Trump seals nomination, the hottest half-year on record and London’s most expensive flat

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Donald Trump, the former star of The Apprentice, became the official Republican presidential candidate on Tuesday evening after winning a majority of the votes from delegates at the party’s convention in Cleveland. The meeting of the GOP has not been smooth-sailing, with a minor delegate revolt and accusations of plagiarism involving Melania Trump. But Mr Trump’s fans are not too concerned. 

The Republican party elite, however, is less sanguine. Its members are already laying the foundation to rebuild after what they see as an inevitable election day loss. “I’m worried I will be the last Republican president,” former president George W Bush told aides. (FT, Politico) Keep track of the 2016 race with our daily US politics newsletter. Sign up here.

In the news

The hottest year 2016 is set to become the third year in a row of record heat. Although the first six months of 2015 had been the hottest ever recorded, “2016 really has blown that out of the water”, said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies. (NYT)

Turkey widens purge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s post-coup crackdown has hit the education sector. Some 15,000 workers, from university deans to teachers and administrators, have been sacked. Ankara has also demanded the immediate extradition from the US of Fethullah Gulen. Conspiracy theories about the attempted coup are rife in Turkey, with as many as a third of Turks believing that the president masterminded last Friday's events. (Guardian, FT)

Murdoch’s push for Ailes ouster Roger Ailes is heading for the exit at Fox News Channel, the cable network beloved by US conservatives, with Rupert Murdoch and his sons in agreement that he should leave amid allegations of sexual harassment. (FT)

VW emissions cheating scandal may go back to 2006 New York prosecutors allege that Matthias Müller, chief executive of VW, was party to engineering discussions 10 years ago that ultimately led to the use of emissions cheating devices in VW's diesel cars. (FT)

Pokémon Go down Shares in Nintendo ended their meteoric rise after the company was forced to postpone the launch of its wildly popular game in Japan. Company stocks dropped as much as 18 per cent in Tokyo. The game had been due to launch today but was postponed because of fears that the hype it has generated would overload servers. (Techcrunch, FT)

Baidu's fintech play Chinese internet group Baidu is accelerating investment globally in the financial technology sector, as it sees a growth opportunity in the under-developed credit financing sector at home. (NAR)

It’s a big day for

Theresa May The new UK premier will take part in her first prime minister's questions after two judges said a legal challenge to the Brexit process would be heard in the High Court in October. Mrs May will then make her first overseas trip to Germany, where she will hold talks with Angela Merkel. (FT, Guardian) 

Read our new daily Brexit Briefing, or forward to other FT subscribers who can sign up to receive it daily by email here.

Food for thought

Global elites must heed populist rage The remedies that the likes of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen offer are bogus, writes Martin Wolf, but the illnesses are real: “If governing elites continue to fail to offer convincing cures, they might soon be swept away and, with them, the effort to marry democratic self-government with an open and co-operative world order.” (FT)

London’s most expensive apartment A short hop to Buckingham Palace and once home to Winston Churchill and Lord Mountbatten, the Admiralty Arch apartment is believed to be the most expensive ever put on the market in the capital. Price tag: a cool £150m. (Telegraph)

Mythbusting the common cold A new study has convinced many people that cold weather makes you more likely to catch a cold. Problem is it’s just not true. Here is why. (NYT)

The fight for Labour’s soul The UK Labour party is in crisis. The bitter divide across the party echoes the acrimony that drove the “gang of four” to form the breakaway SDP. Will history repeat itself? (The Guardian)

How to make your commute more bearable The daily trip to and from the office can be stressful, and stress — as we know — has all sorts of negative health effects. But studies show there are a few ways to make the journey more pleasant and productive — and they can be as simple as a bit of forward-planning and being a little bit more sociable. (BBC)

Video of the day

Lex on SoftBank’s purchase of Arm Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s founder and chief executive, is betting that Arm is 43 per cent more valuable than the market thinks it is. Robert Armstrong examines whether he’s right or wrong. (FT)