Layoffs will come in admin and development divisions in Germany, with production operations unaffectedBMW 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...
Environment Agency names seven regions affected by unusually hot and dry weather and shortage of waterHalf of England is officially in drought, with July set to be the driest on record after winter floods, the Environment Agency has said.The flash drought" developed quickly because of unusually low rainfall and high temperatures. Continue reading...
French authorities investigate death of musician who performed at Paris Olympics, but say no suspicious elements' at playThe 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...
Rise to 1.1bn in first six months of year for bakery chain largely down to opening of new storesIced matcha lattes and a bigger range of salads and chicken rolls helped Greggs to boost its sales during the string of summer heatwaves, as the bakery chain continues to expand across the UK.Total sales at Britain's biggest fast food business rose to 1.1bn for the first six months of the year, 7.2% higher than the same period a year earlier. Continue reading...
Oil price spikes after flare-up of fighting and claimed Iranian attacks on three tankers in strait of HormuzThe US military said it knocked down an Iranian missile barrage and worked with Saudi Arabia forces to strike sites in Iraq that Tehran-backed militias have used to launch attacks in recent days. The strikes on Wednesday killed at least 20 members of a former paramilitary alliance that includes pro-Iran groups.In what Washington cast as an attempted surprise attack" by Tehran, Iran had launched multiple ballistic missiles at US forces in the Middle East, shattering a brief pause in fighting. Iran's target was a US base in Jordan, Axios cited a US official as saying. Continue reading...
CAA says airport can recoup 320m through higher airline charges, which are usually passed on to travellersHeathrow passengers face decades of higher fares after the airport was given permission to recover early costs from developing its expansion plan.The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced it had permitted Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) to recoup 320m spent on its proposal to build a third runway since the start of last year. Continue reading...
Green party leader says post was inadvertent mistake' after Reform UK accuses him of inciting murder'The Green party leader, Zack Polanski, has said he made an inadvertent mistake" by sharing an Instagram post of a man wearing a T-shirt featuring an image of a guillotine and the phrase we're only making plans for Nigel", but he repeatedly said he would not apologise to Nigel Farage.Polanski told the BBC's Newsnight programme he had accepted a request to collaborate with a photographer on Instagram, with the first photo in a set of 20 showing himself, and the fifth showing the T-shirt. Continue reading...
by Sally Weale Education correspondent on (#77A9Y)
PM's vocational model also takes inspiration from former education secretary Kenneth Baker's visionAndy Burnham's plans to put academic and technical education routes on an equal footing in England have been welcomed by many, but none were more enthusiastic than the former Conservative minister Kenneth Baker.I'm very impressed with what he has said," the 91-year-old former education secretary, home secretary and Conservative party chair told the Guardian. It's a very significant announcement. I'm going to try to persuade the Conservative party to support this." Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: A recent government reshuffle has exposed deep fractures within Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wartime cabinetGood morning. Another week, another diplomatic success for Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Monday, his first meeting with Andy Burnham as PM confirmed continuity in the UK's steadfast support for Ukraine. We've got your back," Burnham said as the pair spoke in Portsmouth. Yesterday, in Washington DC, after attending the funeral of Lindsey Graham - a once supportive Republican senator - Zelenskyy and Trump held a positive and productive" meeting, as per the White House. Overnight, the US Senate advanced a sweeping Russian sanctions bill.Save for that somewhat shaky start in the early days of Donald 2.0, these well-executed global stage set-pieces have come to define Zelenskyy's wartime leadership. The hundreds of billions he has secured in military, financial and humanitarian aid from the US, Europe, the UK and beyond during a period of global economic unease is remarkable.UK news | Young people will be expected to engage with new support to find work, Pat McFadden has said.World news | At least 13 people have been killed after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan, injuring hundreds and knocking out power and water to tens of thousands.Europe news | Nearly 4,000 people have been evacuated from tourist sites on France's Atlantic coast as the return of winds and extreme heat jeopardises firefighters' battles to contain wildfires raging in France and Spain.US news | Donald Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks more firepower for its air defences and the Israeli prime minister tries to repair his strained relationship with the US president.UK news | Led By Donkeys has received compensation after a giant banner it displayed in Parliament Square saying Yes It's A Genocide" was seized by officials and destroyed. Continue reading...
Racist bias' overestimating ages in Home Office's facial-recognition software will lead to solo children being housed with adults, says Human Rights NetworkFlawed and racialised models that underpin the AI-powered age-detection systems to be introduced by the British government will endanger children, rights groups and children's charities have warned.Urging ministers to reverse plans to introduce facial age-estimation technology to screen migrants, critics have warned that black children arriving from conflict zones are at risk of being of thrust into the adult system. Continue reading...
Potential toxic substance detected in several of 15 elephants found dead in Kenya's Amboseli national parkOfficials are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past month in Kenya's Amboseli national park.The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said 10 of the elephants showed signs of partial paralysis before dying within two days. Continue reading...
