Nottingham attacks
The period after summer exams is one of the happiest times to be a student, with balls and celebrations marking the end of hard work and studying. Nottingham’s strong student population had that atmosphere of peace and joy shattered as three people were killed, two of them 19-year-old students. School caretaker Ian Coates was the third victim. Grieving fellow-students say it has brought a tragic end to the academic year. 22-year-old Alice said she was too scared to leave the house after learning of the attacks, and was glad to be going home. Across the nation people watched the unfolding events on television. What emerged could have happened on any street near where we live. We can pray for God to comfort the families and friends of Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber, and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, and for peace to flow through the atmosphere of the student community and city.
Raising interest rates
The chancellor has said the UK has no alternative but to raise interest rates to tackle rising prices, and the Government would be ‘unstinting in our support’ for the Bank of England to do what it takes to slow inflation. In theory, raising interest rates makes borrowing more expensive, so consumers have less to spend and buy less which should slow the rate of rising prices. Higher rates should benefit savers - if banks pass them on to their customers. But they have been reluctant to do so to savers this time, which has given customers less of an incentive to save. Housebuilder Ian Burns said people were being very cautious and were taking longer to make decisions. ‘Over the past three or four weeks, we've seen a slowdown in reservations. We can't just continue to build houses if we don't have customers for them.’
Synthetic human embryos created
Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using stem cells, in a groundbreaking advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm. These model embryos resemble those in the earliest stages of human development. They could provide a window on the genetic disorders and biological causes of recurrent miscarriage. However, the work also raises serious ethical and legal issues as the lab-grown entities fall outside current legislation in the UK and most other countries. The structure’s heart does not beat and it has no brain, but it does include cells that would go on to form the placenta, yolk sac and the embryo itself. Prof Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, described the work as creating human embryo-like models by the reprogramming of embryonic stem cells. There is no immediate prospect of the synthetic embryos being used clinically. It would be illegal to implant them into a patient’s womb.
Ukraine: counteroffensive begins
On 13 June President Zelenskyy said, ‘I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that is now returning to its rightful place’, as Kyiv’s forces were retaking villages in a counteroffensive against Russian troops and Ukrainian air defence systems repelled Russian air attacks in the Kyiv region. However, a Russian missile attack overnight on the city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least ten and wounded 28 in a residential building. See On 14 June, 22 Ukrainian prisoners including eight women went on trial for being terrorists. On the 15th Australia blocked the continuation of a Russian embassy being built near Canberra’s parliament because of security concerns. Ukraine is highly adept at masking strategic moves with feints, disinformation, and shuffling troops from one area to another, keeping Russia guessing their next move. Having promised to begin their counteroffensive in the summer, Kyiv’s forces are now stepping up attacks.
