the highest point. 'What was in the [Labour] manifesto ... the world has moved on, but the policy has not. I do think there is room for selective licensing to keep activity going.' The Government has been consulting on its plans for the North Sea, which include boosting employment through a variety of new sectors such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen production and offshore wind. It has also set up the Office for Clean Energy Jobs to ensure new roles are 'high-quality and paid fairly', and launched the so-called clean industry bonus to attract factory investments to coastal communities. On Friday, a spokesman for Mr Miliband's department said: 'We have taken rapid steps to deliver the next generation of good jobs for North Sea workers in a fair and orderly transition as part of our plan for change, including by making the biggest investment in offshore wind and two first-of-a-kind carbon capture storage clusters. 'This comes alongside Great British Energy, headquartered in Aberdeen, which has already announced a £300m investment into British supply chains, unlocking significant investment and helping to create thousands of skilled jobs.'
BBC News
28 minutes ago
- BBC News
Price of a pint of Manx milk to increase by 5p in July
A pint of milk on the Isle of Man will increase in price by 5p to 90p from 1 July, the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture has the Milk Prices (Amendment) Order 2025, a litre will increase by 5p to £1.50, but a 1,750ml container's price will not milk produced on island is processed by the Isle of Man Creamery, which is a farmer-owned order confirmed the uplift was recommended to "secure the future of the Manx dairy industry, ensuring a continuing supply of fresh Manx milk" for the island's residents. Retail prices for milk on the Isle of Man are set by the Milk Marketing Committee, which is chaired by the environment minister and includes representatives from the Office of Fair Trading and the National Farmers' last increase was seen in January 2023, when a litre rose by 10p to £1.45 due to rising costs in the dairy order, which does not need to be voted on by MHKs, will go before Tynwald later this month. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
