Exclusive: Tom Dolphin says rise needed to redress real-terms earnings loss since 2008 and strikes could last years

Resident doctors’ 29% pay claim is non-negotiable, reasonable and easily affordable for the NHS, the new leader of the medical profession has said.

Strikes to ensure resident – formerly junior – doctors in England get the full 29% could drag on for years, according to Dr Tom Dolphin, the British Medical Association’s new council chair.

Study shows such young people have higher risk of arriving at paediatric ICU severely ill and have worse outcomes

Minority ethnic children and children from deprived backgrounds across the UK are more likely to die following admission to intensive care than their white and more affluent counterparts, a study has found.

These children consistently had worse outcomes following their stay in a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the research by academics at Imperial College London discovered.

Researchers call for better coordinated and holistic care for women who often come from abusive backgrounds

A third of women who have died during, or in the year after, pregnancy were known to children’s social care services, with a fifth of these deaths being the result of suicide, according to research which is the first of its kind.

Between 2014 and 2022, 1,451 women died during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth, with 420 of these women having been in contact with children’s social care services, according to analysis of data from the maternal, newborn, and infant clinical outcome review programme provided by MBBRACE-UK.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

Starmer says in exchange for every migrant returned, another migrant will be allowed to enter the UK legally. This live blog is closed

Sky News is now broadcasting remarks from Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron at their summit in Downing Street.

Starmer says the situation in the Channel cannot go on as it is now.

We all agree the situation in the channel cannot go on as it is. So we’re bringing new tactics into play and a new level of intent to tackle illegal migration and break the business model of the criminal gangs.

In uncertain times, we achieve more by strengthening our relationship with our allies, so that is what today is all about working together on the priorities that we share as two nations.

For us, it’s about delivering the changes that the British people want to see, and we will agree the situation in the Channel cannot go on as it is. So we’re bringing new tactics into play and a new level of intent to tackle illegal migration and break the business model of the criminal gangs …

An estimated 7.36 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of May, relating to just under 6.23 million patients – down from 7.39 million treatments and just over 6.23 million patients at the end of April.

These are the lowest figures since March 2023 for treatments and April 2023 for patients.

Monthly NHS data shows the overall waiting list dropped by nearly 30,000 in May to 7.36 million – the lowest total since March 2023 – with 60.9% waiting 18 weeks or less for planned care (the highest proportion since July 2022).

Staff carried out an average of 75,009 planned treatments each working day in May – the highest number on record – with a total of 1.5 million treatments across the month, which is up on 1.45 million in April and higher than 1,437,914 pre-pandemic (May 2019).

Readers respond to an article by Polly Hudson in which she argues that all men look better with facial hair

Polly Hudson’s article (Beards may be dirtier than toilets – but all men should grow one, 3 July) is correct on the whole, except in the assumption that all men can do so. When I was a child, my dad spent a two-week holiday not shaving and ended up with a five o’clock shadow. By coincidence, my uncle grew a bushy forest on his face during the same period. Faced with my uncle’s success, my dad promptly shaved his own attempt off and it was never spoken of again.

Years later, I was bewildered by my dad’s really quite hostile reaction when I successfully gave facial hair a go for the first time. Then I remembered.
David Gray
Birmingham

Non-doms quitting UK | Pets and ageing | Hateful art | Offside rule | Meaningless chat

There are two simple solutions to the super-rich quitting the country to avoid tax (Flight of the non-doms: how worried should Labour be about the super-rich leaving the UK?, 7 July). Tax all UK citizens wherever they live on their global income and assets. The US and Australia already do this, so it is hardly radical. And treat all owners of UK residential property as domiciled in the UK for tax purposes. Might even bring down London house prices.
Matthew Atha
Liverpool

• The study that shows a link between slower cognitive decline in old age and ownership of dogs or cats (5 July) will certainly not be a surprise to most pet owners. But are the researchers oversimplifying this? Correlation is not necessarily causation. Perhaps people who choose to own cats or dogs are genetically disposed to better cognitive performance in old age.
Michael Green
Saint-Vincent-des-Bois, France

Some call it a friendship recession: a time when close male friendships sink to their lowest. Here’s how friendships for straight men fall to the wayside – and what could bring them together

As a therapist, Jeremy Mohler spends his days guiding middle-aged men through feelings of loneliness. He encourages them to seek connections, yet the 39-year-old is the first to admit it: when you’re a guy, making real friends in midlife is difficult. “It feels like an uphill battle,” says Mohler, who lives in Baltimore.

