The sought-after jersey midi dress from high street favourite Boden is now available at a whopping 50% off – but you’ll need to be quick if you want to snap one up
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Boden’s Sofia midi dress is now on sale(Image: Boden)
Floaty, breathable and pretty dresses are a must-have for effortless summer chic, keeping you cool as the temperature rises. With the summer season now in full swing, numerous beloved high-street stores are slashing prices, offering discounts of up to half price – including Boden.
The popular retailer has reduced the cost of its coveted Sofia Trim Jersey Midi Dress, normally ranging from £90 to £98, to just £49 for the ‘Paintbox Daisy’ pattern, effectively cutting it to half-price.
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This particular design boasts a figure-flattering fit-and-flare shape, handy side seam pockets, and a removable self-fabric belt for added adaptability. If the ditsy print doesn’t tick your boxes, the frock is also available in an array of colours like navy, black, terracotta red, poppy red, multi and bright blue, all adorned with patterns and offered in both petite and regular fit.
Sizes four through 16 are still up for grabs for the dress, which features eye-catching puff sleeves and intricate scallop trim detailing. Its jersey composition, blending 50% cotton with 50% TENCEL Modal, promises both softness and comfort – a fact that shoppers have been keen to praise.
The dress is perfect for summer(Image: Boden )
With it’s 4.5 star rating, one happy customer said: “Purchased this dress for office-to-evening days, and it’s perfect – comfortable and stylish.”
Echoing the sentiment, another fan of the dress wrote: “I’m in love with this dress, it’s so flattering and incredibly comfortable. I wish there were more colours available.”
Whilst another raved: “This dress fits so well. Even though I’ve gained a few extra pounds recently, it does a great job of hiding them – I’m already thinking about getting it in more colours.”
Despite the majority of positive feedback, a few shoppers had issues with the sizing, particularly the length: “I am 5ft2 and it was too long even though I had bought petite. It was also a bit unflattering around the waist.”
The dress also comes in other prints and colours(Image: Boden)
Some weren’t fond of the gathered waist, stating it didn’t flatter their figure as much as they’d hoped. Alternatively you could opt for the Maxi Shirt Dress with Tie-Waist from La Redoute, priced at £67.99. The dress is available in several neutral shades including dark green, navy, and black, reports the Express.
The dress has been a hit with customers, boasting a 4.5-star rating from 248 reviews. “I love this dress, I get loads of compliments and it goes seamlessly from day to evening,” one happy customer raved.
Meanwhile, New Look’s Dark Khaki Crinkle Texture Tie Front Midi Shirt Dress is currently on sale for £20.99, reduced from £27.99. The dress offers both comfort and style with its elasticated waist and tie front detail, and comes in versatile shades of black, dark khaki, and navy.
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For those interested in Boden’s Sofia Trim Jersey Midi Dress, now on sale for £49, visit the website.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton set the pace in first practice at the British Grand Prix from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Hamilton headed Norris by 0.023 seconds at Silverstone, with the second McLaren of championship leader Oscar Piastri third, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
It was the first time Hamilton had topped a practice session this season, excluding his pole position for the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.
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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who suffered a blow to his already slim championship hopes when he was taken out of last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix by Mercedes ‘ Kimi Antonelli, was only 10th fastest, complaining about the balance of his car.
Red Bull are one of a number of teams with revised floors for this event, the others McLaren, Aston Martin, Haas, Williams and Sauber.
At Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso used the new floor in the first session, to end up 11th fastest, while team-mate Lance Stroll ran the previous specification for comparison and ended up just one place behind.
British-Swedish driver Arvid Lindblad, 17, replaced Yuki Tsunoda for first practice and was 14th.
In warm temperatures and in front of a large crowd, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto both had huge spins at the ultra-fast Copse corner, remarkably without going off track and damaging their cars.
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President Donald Trump’s signature tax cut and spending package, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” was passed by the US House of Representatives on July 3.
The bill combines tax increases, spending increases on defense and border security, and social safety net reductions.
The bill “hurts regular Americans and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks,” according to Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Elon Musk, a former ally of Trump, criticized the bill in a statement, saying it would “bloat” spending and the nation’s already unmatched debt.
On Friday, July 4, the US’s Independence Day, at 4 p.m. et, Trump is anticipated to sign the bill into law.
What will happen next, and who will be affected by the bill:
How have taxes decreased?
