In the headlines
Last night’s by-election results were a “disaster for the Tories”, says Daniel Finkelstein in The Times. The Conservatives lost the Red Wall constituency of Wakefield to Labour, while Tiverton and Honiton, a true-blue region since the reign of Queen Victoria, fell to the Lib Dems. The departure of party chairman Oliver Dowden, who resigned this morning, is like “the ravens leaving the Tower of London”. A “summer of travel chaos is looming”, says the Daily Mirror, following a vote for strike action by British Airways staff. Workers are trying to reverse the 10% pay cut the airline imposed when the pandemic began. Amazon has unveiled a macabre potential feature for its Alexa digital assistant, says The Verge – using AI to recreate the voices of users’ dead relatives. “Hey Alexa, that’s weird as hell.”