Some call it a friendship recession: a time in midlife when close male friendships sink to their lowest. According to data from the Survey Center on American Life, 15% of US men said they do not have close friends in 2021, compared with 3% in 1990. Those reporting 10 or more close friends decreased from 33% to 13% during the same period.

Some offices continue to treat patients as provision in Trump’s policy bill was recently blocked by a court order

At least two regional Planned Parenthood affiliates have notices on their websites telling patients that, thanks to a provision in Republicans’ new tax-and-spending bill that “defunds” the reproductive healthcare giant, they can no longer accept Medicaid.

However, this provision – which abortion rights supporters have called a “backdoor abortion ban” – was recently blocked by a court order. Other Planned Parenthood affiliates are continuing to treat patients who use Medicaid to pay for treatment.

Mina Holland’s book about parenting her seriously unwell daughter sheds light on the situation faced by so many, and the complicated psychology at play

When you have a baby, especially if you’re in an antenatal class, or friends or family members have a child of about the same age, there is a feeling that you’re all in it together, at least at first. For me this big, life-transforming event might have felt intensely personal, but the shared connection with other new parents, who were also learning on the job, not to mention the books – Your Baby Week By Week, The Wonder Weeks – can trick you into thinking that the path is a predictable one.

From hourly feeds and wake-ups to sleeping through the night, breast- and bottle-feeding to solids, crawling to walking, maternity leave to nursery to school, the journey may have slightly different scenery, but the impression given is that ultimately it ends up in the same place.

Teenagers increasingly taking breaks as they control own use of devices rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, experts say

Children are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed.

They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts.

Communities by the sea have been hit by economic decline and related social problems. Empowering a new generation can help turn the tide

Wish you were here? In recent years the fate of coastal towns has emerged as one of Britain’s most pressing social issues. Both the fishing and domestic tourism industries have been in decline for decades. Seaside communities routinely find themselves at the wrong end of national league tables when it comes to deprivation, job opportunities, educational attainment and mental and physical health.

As the Guardian’s new reporting project on young people in coastal towns makes clear, the result for many 16- to 25-year-olds is acute frustration combined with the pressure of unwanted dilemmas. Most remain fiercely loyal to places whose geographic isolation tends to generate a strong sense of belonging. But getting out to get on is, too often, perceived as the only option. The steady stream of departures in turn takes away skills and youthful dynamism, further diminishing the prospects of those left behind.

George Findlay resigns from ‘hugely demanding job’ amid police investigation into deaths of more than 90 patients

The chief executive of an NHS hospital trust where police are investigating the possible manslaughter of more than 90 patients is to step down.

George Findlay said he was “very proud” of his 10 years at University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust, including the last three years as its chief executive.

Starmer and Macron are due to attend a more formal summit tomorrow

The BMA strike decision must be a tempting topic for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, which is starting very soon. The Conservatives have repeatedly criticised the government for the way they swiftly settled public sector pay disputes when they took office; they argue that Labour was too generous to the unions, thereby encouraging them to threaten further strikes.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

Streeting says he is “disappointed” by the proposed strike, and he insists resident doctors have had a relatively good outcome on pay. He says:

I remain disappointed that despite all that we have been able to achieve in this last year, and that the majority of resident doctors in the BMA did not vote to strike, the BMA is continuing to threaten strike action.

I accepted the DDRB’s recommendation for resident doctors, awarding an average pay rise of 5.4%, the highest across the public sector. Accepting this above inflation recommendation, which was significantly higher than affordability, required reprioritisation of NHS budgets. Because of this government’s commitment to recognising the value of the medical workforce, we made back-office efficiency savings to invest in the frontline. That was not inevitable, it was an active political choice this government made. Taken with the previous deal I made with the BMA last year, this means resident doctors will receive an average pay rise of 28.9% over the last 3 years.