The bill’s main objective was to increase Trump’s first-term tax cuts.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lower taxes and increased the standard deduction for all taxpayers, was signed by Trump in 2017, primarily to benefit those with higher incomes.
Households earning $460, 000 or more made up more than a third of the total cuts.
By 2025, the top 1% (roughly 2.4 million people) will have received an average tax cut of $ 61,090, which is higher than any other income group. In contrast, there were savings of between $ 380 and $ 1,800 for the middle 60 percent of earners (78 million).
The new law made these tax breaks permanent, but they were scheduled to expire this year. Additionally, Trump added some additional spending cuts as promised during his most recent campaign.
For instance, the State and Local Taxes Deduction has been updated in the US tax code.
Taxpayers can deduct some local taxes, such as property taxes, from their federal tax returns in this manner.
People can only deduct up to $10,000 of these taxes at the moment. This cap would increase from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years under the new bill.
Taxpayers will be able to deduct tips and overtime income up until 2028, as well as interest on loans to buy US-made cars from now until 2028.
The estate tax exemption will increase to $30 million for married couples and $15 million for individuals elsewhere.
The legislation also includes about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
Social welfare cuts: how much do they cost?
Republicans intend to reduce funding for low-income families’ food assistance programs, as well as Medicaid and other programs to help offset the cost of the tax cuts.
Their stated objectives included limiting access to immigrants and focusing these programs on specific groups, primarily pregnant women, people with disabilities, and children.
More than 71 million people are currently covered by the government’s Medicaid program.
The bill would leave an additional 17 million Americans without health insurance in the coming ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assists poor people in purchasing groceries while Medicaid assists Americans in poor health.
Benefits are currently provided by SNAP, or food stamps, to about 40 million Americans.
According to the CBO, 4.7 million SNAP participants will lose out over the course of the 2025-2034 program reductions.
Without any sunset clauses attached, changes to Medicaid and SNAP may become permanent provisions.
The new bill, the largest spending reductions to the US safety net in modern history, was highlighted in a recent White House memo that referenced more than $1 trillion in welfare cuts.
Will there be additional funding for national security?
For Trump’s border and national security plans, the bill sets aside about $ 350 billion, spread out over a number of years. Among these are:
$46 billion is being spent on the border wall between Mexico and the US.
$45 billion to provide 100 000 beds for migrant detention facilities
In order to carry out Trump’s largest mass deportation effort in US history, he will need to employ an additional 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents by 2029.
Will clean energy suffer as a result?
Republicans have withdrawn tax breaks from coal and oil companies in favor of clean energy projects supported by renewable energy sources like solar and wind.
The landmark Inflation Reduction Act, signed by former president Joe Biden, aimed to combat climate change and lower healthcare costs.
Instead of expiring at the end of 2032, the current law allows for people to purchase new or used electric vehicles on September 30 this year.
What impact will the US debt profile have?
The proposed legislation would increase the debt ceiling from the current $ 36. 2 trillion (which accounts for 122 percent of GDP or GDP) to the $ 4 trillion that was proposed in the House’s version in May.
Washington is unable to borrow more money than the nation’s stated debt cap. However, Congress has 78 times raised, suspended, or changed the debt ceiling, putting more pressure on the US’s long-term fiscal stability.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump oversaw an estimated $ 8 trillion increase in the federal debt in his first term.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the debt as a share of GDP, or the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, was already higher than it was last year. In May, Moody’s downgrading of the US credit score was a result of inattention.
The White House asserts that in part by promoting further growth, the new tax bill will reduce projected deficits by more than $1.4 trillion over the next ten years. However, that has been vehemently refuted by economists on both sides.
By 2034, interest payments on the nation’s debt will exceed the legislation’s target of $ 2 trillion, which would overshadow spending on other goods and services, according to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
How was the bill voted in the House of Representatives?
On Thursday, the US Congress’ lower house approved the bill by a margin of 218 to 214.
The bill was opposed by all 212 Democratic House members. Representatives from the Republican majority, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, joined them.
The bill was overwhelmingly passed by the Senate on July 1 with the support of Vice President JD Vance, who had cast the decisive vote.
Who will gain the most from this?
The budget lab at Yale University found that wealthy taxpayers are more likely to benefit from this bill than those with lower incomes.
