Dear Reader,

It’s a row that appears to have come out of nowhere. French fishing boats are blockading St Helier on Jersey, while two Royal Navy vessels and two French navy ships have arrived to observe the situation. That comes after the French government threatened to cut the power to the island over fishing rights. Our reporters explain exactly how we got here in this piece, while Ben Marlow writes that the row could have serious and surprising consequences for how the UK generates its electricity.

Pandemic-induced postponements and a fatefully timed by-election mean that today’s local and devolved elections are bigger and more important than usual. From Scottish independence to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, much is on the line. You can follow the latest on our liveblog. In his column, Allister Heath argues that it’s no surprise that Labour is in trouble because Boris Johnson has transformed his party into centrists and left the Opposition with nowhere to turn.

Their names are synonymous with their eponymous foundation, but Bill and Melinda Gates are going their separate ways. As arguably the world’s most influential couple, spending billions in aid, the Gates’s divorce has come as a total surprise. So why are they splitting up? Harry de Quetteville finds out.

The lockdowns of the last year or so were put in place to protect the NHS, but one of the major effects of the pandemic has been a startling difficulty in obtaining face-to-face medical appointments for other illnesses. Allison Pearson looks into the troubling consequences of shutting people off from their GPs.

Chris

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