Thousands in Spain return home but new heatwave raises wildfire fears
Spain and France are both braced for the start of the fourth heatwave so far this summer and some fires have continued to burn.
Oscar-winning songwriter Glen Hansard killed in crash
Hansard, who was 56, won the best song Oscar for the 2007 low-budget musical film Once.
Anthony Fauci refuses to answer questions during US Senate hearing about Covid origins
The former top US health official said he feared Republicans could try to trip him up and use his testimony to prosecute him for perjury.
Saudi Arabia joins US in strikes on Iran-backed militias in Iraq
US Central Command says proxy groups launched attacks against US bases and Saudi energy infrastructure.
Fauci invokes fifth amendment and declines to testify in Senate Covid hearing
Adviser to Trump and Biden for pandemic says Republican senator has ‘unhinged obsession’ with him
Anthony Fauci, who served as a key adviser to Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the Covid-19 pandemic, has refused to answer questions at a high-profile congressional hearing, accusing a Republican senator of having an “unhinged obsession” with him.
Fauci, the veteran former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), invoked his constitutional right against incrimination when appearing before a Senate committee on Wednesday.
Continue reading...‘Each day feels like the last’: Haitians with TPS on edge as confusion clouds US work status
US employers and Haitian immigrants live in constant uncertainty as status of work permits remains in limbo
For more than a month, Bobby Kuchinsky arrived at his Florida restaurant each morning worried about whether he still had enough staff or if this might be the last shift for some of his Haitian workers, who have spent more than a decade as cooks, busboys and oyster shuckers.
On Tuesday, he suspended six of them after they lost authorization to work in the US.
Continue reading...Burnham does not rule out tax rises for social care reform as he fast-tracks Louise Casey’s review – UK politics live
The prime minister says that current inefficiencies in the system will be tackled first, as he reveals final recommendations will be out by summer 2027
Andy Burnham is speaking now.
In a reference to how he started campaing for social care reform almost two decades ago, he says it is good to see faces in the room “who’ve been on this journey with me for a long, a long time”.
When someone in your family is receiving care, you look at everything through new eyes, don’t you? You notice things that maybe you didn’t notice before because you watch it so closely and so carefully.
And I’ve just been really overwhelmed by their care, the skill in what they do, the professionalism.
Can I just remind everybody that nobody thought we could get everybody in off the streets?
So we can do difficult in this country and we can do it well.
Continue reading...Four women accuse Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct when they were teenagers
BBC documentary reports incidents alleged to have taken place when actor and musician was in 30s and 40s
The actor and singer Jared Leto has been accused in a BBC documentary of criminal sexual conduct by four women, with the alleged offences taking place when the women were teenagers.
The incidents reported by the BBC are alleged to have taken place between 2002 and 2016, when the actor was in his 30s and 40s. He is now 54.
Support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...Assisted dying debate should come after end-of-life care reform, says Burnham
Introducing the legislation would be ‘very challenging’ until care system improved, PM says
Andy Burnham has said the assisted dying debate needs to wait until palliative care and social care are fixed, as he set out his path to resolving one of the most intractable problems in British politics.
The prime minister said he was not opposed to having the debate on assisted dying, but told reporters it would be “very challenging” to introduce the controversial legislation until the care system was in a better place.
Continue reading...Rogue OpenAI agent that hacked startup tried to attack other firms
ChatGPT developer says activity by autonomous tool was not at severity or scale of what occurred at Hugging Face
OpenAI has revealed that a cyber-attack carried out by a rogue AI agent had more than one victim.
The ChatGPT developer said the agent – an autonomous tool able to carry out sequences of commands without human help – had located and used logins to access four other unnamed “publicly-available services” in addition to the US startup Hugging Face.
Continue reading...Boy, seven, dies after Essex coast incident that killed cousin and aunt
Musa Ahmed was being treated in intensive care in London hospital after being pulled from West Mersea sea
A seven-year-old boy has died a week after an incident off the Essex coast in which his teenage cousin and her mother died as they tried to rescue him.
Musa Ahmed was being treated for life-threatening injuries after being pulled from the sea near West Mersea beach on 22 July.
Continue reading...Zelensky and Netanyahu meet Trump as wars in Ukraine and Iran drag on
The two leaders sound encouraged after holding back-to-back bilaterals at the White House.
Ghana hit by nationwide blackout as power plants fail
The massive outage has left homes, businesses and some essential services severely disrupted.
BMW to cut ‘as many as 8,000 jobs’ under pressure from Chinese rivals
Layoffs will come in admin and development divisions in Germany, with production operations unaffected
BMW is planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany, according to reports, in the latest sign of Europe’s largest carmakers reducing costs under pressure from Chinese rivals.
The Munich-headquartered company has started a voluntary redundancy programme agreed with employee representatives, a BMW spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Continue reading...French music producer Kavinsky, known for Drive soundtrack hit Nightcall, dies aged 50
French authorities investigate death of musician who performed at Paris Olympics, but say ‘no suspicious elements’ at play
The French electronic musician Kavinsky, known for the song Nightcall which achieved iconic status after its inclusion in the Ryan Gosling film Drive, has died aged 50.
A police source speaking to French newspaper Le Figaro indicated that the suspected cause of death was a stroke. Kavinsky, real name Vincent Belorgey, had reportedly been complaining of headaches in recent days, and he was discovered at home after a concerned neighbour alerted emergency services.
Continue reading...More than 100 aftershocks hit Japan after powerful quake that killed 13
People are being urged to stay alert, with earthquake aftershocks potentially reaching magnitude 7, officials say
‘I thought I would die’: Survivors describe shock and horror of powerful Japan earthquake
Rescue operations are ongoing following the 6.8-magnitude quake, as survivors wrestle with the shock.
US schools are struggling to keep the yellow bus running amid shortages and cuts
Districts are reducing routes and exploring new ways to get students to class as transportation costs climb
Education officials across the United States are increasingly facing a fundamental challenge: how do they ensure that school students can actually get to their classrooms?
The bright yellow school bus might be a visual icon of US education famous around the world, but in reality it is becoming harder for districts to steer.
Continue reading...French DJ and electronic musician Kavinsky dies aged 50
He had a hit with Nightfall, which featured on the Drive soundtrack and at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
US blocks Iranian missile barrage as pause in fighting falters | First Thing
US military says it intercepted all Iranian missiles, as fighting threatens to resume. Plus, how Armenians seek to breathe more easily by heading underground
Good morning.
The US military has claimed it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. In what Washington cast as “an attempted surprise attack” by Tehran, Iran had launched ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. US Central Command (Centcom) said all Iranian missiles launched on Tuesday were intercepted.
Why is the US-Iran war a threat to biodiversity? The closure of the strait of Hormuz has created conditions for an extreme global biodiversity threat, with scientists warning that thousands of stranded ships could spread invasive marine species across the world’s oceans once they begin sailing again.
Who else did Trump meet yesterday? Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Netanyahu on Tuesday. The Ukrainian leader was seeking more firepower for his air defenses and said: “We also spoke about diplomacy – it’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.”
Continue reading...