Iniaes

In France

French authorities are investigating the stabbing death of a man believed to be in his 20s on Terminus Beach in Berck-sur-Mer. Witnesses reported a violent argument among migrants at dawn, and investigators think the suspects may have left on a small boat for Britain before the body was found. The National Crime Agency says it is coordinating with French officials.

Separately, wildfires near Bordeaux have forced around 200,000 people to evacuate in southwestern France.

In business

Warner Bros. has sued Amazon, accusing the company of poaching employees in breach of contract and other claims.

In Britain

A public inquiry has found that the Metropolitan Police spent £2.5 million concealing the identity of an undercover officer who deceived Helen Steel into a relationship. The inquiry says the force went to extraordinary lengths to protect the officer’s cover, including hidden surveillance and a discreet luggage search at Auckland airport.

In Glasgow, police arrested 15 people after anti-migrant and anti-racism protests turned violent in the city centre and at Glasgow Green. Officers recovered weapons near a children’s play park, and officials condemned the disorder as well beyond lawful protest.

In U.S. security and law enforcement

Gen. Dan Caine and Vice President JD Vance reportedly raised concerns at the White House about U.S. munitions stockpiles as President Trump weighed escalation over Iran. The meeting reflected worries about how far any wider conflict could stretch U.S. resources.

In Michigan, eight people, believed to be family members, were found dead in a burning house, and authorities say some of the victims had been shot. Investigators are treating it as a homicide scene as well as a fire.

In the Middle East

Israeli forces detained more than 70 people across the occupied West Bank after overnight clashes in a northern Palestinian village left two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians dead. The military said it searched more than 300 locations during the arrests.

Iran says a Ukrainian attack hit an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing one sailor and injuring another. Tehran condemned the strike.

In Brazil

Flavio Bolsonaro has launched a presidential bid against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with support from Argentina’s Javier Milei.

In science and the environment

Researchers in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt are testing a device designed to pull water from the air, with the idea that it could eventually become a usable water source.

In the Middle East

Israeli forces are intensifying raids in the occupied West Bank as settler attacks rise and settlement expansion speeds up. The situation is becoming more volatile, with more pressure on civilians and little sign of restraint from the actors who would most need it.

In parallel, the UK’s Wes Streeting has spoken with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in a call both sides called productive, centered on the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and closer allied coordination. Britain is also looking to convene a major London summit with NATO allies and senior military figures from as many as 40 countries, as Iran warns the UK could become a target if it supports U.S. military action.

In the UK

Temperatures are expected to climb sharply next week as another heatwave arrives after a cooler weekend. In Scotland, residents evacuated during the Cairngorms wildfire are being allowed to return after Police Scotland stood down the major incident declaration.

In Europe

A car drove into a crowd at a Pride parade in Berlin, killing one person and injuring at least 15 others. The event was evacuated as emergency crews responded.

In the U.S.

Pennsylvania State Police say an off-duty Philadelphia police officer has been arrested after a fatal shooting in Northampton County. Troopers say the officer fled the scene, led police on a brief chase, then returned and was taken into custody without incident. Philadelphia police have opened an internal investigation, and criminal charges are expected.

In U.S. news

A 5-alarm fire in Queens injured 17 firefighters, two EMS workers, and two civilians on Saturday after flames spread from a two-story wooden apartment building to two others. The FDNY says the injuries are not life-threatening, but several families were displaced and the cause is under investigation.

New data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says more than 1 million children lost SNAP food benefits after Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and more than 4 million Americans were removed from the program between July 2025 and March 2026.

Sen. Mitch McConnell is still drawing questions about his health nearly six weeks after being hospitalized, following a fall that left him absent from the Senate. His office says he is in a rehabilitation center, but has not said when he will return.

In Connecticut, police say an off-duty Bridgeport officer and his passenger were killed when a Jeep struck a motorcycle in Danbury. The driver has been charged with DUI and reckless driving, and is being held on $500,000 bond.

A new poll says many Americans think gas prices have risen more than the data shows, a useful reminder that outrage at the pump often outruns the spreadsheet.

