Mountbatten-Windsor Probe Adds 2002 Royal Ascot Claim

Thames Valley Police are investigating a Sunday Times report that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor behaved inappropriately towards a woman at Royal Ascot in 2002, the year of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee. The allegation widens an inquiry into the king's brother that on Friday Thames Valley Police confirmed had expanded to cover sexual misconduct alongside the existing misconduct-in-public-office probe. The former prince denies all wrongdoing; he was arrested on his 66th birthday in February after US Department of Justice documents alleged he had passed information to Jeffrey Epstein. Force investigators are also still assessing a separate claim from a US-resident woman that she was taken to a Windsor address in 2010 for sexual purposes. UK forces still hold only printouts from the US DoJ website; US authorities have declined to release originals and have told British police that a formal international legal request "could take months, if it is agreed to at all".

Market researcher Assosia found that the average box of six own-brand free-range eggs has risen from £1 in 2022 to £1.80 today, four pints of semi-skimmed milk from £1.29 to £1.65, and a loaf of basic white bread from 65p to 74p. Assosia attributes the rise to the UK's worst avian-flu outbreak (2021-23), Russia's war in Ukraine driving up grain and energy costs and ongoing Middle East conflict; producer input prices were up 7.7 percent on the year, with food specifically rising further.

Nigel Farage came under cross-party pressure to substantiate his claim that the disclosure of a £5 million personal gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne to the Reform UK leader was the work of a state-sponsored Russian hack. Both Labour and the Conservatives have asked Farage to pass any evidence to Britain's security services. The National Cyber Security Centre said it was not aware of any report from Farage relating to the alleged hack, and The Guardian, which originally revealed the undeclared gift, described his Russian-hack claim as deflection.

A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation found that 60,000 arrest warrants were issued in England and Wales last year for defendants who failed to appear in court -- a nearly 50 percent increase on 2020 -- with more than 30,000 still outstanding, including over 7,000 issued before 2020 and more than a quarter relating to category A offences such as rape, armed robbery and manslaughter. Former justice secretary Alex Chalk KC called the situation a "horror show", linking it to delays in the courts.

Scottish Deputy First Minister and Finance Secretary Jenny Gilruth said cuts were "undoubtedly" necessary to address a projected £4.7 billion Scottish funding shortfall by 2029-30, while the SNP government plans to bring forward a vote on Scottish independence at Holyrood. A package of UK financial reforms is separately projected to deliver a £1.6 billion boost to the City of London, intended to strengthen its post-Brexit position as a leading global financial hub.