Burnham cuts VAT on electricity bills in first major policy announcement – UK politics live

• Governments are increasingly utilizing social media influencers as unofficial ambassadors to shape global public opinion and project soft power. • States provide these creators with privileged access, official tours, and interviews with senior officials to cover geopolitical conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, as well as China's global ambitions.

• In an article published July 20, 2026, author Ellen Brown explores the "AI Abundance Paradigm" and the societal shift occurring as machines replace human labor. • The piece examines how the transition from a scarcity-based economy to one of abundance alters human behavior, moving away from competition and fear of loss.

• Recent attacks in Ukraine over the weekend resulted in at least 12 civilian deaths and numerous injuries across the country. • Infrastructure damage was reported at World Food Programme (WFP) warehouses in Dnipro and World Health Organization (WHO) facilities near Kyiv.

• Tensions between the USA and Iran have escalated, sparking renewed fears of a broader regional conflict across West Asia. • The escalation occurs within a region already destabilized by multiple ongoing security crises and geopolitical volatility.

• The US Central Command conducted airstrikes for the ninth consecutive night, targeting Iranian missile sites, air defense systems, and military command centers. • Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the interim ceasefire deal signed by Donald Trump as "worthless and invalid," while Iranian negotiators announced the suspension of their commitments.

US health officials say source of Upper East Side cluster has likely been eliminated after 76 people fell illAn outbreak of legionnaires’ disease in New York City has claimed a fourth life, officials have said, as they again expressed confidence the source of the exposure had been eliminated.A statement from the city’s health department on Monday said the outbreak, which was traced to cooling towers in buildings in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, had sickened 76 people – with 53 discharged after hospital treatment, and 12 others managing their recovery at home. Continue reading...

Government urges visitors not to approach or feed wolves as it manages safety amid growing populationDanish authorities have advised tourists to stand still, make eye contact and put up “maximum resistance” in the event of attack if they encounter a wolf while on holiday.After a 200-year absence, wolves started returning to Denmark in 2012. There are now estimated to be 49 wolves on the Danish peninsular of Jutland. Continue reading...

Joshua Kerry appears at Westminster magistrates court charged with murder of former MP earlier this monthA man has appeared in court charged with the murder of former MP and Reform UK spokesperson Ann Widdecombe.Joshua Kerry, 28, is accused of killing the 78-year-old former Conservative minister at her home in Haytor, Devon, earlier this month, by allegedly hitting her on the head with a hammer 21 times. Continue reading...

State department’s 100-page report is latest push in Trump administration campaign to bring down governmentThe US government’s latest allegations that Cuba is behind “many of the most significant upheavals in recent American political history” and that its leaders pose “a unique threat to American homeland security” have come as startling revelations to those living under the six-month-long US oil blockade in Havana, where desperate people search through piles of uncollected rubbish for food, or else swelter at home in 24-hour-plus blackouts.The unsigned 100-page report Cuba: Capital of 21st-Century Communism, published by the US state department on Monday, blames Havana for everything from “the George Floyd riots to the rise of antifa to the explosion of pro-terrorist activism on American college campuses”. Continue reading...

Storm warnings stretch from Florida to Louisiana as Bertha brings heavy rain, flooding risk and possible tornadoesTropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico and was moving slowly toward the Florida Panhandle and Alabama, causing a tropical storm warning and storm surge watches, forecasters said.The storm was about 110 miles (177km) south of Panama City, Florida, and 170 miles (274 km) south-east of Mobile, Alabama, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Tuesday morning. It was moving north-west at 5mph (8 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 50mph (80 kph). Continue reading...

Guardian analysis shows officers arrested 43,138 people as quiet and steady operations ramp up across the countryThe Trump administration arrested a record number of immigrants last month, according to newly released government data that reveals how US immigration agents are quietly but steadily ramping up operations across the country.A Guardian analysis of the latest data published by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) found that federal immigration agents arrested 43,138 people in June – the highest number since Donald Trump took office in January last year and promised a campaign of mass immigrant deportations. Continue reading...

Officials sought identity of sources ‘long before’ reporters wrote about the president’s Air Force One jet from QatarDonald Trump’s administration sought phone records of several New York Times journalists and even those of some of their relatives, according to a motion unsealed Monday – an unusually aggressive attempt to unmask the confidential sources of reporters who wrote about the president’s Air Force One jet from Qatar.The Trump administration’s push to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas comes at a time when the executive branch’s relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The efforts, described in a letter-motion filed by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted – and also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question. Continue reading...