WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
A health scare, Sunak's D-Day retreat and a Channel rescue operation

 
today's HEALTH story

Urgent health warning following E.coli outbreak

What happened
People are being asked to follow food hygiene guidance as the number of Shiga toxin-producing E.coli cases has risen in recent weeks. Between 25 May and 4 June 113 confirmed cases were reported in patients aged between two and 79 years old.

Who said what
The UK Health Security Agency said that "based on the wide geographic spread of cases" the outbreak was likely linked to the national distribution of food items. It has "ruled out" the possibility that the disease was spread through water, said Sky News. The Food Standards authority is working with its partners to identify the source of the illness.

Shiga toxin-producing E.coli "is rarely seen in the UK", said The Sun. It can cause severe diarrhoea, fever and stomach cramps for up to two weeks.

What next?
The health agency has recommended regular handwashing and care with food preparation, and says those with the disease should not return to work, school or nursery until at least 48 hours after symptoms have ended.

 
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, plus much more
Try 6 weeks free, then save up to an extra 30%
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
 
today's politics story

Sunak under fire over D-Day retreat

What happened 
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been criticised for leaving the D-Day commemorations in Normandy early to do a pre-recorded election interview with ITV. Although the PM attended an event at Ver-sur-Mer in northern France, he was not at the late afternoon ceremony at Omaha beach where Labour leader Keir Starmer mingled with world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden.

Who said what
"I want to put my head in my hands," Tim Montgomerie, founder of the Conservative Home website, told the BBC. It's "political malpractice of the highest order". Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Sunak had "ducked out of the international D-Day event to fly back to the UK to campaign". Labour MP Chris Bryant said Sunak had flown home "to lie about lying".

What next? 
A Conservative source "played down the diplomatic impact of the prime minister’s absence", said The Guardian, and insisted that Sunak would see Macron, Biden and other key leaders at the G7 summit in Italy next week.

 
 
Today's immigration story

Rescue operation plucks migrants from Channel

What happened
A six-month old baby was among the more than 80 migrants who were rescued from the Channel yesterday after their dinghy capsized.

Who said what
Lifeboats were launched from Dover and Walmer to support Border Force vessels in a "major rescue operation" after migrants were "spotted in the water in mid-Channel", said The Telegraph. "A Coastguard helicopter was also scrambled."

A number of dinghies attempted to make the crossing yesterday due to the "low wind speeds and calm sea". The small boat's engine had failed before the vessel flipped over, "throwing all 84 migrants on board into the sea". No fatalities have been reported. 

Some people "may have drifted back into French waters", said the BBC, while anyone rescued by the UK's lifeboats was likely to have been brought back to Dover.

What next?
Small boat crossings and illegal immigration are already key topics of debate in the run-up to next month's general election. Latest government figures show that six small boats have transported 331 people across the Channel to the UK in the past seven days.

 
 

It's not all bad

Two paintings looted from Jewish owners by the Nazis and kept on display in the Louvre for a number of years have been returned to their heirs – who instantly gave them back to the museum. The works "Still Life with Ham" by Floris van Schooten and "Food, Fruit and Glass on a Table" by Peter Binoit are now at the centre of an exhibition about artworks stolen by the Nazis during World War II. One of the heirs said that keeping their painting on display in the Louvre was "a duty of memory towards my family, looted from and persecuted, whose history speaks to current generations".

 
 
under the radar

Is dine and dash the new shoplifting?

A Welsh couple have been jailed for a string of "dine and dash" offences, walking out of restaurants without paying bills that totalled nearly £1,200. Bernard McDonagh, 41, and his wife Ann McDonagh, 39, went viral last month after CCTV footage showed them failing to pay at a Swansea restaurant.

The Port Talbot couple ordered "lavishly" at several South Wales restaurants, including T-bone steaks and double dessert portions, "just to see if they could get away with it", said The Guardian. They made their six children wait in the restaurants while they pretended to go to a cashpoint. 

They got "a buzz out of their spree", Swansea Magistrates' Court heard, using more than 40 aliases and 18 dates of birth to commit the crimes. The couple, who pleaded guilty last month, "cynically and brazenly" defrauded the restaurants, said Judge Paul Thomas KC. Ann McDonagh, who also admitted to thefts from two supermarkets and obstructing or resisting a police officer, was sentenced to 12 months in jail while her husband was handed an eight-month term.

This is a growing phenomenon, said Sam Wilson in The Independent. It seems that the "epidemic" of supermarket shoplifting is spreading to restaurants. Last October a group of seven "dashed" from a nearly £500 meal in Kent. In November it was a gang of "posh pensioners" in East Yorkshire.

The trend is "causing considerable pain" in a hospitality industry struggling to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic, high inflation and rising costs.

 
 
on this day

7 June 1810

Argentina's first newspaper Gazeta de Buenos Ayres went to print following the end of the May Revolution. The paper's inaugural publication has been commemorated in the country every year on 7 June since 1938. The country ranked 66th on last year's World Press Freedom Index and faces further challenges under President Javier Milei's leadership.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Daily Telegraph leads with a photo of Royal Marines performing a beach landing on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. "They did not flinch", says the Daily Express, with a historic photograph of the invasion. The Daily Mail focuses on the search for missing broadcaster Michael Mosley. It says the 67-year-old "health guru", who writes a column for the paper, vanished during a walk on a Greek island.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Penny-farthing pinching

A London cyclist has put out a desperate plea for witnesses after his penny-farthing bicycle was stolen while he was getting a haircut this week. Roberto Torto had left the wheely big vehicle outside the barber's before CCTV footage showed the suspected thief grabbing it and racing off. Torto's appeal has gained support on social media, with fellow cyclist Jeremy Vine posting on X: "Really important we get this back."

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Holden Frith, Hollie Clemence, Julia O'Driscoll, Chas Newkey-Burden, Harriet Marsden and David Edwards, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Gareth Fuller / Getty Images; Sean Gallup / Getty Images; Chris J Ratcliffe / Getty Images; illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.