United States forces conducted another wave of attacks against Iran Sunday evening, marking the ninth consecutive night of strikes, according to U.S. Central Command.
“The strikes will continue degrading Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said.
Strikes targeted “Iranian military command centers, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks,” in an effort to weaken Iran’s ability to control the Strait of Hormuz, CENTCOM said.
Ryanair’s profits have fallen sharply as war in the Middle East sent jet fuel prices soaring and customers reluctant to book flights.
The Irish airline’s pre-tax profits dropped 34% to €593m (£503m) between April and June while sales were flat as the company was forced to cut fares to stimulate demand.
The price of fuelling a plane has jumped since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February and while Ryanair said it had “hedged” or struck deals for the most future fuel costs, those not included in these arrangements had more than doubled.
Overnight, crude oil prices continued to rise, surpassing $90 (£67) a barrel for the first time in a month, after a weekend of intense exchanges of fire between the US and Iran.
Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz – an essential route for global oil and gas supplies – has ground to a halt.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, rose by 2.5% on Monday.
The airline warned that its results for the year will be “highly sensitive” to external factors such as conflict escalation in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as the price of unhedged jet fuel.
Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP, a fund manager, said: “The longer the strait remains closed and the war escalates, the greater the risk that oil prices will have to rise to around $150 a barrel to bring demand down to match the hit to supply.”
He said: “This is not our base case but it’s a high risk again.”
Brits will want to know what is in store for them as the government leadership faces yet another change, with still some uncertainty over his policies and in particular his ideas for economic direction, with Shabana Mahmood set to be appointed chancellor.
We’ve all seen politicians say they plan to do one thing, and ultimately be incapable or unwilling to make it happen – so it remains to be seen if Mr Burnham in No 10 would be able to replicate the success he has seen as mayor of Greater Manchester.
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Here, The Independent takes a look at how your pocket might be affected once Mr Burnham becomes prime minister, based on what he previously spoken of and what he addressed in a speech at the People’s History Museum in Manchester.
Mortgages
The first thing to understand, or at least accept, is that money markets are a minefield of cause and effect.
So here’s an example: in September last year, Mr Burnham said: “We’ve got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets.”
What does that mean? Well, it might run something like this: gilts, also called UK government bonds, are sold off if the markets don’t like a new economic plan (or lack thereof), which lowers the price but raises the yield. That yield is effectively the cost for the government to borrow money and spend on things like infrastructure and public services, so the amount the government must pay in interest is increased.
If it also sees overseas investors lose faith, the value of the pound could fall (as has slightly occurred since Friday, down 1.5 per cent), making imports more expensive and having an inflationary effect – or, if a Burnham government rapidly increases public spending and causes a surge in demand for products and services, that can also be inflationary.
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When prices are rising too fast (high inflation), the Bank of England (BoE) can step in to consider raising interest rates, and if the market smells that, it will far more quickly send swap rates up – they are basically future expectations of interest rate movements, and the tool which lenders base the price of their mortgage products on, even if the BoE base rate doesn’t move.
The choice of chancellor will also have an impact on how the bond markets react, including any promises to stick to the current fiscal plan, which Mr Burnham has previously stated he will.
Current chancellor Rachel Reeves is seen as stable, consistent and predictable – all things the market likes.
Ed Miliband was not favoured by markets but Ms Mahmood is seen as more credible and likely to stick to the current fiscal policy, which has calmed matters.
“Burnham’s choice of chancellor if he becomes prime minister could have a major impact on bond markets,” said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell.
The market likes Rachel Reeves, who is seen as a stable figure on the economy (Getty)
“Bond investors like boring and dull – they want someone who has a plan where the maths stacks up and they stick to it.”
Oxford Economics senior economist Edward Allenby pointed out that the speed of change might mean Mr Burnham has little choice other than to run with what is already planned.
“There’s little to suggest Burnham’s team has a detailed policy package already in the works,” he said. “Developing that package in time for the autumn Budget will be made even harder if Burnham has to win a prolonged leadership contest first.”
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Property costs
Mr Burnham has previously suggested stamp duty and council tax should be reformed, with a land value tax (LVT) replacing stamp duty on property sales – something he wrote about in TheGuardian back in 2010.
The idea is it makes buying more accessible for those with lower financial backing to get on the ladder, while it’s also harder to evade paying later on.
“It won’t be a top priority but a move to tax the asset rather than the transaction appears to be on Burnham’s radar,” said Tom Bill, head of UK residential research at estate agents Knight Frank.
“He supports a proposal by campaign group Fairer Share, which wants to replace stamp duty and council tax with a levy equivalent to 0.48 per cent of a property’s value.
