Nurses forced to cover doctors shortage, government apprenticeship scheme slumps, and more top news

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British hospitals are struggling to find specialist staff, forcing NHS nurses and other less-qualified workers to fill the roles. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has urged government to double the number of places at medical schools, as it warned that almost half of specialist posts cannot be filled. It also said patients should get used to receiving care from nurses rather than specialists. Data from NHS Improvement released earlier this year showed 100,000 staff posts are currently vacant.

The government must revamp its apprenticeship scheme if it’s to hit its 2020 target, companies have warned. Figures from the Department of Education showed apprenticeship starts slumped by a third to 290,500 in the nine months to the end of May, compared with a year earlier. The government introduced the apprenticeship levy in April 2017, pledging to create three million new apprentices by 2020, a target the Institute of Directors says is at risk of being missed.

Supermarkets are trialling machines that give customers money off their shopping in exchange for recycling cans and bottles. Both Iceland and Morrisons are trialling the scheme at a limited number of stores and, if successful, the reverse vending machines will be rolled out nationwide next year. Morrisons customers can return a maximum of 20 plastic bottles or aluminium cans a day, receiving 100 Morrisons More points (equivalent to 10p) for each. In other eco-friendly news, a survey by AA has found half of young people in the UK would like to own an electric car – compared with just a quarter of their parents.

Casual workers in Wimbledon’s catering department are being paid day rates for night shifts. Official Wimbledon caterer FMC, which is a subsidiary of Compass, is paying some casual night workers ￡8 an hour – the same rate as their daytime colleagues. While the hourly rate falls just above the government’s “national living wage” of ￡7.83 for people aged 25 and over, the Living Wage Foundation advocates a living wage of ￡10.20 for London workers. Around 6,000 workers are hired for the prestigious tennis tournament, including 3,000 food and drink staff.

President Donald Trump has accused Prime Minister Theresa May of "wrecking" Brexit, and said Britain maintaining close ties with the EU could threaten a US-UK trade deal. In an interview with the Sun, Trump said May’s new Brexit plan – unveiled yesterday – would "kill the deal" with the US. Trump’s comments were published just hours before he was due to meet the British leader for a working lunch at Chequers.

Idea of the Day: Trying something new but worried about how customers or clients will react? You’re likely overthinking it, says social media strategist Linda Coles.

“A saying I use often is ‘new doughnuts are baked every day,’ which in short means new customers come into the marketplace daily, looking for what you and I have to offer. They don’t know or care about our background; they only want their fresh doughnut. We need to let them know of our 'bakery'.”

This article has been updated. From earlier: Several of Build-A-Bear Workshop's UK stores have closed due to an "overwhelming" response to its “pay your age” deal. Also: Netflix received 112 nominations at this year’s Emmy Awards, up from just 34 in 2015.

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— Natalie MacDonald