At least 613 Palestinian deaths have been reported by the UN human rights office, both at border crossings for humanitarian aid run by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and close to humanitarian convoys.
As of June 27, this is a figure. Further incidents have occurred since then, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spokesperson, who spoke to reporters in Geneva on Friday.
According to the OHCHR, 509 of the 613 people died close to GHF distribution points. More than 650 people have died and more than 4,000 have been wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
As killings continue on the organization’s sites, which rights groups have criticized as “human slaughterhouses,” the GHF started distributing limited food packages in Gaza at the end of May. The UN says this new method of delivery is neither impartial nor neutral.
According to Mahmoud Basal, a representative for the Gaza civil defense, there is “recorded evidence of civilians being deliberately killed by the Israeli military.”
He claimed that at these locations, “more than 600 Palestinian civilians were killed.” “Some were shot by Israeli snipers, and others were killed by drone strikes, airstrikes, or other acts of aid-gathering.”
41 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since Friday morning, according to medical sources.
Following a number of deadly deadly attacks on makeshift tents in the al-Mawasi coastal area, which Israel once considered a “humanitarian safe zone,” the Israeli military in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, killed at least 15 Palestinians. There have been constant attacks there.
Additionally, several Khan Younis regions were threatened with new forced displacement threats from the Israeli army. The area near the Nasser Hospital is one of the areas that has been given the warnings for parts of the city’s east and center.
I “lost everything,”
A mother of the son’s death who tried to get food told Al Jazeera that she “lost everything” after his death.
She continued, “My son was a provider, and I relyed totally on him,” adding, “He was our life’s pillar and foundation.”
The woman referred to the aid distribution centers operated by the GHF as “death traps.”
She said, “We are forced to go there out of hunger, and we are forced to do so.”
People are being carried back as bodies, she continued, “instead of returning with a bag of flour.”
Due to an influx of patients injured near GHF sites, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is currently operating as “one massive trauma ward,” according to the World Health Organization on Friday.
According to Rik Peeperkorn, a WHO representative in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, “they’ve seen daily injuries… (the) most of them coming from the so-called safe non-UN food distribution sites,” he told reporters in Geneva.
According to Peeperkorn, the victims had been attempting to access aid at locations run by the GHF, according to testimony from Nasser Hospital’s medical staff and testimony from family members and friends of the injured.
He raconted the terrifying incidents of a 13-year-old boy being shot in the head and a 21-year-old being paraplegic after having a bullet lodged in his neck.
Only 16 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals, which have a capacity of just over 1,800 beds, are still partially operational, which is completely insufficient to meet the country’s pressing medical needs, according to the UN.
Since starting its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli army has been attacking the hospitals and medical personnel there.
According to Peeperkorn, who cited shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel, “the health sector is being systematically dismantled.”
GHF criticized
The GHF has been repeatedly criticised by the UN, humanitarian organizations, and other NGOs for its handling of aid distribution and the attacks that have taken place nearby.
On Tuesday, more than 130 humanitarian organizations, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Amnesty International, demanded the GHF’s immediate closure, alleging it to be a source of aid to Palestinians who are starving.
According to the NGOs, Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” fire on civilians who attempt to get food.
UNRWA, a UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has demanded that inquiries be looked into the killings and injuries of Palestinians who attempted to access food through the GHF. UNRWA has been providing aid for decades.
UNRWA noted that despite operating about 400 sites throughout the territory, the GHF only operates four “mega-sites,” three in the south and one in the center of Gaza, with none in the north, where the conditions are the worst.
The GHF has refuted an investigation by The Associated Press that claimed some of its American employees fired indiscriminately at Palestinians, saying that there were instances where people were killed or wounded at its sites without providing any evidence.
Israeli soldiers, according to a recent report from the Israeli outlet Haaretz, allegedly confirmed that Israeli troops had purposefully shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after their commanders had “ordered” them to do so.
More than 57, 000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the health ministry of the region’s region, while more than two million people have been relocated by other parties, triggering widespread hunger and causing widespread blockade, and destroying much of the region.
Jamie Smith hits five boundaries as England score 23 runs off one over against India on the day three of the second Test as the home side rallied in their first innings at Edgbaston.
Occupied East Jerusalem – A pizza box and a bullet hole. That was the only evidence left on al-Hardoub Street of the gruesome June 16 sniper attack on Uday Abu Juma’, 21, and Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of at-Tur, after authorities swept the scene the following day.