He says the NHS is “finally moving in the right direction” and that a strike will “put that recovery at risk”.

He offers to hold meet the BMA to hold talks to avert the strike. He says:

I stand ready to meet with you again at your earliest convenience to resolve this dispute without the need for strike action. I would like to once again extend my offer to meet with your entire committee to discuss this.

As I have stated many times, in private and in public, with you and your predecessors, you will not find another health and social care secretary as sympathetic to resident doctors as me. By choosing to strike instead of working in partnership to improve conditions for your members and the NHS, you are squandering an opportunity.

An embassy in West Germany | Norman Tebbit | Penis reduction | The Salt Path

I can testify to the accuracy of John le Carré’s research, which you note with reference to a new exhibition at Oxford’s Bodleian libraries (8 July). When researching British foreign policy, I spent a day in the embassy in Bonn in 1973. It struck me as so much like its portrayal in A Small Town in Germany that I remarked that if someone came pushing the registry trolley I would not be surprised to hear it squeak, as he had described it. “It’s a pity you weren’t here two or three years ago,” came the reply, “you would have recognised several of the characters as well.”
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords

• I was never a fan of Norman Tebbit (Obituaries, 8 July) but an ex briefly worked security at Conservative HQ and had nothing but praise for him as the only person who said hello and goodbye to everyone by name every day.
Michelle Kimber
Plymouth

Beans, pulses, starchy foods and seeds are having a moment on social media. And, for once, the health benefits suggest they deserve it

Name: Fibremaxxing.

Age: Brand new.

Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal terminations, ONS figures show, as provider says women struggling to access contraception

The number of abortions in England and Wales reached a record high in 2022, with a leading provider stating that women are facing “significant barriers” in access to contraception.

Almost three in 10 conceptions ended in legal abortions in the two nations in 2022, up from about two in 10 a decade earlier, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The union bases its claims of a real-terms cut on the retail prices index – ditched as a national statistic in 2013

The British Medical Association (BMA) is demanding a 29% pay rise for resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors, in England, to prevent strikes. The union claims the increase is needed to reverse cuts to the real-terms value of their pay since 2008. But how credible are its calculations?

Brian Langstaff urges overhaul of compensation system, which report says was designed without consulting victims

Victims of the infected blood scandal have “not been listened to” by ministers, the chair of the inquiry has said in a report urging an overhaul of the compensation system.

The additional report lays bare the failings of the government’s detailed compensation scheme, and sets out recommendations to make it fairer and faster. In particular, it criticises ministers for designing the scheme without consulting the scandal’s victims, as was recommended in the inquiry’s May 2024 report, which it says has led to “obvious injustices” that could have been avoided.

BMA union says it is giving Wes Streeting two weeks to come to the table to negotiate ‘a path to pay restoration’

• UK politics live – latest updates

Resident doctors in England will strike for five days later this month in their campaign for a 29% pay rise. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, denounced the move as “completely unreasonable”.

Resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – working in the NHS will withdraw their labour from 7am on Friday 25 July and not return until 7am the following Wednesday.

We need to confront the social conditions that impact them – and the toxic workplaces they’re trying to push back against

Last month, new figures showed that one in four young people in England have a mental health condition. An unwillingness to examine the challenging social and economic conditions – from housing insecurity to financial concerns – means there can be a tendency to explain this rise as a result of overdiagnosis, although there is little evidence for this claim. Clinicians cite the criteria for diagnosis to show that overreporting is not substantiated – if anything, the severity of reported conditions has increased, in part due to a reduced stigma resulting in more people seeking help.

Young people with poor mental health are nearly five times more likely to be out of work, and there is a growing understanding that inadequate support around young people’s mental health in the workplace is driving them to leave or consider leaving their job. In response, the government has proposed cuts to under-22s’ health support.

Fran Boait is a leadership coach, freelancer and writer