Former politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was killed in a "targeted attack," though the motivation is still under investigation, British counterterror police said. A 28-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder and terror crimes remains in custody on an extended detention warrant under the Terrorism Act that allows police to question him for up to another week. "We are still working to understand the extent of any planning or preparation, and the motivation that sits behind that attack," Laurence Taylor, head of National Counter Terrorism Policing told reporters.

The death of Widdecombe, 78, a former member of Parliament, shocked the British political establishment, where she was long known for blunt-spoken socially conservative views opposing abortion and the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. Counterterror police took over the investigation Monday after new evidence was discovered. Devon and Cornwall Police have been criticised for originally saying the killing was not believed to be a terror-related crime and there was nothing to suggest it was politically motivated.

Thousands of people who travel every day between the southern tip of Spain and the British territory of Gibraltar will no longer have to cross a physical border, beginning on Wednesday (Jul. 15). The official opening at midnight on Tuesday, after a border fence was removed, allows a new freedom of movement under a historic treaty between the European Union and the United Kingdom. It came after years of post-Brexit wrangling. The contested British overseas territory of 38,000 people is perched at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, in a strategic location mere miles from Morocco where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.

Soon after midnight, crowds crossed freely between La Línea de Concepción in Spain and Gibraltar in both directions. Many wore Spanish soccer jerseys after Spain's victory against France in the World Cup semifinal on Tuesday, adding to the celebratory mood. "What you feel here is the brotherhood between the two people," Gibraltar's Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

A group of Caribbean leaders met with senior clergy from the Church of England as the push for slavery reparations intensifies, with activists also calling for the independence of British, French, Dutch and US territories in the region. The reparations commission from Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc, was scheduled to also meet with British parliamentarians as part of a four-day official trip to the United Kingdom to seek reparations, the second such trip since November. The group said the commission is creating a framework to launch negotiations because the time for making the case for reparatory justice is overdue.

"We in the Caribbean remain the most colonised part of the world, and this has to stop," said Hilary Beckles, chairman of Caricom's reparations commission and vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. The meetings in London come after Caribbean leaders bristled at the recent suggestion by a UK lawmaker that Britain's former colonies should repay it for its historic investment in them.

China has detained a US seismologist who tracks nuclear tests for nearly two years on espionage charges, his family says. Chen Youlin, 54, was arrested in November 2024 during a trip to Beijing to visit family, according to hostage advocacy group Global Reach. The family decided to speak out after they saw no sign of Beijing freeing Chen. His wife Rong Yufang, also a seismologist, said Chen worked closely with Chinese colleagues, and the allegations are "both wrong and inconsistent with the public and collaborative nature of the work that he has done".

His published work centres on North Korea, a close friend of China and long sanctioned for its nuclear weapons programme and underground tests. It is unclear if and how Chen's work touched on Beijing's nuclear programme. US intelligence suggests that China is developing a new arsenal and has conducted secret tests, which Beijing denies.