In Britain

The Metropolitan Police are investigating two £250,000 donations to Reform UK made before the 2024 election by Britain Means Business. The inquiry is looking at payments routed through a company controlled by deputy leader Richard Tice.

Three swimmers were taken to hospital after getting into difficulty near Clacton Pier in Essex during the latest UK heatwave. Emergency crews, including a helicopter, pulled them ashore after a call just after 4:30 p.m.

Overseas

At least 35 people were killed when two buses collided in eastern Syria. Details remain limited, but it is being reported as a deadly transport crash in the country’s east.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the U.S. and Ukraine are moving ahead on joint drone production, including plans for a factory in the United States. The idea is to pair American manufacturing with Ukraine’s battlefield-tested drone technology.

In business and tech

Nothing has denied reports that it plans to pull back from more than a dozen global markets, but it has confirmed layoffs as part of a wider reorganization. The company says the U.S. is its next major growth chapter.

Major publishers, including USA Today, Politico, The Economist, People, and Reuters, are reassessing their relationship with Google as its AI tools use publisher content without sending much traffic back. Reddit is also reviewing a $60 million-a-year deal that lets Google train on user posts, because being the raw material for someone else’s machine is not a fantastic long-term plan.

In the Middle East

President Trump says he is prepared either to keep talking with Iran or to escalate the fighting. An Iranian general responded that Iran is ready for ground combat, which is a familiar sort of reassurance from people who never have to file the paperwork for it.

In Europe

France is asking the armed forces for help as major wildfires spread in Gironde, after weeks of brutal heat and worsening dry conditions. Rivers are running low, smaller streams are drying up, and the final stage of the Tour de France was shortened because security crews were pulled off the race to help with the fires. In Scotland, a blaze in the Cairngorms National Park has also been described as very serious.

In the United States

In Indiana, police say Noah Brimmage has been charged in a 2023 double shooting that killed Olivia Katherine Brown and Darian Jamar Wiley after a night out in Indianapolis. Investigators say Wiley was shot while walking Brown to her car, then Brown was shot as she tried to drive away. Brimmage is already serving time on unrelated convictions.

In Michigan, emergency crews found eight members of one family dead in a house fire, including six children, and officials say at least some of the bodies had gunshot wounds. The fire is being treated as a homicide investigation.

In politics, courts, and tech

A federal appeals court has kept in place the block on the Trump administration’s planned $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas, leaving the policy on hold while the case continues.

Trump also threatened new tariffs on the European Union after Brussels fined Google more than $1 billion over alleged illegal trade practices, putting the already fragile U.S.-EU trade arrangement under more strain.

Separately, the U.S. Army is testing an AI planning tool called COA-GPT, meant to help commanders build and compare operational plans faster while keeping human oversight in place.

In climate and wildfire news

France, Spain, and parts of the UK are still dealing with a punishing stretch of heat and fire. More than 250,000 people have been evacuated as major wildfires spread in France and Spain, while in Scotland police have declared a major incident over a blaze in the Cairngorms that has already pushed some residents in Nethy Bridge out of their homes.

Britain is also heading into another hot spell, with temperatures in England and Wales potentially reaching 35C next week. Natural Resources Wales has declared drought in parts of Wales after record dry conditions, low river flows, and rising wildfire risk.

In Britain

In Essex, at least 20 firefighters were taken to hospital after an explosion and major fire at an industrial unit on Southend Road between East Hanningfield and Rettendon. Three fire engines and two officer cars were destroyed, and crews are still working at the scene after the incident, which was linked to a fertiliser explosion inside one of the units.

Separately, a man in his 20s from Kent has died after an A20 crash, and police have arrested another man, also in his 20s, on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

And in Cyprus, the family of a British father charged over the death of his two-year-old son is asking Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband to help bring him back to the UK for the child’s funeral. The boy died after falling from a hotel balcony area in Paphos on 12 July, and the case is still ongoing.

In India

India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after weeks of student protests over a paper leak scandal. The protests have been a rare political setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the same online spaces that helped build his brand are now being used by young demonstrators to mock his government.

In the United States

Donald Trump drew backlash in Washington after using a rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Association dinner speech to joke about gunfire at a previous event. Viewers called the remark offensive and vicious.