Just before midnight, cousins Uday and Iyas had gathered with family members outside their grandfather’s home in at-Tur. The Abu Juma’ extended family had come together to celebrate their grandmother’s return from the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. A daughter in the family had also scored highly on the Palestinian national “tawjihi” exams.
Days before, Israeli authorities had placed roadblocks on the two main entrances into the neighbourhood, at the start of the 12-day conflict with Iran on June 13. But according to family members, that night, all was quiet in the neighbourhood.
A pizza box is all that remains from the at-Tur shooting, beside the alley where the shooting occurred near the Abu Juma’ family home [Al Jazeera]
Iyas and Uday were sitting near a car, eating pizza, when suddenly, they and their family members were fired on. Of 10 shots fired, two struck Iyas and Uday, and blood spilled over the pizza.
“Everyone was in shock,” recalled Nisreen Abu Mufreh, Iyas’s mother. “We didn’t know what was happening. Obviously, there weren’t any threats towards the military [from our street].”
Only when reviewing neighbours’ security camera footage of the street did they later realise that two Israeli snipers, positioned about 500 metres (550 yards) away on a rooftop, had opened fire on the family gathering without warning.
When the family tried to rush the two to the hospital, Israeli police stopped the ambulance, detaining Iyas’s father, Raed. The police accused Iyas and Uday of throwing Molotov cocktails and launching fireworks during the family gathering, and claimed that Israeli forces had opened fire in self-defence.
The boys were initially taken to Al Makassed Hospital in at-Tur. They were later transferred to Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, West Jerusalem.
At the hospital in at-Tur, the family was again stopped by the police. “How could you shoot a kid like this?” a horrified Nisreen asked the police. The police responded that they didn’t know who shot the two boys, and even tried to claim that the shooting was the result of an “internal family dispute”, according to the family.
The alley in at-Tur in which Israeli snipers shot two young members of an East Jerusalem family on June 16 [Al Jazeera]
‘He may not walk again’
The injuries to Iyas and Uday were catastrophic. The bullet that hit Iyas – who is lucky to be alive, doctors say – struck just centimetres from his heart, leaving a huge open wound on his left shoulder and causing significant nerve and artery damage. Uday was shot in the stomach, with the bullet coming out through his back and damaging his nerves, arteries and spine.
Iyas’s family is terrified that the boy’s arm and hand will be permanently impaired, while Uday may not walk again.
Doctors at the hospital told the families that Uday and Iyas had been struck by “dumdum” bullets. These are designed to expand on impact to cause maximum damage, and are banned for use in war under international law. While East Jerusalem is not officially a war zone, it is under illegal Israeli occupation.
“What gives you the right to shoot a 12-year-old kid, sitting with his cousin, eating pizza? And to make it so that his cousin is not able to walk again in his life?” asked a distraught Amir Abu Mufreh, 21, outside Iyas’s patient room. Amir has spent every day and night in the hospital with his little brother.
Amir said his youngest brother was “a good kid” and “not a troublemaker”, and recalled how Iyas would help him sell corn on the street. “I am speechless. I don’t know what to say any more.”
Iyas Abu Mufreh, 12, was shot by Israeli snipers during a family celebration in occupied East Jerusalem. The expanding ‘dumdum’ bullet narrowly missed his heart and caused severe damage to his shoulder, which the family fears may be permanently damaged [Al Jazeera]
The day after the attacks, Israeli police came to al-Hardoub Street and removed the bullets and bullet casings left behind at the scene, members of the local community said. They also took away broken glass from the car they were near, and cleaned away the blood left by the shootings. Only a single bullet hole on the car and the discarded pizza box remained. “They wiped the crime scene clean,” remarked Nisreen.
According to the family and their neighbours, police returned to the neighbourhood several times in the days that followed, surveying the situation. Curiously enough, they removed the concrete blocks placed at the neighbourhood’s entrances. These roadblocks had forced locals to take long detours and walk on foot to reach the nearby Augusta Victoria Hospital, another facility that caters mainly to local Palestinians.
“They claimed the roadblocks were [installed] to control the neighbourhood, considering the whole war situation,” said Nisreen. “So why remove them the day after [the shooting] and act like nothing happened?
“Their goal,” said Nisreen, “is to make chaos and leave.”
