On 25 May Sue Gray’s report on the behaviour of' Downing Street staff during lockdown was published. The senior civil servant, who described how staff partied while the rest of the country was in lockdown, said many events 'should not have been allowed', and that the PM and his officials 'must bear responsibility for this culture'. Warnings about parties breaking Covid rules were ignored, the report says. Boris Johnson told MPs he took 'full responsibility for everything that took place on my watch'. He said he had been 'humbled by the whole experience' and had learned lessons.' Sue Gray said she learned of multiple examples of 'unacceptable' treatment of security and cleaning staff during her partygate investigation. Mr Johnson’s remarks are also being scrutinised by the Commons privileges committee, which must decide whether he knowingly misled Parliament, particularly when he categorically denied knowledge of rule-breaking parties. If he is found to have knowingly misled parliament, he would be in breach of the ministerial code and would in theory be expected to resign.

On 11 June the English football team will play a match against Italy with no fans watching. There have also been a number of recent incidents where pitches have been invaded. Despite the general jubilation of such scenes, they also saw players and coaches intimidated or even attacked. Police data in January showed that arrests at football matches across the top five English leagues are at their highest levels for years. Gareth Southgate, the England manager, says it is an 'embarrassment' that England are playing a home game behind closed doors, as a consequence of the chaos at Wembley before the Euro 2020 final against the same country. He added,' 'Normally when you watch those things happening abroad, we're all grandstanding about how it’s someone else's problem and how this country should be dealt with and now it’s us. That’s not good behaviour for the reputation of our country.' The FA said it was 'reviewing our regulations to help stamp out this behaviour and to ensure the safety of everyone inside a stadium'.

Fears of a global food crisis are swelling as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ability to produce and export grain have choked off one of the world’s breadbaskets, fuelling charges that President Putin is using food as a powerful new weapon in his three-month-old war. On 24 May world leaders called for international action to deliver twenty million tons of grain now trapped in Ukraine, predicting that the alternative could be hunger in some countries and political unrest in others, in what could be the gravest global repercussion yet of Russia’s assault on its neighbour. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where worries about the war’s consequences have eclipsed almost every other issue, speakers reached for apocalyptic language to describe the threat. 'It’s a perfect storm within a perfect storm,' said David Beasley, the executive director of the World Food Programme. Calling the situation 'absolutely critical,' he warned, 'We will have famines around the world.'

More than 14 million people are thought to have fled their homes since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UN says. More than six million have left for neighbouring countries, while eight million people are displaced inside the war-torn country itself. The EU has granted Ukrainians the right to stay and work throughout its 27 member nations for up to three years. The UN says that as of 24 May, 2.1 million Ukrainians have returned to Ukraine. Some are returning to areas such as the capital Kyiv, which is now considered safer. Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says the city's population is back to two-thirds of its pre-war level.' More than 60,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the UK, after fleeing the Russian invasion. Some have travelled on family visas, while others have come via a sponsorship scheme which lets unrelated people host an individual or group.