Hunt promises bigger Navy after Iran incident
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence said Iranian boats tried to impede a British oil tanker in the Gulf, before being seen off by a Royal Navy ship. Now, Jeremy Hunt – one of the candidates to be the new prime minister – says he will reverse cuts to the Navy’s budget.
Mr Hunt – the son of a naval officer – has already pledged to spend an extra £15bn on defence over the next five years. And, writing in the Daily Telegraph, he says “we have run down the Navy too much”.
Mr Hunt’s leadership rival, Boris Johnson, has also committed to increasing the defence budget – but BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said his plans appeared more modest. Read more about the leadership candidates here, and learn about the Gulf tanker crisis here.
‘You are traducing my reputation’
Labour’s in-fighting over allegations of anti-Semitism shows no sign of slowing down. After a BBC Panorama investigation was broadcast on Wednesday, deputy leader Tom Watson criticised general secretary Jennie Formby. Now, Ms Formby has accused Mr Watson of abusing his “considerable platform” to “denigrate” the progress made.
“Furthermore,” Ms Formby wrote, “traducing my reputation and publicly attacking me when you know I am undergoing chemotherapy and am unable to respond in the media, is another example of the inappropriate way in which you choose to discuss this issue.”
Bring a chaperone, US candidate tells female reporter
A Republican candidate for Mississippi governor has refused to be interviewed by a female reporter unless she brings a male colleague. Larrison Campbell wanted to shadow Robert Foster on a 15-hour “ride-a-long”, but was denied because of her sex. Mr Foster said he was acting out of precaution and he did not want to raise any suspicions about his marriage. “This is my truck, and in my truck we go by my rules,” he said.
Why search is no longer all about Google
By BBC technology correspondent Mark Ward
Once upon a time, Google was the beginning and end of life online.
If you could not find what you wanted by typing a few words into that familiar search box and hitting return, then it may as well not exist. Google was the web.
“For a long time search was all about the bag of words,” said Stephen Emmott, an expert in search engines at consultants Gartner.
Google prospered because it had a bigger bag of words than anyone else, and it was able to pluck what you wanted out of its bag quicker than anyone else. Now, searching has got a lot more complicated, thanks to our increasingly complex online and business lives.
What the papers say
There’s more fall-out from the Panorama investigation into Labour’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations. The Guardian says at least 30 current and former party staff will submit witness statements to the equality watchdog, which is considering whether Labour has unlawfully discriminated against Jewish people. Meanwhile, the decision to release a notorious female paedophile from prison prompts a furious response in the Daily Mail – which asks: “How can this be justice?”
Daily Digest
If you see one thing today
If you listen to one thing today
If you read one thing today
Lookahead
13:00 Men’s semi-finals begin on centre court at Wimbledon
19:00 Andrew Neil’s interviews with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt begin on BBC One
On this day
1974 Bill Shankly announces his resignation as Liverpool FC manager