Dear John,

This week the White House (again) raised the prospect of peace talks between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, the Bank of England lowered UK interest rates to 4%, and the world marked the 80th anniversary of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Hiroshima.

Here to wrap it up is your Weekend Wire. 

Unlikely trio?

In a (potentially) major development overnight into Thursday, Trump once again floated the prospect of a face-to-face meeting  with Putin in a bid to end the illegal Russian war in Ukraine.

Talks could reportedly take place as early as next week, according to the New York Times, who broke the story, and initially, it appeared the summit could potentially include Ukrainian wartime President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. However, Kremlin sources were quick to play this aspect down, the Guardian reported.

Zelenskyy responded in kind with a call to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and insisted after it that “Europe must be a participant in the relevant processes” in any move to end the war. He added: “Ukraine is not afraid of meetings and expects the same brave approach from the Russian side. It is time we ended the war.”

On Friday, Putin hinted at a location in the Middle East for talks to be held. At a meeting with the President of the UAE, he said the country would be an “entirely suitable" venue for the summit.

Israel-Gaza latest

Elsewhere in war news, Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan to take control of Gaza City, the largest city in the Gaza strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday morning. 

It came after the cabinet meeting was reportedly delayed from Tuesday, after Netanyahu earlier said he intended to take over all of Gaza. The BBC said the move would likely be the first phase of a full takeover of Gaza.

The major escalation risks disrupting efforts to get aid in to alleviate the famine for hundreds of thousands of Gazans, as Reuters reported nearly 12,000 children under five have acute malnutrition. It has also sparked protests from the families of the surviving Israeli hostages, who fear the move would further endanger their lives. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said Israel was “wrong” to approve plans to occupy Gaza City, urging it to reconsider the new offensive or it will “bring more bloodshed”.

New depths

More than five times as many English bathing waters are rated poor quality, compared to in the European Union (EU), new research by Best for Britain has revealed.

Bathing water quality in England - and across the four nations of the United Kingdom - is notably worse than the EU average, data analysis published in the Guardian has shown.

Just 64.2% of England’s bathing waters were rated excellent by the Environment Agency (EA) in 2024, compared to 85.4% of the EU’s, according to the European Environment Agency (EEA) in the same year. 

As our CEO Naomi Smith said:

“People are rightly appalled by the disgusting state of the UK’s rivers, lakes and beaches. Clean water should be guaranteed to all, and no one should have to risk their or their child’s health simply by enjoying a swim or paddle on a sunny day.”

Read her full comments - and our study - in the Guardian.

It's the damn phones

In something of a dad move, Prime Minister Keir Starmer this week announced some £88m in funding for English youth clubs and after-school activities, including sport, art, music and volunteering, as part of an effort to get kids off screens and engaging with the real world.

We’re kidding, of course. As the effects of isolation and tech addiction are increasingly felt across society, this is very much something we can all get behind. Starmer warned there was a “worrying trend” of young people being “disconnected from their communities”. The cash will go on helping them “develop the confidence and life skills that no algorithm can teach”, he added.

‘Join the Scouts to beat phone addiction’, read the Telegraph’s headline. If any of our readers are inspired to tackle their own, why not find out about becoming a Scout, or Guide, leader?

Death and taxes

The Bank of England slashed interest rates to 4% on Thursday lunchtime, taking them to the lowest level in two years, and the fifth cut since last August, with a dramatic second round vote of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). However, inflation still sits above the independent Bank’s target of 2%, with the figure expected to increase to 4% in the autumn.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves also received bad news this week, as it emerged she could have another so-called ‘black hole’ to fill at the Autumn Budget.

As reported by the Financial Times, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) suggested in a report published on Wednesday that Reeves could be faced with a £51bn gap in her spending plans, pushing her to hike taxes if she wants to keep to her fiscal rules.

The calculation was that the Chancellor would need to find £41.2bn in the Budget to balance the books, and that the shortfall would reach £51.1bn if she wanted to restore her previous fiscal headroom - but that an even larger buffer would help avoid “prolonged economic uncertainty”.

Sky's the limit

A big thank you to all our supporters who took the time to be part of our campaign last week objecting to Sky News’ coverage of Reform UK’s press conferences, after Best for Britain highlighted the lack of balance and editorial control involved in taking Reform’s own feed live.

In just three days, more than 5,000 people used our online tool to write to Sky News and make a formal complaint - and it worked. 

The broadcaster altered their coverage of (yet another) of Reform’s press conferences. This saw them use their own camera, rather than taking Reform’s live feed, and include a government minister’s response to Reform’s claims shortly afterwards. 

But we need to keep up the fight, as our campaigns director Cal Roscow warned: 

“With their new in-house studio, Reform UK looks determined to host a press conference as often as they can get away with and so broadcasters should reflect on the newsworthiness of such blatant political campaigning, and the real world consequences of platforming Farage’s brand of hyper-divisive politics.”

Read his comments in full on our website - and thanks again for your support!

mRNo

US health secretary and vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy announced he is scrapping $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines aimed at countering disease-causing viruses.

It will affect some 22 projects involving major companies such as Pfizer and Moderna who are working on vaccines for bird flu, Covid-19 and other viruses.

Kennedy said the move was due to claims that "mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses" - but his approach has been criticised by doctors and health experts, including a former US administration official who told the BBC mRNA vaccines were critical in saving millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It comes as a report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) warned that rates of childhood vaccination in the UK are declining, with none of the routine child vaccinations meeting the World Health Organisation's recommended target of 95% since 2021.

Needless to say, this is worrying reading. The report warned the falling rates were “extremely concerning and pose a significant public health risk”, with outbreaks such as measles already ongoing. 

Lessons from history

On Wednesday, August 6, a ceremony in Hiroshima, Japan, was held to mark the 80th anniversary of the US dropping a nuclear bomb on the city. The attacks on Hiroshima - and later Nagasaki -at the end of the Second World War killed more than 200,000 people, including from radiation sickness and burns.

The city's mayor Kazumi Matsui warned that the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy, was "on the brink of dysfunctionality", and urged the Japanese government to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons - an international agreement which came into force in 2021.

We thought it was an important moment to reflect on the international institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) set up in the rubble of the violence and tragedy of the conflict, aiming to create a better world.

And, to quote George Santayana, to acknowledge: “Those who cannot remember the lessons of the past are condemned to repeat it.”

This has been your Weekend Wire from Best for Britain. 

In another August special, you can keep an eye out next week for International Youth Day 2025 and the former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s memoir being published.

Have a good one.

Jessica Frank-Keyes

Senior Press Officer

Best for Britain