After a washout July, Met Office forecasts it will be brighter and drier than of unseasonal conditions of late

After weeks of wet and chilly weather, it looks like summer might be finally arriving. Temperatures are expected to reach highs of 27C in parts of the UK next week as the summer holidays get under way in England.

Clouds and cooler weather returned this weekend after the hottest day of the year so far on Friday, with a temperature of 31.9C at St James’s Park, central London, making it the warmest recorded day of 2024.

Above inflation deal could lead to government having to find an extra £10bn in total across the public sector

Independent pay review bodies representing teachers and NHS workers have reportedly recommended above-inflation pay rises that could require the government to raise up to £10bn, a leading economist has said.

The bodies are going to recommend a 5.5% rise for the 514,000 teachers and about 1.3 million NHS staff they represent, according to the Times, well above the figure the government is thought to have been preparing for. Such a move would present an early challenge to Rachel Reeves’s fiscally rule-bound treasury.

Mina Smallman says she has forgiven murderer but not officers who shared images of bodies in London park

Mina Smallman, the mother of two women murdered in a London park, has forgiven their killer but not the two Metropolitan police officers who took and shared photos of their bodies, she said.

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were reported missing on 6 June 2020, the day before friends discovered their bodies in a park in Wembley, north London, after organising their own search party.

Travellers advised to check with providers for ‘extra steps’, with at least 45 UK flights cancelled on Saturday

NHS England has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week after Friday’s global IT outrage, as air passengers continued to face delays and flight cancellations.

Passengers had their travel plans ruined on Friday as thousands of flights were cancelled internationally after a botched software upgrade hit Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The incident caused havoc worldwide across a number of services, with hospital appointments cancelled, payroll systems seizing up and TV channels going off air.

Congressman Seth Moulton tells Boston Globe: ‘It was a crushing realisation … because everything is riding on Biden’s ability to beat Donald Trump’

A US congressman has said he decided to join calls for Joe Biden to exit the presidential race after he claimed the 81-year-old appeared not to recognise him at a recent event.

Seth Moulton, a Democratic congressman from Massachusetts, was one of the first Democrats to call for Biden to drop out of the race shortly after his disastrous debate performance last month. On Friday, Moulton ramped up his efforts to oust the president from the 2024 ticket in a damning op-ed for the Boston Globe.

Wormwood Scrubs prisoner Graham Gomm spent two days on run after escaping from Hammersmith hospital

A prisoner who escaped from a London hospital after falling ill at Wormwood Scrubs prison has been found and arrested.

Graham Gomm, 63, escaped from custody at Hammersmith hospital early on Thursday morning. Gomm had been on remand for burglary offences at the category B men’s prison in the west of the capital.

US now only country not to restore funding to refugee agency; defence minister says Israel will ‘settle the score’ after drone strike

• See all of our Israel-Gaza war coverage

The European Commission and the Palestinian Authority have signed a letter of intent on addressing the budgetary situation and the economy, the commission said.

In a statement, the Commission said that “the EU will provide short-term emergency financial support to the Palestinian Authority to address its most pressing financial needs and support its substantial and credible reform agenda.”