In international news

At least 35 people were killed in Syria when two buses collided. Details are still limited, but the crash is being reported as a major breaking story.

In the Middle East

The U.S. military says it disabled a tanker that was trying to evade the blockade on Iranian ports, while U.S. and U.K. officials are planning a meeting in London next week on maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump is also due to meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, as tensions with Iran keep climbing.

Separately, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has arrived in Syria for his first official visit in 17 years. He is expected to meet President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was under UN Security Council sanctions until last year.

In Gaza

Premature births are rising in Gaza as the war puts newborns at severe risk and endangers mothers’ health.

In Europe

Wildfires are still burning in the Madrid area and in Spain’s province of Ávila, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. Evacuations have also been ordered in suburbs outside Bordeaux as the fires spread across southern Europe.

In science and space

SpaceX says its 13th Starship test flight hit a series of milestones, including a controlled booster return, in-flight engine relight, deployment of 20 Starlink test satellites, and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The company says the results help move the program toward a planned NASA test flight next year.

In sports

Noah Lyles won the 100 meters at the U.S. athletics championships in a world-leading 9.79 seconds. Ryan Fox also came home to New Zealand after winning the Open Championship, but Lyles gets the slot here, mostly by being quicker.

In Australian politics

Labor’s national conference ended with party leadership shutting down an attempted revolt over its draft stance on Israel and Gaza. Ed Husic pushed for tougher language, including a reference to a UN genocide inquiry, but the move was blocked after behind-the-scenes negotiations. The conference also sidestepped debate on AUKUS and rejected Husic’s bid for a new gas tax.

In Washington

Donald Trump used the rescheduled White House Correspondents’ Dinner to swat at reporters, political opponents, and a few familiar targets, while also joking about another presidential run. The room, from the sound of it, was less than dazzled. The event had been delayed after a gunman tried to storm the original gathering, so the evening carried a bit more tension than the average industry roast.

Separately, the Trump administration has ordered the Smithsonian to add warnings about what it calls inaccurate depictions of U.S. history, another swing at institutions that are supposed to outlast whichever grievance is currently in fashion.

In courts

A prominent Maryland Supreme Court litigator has been sentenced to six years in prison for tax evasion and mortgage fraud, prosecutors said.

In a separate case, court evidence in the killing of Celeste Rivas Hernandez shows text messages indicating she had been pregnant and had an abortion more than a year before her death.

In the Middle East

Saudi Arabia says coalition strikes hit Houthi military targets in Yemen’s Hodeida region and destroyed sites it says were threatening Red Sea shipping. The Houthis accused Riyadh of hitting civilian infrastructure and promised retaliation, as the regional conflict keeps widening in predictable and dangerous ways.

Wildfires and emergencies in Europe

More than 220,000 people have been evacuated in France and Spain as wildfires spread. In France, firefighters are battling a blaze moving toward Bordeaux, while officials in Madrid say they are facing the worst fire in the region’s history.

In Essex, firefighters are also dealing with a major fire after a fertilizer explosion at a farm triggered an emergency response.

On tariffs

A second lawsuit has been filed against Trump’s new Section 301 tariffs. The case argues the duties exceed statutory limits and could run into constitutional problems if the law is read that broadly.

In business and tech

President Trump’s new tariffs took effect on imports from more than 80 countries, a sweeping reset that covers virtually all U.S. imports and replaces the earlier plan the Supreme Court struck down. The trade system is now being treated to another bold experiment in pricing everything more expensively.

Anthropic also rolled out Opus 5, its new flagship AI model, and says it performs better than Fable 5 on several internal benchmarks while costing half as much. Meanwhile, Aurora Innovation launched its second-generation driverless trucks and says it is preparing to scale autonomous freight across routes in the Sun Belt, with a possible annual production capacity of 1,000 trucks later this year.

In cyber and data security

The House passed the fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill with a provision that would extend the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 through 2036, sending the measure to the Senate for what looks like a harder fight. Separately, experts are pressing for tougher safeguards after a hacking incident involving OpenAI models and Hugging Face showed how sandbox barriers can fail once systems cross network boundaries.

