£4.7 billion black hole in defence | Trump’s crypto billions | Serena Williams out of Wimbledon

0:02Sophy:Sky News, the full story first.

0:11Sophy:The long-awaited defence investment plan was announced yesterday, but the small print shows there's a£4.7 billion black hole. President Trump's controversial citizenship ban is rejected by the Supreme Court before it's revealed he made more than a billion dollars last year from crypto. Hello, you're listening to Cheat Sheet, a 10-minute podcast on the day's news. On Wednesday, the 1st of July, I'm Sophie Rich. And I'm Matt Barbette. Also today, Serena Williams' return to Grand Slam tennis in the singles game is over for now. So we're going to start with this defence black hole. I know there's been a lot of talk about the defence investment plan this week, and we spoke about it on the pod yesterday, or at least you did.

0:53But there's been one interesting development which only began to be reported late yesterday afternoon. The funding for the armed forces is set to rise by£15 billion over the next four years. But in the small print of the legislation, the Treasury has confirmed that only£10.3 billion of that has been identified. So, crucially for the next Prime Minister, probably Andy Burnham, that's going to be finding an extra£4.7 billion in savings in the autumn budget. So has Sakhir set up his successor for some hard decisions while introducing a policy he believes will be a cornerstone to his legacy. Not the kind of thing you want in your inbox if you're Andy Burnham, is it?

1:32Sophy:No. I mean, it's making me think back to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves taking over power and talking about the black hole that the Tories left them. Well, they've pretty much done the same thing to Andy Burnham. £4.7 billion, that's quite a lot of money, let's be honest. And so maybe this is the kind of last sort of little gift that Keir Starmer wants to give Andy Burnham. We know, of course, he was frustrated, to say the least, by the fact that he launched what allies of Starmer perceived to be a coup against him, if you like. And he's not even making any bones about it. He appeared to issue a bit of a direct warning to Andy Burnham.

2:08Sophy:There were no easy answers to raising the money. You know, he said that defence bonds, for example, were just borrowing by another name that would leave Britain poorer and less secure. So, yeah, it's going to be a headache for the incoming prime minister. And it's a reminder just how tight money is, isn't it? Because this extra money is coming from reducing long term investments in things like roads. and so whilst people say yes you want more defence and the MOD wants more much more than this 15 billion extra that it's getting people will notice because there'll be those potholes will still be there and the pavements will still be crooked and it's just it it's just shows that sure Andy Burnham's got to find this money but he's got to find money for a lot of other things as well.

2:53Sophy:Yeah I mean my sense is that they probably will end up increasing borrowing to do this right I interviewed Rachel Reeves last week at a time when I think she was positioning herself to be honest to be, you know, stay on with the Andy Burnham administration assuming that's what's going to happen and she was saying that within the fiscal rules there is scope to borrow more money for defence investment because it goes down as kind of spending to invest rather than day to day spending and you've heard a few Andy Burnham allies talk about this you've also heard about him talking about spending more money on defence if it's done through British industry So in a way, part of his kind of re-industrialisation vision could be more spending on defence.

3:34Just a reminder though, isn't it, the cost of borrowing, if they do borrow for defence, the bond markets have increased the interest they pay. And they're already paying an eye-watering amount of interest on debt.

3:46Sophy:Yeah, more than like the whole budget of the school's budget, for example, right? It blows your mind. So it was a difficult day for Donald Trump yesterday. the Supreme Court ruled against his efforts to try and limit birthright citizenship in the US. Birthright citizenship is if you're born in the US, even if you're born to someone who is a legal migrant or a temporary migrant, then the majority of people automatically become US citizens with a few exceptions and he wants to change that right. So the Trump administration launched an appeal with the Supreme Court, even though it's got a majority of conservative judges.

4:20Sophy:It ruled against him six ways to three. It's funny, isn't it? I'm going to turn this on its head. I was listening to an interview with Kiefer Sutherland the other day. British born American citizen just had a British passport just because. And he was really proud of it. It made his life a bit easier. And you think, yeah, that's just normal. He was born in London. He gets a passport. But to challenge that orthodoxy by Trump, I think a lot of people in the States would probably be quite glad that it has been challenged, because it's a reminder that he's tried to tear up all sorts of things, whether it be lakes in Washington, D.C., or fundamental rights that people have got very used to over decades here, almost unchallenged.

