Andrew Affair Widens as Palace Emails, Police Face Scrutiny

The day's dominant story reopened the affair around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Court documents revealed that Buckingham Palace was handed an archive of about 30,000 emails in May 2020 -- delivered to the Lord Chamberlain, then Lord Peel -- that would have shown the former Duke of York sharing confidential government information while a trade envoy, including a 2010 Treasury briefing on Iceland's banking crisis passed to business contact Jonathan Rowland. The cache, which surfaced through a dispute involving entrepreneur Kevin Stanford, had reached the Palace years before Thames Valley Police arrested Andrew on suspicion of misconduct in public office. On Saturday, York Central MP Rachael Maskell called for a public inquiry, telling the BBC that "the system built around the Royal Household has to be reviewed."

Scrutiny also fell on the police. Shams Sadiq, a 51-year-old Manchester cafe owner, alleged that officers offered him financial inducements -- and a promise to overlook minor offences -- to inform on the proscribed group Palestine Action, in an approach he said was made on 15 May at Ashton-under-Lyne Police Station when he went to collect confiscated devices. His lawyer, Simon Pook, said he would file a formal complaint, likening the conduct to British state behaviour during the Troubles.

On defence, ministers meeting in Singapore confirmed a streamlined AUKUS Pillar 1 plan under which Australia will receive three in-service US Navy Virginia-class submarines rather than a mix of new and in-service boats; Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, UK Defence Secretary John Healey and US counterpart Pete Hegseth also finalised the Submarine Rotational Force-West at HMAS Stirling, set for 2027. The announcement landed as the Royal Navy carrier HMS Prince of Wales was forced to remain in Stavanger, Norway, for repairs after a technical fault during the NATO exercise Dynamic Mongoose 26.

For travellers, the post-Brexit border was the day's practical worry. Wizz Air UK chief Yvonne Moynihan advised holidaymakers to reach European airports three hours before return flights because of the EU's new Entry/Exit System, which requires biometric registration; ACI Europe, surveying 45 airports, reported queues of up to three and a half hours -- with hotspots in Spain, Portugal and France -- and warned the situation could become unmanageable as summer passenger volumes rise.