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Britain spent £5.4 billion less than it received in taxes in January, despite support for private customers’ energy bills. Public borrowing so far this financial year is £30.6 billion less than predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Royal College of Nursing called off next week’s 48-hour strike in England to restart talks with the government. The government recommended offering public sector workers such as judges, policemen, teachers, doctors, nurses and dentists in England and Wales pay rises of 3.5 per cent; the recommendations will be considered by independent pay review bodies.
Supermarkets saw a dearth of tomatoes, attributed to bad weather in Morocco and Spain. Asda rationed lettuces to three per customer and Morrisons said that no one could buy more than two cucumbers even for ready money. Pret A Manger, having offered subscribers up to five drinks a day, said it would stop making smoothies, frappes and milkshakes altogether. International mail services, suspended on 10 January, were reinstated at British post offices, more than a month after Royal Mail was hit by a cyber attack.
Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague called for everyone in the United Kingdom to have digital identity cards. Efforts by Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, to revise the Northern Ireland Protocol were criticised by Jacob Rees-Mogg: ‘I don’t know why so much political capital has been spent on something without getting the DUP and the ERG [European Research Group of Conservative MPs] onside first.’ Boris Johnson, a former prime minister, urged Mr Sunak not to abandon the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill he introduced, which would give the government the power to move unilaterally away from current arrangements. Kate Forbes, 32, a candidate for the leadership of the Scottish National party and a member of the Free Church of Scotland, said: ‘I practise the teachings of most mainstream religions – whether that is Islam, Judaism or Christianity – that marriage is between a man and a woman.’ Humza Yousaf and Ash Regan also stood. The body of Nicola Bulley, aged 45, who disappeared while walking her dog by the Wyre, Lancashire, on 27 January, was found in the river.
Abroad
President Joe Biden of the United States visited Kyiv by a ten-hour train journey from Poland to maintain secrecy. He said that America would back Ukraine in its fight against Russia for ‘as long as it takes’. America announced a $450 million package of security assistance for Ukraine. Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said that China was considering supplying weapons and ammunition to Russia for the Ukraine war. The Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, called on all countries to ‘stop shifting the blame to China and stop hyping up Ukraine today, Taiwan tomorrow’. Mr Biden returned to Poland and in a big speech said: ‘Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia, never.’ He denounced Russia’s practice of taking away children from Ukraine: ‘It’s abhorrent, it’s abhorrent.’
Between Mr Biden’s two speeches, President Vladimir Putin of Russia gave a state-of-the nation address lasting an hour and 45 minutes, in which he suspended the New Start treaty with the United States that was meant to ensure that both countries kept to a limit of 1,550 strategic warheads. He repeated baseless claims about a ‘neo-Nazi regime’ in Ukraine but correctly pointed out that Russia’s economy shrank by only 2.1 per cent in 2022. Mr Putin met Wang Yi, the highest ranking Chinese diplomat. Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure continued. In Peru, Machu Picchu reopened to tourists after three weeks as protestors moved their activity to Lima. Bao Fan, chairman of China Renaissance Holdings, an investment bank he founded in 2005, went missing, the latest of a number of prominent business figures in China to disappear. Crowds of old people protested in Wuhan and Dalian in China against cuts to their medical benefits. An earthquake of magnitude 6.4 hit Antakya in Turkey near Syria, killing six people and bringing down some buildings damaged in the earthquake of 6 February, which killed at least 49,000 people. Syria said that Israeli missiles hit a security complex at Kafr Sousa in Damascus, killing five people. Isabel Pardo de Vera, the transport minister, and Isaías Táboas, the head of Spain’s rail operator Renfe, resigned after €260 million was spent on commuter trains that would not fit into tunnels in Asturias and Cantabria. At Fort Pierce, Florida, a 10ft alligator dragged an 85-year-old woman into the water and killed her when she went to the rescue of her dog, which survived.
