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The annual rate of inflation rose to 10.1 per cent, its highest since 1982. Average wages rose by 4.7 per cent between April and June, but inflation in that quarter left average workers 3 per cent less well-off than before. The supermarket Iceland was to offer customers interest-free loans of between £25 and £100, repayable at £10 a week, to help them buy food. Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, called for £29 billion to be spent on freezing energy prices for six months for all consumers, rich and poor, partly to be paid for by extending the windfall tax on oil and gas. Railway workers belonging to the RMT union went on strike for another two days. In the week before 7 August, 1,924 people crossed the Channel in small craft, bringing the total for the year to more than 20,000. Removal lorries were seen in Downing Street while Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, was abroad on holiday.

Nine regions of England, including Yorkshire and Cornwall, were officially declared to be in drought. Rain then moved across the country. The leader of Plaid Cymru, which had readmitted the MP Jonathan Edwards after his suspension for assaulting his wife, called for him to leave the party again after Emma Edwards said she had not been contacted by Plaid Cymru during disciplinary proceedings. A skydiver who dressed as the Queen for a video at the opening of the London Olympics in 2012 was jailed for 18 months for pushing his girlfriend down stairs.

Britain approved a Moderna vaccine effective against both the original Covid virus and an Omicron variant; 26 million people will be eligible for a booster this year. The daily average for those dying with Covid fell below 130. The number of Covid patients in hospital in England was below 9,000, compared with 14,000 in July. Vaccinations for monkeypox were largely suspended because vaccine had run out; more than 3,000 cases had been reported.

Abroad

President Emmanuel Macron of France supported a proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency for investigators to go to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, occupied by Russia and operated by Ukrainian technicians under duress. A headquarters of the Wagner group of mercenaries fighting on Russia’s side in Luhansk was hit by Ukrainian artillery. Blasts were reported in Russian-occupied Crimea a week after explosions at a Crimean base left eight military aircraft destroyed or badly damaged. General Sir Jim Hockenhull, the head of British Strategic Command, told the BBC that Russia was moving forces from the Donbas to the Kherson area, which was under pressure from Ukraine. A ship chartered by the UN food programme and carrying 23,000 tons of wheat left Pivdennyi near Odessa, bound for the Horn of Africa. Germans must pay an extra levy of €480 on an average gas bill of €3,568, to meet the cost of finding sources in place of Russia. Argentina raised interest rates to 69.5 per cent as inflation rose to 70 per cent, its highest for 20 years. The Norwegian authorities killed a 94st walrus named Freya that had taken up residence in Oslo, for fear she might prove dangerous.

Sir Salman Rushdie, 75, was severely wounded by a man who stabbed him on stage at an event at Chautauqua in New York state. Hadi Matar, 24, pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder. In 1989 the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, had issued a fatwa calling for Sir Salman’s assassination for publishing The Satanic Verses in 1988. An Iranian spokesman said this week: ‘In this attack, we do not consider anyone other than Salman Rushdie and his supporters worthy of blame and even condemnation.’ A fire at the Abu Sefein Coptic church in the working-class Imbaba district of Giza in Egypt killed 41, including 15 children.

The US Department of Justice said that releasing details of the warrant used to raid Donald Trump’s house in Florida last week could cause ‘irreparable damage’ to its investigation. Liz Cheney, a Republican critical of Mr Trump, lost the Wyoming primary to a candidate of whom he approved, Harriet Hageman. Deputy president William Ruto of Kenya was elected president but the opposition candidate Raila Odinga rejected the result. Scott Morrison, the former prime minister of Australia, secretly became joint minister for health, finance, the treasury and home affairs, according to Anthony Albanese, the current prime minister. CSH