Kumamoto shaken by 6.8-magnitude quake, knocking out power and damaging buildings, as people remain trapped inside shopping centreA 6.8-magnitude earthquake has shaken south Japan, killing at least two people and leaving at least 100 people injured. Some are trapped and presumed dead inside a shopping mall.The earthquake hit Kumamoto prefecture on the southern Kyushu island late on Tuesday afternoon, knocking out power to thousands of homes and damaging roads, bridges and buildings. Continue reading...
Prime minister invites Badenoch and Davey - but not Farage - to discuss how to fix decades-old funding crisisAndy Burnham has promised problem-solving, not point-scoring" before a speech on social care in which he will set out his strategy for resolving one of the most intractable problems in British politics.The prime minister has invited Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, to discuss how to enact urgent reform on social care, as he attempts to find common ground across party lines. Davey confirmed he would attend via video call while the Conservatives said they would send the shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, in Badenoch's place as she was having pre-planned minor surgery. Continue reading...
White House has halted changing vaccine schedule as it is unpopular, but anti-vaxx Trump set on alleviating autism'Donald Trump is pushing the longtime vaccine opponent and current health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr to be more aggressive on cutting vaccines in the US, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.Trump has a long record of anti-vaccine statements, but the White House recently put a hold on vaccine changes after polling indicated they were a losing issue in the midterm elections. Continue reading...
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 struck the country's Kumamoto prefectureKyushu Electric Power said 48,000 homes had lost power as a result of the latest quake, while railway company JR Kyushu said that it had suspended services, including its high-speed bullet trains.Kumamoto airport also shut its runway, as airlines diverted and cancelled flights. Continue reading...
Pharmaceutical company's move to new 400m research centre accompanied by encouraging news for shareholdersA vote of confidence in British business," trumpeted Andy Burnham, seizing the political gift of GSK splashing out 400m on a shiny new research and development centre in Cambridge.For positive vibes, it definitely beats the early pharma news his predecessor as prime minister received. That was the painful tale of how AstraZeneca, frustrated by indecision in the Treasury, cancelled its intended 450m expansion of a vaccine plant in Speke in Liverpool. Continue reading...
Man already serving life for killing his cellmate while awaiting trial also murdered and dismembered his friends Claudio Aquilino and Daniel ColemanOn a spring day last year, James Desborough marched up to Cornwall's county hall in Truro and began bombarding the offices with dozens of eggs stolen from a supermarket.It was a drug- and drink-addled protest at his plight - homeless, jobless and generally angry at the world. He expected to be arrested and messaged a friend: If I'm going to get nicked, might as well round the charges up." Continue reading...
Data shows Canadians have replaced US vacations with other international trips in apparent rebuke to TrumpCanadians spent $3.3bn less on travel to the US in 2025 than in the previous year, as Donald Trump's hostile policies towards his northern neighbour continue to incur an economic cost, new government data shows.The research also indicates that Canadians are not bucking travel overall and instead have replaced US vacations with other international destinations, in a rebuke to Trump's tariff regime and the president's continued musings on annexing Canada. Continue reading...
by Tobi Thomas Health and inequalities correspondent on (#779S1)
Exclusive: King's College London analysis finds diabetes and hypertension are more common in Black African and Caribbean peopleStroke risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes are rising faster among people from Black African and Caribbean backgrounds compared with their white counterparts, according to analysis.Researchers at King's College London analysed data from more than 8,500 adults over a 30-year period from the South London Stroke Register, one of the longest-running population-based stroke registers in the world. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#779NT)
Waste firm Veolia pays 27k after Yes it's a Genocide' banner taken by Greater London Authority was destroyedThe campaign group Led By Donkeys has received 27,000 in compensation after a giant banner it displayed in Parliament Square saying Yes it's a Genocide" was seized by Greater London Authority officials and destroyed.Representatives of the GLA arrived on the scene in central London and confiscated the 40-metre by 40-metre banner after it was unfurled on 4 December 2024, just under two months after Israel began its assault on Gaza following the 11 October attacks by Hamas. Continue reading...
by Mark Brown North of England correspondent on (#779NX)
Viral video apparently shows a Saltburn 2nd XI fielder clicking his fingers to mimic a batter's nickThe ball is bowled, the batter plays a shot and it's caught by the wicketkeeper to cheers all round. The batter is clearly bemused. Did he hit it? Or ... did a fielder click his fingers to mimic a nick?A row has erupted in the normally friendly, if ultra-competitive, world of English club cricket after footage went viral of alleged cheating. Australian cricket will always have Sandpapergate. The North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League now has clickgate - or, as it has been christened online, Clicky Ponting" - a play on the name of the former Australian captain Ricky Ponting. Continue reading...