A car in the alley where the shooting took place is seen with bullet holes in the bonnet [Al Jazeera]
‘Al-Aqsa is under my full sovereignty, just like Tel Aviv’
The shooting of Uday Abu Juma’ and Iyas Abu Mufreh is one of the more violent cases among a number of crackdowns by Israeli authorities on East Jerusalem’s Palestinian residents, during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June.
At the start of the conflict, Israeli police put up roadblocks in several neighbourhoods and residents described a rise in the number of nightly raids in neighbourhoods such as At-Tur, Issawiyeh, Kafr Aqab and Wadi al-Joz.
Mirroring police actions following the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas, at least two residents in occupied East Jerusalem were arrested over social media posts during the 12-day conflict.
Locals reported having their phones regularly searched by Israeli border police deployed to East Jerusalem, and two Palestinians were allegedly beaten for possessing content on their phones supportive of Iran’s retaliatory rocket attacks on Israel, according to Rami Saleh, director of the Jerusalem branch of the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC).
Israeli border police check the identity papers of Palestinians at Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, only allowing residents to enter [Al Jazeera]
“The aggressive approach of police and soldiers in these [neighbourhood] entrances is much, much heavier than usual,” said Saleh.
As well as abruptly closing entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem for nearly everyone who did not reside there, the Israeli authorities forced most shopkeepers and street vendors to close their businesses in the Muslim and Christian Quarters, citing “the security situation”.
The Western Wall, a holy site for Jews, remained open. But for nearly a week, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Haram al-Sharif, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, were closed off to Christian and Muslim worshippers. These rules were relaxed slightly for a couple of days, allowing only a limited number to pray. But access to Haram al-Sharif was completely blocked again to worshippers following the US strike on Iranian nuclear facilities early on June 22, until after Israel’s ceasefire with Iran.
In response, dozens of Palestinian men gathered for Friday afternoon prayers outside the walls of the Old City on June 20.
The closure of Haram Al-Sharif – an area containing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, and under the sole custodianship of the Jordanian-operated Islamic Waqf – is in direct contravention of the arrangement between Israel and Jordan, following a series of attempts by the Israeli authorities and political figures to infringe on the Waqf’s sovereignty over the religiously and politically delicate site.
As a senior source from the Waqf told Al Jazeera: “The [Israeli] occupation closed Al-Aqsa Mosque to send a message to the Islamic world: ‘Al-Aqsa is under my full sovereignty, just like Tel Aviv.’”
The streets of Old Jerusalem’s Christian and Muslim quarters are empty after shops and businesses were closed by Israeli authorities, citing ‘security concerns’ during the 12-day conflict with Iran [Al Jazeera]
Treated as a ‘collective threat’, not a ‘legitimate civilian population’
Alongside these restrictions and actions by the Israeli authorities in occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian movement in the West Bank was also severely curtailed during the war with Iran, with most Palestinian crossings into Jerusalem closed or restricted, along with many checkpoints in the besieged West Bank.
“The intensified restrictions, raids, arrests and religious site closures are justified under a security pretext but, in practice, these are political tools used to suppress Palestinian presence in public space and silence legitimate expression,” said the Israeli NGOs Ir Amim and Bimkom in a shared statement, calling these policies “unjustified collective punishment”.
“The Palestinian public in East Jerusalem is treated as a collective threat,” the statement continued, “not as a legitimate civilian population that is an integral part of the city’s fabric.”
A spokesperson for the Israeli police did not respond to Al Jazeera’s requests for comment regarding the shootings of Iyas Abu Mufreh and Uday Abu Juma’, as well as questions regarding the purpose and nature of the East Jerusalem restrictions and policies by Israeli authorities during the war with Iran.
Muslims pray outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem during the 12-day war with Iran, due to restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities [Al Jazeera]
With his likely paralysed cousin being treated on another floor of the hospital, Iyas Abu Mufreh remains in Hadassah Hospital, having already undergone a series of surgeries in dimming hopes that he will not be permanently impaired. He has struggled to eat, drink or sleep at the hospital, still traumatised by the shooting and wondering if he will ever be able to play pool – a passion of his – again, according to his family.
“I just want to go back home, to be able to play with my friends and to go back to school,” said Iyas from his hospital bed, surrounded by his family and friends. Screws were holding his arm in one piece as he nervously awaited his next surgery.