“The simplicity of the proposal is commendable and scrapping stamp duty make sense given how it hinders social and economic mobility, but the proposal in question feels too overtly political. Shouldn’t the sole aim be to maximise tax revenue?”
It won’t be popular with everyone, obviously.
Andy Burnham is favourite to become the Labour Party’s next leader (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)
“Under the plan, landlords, developers, overseas buyers and second-home owners would pay more,” said Mr Bill.
“A similar approach with stamp duty since 2014 has curbed activity in exactly the sort of high-value locations where most revenue is presumably being targeted. A regular flow of tax receipts has obvious benefits for the Chancellor, but politicising the housing market feels like an approach that’s been tried and failed.”
The process could also lead to higher rents through lower numbers of properties being available, Mr Bill adds, while there are also implementation costs to consider.
Tim Stovold, head of tax at accountancy firm Moore Kingston Smith, told the Financial Times: “A tax of this type will reduce property values when introduced.”
Income, council and inheritance tax
Three taxes to mention around Mr Burnham are income tax, inheritance tax (IHT), and council tax.
For the first, the current threshold at which an earner becomes a basic-rate taxpayer is £12,570. He has spoken about raising that personal allowance, which has been frozen for more than five years. That move would put more money in the pockets of low earners and basic rate taxpayers, while recent lifts to the state pension has put retirees on the verge of paying tax even if they don’t have any other income.
At the other end of the scale, he has suggested there’s “definitely a case” to reintroduce the 50p top rate of income tax; it is currently 45 per cent on income above £125,140.
Inheritance tax would be abolished under one bold idea he has, and replaced with a social care levy on inherited assets. It is set to soon incorporate unused pensions, which it hasn’t previously, and which will make succession planning far more important and tricky for families.
One notable change made in Manchester was was halving bus fares after bringing the transport network into the public control setup. Usage rose accordingly, but council taxes were raised to subsidise the move.
Share prices in FTSE 100 water firms Severn Trent and United Utilities were both down 1.5 per cent on Friday, as investors showed early caution over the potential for nationalisation, though with those firms in particular it’s a markedly different conversation to Thames Water, which has been in financial difficulty for some time.
“Public ownership is absolutely an option. I would say for Thames Water, that is what should be done,” said Burnham at the start of June – but that’s about a private firm tens of billions in debt which serves a quarter of the UK population, not a profitable public-listed firm.
Mr Burnham also told The Guardian earlier this month: “If you look at water as an industry as a whole, it’s run predominantly in the private interest rather than the public interest, or in other words, it’s an industry where the shareholders can never lose and the bill payers never win.”
When investing, your capital is at risk and you may get back less than invested. Past performance doesn’t guarantee future results.
BUNIA, Congo — At least 930 people have died in Congo’s Ebola outbreak, the country’s Ministry of Health said.
The deaths were recorded out of the 2,344 cases confirmed as of Saturday, the health ministry said overnight into Monday. Thirty-seven new deaths were recorded in the previous 24 hours in one of the highest single-day totals.
The Ebola outbreak that was declared in eastern Congo on May 15 is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record. The Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak is less common than others that cause Ebola disease, and there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
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Anyone who thinks they’ll only see a moth if they switch on an outdoor light in the evening is much mistaken, because hundreds of moths fly during the day, says Rebecca Levey, senior ecologist at Butterfly Conservation.
There are around 2,500 species of moths in the UK, with more establishing every decade after migration from continental Europe, the charity says. This is compared with 60 butterfly species.
“They support a lot of the other wildlife that we see in our gardens as part of the food chain. Caterpillars are the natural foods that a lot of birds like blue tits choose when they’re raising their young and they need hundreds of caterpillars to raise their chicks successfully,” says Levey.
“Some 10% of moths in the UK are day-flying – that’s 250 species of moths, and you can walk through a grassland and they’ll be disturbed and just flutter up. A lot of moths are pollinating just the same as butterflies.”
Their natural predators include bats, birds and even frogs.
You can often tell a moth from a butterfly by its antennae, she continues. Butterflies have a thick club-shaped antennae, whereas moth antennae will be quite feathery with little projections coming off them. They won’t be thick at the tip.
So which moths might we see through Big Butterfly Count, which runs to August 9, and throughout the summer, in our garden?
1. Hummingbird hawk-moth
(Alamy/PA)
This large moth, which looks a bit like a hummingbird in flight, used to be a migratory species in the UK, flying across the Channel when Europe was having a heatwave and they’d run out of nectar there. They’d fly north and come to feed in British gardens, she explains.
“It’s just about warm enough here now that they are surviving our winters and breeding here, too. ” You can even find them in Scotland.
“As its name suggests, the first time we had it in the UK, it came to the island of Jersey, but it’s now spread and potentially, because the climate is warming, a population was found on the south-west coast, then in London and now its spreading out from there.”