There is also a proposed class action against Abbott Laboratories and Exact Sciences over patient data stolen in a hack claimed by ShinyHunters, the first of what could become several follow-on lawsuits.

In public health

The CDC says the U.S. has already recorded more measles cases this year than in all of last year, underscoring how quickly a preventable disease can still move through the population when it finds enough openings.

In the U.K. and abroad

Two RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Coningsby to intercept a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 flying from Doha to Manchester after a Quick Reaction Alert was triggered over a flight that was causing concern to civil authorities. The aircraft landed safely at Manchester Airport, and the reason for the alert has not been fully established, though a threat was understood to be involved.

In Chile, a severe storm system has killed at least 13 people, left four missing, and affected nearly 65,000 residents. Officials estimate the damage at more than $700 million.

In business and the courts

Paramount Skydance has agreed with a coalition of state attorneys general not to close its $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal until after a federal antitrust trial, with the merger barred from closing until five days after that trial ends.

Warner Bros. Discovery is also suing Amazon, accusing it of trying to poach contracted employees, including HBO marketing veteran Pia Barlow, in an effort to benefit from the work of established Hollywood companies. The entertainment industry, once again, has chosen litigation over a strategy memo.

House Democrats have opened an inquiry into StubHub CEO Eric Baker, asking for information about allegations that he gave himself preferential treatment on the platform and harmed consumers and smaller sellers. The focus is on possible market manipulation and self-dealing.

In U.S. politics and public policy

Democrats are moving South Carolina to the front of their 2028 presidential primary calendar, with a DNC rules committee recommending the state stay first. New Hampshire would still likely hold an earlier contest under state law, but the party’s official calendar would put South Carolina at the top, with Michigan first in the Midwest and New Mexico and Virginia joining the opening month.

Separately, the TSA is expanding a program that lets some airports use private security screeners, prompting union warnings about jobs and safety. Tampa, Des Moines, and Charleston have joined the Gold+ program, while DHS says the move could save money and TSA says current employees would get first refusal on jobs.

In the courts

A broad roundup of appellate rulings this week covered searches, sentencing, deportation, civil-rights claims, and the limits of agency power after Chevron. Among the more notable items, the First Circuit ruled that Massachusetts parents can be forced to choose between private school and special-education services, while other cases touched on courtroom closures, prison litigation, defamation jurisdiction, and a pending Supreme Court review over whether Alaska can forfeit an airplane over a passenger’s six-pack.

Obituaries

Chuck Russell, the director of The Mask and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, has died at 74 in the San Diego area. His death was confirmed by his attorney.

In Washington

The U.S. Treasury is pressing the UK to move against Mahmoud al-Abyari, a London-based dual Egyptian-Austrian citizen, with a travel ban and asset freeze that Washington says target Islamist extremism. It is also a fairly clear signal to British authorities about what the Americans would like them to do next.

In Ukraine

Russian ballistic missiles killed 10 people in a daytime strike on a drone exhibition near Kyiv, an event attended by prominent figures in Ukraine’s defense industry. Separately, Ukrainian attacks set fires at warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, disrupting a major business network tied to small sellers across the country.

In Europe

More than 80,000 people have been evacuated or forced to flee wildfires in south-west France and Spain. French authorities ordered the total evacuation of the Cap Ferret peninsula by land and sea as a fast-moving blaze spread across more than 12,500 hectares, while Spain declared a national emergency over fires near Madrid.

In Florida

Two Florida news outlets report that the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission used a restricted driver and vehicle database to search the records of more than a dozen critics, including environmental activists and a documentary filmmaker. The agency denies misuse, though it would not say whether the searches were tied to any real threat investigation.

In tech and regulation

The European Commission has warned TikTok over violations of its child-safety rules, putting the company on notice over its treatment of minors online. The platform now gets to enjoy the simple, timeless experience of explaining itself to regulators.

In business and trade

Higher oil prices are starting to feed through to consumers, with crude pushed past $100 a barrel as renewed fighting and military strikes strain supplies tied up in the Middle East. At the same time, Donald Trump is facing criticism over new tariffs on more than 80 countries, with opponents saying the forced-labor rationale looks less like policy and more like a convenient label for a price hike.