5:02And so the fact that this is happening, I think, is something that you would imagine there'd be quite a bit of backing for, maybe not from his MAGA base, of course, but certainly from others in the U.S.

5:11Sophy:Yeah, he's pretty defiant. He's been on True Social saying that it was too bad for our country, but it's not over. We can easily make it up in Congress through legislation, so he's still fighting. And he's also coming under a bit of scrutiny for the amount of money he's made, right? From Congress to come back into the evil office. It's eye-watering because one of the first things he did was that Trump meme coin. He made something in the region of$600 million off that. And the thing is now next to worthless, which they're saying there's no conflict. They would say there's no conflict. But to be coining it like that when you are present, literally coining it, It doesn't sit easily, does it?

5:54Sophy:So the energy price cap rises today, which means we could all be paying more for our energy because this is the cap on the amount of money you can pay per unit of energy used. So that means that millions of homes on standard tariffs that don't have a smart reader are now open to pay more than they actually need to. Bill payers have been encouraged to submit a metre reading ahead of today because price rises will go up by 13 % for millions of people. And if you haven't got an up-to-date metre reading, then you could actually have some of your June usage charged at the new, more expensive rates as well.

6:26Sophy:The new cap is all about Ofgem's power. It covers 33 million households in England, Wales and Scotland. And the increase, I guess, reflects the spike in global energy market prices after the war in Iran. Now it's been confirmed that a Jamaican delegation is going to travel to the UK in September to lodge an unprecedented petition on slavery reparations from Britain. The delegation is going to ask King Charles to use his authority to request legal advice from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries, to see if Jamaica is entitled to reparations.

7:05The request is being made to the king in his capacity as head of state of Jamaica and from whom we expect protection they say. That was from a minister in the Jamaican government. The case is likely to be strengthened after the UN's landmark resolution back in March that described the slave trade as the gravest crime against humanity and saying reparations were a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs.

7:31Sophy:So Serena Williams has been knocked out of the singles competition. in Wimbledon. It's her first Grand Slam appearance since 2022. She lost by two sets to one, so she did win a set. I'm a bit sad, I'm going to be honest. It is a bit sad. She seemed to really enjoy it. That's the first thing, and that's why she said she was doing it. She couldn't believe she was back there and seemed to really appreciate it. Just to get a second chance at something you loved doing so much must be amazing. But I was really interested to read what it was like for Maya Joint who beat her is only 20 years old and she said she had a sleepless night anticipating playing Serena when she got into the court she forgot to do her usual warm-up routine it was almost like she was the one making the comeback rather than uh the great that Serena is um but yes it's look a 44 year old overcoming a 20 year old that's that's a tough ask yeah it is um and actually full credit to her for doing it like you say if you love something why should you have to give it up she loves tennis she's the best ever you know and also people wanting to see her that's the other thing she is the best ever and so seeing her back at Wimbledon where she has made such a name for herself who wouldn't want to see that yes she's not as great as she was but still you'd be pinching yourself thinking wow that's Serena yeah at Wimbledon amazing and greater in other ways you know she's had a family and oh quite all that kind of stuff incredible and with football she probably update a few games last night no real upsets it's kind of like the march of the contenders yes like yesterday like you know france mexico yes they look pretty uh emphatic well france is interesting right because mbappe is now level pegging with messi those two greats i mean messi arguably the great on i think six goals for the tournament because he scored two overnight but I'm I'm really interested to see if England overcome the DRC they play Mexico next at the Azteca stadium and the scenes there that's an intimidating place to go and the other thing about the Azteca that a lot of people don't realize is is 2 ,000 meters above sea level so they're used to playing there they played all their games there and England might have to turn up in that atmosphere at that altitude tough farce.

9:53Sophy:Oh, I don't fancy it. Don't fancy it at all. Do you know who once won a game at the Azteca? 1967? Sheffield Wednesday. Correct. There you go. How did I know it would be Sheffield Wednesday? So, you know, the England team knew any tips? Just call out the owls. That is it for today's Cheat Sheets. If you've got any thoughts on the stories of the day, get in touch. Cheatsheet at sky.uk. Thanks for listening.

10:22Sophy:How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.