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Ben Wallace said he would cease to be the Defence Secretary at the next cabinet reshuffle and would not stand again for parliament. The Conservatives endured three by-elections – at Uxbridge and South Ruislip, Selby and Ainsty and Somerton and Frome. The left-wing mayor of North of Tyne, Jamie Driscoll, resigned from the Labour party after a rival was selected to stand for the newly created mayoralty of the North East. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said he would not reverse the Conservative limit on claiming child tax credit or universal credit for more than two children. On universities, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Our young people are being ripped off. They’re being saddled with tens of thousands of pounds of debt from bad degrees.’ Huw Edwards was in hospital with ‘serious mental health issues’, according to his wife, who had revealed he was the BBC presenter against whom allegations were made, according to the Sun, of receiving photographs from a young person now aged 20; police said there was ‘no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed’. The BBC found 100 employees and ex-employees of McDonald’s who alleged sexual assault, racism and bullying.

A woman who illegally procured her own abortion when more than 32 weeks pregnant had her sentence reduced by the Appeal Court and was freed from prison. On the Isle of Lewis, 55 pilot whales died after being stranded on the beach near North Tolsta. The Illegal Migration Bill passed the Lords to become law. The Bibby Stockholm, a barge to house 506 single men, arrived at Portland, Dorset. Overseas tilers, plasterers and carpenters were added to the government’s Shortage Occupation List, making it easier for them to obtain visas. The annual rate of inflation fell to 7.9 per cent from 8.7 the month before. RMT union railway workers went on strike for two days; Aslef train-drivers will hold a week’s overtime ban from 31 July. Tata, owner of Jaguar Land Rover, is to build an electric car battery factory in Somerset, with hundreds of millions of government subsidy.

Coutts was found to have closed Nigel Farage’s bank account because his views did ‘not align with our values’. Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, signed an agreement with members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Canterbury, Worcester and Chichester cathedrals are to admit dogs as visitors. Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, aged 20, won the Wimbledon men’s singles title, beating the Serbian Novak Djokovic, aged 36, from whose £1,175,000 prize money £6,117 was deducted for smashing his racquet in the last set. The Arts Council of Wales set about purging its documentation of the pronouns he and she, to be replaced with they.

Abroad

Ukraine disabled the bridge over the Kerch Strait between Crimea and Russia. Russia attacked Odessa and Mykolaiv with drones and missiles. Russia ended the agreement by which Ukraine has exported 30 million tons of grain. The Russian state seized subsidiaries of the French yoghurt-maker Danone and the Danish beer company Carlsberg as assets of ‘unfriendly’ countries. Anthrax was found at a livestock farm north-west of the Nigerian capital, Abuja. In India the cost of tomatoes soared to about 200 rupees a kilogram, four times their normal price.

In China unemployment among 16- to 24-year-olds in urban areas rose to 21.3 per cent, according to official figures. The Chinese property concern Evergrande reported combined losses for 2021 and 2022 of US $81.1 billion. The Australian state of Victoria cancelled its plans to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026 because of the cost. In South Korea rescuers failed to save at least 40 people caught in a 750-yard road tunnel suddenly engulfed by flood water. It was very hot in southern Europe and parts of China and the United States. About 1,000 shacks were destroyed by fire at the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban, South Africa, leaving 3,000 homeless.

Trials in the United States of donanemab found that the drug could slow the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Members of America’s Screen Actors Guild went on strike. The Iranian morality police, Gasht-e-Ershad, resumed patrols to enforce proper wearing of the hijab. Milan Kundera, the Czech novelist, died aged 94. Jane Birkin, who recorded the hit record ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’ with Serge Gainsbourg in 1968, died aged 76. Bottlenose dolphins injured four swimmers off Mihama, in Japan.                               CSH