The Jersey tiger moth has bright red underwings that flash when they fly. It feeds on nectar from many plants, includes scabious, buddleia and hemp-agrimony, which bears pink flowers and is found in damp grassland, marshes and bordering ponds.
3. Six-spot burnet
(Alamy/PA)
This common moth, which frequents flowery grasslands, has six red spots on each forewing, although in some cases the outermost spots can be fused. It tends to go for purple and pink flowers and loves knapweeds, thistles, scabious, valerian, clover and wild thyme. Its caterpillars feed primarily on bird’s-foot-trefoil.
4. Mint moth
(Alamy/PA)
This smaller species loves mint and if you have catmint or other types of mint you may well see one in your garden, she says.
Are moths more timid than butterflies?
“It completely depends on the species,” say Levey. “The ones coming into gardens are probably some of the more confident ones that are looking for a really good nectar source, which they often find in gardens, especially in a year like this one, where a lot of their other habitats are looking quite dry.
“In a garden that’s receiving quite a bit more water, your plants are going to be providing more nectar potentially than some of the native plants in the surrounding areas.”
You’re more likely to see day-flying moths in the sunshine. It it’s cloudy or rainy, they may be hidden in a hedge or bush.
Where will you find moth caterpillars?
Mullein moth caterpillar (Alamy/PA)
“Pretty much every native tree species in the UK will have moth caterpillars that will only feed on that specific native tree,” Levey explains. “The best thing someone can do, when they’re considering planting a small tree in their garden, is to make it a native tree, then you’ll be supporting native caterpillars of moths.”
If you have mullein in your garden, you’re more likely to see the bright yellow and black spotted mullein caterpillar on it than the mullein moth.
To encourage hummingbird hawk-moth caterpillars into your garden, consider planting something in the bedstraw family, such as lady’s bedstraw, a scrambling, carpeting perennial with small yellow flowers and a scent which smells of hay when dried. Its vigorous growth, though, can make it a bit of a garden thug if it isn’t kept in check.
A caterpillar feeding on lady’s bedstraw (Alamy/PA)
Red campion, which has pretty pink flowers suited to a more shady area, is also a magnet for moth caterpillars, which feed on its seeds.
Night-flying moths are likely to be attracted to plants which have a night scent and to plants which are a pale white or yellow, which are more noticeable at night, including flowering jasmine, night-scented stock and evening primrose.
Avoid sharp UV light
“Most moths will be attracted to lights that are slightly blue or purplish on the UV spectrum, which can be more distracting to them and put them off laying their eggs nearby. If the light is a warm orangey colour, that’s not as attractive to them,” she says.
Jessica Lewis, 25, was diagnosed with endometriosis two years ago. She first started experiencing symptoms when she was 14 years old.
“It is just excruciating. There have been times that I have literally collapsed on my way home from work because I am in agony,” Lewis, from Broadstairs, said.
“It affects every single thing I do day to day, the plans I make.
“It is just really sad because I feel like a lot of the things I used to really look forward to I would now dread.”
She says according to her NHS notes she went to the doctor 22 times before eventually getting her diagnosis following surgery in 2024.
“I would love for there to be actual change within the NHS in terms of how medical professionals are trained. I would love to see more funding for it,” she added.
Hansen wants a local wellbeing hub to include a safe space for sharing experiences as well as a fitness centre.
Like Lewis, she also wants to see more funding going to the diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis.
She is supported by her local MP for Chatham and Aylesford, Tristan Osborne.
“We have wellbeing hubs already – I think having one dedicated to women’s and girls’ issues is not only sensible, it is also appropriate,” Osbourne said.
He added that he would be working with Medway and with Tonbridge and Malling councils to try and get similar provision there.
President Trump said on Sunday that the Boeing luxury jet donated by Qatar that he recently took overseas would soon be “maxed out,” suggesting it could get additional defensive capabilities to match the standards of the older jets used for presidential travel.
The president commented after returning to Washington from New Jersey aboard the jet, a Boeing 747-800 that was given as a gift — and which Mr. Trump has said he plans to take with him for his presidential library when he leaves office.
A reporter traveling with the small group of reporters in the presidential motorcade pointed to the Qatari jet’s fuselage and said: “Mr. President, this plane does not have antimissile defense systems on it. Why are you flying it?”
Mr. Trump replied, “Well, it has — it has a lot, and you know it has a lot of capability, but as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re going to send it to have it be maxed out. So they’re going to be sending it, and they’ll have it be maxed out.
“It’ll take about a month,” he said.
It was not clear what specific upgrades Mr. Trump was referring to, or whether the time frame he gave of a month until it is ready was realistic. A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking additional clarification of what Mr. Trump was referring to by “maxed out” and about the time frame he mentioned.