Umbrellas, deck chairs and loungers seized in Torre del Greco authorities' crackdown on people reserving spots overnightAuthorities in a coastal suburb of Naples seized umbrellas, loungers and deck chairs during a dawn sweep of a beach aimed at cracking down on the growing trend of people attempting to reserve prime spots overnight.Torre del Greco's port authority said coastguard staff and local police had together collected 40 items as part of a national beach and lake safety operation that targets people labelled by the Italian press as furbetti dell'ombrellone, or umbrella cheaters. Continue reading...
Move comes after the presenter has faced allegations of bullying, but there is no suggestion it is relatedNaga Munchetty is to leave BBC Breakfast after 17 years on the television show to become co-presenter of Radio 5 Live's breakfast show.The current 5 Live Breakfast hosts, Rachel Burden and Rick Edwards, announced on Tuesday's programme that they would step down in December. Continue reading...
Co-presenter of former BBC motoring show given penalty after being caught twice in three weeksThe former Top Gear host Richard Hammond has been fined 999 by a court after being caught speeding twice in three weeks while driving his luxury cars.The 56-year-old was in a Porsche when he broke the speed limit on 2 December last year, and was caught out again 20 days later while driving a Bentley. Continue reading...
Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and BiharIndia's youth-led Cockroach" movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister, has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations.The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or harassed" by police. Continue reading...
Chief executive, Frank Calabria, apologises and advises customers to look out for suspicious activity amid heightened scam riskOrigin Energy has admitted it was warned of the hack that accessed 900,000 current and former customers' personal data three weeks before it first made the data breach public.Australia's largest energy retailer said a significant" proportion of the 900,000 had been former customers, with those affected to be notified in the coming days. Continue reading...
Funding crisis could lead to an exodus that would be a blow for British science and national growthOn a chilly day in December 1945, Bernard Lovell, a physicist at the University of Manchester, struck out for the Cheshire countryside to study cosmic rays, the streams of high-energy particles that crisscross the universe. Peering at the signals from his army surplus radar, he made an unexpected discovery: radio reflections from the ionised trails of shooting stars.The work marked the birth of radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank. A year later, engineers at the site mounted a radar on the base of a searchlight, providing sweeping access to speeding meteors. When Sputnik launched in 1957, they had just completed the Lovell telescope, the largest radio telescope in the world, the only one capable of tracking the Soviet satellite. Continue reading...
Average 25% increase for letters such as marketing, bills and medical appointment notices from 5 OctoberRoyal Mail will increase the price of its wholesale postal service by as much as a third, in a multimillion-pound blow to the NHS and other large organisations.The postal company has warned customers who use its wholesale postal service for mail including marketing letters, household bills and medical appointment notices that it is raising prices by an average of 25% from 5 October. Continue reading...
by Rob Evans, Harry Davies and Emine Sinmaz on (#779DY)
Suffolk police ceded investigation into James Loubeau to the US military, leading to court martial acquittalA US airman accused of a spree" of rapes and sexual assaults in England, drugging some women and breaking into the homes of others, was able to avoid British justice after local police handed over part of the case to the American military.Two British women went to Suffolk police in August 2019 to allege that James Loubeau and another US airman had drugged and raped them after they met in a nightclub in Bury St Edmunds, a local market town. Continue reading...
Nostalgic foods like toad-in-the-hole also in demand at Waitrose as people pivot towards familiarity amid climatic and political upheavalForget a crisp salad and glass of chilled rose. Enervated Britons are seemingly more likely to crave a rich cottage pie and a robust red in heatwaves.In a trend termed reverse comfort eating", Waitrose's cottage pie sales have soared 110% in the last month and South African red wine is up 68% compared with the same period last year. The surprise spike in demand for winter comfort foods also includes retro chicken, bacon and leek pie (up 41%), chicken korma (up 67%) and chicken and ham gratin (68%). Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#779D6)
Unions say basic needs still not being met a year after regulator told operators to improve facilitiesTrain drivers are considering strike action over a lack of toilets, with unions saying basic needs are still not addressed a year after the rail regulator told operators to provide more facilities and breaks.Aslef said it was putting the industry on notice". The train drivers' union added that companies had failed to deliver adequate toilets and reduce maximum driving times without a toilet break. Continue reading...
by William Christou in Zefta; photographs by Oliver M on (#779D5)
In normal times the Mashala shelter founder takes in strays, but in wartime, he is the only lifeline for animals in the areaDuring Israel's 2006 war against Hezbollah, Houssein Hamze woke up one night to the sound of barking. Alarmed, he got up to check on the dog - his first rescue pet. Moments later, a bomb dropped next to his home and a piece of shrapnel landed right where he had been sleeping.I swear to God, he really saved me from death. Animals always possess a sixth sense we don't have," Hamze said. Continue reading...
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