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The government pondered whether to accept pay-review bodies’ recommendations on rises in public sector salaries. ‘Delivering sound money is our number one focus,’ Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in his Mansion House speech. ‘That means taking responsible decisions on public finances, including public sector pay.’ Regular pay in the March to May period was 7.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, although it rose less than inflation. Unemployment rose from 3.8 per cent to 4 per cent; vacancies fell by 85,000 to 1,034,000. The average two-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 6.7 per cent. Jeremy Hunt confirmed that he was refused a bank account with Monzo last year on the grounds that he was a ‘politically exposed person’. Two eight-year-old girls died after a Land Rover crashed into the Study preparatory school, Wimbledon. A teacher was stabbed at Tewkesbury Academy. The Commons rejected Lords amendments to the Illegal Migration Bill. Marius Draghici, 50, from Romania, admitted 39 counts of manslaughter over Vietnamese migrants who died in a lorry container in 2019; he was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison.

In three days, 1,339 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats: 686 on 7 July; 384 the next day; and 269 the next. EasyJet cancelled 1,700 flights to and from Gatwick during July, August and September. The train drivers’ union Aslef announced an overtime ban from 17 to 22 July. President Joe Biden, aged 80, had talks with Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, at Downing Street, and then met the King, aged 74, at Windsor, where financiers and philanthropists gathered to discuss climate change. Mr Biden was on his way to Vilnius for the two-day Nato summit. With Mr Sunak he discussed America’s gift to Ukraine of cluster bombs, against the use of which Britain and 122 other countries have signed a convention. England won the third Ashes Test at Headingley by three wickets. Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie gave birth to a son, Frank Alfred Odysseus.

A BBC presenter paid a teenager £35,000 for sexually explicit photos, beginning three years ago when the young person was 17, according to allegations published by the Sun. A complaint had been made to the police in April and to the BBC on 19 May; on 6 June the BBC rang the complainant but did not get through. The mother of the young person said the money went on crack cocaine. The suspect was suspended, but not before several well-known names had to make public statements declaring that they were not suspects. Lawyers for the young person then said that the parents’ account of events were ‘rubbish’ and that ‘nothing inappropriate or unlawful’ had taken place.

Abroad

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped Turkey’s opposition to Sweden joining Nato. The Nato summit in Vilnius discussed what protection could be given to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said it was ‘absurd when a timeframe is set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership’. According to the Kremlin, President Vladimir Putin of Russia met Yevgeny Prigozhin and his commanders five days after the head of the Wagner Group had shot down aircraft as he moved troops towards Moscow. President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus said Prigozhin and his men were not in his country, despite preparations supposedly being made for them. Poland reinforced its border with Belarus with hundreds of extra guards. France banned the sale of fireworks before Bastille Day for fear of their use by rioters.

Police in Israel clashed with thousands of protestors opposed to government judicial reforms. Mark Rutte, who has spent 13 years as the Dutch prime minister, said he was leaving politics after the collapse of his coalition, divided over immigration. The Spanish coastguard rescued 86 people off the Canaries in a migrant boat from Senegal 1,000 miles away that had been missing for more than a week; two other boats with dozens aboard were also missing. Police arrested a man after six people including three children were stabbed to death at a kindergarten in Guangdong province. Police in Hong Kong raided the family home of Nathan Law, a pro-democracy campaigner exiled in Britain, taking his parents and one of his brothers away for questioning. The Pope named 21 new cardinals, including Bishop Stephen Sau-yan Chow of Hong Kong and Fr Luis Dri, 96, a Capuchin friar in Buenos Aires. More than 100 million users signed up to Threads, a rival to Twitter launched by Meta, which owns Facebook.