Nonetheless, it appeared to be an admission from the president that the plane’s security measures are not as extensive as the models that have been designed to be built from the ground up to serve as Air Force One.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that the new jet, which he flew to Turkey, lacks the same defensive countermeasures as the older model, including antimissile capabilities. The coverage prompted a leak investigation that included the highly unusual step of the F.B.I., just 24 hours after the story appeared, hand-delivering subpoenas to Times reporters to testify before a federal grand jury.
The Qatari-donated jet, a roughly 14-year-old plane, went through a costly yet relatively rushed process to make it safe to serve as Air Force One, the military call sign for whatever plane the president is flying.
The models that are built by Boeing for use by a U.S. president are intended to be a flying Oval Office, with antimissile defenses and a hardening of the plane’s wiring to protect it from an electromagnetic pulse in case there is a nuclear strike. The planes can also refuel in midair and contain a medical suite that can treat the president.
Mr. Trump flew the plane to Turkey for the NATO summit almost two weeks ago.
But he announced he was taking one of the older jets — which he has repeatedly criticized as too dated and stiff in its appointments — when he flew out of Turkey. The Times reported that the Secret Service had advised him to take the older plane.
The Times then reported that the donated aircraft, which administration officials describe as a “bridge” plane until the long-delayed two brand-new jets that the government has commissioned from Boeing arrive, is lacking some of the most sophisticated systems that the older Air Force One planes have.
The White House directed the F.B.I. director to oversee an investigation into how The Times obtained the information. That resulted in the subpoenas being served to several reporters involved in the coverage, with federal agents showing up at their homes to hand-deliver them, as opposed to sending the subpoenas to the newspaper’s lawyers.
Jennifer Lopez revealed what she finds sexiest in a man.
The singer and actress shared her thoughts on it during her performance at the Dolce & Gabbana show in Taormina, Sicily on Thursday.
“But you know what really makes a man attractive? It’s not the watch. It’s not the car. It’s not the private jet. It really isn’t, although that’s nice,” the 56-year-old star began.
“It’s nice. It’s seeing them make the bed in the morning or wash the dishes for you when you’re tired at night. That’s what’s sexy. Now that’s what I call sexy,” she continued.
Lopez performed a number of her songs, including “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” “Waiting For Tonight,” “Let’s Get Loud,” “Ain’t Your Mama,” and “Save Me Tonight.”
The mother of two wore a sparkling bodysuit for her performance.
Prior to speaking about what she finds sexiest in men, Lopez had a playful exchange with one of her backup dancers, per People.
J-Lo also had a playful exchange with her backup dancer.(Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
“Fix my hair okay. Fix my hair. But the rest of you, get out of here. You’re broke. I don’t need you. I don’t need your money. I don’t need your gifts. That’s right,” she told him.
She then added: “You know, people look at me, they look at me for years, and they think I’m expensive. You see my sparkly cup. And I am, I am expensive. You see my sparkly cup. And I am, I am expensive,” she said with a laugh.
“I am, but I have my own money. Ladies, am I right? We don’t need anybody to buy us anything. We don’t. We want them to, sometimes that’s nice.”
Recently, Lopez opened up about why her most recent divorce ended up being “the best thing” for her.
During an interview on SiriusXM’s “Howard Stern Show,” the star discussed her 2024 divorce from Ben Affleck, detailing what she learned from the split.
“When I got divorced this last time, it was the best thing that ever happened to me,” she explained. “Because it really made me journey into — I mean, I had a religious coach. I had a therapist, a couple’s therapist, an individual therapist. I had a coach to understand addiction. I had everything. I was like, ‘I’m gonna f—in’ figure this s— out if it kills me.'”
The “Hustlers” star has been married four times, including to Marc Anthony from 2004 to 2014, and to Affleck from 2022 to 2024.
“What I learned, it’s not that I’m not lovable — it’s that they’re not capable… They don’t have it in them,” she explained, adding, “And they gave me what they had. They gave me all of it, every time. All the rings, all the things I could ever want. The houses, the rings, the marriage. All of it. But.…”
J-Lo performed in Italy at the Dolce & Gabbana show.(Mariano Regidor)
After working through her divorce, Lopez noted she is “able to sit here in a much more self-assured, self-aware way” and reflect on everything that has happened in her life.
“Whether my mother, my father, in my own life, how I learned to love, how I felt neglected — all the things that are in your head as a person — and know who I am and just really appreciate that person,” she said. “[I] feel really comfortable and good in being myself, all the good parts and all the kind of complicated things.”
Sarah Sotoodeh is an associate entertainment editor for Fox News Digital.
